NCAA Basketball NewsThursday, Jan 29, 2026

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Chauncey Wiggins scored 18 points, and Florida State built a big first-half lead and held off California for a 63-61 victory on Wednesday night. Florida State had a 15-point advantage early in the second half before Cal used a 15-6 run to take its only lead of the second half, 59-58, with 3:45 remaining. It was knotted 60-all before Wiggins' jumper gave the Seminoles the lead for good with about three minutes left. Milos Ilic's free throw ended the scoring for Cal wit...

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Josh Hubbard scored 15 points, Quincy Ballard added 13 and Mississippi State dominated LSU from the start in an 80-66 victory on Wednesday night. Mississippi State shot 60% and outrebounded LSU 17-5 in the first 10 minutes while building a 30-10 lead. Later in the half, a 13-3 run left the Bulldogs with a 44-17 lead. It was 44-21 at halftime. LSU was within 58-42 seven minutes into the second half before Epps hit two 3-pointers in a 10-2 Mississippi State run and the B...

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Bennett Stirtz scored 20 points, including two free throws with 4.6 seconds remaining, as Iowa survived USC's comeback bid to win 73-72 on Wednesday night. The Hawkeyes (15-5, 5-4 Big Ten) led by as many as 17 points in the second half, but a rally by USC put the Trojans ahead by one point with eight seconds to go. Stirtz was fouled by USC's Jerry Easter II, and made both free throws to put Iowa back ahead. Tavion Banks also had 20 points before fouling out with just ov...

Ja’Kobi Gillespie had 21 points, J.P. Estrella scored five of his 17 points in overtime, and Tennessee beat Georgia 86-85 on Wednesday night for coach Rick Barnes' 850th career victory. Gillespie went 1 of 2 at the free throw line with 19 seconds left in regulation to give Tennessee a 74-72 lead. Then Georgia guard Marcus Millender spun at the edge of the paint and made a contested shot with 3.6 left to tie it.

Celebrated at home for reaching 900 wins, Rick Pitino couldn't help but think back about where it all began. Pitino was honored Wednesday night by St. John's after achieving the rare milestone last weekend, and the Hall of Fame coach racked up No. 901 when the 25th-ranked Red Storm routed Butler 92-70 at Madison Square Garden. “It's very nice,” Pitino said at his postgame news conference.

Thomas Haugh scored 18 points, Rueben Chinyelu had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 19 Florida pounded South Carolina 95-48 on Wednesday night. The Gators (15-6, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) came in off a disappointing home loss to Auburn this past Saturday and, once they got going, took it out on the Gamecocks (11-10, 2-6). Neither team look sharp early, with Florida missing five of its first seven shots and South Carolina going 1 of 6 as the Gators led 12-8.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — John Blackwell scored 23 points, including Wisconsin's last seven points in the final minute, and the Badgers rallied to defeat short-handed Minnesota 67-63 on Wednesday night. Wisconsin trailed by 18 points at halftime against a Golden Gophers team missing leading scorer Cade Tyson, who was out with an ankle injury. Six players were unavailable due to injury and only seven players saw action for Minnesota. Nick Boyd's jumper gave Wisconsin a 51-50 lead with 6 1/2 minutes...

Houston freshman Kingston Flemings scored 25 points, Emanuel Sharp had 23 and the 10th-ranked Cougars overcame an extended shooting slump in a 79-70 win at TCU on Wednesday night. The Cougars (18-2, 6-1 Big 12) trailed only once, by one point 2 1/2 minutes into the game, and began the second half with a 15-point lead. There was a more than five-minute gap between jumpers by Flemings while TCU got within two points.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Malik Reneau scored 20 points, Tre Donaldson added 18, and Miami pulled away inside the final seven minutes to beat Stanford 79-70 on Wednesday night. Miami used an 11-2 run to tie it at 51-all with 9:35 to play. About two minutes later, Dante Allen's 3-pointer sparked another 11-2 surge that gave the Hurricanes a 67-58 advantage with 2:46 remaining before they sealed it from the free-throw line. Shelton Henderson and Tru Washington added 12 points apiece for Miami (...

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Tyler Bilodeau had 18 points, Eric Daily Jr. had his second double-double this season, and UCLA beat short-handed Oregon 73-57 on Wednesday night to extend the Ducks' losing streak to seven games. Dailey finished with 14 points and a career-high tying 11 rebounds. Donovan Dent scored 11 of his 15 in the second half for UCLA (15-6, 7-3 Big Ten) and Trent Perry, who was scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting before halftime, added 12 points. The Bruins have won three in a row and fiv...

Plus No. 1 Arizona is 21-0 and only getting better with each game

While getting 900 wins is impressive enough, St. John's head coach Rick Pitino has his sights set on getting win No. 1,000.