LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Louisville Cardinals start their March Madness run at home for the first time since 2022, and that's why coach Jeff Walz is treating the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament as a road trip.
The KFC Yum! Center has not been the friendliest of confines for Louisville especially this season where the Cardinals (27-7) lost five times this season. All five teams that beat Louisville made the NCAA Tournament, and four of the losses were by three points or fewer.
Now the No. 3 seeded Cardinals play 14th-seeded Vermont on Saturday, and that's why Walz has Louisville staying in a hotel like the ACC Tournament despite being a host in the Forth Worth Region 3.
“It’s more so just making sure we can keep them focused,” he said Friday.
Much has been made about the Cardinals' inability to close out games. Louisville led Duke by four in the final minute of the ACC Tournament championship only to lose in overtime. Walz said they had chances to win in the final minute and that he also botched a play at the end of the first quarter that led to a Duke 3-pointer.
“We just need to control what we can control,” sophomore guard Imari Berry said. “When it comes down to the wire, we just be focused and execute what Coach Walz has drawn up on the board.”
The Catamounts (27-7) are no strangers to playing power teams on the road. The two-time American East tournament champions played at Washington in the regular season and played at North Carolina State in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Seniors Keira Hanson and Nikola Priede also played a first-round game at UConn as freshmen.
“Seeing it on TV is much different than actually feeling it,” Hanson said. “Playing at N.C. (State) last year was also a super valuable experience. I thought I was going to throw up before the game, but then obviously the nerves settle. It’s all the same game.”
No. 6 seed Alabama plays 11th-seeded Rhode Island in the other game in Louisville, and this is the fourth consecutive NCAA trip and fifth in six years for the Crimson Tide.
The Crimson Tide (23-10) last reached the Sweet 16 in 1998 and face the Rams (28-4) in their first trip to the tournament in 30 years. Rhode Island does have some big-game experience beating N.C. State in Raleigh in November.
Keeping Alabama off the 3-point line will be key. The Crimson Tide shot 36% from beyond the arc in the regular season, 18th-best in Division I.
“They’ve got a lot of 3-point shooters,” said Rhode Island coach Tammi Reiss, whose Atlantic 10 championship team holds opponents to 28.9% shooting from the arc. “A lot. Defend the three, run them off the 3-point line, make them take tough, contested twos.”
The Rams play some stingy defense. They rank sixth nationally giving up just 53.8 points a game.
Alabama coach Kristy Curry said Rhode Island does a good job of dictating tempo.
“They’re just so well-coached, and they’re very disciplined,” Curry said. “They don’t beat themselves. They don’t turn the ball over. So, it will be a great test for us.”
Guard Skylar Jones is no longer with the Cardinals. The 6-foot junior transferred from Arizona last year and played in all 34 games for Louisville this season. She ranked fifth with 8.4 points per game.
"We’ve just parted ways,” Walz said. “It’s best for both parties.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Alabama head coach Kristy Curry watches during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Texas in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
HONOLULU (AP) — Muddy floodwaters from severe rains inundated streets, pushed homes off their foundations, swallowed vehicles and prompted evacuation orders for thousands of residents in towns north of Honolulu on Friday as officials warned of the possible failure of a 120-year-old dam.
Emergency sirens blared along Oahu’s North Shore, where rising waters damaged homes in a community world-renowned for its surfing. Honolulu officials told residents Friday morning to leave the area downstream of Wahiawa dam, saying it was “at risk of imminent failure."
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, but some homes had been swept away, said Ian Scheuring, a spokesperson for Honolulu. Crew searched by air and by water for people who had been stranded — efforts that were hampered by people flying personal drones to get images of the flooding, he said.
During an afternoon news conference, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said dozens — if not hundreds — of homes had been damaged. Officials had not been able to fully assess the destruction due to the floodwaters. Some 5,500 people were under evacuation orders.
"There’s no question that the damage done thus far has been catastrophic,” he said.
Blangiardi said officials felt confident in the stability of the dams on the island, but that it was hard to predict how much rain would come and what it might do.
The National Guard was airlifting about 70 children and adults who had been attending a spring break youth camp at a retreat on Oahu’s west coast called Our Lady of Kea’au, according to city and camp officials. The camp is on high ground but authorities didn’t want to leave them there, the mayor said.
Kimberly R.Y. Vierra, a spokesperson for St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai‘i, which runs the camp, said floodwaters had cut off the main access road.
On Maui, officials issued an evacuation advisory for some Lahaina neighborhoods after nearby retention basins neared capacity. The county said crews were redirecting and pumping water to keep levels safe. Parts of those neighborhoods were burned by the massive wildfire that destroyed much of Lahaina in 2023.
Officials have been watching dam levels since a storm last week dumped heavy rain across the state, which led to catastrophic flooding that washed away roads and homes. After the worst of it, a similar but weaker storm was forecast to bring more rain through this weekend.
“It’s going to be a very touch-and-go day,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a social media post.
Most of the state was under a flood watch, with northern Oahu under a flash flood warning, according to the National Weather Service, which reported “widespread life-threatening flash flooding,” particularly in Haleiwa and Waialua.
One shelter at Waialua High and Intermediate School was evacuated because of flooding, Scheuring said. There were about 185 people and 50 pets there who needed to be bussed to another evacuation center, but by midday 54 people still remained in the shelter.
Parts of Oahu received 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm) of rain overnight, further saturating the ground after the storm last weekend. Kaala, the island's highest peak, got nearly 16 inches (40 cm) in the past day, on top of 26.6 inches (67.6 cm) between March 10 and 16, the National Weather Service said.
Winter storm systems known as “Kona lows,” which feature southerly or southwesterly winds that bring in moisture-laden air, were responsible for the deluges. The intensity and frequency of heavy rains in Hawaii of have increased amid human-caused global warming, experts say.
As she prepared to evacuate to a friend’s home on higher ground, Waialua resident Kathleen Pahinui told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the aging Wahiawa dam is a concern every time it rains.
“Just pray for us,” she said. “We understand there’s more rain coming.”
The state has said the dam has “high hazard potential,” and that a failure “will result in probable loss of human life.”
The earthen dam was built in 1906 to increase sugar production for the Waialua Agricultural Company, which eventually became a subsidiary of Dole Food Company. It was reconstructed following a collapse in 1921.
In the last few years, Dole agreed to transfer ownership of the dam to the state, which wants to make more than $20 million in improvements, but the transfer isn't complete. The state has been warning Dole since 2009 that the upgrades were needed, the nonprofit news organization Honolulu Civil Beat reported Friday.
“The dam continues to operate as designed with no indications of damage,” the company said in an emailed statement.
The state regulates 132 dams across Hawaii, most of them built as part of irrigation systems for the sugar cane industry, according to a 2019 infrastructure report by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
A view of a storm-damaged home near floating felled branches in flood waters caused by severe rains in Waialua, Hawaii, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin)
Debris from a storm-damaged house sits against a bridge along Kaukonahua Stream, caused by flooding from severe rains in Waialua, Hawaii, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin)
Streets are flooded from severe rains, Friday, March 20, 2026, in Haleiwa, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin)
Streets are flooded from severe rains, Friday, March 20, 2026, in Haleiwa, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin)
Streets are flooded from severe rains, Friday, March 20, 2026, in Haleiwa, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin)
This satellite image provided by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows cloud cover over Hawaii on Friday, March 20, 2026 at 2 p.m. EDT. (NOAA via AP)
