SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — It wound up being just a one-game absence for Sebastian Thomas due to a foot injury, and how much the University of Rhode Island needs the veteran guard was on full display Saturday evening. 

The former Bishop Hendricken standout flashed some ice cold blood in the final seconds against Temple, making the two biggest plays that dropped an old Atlantic 10 rival. 

Thomas knocked down a wing 3-pointer that snapped the game’s sixth tie, then came up with a steal on the ensuing possession. The Rams avoided what would have been a painful meltdown in the second half and instead surged into league play off the back of an 85-79 victory at MassMutual Center. 

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Thomas conjured up a four-point play with 20.8 seconds left to break a 79-79 deadlock, the highlight in his second double-double of the season. He finished with 20 points and 10 assists after missing a victory over Central Connecticut State last time out. URI made relatively routine work of the Blue Devils at the Ryan Center but could have been in serious trouble against the Owls here. 

“Sebastian stepped up when it was money time,” URI coach Archie Miller said. “He delivered not only from the foul line and his last shot, but he made plays for others.” 

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Miller called a timeout with 37.6 seconds left looking to snap a string of three straight missed shots. Thomas drew two defenders off the dribble on the left side, David Green drew two more on a drive into the paint and Thomas drifted open on the wing. He fired a jumper and absorbed some contact on the wrist from Quante Berry, resulting in a four-point play that made it an 83-79 game. 

“I was confident,” Thomas said. “I feel like in those situations you just have to make the right pass. I threw it back to (Green), he drove and my guy kind of helped.” 

It was a shot reminiscent of the late dagger Thomas plunged into Providence at the Ryan Center to begin the month. The Rams held on for a 69-63 triumph over the Friars. They matched that margin against the Owls, an old league foe that had captured the last seven meetings in the series. Javonte Brown added his own double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds, helping to author the perfect lead into a New Year’s Eve trip to Duquesne. 

“We knew they were a good defensive team,” Brown said. “We also knew the advantage was me on the inside. Shoutout to my teammates for finding me.” 

Thomas sealed the victory on the defensive end. Jamal Mashburn Jr. missed a 3-pointer and Shane Dezonie gathered an offensive rebound along the right baseline. Thomas stripped Dezonie from behind and was fouled with 10.1 seconds left, setting up a pair of free throws to close it out. 

“My foot is definitely improving,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t 100% going into the game, but I think it was a mindset thing. The team needed me — the team wanted me to play.” 

The Rams (11-1) squandered a 16-point lead with 14:54 left and were in danger of absorbing a painful defeat. Jaden House answered a Mashburn drive down the lane with one of his own to make it 77-77, and URI never trailed over the final 2:59. Mashburn entered averaging 20.8 points per game but went just 5-for-20 from the field, as the Rams did just enough to limit other options and survive. 

“These guys are probably exhausted from hearing his name,” Miller said. “That’s how much the game plan really kind of stressed what he was doing.” 

The Owls (7-5) took a 36-35 edge into halftime before falling in a deep hole. URI was at its sharpest through the opening 5:34 out of the locker room, zipping out to a 56-40 cushion thanks to no turnovers and sizzling shooting. Green’s 3-pointer from the left corner capped an 8-for-9 stretch from the field. 

“We looked right,” Miller said. “Guys were really sharing it. Our defense was creating some offense for us. We capitalized.” 

The Rams followed by giving the ball away six times in less than six minutes, and Temple built its own momentum. The Owls were 12-for-18 from the field after a 1-for-6 start, and a Mashburn jumper from the right baseline gave them a 72-71 advantage with 5:36 left. Miller called a timeout prior to the ensuing possession and looked to reset. 

“You found a way to win 11 games,” Miller said. “They found a way to do it again here tonight.” 

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On X: @BillKoch25

Last month, the University of Vermont Health Network announced a slate of wide-ranging cuts to its Vermont facilities. 

Those cuts — which drew a swift and furious outcry — included closing an inpatient psychiatric unit at Central Vermont Medical Center, ending kidney transplants at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and shuttering a primary care clinic in Waitsfield. 

Across Lake Champlain, however, the situation looks very different. Over the past few years, UVM Health Network’s facilities in northern New York have added capacity and increased the volume of certain procedures.

Over the past two years, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, in Plattsburgh, has worked to increase the number of surgeries it performs, according to Annie Mackin, a network spokesperson. During that time, Elizabethtown Community Hospital’s Ticonderoga campus has expanded clinics in women’s health and dermatology. Late in 2023, a primary care clinic operated by another health care organization opened at Alice Hyde Medical Center, in Malone. And earlier this year, Alice Hyde hired a general surgeon, the network announced in October. 

The network hopes to add even more capacity in the state in the coming years, leaders say. 

“In New York, we’re doing our very best to expand services, to grow opportunities, to be able to have more opportunities to see patients over there,” Steven Leffler, president and chief operating officer of UVM Medical Center, said in an interview last month. 

“We’re hoping they’ll have more inpatient access to cover patients who can’t stay here,” Leffler said, referring to the Burlington hospital. “We’re hoping we can move more surgical cases there as a way to make sure that access is maintained for people who may have, unfortunately, more (of a) challenge getting access here.”

‘Patient-centered and patient-focused’

Leaders of the six-hospital network said the additions in New York are simply part of ongoing efforts to help patients access more care more easily — similar to what the network seeks to do in Vermont. 

The University of Vermont Medical Center, Central Vermont Medical Center and Porter Medical Center, in Middlebury, are all part of the UVM Health Network.

The recent cuts on this side of the lake, administrators say, were due solely to the actions of the Green Mountain Care Board, a state regulator that capped network hospital budgets and ordered UVM Medical Center to reduce its charges to private health insurers earlier this year.

Additions at New York hospitals, which are not under the board’s jurisdiction, have nothing to do with the board’s orders and often predate them, network leaders said. 

That work “is totally independent and unrelated to regulatory action here,” Sunny Eappen, the president and CEO of UVM Health Network, said in an interview.

Expanding services in New York, however, does benefit Vermont’s hospitals. In the 2023 fiscal year, New York residents contributed roughly 14% of the University of Vermont Medical Center’s patient revenue, to the tune of $245 million, according to financial documents submitted to the Green Mountain Care Board.

In Vermont, the care board places limits on how much hospitals can bring in from patient care — limits that UVM Health Network officials have said are onerous and harmful. By adding capacity in New York, the network can keep some of those patients in their communities and out of Vermont hospitals. 

Owen Foster, the chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, declined to comment, saying he did not know the details of the network’s New York hospital services. 

In 2025, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital plans to add operating room capacity for general surgery, urology, ear nose and throat procedures and orthopedics, according to Mackin, the network spokesperson. The network has invested in some “anesthesiology resources” for that expansion and is recruiting urology and orthopedics clinicians, she said.

The network has also informed about 370 New York patients that they have the option of getting imaging procedures — such as x-rays — in-state, rather than in Vermont, Mackin said. UVM Health Network is also “evaluating opportunities” to add gastroenterology, cardiology and infusion procedures in New York, she said. 

“It’s patient-focused and patient-centered, right?” Lisa Mark, the chief medical officer of Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital and Alice Hyde Medical Center, said in an interview. “So they don’t have to travel across the lake if they don’t need to.”

Vermont and New York

Over the past few months, UVM Health Network has drawn scrutiny for the movement of money between its Vermont and New York hospitals.

That attention was sparked by the revelation, during the Green Mountain Care Board’s annual hospital budget review process, that Burlington’s UVM Medical Center was owed $60 million by Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh.

That has led to fears that Vermonters are subsidizing New York medical facilities. In comments submitted to the Green Mountain Care Board in August, Vermont’s chief health care advocate Mike Fisher and his staff members charged that the network “has consistently weakened its financial position by choosing to transfer monies to the New York hospitals.”

Network leaders have repeatedly denied that those transfers — which have paid for pharmaceuticals, physicians’ salaries and other expenses — had any impact on Vermonters. Those transfers affect a hospital’s cash on hand, leaders said, but do not affect margins or Vermonters’ commercial insurance rates.

“We’ve been very, very clear on that,” Rick Vincent, the network’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in an interview. “The Vermont commercial rates are not impacted by those New York hospitals.”

Last month, the care board asked the network for more information about the New York hospitals’ finances, including their operating margins and cash on hand. 

UVM Health Network initially declined to provide that information. But Eappen said in an interview he does intend to share the hospitals’ financial information with the board. 

According to publicly available nonprofit tax forms, some of the network’s New York hospitals have struggled in the past years. Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital lost nearly $30 million in its 2022 fiscal year and nearly $40 million in the 2023 fiscal year, according to tax records, and Alice Hyde Medical Center lost about $20 million in those two years, as well. Elizabethtown Community Hospital, meanwhile, has reported positive margins for the past decade.

Eappen said that Champlain Valley and Alice Hyde have grown more stable in the past year, although financial data is not yet publicly available.

There are “not yet” plans to shift more services to New York as a result of the Green Mountain Care Board’s orders, Eappen said. But keeping care close to home for residents of northern New York is a win-win, he said. 

“If New Yorkers stay in New York, it doesn’t contribute to that Vermont revenue piece,” Eappen said, referring to patient revenue, which is capped by the Green Mountain Care Board. “And so if we do it well and keep New Yorkers in New York, it’s a positive on both ends.”

Social media users, primarily young women, are fawning over Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan on Dec. 4 in what authorities described as a premeditated attack.

“Luigi Mangione allegedly conducted the carefully premeditated and targeted execution of Brian Thompson to incite national debates,” James Dennehy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said Thursday in a statement after Mangione’s extradition to New York. “This alleged plot demonstrates a cavalier attitude towards humanity — deeming murder an appropriate recourse to satiate personal grievances.”

Mangione is charged with first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism, stalking and a slew of other state and federal charges in both New York and Pennsylvania, for allegedly gunning down Thompson, a married father of two from Minnesota.

Mangione allegedly shot Thompson outside the Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealthcare’s annual shareholder conference was being held, in an act prosecutors believe was meant to send a message to the health care insurance industry based on a manifesto found on the suspect when he was arrested days later in Pennsylvania.

UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER: DEATH PENALTY ON THE TABLE FOR SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE, WHO FACES FEDERAL CHARGES

Since the attack and Mangione’s arrest, social media has erupted with positive posts about the murder suspect.

A TikTok video of an artist sketching Mangione’s face over Alexander Hamilton’s face on a $10 bill to the sound of news anchors talking about the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” — the same words found on shell casings at the crime scene — has more than a million views and 234,000 likes.

UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE INDICTED IN NEW YORK

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company mourned the killing of Brian Thompson and implored people to see that industry executives are trying their best with a flawed system. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group)

“‘Give me liberty or give me death’ was the [original] ‘deny defend depose,’” one commenter wrote.

A video montage of clips from Mangione’s Thursday extradition from Pennsylvania to New York, surrounded by NYPD officers escorting him off a plane, has gone viral with more than 2 million views.

SUSPECTED UNITEDHEALTHCARE ASSASSIN LUIGI MANGIONE’S PLAN TO ‘WACK’ CEO REVEALED IN JOURNAL ENTRIES: AFFIDAVIT

Luigi Mangione is escorted from an NYPD helicopter in New York City on Thursday. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

“[T]hey acting like he’s el chapo or something,” one user commented on the video, with another comparing the clip to “Gotham City.” 

Other video montages of Mangione’s perp walk, with hundreds of thousands of views, play along to songs by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Pink Floyd.

UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT HAS OUTBURST OUTSIDE PENNSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE

Luigi Mangione is escorted from an NYPD helicopter in New York City on Thursday. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

“Hes being transferred from jail looking hotter… fresh shave, a fade, and fresh curls omg,” one user captioned a video of Mangione being escorted to New York. 

“He actually came out looking better,” another user commented.

“I really hope, when he gets out of this, his friends didn’t lose too much of the sweet, caring Luigi they had before this,” one user wrote in response to a video of Mangione. “I hope he gets the support he needs to get over how traumatic this has been.”

From left: Adam Giesseman of Piqua, Ohio; Ashlyn Adami of South Bend, Indiana; and Ethan Merrill of South Bend, Indiana, protest outside the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, after a hearing for Luigi Mangione on Thursday. (Gary M. Baranec)

Several experts in psychology and social media explained the obsession with Mangione on TikTok and other social media platforms to Fox News Digital.

Rachel Goldberg, LMFT, PMH-C of Rachel Goldberg Therapy in Los Angeles, pointed to “three main reasons” behind the Mangione obsession.

COULD UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE FACE DEATH PENALTY?

Luigi Mangione shouts while officers restrain him as he arrives for his extradition hearing at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 10. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)

“First, he comes across as a relatively ‘normal’ guy — someone you might have interacted with in your life without thinking twice, or even had pleasant interactions with,” Goldberg said. “Second, there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding the situation. We don’t fully understand what prompted him to act — whether it was tied to mental illness, frustration over his back issues, or that combined with other factors. Finally, this case has given people a platform to express their dissatisfaction with the health insurance system.”

“Many people carry that frustration silently, but this situation has created a sense of camaraderie, allowing them to openly vent about it,” she continued.

Dr. Holly Schiff, a licensed clinical psychologist, told Fox News Digital that “[s]omeone who becomes famous for a scandalous or controversial reason is alluring.”

In this courtroom sketch, Luigi Mangione sits between his defense attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and her husband Marc Agnifilo, during his federal court hearing in New York City on Thursday. (Jane Rosenberg)

“Social media thrives on engagement and a sensational story like this generates likes, comments and shares. There is a sense of excitement or thrill from following and being a ‘part’ of a dramatic or maybe controversial and taboo subject,” Schiff explained. 

Social media can also “create a sense of groupthink where people will start to adopt the same opinions or behaviors of others just to fit in.”

“If there is a certain viewpoint, in this case, admiration for Luigi Mangione, becomes widespread, it starts to pick up steam and become a larger movement,” Schiff said. “Social media makes this spread like wildfire and happen much more quickly. There is no critical thinking or awareness of the implications as this happens. Groupthink happens when a group of people make an irrational or dysfunctional decision due to a desire for harmony or conformity, and this can lead to so-called bad decisions.”

The suspected gunman in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder, believed to be Luigi Mangione, is seen flirting with a hostel employee on surveillance footage before the Dec. 4 shooting in New York. (NYPD)

If Mangione “were perceived as less attractive, the public’s reaction to his crime might be harsher,” she continued. 

“Society tends to judge less attractive individuals more negatively, especially when it comes to criminal investigations,” Schiff said. “There is a cognitive bias called the halo effect, where our impression of a person is based on a single trait. In Luigi’s case, people are making assumptions about his overall character based solely on his physical appearance and looks. If he is considered conventionally attractive, it makes it easier for some people to gloss over their actions, or in the extreme version we are seeing here, romanticize his actions.”

There is also a general fascination among the public with the “bad boy” or “outlaw” type, as well as true crime as a literary and film genre, “which has desensitized us to murder cases and criminal investigations and in some cases even normalizes true crime.”

Luigi Mangione is pictured in a Facebook photo. (Luigi Mangione/Facebook)

London-based music industry expert and Forbes 30 under 30 lister Nikki Camilleri noted that the public’s glorification of a murder suspect runs “deeper than pretty privilege,” the phenomenon of conventionally attractive people receiving preferential treatment. 

UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT COULD SEE MOST SERIOUS CHARGE DOWNGRADED: DEFENSE ATTORNEY

“Counter-culture and an anti-establishment sentiment has resurged more prominently in the recent past and what Luigi represents is this trend,” Camilleri said, adding that Mangione is “a young person who, in the eyes of many, has gone against ‘the man’ and acted on a resentment many feel towards major health care companies and similar large establishments.”

A courtroom sketch depicts Luigi Mangione’s appearance in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9. (Dave Klug)

“It’s a modern-day anti-establishment protest if you will — happening on social media and with Luigi as the face of it,” she explained. Similar “crazes” are seen with boy bands, artists and influencers, “which all stem from the psychological associations people make with the stars,” Camilleri said.

Michael Petegorsky, chief strategy officer at psychedelic medicine provider Mindbloom, said he has “seen firsthand how mental health struggles often manifest in unexpected ways, including collective behaviors like those we’re seeing around Luigi Mangione.”

Petegorsky pointed to frustrations with the health care insurance industry as part of the public’s infatuation with the murder suspect.

Luigi Mangione is led into an NYPD vehicle following his extradition hearing at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)

“The obsession with Mangione highlights the extent of the broken mental health care system in the U.S., where millions are suffering without access to adequate care,” Petegorsky said. “When basic mental health needs go unmet, people may gravitate toward sensationalized stories or irrational groupthink as an outlet for their frustration, curiosity, or even an unconscious attempt to process deeper societal issues.”

While officials have not commented on an official motive, the public has speculated that the suspect had strong grievances with the health care insurance industry.

The 26-year-old Mangione is originally from Maryland and has recently lived in California and Hawaii. He graduated valedictorian from the Gilman School, a private, all-boys high school in Baltimore, in 2016. Mangione went on to receive his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.