Ncaa Tournament

For any parent, it's the dreaded phone call. "My son never calls at 7 in the morning," says Mychal Thompson . "When I saw his number, right away I was saying to myself, uh-oh, and I hope nobody is hurt. "I answered, 'What's wrong?' Not hello, good morning, just 'What's wrong?'" Thompson is a former Laker, a broadcaster for the team and a father of three boys off on their own. "That's how I heard about it; Klay called," he says. Klay is his middle child and the leading scorer in the Pac-10 while playing for Washington State.

UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad announced Tuesday that he will enter the NBA draft. Muhammad has been expected to declare for the draft. He needed to drop his classes by April 19 or he would have been given an incomplete, which would have counted against UCLA's academic progress rate. While he attended Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, Muhammad was considered among the top two high school players in the nation. He spent one hectic season in Westwood. IN-DEPTH: UCLA star's father mapped out a dream The NCAA held up his eligibility, forcing Muhammad to miss the first three games of the season.

The Kentucky Wildcats withstood a late second-half rally by the Kansas Jayhawks to capture the program's eight NCAA championship with a 67-59 victory on Monday night at the Superdome in New Orleans. Kansas, which trailed by double digits for much of the game, had a chance to cut the lead to three points when guard Elijah Johnson elevated for a three-pointer. But a Kentucky defender forced him to pull the shot down, causing him to travel with 23.5 seconds left and Kentucky leading, 65-59.

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is coming home. The Los Angeles Locke High alum who played on two NCAA championship teams at USC and competed in the WNBA was hired as USC's women's basketball coach, the school announced Thursday. Cooper-Dyke, who coached last season at Texas Southern, replaces Michael Cooper, whose USC team finished 11-20 last season. "If you were to ask me what my dream job was at any point in my coaching career, I would always have said my dream is to come back and lead the USC women's basketball team," Cooper-Dyke said in a statement.

  Remember the kite-eating tree in "Peanuts"? You know, the tree that Charlie Brown's kite landed in no matter where he started? Well, we finally have a sports corollary: Sergio Garcia and the golf-ball-eating tree. Garcia was playing in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla., when he hit hit his ball into a tree on the 10th fairway. Most golfers would take the penalty and re-hit, but not Garcia. He climbed the tree and played the ball, hitting it backward and one-handed back to the middle of the fairway as the shocked crowd cheered.

LEXINGTON, Ky. --- Sorry, Bucknell. This year's Butler is still Butler. Andrew Smith had a double-double with a career-high 16 rebounds and 14 points, and Butler made 18 of 20 free throws down the stretch to hold off upset-minded Bucknell 68-56 in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday. Roosevelt Jones added 14 points for the sixth-seeded Bulldogs, back in the tournament for the first time since making back-to-back runs to the national title game. Leading scorer Rotnei Clarke was just 5-of-14.

March Madness indeed! Live coverage of the opening week of the 2013 NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament has scored the event's highest ratings in 23 years, according to Nielsen metered market reports. CBS Sports and Turner Sports teamed up for the coverage, which has aired on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. Sunday's third-round coverage averaged a overnight rating share of 7.6/15, the highest rating for the first Sunday of the NCAA tournament in 20 years. ALSO: Big changes in 'The Game's' playbook 'The Walking Dead' recap: Merle goes for a ride Kristen Stewart, Selena Gomez win Kids' Choice Awards PHOTOS, VIDEOS & MORE: PHOTOS: Behind the scenes of 'Downton Abbey' VIDEO: Winter TV preview PHOTOS: Violence in TV shows    

SALT LAKE CITY -- Was this the day a No. 16-seeded team finally defeated a No. 1 in the NCAA tournament? No, but the final word on it was "whew. " Top-ranked Gonzaga had to dig deep and hold on tight until the end to defeat Southern University, 64-58, at EnergySolutions Arena. PHOTOS: 2013 NCAA tournament Gonzaga, the No. 1 team in the nation and the top-seeded team in the West Regional, earned a Saturday match against Wichita State. The winner of that game advances to next week's regional finals at Staples Center.

ABC's telecast of the World Figure Skating Championships on Thursday night drew a bigger audience than CBS' coverage of the tournament. ABC said the figure skating earned a 10.1 rating and 16 share. The basketball tournament drew an 8.8 rating and 14 share during the same time period, according to ABC.

UCLA will play Minnesota on Friday in Austin, Texas, in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Bruins (25-9), who finished second in the Pac-12 Conference tournament, are the sixth-seeded team in the South Regional. If UCLA beats the Gophers (20-12), it would play the winner of third-seeded Florida and No. 14 Northwestern State in the third round. The Sweet 16 in the South Regional will be held in Arlington, Texas. The Bruins have a 5-1 record against Minnesota. The Gophers have four players averaging double figures, led by guard Andre Hill at 13.9 points.

Louisville, the No 1 seeded team in the NCAA tournament, is now national champion. The Cardinals defeated Michigan, 82-76, Monday night at the Georgia Dome as guard Peyton Siva took over in the second half. Siva scored 18 points -- 14 in the second half -- and also had six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Luke Hancock led Louisville in scoring with a career-high 22 points after scoring 21 against Wichita State in a semifinal on Saturday. Hancock had 16 in the first half to help rally the Cardinals from an early 12-point deficit.

LOUISVILLE Starters P; Player; Ht.; WTt; Stats F; Wayne Blackshear; 6-5 230; 7.6 ppg F; Chane Behanan;6-6; 250; 9.6 ppg C: Gorgui Dieng;6-11; 245; 9.4 rpg G: Russ Smith;6-1; 165;18.9 ppg G: Peyton Siva;6-0 185;9.8 ppg Reserves F; Luke Hancock;6-6; 200; 7.7 ppg F: Tim Henderson;6-2;195; 0.8 ppg MICHIGAN Starters P; Player; Ht.; Wt.; States F; Glenn Robinson III;6-6;210; 10.9...

Breanna Stewart put on quite a show to help Connecticut finally vanquish Notre Dame. The stellar freshman scored a career-high 29 points to go with four blocks, leading the Huskies to the women's national championship game with an 83-65 win over Notre Dame on Sunday night at New Orleans. The Huskies will face Louisville in the championship game Tuesday night in an all-Big East final after the Cardinals rallied to beat California, 64-57, in the other NCAA semifinal. Connecticut will be going for its eighth national championship to match Tennessee for the most in women's basketball.

ATLANTA -- When Kevin Ware's leg snapped unnaturally and horrifically in front of Louisville's bench less than a week ago, players collapsed on the court, turned away in horror and some cried. Except Luke Hancock. The junior forward knelt by Ware's side, praying over him, saying later that he didn't want Ware to feel alone. As calm as he was in the face of horror in the Elite Eight, he was just as poised Saturday night in the Georgia Dome as Louisville faced a Final Four collapse.

WICHITA STATE Starters P; Player; Ht; Wt; Statistics G; Ron Baker; 6-3; 218; 8.6 ppg F; Cleanthony Early; 6-8; 215; 13.7 ppg F; Carl Hall; 6-8; 238; 6.9 rpg G; Tekele Cotton; 6-4; 202; 6.4 ppg G; Malcolm Armstead; 6-0; 205; 10.9 ppg Reserves C; Ehimen Orukpe; 7-0; 250; 2.7 ppg F; Fred VanVleet; 5-11; 190; 4.3 ppg LOUISVILLE Starters P; Player; Ht.; Wt.; Statistics ...

SYRACUSE Starters P; Ht.; Wt.; Statistics F; C.J. Fair; 6-6; 215; 14.3 ppg F; James Southerland; 6-8; 215; 13.5 ppg C; Rakeem Christmas; 6-9; 242; 4.6 rpg G; Brandon Triche; 6-4; 210; 13.7 ppg G; Michael Carter-Williams; 6-6; 185; 12.1 ppg Reserves DeJuan Coleman; 6-9; 288; 8.9 ppg Baye Moussa Keita; 6-10; 215; 3.7 ppg MICHIGAN Starters P; Ht.; Wt.; Statistics F;...

The red-colored and red-hot Louisville Cardinals earned the No. 1 overall seeding for this year's NCAA tournament. Rick Pitino's Big East Conference tournament championship team got the top spot in the Midwest Region and will open play Thursday in nearby Lexington, Ky. Louisville faces the winner of the first-round “play-in” game between North Carolina A&T and Liberty. The other No. 1 seedings were Kansas (South), Indiana (East) and Gonzaga (West). Gonzaga opens play Thursday in Salt Lake City against Southern.

Dennis Latta, the editor of Loboland.com, took 10 th -ranked New Mexico's loss to Harvard hard. He announced he will quit after 33 years covering the team. Latta made his announcement on Loboland.com , beginning a long rant with, “I really thought that the University of New Mexico finally had a men's basketball team that earned the loyalty of their fans. I was wrong.” Good thing Latta wasn't on the beat 35 years ago. The fourth-ranked Lobos, led by Michael Cooper, were poised for an easy run to the 1978 Final Four, with the West Regional held in Albuquerque.

The NCAA tournament, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is desperately hoping to get to this weekend's Final Four before another scandal breaks. The odds right now in Las Vegas, where the Pac-12 Conference recently held its postseason championship, stand at about 50-50. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have been public relations disaster days for a control-freak NCAA that micromanages the tournament down to the kind of drinking cups (NCAA logo only) that can be carried to press row. Three events spread out over three days have undermined the soft, piano music backdrop the NCAA so carefully crafts for the Final Four.

Years before he was an assistant coach for the Lakers, Darvin Ham played for Texas Tech.  In 1996 in the NCAA tournament, he threw down a tremendous put-back dunk against the University of North Carolina, shattering the backboard. Who neglected to box him out?  None other than current Lakers forward Antawn Jamison. Ham and the Red Raiders knocked Jamison's Tar Heels out of the tournament. Both share their memories with Time Warner Cable SportsNet on Wednesday night at 5 in the latest episode of "Backstage: Lakers.