The landscape of college basketball is changing rapidly with name, image and likeness deals and the transfer portal reshaping teams yearly. Despite this, a group of veteran coaches like Rick Pitino, Rick Barnes and Tom Izzo continue to provide stability. These coaches have been pillars of the game for decades, but their tenure may be nearing its end. Many are in their seventies and facing the pressures of modern college basketball. Some, like Jay Wright and Tony Bennett, have already retired. Yet, the old guard remains influential, with teams like Houston and Tennessee ranked highly in preseason polls.

Former Central Michigan coach Jim McElwain and three of his former staff members face coaching restrictions and potential suspensions after agreeing to the punishments following an NCAA investigation into their role in an alleged sign-stealing scandal. The accused sign-steal, former Michigan staff member Connor Stalions, appeared in coaching gear on the Chippewas sideline for a 2023 game against Michigan State. The NCAA found one assistant coach, Jake Kostner, requested the coaching gear and a sideline pass without going through the normal processes. Kostner and Stalions had a pre-existing friendship, the NCAA found. The Chippewas also were fined $30,000 plus 1% of the football budget.

Democrats and their allied groups are pouring in more money and sending in the national party chairman in the final week of campaigning for a Pennsylvania Supreme Court election. The race could reshape the highest court in the largest presidential battleground as Democrats try to blunt a late-emerging Republican campaign to oust three Democratic justices. At issue in Tuesday’s election is whether the justices will each serve another term. The state's politically divided government has left disputes over election laws and other major issues to the courts in recent years.

People across the northern Caribbean tried to salvage waterlogged belongings, assess damage to their homes and find food and water as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa. Melissa slammed Jamaica on Tuesday as a catastrophic Category 5…

U.S. President Donald Trump is prioritizing a group of white South Africans in a dramatically decreased quota of refugees allowed into the United States this fiscal year. The Trump administration is cutting the number of refugee places to as few as 7,500, with the places mostly going to members of the Afrikaner white minority from South Africa. The figures are for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and were announced Thursday in a notice on the Federal Registry. The U.S. says Afrikaners are being discriminated against by their Black-led government and are the victims of race-based violence. The South African government strongly denies the claims.

Hip-hop producer Sean “Diddy” Combs wants a federal appeals court to quickly consider the legality of his conviction on prostitution-related charges and his more than four-year prison sentence. His lawyers filed papers with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, asking that oral arguments in his appeal occur in April. Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers across state lines to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.

Parents and teachers cover your ears. Dictionary.com says its word of the year is “6-7.” The viral term is one kids and teenagers can’t stop repeating and laughing about. It’s more of an inside joke with an unclear meaning. But it exploded in popularity over the summer months, driven by social media. It's origins seems to be traced back to a 2024 song by rapper Skrilla called “Doot Doot (6-7).” Dictionary.com says its annual selection is a linguistic time capsule that reflects social trends and events. But the site admits that it too is a bit confused by “6-7.”

President Donald Trump seemed to love his whirlwind Asia trip. He danced on the tarmac in Malaysia, and was given a gold medal and crown in South Korea. He relished the international dealmaking and soaked up praise from other leaders. It's a change in focus for a president who campaigned on “America First.” But don't mistake him for a globalist, says Hogan Gidley, his former aide: “When you’re scoring touchdowns,” Gidley says, “it’s OK to dance in the end zone.” Yet Trump returns Thursday to a country worried about prices and the government shutdown, and it's not clear how much his foreign policy wins will matter to voters.

A federal judge in Boston is considering a motion that would require the Trump administration to continue funding the SNAP food aid program despite the government shutdown. The hearing in front of U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani came two days before the day the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to stop replenishing accounts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Talwani says she expects to issue her ruling later Thursday. SNAP is used by 1 in 8 Americans to buy groceries and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. Democratic state officials challenged the Trump administration's plan to freeze SNAP payments starting Nov. 1, saying the federal government has a legal obligation to keep providing the assistance.

The Trump administration is restricting the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. to 7,500 and they will be mostly white South Africans. This marks a dramatic drop after the U.S. previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world. The administration published the news in a notice on the Federal Registry on Thursday. No reason was given for the numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year’s ceiling of 125,000 set under the Biden administration. The memo stated that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during the 2026 fiscal year is “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”

Scientists say there’s new evidence that settles the origins of a mysterious dinosaur excavated in the 1940s. Researchers have long debated whether a dinosaur skull found in Montana decades ago was a young T. rex or another type of dinosaur. A research team studied a new complete skeleton from Montana and claim it identifies the mystery reptile as an adult and a new species. Not all scientists are convinced, and some say the other mystery skeletons could belong to a younger T. rex. The research was published Thursday in the journal Nature.

The Minnesota Twins have picked former bench coach Derek Shelton as their new manager. Shelton managed the Pittsburgh Pirates for five-plus years. The Twins made a formal announcement on Thursday and scheduled an introductory news conference for Shelton on Tuesday. Shelton had an overall record of 306-440 with the Pirates before he was fired just 40 games into this season. The 55-year-old was the bench coach for the Twins in 2018 and 2019 under two different managers, Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli. Shelton never finished higher than fourth place in the NL Central or better than 76-86 with the Pirates.

The government shutdown is taking a toll on military families as they live without the guarantee of a paycheck. Alicia Blevins is married to a Marine stationed in North Carolina. She's going to see a therapist because of the grinding uncertainty. The Trump administration has found ways to pay the troops twice during the shutdown. But the process has been fraught with anxiety for many Americans in uniform. The White House said it found the money just days before paychecks were supposed to go out Friday. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said money may be unavailable for the troop's next paycheck on Nov. 15.

This photo gallery, curated by photo editor Beatrice Larco, highlights some of the most compelling images worldwide published by The Associated Press in the past week. Follow AP visual journalism: AP photography: https://apnews.com/photography Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews 34 words