Category: NCAA Basketball

The college basketball season has arrived, and broadcasting great Dick Vitale has taken a long journey to again meet the sport at its starting line. Surgeries, radiation treatments and chemotherapy amid a cancer fight kept him off the airwaves for two years until his return shortly before March Madness.

One way to rebuild a team that failed to make the NCAA Tournament is to add a bunch of transfers with March Madness experience at their former schools. Paul McNeil is NC State’s only returning scholarship player, but the Wolfpack added nine Division I transfers. Six of the newcomers came from schools that won NCAA Tournament games last season.

Kevin Willard waited in the Boston Celtics’ staff room as Rick Pitino unloaded after a crushing last-second loss and delivered one of the great rants in ticked-off sports coach history. Pitino’s tirade is remembered and mimicked to this day — how Larry Bird and other Celtics greats weren’t “walking through that door” — a reminder that the championship days were over and it was past time for fans to embrace patience with a younger team. “He walked out the door and went right into the staff room,” Willard said with a laugh.

Michigan State basketball's four captains — Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper — are pivotal to Tom Izzo getting more titles.

The Bruins coach let the honorable mention All-American know that if he wanted to play in the NBA, his defense would have to improve and he'd be held accountable.

Tom Izzo wants Michigan State basketball to play grittier than it did in an exhibition loss at Connecticut with the season starting Monday vs Colgate.

Christopher Callahan, the chair of the WCC’s presidents’ council, said that “we look forward to setting our sights on recruiting” a 12th school to the league.

Coach Mark Few wants to return No. 21 Gonzaga to the list of national title contenders, and he's assembled a loaded team to get there. Gonzaga went 26-9 last season, and finished 14-4 in the West Coast Conference, losing the regular-season title to archrival Saint Mary's. The Zags lost to top-seeded Houston in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the first time since 2012 they did not advance to the second weekend.

Expectations are soaring for the Red Storm entering their third season under 73-year-old Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino.

There still is a distinct old guard in college hoops. The question is for how much longer?

The faces of college basketball players change from year to year these days, as name, image and likeness inducements and the explosion of the transfer portal force coaches to rework their rosters almost every season. Pitino, who led St. John's to a 31-5 record last season, turned 73 in September.

Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright's unexpected retirement opened the door for longtime assistant Kyle Neptune to take over. The Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament in all three of Neptune's seasons before he was fired and the school hired Maryland coach Kevin Willard.

To celebrate the start of the new season, here are 68 bold predictions that are sure to come true (unless they don’t).

Coach Shaka Smart has led the Golden Eagles to the NCAA Tournament each of his four seasons by relying on an old-school strategy for this era. Smart used the transfer portal to rebuild Marquette's roster immediately after his arrival, but he hasn't added a Division I transfer since and instead has relied on developing players already on his roster. Marquette must replace its top three scorers — including Associated Press All-America second-team selection Kam Jones — from the team that lost to New Mexico in the first round of last season's NCAA Tournament.

Sprinkle, who was hired in 2024 after guiding Utah State to a Mountain West regular-season title, has a completely overhauled roster and is optimistic the Huskies will get back on track in 2025-26.