Kresse Retires From Charleston

John Kresse, 560-143 in 23 seasons as basketball coach at the College of Charleston, announced his retirement Tuesday.

Kresse, who has two years remaining on a 10-year contract, will become an assistant to college President Lee Higdon.

“I knew that my father was a butcher all his life, and I did not want to be a coach for all my days,” Kresse said. “I wanted to try to do something else that would be beneficial for the college and exciting for me.”

Kresse, 58, is a native of New York who won a national championship when the College of Charleston was an NAIA school in 1983.

The college moved to NCAA Division I in the early 1990s and, since then, Kresse’s teams have gone to the NCAA tournament four times and the NIT twice.

His teams have won 20 or more games in each of the last nine seasons and, during the 1998-99 season, the Cougars became the first team to go undefeated in the Southern Conference.

This season, Charleston was 21-9, but the Cougars were only 9-7 in league play and, for a third consecutive season, did not receive an invitation to a postseason tournament.

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Pittsburgh point guard Brandin Knight didn’t practice Tuesday as the Panthers began preparing for Friday’s NCAA first-round tournament game against Central Connecticut State.

Knight is listed as day-to-day after straining his right quadriceps during Pitt’s 74-65 double-overtime loss Saturday to Connecticut in the Big East Conference championship game.

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Randy Wiel resigned as Middle Tennessee’s coach after a 14-15 season and 84-90 mark in six seasons at the school.

NIT

Chris Williams scored a career-high 40 points and Ball State (21-11) used an 18-1 run to pull away for a 98-92 victory over South Florida (19-13) in an opening-round game at Muncie, Ind. Theron Smith had 26 points and 10 rebounds for the Cardinals.... Jameer Nelson shot 11 for 12 from the free-throw line in the last four minutes and finished with 28 points to lead Saint Joseph’s (19-11) to a 73-64 opening-round victory over George Mason (19-10) at Fairfax, Va.... Pete Conway made six three-point baskets and scored a career-high 23 points as Montana State (20-8) held on for a 77-69 opening-round victory over Utah State (23-8) at Logan, Utah.

Reece Gaines banked in a jumper with 5.3 seconds left and scored 23 points to send Louisville (19-12) to a 66-65 first-round victory over Princeton (16-12) at Louisville, Ky.... Dalron Johnson scored 26 points and Marcus Banks had 23 to lead Nevada Las Vegas (21-10) to a 96-91 first-round victory over visiting Arizona State (14-15). Awvee Storey led the Sun Devils with 29 points.