Arizona basketball popular March Madness NCAA Tournament winner pick

Published

3 months ago

March 15, 2026

Arizona basketball popular March Madness NCAA Tournament winner pick

The Arizona Wildcats may not be the favorite to win the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament, but that isn’t going to stop a lot of people from picking Tommy Lloyd’s team to win March Madness.

The Big 12 champions got some early support during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS, when two out of three analysts selected the No. 1 seed in the West Region to win the NCAA Tournament.

Seth Davis predicted an Arizona win over Duke, the No. 1 seed in the East, in the national title game.

Bruce Pearl predicted an Arizona win over Florida, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, for the national championship.

Only Kenny Smith had a different idea. He predicted Purdue to defeat Florida for the NCAA title. The Boilermakers are the No. 2 seed in the West Region, behind Arizona.

Join the madness: USA TODAY Bracket Challenge | Survivor Pool

Final Four, national championship picks:

Kenny Smith: Duke, Purdue, Florida, Virginia

Purdue over Florida for NCAA title

Seth Davis: Duke, Arizona, Houston, Michigan

Arizona over Duke for title

Bruce Pearl: St. John’s, Arizona, Florida, Michigan

Arizona over Florida for championship

National championship odds

Early odds from DraftKings Sportsbook have Duke (+330), Michigan (+350), Arizona (+400) and Florida (+700) as the March Madness favorites.

Purdue is at +3500, while Virginia is at +6000, Houston is at +1000. St. John’s is at +5000.

Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today. Sign up for azcentral Preps Now. And be sure to subscribe to our daily sports newsletters so you don’t miss a thing.

Source link

Click to comment

Arizona lake closes indefinitely to visitors after all of its fish die

Published

7 hours ago

June 8, 2026

Press Room

Arizona lake closes indefinitely to visitors after all of its fish die

Arizona officials have indefinitely closed a popular lake to visitors after its entire population of fish died recently.

The recreation and wildlife department that maintains San Carlos Lake said in a Facebook statement on Friday that drought conditions as well as water released from a dam there “resulted in a major fish kill affecting approximately 100% of the fish population”.

According to the statement, decomposing fish pose health hazards to people who try to fish or swim in the human-made reservoir. Officials therefore said they would not allow fishing, harvesting or possessing fish, or any associated activities at San Carlos Lake, “until further notice”.

The San Carlos recreation and wildlife department added that it would “continue to monitor conditions and provide updates as they become available.

“We ask all visitors to respect the closure and avoid the affected area for their safety.”

Video footage and images provided to the Arizona news outlet KSAZ showed the lake’s surface covered with floating fish carcasses.

The Arizona news website AZFamily.com reports that San Carlos Lake counts on 158 miles (255km) of shoreline and boasts state records for largemouth bass, black crappie, bluegill, channel catfish and flathead fish. Officials are also known to stock it year-round with brown trout and rainbow trout, according to the outlet.

Formed by the Coolidge dam along the Gila River, the lake is within the San Carlos Apache tribal lands, according to Arizona’s state tourism office.

It is about 125 miles from Phoenix.

An X user identifying himself as a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe said tribal officials had lifted restrictions on the number of fish that could be kept by fishers in anticipation of lower water levels that were expected.

Under the lake closure announcement on Facebook, wone user lamented that the body of water had been “full almost three years ago”. “This is so heartbreaking!” they said.

A separate commenter said: “So sad. Lots of memories on that lake.”

Source link

Arizona

Arizona teen drowns while paddleboarding in Utah

Published

18 hours ago

June 7, 2026

Press Room

Arizona teen drowns while paddleboarding in Utah

GARDEN CITY, UT (AZFamily) — An Arizona teen drowned while paddleboarding at a lake in Utah, according to officials with the Utah Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division.

Officials responded to Ideal Beach on Bear Lake on Saturday for reports of a drowning and found that the 17-year-old had become separated from his paddleboard and was not wearing a life jacket.

First responders pulled the teen from the lake and gave life-saving measures, but he did not survive, officials said.

“This is a tragic and unfortunate circumstance. The Utah Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division extends condolences to family and friends,” the department said in a statement.

The teen was not identified. The drowning is under investigation.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Source link

Arizona

Arizona Republic’s 2026 spring high school players of the year

Published

1 day ago

June 7, 2026

Press Room

Arizona Republic’s 2026 spring high school players of the year

Here are The Arizona Republic’s high school players of the year for the spring 2026 Arizona Interscholastic Association season. The players were selected by the Republic sports staff based on coaches’ input along with performances during the season and AIA statistics. All of them were included as part of The Republic’s All-Arizona teams for each sport that were presented over the previous week. Sports on this list are listed alphabetically.

Baseball

Kellan Tom, Tempe Corona del Sol, 1B/RHP, Sr.

The Arizona State commit was voted the AIA 6A Conference Player of the Year by the coaches. He became the ace of the pitching staff, leading the Aztecs to the state final with a 7-2 record. He hit .440 with 10 doubles, 10 home runs and 43 RBIs.

Beach volleyball

Vivian Hickman, Sr., and Kate MacDonald, Sr., Xavier Prep

We select two players in this category since beach is a pairs game. MacDonald and Hickman won the Division I pairs championship. MacDonald, who committed to Boise State, finished runner-up in 2024 and 2025 while teamed with different partners. This year, she clicked with Hickman, who competed in her freshman year, but then stepped away for two seasons while focusing on indoor volleyball. Hickman, a UCLA commit, was part of the Gators’ fall indoor volleyball championship teams in 2024 and ’25 before returning to beach this spring.

Boys volleyball

Tommy Henige, Gilbert Perry, MH, Jr.

Biggest force in the state and one of the greatest impact players in the nation, the 6-foot-9 UCLA commit helped lead the Pumas to a second straight 6A championship with a dominating performance against Mesa Mountain View. He crushed every ball near him. Henige, who comes from a family of volleyball players, competed in the USA Volleyball Boys U19 National Team that competed in the world championships last summer.

Softball

Tanner Banks, Mohave Accelerated, C, Sr.

She ended up the state’s all-time record holder at any level for home runs (70), RBIs (303) and doubles (77). The Boise State commit played on baseball teams until she was 12, before staying with softball full-time. This season, she led the 2A team with a .710 batting average, 21 home runs, 20 doubles and 82 RBIs.

Tennis

Boys: Vikram Narendran, Tucson Rincon/University, Sr.

Narendran won his third straight Division I state singles championship, entering the bracket as the No. 1 seed and becoming one of six players in state history to win three straight singles titles.

Girls: Japneet Kaur, Boulder Creek, Jr.

Kaur, the No. 1 seed, defeated her teammate and No. 2 seed Michelle Bullock for the D-I title for second title in the past three years. She also won in 2024 and finished runner-up in 2025 to Bullock.

Track and Field

Boys: Ryder Hall, Snowflake, Sr.

The state’s definitive best jumper. The future decathlete at BYU spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in Arizona for the triple jump (48 feet, 11.5 inches), long jump (23-11) and high jump (6-10). He won Division IV state titles in all three jump events and the 110-meter hurdles, running 13.99 (ranked No. 3 in the state). Hall was the AIA state champion in the triple and long jump.

Girls: Imani Galera-Young, Chandler, Sr.

She put together a year to remember, breaking the Arizona state record in the 300-meter hurdles at 40.65. In the 300-hurdles, the Arkansas signee won eight out of nine races. Galera-Young swept both hurdle titles at the Division I and AIA State Championships. She ended the season at 13.53 in the 100-hurdles, No. 2 in the state.

(The Republic’s Chris Coppola contributed to this report).

Source link