The University of Maine men’s basketball team will be one of four teams participating in the Basketball Hall of Fame London Showcase next season in England.
The Black Bears will play Marist College on Dec. 4 in the first college basketball game at the O2 Arena located on a peninsula in the Greenwich section of London near the River Thames.
Kentucky and Michigan will complete the doubleheader.
(24) IOWA 82, NORTHWESTERN 61: Keegan Murray had 26 points and 18 rebounds, and Jordan Bohannon added 18 points in his final home game as Iowa (21-8, 11-7 Big Ten) defeated Northwestern (13-15, 6-13).
It was the eighth double-double of the season for Murray, who came into the game ranked fourth nationally in scoring at 23.2 points per game.
Bohannon, the Big Ten’s all-time leader in 3-pointers and Iowa’s career leader in assists, had four 3-pointers. Bohannon, playing his sixth season with the Hawkeyes, leaned down and kissed the center-court logo when he came out of the game for the last time with three minutes to play.
POLL: The top six and seven of the top nine teams in the AP Top 25 lost on the same day last week, an unprecedented day of chaos that led to some big changes in this week’s poll – everywhere but at the top.
Gonzaga and Arizona remained the top two teams, holding steady despite both losing their most recent games.
The Zags received 43 first-place votes from the AP’s 61-person media panel after being a unanimous pick last week. No. 3 Baylor had four first-place votes and No. 4 Duke picked up 11. Auburn rounded out the top five.
Gonzaga, Arizona, Auburn, Purdue, Kansas and Kentucky all lost on Saturday, marking the first time in the AP poll era (1948-49) that the top six teams lost on the same day. No. 9 Texas Tech also lost, setting another record for most top-10 teams losing in one day.
Baylor was the biggest beneficiary of its Saturday win, moving up seven spots after beating Kansas 80-70. The Jayhawks fell one spot to No. 6 with the loss.
Auburn lost three spots from last week after losing to No. 13 Tennessee. No. 7 Kentucky fell a spot after losing to No. 14 Arkansas and Purdue dropped four places to No. 8 with its loss to Michigan State.
FOOTBALL
GRAMBLING: Art Briles is out as Grambling State’s offensive coordinator, less than one week after the disgraced former Baylor coach was surprisingly hired.
Briles has been a pariah in college football since 2016, when he was fired by Baylor after an investigation concluded he and his staff took no action against players named in sexual assault allegations.
In a statement Monday, Briles told Grambling: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of your coaching staff at Grambling State University. Unfortunately, I feel that my continued presence will be a distraction to you and your team, which is the last thing that I want. I have the utmost respect (for) the university, and your players.”
ESPN first reported that Briles would not coach at Grambling. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Grambling asked Briles to resign or the coach did so on his own.
The baggage surrounding Briles was well-known, but that didn’t stop Grambling Coach Hue Jackson from making the hire last week. The 66-year-old Briles coached briefly in Italy and then at a Texas high school in Mount Vernon since he was dismissed from Baylor.
Grambling’s decision received renewed attention on Monday when a three-day old social media statement from the Hue Jackson Foundation gained traction. It was the latest in an avalanche of criticism over the past five days for the prominent HBCU in northern Louisiana.
The statement – which was confirmed accurate by the foundation’s executive director Kimberly Diemert – said “we believe that through the hiring of Coach Briles and the well-developed programs we have in place, this hire will be instrumental in teaching others teaching others the importance of knowing how to prevent victimization, proper reporting procedures, provide adequate resources to individuals who have been victimized and develop strong law enforcement partnerships within the community.”
Former Grambling quarterback Doug Williams – who was the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl with Washington in 1988 – was one of many who voiced his displeasure with the school’s decision to hire Briles in the first place. The NFL executive with the Washington Commanders said the foundation’s statement didn’t sway his opinion.
“I don’t know what you get from that statement,” Williams told the AP on Monday. “I don’t think anything needs to be added. Everybody knows what I think about it. I’m not going to change.”
In the Baylor case, the NCAA infractions panel stated that Briles “failed to meet even the most basic expectations of how a person should react to the kind of conduct at issue in this case. Furthermore, as a campus leader, the head coach is held to an even higher standard. He completely failed to meet this standard.”
Baylor paid Briles more than $15 million after firing him. He later acknowledged making mistakes and apologized for “some bad things” that happened under his watch.
This isn’t the first time a coach has attempted to hire Briles since 2016. Southern Miss Coach Jay Hopson attempted to hire Briles as the program’s offensive coordinator in 2019, though university administration eventually vetoed Hopson’s wishes.
Briles was considered one of the top offensive coaches in the country when he led Baylor from 2008-15, leading the program to a 65-37 record. His spread offense kept the Bears regularly ranked in the AP Top 25 and the program had four 10-win seasons in a five-year span from 2011-15.
Jackson is the former head coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
(5) BAYLOR 87, (8) IOWA STATE 62: NaLyssa Smith scored 28 points and grabbed 20 rebounds as visiting Baylor (24-5, 14-3 Big 12) clinched at least a share of its 12th consecutive Big 12 regular-season title by beating Iowa State (24-5, 13-4).
Smith was the catalyst as the Bears seized control in the second quarter and cruised to their ninth straight win.
Jordan Lewis contributed 23 points for Baylor as the Bears completed a season sweep of the Cyclones.
Ashley Joens led Iowa State with 19 points, hitting 11 of 12 free-throw attempts but shooting 4 of 19 from the floor.
FLORIDA: No. 23 Florida removed the interim tag from Kelly Rae Finley’s title and gave her a five-year contract to be the team’s head coach.
Athletic Director Scott Stricklin announced the decision in front of the team, a move that was received with applause and group hugs.
The 36-year-old Finley took over in July when Cam Newbauer resigned amid allegations that he physically and verbally abused players.
The Gators (20-9, 10-6 Southeastern Conference) regrouped under Finley’s guidance and caught fire in early January, moving into the AP Top 25 for the first time in more than five years while winning 10 of 11 games. The hot streak included wins against five ranked teams: at Texas A&M, at Kentucky, against LSU, against Tennessee and at Georgia.
Florida has since cooled, losing three straight to end the regular season after reaching No. 15 in the poll. The Gators, who once looked like they might get the No. 2 seed in the this week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville, fell to the fifth seed and will open play Thursday against either Vanderbilt or the Aggies.
AP POLL: Iowa had a huge week and jumped up nine spots to No. 12.
The Hawkeyes won a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship by beating then-No. 10 Indiana, Rutgers and No. 6 Michigan last week. It’s Iowa’s first regular-season crown since 2008.
South Carolina remained the unanimous No. 1, receiving all 30 first-place ballots from a national media panel. The Gamecocks, who have been in the top spot since the preseason AP poll, will be the top seed when the SEC Tournament begins later this week. South Carolina (28-1) beat Texas A&M and Mississippi to wrap up the conference regular-season title.
The top five teams were unchanged, with No. 2 Stanford followed by N.C. State, Louisville and Baylor. LSU, UConn, Iowa State, Texas and Michigan round out the top 10 teams.
NOTES
MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi extended the contract of vice chancellor for intercollegiate athletics Keith Carter with a four-year deal worth $1.1 million annually.
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