UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin has gone viral for some bombastic behavior this season, but he avoided creating another viral moment after his team’s 78-73 loss to the Gophers last Saturday, giving praise to the U while still showing a sliver of the unvarnished nature that has brought him attention.

“We have (defensive) deficiencies, and they exposed them,” Cronin said at Williams Arena. “Give them all the credit.”

Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved draws up a play for his team during a timeout late Tuesday in Eugene, Ore. Minnesota beat the Ducks, 61-44, at Matthew Knight Arena. (Ceci De Young/Gophers Athletics)

Minnesota has its own issues, particularly in personnel. Last weekend at The Barn, the Gophers won with five players on the court for extensive minutes, and only four of them scored points.

Over his 30-year coaching career, Niko Medved has polished a preferred offensive playing style, fine-tuning it his dozen years as a head coach. But this season, he has shown an ability to adjust, sometimes radically.

Those tweaks have the extremely shorthanded Gophers at seven conference wins and 11th in the 18-team Big Ten in his first back in his native Minnesota. After the conference tournament next week, Minnesota will be in contention to play in a postseason tournament, perhaps the NIT or the College Basketball Crown.

Minnesota (14-15, 7-11 Big Ten) will play its penultimate league game on Wednesday at Indiana (17-12, 8-10). Tipoff at Assembly Hall is set for 5:30 p.m. CST.

On defense, Medved has been using more zone concepts than he ever. Against UCLA, he used a 2-3 zone and man-to-man on the same possession. They went “zone to man late in the (shot) clock,” Cronin said Saturday. “We struggled to follow instruction and go to man offense when they did it.”

Gophers assistant coach Brian Cooley, who joined Medved’s staff at Colorado State in 2021, said their standard is to play fast on offense, particularly after opponent misses and turnovers.

“Aesthetically, we want a fun style to watch,” he told the Pioneer Press.

But that plan was foiled this season. Starting point guard Chansey Willis and top center Robert Viahola were lost to season-ending injuries in November. In February, starting power forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson was ruled out indefinitely with his own injury, and reserves BJ Omot and Chance Stephens have been sidelined all season.

So, Minnesota has decided to grind down the pace. They rank 362 out of 365 in the nation in adjusted tempo, according to analytics site KenPom.com, with 62.3 possessions per 40 minutes.

“That is the biggest thing: We are playing slower than we’ve ever played and really kind of picking our spots,” Medved said. “The good news is we explained to the guys that it’s kind of what we have to do, and they are bought in.”

One of Medved’s offensive influences is former Michigan coach Jon Beilein’s style of play that has Princeton roots. That jumps off the court with its spacing, passing and trademark backdoor cuts. In Medved’s parlance, where everything has a new name, those are termed “burn-cuts” leading to “naked,” or uncontested, layups.

But U point guard Langston Reynolds, who has stepped up in the absence of Willis, is not a good 3-point shooter. Neither is backup big Grayson Grove. So, defenses sag off them along the perimeter in order to take away those bread-and-butter cuts.

“That has been a real challenge at times,” Medved said. “That has been a thing in clogging up the lane. But I think those guys have really started to do a great job; they have become really good screeners, really good at finding other guys. When time goes by, and you are guarded so many different ways, you just kind of figure it out.”

Even if backdoor cuts have been fewer, the Gophers continue to move without the ball.

“Cutting is so important to us,” Cooley said. “We always say ‘cutting is character.’ It sounds kind of cliché, but it’s true. It’s unselfish play. You might not get open, but maybe somebody else gets a wide-open shot. We really value that.”

Northwestern coach Chris Collins called Medved “one of the more underrated coaches in the country” before Minnesota’s 84-78 win in Evanston, Ill., on Jan. 3.

“When you watch them, and I’m sure it’s going to be even better in person, (you see) how well they run their offense,” Collins told Big Ten Network. “Man, their spacing is great. They cut with precision, they share the ball. … They put a lot of pressure on you to guard them.”

Medved also has adjusted to incorporating more screening off the ball to get shooters open, primarily Cade Tyson and Bobby Durkin. Against UCLA, Durkin ws 7 for 11 from 3-point range, while Tyson was 3 for 5.

“We’ve done that before, but are probably doing even more of that” this season, Medved said.

Throughout this year, the Gophers have been the nation’s leader in assist percentage, currently at 72%. It reflects how much the Gophers share the ball.

“This is one of, if not the best passing team we’ve had since I’ve been with (Medved),” Cooley said.

But that assist percentage stat also indicates how the U doesn’t have a clear go-to scorer, someone who can get his own bucket without the help of an assist. Minnesota must play together to generate good offense, and that includes not taking poor shots.

“If you do take a bad shot, you kind of stick out like a turnip in a punch bowl,” Cooley said. “ … There’s none of that going on.”

Cooley said Medved seeks high-IQ players for his offensive system.

“We have concepts,” he said. “He wants to teach them more how to think and not just: ‘You have to do this.’ Just playing off each other, using more instincts. So, it’s a good offense to play in.”

Tyson, who transferred from North Carolina, said he was struck by Medved’s exacting nature during summer and early season workouts.

“I do think that coach’s attention detail is as good as it gets, and I don’t think everybody else does that,” Cooley said. “Sometimes in the fall it’s like, ‘Golly, the screen angle (isn’t good enough) and we’re stopping them (in practice). We’re not hammering them, but we’re stopping them. Then we can we can kind of coach them on it and then it just become second nature.”

Minnesota forward Grayson Grove, right, looks to shoot while guarded by UCLA’s Skyy Clark during the Gophers’ 78-73 victory over the Bruins last Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, at Williams Arena. (Brad Rempel / Gophers Athletics)

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Senate Republicans are proposing property tax caps, no tax on tips and overtime, and lowering license tab fees as part of a “tax relief” package introduced earlier this week at the state Capitol.

A revenue forecast on Friday showed improvements and more leeway for the state to potentially eat some costs from changes in taxes, with a $3.7 billion budget surplus to work with in 2026-2027, and a $377 million surplus for 2028-2029 that was once a $6 billion budget shortfall.

“We heard last week in the budget forecast that the surplus is now $3.7 billion — that tells us taxes are too high and we have room to make these changes without hurting the state’s finances,” Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, said Monday.

Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Chanhassen. (Courtesy of the candidate)

Only one proposal is in bill form — a measure from Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, which would put license tab fees back to their pre-2023 values.

Another, from Sen. Michael Kreun, R- Blaine, caps property taxes at the rate of inflation, plus 50% of population growth for cities and counties over 2,500 residents. Rates could be increased over the cap but only if they are approved at the ballot box.

Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said Friday that she wanted to look at federal tax conformity, which is what the no tax on tips and overtime bills from Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, at least partially accomplishes. Housley’s bill would set a maximum deduction on tips of $25,000 and of $12,500 for overtime. Both deductions phase out once income hits $150,000 for single-filers, and $300,000 for married-joint filers, Housley said.

Demuth said Friday that the no tax on tips and overtime proposal would cost the state $391 in its first fiscal year. When asked where the state could make up such a large chunk with only a $377 million surplus on the horizon, Housley said, “We have the next 10 weeks to work out where that money would be coming from.”

Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, also said the state should cut spending in other areas or find savings by cracking down on fraud.

Minnesota Senate Republican Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski).

The budget forecast Friday showed that claims are down 4% for 14 high-risk state Medicaid programs, following a recently implemented pre-payment review process for the programs, lowering spending by $75 million in the current biennium and $99 million in the next biennium.

“Fraud is going to be a pile of money there,” Johnson said. “You saw once we start holding those programs accountable … all of a sudden, the utilization rate starts to drop. So there’s savings there as well.”

It’s not clear yet whether the proposals will have bipartisan support.

On Friday, House Leader Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, said he will take a “very strong look” at federal tax conformity.

“We’re going to be assessing who are the winners and losers in that federal bill [HR 1], and then we’re going to think about, what should we do with our limited resources? Should we make those winners even better off, or should we help the losers in that bill? Because we do have limited resources, maybe even more limited by the actions of the federal government,” he said.

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By TIA GOLDENBERG

Throughout his political career, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has steered his country along two pillars of foreign policy: an ironclad partnership with the United States and a relentless diplomatic and covert battle against the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Now, with Israel and the U.S. in a joint war against Iran’s leadership, those two strategic paths risk clashing with each other. By enlisting the U.S. in what he views as Israel’s existential battle against Iran, Netanyahu is taking a gamble that could open up the relationship to the strain of a war with far-reaching consequences.

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To be sure, persuading President Donald Trump to join the war was a coup for Netanyahu and highlights the strong ties between the two leaders. If they are successful, they could quickly realize their shared goal of toppling the Iranian government and spare the region a protracted conflict.

But if the war drags on, the two allies’ ties could again be tested.

“A large part of the American public will view it as the Israeli tail wagging the American dog and that it is dragging the United States to a war in the Middle East that isn’t theirs,” said Ofer Shelah, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based think tank. The drop in public support that might unleash “will be very harmful for Israel in the medium and long term,” he said.

But, he added, in a nod to the Israeli leader’s political ambitions: “Netanyahu is not interested in the medium and long term.”

US public opinion has been evolving

For Netanyahu, successfully persuading Trump to strike Iran together is the apex of decades of proximity between the Israeli leader and Washington. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, speaks flawless English after having spent part of his youth in the U.S. and has always portrayed himself as Israel’s bridge to America.

Although he boasts about his tight relationships with multiple American presidents and members of Congress, Netanyahu over the past two years has seen support for Israel among the American public drop. According to Gallup polling, American sympathies in the Middle East have shifted dramatically toward the Palestinians.

That shift in sentiment has been driven in large part by Democrats. But some Republicans, and even Trump’s own backers, have been more outspoken against the diplomatic and financial support the U.S. has continued to grant Israel throughout the past two and a half years, when it has been embroiled in a war on multiple fronts sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. The devastating images from the war in Gaza deepened Israel’s international isolation.

With a new war against Iran — the second in less than a year — Netanyahu is tackling an enemy that he and many Israelis view as an existential threat, citing its support for anti-Israeli militias across the region, its ballistic missile arsenal, and its nuclear program. He has led the crusade against Iran on the world stage for much of his career.

Netanyahu said Sunday in a statement that the U.S. involvement “allows us to do what I have been hoping to do for 40 years — to deliver a crushing blow to the terror regime.” Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Plumes of smoke from two simultaneous strikes rise over Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji)

The conflict could spiral

Days into the war, Israel and the U.S. military appear to be working hand in glove to strike targets — from the initial attack that killed top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to assaults that allowed the forces free rein in Iranian skies.

But the conflict has already set off aftershocks that could reverberate in the American heartland. At least six U.S. troops have been killed. Travel was disrupted across the region, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded. Oil prices surged, raising the prospect of costlier gasoline for U.S. drivers as well as increased prices for other goods at a time when people have been stung by a rising cost of living.

Questions remain about the direction and aim of the war. It’s unclear whether the air power will be enough to topple Iran’s leadership, who or what should replace that leadership, and what role Israel or the U.S. will have in either. Every day presents new potential land mines.

“Many people will blame Israel if things go badly wrong,” wrote Nadav Eyal, a commentator with the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth daily newspaper. “Israel cannot afford to lose the American public’s support under any circumstances. That is more important than striking any individual military facility.”

People walk past buildings damaged during a strike on a police station during ongoing, joint U.S.-Israeli military attacks in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Still, Aaron David Miller, who served as an adviser on Middle East issues to Democratic and Republican administrations over two decades, said that Netanyahu has little to lose from the war.

With elections scheduled for the fall, Netanyahu can use the war in Iran to divert attention away from the failures of the Oct. 7 attacks, the worst in Israel’s history. Instead, Netanyahu can set himself up as a brave wartime leader who fulfilled a pledge he has made much of his life to confront Iran.

He can say he did so with support from the American president, who Miller said can pull the brakes on the war whenever he pleases.

“If Trump feels as if it’s going south, he’ll find a way to de-escalate,” he said, “and his good friend Benjamin Netanyahu will follow.”

By DASHA LITVINOVA

A court in Russia on Tuesday designated a prominent LGBTQ+ rights group as an extremist organization, the latest blow to the country’s beleaguered community that has faced an intensified crackdown in recent years under President Vladimir Putin.

In a hearing that took place behind closed doors, the St. Petersburg City Court banned the Coming Out group as “extremist.” The authorities did not reveal any details of the lawsuit filed last month by Russia’s Justice Ministry and classified as secret.

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The group, which now operates from abroad, said it will continue to help LGBTQ+ people in Russia and beyond, and fight for their rights despite the ruling.

“We have been preparing for this development for a long time. We enhanced security, developed sustainable work formats and continue to act responsibly, first and foremost for those who count on us,” Coming Out said in an online statement.

“Today it is especially important not to give into fear and not to be alone. Our community is stronger than any labels, and history has proven that.”

Coming Out is the first LGBTQ+ rights group to be designated since the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that effectively banned any LGBTQ+ activism. Similar lawsuits have been filed against two other LGBTQ+ rights groups, with courts in St. Petersburg and the Samara region still to rule on them.

Russia’s LGBTQ+ community has been under legal and public pressure for over a decade, but especially since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine four years ago. Putin has argued that the war in Ukraine is a proxy battle with the West, which he says aims to destroy Russia and its “traditional family values” by pushing for LGBTQ+ rights.

Any depiction of gay and transgender people that portrays them in a positive or even neutral light has been banned ever since. Gender-affirming medical care and changing one’s gender in official documents are prohibited.

In November 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared what the government called “the international LGBT movement” to be an extremist organization, exposing anyone involved with that community to prosecution and potential imprisonment.

A view of the City Court in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, during a session to decide whether to designate two prominent LGBTQ+ rights groups as extremist. (AP Photo)

Days after the ruling, the community was rattled by news of police raiding gay bars, nightclubs and venues that hosted drag shows in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. Criminal cases on the charges of involvement with the “LGBT movement” have followed, and some people have faced fines for displaying what the authorities determined to be “extremist” symbols such as a rainbow flag.

The Russian authorities are seeking to make the LGBTQ+ community “as vulnerable, as lonely as possible,” said Denis Oleinik, executive director of the Coming Out LGBTQ+ rights group.

The group, formerly based in Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, has been operating entirely from abroad since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It no longer offers support groups or offline activities, but still provides psychological and legal support remotely. It also works with international organizations in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in Russia and for helping those fleeing the country, Oleinik told The Associated Press in February.

The ruling makes it unsafe for people to share any Coming Out content publicly or for anyone inside Russia or who travels there to donate money to the group, he said.

The “extremist” designation also sometimes scares people away from reaching out for help, as well as other rights groups or media outlets from working with them, Oleinik said. There also might be risks for relatives of activists who speak openly in public.

But otherwise, “we can provide help, and receiving our help is also allowed,” he said.