The Indiana Pacers’ G League affiliate squad, the Indiana Mad Ants (formerly the Fort Wayne Mad Ants), are off to a 1-1 start on their young 2024-25 regular season.

The club’s opening night roster included two Indiana legends, in two-time Big Ten All-Defensive Team Purdue guard Dakota Mathias and ex-Warsaw High School and Indiana Wesleyan combo guard Kyle Mangas.

But the biggest name, by far, suiting up for the Mad Ants is Jahlil Okafor.

Following a title-winning, one-and-done 2014-15 NCAA season with the Duke Blue Devils, the 6-foot-11 center was selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, still in the midst of their “process” teardown era, as navigated by beloved former general manager Sam Hinkie. In Philadelphia’s draft history, Okafor was the lottery selection in between 2014 draftee Joel Embiid, the eventual 2023 league MVP, and 2016 draftee Ben Simmons, who blossomed into a three-time All-Star before he became a semi-tantalizing, often-hurt expiring contract.

Okafor never reached the heights of either of those comrades, although on paper he had the pedigree to potentially get there. The cousin of former 10-year NBA vet Emeka Okafor (who himself was the No. 2 pick in the 2004 NBA Draft), the younger Okafor was seen as a top prospect coming out of Mike Krzyzewski’s system. It never quite worked out, as his offensive game was stuck in the 2000s — full of back-to-basket moves but missing longer jumpers.

He never developed a reliable 3-point shot, but wasn’t the kind of rim-protecting big man who instilled fear in the hearts of opposing players. Essentially, he was in no man’s land, and some early meniscus trouble also hampered his development.

After an infamous departure from Philadelphia in 2017, Okafor played for the Brooklyn Nets, New Orleans Pelicans, and Detroit Pistons. He hasn’t suited up in an NBA game since 2021, but has played for the CBA’s Zhejiang Lions, the Mexico City Capitanes of the G League, Spanish club Casademont Zaragova, and Puerto Rican squad Capitanes de Arecibo.

Now, Okafor is making the most of his opportunity with the Mad Ants. In two contests with the Mad Ants, the 28-year-old is averaging 14.5 points on .684/.500/1.000 shooting splits (that 3-point rate is arriving on a fairly low 1.0 attempts and seems a bit fluky), 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.5 steals a night.

Okafor’s performance against the Cleveland Charge, NBAGL affiliate of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was especially appetizing.

In that 122-114 Mad Ants win, Okafor scored 21 points on 10-of-16 field goal shooting (63 percent) and pulled down nine rebounds.

Mad Ants sixth man De’Vion Harmon led the club with 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the floor (1-of-4 from the 3-point line) and an immaculate 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line. All five starters (including Okafor) scored in double digits.

Combo forward Cameron McGriff was the team’s third 20-plus point scorer, with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor (4-of-8 from long range), along with nine rebounds and two assists.

More Pacers: Indiana Stars Rave About Bennedict Mathurin After Young Star Posts Ridiculous Stat Line

DELPHI, Ind. — A former drugstore worker in the small Indiana community of Delphi was found guilty of murder on Monday in the killings of two teenage girls who vanished during an afternoon hike.

Jurors convicted Richard Allen of two counts of murder and two additional counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the 2017 killings of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14.

Allen wasn’t arrested for five more years, while the case drew outsized attention from true-crime enthusiasts. His trial followed repeated delays, a leak of evidence, the withdrawal of Allen’s public defenders and their reinstatement by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Reporters inside the courtroom said Allen, 52, showed no reaction as the verdict was delivered, but he looked back at his family at one point. Allen is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 20. He could face up to 130 years in prison.

Outside the courthouse, people on the sidewalk began to cheer as word of the verdict spread.

Indiana State Police spokesman Capt. Ron Galaviz told The Associated Press that the judge’s gag order remains in place and he believes it will until Allen is sentenced. Allen’s lawyers left the courthouse Monday without making statements.

A special judge oversaw the case — Superior Court Judge Fran Gull who along with the jurors, came from northeastern Indiana’s Allen County. The seven women and five men were sequestered throughout the trial, which began Oct. 18 in the Carroll County seat of Delphi, the girls’ hometown of about 3,000 residents in northwest Indiana where Allen also lived and worked.

Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland noted in his closing argument that Allen had repeatedly confessed to the killings — in person, on the phone and in writing. In one of the recordings he replayed for the jury, Allen could be heard telling his wife, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

McLeland also said Allen is the man seen following the teens in a grainy cell phone video recorded by one of the girls as they crossed an abandoned railroad trestle called the Monon High Bridge.

“Richard Allen is Bridge Guy,” McLeland told jurors. “He kidnapped them and later murdered them.”

McLeland said it was Allen’s voice that could be heard on the video telling the teens, ” Down the hill ″ after they crossed the bridge on Feb. 13, 2017. Their bodies were found the next day, their throats cut, in a nearby wooded area.

An investigator testified that Allen told him and another officer that on the day the teens vanished, he was wearing a blue or black Carhartt jacket, jeans and a beanie — clothing similar to what the man recorded on the bridge wore.

McLeland said an unspent bullet found between the teens’ bodies “had been cycled through” Allen’s .40-caliber Sig Sauer handgun. An Indiana State Police firearms expert told the jury her analysis tied the round to Allen’s handgun.

But a firearms expert called by the defense questioned the analysis, and attorney Bradley Rozzi dismissed it as a “magic bullet,” saying investigators had made an “apples to oranges” comparison of the unspent round to one fired from Allen’s gun.

Allen was arrested in October 2022. He had become a suspect after a retired state government worker who volunteered to help police in the case found paperwork in September 2022 showing that Allen had contacted authorities two days after the girls’ bodies were found. That paperwork indicated that Allen had told an officer he had been on the hiking trail the afternoon the girls went missing, according to testimony.

Allen’s defense argued that his confessions are unreliable because he was facing a severe mental health crisis while under the pressure and stress of being locked up in isolation, watched 24 hours a day and taunted by people incarcerated with him. A psychiatrist called by the defense testified that months in solitary confinement could make a person delirious and psychotic.

But Dr. Monica Wala, Allen’s psychologist at the Westville Correctional Facility, said Allen shared details of the crime in some of the confessions, including telling her he slashed the girls’ throats and put tree branches over their bodies. She wrote in a report that Allen told her he abandoned his plans to rape the teens when a van passed nearby. A man whose driveway passes under the Monon High Bridge testified that he was driving home from work in his van around that time.

That van, McLeland told jurors in his closing, was a detail “only the killer would know.”

During cross-examination, Wala acknowledged that she had followed Allen’s case with interest during her personal time even while treating him and that she was a fan of the true-crime genre.

Rozzi said in his closing arguments that Allen is innocent. He said no witness explicitly identified Allen as the man seen on the hiking trail or the bridge the afternoon the girls went missing. And he said no fingerprint, DNA or forensic evidence links Allen to the murder scene.

“He had every chance to run, but he did not because he didn’t do it,” Rozzi told the jurors.

Allen’s lawyers had sought to argue before the trial that the girls were killed in a ritual sacrifice by members of a white nationalist group known as the Odinists who follow a pagan Norse religion, but the judge ruled against that, saying the defense “failed to produce admissible evidence” of such a connection.

The Oregon Ducks improved to 10-0 after their win over the Maryland Terrapins. How do this week’s Big Ten Power Rankings shake out?

Another week, another Oregon win. The Ducks played a pretty sloppy game vs. Maryland but in the end, it didn’t matter, and they still won by three touchdowns.

Next Game: 11/16 at Wisconsin

Ohio State easily handled a bad Purdue team at home. Nothing much to report here as Ohio State is good, Purdue is not.

Next Game: 11/16 at Northwestern

The darlings of college football held off a Michigan comeback on Saturday night in Bloomington to improve to 10-0. The dream season continues for Indiana, a school that normally shifts its attention to Hoosiers basketball at this time in the season. Also, Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti’s daughter got engaged on the field after the game. What’s not to love?

Next Game: 11/23 at Ohio State

Penn State continues to be Penn State. The Nittany Lions love to beat up on inferior teams, and they did just that against Washington. Unfortunately for Penn State, nobody will take them seriously as a true national contender until they beat a top-ten team, and they have struggled to do so under coach James Franklin.

Next Game: 11/16 at Purdue

After the top four teams, it becomes very difficult to rank the rest of the Big Ten. Illinois moves up a spot despite not playing this past weekend.

Next Game: 11/16 vs. Michigan State

Right as it looked like Minnesota was building momentum, they promptly lost to Rutgers. The Gophers had their four-game winning streak snapped by a Rutgers team on its own four-game losing streak.

Next Game: 11/23 vs. Michigan State

The Iowa Hawkeyes stay put at No. 7 after their three-point loss at UCLA. The Bruins have been playing very well as of late so Iowa does not drop too many spots.

Next Game: 11/23 at Maryland

The winners of the bye week are the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Nebraska jumped up two spots without playing a game.

Next Game: 11/16 at USC

How about the UCLA Bruins? They were left for dead after their 1-5 start but have flipped a switch and are on a three-game winning streak. Sure, there are teams with better records below them on here, but they are playing better than most of the Big Ten right now. This is the power rankings and NOT the standings.

Next Game: 11/15 vs. Washington

Another winner of the bye week is the Wisconsin Badgers. They jump back into the top ten after not doing a thing.Who else deserves to be here?

Next Game: 11/16 vs. Oregon

Dropped from Rankings: Michigan, Washington

MORE: Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert Makes NFL History Against Tennessee Titans 

MORE: AP Top 25 Poll Chaos: Oregon Ducks on Top, Georgia and Miami Drop

MORE: Oregon Ducks’ Dan Lanning Addresses Fake Punt Trickery vs. Maryland: ‘Play To Win’

MORE: Denver Broncos, Bo Nix Lose to Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes

MORE: Oregon Ducks’ Dan Lanning Addresses Jordan Burch Injury After Beating Maryland

MORE: Questionable Officiating Oregon Ducks vs. Maryland Terrapins: Unsportsmanlike Conduct

MORE: Oregon Ducks’ Dillon Gabriel’s Cool Reaction to Breaking NCAA Career Touchdown Record

MORE: Oregon Ducks’ Dan Lanning Addresses Jordan James Injury After Beating Maryland

MORE: LSU Tigers Pushing To Flip Oregon Ducks Five-Star Commit Dakorien Moore: Visit 

MORE: Oregon Ducks Recruiting: 5-Star Jared Curtis Trending Ducks Over Ohio State, Georgia?