Men's college basketball – The News Desk

How Arkansas hooked John Calipari and why he was ready to leave Kentucky

11Apr

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How Arkansas hooked John Calipari and why he was ready to leave Kentucky

John Calipari sat in his hotel room in Phoenix on Friday when a close friend, John H. Tyson, reached out to discuss an important decision. People with knowledge of the conversation say Tyson, the billionaire chairman of Tyson Foods and a longtime major donor at the University of Arkansas, wanted to pick the Kentucky basketball coach’s brain on the direction of Arkansas’ coaching search after Eric Musselman left for the USC job. Tyson told the Hall of Fame coach that Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek was in Phoenix, too, and soon the two men met in Calipari’s room.On the eve of the Final Four, Yurachek and Calipari spoke for nearly an hour about potential candidates to replace Musselman. Arkansas wanted to make a splashy hire and was prepared to spend big on salary, NIL and other ...

Inside the UConn defensive strategy that stopped Purdue and won a national title

11Apr

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Inside the UConn defensive strategy that stopped Purdue and won a national title

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Connecticut assistant coach Luke Murray went to sophomore center Donovan Clingan sometime in the middle of this season with a declaration. UConn was going to face Purdue in the national championship, and he’d better get familiar with Zach Edey. Murray and Clingan discussed how they would play the hypothetical matchup, and Clingan said he wanted to play him one-on-one and let the rest of the Huskies win the game.Murray had the scout for Monday night’s title game, and the coaches decided to stick to Clingan’s request. He would play Edey one-on-one in the post, and Clingan would wall up and force Edey to make tough 2s while his teammates stayed attached on the perimeter and took away 3s. In the pick-and-roll, the Huskies would play two-on-two against Purdue point guard Brad...

UConn survives test, returns to national title game by warding off Alabama in Final Four

7Apr

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UConn survives test, returns to national title game by warding off Alabama in Final Four

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Tristen Netwon waited for the ball screen up top, then hit cutting big man Donovan Clingan down the lane for an emphatic dunk. The Connecticut bench exploded.Although it took longer than usual, the Huskies pulled away from Alabama on Saturday night to post an 86-72 win at State Farm Stadium. UConn advances to face Purdue in Monday night’s national championship game, giving the Huskies a chance to become the first school to repeat as men’s basketball national champs since Florida in 2006 and 2007.The final step will not be easy. The Boilermakers beat NC State 63-50 in Saturday night’s first national semifinals matchup, a contest in which they did not trail.The title game will feature a battle of big men — 7-foot-4 Zach Edey of Purdue and 7-foot-2 Clingan. It also will sho...

Purdue stymies NC State’s Cinderella run, marches into first championship game since 1969

7Apr

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Purdue stymies NC State’s Cinderella run, marches into first championship game since 1969

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The first time Zach Edey touched the ball Saturday afternoon, DJ Burns Jr. clenched his teeth and held his ground. There was just one issue when it came to Edey versus Burns: seven inches.Burns was too small for Edey, who could turn and shoot over Burns without issue. Edey scored 20 points and had 12 rebounds in a clunky 63-50 win over NC State that moved Purdue into its first national title game since 1969.The Wolfpack actually had a great plan for Edey, using both Burns and Ben Middlebrooks against him. Both players could hold their ground and NC State’s guards would dig at the ball. They created five Edey turnovers and Middlebrooks was the Edey stopper, allowing Edey to score only one time when Middlebrooks had the assignment.While Edey struggled when he put the ball ...

NCAA Men’s Final Four scouting report: Coaches break down UConn, Bama, NC State and Purdue

6Apr

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NCAA Men’s Final Four scouting report: Coaches break down UConn, Bama, NC State and Purdue

The Athletic has live coverage of NC State vs. Purdue in the Final Four. All season it has felt like we were trending toward an epic national championship showdown between Connecticut and Purdue. Each team is one win away from making that happen, but tricky matchups await them in Glendale, Ariz. There’s NC State and DJ Burns Jr. and the live-and-thrive by the 3 Alabama Crimson Tide.To help break down the matchups, The Athletic reached out to coaches who have faced these teams, asking them to take a break from the transfer portal to provide some analysis, (One coach told me I was the only person who wasn’t a transfer he had and would talk to on Tuesday. I’m honored.) For each team, at least four coaches — a mix of assistants and head coaches — were interviewed to provide an in-depth scout....

They might be giants: Edey, Clingan and Burns a (very) Big 3 at men’s Final Four

6Apr

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They might be giants: Edey, Clingan and Burns a (very) Big 3 at men’s Final Four

GLENDALE, Ariz. — There’s a Japanese word for movies involving giant monsters: kaiju. Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra. You know, the kind of city-destroying mega-beasts entire armies struggle to contain. Audiences love the cartoonish carnage. And the only thing better than one kaiju is multiple kaiju, preferably fighting each other. “Godzilla x Kong” is the No. 1 movie at the box office right now.If you like that one, you’ll love the sequel. But this new entry in the genre isn’t science fiction. These titans are all too real. The 2024 Final Four features three bracket-annihilating kaiju: Purdue’s 7-foot-4, 300-pound Zach Edey, aka “Big Maple;” Connecticut’s 7-foot-2, 280-pound Donovan Clingan, aka “Cling Kong;” and NC State’s 6-foot-9, 300-ish-pound DJ Burns Jr., aka “Beast Boy.”“I think ever...

Kenny Payne returned to save Louisville. Now a school and a city wonder what’s next

23Dec

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Kenny Payne returned to save Louisville. Now a school and a city wonder what’s next

LOUISVILLE — Kenny Payne sounded like a man looking for hope in a hard reality. His Louisville basketball team came close, so painstakingly close, to finally doing it — winning one of those games upon which corners are turned. Instead, No. 19 Texas pulled away late, handing Payne his 30th loss in 36 games as coach of the Cardinals. This was four weeks ago, what, in hindsight, feels like four years ago.Payne settled in for a postgame news conference at Madison Square Garden. There was a certain optimism to him that Sunday afternoon. He nodded and offered a knowing gaze. “It’s only going to get better,” he said. “It’s not going to get worse.”It was difficult to imagine then how wrong he was.The Cards lost to Indiana the next day. Then, uncomfortable home wins over New Mexico State and Bella...

Can Kyle Neptune get Villanova back on the Wright track?

16Dec

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Can Kyle Neptune get Villanova back on the Wright track?

VILLANOVA, Pa. – The new block of cement, untouched by time or the elements, proudly proclaims in all capital letters the space between the Finneran Pavilion and the Davis Center as Wright Way. It is an homage to Jay Wright, the man who took Villanova to two national titles and four Final Fours and spearheaded the fundraising for both the arena renovations and construction of the practice facility.Drop the “W,’’ and you have a different meaning. The Wright Way became synonymous with the Right Way, not just on the leafy Main Line campus but across the world of college basketball. “Villanova basketball,’’ originally a vacuous empty threat of a catchphrase for players schooled in the art of being unquotable, eventually morphed into something with real meaning. Villanova basketball became rec...

Bronny James’ USC basketball debut was just the beginning of a unique story

12Dec

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Bronny James’ USC basketball debut was just the beginning of a unique story

Bronny James played in a college basketball game on Sunday, and now comes the fascinating part. He’s a teenager burdened by his birth certificate. He’s months removed from cardiac arrest. He is, without much exaggeration, the scion of new American royalty. And he tucked in his white USC jersey and walked onto the Galen Center floor to a standing ovation in the middle of a December afternoon, revealed and unsheltered, instantly compelled to figure out who he is in the full view of the world.It’s OK to watch. It’s OK to be interested. Now is actually very much the time for that.These were the first lines of a deeply and uniquely intriguing story, or at least the part of it that gets good. Before, he kind of existed as a character. The prince glimpsed from the balcony. Now there are 16 minut...

‘She missed everything’: Hubert Davis lost his best friend. Her memory fuels him

10Dec

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‘She missed everything’: Hubert Davis lost his best friend. Her memory fuels him

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Tell me about your mom.Whoosh. Back to 1985. To the perfect family — Mom, Dad, older brother, younger sister — and their suburban Virginia home. Narrow driveway. Basketball hoop out front. That big window on your right when you walk in the front door, with a little ledge to sit on and peer out.And the soundtrack to this memory? Maybe an old soap opera, playing in the living room background; “General Hospital” was always Mom’s favorite. Or maybe a Jackson 5 record on the turntable. Or a ball clanking off the driveway rim, then bounce-bouncing across the street. Or, more likely, the soft snap of the net as the boy’s ball fell through.“Just a loving home,” Hubert Davis says, beaming. “Just … great.”Until it wasn’t. Until Mom — Bobbie Webb Davis — got that canker sore in h...