Wisconsin guard Nick Boyd’s NCAA Tournament experiences have run the gamut at his previous schools.
Boyd reached the Final Four with Florida Atlantic in 2023, endured an overtime loss in the round of 64 with the Owls a year later and then lost in the First Four with San Diego State last season. Now at his third school, Boyd has a keen understanding of what it takes to thrive this time of year.
“I just think it’s all about the mental aspect for the team, coming in ready to leave it all on the line,” Boyd said. “The last couple of teams I’ve been on, when we lost in the first round, we were kind of overcoming some challenges as a team. Maybe our mental (outlook) wasn’t in the best place in a sense. I feel like with this team right now, we have great momentum.”
In this era of the transfer portal, plenty of players end up appearing in the NCAA Tournament with multiple schools. For instance, the most outstanding player in last year’s Final Four was Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr., who previously had participated in the NCAA Tournament with Iona.
Boyd would love to follow a similar path.
Wisconsin (24-10) is seeded fifth in the West Region and will face High Point (30-4) in a first-round game Thursday at Portland, Oregon. The Badgers will attempt to advance beyond the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend for the first time since a Sweet 16 appearance in 2017.
Boyd will need to continue the momentum he established last week by averaging 25 points in three Big Ten Tournament games, including a 38-point performance in a quarterfinal victory over Illinois. The 6-foot-3 guard has averaged 20.6 points and 4.2 assists — both career highs — in his lone season with the Badgers.
Boyd has played seven career NCAA Tournament games, though he didn’t score more than 12 points in any of them. He’s eager to lead Wisconsin on the type of long postseason run he enjoyed with Florida Atlantic three years ago.
“We’re in a good mental space, where we trust each other and believe in what we can do,” Boyd said. “I think that’s the most important thing.”
Here’s a look at some other notable players experiencing March Madness at new schools this year after previously playing multiple NCAA Tournament games for different programs.
Conwell is playing for his fourth school in as many years. The 6-foot-4 guard was at Xavier last season when he scored 11 points in a First Four victory over Texas and had 12 points in a round of 64 loss to Illinois. He also played for South Florida in 2022-23 and Indiana State in 2023-24, though those teams didn’t earn NCAA Tournament bids. He has a career-high 18.7 points per game at Louisville this season while also averaging 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
Gillespie came to Tennessee after helping Maryland reach the Sweet 16 last year. The 6-1 guard scored 17 points in a regional semifinal loss to Florida and averaged 14.7 points in three NCAA Tournament games with the Terrapins. Gillespie had gone to Maryland after spending two seasons at Belmont, though he didn’t make the NCAA Tournament either of his years with the Bruins. Gillespie has 18 points and 5.5 assists per game this season to set career highs in both categories. He’s The Associated Press Southeastern Conference transfer newcomer of the year.
Grant-Foster played three NCAA Tournament games for Grand Canyon the last two seasons and scored at least 22 points in each of them. He had 22 points in a first-round win over Saint Mary’s and 29 in a second-round loss to Alabama. The 6-7 guard had 23 points in a first-round loss to Maryland last year. Grant-Foster also played a total of 11 minutes in two NCAA Tournament games with Kansas in 2021. Grant-Foster has averaged 11.2 points and five rebounds with Gonzaga this season. One of Grant-Foster's former teammates is Duke Brennan, who's back in the NCAA Tournament with Villanova after previously getting there with Grand Canyon (2024 and 2025) and Arizona State (2023).
Reneau’s last NCAA Tournament appearance came three years ago against Miami. Now he’s finally back in March Madness while playing for the Hurricanes. The former Indiana forward played 12 minutes in a first-round win over Kent State and 10 minutes in a second-round loss to Miami. Reneau remained at Indiana two more seasons but didn’t get back to the NCAA Tournament. He’s averaging 18.8 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Hurricanes as an AP first-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference selection.
Stirtz reached the NCAA Tournament at the Division II level with Northwest Missouri State in 2023 and 2024. When Drake hired coach Ben McCollum away from Northwest Missouri State, Stirtz made the same move and helped the Bulldogs get to March Madness. Stirtz scored 21 points in each of his two NCAA Tournament games at Drake — a first-round win over Missouri and a second-round loss to Texas Tech. Stirtz is now at Iowa, again playing for McCollum. He has averaged 20 points, 4.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds.
Veesaar transferred to North Carolina after reaching a regional semifinal with Arizona last season. He averaged 8 points in three NCAA Tournament games last year and had 13 points and six rebounds in a Sweet 16 loss to Duke. Veesaar also played three minutes for Arizona in a first-round loss to Princeton in 2023. The 7-footer is enjoying a breakthrough season at North Carolina by compiling 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
North Carolina center Henri Veesaar, right, looks to pass against Clemson forward Nick Davidson during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday declared a temporary pause in escalating fighting, two days after Kabul blamed Islamabad for a deadly airstrike in the Afghan capital that it said killed hundreds of people at a drug rehabilitation hospital.
Both said they were suspending fighting ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and at the request of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. The three countries have been trying to mediate a cessation of hostilities since Afghanistan and Pakistan renewed cross-border fighting in February, and had also been involved in helping broker a ceasefire between the two last October.
The announcements came shortly after Afghan authorities held a mass funeral in Kabul for some of the victims killed in Monday's strike.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the suspension of strikes on Afghanistan would take effect at midnight Wednesday and remain in place until midnight Monday.
“Pakistan offers this gesture in good faith and in keeping with the Islamic norms,” Tarar said in a statement. However, he added, “in case of any cross-border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident inside Pakistan,” the operations will immediately resume with renewed intensity.
Afghanistan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid did not specify a time frame for the pause on the Afghan side. However, he said, his country “will respond courageously to any aggression in the event of a threat.”
Pakistan has rejected Afghanistan’s accusation that it targeted the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, insisting its strikes in Kabul and eastern Afghanistan Monday had been against military facilities. It has dismissed Afghan claims of more than 400 people killed as propaganda.
Monday's attack in Kabul was the deadliest in a conflict that has been escalating between the two neighbors since late February. Afghan officials have put the death toll at 408 people, with 265 wounded. The toll could not be independently verified.
The fighting has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan, including several in the capital, despite international calls for a ceasefire.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing a safe haven for militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially for the Pakistani Taliban. The group is separate but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, who took over Afghanistan in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the charge.
Bulldozers dug pits in a Kabul cemetery ahead of Wednesday's mass funeral, which Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said was for more than 50 people whose remains could not be identified.
Light rain fell as ambulances lined up outside the cemetery and began unloading dozens of plain wooden caskets. Some contained the remains of more than one person, Zaman said.
The 2,000-bed Omid hospital was hit at around 9 p.m. on Monday. It had been renamed and expanded in size roughly a year ago from a previously existing treatment facility as part of the Taliban government’s efforts to stamp out a significant drug addiction problem in the country.
Afghanistan’s vast poppy fields have been the source of much of the world’s heroin, and that, in combination with decades of conflict and widespread poverty, has fueled drug addiction that the country’s current rulers have vowed to combat.
The site, near Kabul’s international airport, is adjacent to a former NATO military base, Camp Phoenix, where U.S. forces used to train the Afghan National Army. It wasn’t immediately clear what was now housed at the site. The strike caused an intense fire at the hospitals, with footage from local television showing rescue crews combing through the wreckage with flashlights late into Monday night as firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze.
In an interview with The Associated Press in Islamabad earlier Wednesday, Tarar said Pakistan had "only targeted terrorist infrastructure.”
“We have just gone after the Afghan Taliban regime, their military setups, their terrorist infrastructure, and all the setups which are supporting or promoting terrorists,” Tarar said.
He told AP that Pakistan's strikes “have been very precise and these strikes were carried out in an ammunition depot in Kabul. In the aftermath of which, we saw fumes and flames in the atmosphere in Kabul."
He said the subsequent loss of life, which he did not quantify, occurred “because there was ammunition, there were technical equipment, there were arms there in that depot.”
Bodies were still being pulled from the smoldering remains of the hospital on Tuesday morning.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” He said those killed were “innocent civilians and addicts.”
The fighting, the most severe between the two neighbors, began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October, after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistan has declared it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan last month. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros contributed from Athens, Greece
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Islamabad, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Bulldozers dig graves for victims of a Monday airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Taliban security personnel stand by as bulldozers dig graves for victims of a Monday airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Bulldozers dig graves for victims of a Monday airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Bulldozers dig graves for victims of a Monday airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Bulldozers dig graves for victims of a Monday airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
