Men’s Final Four predictions, previews for Auburn-Florida, Duke-Houston

With all due respect to James Harden, Kyle Lowry — and even LeBron James — the load Thunder star Russell Westbrook is carrying this postseason is immense.

Mark Byington has spent more than three months as the men’s basketball coach at James Madison without being able to take a recruiting trip or meet personally with the eight players joining his program during the coronavirus pandemic. “We wanted to get older,” said Byington, who left Georgia Southern for the Colonial Athletic Association program. Twenty Division I programs have changed coaches since March, when the pandemic shut down college and professional sports as well as in-person recruiting.