Houston • Jazz coach Quin Snyder attributes Houston Rockets guard James Harden’s ability to read, anticipate and then take advantage of opposing to defenses to some sort of artificial intelligence.

Harden’s own coach, Mike D’Antoni thinks Snyder could be on to something. D’Antoni has witnessed the greatness of Harden for years now, but even he admits this season that Harden’s ability to break down opponents has gone up another level or two.

That much was obvious Wednesday night as Harden used a blistering 17-point first quarter to ignite a triple-double performance to help lift the Rockets to a 118-98 win over the Jazz in Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series. Harden finished with 32 points and a playoff career-high 13 rebounds to go along with 10 assists for the third triple-double of his playoff career.

“I’ve talked about it all year, the year he is having and what he did that first quarter was ridiculous,” said D’Antoni, whose team took a commanding 2-0 series lead as the series now heads to Salt Lake City. “When he gets it rolling nobody is better.”

And the Jazz certainly had no answers for the second straight playoff game as Harden left Ricky Rubio and anyone else attempting to guard him on the perimeter stumbling on his step-back 3-pointers. And when he was knocking shots down from behind the arc, he was punishing the Jazz with penetration drives that often ended up with a pass inside to Clint Capela when the help defense came early.

Harden was spectacular in the series opener but he was even better — from the start — Wednesday night.

“Maybe he got up a couple of more 3s on that step back than he did the last time,” D’Antoni said. “He just reads what they give him. He was shooting the ball so well in the first and I think he went to his step back a couple of more times. He is just kind of deals with what he has got. He just figures out whatever way. He’s a machine. He just scores.”

Harden continued his assault from Game 1 on the Jazz defense in the first half Wednesday night. He was well on his way to a triple double after the first two quarters with 25 points, seven assists and seven rebounds to help lead the Rockets to a commanding 70-44 halftime lead.

Just as Harden had done Sunday, he continued to take advantage of the Jazz’s defense. When Rudy Gobert left early to help on Harden’s drives, he found Capela alone for easy points in the paint during the first half.

Prior to Wednesday night’s game, Snyder discussed how Harden’s ability to see the entire floor and his knack for anticipating a defenders movements makes him tough to defend. Harden’s floor awareness was on display from the start as he seemed several steps ahead of the Jazz defenders.

“The way he plays, there is an artistic nature to it,” Snyder said. “He reacts to different things on the court. He puts the ball in different locations that he wants, he understands spacing. He can anticipate the rotations.”

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 118-98 loss to the Houston Rockets from Salt Lake Tribune beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz didn’t respond to Houston’s defensive tone

I’m not big on cliches like “setting the tone.” Most of the time, setting the tone early just means you just made some shots early, or you have better players than the other team, or your coach drew up a great play, or something like that. “Setting the tone” is this intangible thing, something we use to explain what happened without having to get into the nitty gritty of what actually happened.

But from the very beginning of the game, the Rockets were into the Jazz defensively, and the Jazz responded by doing nothing about it. The Jazz had a turnover nine seconds into the game: Joe Ingles gets bodied up as he tries to drive, and ends up losing the ball out of bounds.

On the next play, Ingles comes late on the rotation, and it’s a Clint Capela lob. That’s a lack of focus, to be sure.

So I think the Jazz tried the same play on the next one, and this time, Ingles stops short. Ingles has to reset to Mitchell who has to create with no advantage, and dribbles the ball off his foot. Weirdly, Mitchell doesn’t really go after the loose ball with any energy, then once Eric Gordon does get it, Mitchell grabs his hip for no reason as Gordon tries to score. And-one.

The Jazz had two days to stew about the Game 1 loss, and this is the result? They talked about how they needed to nail their rotations, how they needed to play with force on the offensive end, and they talked about how tough they wanted to make life for the Rockets to get to their spots. And instead they came out and did exactly none of it. They lost the first quarter 39-19. That 20-point deficit was also the final margin in the game.

“They’re playing more aggressive than we are. We’re a little too nice. If you’re going to be nice, you’re going to get your ass kicked every night," Rudy Gobert said. It’s just mental. We can say whatever we want, but if we’re too nice, they’re not going to respect us. They’re going to kick our ass.”

Quotes like this are promising, and they’re more pointed than what the players said after Game 1. But now they’re down 2-0 in the series, and will need to win four of their next five against a team that hasn’t lost four games in two months. It’s not quite too late, but it’s close.

2. Donovan Mitchell scored 11 points

Look, this game is not all or even mostly Donovan Mitchell’s fault. A lot of players had bad nights: Joe Ingles, Jae Crowder, Thabo Sefolosha, Kyle Korver, etc. But the truth is that it’s reasonable to hold Mitchell to a higher standard because of the skill he’s shown in his young career so far, including in the playoffs last season.

Mitchell wasn’t good enough, though. He only scored 11 points on 5-of-19 shooting, and while he did get six assists — much better than Game 1′s zero assist performance — he added four turnovers and five fouls on the defensive end.

“I didn’t show up. Simply put. That can’t happen,” he said.

Mitchell is typically hard on himself after losses like this, but again there was a difference between Game 1′s acceptance and Game 2′s anger.

This play was among the worst. Mitchell gets the ball and Danuel House is guarding him. House isn’t a great defender, but he’s not terrible, so this is a bit of a strange mismatch to try to exploit. But Mitchell tries to, and goes to his own step-back jump shot, or in other words, he settles.

Oh, and then the Jazz are forced to play transition defense, which they screw up, and Eric Gordon gets a wide open three.

We talked about this in Sunday’s Triple Team, but he does just have to attack sooner, or call for another screen. The Jazz’s offense is built around “advantage basketball," to get an advantage and continue to widen it until it’s an easy shot. Despite some time, Mitchell never got an advantage, then throws up the shot to end the possession. It’s not great.

“I’ll probably watch the game four or five times. I did the same thing after Game 1," Mitchell said. "But I just have to show up, man. That’s all I’ve got. I could watch film for the next three days, but I’ve got to do it. That’s it.”

3. Defense on Harden

The Jazz went to a variance strategy on James Harden in Game 2: they tried the Game 1 look of forcing him to Gobert, but mixed in some more standard defense as well. And perhaps just as important, they changed up primary defenders to give him some more looks.

And it didn’t really matter. If you stay in front of Harden, he will do this to you.

Harden with his same old dance 🕺

(via @NBA)pic.twitter.com/InaJ2Pk4pL

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 18, 2019

The Jazz still limited him to five free-throws, which is pretty good. But you absolutely can’t do this while defending him, which might be one reason Sefolosha’s minutes were replaced with Georges Niang minutes in the late third quarter.

WOW HARDEN pic.twitter.com/yAwYPCb6h8

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 18, 2019

Still: 32 points on 11-24 shooting plus eight turnovers is not too shabby against Harden, actually. And the defense only gave up 94.4 points per 100 possessions in half-court scenarios, which is decent enough. It’s just that the Jazz can’t score, so there are a ton of transition chances for the Rockets to take advantage of.

“It doesn’t matter what we do as far as schemes go if we don’t have that intensity and that effort. Coach can draw up a great game plan, which I think he has, and we just haven’t executed it well,” Mitchell said.

The chances to do so are rapidly dwindling.

Washington • Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller’s report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller’s removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president.

Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Trump directed people around him to try to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsel's appointment in May 2017. Those efforts "were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests," Mueller wrote.

After nearly two years, the two-volume, 448-page redacted report made for riveting reading.

In one particularly dramatic moment, Mueller reported that Trump was so agitated at the special counsel's appointment on May 17, 2017, that he slumped back in his chair and declared: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm f---ed."

In June of that year, Mueller wrote, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe, and say that Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn refused — deciding he would rather resign than trigger a potential crisis akin to the Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate firings fame.

Two days later, the president made another attempt to alter the course of the investigation, meeting with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and dictating a message for him to relay to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The message: Sessions would publicly call the investigation "very unfair" to the president and say that Mueller should limit his probe to "investigating election meddling for future elections." Sessions didn't do so.

Flash forward to Thursday, and Trump celebrated the report's release, telling the audience at an unrelated White House event that he was having "a good day, too. It was called no collusion, no obstruction." He also renewed his calls for an investigation into the origins of the inquiry, saying, "We do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say."

The Justice Department posted a redacted version of the repor t online, 90 minutes after Attorney General William Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings.

The release represented a moment of closure nearly two years in the making and at the same time the starting bell for a new round of partisan warfare.

Democrats cried foul as Barr held a press conference just before the release — "spinning the report" in the words of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. They sent up a chorus of calls for Mueller himself to testify before Congress, and Barr said he wouldn't object.

Moments after Barr finished speaking, House Judiciary Chairman Nadler sent a letter requesting that Mueller himself testify before his panel "no later than May 23."

Mueller evaluated 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice, and said he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed criminal obstruction. The episodes included Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president's directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate.

The president's lawyers have said Trump's conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller's team deemed the episodes deserving of criminal scrutiny.

As for the question of whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mueller wrote, "While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges."

Mueller also said there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge any campaign official with working as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia.

The report included an appendix that contained 12 pages of Trump's written responses to the special counsel. They included no questions about obstruction of justice, as was part of an agreement with Trump's legal team.

Trump told Mueller he had "no recollection" of learning in advance about the much-scrutinized Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. He also said he had no recollection of knowledge about emails setting up the meeting that promised dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign.

He broadly denied knowing of any foreign government trying to help his campaign, including the Russian government. He said he was aware of some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made "complimentary statements" about him.

Trump said that his comment during a 2016 political rally asking Russian hackers to help find emails scrubbed from Clinton's private server was made "in jest and sarcastically" and that he did not recall being told during the campaign of any Russian effort to infiltrate or hack computer systems.

Mueller's team wrote that Trump's answers were "inadequate." They considered issuing a subpoena for Trump, but decided against it after weighing the likelihood of a long legal battle.

AP writers Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro, Dustin Weaver, Deb Riechmann, Susannah George, Michael R. Sisak, Stephen Braun, Jill Colvin, Jessica Gresko, Mark Sherman, Julie Pace and Elizabeth Kennedy contributed to this report.

Dear Ann Cannon • I have two children, a son and a daughter, who are currently playing high school basketball in Utah. And the fans are TERRIBLE. The kids are bad, but the adults are worse. You would not believe how they behave and the horrible things that come out of their mouths. It’s downright scary at the girls’ games because there are fewer people in attendance, so you can really hear what’s being said. Now I have a better understanding of the Utah/BYU rivalry and all the bad behavior that goes along with it.

I want to support my kids and their schools, but I really want to figure out how to change this behavior. I personally do pretty well, but my wife is crazy, too. Our kids can hear her. Help! What should I do?

— A Fan, Not a Fanatic

Dear Fan • Yikes! After reading your letter, I hung my head in shame. Why? Because I was one of those parents — the kind who could (and did!) lose her cool when watching her kids play. Looking back on it, I feel like a dope. Seriously, what was I thinking? They were just kids! It was just a game! They were just kids playing a game! Why did I lose my mind watching them? WHAT WAS MY DEAL?

Whatever my deal was, it’s probably your wife’s deal now, too, which means that you saying something to her will probably make her behave even more badly.

So, what can you personally do? Continue to model good sportsmanship yourself and pretend you have absolutely no idea who that unhinged woman sitting next to you is.

Dear Ann Cannon • I have a problem with scents: perfumes, lotions, candles, etc. It’s not just that I don’t like them, which I don’t, but they make me physically sick. Even when I’m at a venue and someone is wearing a strong perfume I have to change my seat. How can I politely let people know without offending them?

— Wishing Salt Lake City Was Scent-Free City

Dear Scent-Free City • I’m pretty sure most people will understand your situation, so tell them exactly what you’ve told me here except for the part where you say you hate fragrances. No one likes to have their pumpkin-scented candles insulted. Good luck!

Dear Ann Cannon • How do I mow my lawn with snow on it?

— Super Sick of This Weather

Dear Super • With a snowblower, obviously. (I’m super sick of this weather, too!)

Sometimes people will write with suggestions I didn’t include in my original advice to readers with questions. A few examples follow:

To the woman who’s sick of listening to a friend brag about her kids …

“That woman should have been advised to take courage and tell her friend that while she loves hearing about her friend’s children and celebrating their successes, lately it has made her feel worse about her children who are struggling. If her friend is a true friend, she will dial down the bragging and show sympathy and concern in return. And if this friend is hurt and offended, well, this friend can be moved to the Acquaintance List.”

To the woman who’s sick of dating losers …

“My suggestion? DON’T travel/have sleepovers with someone until after the wedding. While that may sound like a parent’s/religious leader’s counsel, it’s actually good common sense. Save deep emotions and commitments for after the vows.”

Ann Cannon is The Tribune’s advice columnist. Got a question for Ann? Email her at askann@sltrib.com or visit the Ask Ann Cannon page on Facebook.

A report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy states that 26 corporations with net profits of at least one billion dollars paid no federal taxes at all as a result of President Trump's "historic" 2017 tax cuts.

Meanwhile, as a retired man with a retired spouse, I paid $6,000 more in state and federal income tax than I paid prior to the "historic tax cut." Trump, once again, is lining the pockets of his rich donor class.

Wake up people! Trump's real "policy" only benefits himself and others like him. His rantings on the border, the Second Amendment, abortion, etc., are mere ploys to keep the votes of a "base" that is blind to his real motives.

Rob Greene, Salt Lake City

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The continued reluctance of Rocky Mountain Power to control the emission of toxic pollutants from coal fired electric generating units (EGU’s) is of great concern for a number of reasons.

1. It causes significant human caused haze and visibility impairment to all of Utah’s national parks which negatively impacts the economic viability of the gateway communities around the parks. The combined economic output generated by the parks is in the region of $1.7 billion.

2. The impact of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions on human health and environmental degradation is a toll which often appears intangible but is very real. We are talking about asthma attacks, heart attacks, birth defects and deaths as well as the effects of acid rain as a direct result.

3. In 2016 the EPA designated that both the Hunter and Huntington plants (total 4 EGU’s) need to have selective catalytic reduction (SCR) converters fitted to effectively reduce NOx emissions. The costs for this process cannot be characterized as an add-on but rather be calculated into the true cost of fossil fuel generated electricity. These emission controls also cannot be negated or offset by citing the closure of other older plants coming off-line.

Unfortunately, in 2017, the Trump administration and the state of Utah halted implementation of these necessary technologies, at the behest of Rocky Mountain Power.

It is time for Utah to shift from coal to clean renewable energy generation. The comparison between the two is becoming a no-brainer where the cost of renewable energy keeps coming down while at the same time creating jobs at an impressive rate. Coal is trending in the opposite direction and has lasting impact on our health and environment which we will be paying for years to come.

Jeremy King, Salt Lake City

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Thank you, Pat Bagley, for your touching illustration of a “homesick” Lady Liberty staring sadly at the burning Notre Dame cathedral.

As a lover of history, art, and culture, to say nothing of my memories of Paris, your picture captured my emotions perfectly. I have often been in awe of your ability to get to the "heart" of many issues with your marvelous cartoons. This time you really found the mark.

Lynne Larson, American Fork

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After the horrific massacre there, it took New Zealand just one week to stop the sale of military-style assault rifles.

What do we Americans have that the Kiwis don’t? First of all, a badly outdated constitutional amendment, about which gun rights advocates routinely ignore the clause dealing with the necessity of “A well-regulated militia.” They only look at the other clause. Read it for yourselves.

And, secondly, scaremongers of the National Rifle Association, who have successfully created a small army of delusional sycophants. Guns are obviously more important to these people than the masses of Americans being killed by weapons designed for use on foreign battlefields, not American streets.

Will our lawmakers never summon the courage to do what New Zealand has done?

M.J. Ogden, North Ogden

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There’s been a lot of talk lately about the myriad of problems in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons. One solution is to not allow parking in these canyons. For anyone.

Now, before you hurt yourself laughing, try to understand the logic. This strategy unfairly discriminates against every user group. The goal, remember, is to save the canyons, not to make everyone happy.

Let the free enterprise system figure out who will set up continuously running shuttle buses (with bike and ski racks), that is, UTA, the ski areas, Uber, private bus services, whoever. We could start tomorrow with the existing infrastructure.

And consider the message this strategy ultimately sends to the world: We are serious about fixing our community’s problems. After all, it’s not about hiking or biking or wilderness or water quality, it’s about people moving and moving people.

Martin Neunzert, Ogden

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Treating the LDS Church’s policy regarding LGBTQ+ parents of member children as a “small step forward” for the church’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights grossly overlooks the pervasive and still ever-present culture of hate and intolerance towards those who are “different” within the LDS church.

Let’s be clear, simply manipulating the nomenclature such that gay members aren’t technically “apostates” does nothing to change the message that children raised in the church have grown up with for years; being different is wrong, its sinful, and you need to change.

This consistent othering of behaviors extends far beyond matters of sexual orientation. It creates a model of how all members of the church should talk, dress, act and think. While these ridged confines weigh heavily on all those who wish to express themselves freely, the impact is disproportionately fatal for those who are LGBTQ+ identifying.

Whether or not the church explicitly defines an “other” as abhorrent is not the issue, rather it’s the persistent implicitness of that message that is so dangerous.

With teen suicide rates set to quadruple, why can’t we just say it like it is. The LDS church still stands for intolerance and hate.

Sage Geher, Salt Lake City

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The president’s job is presiding. The job description is tucked into the title. Preside. We did not choose to call our executive “His Highness,” or “Caesar,” but “Mr. President.”

Even if we construe “preside” in the bluntest manner — if we say “preside” means “to run the show” — then we’re still confronted by this: To run the show is not to be the show.

If your job is presiding over a government by the people, you should not breed hostility among them. And yet our president continually chooses division and turns himself into the show. I'll concede that his ideological opposites can take offense where none is given, but even with that concession it's astounding how committed to discord he is.

The president’s retweet of Rep. Ilhan Omar's “Some people did something” statement — accompanied by news footage of 9/11 — can be fairly characterized as calculated to spread ill will.

Yes, President Trump meant to signal his indignation. Yes, the statement by itself is minimizing. But Trump cannot have been unaware that in promoting the meme he was breeding hostility. Period.

Our president lacks the charity to assume, in public, that Omar objects to mass murder. That is how uncharitable and self-serving he is.

Matthew Ivan Bennett, Midvale

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Looking at her purse, a large Dooney & Bourke handbag covered with an image from “Cinderella,” one could infer that Savannah Ostler is just a big Walt Disney fan.

But this 29-year-old Utah County actor, director, screenwriter, songwriter, producer and one-woman marketing department has something bigger in mind.

“I want to be a female version of Walt Disney,” Ostler said, “someone who has her hands in everything and oversees all aspects of her projects.”

Ostler’s first step on that journey toward being an entertainment superpower is “Twice the Dream,” an independently produced movie filmed in Utah in which Ostler is director, screenwriter, executive producer, music coordinator and star. It debuts in theaters in Utah and Idaho this Friday.

The movie has been Ostler’s pet project for more than half her life. She started writing the script in 2004, during math class at Timberline Middle School in Alpine, when she was 14.

“I had this story of these two sisters with this unshakable bond, this dream that’s keeping them together even when life doesn’t go exactly as planned,” Ostler said in an interview this week. “I knew these characters as much as I did myself.”

The story starts with Amber Bradshaw, played by Ostler, reluctantly going on acting auditions, pressured by her mother, Patricia (Sarah Kent), whose own silver screen career was thwarted years earlier. Amber, 23, confides in her 17-year-old sister, Samantha (Monica Moore Smith), what she really wants to do: Be a singer and songwriter in Nashville. When tragedy strikes early in the movie, it’s up to Samantha to carry on with their shared dream.

The details of the plot have evolved. At one point, Ostler said, Amber was a burned-out movie star who wanted to abandon Hollywood for Nashville — but Ostler said she decided Amber would be more relatable as a small-town girl torn between her mother’s ambitions and her own.

The story is more wish fulfillment than autobiography, Ostler said. “They say, ‘Write what you know.’ I kind of wrote what I didn’t know, because I thought that was more interesting,” she said.

Her only sibling is a brother, and, she said, “part of me always wondered what it would be like to have a sister.” Where the Bradshaw sisters’ parents are divorced and their alcoholic mom harangues Amber for not going to enough auditions, Ostler said, “my parents have always been my number-one supporters.”

It was Ostler’s parents who suggested she leave her high school in Alpine after her sophomore year and enroll at East Hollywood High School, a film-centric charter school in West Valley City. At East Hollywood High, Ostler started to put her script for “Twice the Dream” into a screenwriting format, and it became her junior-year project.

After high school, Ostler struck out for Hollywood in 2010, and stayed for seven years. She waited tables to make ends meet while landing roles in a few small movies and commercials. (One commercial was a promotional video for a book by Don Hahn, a longtime producer for Disney whose credits include “Beauty & the Beast” and “The Lion King.”)

During her Hollywood years, she kept plugging away at making “Twice the Dream,” but ran into obstacles getting funding. Producers offered to buy the script, but then “I could no longer really be guaranteed to be involved in it. … It would be like selling my baby,” she said.

Another production company suggested the movie “would be more marketable if it were two brothers instead of two sisters,” she said. “Of course, I was not OK with that.”

Something else Ostler picked up in Hollywood besides her Screen Actors Guild card: Her husband, Steven D’Alo, who was a graduate of Cal State-Long Beach — where, Ostler is quick to point out, Steven Spielberg went to college.

By 2017, Ostler was beginning to lose hope in Hollywood. “Why are we even in L.A. if we’re not doing what we love?” Ostler asked D’Alo after financing to make “Twice the Dream” fell apart again. When D’Alo got a job offer in Utah, the couple decided they could live more economically and get the movie made more easily by going back to Ostler’s home state.

“There’s so much talent here, and it’s not utilized as much as they should be,” Ostler said.

Ostler shot “Twice the Dream” in Pleasant Grove and Alpine, often using friends’ houses, and some spots in Salt Lake City. Concert sequences were shot at Velour Live Music Gallery, the venue at the heart of Provo’s bustling music scene. A backyard pond where a pivotal scene is shot “is my childhood pond, that I spent a lot of time going to and playing at, and it’s in my parents’ backyard, almost.”

Smith, who plays Samantha, and Mason D. Davis, who plays Amber’s boyfriend Tristan, are familiar faces in Utah (they co-starred in the movie version of “Saturday’s Warrior,” for example). Kent, who plays Amber and Sam’s mom, starred in a fantasy series, “Amarog,” that Ostler and D’Alo co-directed and co-wrote. A couple of Ostler’s acting teachers, Adrian R’Mante (a regular on the Disney Channel’s “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody”) and Anne Sward, have roles in the film. D’Alo, in addition to being cinematographer, makes a cameo appearance as a creepy guy who hits on Amber’s friends.

Ostler considered playing Sam, but opted to play Amber when she decided she would direct the film. (At first, Ostler was going to have D’Alo direct.) Because Sam has more screen time than Amber, Ostler said, “I don’t think I could have been Sam and direct, especially for my first job. It would have been way too hectic.”

Shooting happened on weekends, and the entire movie was done in 14 shooting days, meaning Ostler had to move fast. “There were some shots where it would have been awesome to get this angle, but we just had to keep rolling,” she said.

With “Twice the Dream” completed, Ostler isn’t resting. In the last month, she has been promoting the movie relentlessly on Utah TV and radio stations, and she will be doing live meet-and-greets after four screenings this weekend. Also, she wrote another script during post-production, and is writing another one now. She’s also developing a series of young-adult fantasy novels, which she describes as “Hogwarts meets ‘Once Upon a Time’.”

Having worked 15 years, since middle school, on getting “Twice the Dream” from her head to the screen, Ostler describes her situation now using another Disney movie: “Tangled.”

“I literally feel like Rapunzel right now,” she said. “Her whole life, she wants to see these lanterns, and all of a sudden she sees them and she’s, like, ‘Now what?’ That was my dream since before I can even remember. That is me right now, and my husband’s Flynn Ryder, saying it’s time for a new dream.”

———

‘Twice the Dream’ opens

The made-in-Utah drama “Twice the Dream,” written, directed and starring Savannah Ostler.

Where • Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy), Megaplex at The District (South Jordan), Megaplex Geneva (Vineyard), Megaplex Thanksgiving Point (Lehi), Megaplex Legacy Crossing (Centerville), and Megaplex Valley Fair (West Valley City).

When • Opens Friday, April 19. Go to megaplextheatres.com for showtimes.

Meet-and-greets • Ostler and other cast members will appear in person at four screenings of “Twice the Dream”: Friday, 7 p.m., at Megaplex Thanksgiving Point (Lehi); Saturday, 6:50 p.m., Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy); Sunday, 7:20 p.m., Megaplex at The District (South Jordan); Monday, 7:40 p.m., Megaplex Geneva (Vineyard).

A man died Thursday morning when a Frontrunner train ran over him at the station in Orem.

“It appears as though he was distracted,” said Utah Transit Authority spokesman Carl Arky. “We don’t know if he had earbuds in or was on a cellphone or what at this point."

The man’s identity has not been released. The collision happened at 4:53 a.m. Afterwards, trains were delayed and UTA shuttled passengers with buses. Service was restored about 6:15 a.m.

UTA cameras showed that two men were crossing the tracks to reach the platform at the south end of the Orem station at 4:53 a.m.

“One of the men appeared to be aware that the train was approaching and darted across the tracks,” Arky said. “The other man never did pick up his pace, and he was the one who was struck. It's tragic."

About 65 miles north, in the Weber Canyon town of Uintah, a mudslide Wednesday covered freight train tracks.

Weber County Fire District spokesman David Reed told FOX 13 no homes are in danger. The slide stopped a train that was scheduled to roll through that section of tracks, Reed said.

An update on the cleanup and status of the tracks was not immediately available Thursday morning. This story will be updated.

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

Happy Thursday! The long-awaited special counsel’s report is due out this morning. You can guess every major news outlet will be covering -- make sure to check back at sltrib.com for updates -- and it’ll be dominating the news cycle today. President Donald Trump’s team is ready to respond. But there’s one wild card: President Trump. The goal for Thursday is to use the bully pulpit of the White House to give the appearance of a president consumed by the demands of his office, and keep him off his phone. [Politico]

Topping the news: Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren visited Utah and spoke to a sold out venue with a line around the corner. Her speech tackled issues highly relevant to the state such as federal land management and the reinstatement of Bears Ear National Monument. [Trib][DNews]

-> As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Chis Stewart will be amongst members of Congress allowed to see a less redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. [DNews]

-> A new Democratic and Navajo majority on the San Juan County Commission voted to withdraw the county in support of the Trump administration defense of the reduced of Bears Ears National Monument. [Fox13][DNews]

Tweets of the day: From @StevenAtHome: “Really looking forward to seeing the redacted Mueller report on Thursday! It’s gonna be ▇▇▇▇▇!”

-> From @ewarren “Presidential candidates don’t always go to Utah because it isn't a battleground state. But I’ll be there this week because I’m running to be president of the entire United States. Join us and let’s do this together.”

Trib Talk: On this week’s episode Tribune reporter Bethany Rodgers and Heather Stringfellow, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Utah, join Benjamin Wood to discuss new state laws and federal rules limiting access to elective abortion procedures. [Trib]

In other news: The Utah Bar Association will investigate a complaint that seven attorneys are violating the organization’s rules by being polygamist. One expert has said the circumstances are not likely to lead to disbarment while another indicated that disbarment could be grounds for a legal challenge against the state’s bigamy law. [Trib]

-> State Rep. Karianne Lisonbee has reactivated her Facebook account after deleting it following a storm of messages that attacked her stance on LGBTQ issues. [Trib]

-> A new affordable housing apartment building, which will be available to those experiencing chronic homelessness, has been erected and named after Pamela Atkinson, a longtime advocate for Utah’s homeless. [Trib]

-> Records show that Utah County is growing at a faster rate than Salt Lake City as a result of the state’s metropolitan zones spreading out into areas with lower living costs and more room. [Trib]

-> Tribune columnist Robert Gehrke gives his perspective on why Utah has suddenly become a pit stop for Democratic presidential hopefuls. [Trib]

-> Pat Bagley offers his take on big oil lobbyists. [Trib]

-> Utah lawmakers take a tour of the newly opened Amazon facility in Salt Lake City, the internet giant will receive large tax incentives for jobs provided to the state through the new branch. [Fox13]

Nationally: Democratsare concerned Attorney General William Barr is bending the truth on special counsel Mueller’s report to favor President Donald Trump. [Politico]

-> A long awaited, lightly redacted version of the 400 page Mueller report will reportedly be sent to Congress on Thursday and will later posted to the Department of Justice website. [WaPost]

-> Internal sources reveal Trump’s lawyers have spoken to officials from the Justice Department about the contents of the Mueller report thus avoiding being blind-sighted once the report becomes public. [NYTimes]

-> In a display of transparency, a number of presidential hopefuls have released their tax returns - something the president himself has refused to do -- however the line of questioning this has lead to may not bode well for the Democratic presidential candidates. [WaPost]

Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Send us a note to cornflakes@sltrib.com.

-- Thomas Burr and Christina Giardinelli

twitter.com/thomaswburr, @C_Giardinelli

The Mormon Land newsletter is a weekly highlight reel of developments in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whether heralded in headlines, preached from the pulpit or buzzed about on the back benches. Want this newsletter in your inbox? Subscribe here.

This week’s podcast: Mormonism’s ‘Notre Dame’

As Notre Dame burned in Paris this week, Latter-day Saint thoughts may have turned to the pending renovation of Mormonism’s most iconic structure: the Salt Lake Temple.

Allen Roberts, a Utah architect who specialized in preservation, including work on Latter-day Saint chapels, tabernacles and temples, discussed the faith’s history with its historic buildings on this week’s podcast.

Listen here.

Africa’s fourth temple

Africa got its fourth Latter-day Saint temple with Sunday’s dedication of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s first such edifice.

“It is an amazing blessing to have the temple in [the capital of] Kinshasa,” visiting apostle Dale G. Renlund said before a Saturday youth devotional in a news release. “Members will no longer have to travel far [often to South Africa] to receive the blessings of the temple.”

The 12,000-square-foot structure, more than seven years in the making, is the faith’s 163rd operating temple in the world, including three others in Africa: in Johannesburg, South Africa; Accra, Ghana; and Aba, Nigeria.

Five more are planned on the continent — in Durban, South Africa; Harare, Zimbabwe; Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; and Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, where the church is booming, is home to more than 60,000 Latter-day Saints and nearly 200 congregations.

Across the Atlantic, the newly renovated Memphis Temple opened its doors to the public in advance of a planned May 5 rededication, according to a news release. It was originally dedicated April 23, 2000, about a month before Tennessee’s other temple, in Nashville, on May 21, 2000.

If the name fits ...

The Columbia Journalism Review recently noted the updated guidelines from The Associated Press when writing about the church.

“Use the full name of the church on first references, with ‘the church,’ ‘church members,’ ‘members of the faith’ preferred on second and later reference[s],” the wire service’s online stylebook advises.

The CJR article also pointed out that — despite church President Russell M. Nelson’s plea — the AP still allows use of “Mormon” and “LDS” when “necessary for space or clarity or in quotations or proper names.”

“That means that breaking the ‘Mormon’ habit might be hard,” stated the CJR story, which, by the way, also violated the church’s — and AP’s — longtime rule by not capitalizing “The” in the faith’s full name.

Slowing growth

Last week’s newsletter contained a bad hyperlink. The item noting that the church’s net increase of 195,566 members in 2018 was the lowest in 40 years should have tied to a story here.

Blogger Clark Goble also focuses on membership stats in a Times and Seasons post. “The short summary,” he writes, “is that missionary effectiveness is up slightly but overall growth is decreasing, partially driven by birthrate drops.”

‘If I left the church’

The Atlantic recently featured a conversation between two former roommates who became fast friends at the University of Utah and how they slowly stepped away from their shared Latter-day Saint faith.

“From a very young age, I always had questions about some of the tenets of Mormonism,” said Stephanie Hatzenbuehler, a therapist and social worker in Hailey, Idaho. “I was drawn to diverse groups of people who I could talk to about different ideas. … Sometimes, when everyone would disperse to their Sunday school classes, I would walk out the back of the church and hide for an hour.”

Her friend Ariane Le Chevallier, a marketing director in Portland, Ore., said she was “scared that if I left the church, a lot of my friends would not talk to me anymore, and my extended family would be disappointed. But because my immediate family had decided to leave, I knew I was going to be OK if I had my immediate family members behind me.”

Read their story here.

Latter-day secession

If U.S. states with the deepest British roots pulled a Brexit of their own, what might America’s map look like?

For starters, the Beehive State would be out of the Union, according to The Washington Post.

“If the split were based on ancestry alone, Utah and eastern Idaho would be the first to pull a British exit,” the paper noted. “As a rule, areas of Mormon influence report the strongest ancestral ties to the [United Kingdom], and both Utah and eastern Idaho have large Mormon populations.”

LGBTQ pain

The church’s hotly debated LGBTQ policy is off the books, but it remains on the minds and in the souls of many members.

“The biggest impact of the policy seems undeniably the way it hurt people's hearts,” says Kendall Wilcox, a gay Latter-day Saint and co-founder of Mormons Building Bridges, which aims to connect members and the LGBTQ community.

A recent Tribune story explored the effects of the policy on LGBTQ Latter-day Saints as they struggle to stay true to themselves and their faith.

Ethics of missionary work

Wilfried Decoo, a retired Brigham Young University professor who lives in Belgium, reviews two new missionary memoirs — “The Legend of Hermana Plunge” and “Bruder: The Perplexingly Spiritual Life and Not Entirely Unexpected Death of a Mormon Missionary” — and then explores the ethics of proselytizing in a recent Times and Seasons blog post.

Decoo categorizes his ethics discussion into four sections:

• Ethics toward the convert.

“Most Mormon converts are baptized without realizing what will come next,” he writes. “ … Is it ethical to baptize people who cannot yet properly assess the implications of membership?”

• Ethics toward the family.

“Missionaries trigger tensions, conflicts, and sometimes devastating breaches between converts and other members of their family,” Decoo says. “ … Is it ethical to allow immature and keyed-up young people to upset lives in faraway families — in sometimes hurtful ways that may take years, even decades, to heal, if the wounds ever heal?”

• Ethics toward the community.

“Proselytism by a foreign entity can be perceived as assaulting the very character of a nation or of an ethnic group,” he explains. “Missionaries are then viewed as religious intruders who try to drive a wedge in the social fabric.”

• Ethics and human rights.

“Almost inevitably, proselytism implies criticism of other religions, since one religion is touted as the better one. Such criticism is, in most countries, protected by free speech. However, it can also offend believers to such a degree that it injures their religious feelings and their rights to respect are being violated.”

Read the full blog post here.

Jamaica says thanks

Jamaica’s Red Cross recently honored the church for its efforts in helping the charity’s emergency response and youth development services, Loop Jamaica reported.

The award noted the work of LDS Charities, the faith’s humanitarian arm, at several Red Cross schools in Jamaica.

Fred Parker, president of the church’s Jamaica Kingston Mission, presented a copy of the “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” to Dennis Edwards, president of the Jamaica Red Cross, according to a church news release.

Quote of the week

“What does it profit the missionary to baptize someone who leaves the church within six months? Nothing is accomplished; in fact, damage is done. We have pulled them away from their old moorings and brought them into the church, only to have them drift away.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley in 1998.

Mormon Land is a weekly newsletter written by David Noyce and Peggy Fletcher Stack. Subscribe here.

Gionni Paul sat in the Rice-Eccles Stadium locker room with his right arm broken and his outlook undamaged. The former University of Utah star told himself he could come back next year and build on his performance as a Salt Lake Stallions linebacker.

Three days later, the Alliance of American Football stopped playing. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m dreaming,’ ” Paul said, reliving the April 2 team meeting when the announcement came.

Paul soon became a face of the AAF players’ plight, thanks to his tweet about being injured, losing his housing and wondering who would pay his medical bills. Help has come via a GoFundMe account created by a Ute fan, raising nearly $5,000.

In a bakery near the Utah campus, having come from having a doctor's visit, Paul marveled about the response. “The community's strong,” he said. “I love it here. I'm just stunned by how people have supported me.”

In that financial sense, Paul is ahead of other players who made $7,000 a week during the eight-game season. Fans rallied, remembering him as an exciting, productive player for the Utes in 2014-15 (after he transferred from Miami) and an engaging person in the community. Branden Hockenbury, of Bingham Canyon, launched the account during a break from his work loading beverage trucks, hoping for $2,000. Hockenbury was motivated to do something, he said, because Paul is “one on my all-time favorite Utes – my favorite linebacker, for sure.”

Other players and staff members are on their own, becoming part of multiple class action lawsuits, including one filed in Utah’s U.S. District Court last week by a former Stallions vice president. The league filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday in Texas, meaning all of its assets will be liquidated.

For some ex-Stallions, the AAF accomplished nearly everything they hoped. Former Ute offensive linemen Salesi Uhatafe (Washington) and Jeremiah Poutasi (Arizona) are among dozens of AAF players who have signed with NFL teams.

They all share Paul's feeling of being “blindsided” by the AAF's failing with two weeks left in the regular season, after everyone was promised three years of stability in the start-up operation. Paul labeled the turn of events “a market crash in football.” Jason Phillips, hired last fall as the Stallions receivers coach, fortuitously joined the Utah State staff prior to the AAF season. His former Salt Lake colleagues are out of work, having missed the 2019 hiring window in college football.

“To me, that's a crime,” said Stallions coach Dennis Erickson, concerned about assistants who missed their last month's paychecks.

Paul, with two 8-inch plates and 15 screws in his arm, is not the only former Ute star with medical issues. Stallions receivers Kaelin Clay and Dres Anderson need rehabilitation, according to ex-Ute linebacker Trevor Reilly, who says he played the last two games with a fractured sternum.

Reilly, 31, spent four seasons in the NFL with three teams, accompanying New England to a Super Bowl as a practice-squad member. Reilly remembers how a linebacker who was signed the day before as Paul's replacement was in disbelief during a meeting when the news hit, realizing he would have to pay his way home to the East Coast. Reilly temporarily housed Paul and another player with his family in Lehi; another player left his truck in the front yard.

Paul is facing a four-month recovery, looking for a job and an apartment. He has advanced beyond the stage of lying in bed in Reilly’s basement, wondering what to do. Responding to an interview request, he had texted, “I am just a little overwhelmed right now and trying to figure things out.”

As of last week, though, Paul was showing signs of his upbeat nature. He laughed when reminded how he started singing a Lionel Richie song, waiting for his turn in a news conference in Seattle after the Utes beat Washington in 2015.

Coaching likely is in his future. He spent eight months in Russia last year as a player-coach and has connections with former Ute coaches at several schools. Weber State's Jay Hill shared his own story of an injury in the XFL leading him into coaching. “That meant a lot to me,” Paul said. “That gave me hope.”

Paul is not giving up on the NFL, saying, “I had a taste of it. I’m still hungry. Would my body allow me? I don’t know.” Moments later, his thoughts return to coaching: “I’m a student of the game. I’m ready to become a teacher of the game.”

Reilly is proud to have teamed with former Utes including Sealver Siliga, Tenny Palepoi and Paul on the AAF’s No. 1 defense. That statistic is not verifiable; the only remaining element of the league website is a statement saying officials were “sorry” about what happened.

The ranking is plausibly accurate, though. In their final game March 30, the Stallions defeated San Diego 8-3. A week later, Stallions signage remained draped around the Rice-Eccles Stadium field as the Utes prepared for a scrimmage. By the end of the session, the signs were displaced. Yet unlike Central Florida, which reportedly lost $1 million in rental fees from the Orlando franchise, Utah was not left with unpaid bills. “All of the invoices to the university have been paid, so no obligations are outstanding in terms of direct cost,” a school spokesman said.

Ciante Evans, a Stallions defensive back from Nebraska who bonded with Paul, stood on the sideline with a broken wrist that night as Paul was hurt when his arm was pinned between a teammate and San Diego receiver. “I was devastated for him,” Evans said. “Not only for the team, but in the community, he did a lot for the organization.”

Paul is promising to do more charitable work in Utah, responding to fans’ support of him. Appearing on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” last week, outlining his dilemma, Paul said an AAF official contacted him to say the league was trying to address his workman’s compensation issues.

Who knows what will come of that promise now, amid bankruptcy? After Paul’s interview was aired, Hockenbury observed, the flow of donations immediately slowed.

There’s a new show on Hulu about a young man who practices a different religion from most other Americans. He doesn’t smoke or drink. His parents want him to meet a nice girl who shares his faith, get married and have children.

And most people refer to his religion with a six-letter word that starts with “M.”

“Ramy” is not, however, about a Morm … er, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s about a young man (Ramy Youssef) who’s first-generation Egyptian American — and a Muslim.

(All 10 episodes start streaming Friday on Hulu.)

Youssef, a standup comedian, is pretty much playing himself. And he didn’t want “Ramy” to be about a first-generation American who wants to break away from his family’s traditions and religion and be more like his “white friends.”

“I never really related to that. I always really felt this connection to my culture, to my faith,” Youssef said. “And the tension in my life has always been — how do I hold on to both things? What does it feel like when you want to go to Mecca, and you also want to go to Burning Man? I’ve never seen that played out.”

Ramy (the character) is religious. He goes to his mosque and prays, even though he’s aggravated by the need to wait in line to wash his feet. His shortcut leads to an older man telling him there’s “a good chance your prayers never counted” and “if the water doesn’t go between your toes, the devil will!”

Ramy (the character) thinks of himself as a fairly observant Muslim, although he has an active sex life and his religion prohibits premarital sex. Which sort of makes him a bad Muslim. (“Bad Muslim” was under consideration as a title for the show.)

“Well, that’s why the show’s called ‘Ramy.’ It’s not called ‘Muslims,’” said Youssef. “The point of the show is the conflict with the faith” his character feels. “This is not a how-to-be-Muslim guide. This is not the outtakes from the Koran. This is someone struggling and not being a good Muslim.”

There is, however, a line he would "never cross.”

“We never attack the religion. We actually don’t even really question the religion,” Youssef said. “We just question our own intentions within the religion and the culture. … We’re dealing with what is very real and relatable, I think, to a lot of people.”

Like members of a variety of other religions, including the LDS Church. And anyone who has a racist uncle. And anyone whose mother ever said something like, “Do you want to stay alone forever?”

Ramy's response: “You can't just walk up to a Muslim girl and start spitting game. What am I supposed to say — 'Hey, can I get your father's number?'”

“Ramy” is a half-hour comedy, but it's not exactly a sitcom. It's not filled with set-ups and punchlines; the comedy comes from the situations. It's amusing, engaging and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

“There's only two hot Muslim girls left in town, and they'll be gone by the end of the year,” his married friend tells him.

(The show is for adults. There’s plenty of R-rated language and sexual situations.)

Youssef is the star, creator, and writer of “Ramy,” and he executive produces with Jerrod Carmichael (“The Carmichael Show”). His goal is to make viewers laugh, although he wouldn’t mind if he opens some eyes about Muslims.

“I just want to show that we’re human,” Youssef said. “I think because we’re so underrepresented [on TV and in movies] ... we’re constantly trying to apologize or over-prove and show that we’re good. I think what really shows that someone’s good is that they’re a human being, and they’re really dealing with real things. And that’s what I think this show is doing for the first time for Muslims.”

Canadian professional freeskier Dave Treadway was killed Monday when he fell about 100 feet into a crevasse while skiing in the backcountry with a group of people in the mountains just north of Whistler, British Columbia.

Treadway, 34, died near Rhododendron Mountain, about 10 miles from where he lived in Pemberton, British Columbia, and 17 miles from Whistler. His death was announced on his website in a statement that called him "an incredible skier and a monumental human."

Pemberton District Search and Rescue responded to an emergency call with a medical and extraction team, but was unable to save Treadway. "The extraction from the crevasse was a very technical operation for the team," SAR Manager David MacKenzie said. "A second team from Whistler SAR was dispatched to provide assistance to the Pemberton team."

Pulling Treadway from the crevasse took about an hour, according to Outside, and involved a 12-minute flight, a safety assessment and the construction of a rigging system involving 14 responders. MacKenzie noted that temperatures were nearing 60 degrees Monday and indicated that the crevasse could have been obscured by a snow bridge, typically formed by a snow drift, that was weakened by the sun and warmth.

"It was just an unfortunate incident going through unknown terrain," MacKenzie told Pique. "There are crevasses all over the backcountry and in the glacial area. Various ones may have an ice bridge over them or something, and some of them can be sight unseen."

Earlier this month, Treadway had written on Facebook that he was undeterred by the warming temperatures.

"Don't let a bit of warm weather trick you into hanging up your skis. Fine, go for a peddle if you're really that excited about it. But the snow's great up high right now, the crowds are thin, and the days are long. GO SKIING !!!!"

Freeskiing is a combination of freestyle skiing and snowboarding and has been part of the freestyle skiing program at the Winter Olympics since 2014. It consists of three major disciplines: halfpipe, slopestyle and skicross.

Treadway is survived by his wife, Tessa, who is pregnant, and the couple's two sons. Tessa Treadway is also a freeskier and told Outside last year that the family had been living in their camper the last three years, traveling the West and finding success in promoting their sport. "Lots of different companies want us on their team to promote skiing as a family," she told Outside. "We've carved out a new market for ourselves."

Tessa explained that she had curtailed her skiing. “If we want to ski something big, it’s easier for Dave. I’m more the primary caregiver, and he’s more the breadwinner — he’ll still go out on those epic missions,” she said, adding that the choice was hers. “I wanted to not miss out on that time in their lives and be there for my sons. And we’re promoting to people that adventure isn’t over when you have kids.”

A GoFundMe page for the family was created Tuesday. "Dave was a passionate individual who's achievements in the mountains were only outweighed by his desire to show others the love of God," its message said. "He did this by serving as a youth leader in his community and by leading as a professional skiing role model."

Treadway and his family are well-known in the skiing community, which was stunned by his death. "All I know is the world just lost an incredible human being and a wonderful family is suffering unthinkable grief," Mike Douglas, a pro freeskier, wrote on Instagram.

In his last Facebook post over the weekend, he wrote: “My mom told me “The sweet isn’t as sweet without the sour.” Skiing spring lines, it’s all about waiting out the down days (the sour) to be able to get one of these days. Man it’s worth it, and sure tastes sweet!”

Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks exploring an independent run for the U.S. presidency, is coming to Utah next week for a series of town halls, his team announced Thursday.

The visit is part of Schultz’ “Heart of America” bus tour as he prepares to make a formal decision on whether to mount a third-party challenge against President Donald Trump in 2020.

Schultz is scheduled to meet with the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday followed that day by a town hall at Davis Technical College in Kaysville.

The next day Schultz will tour the National Ability Center in Park City and meet with business owners there and in Lehi ahead of a town hall meeting at the headquarters of Silicon Slopes.

His visit comes after Democratic candidates Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro made recent campaign stops.

Eye On The Y is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly newsletter on BYU athletics. Subscribe here.

New BYU basketball coach Mark Pope is close to claiming a win over his former school. Utah Valley is hoping for a split.

Pope has moved relatively quickly — by BYU standards — to get former Utah Valley University assistant coaches Chris Burgess and Cody Fueger to join him at BYU.

Why?

Because he values the work of Burgess and Fueger so much that he doesn’t want new coach Mark Madsen, profiled here by the Deseret News, to have time to persuade them to stay at UVU. Sources say Burgess and Fueger are going through the typical lengthy interview process that all coaches at BYU must go through. That’s why it seems like the hiring process is going slowly, but isn’t.

There are also rumblings that Madsen is working to find some additional funds to keep Fueger at UVU. Fueger is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and would seemingly have a brighter future at UVU in relation to his aspirations of becoming a head coach some day.

It is believed that Seattle assistant Nick Robinson, the former Southern Utah coach, is also on Pope’s wish list, but the coach doesn’t have as much urgency to get him aboard as he does with Burgess and Fueger.

Meanwhile, it appears that most of BYU’s current players will stick around, according to rising senior Zac Seljaas. There are some rumors out there that Nick Emery might enter the transfer portal, but as of Wednesday night the mercurial rising senior was not in it.

Thursday morning, Chinese big man Shengzhe Li asked for and received a release from BYU from the National Letter of Intent he signed in November. Li’s coach at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Southern California, Jeff Reinert, said BYU is still free to re-recruit Li, but the release means other schools are now free to contact the 6-foot-10 center.

Football news

It has been a fairly eventful week for BYU’s football program, given that spring practices ended three weeks ago.

The Cougars landed South Carolina graduate transfer running back Ty’Son Williams, who picked BYU over Florida State, Marshall and Western Kentucky.

Also, former four-star defensive end Langi Tuifua, a Bingham High product, announced on social media that he has to retire from playing football due to a lingering back injury.

The website FBSschedules.com stirred up that old controversy about whether independent BYU should be considered a Power 5 opponent when it comes to football scheduling.

Quotable

As usual, BYU baseball coach Mike Littlewood spoke frankly and directly when I interviewed him for a story on the BYU baseball team’s remarkable turnaround this season. Most notably, Littlewood believes the school’s refusal to play on Sundays could cost it an NCAA Tournament at-large bid:

“Honestly, I think not playing on Sundays is detrimental to us,” Littlewood said. “So if there is somebody who doesn’t want their team to have to move their pitchers up a day to Thursday-through Saturday, that’s a factor. So I would rather just try to win [the conference tournament]. The RPI is really important. This is a really big series for us up at Washington. If we could go up there and win that series, our RPI could be really good.”

Around campus

• BYU’s softball team had won six straight games, but then ran into the No. 3-ranked team in the country, Washington. The results weren’t pretty, as the Huskies pounded out a 13-3 win at Gail Miller Field on Wednesday night.

The Cougars walloped Utah Valley 9-1 on Tuesday, but were no match for the Pac-12’s top team..

Rylee Jensen, a junior from Idaho Falls, was named the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week on Monday after she batted .900 (9-for-10) last week. She had a double, a triple and a home run and drove in four runs and scored five times in a three-game sweep of Pacific.

• Having stunned Stanford in five sets Saturday in Palo Alto in an MPSF tournament quarterfinal game, the BYU men’s volleyball team plays at No. 1 seed Pepperdine on Thursday night. It is BYU’s fourth straight trip to the MPSF semifinals, after winning the tournament last year. BYU’s Davide Gardini is the MPSF Freshman of the Year and teammate Gabi Garcia Fernandez made the all-MPSF First Team.

• BYU’s No. 5-ranked men’s track team and No. 20-ranked women’s team will compete in four different meets in the Los Angeles area this weekend. All-American Rory Linkletter will make his outdoor season debut after traveling to represent Canada at the 2019 World Cross Championships in Denmark.