UConn is facing Duke with a Final Four on the line. It’s a battle of blue-blood programs – if such a thing still exists

Back when he first came to town – back when some of his Big East peers derided his school as the Northwestern of the conference and questioned why Dave Gavitt even let them in – Jim Calhoun tried to solveUConn'sidentity crisis one misinformed person at a time.

"No, it's UConn with a U,'' he would explain, "Not Yukon with a Y. We're not in Alaska.''

It is near unfathomable to imagine such issues today. To confuse UConn with anything other than the University of Connecticut would be akin to assuming Duke was merely some nobleman in England. The Huskies have won six national championships, crafting the cow patch in Storrs into a modern-day blueblood. No school – not Duke, not North Carolina, not Kansas, not Kentucky – has hoisted as many banners in the last 30 years as UConn.

Yet the man currently in charge of the kingdom, the one who has added two championships of his own to the university coffers, is struggling with the old vocabulary in this very modern-day college athletics world.

A blue-blood, Dan Hurley argues, isn't really a thing anymore.

"You can't get by on your brand anymore,'' Hurley said. "Players dreaming of having played here one day, none of these kids care about that anymore. None of the people close to them care about it because the majority of the people that are advising kids now are agents who are looking at it from a business perspective, or families that are not sentimental about any of this.''

It is an interesting thought, particularly here at the NCAA tournament's East Regional, where the Huskiesare getting ready to face the Blue Devils with a trip to the Final Four on the line.This is not an unfamiliar tap dance. The two have used each other as steppingstones en route to building themselves into what we used to call bluebloods. Of their nine meetings, four have come in the NCAA Tournament – an Elite Eight (1990), Sweet 16 (1991), a national championship game (1999), and a national semifinal (2004).

As Duke rose under Mike Krzyzewski, the Blue Devils won the first two (with Hurley's big brother, Bobby) on their way to becoming the stick by which most other programs – including UConn – measured themselves.

But by 1999, Calhoun and grown Yukon into UConn and that year, the Huskies and Blue Devils traded the top spots in the polls for the better part of the season.

Still, old labels die hard and in the title game in St. Petersburg, Florida, Duke waltzed in as a 9.5-point favorite. It was the perfect bulletin-board fodder for Calhoun, who was still trying to elbow his way in with the big dogs.

He convinced his 1-seed Huskies that they were, in fact, underdogs so much so that when Trajon Langdon tripped trying to split two defenders to seal UConn's win, Husky guard Khalid El-Amin ran around the court screaming, 'We shocked the world!'

Hyperbole in the moment, perhaps, but a fair evaluation considering just where the program had come from.

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Since then, though, no one has seen the Huskies as world shockers. The standard in Storrs is only excellence. A slight dip in performance (not to mention an NCAA investigation) cost Kevin Ollie his job, and the mission for Hurley was hardly unclear when he took the job eight seasons ago.

UConn now is pushing for its third Final Four in four years and, were Alex Karaban to win a third title, he would be the first player since Kareem and his UCLA teammates in the 1970s to accomplish the feat.

Asked then,if his team wasn't a blue-blood what was it,Hurley talked around his answer.

"We're one of the biggest places you could play college basketball. Listen, I think all things being equal – meaning NIL is in the ballpark – players would still want to go and play in the biggest places, for the coaches that are going to help them become better players, give them the best chance to play deep into this tournament, develop their career, have an incredible experience," Hurley said

Really this isn't a semantics debate – the death of the concept of the blue-blood – as much as it is a philosophical one. Is growing greatness in today's world easier than it was for Calhoun? That's really the question. Can money, in fact, change your bloodlines? Florida went from irrelevance to national title on the jet stream of well-funded transfers.

But it is also accusing an entire generation of wanting nothing of substance. It is the old man on the front porch yelling "get off my lawn," convinced that the whippersnappers don't get it because they have it too easy. To listen to players in this NCAA tournament – to really listen to them and not hear what you think you hear – is to hear players say they want to be coached.

They want to learn. They want to get better. They want excellence. Just because they want cash doesn't negate the rest.

And a handful of programs have earned the right to say that they offer it with regularity.

"I think a blue-blood is somebody that's earned it over time,'' said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who just finished his 28th consecutive NCAA tournament run. "What I've always looked for is consistency. If you can be consistent not over two years, four years, but 10 years, 15 years, I think you have the right to feel like that's the difference.''

Back when he first started, Calhoun used to give his players old, faded gray T-shirts on the first day of practice. The message was hardly subtle: They'd have to earn the good stuff.

The Huskies did. And so did UConn. Whether you want to call it a blue-blood or not.

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byDaniel Coleman

in

March 29, 2026

UConn is facing Duke with a Final Four on the line. It’s a battle of blue-blood programs – if such a thing still exists

Back when he first came to town – back when some of his Big East peers derided his school as the Northwestern of the conf...

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Europe seeks to increase deportations as some warn of Trump-like tactics

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is expanding its powers to track, raid and deport migrants to "return hubs″ in third countries in Africa and elsewhere, quietly adopting tactics of the Trump administration that have drawn public criticism across the 27-nation bloc.

The EU continues to tighten migration policies after right-wing parties took power in some countries in 2024. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from the center-right European People's Party coalition, has said that the new measures will prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis caused by Syria's civil war, when about 1 million people arrived to seek asylum.

"We have learnt the lessons of the past. And today, we are better equipped," von der Leyen has said. Thenew policies, known as the Pact on Migration and Asylum, go into effect on June 12.

Far-right parties in Europe have praised thedeportation policiesof U.S. President Donald Trump and called for the EU to adopt a similar approach. Human rights groups warn that authorities are already illegally pushing back migrants at EU borders and hollowing out their legal protections.

Italy provides a model

The EU already spends millions of dollarsto deter migrants before they reach its shores, and has supportedtens of thousands of Africans returning home, voluntarily or by force.

What's envisioned now is an expansion of what Italy has created under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her "tough on migration" stance. It operates two migrant detention centers for rejected asylum-seekers in Albania. One currently holds at least 90 migrants, said lawmaker Rachele Scarpa, who said that she found people confused and scared during a recent visit.

In addition, Meloni's Cabinet has approved an anti-immigration package that would allow the navy to halt vessels in international waters for up to six months if they are deemed a threat to public order; return intercepted migrants to countries of origin or third countries; and speed up the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of crimes.

An "informal group" of EU nations including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece are pursuing deportation center agreements, said Bernd Parusel, a researcher at the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies.

Kenya is one country they are speaking with, said Tineke Strik, a Dutch member of the European Parliament. Whether consciously or not, the plan is similar toTrump's deals with nations like El Salvadorto take in deported migrants, she said.

Other countries are exploring similar ideas. Sweden's migration minister has said the conservative ruling coalition approvessetting up hubs outside Europe,especially for Afghan and Syrian asylum-seekers.

Some in Europe cheer Trump-style tactics

During the Winter Olympics in Italy,protests eruptedover the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the U.S. delegation. But others in Europe have praised ICE's actions and called for setting up deportation-focused police units.

In 2024, Belgium passed a law allowing the EU border service Frontex operations inside the country, stoking fears among activists that Frontex could join in on raids.

But Frontex's mandate just covers borders, said spokesperson Chris Borowski, and the current role in voluntary or involuntary returns for the service includes "coordinating flights, helping with travel documents and making sure fundamental rights are respected throughout the process."

The European Commission has declined requests to take a position on U.S. federal immigration policies.

In Britain, which left the EU several years ago, the center-left Labour Party government has made curbing unauthorized immigration a key focus.

In February, the Home Office said that almost 60,000 people had been deported since the government was elected in July 2024. It said 9,000 arrests were made of people working without permission in 2025, up by more than half from the year before.

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Pushbacks, raids and surveillance increase

Under the principle of non-refoulement in EU and international law, a person can't be returned to a country where they would face persecution.

But European immigration enforcement tactics include so-called pushbacks, where people trying to cross into the EU are forced back across a border without access to asylum procedures.

Authorities in Europe carry out an average of 221 pushbacks a day, according to a February report by a group of humanitarian organizations. More than 80,000 pushbacks were recorded in 2025, the report said, mostly in Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia.

"Men, women and children — including individuals in critical medical condition — are routinely subjected to beatings, attacks by police dogs, forced stripping, forced river crossings and theft of personal belongings," according to the report.

European agents are brutalizing migrants just like in the U.S., said Flor Didden, migration policy expert at the Belgian human rights group 11.11.11. Some, like in Greece, even wear masks.

"The images are shocking and the outrage is justified," he said of the U.S. "But where is that same moral clarity when European border authorities abuse, rob and let people die?"

Europe still has more protections for migrants

The groups also have recorded an expansion of surveillance technology like drones, thermal cameras and satellites to monitor people on the move.

Other human rights groups warn of a weakening of legal protections.

The EU's new migration regulations allow for more police raids in private homes and public spaces and more use of surveillance and racial profiling, said a letter to EU institutions in February from 88 nonprofit groups including the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.

"We cannot be outraged by ICE in the United States while also supporting these practices in Europe," said the platform's director, Michele LeVoy.

Olivia Sundberg Diez, EU migration advocate for Amnesty International, said Europe retains more protections for vulnerable migrants than the United States but shares much of the political momentum toward harsher policies.

"There's a level of institutions' and courts' independence and human rights compliance in Europe that you can't disregard," she said. "But the fundamental political impulse is the same, and I worry that the human consequences will be the same."

Giada Zampano reported from Rome. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Jill Lawless in London, Paolo Santalucia in Rome, Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show that Frontex's mandate just covers borders, and that it didn't join raids with Belgian authorities.

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 29, 2026

Europe seeks to increase deportations as some warn of Trump-like tactics

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is expanding its powers to track, raid and deport migrants to "return hubs″ in th...

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Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship threatens ‘chaos’ in proving newborns’ status

Justice Brett Kavanaugh sounded like a fired-up prosecutor last year as he shot off a withering series of nuts-and-bolts questions about how President Donald Trump would carry out his plan to rewrite of theway birthright citizenship has been understoodin the United States for more than a century.

Would hospitals have to change the way they process newborns?Kavanaugh demanded. Would state governments have to do something different? How would federal officials determine citizenship if a birth certificate no longer sufficed?

"Federal officials will have to figure that out essentially," US Solicitor General D. John Sauer managed to say amid a fusillade of rapid-fire queries.

"How?" Kavanaugh pressed.

"So, you can imagine a number of ways —" Sauer began.

"Such as?" Kavanaugh interjected.

As theSupreme Court preparesto consider the merits of Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship on Wednesday, most of the same practical questions Kavanaugh raised a year ago remain unanswered. Some of those questions speak to the bureaucratic nightmare that Americans — including US citizens — might face documenting a child's immigration status. Others go to the very heart of what it means to be a US citizen.

Most of the court's arguments this week will deal with the history of the 14th Amendment'scitizenship clause, which makes clear that "all persons born" in the United States who are "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are citizens. Written arguments from both Trump and the groups challenging the policy focus heavily on what the framers meant by "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States.

Buried beneath that theoretical debate is uncertainty about how Trump's order, which he signed on the first day of his second term, would be implemented if the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court lets it take effect. Kavanaugh's inquiries last year suggested not only that Trump's idea was radical, but that it might also be unworkable.

Federal agencies haverolled out a series of guidance documentsexplaining how people would apply for passports, Social Security numbers and safety-net programs under Trump's plan. But some of those materials have raised as many questions as they've answered.

If allowed to take effect, the policy would create "a tidal wave of legal confusion and chaos," predicted Jill Habig, the CEO of Public Rights Project, a nonprofit that provides legal support to state and local governments and that filed a brief in the case opposing the administration.

"This is the problem with trying to change hundreds of years of the constitutional text and precedent with what is essentially a memo," Habig said. "Every system that we have in this country to prove citizenship is typically based on just a birth certificate."

When the high court delved into birthright citizenship last year, it was dealing with a technical issue about whether courts could halt a presidential directive on a short-term basis while it considered its legality. In late June, the courtvoted 6-3 to limit the ability of lower courtsto block such policies on a nationwide basis under a widely used procedure at the time. But the court left the door open to other avenues to pause such policies — like class-action suits — andTrump's birthright order was put on holdagain days later.

But this time, the court will debate the legality of the order itself. A decision is expected by the end of June.

Kavanaugh is often highly deferential during oral arguments, but his animated back-and-forth with Sauer offered a window into the thinking of a key vote in the court's conservative wing. Trump's second Supreme Court nominee regularly sides with the administration, and he was in dissent when the courtstruck down Trump's emergency tariffsearlier this year.

In response to the blistering inquiries, Sauer said at the time that federal agencies would seek documentation from the parents of newborns to demonstrate "legal presence in the country." For a person working in the US on a temporary basis, he said, the government could perhaps run a check on their name across government visa databases.

But that, Kavanaugh noted, meant the government would have to run checks on the parents of more than3.6 million babiesborn in the United States each year.

"For all the newborns?" Kavanaugh fired back. "Is that how it's going to work?"

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Soil and blood

Trump has insisted the executive order is aimed at combatting "birth tourism," immigrants who come to the United States briefly for the purpose of having a child.

The 14th Amendment was adopted to grant citizenship to freed slaves and their children, the administration has said, not people temporarily in the country illegally. And only since the court handed down a landmark precedent upholding the idea of birthright citizenship in 1898, the government says, has a "latter-day misconception" of the clause's scope taken hold.

"That interpretation is untenable," the Department of Justice told the Supreme Court.

And, it says, it has "incentivized illegal entry into the United States and encouraged 'birth tourists' to travel to the United States solely to acquire citizenship for their children."

But if allowed to take effect, Trump's order would have an impact far beyond the people it ostensibly targets. Critics say it would fundamentally change the meaning of US citizenship from a concept that is tied to geography to one that is linked instead to parentage. And that, they say, is a sharp departure from what the founding generation had in mind.

"We shouldn't view this birthright citizenship question in isolation. We should view it as part of the American experiment and the repudiation of continental ideas of bloodlines and lineage," said Vikram Amar, a University of California, Davis, School of Law professor who has written extensively on the issue. "The whole American experiment is about basing your opportunities and your future on who you are and what you make of your own equality rather than which family and which bloodline you were born into."

After the Supreme Court ruled in the first birthright citizenship case last year, the Trump administration began making public aseries of guidance documentsexplaining the implementation of the order. Among those documents isone from the State Departmentthat explains how officials would "request original proof of parental citizenship or immigration status" to proceed with processing a passport application. To obtain a passport, in other words, a person born after the order took effect would need to document that their parents were citizens.

To obtain a Social Security number, the agency would first check its own database for parents' records. One problem with that approach is that the Social Security Administration itself has acknowledged for years thatpotentially millions of its immigration recordsare inaccurate, in part because the system relies on individuals to update their own records when their status changes.

"It's just not a system for demonstrating citizenship," Habig said. "It is a system for listing Social Security numbers, and that is not the same thing."

Lower courts touched only briefly on the practical considerations of implementing the order, which were important mainly for establishing that the people challenging Trump had standing to sue. In July, a San Francisco-based federal appeals court upheld a Seattle judge's ruling that blocked Trump's policy nationwide in a case brought by a group of Democratic-led states. A separate decision earlier that month by a New Hampshire judge barred enforcement of Trump's order against any babies who would be impacted by the policy in a class-action lawsuit.

Trump appealed both rulings to the Supreme Court, but the justices agreed to hear arguments in only the New Hampshire case.

Dealing with the Brits

Despite the anxieties that have cropped up over implementation the president's order, the Trump administration notes that plenty of other countries have a similar system in place. Sauer is likely to raise that point when he returns to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The early American view of birthright citizenship drew heavily from the United Kingdom's approach, which granted near-universal citizenship to babies born on English soil. But Trump's allies point out that changed in 1983 when the Brits abolished automatic birthright citizenship.

"Hardly any developed country retains a rule of citizenship that resembles the United States' current approach," the administration told the Supreme Court.

Critics counter that, in the case of the UK, Parliament enacted a law. Trump, by contrast, is attempting to change the meaning of birthright citizenship through executive order.

And several briefs point out that the experience in the UK was far from smooth. Some of the same concerns groups are raising before the Supreme Court today were previously experienced overseas. Caribbean immigrants who moved to the UK after World War II by invitation from the government, or their children, struggled to prove their citizenship status in whatbecame known as the Windrush scandal.

Under the 1983 law, those immigrants and their children were no longer able to prove citizenship with a birth certificate.

"The theory may have appeared simple but the practice was brutal," a group called Reprieve said of the UK experience in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court in February. "A system built on a bright-line rule gave way to one that bureaucracy could not administer, leaving people who had lived their whole lives as British unable to prove it on paper."

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 29, 2026

Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship threatens ‘chaos’ in proving newborns’ status

Justice Brett Kavanaugh sounded like a fired-up prosecutor last year as he shot off a withering series of nuts-and-bolts ...

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Pope Leo XIV rejects claims that God justifies war in Palm Sunday Mass message

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that God doesn't listen to the prayers of those who make war or cite God to justify their violence, as he prayed especially for Christiansin the Middle Eastduring a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square.

APTOPIX Vatican Pope Palm Sunday

With theU.S.-Israeli waron Iran entering its second month and Russia's ongoingcampaign in Ukraine, Leo dedicated his Palm Sunday homily to his insistence that God is the "king of peace" who rejects violence.

"Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war," Leo said. "He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: 'Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.'"

Leaders on all sides of the Iran war have used religion to justify their actions. U.S. officials, especiallyDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth,have invoked their Christian faith to cast the war as a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes with military might.

Russia's Orthodox Church, too, has justified Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a"holy war"against a Western world it considers has fallen into evil.

Palm Sunday marks Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem in the time leading up to his crucifixion, which Christians observe on Good Friday, and resurrection on Easter Sunday.

In a special blessing at the end of Mass, Leo said he was praying especially for Christians in the Middle East who are "suffering the consequences of an atrocious conflict. In many cases, they cannot live fully the rites of these holy days."

Earlier Sunday,Jerusalem police preventedthe Catholic Church's top leadership from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass in private. It was thefirst time in centurieschurch leaders were prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday at the place where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, the Patriarchate said.

Israeli police said the request for access from Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and others had been denied, since all holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem were closed to worshippers for security reasons. A police statement said freedom of worship would continue to be upheld "subject to necessary restrictions."

Following a torrent of criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would try to partially open the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the coming days.

Leo said that during Holy Week, Christians cannot forget how many people around the world are suffering as Christ did. "Their trials appeal to the conscience of all. Let us raise our prayers to the Prince of Peace so that he may support people wounded by war and open concrete paths of reconciliation and peace," Leo said.

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A Holy Week that recalls Pope Francis' suffering

For many people at the Vatican, the start of Holy Week this year brings back memories of the final suffering days of Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday.

When Holy Week opened last year, Francis was still recovering at the Vatican after a five-week hospital stay for double pneumonia. He had delegated the liturgical celebrations to others, butrallied on Easter Sundayto greet the faithful from the loggia of St. Peter's Square. Most poignantly, he then made what became his final popemobile loop around the piazza.

Francis died the following morningafter suffering a stroke. His nurse,Massimiliano Strappetti, later told Vatican Media that Francis had told him: "Thank you for bringing me back to the square" for the final salute.

Leo is due to preside over this week's liturgical appointments and is returning to tradition with theHoly Thursdayfoot-washing ceremony that commemorates Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples.

During his 12-year pontificate, Francis famously celebrated the Holy Thursday ritual by traveling to Rome-area prisons and refugee centers to wash the feet of people most on society's margins. His aim was to drive home the ritual's message of service and humility, and he would frequently muse during his Holy Thursday homilies "Why them and not me?"

Francis' gesture had been praised as a tangible evidence of his belief that the church must go to the peripheries to find those most in need of God's love and mercy. But some critics bristled at the annual outings, especially since Francis would also wash the feet of Muslims and people of other faiths.

Leo restores Holy Week foot-washing tradition

Leo, history's first U.S.-born pope, is returning the Holy Thursday foot-washing tradition to the basilica of St. John Lateran, where popes performed it for decades. The Vatican hasn't yet said who will participate, though Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II normally washed the feet of 12 priests.

On Friday, Leo is due to preside over the Good Friday procession at Rome's Colosseum commemorating Christ's Passion and crucifixion. Saturday brings the late night Easter Vigil, during which Leo will baptize new Catholics, followed a few hours later by Easter Sunday when Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus.

Leo will celebrate Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square and then deliver his Easter blessing from the loggia of the basilica.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP'scollaborationwith The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 29, 2026

Pope Leo XIV rejects claims that God justifies war in Palm Sunday Mass message

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that God doesn't listen to the prayers of those who make war or cite God to just...

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Arizona storms back past Purdue 79-64, ending 25-year Final Four drought

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Arizona is headed back tothe Final Fourfor the first time in 25 years after the top-seeded Wildcats got 20 points from freshman Koa Peat to beat Purdue 79-64 in the NCAA Tournament's West Region final on Saturday night.

After years of disappointment in March, coach Tommy Lloyd has gotten Arizona (36-2) back to being a championship contender thanks to a talented freshman class led by Peat to go along with veterans like Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley.

The Wildcats showed they can win in almost any style. They used a nearly flawless performance on offense to beat Arkansas in the Sweet 16 and then shut down one of the nation's most efficient offenses against second-seeded Purdue (30-9).

Arizona frustrated the NCAA record-holder in assists, Braden Smith, and prevented his fellow four-year seniors Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer from getting into a rhythm. Purdue was held to its second-lowest point total of the season and shot just 38% from the field.

Arizona used an 16-3 run early in the second half to erase a seven-point halftime deficit and take a six-point lead on a 3-pointer from Anthony Dell'Orso. The Wildcats stayed in control from there. Brayden Burries hit a 3-pointer, and after a turnover by Smith, Ivan Kharchenkov made a layup for an 11-point lead.

Peat put the exclamation point on the win with dunk that made it 68-55 with less than six minutes remaining, sending the Wildcats to Indianapolis next week on a 13-game winning streak.

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SOUTH REGION

No. 3 ILLINOIS 71, NO. 9 IOWA 59

HOUSTON (AP) — Freshman Keaton Wagler scored 25 points and Illinois ended Iowa's underdogMarch Madnessrun by dominating in the frontcourt, beating the Hawkeyes to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2005.

This will be the sixth trip to the Final Four for Illinois, which has never won a national title. The Fighting Illini will face either Duke or UConn next weekend in Indianapolis.

The much taller Illini (28-8) outrebounded Iowa 38-21 in the South Region final. David Mirkovic led the way with 12 rebounds.

Coach Brad Underwood'semphasis on recruiting in Eastern Europehas paid off in this tournament. Tomislav Ivisic of Croatia, who stands 7-foot-1, and his 7-2 twin brother Zvonimir have shined in March.

Andrej Stojakovic, who was born in Greece but whose father is Serbian three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, scored 17 points for third-seeded Illinois. His famous father watched proudly as his son punched his ticket to the Final Four, and Wagler's parents — who met when they played basketball at a junior college in Kansas — cheered wildly throughout for their son, who was named MVP of the region.

Bennett Stirtz scored 24 points for the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes (24-13), who knocked off top-seeded Florida in the second round as part of an impressive run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, a four-time Division II national champion at Northwest Missouri State.

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 29, 2026

Arizona storms back past Purdue 79-64, ending 25-year Final Four drought

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Arizona is headed back tothe Final Fourfor the first time in 25 years after the top-seeded Wildca...

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