The school announced the news Monday, and while Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said he still believes Lickliter is "a tremendous basketball coach," he cited lack of improvement as a reason for the coaching change.

"If you take a look at our competitive record the past three years, it has not been improving," Barta said. "It still continues to be below where we would expect; our attendance and our season ticket sales have continued to go down. This is not something that started three years ago, but in the past three years it has continued to go down dramatically." The Hawkeyes were just 10-22 in 2009-10, with a 4-14 record in the Big Ten. Their season ended with a loss to Michigan in the first round of the conference tournament.

"I want to thank coach Speraw for his tenure at the University of Central Florida, leading our men's basketball program," UCF director of athletics Keith Tribble said. "This was not an easy decision, but one we felt will serve in the best interest of our program's direction. Coach Speraw has always gone about his position with integrity and class and we appreciate all he and his staff have contributed to UCF basketball. This is the right time to make a change in direction." The Knights struggled to a 15-17 overall mark and 6-10 in Conference USA this season and were eliminated by UTEP in the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament.

Speraw, who took over at UCF in July of 1993, guided the school to a 279-233 record, including a 40-38 mark in C-USA since joining the conference back in 2005-

The Jayhawks (32-2), winners of the regular season title and tournament crown in the Big 12, received all 65 first-place votes and a total of 1,625 points from a nationwide media panel.

Kansas was No. 1 for all but four weeks and was never ranked lower than third. The only other teams to ascend to the top spot this season were Texas, Kentucky and Syracuse. The Longhorns spent two weeks at the top, but struggled from there and received just one vote in the final poll.

KCRG-TV has reported that Lickliter met with Iowa athletic director Gary Barta on Monday morning and that neither man would comment after the brief meeting.

Lickliter has compiled a record of 38-58 in three seasons with Iowa, including a dismal mark of 10-22 in 2009-10. The Hawkeyes were just 4-14 in the Big Ten and lost to Michigan in the first round of the conference tournament.

Charlotte collapsed at the end of the season, losing seven of its last eight games, including a 59-56 setback against Massachusetts in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament. The 49ers finished with a 19-12 record.

"This was an extremely difficult decision and not one that was made lightly or in haste," said athletic director Judy Rose. "Bobby has been an important part of the 49ers family and represented our university in a most positive manner. Our expectations for our program are high and our goal is to strive to be in the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 with an opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis." Lutz leaves his alma mater as the program's all-time winningest coach with a 218-158 record.

The Jayhawks (32-2) are the top-seeded team in the tourney's Midwest Region, which will play its final games at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. If Kansas is to win its second title in three years, though, it will have to motor through some heady competition to gain its 14th Final Four appearance and fourth NCAA crown.

Bill Self's club does have one major factor going for them going into the first round: experience. Several of his players have been there and done that, defeating Derrick Rose and Memphis in the 2008 title game. The two leaders this season, senior guard Sherron Collins and junior center Cole Aldrich, were both on that squad, and both figure to have a major say in who comes out of th

Duke (29-5), backed by the triumvirate of Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, is the top seed for an 11th time and will face the winner of the opening-round game between Big South champion Winthrop and SWAC winner Arkansas-Pine Bluff, which had started its season with 11 straight losses. Those two teams will tangle in Dayton on Tuesday for the right to advance to Jacksonville.

"For our senior class I am so happy," said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "Not many teams in my 30 years in the ACC have won both the regular season and the [ACC] Tournament, and I think because they did it, and we played such a tough schedule, these kids were rewarded with a No. 1 seed." The Blue Devils, whose only loss in the past 13 games came at M

Kentucky (32-2), survived that scare from Mississippi State on Sunday and has been selected a No. 1 seed for the 10th time in school history. The Lexington- based school will be trying for its eighth national title and first since a 1998 triumph over Utah. It will also be making its 50th entry into the NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats will take on 16th-seeded East Tennessee State (20-14), which emerged as the champion of the Atlantic Sun Conference for the second straight season, on Thursday in New Orleans.

The Orange (28-4) will take on the 16th-seeded Catamounts (25-9) Friday night in Buffalo and will hope to reverse course from a shocking defeat to Vermont five years ago.

The Catamounts were a No. 13 seed in 2005 when they shocked Syracuse, 60-57, in overtime in a first-round matchup.

Mitchell, a transfer from Duquesne, started in 15 of the 31 games this season and averaged 8.4 points and 3.8 rebounds a game.

The Pirates accepted a bid to play in the NIT with a first-round home game against Texas Tech on tap for Tuesday.

The Patriots, who reached the NCAA Final Four in 2006, will host Fairfield in the first round of the event on Tuesday. The two other games that night have Great West Conference tourney winner South Dakota visiting Creighton, and Western Carolina playing at Marshall.

Harvard, which is making its first postseason appearance since 1946, will play on the road against Appalachian State on Wednesday. The other games that night will have Middle Tennessee State at Missouri State, Pacific at Loyola Marymount and Portland playing at Northern Colorado.

Oregon State, with head coach Craig Robinson, the brother-in-law of U.S. President Barack Obama, will start the tournament with a home game against Boston University on Wednesday. The Beavers go into the event with a 14-17 record, including defeats in four of their last six games.

"We are very excited to have the opportunity to continue our season and play a first round game in front of our home crowd," Robinson said. "It's a great reward for our players to be selected to the tournament and I know Boston University will be a great challenge. We're looking forward to getting back to work on Monday and preparing for the first game." This is the third year for the tournament, which features a single-elimination format until the best-of-three championship series. The Beavers top

The field was revealed Sunday night, approximately three hours after the NCAA Tournament disclosed its participants. Some teams that were on the bubble to make the Big Dance will play in the NIT, hoping to make its final four, which slated for Madison Square Garden on March 30, with the championship game two nights later.

North Carolina (16-16), which won the NCAA Tournament last year, is seeded fourth in the Mississippi State region and will open against William & Mary. This is UNC's sixth NIT appearance and first since 2003. The winner of that game will play the victor of Tuesday's matchup between Mississippi State (23-11) and Jackson State.

Scheyer finished with 16 points as did Nolan Smith with the Blue Devils (29-5) overcoming a shoddy 35.3-percent shooting effort by making 24-of-28 at the free throw line to make it back-to-back ACC tourney titles.

"There aren't many teams that have won the regular season and the tournament," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I bet there is not more than six or eight. When you do that it is an accomplishment." Duke had been tied with rival North Carolina at 17 tournament championships and later secured the South Region's No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a first-round matchup with the winner of the play-in game between Arkansas- Pine Bluff and Winthrop.

Kansas (32-2), which was anointed the top overall seed for the tournament, will be in the Midwest Region. The Jayhawks are coming off their seventh Big 12 Tournament title. They beat Kansas State, 72-64, Saturday night for the crown.

The Jayhawks were the top seed in the Midwest in 2008, the year they won the national championship.

David Lighty was equally impressive with 20 points, eight boards and five assists, while Jon Diebler knocked down five three-pointers en route to 19 points.

The balanced attack also included 13 points from William Buford as the Buckeyes (27-7) won their third Big Ten title and made their case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Eric Bledsoe led all Wildcats (32-2) in scoring with 18 points, while Wall, the tourney's most outstanding player, scored seven of his 17 points in overtime.

The sensational Freshman also handed out nine assists, grabbed six rebounds and recorded five steals.

Ryan Brooks and Ramone Moore each finished with 12 points for Temple (29-5), which defeated St. Bonaventure and Rhode Island to get to the A-10 final. Lavoy Allen chipped in with a game-best 11 rebounds to go along with four points for the Owls, who earned their ninth A-10 title.

Kevin Anderson had 14 points for Richmond (26-8), which defeated Massachusetts and Xavier on the way to the tourney final. Justin Harper ended with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Ryan Butler also donated 10 points for the Spiders.

The Blue Devils are not only trying to establish a new record with an 18th championship in this event, but they are also gunning for their second straight title. Duke made its way to the finals by defeating ninth-seeded Virginia, 57-46, in the quarterfinals and nipping 12th-seeded Miami-Florida, 77-74, in the semifinals yesterday. The Blue Devils have now won a record 86 games in this event, and could secure a No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a win today.

As for the Yellow Jackets, they entered the postseason knowing they needed to do some work to ensure a spot in the Big Dance. Tech certainly stepped up to the challenge and took care of business with a 62-58 win over 10th-seeded North Carolina in the first round before upsetting

Mississippi State is the defending champion of this event, as it defeated Tennessee by a 64-61 final in the 2009 title game, and the program has three titles to its credit. The Bulldogs, who are 23-10 overall, opened play at this event with a 75-69 decision over Florida in Friday's semifinal round. Yesterday, the Bulldogs knocked off Vanderbilt by a 62-52 final.

As for the Wildcats, they have won this event 25 times and own a 113-22 record in SEC Tournament games. Still, they haven't cut down the nets since 2004 and haven't reached the title game since 2005. Kentucky barely got by Alabama in the quarterfinals, but the team was impressive in a 74-45 romp over nationally-ranked Tennessee on Saturday. The Wildcats are 31-2 overall and figure

Minnesota is one step away from claiming its first-ever Big Ten Tournament championship, and even though the top-seeded Buckeyes stand in the way, the Golden Gophers are riding a tremendous wave of momentum. The Gophers dominated Penn State in the opening round (76-55), but that was nothing compared to the team's next two wins. In the quarterfinals, the Golden Gophers defeated the third-seeded Michigan State Spartans, 72-67, in overtime, and if that was not impressive enough, Minnesota completely dominated the second-seeded Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday, winning by a 69-42 margin.

Ohio State, which claimed the Big Ten regular season title with a 14-4 league record, is looking to erase the memory of last season's loss to Pu

The Owls, who are attempting to become only the second team in the A-10 to ever win three straight tourney titles after the five in a row posted by UMass from 1992-96, haven't been truly challenged in this year's event. The squad opened with a 69-51 defeat of eighth-seeded St. Bonaventure on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals and then moved on to a 57-44 victory against Rhode Island on Saturday. With the triumphs, Temple is now 51-19 in the tournament all-time.

As for the Spiders, currently an even 8-8 in this event since joining the league, they have yet to bring home the trophy. Then again, this is just the second trip to the title game for the program following a 72-60 loss to Xavier back in 2002

James Nunnally added 19 points for the top-seeded Gauchos (20-9), who secured the automatic NCAA Tournament berth with their second-ever Big West tourney title. UCSB's only other victory in this tournament came in 2002.

"I thought back to all this hard work that we put in, I figured it had to pay off," Johnson said. "We worked so hard, nine months strong, ever since the beginning of the summer we had one goal, which was to get here and make the tournament." Casper Ware had 19 points to pace the third-seeded 49ers (17-16), who were looking for their fifth Big West tourney title. T.J. Robinson and Greg Plater added 15 and 14 points, respectively, in the loss.

Kendall Cutler added 21 points and eight assists for the top-seeded Coyotes (23-9), who won their 13th straight game. They received an automatic bid to the Collegeinsider.com Tournament.

Steve Smith finished with 14 points, Louie Krogman 13 and Roman Gentry 10 for South Dakota.

Troy Gillenwater added 15 points off the bench for NMSU (22-11), which will play in the NCAA Tournament next week after winning its second conference championship in four years. The Aggies, who lost their final two regular season games, including a 81-63 thrashing at the hands of Utah State in the regular season finale, exacted some revenge after beating sixth-seeded San Jose State and second-seeded Nevada to reach Saturday's final.

Utah State (27-7) had dominated the WAC all season, having won its past 17 games.