MUFFET MCGRAW

Kim Mulkey is The Associated Press women's basketball Coach of the Year in her first season at LSU.

Big East commissioner Val Ackerman says she's confident a report giving a scathing assessment of the NCAA's treatment of athletes at its men's and women's basketball tournaments will be an impetus for change.

Kobe Bryant is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame now, along with contemporaries Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, headliners of a group of nine who got their delayed and long-awaited enshrinement on Saturday night, more than a year after being announced as the Hall’s Class of 2020.

Michael Jordan will present Kobe Bryant for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame next month.

(AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)SAN ANTONIO – Maryland coach Brenda Frese was honored as The Associated Press women's basketball coach of the year Wednesday for the second time in her career. Frese received eight votes from the 30-member national media panel that votes on the weekly AP Top 25. Obviously its going to be one I never forget,” said Frese, who also was AP coach of the year 19 years ago when she was at Minnesota. When Maryland won the Big Ten Tournament, Frese's father and mother, Donna, were in the stands in Indianapolis. “It's a memory I’ll cherish for a lifetime.”___More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/Womenscollegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Kara Lawson has always wanted to coach at Duke a fact the first-time college coach hadn't shared with many people. Thats how highly I thought of the institution and the job," Lawson said on an introductory Zoom call Monday. Mom was the one who wanted me to go to Duke, Lawson said. I wanted to become a coach and learn from the best and that led me to Knoxville, Lawson said. Lawson knows one of her first tasks will be to hire assistants.

Duke has turned to Boston Celtics assistant coach and former WNBA All-Star Kara Lawson to lead its womens basketball program. Lawson played in the WNBA from 2003-15 and won the 2005 championship with Sacramento. She had also worked as a TV commentator for NBA and college basketball games before the Celtics hired her in June 2019. Itll be up to Lawson to shake things up and give the Duke program a jolt. ___More AP womens basketball: https://apnews.com/Womenscollegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25___Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap