LOS ANGELES (AP) — Top-seeded UCLA powered past Oklahoma State and reached the Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA Tournament again with an 87-68 win. The Bruins led from the opening tip and stopped the Cowgirls’ only real push in the third quarter. Lauren Betts scored a career-high 35 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Bruins. UCLA opened the game with nine straight points and built a huge first-half lead. Oklahoma State cut the gap to 13 early in the third quarter, but Betts answered right away. Achol Akot scored 23 for the Cowgirls before fouling out late. UCLA moves on to face Big Ten rival Minnesota in Sacramento on Friday.
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona State has lured Randy Bennett away from Saint Mary’s to become its next men’s basketball coach. Arizona State and Saint Mary’s announced Bennett’s hiring following a team meeting with the Gaels on Monday. Bennett spent 25 years as Saint Mary’s head coach, repeatedly turning down offers to coach at larger programs. The chance to return to his home state of Arizona after the firing of Bobby Hurley was too much for the 63-year-old coach to turn down this time. Bennett led the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament 12 times and was a seven-time West Coast Conference coach of the year.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte 49ers have hired Wes Miller as their men's basketball coach. Miller spent the past five seasons at Cincinnati before being fired on March 13 with three years left on his contract after failing to get the Bearcats to the NCAA Tournament. He was 100-74 at Cincinnati. The 43-year-old Miller has strong ties to North Carolina, having played for the Tar Heels and coached a decade at UNC Greensboro, where he earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2012 and 2018.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Kentucky has advanced to its first trip to the Sweet 16 in a decade with a 74-73 win over West Virginia in the women's NCAA Tournament. The fifth-seeded Wildcats move on to play top-seeded Texas next weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. Kentucky led by as many as 14 points late in the third quarter before the Mountaineers stormed back but never retook the lead. For Kentucky, Teonni Key scored 19 points and Clara Strack had 18 points and 15 rebounds for her 16th double-double of the season. Sydney Shaw and Gia Cooke each scored 23 points for the fourth-seeded Mountaineers.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — That decision Olivia Miles made to return for another season in college is paying off in many ways. She transferred to TCU from Notre Dame even though she was a projected lottery pick in last year's WNBA draft. The 31-5 Horned Frogs are in another Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA Tournament and the playmaking point guard is averaging a career-best 19.4 points a game. The 5-foot-10 Miles has six triple-doubles this season, including one in the NCAA tourney, and will now go into WNBA at the start of a landmark new labor deal that will provide much bigger salaries.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Most of the teams that have reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament have done so behind starting lineups that have a vested interest in their coaches and their programs. That's not necessarily what one might expect in the era of free transfers and name, image and likeness in college basketball. Yet nine of the 16 teams still alive have at least three starters who have played multiple seasons for their current coaches, and 11 of the 16 have at least three starters who have never played at another school. And their coaches are quick to point out the benefits of that when it comes to culture, teamwork and, above all else, loyalty.
UNDATED (AP) — Houston and Illinois had strong starts when it came to efficiency metrics in reaching the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. That set up the second-seeded Cougars and third-seeded Illini for a meeting in the South Region semifinals this week. The Cougars are coming off a trip to the NCAA title game and continue to lean on defense. That unit allowed Idaho and Texas A&M to score on 37.1% of their possessions through two games. Meanwhile, the Illini's offense looked strong in beating Penn and VCU. Illinois scored on 60.3% of its possessions.
NEW YORK (AP) — The NCAA Tournament is off to its best start on record. The tournament averaged 9.8 million for the first three days (the First Four on Tuesday and Wednesday along with Thursday’s first round), according to Nielsen, a 5% increase from last year. Thursday’s opening round games across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV averaged 9.8 million viewers according to Nielsen, a 6% increase over last year. Tuesday and Wednesday’s First Four games totaled 7.5 million on truTV. Miami (Ohio’s) 89-79 victory over SMU on Wednesday averaged 2.8 million.
