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The nation’s leading men’s college basketball coaches’ association has called the SAT and ACT “longstanding forces of institutional racism” and wants them eliminated from use in determining athletes’ eligibility. The National Association of Basketball Coaches made the move three days after naming its first-ever Black executive director, the former Division I coach Craig Robinson. It also came the month after the organization formed a Committee on Racial Reconciliation, co-chaired by Harvard coach Tommy Amaker and South Carolina coach Frank Martin. The committee believes the two standardized tests “no longer have a place in intercollegiate athletics or higher education at large,”...

“They [the NCAA] just got a contract from CBS (and TNT), $8.8 billion, and if you are making that, I think you have to share some revenue. You can’t expect people to continue to work for nothing on a false hope of, well this is about education, we are getting you an education, we will feed you. It sounds a little like 400 years ago, like slavery. Stay in your hut. Stay in that little house. We’ll give you some food. You do all of the work. All of it. And I am telling you that I will take care...

NEW YORK – It has been five months since the FBI arrested 10 men in a sweeping federal probe into the underbelly of the basketball world. As the three ongoing criminal cases resulting from the investigation plod along, it’s increasingly unlikely there will be another wave of double-digit arrests. More legal charges still could come, but what’s becoming increasingly clear as the discovery portion of the case comes to a close is that the breadth of potential NCAA rules violations uncovered is wide enough to fundamentally and indelibly alter the sport of college basketball.

U.S. prosecutors unveiled charges against 10 coaches, managers, financial advisers and representatives of a sportswear company, accusing them of bribery, fraud and corruption in recruitment in college basketball. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Tuesday the charges followed a two-year investigation into criminal influence in NCAA basketball. Among those charged are four coaches, who are accused of steering players to advisers who had paid bribes to the coaches. The defendants include coaches at top U.S. college basketball programs, one agent, one financial adviser and a former referee. The coaches are Lamont Evans, an assistant at Oklahoma State University, Emanuel Richardson, an...

Yeah, the results were overwhelming. And what's interesting is that the easy win for Hillary Clinton doesn't seem to be much about her at all. Put another way, she didn't win here because these coaches love her or are inspired by her. She won here because, well, because the main person running against her seems unfit and unqualified to be President of the United States. That's the opinion of college basketball coaches, at least.

Mason Darrow was in a slump. The freshman offensive lineman for the Princeton Tigers had made it into a couple of games in the 2013 season, but his practices one defining week in early November were a mess. He was slow making calls and his feet were stuck in the mud. His racing mind was getting in the way of his performance with internal questions he was increasingly tired of answering. Walking to the sideline after a particularly poor play, Darrow's head hung low. The strong breeze of autumn brought a chill, the sun setting behind the rainbow of oak...

Dean Smith, the coaching innovator who won two national championships at North Carolina, an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and induction into basketball's Hall of Fame more than a decade before he left the bench, has died. He was 83. The retired coach died "peacefully" at his North Carolina home Saturday night, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith's family. He was with his wife and five children. Smith had health issues in recent years, with the family saying in 2010 he had a condition that was causing him to lose memory. He had kept a lower profile...

HARTFORD — The city celebrated the UConn men's and women's basketball teams' national championships Sunday with a victory parade through downtown, and it was one of the biggest parties Hartford has ever seen. An estimated 200,000 people lined the streets as blue and white confetti showered them while they cheered two teams and two trophies. After the parade, players, coaches and dignitaries addressed the crowd in a rally outside the Capitol.

A couple of years ago, the basketball team I root for, the University of Michigan, had a player named Zack Novak. Everybody loved his story. He was slow and pudgy coming out of high school, recruited by nobody, and offered a spot at Michigan. Turned out he could play, at least some. He was only six foot three, but he played power forward, compensating for his lack of size and skill with unrelenting effort. He graduated from the business school and became team captain. If you watch college sports, you know the kind of player I’m talking about. Right: a...

Mike Rice's three-year run at Rutgers has come to an end. The university terminated Rice's contract this morning following a meeting with athletic director Tim Pernetti in his office at the Rutgers Athletic Center. Rice's job status became tenuous when videotapes of his actions during practices from his first and second years on campus were made public by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" program on Tuesday. Rice was seen throwing basketballs at players — including one instance, throwing it at a player's head — as well as shoving players during a practice. He was also heard using the term "f------ faggot"...

Louisville sophomore Kevin Ware was taken from the court on a stretcher after a serious leg injury this afternoon during the NCAA Midwest region basketball final. It is terrible to see this happen to anyone, let alone an elite athlete in his prime. There is nothing to do but pray and hope this is not as bad as it looks: WARNING! Extremely graphic! Louisville player Kevin Ware breaks his whole leg on bad fall!

As the separation of the Big East Conference moved toward a conclusion, one question was hanging over the negotiations. Who owns the iconic name? Apparently, the answer is the seven departing Catholic schools. An ESPN.com report Thursday night said the seven schools will start their own league next season and will keep the Big East name. Big East commissioner Mike Aresco insisted as recently as last week that he hoped to retain the name, citing three decades and the name's attachment to the Bowl Championship Series level of football.

NEW ORLEANS (AP)—Kentucky has the best players. Kansas has the most heart. From the first practice in October to the final cutting of the nets in April, that’s how the two teams remaining in the NCAA tournament have made a name for themselves. They meet Monday to decide the national championship—a game between the Wildcats and their cadre of NBA-caliber talent and the Jayhawks and their unending supply of high-wire comebacks. Kentucky (37-2), in search of its eighth national title but its first since 1998, has five, maybe six, players who will be playing in the NBA soon. Most are...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: So this assistant basketball coach at Syracuse, this guy -- Fine is his name, Bernie Fine -- has been accused of sexually molesting boys and students for a whole bunch of years. It turns out that ESPN had a tape since 2002 with evidence. ESPN has sat on evidence for nine years because they say they couldn't corroborate it. On the tape the guy's wife cops to it, saying she witnessed it and a ball boy admits it. They say they couldn't corroborate it. I wonder if the coach's name had been Paterno if ESPN woulda sat...

Florida A&M basketball player Shannon Washington died early Sunday morning after suffering a knife wound to her neck, the school announced. Tallahassee Police responded to a report of a stabbing and found Washington in an apartment. She was treated at the scene by police and EMS and later died at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, police said. Starquineshia Palmer, 20, who was visiting Washington for the weekend, was detained and charged with first-degree murder, police reported.

ESPN has reached an agreement with the Morale Entertainment Foundation to televise Michigan State vs. North Carolina in the Carrier Classic 11-11-11, the first men's college basketball game to be played on the deck of a United States military aircraft carrier, on Friday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. ET. The United States military ship to host the unique Veteran's Day event honoring the men and women in the armed forces is to be determined but will be positioned in the San Diego harbor. As part of the telecast, ESPN will televise a special halftime entertainment show and post-game concert organized...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina and Michigan State are closing in on a deal to play a basketball game on an aircraft carrier next season. Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said on his radio show Monday night that the teams hope to play on Veteran's Day in San Diego on a carrier. Larry Gallo, a senior associate athletic director at UNC, said Tuesday that a contract isn't in place yet. "We feel as though all systems are go, we're just trying to finalize" details, Gallo said. "But until you have a contract, a deal hasn't been consumated."

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah accepted an invitation to become the 12th member of the newly expanded Pac-10 Conference on Thursday. "Today is an absolutely great day to be a Ute," athletic director Chris Hill said before he was interrupted by applause during a news conference at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

With all due respect to Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski and even Bear Bryant and Vince Lombardi, John Wooden was in a class by himself. Wooden will go down as the most accomplished coach anywhere. Ever. The Wizard of Westwood won 10 national titles in a 12-year span, including a remarkable seven consecutive from 1967 through ’73. Wooden’s success is almost unfathomable. Wooden passed away on Friday night at the UCLA Medical Center, just months prior to his 100th birthday on Oct. 14. Wooden was still mentally sharp in his 90s and was spotted at UCLA games and other events.

John Wooden, the UCLA basketball coach who became an icon of American sports while guiding the Bruins to an unprecedented 10 national championships in the 1960s and '70s and remained in the spotlight during retirement with his "Pyramid of Success" motivational program, has died. He was 99. Though his fame extended beyond the sports world, it was Wooden's achievements during 27 seasons at UCLA that put him in the company of such legendary coaches as the Green Bay Packers' Vince Lombardi and Notre Dame's Knute Rockne. Wooden's string of championships began with back-to-back victories in 1964 and '65. Starting in...