SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — There's a familiarity among the four teams playing in Sacramento Regional 2 as UCLA and Minnesota are Big Ten opponents while LSU and Duke faced off in December in the ACC-SEC Challenge.
“It’s an interesting thing. You’ve got a couple matchups that way," UCLA coach Cori Close of the March Madness rematches. “But I think if you’re really good at scouting, which I’m very thankful that I have a staff that is, I think we’re doing a deep dive and trying to leave no stone unturned.”
UCLA beat Minnesota by 18 points in the first meeting back on Jan. 14. LSU topped Duke by 16 a month earlier. All four teams have developed since those matchups from earlier in the season.
“We’re both a lot different than we were the first time, and that’s normal," Duke coach Kara Lawson said. “I mean, we’re coming off a similar situation where we played Baylor in the second round and we played them the first game of the season, and then we’re playing them again in the tournament. ... They’re one of the top teams in the country. Have some of the top players in the country. It’s a challenge to play against them.”
Duke won 23 of its 25 games after that loss to LSU, which had the Blue Devils 3-6 on the season. LSU has been nearly unstoppable on offense, scoring more than 100 points in an NCAA-record 16 games this season.
“They are better today then they were in that game,' LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. ”We looked at (the film) and looked at things they did well and things we did well and what we didn’t do well. ... They are so much better today then they were then. I think we are too."
While the other three teams all reached the Sweet 16 the past few seasons, getting this far is new for Minnesota, which last reached the regional semifinals in 2005. The Gophers credit a run to the WBIT championship last year as helping prepare them for this year.
“I think it just gives you more experience in a tournament-type atmosphere, kind of having that win-or-go home feel. And I think that was a big step for us,” said Gophers player Grace Grocholski. “Obviously our goal was to make it to March Madness last year. We didn’t reach that. So we went into the WBIT saying we’re here, we’re going to win this thing. So it was a great way to just learn how it feels like to be in the tournament.”
Minnesota coach Dawn Plitzuweit will have her eyes on the Division II Final Four Thursday night as her daughter Lexi plays for Grand Valley State, which is facing University of Alabama Huntsville.
Coach Plitzuweit had her first head coaching job at Grand Valley State from 2002-07. She was pregnant with Lexi in her first year at the school.
“Eighteen years later she decided to go back to Grand Valley and play for a dear friend in Mike Williams, who was just named national coach of the year,” Plitzuweit said.
Plitzuweit said she went to Pittsburgh the other day to see her daughter then came back to Minnesota for practice and then came to Sacramento.
“I’ll have a chance to watch her today so I packed my Grand Valley clothes to sit in my room by myself and not be around anyone else and be a mom and watch the game," Plitzuweit said. "I’m really excited about that.”
Kara Lawson has fond memories of her time in Sacramento while playing for the Monarchs, who drafted her with the fifth pick in 2003. She helped the franchise win a championship two years later.
“Spent many years here playing and winning a championship here,” Lawson said. “A chance to see a lot of old friends and visit with them. It’s a special city. One of the great basketball towns we have in the country. How much they love the game. ... I think the banner is here in the arena bowl.”
She might have played her whole career in the California city had the team not folded after the 2009 season.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
UCLA head coach Cori Close speaks with members of the media following an NCAA college basketball game against Rutgers, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee is holding a rare public hearing Thursday into alleged ethics violations committed by Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, pushing into the open a yearslong investigation into how she funded her political rise.
The third-term congresswoman is facing numerous ethics charges, including failing to follow campaign finance laws, commingling campaign, personal and business funds and using her position to benefit allies. She is also facing federal charges for allegedly stealing $5 million in COVID-19 disaster relief funds.
Over two years of work, committee investigators say they found “substantial evidence” that Cherfilus-McCormick committed the deeds alleged in the federal indictment. She denies any wrongdoing.
The hearing could carry significant political repercussions because some Republican lawmakers are threatening a vote to expel Cherfilus-McCormick from the House. Both parties are vying for the ethical high ground before the November elections.
Cherfilus-McCormick, who represents a heavily Democratic district in southeastern Florida, has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and last year called it “an unjust, baseless, sham indictment.” She argued to have the committee postpone its hearing until after the conclusion of the criminal trial or to hold the proceedings in private, but the subcommittee examining the allegations unanimously denied those requests.
The committee's work rarely take place in the open. It has been more than 15 years since a sitting member of the House faced a public hearing, dating to the 2010 ethics trial of Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., on charges related to his personal finances. The panel also held a hearing for allegations against Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., that year, but found insufficient evidence to prove the allegations.
Thursday's hearing will give House investigators an opportunity to lay out their findings and make a motion for the panel of lawmakers to adopt their conclusion that Cherfilus-McCormick committed numerous ethics violations. The full committee could then later recommend a punishment.
Cherfilus-McCormick's lawyer, William R. Barzee, is appealing for the subcommittee to reconsider the earlier decision to go ahead with the public hearing. Barzee told the committee that if she wants to preserve her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the upcoming federal trial, “she must remain silent before the committee.”
He argued to the panel on Thursday that the House hearing could influence potential jurors in the criminal trial and that the concurrent proceedings have prevented her from cooperating with the ethics committee's investigation.
“She is not guilty of these allegations. She is absolutely innocent,” Barzee said, adding, “But she is in between a rock and a hard place right now.”
After meeting for roughly an hour in private, the panel denied Cherfilus-McCormick’s request to postpone the proceedings.
Committee investigators have laid out their findings in a 242-page report that concludes Cherfilus-McCormick committed 27 counts of ethics violations.
The report alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick first won a special election in 2022 with a campaign that presented itself as self-financed. But in reality, the campaign was substantially funded through a $5 million overpayment for COVID-19 vaccination services that her family's company had received from the federal government, according to investigators.
They also found evidence that the congresswoman then funded her reelection campaign largely through outside groups run by her friends and family, including a company that was mostly funded by the Haitian government.
The investigation alleges that she continued to commit ethics violations in office, including using her position to benefit allies with special favors during the appropriations process and disregarding restrictions on volunteer work by her senior campaign adviser.
House ethics officials said the committee, which has been considering the matter since 2023, met a dozen times as part of the investigation, reviewed more than 33,000 documents and issued dozens of subpoenas.
In February, the Florida Democrat pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen federal counts, including theft of government funds, making and receiving straw donor contributions and money laundering, as well as conspiracy charges associated with each of those counts.
Prosecutors accuse her of conspiring to steal $5 million in federal disaster funds mistakenly overpaid to the health care company owned by her family through a federally funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract. Within two months of receiving the money, prosecutors allege, more than $100,000 had been spent to buy the congresswoman a 3-carat yellow diamond ring. Her brother, former chief of staff and accountant were also charged in the alleged scheme.
She has said she had no plans to resign. But Cherfilus-McCormick has stepped down from her position as ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, in keeping with House Democratic Caucus rules that require indicted members to relinquish committee leadership positions.
Republicans are moving to do just that, although it would require a significant number of Democrats to join them. It takes a two-thirds vote to expel a member from the House.
Democratic leaders have so far declined to condemn Cherfilus-McCormick. California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the third-ranked Democrat in House leadership, said this week that he would not “prejudge” the allegations against her.
“Let’s see what happens in the Ethics Committee,” he said at a news conference Tuesday.
The last member of Congress to be expelled was Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., in 2023. Santos had not yet been convicted of federal charges, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., voted against it at the time, expressing concern about setting a precedent of expelling members based on untried allegations.
Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C., and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
FILE - Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., listens during a rally on Jan. 28, 2026, in support of the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants before it expires in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
