Boom-or-bust Virginia will head to Orlando, Fla., as the No. 4 seed in the South Region to face No. 13 Furman on Thursday afternoon.

In coach Tony Bennett’s last three trips to the NCAA Tournament, Virginia has experienced two first-round exits and one national championship.

The first flameout was historic, with the 2017-2018 Cavaliers becoming the first No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed (UMBC) in the opening round.

After cutting down the nets for the first time in program history in 2019, Virginia lost its most recent NCAA tourney game as a No. 4 seed to No. 13 Ohio in 2021.

This year, Virginia (25-7) won a share of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship and reached the ACC tournament final, falling 59-49 to Duke on Saturday in Greensboro, N.C.

Furman (27-7) swept the Southern Conference regular season and tourney titles to make the NCAA Tournament field for the first time since 1980. The Paladins have won six in a row and 14 of their last 15.

Virginia and Furman have met only once, a 79-67 win by the host Cavaliers on Dec. 8, 2004.

“You divvy up the scouts,” Bennett said Sunday of his team’s preparations, per the Daily Progress. “You get your people on the scouts, you watch them, and you prepare as quickly as you can … but it goes quick and you learn as much as you can as coaches and get the basics for your guys.”

Three veteran Virginia players are scoring in double figures, led by Armaan Franklin (12.5 points per game), Jayden Gardner (12.1) and Kihei Clark (10.9 points, 5.4 assists).

Franklin has played in 121 college games (67 for Virginia), Gardner in 148 (67 for the Cavaliers) and Clark in 160 — including the 2019 national championship win against Texas Tech.

The game will be a clash of styles, as Virginia games often are. Furman ranks eighth in the nation with 82.1 points per game and Virginia ranks sixth in scoring defense, allowing 60.3 points per game.

“They can play. I know they can shoot,” Bennett said of the Paladins. “They’re very skilled and they can get up and down.”

Furman is led by conference player of the year Jalen Slawson (15.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per game) and fellow all-conference selection Mike Bothwell (18.0 points per game), both fifth-year seniors.

Sixth-year coach Bob Richey’s Paladins have lost only twice in 2023, a four-point setback at The Citadel on Feb. 15 and an overtime defeat against UNC Greensboro on Jan. 14. Two of their non-conference losses were against NCAA Tournament teams Penn State and North Carolina State.

Furman will be well rested, having not played since its 88-79 win over Chattanooga in the SoCon final on March 6.

“We’re going to have to defend and rebound at the highest level,” Richey said Sunday. “If we can get stops and get rebounds, now we have an opportunity to go out and do what we do. We’re a top-15 offense because of our tempo, our spacing, the amount of assists we have per made basket.

“… It’s part of who we are. It’s part of our makeup. I’m sure they’re going to try to shrink the game.”

The Cavaliers-Paladins winner will meet either No. 5 seed San Diego State or No. 12 Charleston in a second-round contest on Saturday in Orlando.

–Field Level Media

Georgia Tech hired Boston Celtics assistant Damon Stoudamire as its next head coach on Monday.

Stoudamire, 49, was in his second season with Boston after serving as the head coach at Pacific for five seasons, with a 71-77 record from 2016-21.

“It is an incredible honor to be entrusted with leading such a tradition-rich program,” Stoudamire said in a news release. “I am excited to get to work with the goal of consistently having our team compete at the championship level that we all know we can and should compete at. I’m proud to represent Georgia Tech and can’t wait to walk out of the tunnel and onto the floor at the Thrillerdome in front of our fans.”

A point guard and who played 13 seasons in the NBA, Stoudamire replaces Josh Pastner at the ACC program. Pastner was fired Friday after seven seasons and a 109-114 record, including 15-18 this season.

“Coach Stoudamire’s success and credibility as a player and coach at both the collegiate and professional levels make him a great fit to lead our program,” Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt said in a news release. “He will serve as an outstanding mentor on and off the court and will attract talented student-athletes to The Flats. We could not be happier to welcome Coach Stoudamire to the Georgia Tech family.”

Stoudamire has also worked as an assistant coach at Memphis (2011-13, 2015-16), his alma mater Arizona (2013-15) and with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies (2009-11).

Drafted No. 7 overall by Toronto in 1995, Stoudamire was the Rookie of the Year in 1995-96 and averaged 13.4 points, 6.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds in 878 games (793 starts) with the Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers, Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs.

Anthony Wilkins had been named interim coach at Georgia Tech after the Yellow Jackets fired Pastner.

–Field Level Media

Ole Miss announced the hiring of Chris Beard as its next men’s basketball coach on Monday.

Contract terms were not announced.

The opportunity came about relatively quickly for Beard, 50, who was fired by Texas on Jan. 5 after an alleged domestic violence incident was reported in December. He initially was suspended indefinitely without pay, but in a letter to Beard’s attorney regarding his termination, a Texas official called Beard “unfit” to lead the Longhorns.

Charges were dropped against Beard on Feb. 15.

Ole Miss said it did its research into Beard before hiring him.

“We thoroughly evaluated a number of outstanding candidates, and there is no doubt Coach Beard is one of the top coaches in the nation,” athletic director Keith Carter said in a news release. “After conducting due diligence and speaking to a number of individuals on and off the court, it was evident he is the right person to guide our team to greatness.

“At each stop in his career, Coach Beard has proven to be a program builder and a dynamic leader whose teams exhibit relentless effort. He is a tireless recruiter and develops talent to reach their greatest potential. He has coached at multiple levels of college basketball and has competed for championships at every school. Simply put, Coach Beard is a winner, and Ole Miss Basketball’s best years are ahead of us under his leadership.”

The Ole Miss job came open when Kermit Davis was fired on Feb. 24, and Beard thanked administrators for their confidence.

“I am honored to be joining the Ole Miss family and excited to get started at this great university,” Beard said. “I can’t express how grateful I am to Chancellor (Glenn) Boyce, Keith Carter and the rest of the search committee for their belief in me to lead this program.”

Beard went 112-55 in five seasons as head coach at Texas Tech before being hired away by Texas, his alma mater. He led the 2018-19 Red Raiders to the NCAA Tournament title game, falling to Virginia 85-77 in overtime.

He is a four-time conference coach of the year and the 2019 national coach of the year and has a career coaching record of 171-73. He has taken three programs to the NCAA Tournament, including Little Rock, which he coached for one season (2015-16) to a 30-5 record and a win over No. 5 seed Purdue in the first round.

At Texas, Beard went 29-13 in parts of two seasons. The Longhorns were 7-1 this season before Beard was suspended.

Under interim coach Rodney Terry, the Longhorns finished the season 26-8 and are a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They will face Colgate on Thursday in Midwest Region play.

Ole Miss finished the season 12-21 with a 3-15 mark in Southeastern Conference play.

–Field Level Media

Head coach Kenny Blakeney won a national championship with Duke the last time Howard appeared in the NCAA Tournament, 31 years ago.

That was 1992, when Kansas hammered Howard in the first round, 100-67.

The 16th-seeded Bison (22-12) are back, and Howard draws the same first-round challenge in the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Thursday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa: West Region No. 1 seed Kansas (27-7), the Big 12 regular-season champion and 2022 national champ.

“There’s a lot of Howard alums and fans that either haven’t seen or can’t remember what it was like to be a fan of a tournament team, and now they get that,” said sophomore point guard Elijah Hawkins, who averages 5.9 assists per game this season.

Kansas head coach Bill Self was back in his office on Monday. He will return to the bench from an undisclosed medical procedure that prevented him from coaching in the conference tournament last week.

The Jayhawks were trounced by Texas in the championship game Saturday, 76-56, and lost to the Longhorns a week prior in the regular-season finale.

While Howard hasn’t played in the Big Dance since 1992, this is the record 33rd consecutive appearance for Kansas. The Jayhawks received their preferred path to the Final Four in Houston, as laid out by Self in early March, with the opportunity to skip from Iowa to Kansas City.

Howard rotates 10 players, and six average at least 8.8 points per game. The Bison are young, while Kansas counts on the motor of forward Jalen Wilson (20.1 points, 8.4 rebounds per game) and a guard-heavy lineup headlined by Dajuan Harris Jr. (6.2 assists, 2.1 steals per game) and freshman sharpshooter Gradey Dick (14.1 points per game).

The path to Houston won’t be easy. A second-round matchup with either Arkansas or Illinois, who will meet in the No. 8-vs.-No. 9 game Thursday, appears to be just the beginning of a bracket with an extreme level of difficulty. Many pundits already picked No. 4 seed UConn or No. 2 seed UCLA to reach the Final Four out of the West.

Self credits Wilson for Kansas’ success in the regular season, referring to his style as “take it and bring it,” having spent the offseason remaking his jump shot.

Kansas forward Kevin McCullar, who transferred from Texas Tech, is expected to practice this week and play despite an ankle injury.

Kansas is 15-0 all-time against No. 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

–Field Level Media

Illinois and Arkansas are in a race to find their “A” game entering a first-round NCAA Tournament matchup in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday afternoon.

Preseason Top 10 Arkansas (20-13) will try to recapture the magic of its 2022 NCAA Tournament run while the Fighting Illini (20-12) are fixed on getting to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005.

Arkansas beat No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga in the 2022 tournament, reaching the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season. Winning Thursday would bring a matchup with West Region No. 1 seed Kansas unless No. 16 seed Howard stuns the Jayhawks.

In 2021, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman and the Razorbacks were limited by Baylor and key big man Matthew Mayer, who is averaging 12.8 points and 5.5 rebounds for Illinois this season.

“Certainly Illinois is really well-coached. They have some guys that we’ve played before, like Terrence Shannon, who was at Texas Tech. And obviously Matthew Mayer from Baylor,” Musselman said. “They’ve got some really good transfers. It’s an excellent shot-blocking team. But anybody from the Big Ten that qualifies for the NCAA Tournament is a really good team.”

Confidence might be stunted for Arkansas with losses in four of its past five games, but that stretch includes a close call at overall top seed Alabama (86-83 score).

Illinois bounced in and out of the Top 25 rankings this season. Ranked 23rd in the preseason poll, Illinois bagged huge neutral-court wins over UCLA and Texas prior to conference play before inconsistency became the norm for the Fighting Illini.

A 22-point loss to Missouri — which split two games with Arkansas — in December, two double-digit losses to Indiana and three losses to Penn State prove the countercurrent can be unstoppable with this Illinois crew.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood told his team Sunday night to throw out the negative remnants of the season and focus on the opportunity, reminding his group that North Carolina was in the national championship game last March after limping through January and February.

He’ll lean on Mayer and Shannon, who was in the Sweet 16 last season with the Red Raiders. Shannon leads the team in scoring at 17.1 points per game.

“It’s a season of opportunity. It’s a season of speed bumps – good things, bad things – yet there was a lot more good because we’re in this thing again. We get to go play another game to show everybody what we’re capable of and what we can be,” Underwood said.

Athleticism isn’t the issue for either side, but shooting has been anywhere from erratic to outlandish. Illinois has a tendency to get “3 happy,” Underwood said, despite shooting only 30.9 percent from 3-point range.

The Razorbacks don’t have a regular contributor shooting 35 percent or better from long distance. Explosive freshman guard Nick Smith Jr. played in only 14 games due to injury but rounded into form late in the season with 24 points at Alabama (Feb. 25) and 25 points against Kentucky (March 4).

Arkansas is 0-5 all-time against Illinois, most recently meeting in 2004.

–Field Level Media