ST. LOUIS (AP) — Purdue coach Matt Painter has done just about everything with the Boilermakers except win a national championship.
The same could be said for his All-American guard, Braden Smith, the new NCAA career assists king, and longtime teammates Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn, who once again are leading Purdue on an annual trek through March Madness.
It's still a long road back to the championship game for the No. 2 seed Boilermakers, and up next in the West Region on Sunday is a tough test in seventh-seeded Miami — with No. 1 seed Arizona potentially waiting down the road. But after their romp through the Big Ten Tournament, and trouncing Queens in Thursday's first round, they are looking like title contenders at just the right time.
“You have to cherish it,” said Painter, who took Purdue to the title game a couple of years ago before losing to UConn. “It's a special time for these guys. I always say it to our younger guys, because they don't quite get it — like, this is it for our seniors. This is it. It is over. I'm coming back next year; they're not. So we've got to do everything in our power to have a special run.”
The Wildcats, meanwhile, play No. 9 seed Utah State in their second-round game on Sunday in San Diego.
Purdue and Miami have a lot of similarities, right down to a couple of Hurricanes in Malik Reneau and Tre Donaldson who have some ties to the Big Ten, and have faced the Boilermakers before. But how they've been built might be the biggest difference.
The Boilermakers rely on a bygone formula of recruiting the right pieces and allowing them to develop. Smith and Loyer are perhaps the best examples, the pair of Indiana natives arriving on campus four years ago and leading the way ever since.
One of the byproducts of that continuity is sustained success: The Boilermakers have won a pair of Big Ten regular-season titles and two Big Ten tourney titles over the past four years, and they've been to the Sweet 16 the past two seasons.
“You're looking for the right fit,” Painter said, “but you also figure out some things when you've been somewhere 21 years. It's not different than dating. You find out who you can sign — Everyone wants to sign AJ Dybantsa, right? You're not getting him — so you have to understand, who do we want here, who can we get here and who is the right fit?”
Miami coach Jai Lucas didn't have the luxury of building his program over time after inheriting a seven-win fiasco. Instead, he brought together some talented recruits and a bunch of transfers who felt marginalized at their previous schools, and who admittedly continue to carry a sizable chip on their shoulders, all despite a Division I-record 19-win improvement over last season.
“To put together a team that is this good in a short amount of time,” Painter said, “it really speaks volumes to their staff.”
Lucas is the first to point out that it's more than just the staff, though. It's been the collective buy-in from everyone at Miami.
“I haven't really reflected on the season yet,” he said, “but it just shows that we had the right people in the building with the players, with the staff and then also with the support from the university, the administration and the fans."
Reneau, the Hurricanes’ leading scorer, spent three seasons at Indiana before heading to Miami, while Donaldson spent last season at Michigan. In other words, they played at two schools that the Boilermakers consider two of their biggest Big Ten rivals.
“It’s going to be a fun game,” Reneau said, “not just because I’ve been at IU and it’s a rival but because there’s a lot at stake.”
The Wildcats are one win away from their fourth Sweet 16 appearance in five seasons under Tommy Lloyd, but Utah State is a tricky opponent – perhaps even tricky enough to cause problems for Arizona, one of the favorites to win the whole NCAA tourney.
The ninth-seeded Aggies took out Villanova in the first round with a second-half charge catalyzed by their matchup zone defense, which relies on chemistry and hard work to limit preferred scoring chances. Utah State also plays a creative offensive scheme that is difficult to pigeonhole, even for opposing coaches.
“They’re a team that’s kind of breaking the mold,” Lloyd said Saturday.
“They for sure have a strong identity, playing physical, playing quick,” Arizona forward Ivan Kharchenkov added. “And now preparing for them, we obviously know what they’re doing.”
If the Boilermakers are heating up at the right time, Arizona has been blazing for quite a while. The Wildcats have won 10 straight, including a pair of wins over Houston — one in the Big 12 title game — two wins over Iowa State and a victory over Kansas.
“I love the way they play,” Aggies coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “There’s very few college basketball teams I enjoy watching play. I would rather watch Europe or the Boston Celtics, to be honest with you. But Tommy’s probably one of the five teams I really enjoy watching.”
AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in San Jose, California, contributed.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Utah State guard MJ Collins (2) celebrates with forward Karson Templin after the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament against Villanova, Friday, March 20, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Maybe the end for the Florida Panthers came when Brad Marchand was shut down for the season last month. Or maybe it was when Seth Jones broke his collarbone and wound up missing 26 games. Or, maybe it was 20 minutes into training camp, when captain Aleksander Barkov blew out his knee.
Nobody knows when the season was officially doomed.
Doesn't matter now. The Panthers are out.
Games remain, but the Panthers were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday with a 9-4 loss in Pittsburgh. For the first time since 2022, a team other than Florida will represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final and for the first time since 2023, a team other than the Panthers will be the one hoisting the greatest chalice in sports.
They've known this was coming for a while. It's just official now.
“Obviously, no one’s happy about the situation," Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. "But it’s about really just sticking together as a team and going through this as a team. We're all sticking together. It's not fun sometimes. But we’re just trying to make the best of it.”
By the time the regular season ends in a couple of weeks, the Panthers will have gone well past the 500 man-games-missed mark this season because of injury. Barkov, the captain who Panthers coach Paul Maurice believes is the best player in the world, missed the entire year and a chance to captain Finland at the Milan Cortina Olympics as well.
Jonah Gadjovich will wind up missing 72 games with an upper-body injury. Tomas Nosek missed 60 games with a knee injury. Dmitry Kulikov is nearing 60 games missed, most with a shoulder injury and now a badly broken nose. Matthew Tkachuk missed 47 games while recovering from surgery to repair a sports hernia and torn adductor.
Cole Schwindt missed more than half the season with a pair of injuries. Marchand will miss 29 games and Jones missed 26. Niko Mikkola, Evan Rodrigues, Sam Reinhart, Uvis Balinskis and Anton Lundell were all shut down for the season at least a couple of weeks ago. Aaron Ekblad broke a finger this week and he won't play until next season.
And it was no laughing matter at the time, but Eetu Luostarinen missed nine games — after getting burned while barbecuing.
“I'd say we had some adversity,” Maurice said.
Add it all up, and Florida is likely going to finish the season with no more than eight players who dressed in last year's Cup-clinching win against Edmonton on the ice. The Panthers bent, bent, bent all season, and finally broke.
“They’ve been true to it," Maurice said, speaking of the team's culture. "And we’ve had some tough nights, but the bench has been right and they’re cheering for each other. They’re engaged in the game. They’re talking about the game. It’s just, you’re just not going to be able to produce, not going to be able to execute a whole bunch of things that you normally expect to.”
Put simply, the Panthers might just need a break.
They were in 67 playoff games over the last three seasons, the most in the NHL — and unbelievably, more than 17 other franchises played in that span combined. They've logged tons of miles, taken tons of hits and done it all with very short offseasons because their Cup runs kept stretching into June while non-playoff teams are done in April.
“I think we all know ... how good this hockey team is," Bennett said. “We know how good we're going to be when we have everyone healthy and everyone back. So, there’s obviously a ton of excitement, I think, in anticipation for next year.”
With good reason. Hockey operations president and general manager Bill Zito has had the vast majority of the core under contract for some time: Barkov, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Bennett, Marchand, Carter Verhaeghe, Jones, Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Lundell, Rodrigues, Mikkola, Kulikov, Balinskis, Reinhardt and Jesper Boqvist are among those who are signed. The biggest question is at goalie, where Sergei Bobrovsky will be a free agent, but one who is believed to want to remain with the Panthers.
All that talk can wait, at least for a couple more weeks.
“We're just focused on this year,” Jones said after the loss Saturday.
Things, if the Panthers are lucky, should look very different next season. Or put another way, things could look like how they were in June 2024 and June 2025, when Florida won the Cup. The celebrations started like this: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman would say a few words, then hand the Cup to Barkov, who would skate away and hoist.
The Panthers felt like that could have happened again this season. For about 20 minutes, anyway. It was at the 20-minute mark of the first full-team training camp practice where Barkov blew out the ACL and MCL in his knee.
“You know right away. Oh, you knew it was bad," Maurice said. “He's a tough one. He doesn’t go down lightly. It was as close to being at a funeral as there can be. The 19th minute, we are humpin', up and down the ice. And I’m taking it all in thinking, ‘Oh, we’re right there. These guys are focused, they’re fit, they’re pushing themselves. I’m not even yelling at them anymore.’ And then that happens.
“The next three days were a prolonged funeral service,” Maurice added. “We didn’t know it was going to be for our season.”
If the Panthers were in the playoff chase, Barkov might be playing now. If there was a Game 1 of Round 1 sometime in the next couple weeks, the expectation is Barkov would have been ready. And now, the Panthers will pivot to Game 1 of next season.
They won't be the defending Cup champions anymore. It might actually rekindle the desire to win it again.
“Bill Zito’s vision for this team has just been so bang on," Maurice said. "We have full faith in the vision that he has for the group, and the core is going to be here next year. We'll all be excited about that.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Florida Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) defends the goal against Ottawa Senators left wing Fabian Zetterlund (20) during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Florida Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) is congratulated after the Panthers defeated the Ottawa Senators in an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk skates on the ice after being named the first star of the game after an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
