When the Orlando Magic hand their draft card to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, on Thursday night at Barclays Center, they’ll settle a debate that has raged in draft circles for the better part of a year: Who should be the No. 1 pick? The front-runner is Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren, a rail-thin but nail-tough seven-footer who … Read more
Lennie Rosenbluth, the All-America forward who led a North Carolina team with a starting lineup of New Yorkers to an unbeaten season and a thrilling victory over Wilt Chamberlain’s Kansas squad in the 1957 NCAA basketball tournament championship game, died on Saturday. He was 89. His death was announced by North Carolina’s athletic department, which … Read more
If this year’s NCAA basketball tournaments look a little bigger – a little older – your eyes are not deceiving you. Call it a silver lining of the pandemic. Before the pandemic intervened, college students had five years to complete four seasons of play. For various reasons-among them injuries, one-time transfers or competition waivers-athletes were … Read more
NEW ORLEANS – David McCormack and his Kansas teammates were trailing by 15 points at halftime of the national championship game, but he was smiling just the same. “They thought I was crazy,” McCormack said in a television interview. He told his teammates: “Just come out here, have fun and do what we were born … Read more
Visitors walking out of the baggage claim area at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport this weekend were greeted by a local celebrity. “Welcome to Minneapolis,” said Lindsay Whalen, in a recorded message broadcast over the loudspeaker. Whalen is a Minnesota native who helped lift the University of Minnesota women’s basketball team to its only Final Four … Read more
MINNEAPOLIS – A quartet of elite college basketball teams met in Minneapolis on Friday for the Final Four of the NCAA women’s tournament. The powerhouse programs – Connecticut, Louisville, Stanford and South Carolina – had made it there by winning four games each during the competition. But reaching one of the biggest stages in college … Read more
NEW ORLEANS – When Kansas Coach Bill Self sat down in recent days to look at film of his last trip to the Final Four, he could not stomach watching more than 12 minutes. It is easy to imagine his gut churning, his palms getting clammy and his head starting to spin. “I get tics … Read more
NEW ORLEANS – When he wrote about relying on the kindness of strangers, this city’s most famous playwright probably wasn’t envisioning Carolinians and conventioneers slurping down the dark roux gumbo at Herbsaint. But then even Tennessee Williams may not have been able to conjure the blows that his adopted New Orleans has suffered over the … Read more
NEW ORLEANS – Brandon Slater, a senior forward at Villanova, is at the Final Four with one goal: winning a national championship. And if accomplishing that goal means beating some of his former high school teammates, then so be it. Slater is one of four players in the Final Four who were high school teammates … Read more
NEW ORLEANS – The men’s Final Four features four blue bloods in the bayou. Among them, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova have won a combined 17 NCAA Division I men’s basketball championships. North Carolina is playing in its 21st Final Four-the most of any men’s program-while Duke (17) and Kansas (16) are among the … Read more