UNDATED (AP) — UConn's Sarah Strong and USC's JuJu Watkins headline the preseason AP All-America women’s college basketball team. The team, released Thursday, also includes Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes, Texas forward Madison Booker, and Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo. Strong, the reigning AP Player of the Year, earned 30 votes from the 31-member national media panel. Hidalgo and Booker each received 28 votes, Blakes had 27, and Watkins 26. Watkins is returning after an ACL tear in 2025. Strong averaged 18.4 points and 7.7 rebounds last season. Booker and Hidalgo have been honored as preseason picks for three consecutive years.
UNDATED (AP) — Three Big Ten teams in the Top 25 are going on the road this week to face unranked foes. Michigan faces the possibility of a change at starting quarterback as it prepares to host No. 6 Indiana. Michigan is coming off a 21-18 victory over Penn State in which Tommy Carr took over for Bryce Underwood in the second half. Indiana seeks to bounce back a week after Ohio State snapped the Hoosiers' 22-game winning streak. No. 15 Iowa heads to Minnesota and No. 16 Southern California plays at Wisconsin.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan has won 85% of games against Indiana for its highest-winning percentage against a Big Ten team. The Wolverines have won 42 of the last 45 games in the series against Indiana, including 22 straight at home since losing in the pre-Bo Schembechler era nearly six decades ago. On this Saturday, the Hoosiers are favored by seven points against Michigan in the Big House and are expected to win two straight in the series for the first time since 1958-59. Michigan might start Tommy Carr at quarterback a week after benching Bryce Underwood.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Curt Cignetti turned Indiana's 3-9 team into an 11-2 national championship contender in his first season. Bob Chesney is doing something similar at ninth-ranked UCLA, taking a 3-9 team to an undefeated record so far. Pat Fitzgerald is trying to replicate this success at Michigan State. The Spartans are 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the Big Ten. They face UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Bruins quarterback Ty Dieffenbach will make his second start as UCLA goes for its first 7-0 start since 2005. The Bruins are one of only six unbeaten teams remaining in the nation.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Roddy Gayle has been cleared to play a fifth season of college basketball for No. 16 Michigan, according to Wolverines coach Mike Boynton. Boynton says the team's depth got a boost. Gayle is expected to play for the defending champion Wolverines against No. 10 Houston in an exhibition game on Sunday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The 6-foot-5 guard is among a slew of players who have joined lawsuits across the country after the NCAA instituted sweeping changes to its eligibility rules, allowing five years of competition over a five-year period. Gayle has averaged 8.8 points over his 146-game college career.
UNDATED (AP) — Florida's Thomas Haugh and Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. highlight the preseason AP All-America team. Fears received 57 votes from a 58-person media panel and Haugh earned 56. Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner received 43 votes, Illinois forward David Mirkovic had 24 and Arizona big man Motiejus Krivas 17 to round out the team.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Michael Locksley is out as Maryland football coach. The university announced Locksley’s exit Wednesday, four days after the Terrapins lost at home to Rutgers for their fifth straight defeat. Co-defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim takes over as interim coach. Locksley was seven games into his eighth season at the helm. He led the Terps to three straight bowl victories from 2021-23, but since then Maryland is 10-21 in two-plus seasons. Maryland blew a 10-point halftime lead in a 37-30 homecoming loss to Rutgers. Locksley went 38-49 at Maryland, not including a stint as interim coach in 2015.
UNDATED (AP) — Beware, Miami, when Pittsburgh comes to town Saturday. The No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 has lost to unranked opponents two straight weeks. Oklahoma knocked off Texas and then Auburn upset Georgia. Unranked teams are 9-198 against No. 1s since 2000. That's according to Sportradar. The only other year No. 1 teams lost twice to non-Top 25 opponents over that span was 2007. Auburn is one of two schools with two wins over No. 1s as an unranked team since 2000. The other is Texas A&M.
