STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Azzi Fudd scored 26 of her 34 points in the first half in her final game at Gampel Pavilion and UConn used a 31-0 run to roll to a 98-45 win over Syracuse on Monday night to advance to the women’s NCAA Tournament ‘s Sweet 16 for the 32nd season in a row.

Fudd tied her career highs in points and 3-pointers and added five assists and four steals. Her eight 3-pointers are one short of the NCAA Tournament single-game record held by Purdue’s Courtney Moses, UConn’s Kia Nurse and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

Sarah Strong had 18 points and nine rebounds as UConn (36-0) won its 52nd consecutive game. Blanca Quinonez added 18 points for UConn, which led 33-8 after one quarter and 65-12 at halftime as the Huskies advance to play North Carolina in the Fort Worth 1 regional semifinal on Friday.

Uche Izoje scored 12 points and Sophie Burrows had 10 for ninth-seeded Syracuse (24-9), which topped Iowa State in the first round.

Syracuse missed 10 shots in a row in the first half and went nearly 10 1/2 minutes without a basket during one stretch in the first half.

UConn, which has been ranked first in the AP poll all season, heads into the Fort Worth 1 regional, undefeated once again. UConn won its 52nd straight NCAA tournament game at Gampel Pavilion and 44th in a row in Connecticut.

Up next

UConn will face North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament for just the second time. The Tar Heels won 81-69 en route to winning the national title in 1994.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Teonni Key had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Clara Strack had 18 points and 15 rebounds, and Kentucky nearly gave up a big lead and held on to beat West Virginia 74-73 Monday to advance to the NCAA women’s Sweet 16 for the first time in a decade.

No. 5 seed Kentucky (25-10) will meet top-seeded and Southeastern Conference rival Texas on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. Kentucky will make its seventh trip to the regional semifinals in program history and its first since 2016.

Kentucky second-year coach Kenny Brooks wants to savor this win first before turning his attention to the Longhorns.

“To do this in two years is pretty remarkable,” he said. “So heck yeah I’m going to step back and smell the roses and enjoy this.”

No. 4 seed West Virginia (28-7) nearly stormed back from a double-digit deficit. Sydney Shaw scored 11 of her 23 points in the fourth quarter and two Jordan Harrison free throws with 1:20 left brought the Mountaineers within 72-71. But West Virginia never retook the lead.

Key said Kentucky has been in enough nail-biters under Brooks that the players have learned to handle those challenges.

“Basketball is a game of runs, especially in March and in this environment,” she said.

West Virginia had the “extra fuel” of playing at home, “I think us just staying composed and staying together was the main focus,” Key said.

Strack, who earned honorable mention honors on The Associated Press All-America team, had her 16th double-double of the season, and Key her seventh.

Led by Strack, Kentucky scored the first nine points of the third quarter to break open a tie game and take the lead for good. She had eight rebounds, four points, two assists, a block and a steal in the period and Kentucky built its largest lead, 62-48.

“She’s an All-American for a reason,” said West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg. “She’s a matchup problem. She’s perfected her craft, for sure.”

The Mountaineers were trying to get to the Sweet 16 for the first time since its only trip in 1992, when West Virginia earned a first-round bye and needed just one win in a field of 48 teams to get there.

Gia Cooke added 23 points and Kierra Wheeler had 16 for West Virginia, which saw its seven-game winning streak snapped.

The taller Wildcats held a 39-23 rebounding advantage and withstood both West Virginia’s trapping defense and a noisy crowd of nearly 13,000 that favored the host Mountaineers.

“That was a fun game, fun atmosphere,” said Kentucky’s Tonie Morgan, who finished with 15 points. “You want to play tough teams like that because you’ve played them all year, so why change it up now?”

Close endings

The win broke a four-game losing streak for Kentucky in the second round and came exactly one year after the Wildcats lost 80-79 to Kansas State on their home court with a Sweet 16 trip on the line.

Monday’s game ended in similar fashion as that one.

A year ago, Kentucky star Georgia Amoore missed a floating layup that danced around the rim and fell off at the buzzer. On Monday, Cooke took an inbounds pass with eight seconds left, moved to her left and missed a 12-foot jumper that rimmed in and out.

“Basketball is such a beautiful sport. It’s a crazy sport,” Brooks said.

West Virginia’s Shaw said she thought Cooke did a great job finding open space for the nail-biting attempt.

“I think everybody thought that shot was going in,” Shaw said. “Nine times out of 10, that shot’s going in. This was that one of out of 10.”

Up next

Kentucky lost to Texas twice earlier this year. The Longhorns won both of their tournament games by 42 points and are in the Sweet 16 for the third straight season.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Cincinnati has hired Utah State’s Jerrod Calhoun as its next men’s basketball head coach, multiple sources confirmed to USA TODAY Sports on Monday, March 23.

The move comes one day after Calhoun’s Aggies team lost to No. 1 seed Arizona 78-66 in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Utah State finished the season 29-7, winning the Mountain West regular-season and tournament titles.

Over his two seasons with the Aggies, Calhoun’s teams went 55-15 and made the NCAA tournament twice.

REQUIRED READING: March Madness winners, losers spawn Big Ten dominance entering Sweet 16

Calhoun is an Ohio native who graduated from Cincinnati in 2004. He served as a student assistant under Bob Huggins from 2003-04 and later coached under Huggins as an assistant at West Virginia from 2007-12.

The 44-year-old Calhoun was previously the head coach at Youngstown State, where he went 118-106 from 2017-24, and Fairmont State, a Division II school in West Virginia where he went 124-38 from 2012-17, which included a national runner-up finish in 2017. One of Calhoun’s assistants for three seasons at Fairmont State was current Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.

With Calhoun’s departure, Utah State continues its recent standing as a way station for top mid-major coaches in the sport. Calhoun is the fourth coach in the past six years who has left the Aggies for another job, three of which were in power conferences, joining Craig Smith (Utah), Ryan Odom (VCU) and Danny Sprinkle (Washington). Despite that turnover, Utah State has made the NCAA tournament in six of the past seven years in which it was held. During that stretch, it went 201-71 and won at least 25 games six times.

The Aggies will be heading to the reformed Pac-12 after this season. Given the recent track record of their coaches, they’ll instantly become one of the more attractive job openings in the sport.

At Cincinnati, Calhoun will inherit a program that has two national championships to its name and that was a national powerhouse under Huggins during the 1990s and 2000s, but has gone seven years without an NCAA tournament appearance, the program’s longest such drought in more than 30 years.

He’ll replace Wes Miller, who was fired earlier this month after going 100-74 in five seasons. Since joining the Big 12 ahead of the 2024-25 season, the Bearcats are 37-31 overall and 16-22 in conference play.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cincinnati basketball hires Jerrod Calhoun from Utah State as new coach

The Phoenix Suns are in the thick of the playoff race. They are teetering on that “play-in” line, with each win pulling them a bit closer to the top-6, but each loss tugging them back in the other direction. Unfortunately, of late, the losses are tugging them closer to the play-in.

If they took care of business in some very winnable games, we could be in an entirely different situation where we are breathing down the neck of the Rockets, Nuggets, and Timberwolves, all of whom are tied for the 4-6 seeds and a full four games ahead of Phoenix as things stand.

This is the reality of where we stand:

It feels like they’ve been stuck at the 7 seed forever, which, in typical NBA fashion, would be good for a tie for the 5th seed in the East with the Raptors. That’s the difference between conferences, as instead of fighting for home court advantage in the first round, they are now fighting for their playoff lives.

But as the saying goes, “if if was a fifth, we’d all be drunk.”

The Nuggets, Rockets, and Wolves are all 4.0 games ahead of Phoenix. The Suns play the Nuggets tomorrow, so there will be an opportunity to gain a full game and cut it down to three, but again, time is ticking.

The Lakers, whom the Suns thought securing the tiebreaker over (at the time) would be important, have distanced themselves from Phoenix quite a bit and are now completely out of reach at 46-25. They are currently on a 9-game win streak.

The Clippers, meanwhile, are hanging around. Phoenix looks to be a lock for the 7th seed, barring an unexpected streak in either direction.

Now, we have two questions.

1. Who do we want to face in the first round if they move into the top 6?
2. If we remain in the play-in, who do we want as the first-round matchup?

The answer to number one, to me, is the Los Angeles Lakers by a landslide compared to the alternatives. Yes, they still have Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves, and they are clicking right now. That defense can be exposed, and I like that matchup compared to getting a team like OKC or San Antonio in round one. The inevitable free-throw disparity would worry me, but overall, I’d take that as a 3-6 matchup if by some miracle the Suns can get hot one last time and pass one of those three teams.

The answer to the second question is all about avoiding the “other” LA team. The Clippers have a version of Kawhi Leonard that should scare people. Miss me with them in the play-in. He’s the type of star that can carry a team to a win in an environment like that, where the Blazers don’t have anyone at that level despite their strong play of late.

Order of Play-In preference:

1. Portland Trail Blazers
2. Golden State Warriors
3. Los Angeles Clippers

Steph is still Steph, despite the injury and uncertainty in his status. I would also prefer to avoid him in a single-game elimination environment.

All signs are pointing towards a Suns-Clippers 7 vs. 8 matchup, especially with the Clippers’ light upcoming schedule, but you can’t count the Blazers out as they sit just a half-game back of Los Angeles right now. It’s going to be a wild few weeks to close things out.

Who do you want the Suns to face in the play-in? Let us know in the comments.

Opening Day for the 2026 Major League Baseball season premieres on Wednesday with the New York Yankees and San Francisco taking the field in a streaming exclusive on Netflix. Thursday brings 11 season openers for 22 more clubs, followed by the last three debuts on Friday.

With few exceptions, MLB teams also start their best pitcher on Opening Day. So we get to see 30 aces take the mound and the best will pitch against the best, which we don’t often see during the regular season because of starting rotations. That includes three Cy Young Award winners and one World Series MVP.

[Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season]

Here are the pitching matchups for each of the 15 games that open the 2026 MLB season:

New York Yankees at San Francisco Giants: Max Fried vs. Logan Webb

Fried put up career-best numbers in his first season with the Yankees and gets his first Opening Day start in pinstripes. Webb starts the season for the Giants for the fifth consecutive year.

Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Mets: Paul Skenes vs. Freddy Peralta

Skenes begins his third MLB season as the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner for what should be a much-improved Pirates team. Peralta makes his Mets debut, acquired in a trade after eight seasons with the Brewers.

Chicago White Sox at Milwaukee Brewers: Shane Smith vs. Jacob Misiorowski

Smith is the White Sox’s fifth different Opening Day starter in the past five seasons and faces his former organization. Misiorowski gets the nod for Milwaukee after a sensational rookie season during which his fastball was clocked at 104.3 mph.

Washington Nationals at Chicago Cubs: Cade Cavalli vs. Matthew Boyd

Cavalli begins his first full MLB season after recovery from Tommy John surgery sidelined him until last August. Boyd gets his first Opening Day start for the Cubs in his second season with the team.

Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles: Joe Ryan vs. Trevor Rogers

Coming off a career-best season, Ryan gets the Opening Day assignment for the second time in his Twins career, also earning the honor in 2022. Rogers is the fifth pitcher to start the season opener for the Orioles in the past five years.

Boston Red Sox at Cincinnati Reds: Garrett Crochet vs. Andrew Abbott

Crochet makes his second straight Opening Day start for the Red Sox, finishing last season as the runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award. With Hunter Greene’s injury, Abbott was the obvious choice for the Reds based on last season’s performance.

Los Angeles Angels at Houston Astros: José Soriano vs. Hunter Brown

Soriano gets his first Opening Day start, holding a 1.04 career ERA versus the Astros. Brown finished third in AL Cy Young Award voting after posting the best performance of his four-year MLB career.

Detroit Tigers at San Diego Padres: Tarik Skubal vs. Nick Pivetta

Coming off his second consecutive AL Cy Young Award, Skubal makes his third Opening Day start in what could be his final season for the Tigers. Pivetta was the last Opening Day starter to be named, but was the obvious choice after the best season of his career.

Tampa Bay Rays at St. Louis Cardinals: Drew Rasmussen vs. Matthew Liberatore

Rasmussen gets his first Opening Day nod after leading Rays starting pitchers in ERA last season. Liberatore pitches his first-ever season opener against Tampa Bay, who made him its first-round draft pick in 2018.

Texas Rangers at Philadelphia Phillies: Nathan Eovaldi vs. Cristopher Sánchez

Eovaldi starts his third consecutive Opening Day for the Rangers. Sánchez gets the season-opening call for the first time, signing a six-year, $107 million contract extension that confirms him as the Phillies’ ace.

Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers: Zac Gallen vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Returning to the D-Backs on a one-year deal, Gallen starts Arizona’s opener for the fourth straight year. Yamamoto gets the honor for the second consecutive season after winning World Series MVP honors for his Game 7 performance against the Blue Jays.

Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners: Tanner Bibee vs. Logan Gilbert

Bibee was named the Guardians’ Opening Day starter for the second consecutive year, but missed last season’s opener due to food poisoning. Gilbert is pitching the Mariners’ opener for the second year in a row, beginning his sixth season with Seattle.

Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays: Luis Severino vs. Kevin Gausman

Severino draws Opening Day honors for the third time in his career, and second straight for the Athletics after an inconsistent 2025. Gausman will also start the season opener for a third time, his first with the American League champions.

Colorado Rockies at Miami Marlins: Kyle Freeland vs. Sandy Alcantara

Freeland starts his fifth straight season opener for the Rockies, extending the franchise record he set last year. Alcantara also holds the Marlins record for consecutive Opening Day starts, making his sixth after frequent trade rumors last season.

Kansas City Royals at Atlanta Braves: Cole Ragans vs. Chris Sale

Ragans starts Kansas City’s opener for the third consecutive season, looking to rebound from groin and rotator cuff injuries in 2025. Opening Day starts are nothing new for Sale, who draws the assignment for the seventh time in his 15-year MLB career.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Hannah Hidalgo put together another dominant performance with 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight steals as sixth-seeded Notre Dame advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 15th straight time with a 83-73 victory over third-seeded Ohio State on Monday in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.

It is the second time in the second-team AP All-American’s career she has had at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals in a game. Hidalgo had her eighth double-double of the season and the 16th of the junior’s career.

“I don’t ever really know my stats. I’m just out there hooping,” Hidalgo said. “We knew that Ohio State, they want to play fast. So we just did a great job of just trying to slow them down.”

The only player Notre Dame couldn’t slow down was Jaloni Cambridge. The sophomore and fellow AP All-America pick tied a career high with 41 points for Ohio State (27-8), the second-most points by a Buckeye player in an NCAA Tournament game.

Cambridge though tied a season-high with seven turnovers as Ohio State becomes the first team in women’s tournament history to be eliminated three straight years at home.

The Buckeyes committed 21 turnovers, which led to 25 Notre Dame points.

“Forty-one (points) doesn’t matter with an L,” said Cambridge, who was 13 of 25 from the field and made five 3-pointers. “We just weren’t taking care of the ball. We just needed to make smarter plays. We could have got away with not turning the ball over if we just made smarter plays.”

Vanessa de Jesus scored 15 points while Iyana Moore and Cassandre Prosper had 13 each for the Fighting Irish (24-10), who have won 11 of their last 13.

Hidalgo had 23 points, nine rebounds, eight steals and six assists in Saturday’s 79-60 victory over Fairfield. The eight steals ties a Fighting Irish NCAA Tournament record she had originally set on Saturday.

“We have really fought through the adversity this season and really the last several weeks have become more tough. That’s just with our defenses, with our rebounding. It’s our intensity that we’ve shown up with. But it has grown over time this season,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said.

Buckeyes rally in 3rd before Irish regain control

A jumper by Hidalgo gave the Fighting Irish a 50-37 lead with 8:09 remaining in the third quarter before the Buckeyes went on a 12-4 run. Cambridge scored six straight to get the Buckeyes within one point but missed a free throw with 2:42 remaining that would have tied it at 54-all with 2:42 remaining.

Notre Dame would regain control by going on a 12-3 run. Its largest lead was 83-65 in the game’s final minute.

“We had too many live-ball turnovers. Notre Dame just really made us pay. They got a lot of easy baskets in transition because of that, and we just couldn’t overcome it,’ Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said.

Ohio State started off strong, scoring the first 11 points, including Cambridge with nine. Notre Dame got its first basket on 3-pointer by Iyana Moore with 6:43 remaining.

The Fighting Irish took a 22-20 lead at the end of the first quarter and were up 43-35 at halftime.

Up next

The Fighting Irish will face either second-seeded Vanderbilt or seventh-seeded Illinois on Friday.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

It’s a good ol’ southern battle between the Atlanta Hawks (39-32) and the Memphis Grizzlies (24-46) tonight in State Farm Arena.

Jalen Johnson (left shoulder inflammation) has been ruled out of tonight’s contest for the second game in a row.

Starting lineup:

• G CJ McCollum
• G Nickeil Alexander-Walker
• F Dyson Daniels
• F Mouhamed Gueye
• C Onyeka Okongwu

Please join in the comments below as you follow along.

Where, When, and How to Watch and Listen

Location: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA

Start Time: 7:30 PM EDT

TV: FanDuel Sports Network Southeast (FDSNSE)

Radio: Sports Radio 92.9 the Game (WZGC-FM)

Streaming: ESPN+, FanDuel Sports Network app, Fubo (out of market), NBA League Pass (out of market), Youtube TV (NBA League Pass out of market)

Welcome to the Game Thread. Veterans of the Game Thread know how we do things around here, but for all you newbies we have a few rules. Our community guidelines apply and basically say be cool, no personal attacks, don’t troll and don’t swear too much.

It’s the final stretch of the season, and your intrepid game thread writer has gone on vacation. While I’m on a boat in the middle of the ocean, you people get to watch the Spurs, and talk to each other in the game thread. No worries, I’ll be back before the playoffs. In the meantime: GO SPURS GO!!

[NOTE: while Mark is on vacation, the game prediction will be replaced by a random fact from the archives.]

Random Fact:

Dolphins believe that humans are stupid. They’re not wrong.

San Antonio Spurs at Miami Heat
March 23, 2026 | 6:00 PM CT
Streaming: NBA League Pass
TV: FanDuel Sports Southwest
Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments.

Coming off a buzzer-beating win to stretch their winning streak to nine games, the Detroit Pistons will be looking to be a buzzkill that stops the hottest team in the NBA in its tracks. That buzzer-beater came via former Piston Luke Kennard, who was eminently gettable at the trade deadline and is shooting 68% on twos and 46% since being traded to Los Angeles. Detroit was looking at a game where they might have dodged Luka Doncic, who got a 16th technical against Orlando, which would have triggered an automatic suspension, but the tech was later rescinded. Maybe he’ll get his suspension-clinching technical against Detroit tonight! As good as the Lakers are playing, they are beatable. If Detroit plays the highest level of defense they’re capable of, they can dictate the flow of the game. The Lakers are also susceptible to a few things the Pistons rely on — they turn the ball over a fair amount, they give up buckets in transition, and they allow their opponent to score a healthy dose of points in the paint. We’ll take as much of all of that as we can get.

Game Vitals

When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Watch: TV 20, FanDuel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Pistons +1.5

Projected Lineup

Detroit Pistons (51-19)

Daniss Jenkins, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Los Angeles Lakers (46-25)

Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Jake LaRavia, LeBron James, DeAndre Ayton