Maryland Junior Guard Melo Trimble Declares for NBA Draft; College BB News

(AP) — Maryland junior guard Melo Trimble is forgoing his final year of collegiate eligibility to enter the NBA draft and will sign with an agent.

The three-time All-Big Ten selection helped the Terrapins advance to its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance this season. He also led the team with 16.8 points per game.

Trimble is also one of four players in Maryland history to record 1,600 points, 400 assists and 150 steals.

Also in college basketball news:

— Miami of Ohio has hired Purdue assistant Jack Owens as its 27th basketball coach. Owens has been an assistant at Purdue for nine seasons, including the past six as associate head coach. The RedHawks fired John Cooper on March 10 following an 11-21 season.

— UMass has hired Matt McCall as its next basketball coach after Winthrop's Pat Kelsey backed out of an agreement to take over the program. The 35-year-old McCall spent the previous two seasons in Chattanooga and led the school to last year's NCAA Tournament. He replaces Derek Kellogg, who was fired this month after nine seasons with the Minutemen.

— Nebraska forward Ed Morrow Jr. has announced he intends to transfer to another school after the spring semester. Morrow averaged 9.4 points and a team-leading 7.5 rebounds in 24 games as a sophomore.

— UNLV has announced that Tony Baxter Jr., Zion Morgan and Jalen Poyser will not return to the team next season. The three players combined to average 17.5 points a game for the Running' Rebels this season, with Poyser providing 10.4 per contest.

— A referee who worked Sunday's Kentucky-North Carolina NCAA Tournament game has contacted law enforcement to report he's received death threats. A person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that John Higgins reported threats on his unlisted home phone and on the office phone for his roofing company. The Facebook page for the roofing company also was inundated with negative comments about Higgins and the quality of his company's work.

— Women's basketball saw its lowest attendance for the NCAA Tournament regionals in 20 years. An average of 4,719 fans showed up for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in the four neutral-site venues. That's down 27 percent from last year and nearly 50 percent from 2014, when the games were played on campus sites.