Gophers men’s basketball coach Ben Johnson had enough on his plate in preparing for Sunday’s National Invitational Tournament game at Indiana State.

In the meantime, Johnson has been juggling possible roster additions via the NCAA transfer portal, which swung open Monday.

“Every minute that we are not focused on Indiana State, we are focused on the portal,” Johnson said Friday. “We spent all morning combining both, like we did (Thursday), and the (boys basketball) state tournament is going on here (at Williams Arena), so we are trying to do that. We are trying to see who is in the portal, the whole thing.”

It’s unclear which current Gophers players might leave after the postseason, including the chance that power forward Dawson Garcia and shooting guard Cam Christie pursue NBA prospects.

Johnson credited his coaching and support staff for being on top of both objectives this week.

“It’s just what you got to do,” Johnson said. “We will put together the necessary time needed to do both.”

Johnson chatted with media members on Friday afternoon, just before full attention turned to the Sycamores in the U’s practice. Minnesota (19-14) plays No. 1 seed Indiana State in the second round of the NIT at 1 p.m. Sunday at Hulman Center in Terre Haute, Ind.

Indiana State (29-6) won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title, but missed out on the NCAA tournament when Drake won the conference tournament.

The Sycamores are eighth in the nation in points per game, averaging 84.9, and they beat Southern Methodist 101-92 in the first round of the NIT on Wednesday. The Sycamores’ primary rotation of six players all shoot 35 percent or better from 3-point range.

Indiana State has a “crazy combination of talent and skill that you just don’t see,” Johnson said. “… All six guys can dribble, pass and shoot.”

With the Gophers’ season continuing with a win over Butler in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday, Johnson currently lives in a foggy gray area.

“The hardest part about it is the longer you play, the longer you don’t know what your roster is going to look like, so you (looking) are in the portal, but you are kind of in the portal guessing to a certain extent, unless you know you have open scholarships already,” Johnson said.

Johnson has commiserated with other coaches in similar plights while navigating the postseason.

“(Transferring players) are going in and you have to monitor it and have to look at certain positions and certain guys,” Johnson said. “You have no idea really what you need to attack because your roster is still intact because you are still playing. There is no book that tells you how to do that. You are out there, trying to do the best you can, and at the same time, you are still trying to win games and continue your season.”

Johnson said there was “zero consideration” of passing on the NIT to focus on the roster for next season. Indiana and six other major programs opted not to play in the NIT so they could put single-minded focus on their futures.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Johnson said. “The longer you play, the greater it is for your program and what you are trying to do. At the same time, the longer you play, you do feel like you are up against it just because there is going to be a lot of uncertainty. Guys are going to make decisions sooner than later in some instances in the portal, and you have to deal with that as it comes.”

Gophers point guard Elijah Hawkins told the Star Tribune last week that he will be returning next season. Key substitute forward Parker Fox appears to be leaning toward not using his seventh year of eligibility next season.

Other than those two players, the Gophers’ roster is more to-be-determined until their season comes to an end.

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Former U.S. Rep. George Santos of New York said Friday that he will leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in a bid to return to Congress after having been expelled while facing federal fraud charges.

In social media postings, Santos criticized Friday’s vote by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to approve a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills.

“After today’s embarrassing showing in the house I have reflected and decided that I can no longer be part of the Republican Party,” Santos said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The Republican Party continues to lie and swindle its voter base. I in good conscience cannot affiliate myself with a party that stands for nothing and falls for everything.”

Santos announced earlier this month that he was challenging Republican Rep. Nick LaLota in the GOP primary in an eastern Long Island district that is different than the one he represented before he was expelled. Among those vying to be the Democratic candidate for the seat is John Avlon, a former CNN anchor.

In December, Santos became just the sixth member in history to be expelled by fellow House colleagues, following a critical House Ethics Committee report that cited “overwhelming evidence” of lawbreaking by Santos.

Santos has pleaded not guilty to charges including lying to Congress about his wealth, receiving unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve, and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses like designer clothing.

A judge has tentatively scheduled the trial for September, after the primary.

Santos, who has admitted to lying about his job experience and college education during his previous campaign, was bashed again Friday by New York Republicans, who also criticized him when he announced his candidacy.

“George Santos’ expulsion from Congress was good for the nation and his resignation from the Republican Party is good for commonsense conservatives,” LaLota said in a statement. “Santos can watch me defend this important swing district and the November election results from his prison cell as he’s being held accountable for stealing an election and ripping off donors.”

Jesse Garcia, the Suffolk County GOP chair, also weighed in.

“This is nothing more than the continuation of George Santos’ need for celebrity status,” Garcia said in a phone interview. “There is no appetite amongst the voters of the First District, Long Island or even the nation for the Santos clown car show to continue.”

In his X postings, Santos criticized LaLota for voting in favor of the spending package.

“ @nicklalota and @JohnAvlon ill see you boys in November!” Santos wrote, ending the tweet with a kissing emoji.

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By MELISSA GOLDIN (Associated Press)

Conservative influencers and politicians are calling for a boycott of Tyson Foods after false claims spread online saying the multinational meat producer is planning to hire 52,000 people who came to the U.S. illegally.

“Tyson is closing its facility in Perry, Iowa and laying off its 1,200 workers,” reads one X post that had received approximately 20,000 likes and 11,700 shares as of Friday. “Instead, they plan to hire thousands of new illegals in states like New York. #BoycottTyson. Pass it on.”

But the company, the latest in a growing list of businesses targeted with calls for a boycott amid claims of “woke” policies, has no such plans.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Tyson Foods is hiring 52,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally.

THE FACTS: The company has no current plans to hire 52,000 workers in the U.S., a spokesperson for the company said. In addition, all of its workers are required to have legal authorization for employment in the country.

“That is categorically false,” Tyson said of the claims spreading online.

Tyson told The Associated Press that it has between 5-8% of roles open in its 500 U.S. locations at any given time, “all of which are available to anyone who is qualified and legally authorized to work in the United States.”

“Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration,” it wrote in a statement.

The company’s U.S. workforce comprises approximately 120,000 employees, according to Tyson. This means that it currently has roughly between 6,000 to 9,600 open positions.

In 2022, Tyson committed to hiring 2,500 refugees in the U.S. over three years as a member of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network of more than 400 major multinational companies. Refugees — people who face persecution and were granted entry to the U.S. while living outside the country — are legally authorized to work as soon as they arrive in the U.S.

People granted asylum in the U.S. also face persecution, but applied for protection after they entered the country. Those whose applications are pending typically qualify for work authorization under an Employment Authorization Document, or EAD, 180 days after they file their asylum application. Anyone already granted asylum can legally work without an EAD.

Both refugees and individuals granted asylum have legal status in the U.S. Tyson said that approximately 42,000 of its current U.S. employees are noncitizens with work authorization. Haiwen Langworth, a spokesperson for the Tent Partnership for Refugees, told the AP that Tyson’s 2022 commitment includes people with legal refugee status, as well as others such as asylum seekers or grantees with permission to work.

The false claims appear to stem from a Bloomberg article published March 11 about Tyson’s Tent Partnership for Refugees commitment. Garrett Dolan, associate director of human resources at Tyson, said in the article that the company plans to hire 52,000 people for factory jobs in 2024. According to Tyson, Dolan “misspoke.”

Bloomberg told the AP that it stands by its reporting.

Scripps News published its own article two days later, which reported that Tyson “wants to hire 52,000 asylum seekers for factory jobs.” The outlet has since retracted the story for “serious factual inaccuracies,” writing that it was “unable to verify that number.” But false claims around the figure spread widely on social media.

The reports sparked calls to boycott Tyson, hardly the first company to face opposition to what are often described as “woke” policies. Bud Light sales plunged last year amid conservative backlash over the beer giant’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Target made changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise ahead of last year’s Pride month after customers confronted workers and tipped over displays.

Rebekah Wolf, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told the AP that U.S. companies relying on immigrant labor is “nothing new,” especially when it comes to industries such as meat processing with roles considered undesirable by many U.S. citizens.

Wolf said that hiring people willing to take jobs that are not particularly attractive to others is crucial to the economy.

She added that the U.S. has “really robust policies for ensuring that big companies like Tyson are employing people who are authorized to work in the United States.” She also pointed out that many employers have recently struggled to fill jobs given labor shortages.

Tyson announced March 11 that it is closing a pork processing facility in Perry, Iowa, the town’s largest employer. The company did not provide specifics, saying the closure was related to “specific business reasons” and that the decision “is not related to our hiring efforts at other facilities.” The announcement came after the company closed a plant in both Virginia and Arkansas in 2023 and consolidated its corporate operations the year prior.

Although Tyson declined to comment when asked how many of the Perry plant workers are non-citizens, it said in a statement that “any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false.”

The company also noted that it has encouraged the Perry employees to apply for other positions at Tyson.

Some social media alleged that following the Perry closure, Tyson will be hiring in New York, where there has been a massive influx of migrants. However, Tyson said that it “does not operate in New York nor does it have any plans to do so.”

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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.