College Basketball

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs have never been afraid to challenge themselves during the non-conference portion of the schedule, which is what made the Players Era Festival so appealing last season. That, and the $1M NIL payout to every participating team. Advertisement This year, that payout will still be in effect, but nearly everything else about the fledgling event …

UConn basketball HC Dan Hurley recalls emergency birthday gift for wife after a loss appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here. UConn basketball remained in the spotlight Thursday after a humorous Dan Hurley story surfaced online, providing a lighter look at one of college basketball’s most intense coaches. Advertisement The Huskies have rebuilt their …

The Illinois basketball team stunned people this season by making a Final Four run. A 28-win campaign was impressive. The Illini made it in the postseason as a No. 3 seed, and we worked wonders only to fall short to UConn in an attempt to get back to the national championship. Advertisement Brad Underwood has the Illinois basketball program clicking, …

GAINESVILLE, Fla.– For the second straight season, the Florida Gators will play in Las Vegas, this time as part of the two-bracket Players Era Tournament. Florida, a strong contender to be the preseason No. 1 team in the country, headlines the Players Era Eight bracket, which will be played the week of Nov. 16. Joining the Gators are Auburn, Houston, …

Illinois basketball has been chugging along under Brad Underwood, but it sounds like we got a safety net on Thursday afternoon. There is a popular saying of the more the merrier. On Thursday afternoon, the NCAA committee took that saying to heart, and they all but guaranteed the Illini will make the NCAA tournament for the rest of time. Advertisement …

Pistons’ Daniss Jenkins is one of the NBA’s coolest stories originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. Daniss Jenkins didn’t travel the journey of a basketball phenom to reach this point. Advertisement But the winding road led him to a pivotal role for the Eastern Conference’s top-seeded Detroit Pistons anyway. …

NCAA Announces Men’s And Women’s March Madness Expansion originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here. College basketball will have more March Madness games to pick next year. Advertisement The NCAA announced Thursday that the men’s and women’s basketball tournament fields will increase from 68 to 76 teams. Eight at-large bids will join the fold …

NCAA SVP of basketball fires back at critics of March Madness expansion appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here. As the NCAA moves closer to expanding the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments to 76 teams, there’s been widespread criticism from fans and prognosticators alike that the move is unnecessary. But regardless of the …

Just when it looked like the Kansas basketball offseason was winding down, Bill Self gave fans another reason to be excited for the upcoming season. The program landed Radford transfer Dennis Parker Jr. out of the portal to fill one of KU’s final spots. Parker, who previously played at NC State for two years before transferring to the Big South, …

North Carolina is still trying to assemble its basketball roster under the first year of the Michael Malone era as it looks to add two or three more players. It may take a bit longer for everything to come together, with the staff currently scouting players in Europe and trying to determine what they actually need to ensure each player …

The NCAA will expand its DIvision I basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams next season. The change isn’t expected to radically disrupt the familiar bracket for most casual fans. Here is a breakdown of some key numbers to know: 0 — The number of mid-major schools that advanced past the first weekend of either tournament the last two seasons. …

The magical March Madness cocktail will now include eight more teams, eight more games and more of one other ingredient, too: beer. Maybe wine, too. The NCAA on Thursday announced a long-expected expansion of its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76 teams each starting next season, explaining that it made the money part work by opening sponsorship opportunities to …

The NCAA formally announced May 7 it would expand the men’s college basketball field from 68 to 76 teams beginning in 2027. Dick Vitale is not a fan. MORE: Legendary coach, broadcaster Dick Vitale reveals health update ESPN’s longest-tenured television personality, the voice of its college basketball coverage since 1979, blasted college basketball leadership for what is ostensibly a money …

Like it or not, ready or not, the NCAA tournament is going to expand to 76 teams, starting next season. No one much likes it, with coaches and fans at the front of the line. Money speaks, though, so they’ll water it down. Advertisement Now we’ll get 32 automatic bids and 44 at-large bids. The First Four is gone; in …

Nobody asked for this. When we’re talking about NCAA Tournament expansion, it’s important to start with that point.  Don’t get distracted by looking at mock-ups of the new 76-team bracket or by wondering what city might get to share hosting duties with Dayton for the new opening round. And even as NCAA officials pat themselves on the back on Thursday for finally …

The Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, heard the concerns from the fans and created two brackets. The first will be an eight-team bracket the week of Nov. 16, the week before Thanksgiving. The Gonzaga Bulldogs will be playing in the 16-team bracket the week of Nov. 23, the week of Thanksgiving, or better known as Feast Week. ESPN …

In the NCAA’s latest move to give us things that nobody wants, the 76-team NCAA Tournament is now official for both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The NCAA made the move a while back to expand from 64 to 68 teams, giving us a ‘First Four’ to open the tournament. Now we’ll have 12 teams in what they’re calling …

Florida basketball will participate in the 2026 Players Era Tournament held in Las Vegas alongside 23 other schools next November. The event is organized by the EverWonder Studio company in partnership with ESPN, which will broadcast the games. The Players Era Festival, a Las Vegas-based NIL event that pays millions to college basketball players, debuted in 2024 with just eight …

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Randy Bennett was thrilled to be introduced as the next coach at Arizona State, his hometown school and the only place that could lure him away from a 25-year career at Saint Mary’s. A health issue interrupted, sending him to the hospital and pushing back his introductory news conference to five weeks after he was hired. …

Big Ten hoops dominates NIL spending spree amid 76-team NCAA Tournament expansion originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. The NCAA Tournament may be over, but the financial data rolling in proves exactly why the Big Ten is driving the future of college basketball. Advertisement Thursday’s announcement of the tournament’s …

Every single person who signed off on the decision Thursday to expand the NCAA basketball tournament to 76 teams understands they are doing something fans didn’t ask for and that nobody in a position of power can justify. It is the Seinfeld of expansions — a decision about nothing, that gains nothing for college basketball, that exists mostly because the …

There are few basketball players alive who can match the accomplishments of Oscar Robertson. The former Indiana high school trailblazer, Cincinnati Bearcat and 12-time NBA All-Star has pretty much seen it all. And now, the 87-year-old Hall-of-Famer can see a larger NCAA Tournament. Advertisement On Thursday, the NCAA announced it is expanding the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76 …

Expanded March Madness bracket: Here’s what a 76-team NCAA Tournament would have looked like in 2026 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. The NCAA Tournament is expanding, in spite of backlash from fans and coaches alike. The move from 68 teams to 76 became official on Thursday on both …

Indiana men’s basketball head coach Darian DeVries addressed the media on Thursday, providing a handful of updates on the Hoosiers’ offseason. DeVries was asked about and addressed Indiana’s strategy in the transfer portal, the staff’s offseason work, the frontcourt pairing between former Alabama forward Aiden Sherrell and former SMU center Samet Yigitoglu, the impending international trip to Peru for the …

After much uncertainty, it appears the Louisville men’s basketball team will indeed compete at the third annual Players Era Festival Tournament in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving week. The event announced Thursday morning that it’s expanding to 24 teams in 2026, with two separate bracket-play tournaments over the course of two weeks in Vegas. The PEF has also struck a television …