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UConn, Purdue and North Carolina stay atop Top 25
Reigning national champion Connecticut, Purdue and North Carolina remained atop The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for the third consecutive week, while South Carolina cracked the rankings for the first time in nearly seven years.
The Huskies earned 45 of 61 first-place votes to remain at No. 1 for the fourth straight week in Monday’s poll, while the Boilermakers topped the ballots of 16 other voters.
The top of the poll remained set after a big week that included four top-10 matchups over the weekend, with Purdue winning at Wisconsin and UNC beating rival Duke. The week also included Kansas beating Houston, which vaulted the Jayhawks up four spots to No. 4 and dropped the Cougars one spot to No. 5.
Tennessee fell one spot to No. 6 after losing at home to the now-No. 15 Gamecocks but followed that with a win at Kentucky in the weekend’s other top-10 tussle. The Wildcats tumbled seven spots to No. 17 after losses to the Vols and Florida.
Marquette, Arizona, Duke and Illinois rounded out the top 10, with the Wildcats and Fighting Illini returning after stints earlier this season.
IN AND OUT
South Carolina is making its first appearance in the poll since February 2017, a season that saw the Gamecocks make a surprise run to the Final Four. Lamont Paris’ squad has won five straight games, and its 19 wins already surpassed its season haul for any year since that run.
The Gamecocks joined No. 24 San Diego State as the week’s new additions, replacing Oklahoma (No. 23) and TCU (No. 25).
RISING AND SLIDING
Alabama had the week’s biggest jump, moving up eight spots to No. 16 after rising to the top of the Southeastern Conference standings at 8-1. No. 13 Baylor was next, rising five spots after a home win against No. 14 Iowa State.
In all, nine teams moved up from last week’s poll.
Texas Tech had the week’s biggest tumble, falling eight spots to No. 23 after a loss at TCU and a home loss to Cincinnati. No. 19 Creighton and No. 25 New Mexico also had long slides, each falling six spots.
In all, 10 teams fell from their position last week.
STATUS QUO
No. 20 Florida Atlantic joined the UConn-Purdue-UNC trio at the top as the only teams to remain in the same position from the previous poll.
CONFERENCE WATCH
The Big 12 led the country with six ranked teams, followed by the SEC with five. The Big Ten, Big East and Mountain West conferences were next with three. The Atlantic Coast Conference had two, while the Pac-12, Atlantic 10 and American Athletic conferences each had one.
Caitlin Clark and Iowa back up to No. 2 in AP
Top 25 women’s poll
Caitlin Clark and Iowa climbed back to No. 2 in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll Monday as the star guard moved within striking distance of the NCAA career scoring record.
It’s the second time in a few weeks that the Hawkeyes have been second in the poll, a spot that hasn’t been kind to teams the past month. UCLA, Iowa and Kansas State all took turns in the second position since Jan. 8 and none of the schools could hold that ranking for more than a week at a time.
While No. 2 has been a revolving door lately, South Carolina has maintained a strong grip atop the poll, once again the unanimous No. 1 team from a 35-member national media panel.
The Gamecocks (21-0) will host Missouri and No. 11 UConn this week. Dawn Staley’s squad will play those games without star center Kamilla Cardoso, who left for a week to play with the Brazilian national team at an Olympic qualifying tournament.
Iowa has held the No. 2 spot twice before this season, including the week of Jan. 15 when the Hawkeyes lost to Ohio State.
Clark, who is only 66 points away from becoming the all-time leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history, will try and make it a longer stay this time around. She will lead the Hawkeyes against Penn State and Nebraska this week with Kelsey Plum’s record in view.
No. 3 North Carolina State, No. 4 Colorado and No. 5 Ohio State followed Iowa. It’s the Buckeyes’ best ranking this season.
Stanford fell two spots to sixth after losing to JuJu Watkins and USC. The phenomenal freshman scored 51 points in that game.
Texas vaulted up five places to seventh after beating Baylor and then-No. 2 Kansas State last week. The Wildcats fell to eighth after also losing to Oklahoma, which entered the poll at No. 24. UCLA was ninth and USC climbed five spots to 10th.
DEUCES WILD
Only once in the past 15 years has a team been No. 2 all season long: Stanford in 2009-10. It’s been a volatile spot lately. In the 2018-19 season, the No. 2 position changed 10 times, the most in that span. There have already been seven No. 2 teams this season.
APPROACHING 1,200
UConn coach Geno Auriemma is one victory away from joining Tara VanDerveer (1,206) and Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) as the only Division I coaches with 1,200 victories. Auriemma’s first chance to reach that milestone is Wednesday when the Huskies host Seton Hall.
TOUGH BREAK TAR HEELS
North Carolina fell out of the rankings this week despite close losses to N.C. State and Virginia Tech. The Tar Heels have lost eight games this season, including five to currently ranked teams (South Carolina, Kansas State, UConn, Virginia Tech and N.C. State). All of those Top 25 losses have been within 12 points. They’ve also beaten four current Top 25 teams (Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Louisville).
Brazilian soccer star
Dani Alves on trial for alleged sexual assault
BARCELONA, Spain | Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves went on trial Monday, a year after he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman at a Barcelona nightclub.
The 40-year-old Alves, a former Barcelona player, has been in pre-trial custody for over a year since he was detained for allegedly sexually assaulting the woman on the night of Dec. 31, 2022. He denies any wrongdoing.
State prosecutors are seeking a nine-year prison sentence for Alves if convicted while the lawyers representing his accuser want 12 years.
Dressed in a white dress shirt and jeans, Alves took a seat in the courtroom after arriving in a police van. His mother was also present at the Barcelona courthouse. After a short recess when the courtroom was emptied, Alves’ mother blew her son a kiss and made a heart-shaped gesture as Alves was escorted in handcuffs back inside.
The court ordered the accuser’s testimony on Monday be behind closed doors with no media access and no image of her can be taken to protect her identity. That decision came after a video circulated on social media last month that allegedly identified the woman.
A screen was placed between the accuser and Alves when she testified and the court ordered the video recording of her testimony be pixelated and her voice distorted as preventative measures to ensure her privacy in case of a leak.
In testimony given to state prosecutors last year, the woman said she met Alves late at the Sutton nightclub in one of Barcelona’s upscale neighborhoods after midnight. She accompanied him into a VIP area and into a private bathroom where he allegedly slapped her, used insulting language and raped her, according to her testimony given to prosecutors.
“My client has finally been able to testify and put an end to this,” the woman’s lawyer, Ester Garcia, told reporters outside the courthouse afterwards. “She has been very brave to get this far.”
GarcĂa added that an attempt by Alves’ legal team to reach a deal so he could avoid the trial had not prospered since her client “did not agree with sentence” proposed for the player. She refused to reveal the details of what Alves’ team offered.
Two women, a friend and a cousin, who accompanied the woman to the nightclub testified that when they saw her after she exited the bathroom she was distraught and told them that Alves had “hurt her badly.” Workers at the nightclub also gave testimony.
Alves will testify on Wednesday, the trial’s last day.
Before he was indicted by an investigative judge in August, Alves’ lawyers unsuccessfully tried to discredit testimony by his accuser and other witnesses by presenting security camera footage from the nightclub. The court has said that any alleged flirting should not “in any way justify an eventual sexual assault.”
Alves has modified his defense several times.
At first, he denied having ever seen the woman when he went dancing on the night in question.
Upon his arrest, he denied any sexual contact with her, only to admit three months later to a sexual encounter that he said was consented to by the woman. He said he had been trying to save his marriage by not admitting to the sexual encounter initially.
In the only interview Alves has given since his arrest, he told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia in June that “my conscience is clear about what happened that early morning. … What happened and what did not happen. And what did not happen is that I forced that woman to do what we did.”
Alves, whose legal name is Daniel Alves, has changed attorneys three times. At the trial he is represented by Inés Guardiola, who was hired in October.
Alves was arrested on Jan. 20, 2023 after answering a police summons during a visit to Spain. A court ordered him to be jailed after analyzing the initial police investigation and hearing testimony from the alleged victim, witnesses and the player himself.
Three days after his arrest, Alves was transferred by officials for safety reasons to the Brians 2 prison about 45 minutes northwest of Barcelona. He has been there ever since.
Alves’ requests for bail were denied because the court considered him a flight risk, despite his offer to hand over his passport and wear a tracking device. Brazil does not extradite its own citizens when they are sentenced in other countries.
The trial is before a three-judge panel presided over by magistrate Isabel Delgado. Twenty-two witnesses, including those called by the defense, are scheduled for Tuesday before the court hears Alves, along with experts, on Wednesday.
Under Spain’s 2022 sexual consent law, the crime of sexual assault takes in a wide array of crimes from online abuse and groping to rape, each with different possible punishments. A case of rape can carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Alves has been ordered to set aside 150,000 euros ($162,000) to pay his alleged victim if he is found guilty and ordered to pay damages.
Alves’ arrest shattered his image of a charismatic winner with a lengthy and successful career.
He won major titles with elite clubs including Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. He also helped Brazil win two Copa Americas and an Olympic gold medal at age 38. He played at his third World Cup, the only major title he’s not won, in 2022.
The right back was a key part of Barcelona’s golden years while playing from 2008-16. He won the Champions League three times with the Catalan club, which he briefly rejoined in 2022.
Alves’ contract with Mexican club Pumas was terminated immediately after his arrest.
Steve Belichick agrees to take defensive coordinator role at Washington
SEATTLE | Steve Belichick has agreed to be the defensive coordinator for new coach Jedd Fisch at Washington, a person with knowledge of the move told The Associated Press on Monday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made. The move was first reported by 247Sports.
The son of NFL coaching great Bill Belichick will take a role in college for the first time following 12 seasons working on the staff of the New England Patriots with his dad. Steve Belichick, 36, was the defensive play caller for the Patriots for the past five seasons. He was also a secondary/safeties and outside linebackers coach with the Patriots during his tenure.
Steve Belichick and his brother Brian had both been offered spots to stay on the coaching staff in New England with new coach Jerod Mayo if their father didn’t land another head coaching position. Brian Belichick had coached safeties with the Patriots since 2020.
Instead, Steve Belichick will reunite with Fisch, who served as the quarterbacks coach with New England during the 2020 season.
Fisch left New England to become the head coach at Arizona. He left the Wildcats to take the head job at Washington last month following Kalen DeBoer’s move to Alabama. Fisch’s staff at Washington also includes offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll, the son of former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.
Police apologize to woman at center of 2018 sexual assault case
LONDON, Ontario | The police chief of London, Ontario, issued a public apology on Monday to a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by five hockey players on Canada’s 2018 world junior team — including four now currently in the NHL — for the length of time it took to complete an investigation of a case that has rocked the sport for years.
It will, however, take much longer for Chief Thai Truong to provide any specifics as to why it took nearly six years for charges to be filed, and what led to the initial investigation to be closed in 2019 before being reopened in 2022.
“I want to extend on behalf of the London Police service my sincerest apology to the victim, to her family for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point,” Truong said at a news conference with dozens of reporters on hand.
“This should not take this long. It shouldn’t take years and years for us to arrive to the outcome of today,” he added. “But I can assure you, I am confident, confident that this will not happen again.”
As for what caused the delay and how it reflects on his department, Truong repeatedly said he was unable to get into the details because they have the potential of compromising prosecution of the case; that could include having those involved in the initial and second investigation being called as witnesses.
The 45-minute news conference marked the first time police in Ontario’s fifth-largest city, about halfway between Toronto and Detroit, have commented on the case since filing charges against the players accused of assaulting the woman in a downtown hotel room.
The players charged with one count each of sexual assault are Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames and former NHL player Alex Formenton. McLeod also faces a charge of “being a party to the offense,” which police said was for aiding someone else in committing the offense.
Attorneys for all five players have said their clients are not guilty and will defend themselves against the allegations. The players — who are all on leave from their teams — surrendered to London police over the past week and were released on unspecified conditions.
During a brief video hearing Monday with only attorneys present, prosecutors obtained an order protecting the identity of the woman, which is standard in sexual assault cases, as well as that of two witnesses. Prosecutor Heather Donkers also said defense attorneys would receive “substantial” evidence in the next few days. The next hearing was scheduled for April 30.
Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann of the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section said the reopened investigation found reasonable and probable grounds to bring the charges, which could bring jail time if there are convictions.
Dann oversaw the investigation once it was reopened under now-retired police chief Steve Williams, and was not part of the initial investigation. She said some of the evidence uncovered “was not available when the investigation concluded in 2019.”
Like Truong, Dann was unable to answer many specifics, including whether others might be charged. T here were 22 players on the 2018 team
The case has shadowed Canadian hockey for years.
A woman sued Hockey Canada in 2022, alleging she was sexually assaulted in a hotel room by eight members of the gold medal-winning world junior team after a fundraising gala in London in June 2018. Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit, and then an investigation revealed the organization had two secret slush funds to pay out settlements on claims of sexual assault and abuse.
London police dropped their investigation in 2019 but began an internal investigation in July 2022. Around the same time, the NHL launched its own investigation, though the results of that likely will not be released until the legal case is resolved.
“At this stage, the most responsible and prudent thing for us to do is await the conclusion of the judicial proceedings, at which point we will respond as appropriate at the time,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday at All-Star Weekend in Toronto.
Bettman said the league found out about the allegations on May 26, 2022. He said the NHL interviewed every player from that team, adding the woman involved declined to take part in the investigation.
Hockey Canada said it has cooperated fully with London Police throughout its investigation.
“Hockey Canada recognizes that in the past we have been too slow to act and that in order to deliver the meaningful change that Canadians expect of us, we must work diligently and urgently to ensure that we are putting in place the necessary measures to regain their trust, and provide all participants with a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment on and off the ice,” said Katherine Henderson, who was named Hockey Canada president and CEO in July.
—From AP reports
