Andy Katz

Two coaches who have coached in a Final Four, one who won a national title, and another who took two different teams to the Final Four have now retired before the New Year.

Kentucky and Illinois enter the top 10 in men's basketball Power 37 rankings after picking up ranked wins.

DI Women's Volleyball 15 minutes of the best 2024 NCAA volleyball tournament moments Jan. 9, 2025

After a thrilling week, Auburn, Iowa State, and Duke top the men's basketball Power 37 rankings.

Ian Eagle's greatest NCAA men's basketball tournament calls

Here's five things on my mind this week: 1. The sad state of affairs at Virginia and Miami: I get why Tony Bennett and Jim Larranaga retired. Burn out. The NIL/transfer portal issues. All understandable. But Miami gave up 117 points to SMU at home. Virginia has lost five in a row. The Hurricanes are 0-7 while Virginia is 1-6 in the ACC. Miami was in the Final Four two seasons ago. Virginia won the national title in 2019. Both programs have completely fallen apart. There is zero chance Miami hires interim coach Bill Courtney. The same is likely true of Ron Sanchez at Virginia. Both jobs should be highly coveted in the spring with the Cavaliers job certainly more desirable due to the tradition, fan support and potential for donor involvement. Both programs were challengers to Duke and North Carolina within the past decade. I would toss in Florida State, too, before their recent slide in the past few seasons. But the gap could be growing from Duke and yes still UNC (even if the record isn’t there this season). They need to get the hires right.

NCAA's Andy Katz's shares his March Madness bracket predictions with the NCAA tournament just a few months away.

1. Minnesota beat Iowa on the road and took down Oregon. The win over Oregon was the second-straight win over a ranked team at home. The last time that happened was in 2021 when Richard Pitino was the head coach. Dawson Garcia was sensational with 31 in the win over Oregon and 20 at Iowa. The previous week he hit the game-winning 3-pointer to beat Michigan. Garcia came home to Minnesota after playing at North Carolina three years ago. He is committed to the school and coach Ben Johnson. Johnson has tremendous respect from his coaching peers and clearly the players enjoy playing for him. The portal departures (Pharrell Payne, Elijah Hawkins and Joshua Ola-Joseph) left for more money. Had they all stayed, the Gophers would/should have been an NCAA Tournament team this season. Hopefully now Minnesota will invest in the men’s basketball program. Johnson deserves a shot to be on more of an equal playing court with other Big Ten schools. They’ve won three in a row and are fully in contention to be in the Big Ten tournament and avoid the embarrassment of finishing in the bottom three and missing out on the event.

DI Women's Basketball Bracketology: Second 2025 March Madness women's bracket predictions Jan. 28, 2025

Texas Tech and Arizona jump from outside the top 25 to inside the top 13 in NCAA's Andy Katz's latest power rankings.