Category: NCAA Basketball

Bruce Pearl will return to broadcasting following his retirement from coaching.

Despite all the success last season, Michigan State basketball struggled to shoot from deep. Tom Izzo thinks his big men can help fix that in 2025-26.

Pearl has been on the staff for 11 years, working his way up to associate head coach and defensive coordinator over the past two seasons.

Steven Pearl took the podium on Wednesday at SEC Basketball Media Days, his first as head coach of the Auburn men’s basketball team. It’s new but familiar territory for the man who roughly three weeks ago succeeded his father, Auburn’s all-time winningest coach Bruce Pearl. The younger Pearl has been on the staff for 11 years, working his way up to associate head coach and defensive coordinator over the past two seasons.

Arkansas' John Calipari offered insight at SEC media day on Oct. 14 into when he'll retire from coaching.

Arkansas coach John Calipari, whose one-and-done era at Kentucky saw NBA talent come and go nearly every season, criticized what he is seeing in the name, image and likeness portal era, saying he will not become a “transactional” coach or he “won’t do this anymore." The 66-year-old Calipari said he welcomes some changes in college athletics more than others after three-plus decades of head coaching. “I want to help 25 to 30 more families,” Calipari said Tuesday at SEC basketball media days.

The No. 6 ranked Duke Blue Devils have been picked to repeat as Atlantic Coast Conference champions despite losing Cooper Flagg and four other players to the NBA draft, while N.C. State senior forward Darrion Williams was pegged as the conference's Preseason Player of the Year. Duke received 34 of 49 first place votes from the panel of media voters. No. 11 Louisville, which lost to the Blue Devils in the 2025 ACC championship game following a stunning bounce back season under first-year coach Pat Kelsey, received the other 15 first-place votes and was selected to finish second.

We polled reporters within the USA TODAY Network who cover SEC schools for their preseason predictions, all-conference teams and preseason awards.

The defending national champion Florida Gators have been chosen as the media’s pick to win the 2026 Southeastern Conference, and Kentucky senior guard Otega Oweh was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year. Voters in the preseason poll were a select panel of both SEC and national media members. Kentucky was selected to finish second, followed by Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Missouri and Mississippi in the top half of the conference.

The Boilermakers earned 35 of 61 first-place votes to top the poll to begin the 2025-26 season.

The Boilermakers will open the season at No. 1 in the country.

Purdue is No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll for the first time. The Boilermakers earned 35 of 61 first-place votes to top Monday’s poll to begin the 2025-26 season. “We are obviously excited to get the season going and being ranked No. 1 in the preseason is a great indicator of what we feel this team can accomplish," Painter said.

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the chaplain for the men’s basketball team at Loyola Chicago who became a beloved international celebrity during the school’s fairy-tale run to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in 2018, died at 106.

Luke Loucks remembers winning an Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title at Florida State when Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and his coach, Leonard Hamilton, were sideline fixtures. Thirteen years later, those guys have all headed into retirement, along with multiple other marquee names who weren't even in the league when Loucks played. Now Loucks is a 35-year-old first-time head coach for the Seminoles.

Louisville guard J’Vonne Hadley remembers walking into a grocery store near campus last fall and some Cardinals fans politely encouraging him to go win some games. This year they clearly want more.