NCAA

This weekend, Duke could feel like one of the centers of women’s college basketball. For the first time since 2017, the Blue Devils will host games during the first weekend of the women’s NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, UNC and N.C. State are part of eight ACC teams in the field.

The Blue Devils are North Carolina’s highest-seeded team in this year’s tournament, but they’re joined by 10th-seeded N.C. State, and No. 15 UNC-Asheville.

The NCAA will ask a federal appeals court next month to block a lawsuit that seeks to have athletes treated as employees who are paid for their time, the latest high-profile challenge to amateurism in college sports.

BYU issued the results of its investigation into the Aug. 26 match, reiterating it will not tolerate conduct threatening any student-athlete. As a result of the investigation, the university says it has lifted a ban on a fan who was identified as directing racial slurs toward Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson during the match.

Longtime Davidson coach Bob McKillop is retiring, ending a run that included coaching Steph Curry and ranking among the all-time winningest active coaches in Division I men's college basketball.

East Carolina's baseball team faced Texas in a decisive Game 3 of the NCAA Super Regional on Sunday at Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville. Rain and lightning delays, lasting more than six hours total, pushed the game's finish into Monday morning. But much of the Pirates' fanbase stuck around for the whole thing.

In all, five college baseball teams from North Carolina will be playing in the tournament. Joining the Tar Heels of UNC and the Pirates of ECU are Campbell, Wake Forest and UNC-Greensboro.

Since April 1, 2019, the Tar Heels have only lost two games, both of which were by a single goal each to Boston College in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke will now travel to California, where it will face fifth-seeded UCLA on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday if necessary. The winner of that series will advance to the Women’s College World Series.

Kansas brought its fourth NCAA title back home Monday thanks to a second-half flurry that erased a 16-point deficit and eventually overcame North Carolina 72-69 in an epic battle of power programs.