KIM MULKEY

Former Baylor coach Kim Mulkey declined to answer questions about Brittney Griner's detention in Russia on Monday while current coach Nicki Collen spoke in detail about her thoughts.

Rylan Bannon became just the third Baltimore player since 2000 to get a hit on the first pitch of his big league career, Jorge Mateo and Anthony Bemboom homered and the Orioles beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2.

Kim Mulkey is The Associated Press women's basketball Coach of the Year in her first season at LSU.

Hannah Sjerven scored 16 points and Chloe Lamb had 15 as the 10th-seeded South Dakota women beat Baylor 61-47 to advance to their first Sweet 16.

LSU has moved into the top 10 of The Associated Press women's basketball poll for the first time in 13 years.

The Michigan women's basketball team is now ranked sixth in The Associated Press Top 25.

South Carolina remains the No. 1 team in The Associated Press women’s college basketball poll despite its first loss of the season.

Tennessee is back in the top 10 of the women’s AP Top 25 for the first time in nearly three years.

With six top-25 teams among the state's men's and women's programs, there's never been a better time to be a basketball fan in Texas.

The Associated Press preseason women's All-America team is out and Paige Bueckers of UConn is a unanimous choice.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has received a seven-year contract worth $22.4 million.

After Kim Mulkey announced she was leaving the Baylor program to head to LSU, Reagan junior Samantha Wagner made the difficult decision to reopen her college recruitment. The Rattler star had been committed to play for the Bears since she was in 8th grade as a result of her friendship with Mulkey, and has not yet determined where she'll play in the future.

Kobe Bryant is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame now, along with contemporaries Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, headliners of a group of nine who got their delayed and long-awaited enshrinement on Saturday night, more than a year after being announced as the Hall’s Class of 2020.

Vanessa Bryant got a private tour to see some of the newly remodeled Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday, viewing the exhibit that will honor the life and legacy of her late husband before the rest of the world gets their first look.

Kobe.

Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey’s introduction at LSU had an overriding theme that echoed constantly under the domed roof of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

After 21 years in Waco, the coach who led Baylor to three NCAA titles is headed to her home state of Louisiana to take over at LSU.

Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey has left Baylor to return home and take over the LSU women’s basketball team.

Michael Jordan will present Kobe Bryant for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame next month.

Haley Jones scored 17 points and Stanford beat Arizona 54-53, giving the Cardinal and coach Tara VanDerveer their first national championship in 29 years.

(AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)SAN ANTONIO – Maryland coach Brenda Frese was honored as The Associated Press women's basketball coach of the year Wednesday for the second time in her career. Frese received eight votes from the 30-member national media panel that votes on the weekly AP Top 25. Obviously its going to be one I never forget,” said Frese, who also was AP coach of the year 19 years ago when she was at Minnesota. When Maryland won the Big Ten Tournament, Frese's father and mother, Donna, were in the stands in Indianapolis. “It's a memory I’ll cherish for a lifetime.”___More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/Womenscollegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

As of Saturday, there had been two confirmed positive tests at the women’s tournament with over 15,400 administered. The last positive result among the players, coaches and others working at the tournament was reported on March 22 from daily antigen testing. Six conference teams qualified for the women’s tournament: Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona, Washington State and UCLA. Night in and night out in the Pac-12, we’re playing teams like Stanford, UCLA, great teams, Oregon State, Oregon. FINAL FOUR MEMORIESTara VanDerveer remembers very well the feeling of finally coaching Stanford to the Cardinal’s first Final Four berth.

Bueckers scored 28 points and top seed UConn used a huge run spanning the final two quarters to beat No. 2 Baylor 69-67 on Monday night and reach a 13th consecutive Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament. After a timeout, Baylor fouled Christyn Williams, who missed both free throws to give the Lady Bears one last chance. The Lady Bears (28-3) had won the previous two, including a 74-58 win at Connecticut in January of 2020. The Lady Bears closed the action-packed first quarter with a 20-10 run and trailed 26-24 after one.

As of Saturday, there had been two confirmed positive tests at the women's tournament with over 15,400 administered. The last positive result among the players, coaches and others working at the tournament was reported on March 22 from daily antigen testing. Six conference teams qualified for the women’s tournament: Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona, Washington State and UCLA. And it’s led to some mutual support: Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer has been texting Oregon State men’s coach Wayne Tinkle, among others. Night in and night out in the Pac-12, we’re playing teams like Stanford, UCLA, great teams, Oregon State, Oregon.

... Oregon State opponents are shooting just 31.3% overall and 23.1% from 3-point range in the NCAA Tournament. That Missouri squad lost a regional final to an Oklahoma team coached by Kelvin Sampson, who’s now at Houston. … Arkansas is in a regional final for the first time since 1995, when it lost to UCLA in the championship game. … Arkansas’ Justin Smith is averaging 20.3 points and 11 rebounds in three NCAA Tournament games. Arizona and Indiana are both in an NCAA regional final for the first time.

She gave Baylor a 76-73 lead with a foul shot with 19 seconds left, and then fired a quick pass to Moon Ursin for a wide-open layup. Leigha Brown scored 23 points, helping Michigan push Baylor into the first overtime game in the Sweet 16 since Tennessee’s victory over Gonzaga in 2015. Brown's layup got Michigan within one with 17 seconds left. Hillmon tied it at 63 with 15 seconds left, converting a lob pass from Hailey Brown that barely floated over the arms of a Baylor defender. Ursin then missed short on a shot to win with 3 seconds left, sending the game into overtime.

The freshman guard has lived up to it so far, delivering record-breaking performances and earning a spot on The Associated Press women's basketball All-American team Wednesday. She's only the third freshman to make the AP team, joining Oklahoma's Courtney Paris and UConn's Maya Moore. “Name one player that has taken a team this young to where we are today," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. She became the school's first women's basketball All-American last season. She was joined by Naz Hillmon, who is the first women's player at Michigan to earn All-America honors.

6 Baylor beat West Virginia 76-50 to win the Big 12 Tournament on Sunday. It is the ninth Big 12 Championship in the last 10 tournaments for top-seeded Baylor (25-2). Dijonai Carrington added 14 and Moon Ursin had 12 points and 10 rebounds as the Lady Bears won their 17th straight game. “We didn’t shoot the ball well and took a lot of bad shots,” West Virginia coach Mike Carey said. AdThe Lady Bears dominated in the paint outrebounding West Virginia 46-33 and scoring 54 points in the paint.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley confers with forward Aliyah Boston on the sideline during the second half of the team's NCAA college basketball game against Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss., Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. 1 in The Associated Press women's college basketball poll. South Carolina, which originally fell from the top spot after losing to North Carolina State, beat the Huskies last season for the first time in eight tries. Here are other tidbits from the poll:MILESTONEMonday marked the 800th women's college basketball poll in the AP's history. Ad___More AP women's college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

“And those players that don’t want to play, don’t have to play,” he said. “And those coaches that don’t want to coach, don’t have to coach. “The NCAA has to have the almighty dollar from the men’s tournament," she said. “Maybe it’s easy if you’re at a Power Five football school and you’re making millions and millions and millions of dollars,” Auriemma said. ___More AP women’s basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

UConn has two more chances to play nonconference ranked teams, with Tennessee and South Carolina on the schedule. Conversely on the men's side, a majority of the current Top 25 have played at least one ranked nonconference opponent. The lack of marquee nonconference matchups could cause the NCAA women’s basketball selection committee some agita when trying to figure out who deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament and where teams should be seeded. We’ll have lively discussions.”Longtime ESPN and CBS analyst Deb Antonelli was sad that so many women's basketball games have been canceled or postponed. “COVID is COVID and we don’t want to penalize a team for the uncontrollable.”___More AP women’s basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

3 UConn after Lady Bears coach Kim Mulkey tested positive for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:___Browns coach Kevin Stefanski expects to be back with his team this week after missing Sunday night’s playoff win over Pittsburgh with COVID-19. Stefanski tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week and had to watch Cleveland’s 48-37 victory over the Steelers from his home’s basement. ___The Baylor women’s basketball team has had another game postponed because of COVID-19 issues. Coach Kim Mulkey missed that game after being exposed at Christmas to a family member who tested positive for the virus.

(Stu Forster/Pool via AP)The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:___The seventh-ranked Arizona women’s basketball game at Washington scheduled for Friday has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Huskies program. ___The Patriot League men’s basketball games between American and Lehigh scheduled for Saturday and Sunday have been postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test within the American men’s basketball program’s Tier 1 personnel. 3 UConn women's basketball team has had another game postponed because of coronavirus-related issues. The switch gives St. Pete promoters hope that more spectators will be permitted to attend the popular street festival as pandemic restrictions loosen. That move opened room on the schedule for St. Pete to request a later race date.

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey is shown during the second half of an NCAA women's college basketball game against South Florida Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020, in Tampa, Fla. No. 3 UConn after Lady Bears coach Kim Mulkey tested positive for COVID-19. 3 UConn after Lady Bears coach Kim Mulkey tested positive for COVID-19. Baylor said it began restricting team activities after Mulkey tested positive on Monday, the same day she had been planning to rejoin the team. Auriemma said he and Louisville coach Jeff Walz have talked the last couple of weeks about finding a time to play each other.

Oregon State lost its lone game last week, falling to Washington State and dropping out of the poll from No. 1 for the third consecutive week. Louisville, UConn, North Carolina State and South Carolina followed the Cardinal again in the poll. Michigan State replaced Oregon State in the poll, coming in at No. South Carolina (157), Mississippi State (120) and Louisville (93) are the only other teams that had longer active streaks than Oregon State's.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma wasn't surprised that the NCAA women's basketball tournament will be played in one geographical area. The NCAA announced Monday that San Antonio is the likely host site for the 64-team tournament next March. “We don’t have an answer for that today.”This won’t be the first time a women’s tournament will be played at one site. From 1972-1977, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women played a 16-team postseason tournament at one site. The NCAA Tournament was first played in 1982.

The NCAA announced Monday that San Antonio is the likely host site for the 64-team tournament next March. The NCAA expects the tournament to be played in late March and early April as usual, though there is a chance it could be shorter. “We don’t have an answer for that today.”This won’t be the first time a women’s tournament will be played at one site. From 1972-1977, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women played a 16-team postseason tournament at one site. The NCAA Tournament was first played in 1982.

illustration by Gabrielle RodriguezIn September of 2018, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that the 2021 Women’s Final Four would be held in San Antonio. The event hosts —The University of Incarnate Word, University of Texas at San Antonio, and San Antonio Sports—immediately set out to break the all-time women’s basketball attendance record and empower girls in the San Antonio area. Moderated by Aditi Kinkhabwala, National Correspondent for the NFL Network, the panel had something for everybody, whether fan, coach, or player. After the discussion with Condrat and Sharp, a group of Girl Scouts from the San Antonio community recited the Girl Scout Law. Still, by highlighting these similarities in values, it is clear why San Antonio Sports dedicated themselves to bringing Girl Scouts to the game.

The NCAA Division I Council on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, approved a plan to allow college basketball players to start working with their coaches for the first time since the pandemic wiped out March Madness. The summer access period for men's and women's players will begin July 20. The summer access period for men's and women's players will begin July 20. The NCAA basketball tournaments were cancelled days before the fields were scheduled to be selected because of the coronavirus outbreak. It will also consider adding more activities for basketball players during the July 1-19 period.

FILE - In this April 13, 2016, file photo, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant smiles during the first half of his last NBA basketball game, against the Utah Jazz in Los Angeles. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the reopening has been pushed back two months to July 1 and the induction ceremony is being postponed, either to October or the spring. Complicating the potential possibility of a spring 2021 induction: The Hall doesnt know what the NBA and college basketball seasons will look like then. Doleva said the Hall decided against inducting Bryant alone and gave no thought to having a separate ceremony for him. Theyre all Hall of Famers, and all Hall of Famers are equal in the eyes of the museum.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

CHICAGO – Considered by many as the best power forward of all time, Spurs great Tim Duncan is now one step closer to induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The eight finalists for the Class of 2020 election were announced today at NBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago. “He’s the greatest Spur of all time,” said George ‘Iceman’ Gervin, a 1996 Hall of Fame inductee. “He’s one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Gervin, an NBA legend and one of the Spurs’ all-time greats himself, is thrilled Duncan will soon join the Hall of Fame.