College category, Page 53
College-bound Olympians, especially gymnasts, look to cash in on new opportunityVideo
Maggie Nichols just laughs when asked if she plans on asking Under Armour where her check is. “I should, right!” the retired two-time world championship medalist and two-time NCAA all-around champion said. Nichols is kidding. Well, mostly. She didn’t complain when the athletic apparel giant approached her in 2016 about...
Keeping name, image, likeness deals safe, compliant possible trouble for collegesVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chris Clunie chuckles thinking about what Stephen Curry’s marketing potential might’ve been at Davidson during the Wildcats’ remarkable 2008 NCAA Tournament run had Curry played in an era when college students could profit from their own fame and celebrity. Curry jerseys. Curry shoes. Curry chicken sliders. Who...
Vanderbilt, Mississippi State look past paths to College World Series finalVideo
OMAHA, Neb. — Awkward is the only way to describe Vanderbilt’s appearance in the all-SEC College World Series finals beginning Monday night against Mississippi State. The Commodores were supposed to play N.C. State in a winner-take-all bracket final Saturday and found out 12 hours before the the start the Wolfpack...
LaVar Arrington, 3 Steelers among Western Pa. stars nominated for College Football Hall of Fame
Nominees for the 2022 College Football Hall of Fame class include several Western Pennsylvania stars with roots in Bethel Park, Slippery Rock and many places in between. Plus, there are three who made their mark with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The ballot was emailed Wednesday to more than 12,000 NFF members...
South Fayette grads help James Madison softball reach NCAA Women’s College World Series
The 2021 James Madison softball team has made history with its first-ever trip to the NCAA Women’s College World Series, and two South Fayette graduates, Sara Jubas and Lauren Bernett, have helped the Dukes in their journey to Oklahoma City. JMU took two of three games in a best-of-three Columbia...
Horizon League’s Milwaukee lands top recruit Baldwin Jr.Video
MILWAUKEE — Patrick Baldwin Jr., one of the nation’s top recruits in his class, will play college basketball for his father at Milwaukee. The forward is rated as the nation’s No. 4 senior prospect according to composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports. An ankle injury caused him to...
Immediately eligible: NCAA on verge of transfer rule change
Whether it is the start of free agency in college sports or simply the fair thing to finally do for the athletes, the NCAA is about to make a monumental change to its transfer rules. The Division I Council meets Wednesday and Thursday, and the agenda includes voting on a...
New-look Notre Dame offense could feature 3 offensive linemen from WPIALVideo
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Getting to the College Football Playoff hasn’t been a problem for Notre Dame. Staying in it has for Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish, who suffered double-digit semifinal losses to eventual national champions Clemson in the 2018 season and Alabama in 2020. Kelly knows if Notre Dame wishes...
Barry Alvarez, AD who reshaped Wisconsin sports, to retire
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez is retiring after a three-decade run in which he transformed the university’s football team and later guided the Badgers to their greatest all-around sports success in school history. The 74-year-old Alvarez said Tuesday he would retire on June 30. “It has been...
North Carolina assistant Hubert Davis tabbed as Roy Williams’ successorVideo
North Carolina has turned to former Tar Heels player and assistant coach Hubert Davis to lead the storied men’s basketball program as the successor to Hall of Famer Roy Williams. The 50-year-old Davis played for the Tar Heels under Dean Smith before a long NBA career, and he spent the...
Baylor routs Houston, now seeks 1st NCAA championshipVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly two decades ago, Scott Drew decided to leave his comfort zone at tiny Valparaiso for the scandal-plagued basketball program at Baylor, explaining to his father there was nowhere for the Bears to go but up. Now, they’re one win away from the top. Led by Jared Butler...
ACC basketball faces peril as the latest great generation of coaches begins to move on
RALEIGH, N.C. — What odds could a gambler have gotten back in 2003, when Roy Williams finally heeded the call to come home to North Carolina, that Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski would both still be grinding on the recruiting trail while Williams was grinding to play an extra nine...
Texas-sized party as Baylor, Houston reunite in Final FourVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — Somebody will be doing a joyful Texas two-step after Baylor and Houston meet Saturday night in the Final Four. It could be Bears coach Scott Drew, who built his now-mighty program from the ashes of one of the worst scandals in sports history. Led by guards Jared Butler,...
Underdog UCLA next up against undefeated GonzagaVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — Next up on the long list of wannabes eager to stop, or even slow, the undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs is a team basketball fans might have heard of: UCLA. In a strange twist that typifies a strange year, the legacy program with more national championships than anyone is a...
Mark Few’s unusual approach puts Gonzaga on cusp on unbeaten seasonVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — The weight of the line, not the lure, unspools the reel. The timing, the rhythm whisk the fly back and forth before it lands in the desired spot. The physical act takes a mental approach, of knowing the type of hatch for the season, the riffles where the...
Injuries, opt-outs, upsets mark underdog UCLA’s ride to Final FourVideo
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — As he basked in the glow of a win over Michigan, UCLA coach Mick Cronin was asked whether he thought he had the kind of team in his second season in Westwood to make a Final Four run. Cronin thought for a moment about five-star prospect Daishen...
The last perfect team: Recalling Indiana’s 1976 title run
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Indiana Hoosiers sat quietly inside their locker room on March 22, 1975. They knew what the first and only loss that season signified — one perfect quest ended while another began. Minutes after losing 92-90 to archrival Kentucky in the Mideast Region championship, the underclassmen vowed...
Shaka Smart leaves Texas for Big East’s MarquetteVideo
MILWAUKEE — Shaka Smart is leaving Texas to coach Marquette. Marquette announced the hiring Friday. It comes a week after Marquette fired Steve Wojciechowski and Smart’s Texas team was upset 53-52 by Abilene Christian in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “Throughout the search, one individual continued to rise...
Thanks to Syracuse and others, Midwest Regions puts madness in MarchVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — It is the region that has caused more busted NCAA Tournament brackets than any other, the quadrant where No. 1 seed Illinois was sent packing by Loyola Chicago, West Virginia was dumped by a team that barely made the field, and Tennessee and Oklahoma State failed to survive...
Florida State charts course for ACC as its ‘new blood’Video
INDIANAPOLIS — North Carolina is long gone. Duke never made it. To find the ACC’s biggest threat at March Madness this year, look past Tobacco Road and into the panhandle of Florida. That’s the home of Florida State, a school where hoops has moved out from the shadows of the...
An NCAA hockey tourney first: All 5 Minnesota teams are in
MINNEAPOLIS — For all Herb Brooks accomplished in the world of hockey, the Hall of Fame coach of the heralded “Miracle on Ice” team long held a localized goal of growing the college game in his home state. The NCAA Tournament bracket this year would’ve made Brooks proud. For the...
Experience still matters to teams in NCAA Sweet 16Video
Michigan’s second-round game against LSU was intense from the start. Up and down the court the teams went, trading runs and momentum swings with the season on the line. One player for the Wolverines seemed calm and steady: guard Eli Brooks. “I think just all the amount of reps we...
Syracuse stay defenders of the zone as other NCAA powers man upVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — It had been nearly a decade since West Virginia coach Bob Huggins had to draw up a game plan to beat the infuriating zone defense run by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, going all the way back to their time together in the old Big East. The job hasn’t...
NCAA Tournament roundup: Oregon routs second-seeded IowaVideo
Chris Duarte scored 23 points, and Oregon showed no signs of rust after a long layoff, beating No. 2 seed Iowa, 95-80, on Monday to reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in the past five NCAA Tournaments. The seventh-seed Ducks (21-6) were put in an unprecedented spot, advancing...
NCAA Tournament roundup: Arkansas in Sweet 16 for 1st time in 25 yearsVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — Justin Smith had 20 points and played a key role in a final-play defensive stop, helping Arkansas beat Texas Tech, 68-66, on Sunday in the NCAA Tournament, securing the program’s first trip to the Sweet 16 in a quarter-century. In the final seconds of a tense finish, Smith...
