GREENVILLE, S.C. -- LSU coach Kim Mulkey walked off the court barefoot, pieces of confetti sticking to her heel.

Her security guard held her silver high-heeled shoes for her, and for just a moment, Mulkey turned back to wave to the smattering of LSU fans who stayed behind to watch players cut down the nets -- a triumph not many thought possible this season.

Mulkey herself said two days ago she had no playbook for how to take a team to the Final Four only two years into a job. But after a 54-42 win over Miami on Sunday in the Elite Eight, she clearly had become the one to write it.

"It will hit me tonight when we're on that plane going back to Baton Rouge, and I'm sitting with my feet propped up tomorrow eating crawfish and go, 'I've got to go back again,'" Mulkey said. "I didn't put parameters on the team. I didn't say anything except at the press conferences. I want to put a championship banner up there some day."

Someday could be a week from today, though LSU will no doubt be an underdog once again. Mulkey has been there, done that. She is now the third coach to reach the Final Four with multiple schools, joining C. Vivian Stringer (Cheyney, Iowa and Rutgers) and Gary Blair (Arkansas and Texas A&M). Before coming to LSU, she went to the Final Four with Baylor four times, winning three national championships.

It is why when she was hired two years ago, players such as senior Emily Ward "fan girled" over the news. Ward, a bench player, is from Louisiana, grew up watching LSU basketball and was recruited to play by former coach Nikki Fargas, who resigned in 2021.

"We were just so shocked that Coach Mulkey left Baylor," Ward said. "But we're just so thankful that she was able to bring the program where it is right now in just two years. I mean, that's unheard of. That's unbelievable."

That was exactly the point Mulkey was trying to make when she said she had no playbook for making it this far this fast. But assistant coach Daphne Mitchell explained it this way: "This was not the plan. We came in and she said we have to be patient. We're rebuilding a program. But she's a Hall of Famer and she's a winner, and this doesn't surprise me. But it does. But it doesn't at the same time."

Mulkey winning and going to the Final Four is not a surprise considering her career. But doing it with nine new players this year, well, yes, that is a bit of a surprise.

"We never put a year on it," Mitchell said. "Everyone else did: 'Oh, she'll have it in three.' We were like, 'Are you crazy?' There's a lot to do into it. For her to make it look 'easy' is a testament to how she's a proven winner and able to prove everyone in -- staff, players, fans, everyone. It's just in her."

LSU is now in the Final Four for the first time since 2008, but it was not exactly the prettiest game. Neither team shot the ball particularly well -- Miami shot 32 percent; LSU shot 30 percent. The teams combined to shoot 1-of-27 from 3 and 6-of-62 (9.7 percent) outside the paint, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

All-American Angel Reese went 3-for-15 but still had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds, while Alexis Morris scored 21 points to lead all LSU scorers.

"I just think we needed to just relax and calm down and just let the game come to us," Morris said. "We wanted to win so bad. We've dreamed about cutting the nets, and I think at first we were just anxious, everybody just wanted to win. We didn't shoot the ball well. We haven't been shooting the ball well in our last two games, but only thing we can control is our defense and our effort. And that's what we did tonight and we let that dictate our game."

Indeed, that defense flustered Miami's players, who were off all night. The Hurricanes' top two scorers, Destiny Harden and Haley Cavinder, went a combined 1-of-15 for seven points.

In the postgame news conference, Reese described something LSU assistant Bob Starkey did, that in hindsight seemed to prove prophetic.

"He told us that every missed shot, every back door, if you missed a layup, anything, look at that finger and know next play this is what you're built for, and this is what we want," Reese said. "So he wrote that on everybody's finger, and we pointed at that every single time we messed up, did something wrong, or even just the good things. So we were just super happy and super excited and had a lot of fun."

They looked at those fingers plenty, but they also looked within themselves to find just enough to make it to Dallas. Now Mulkey will return to the state where she built her Hall of Fame coaching career, a place where she still has a home and countless friends.

But the truth is she is home at LSU, coaching the flagship university in her home state, where her mom lives 40 minutes away and she can deliver an experience, and an opportunity, they have all desperately wanted for so long.

"What really makes me smile is not cutting that net down, it's looking around out there at all those LSU people, looking at that team I get to coach experience it for the first time," Mulkey said. "That's what it means to me is to do things that you're not supposed to do as quickly as you're supposed to do them."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Guard Ryan Nembhard slumped at his locker as he attempted to sum up the pain of being on the wrong end of the game-deciding call in No. 6 seed Creighton's Elite Eight loss to 5-seed San Diego State.

"It was a great game," Nembhard said. "Sucks it had to end that way, but it is what it is."

With a spot in the Final Four on the line and the game tied, Nembhard fouled San Diego State guard Darrion Trammell with 1.2 seconds remaining on a drive to the basket. Replays showed Nembhard had his left hand on Trammell's right hip as he trailed Trammell into the paint. Nembhard appeared to have a handful of Trammell's jersey before nudging him after he released the ball.

Official Lee Cassell called the foul, perhaps a beat late, sending Trammell to the free throw line. With his four teammates on the floor standing at midcourt, their arms locked, Trammell missed the first shot. He took a deep breath. He swished the second shot for the final point of the Aztecs' 57-56 win, sending the school -- and the Mountain West Conference -- to its first Final Four.

"I wouldn't say I was surprised; I think I got fouled," said Trammell, who scored 12 points. He added: "The moment wasn't too big for me. ... I missed the first one. I definitely wasn't going to miss the second."

San Diego State will play No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic in Houston on Saturday, a clash of two first-time Final Four participants. One of them also will be a first-time partaker in the national title game next Monday night.

Creighton came achingly close to the school's first Final Four, as the game was tied five times in the final six minutes. But the Bluejays sputtered offensively in the second half -- shooting just 27.6% -- and never found a way to pull ahead over that stretch.

The game's frantic final minute included a missed Creighton shot by Trey Alexander that hit the rim four times, a momentum-changing steal and basket by Creighton's Baylor Scheierman with 34 seconds left for the game's final tie, and a lengthy replay review on the inbounds play after the controversial foul.

Creighton's last gasp with 1.2 seconds left ended in ambiguity, as a full-court pass by Scheierman went out of bounds, seemingly ending the game. But after SDSU players stormed the court, officials went to the replay booth and both teams huddled. The officials never made a determination of who the ball last touched, as Creighton's Arthur Kaluma and SDSU's Aguek Arop both leapt for the ball some 90 feet from where it was inbounded and appeared to touch it at the same time.

After a long delay, the officials whistled the game over amid a blur of confusion. An NCAA statement after the game said officials "ruled the clock hit zero before the ball touched out of bounds" and time expired.

Creighton coach Greg McDermott said he never was given clarity on the floor about why the game ended. He declined to comment when asked directly about the call on Nembhard, which could have been considered the type of play officials had let go throughout a rugged game. (Creighton was whistled for just four first-half fouls, and SDSU attempted just six total free throws for the game.)

"Two teams played their tails off, and officiating is part of the game," McDermott said. "We're not going to go there. We lost the game because we didn't do enough, and San Diego State did."

When the officials ruled the game was over, San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher was in the middle of a huddle attempting to draw up scenarios, despite not knowing who had the ball or how much time was left. Dutcher held a black marker and clipboard in his hands, and he appeared momentarily surprised as the celebration began around him.

"It was controlled madness," Dutcher said of that huddle. "I'm glad there was no time left because ... the last team to have the ball would have had a chance to win the game."

The Aztecs held Creighton to a season-low 23 points in the second half and for the second consecutive game forced the opposition into a garish shooting night. After No. 1 overall seed Alabama shot 3-for-27 from 3-point range on Friday, Creighton finished the game 2-for-17 from beyond the arc.

San Diego State will be the rugged bully of this Final Four, as the Aztecs go nine players deep and can be susceptible to long lulls on offense. But their defense will travel to Houston. They won Sunday despite shooting just 37.9% overall from the field and 1-for-8 from the 3-point line in the second half.

Creighton missed all 10 of its 3-point attempts in the second half, and Dutcher attributed "tired legs" as part of SDSU's winning recipe.

"It was hard for us to score," Dutcher said. "But it was just a war of attrition, and we came out on top."

Lamont Butler led San Diego State with 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting, the only player who consistently found a rhythm on Sunday. Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner finished with 17 points.

But it was the final frenzy and officiating ambiguity that this game will be remembered for, as the free throw following Nembhard's controversial foul provided the scoring difference. In a town where photo finishes at Churchill Downs are part of the lore, this was a basketball version.

"It's a tough feeling," Nembhard said. "You work so hard all year, and it comes down to a play like that. I don't know. I think we could have done a little bit more to make it a game that didn't have to go down to that, but it's a tough way to lose."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With his team celebrating nearby and family members embracing one another at T-Mobile Center on Sunday, Jim Larranaga said what no other coach in the history of Miami men's basketball has ever had the privilege to say.

"Well, I'd like to go and cut down the nets," he told a group of reporters following his team's come-from-behind 88-81 win over No. 2 seed Texas in the Elite Eight, as the fifth-seeded Hurricanes advanced to the Final Four for the first time in school history.

With the sting of last season's defeat in the Elite Eight still fresh, Miami's Jordan Miller responded with a perfect performance, going 7-of-7 from the field and 13-of-13 from the foul line to finish with 27 points and rally the Hurricanes from a 13-point second-half deficit against the top remaining seed in the NCAA tournament.

"That loss sat with me for a really long time," Miller said. "It doesn't go away, and the fact that we had the opportunity to come back and make amends, make it right, that's what was pushing me."

Now, Miami has a date with No. 4 seed UConn, a five-point favorite at Caesars Sportsbook, on Saturday night in Houston. Two more Final Four newbies, fifth-seeded San Diego State and No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic, will play in the other national semifinal.

It's the first time since seeding began in 1979 that no team seeded better than No. 4 made the Final Four, so perhaps it is fitting that Larranaga is involved. He took George Mason there as an 11-seed 17 years ago to the day.

As Larranaga basked in it all Sunday, John Ruiz -- the billionaire Miami booster and CEO of LifeWallet -- mingled with Hurricanes supporters, players and coaches after Miami became the fourth team since 1979 to defeat a 1-seed, 2-seed and 4-seed en route to the Final Four. They all knew the man who sported an Adidas track suit and a pair of bright New Balance shoes. Ruiz has not been shy about his effort to fund a new era of Miami athletics, as he has made a push to build a new football stadium and has opened his wallet for both the men's and women's basketball programs.

Ruiz's company gave Nijel Pack a two-year, $800,000 name, image and likeness deal last summer; Isaiah Wong, Norchad Omier and Miller all have deals with him, too. LifeWallet also has NIL deals with Haley and Hanna Cavinder, who play for the Miami women's team that just reached the Elite Eight for the first time in program history.

Pack had a multitude of suitors, many attached to NIL deals, when he decided to leave Kansas State because he wanted to prove to NBA executives that he could play point guard at the next level, a job Markquis Nowell had already secured with the Wildcats.

With his team down 13 points near the midpoint of the second half against Texas, Pack (15 points) made key plays and disrupted the Longhorns' defensive rhythm. Wong (14 points), the ACC Player of the Year who joined with Pack to become one of the conference's most potent duos, was just 5-for-12 overall, but his defensive presence in the second half and a pair of late free throws helped preserve the win for Miami.

"I'm really excited to be in this position with my teammates," Pack said. "There was a lot of doubt when we first came about what we could do. But we were able to accomplish a lot of things. We still have a lot of work to do."

Three of Miami's top four players transferred from other schools within the past two seasons. All of them have significant NIL deals, a popular luxury for the game's best players.

Miller, who transferred from George Mason two years ago, was the star of that group on Sunday, joining Duke's Christian Laettner as the only players since 1960 to go 20-for-20 combined from the field and foul line in an NCAA tourney game.

And Omier, an Arkansas State transfer, contributed 11 points and nine rebounds, making two big free throws and an even more important steal down the stretch.

"No one wanted to go home," Miller said. "We came together. We stuck together. We showed really good perseverance and the will -- the will to just want to get there."

Miami's defensive pressure in the second half changed the tone of the game, despite the team entering the matchup with a ranking outside the top 100 in adjusted defensive efficiency on KenPom.

"I'm a great believer in numbers and I think it tells a story," Larranaga said. "And the story was that we're not that good on defense and we don't rebound that well until the guys realize [midgame], 'Hey, that's what's keeping us from being as good as we can be.'"

Said Miller: "We just all bought into staying together, keeping that hope alive, and the way we just willed this one through, I think everybody played really well, and I think it really shows the poise of this squad."

Miami's win over Texas is a program-altering victory. It might also suggest that the traditional powers will face more challenges as they attempt to hold on to their places in college basketball's hierarchy as more teams -- backed by diehard fans with deep pockets -- push to build rosters that can make an immediate run.

"This is a new day in college basketball and when you look at the rosters across the country, some return many players -- in our league, we had a couple of teams like that, including North Carolina -- and for others, it's a complete transformation," ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told ESPN. "I don't think there is any question that it's a new day. I will also say that some of these programs aren't ready at the level they want to be at in November and December. The amount of transition and transactions that are happening in college basketball, I think these teams start to get molded as the season goes on."

After Sunday's win, the 73-year-old Larranaga not only praised his team but also said this season's run -- a year after reaching the Elite Eight -- is a sign of the university's growth. He said the entire Miami campus is working together to collectively elevate the institution.

"[Miami athletic director] Dan Radakovich did come in and he decided we're going to build a seven-story building for football and we're going to change the men's and women's basketball training room and weight room and now it will be state-of-the-art and large and beautiful," Larranaga said. "And the university is also spending money building a brand-new dormitory. ... So there is very good synergy right now."

Then, Larranaga climbed a ladder and stood near the top with a pair of scissors in his hand.

He began to snip a piece of the net as the "Rocky" theme played throughout the building.

He had already hugged Ruiz, who said his relationship with Miami players goes beyond business. Ruiz also said Miami's Final Four run shows the possibility that a program can evolve quickly in the transfer portal and NIL era.

As Omier jogged toward the stands to greet family members, Ruiz embraced him. Then, the billionaire who aims to change the Miami brand stood back and smiled.

"Baby, 'The U' is back," he said. "'The U' is back."

ESPN's David Purdum, ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SEATTLE -- Caitlin Clark put on a show with 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to help No. 2 seed Iowa beat fifth-seeded Louisville 97-83 on Sunday and send the Hawkeyes to their first women's Final Four in 30 years.

The unanimous first-team All-American was as dominant as she's been all season in getting the Hawkeyes to Dallas for the women's NCAA Tournament national semifinals on Friday night. The Seattle 4 Region champion will face the winner of the Greenville 1 region that has South Carolina playing Maryland on Monday night.

Iowa (30-6) hadn't been to the Final Four since Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer led the team to its lone appearance in 1993. Before Sunday, the team had only been to one other Elite Eight -- in 2019 -- since the Final Four team.

Clark had the 11th triple-double of her career and the 19th in NCAA Tournament history. She had the first 30- and 40-point triple-double in March Madness history.

Trailing by five at the half, Louisville cut its deficit to 48-47 before Clark and the Hawkeyes scored the next 11 points as part of a 17-6 run to blow the game open. That brought most of the pro-Iowa crowd of nearly 12,000 fans to their feet.

Louisville was down 22 with just under 6 minutes left before going on a 13-1 run to get within 86-76 with 2:10 left. The Cardinals could get no closer.

Clark left the game with 22.7 seconds left and hugged coach Lisa Bluder.

Hailey Van Lith scored 27 points and Olivia Cochran had 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead Louisville (26-12).

BOSTON -- Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum missed Boston's 137-93 win against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday because of a left hip contusion.

The 25-year-old MVP candidate is averaging a team-leading 30.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists. This was only the sixth game he has missed this season.

In a 120-95 victory over Indiana on Friday, Tatum posted his 40th game of 30 or more points this season, setting a franchise record. He passed Hall of Famer Larry Bird, who had 39 30-point games during the 1987-88 season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An MRI on Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco's right quad Sunday returned "favorable" results, Rays manager Kevin Cash told the Tampa Bay Times.

Tampa Bay remains optimistic that Franco will play Thursday, when the Rays open the regular season against the Detroit Tigers.

Franco, 22, hit .277 with six home runs and 33 RBIs last season as Tampa By returned to the postseason, one of three teams in the American League East to do so.

"He will not play [Monday in a spring training game], obviously," Cash told the newspaper. "So, we've got three days to treat him. I don't think anything's been decided. We're optimistic that if we can get this thing treated the right way, we should be in a spot where he's good to go."

Franco has had his share of injuries in the early going of this career. Last year, he spend two months on the injured list because of a right hamate bone injury that required surgery.

While he was on a rehabilitation assignment at Triple-A, working his way back from surgery, his timeline was paused when he experienced a sore hand.

"Three days off in a row for him. Maybe get him out there that last day and take [batting practice] and see how he feels, but I'm pretty optimistic," Cash told the newspaper.

In November 2021, Franco agreed to an $182 million, 11-year contract after he finished third in AL Rookie of the Year voting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Top prospect Anthony Volpe will start at shortstop for the New York Yankees after an undeniable spring training performance vaulted him to the coveted job, the team announced Sunday.

Volpe, 21, will travel back to the Bronx on Wednesday and join the starting lineup on Thursday against the San Francisco Giants following a spring in which he batted .314/.417/.647 with three home runs and 10 extra-base hits in 17 games.

He was informed of the decision by manager Aaron Boone on Sunday afternoon.

"My heart was beating pretty hard," Volpe said. "Incredible. I'm just so excited. It's hard for me to even put into words."

The No. 3 overall prospect in MLB, according to ESPN's Kiley McDaniel, Volpe joined the Yankees out of the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey, as the 30th pick of the 2019 draft. During his first full season in 2021, Volpe established himself as one of the best prospects in baseball, and he followed it with a standout 2022 that ended at Triple-A.

In 275 minor league games, Volpe hit .263/.376/.505 with 50 home runs and 89 stolen bases.

Still, he was an underdog heading into spring training, with Oswald Peraza, another front-line shortstop prospect, expected to earn the job. While Peraza struggled, Volpe thrived and received the support of teammates who were smitten by not only his talent but his maturity.

"He's earned the right to take that spot, and we're excited for him and excited for us," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said of Volpe. "He just dominated all sides of the ball during February and March, and that bodes well, obviously, for him as we move forward."

Volpe will be the youngest Yankees shortstop since Derek Jeter debuted at age 20 in 1995 and only the second homegrown shortstop since Jeter's retirement in 2014, along with Gleyber Torres.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get into the organization," Volpe said. "This day, this feeling, this moment was kind of what I've worked my whole life for when I made that big decision."

"Right now, it's crazy," he added. "I don't even know what lies ahead, but Thursday, I just want to go out and play and have fun."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.