BOSTON — The UConn football team swallowed North Carolina at Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon, using its dominant defense to clinch a 27-14 victory in the Fenway Bowl, its first win in a bowl game since 2009. The importance of the game was clear for the Huskies, who secured just the third nine-win season in UConn’s FBS history, and to their fans, who made up most of the crowd which was announced at 27,900 — the highest-attended game in the Fenway Bowl’s three-year history. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Myles Rice scored 18 points to lead Indiana to a 77-68 win over Winthrop on Sunday in Bloomington, Ind. Malik Reneau added 14 points and seven rebounds and Trey Galloway scored 11 points for Indiana (10-3). The Hoosiers prevailed despite shooting just 1-of-20 from 3-point range. The Eagles were a little better, shooting 6-of-23 from beyond the arc. Indiana held a 46-39 rebounding advantage and had 17 assists to Winthrop's eight. K.J. Doucet and Kasen Harrison each scored 14 points to lead five players in double figures for Winthrop (10-5), which lost for the second time in three games. Kelton Talford scored 13 points and Paul Jones III and Nick Johnson each scored 10 points for the Eagles. After Winthrop forged an 8-0 run to pull within one point, Indiana answered by scoring six straight to grab a 75-68 lead with two minutes left in the game. Winthrop had two empty possessions after that, and Indiana all but put the game away with 31.2 seconds left on a putback layup by Anthony Leal. Indiana went up 67-58 with 5:19 remaining in the game following baskets by Rice and Galloway. The Eagles answered with their big run. Harrison had a three-point play with 3:24 to go to make it a four-point game, then Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 3:16 remaining to make it 69-68. Indiana held a 41-37 lead at halftime, and the game remained close throughout the early stages of the second half. The Hoosiers took a 61-54 lead with 9:07 remaining in the game after a basket by Bryson Tucker, but Winthrop hung around and made it a 63-58 game with 6:12 left. Indiana got off to a strong start, taking a 23-16 lead with 10:27 remaining in the first half and going up 32-24 on Mackenzie Mgbako's dunk with 4:30 left until halftime. Harrison drilled a 3-pointer in the final second to cut the Eagles' halftime deficit to four points. --Field Level Media
Conor McGregor and Logan Paul mega-fight rumored for India: $250M payday on the lineRussian leader Vladimir Putin has called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the second time in two days to continue discussions about the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti , citing Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov; Azerbaijani president's press service Details: Peskov stated that Putin and Aliyev held a phone conversation on Sunday, 29 December, continuing their discussions about issues related to the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash. The Azerbaijani president's press service confirmed that it was Putin who initiated the call to Aliyev. Quote from Azerbaijani president's press service: "During the phone conversation, the heads of state continued discussions on issues related to the crash of the passenger plane of the Closed Joint-Stock Company Azerbaijan Hava Yollari." Background: Support UP or become our patron !Washington, Nov 24 (AP) As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become Project 2025 as a road map for “exactly what our movement will do” with another crack at the White House. As the blueprint for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, Trump pulled an about-face. He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. Now, after being elected the 47th president on November 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned. Most notably, Trump has tapped Russell Vought for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as “border czar;” and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy. Those moves have accelerated criticisms from Democrats who warn that Trump's election hands government reins to movement conservatives who spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in the West Wing and impose a starkly rightward shift across the US government and society. Trump and his aides maintain that he won a mandate to overhaul Washington. But they maintain the specifics are his alone. “President Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “All of President Trumps' Cabinet nominees and appointments are whole-heartedly committed to President Trump's agenda, not the agenda of outside groups.” Here is a look at what some of Trump's choices portend for his second presidency. As budget chief, Vought envisions a sweeping, powerful perch The Office of Management and Budget director, a role Vought held under Trump previously and requires Senate confirmation, prepares a president's proposed budget and is generally responsible for implementing the administration's agenda across agencies. The job is influential but Vought made clear as author of a Project 2025 chapter on presidential authority that he wants the post to wield more direct power. “The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President's mind,” Vought wrote. The OMB, he wrote, “is a President's air-traffic control system” and should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies' bureaucracies.” Trump did not go into such details when naming Vought but implicitly endorsed aggressive action. Vought, the president-elect said, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State” — Trump's catch-all for federal bureaucracy — and would help “restore fiscal sanity.” In June, speaking on former Trump aide Steve Bannon's “War Room” podcast, Vought relished the potential tension: “We're not going to save our country without a little confrontation.” Vought could help Musk and Trump remake government's role and scope The strategy of further concentrating federal authority in the presidency permeates Project 2025's and Trump's campaign proposals. Vought's vision is especially striking when paired with Trump's proposals to dramatically expand the president's control over federal workers and government purse strings — ideas intertwined with the president-elect tapping mega-billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency.” Trump in his first term sought to remake the federal civil service by reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers — who have job protection through changes in administration — as political appointees, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. Currently, only about 4,000 of the federal government's roughly 2 million workers are political appointees. President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's changes. Trump can now reinstate them. Meanwhile, Musk's and Ramaswamy's sweeping “efficiency” mandates from Trump could turn on an old, defunct constitutional theory that the president — not Congress — is the real gatekeeper of federal spending. In his “Agenda 47,” Trump endorsed so-called “impoundment,” which holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations bills, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor. The president, the theory holds, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary. Vought did not venture into impoundment in his Project 2025 chapter. But, he wrote, “The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government. Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.” Trump's choice immediately sparked backlash. Homan and Miller reflect Trump's and Project 2025's immigration overl Trump's protests about Project 2025 always glossed over overlaps in the two agendas. Both want to reimpose Trump-era immigration limits. Project 2025 includes a litany of detailed proposals for various US immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries — reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers, for example. Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving advisers and architect of his immigration ideas, including his promise of the largest deportation force in US history. As deputy policy chief, which is not subject to Senate confirmation, Miller would remain in Trump's West Wing inner circle. “America is for Americans and Americans only,” Miller said at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on October 27. “America First Legal,” Miller's organisation founded as an ideological counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, was listed as an advisory group to Project 2025 until Miller asked that the name be removed because of negative attention. Homan, a Project 2025 named contributor, was an acting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during Trump's first presidency, playing a key role in what became known as Trump's “family separation policy.” Previewing Trump 2.0 earlier this year, Homan said: “No one's off the table. If you're here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.” Project 2025 contributors slated for CIA and Federal Communications chiefs John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick to lead the CIA, was previously one of Trump's directors of national intelligence. He is a Project 2025 contributor. The document's chapter on US intelligence was written by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe's chief of staff in the first Trump administration. Reflecting Ratcliffe's and Trump's approach, Carmack declared the intelligence establishment too cautious. Ratcliffe, like the chapter attributed to Carmack, is hawkish toward China. Throughout the Project 2025 document, Beijing is framed as a US adversary that cannot be trusted. Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, wrote Project 2025's FCC chapter and is now Trump's pick to chair the panel. Carr wrote that the FCC chairman “is empowered with significant authority that is not shared” with other FCC members. He called for the FCC to address “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” specifically “Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” He called for more stringent transparency rules for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube and “empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.” Carr and Ratcliffe would require Senate confirmation for their posts. (AP) GRS GRS (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
Conor Johnston Touted as Front-Runner for SF District 2 Supervisor Amid Tense Political ClimateTimeline: Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024
The story so far: The 29th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP), arguably the most important of the UN’s climate conferences, was scheduled to end on November 22, after 11 days of negotiations, and take a collective step forward in addressing rising carbon emissions. However, deliberations are expected to carry on beyond the deadline with several sticking points outstanding. What is the significance of COP29? Going into the talks, developing countries had stated that at least a trillion dollars per year from 2025-35 would be necessary to meet emission targets. This was seen to be the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance which refers to money that will be given to developing countries by developed countries to help the former meet their goals to transition away from the continued use of fossil fuels and curb greenhouse gas emissions. Developing countries have been repeatedly saying that the figure should be “trillions of dollars.” To this end, developed countries have mobilised and transferred $115 billion in 2021-22 — a controversial clause that has yet to be resolved in the universal agreement — but per the Paris Agreement, a new target higher than $100 billion must be agreed upon by 2025. The talks in Baku were expected to conclusively agree upon a number but there continues to be a sharp split between developed and developing countries on the quantum and other basic aspects of what this NCQG should look like. What do developing countries want? This block of countries include China, India and the Group of 77 countries. There are also other coalitions such as the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), Least Developing Countries (LDC), Small Island Developing Countries (SIDS) etc. Nearly all developing countries fall into one or multiple groupings and while they have differences, they are largely agreed on the point that it is the developed countries that should pay the bulk of climate finance. More importantly, they specified that this money had to be provided not only to help countries meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) but also buffer against existing threats of climate change, and make good for climate damage already wrought. The NDCs are targeted, voluntary plans by all countries to reduce carbon emissions by certain quantities until 2030. The NCQG, the developing countries say, should also reflect contributions by developed countries on the basis of their historical contribution to existing carbon concentrations in the atmosphere as well as their per capita GDP. To put this in perspective, it is important to note that even if all countries fulfilled their stated voluntary commitments, it would as of now only translate to a 2% cut, and this year — the latest scientific assessments suggest — carbon emissions will likely increase 0.8% over 2023. What does the developed world say? However developed countries, led by the European Union, say these demands are unreasonably high. They aver that “all actors” (read countries) should collectively work to hike up climate finance to $1.3 trillion per year by 2035. While agreeing that they must “take the lead” they have only a set a goal of $250-300 billion by 2035 per year. Moreover this would consist of a “variety of sources,” including “public and private, bilateral and multilateral, and alternative sources.” Related Stories Climate-threatened nations stage protest at COP29 over contentious deal Finance deadlock pushes COP29 to brink of failure U.N. rules for carbon trading between nations approved at COP29 climate talks This suggests that another major demand of the developing world, of ensuring most of the money is in the form of grants or low-cost loans, remains unmet. Have any concrete agreements been made? A week before the conference began, China had petitioned the Presidency of COP29 to discuss “climate-change related unilateral restrictive trade measures” at the conference. This is an unusual request as trade issues are discussed on forums such as the World Trade Organization. China proposed this as part of a grouping of countries called BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China). The petition is primarily directed at a European Union proposal called the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which imposes a tax on products imported into the EU that don’t conform to carbon-emission norms required by the Union. The CBAM is currently operating in a “transitional phase” but will come into full effect from January 1, 2026. The first day of the conference saw an agreement on carbon markets to be supervised by the UN. Such a market would allow countries to trade carbon credits — certified reductions of carbon emissions — among themselves and whose prices are determined as a consequence of emission caps imposed by countries. The market itself follows from a section in the Paris Agreement, called Article 6. Sub- sections within the Article spell out how countries can bilaterally trade carbon among themselves (Art 6.2) and participate in a global carbon market (6.4). Though most of the necessary nuts and bolts to make operational such a carbon market, supervised by a United Nations body, were in place since 2022, there were several niggles, particularly on ensuring that the carbon credits generated are genuine and its antecedents are transparent. While there is criticism among environmentalist groups that enough discussions on this didn’t take place, this is supposed to be a mechanism to facilitate climate finance. India has been discussing bilateral deals to trade carbon with several countries. An agreement such as the one in Baku could be a catalyst, and activate India’s own carbon-trading market. Published - November 24, 2024 04:20 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit environmental politics / environmental cleanup / summit / The Hindu Explains
EXCLUSIVE Ryan Bertrand opens up on life after football as former Champions League winner turns himself into successful businessman Ryan Bertrand starred in Chelsea's historic Champions League triumph in 2012 The 35-year-old former defender is now thriving in the world of business LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off! New formation, some new faces, but the optimism has gone at Old Trafford By SAMI MOKBEL Published: 18:29 GMT, 28 December 2024 | Updated: 18:29 GMT, 28 December 2024 e-mail View comments Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, so says the adage. Ryan Bertrand most certainly agrees. The transition from professional footballer into retirement can be tricky business. For Bertrand, business is the operative word. The former England international, best remembered for his starring role in Chelsea ’s historic Champions League triumph in 2012, is showing the same conviction in his new corporate life as he did during his football career. ‘I had already taken steps towards transitioning away from professional football when I was playing,’ explained Bertrand, who retired in June 2024. ‘I was constantly educating myself and reading. The trajectory of footballers once they leave the game is well documented. ‘That was something I didn’t want, staying ahead of the curve and doing as much business and personal development to prepare for that next move before that day came became a big focus for me. Ryan Bertrand always considered what he what do after football and founded founded fintech brokerage Silicon Markets with business partner and long-term friend Louis Bell (left) in 2015 Bertrand drinks in Chelsea's historic 2012 Champions League triumph on an open-top bus alongside Didier Drogba (bottom), Sam Hutchinson (back left) and Gary Cahill (back right) The defender picked up 19 international caps for England during his illustrious career ‘When the day comes (to retire) it isn’t always graceful, I always wanted the opportunity to finish when I wanted to finish. ‘It got to the point where I was almost looking forward to retirement. ‘Instead of incubating myself in the football world and locking myself away from the real world, I always had the balance. ‘I could occupy my mind into the business world that would prepare me for the next step. ‘Footballers should find the time to expand their mindset with what’s happening in the wider world. Football’s big but the world is far bigger. ‘Being at Chelsea, to all my loans - Bournemouth, Oldham, Norwich, Reading, Forest, Villa back to Chelsea - what I appreciate from my career is how rounded it was. 'From League One, to the Champions League final, to Wembley to playing for England at the Euros to battling relegation. ‘Perhaps from a personal context it allowed me to have more empathy and objectivity when approaching sports from a business perspective because I could understand what they (the players) are going through.’ Bertrand spent seven years at Southampton and was named in the 2015 PFA team of the year Bertrand says his numerous loans, including his time at Reading (pictured), have rounded him The 35-year-old finished his career at Leicester City, announcing his retirement last June In 2015, Bertrand - together with business partner and long-term friend Louis Bell - founded fintech brokerage Silicon Markets. Located next door to all-in-one finance app Revolut - now worth an estimated £45billion - Bertrand and Bell witnessed first hand just how rapidly business’ can grow with the right direction. ‘I remember going to China and pitching our business alongside Revolut's employee Alan Chang,’ recalls Bell. ‘We saw Revolut grow and that was eye opening, great lessons and learning curves.’ Today, alongside Bell, Bertrand runs football talent agency FA Sport that looks after the interests of Chelsea and England defender Levi Colwill and Everton striker Armando Broja among others. As Bertrand and Bell speaks to Mail Sport about life after football from FA Sport’ HQ in Knightsbridge London, their thrill for the fight is clear. Bell, himself, has a history in football. He was a former Gillingham youth player before turning his hand to a career in finance and entrepreneurship. ‘The competitiveness is what we thrive on - the challenge is the hurdles we face,’ explained Bell. Bertrand played alongside a host of stars at Chelsea, including Spain midfielder Juan Mata (pictured) and won the FA Cup and Europa League as well as the Champions League There was more silverware at Leicester, picking up the Community Shield with Jamie Vardy Ryan Bertrand was selected for Stuart Pearce's 2012 Great Britain Olympic squad ‘You do what you’ve got to do. The challenges are the back and forth you have with clubs. ‘I'd be calling Ryan when he was a player during the early hours of the morning. ‘He would call back, we would have an argument. He’d come back with a solution, I’d come back with a solution and we find a middle ground. ‘Like football, that’s competition.’ Indeed, Bertrand, who has an FA Cup, Champions league, Europa League, Community Shield and 19 international caps to his name, insists his achievements in the business world are every bit as profound as his medals. ‘Winning the Champions League was massive for me and it gets bigger the more time passes. But being in the business space it’s you versus everyone - but now you get to decide your purpose,’ said the 35-year-old. Through FA Sport, Bertrand and Bell played a key role in the crucial appointment of Joe Shields as co-director of recruitment and talent at Chelsea - one of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali’s key early appointments. Bertrand also recommended £115million Moises Caicedo and Manchester City player Josko Gvardiol to Premier League sides when both players were available for under £5million. Since retiring, Bertrand's attention is fully on football talent agency FA Sport Bertrand insists his achievements in business are every bit as profound as his medals Bertrand's FA Sport continue to look to sign talented young players and expand into Africa Bell also brokered the transactions for Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella and Cesare Casadei to Chelsea in the summer of 2022. The future of the company will see FA Sport continue to look to sign talented young players and expand into Africa, where they intend to open a development centre for elite and amateur athletes. ‘There’s much talent in Africa, we really want to be part of Africa’s development in a sporting context,’ said Bertrand. ‘Developing sports in Africa so people and communities can harness the social and economic benefits that a robust sports landscape can provide. ‘Can we give youngsters a career in football in Europe and beyond? Can we find the next Sadio Mane?’ For now, though, the focus is the current operation heading into the January transfer window. ‘Signing Levi Colwill and Armando Broja at 16, seeing them develop and then having their own ideas on where they wanted to get to - the ambition and determination makes you super proud,’ added Bell. ‘Seeing them play for England and Albania makes you understand why you started - you remember sitting in Cobham and signing them at 16 years old.’ Bertrand adds: ’The secret to our success as an agency is the purpose, we want to help the players, we resonate with the players, the parents and because my experience as a player was rounded so our advice is maybe a bit more relevant. ‘I’ve lived every move. The loans, the move trajectories. I was one of the first players to go out on loan at Chelsea with a view to coming back to play first team: it was me and Jack Cork to Bournemouth. ‘I’ve it lived and breathed it. We know how to identify an elite young athlete, we know the pathway and the moments they need to take to get to the top of their game. ‘There are tough conversations with clubs, but our track record show we have had those conversations with conviction. ‘We have had some instances where we have listened to the club and things haven’t worked out. That’s where we have learned and reinforced our own principles.’ Southampton Chelsea Leicester Share or comment on this article: Ryan Bertrand opens up on life after football as former Champions League winner turns himself into successful businessman e-mail Add commentMethodist preschool’s commitment in upholding quality early education laudedThe confidential briefing note is part of the tranche of documents made public in the annual release of State papers from the Irish National Archives. An Irish Department of Foreign Affairs official focusing on justice and security created the list in October 2002. The document starts by referencing a 1999 interview given by George Mitchell, the chairman of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, in which he claimed the British and Irish governments, as well as Northern Ireland’s political parties, had leaked information to manipulate public opinion. However, he further accused the NIO of attempting to sabotage the process by leaking information on British Government policy to the media. Mr Mitchell, a former US senator, is said to have expressed alarm and anger over the frequency of leaks from the NIO – saying they were uniquely “designed to undermine the policy of the British Government of which they were a part”. The Irish civil servant notes Mr Mitchell himself was subjected to an attempted “smear” when he first arrived in Northern Ireland, as newspaper articles falsely claimed his chief of staff Martha Pope had had a liaison with Sinn Fein representative Gerry Kelly with ulterior motives. The Irish civil servant goes on to list several “leaks”, starting with the publication of a proposed deal in a newspaper while “intense negotiations” for the Downing Street Declaration were under way. Next, the Department lists two “high-profile and damaging leaks issued from the NIO”. A so-called “gameplan” document was leaked in February 1998, showing papers had been prepared weeks before the Drumcree march on July 6, 1997. In the preceding years, there had been standoffs and clashes as nationalists opposed the procession of an Orange parade down Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The gameplan document showed then secretary of state for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam, who was publicly expressing a desire for a negotiated solution to the 1997 parade, advocated “finding the lowest common denominator for getting some Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road”. In 1997, a large number of security forces were deployed to the area to allow the march to proceed. The incident sparked heightened tension and a wave of rioting. The document further describes the release of a document submitted by the NIO’s director of communications to the secretary of state as a “second major leak”. It claims a publicity strategy was released to the DUP in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and showed how the UK Government would support a yes vote in a referendum following any talks agreement. In addition, it is claimed unionists used leaked sections of the Patten report on policing to invalidate its findings ahead of its publication in 1999. The report recommended the replacement of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the changing of symbols, and a 50-50 recruitment policy for Catholics and Protestants. At the time, UUP leader David Trimble said the recommendations would lead to a corruption of policing in Northern Ireland. Chris Patten, chairman of the independent commission on policing, said some of the assertions were a “total fabrication” and designed to “muddy the waters” to create a difficult political atmosphere. Elsewhere, the author notes it was leaked to the media there was serious disagreement between the governments of the UK and Ireland on the composition of that commission – with not a single name submitted by the Irish side being accepted by the other. The author notes this incident, still under the heading “NIO leaks”, was believed by British officials to have emanated from the Irish side. The report turns to leaks of other origin, claiming “disgruntled Special Branch officers in Northern Ireland” were blamed by the British Government for a series of releases about the IRA which were designed to damage Sinn Fein in the 2001 general election in Northern Ireland. One senior Whitehall source was quoted in the Guardian as complaining that Special Branch was “leaking like a sieve” after details of an IRA intelligence database containing the names of leading Tories – described at the time as a “hit list” – was passed to the BBC in April 2002. The briefing note adds: “This was followed days later by a leak to The Sunday Telegraph which alleged that senior IRA commanders bought Russian special forces rifles in Moscow last year. “The newspaper said it was passed details by military intelligence in London.” The briefing note adds that other Special Branch leaks were associated with the Castlereagh break-in. The final incident in the document notes the Police Ombudsman’s Report on the Omagh bombing was also leaked to the press in December 2001. Then Northern Ireland secretary John Reid said at the time: “Leaks are never helpful and usually malicious – I will not be commenting on this report until I have seen the final version.” The reason for creating the list of leaks, which the Irish National Archives holds in a folder alongside briefing notes for ministers ahead of meetings with officials from the UK Government and NIO, is not outlined in the document itself. – This document is based on material in 2024/130/6.
ANN ARBOR — In a performance resembling a video game, Michigan caught fire from 3, tying a program record on Sunday night in a blowout win over visiting Western Kentucky. Final: Michigan 112, Western Kentucky 64 Record: 10-3 (2-0) MVP: Nimari Burnett Unsung hero: Vladislav Goldin Arch nemesis: Michigan’s 17 turnovers? Not setting the program record for 3s? Top highlight: Midway through the first half, Roddy Gayle Jr. hits Vladislav Goldin, cutting through the heart of Western Kentucky’s zone defense, for a long-range alley-oop. Rhyme time: Post-holiday break but no rust to shake // A dub to close the year, as easy as cake Michigan made 19 3-pointers against the Hilltoppers at Crisler Center (on 40 attempts), tying the high mark set in 2016. Michigan shot 52 percent from the field in the blowout. All nine Wolverines who saw significant time connected from deep in their last game of 2024. Michigan hadn’t scored that many points in a quarter-century. There was no holiday hangover for the Wolverines, who wrapped the nonconference portion of their schedule without any bad losses. They protected home court and easily handled lesser foes. Next up: a resumption of Big Ten play, starting with a trip to Los Angeles to face USC on Saturday and UCLA three days later. The Wolverines will do so with two league wins from early December in their back pocket. Sunday’s game was put to bed well before the final buzzer. Michigan led by 12 before the first media timeout and pulled away before the next one, eventually building a 28-point halftime edge. Michigan stayed hot and never let Western Kentucky (9-4) even think about chipping away. The Wolverines’ 17 turnovers was the only box-score blemish. When they got off a shot it usually went in — or was rebounded for another chance. Burnett (17 points) made five 3s. Goldin matched him with 17 points, missing just once. Tre Donaldson (12 points, 11 rebounds) Danny Wolf (12 and 10) both notched double-doubles. The Hilltoppers’ zone defense was a disaster, and they shot just 37 percent at the other end, including just 2 of 12 from deep. Michigan, which hadn’t played since a blowout win last Sunday, was locked in from the opening tip. Roddy Gayle Jr. (11 points) sent his defender tumbling to the floor with a jab step before burying a 3. Goldin tried a rare 3 and made it. Donaldson became the fourth Wolverine to hit a triple, giving Michigan a 16-4 lead with 16:17 left in the half. Will Tschetter’s 3 with 12:24 left in the half pushed Michigan’s advantage to 10, and the rout was on. Justin Pippen became the seventh Wolverine to connect from deep, then did it again on the next possession make it 45-25 with 6:08 left in the half. He saw serious run after a season-best 10 points last weekend. Sam Walters’ corner 3 in the final seconds of the half sat on the rim for a moment and fell off, so Michigan made only 11 3s and shot 58 percent to lead 59-31 at halftime. Michigan picked up where it left off coming out of halftime, with Burnett canning a 3 on the opening possession. Goldin hit his second 3 of the night to triple his career output as Michigan went up by 35 a little more than a minute into the second half. Wolf connected from deep and Walters (13 points) did the same, becoming the ninth Wolverine to do so. Wolf’s high-arcing trey with 6:05 left gave him a double-double, put Michigan up by 50, and tied the program high for 3s. The final score was identical to Michigan’s 112-64 win over Indiana on Feb. 22, 1998.