New Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved finished summer workouts with his first team at Minnesota on Thursday, and it took him less than two minutes into a group interview to bring up a huge mentor, Clem Haskins.

Medved was a student manger under Haskins in the mid-1990s. Two decades and one big scandal later, Medved is still fond of that particular predecessor despite him being forced to resign amid widespread academic malfeasance in 1999.

Medved and Haskins caught up in-person earlier this month in Las Vegas as Medved watched his former Colorado State star and first-round NBA draft pick Nique Clifford play for the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Summer League.

“It’s kind of a full circle moment for me,” Medved said Thursday before practice at Athletes Village. “And I told Coach (Haskins), I said, ‘It doesn’t feel right when I’m down in Williams Arena and I’m sitting in your chair, in your office, something doesn’t feel right about that.’ But that was a really cool moment for me that just kind of felt like, wow, I’m back, and I have the job of a guy and a situation that I just admired so much.”

Haskins, 82, was last inside Williams Arena for his former star player Willie Burton’s No. 34 jersey retirement at halftime of a game against Michigan State in January 2020. Burton insisted Haskins make the trip north from his home in Campbellsville, Ken.

While the Gophers new head coach is clearly a fan of Haskins, how much willingness — much less, desire — does the U athletic department and university leadership overall have to bring Haskins back to the Barn for some sort of commemoration?

Haskins coached at the U for 13 seasons and his 1989 Sweet Sixteen and 1990 Elite Eight appearances are still in the record books, but the final six seasons were vacated after team tutor Jan Gangelhoff admitted to writing more than 400 papers for at least 18 players over a five-year stretch. A internal investigation from the university, which was backed by an NCAA report, said Haskins participated in the fraud.

Former Gopher Willie Burton hugs his former coach Clem Haskins during a half-time ceremony honoring the former team at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, Minn., on Tuesday, December 29, 2009.(Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

When Medved was hired in March, he was asked if he will advocate for hanging banners back up in the rafters of The Barn, primarily the one for the program’s pinnacle: the 1997 Final Four.

“I don’t know that the banners aren’t in The Barn, so that’s something we need to talk about,” Medved said during his introductory news conference.

Medved shared Thursday that Haskins remains “sharp as a tack,” but his mobility has decreased with age and the wear and tear from nearly 700 NBA games over nine seasons with Chicago, Phoenix and Washington from 1967 to 1976.

With former star guard Bobby Jackson, Medved and others breaking bread in Vegas, Haskins shared old war stories, including playing against Wilt Chamberlin.

Later on Thursday, Medved was asked about building his first roster at his alma mater, which has a clear emphasis on 3-point shooting in its makeup.

“As a great coach told me once — you probably know who I’m talking about here — Coach Haskins. He said, ‘Niko, you can run all the pretty little plays you want in the world. At the end of the day, you better have a guy who can ring the bell,’ ” Medved said. “You got to get some guys who can make shots, and I think we’ve been able to do that.

“Shooting is a huge premium here. And I think we’ve got some guys who can put in the basket. Now it’s a lot different, putting in the basket here against our (graduate assistants) in a workout (compared to) drilling it with the hand in your face at (Purdue’s) Mackey Arena in January.”

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HOUSTON — Carlos Correa is returning to Houston, giving the Astros a needed jolt for their infield with a stunning trade from the Minnesota Twins ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the trade hadn’t been announced. Additional terms of the swap weren’t immediately available.

Correa spent his first seven years in Houston, where he became one of the most beloved players in franchise history, helping the team to six playoff appearances, three American League pennants and its first World Series title in 2017 — a championship tainted by a sign-stealing scandal. The top pick in the 2012 amateur draft and 2015 AL Rookie of the Year was part of the homegrown core that helped the Astros go from the league’s laughingstock to perennial contenders.

Correa, who waived his no-trade clause, has exclusively played shortstop in his 11-year major league career but will almost certainly move to third base for the AL West leaders with shortstop Jeremy Peña close to returning from the injured list. The Astros need help at third with All-Star Isaac Paredes out indefinitely with a hamstring injury.

Charismatic and an unquestioned leader in the clubhouse, Correa could help galvanize a team that has managed to remain atop the division standings despite dealing with multiple injuries to both its lineup and pitching staff.

Correa reunites with second baseman Jose Altuve, who is the Astros’ longest tenured player and one of his closest friends on the team. When asked about the possibility of Correa returning to Houston on Wednesday, Altuve raved about him before saying: “So I think — if anything (were) to happen, I hope it’s the best for him and for us.”

The 30-year-old Correa was named to two of his three All-Star Games while with the Astros and won a Gold Glove Award in 2021. He seemed to embrace the villain role when Houston became the league’s most hated team after it was revealed the Astros illegally stole signs in their run to the 2017 title and during the 2018 season.

He left when he became a free agent before the 2022 season when the Astros wouldn’t pay him what he believed he was worth, signing a three-year deal worth just over $105 million. Correa opted out of that contract after one year but re-signed with the Twins on a six-year, $200 million deal, of which just under $100 million is still owed. The contract also includes vesting options for the 2029-2032 seasons.

While Correa’s defense at shortstop has been impeccable and his leadership in the clubhouse strong, the investment for the Twins simply hasn’t panned out. He played the 2023 season through plantar fasciitis in his left foot, batting just .230 with 131 strikeouts in 135 games and a pedestrian .711 OPS.

He shined in the playoffs, helping the Twins end a record 18-game postseason losing streak and win a series for the first time in 21 years, and was enjoying an All-Star season in 2024 before plantar fasciitis popped up again – this time in his right foot. He had to withdraw from the All-Star Game and didn’t return until mid-September, after the Twins were already mired in a sharp swoon that pushed them out of playoff contention.

Correa has been much healthier this year, but not as productive. His .905 OPS in 2024 has fallen to .704 this year, with seven home runs in 93 games.

The contract he signed 2 1/2 years ago now constitutes a much larger percentage of the team’s payroll, after a sharp decline in regional television revenue in light of the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group prompted a spending reduction by Twins ownership. The Pohlad family has since put the club up for sale.

A statue of St. Paul’s gold-medal-winning gymnast Suni Lee has been stolen and police asked for the public’s help Thursday to find it.

A bust of U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee. (Courtesy of St. Paul Parks and Recreation)

It was installed at Phalen Lakeside Activity Center in St. Paul in 2023, after she made history with her win at the 2020 Olympic Games.

“The brass statue, along with the rock with her nameplate on it, were taken within the last day,” police wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “We are actively working to find the statute.”

It would have been difficult to steal and likely required tools, said Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman.

“Apparently it had two steel rods connecting it, so it would have taken awhile to get it out,” she said.

Police are asking anyone with information to email SPPD-eastinvestigations@stpaul.gov.

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By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda says it has already made tentative job offers to more than 1,000 people as it ramps up hiring following the passage of legislation earlier this month giving the agency a massive infusion of cash.

The agency’s spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement Thursday that the offers had been made after July 4. That’s when Trump signed into law a broad package of tax breaks and spending cuts that also included about $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement, spread out over five years.

“ICE has already issued over 1,000 tentative job offers since July 4. Many of these offers were to ICE officers who retired under President Biden because they were frustrated that they were not allowed to do their jobs,” she said. “Now under President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is excited to get back to work to remove rapists, murderers, gang members and pedophiles from our communities.”

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The budget is multiplying exponentially

ICE is the key agency responsible for executing Trump’s campaign promise of carrying out the largest deportation operation in history. The administration has been ramping up immigration-related arrests across the country. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, has said ICE officers would have a target of at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.

That heightened enforcement has played out with arrests in immigration courts, worksites, neighborhoods and more.

ICE is set to get $76.5 billion, nearly 10 times its current annual budget. Some $45 billion will go toward increasing detention capacity. Nearly $30 billion is for hiring 10,000 more staff so the agency can meet its goal of 1 million annual deportations. The White House has said ICE will grow from 20,000 employees to about 30,000.

Earlier this week, ICE announced a recruiting campaign aimed at finding and hiring the deportation officers, investigators and lawyers it will need to meet that goal of 10,000 new staff. As part of that campaign the agency is offering an eye-catching bonus of up to $50,000 for new recruits as well as other benefits like student loan forgiveness and abundant overtime for deportation officers.

At a time when the federal government has been firing federal employees left and right, the USAJOBS website where vacancies for federal jobs are posted has dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement jobs.

Some are for the deportation officers responsible for finding and removing people from the country; investigators with Homeland Security Investigations, which helps investigate transnational crime, including immigration issues; and lawyers who represent the government in prosecuting immigration cases.

Jobs to support the detention network are also in play

But there are also other jobs that support the detention network that is being supercharged to carry out mass deportations: nurses and nurse managers, psychiatric care providers, auditors, field medical coordinators and more.

The anticipated hiring boom has also raised concerns about whether standards will be lowered in order to meet the growing demand. The Border Patrol underwent its own expansion during the early 2000s — something that is often cited as a cautionary tale for the risks of quick hiring. To meet hiring goals, training and hiring standards were changed. Arrests for employee misconduct rose.

McLaughlin rejected suggestions that the agency would lower recruitment standards.

“All new recruits must meet the same standards they always have. I know this may be shocking to the media, but many Americans want to serve their country and help remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country,” she said.