Cheryl Miller and other women's hoops greats discuss state of the game at AP Top 25 Poll Experience

PHOENIX (AP) — When basketball great Cheryl Miller thinks of the state of the women's game today, she is filled with pride.

Pride with how interest and investment in women's hoops has skyrocketed since her days dominating at Southern California. Pride with how women's athletes are celebrated. Pride with the development in player skill over the years.

“A lot of these players are so dedicated, not just the X's and O's or the physical, their skillset," said Miller, who was honored this week as one of the greatest players of The Associated Press women’s basketball poll era, "but taking care of their bodies, the nutrition and sleeping better and what’s provided for them now at certain universities and programs. It’s just the evolution of the game itself.”

Miller and other women's basketball trailblazers, including Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman and former UCLA standout Ann Meyers Drysdale, spoke about the state of college sports at “The AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience,” which was held at Arizona State’s First Amendment Forum in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix.

Most conversations centered on how name, image and likeness along with the transfer portal are shaping the college game.

The changes in college sports have permeated politics, and ahead of the start of the Final Four for both men and women, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at restoring “order, fairness and stability” to college athletics.

The order directs federal agencies to bolster the effectiveness of key rules on transferring, eligibility and pay-for-play by evaluating whether violations of such rules render a university unfit for federal grants and contracts.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, whose team will play Sunday in the national championship game for the fourth time in five years, recently said her conversations with recruits nowadays reflect the new college sports landscape. While Staley's talks with recruits once centered on earning degrees, they're mostly focused now on money, especially with players in the transfer portal.

That's the same adjustment Arizona State coach Molly Miller has been forced to make.

"Recruiting a high school athlete is a lot different than recruiting a portal athlete," Miller said on a panel hosted by the AP on Thursday.

“Their questions are totally different than the portal kids,” she added. "Their questions are, ‘What’s the student-to-teacher ratio?' When you get in the portal they’re like: ‘Am I going to play? What’s the depth chart like, is the culture good and how much (money)?’”

Ackerman, who was the first president of the WNBA, sees tremendous growth in institutional investment in women's college sports, which she pointed out was evident in the success of the Final Four teams — South Carolina, UConn, Texas and UCLA — in Phoenix.

While that growth is paying off in brand value and fan engagement, Ackerman worries that it will lead to a wider disparity between schools with major football revenue and institutions that rely on smaller revenue streams.

“I’m not sure what the future holds,” she said. “I think it’s going to require leadership on campuses and innovation in terms of how to deploy resources that are finite for all sports.”

AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience: https://apnews.com/https:/apnews.com/projects/arizona-state-fan-poll-experience/

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

FILE - Southern California's Cheryl Miller reacts to a successful steal against the Georgia during the second half in the national semifinals of the NCAA women's college basketball tournament, Friday, April 2, 1983 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Bob Bryant, File)

Former Basketball player Ann Meyers Drysdale, left, speaks beside former basketball player Cheryl Miller, center, and Julie Church, Delta State women's basketball assistant coach, during an event Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Val Ackerman, commissioner of the Big East Conference, listens during an event Friday, April 3, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Former Basketball player Cheryl Miller speaks beside Julie Church, Delta State women's basketball assistant coach, during an event Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/John Locher)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to exercise hope against “the violence of war that kills and destroys,’’ saying “we need this song of hope today” as conflicts spread around the world.

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia’s ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo has repeatedly called for a halt in hostilities. In his Easter homily, the pope singled out those who wage war, abuse the weak and prioritize profits.

Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, addressed the faithful from an open-air altar in St. Peter’s Square flanked with white roses, while the steps leading down to the piazza where the faithful gathered were filled with spring perennials, symbolically resonating with the pope’s message of hope.

The pontiff implored the faithful to keep their hope in the face of death, which lurks “in injustices, in partisan selfishness, in the oppression of the poor, in the lack of attention given to the most vulnerable.

“We see it in violence, in the wounds of the world, in the cry of pain that rises from every corner because of the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys," he said.

He quoted his predecessor Pope Francis in warning against falling into indifference in the face of “persistent injustice, evil, indifference and cruelty," because “it is also true that in the midst of darkness, something new always springs to life and sooner or later produces fruit.”

He will later deliver the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” message — Latin for “to the city and the world.’’

Traditional ceremonies at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered by Christians as the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, were scaled back under an agreement with Israeli police. Authorities have put limits on the sizes of public gatherings due to ongoing missile attacks.

The restrictions also dampened the recent Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr holiday, as well as the current weeklong Jewish festival of Passover. On Sunday, the Jewish priestly blessing at the Western Wall — normally attended by tens of thousands — was limited to just 50 people.

The restrictions have strained relations between Israeli authorities and Christian leaders. Police last week prevented two of the church’s top religious leaders, including Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

On Tuesday, the pope had expressed hope that the war could be finished before Easter.

Barry reported from Milan. Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.

Pope Leo XIV presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Clergy follow Pope Leo XIV as he presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV sprinkles holy water with a bunch of hyssop sprigs as he presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)