An Oregon man who was arrested on Friday on charges of harassment and stalking of UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers appeared in the Connecticut Superior Court on Monday, according to ESPN. He is being held on a $100,000 bond.

According to the report, 40-year-old Robert Cole Parmalee was arrested by the University of Connecticut Police. Parmalee, who was also charged with electronic stalking and breach of peace, began contacting Bueckers in February, sending videos to her on Instagram.

Bueckers, UConn coach Geno Auriemma and all other members of the women’s basketball team will not comment on the matter, a UConn athletics spokesperson said.

The UConn communications department became aware of Parmalee in June after receiving emails that claimed he was a member of the royal family and wanted to marry a UConn women’s basketball player, according to ESPN.

Parmalee was previously arrested on Aug. 27 by the Connecticut State Police after he was spotted walking along a highway near Bradley International Airport, the closest commercial airport near UConn’s campus. When he was picked up by police, he told them he was going to see Bueckers. At the time, per ESPN, he had an outstanding warrant in Oregon. He was being held at the Hartford Correctional Center on Friday when…

The Big 12 has paused expansion discussions with UConn, conference commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement Thursday.

“As Commissioner, it is my responsibility to explore a variety of value-creating opportunities on behalf of the Big 12,” Yormak said. “Following detailed discussions with my conference colleagues alongside UConn leadership, we have jointly decided to pause our conversations at this time.

“We will instead focus our attention and resources to ushering in this new era of college athletics.”

The announcement comes in the wake of renewed discussions between the Big 12 and UConn, including Huskies athletic director David Benedict and other UConn officials attending an in-person meeting with Big 12 athletic directors in Dallas last month, as well as an informational call the Big 12 hosted with university presidents last week, as The Athletic previously reported.

The Big 12 has explored adding UConn since at least last year. Following the additions of former Pac-12 schools Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah last summer, which expanded the conference to 16 schools, Yormark stated publicly those talks with UConn were “no longer.” They then resumed again earlier this year.

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(Photo: Jay Biggerstaff / USA Today)

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has renewed his pursuit of expansion target UConn, with league officials set for a meeting next week where the issue will be reintroduced for in-depth discussion, multiple Big 12 administrators and broadcasting sources told The Athletic.

Yormark, a Northeast native and former Brooklyn Nets executive, has been talking with the school since at least last summer before the Big 12 added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to expand to 16 schools. In August 2023, he said those talks were “no longer.” According to multiple Big 12 administrators, discussions resumed earlier this year, but Yormark did not yet have a consensus internally to extend an invite.

It’s unclear whether support among Big 12 presidents has increased in light of this latest round of discussions, according to league sources briefed on the process. Any further expansion would require support from a supermajority of 12 of 16 members in a president-level vote.

UConn declined to comment, while the Big 12 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Yormark has repeatedly expressed his desire to position the Big 12 as the nation’s premier basketball conference, suggesting college hoops is “undervalued” by TV partners. UConn, the reigning back-to-back national…

UConn star Paige Bueckers is signing a name, image and likeness deal with Unrivaled, the new three-on-three league that promises the highest average pay in pro women’s basketball, sources briefed on the deal said. The deal will make Bueckers the first NCAA athlete to receive ownership equity in a league.

Bueckers, who is entering her fifth season at UConn, is expected to join an Unrivaled team after her first WNBA season, the sources said. The current deal does not include playing services because of NIL restrictions.

With a 10-15 percent ownership pool for players, Unrivaled, which was announced by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier in July 2023, has been aggressive with its pursuit of WNBA stars. The league will include six franchises with 30 players total. The league cap for the 30 players will be at least $7.5 million, an average of $250,000, the sources said — just above the WNBA supermax of $241,000.

The league will officially launch in January.

“Women’s sports is on such a rise, and it feels like everyone is benefiting from that except the women in the sport, and obviously that’s something we’re trying to change and then also create generational wealth for these women,” Collier told The Athletic in May. “From the beginning, (Stewart) and I…

If there’s an overriding lesson from the last four years of Paige Bueckers’ college basketball career, it’s this, she explains: “You never know what each day will bring. You never know what life is gonna throw at you.”

There was a time when Bueckers didn’t necessary think that way, when she assumed her plans would come to pass. Like when she arrived in Storrs, Conn., in the fall of 2020. She knew then that her freshman season — already outlined with the COVID-19 protocols of testing, masks and isolation — wouldn’t look exactly the way she always imagined as a kid. Still, when she thought about the four seasons in front of her, there was a sense of expectation and progress: Four years of healthy play, a few national titles, a graduation and at the end of it, a seat at the 2024 WNBA Draft.

Very little has gone to plan. Bueckers was, in fact, at the 2024 WNBA Draft, but she was there supporting her teammates Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mühl being drafted. She described the night as “surreal,” having always imagined that the class she entered with alongside Edwards and Mühl would be the class with which she exited. Instead, she’s now watching them begin their WNBA careers on television as she returns to college offseason workouts, using one of the two…

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misstated the year NBC, TNT Sports could join Fox as broadcast partners for Big East basketball games. The deals, if completed, are expected to start before the 2025-26 season.

Big East men’s and women’s college basketball is on the verge of adding new television partners as NBC Sports and TNT Sports are expected to join Fox Sports in presenting games beginning in the 2025-26 season, sources briefed on the negotiations told The Athletic.

While Fox Sports will remain the top partner, both NBC, which will feature most of its games on Peacock, and TNT Sports, which operates the streaming service Max, are anticipated to add a large number of games.

The financial terms of the expected new agreements are not yet known. The agreement is not yet formalized and the other incumbent, CBS Sports — which does a smaller package of games — is still holding discussions.

NBC Sports, TNT Sports, Fox Sports and the Big East declined to comment.

The potential moves by NBC Sports and TNT Sports continue their buying sprees, that are centered around the competition over the rights to the NBA. NBC is joining ESPN and Amazon Prime Video in completing legal paperwork to make it partners with the NBA on 11-year deals.

GO DEEPER

What to expect in…

On Jan. 19, two days after he became the most coveted football player in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and mere hours after he welcomed Ohio State coaches for a recruiting visit, Caleb Downs announced his change-of-address plans. The freshman safety who’d earned second-team All-America honors at Alabama committed to the Buckeyes. Not long after, Downs and his father began relocating to Columbus.

Getting there was simple enough. Getting around was another matter.

Some wheels needed to be put in motion.

“I get a call from someone on the coaching staff and they said, ‘Hey, I’m here with Caleb and his dad now. Are you looking to add somebody else to your team?’” says Rick Ricart, the CEO and owner of Ricart Automotive Group in Columbus. “Would you be willing to do a car deal for him?’”

For decades, these were shifty conversations. Local car dealerships had long been conduits for the whispered inducements coaches or boosters promised talented players. When discovered, scandal erupted. Repercussions were often stark. Then came the seismic summer of 2021, when changes to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules allowed college athletes to earn money without fear of NCAA sanctions.

Car dealers nationwide quickly exchanged leases and keys for players boasting about their new…

UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma signed a five-year extension that will keep him as the program’s coach through the 2028-29 season, the school announced Tuesday. Auriemma, 70, will be compensated $3.34 million for the first season with a $200,000 raise each year of the contract, making him the highest-paid women’s basketball coach in the country.

“I still find it hard to believe that I’ve been at UConn for over half my life,” Auriemma said in the release. “I feel like there’s so much more that can be done, and will be done, and I’m excited to be the one to do it with my staff and my team. I’m probably as excited about these next few years as I’ve ever been over the last 40.”

The GOATfather is here to stay

Geno Auriemma has signed a five-year contract extension. pic.twitter.com/1WW2qASDqK

— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) June 4, 2024

Auriemma is four wins shy of passing former Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer as the all-time winningest coach in both men’s and women’s college basketball history. VanDerveer, who retired in April, set the mark this past season (1,216 wins) in her 45th year of coaching.

The 2024-25 season will be Auriemma’s 40th season in coaching, with all 40 seasons coming at UConn.

When…

The two-time defending champions got a major boost Wednesday as UConn forward Alex Karaban announced he’s withdrawing from the 2024 NBA Draft and returning to Storrs for the 2024-25 season.

Karaban, 21, averaged 13.3 points and 5.1 rebounds while starting 39 games for UConn last season.

The two-year starter is looking to continue his 12 straight NCAA Tournament victories. The 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward is 16-1 in postseason play over the Huskies championship runs.

The Huskies’ quest for a three-peat has legitimacy, as they signed five-star McDonald’s All-American forward Liam McNeeley, top-40 recruit Ahmad Nowell and two key portal additions in Aidan Mahaney (Saint Mary’s) and Tarris Reed Jr. (Michigan).

NIL (name, image and likeness) deals allow players like Karaban to return to school and improve their draft stock while making as much — or sometimes more — than they would have made on a two-way contract next season. Karaban will likely take on more of an offensive role as the lone returning starter for the Huskies. He’s already proven himself as a shooter, but improving his shooting efficiency — going from 37.9 percent into the 40s — and taking on a higher-usage role inside the offense are areas for growth.

Karaban has mostly been a spot-up shooter and cutter,…

The 2023-24 season is over. The transfer portal is (still) open. Tara VanDerveer has coached her last game. Two of those three statements would’ve made zero sense to me even a few years ago.

But here we are. Times, they are a-changin’. We at The Athletic are here to make sense of all the movement. Let’s dive into this week’s mailbag to examine some of the big changes and project how they might have an impact on the sport.

Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.

Do you think Geno retires end of next year? He will get the all-time wins record early in the season and Paige will be leaving. If so, who do you see as his replacement? (Sue Bird has already said no interest ). I assume CD will retire when Geno goes. — Thomas S.

I don’t think Auriemma will retire until he has another run at a national title with a fully healthy team. Even this year, with a group that ran six deep and had shifting rotations until the tournament, the Huskies still managed to put together a Final Four run. Among his many impressive coaching jobs, this one is near the top. But even when VanDerveer announced her retirement this offseason (even though I thought she’d want at least one go-around in the ACC), I never thought we’d see Auriemma step down. Let’s see…