Even with just two games left in the season, there’s still so much we don’t know about who the Jazz will face in the NBA playoffs.

Start here: the Jazz will likely be the fifth seed for the third consecutive season. They could still move up to fourth, but doing so would require the Jazz to win their remaining two games — at home against Denver on Tuesday, then in L.A. on Wednesday against the Clippers — and Portland to lose their last two games against the Lakers and Kings. If they do, Portland will be Utah’s opponent, but the Jazz would have home court advantage in the series.

Likewise, Utah could slip back to sixth if they lose their last two games while the Oklahoma City Thunder win their last two.

OKC faces two tougher tests, though: they play Houston on Tuesday in Oklahoma City, then travel to Milwaukee to face the league-leading Bucks. The Bucks will likely be resting all of their top players given that they’ve clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, but they’ve proven feisty even without their top guys at times.

But the really big question in the West is who ends up in third and who ends up in fourth. Thanks to Denver’s efforts to tank against Portland on Sunday night, the West picture for those two seeds is very complicated.

Houston is most likely to remain the third seed. They even have an outside chance to make it to the two seed if Denver loses out — their last two games are against the Jazz on Tuesday and at home against Minnesota on Wednesday — or if Houston beats OKC on Tuesday and Denver loses either of their two remaining games.

Houston can also slip down to four by losing their Tuesday game to Oklahoma City, while Portland beats the Kings and the Lakers. If that happens, the Jazz will face the Rockets. In every other scenario, the Jazz will face the Portland Trail Blazers.

The possibility of playing Houston could frighten Jazz fans, given the struggles the Jazz had against the Rockets in last year’s playoffs and during the season so far.

In many ways, Utah’s game against Denver might matter less to the Jazz than the oft-mentioned Rockets/Thunder game, which starts a half-hour after Utah’s 7:00 tip-off. Given how unlikely it is for the Blazers to lose their next two, the case can even be made that a Jazz loss against Denver would be a good thing, giving them a chance — still a small one — to move to six on the final night of the season if they feel it would mean a better matchup.

There’s no indication yet, though, that they would do such a thing. After all, the Jazz’s culture is about getting better every night, and it’s hard to keep that as a goal when losses are asked for. Playing well going into the playoffs matters too, as does re-adjusting to playing playoff-caliber opponents.

Unless there is some record of police officers in Lehi paying intimidating visits to the homes of young chalk artists who are partial to images of Spiderman, butterflies and My Little Pony, then whoever sent the cops to call on the families of children who have been expressing their reasonable concern about air quality in the Utah County community is way out of line.

As the ACLU has explained and as, if the city’s policy is not soon reversed, the courts are sure to agree.

City officials and the management of Geneva Rock are allied in their desire to dig up (don’t call it “mining”) a bunch of rock and gravel from developing property near the Traverse Mountain residential neighborhood.

Many of the residents of that area are not thrilled about the prospect, understandably concerned that such activity is likely to make the air in the community even more dangerous than it already is.

As is their First Amendment right, and the duty of concerned citizens and responsible parents and siblings, Lehi residents of all ages have been making their feelings known. Among their chosen methods of petitioning for a redress of grievances has been chalk drawings on the sidewalks of Main Street and in front of Lehi City Hall.

None of the messages are permanent or otherwise damaging to public property. None of them are obscene or slanderous. All are fair comment. All are protected by the First Amendment.

None of them constitutes what a City Hall spokesperson has absurdly called “criminal mischief.”

The city’s overly sensitive reaction to this particular method of clean-air advocacy can only serve to demonstrate that someone in a position of power -- governmental of economic -- thinks they should not be criticized and that they have the right to employ the muscle of the state to tell other people to shut up.

No, they don’t.

Whatever happens with the don’t-call-it-a-quarry that Geneva plans, the children involved in this literal sidewalk protest movement may come away with one of two lessons.

Either they will spend the rest of their lives in fear of police officers and highly reticent to engage in any personal or political expression.

Or they will internalize the message that, sometimes, people in power are officious poops who don’t deserve the respect they claim to be owed by virtue of their public office or corporate wealth.

Please, please let it be the latter.

A doctor who was an early evangelist for increased use of highly addictive opioids like OxyContin to treat chronic pain — and who was paid to promote the idea — has switched sides and now says drug makers helped to create a U.S. epidemic by failing to acknowledge the risks of abuse.

Dr. Russell Portenoy, a medical-school professor who studied pain for more than 30 years, has agreed to testify against the industry in trials of lawsuits brought by local governments seeking billions in social costs associated with addiction, according to unsealed court filings. In a sworn statement, he said drug makers were too aggressive in promoting opioids for all kinds of ailments.

“The opioid manufacturers should have tempered their positive messaging about opioids with a greater focus on risk, particularly as early signals of opioid risk emerged,” Portenoy said in his court declaration. Drug makers also “should have responded as evidence of increasing adverse affects mounted” to increased awareness and “reduce inappropriate or risky prescribing,” he said.

Portenoy switched sides last year after U.S. cities and counties agreed to drop their lawsuits against him in exchange for his cooperation, the court records show. A settlement was reached, and he provided documents and testimony that could be used in the lawsuits against opioid manufacturers including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

According to a 2017 investigation conducted by then Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, more than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2015, with a third of those deaths caused by prescription opioids including Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin and Insys Therapeutics’ Subsys.

Recognized as one of the leading U.S. experts on pain treatment and a “key opinion leader,” Portenoy will testify that companies “overstated the benefits of chronic-opioid therapy” and “understated the risks of opioids, particularly the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose,” according to the federal-court filing.

That backs up the contention of local governments that illegal marketing by opioid makers fueled a public-health crisis that consumed billions of tax dollars. The plaintiffs say those misleading sales tactics created a “public nuisance” that puts the companies on the hook for social costs tied to the epidemic.

Robert Josephson, Purdue’s spokesman, declined to comment on Portenoy’s defection.

Portenoy’s 36-page declaration about his change of heart was made public Friday as part a pre-trial ruling in a consolidation of more than 1,600 suits filed by public entities before a federal judge in Cleveland. The doctor didn’t immediately respond to an interview request Monday.

A special master overseeing discovery in test trials set for October is recommending that Portenoy be barred from testifying because plaintiffs’ lawyers didn’t notify the companies of the doctor’s settlement until months after it was signed. Portenoy would be free to testify in future opioid cases if U.S. Judge Dan Polster signs off on the recommendation.

Portenoy, a professor of medicine at New York-based Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University who oversees hospice care at Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center, was an early adopter of the idea that opioids used mostly to treat cancer patients could be safely and effectively used for chronic pain from arthritis and bad backs.

Government regulators generally limited prescription opioids — some of which are 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. While doctors have wide discretion to prescribe medicines beyond what they’ve been approved to treat, drug makers can only market their products for ailments approved by regulators.

Portenoy’s assertion that opioid therapy is effective and safe for non-cancer pain was used in doctor-training videos backed by opioid makers and in the companies’ marketing brochures, he said. Portenoy said he was hired as a consultant by several drug makers. He has been identified in court filings as a “spokesman” for Purdue and an expert who provided “a critical component” of drug-marketing efforts.

But Portenoy now says he’s changed his view. After more than 20 years of experience with opioids, he has determined that the drugs should not be prescribed widely, and instead should only be targeted to patients who don’t have a high risk of addiction, according to the declaration.

The pain doctor said opioid makers selectively cited his work to market their products in an “unbalanced” way that contributed to physicians prescribing the painkillers inappropriately. During that period, he was receiving compensation from pharmaceutical companies for speeches, research and consulting. He didn’t say how much he was paid in total, but cited examples of almost $80,000 from 2006 to 2011, as well as a $500-an-hour consulting contract in 2008 with Insys, court filings show.

Those kind of prescribing habits — influenced by opioid makers’ relentless marketing of their painkillers — “contributed to rising incidences of drug addiction and overdoses,” Portenoy said in his declaration.

Not all the plaintiffs’ lawyers are impressed with Portenoy’s change of heart.

“Although it’s nice that Dr. Portenoy has changed his view on the use of opioids, it doesn’t help the millions who have died and become addicted over the years while he was a shill for Purdue, J&J and the rest of the opioid industry,” Hunter Shkolnik, an attorney for some cities and counties, said in an emailed statement.

More than 20 percent of all adults and over a third of millennials in the United States are not affiliated with a religion. For at least a decade, this number has been on the rise.

Sexual abuse by clergy and a poor response by the church hierarchy have led many young Catholics to lose trust in their religious institution. Some 36 percent of those without religious affiliation report having grown up Catholic.

But countering this trend is a movement led by millennials who are devoted to bringing Catholicism back on college campuses — with a modern flair.

Missionaries on campus

I have spent the past seven years researching these young adults. These millennials are Catholic, and being Catholic is more central to their identity than many of their peers.

These missionaries follow church teachings with an adherence more common with the baby boomers and the silent generation. They attend Mass every week, go to confession frequently, memorize Latin prayers and are devoted to saints. As college campus missionaries, they spend their days inviting college students to be similarly committed to Catholicism.

Though a minority among the millennial-generation Catholics, they are part of a movement that has been running parallel to mainstream U.S. Catholicism for just over 20 years.

Known as the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, or FOCUS, the movement started in 1998, when two male and two female college graduates began working as Catholic missionaries at Benedictine College and the University of Northern Colorado. As students, they had seen the decline in Catholic practice among their peers and wanted to promote an attractive version of Catholicism.

Following the example of Protestant groups like Cru and Athletes in Action, FOCUS began holding Bible studies on campuses. They trained increasing numbers of missionaries to build friendships with college students. As missionaries worked to make Catholicism look relevant to college students, FOCUS established itself as a religiously affiliated outreach program.

Over the course of the next two decades, FOCUS grew rapidly. At first, it was through word of mouth between bishops and priests. Gradually, as more college students attended FOCUS events and began participating in Catholic ritual life, campus ministries on private, Catholic and public universities and campuses began to request a FOCUS team.

Who are these missionaries?

FOCUS partners with Catholic centers on campuses and recruits college students to become missionaries after graduation. Each missionary spends two years on a campus, working with students, promoting Catholicism. Many of the college students that missionaries reach out to describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” or a “none.”

The missionaries are much like any other middle-class young adult in the U.S.: They live on their iPhones, drink craft beer, buy pumpkin spice lattes and love March Madness. Some even have tattoos, often with quotes from saints.

They go through much the same relationship issues as other young adults. I interviewed more than 50 missionaries about their experiences. Over cups of coffee or while jogging, they shared with me their struggles with depression and alcohol abuse. They also shared the pain of losing intimate friendships.

What sets them apart, however, is that unlike most other millennials, they find answers to life’s struggles in being Catholic. And they want others to know that as well.

One missionary, for example, told me, “I have seen change in my life” since becoming more Catholic in college. Another said it was hard for him to watch college students suffer with anxiety. “I just know,” he told me, “their lives could be better with Catholicism.”

They present Catholicism as relevant and “cool.” I heard stories about missionaries hosting foam parties and black-light parties — flashy dance parties that are popular on college campuses.

One missionary told me how she trained for a popular test of physical strength called a Tough Mudder with some college students. Another explained how he used games of pickup basketball to make friends with college students. They also planned gender-segregated camping trips and tailgate parties before sporting events.

In addition to these typical college campus events, these Catholics invited students to prayer, Bible study and to attend Mass.

Growth amid concerns

Media reports have described the fast growth of FOCUS in just two decades into an organization with 660 missionaries on 137 campuses. It is spread across 38 U.S. states and at four international locations. In my own work, I watched a campus program in the Midwest grow from nothing to a group of 20 students within the first year.

This year, in perhaps the largest five-day gathering, called SEEK2019, some 17,000 Catholics, which included college students and other young adults, met in Indianapolis.

But critics have also pointed out serious concerns with how FOCUS works. There is a lack of racial diversity among missionaries, who mostly belong to the white middle- and upper-class.

In informal conversations with campus ministers, I have heard concerns about a lack of formal pastoral training given to missionaries. FOCUS missionaries receive just four to six weeks of training over the summer. Their attention to making Catholicism attractive through friendship with “nones” and other college students has also made them inattentive to Catholicism’s emphasis on social justice. On a large, public campus, I observed a program close down because of disagreements between the campus ministry and the FOCUS over how to best reach college students.

Nonetheless, at a time when young Catholics are moving away from their faith, the role of missionary organizations such as FOCUS is worth noticing.

Katherine Dugan is an assistant professor of religion at Springfield College. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Beyoncé became the first black woman to headline Coachella, and now her 2018 performance will be the subject of a Netflix documentary, premiering April 17.

“Homecoming” will provide “an in-depth look at Beyoncé's celebrated 2018 Coachella performance from creative concept to cultural movement,” according to Netflix. The streaming giant released a trailer Monday that features behind-the-scenes footage from rehearsals, as well as a rare shot of what appears to be Rumi and Sir, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s twins.

Just as she’s known for her elaborate stage designs and fierce dance moves, Beyoncé is also characterized by keeping massive projects a secret right up until they’re about to be released. While a documentary special of the Coachella concert isn’t entirely unsurprising, Netflix’s Sunday announcement was the first time we learned of its existence.

Dubbed “Beychella” by DJ Khaled, the April 2018 headlining set attracted viewers worldwide via the Coachella live stream, which repeated the performance the following day. Since then, fans have had to content themselves with crowd videos to relive the entirety of the concert, which captivated social media and became the subject of countless essays.

“Beychella” became a stunning spectacle. Her first major performance since giving birth to twins was essentially an ode to historically black colleges and universities, and more broadly, black culture, complete with a drum line, majorettes, step-dancing and a mock probate. More than a hundred dancers and musicians donned the Beyhive’s signature colors, yellow and black, and flanked the singer as she moved from song to song, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” commonly referred to as the black national anthem.

It was all even more remarkable given the setting. Coachella hasn’t been particularly known for attracting a diverse crowd (the day before Beyoncé headlined, Vince Staples referred to the Coachella main stage as “the white people stage.”)

Following the performance, Beyoncé’s mother wrote on Instagram that she had told her famous daughter that she was “afraid that the predominately white audience at Coachella would be confused by all of the black culture and Black college culture because it was something that they might not get.”

View this post on Instagram

Saw this written above photo and commentary by: Alisa Adamson Profit and thought i would share it with you https://apple.news/AmQP7CFzMQOS7gDDGvfigMw ❤️❤️I told Beyonce that i was afraid that the predominately white audience at Coachella would be confused by all of the black culture and Black college culture because it was something that they might not get. Her brave response to me made me feel a-bit selfish and ashamed. She said i have worked very hard to get to the point where i have a true voice and At this point in my life and my career i have a responsibility to do whats best for the world and not what is most popular “ She said that her hope is that after the show young people would research this culture and see how cool it is, and young people black and white would listen to “ LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING and see how amazing the words are for us all and bridge the gap. She also hopes that it will encourage young kids to enroll in our amazing HIstorically Black Colleges and Universities . I stand corrected ❤️

A post shared by Tina Knowles (@mstinalawson) on Apr 16, 2018 at 10:46am PDT

Beyoncé responded that she has “worked very hard” to get to a point where she has a “true voice” and that at this point in her life and career, she has “a responsibility to do [what’s] best for the world and not what is most popular,” Tina Knowles wrote. Beyoncé had hoped her performance would also inspire young people to enroll in historically black colleges and universities. (She subsequently started the Homecoming Scholars Award Program.)

The trailer Netflix released will likely get into the genesis of the performance, including the no-doubt intense rehearsals to get the intricate dancer and musician formations so exact.

Beyoncé had initially expected to headline Coachella in 2017, but she had to back out because of her pregnancy. And it was during that performing hiatus that she came up with the concept for Coachella.

“I had time to dream and dream and dream with two beautiful souls in my belly, and I dreamt up this performance,” she said mid-performance. “And this is more than I ever dreamt of it being. And thank you guys for sharing this with me. I hoped you all enjoyed the show. I worked very hard.”

The Coachella performance also featured more traditional Beyoncé attire (sparkly leotards); a Destiny’s Child reunion (Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland joined her onstage to sing “Say My Name” and “Soldier”); a Jay-Z cameo (for “Deja Vu”); and a sister-dance off with Solange to “Get Me Bodied.”

“Homecoming” marks Beyoncé’s first Netflix collaboration. HBO has previously aired her concert specials and documentaries, including 2016′s “Lemonade.”

Salt Lake Community College’s Betsy Specketer, one of two coaches in the state’s history with 500 wins in one college basketball program, announced her retirement Monday.

Specketer is leaving SLCC after a 25-6 season and a sixth consecutive trip to the NJCAA tournament. The Illinois native posted a 545-196 record in 23 seasons as the Bruins’ head coach, following two years as an assistant. Her move was “definitely not something that was decided in haste,” Specketer said in a school news release. “My experience at SLCC has been nothing but positive, but there comes a time when maybe you would like to do some different things.”

Elaine Elliott, who coached the University of Utah women's team through 2010, posted 582 victories. The only men's college basketball coaches with 500 wins at Utah schools are Jon Judkins (Snow/Dixie State), Norm Parrish (SLCC/Westminster) and Dave Rose (Dixie State/BYU). Utah State's Stew Morrill is the only coach in Utah history with 600 career wins; about one-third of those victories came at Montana and Colorado State.

In a Salt Lake Tribune interview after her 500th victory in November 2017, Specketer said, “I never really wanted to be someplace else.”

After coaching for 10 years at an Illinois high school, Specketer joined former SLCC coach Monica Starrett’s staff in 1994. She became the head coach in ’96, coinciding with the Bruins’ move from the old South High School gym to the Lifetime Activities Center on the Taylorsville campus.

SLCC reached the NJCAA semifinals in 2017. More than 70 of Specketer’s players moved on to four-year programs.

Democratic candidates in recent years as a rule haven't felt comfortable talking about values and faith. (This may be an aversion to make "judgments" or a recognition that many, but certainly not all, segments in the Democratic coalition are relatively secularized.) The mainstream media does not have a high quotient of devoutly religious people. (It's also excessively urban and now almost entirely college-educated.) As a result, the talk of values outside the religious right has been muted in national politics.

That has changed, in part because the evangelical community has thrown values and decency overboard to support President Donald Trump, and in part because Trump's conduct, more than any recent president, shocks the conscience. Be it bragging about sexual assault, implementing a policy that rips toddlers from their parents' arms or continuing the drumbeat of racist remarks, Trump has managed to get a very high percentage of voters to agree he's no role model.

When addressing a scandal like the Trump campaign's willingness to accept Russian help or his interference in the investigation, we too often default to talking about illegalities. That's a mistake, because we need to set a standard for public life, especially for the president, that is higher than "didn't break federal laws." (Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California was exactly right to say there has been ample evidence of the campaign's interaction with and encouragement of a hostile power bent on interfering with our election, which, if not a federal crime, was an immoral and unacceptable betrayal of one's country.)

In this regard, Democratic contenders have begun appealing to voters' sense of moral indignation. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., often says, "We are better than this." Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana., has perhaps gone the furthest in this regard. On Sunday, he appeared on "Meet the Press":

CHUCK TODD: You said something rather strong about the president, that you said, "It's hard to look at his actions and believe that they are the actions of somebody who believes in God." How do you square that assessment with the fact that the evangelical Christian community is so devoted to his candidacy?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, it's something that really frustrates me, because the hypocrisy is unbelievable. Here, you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in scripture or in church, where it's about lifting up the least among us and taking care of strangers, which is another word for immigrants. And making sure that you're focusing your effort on the poor. But also personally, how you're supposed to conduct yourself. Not chest-thumping, look-at-me-ism, but humbling yourself before others. Foot-washing is one of the central images in the New Testament. And we see the diametric opposite of that in this presidency. I think there was perhaps a cynical process where he decided to, for example, begin to pretend to be pro-life and govern accordingly. Which was good enough to bring many evangelicals over to his side. But even on the version of Christianity that you hear from the religious right, which is about sexual ethics, I can't believe that somebody who was caught writing hush-money checks to adult film actresses is somebody they should be lifting up as the kind of person you want to be leading this nation.

We should underscore a few points.

First, Democrats cannot solely or even primarily run against Trump's awfulness. They have to present their own vision. However, one argument for dumping Trump and adopting their agenda should be that the latter is more humane and more decent. Democrats should argue that their policies work better and are more in keeping with our values.

Second, unlike the religious right that has used religion as a club to bludgeon opponents, progressives who speak about values and faith in this way can provide reassurance to disaffected Republicans who are leaving the party precisely because they find Trump and his enablers to be morally repugnant. In fact, Buttigieg's views on faith and civic responsibility are far more "conservative" than anything coming out of Trump's mouth.

Third, in our hyperpolarized, politically toxic climate, we certainly need to have a conversation about and a commitment to what we used to call civic virtue — respect, tolerance, humility, honesty, empathy and the rest. If we want to pull back on the impulses to engage in one political brawl after another, the conversation about values had better start in the campaign.

Finally, there is a case to be made for giving voters the opposite of what they currently have. Just as Jimmy Carter’s promise to never lie to Americans was the perfect antidote to Watergate, so too may a call for decency in public life be just what voters are looking for after a president unique in his cruelty, immorality and dishonesty.

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post.

@JRubinBlogger

Message to the world:

Just remember, there are a lot more “good people” (non-racist, non-ignorant, not greedy) in America than there are Republicans.

Gene Martinez, Midvale

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Boston • “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman and a dozen other prominent parents have agreed to plead guilty in the college admissions bribery scam that ensnared wealthy families and athletic coaches at some of the nation’s most selective universities, federal authorities said Monday.

The actress and the other parents were charged last month in the scheme, which authorities say involved rigging standardized test scores and bribing coaches at such prestigious schools as Yale and Georgetown.

Huffman, 56, was accused of paying a consultant $15,000 disguised as a charitable donation to boost her daughter’s SAT score. Authorities say the actress also discussed going through with the same plan for her younger daughter but ultimately decided not to.

She will plead guilty to conspiracy and fraud, according to court documents. Those charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but the plea agreement indicates prosecutors will seek a sentence of four to 10 months.

Experts have said they expect some parents will avoid prison time if they quickly accept responsibility. All of the defendants will have to return to Boston to enter formal guilty pleas, but no new court dates were set.

Other parents charged in the scheme include prominent figures in law, finance, fashion, the food and beverage industry and other fields.

It’s the biggest college admissions case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department. The scandal embroiled elite universities across the country and laid bare the lengths to which status-seeking parents will go to secure their children a coveted spot.

The consultant, Rick Singer, met with Huffman and her husband, 69-year-old actor William H. Macy, at their Los Angeles home and explained to them that he “controlled” a testing center and could have somebody secretly change their daughter’s answers, authorities said. Singer told investigators Huffman and her husband agreed to the plan.

Macy was not charged. Authorities have not said why.

In a statement offering her first public comments since her arrest, Huffman apologized, took responsibility for her actions and said she would accept the consequences.

“My daughter knew absolutely nothing about my actions, and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her. This transgression toward her and the public I will carry for the rest of my life. My desire to help my daughter is no excuse to break the law or engage in dishonesty,” she said.

Michael Center, the former men’s tennis coach at the University of Texas at Austin, has also agreed to plead guilty, prosecutors said Monday. Center was accused of accepting nearly $100,000 to help a non-tennis playing applicant get admitted as a recruit.

California real estate developer Bruce Isackson and his wife, Davina Isackson, who are pleading guilty to participating in both the athletic recruitment and exam rigging schemes, are cooperating with prosecutors for a chance at a lighter sentence.

“We have worked cooperatively with the prosecutors and will continue to do so as we take full responsibility for our bad judgment,” they said in a statement.

Actress Lori Loughlin, who played Aunt Becky on the sitcom “Full House,” and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are charged with paying $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as rowing recruits, even though neither participated in the sport. They were not among those who agreed to plead guilty, and they have not publicly addressed the allegations.

Loughlin and Giannulli may be hoping they can get a better deal once the media attention dies down, said former prosecutor Adam Citron. They are also accused of paying much more than Huffman and some other parents, which would call for stiffer penalties under the sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors “are likely trying to hold her out as an example, so I would assume the plea deal was not the same plea deal as the other defendants,” said Citron, an attorney at New York’s Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP.

Singer, the consultant, pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering conspiracy on March 12, the same day the allegations against the parents and coaches were made public in the so-called Operations Varsity Blues investigation. Singer secretly recorded his conversations with the parents, helping to build the case against them, after agreeing to work with investigators in the hopes of getting a lesser sentence.

Several coaches have also been charged, including longtime tennis coach Gordon Ernst, who’s accused of getting $2.7 million in bribes to designate at least 12 applicants as recruits to Georgetown. Ernst, who was also the personal tennis coach for former first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, and other coaches have pleaded not guilty.

Former Yale University women’s soccer coach Rudy Meredith has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to help students get admitted and has been cooperating with authorities. Stanford’s former sailing coach John Vandemoer also pleaded guilty to accepting $270,000 in contributions to the program for agreeing to recommend two prospective students for admission.

Stanford University expelled a student who lied about her sailing credentials in her application, which was linked to the scandal. The university quietly announced it had rescinded the student’s admission in a short statement posted on its website April 2 after determining “some of the material in the student’s application is false.”

University officials previously said the student was admitted without the recommendation of Vandemoer.

Utah state Treasurer David Damschen announced that his office has some $54.8 million in property lost during 2018 that is awaiting claim by its rightful owners.

“We receive tens of millions of dollars in new unclaimed property each year, so the odds are good that you or a relative have unclaimed property,” Damschen said in a prepared statement. A news release Monday said unclaimed property can be anything from a forgotten utility deposit to a deceased relative’s life insurance.

While much of the property is money, the treasurer’s office said it often receives various collector’s items from abandoned safe-deposit boxes. Though nonmonetary items are periodically sold at auction, the proceeds are still available to rightful owners.

If the holder of a property has not had contact with its owner for three years, by law it must be turned over to the treasurer’s office. As of Nov. 1 — the latest reporting deadline — the office has possession of unclaimed property with a total value of more than $370 million.

“Despite our aggressive education campaigns, many people still don’t search for property because they don’t think they could have lost any,“ said Dennis Johnston, unclaimed property division administrator.

The department encourages Utahns to check for unclaimed property by visiting mycash.utah.gov or calling 801-715-3300.

In this last election, we saw challengers and incumbents alike campaigning for changes to our fragmented and broken health care system. Now that the 116th Congress has convened, I want to remind members of Congress that the Medicare Hospice Benefit is a person-centered program that works and a coordinated benefit that matters deeply to many Americans.

For those unfamiliar with hospice care, it is not a place or a limited benefit only for those in the final hours of life. Hospice is the original coordinated model of care, bringing together a multidisciplinary team of providers to meet all aspects of a patient's physical, spiritual and emotional needs. Hospice cares for the family of the patient as well, including providing grief and bereavement services after the patient's death.

No other health care sector is required to address all aspects of a patient and family's health and well-being.

As our new Congress looks to strengthen our health system, they should build upon the success of the hospice model and expand access to comprehensive, coordinated care for those facing serious illness and the end of life.

Stephanie Puffer, Eagle Mountain

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What will life after Russia hold for Ambassador Jon Huntsman? Perhaps a return to the Utah governor’s mansion.

Huntsman has told friends in Utah that he is considering life after his tenure in Russia and he’s not sure what his future will hold, a sign his time as ambassador may be drawing to a close, according to a half dozen sources familiar with the conversations, who spoke with The Salt Lake Tribune on the condition of anonymity.

Huntsman has been encouraged to consider a run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Mike Lee in 2022 or to make a third run for governor, the seat he left in 2009, when it is up again next year. A Senate bid is highly unlikely, sources said, but Huntsman is considering taking another shot at the state’s chief executive office.

For now, Huntsman is saying only that there is “nothing to consider until our current commitment is done.”

Huntsman’s name was floated as a potential contender for Sen. Orrin Hatch’s Senate seat in 2018, but he was nominated by President Donald Trump to be U.S. ambassador to Russia. Hatch opted to not seek re-election and was succeed by Sen. Mitt Romney.

If Huntsman ran, it would be unprecedented in Utah politics, becoming the first governor to seek nonconsecutive terms. If he won, he would replace Gov. Gary Herbert, who took over for Huntsman when he was picked by President Barack Obama to be the U.S. ambassador to China.

After his stint in China, Huntsman briefly mounted a run for U.S. president in 2012.

Herbert has stated that he will not seek re-election next year, teeing up an open governor’s race that has drawn the interest of — and speculation around — a number a potential Republican candidates.

Huntsman’s return — with widespread name recognition, deep pockets and broad popularity, especially among Utah moderates — would drastically alter the landscape. Currently, the most high-profile potential candidates are Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, former House Speaker Greg Hughes and former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz.

Hughes and Cox have begun raising money for a potential bid, but neither has formally filed or announced their candidacy. Others are also discussed as possible candidates, including former Utah Jazz CEO Greg Miller, Attorney General Sean Reyes, Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton, Republican National Committee member Thomas Wright and real estate investor Jeff Burningham. All are Republicans.

In a prepared statement, Cox reacted to the reports of Huntsman’s potential candidacy by expressing gratitude for the ambassador’s service to the state and country.

“I personally owe him a debt of gratitude,” Cox said. “If he didn’t resign early [as Utah governor], it’s very unlikely I would later get a chance to serve as lieutenant governor with Governor Herbert. I also believe that having more choices for governor is good for Utah.”

Cox said he would make a decision about his own candidacy “when the time is right,” and that he wishes Huntsman and his family the best with whatever they choose to do.

Chaffetz, who has been a contributor on FOX News since retiring from Congress, said Monday that he is a “definite maybe” for a gubernatorial run, and that he hasn’t spoken with Huntsman since the ambassador went to Russia. Chaffetz ran Huntsman’s gubernatorial campaign and served as Huntsman’s first chief of staff, but the two are no longer close.

Hughes, who worked on key legislation with Huntsman during his governor’s tenure and was close with Huntsman’s father, Jon Huntsman Sr., was in China on Monday and could not be reached for comment, but his former House chief of staff, Greg Hartley, said Hughes has high respect for Huntsman and his family.

“They’ve become close friends and communicate often and would both likely support each other in future endeavors,” Hartley said.

It appears no decision is imminent. Huntsman is expected to be back in the United States this summer for the births of his grandchildren.

Editor’s note: Ambassador Jon Huntsman is the brother of Tribune owner and publisher Paul Huntsman.

While the best con is one in which the victim never even realizes they got scammed, that can seldom be guaranteed. So the con artist needs a final argument to make to their mark if they get confronted, and the one they often use goes as follows: Sure, I conned you. But this is your fault. You were dumb enough to believe me. Now get lost, sucker.

That is what President Donald Trump is now saying to the American public on the subject of his tax returns. He spent years saying that he would be releasing his returns as soon as a routine IRS audit of them was complete, so the American public could understand exactly where he gets his money and where he might have conflicts of interest as president.

This was and remains a pressing question, because Trump's greed is so encompassing that we can never be sure that if faced with a choice between doing what is in the best interests of the country and making money for himself, he won't choose the latter. After all, this is a man who while running for president was pursuing a hotel deal in Moscow, sucking up to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and claiming falsely that he had no business interests in Russia.

Indeed, there has never in American history been a president for whom it was more important that the public learn the full details of their finances. But now that Democrats in Congress have made a formal demand to the IRS for six years of Trump's returns as allowed by a law passed in 1924, Trump and his allies are saying to the public: You were dumb enough to believe me when I said I'd show you the returns? That's your own fault.

Here's an exchange between acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Bill Hemmer on "Fox News Sunday":

HEMMER: To be clear, you believe Democrats will never see the president's tax returns?

MULVANEY: Oh, no, never. Nor should they. Keep in mind, that that's an issue that was already litigated during the election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didn't and they elected him anyway, which is, of course, what drives the Democrats crazy.

Before we go any farther, let's remind ourselves that if Trump's tax returns showed nothing more than that he is a shrewd and wealthy businessman, he'd have posted them on billboards all over New York City. The fact that he is so determined to keep them secret is evidence that they contain information that when fully investigated will be scandalous at a minimum, and perhaps even criminal.

And this isn't about whether "Democrats" will see the president's tax returns; it's about whether the public will. But before we move on to the legal question, let's consider the idea that this issue "was already litigated during the election."

Imagine if when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, Bill Clinton had said, "The American people knew I was a philanderer when they elected me. This was all litigated in 1992, so we shouldn't talk about it anymore." Or if Richard Nixon had said, "The American people knew about Watergate when I ran for reelection. This was all litigated in 1972. It's over; move on."

The idea that if the president won he gets a blanket immunity for anything that came up during the election is ludicrous. Meanwhile, the "I can't release the returns because I'm being audited" excuse was always a lie. The IRS doesn't forbid anyone from making their returns public if they're being audited.

We all know that if Hillary Clinton were president and was refusing to release her returns, Republicans would be losing their minds; they might have begun impeachment proceedings over that issue alone. But right now they're pursuing two tracks: a public campaign of preposterously bad-faith arguments for why the returns should remain secret, and a legal strategy that amounts to little more than a plea to the five conservative justices on the Supreme Court to bail Trump out.

The tax code is simple and clear on this question. It says that when the chairman of one of Congress' tax-writing committees requests an individual's tax return from the Treasury Department (which includes the IRS), "the Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request." It doesn't say that the president is exempt, or that Congress must justify its request. It just says that if they make the request, that request "shall" be honored. Period.

As Daniel Hemel explains in an essay for Medium, that doesn't mean such a request couldn't theoretically violate some other law or part of the Constitution such as the First Amendment. But there's simply no question that the request for Trump's tax returns serves a legitimate investigative purpose. Given their oversight of the IRS and the president's own obvious conflicts of interest, there are a dozen grounds on which you could justify the request. The fact that Democrats also have political motives doesn't change that one bit.

Even a highly motivated Supreme Court majority would have trouble ruling otherwise. So I suspect that what Trump and his legal team are hoping for is one of two outcomes. The first would be that instead of ruling that this particular request is out of bounds, the five conservatives on the court will strike down or alter the entire 1924 law, limiting Congress' ability to obtain tax returns in a way that saves Trump from scrutiny.

The second outcome, and the more likely one, is that even if Trump loses in court, he will succeed in delaying the release of his returns until after the 2020 election. Should he win, no matter what they reveal, he’ll then be able to say to the public: You knew I was a crook when you elected me. It’s your own fault for being so stupid. Now get lost, suckers.

Paul Waldman is an opinion writer for the Plum Line blog.

@paulwaldman1

Salt Lake Bees manager Lou Marson knows only the version of Griffin Canning who pitched for him at Double-A Mobile last season and the right-hander who looked good in his 2019 debut Saturday at Albuquerque.

What happened in between, while Canning pitched for the Bees last summer and Marson remained in Mobile, hardly matters now.

Canning’s rough adjustment to Triple-A baseball barely has delayed his timetable for joining the Los Angeles Angels someday. He’s part of a six-man starting rotation this spring for the Bees, who will stage their home opener Tuesday night vs. Fresno at Smith’s Ballpark. If this week’s weather allows the Bees to stay on schedule, Canning will pitch Friday vs. Sacramento.

Salt Lake (1-4) concluded its season-opening series Monday afternoon at Albuquerque with a 9-4 loss, despite home runs by Brennon Lund, Dustin Garneau and Jared Walsh.

The Bees lost 3-2 to the Isotopes in Canning’s start, although he left with a lead in the sixth inning after a strong effort Saturday. “He’s very mature for his age and very baseball-savvy for a guy who has been in pro ball for basically a year,” pitching coach Pat Rice said. “He picks things up really quick. And really, he’s just kind of sharpening his skills and learning how to get certain hitters out. He’s such a quick study that I really don’t expect him to be here long.”

Canning, who will turn 23 next month, was the Angels' second-round pick in 2017 after his junior year at UCLA. He's ranked as the organization's No. 2 prospect behind outfielder Jo Adell, who's injured this spring.

“He impressed me a lot last year in Mobile,” Marson said. “He wasn't there very long. He dominated that league. … He carries himself differently than other players. He has this confidence about him that is different than a lot of other players that I've seen so far in my coaching career.”

In three seasons at UCLA, Canning went 19-13 with a 2.99 ERA. He faced Utah once a year. The Utes beat him 6-4 in 2016 on their way to a Pac-12 championship, but Canning struck out 10 batters in a 7-3, complete-game victory as a junior.

Many pitching prospects skip Triple-A, but college pitchers usually start higher in the system and spend some time at this level. With his background, Canning naturally evokes a comparison to Long Beach State product Jered Weaver, who thrived in Salt Lake City in 2006 on his way to a long career with the Angels.

The difference is that Canning was promoted to the Bees in the middle of last season and had some trouble, going 3-3 with a 5.49 ERA in 13 starts. Weaver started his second pro season with Salt Lake and went 6-1 with a 2.10 ERA in 12 games, and went on to win 11 games for the Angels that season.

Canning's 2018 experience in the Pacific Coast League was instructive. His approach this season is “just attacking hitters more, not being so tentative, throwing too many pitchers in every inning,” Canning said. “I'm really working on being more efficient.”

He succeeded at Albuquerque. Canning pitched 5.1 innings, allowing four hits and no walks, with five strikeouts. He took a no-decision in the 3-2 defeat, as a reliever allowed a home run after Canning exited in the sixth inning, having thrown 74 pitches.

Similarly, Dillon Peters left in the sixth inning Sunday after 77 pitches, having allowed one hit. The Angels' instructions to the Bees' staff include low pitch counts in April. As Marson said, “It's about keeping these guys healthy, getting their work in.”

And getting them ready for what comes next, with the Angels.

Los Angeles Angels No. 2 prospect Griffin Canning of the Salt Lake Bees on what he learned during a spring training stint with the big club. pic.twitter.com/BKd9QT0ylu

— Kurt Kragthorpe (@tribkurt) April 8, 2019

I have some GIFs of Griffin Canning's start on Saturday. It's all the swings and misses he had. So, here's that thread.

— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) April 8, 2019

Alameda, Calif. • The Oakland Raiders have signed former Salt Lake Stallions receiver De’Mornay Pierson-El.

Pierson-El had 36 catches for 414 yards and one touchdown in eight games with Salt Lake of the Alliance of American Football before signing with the Raiders on Monday. He previously spent time with the Washington Redskins and in the CFL.

Pierson-El had 100 catches for 1,309 yards and 11 TDs in 43 games in college at Nebraska.

The AAF shut down last week in the midst of its first season.

The Utah Department of Transportation is restriping Redwood Road between 9000 South in West Jordan and 12600 South in Riverton to create more travel lanes in the area.

The road project began Monday and is expected to create delays from lane closures and shifting lanes, FOX 13 reports. UDOT also warns nearby residents of noise and temporary changes to residential and business access.

The project will convert existing road shoulders into travel lanes, creating three lanes in each direction. But the change will eliminate street parking along that stretch of Redwood Road.

UDOT stated many mailboxes in that area will be relocated, and affected residents should consult the Post Office about their new mailbox location. Residents also should place garbage and recycling cans on the curb for collection, rather than the shoulder.

Bike lanes will also be changed.

“In coordination with the bike community and local cities, designated bike lanes along Redwood Road will be relocated to 1300 West and 2700 West,” UDOT stated in a news release.

**UDOT Construction Advisory**
UDOT will begin a large restriping project between 9000 S in West Jordan and 12600 S in Riverton tomorrow, April 8. Crews will work in 1/2 mile increments starting at 9000 S and move south toward Riverton. pic.twitter.com/lpKahyWiuu

— Riverton City, Utah (@RivertonCity) April 8, 2019

UTA bus stops along the route will continue operating during construction.

The release doesn’t state how long the roadwork will take.

Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.

New York • Zapping the brains of people over 60 with a mild electrical current improved a form of memory enough that they performed like people in their 20s, a new study found.

Someday, people might visit clinics to boost that ability, which declines both in normal aging and in dementias like Alzheimer’s disease, said researcher Robert Reinhart of Boston University.

The treatment is aimed at “working memory,” the ability to hold information in mind for a matter of seconds as you perform a task, such as doing math in your head. Sometimes called the workbench or scratchpad of the mind, it’s crucial for things like taking medications, paying bills, buying groceries or planning, Reinhart said.

“It’s where your consciousness lives ... where you’re working on information,” he said.

The new study is not the first to show that stimulating the brain can boost working memory. But Reinhart, who reported the work Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, said it’s notable for showing success in older people and because the memory boost persisted for nearly an hour minimum after the brain stimulation ended.

One scientist who has previously reported boosting working memory with electrical stimulation noted that the decline in this ability with normal aging is not huge. But “they removed the effects of age from these people,” said Dr. Barry Gordon, a professor of neurology and cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

“It’s a superb first step” toward demonstrating a way to improve mental performance, said Gordon, who was not involved in the new study.

Reinhart agreed that more research is needed before it can be formally tested as a treatment.

The electrical current was administered through a tight-fitting cap that also monitored each subject’s brainwaves. For study participants, that current felt like a slight tingling, itching or poking sensation under the electrodes for about 30 seconds, Reinhart said. After that, the skin got used to the current and it was imperceptible.

The researchers’ idea was to improve communication between the brain’s prefrontal cortex in the front and the temporal cortex on the left side, because the rhythms of activity in those two regions had fallen out of sync with each other.

So the researchers applied the current to those two regions to nudge the activity cycles back into a matching pattern. The results provided new evidence that a breakdown in that communication causes the loss of working memory with age, Reinhart said.

Part of the study included 42 participants in their 20s, plus 42 others aged 60 to 76. First they were tested on a measure of working memory. It involved viewing an image such as a harmonica or broken egg on a computer screen, then a blank screen for three seconds, and then a second image that was either identical to the first or slightly modified. The subjects had to judge whether it was the same image or not.

During a sham stimulation, the older group was less accurate than the younger participants. But during and after 25 minutes of real brain stimulation, they did as well. The improvement lasted for at least another 50 minutes after the stimulation ended, at which point the researchers stopped testing. It's not clear how long the benefit reached beyond that, Reinhart said, but previous research suggests it might go for five hours or more after stimulation stops.

Researchers got the same result with a second group of 28 subjects over age 62.

Helena, Mont. • Flood, snow, avalanche and fire alerts popped up Monday from Idaho to Colorado, as parts of the U.S. interior that were paralyzed by blizzards and floods last month braced for round two of an unusual weather phenomenon.

Welcome to springtime in the Rockies and parts of the Great Plains.

It's not unusual for floods, snow and fire to co-exist in the Rockies thanks to powerful storms blowing through the mountains, melting snow swelling waterways and high winds sweeping across dry grasslands and trees that haven't seen their first green shoots and leaves.

Those conditions are what drove a wildfire Sunday on southeastern Montana's Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, where a house fire sparked a blaze that quickly burned through 1,700 acres (688 hectares) of dry grass and trees. It forced evacuations Sunday in Lame Deer, a town of about 2,000 people that is the seat of the tribal government, before fire crews were able to contain it.

Also normal are the fire warnings issued for eastern Colorado on Monday, a day after a wildfire near Colorado Springs forced the temporary evacuation of about 20 homes. Forecasters frequently issue red flag warnings for March and April on the eastern and southeastern Colorado plains as the jet stream moves southward and brings stronger weather systems and higher wind, said Jennifer Stark, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service in Pueblo, Colorado.

"This is the time of year when we get a roller coaster of weather," Colorado state climatologist Russ Schumacher said Monday. "Going from 80 degree temperatures one day to a snowstorm the next is not that out of the ordinary, especially in March and April, around here."

But what is unusual is what's coming next. A storm system that is moving in from the Pacific Ocean is forecast to intensify and form into a new inland "bomb cyclone."

A bomb cyclone is a rapid drop in air pressure — at least 24 millibars in 24 hours — and often is over or near oceans or seas because it requires warm moist air smacking into cold dry air, along with volatile weather from the jet stream. The central and mountain part of the country may get one of these every few winters, said Greg Carbin, forecast branch chief for the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

But this would be the second such storm in less than a month. The March 13 storm caused massive flooding in the Midwest, a blizzard in Colorado and Wyoming, and produced winds of between 96 mph and 110 mph (155 and 177.02 kph).

This week's bomb cyclone one is expected to be similar in intensity and in snowfall, meteorologists said. Heavy, wet snow will fall from the Nebraska panhandle through south central and southeastern South Dakota into western Minnesota. Wind speeds can reach 50 mph to 60 mph (80 to 96 kph) across Kansas.

“This blizzard will further exacerbate flooding in Nebraska with the added insult of heavy snowfall to eventually melt,” said Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at the private weathermodels.com. “This is more bad news for suffering farmers who are unable to flip the calendar on winter.”

But first, the storm is expected to flooding in Idaho and western Montana, and dump up to 2 feet (61 centimeters) feet of snow in the mountains of Montana and Wyoming as it moves in from the Pacific Ocean. Parts of Colorado that were under a fire warning Monday are expected to see snow and temperatures drops of more than 40 degrees by Wednesday at the southern edge of the storm, meteorologists said.

The storm dumped rain on parts of Oregon Sunday and Monday as it moved inland, causing flooding that closed some schools in the central Willamette Valley and forced the release of water from dams.

While it's unusual to see two consecutive inland bomb cyclones, it's difficult to pin the cause on climate change, said Schumacher.

"I think it's an interesting question to ask whether there's some climate change fingerprint on this," he said. "But it's a complicated puzzle to piece together."

That includes what is happening as the storm forms over the Pacific Ocean, what happens once it's over land and what effect climate change may have on those variables.

“I’m not sure we have the answer,” Schumacher said.

Minneapolis • Now that, Virginia, is the way to close out a season.

Led by De’Andre Hunter and his NBA-ready game, the Cavaliers turned themselves into national champions Monday night, holding off tenacious, ferocious Texas Tech for an 85-77 overtime win — a scintillating victory that came 388 days after a crushing setback that might have sunk a lesser team for years.

But Virginia was better than that.

A season after becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 — the one thing that had never happened in a tournament where anything can — the Cavaliers watched a 10-point lead turn into a 3-point deficit before Hunter came to the rescue. The sophomore made the game-tying 3 with 12.1 seconds left in regulation, then made another with just over two minutes left in the extra period to give the Cavs the lead for good.

After going scoreless for the first 18 1/2 minutes, Hunter finished with a career-high 27 points, and if he leaves as a lottery pick — well, what a way to go out.

He helped the Cavs bring home the first NCAA title for a program with a colorful, star-crossed and, now, very winning history.

Nothing came easily — appropriate given where Virginia has been over the last year, with each of its 35 wins, and each of the team’s scant three losses, all punctuated by the reminder that only the end result would serve as the ultimate report card on whether the Cavs could truly shed the baggage of last year.

“I told them, I just want a chance at a title fight one day,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “That’s all I want. ... You’re never alone in the hills and the valleys we faced that in the last year.”

Hunter’s key 3 gave Virginia a 75-73 lead, and after the teams traded possessions, Tech guard Davide Moretti scrambled after a loose ball heading onto Virginia’s end of the court. It appeared it would be Texas Tech ball, but a replay showed Moretti’s pinkie finger had barely scraped the ball. Virginia got possession, and worked the ball into Ty Jerome, who got fouled and made two free throws.

Brandone Francis missed a 3 on the other end, and Virginia pulled away — the first time this game felt remotely comfortable, even after Kyle Guy, the free-throw-shooting hero of Saturday night’s win over Auburn, made a 3 to give the Cavs a 10-point lead with 10:22 left in regulation.

Guy is not Virginia’s only clutch free-throw shooter, by the way. The Cavs went 12 for 12 from the line in overtime to ice this game.

For the Red Raiders (31-7), well, what can you say?

The team full of overlooked grinders refused to quit. They fell behind by 10 twice in this game — seemingly too much in a matchup between two legendary defenses — but just kept coming back.

Jarrett Culver, also lottery-pick material, made a spinning left-handed layup over Hunter with 35 seconds left in regulation to put the Red Raiders ahead 66-65, and after Jerome missed a teardrop on the other end, Norense Odiase got fouled and made two free throws to make it 68-65.

The nation’s best defense couldn’t afford to give up a 3, but Jerome skipped a pass to Hunter, who was open on the wing — and spotted up and drained it. Culver missed a 3 with Guy in his face with a second left, and we were headed to overtime.

The last five minutes of regulation and the OT featured several one-on-one matchups between the two NBA-bound stars, and Hunter came out the winner. He finished 8 for 16 after an 0-for-7 start. Culver, who stayed in his hometown of Lubbock to see how far he could take Tech, went 5 for 22 for 15 points, continuing a cold-shooting Final Four; he went 8 for 34 over the weekend.

———

More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/MarchMadness and https://twitter.com/AP—Top25

The strong pushback against General Khalifa Hifter's bid to take the Libyan capital, Tripoli, endangers one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's risky bets. But even if Hifter loses, Putin will keep seeking similar adventurers in Libya and around the world to back.

Russia's version of great power foreign policy these days is an exercise in the art of the possible: Take a gamble on those who are themselves willing to take a gamble on Moscow's aggressiveness and the murky economic benefits it can offer.

In the 1990s, an impoverished Russia turned inwards and lost friends and clients throughout the developing world. Syria, ruled by the Assad family, and Algeria under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who first visited the Soviet Union as a minister in the 1960s, were two of a few holdovers from the Soviet days, and Putin has gone out his way not to lose them.

But other strategically important allies in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America were lost to the U.S. and, lately China: Russia couldn't match the size and variety their investments. So the Kremlin went on a hunt for potential allies who might be interested in Russia's two-part package: On the one hand, military expertise and weapons, and on the other, the resources and know-how of Russia's civilian state-owned companies, mostly oil and gas ones but also the atomic power giant Rosatom and railroad monopoly Russian Railways.

That package can be more attractive to strongmen than seeking U.S. or Chinese support because it comes without visible strings attached and because it offers opportunities for personal enrichment. Not all of the assistance comes through official channels. Players like St. Petersburg entrepreneur Yevgeny Prighozhin with his private military company offer their services on a concession basis. The state companies, too, show an understanding for the peculiarities of doing business in countries without much of a legal framework.

By the time Putin became interested in expanding Russia's reach in the developing world, even the Soviet-era allies he had left had become shaky. Assad was involved in this century's deadliest civil war, and Russia had to mount a full-scale military operation to keep him in power. That was a risky bet that hasn't delivered a clear pay-off yet: Syria is in ruins, and the opportunistic partnership with Iran is more of an inconvenience than a helpful alliance, given Iran's problems with the Western world, Israel and, most importantly for Putin, with Saudi Arabia.

Algeria under Bouteflika was the single biggest foreign buyer of Russian weapons, and the Kremlin hoped to keep the relationship going even after the octogenarian agreed to cede power. But recent events have highlighted the fragility of these hopes. On March 19, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, appointed to the post just six days before, visited Moscow to tell Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and through him Putin, that everything would be all right and there would be continuity. But less than two weeks later, Lamamra was fired.

Russia's newer relationships are even iffier. The Russian investment in the Venezuelan regime of Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro is on the verge of being lost. A Syria-like operation there is hardly an option, both because of the logistical difficulties of deploying troops halfway around the world and because of the overwhelming risk of fighting in the U.S.'s back yard.

In Sudan, whose President Omar Al-Bashir has cultivated a personal relationship with Putin, Russia admits deploying both government and private military advisers; active Russian assistance to Bashir is more likely, should he needed to fight back against the protests that have continued since December. The potential upside for Russia is high: Apart from the usual package of arms sales and a nuclear power plant project, a Red Sea naval base for Russia has been under discussion.

In Central Africa, Russian military instructors are propping up a regime that doesn't control most of the country's territory. It's not a big investment for the Kremlin, though, and Putin is content to let private contractor Prigozhin take his cut and build goodwill.

The Russian involvement in Libya straddles the line between the old friendships and the new, opportunistic alliances with money-hungry regimes interested in Russian military support. The old, Kremlin-friendly regime of Muammar Qaddafi is gone, though Qaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, who harbors political ambitions, has maintained high-level Russian ties.

But, since 2017, Putin's generals and diplomats have built a new relationship - with Hifter, who commands the strongest military force in Libya and contains most of the country's oil and gas. The Russian government has negotiated with his opponents in Tripoli to relaunch Russian companies' Gadhafi-era energy joint ventures, but these negotiations are more likely to succeed with Hifter in charge than with the Western-backed government of Fayez al-Sarraj.

Though officially bound by an arms embargo on Libya, Russia is reportedly supplying Hifter with weapons, and Prigozhin was present at a meeting between Hifter and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu late last year.

Moscow's official line is that it supports the stability of developing nations in the face of Western attempts to undermine their legitimate rulers. That's the claim Moscow has made in Syria and in Venezuela, and if necessary, it'll make it again in Sudan. But in Algeria and Libya, where the situation is murky at the moment, Putin's bets are being made in private for now.

The problem with this entire series of bets, both official and semi-official, is that they depend on the success of players running extreme risks. In the absence of committed allies, Putin's Russia has to act opportunistically and seek receptive bedfellows. In countries with serious resource wealth and in strategically attractive locations, the choice is extremely limited. And with this crop of situational friends, you win some, you lose some.

If Maduro falls in Venezuela, Russia will be on the lookout for others like him to befriend in the region. If Hifter fails to win control of Tripoli and his hold on much of Libya's natural wealth weakens as a consequence, the Kremlin will be actively seeking others to empower so it can get back into the country's oil and gas sector and seek opportunities for a naval presence. Defeats are part of this high-stakes game.

Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.