WASHINGTON (AP) — While Duke coach Jon Scheyer focuses on another Elite Eight matchup, the rest of North Carolina's Triangle region is in a bit of chaos.
Hubert Davis was fired at North Carolina, and Will Wade left N.C. State to go back to one of his previous jobs at LSU. Scheyer said Saturday he can particularly relate to Davis' situation, given both took over at high-pressure jobs at schools they previously played for.
“I’ve got a lot of empathy for other coaches, for Hubert, not just the fact of him coaching at the school down the road, but the fact that he played there as well,” Scheyer said. “So there’s the meaning behind it. I understand that obviously well in this position myself.”
Scheyer and top-seeded Duke face UConn in Sunday's East Region final. It's his third straight appearance in the Elite Eight after an earlier exit in 2023, his first season. The Blue Devils are seeking their second straight Final Four appearance and have maintained their spot among the elite after Mike Krzyzewski's retirement.
North Carolina, meanwhile, has had its ups and downs. The Tar Heels nearly won it all in Davis' first season after replacing Roy Williams. They even ended Coach K's career by beating Duke in a clash of rivals at the 2022 Final Four. But they've only made it past the round of 64 once since then. This year, North Carolina was missing injured star Caleb Wilson and blew a big lead against VCU in a first-round loss.
“Hubert Davis is a good friend. Actually his wife Leslie — her father, who passed in the last year, was one of my teammates at West Point. I think Hubert's one of the great guys,” Krzyzewski said on ESPN's “The Pat McAfee Show.” “I think every coach in the country has sympathy for him. You lose a player the caliber of Caleb Wilson, he's a top-five pick in the NBA draft, and you don't have him the last few weeks of the season, that's a big thing.”
Scheyer was similarly magnanimous.
“Coaching is a big blessing, but it’s also what you sign up for in this business unfortunately,” he said. “So I think this thing is really delicate. I think it’s really fragile. I think this week has been an example of that.”
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North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis yells during the second half against VCU in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer motions to his team during the second half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Crowds of people protested Saturday against the war in Iran and President Donald Trump's actions, in “No Kings” rallies across the U.S. and in Europe. Minnesota took center stage, in what organizers expected to be mass demonstrations involving millions of people.
Thousands of people stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the Minnesota Capitol lawn and surrounding streets in St. Paul. Some held upside down U.S. flags, historically a sign of distress.
The event's headliner was Bruce Springsteen, who performed “ Streets of Minneapolis,” He wrote the song in response to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter to protest the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement.
Before he launched into the song, Springsteen lamented Good and Pretti’s deaths but said people's continued pushback against U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement has given the rest of the country hope.
“Your strength and your commitment told us that this was still America,” he said. “And this reactionary nightmare, and these invasions of American cities, will not stand.”
People rallied from New York City, with almost 8.5 million residents in a solidly blue state, to Driggs, a town of fewer than 2,000 people in eastern Idaho, a state Trump carried with 66% of the vote in 2024.
U.S. organizers have estimated that the first two rounds of No Kings rallies drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October. This week they told reporters they expected 9 million participants Saturday, though it was too early to tell whether those expectations were met.
Organizers said more than 3,100 events — 500 more than in October — were registered, in all 50 states.
In Topeka, Kansas, a rally outside the Statehouse had people impersonating a frog king and Trump as a baby. Wendy Wyatt drove with “Cats Against Trump” sign from Lawrence, 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the east, and planned to drive back to her hometown for a later rally there.
Wyatt said “there are so many things” about the Trump administration that upset her, but “this is very hopeful to me.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson characterized them as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.
The “only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” Jackson said in a statement.
The National Republican Congressional Committee was also sharply critical.
“These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone,” NRCC spokesperson Maureen O’Toole said.
Trump's immigration enforcement push, particularly in Minnesota, was just one item on a long list of protester grievances that also included the war in Iran and the rollback of transgender rights.
In Washington, hundreds marched past the Lincoln Memorial and into the National Mall, holding signs that read “Put down the crown, clown” and “Regime change begins at home.” Demonstrators rang bells, played drums and chanted “No kings.”
Bill Jarcho was there from Seattle, joined by six people dressed as insects wearing tactical vests that said, “LICE” — spoofing ICE, as part of what he called a “mock and awe” tour.
“What we provide is mockery to the king,” Jarcho said. “It’s about taking authoritarianism and making fun of it, which they hate.”
About 40,000 people marched in San Diego, police there said.
In New York, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said during a news conference that Trump and his supporters want people to be afraid to protest.
“They want us to be afraid that there’s nothing we can do to stop them,” she said. “But you know what? They are wrong — dead wrong.”
Organizers said two-thirds of RSVPs for the rallies came from outside of major urban centers. That included communities in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in electorally competitive suburbs in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
Organizers designated the rally there as the national flagship event.
Before Springsteen took the stage, organizers played a video in which actor Robert DeNiro said he wakes up every morning depressed because of Trump but was happier Saturday because millions of people were protesting. He also congratulated Minnesotans for running ICE out of town.
The bill also included singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of activists, labor leaders and elected officials.
Protesters held up a massive sign on the Capitol steps that read, “We had whistles, they had guns. The revolution starts in Minneapolis.”
Demonstrations were also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. In countries with constitutional monarchies, people call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.
In Rome, thousands marched with defiant chants aimed at Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative government saw its referendum for streamlining Italy's judiciary fail badly this week amid criticism that it was a threat to the courts' independence. Protesters also waved banners protesting Israeli and US attacks on Iran, calling for “A world free from wars.”
In London, people protesting the war held banners with slogans such as “Stop the far right” and “Stand up to Racism.”
And in Paris, several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, along with labor unions and human rights organizations, gathered at the Bastille.
“I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless, and feckless, endless wars,” rally organizer Ada Shen said.
Richmond reported from Madison, Wisconsin, and Hanna from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press journalists Nicholas Garriga in Paris, Mike Pesoli in Washington, Colleen Berry in Milan and Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, contributed.
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - Demonstrators rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the No Kings protest in Washington, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Demonstrators march over the Frederick Douglass Bridge during the No Kings protest in Washington, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Demonstrators march through the Country Club Plaza shopping district during a "No Kings" protest Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
People attend a "No Kings" protest Saturday, March 28, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People take part in a national anti-war demonstration organized by "No Kings Italy movement" in Rome, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People take part in a national anti-war demonstration organized by "No Kings Italy movement" in Rome, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People take part in a national anti-war demonstration organized by "No Kings Italy movement" in Rome, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A woman holding a banner reading "No Kings, No War" takes part in the "No Kings" protest in Paris, France, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty takes part in the "No Kings" protest in Paris, France, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
FILE - Protesters stand off against California National Guard soldiers at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, during a "No Kings" protest, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
FILE - A person holds a sign reading "No Kings, No Oligarchs" as veterans and their supporters demonstrate outside Union Station Nov. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Thousands of protesters fill Times Square during a "No Kings" protest in New York, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)
FILE - Dee Cahill of Margate, Fla., holds a "No Kings" sign as she participates in a pro-democracy, anti-Trump protest outside Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the "Good Trouble Lives On" national day of action, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
FILE - Demonstrators march down Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the "No Kings" protest, June 14, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
