With a new head coach and 13 different players in the Gophers men’s basketball program this season, there will be a longer acclimation process needed for fans this fall. And that’s saying something in the already transient era of the NCAA transfer portal.

Head coach Niko Medved and two players — Isaac Asuma and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson — tried to share Thursday what the Gophers identity will be and who some key players are during their appearances at Big Ten Media Day in Rosemont, Ill.

Asuma is one of only two players who returned to the U after coach Ben Johnson was fired last March. The sophomore guard from Cherry, Minn., said it took only one conversation with Medved to keep his name out of the portal.

“Just saw the vision he had for the program, and I want to be a part of that,” Ausma told Big Ten Network. “I think that he has a special future in sight.”

Jaylen Crocker-Johnson played for Medved at Colorado State and the 6-foot-8 junior forward transferred away from Fort Collins, Colo., to follow his former coach to Minnesota.

“At CSU, we built a strong relationship throughout the (years), just on and off the court, just building that bond,” Crocker-Johnson said on the Big Ten network’s coverage of Thursday’s event. “And I already knew right then and there, as soon as he left, I wanted to go with him.”

The first glimpse of Medved’s team will come at the Maroon and Gold Scrimmage at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Williams Arena. It starts four hours before the Gophers football team plays Purdue across the street at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The next two chances will be home exhibition games against North Dakota State (Oct. 16) and North Dakota (Oct. 25). The season opener is Nov. 3 against Gardner-Webb at The Barn.

Medved shared what he expects from his first squad, harkening to what he did at Colorado State. Last March, the Rams came within a buzzer-beater against Maryland from making the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.

“They played an unselfish brand,” Medved said on BTN. “You look at our teams across the board, they’ve always been among the leaders in the country in assists to field goals made. We’ve also been among the leaders in two-point field goal percentage, even though we haven’t been big. I think we cut well, we move it well, we put a lot of pressure on the paint.

“We’ve been a connected team defensively, that’s feisty, that scraps and a team, I hope, that pulls for each other. The places that we’ve been, we play a brand that our fans can get excited about cheering for, and that’s really our charge this year, it’s to start to build those things.”

The Gophers were picked to finish 16th in the 18-team Big Ten, according to the Columbus Dispatch-Indianapolis Star preseason poll released Wednesday. Last year, the Gophers finished in a five-way tie for 12th at 7-13 in league play.

Given the 87% roster turnover, Asuma and Crocker-Johnson were asked by host Raphael Davis which players have stood out in summer workouts and preseason practices.

“It’s really been a team thing, for sure,” Crocker-Johnson said. “Because we are trying to meet coach’s standards.”

But Crocker-Johnson went on to mention Western Michigan transfer Chansey Willis Jr., Northern Colorado guard Langston Reynolds and North Carolina forward Cade Tyson.

“Just like leading the break, being more of the older guys, trying to set a good example, leading on and off the court,” Crocker-Johnson said.

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A growing number of people are turning to AI for therapy not because it’s now smarter than humans, but because too many human therapists stopped doing their jobs. Instead of challenging illusions, telling hard truths and helping build resilience, modern therapy drifted into nods, empty reassurances and endless validation. Into the void stepped chatbots, automating bad therapy practices, sometimes with deadly consequences.

Recent headlines told the wrenching story of Sophie Rottenberg, a young woman who confided her suicidal plans to ChatGPT before taking her own life in February. An AI bot offered her only comfort; no intervention, no warning, no protection. Sophie’s death was not only a tragedy. It was a signal: AI has perfected the worst habits of modern therapy while stripping away the guardrails that once made it safe.

I warned more than a decade ago, in a 2012 New York Times op-ed, that therapy was drifting too far from its core purpose. That warning proved prescient and that drift has hardened into orthodoxy. Therapy traded the goal of helping people grow stronger for the false comfort of validation and hand-holding.

For much of the last century, the goal of therapy was resilience. But in the past decade, campus culture has shifted toward emotional protection. Universities now embrace the language of safe spaces, trigger warnings and microaggressions. Therapist training, shaped by that environment, carries the same ethos into the clinic. Instead of being taught how to challenge patients and build their strength, new therapists are encouraged to affirm feelings and shield patients from discomfort. The intention is compassion. The effect is paralysis.

When therapy stops challenging people, it stops being therapy and becomes paid listening. The damage is real. I’ve seen it firsthand in more than two decades as a practicing psychotherapist in New York City and Washington, D.C. One patient told me her previous therapist urged her to quit a promising job because the patient felt “triggered” by her boss. The real issue, difficulty taking direction, was fixable. Another case in the news recently centered on a man in the middle of a manic spiral who turned to ChatGPT for help. It validated his delusions, and he ended up hospitalized twice. Different providers, same failure: avoiding discomfort at all costs.

A mindset trained to “validate first and always” leaves no room for problem-solving or accountability. Patients quickly sense the emptiness — the hollow feeling of canned empathy, nods without challenge and responses that go nowhere. They want guidance, direction and the courage of a therapist willing to say what’s hard to hear. When therapy offers only comfort without clarity, it becomes ineffective, and people increasingly turn to algorithms instead.

With AI, the danger multiplies. A bad therapist can waste years. A chatbot can waste thousands of lives every day, without pause, without ethics, without accountability. Bad therapy has become scalable.

All this is colliding with a loneliness epidemic, record levels of anxiety and depression and a mental-health tech industry potentially worth billions. Estimates by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration suggest that roughly 1 in 3 Americans is comfortable turning to AI bots rather than flesh-and-blood therapists for emotional or mental health support.

The appeal of AI is not wisdom but decisiveness. A bot never hesitates, never says “let’s sit with that feeling.” It simply answers. That is why AI feels like an upgrade. Its answers may be reckless, but the format is quick, confident and direct — and it is addictive.

Good therapy should look nothing like a chatbot — which can’t pick up on nonverbal cues or tone, can’t confront them, and can’t act when it matters most.

The tragedy is that therapy has taught patients to expect so little that even an algorithm feels like an upgrade. It became a business of professional hand-holding, which weakened patients and opened the door for machine intervention. If therapists keep avoiding discomfort, tragedies like Sophie Rottenberg’s will become more common.

But therapy can evolve. The way forward is not to imitate machines, but to reclaim what made therapy effective in the first place. In my own practice, I ask hard questions. I press patients to see their role in conflict, to face the discomfort they want to avoid and to build the resilience that growth requires. That approach is not harsh. It is compassion with a purpose: helping people change rather than stay stuck.

Modern therapy can meet today’s crisis if training programs return to teaching those skills. Instead of turning out young therapists fluent in the language of grievance, programs should focus on developing clinicians who know how to challenge, guide and strengthen patients. Patients deserve honesty, accountability and the tools to move forward. Therapy can remain a business of listening, or it can be a catalyst to change.

Jonathan Alpert is a psychotherapist practicing in New York City and Washington and the author of the forthcoming“ Therapy Nation.” He wrote this column for the Los Angeles Times.

The Red Mass, a long-standing tradition marking the start of the U.S. Supreme Court’s term, brings judges, lawyers and public officials together at Washington’s St. Matthew’s Cathedral to pray for wisdom and moral clarity in the administration of justice.

Since the 1950s, this ecumenical service — welcoming for people of all faiths and belief systems — has been a sort of opening ceremony attended by many Supreme Court justices.

This year none of them attended due to security concerns.

A man allegedly carrying a Molotov cocktail was arrested outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral, police said Sunday, underscoring the heightened security concerns surrounding the court in today’s polarized climate.

Late last week, a 29-year-old was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, after her 2022 arrest near his home with plans to kill him and then herself. Earlier this year, Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s sister faced a bomb threat.

In these charged times, the nation’s highest court will soon weigh in on a handful of polarizing cases. Emotions are sure to run hot.

But the court must remain cool — and do its important work.

The justices’ job is not to please the public or politicians, but to interpret the Constitution faithfully — even when that means angering one side (or both sides). The court was never meant to be the most popular branch, only the most principled one.

Its October term kicked off Monday and will run through late June or early July. Tuesday, the court heard arguments in two cases — Chiles v. Salazar, which tests whether Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” violates free speech, and Barrett v. United States, which examines how double-jeopardy principles apply to a federal firearm offense.

Other cases on the docket this session cover such topics as gun rights, transgender athletes in sports and the death penalty.

They’ll also be reviewing a slew of cases related to President Donald Trump and his presidential powers, tariff policies and limits to executive authority. All of which are certain to bring emotions and tensions to a boiling point.

And so we return to the Molotov cocktail outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral, a chilling reminder that in an age of anger even a symbolic and traditional act meant to foster unity can feel dangerous. The court must not let fear — or fury — dictate its work.

The coming months will test not only the justices, but the country’s capacity to accept decisions we dislike without resorting to rage. If the court loses its ability to deliberate freely, every institution that depends on the rule of law grows weaker.

We noted with approval words from Justice Amy Coney Barrett when she spoke at the Aug. 18 Seventh Circuit Judicial Conference in Chicago.

“We know how to argue, but we also know how to do it without letting it consume relationships,” she said.

We’d encourage members of the public to heed these words — even if they take issue with the results of how the justices interpret the Constitution.

— The Chicago Tribune

PHOENIX — The Las Vegas Aces are in position to make short work of the WNBA’s expanded playoff schedule.

A’ja Wilson’s turnaround jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining lifted the Aces over the Phoenix Mercury for a thrilling 90-88 win on Wednesday night. It also gave Las Vegas a 3-0 lead in the first best-of-seven WNBA Finals in league history.

In the previous best-of-five format, the Aces would already be celebrating their third championship in four seasons. In 2025, there’s more work to do.

Game 4 is on Friday night in Phoenix.

“We don’t look at it too big,” Wilson said. “We just win one game, win one possession, win one quarter and then everything will pan out.”

The Aces were one of the best teams in the WNBA all season, earning the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with a 30-14 record, but they looked surprisingly vulnerable early in the postseason. They dropped a game to Seattle in the opening round and needed the full five games to squeeze past the Indiana Fever in the semifinals, prevailing in overtime for a 107-98 win in the decisive Game 5.

In the finals, the Aces have looked unstoppable.

Wilson — a four-time MVP who is already one of the league’s all-time greats — continued to add to her legacy on Wednesday night with a 34-point, 14-rebound performance that helped the Aces navigate a hostile road environment and shake off a late Mercury rally.

Wilson has already set a WNBA record with 291 postseason points through 11 games and is averaging 26.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. A 29, she remains at the peak of her basketball powers, using her 6-foot-4 frame and soft touch around the basket to score in bunches.

“I always have to credit my teammates, because they give me the basketball in the right space at the right time,” Wilson said. “Like Jewell (Loyd) said, the ball has energy. Players understand, there’s something different where you get a pass and it’s like ‘This is a pass to score the basketball.’ ”

Wilson’s presence was more important than ever in the closing moments of Game 3.

The Aces had coughed up a 76-59 lead entering the fourth quarter, and the game was tied at 88 with 5 seconds left. Las Vegas had the ball and the daunting task of trying to close the game against a desperate Mercury team that had a raucous home crowd on its side.

Aces coach Becky Hammon didn’t need to consult her playbook for the right call.

Just throw it to A’ja. Boom. Game over.

“These are the moments that you dream of, the times you see on TV, you’re watching and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, to be in that building,’ ” Wilson said.

The Mercury will try to shake off the tough loss and force the series back to Las Vegas for a Game 5. Phoenix will be without star forward Satou Sabally, who suffered a concussion late in Wednesday’s game after scoring 24 points.

DeWanna Bonner led the Mercury with 25 points in Game 3 while Alyssa Thomas was one assist short of a triple double, finishing with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

“This group has been a group that continues to compete at a high level,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “We’re going to expect that in front of our fans. We’ve got a certain level of pride.”