John Thompson has passed away at the age of 78.

Thompson was head coach of Georgetown from 1972 until 1999, wining the National Championship in 1984. Thompson also reached the Final Four in 1982 and 1985.

Thompson also was a commentator for many years when he stepped away from coaching.

Patrick Ewing, Allen Iverson, Allen Iverson, Dikembe Mutombo and Sleepy Floyd were among Thompson's highest profile players at Georgetown.

The NCAA approved Landers Nolley's transfer request, making him eligible to play for Memphis this upcoming season.

Nolley averaged 15.5 points and 5.8 rebounds as a freshman last year at Virginia Tech.

Nolley was ranked as the top sit-out transfer for last spring by ESPN.

Lute Olson has passed away at the age of 85.

Olson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

Olson was head coach of the University of Arizona for 25 years, reaching the Final Four five times and winning the National Championship in 1997.

Juwan Howard is gaining traction as a coaching candidate for several teams, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Howard was a head coaching candidate for both the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers before he became head coach at the University of Michigan.

Howard worked as an assistant coach for several seasons under Erik Spoelstra with the Miami Heat. 

The Philadelphia 76ers are widely expected to part ways with Brett Brown and search for a new head coach.

Sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic that Ime Udoka, Ty Lue, Jay Wright and Dave Joerger are potential candidates for the job.

Udoka spent this past season as an assistant coach with the 76ers after several seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. Udoka has been a candidate for a number of head coaching jobs in the past.

Lue is currently an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers and has been mentioned as a favorite for several jobs. 

Wright has long been sought after from the NBA but so far has elected to remain at Villanova.

Joerger was fired by the Sacramento Kings at the end of the 18-19 season. 

Paolo Banchero, the No. 3 prospect in the 2021 class, announced his commitment to Duke.

The 6-foot-8 center chose Duke over Tennessee and Kentucky.

Banchero gives Duke its second top-10 commitment for 2021, alongside No. 9-ranked A.J. Griffin.

Baylor and Gonzaga confirmed that they will play each other in a matchup sometime this season.

Baylor and Gonzaga are ranked No. 1 and No. 3 respectively in ESPN's preseason college rankings.

"It's great for any sport whenever you can have potentially the top-two-ranked teams playing each other," said Baylor coach Scott Drew.

The date of the matchup is uncertain.

The college basketball season is scheduled to begin on November 10th, but could be delayed by mid-September. 

Mike Krzyzewski believes the financial consequences of canceling the 2021 NCAA Tournament will be dire for collegiate amateur athletics.

"We're the thing that the NCAA is most concerned about because men's college basketball and the tournament pays for something like ... it produces 98% or more of the money for the NCAA," Krzyzewski said on Tuesday's edition of Keyshawn, JWIll & Zubin on ESPN Radio. "We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you don't have the NCAA tournament."

Per the NCAA's public audit, the group generated more than $867 million off the 2019 NCAA tournament. While Power 5 programs generate most of their revenue from football, the bulk of college basketball's 353 programs are in leagues that don't have access to that financial pipeline, which increases the value of the NCAA tournament.

Krzyzewski believes the NCAA must host a tournament in 2021, even if it doesn't start in March.

"I think that's where you should start," Krzyzewski said on ESPN Radio. "Make sure you have the tournament. It doesn't make any difference when it is. Because we don't even know when the NBA season is going to be next year. And we should look at them to see how they navigate the waters going forward. They've navigated them really well with the bubble."

The NCAA will make a decision by mid-September on whether to delay the start of the college basketball season.

The season is currently scheduled to start on November 10th, with practices beginning 42 days before a team's opener.

The NCAA is prepared to delay the start of the season if necessary.

"By mid-September, we will provide direction about whether the season and practice start on time or a short-term delay is necessitated by the ongoing pandemic," said senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt.

The Pac-12 announced last week that all college basketball will be delayed until at least January 1st. 

NCAA president Mark Emmert said that having a bubble for several sports, including basketball, was a "perfectly viable" option.

"Starting with 64 teams is tough. Thirty-two, OK, maybe that's a manageable number. Sixteen, certainly manageable," said Emmert.

Emmert was optimistic that COVID-19 testing would improve by this winter, where tests could be "turned around in 15 minutes instead of 15 days."

An event operator in Houston had proposed a three-week bubble allowing 20 teams to play a non-conference schedule in December. The plan was sent to over 50 programs.

John Calipari endorsed the bubble concept, saying that the NBA and WNBA provided a blueprint for success. 

Calipari also added that there was an opportunity after Thanksgiving to enact a bubble and play games.  

"The thing that's happened for all of us in basketball is the NBA and the WNBA have shown a path for us to have a season. The one thing every [college] campus seems to be doing is saying there's not going to be people on campus after Thanksgiving, so it probably opens up a door after Thanksgiving that even if we're not having fans that there's going to be a safe campus based on your team is going to be there by themselves."