Check out All-Big Ten basketball teams, 2026 Player, Coach of the Year

Michiganwas the big winner of the 2025-26 season Big Tenmen's basketballseason. The Wolverines won the league by four games and added to its dominance with Yaxel Lendeborg being namedBig TenPlayer of the Year by a panel of USA TODAY Network voters. It was a near unanimous selection with Lendeborg receiving 15 of 16 votes.

He was, however, the only unanimous first team All-Big Ten selection. Illinois's Keaton Wagler appeared on the first team in 15 of the 16 ballots.

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Lendeborg also took home Big Ten Newcomer of the Year, ahead of Wagler, while Michigan's Aday Mara was voted Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg edged Michigan'sDusty Mayfor Big Ten Coach of the Year.

TheBig Ten Tournamentbegins Tuesday in Chicago.

Here are the All-Big Ten first and second teams and postseason awards as voted on by USA TODAY Network reporters who cover the conference.

2026 All-Big Ten basketball first, second teams

* denotes unanimous selection

• Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan*

• Keaton Wagler, Illinois

• Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State

• Braden Smith, Purdue

• Bennett Stirtz, Iowa

SECOND TEAM

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• Bruce Thornton, Ohio State

• Pryce Sandfort, Nebraska

• Nick Boyd, Wisconsin

• Nick Martinelli, Northwestern

• Lamar Wilkerson, Indiana

Also receiving votes:Hannes Steinbach (Washington), Morez Johnson Jr. (Michigan), Tyler Bildeau (UCLA), David Mirkovic (Illinois), John Blackwell (Wisconsin), Fletcher Loyer (Purdue), Jaxon Kohler (Michigan State).

2026 Big Ten basketball Player of the Year

Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg was a near unanimous pick for Big Ten Player of the Year. The UAB transfer didn't post monster numbers (14.7 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 3.2 apg), but he's the best player on the conference's best team.

"If he's not Big Ten Player of the Year, then I'll be shocked," Wolverines coach Dusty May said Monday.

Well Dusty, all is right in the world.

Iowa's Bennett Stirtz and Purdue's Braden Smith received the other two votes.

2026 Big Ten basketball Coach of the Year

This was the closest vote as Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg edged Michigan's Dusty May by three votes.

The Cornhuskers (26-5, 15-5) werepredicted to finish 15th in the Big Ten preseason rankingsand will enter the conference tournament as the No. 2 seed.

Nebraska is the only Power conference team to never win a game in the NCAA Tournament, but it looks like Hoiberg's group may be the one to break that duck.

Wisconsin's Greg Gard also received a vote.

2026 Big Ten basketball Newcomer of the Year

Yaxel Lendeborg wins this one, too, though Illinois freshman Keaton Wagler received a decent amount of consideration. Lendeborg arrived via the transfer portal after winning back-to-back American Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors and consecutive first-team all-league picks.

2026 Big Ten basketball Defensive Player of the Year

Michigan's Aday Mara won the vote for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, with Nebraska's Sam Hoiberg and Mara's Michigan teammates Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg also receiving votes.

Mara averaged a Big Ten-best 2.6 blocks per game, tied for fifth-best in the nation, and added 6.9 rebounds per game.

Voters for Big Ten postseason awards included:Tony Garcia (Detroit Free Press), Chris Solari (Detroit Free Press), Sam King (Lafayette Journal & Courier), Adam Jardy (Columbus Dispatch), Zach Osterman (IndyStar), Nathan Baird (IndyStar), Tyler Tachman (Des Moines Register), Chad Leistikow (Des Moines Register), John Steppe (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Graham Couch (Lansing State Journal), Connor Earegood (Detroit News), James Hawkins (Detroit News), Michael Niziolek (Bloomington Herald-Times),Chris Hansen (Eugene Register Guard),Austin Curtright (USA TODAY Network), John Leuzzi (USA TODAY Network).

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:2026 All-Big Ten basketball first, second teams, player, coach of year

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Check out All-Big Ten basketball teams, 2026 Player, Coach of the Year

Michiganwas the big winner of the 2025-26 season Big Tenmen's basketballseason. The Wolverines won the league by four...

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What did SEC, Big Ten learn from Trump roundtable? It's time to go

So let's break down this thing to its purest form, beyond the white papers andpresidential roundtablesand putting the toothpaste back into the tube.

What did the presidents and chancellors of theBig TenandSEClearn fromlast week's clown show of a presidential roundtable?

It's time to go.

Time to pull up stakes, say it was good knowing and competing with everyone else in FBS and FCS, but we're taking our multibillion dollar product and starting — in the words of Mr. Toothpaste Back In The Tube himself — our own big, beautiful association.

That's 34 schools from Seattle to Gainesville, Piscataway to Los Angeles, Minneapolis to Austin — and all points between. A true blue national association of the best collegiate sports has to offer.

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An association where they'll make the rules, run the show and make (more) billions doing it.

Hey, when the rubber meets the road, financial sovereignty makes strange bedfellows. Even two superconferences who can't agree on anything of late.

Speaking Monday on the SEC Network with Paul Finebaum, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was asked if the SEC would go it alone.

"How do we work with colleagues to solve problems? Can we do that collectively?" Sankey said. "If there's a point at which we cannot do so, I think the conversation that informs the question that you ask, 'Is there something you'd do alone?' I think that that starts to generate more and more interest."

It's not as difficult as you'd think.

The Big Ten and SEC could collectively bargain with players and player representatives, and have stringent player movement rules because they'll have real player contracts. They'll have a salary cap, and strict rules against private NIL supplementing player procurement.

The days of he with the most money wins will be long gone.

The first time a school uses illegal private NIL to secure a player, they're eliminated from the postseason for two years. The second time: They're out the association.

This is no time to fool around with those who flout rules or push the envelope. This is a multibillion dollar business with more than 100 other schools begging for their ticket to the show.

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It's much easier to kick out a school for blatant disregard of association rules than it is because they're fortunate enough to have been part of the SEC or Big Ten when they were formed.

This won't be just a football move. The SEC and Big Ten can play each other exclusively in all sports, from football to basketball and baseball, and all Olympic sports. No more creampuffs, no more guarantee games.

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They'll have their own football playoff, basketball tournaments and baseball and softball playoffs. And make an absolute financial killing.

A television and streaming rights bonanza the likes of which collegiate sports has never seen. If you think college sports could get 50% more by pooling its media rights among all 10 FBS conferences — that's the projection by those pushing the idea — imagine what a Big Ten/SEC association will fetch.

This is where we are, OK? It doesn't matter how we got here, or that the Big Ten and SEC are as much at fault as anyone for college sports unraveling into a financial and player movement free-for-all.

This is about money.

It's not about player movement (though that's a critical component), orexorbitant coaching buyoutsor a lack of rules enforcement. Andit's certainly not about academics.

This is about staying ahead of two massively mistaken moves made by two conferences that should've known better. Two moves that led to generational instability in collegiate sports, and now have the President of the United States and Congress involved in their business.

The irony of it all is this: The presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten and SEC made expansion moves five years ago based on a cash-grab philosophy. Now they're fighting to not give it away.

In a perfect world where the leaders of academia spoke and wanted the best for all, the SEC presidents and chancellors would've reached out to their counterparts at the Big Ten when Texas and Oklahoma decided they wanted to leave the Big 12.

In a perfect world, one (or preferably more) of those then 28 presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten and SEC would've had the foresight to see a chain reaction of expansion moves dangerous to the health and welfare of the collective. You know, like the last one a mere decade earlier thateliminatedthe Big East.

Someone, anyone, saying we're on the verge of eating another power conference ― so neither the SEC nor the Big Ten are taking Texas and Oklahoma, thank you. Or we're standing on the precipice of paradigm change so drastic, we won't recognize what we've done until we're sitting at the White House and the leader of the free world's answer to the madness we've created by our own sins and souls is, "let's go back to the old way."

Now the only answer is to break away and form their own association.

Because these two titans of collegiate sports, these two money-making machines, aren't going to supplement the rest of college sports. No matter how you look at pooled revenue sharing — even if it guarantees the SEC and Big Ten won't lose money — it's still watering down their products by eliminating some (not all) of their prime Saturday TV windows.

And, of course, eliminating any chance of individual financial growth.

The Big Ten and SEC see this differently than others. They've built their brands, they've done the heavy lifting. Why share the benefits now?

It's time to go.

If you don't think the SEC and Big Ten will make such a drastic move, you're the same person trying to shove the toothpaste back in the tube.

Matt Hayesis the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at@MattHayesCFB.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:SEC, Big Ten should break away from NCAA, form own super league

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What did SEC, Big Ten learn from Trump roundtable? It's time to go

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Hundreds killed in Haiti drone strikes, including 60 civilians, Human Rights Watch says

By Sarah Morland

FILE PHOTO: Two Haitian police killed when drone accidentally explodes

March 10 (Reuters) - Explosive drone strikes by Haitian security forces targeting gangs have killed over 1,200 people, including 43 adult civilians and 17 children, Human Rights Watch said in a report ‌on Tuesday, adding that operations have ramped up in recent months.

Since last March, Haitian security forces, with ‌support from Vectus Global, have carried out anti-gang operations using quadcopter drones strapped with explosives, often in densely populated parts of the capital ​Port-au-Prince. Vectus Global is a private U.S.-based military company led by Blackwater founder Erik Prince.

Haiti's prime minister's office, defense minister, national police, Vectus, and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. charge d'affaires in Haiti told a Senate committee last month that the State Department had licensed Vectus to export its services to Haiti.

A spokesperson ‌for the U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force in ⁠Haiti declined to comment.

HRW's Americas director, Juanita Goebertus, told Reuters that the rights group had documented unlawful use of lethal force, saying Haiti's partners should stop collaborating with its security ⁠forces until they implement safeguards to protect civilians.

"Haitian authorities should urgently rein in the security forces and private contractors working for them before more children die," she said.

Despite Kenyan, U.S. and U.N. support, armed gangs have expanded well beyond the capital and ​security ​forces have yet to capture a major gang leader. The gangs ​have killed thousands, displaced over a million and ‌crippled the economy.

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Drawing from interviews with doctors, victims' relatives, community leaders and videos of the strikes, HRW found drone strikes killed 1,243 people between last March and January 21 of this year.

The strikes also injured 738 people, including 49 alleged civilians, it added, noting that from November to January there were nearly double the number of drone operations compared with the prior three months.

Some local residents told HRW they were afraid to leave their homes due to the ‌drones, which can maneuver between buildings and moving vehicles while their ​controllers track suspects using live video feeds.

Of the child victims, more ​than half were 3-to-12-year-olds killed last September in an ​attack on a sports center where a local gang was distributing gifts, HRW said.

The U.N. ‌office in Haiti (BINUH) has also recorded dozens of ​civilian deaths and injuries from ​drones, including a mother of three killed while selling goods on the street, and another case of a woman who was killed in her own home where two gang members took refuge from a drone.

Last month, ​BINUH said it had no indications ‌the deaths and injuries were being investigated.

HRW said there was no evidence drones were being used widely ​by gangs.

The U.N.'s human rights chief said last October the drone strikes were disproportionate and likely ​unlawful.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico CityEditing by Matthew Lewis)

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Hundreds killed in Haiti drone strikes, including 60 civilians, Human Rights Watch says

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New Mexico investigators search Epstein's former ranch

By Erica Stapleton

STANLEY, New Mexico, March 9 (Reuters) - Investigators in New Mexico began searching on Monday the former high-plains ranch of Jeffrey Epstein where the late ‌financier and his acquaintances are accused of sexually abusing women and girls, state ‌authorities said.

Democratic-run New Mexico is acting on new information in documents released in January by the U.S. Department of ​Justice, including an accusation that Epstein ordered the bodies of two foreign girls buried in hills near the secluded property.

The search follows New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez's decision last month to reopen the investigation into the late sex offender's alleged criminal activities at the ranch 30 ‌miles (48 km) south of the ⁠state's capital of Santa Fe.

"The New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to keep the public appropriately informed, support the survivors, and follow the ⁠facts wherever they lead," it said in a statement.

On Monday, a Reuters witness heard dogs barking and saw a government vehicle bearing a paw-print symbol, suggesting it was carrying animals, leave the ranch. ​State ​police and a county fire and rescue vehicle ​were also spotted.

The Epstein files have ‌become a persistent political problem for President Donald Trump.

New Mexico closed its previous Epstein investigation in 2019 at the request of federal authorities. There has never been a full investigation of the alleged assaults by Epstein, his partner Ghislaine Maxwell and ranch visitors.

Last month, New Mexico became the first U.S. state to launch a legislative "truth commission" to uncover possible public corruption that ‌allowed Epstein to operate in secrecy at the ranch ​for 26 years before his death in 2019.

Epstein's estate ​sold the property in 2023 to ​Texas businessman Don Huffines who renamed it San Rafael Ranch.

The new owners ‌are cooperating with the investigation and granted ​access for the search, the ​department said.

The January 30 release of millions more files exposed Epstein's social connections with politicians, business people and scientists who he invited to the ranch.

Reuters/Ipsos polling shows most ​Americans view the Epstein ‌case as an example of wealthy and powerful people rarely being held accountable.

(Reporting by ​Erica Stapleton in Stanley, New Mexico, additional reporting by Andrew Hay in ​Santa Fe, New Mexico; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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New Mexico investigators search Epstein's former ranch

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Emotional Gary Woodland reveals PTSD struggles following brain surgery

PGA Tour veteran Gary Woodland revealed Monday that he has battled post-traumatic stress disorder related to the brain surgery he underwent 2 1/2 years ago.

The September 2023 operation addressed a lesion and halted his seizures. Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, returned to the tour the following January and has played regularly ever since, but not all has been well.

"I can't waste energy anymore hiding this, and I'm blessed with a lot of support out here on the Tour," Woodland, 41, said in an emotional interview with Golf Channel. "Everyone's just been amazing. Every week I come out and everyone's so excited and happy that I'm back. I hear that every week -- it's so nice to see you past this, it's so nice to see you 100% -- and I appreciate that love and support. But inside, I feel like I'm dying, and I feel like I'm living a lie."

Woodland illustrated his struggles by discussing an incident at an event in Napa, Calif., last fall.

Woodland was triggered by a tournament staffer walking near him on the golf course.

"I stepped aside, I pulled my caddie and said, 'This stuff is hitting me, man. You can't let anybody get behind me,'" Woodland said. "Next thing you know, I couldn't remember what I was doing. My eyesight started to get blurry. And a hole later, I just said (to my caddie) ... 'I can't handle it.' And I start bawling in the middle of the fairway. It was my turn to hit, and I couldn't hit."

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His caddie said to Woodland, "Let's go in," but Woodland decided to keep playing because he was competing with two members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team for which he was about to serve as an assistant captain.

"I said, 'No, man, I'm here for these guys. I want to fight through this,'" Woodland said. "I went into every bathroom to cry the rest of the day. When I got done, I got in my car and got out of there.

"There are days when it's tough -- crying in the scoring trailer, running to my car just to hide it. I don't want to live that way anymore."

Woodland said of discussing his mental-health issues, "I hope somebody that's struggling sees me out here still fighting and battling and trying to live my dreams. I've talked to veterans, and one thing I've heard from multiple people is you can't do this on your own, no matter how strong you think you are. ...

"I want to help people, too. I realize now I've got to help myself first -- and hopefully this is the first step in doing that."

Woodland has four career wins on the PGA Tour, none since his U.S. Open victory 5 1/2 years ago. Last year he had one top-10 finish, a tie for second at the Texas Children's Houston Open, and he wound up 72nd in the FedEx Cup standings.

--Field Level Media

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Emotional Gary Woodland reveals PTSD struggles following brain surgery

PGA Tour veteran Gary Woodland revealed Monday that he has battled post-traumatic stress disorder related to the brain...

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