INDIANA TO HOST ENTIRE TOURNEY
The NCAA is giving Indiana an exclusive ticket to showcase March Madness and the basketball-crazed state can’t wait to take center stage this spring.
The NCAA announced Monday that its showcase event — the Division I men’s basketball tournament, all 67 games of it — will be played entirely in or near Indianapolis. The hope is to limit the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic cancels the wildly popular and lucrative tournament for a second consecutive season.
Indy was already scheduled to host the Final Four and it didn’t take long for the city to emerge as the favorite.
NET rankings
The top two spots in the the first NET rankings mirror The Associated Press poll.
Gonzaga and Baylor were No. 1 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings released Monday, not long after taking the top two spots in the AP Top 25.
Tennessee, ranked No. 9 in the AP Top 25, was third in the NET, followed by Illinois and Villanova.
Iowa, Houston, Texas and Missouri rounded out the top 10.
Top 25
No. 14 West Virginia 87, Oklahoma State 84: Derek Culver had 22 points and 19 rebounds to help visiting West Virginia (9-3, 2-2 Big 12)come all the way back from 19 down in the second half to beat Oklahoma State (7-3, 1-3).
West
Stanford 81, Oregon State 71: Oscar da Silva had 31 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, Jaiden Delaire added 19 points and nine boards and visiting Stanford (6-3, 2-1 Pac-12) beat Oregon State (5-4, 1-2) in a rescheduled contest.
Fresno State 81, Wyoming 61: Orlando Robinson had a career-high 33 points on 12-of-16 shooting plus 13 rebounds as host Fresno State (3-3, 1-3 Mountain West) routed Wyoming (7-2, 1-1).
San Jose State 80, Benedictine 66: Ralph Agee had 18 points and nine rebounds to lead host San Jose State (2-6).
Notable
No. 3 Villanova’s next three games have been postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the program.
The Wildcats (8-1) were scheduled to play today at DePaul, Friday vs. Marquette, and Jan. 13 at Xavier.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski says he won’t be able to coach the No. 21 Blue Devils against B.C. on Wednesday night, but he hopes to coach against Wake Forest on Saturday.
• The Pepperdine men’s and women’s basketball teams will postpone their West Coast Conference games this week.