WASHINGTON (AP) — Duke coach Jon Scheyer says point guard Caleb Foster will try to play in Friday night’s Sweet 16 matchup against St. John’s. Foster broke his right foot in Duke’s regular-season finale and missed the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the top-seeded Blue Devils. He was on the court Thursday during the portion of practice open to reporters, but that largely consisted of stretching and a bit of shooting. It was hard to tell how mobile Foster might be. Foster is averaging 8.5 points per game this season. He’s made 30 starts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s capital has turned into championship central this week. The four teams in Washington for the Sweet 16 on Friday night — Duke, St. John’s, Michigan State and UConn — have won a combined 13 national championships. The other 12 teams remaining in this year’s field have won a total of three. Top-seeded Duke faces fifth-seeded St. John’s in Friday night’s first game. That's followed by second-seeded UConn taking on third-seeded Michigan State.
UNDATED (AP) — LSU has fired fourth-year coach Matt McMahon and has rehired former Tigers coach Will Wade from N.C. State. Wade says “the opportunity to return to Louisiana State University is deeply personal. It’s a chance to go home — to a place that means a great deal to me and my family.” Wade’s return to LSU comes four years after his firing there over allegations of money-fueled recruiting violations. N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan says he's ”disappointed in how it went down" but doesn't regret hiring Wade, who coached the Wolfpack to the First Four of March Madness this season. N.C. State hired Wade after his two March Madness appearances with McNeese State.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (AP) — Boston College has hired UConn assistant Luke Murray as coach of a slumping men’s basketball program that has gone 17 years without an NCAA Tournament appearance. Murray, the son of actor Bill Murray, will be a first-time head coach. He replaces Earl Grant after he was fired earlier this month after the Eagles had a losing record in four of his five seasons. Grant went 72-92 overall and 30-67 in Atlantic Coast Conference games. Murray has been a part of two national championship teams in his five seasons with UConn. The Huskies play Michigan State on Friday in the Sweet 16.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Mikayla Blakes and Hannah Hidalgo are bringing some high-scoring flair to the Sweet 16 matchup between Vanderbilt and Notre Dame. Blakes is the nation's leading scorer at 27.0 points per game for the Commodores. Hidalgo is third with a 25.2-point average for the Fighting Irish. Their March Madness meeting comes in a Fort Worth Regional I semifinal Friday. Blakes and Hidalgo played against each other as New Jersey high school stars in 2023. They were teammates for the United States last summer. Both downplayed the individual matchup as Vanderbilt chases its first Elite Eight berth in 24 years. The Irish last went that far in 2019.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — UConn and Notre Dame are regular participants in the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament. North Carolina and Vanderbilt have also been there quite a bit, just not on the same consistent basis. Those four teams play in the Fort Worth Regional 1 semifinals on Friday. The defending national champion and top-seeded Huskies take on No. 4 seed North Carolina, after No. 2 seed Vanderbilt plays No. 6 seed Notre Dame. Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes is the nation's top scorer at 27 points per game, and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo is third at 25.2 points.
UNDATED (AP) — A new coach’s challenge rule has changed college basketball this season. The impact is also being seen in the NCAA tournaments. Teams now lean on video coordinators who scan replays in seconds. Coaches say they often save challenges for late, high-leverage moments in a close game. That happened in Iowa's shocker over Florida, where a successful challenge with 70 seconds left set the stage for a basket and eventually a 1-point win.
UNDATED (AP) — Florida isn’t around to defend its title anymore, but all the other top seeds in this year's NCAA Tournament are still around. And many of them are winning convincingly. The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament were decided by an average of 15.3 points. That represents the third-highest average margin of victory through the round of 32 since 1985. The only NCAA Tournaments with higher average victory margin since then came in 1993 (16.1) and 2024 (15.4).
