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Lefty Driesell, coach who put Maryland on college basketball's map, dies at 92

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Lefty Driesell, coach who put Maryland on college basketball's map, dies at 92

Davidson head coach Lefty Driesell drops to a knee in front of his bench as he watches North Carolina win an NCAA Eastern Regional basketball tournament at College Park, Md., on March 15, 1969. Driesell, the coach whose folksy drawl belied a fiery on-court demeanor that put Maryland on the college basketball map, died Saturday.

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Davidson head coach Lefty Driesell drops to a knee in front of his bench as he watches North Carolina win an NCAA Eastern Regional basketball tournament at College Park, Md., on March 15, 1969. Driesell, the coach whose folksy drawl belied a fiery on-court demeanor that put Maryland on the college basketball map, died Saturday.

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Lefty Driesell, the Hall of Fame coach whose folksy drawl belied a fiery on-court demeanor that put Maryland on the college basketball map and enabled him to rebuild several struggling programs, died Saturday. He was 92.

Driesell died at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, his family said.

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Maryland planned to honor Driesell with a moment of silence before its game against No. 14 Illinois later Saturday. The university said the team would wear throwback uniforms from the 1970s previously worn on Jan. 21, when the Terrapins honored Driesell with an “Ode to Lefty.”

Driesell finished with 786 victories over parts of five decades and was the first coach to win more than 100 games at four NCAA Division I schools. He started at Davidson in 1960 before bringing Maryland into national prominence from 1969-86, a stay that ended with the cocaine-induced death of All-American Len Bias.

Driesell then won five regular-season conference titles over nine seasons at James Madison and finished with a successful run at Georgia State from 1997 to 2003.

“His contributions to the game go way beyond wins and losses, and he won a lot,” former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after Driesell finally made the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. “It’s an honor he’s deserved for a long time.”

Driesell launched the college basketball tradition known as Midnight Madness on Oct. 15, 1971. At three minutes after midnight on the first day of practice as sanctioned by the NCAA, Driesell had his players take a mandatory mile run on the track inside the Maryland football stadium.

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The lighting was provided by the headlights of a few cars parked at one end of the stadium. The motivation came from Driesell’s prodding and the estimated 800 students who gathered to watch the unpublicized event.

“I’ve done a lot of crazy things to get attention, but that wasn’t one of them,” Driesell said years later. “I was just trying to get an early jump on practice. I had no idea what it was going to lead to.”

Driesell also helped knock down racial barriers in the college game. He made George Raveling the first Black coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference by hiring him as an assistant in 1969. Driesell’s effort to recruit Charlie Scott to play at Davidson helped make the future NBA star become the first African American scholarship athlete to attend North Carolina.

Scott initially committed to Davidson before choosing UNC but acknowledged that Driesell paved the way.

“I think if there had never been a Lefty Driesell, there would never have been a Charlie Scott attending North Carolina,” said Scott, who joined the Hall of Fame in 2018 with Driesell. “My commitment to go to Davidson really opened up all the other schools in the recruiting process.”

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Race played no factor in Driesell’s effort to recruit the best players.

“He did so many great things in marketing the game and opened up so many doors for many African Americans players and coaches like myself,” said Len Elmore, who played for Driesell at Maryland from 1971-74. “Lefty was a trailblazer and an innovator.”

Walking onto the court at Maryland to the tune of “Hail to the Chief,” Driesell would thrust both arms in the air — two fingers extended on each hand with the V for victory sign — amid a standing ovation. On the sideline, he would often stomp his foot to show his displeasure with a call, and if things got really intense he would peel off his sports jacket, toss it to the floor and trample it.

Yet, Driesell rarely raised his voice off the court and had a knack for charming the parents of potential recruits with an assuring, homespun style that smacked of his Southern roots.

“He had a big personality, was an excellent recruiter and he helped put Maryland basketball on the map,” said Brad Davis, a guard at Maryland from 1974-77 before heading to the NBA.

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Driesell was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, but his entry into the Naismith shrine proved more elusive. He was a finalist four times before receiving the necessary 75% vote three months after his 86th birthday. The long snub, many speculated, came because Driesell was forced to resign at Maryland in 1986 after Bias overdosed on cocaine in a campus dorm after being drafted by the Boston Celtics.

Maryland had to pay Driesell for the rest of his 10-year contract because it could find no wrongdoing on his part. But his departure meant Driesell never got to fulfill the declaration he made upon taking over in College Park — he would make Maryland the “UCLA of the East.”

Under Driesell, the Terrapins didn’t enjoy the success John Wooden had at UCLA. Maryland failed to reach the Final Four during his 17-year stay, but the Terps won or shared five ACC regular-season titles and captured the league tournament in 1984 — on Driesell’s fifth trip to the final.

Looking back on his “UCLA of the East” boast, Driesell quipped: “I was kind of drunk or something when I said it. But we were pretty good and we wound up pretty good. We had a lot of great players.”

Before Driesell arrived at Maryland, the team was an ACC doormat and had trouble drawing fans to old Cole Field House. After going 13-13 in Driesell’s first season, the Terps announced their resurgence on Jan. 9, 1971, with a 31-30 overtime upset of No. 2 South Carolina at home. There was no shot clock then, so Driesell ordered his players to slow the game to a crawl against a team that had defeated Maryland 96-70 just three weeks earlier.

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One of Driesell’s best teams never made it to the postseason. In the 1974 ACC championship game, the fourth-ranked Terrapins lost in overtime to No. 1 North Carolina State 103-100 during a time when only the conference champion advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

A week later, a Maryland team featuring future NBA starters Tom McMillen, John Lucas and Elmore turned down a bid to the NIT, which it had won two years earlier. N.C. State went on to win the 1974 NCAA title, ending UCLA’s seven-year streak as national champions.

“Lefty’s team that year,” Krzyzewski said, “was probably as good as 20 national champions.”

Born on Christmas Day in 1931, Charles Grice Driesell grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. He was a star basketball player for Granby High in Norfolk before attending Duke.

After working at the Ford Motor Co., Driesell took a job as a junior varsity football and basketball coach at Granby in 1954 after convincing his wife, Joyce, that he could withstand the pay cut by also selling encyclopedias. He eventually was promoted to head coach of the varsity team before moving to Newport News High, where he won 57 straight games.

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In 1960, he took a job at Davidson, which was coming off an 11th consecutive losing season. He went 9-14 in his debut, one of only two times over an entire season in which he would finish with a losing record as a college coach.

Driesell won three Southern Conference tournaments and five regular-season championships at Davidson over nine years and went 176-65 before being hired at Maryland. He won 348 games with the Terrapins, a long-lasting school record that was finally broken in 2006 by Gary Williams.

Williams won the NCAA title in 2002. When he got home, a note from Driesell was waiting for him. It read: “Gary, YOU have made Maryland the UCLA of the East. Congratulations.”

After leaving Maryland, Driesell was hired in 1988 by James Madison, a small Virginia school that finished 10-18 in 1987. He went 16-14 in his first year, 20-11 in his second season and led the Dukes to four straight NIT appearances before going to the NCAA Tournament in 1994.

Driesell compiled a 159-111 record at James Madison and enjoyed continued success at Georgia State. The Panthers were 29-5 in 2000-01 and upset Wisconsin in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Two years later, he retired in the early stages of his 41st season with a career record of 786-394. At the time, he ranked fourth in NCAA Division I wins, behind only Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Bob Knight.

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Finally, at age 71, the man affectionately known by many as the Ol’ Left-hander had enough.

“I’m just tired and I’ve got this bad cold and I’m just going to retire,” Driesell said. “I’m looking forward to not having a job. I can get up when I want to and do what I want to.”

Driesell is survived by four children. While at Duke, Driesell eloped with Joyce and got married in December 1952. She died in 2021.

The couple’s only son, Chuck, played for the Terrapins under his father from 1981-85 and became an assistant to his father at James Madison. He was hired as the coach at The Citadel in 2010 and was fired after five losing seasons.

While helping his father at James Madison, Chuck Driesell learned the rigors of coaching.

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“Dad gave me a lot of responsibility, and we worked hard,” he said. “As a son and as a player, I’m not sure I understood how hard he worked. I figured it out pretty quickly.”

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Map: 2.3-Magnitude Earthquake Reported North of New York City

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Map: 2.3-Magnitude Earthquake Reported North of New York City

Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown.  All times on the map are Eastern. The New York Times

A minor, 2.3-magnitude earthquake struck about 12 miles north of New York City on Tuesday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 10:17 a.m. Eastern in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., data from the agency shows.

The Westchester County emergency services department said in a statement that it had not received any reports of damage.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

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Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Eastern. Shake data is as of Tuesday, March 10 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Tuesday, March 10 at 2:18 p.m. Eastern.

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Ed Martin, outspoken Justice Department lawyer, is formally accused of ethical violations | CNN Politics

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Ed Martin, outspoken Justice Department lawyer, is formally accused of ethical violations | CNN Politics

Ed Martin, an outspoken Trump administration official, is facing attorney discipline proceedings in Washington, DC, for a letter he sent to Georgetown Law about its diversity programs, the district’s professional conduct investigator announced on Tuesday.

Martin is formally accused of violating his ethical codes as an attorney for telling Georgetown Law’s dean last year that his Justice Department office wouldn’t hire students because of the school’s diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives programs, according to the filing from Hamilton Fox, the disciplinary counsel for DC who acts as a quasi-prosecutor on attorney discipline matters.

Unlike unsolicited complaints, Fox’s formal disciplinary complaint kicks off professional conduct proceedings for Martin in which he will need to respond and could be sanctioned or ultimately lose his law license.

Fox’s announcement on Tuesday marks the first major bar discipline proceeding against a high-profile administration official or attorney supporting President Donald Trump during Trump’s second term. Several Trump lawyers faced disciplinary proceedings after the efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, including Rudy Giuliani, who lost his law license.

“Acting in his official capacity and speaking on behalf of the government, he used coercion to punish or suppress a disfavored viewpoint, the teaching and promotion of ‘DEI,’” Fox wrote in the complaint. “He demanded that Georgetown Law relinquish its free speech and religious rights in order to continue to obtain a benefit, employment opportunities for its students.”

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Martin was removed from the top prosecutor job in DC after senators made clear he would not be confirmed to the role, but has remained at the Justice Department in several roles, including as pardon attorney.

“Mr. Martin knew or should have known that, as a government official, his conduct violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States,” Fox wrote.

Martin is being represented by a Justice Department attorney, a source told CNN.

A spokesperson for DOJ attacked Fox’s complaint. “The DC bar’s attempt to target and punish those serving President Trump while refusing to investigate or act against actual ethical violations that were committed by Biden and Obama administration attorneys is a clear indication of this partisan organization’s agenda,” DOJ said.

Martin had sent the letter to Georgetown Law while serving temporarily as US attorney for DC, a prominent Justice Department position, and told the school his federal prosecutors’ office wouldn’t hire Georgetown’s law school students. It came at a time when the Trump administration was beginning to crack down on universities for their DEI efforts.

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In his letter, Martin claimed a whistleblower told him that the school was teaching and promoting DEI.

Martin also violated attorney ethics rules by contacting judges of the DC court directly, Fox alleged, rather than going through official channels, once he was informed he was under investigation for his professional conduct. The DC Court of Appeals ultimately signs off on attorney discipline findings.

Early last year, Fox’s office had formally asked Martin to respond to a complaint it received by a retired judge regarding the Georgetown letter.

Martin instead wrote to the judges on the DC court complaining about Fox.

“In that letter, he stated that he would not be responding to Disciplinary Counsel’s inquiry, complained about Disciplinary Counsel’s ‘uneven behavior,’ and requested a ‘face-to-face meeting with all of you to discuss this matter and find a way forward,’” Fox wrote.

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“He copied the White House Counsel ‘for informational purposes because of the importance of getting this issue addressed,’” Fox said.

The top judge in the DC courts told Martin the court wouldn’t meet with him about the disciplinary matter and that he would need to follow procedure.

With Fox’s complaint, there will now be several steps ahead of bar discipline authorities looking at Martin’s action, and Fox didn’t specify how Martin should be reprimanded or punished if the discipline boards and the court ultimately determine he violated his ethical codes.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday morning.

In recent days, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced her office would have a more powerful role in reviewing attorney discipline complaints against Justice Department attorneys, potentially setting up an approach that could keep the department at odds with the bar on behalf of DOJ attorneys facing their own individual disciplinary proceedings.

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CNN’s Paula Reid contributed to this report.

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Europe and Asia battle for LNG as Iran war chokes supply

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Europe and Asia battle for LNG as Iran war chokes supply

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Asian and European buyers are battling to source liquefied natural gas after the war in the Middle East choked off shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, blocking a fifth of global supplies.

In an indication of the intensifying contest for LNG since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, a handful of gas carriers have abruptly changed course while sailing to Europe and swung towards Asia instead, according to ship monitoring data analysed by the FT.

Countries across Asia are highly dependent on oil and gas sent through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway where shipping has slowed to a near standstill.

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Most of the LNG produced in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates is ordinarily shipped through the strait to Asia, and Asian LNG prices surged almost immediately after war broke out, creating an incentive to divert US gas to the region.

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Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are among the countries that need to source LNG to make up for supplies they will not receive from the Gulf, said Massimo Di Odoardo, head of gas and LNG analysis at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Taiwan relied on Qatar for more than 30 per cent of its gas consumption in 2025, according to Citigroup, while for South Korea and Japan the figures were 15 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Asia typically uses more gas than Europe in the hotter summer months because of more air-conditioning use, creating urgency for Asian utilities to secure cargoes.

The vast majority of LNG is sold under long-term contracts rather than on the spot market, but some buyers are able to change the final destination of their purchases and some sellers are willing to break contracts if prices rise high enough.

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By Thursday, surging European gas prices and rocketing shipping rates had swung the balance back against diversion of US LNG to Asia, according to data company Spark Commodities.

The decision on where to send gas carriers can depend on the relative levels of the European gas price, Asia’s JKM benchmark for LNG and shipping rates.

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For European buyers, the battle with Asia for LNG supplies is eerily familiar to the situation four years ago after Russia slashed pipeline natural gas flows to the continent following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Competition for spare cargoes then pushed prices to record levels.

On Monday, European gas prices reached as high as €69.50 per megawatt hour, more than double their level before the Iran conflict began. Even so, prices are still far from the €342 per megawatt hour reached in 2022.

JKM gas prices also more than doubled since the start of the war to $24.80 per 1mn British thermal units by Monday, equivalent to €73.10/MWh.

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European buyers have learnt from their experience in 2022. “Europe has more weapons at its disposal in this extreme price scenario to try and fight,” said Alex Kerr, a partner at law firm Baker Botts.

Buyers had started putting clauses in contracts to say that suppliers would face much higher penalties if they diverted cargoes for commercial gain, Kerr said.

There is also much more LNG on the market now that is not committed to set destinations, largely because of new projects starting in the US.

While producers such as Qatar impose strict rules on where its LNG can be sent, almost all US exports are allowed to sail wherever buyers want. Several analysts said there had also been an increase in the willingness of some producers to break contracts for financial advantage.

This makes diversions more likely, while the reluctance of some European buyers to sign long-term supply contracts before the outbreak of war this month could prove costly.

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Expectations of a global supply glut convinced some European buyers that it would be cheaper to wait until later in the year to sign supply deals.

Wood Mackenzie’s Di Odoardo said the buyers had also held off on LNG purchases because new EU legislation on methane emissions made it unclear whether they could incur penalties in the future.

The risk of prices rising as Europe and Asia fight for available cargoes is increasing every day the Strait of Hormuz stays almost closed.

Gas is more difficult to store and to carry in tankers than oil, making its markets more vulnerable to shortages and price shocks.

“The longer the Strait remains shut, the greater the risk that the shipping disruption turns into a genuine gas shortage, as tankers cannot load and facilities have limited storage,” said consultancy Oxford Economics in a research note.

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Additional reporting by Harry Dempsey in Tokyo. Data visualisation by Jana Tauschinski

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