The basketball talent that came out of Pittsburgh didn’t have the same staying power.

As the steel mills closed, the city’s population dwindled, and by the mid-1980s the flow of student prospects slowed to a trickle. There were fewer places for city kids to play, but also fewer places for suburban players to test themselves — as they had done since the days of Cumberland Posey.

And then there’s the allure of the Steelers.

In Ohio, said Dambrot, LeBron James’ first high school coach, the best athletes will play basketball first and then football. In western Pennsylvania, football comes first and often second. He has three players on his team from the Pittsburgh area, none of whom are on scholarship. The University of Pittsburgh has two local contributors, also walk-ons, on the roster.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Jaydan Brown, 17, had come to the Ammon Community Recreation Center, home of the Hill District’s 56-year-old Ozanam Basketball Program. Upstairs, students, some in ties and sport coats, tutored elementary school children with math and helped build model helicopters. Meals were served and balls bounced on the basketball court.

Darrelle Porter now heads the program.

Porter is a towering figure with a friendly demeanor and greets everyone by name. He was recruited to Pitt by Calipari, then a young assistant, and was getting ready to play in a game when he missed one of college basketball’s most enduring highlights: Jerome Lane’s crushing dunk in 1988.

Porter, who later coached at Duquesne, shares aspirational and cautionary stories with the youngsters, often pointing to the banners hanging above the field. These include those of local legends Maurice Lucas, Sam Clancy, DeJuan Blair, Kenny Durrett and Clay, as well as his own.

There’s room, he says, for a few more.

“Basketball is overlooked here,” said Brown, a junior at Central Catholic High, who believes that won’t stop him from adding a new line to the city’s basketball story.

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A $116 million grant to LaGuardia Community College

When Fred Hoiberg left a front-office job with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2010 to coach Iowa State, he was ahead of his time chasing transfers to build a roster. Hoiberg was also ahead of the curve when he landed his biggest transfer prize: Royce White.

White was built like an NFL tight end — 6-foot-8, 250 pounds — but he thought the game like a point guard. Back then, transfers had to sit out a season, and during that sit-out year Iowa State’s coaches met regularly to try to figure out the best way to utilize someone so big with incredible ball skills.

Hoiberg settled on an untraditional role: His center would play point guard.

“We just put the ball in his hands and got our shooters in split actions — and all those guys could shoot — and that’s what Royce did best was his passing,” Hoiberg says. “So that was kind of the first really exclusive five-out (offense) in college.”

Hoiberg, now coaching Nebraska, is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015. The common thread between all five of his tournament appearances is playing through a big man like White, who called himself a hybrid. Nebraska’s current big man Rienk Mast is in the mold of Georges Niang, Hoiberg’s second star point-center at Iowa State, in that both can dribble, pass and shoot.

And just like with the transfer portal, Hoiberg is no longer an outlier in playing through what’s become known as a playmaking center. That prototype is populating college rosters at a rate higher than ever before in the game’s history and has been steadily increasing in recent years. In this year’s NCAA Tournament, playmaking fives are all over the bracket. From true point centers like Marquette’s Oso Ighodaro to stretch fives who can also facilitate like Duke’s Kyle Filipowski to slo-mo pass-first bigs like BYU’s Aly Khalifa, you can find some version of a playmaking five on nearly half the tourney rosters.

College coaches have figured out that the easiest way to run efficient offense is five-out attacks. Ideally with centers who can shoot. And if they cannot shoot, they can at least be the trigger man and pull the opposing big away from the paint by facilitating from the perimeter.

In much the same way that Steph Curry influenced a generation of guards by shooting a higher frequency of 3-pointers and from further out, Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is now the most dominant and entertaining player on the planet, and he’s made passing cool for big men.

“You look into the grassroots programs, a lot of these younger kids now, they’re really working on their multi-skill set to be able to play all five positions,” Hoiberg says. “Because that’s where our game is going is positionless basketball, especially in the NBA.”

“Every NBA team plays some form of five-out,” says Alabama first-year assistant coach Ryan Pannone, who was a G League coach for three seasons and then a New Orleans Pelicans assistant in 2022-23. “Some teams are playing a higher percentage of five-out offense, but every team is in some way shape or form.”

College basketball still has its variations, and you can still win with a post-up heavy style — see Purdue and Zach Edey — but even Edey sometimes is sent to the perimeter to initiate dribble-handoff actions. And he plays on the team that’s the second-most accurate from 3-point range, surrounding him at most times with four shooters to give him room to operate.

“Nearly every team these days has like four guys on the floor that can shoot it, and a lot have five,” says Ken Pomeroy, college basketball’s foremost authority on analytics. “Ten years ago, that was pretty rare, and 20 years ago that was almost unheard of.”

A few years ago Pomeroy dug into why teams are shooting a higher percentage of their shots from 3, and he found the main culprit was fours and fives shooting more 3s.

“Offense is spacing,” says Indiana State coach Josh Schertz, whose high-powered offense is centered around big man Robbie Avila. “Spacing is shooting. If you have great spacing, but you don’t have great shooting, you don’t have great spacing.”

And the optimal way to create that space is a playmaking center.

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Schertz keeps a FaceTime from Avila saved in his call log.

Oct. 22, 2021.

That’s the day the goggled Goliath committed to the Sycamores, before Schertz ever coached a game at the Division I level.

“That’s when we changed the program’s trajectory,” Schertz says. “You build an entire program around that kind of kid. You can build your whole offense around that kind of player.”

This is not hyperbole. In Schertz’s third season in Terre Haute, Indiana State went 28-6 and had its best season since the Larry Bird-led Sycamores made the national title game in 1979. The Sycamores were the victim of last week’s bid thieves, one of the first four out of the NCAA field, but they won the Missouri Valley regular-season title and have the most efficient halfcourt offense in college basketball. It is built around the slightly pudgy 6-foot-10 center who looks better suited to be crushing in Mathletics than on a basketball court. Avila is the college version of Jokic. Avila can shoot (40.5 percent from 3), dribble, pass (a team-high 3.8 assists per game), slash and punish switches in the post.

Last spring when Schertz recruited two point guards out of the portal (Ryan Conwell and Isaiah Swope) to join another point guard already on his roster in Julian Larry, he was asked: How are you going to play all three together?

Easy. Play none of them in the actual point guard spot. That’s Avila’s job. Although Schertz doesn’t call him the point guard; he calls him “the hub.”

“When you utilize the big as the hub,” Schertz says, “I think it creates organically an egalitarian-type offense, where everybody is more of a part of it, because the other four spots become completely interchangeable.”

The reality is that there are fewer traditional point guards than ever before. The mindset of the guard has changed. Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May brings up Tyrese Haliburton to show how unusual it is to find a pass-first point guard and the allure of playing with one.

May poses the question: Why did Pascal Siakam agree to go to the Pacers instead of opting to wait for free agency?

“Because they have a point guard that’s a superstar that likes to pass,” May says.

We might get to a point where it’s easier to find a big man who loves to pass than a guard. Two of the top five assist leaders in the NBA right now are centers — Jokic and Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis — and we’re seeing higher assist numbers from centers in college than ever before. There are 207 playmaking big men in college basketball this season, per Synergy’s analysis, and assists per-40 minutes of all players 6-9 or taller has risen from 1.3 during the 2011-12 season (when White played for Hoiberg) to 1.8 this season.

If you have one of those bigs, a point guard no longer feels necessary. Hoiberg says he doesn’t have one, in part, because of Mast. At Illinois, Brad Underwood is starting five players who are all 6-foot-6 or taller and have all played power forward at some point in their careers. Underwood said one of his motivations was playing positionless style defensively, where the Illini can switch everything. But it’s worked beautifully offensively too; the Illini rank third in adjusted offensive efficiency. No point guard for the Illini? No problem. They have 6-11 playmaking center Coleman Hawkins.

“When you can stretch the floor with five men who can shoot it and pass it,” Underwood says, “spacing becomes ‘advantage, offense’ on all accounts.”

So much of the game has become pick-and-roll and many coverages use the center to contain the guard, so a popping big man is almost always open. And when you have to stunt at that big man, this happens:

Underwood also allows Hawkins to rebound and go. That’s another reason players like him are so valuable.

“It distorts almost every form of transition D you have,” Underwood says. “Because people send their point guard back and somebody protects the rim, so now you’re getting cross-matched immediately, especially if you play with any pace.”

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Jokic is not only the prototype; he’s giving coaches ideas to implement. Two years ago, Marquette coach Shaka Smart approached Nuggets assistant David Adelman to get ideas on five-out offense, because Ighodaro had flashed enough playmaking skills that Smart believed he’d thrive in that setup. Adelman said they let their players experiment in offseason pickup games, throwing out ideas for an action to start the play and seeing where they take it.

Smart is right there with Schertz in the number of different actions in which the Golden Eagles involve their center. Not only do both Avila and Ighodaro sometimes bring the ball up the floor, they’re both featured in pick-and-rolls as both the roller and the handler. In fact, among players with at least 50 possessions as the handler, Avila is the fifth-most efficient when the handler and Ighodaro is 77th, per Synergy.

“I think inverted ball screens are some of the hardest things to guard, because what are you going to do with them?” Schertz says. “Centers are not used to guarding ball screens with a handler. And guards are not used to guarding bigs coming off a ball screen. So it’s really unique coverage.”

Case in point:

Ighodaro is in the White mold. “He’s the five-man that doesn’t shoot it, but impacts the game in every other capacity, just because of his athleticism, his speed and his passing,” Underwood says. “Oso’s unique because he’s a freak athlete. His passing and his athleticism create gaps in space, like he’s very hard to stay connected to.”

The Golden Eagles use Ighodaro in a lot of two-man games on the side of the floor, then space with three shooters on the other side. It forces teams to play two-on-two, and Ighodaro and his guards will play hot potato until an opening presents itself. One concept that has become a go-to for centers is “gets,” where the guard will throw it to the big and then immediately go get it back on a handoff. Marquette has the luxury of Ighodaro also bringing the ball up the floor and starting the dribble handoff himself.

Dayton’s offense is almost a replica of Marquette’s, only DaRon Holmes II plays the Ighodaro role and adds the shooting element.

According to Synergy, there are a higher number of dribble handoffs this season than any other season the site has logged; if you’re wondering where the game is headed, that’s a good indicator. It’s a more efficient action than the pick-and-roll.

“Dribble handoffs are much harder to guard than ball screens,” Schertz says. “Because what’s your coverage on dribble pitches? Ball screens, you can have seven coverages. You can’t ice a dribble pitch. (Icing is keeping the ball on the sideline and forcing the handler toward the baseline.) You can’t really show on a dribble pitch, otherwise, the center’s gonna just keep the ball and go get a layup. It’s hard to lateral that. There’s way fewer coverages you can give to a dribble pitch. The more dribble pitches obviously you can produce, the higher the efficiency.”

The most efficient action is cutting, and no one is better at delivering those passes than centers who can pass. Not only are they usually always open on ball reversals, they have the best lines of vision — think of taller quarterbacks.

“Being able to see over defenders, especially on backdoors or when teams are switching, I can throw it over the top rather than throwing a bounce pass, and it comes from a better angle because it’s coming from up higher,” UConn center Donovan Clingan says. “It’s definitely an advantage being able to be 7-2 and pass the ball like that.”

Clingan is not what you’d picture in a playmaking center. But instead of just planting him in the post, which is where he would have played in past eras, Dan Hurley has made him the hub for UConn’s halfcourt offense. Clingan can’t really dribble or shoot, so defenders usually sag off him, but that’s a luxury for the Huskies. He’s always open for ball reversals, and he can execute handoffs and deliver the ball as UConn’s shooters are endlessly screening and cutting around him.

 

“I love passing,” Clingan says. “Just getting a great pass off and setting up a teammate for an easy basket, I love that.”

Hurley uses him this way because it works, but he also sees it as his responsibility to develop Clingan so he will eventually fit in the NBA.

“If they can’t play in five-out, if they can’t play away from the basket, they’re going to have a hard time getting to the NBA,” Hurley says. “So I think it’s a weapon for you, creates new opportunities offensively, but also the responsibility to the player in terms of their career and your player development and being able to recruit the next center that you can win with.”

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Go back to one of the legendary upsets in NCAA Tournament history — 13th-seeded Princeton over No. 4 seed and defending national champion UCLA in 1996 — and the box score reads like the perfect analytically-driven approach (outside of the shooting accuracy). The Tigers attempted eight more 3-pointers than 2s, and they had 15 assists on 17 made field goals. Layups and 3s are the goal today, and that’s what Pete Carril’s Princeton offense has been generating for years.

“He was doing this in the 1960s and ’70s,” says Richmond coach Chris Mooney, who was a four-year starter for Carril in the early 1990s and still runs the Princeton offense. The Spiders won the Atlantic-10 regular-season title this year with a pass-first center. “That’s not like 10 years ahead of his time; it’s 50-60 years ahead of his time.”

In 1996, the Sacramento Kings forever changed the NBA by hiring Carril and implementing elements of his offense. Some of the best college offenses have borrowed from him too, especially in the way he used his center away from the basket. It was a part of Johnny Orr’s pinch-post offense, and John Beilein had elements of the Princeton in his two-guard offense — two offenses that get copied a lot in today’s game.

Beilein reminded us years ago the value of a big man who can shoot when he had Kevin Pittsnogle at West Virginia and rode his hot shooting and the gravity it created to the 2005 Elite Eight. (Those of us who were college basketball fans in that era will forever hear the name Pittsnogle and immediately scream “PITTSNOGLLLLLLE!”)

Pittsnogle also taught us that you didn’t need an athletic, above-the-rim center to win. On the offensive end, skill in that position is much more valuable. And Jokic is taking it to another level.

Jokic is the role model for this generation’s big men. Ask just about any big guy in college basketball right now who they watch the most, and Jokic is the answer. Clingan idolizes and studies Jokic. Avila does too, getting clips sent to him of the Joker every Friday. But the part that rarely gets said out loud that Jokic has done for centers: He’s changed the way we see body types in basketball, and changed the way some guys see themselves.

Is Jokic an elite athlete? Not in the run-fast, jump-high sense, but … “In reality, they’re fantastic athletes,” Pannone says of Jokic and Luka Doncic. “What they have is the ability to process information and react quicker, which makes them more athletic and then they play at fantastic angles.”

Avila, who lives below the rim and has just one dunk this season, still finds a way to get to the basket often, averaging more than four baskets per game at the rim. Both he and Jokic also make up for a lack of foot speed with elite hand-eye coordination and body control, which can get you where you need to go on the floor sometimes just as effectively as quickness.

And it’s these below-the-rim, quick thinkers who have become college basketball’s best passers. They thrive in the actions Carril made popular. You’re not going to find more beautiful backdoor dimes than those delivered by Avila, Khalifa, Rice’s Max Fiedler and Richmond’s Neal Quinn, the latter three who all rank in the top 100 in assist rate nationally.

Peruse the top of the efficiency charts this season, and you’ll find either a center who can shoot and/or one who is a triggerman on many of those teams.

Schertz, who has the most Jokic-like player in the country, says he’ll never coach another game without a center who can be his hub.

“It’s always good to be able to coach players that are smarter than you, see the game slower,” he says. “Robbie’s been proof positive that mental acuity, when you have it at a high level, can compensate for a lack of physical quickness.”

(Illustration by Sean Reilly / The Athletic; Photos of Oso Ighodaro, Donovan Clingan and Coleman Hawkins: David Allio, G Fiume and Michael Hickey / Getty Images)

Kim Kardashian I can’t help but talk about the unbreakable bond of son Saint West and daughter Chicago West.

“Sint promised his sister when he made a basket that he would come and do a special handshake [with] her!” Kardashian, 43, wrote on Saturday, March 16 via her Instagram Story about a video of Saint making a hoop.

Saint, 8, came running to Chicago, 6, as they shared a sweet hug and handshake. He kissed her on the cheek before running back to the court.

“Aw,” Kardashian said as she witnessed her children interacting as Chicago laughed. “Was that just so funny?”

She also posted several other clips of Saint scoring points for his team during the game.

Kardashian shares Saint and Chicago, as well as daughter North, 10, and son Psalm, 4, with ex-husband Kanye West. The couple was married for six years before Kardashian filed for divorce in February 2021 and completed the proceedings in November 2022.

Kardashian and West, 46, have had a tumultuous relationship since their divorce. In December 2022, she candidly shared the struggles of co-parenting with West.

“I certainly protected him, and I will continue to do so in the eyes of my children. For my children. So at my house, my kids don’t know anything about what’s going on [in] the outside world,” Kardashian explained at the time in the “Angie Martinez IRL” podcast. “I’m holding on by a thread. I know I’m so close to not having that happen, but as long as it still does, I’ll protect that for as long as I can until the end of the earth. My children don’t know anything.”

Despite their struggles, a source exclusively shared Us in February that the couple “may not always see eye to eye,” but that they have “built a friendly relationship” that is “based solely on their children.”

“They know this is the healthiest thing when it comes to their children’s lives, plus they share a lot of history together and will always be family,” the insider said. “They can communicate in a mature way and Kim is happy with the state of affairs.”

West has since moved on Bianca Censoriwhom he married in December 2022. For her part, Kardashian has been linked Odell Beckham Jr. since September 2023.

“It’s getting serious,” says a source Us in February, noting that Odell’s “personality is much more private” than Kardashian, who shares glimpses of her daily life on Hulu’s The Kardashians.

Beckham, 31, is “low-key, while Kim is more used to the spotlight,” the insider said, adding that they are currently “trying to figure out the next steps” in their relationship.

Editor’s note: The University of Michigan announced Friday afternoon that Juwan Howard will not return as head basketball coach next season. 

Crisler Center was mostly empty the night of March 4, 2021, but Michigan basketball brought the place to life. A win over rival Michigan State secured a conference title in a season shaped by pandemic restrictions, and players danced around a confetti-covered court, hoisting a “Big Ten Champions” sign. It was an achievement of resolve, one that would result in a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for only the third time in program history.

Stepping away from the party, Juwan Howard surveyed a building with fewer than 200 people inside. He locked eyes with Warde Manuel, the Michigan athletic director who hired him. They pointed to one another. Then Howard squinted, looking up at Section 114, finding John Beilein, the man he replaced as Michigan coach and the program’s all-time wins leader. Beilein pointed down at him; Howard tapped his chest and pointed back.

The postgame celebration felt as much about where the program was going than what it had achieved.

When Howard, then 46, was hired by his alma mater in May 2019, he had never before coached college basketball. But he returned to Ann Arbor with a quarter-century of NBA experience, infinite respect in the game, and Fab Five roots that the program had long needed to reconnect with. At his introductory news conference, Howard brushed away what he called “tears of joy” and told the gathered crowd, “My heart is with Michigan and will always be that way.”

Any concerns about his staying power were dashed by a second season ending with a 23-5 record and a trip to the Elite Eight. He was named national coach of the year and lined up an incoming 2022 recruiting class featuring three McDonald’s All-Americans. Year 3 wasn’t so smooth, but ended in the Sweet 16, nevertheless. The program’s biggest concern was NBA teams swarming to poach the coach each offseason, but Howard swatted away rumors.

Three years later, it’s impossible to square such a promising beginning with the current view.

Having missed last year’s NCAA Tournament, Michigan fell to unthinkable depths this season. An 8-24 record is the program’s worst in 40 years. Its regular season ended with eight straight losses by an average deficit of nearly 19 points. A 3-17 Big Ten record cemented a last-place conference finish for the first time since 1966-67. Crisler Center has been empty and lifeless but for very different reasons than 2021.

On Wednesday night in Minneapolis, Michigan lost 66-57 to Penn State in a predictably brief visit to the Big Ten tournament.

The season began in flux after heart surgery sidelined Howard for the preseason and much of November and December. The roster wasn’t good enough. Over the last two summers, the program lost four underclassmen to the NBA, an All-American to the transfer portal, and suffered from school admissions blocking some portal additions. In early February, Howard noted that “buy-in has to be reciprocated (by players)” but said he isn’t questioning his approach. “This sh– works,” he told reporters.

But the program’s present issues seem to run deeper than its play on the court.

That’s why a makeshift meeting room was assembled inside Michigan Stadium last week. There, officials from Rankin Climate, an external firm specializing in organizational “climate assessments,” convened to conduct a probe into the culture of the men’s basketball program. Rankin officials asked some athletic department employees about their experiences in the program, Howard’s leadership and support offered by the athletic department. Those interviewed were told that participation was voluntary, according to multiple university employees granted anonymity because they are not permitted to speak about the investigation.

The review, following claims made by former Michigan strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson, marked a new flashpoint for a program looking to find a floor in such a precarious fall. It also complicates the task facing Manuel, who must weigh what was versus what is, and how much trust and faith are owed to one of Michigan’s own.

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Hired in May 2019, Howard built a staff that locked in for the long run. He retained assistant coach Saddi Washington, listened to advice from Kentucky coach John Calipari to hire an experienced consigliere named Phil Martelli, and tapped New York Knicks assistant Howard Eisley, a lifelong friend and Detroit native. Other internal support staff also remained in place, notably strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson, whom Beilein hired in 2009.

Four years later, the staff remained entirely unchanged. The lack of turnover was considered a major asset when Howard was forced to step away following his September heart procedure.

But then came early December and a moment that now in many ways threatens the whole of the parts.

Following a Dec. 7 disagreement between a trainer and senior guard Jace Howard, Juwan’s 22-year-old son, tempers flared, resulting in a scene that Sanderson later described as “totally out of control.” In his account, described in an email to Manuel and later obtained by The Athletic, Sanderson intervened in the spat between Jace Howard and the trainer, which upset Juwan Howard. Sanderson wrote that he tried to de-escalate the situation, turning his back and walking away. But he said Juwan Howard came at him “angry and ready to fight,” repeatedly yelling as players and staff held him back. News of the incident emerged days later when Sanderson did not travel with the Wolverines to a road game at Iowa.

On Dec. 15, following a human resources review, the university cleared Howard of any wrongdoing. In a statement, Manuel said “nothing was found to warrant disciplinary action for anyone involved.”

Juwan Howard has never publicly addressed the incident, telling reporters to refer to Manuel’s statement, saying, “I think it was clear. It was precise.”

Sanderson spent the ensuing weeks working primarily with some of the school’s Olympic sports teams.

Two weeks ago, Sanderson officially parted ways with the university after 15 years. The athletic department said Sanderson resigned from his post; two sources briefed on the agreement confirmed he reached a settlement that included a non-disclosure clause.

While Sanderson’s departure seemingly put an end to the December incident, broader concerns voiced by Sanderson in the days after the altercation ultimately became the focus of the recent investigation into the program’s culture.

According to documents obtained by The Athletic, which include emails between Sanderson and athletic department officials along with the letter from Steven Stapleton, Sanderson’s attorney, Sanderson alleged that Howard physically threatened one of Howard’s sons – then a player on the team – during a 2022-23 practice and bullied members of his basketball staff.

“There is a culture of fear within the MBB (men’s basketball) program and concern for retaliation by Coach Howard that has prevented staff from coming forward earlier, but now it is time to address that abhorrent culture,” Stapleton wrote in a letter emailed to Manuel on Dec. 11, 2023.

Sanderson claims Howard approached his son, Jett, visibly angry during a 2022-23 practice and threatened, “I’ll slap the sh– out of you,” adding the incident “sparked a lot of internal conversation.” Sanderson said one coach on staff said he saw Juwan Howard “manhandle” Jett on the side of the court; that coach expressed that he was upset with how Jett was being treated.

Other allegations levied by Sanderson include bullying behavior directed toward members of the coaching staff and others.

“There are troubling issues within the program and it is clear that Head Coach Juwan Howard has created an intolerable environment for both staff and Student Athletes,” Stapleton wrote in the letter.

Michigan declined to comment to The Athletic, citing a previous statement that Manuel plans to review the program after the season.

Sanderson, who recently joined Illinois basketball in a consulting role for 2024 postseason play, also declined to comment.

The complexity surrounding Sanderson’s claims is what preceded them. The most high-profile moment of Howard’s coaching tenure remains his actions following a game at Wisconsin in February 2022. Howard attempted to walk past Badgers coach Greg Gard in the handshake line but was stopped by the Wisconsin head coach in mid-stride. The two coaches exchanged heated words before things escalated. Amid the disorder, Howard struck Badgers assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft in the head. He said in a news conference afterward that someone touched him and “I thought it was time to protect myself.”

Manuel called the Wisconsin incident “unacceptable behavior” and the Big Ten suspended Howard for the final five games of the 2021-22 regular season and fined him $40,000. In a statement released by the university after his suspension was announced, Howard apologized. “After taking time to reflect on all that happened, I realize how unacceptable both my actions and words were, and how they affected so many,” he said. “I am truly sorry.”

That incident came only a year after Howard was involved in a blowup with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. In the 2021 conference tournament, Turgeon stepped toward Howard, Howard stepped toward Turgeon, and both sidelines rushed in to separate the two. Howard was issued double technical fouls, ejected, and escorted off the floor, while Turgeon received a technical. According to a source involved in the matter, the official report submitted to the Big Ten office from the incident stated Howard yelled to Turgeon, “I’ll f—— kill you.” Howard was not punished following that incident.

Now the conversation is not only centered on another physical altercation, but on the culture of the program. It’s unclear how many individuals participated in last week’s external probe and what findings have been delivered to the school.

“You don’t see it, but behind closed doors, I feel like our culture is good,” said Terrance Williams II, a Michigan senior and member of Howard’s second recruiting class, after Wednesday’s season-ending loss. “I feel like Coach Howard is doing a good job, and he’s going to continue to do a good job.”

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Juwan Howard walked across the Crisler Center floor a week before Christmas, pumping a fist both in celebration, and relief. An easy win over visiting Eastern Michigan marked his first game in a full head-coaching capacity since easing back from open-heart surgery. He would say later the procedure felt like getting “hit by a Mack truck” and that he lost over 30 pounds in a recovery that required 15 days in the hospital.

Celebrating the comeback, Michigan president Santa Ono embraced Howard before leaving the floor that day. It had been, at the time, less than 24 hours since Howard was cleared of wrongdoing in the Sanderson incident.

Now, three months later, Ono, the first-year university president, is entrusting Manuel to decide if Howard will spend a sixth season in Ann Arbor. The 51-year-old has two years remaining on a contract extension paying nearly $3.4 million annually. It was signed in November 2021, when he was the reigning national coach of the year.

Manuel, in his eighth year as athletic director, and himself a constant target of fan ire, told reporters in February that he hadn’t considered the idea of a change in leadership of the men’s basketball program. Whether that’s still the case, and whether Ono supports that stance, remains to be seen.

Michigan’s decline can’t be seen as a one-off event specific to 2023-24. Last year, despite having All-American center Hunter Dickinson and Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard, the Wolverines finished the regular season 17-14 and missed the NCAA Tournament. Dickinson transferred to Kansas in the offseason, while Bufkin and Howard were both selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.

Michigan’s slide has been a gradual one; one stemming as much from damning miscalculations in roster construction as anything else. Multiple times Howard went to great efforts recruiting underclassmen transfers who couldn’t clear Michigan’s admission requirements. But a program like Michigan doesn’t find itself in its current state due to one or two reasons. It’s a culmination.

Whether Manuel and Michigan afford Howard the chance to reboot the program or not comes with a dash of historical symmetry. In 2020, many Michigan fans and leaders were adamant the football program needed to move on from Jim Harbaugh. Instead, Manuel restructured the polarizing coach’s contract and stuck with him. Three years later, the program won a national title.

Howard told reporters in Minneapolis on Wednesday night that he had yet to speak to Manuel about his status as head coach and repeated his clear desire to be the one to fix Michigan basketball next year.

The question now is whether he is going to get that chance.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Rey Del Rio, G Flume / Getty Images)

Prince William joked today that his wife Kate ‘is the arty one’, as he carried out a royal visit three days after she apologised for editing her Mother’s Day photograph.

The Prince of Wales was mocking his lack of creativity as he decorated biscuits with children in a training kitchen while opening a youth charity facility in West London.

In a comment likely to raise eyebrows amid the ongoing future at the Princess of Wales, William said: ‘My wife is the arty one. Even my children are artier than me.’

It comes as Kate was said to be distraught by criticism over the picture editing row, which has seen her criticised around the world and the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency comparing Kensington Palace to North Korea and Iran today.

William also told youngsters at the OnSide Youth Zone in Hammersmith and Fulham that his son Prince Louis ‘loves sprinkles, so I’m going to put some more on here’.

The Prince continued: ‘How’s that? Alright? It’s remotely edible. Not quite as good as yours, but it’ll do. In the couple of minutes I got to do it.’

And he played basketball and celebrated successfully shooting a hoop after four failed attempts at the site, which is called West (‘Where Everyone Sticks Together’).

William was escorted by Kevin McGrath, Deputy Lieutenant for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham who represents the monarch at official events locally.

Later, William and his estranged brother Prince Harry will both separately take part in a ceremony paying tribute to their late mother at the Diana Legacy Award.

William will attend the event at the Science Museum in London in person, where he is set to give a speech to mark the charity’s 25th anniversary and present awards.

Harry, 39, will then join a video call with the 20 winners – although it is understood that his involvement will only take place after William, 41, has left the ceremony.

Other royals on engagements today included Prince Edward and Sophie who attended the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham. 

It comes as William and Kate continue to face intense scrutiny after the Princess publicly apologised and confessed to digitally editing a family portrait taken by her husband and released by Kensington Palace to mark Mother’s Day last Sunday.

On Monday, Kate publicly took the blame for the manipulated family photograph released by Kensington Palace as she issued a personal apology for the ‘confusion’.

Kate said sorry with a statement on social media which read: ‘Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.

‘I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.’

The photograph of Kate and her children, taken by William, was the first to be issued since the princess’s abdominal surgery and was released by the Palace to mark Mother’s Day.

It was issued in part to quell conspiracy theories about Kate, who had not been seen at a royal event since Christmas Day or after her surgery.

But it was withdrawn with a ‘Kill’ notice by international picture agencies hours later, and the UK’s PA news agency on Monday, because of suspicions it had been manipulated.

The saga intensified speculation concerning Kate, her health and her whereabouts, and raised questions over whether images released by Kensington Palace could be trusted.

Royal sources said the Princess made ‘minor adjustments’ and that Kate and the William wanted to offer an informal picture of the family together for Mother’s Day.

Kate was later spotted leaving Windsor in a car with William as he was driven to the Commonwealth Day service. The princess was not attending the service, but was understood to have a private appointment.

Despite calls for the original to be published, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.

The Palace has faced growing pressure over the debacle with the controversy branded damaging to the public’s trust of the royal family .

Concerns were raised over a missing part of Princess Charlotte ‘s sleeve and the misaligned edge of her skirt, with other speculation including the positioning of Kate’s zip.

The picture was released to reassure the public amid escalating conspiracy theories online over the state of Kate’s health in recent weeks, but in an extraordinary turn of events sparked what is being dubbed ‘Kategate’ and even ‘Sleevegate’.

William and Kate have an established track record of issuing their own photographs, often taken by Kate rather than William, to mark special occasions including their children’s birthdays.

But the Princess’s confession has raised questions over whether – or to what extent – the images have been altered in the past.

Sky News said an examination of the photo’s meta data revealed it was saved in Adobe Photoshop twice on an Apple Mac on Friday and Saturday and the picture was taken on a Canon Camera.

Under the licensing agreement issued to photo agencies for use of official royal photos, Royal Households usually stipulate: ‘This image must not be digitally enhanced, cropped, manipulated or modified in any manner or form.’

Kate had surgery at the London Clinic on January 16, but details of her condition have been kept private, and she is not expected to return to official duties until after Easter .

While the fallout from the picture continued, William was back on royal duties today as he arrived in White City at 11am to visit West, the new purpose-built youth facility that will soon be available to young people in the area.

Kensington Palace said the site, which was given its name by local young people, will be staffed by youth workers who will ‘support young people from across West London to develop the skills and confidence they need to achieve their dreams’.

The West Youth Zone, which is a newly formed local independent charity, has facilities including a sports hall, fitness suite, indoor climbing wall, teaching kitchen and a performing arts studio.

There will also be a café which will serve hot meals costing no more than £1. 

It is also part of an education hub known as EdCity, which was developed by education charity Ark alongside Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

This centre will also include a new school, nursery, adult education centre and affordable housing.

West has been developed by OnSide, which the Palace described as a ‘national youth centre charity whose mission is to empower young people to lead positive, fulfilling lives by providing access to state-of-the-art spaces and exceptional, life-changing youth work in areas where they are needed the most’.

There are 14 Youth Zones in the UK OnSide network including in Bolton, Manchester, Wigan and across London – with seven more set to open over the next two years in areas such as Bristol, Grimsby, Preston and Essex.

In 2021, the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited OnSide’s Wolverhampton Youth Zone, ‘The Way’.

During today’s visit, William spent time speaking to pupils from Ark White City primary school and West’ Young People’s Development Group who were involved in shaping the design and facilities in the new centre.

He toured the Youth Zone, meeting young people using the four-court indoor sports hall before seeing a teaching kitchen.

William also celebrated the launch of the Youth Zone with a plaque unveiling it ahead of its official opening next month on April 21, when it will be available seven days a week.

Later, Harry and William will both separately take part in the Diana Legacy Award ceremony.

It comes as the royal brothers have continued to distance themselves from each other in recent months.

The pair did not meet when Harry spent time with the King at Clarence House following news of his cancer diagnosis last month.

In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Harry said ‘I love my family’ and that he was ‘grateful’ to be able to spend around 45 minutes with Charles when he flew back to the UK.

Harry published his controversial memoir Spare last year, in which he accused William of pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over Meghan Markle.

It was also claimed William teased Harry about his panic attacks.

Further tensions between the royal brothers can be traced back to the early period of Harry’s relationship with wife Meghan, when his then fiancee had a falling out with the Princess of Wales in the run-up to their wedding.

The Diana Award was set up to promote the Princess’s belief that young people have the power to change the world for the better.

Both William and Harry presented the inaugural legacy awards at St James’ Palace in 2017.

Dr Tessy Ojo, chief executive of The Diana Award, told The Times: ‘It’s a privilege to have the support of both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex – particularly as we mark our 25th anniversary year.’

A spokesman for the award also told The Telegraph that Harry will be a ‘key part’ of the celebration.

‘He is scheduled to speak with the award recipients, virtually, on the evening of the awards to celebrate their accomplishments,’ he said.

Yesterday, the King appeared full of cheer during an audience with Baroness Scotland at Buckingham Palace.

Charles, who has met the Commonwealth secretary-general on many occasions, welcomed his guest to the Private Audience Room for the in-person meeting.

The 75-year-old monarch, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, is continuing with his head of state duties including face-to-face audiences despite not carrying out official engagements in public. 

He was photographed chuckling and giving a wide smile as he shook Baroness Scotland’s hand.

The King is Head of the Commonwealth but this week missed the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, although his pre-recorded video message was played to the congregation.

Queen Camilla and William attended the service along with other royals including Princess Anne.

Also yesterday, Camilla spent a day at the races as she attended the Cheltenham Festival.

Anne was also among the royal party as were Zara and Mike Tindall, Princess Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank, and Camilla’s friend and official Queen’s Companion, Lady Sarah Keswick.

Spotted in the parade ring before the start of a race was former army officer Mark Dyer, who acted as Harry’s mentor, playing the role of a supportive big brother figure for him after the death of Diana.

 

Thirty years later, Christian Laettner isn’t sure he knew it was coming. He played in the NBA in 1994, his second season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Maybe someone had informed his agent, but he doesn’t think so.

The former Duke star remembers seeing the commercial on ESPN one day. Chris Farley, then at the height of his “Saturday Night Live” glory, wearing Laettner’s No. 32 jersey, recreated his buzzer-beating shot against Kentucky, a signature moment in NCAA Tournament history.

“All I know is that it suddenly came out and it was hilarious and amazing,” Laettner said The Athletics.

Farley did three spots that aired on ESPN, all promoting college basketball, all remembered for the physical comedy and shenanigans that made Farley so beloved and famous.

In one spot was Michigan’s Farley Rumeal Robinson, who stood on the foul line and had to sink two free throws to win the 1989 national championship. “And he makes it look…” Farley says, before he shoots and misses, not once, not twice, but six times, and screams in famous Farley frustration (“GO IN!”) after each stone.

In another, he’s North Carolina’s Michael Jordan in the 1982 title game, but instead of sinking the winning jumper from the wing, Farley decides to take a step back (he was ahead of his time in this), rightly noting in the It came to an end that college basketball at the time did not have a three-point line.

But it’s the Laettner ad that is so fantastic, so funny, so Farley.

“Okay, I’m Christian Laettner,” the comedian begins, dressed in a sharp Duke uniform. “1992. Duke Kentucky. Kentucky is up by one, Christian has the ball. Two more seconds.”

Farley turns and faces five Kentucky defenders, life-size cutouts made of plywood. He dribbles and shoots a turnaround jumper, just like Laettner did that memorable afternoon in Philadelphia in the East Regional final.

No.

“From the glass!”

“Gets its own rebound!”

To miss.

“Loose ball!”

Farley ducks and knocks over a Kentucky cutaway. Finally, he makes a layup and raises his arms in celebration.

“The Duke wins! Game of the century,” Farley shouts. “And that is the way it happened! … Well almost.”

Actually, this is how it happened.

---

In 1993, Glenn Cole worked at Wieden+Kennedy, an ambitious advertising agency based in Portland, Oregon. Although today a global agency, Wieden+Kennedy at the time devoted much of its resources to one client, Nike. It was known from ‘Bo Knows’ and from Mars Blackmon who told Jordan: ‘Money, it has to be the shoes.’

A copywriter, Cole, 24, was the youngest at the company. A former sprinter at the University of Oregon, he loved the creativity and storytelling advertising offered, especially at Wieden+Kennedy. He described himself in that environment as an “idiot who was an intern half a minute ago.” But his superiors had enough of him to assign him an ESPN campaign that entailed a simple task.

Promote college basketball.

“I have the keys to this kind of cool car. No one is looking at it,” Cole said, referring to all the attention the company paid to Nike. “I have an ESPN basketball campaign. I watch ‘Saturday Night Live’ a lot. And I was obsessed with Chris Farley.

Cole had an idea. A common basketball moment: playing solo on a playground. Draw. Clock is running out. 3…2…1.

Yet the shot rarely falls. The countdown is reset. No game-winning heroics, just a tarmac victory.

“And so I thought it would be funny to mess with that trope,” Cole said. “And then I thought, ‘Oh my God, Chris would be the perfect person to do that.’”

Farley was approaching thirty and was a rising star. The New York Daily News had called him the breakout performer of SNL’s final season, someone who had brought the same kind of “volcanic, magnetic energy” as Eddie Murphy and John Belushi before him. His talent and comedy began to transfer to the big screen. “Tommy Boy,” starring Farley and David Spade, was set to premiere in 1995.

Even better in this case: Farley was a sports fanatic. He grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and played hockey and football. He had played club rugby at Marquette. On SNL, he played pickup hoops with castmates on 76th Street Basketball Court in Riverside Park.

“Chris was a gifted physical comedian,” said Doug Robinson, Farley’s agent. “And a lot of people don’t know that Chris was a really great athlete. He moved very well. He loved sports. So if Chris was going to do physical comedy, he would be committed to whatever he did.

Cole flew to Los Angeles to pitch the concept to Farley. ESPN asked if he had a backup plan in case Farley declined. “Of course,” Cole said.

Actually, he didn’t.

“I remember thinking, ‘This is a gamble,’” says Beth Barrett, producer of the campaign. “It was a time when it wasn’t as common as it is today for celebrities, famous athletes, comedians and musicians to sell out in commercials. It was almost a bad thing to be in a commercial.”

Cole met Farley in Farley’s hotel suite. Farley wore a tweed suit that was shoddy in design. Cole presented his vision and Farley understood immediately. The comedian got off the couch and started reenacting the Laettner spot. He knocked over a vase, which immediately made Cole realize, “Oh, I need to get something for you to knock over.”

“Yeah, this sounds like a lot of fun,” Cole remembers Farley saying. “Let’s do it.”

The spots were recorded days later in a Los Angeles studio. Nowadays, a celebrity would probably show up with some sort of entourage. But Larry Frey, the campaign’s creative director, recalls at the time that Farley’s manager arrived early and Farley later quit on his own. Spade came over around lunchtime.

“He literally looked like a 10-year-old kid, and they just called recess,” Frey said. “Full of energy. Like,”Hey guys! I’m probably going to screw it up today.‘Super self-mockery. Super excited. And just get started with it.”

They shot the spots in Michigan and North Carolina first, mainly because Cole knew what Farley had planned for Laettner and didn’t want to risk his star getting hurt.

(In addition to the ads, Farley also shot a series of promos that never aired. In the film below, Farley holds two stuffed animals and pantomimes a conversation about an upcoming rivalry game. Of course, the mascots soon attack each other, and then Farley, and the promo ends with a signature Farley outburst.)

For the Laettner spot, Cole gave simple instructions.

“Look, I’m going to put you on the three-point line,” he remembered telling Farley. “We’re going to start this piece the way everyone remembers it in our collective memory. And then look, man, try to make the shot, but if you don’t, just hurry up and try to finish the play and surprise me.

Farley, released.

Farley at his best.

He charged through cutouts of former Kentucky standouts Deron Feldhaus, John Pelphrey and Travis Ford, knocking them to the ground.

“A whirlwind,” Barrett said.

Good ideas don’t always translate. Cole knew immediately that this was the case.

“With each one of them, right after the first shot of each spot (all three), I was like, ‘Ah, f…, this is going to be incredible,’” he said.

---

In “The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts,” authors describe Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby this period as the highlight of Farley’s life.

The comedian struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, but after visiting rehab in Alabama he tried to stay clean. Farley was confident and confident, the authors wrote, but it was ultimately a losing battle. In 1997, Farley died of an overdose at the age of 33.

When Cole and Barrett look back on that day in Los Angeles, the experience is as striking as the final product. Farley had performed on camera as usual. (After each take, he asked, “Was that funny?”) But he was also personable and engaging for the eight hours he was there.

“We would hang out in the green room between setups and he would ask questions and be interested in other people,” Barrett said. “And just being a bit of a dork. It was just one of those experiences that were quite rare in advertising, where you really got to know someone at the end of the day. It was pretty amazing.”

Farley and Cole had worked so well together, bantering back and forth and exchanging ideas, that Farley had asked him if he would be interested in writing for him at SNL. Cole panicked and thought, ‘What if I can’t put out great stuff every week?” It was an incredible offer, but Cole loved what he did. He refused.

“As far as I can remember, that was my third advertising project, but it was the first where I felt like I was working with someone to make something better than I or he could make on their own,” says Cole, who is now co- founder and chairman at 72andSunny, a global advertising agency.

A year or two after the commercials aired, Laettner was walking on a plane, about to board a plane. He doesn’t remember which airport or where he was going, but as soon as he boarded he saw a familiar face sitting in first class. It was Farley.

Like most celebrities, Farley looked down and tried not to be noticed, but he made eye contact with Laettner. Farley stood up and the basketball star and comedian hugged and laughed.

“Great commercial,” Laettner told him.

(Top illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / The Athletics; photos and videos courtesy of Glenn Cole)

By Monique Friedlander for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 6:44 PM EST, March 9, 2024 | Updated: 6:45 PM EST, March 9, 2024