Jackson scores 23, Purdue Fort Wayne beats Robert Morris 82-77Arizona Wildcats (6-1) vs. Vanderbilt Commodores (6-0) | Acrisure Holiday Invitational, Acrisure Arena, Palm Springs, Calif. | 2:30 p.m. Tuesday | TruTV | 1400-AM She said it Arizona coach Adia Barnes on Vanderbilt: “Vanderbilt is really athletic. They're going to throw different presses at us. They're gonna throw 1-2-2, different full-court presses, trapping ... They are hard to play against. I think for us, we have to take care of the ball. That's a huge thing because they're going to really try to turn us over. And we can't have a ton of people in the backcourt because when we've watched film, when you're in the backcourt they swarm you. They're athletes, they're not too big, but they're similar sizes, so they're going to switch a lot. “An experienced team can take advantage of that, because you read mismatches, but we're young. (I have) to show them where mismatches will be and you have to read that. What else concerns me, what concerns me a lot, is their offensive rebounds and their transition. Turnovers would be one, offensive rebounds two, and then transition three. Turnovers in transition are going to be together, because if we turnover, they're going to get transition baskets.” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes has some instructions for guard Jada Williams (2) during a Grambling State free-throw attempt on Nov. 23, 2024. On the sidelines Needs improvement: The Wildcats found their intensity against Grambling State after it disappeared earlier in the week in the loss to NAU. In the second half of Saturday’s game, Arizona showed it wanted it more by making the necessary corrections. Lauryn Swann found her groove as a fourth-quarter shooter. Plus, Paulina Paris is playing the part of the steady, reliable double-digit scorer and defensive stopper. Arizona guard Paulina Paris (23) gets fouled on her way to the basket by Grambling State guard Sharonica Hartsfield on Nov. 23, 2024. On the flip side, the Wildcats have still displayed that tendency to go for the home run passes, which in most cases end up going out of bounds or ultimately into their opponents’ hands. This is definitely not the plan and not something that Barnes is teaching. At one point Saturday night after the game, Barnes said the Wildcats' play in the second quarter, specifically, looked like the “Bad News Bears.” Instead of the Wildcats being the disrupters early on, it was their opponents, the Tigers. Barnes said, “I was like, ‘What are we doing?’” “These cross court (passes), I don’t know; I'm not a football coach, so I don't ever teach a one arm throw across the court,” Barnes said. “... I don't ever want a one hand, like, beam across the court. Those are just habits, but we definitely have to break those fast, because it's not good, and we're not going to win games ... Any time you pass across your body it’s always a turnover or jumping.” Barnes said it all comes down to fundamentals, which are worked on daily. So young: Barnes keeps talking about how young her squad is this season. Having 10 underclassmen — freshmen and sophomores — out of 13 active players is very young. And of those three upperclassmen, Isis Beh is starting for the first time and easing into her leadership role; Paris is a junior, who is learning a new system and back after an injury that held her out for the second half of last year at North Carolina; Erin Tack, also a junior, is coming back from an ACL injury and this is her first time playing basketball since her sophomore year of high school. That’s not a lot of true experienced players in the UA system or just in general. Finding new ways to teach isn’t new for Barnes as each year her teams have their own ways of learning. “With young players you have to spell out exactly, ‘You need to do this; this is when you need to do it,’” Barnes said. “...Some stuff we know, but it takes me drawing it, talking about it and showing them the light to reinforce that. Because I think players forget in the stressful times. You may know it, but then you don't understand what's open. ... It’s a process.” One of the areas Barnes is taking time to get just right is Arizona’s calling card, the defense. At times, it looks undisciplined when pressing and reaching for a steal. For a faster opponent, they turn this into a five-on-four advantage early in the shot clock. Barnes said she is working to have the collective understand what the goals are with the defense and what happens when it works. “(Right now) it looks like we just call a press and get beat,” Barnes said. “That's not the objective. The objective is to make them work. And then contain. If you're faster, you can be a little closer. If you're not, you need to pop back. Even if I'm this far, they can't beat you where we're rotating. We did a better job of that (in the second half against Grambling) but we don't really have an understanding of that.” More on youth: Vanderbilt freshman guard Mikayla Blakes (who was No. 8 in her class ranked by ESPN’s HoopGurlz), is leading the Commodores averaging 20 points per game. Her brother Jaylen, is also a guard, playing his graduate year at Stanford. His first three seasons were at Duke. Blakes and Khamil Pierre are one of the highest scoring duos in the country, as Pierre is adding 19.2 points per game. She is also averaging a double-double with 11 rebounds per game. By the numbers 29: Arizona is hitting only 29% of its 3-point attempts, which is around five per game. The Wildcats made two against Grambling State. And yet, they knocked down nine against UNLV. 8: Breya Cunningham is in a three-way tie for eighth in the nation in total blocks with 17. Only two Big 12 players have more: Texas Tech’s Sarengbe Sanogo with 19 (tied for fifth place) and TCU’s Sedona Prince with 23 (second). 95.65 : Jada Williams is inches away from 12th place nationally in free-throw percentage with 95.7% (22 of 23), while Mercer’s Aspen Johnson sits at 96.0% (24 of 25). There are 11 players who are perfect from the charity stripe. Contact sports reporter PJ Brown at pjbrown@tucson.com . On X(Twitter): @PJBrown09 Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Reporter
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hannah Hidalgo scored 24 points and No. 6 Notre Dame defeated JuJu Watkins and third-ranked Southern California 74-61 on Saturday in a marquee matchup on the West Coast. Watkins and the Trojans (4-1) fell behind early and were down 21 points in the fourth quarter. She had 24 points, six rebounds and five assists. Hidalgo came out shooting well, hitting 5 of 8 from the floor in the first quarter and had 16 points at the break. She added six rebounds and eight assists. Hidalgo's backcourt mate, Olivia Miles, added 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Fighting Irish (5-0). Even though Hidalgo outshone her, Watkins’ imprint was all over the game. A documentary about her life aired on NBC leading into the nationally televised game. A buzz arose when Snoop Dogg walked in shortly before tipoff wearing a jacket in USC colors with Watkins' name and number on the front and back. Her sister, Mali, sang the national anthem. Notre Dame: The Irish struck quickly, racing to a 20-10 lead in the opening quarter. Even after cooling off a bit, they never trailed and stayed poised when the Trojans got within three in the second and third quarters. USC: The Trojans were without starting guard Kennedy Smith, whose defense on Hidalgo would have proven valuable. It was announced shortly before tipoff that she had a surgical procedure and will return at some point this season. The Trojans got within three points three times but the Irish remained poised and never gave up the lead. Notre Dame's defense forced the Trojans into 21 turnovers, which led to 22 points for the Irish. Watkins, Kaleigh Heckel and Talia von Oelhoffen had five each. USC was just 1 of 13 from 3-point range Notre Dame plays TCU on Nov. 29 in the Cayman Islands Classic. USC plays Seton Hall in the Women's Acrisure Holiday Invitational on Nov. 27 in Palm Desert, California. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketballIndian billionaire Gautam Adani addresses delegates during the Bengal Global Business Summit in Kolkata, India, on April 20, 2022. RUPAK DE CHOWDHURI/Reuters Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec opened an office in India in 2016, betting that the country’s favourable demographics would fuel returns in renewable energy and transportation infrastructure. Now, the Canadian pension giant has become entangled in what U.S. authorities call “an elaborate scheme” to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes in the Asian country. Federal prosecutors in New York unveiled charges late Wednesday against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and seven other individuals, including three former Caisse executives. They allege the 62-year-old tycoon and managers from energy subsidiaries of his business conglomerate conspired in a scheme to pay roughly US$250-million in bribes to Indian government officials. The payments were allegedly to help secure favourable contracts tied to a major solar energy project. As part of the indictment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, N.Y., charged Cyril Cabanes, a former CDPQ managing director of infrastructure for the Asia Pacific region, with conspiracy to obstruct justice. Saurabh Agarwal, former managing director of CDPQ India, and Deepak Malhotra, a former director of infrastructure for South Asia at the Caisse, were charged with the same offences. The Caisse itself has not been accused of any wrongdoing. But observers say the charges raise questions about how aggressively the Montreal-based pension fund manager is pushing into new countries, how deeply the executives it hires to represent it in those countries are vetted and whether its processes for making investment decisions are robust. In all, the Caisse had US$7-billion in investments in India as of the end of 2023. Caisse-controlled Azure Power, a renewable energy developer in India, is near the centre of the U.S. allegations. “This appears to be a culture of bribery and collusion at the very highest levels of this company in India,” said François Dauphin, chief executive of Montreal’s Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations. “Private placements can generate high returns, but it is situations like these that fully illustrate the level of risk associated with such projects.” Prosecutors allege that the three former Caisse executives tried to thwart an investigation by deleting e-mails and presentations that summarized the bribes, and misled investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The allegations have not been proven in court. The scheme was concealed from U.S. banks and investors, from whom the defendants raised billions of dollars, according to the allegations. Mr. Adani is one of the world’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of nearly US$70-billion, according to Forbes, and he has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a parallel civil lawsuit, the SEC charged Mr. Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy and Mr. Cabanes, in his capacity as a former director of Caisse-controlled Azure Power, “for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme.” According to the SEC, the Adanis orchestrated the scheme with Mr. Cabanes’s participation to allow the two renewable energy companies to capitalize on a multibillion-dollar solar energy project awarded by the Indian government. The Caisse has been invested in Azure Power from its beginning as a public company, buying US$75-million of shares at $18 apiece in its October, 2016, initial public offering. It bought more shares on the open market and also participated in several more stock offerings. Together with the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, the two pension funds owned 75 per cent of Azure Power as of September, 2022, and had rights to name directors on its board. Initially, Azure Power seemed to be an ideal investment. The company says it installed India’s first private utility-scale solar project in 2009 and that it owns and operates the largest single-site solar project in India. It also says it was the first Indian power company to list on the New York Stock Exchange, subjecting it to U.S. securities law and regulation. By the end of 2022, though, things had soured . In April of that year, Azure announced the resignation of then-CEO Ranjit Gupta and in August, the resignation of his replacement, Harsh Shah, after less than two months on the job. It also disclosed the existence of a whistle-blower complaint alleging “potential procedural irregularities and misconduct by certain employees” at a plant belonging to one of its subsidiaries. Azure said that it discovered deviations from safety and quality norms and “evidence of manipulation of project data and information by certain employees.” The company said at the time that it was implementing remedial measures and would be late in filing its annual report. Its stock subsequently crashed, wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars of value from investment portfolios held by the Caisse and OMERS. Behind the scenes, executives and agents with Adani and Azure had already hatched plans to bribe government officials as a way to get their contracts with state power companies moving, U.S. authorities allege. Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Malhotra, who were based in India, first learned about Mr. Adani’s bribery strategy in late 2021 and shared that information with Mr. Cabanes, according to the indictment. When communicating about the scheme, the filing alleges, they often referred to Mr. Adani and another defendant by code names such as “Numero uno” and “the big man.” In the spring of 2022, Mr. Adani and two other executives met with Azure representatives to provide details of the bribery scheme. Mr. Adani said at the meeting that the Canadian investor, namely the Caisse, “had approved the corrupt agreement,” according to the indictment. The billionaire presented “multiple options” by which Azure could hide its share of the bribe payments, including by transferring a block of power purchase agreements from Azure to Adani Green. How Azure would pay its US$83-million share was hotly discussed by Mr. Cabanes and others, according to the SEC lawsuit. The former Caisse executive asked at one point: “Is there a commercially doable deal here?” by which he meant a seemingly legitimate transaction to compensate Adani Green and the Adanis for its portion of the bribes, according to the SEC. Eventually Azure transferred a valuable 2.3 gigawatt power purchase contract back to the Solar Energy Corp. of India, which was then picked up by Adani. Mr. Cabanes repeatedly directed Azure’s chairman at the time to withhold information related to the potential deal with Adani from others, including from senior personnel at Azure and CDPQ. He also tried to stymie an investigation by a special committee of the Azure board of directors. Asked to comment Wednesday, the Caisse said in an e-mailed statement: “CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the U.S. against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is co-operating with U.S. authorities. In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time.” The pension fund, which manages $452-billion in assets, did not respond to questions sent to its media relations team Thursday. Neither Mr. Cabanes nor Mr. Agarwal responded to messages asking for comment. Mr. Malhotra could not be reached. For Mr. Adani, the fallout Thursday was immediate. President William Ruto of Kenya said that he has cancelled a multimillion-dollar airport expansion in the capital, Nairobi, as well as a deal to build power transmission lines with Adani companies, the Associated Press reported. Bloomberg said the Adani Group’s stocks and bonds plunged, wiping nearly US$30-billion off the conglomerate’s market value, while the broader Indian market fell and the leading opposition party demanded the tycoon’s arrest. The Adani Group denied the allegations, calling them “baseless.” It vowed to take legal action in response.World's most relaxing holiday destinations and some you should avoid
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Joseph Pinion had 22 points and eight rebounds, Dyondre Dominguez added 19 points and Arkansas State built a double-digit first-half lead to beat No. 16 Memphis 85-72 on Sunday. Pinion was 7 of 13 from the floor and 5 of 11 from outside the arc, giving the Red Wolves their second straight win and their first over a ranked team since 1991. Taryn Todd finished with 17 points for Arkansas State (7-3). PJ Haggerty led Memphis (7-2) with 29 points, and Dain Dainja finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Arkansas State held a double-digit lead for most of the game and led 68-57 with 8 minutes left. That was enough for the Red Wolves to defeat the Tigers, snapping a seven-game losing streak to Memphis. Arkansas State: The Red Wolves certainly got the nationally ranked Tigers' attention in the first half after they shot 7 of 18 from 3-point range and built an 18-point lead. The lead got to single digits a couple of times in the second half, but Arkansas State answered the pressure. Memphis: The Tigers suffered through a miserable first half, shooting under 20% late in the half. They turned up their defensive pressure, which cut into the lead, but Memphis never made a serious threat. Memphis got within 60-53 with 11 minutes left, but Arkansas State went on a 12-6 run that included 3-pointers from Pinion, Todd and Kobe Julien to stretch the Red Wolves' lead to 75-60 with 6:29 left in the game. Arkansas State's last win over a ranked team was when it defeated then-No. 21 New Orleans 76-65 in 1991. Arkansas State hosts UT-Arlington on Thursday, and Memphis travels to Clemson on Saturday. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Ruben Amorim’s mark out of ten for Man Utd stars at Ipswich revealed with new boss stunned by how good Tractor Boys were