No. 6 Virginia goes cold, Boston College wins 63-48 In NIL-era first, NCAA gives Miami probation for violation Kermit Davis is out as Ole Miss men’s basketball coach Utah projected as No. 1 seed in women’s NCAA Tournament Michigan trails early, pulls away from Rutgers for 58-45 win Cooke, No. 1 South Carolina women beat Tennessee 73-60

BOSTON. At the end of the second half, Boston College was ahead of Virginia’s No. 6 by double figures, and Conte Forum security personnel huddled in the tunnel near the court to prepare for the onslaught of fans that was almost inevitable.

The crowd knew. The Virginia players knew. Everyone in the building knew that the Eagles were on the cusp of the biggest win in coach Earl Grant’s history.

“I think they felt, ‘God, I think we’re going to get these guys,'” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said after BC beat the cold-blooded Cavaliers 63-48 on Wednesday night to send a sell-out crowd to the site. on holiday.

“As this thing dragged on, you could feel the crowd pulling into it,” said Bennett, whose team scored from the field with a minimum of 32% against the British Columbia defense. “They put us on their heels. For some of our guys it was a lot. We have to learn from this because of what we have.”

Mackay Ashton-Langford scored 16 points and Jayden Zachary scored all 12 points in the second half for British Columbia (14-15, 8-10 Atlantic Coast Conference). It was the Eagles’ third victory over a ranked team this season, but the first over a top 10 team since defeating Duke in 2017.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” said Grant, who is in his second year after moving to Chestnut Hill from Charleston College. “I thought the night was a great challenge. We were excited about this challenge; we were excited going into it. We knew it would be difficult, but we wanted to see who we were.”

Jaden Gardner scored 16 points for Virginia (21-5, 13-4), who finished second with Pittsburgh in the ACC, polygames behind Miami. The Cavaliers, who were No. 2 on the AP Top 25, have won four in a row and 11 of their previous 12 games.

Armaan Franklin, the Cavaliers’ leading scorer, and fellow defenseman Reece Beekman together shot 4-of-18 from the field and missed all six 3-point attempts. Virginia finished 4 out of 21 (19%) from beyond the arc.

The Cavaliers also hit 67% from the free throw line, including Ryan Dunn’s back-to-back misses that earned all 7,000 in attendance a free order of bacon cheese fries.

It was all the support the crowd needed.

And the players ate it too.

“The program is expanding,” Zachary said. “Coming up against ranked teams we feel like it motivates us more because honestly we have nothing to lose at this point. They are the ones that are ranked. We just show up, play our best.”

Virginia led early, before B.C. took the lead midway through the first half, using a 11–2 streak to open a 26–17 lead. At the start of Game 2, the Eagles had 13 points.

Gardner hit the basket midway through the second round to make it 44-37, but Isaac McNeely missed a 3-pointer that could have made the game a 4-pointer. Zachary responded by riding down the lane, rebounding off the defender and rolling him over the hoop before celebrating with a flexion of both arms.

Then, after Kihei Clark missed, Zachary hit a 3-pointer to give BC a 49-37 lead, earning a congratulatory shoulder squeeze from big man Quinten Post. Bennett called a timeout, but the Cavaliers never got close to the single digits again.

BIG PICTURE

Virginia beat Boston College four times in a row and only needed to keep moving up to earn the top spot in the NCAA Tournament. Failure against a team under .500 would be devastating.

Boston College has already beaten Virginia Tech and Clemson this season when they were ranked. The Eagles have not beaten three ranked teams in a season since 2008-09.

NEXT

Virginia: In North Carolina on Saturday.

Boston College: Tuesday at Wake Forest.

CORAL GABLES, Florida. Miami was sentenced to one year of probation on a Friday after school, and the NCAA said women’s basketball coaches inadvertently helped orchestrate inappropriate contact between a booster and two Hurricanes-signed players.

This is the first time the NCAA has announced a penalty related to investigating transactions involving names, images, and likenesses—the NIL, as they’re called.

The NCAA was investigating booster John Ruiz, who signed several Miami-based athletes to NIL deals. Among them are basketball players Hayley and Hannah Cavinder, who moved to Miami after meeting Ruiz, although the Cavinders told the NCAA that the meeting had nothing to do with their decision to play for the Hurricanes.

The NCAA and Miami worked on a “negotiation resolution” to end the saga, but the NCAA wanted the Hurricanes to agree to more sanctions than what was ultimately handed down. booster”. The NCAA said the violation was due to Miami coach Cathy Meyer helping arrange a meeting between Cavinders and Ruiz without knowing he was the sponsor.

“Boosters are interacting with prospects and student-athletes in a way that NCAA members have never seen or encountered,” the NCAA said in a statement. “Thus, combating unacceptable booster behavior is critical, and the disconnection penalty represents an effective punishment available to the (violations committee).”

Meyer will no longer have to miss games; she served a three-game suspension to start the season pending an NCAA ruling.

The NCAA never named Ruiz in its Friday ruling, but referred to an April 13 tweet posted by the booster that included a photo of him and two recruits. On this day, Ruiz posted a photo of himself with the Cavinder twins after dinner at his home.

“These girls decided where to go, no one else did it for them,” Ruiz tweeted Friday.

The Cavinders, who have a huge social media following and several NIL deals, signed the letter of intent about a week after dinner. They are not subject to any sanctions. Both are in their first season with the Hurricanes since moving from Fresno State.

“While the parties have argued that a dissociation penalty would be inappropriate due to inappropriate food intake and inappropriate contact, today’s new NIL-related environment represents a new day,” the NCAA said in a statement.

Meyer said Friday in a statement released by the university that she was “in good faith” running the programs and was a “collaborative partner with the NCAA.”

“Collegiate athletics is undergoing change and any unintentional mistake I made was prior to fully understanding the fences put in place and the clarifications issued by the NCAA in May,” Meyer said.

The NCAA said it opened an investigation in May and interviewed Ruiz in June. But the NCAA can’t order Miami to disassociate itself from Ruiz based on a meeting that took place before last year’s rule change.

“(The Violations Committee) will seriously consider dissociation penalties in future cases involving NIL-related behavior,” the NCAA said.

Miami has agreed to various other minor sanctions, such as a small fine—$5,000 plus 1% of the women’s basketball budget, which the school does not allocate as a private institution—and a small reduction in allowed recruiting.

“The sanctions we ultimately agreed to to end this are not (commensurate with) the violation or its intent,” Miami said in a statement. “Coach Meyer is an outstanding coach, role model, teacher…and we fully support her, her program, and our department’s ongoing efforts to ensure compliance.”

The Cavinders have been the stars of the NIL phenomenon since it became available to college athletes on July 1, 2021. Boost Mobile signed them up immediately, publicizing the move with a giant ad in New York’s Times Square. Many other deals soon followed.

Meyer is Miami’s all-time leader in women’s basketball wins with 338, not counting the three games the Hurricanes have won without her this season — the NCAA says they can’t be on her record. She is a past Associated Press Coach of the Year and a former US Basketball Coach of the Year, and is a member of the Miami Sports Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor at Duke, her alma mater.

OXFORD, Mississippi. Mississippi coach Kermit Davis’ term has come to an end, his team is on a four-game losing streak and is in last place in the Southeastern Conference standings.

Ole Miss Vice-Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Keith Carter said on Friday that the school and Davis “by mutual agreement parted ways immediately.”

Davis has gone 74-79 in five Ole Miss seasons, going 10-18 and 2-13 in SEC games.

“We thank Coach Davis for his dedication to the Ole Miss basketball program and our student athletes,” Carter said in a statement. “No one wanted to bring the title home to Mississippi more than him, and we appreciate the passion he shared with our team every day for that goal.”

Assistant head coach Vin Case will take over as head coach until the end of the season.

Davis began his Ole Miss tenure by leading the Rebels to a 20–13 record and an NCAA Tournament spot in the 2018–19 season and earning the SEC Coach of the Year award. Ole Miss made it to NIT in 2021.

Prior to Ole Miss, Davis worked at Middle Tennessee State and is still his top coach to this day.

His Division I career record as a head coach is 477-316 and he has led Ole Miss, MTSU and Idaho to NCAA Tournament places.

“My family and I are very grateful to have been able to host the Ole Miss men’s basketball program for the past five years,” Davis said, calling Oxford “a special place to live and work.”

Carter said a national search had begun.

“As we have seen in the past, Ole Miss basketball has the ability to compete and win championships, and we are determined to find the right leader to help us reach our greatest potential,” he said. “Over the past 15 years, we have invested as much in sports as any school in the country.

“It’s a commitment, a passion for Rebel Nation and…