Seton Hall basketball coach Bobby Gonzalez has been fired. Patrick Hobbs, the university law school dean who has been overseeing the athletics department since July, said Wednesday that fiery Gonzalez was let go for reasons other than his coaching record. "Performance and success are not measured solely by wins and losses, but also in the conduct of those associated with the program,"...

When it mattered most, Arkansas-Pine Bluff turned into kings of the road. Losers of their first 11 games -- all on the road -- the Golden Lions turned their first trip to the NCAA tournament into one worth the extra packing. Allen Smith made clutch 3-pointers on a night when shots wouldn't go down easily, setting up a 61-44 victory over Winthrop in the opening game on Tuesday night.

So much for the idea that North Carolina's players wouldn't be interested in playing in the NIT, even in a miserable season following a national championship run. Instead, the Tar Heels really did look grateful to play again just as they said they were. Dexter Strickland hit the go-ahead free throws with 2:34 left and North Carolina held William & Mary scoreless for the final 5 minutes in...

Ishmael Smith is a rarity on Wake Forest's campus. He's one of the few men's basketball players who knows what it's like to win a postseason tournament game. It's been a while since the Demon Deacons' last victory -- the first round of the 2007 ACC tournament, to be exact. Smith and his teammates are eager to make up for last year's NCAA flop -- and last week's...

It's perhaps the most oft-repeated nugget of conventional NCAA tournament wisdom and it bodes particularly well for Wisconsin this year: Experienced guard play can be a decisive edge. The Badgers start one of the tournament's most experienced guard pairs, Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohannon. Both are seniors making their fourth straight NCAA tournament appearances.

Ernie Kent, the winningest coach in Oregon history, was dismissed Tuesday after 13 seasons with his alma mater. "You may find a better basketball coach, but I don't think you'll find anybody that has the passion and love that I have for this university," said Kent, who had to pause for several moments to fight back his emotions.

Jerome Dyson scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half and Connecticut hung on to beat Northeastern 59-57 Tuesday in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. Dyson, who scored a total of 18 points in his previous three games, had 11 of UConn's final 13 points to bring his team back from a six-point deficit.

Michigan guard Manny Harris says he has not decided if he will return for his senior season or enter the NBA draft. Harris said Tuesday night during halftime of the Cleveland Cavaliers-Detroit Pistons game that he isn't sure when he will make his decision. He told reporters on Feb. 2 he would be back next season, then declined comment on his future at least twice this month.

With his team reeling as it heads into the NCAA tournament, Texas coach Rick Barnes sounds like a gardener trying to coax life out of a dying plant. "Sometimes you keep watering it and watering it and hope that it sprouts," Barnes said. Then again, sometimes it drowns. Texas isn't dead yet, but it's a long, long way from being the team that was once considered a favorite to win the...

Kentucky senior Perry Stevenson isn't worried about the Wildcats' youthful roster turning into a liability during the NCAA tournament. Perry, one of three seniors on the roster who get limited playing time, says the talent of Kentucky's fabulous freshmen will more than make up for their inexperience.

Defending champion Oregon State is back in the College Basketball Invitational, despite a losing record. Coached by Craig Robinson, the brother-in-law of President Barack Obama, the Beavers (14-17) open the tournament at home Wednesday against Boston University (19-13), which lost at Vermont in the championship game of the America East Conference tournament.

North Carolina and UConn are lending some serious star power to the NIT. Both teams went to the Final Four a year ago, and both were No. 4 seeds in the bracket for also-rans released Sunday. In the case of North Carolina, it's the second time in the past three years that the defending national champion missed the NCAA tournament, joining Florida in 2008.

An injury hurts as much as a loss in the days before the brackets are drawn up for March Madness. Syracuse endured both and will have to rack up some major airplane time to make a run to the Final Four. Kansas, Kentucky and Duke won their conference tournaments and the top seeding that went with them when the selection committee rolled out its 65-team NCAA tournament bracket Sunday.

Florida is back in the NCAA tournament after a two-year absence. Now, coach Billy Donovan and the Gators have a winning streak they want to extend. Florida earned the No. 10 seed in the West Regional on Sunday and will play seventh-seeded BYU in the opening round Thursday in Oklahoma City. Florida has won 12 consecutive games in the NCAAs, all coming during back-to-back title runs in 2006 and 2007.

John Calipari only had questions once he and his Kentucky Wildcats finished celebrating their Southeastern Conference tournament championship. "How did we win this game? How did we go to overtime? I don't know," Calipari said. Credit his fantastic freshmen who scored to get them to overtime and then won the game, even if they celebrated a little prematurely.

The NCAA tournament will look monumentally different this year. Connecticut, North Carolina, UCLA, Arizona and Indiana didn't make it into the field of 65, the first time since 1966 five of the biggest names in college basketball missed the tournament in the same season. That's three of the four schools with the most championships, out.

Evan Turner didn't need any late-game heroics on Sunday. When it appeared there was nothing more he could do to make his Big Ten tournament performance better, the junior had 31 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 5 Ohio State over Minnesota 90-61 in the championship game. Turner hit a 37-foot shot at the buzzer to beat Michigan in the quarterfinals, then scored 12 of his 31 points after...

Miss after miss, open look after open look, yet Jon Scheyer ignored them all. He wasn't going to stop shooting, not with an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship on the line and fourth-ranked Duke clinging to a one-point lead in the final seconds. He curled around a screen, took a pass and launched a 3-pointer that dropped perfectly through the net.

Junior forward Lavoy Allen walked to midcourt seconds after the final buzzer in the Atlantic 10 Conference championship game, smiled and raised three fingers. No. 17 Temple was once again the conference champion, although this time the top-seeded Owls got a scare from third-seeded Richmond in a 56-52 victory on Sunday.

Iowa State coach Greg McDermott says senior Marquis Gilstrap won't return next season after the school's request for an extra year of eligibility was denied. The 22-year-old Gilstrap began an injury-plagued career in junior college five years ago. Iowa State had appealed to the NCAA to give Gilstrap one more season under the medical hardship rule.