NCAA Wagner Howard Basketball

Wagner’s Julian Brown, 13, and Melvin Council Jr., left, dive for a loose ball as Howard’s Seth Towns watches during the first half of a First Four game in the men’s NCAA Tournament on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio. Jeff Dean/Associated Press

DAYTON, Ohio — Wagner kicked off March Madness with the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, getting 21 points from Melvin Council Jr. and holding off a late rally by Howard to win 71-68 in the First Four on Tuesday night.

The Northeast Conference champion Seahawks (17-15) advanced as the No. 16 seed in the West Region and will play top seed North Carolina on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Howard trailed by 17 points early in the second half but went on a late 14-2 run, closing within 69-68 on Bryce Harris’ layup with 18 seconds left. After Julian Brown hit a pair of free throws for Wagner, Howard attempted three 3-pointers in the last 6 seconds but missed them all.

Howard’s Dom Campbell of Scarborough had eight rebounds and six points.

Brown finished with 15 points for the Seahawks, who made their only previous NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003 — one year before their second-year coach, Donald Copeland, made the first of his two appearances in the tourney as a player for Seton Hall.

Harris and Seth Towns scored 16 points apiece for Howard (18-16), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion, which was also seeking its first March Madness win. The Bison made it to the tourney for the second straight season under coach Kenny Blakeney, who won a national title as a player for Duke in 1992.

FLORIDA: Center Micah Handlogten, who gruesomely broke his left leg two minutes into the Southeastern Conference championship game on Sunday, will be on hand to watch the Gators in the NCAA Tournament.

Already using crutches while recovering from surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Handlogten will make the four-hour ride from Nashville, Tennessee, to Indianapolis with his parents to watch the seventh-seeded Gators play either Boise State or Colorado on Friday in the opening round of the tournament.
Handlogten’s presence is sure to provide an emotional lift for the Gators (24-11), who are returning to the NCAA tourney for the first time in three years. It’s the program’s first appearance under second-year coach Todd Golden.

NEBRASKA: Coach Fred Hoiberg has received a two-year contract extension through the 2028-29 season and a raise to $4.25 million annually beginning April 1, interim athletic director Dennis Leblanc announced.Hoiberg led the Cornhuskers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014. They are a No. 8 seed and play Texas A&M in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday.

The Huskers (23-10) have their second-most wins in program history, and their third-place finish in the Big Ten was their best conference finish since they tied for second in the Big Eight in 1993.

ALL-AMERICA TEAMS: For the second straight year, Purdue’s Zach Edey is the unanimous headliner for The Associated Press men’s college basketball All-America team.The 7-foot-4, 300-pound senior topped all 62 ballots from AP Top 25 poll voters. The reigning AP national player of the year claimed all 58 votes last year.

Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht and North Carolina’s RJ Davis joined Edey (310 points) in a clear top trio. Knecht (298) was a first-team pick on 56 ballots, Davis (296) on 55 and both appeared among the top 10 players on every ballot.

Houston’s Jamal Shead and Tristen Newton of reigning NCAA champion Connecticut rounded out the first team.

NIL: The NCAA entered into its first NIL licensing deal allowing the use of the March Madness logo to Topps trading cards featuring basketball stars Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Zach Edey and Tristen Newton.
The eight-card packs that went on sale Monday have six base cards, one guaranteed autograph and one guaranteed parallel card. A few lucky fans could get a rare dual autograph card that might have Clark and Edey or the Iowa star and Reese. Those are in one of every 10 packs.
FOOTBALL
JURISPRIDENCE: Clemson sued the Atlantic Coast Conference in a South Carolina court, joining Florida State in challenging the league’s right to charge schools hundreds of millions of dollars to leave.
The complaint filed in Pickens County says the ACC’s “exorbitant $140 million” exit penalty and the grant of rights used to bind schools to a conference through their media rights should be struck down.
“Each of these erroneous assertions separately hinders Clemson’s ability to meaningfully explore its options regarding conference membership, to negotiate alternative revenue-sharing proposals among ACC members and to obtain full value for its future media rights,” the school said in the lawsuit.
Clemson said it has not given notice that it is exiting the ACC and remains a member of the conference.

MEDIA: The College Football Playoff and ESPN announced a $7.8 billion deal that will give the network exclusive rights to the expanded postseason through the 2031 season, with the national championship game moving to ABC starting in 2026.Financial terms were not announced, but as previously reported the new six-year agreement will pay the CFP and participating conferences $1.3 billion annually.

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