ncaa

The big news wasn’t the made-for-television NCAA Tournament top-16 reveal. There weren’t any major surprises. As expected, Gonzaga and Baylor received the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds. The Big Ten placed three teams — No. 1 ‘s Michigan and Ohio State...

LAS VEGAS — Mark Few is the new face of college basketball. Once upon a time, Few was an underdog who coached Gonzaga teams that played the role of Cinderella in March, but the small-school, long-shot theme is an old storyline. As a quirky, COVID...

The stars played like stars, and you need that at this time of the year. You need your winning players to make winning plays in must-win games, and they did that. Julian Champagnie was terrific: 21 points, five rebounds. Rasheem Dunn was excellent:...

Ohio State is in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament thanks to a six-game winning streak, and the Buckeyes will look to keep the good times rolling Thursday when they visit Penn State, which they’ve already defeated in this recent run....

March Madness will officially be back a month from today — and there will be fans to boot. The NCAA Tournament will feature up to 25 percent capacity for each round, the governing body announced on Friday, a month before the start of The Big Dance....

Eventually, Seton Hall was going to get burned. At some point, the Pirates were going to play with fire one too many times. Seton Hall was fortunate to get past Marquette and DePaul in the last week, but wasn’t so lucky Saturday. Georgetown is...

Five weeks of quality basketball. Eight wins in 10 games. Upsets of Villanova and Connecticut. It all went up in smoke Saturday night at an empty Carnesecca Arena. The team that played its way into NCAA Tournament consideration didn’t show up at...

Julian Champagnie succinctly described St. John’s situation well Saturday night. “Next game we play Villanova on the road, which we have to win now,” the sophomore star said. That’s what the ugly loss to DePaul at home did to the Johnnies’...

If Saturday night was devastating, then Tuesday evening was downright demoralizing for St. John’s. Losing to Big East punching bag DePaul as 11-point favorites was crushing for the Red Storm’s NCAA Tournament hopes. Being uncompetitive at No. 8...

St. John’s fans are upset. Their beloved Johnnies got their hopes up by playing terrific basketball for a month, only to lose games to two of the Big East’s worst teams — Butler and DePaul — that has likely ruined their NCAA Tournament hopes....

ESPN college basketball analyst and original bracketologist Joe Lunardi discusses expanding the NCAA Tournament in this excerpt from the upcoming book “Bracketology: March Madness, College Basketball, and the Creation of a National Obsession,”...

In this job, you don’t root. You don’t pull for teams. It’s part of the press box ground rules — even in virtual times. But I’m willing to make an exception. I’m rooting for Oklahoma State to get into the NCAA Tournament. I’m pulling...

LAS VEGAS — As a college basketball star in the early 1990s, Juwan Howard helped Michigan reach two NCAA championship games. The Wolverines lost both times, a trend that has haunted the Big Ten for the past two decades. In his second year as...

The timing couldn’t be better. Seton Hall enters Wednesday night badly in need of a victory, welcoming NCAA Tournament contender UConn to Prudential Center, and there will be fans in attendance for the first time in this pandemic-altered season....

Get ready for March Madness with ESPN+ coverage of Champs Week!

Seton Hall started strong and got Connecticut star James Bouknight in foul trouble. None of that mattered. Now a team that seemed certain to reach a fifth straight NCAA Tournament will need a big run in next week’s Big East Tournament for that to...

If Syracuse comes up short in its bid to reach the NCAA Tournament this month, coach Jim Boeheim will know who to blame. The longtime Orange coach mocked a reporter’s height and questioned his credibility following Wednesday’s 64-54 home win over...

They are the engine to the area’s best local college basketball story, close friends who describe each other as brothers, a pair of junior college transfers who have turned Wagner from a preseason afterthought to favorites to reach the NCAA...

Rutgers is going to the NCAA Tournament. Jacob Young ensured it. The senior guard refused to let the Scarlet Knights blow this opportunity. His steal late in regulation and dynamic performance in overtime keyed a gutty 77-70 victory over flatlining...

Catch the rest of Champs Week on ESPN+ before March Madness hits.