One of the best rivalries from the old Big East created another exciting battle Monday night, when the Connecticut Huskies edged the Syracuse Orange 52-50 in an impressive victory that came down to the final seconds. Orange guard Andrew White III tied the game at 50-50 with just 12 seconds remaining, but a foul on Tyus Battle sent UConn's Christian Vital to the free-throw line with 2.2 seconds left. The freshman made both attempts to hand ...

CHICAGO—R.J. Barrett currently sits at No. 1 in the Scout.com Class of 2019 player rankings and the 6'7" wing looked the part of top player this weekend at the Chicago Elite Classic. A smooth and athletic player who burst on the scene as a freshman with Montverde Academy last season, Barrett has done a great job of handling expectations over the past year as he's developed a big national reputation despite only being a sophomore. Barrett has provided ...

College basketball once again has a new No. 1 team. Defending champion Villanova ascended back to the sport's pinnacle in the latest Associated Press poll after a week of hoops that saw a number of ranked teams go down. The Wildcats are followed by UCLA, Kansas, Baylor and Duke to round out the Top Five. Here is a look at how the entire poll played out: UCLA is the most notable riser of the week, moving up nine ...

The freshmen got to have their fun in November, but after Duke and Kentucky both failed to put a stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press Top 25, the first poll in December has the veteran and reigning national champion Villanova Wildcats in the top spot. With help from a Josh Hart triple-double, the Wildcats obliterated a pair of Philadelphia Big 5 opponents this week, dismissing Penn and Saint Joseph's by a combined ...

The reveal of the College Football Playoff is always a reminder of how much more entertaining the sport’s first few weeks would be if the field expanded and teams wouldn’t be so scared to take an early loss. Washington, for instance, made the playoff with a nonconference schedule of Rutgers, Idaho and Portland State. Ugh. In the last week in college basketball, North Carolina traveled to Indiana and UCLA went to Kentucky. Both games were spectacles ...

It has been a pretty good start to the 2016-17 college basketball season. That starts with some tremendous individual performances. We've had big-time plays in big-time games, and we've had offensive explosions in contests where the lights weren't as bright. Sometimes a great game means a gaudy number or two; other times it's a quieter performance. With the big early-season tournaments behind us and the holiday cupcakes rising lazily in the oven, it's a good time to ...

Prior to Saturday's game at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke, Maine's basketball team took the court wearing rainbow-colored warm-up shirts in protest of North Carolina's controversial HB2 law.  Basketball writer Shawn Krest captured an image of most of the Black Bears players wearing the shirt: Maine head coach Bob Walsh explained after the game why his team took this approach.  "It was about promoting inclusion and promoting equality and our guys understanding that they can make an impact," ...

No. 8 Gonzaga 69, No. 16 Arizona 62 The No. 8 Gonzaga Bulldogs added a big nonconference victory to their resume on Saturday, as they beat the No. 16 Arizona Wildcats at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  The Bulldogs used a multifaceted approach on offense to pull ahead by double digits in the first half. A barrage of early three-pointers led by Nigel Williams-Goss got Gonzaga in a rhythm. Big man Przemek Karnowski helped the Bulldogs continue ...

The shouting heard from college basketball diehards this week was that UCLA was at Kentucky on Saturday, and HAVE YOU SEEN THE LONZO BALL SHOW YET?! Ball is a 6’6” point guard with the kind of vision and passing skills that has folks comparing him to Jason Kidd, and it’s not all that blasphemous. He arrived in Lexington leading the nation in assists, and the run-and-gun-and-fun Bruins were putting up 97 points per game. No. 11 UCLA left ...

The UCLA Bruins continued their rapid ascent up the college basketball rankings with a 97-92 victory over the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena.  Per ESPN, Kentucky probably has a bad case of deja vu: The key difference is last year's win didn't do anything for the Bruins, who finished a disappointing 15-17 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012. Saturday's win marks their ninth of the season already.  UCLA secured its biggest win ...