Indiana State’s Markus Harding, a 6-foot-10 graduate student, has been a force for the men’s basketball team this season, both down low at the hoop and from outside on offense. “I’ve always wanted to be more paint dominating, grab more boards and get extra plays,” Harding said. “I felt like that’s something we needed to do.” He said the coaching staff brought that up as well noting their need to get more offensive rebounds gives them more time and chances of scoring. “I just really kind of made that a focal point,” Harding said. Harding is averaging 5.3 rebounds a game. But he’s also been focusing on getting back to his outside shooting. He has a .333 percentage from beyond the 3-point arc with nine made. He said he’s done that his whole life with shooting the ball. In total from the field, he’s shot 51.5% and averaged 9.8 points per outing. “I kind of got away from that during my college career,” Harding mentioned. “But because of the way we play here and the playstyle, I’m trying to get back to that.” He said the offense at ISU has made him play more on his toes and on his feet. “It’s kind of seeing and reading way faster, stuff like that,” Harding said. Harding said the coaching staff has told him to keep making the right reads, be more aggressive and keep having fun. ISU coach Matthew Graves said he and his staff recruited Harding to be a skilled 5 [basically a center] because they thought his passing ability would translate to their system. “Even though he didn’t make many 3s at Central Michigan, we knew he had the ability, and we just had to give him confidence to step up and be able to shoot those,” Graves said. “We want him to shoot a couple a game because if he can make two, three in a row and when we have our 5s stepping out and making 3s, that really spreads the floor.” With his ability to be a force on the glass, Graves emphasized just giving Harding confidence and consistent minutes and opportunity to perform without having to look over his shoulder. “We have a lot of belief in him as an older guy with a lot of experience, so we’re certainly really pleased with how he’s performed so far this year,” Graves said. Harding also has been effective on defense for the Sycamores as he’s swatted opposing shots four times. The Sycamores (6-4) will be back in action Wednesday as they host the Murray State Racers in Hulman Center at 7 p.m.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Jaden Green and Geoffrey Jamiel scored on long plays in the fourth quarter and unseeded Lehigh rallied to defeat No. 9 Richmond 20-16 on Saturday in a first-round game of the FCS playoffs. Lehigh advances to a second-round game at eighth-seeded Idaho on Dec. 7. The Mountain Hawks trailed 16-7 early in the fourth quarter after Richmond's Sean Clarke scored on a 7-yard pass from Camden Coleman. Green dashed 65 yards for a touchdown on the next play from scrimmage and Lehigh trailed 16-14 with 10 1/2 minutes remaining. The Mountain Hawks (9-3) forced a three-and-out, then Jamiel and Hayden Johnson connected on a 56-yard pass play for the go-ahead touchdown. The Spiders were stopped short of midfield on their final drive but nearly came up with a huge play when Lehigh's Quanye Veney muffed the punt at his own 14-yard line. Ignatious Williams recovered the loose ball for Lehigh to preserve the win. Johnson completed 14 of 18 passes for 199 yards. Jamiel caught 10 for 137 yards. Coleman was 24-of-37 passing for 199 yards. Zach Palmer-Smith had 107 yards rushing for Richmond (10-3). Richmond had 249 yards of total offense in the first half but managed only three short field goals by Sean O'Haire. The scoring drives were 76, 70 and 64 yards and Richmond controlled the ball for nearly 21 minutes in the first half. Lehigh took a 7-6 lead on Johnson's 7-yard TD pass to Logan Galletta, but the Spiders answered with O'Haire's third field goal for a 9-7 halftime lead. This is 13-time Patriot League champion Lehigh's first playoff appearance since 2017. Lehigh and Richmond will have a rematch in the 2025 season opener at Lehigh. It will be Richmond's debut as a member of the Patriot League. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
GLASGOW, Scotland -- There is a certain irony to the fact that Ange Postecoglou's return to Scotland has coincided with the most testing days of his reign as Tottenham Hotspur boss. In fairness, a match at Ibrox was never going to feel like a homecoming for a man who won five major trophies with Rangers ' archrivals Celtic before making the move to north London 18 months ago. Postecoglou still garners devotion from one half of this city; Celtic fans bought wholeheartedly into his "we never stop" mantra -- but the Rangers fans filtered through the turnstiles of their historic ground, braving the bitter cold, hoping to watch their team land a knockout blow to the 59-year-old's Spurs' tenure. Editor's Picks Why is it so difficult to renew contracts for players over 30? 16h Mark Ogden UCL talking points: Who will be eliminated - Man City or PSG? 1d ESPN How many trophies have Tottenham won? 2d ESPN But for Postecoglou's use of his substitutes' bench in the second half, the home fans would have seen their wish fulfilled as the Premier League club was bested in large parts by the third-best team in Scotland that had one eye on an Old Firm clash on Sunday in the Scottish League Cup final. Support for Postecoglou is also in short supply among Spurs' travelling fans, who offered a muted response to their team when the 1-1 draw was confirmed at full-time here. One week ago, some of them were involved in a heated exchange with the Australian coach after the defeat to Bournemouth . "As expected, they're always difficult to play against here at Ibrox, particularly on European nights," Postecoglou said at a post-match news conference. "Just the nature of the contest. The atmosphere. Not many teams come here and win. So you kind of expect it to be a tough game and we weren't anywhere near our best. That's fair to say. "But at the same time, we're in a sort of period of games where we are kind of grinding through at the moment with obviously with a fairly depleted squad and we're asking players to sort of get up week in, week out. So in the context of that, in the end, I think it was a good outcome for us." The draw leaves Spurs' hopes of finishing in the UEFA Europa League 's top eight, and thereby avoiding the playoff round, in the balance. They remain in ninth, outside of the automatic qualification spots for the Round of 16. This festive period was always going to be make or break for Postecoglou and Spurs' short-term future. They are in the middle of a crucial run of nine games in 30 days -- it's a sequence of fixtures that Postecoglou admitted in November would prove "pivotal" for his team. "At the end of that period, we could be in a decent position for a strong second half of the year, so for us, it is an important period," Postecoglou said the day before the dramatic 4-0 win over Manchester City that started the nine-game run. "You know there are no more international breaks, so the full focus is here, so you can build some momentum through that, or if things don't go well, you could get yourself into a bit of a grind. So, for us, it's going to be a really pivotal part of the season." Six games into that nine-game run, there certainly has been plenty of grind. Without Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke , who were named on the bench, Spurs carried little attacking threat in the first half. The home side were the aggressors, snapping into tackles that brought screams of support from the relentless home crowd. Nedim Bajrami came closest to opening the scoring with a fierce effort that Fraser Forster tipped over the crossbar. The best Spurs opening came from a Rodrigo Bentancur cross that whistled through a Solanke-shaped hole on the edge of the six-yard box. The second period brought Kulusevski's introduction, in place of the often-haphazard Timo Werner , whose performance Postecoglou later described as "unacceptable." Two minutes after the restart, though, Rangers took the lead after Hamza Igamane lashed in James Tavernier 's cross. Now, the Rangers fans had the moment they had been waiting for. They bounced, screamed and revelled in Postecoglou's misfortune. As soon as they had refilled their lungs, the home fans bellowed in unison: "You're getting sacked in the morning." More chances for Rangers came and went, first Václav Černý wriggled through the Spurs but couldn't get his shot away, then Mohamed Diomande 's deflected effort had Forster scrambling as the ball whistled past the post. Four minutes later, Postecoglou had made three changes; on came Lucas Bergvall , Solanke and Pape Matar Sarr for Bentancur, Brennan Johnson and Yves Bissouma . It proved the correct intervention at just the right time for Postecoglou to salvage the game, and maybe his job. Solanke and Kulusevski combined in the 75th minute to open enough space on the edge of the penalty area before the Sweden international rolled a low shot past Jack Butland . Bergvall has been criticised for the impact he has made in games since signing for Spurs in the summer, but the 18-year-old added the bite and guile the Spurs' midfield had been missing from the Bissouma-Bentancur axis. Before their late turnaround, Postecoglou's assertion that he "wins things in his second year" certainly appeared misplaced. In truth, his teams have struggled in Europe. Despite their domestic successes, his Celtic team never made it out of a UEFA Champions League or Europa League group or won a knockout-round game after dropping down into the UEFA Conference League playoffs. The maelstrom of Thursday to Sunday games is perhaps too much for Postecoglou's high-energy philosophy. No team in the Premier League has pressed so high or made more off-the-ball sprints as Spurs this season, and Postecoglou's "never stop" ethos has had unintended consequences. He was unable to call upon eight first-team players for Thursday night's game, with five of them nursing muscular issues, including first-choice defensive pair Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven . His lack of options prompted Postecoglou to name 18-year-old Archie Gray in the centre of the Spurs' defence. Like his manager, Gray also has links to Scotland -- his father, Andy, grandfather Frank (European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest and Leeds United legend) and great uncle Eddie (legendary former Leeds player and manager) all represented Scotland -- Frank and Eddie were born in Glasgow, around seven miles from Ibrox. "I thought he handled himself really well," Postecoglou said. "We're asking him to do something that as an 18-year-old in his first year at this level to play an unfamiliar position and in such big games. I think it's outstanding what he's doing. "And I thought Lucas was excellent when he came on as well. He was due to start tonight but he wasn't feeling well today. He's a bit under the weather so we had to keep him on the bench, but that's mostly positive for us. I think those two as 18-year-olds to be already contributing and experiencing these things, I think will be an enormous benefit to us." On a difficult night for the team, Spurs' two teenagers showed surprising maturity and perhaps offered a glimpse of a brighter future for this Tottenham team.
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In the increasingly competitive automotive market, automakers like General Motors Co. and Rivian Automotive have realized pairing up is not only beneficial but necessary for cost reduction and quicker technological advancement. GM has long understood the benefits of partnerships. The Detroit automaker, for example, has a longstanding partnership with Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. More recently, GM and South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. said they signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate "to reduce costs and bring a wider range of vehicles and technologies to customers faster." General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra takes some questions after a fireside chat at the Garden Theater in Detroit on Dec. 11, 2024. The companies haven't provided further information on the partnership, but experts and analysts have cheered it on as a smart move. They expect more mash-ups — if not outright industry consolidation — as automakers face rising expenses, a choppy transition to electric vehicles and competition from innovative, low-cost Chinese manufacturers. "It's something that I talked about for many years about the need to partner up," said Martin French, partner and managing director at Berylls by AlixPartners, a global consulting firm. "If you look at the challenges that this industry is faced with and what are the key attributes for what will make you a winning OEM, it's going to be cost efficiency and time to market. And the most effective way of doing that is through partnerships." Last week, Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan Motor Corp. announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world’s third-largest automaker. "This is a smart deal as the writing was on the wall for Nissan," said Dan Ives, a senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, in a note to The Detroit News. "They had to do a deal in a consolidating EV landscape." Hyundai and GM have been mum on specific details of their alignment while they work to finalize it. Still, the companies have said that they would explore the co-development of internal combustion engines and "clean-energy" vehicles and research combining sourcing for battery raw materials and steel. Barra “GM and Hyundai have complementary strengths and talented teams," GM CEO Mary Barra said at the time of the MOU announcement in September. "Our goal is to unlock the scale and creativity of both companies to deliver even more competitive vehicles to customers faster and more efficiently.” GM had been talking to Hyundai for "a while," Barra told reporters during a fireside chat with the Automotive Press Association earlier this month. "There was a period where a lot of OEMs, everyone was talking to everyone, but we continued to have conversations. "We're very aligned at the top. We have the most senior people in each company having the conversations and setting the tone for the team. We're very pleased that we signed the MOU. There's quite a bit of work going on what will become definitive agreements, but I don't want to get ahead of those announcements." Waatti The Hyundai/GM lineup "could bring outsized synergies for both companies while remaining competitors at the core level," said Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis at market research firm AutoPacific Inc. "Partnerships accelerate technological development by pooling resources to tackle the capital-intensive nature of the advanced tech R&D the industry is embracing." On GM's third-quarter earnings call in October, Barra emphasized the importance of partnerships. "One of the things people say about the auto industry is we ... all do a lot of different things and don't always leverage where we can partner with other OEMs or with other companies," she said. "And so we're really looking to leverage that, especially across the business, as we've mentioned with the MOU that we have with Hyundai, the continuing work that we do with Honda.” GM and Honda partner on the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology and collaborated on the development of Honda's Prologue and Acura ZDX electric vehicles. The companies were also planning to jointly develop a line of affordable EVs together but nixed those plans in 2023. Ford Motor Co. in 2021 also axed its plans to develop an EV with startup Rivian Automotive Inc., which makes all of its electric pickup trucks, SUVs and commercial delivery vans in Normal. Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume and Rivian CEO and founder R.J. Scaringe pose together in a photo distributed in June 2024 alongside their announcement of joint venture plans. The company last month entered a $5.8 billion joint-venture deal with Volkswagen AG. In a news release, the German automaker said the partnership would "create cutting-edge software and electronics architectures and scale the electric vehicle platforms and architectures." Said Waatti: "Partnerships must remain flexible with room for reassessment and revision. It’s often better to adjust or kill a joint venture than to continue going down the wrong road, even if the investment is already massive." A line of unsold 2024 R1S electric utility vehicles sits at a Rivian service center Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in east Denver. At GM's October Investor Day event, Barra mentioned GM was having "ongoing discussions" with "potential partners" for its Cruise LLC autonomous vehicle unit. Two months later, GM said it would stop funding Cruise's robotaxi program after $10 billion in investment since 2017. GM, the majority owner of Cruise, is planning to combine the Cruise and GM technical teams into one to continue to work on AV tech. The automaker's focus will now be on its Super Cruise advanced driver assistance system with the goal of developing fully autonomous personal vehicles. "GM pulling the plug on the Cruise partnership to stop the bleeding and realign capital is the latest example of this challenging dynamic, particularly considering the potential revenue upside — still many billions of dollars and years down the road," Waatti said. Cruise AV, General Motor's autonomous electric Bolt EV, is displayed in Detroit on Jan. 16, 2019. Cruise's restructuring followed months of efforts by GM to restart the operation after a pedestrian accident in October 2023 with a Cruise self-driving vehicle halted operations. GM had restarted testing in several cities, and in August, Cruise and Uber Technologies LLC announced a multiyear deal for customers to book autonomous Cruise robotaxis through the Uber platform starting in 2025. It's unclear where the Cruise and Uber partnership stands after GM's move to defund the robotaxi program. Uber did not respond to a request for comment and a Cruise spokesperson deferred to GM. GM spokesperson Jim Cain said: "We've proposed a restructuring, and a lot of these potential opportunities depend on how that gets resolved." The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.Trump aims to appoint son-in-law’s father as US ambassador to France
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