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Arizona basketball popular March Madness NCAA Tournament winner pick

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Arizona basketball popular March Madness NCAA Tournament winner pick


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The Arizona Wildcats may not be the favorite to win the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament, but that isn’t going to stop a lot of people from picking Tommy Lloyd’s team to win March Madness.

The Big 12 champions got some early support during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS, when two out of three analysts selected the No. 1 seed in the West Region to win the NCAA Tournament.

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Seth Davis predicted an Arizona win over Duke, the No. 1 seed in the East, in the national title game.

Bruce Pearl predicted an Arizona win over Florida, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, for the national championship.

Only Kenny Smith had a different idea. He predicted Purdue to defeat Florida for the NCAA title. The Boilermakers are the No. 2 seed in the West Region, behind Arizona.

Join the madness: USA TODAY Bracket Challenge | Survivor Pool

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Final Four, national championship picks:

Kenny Smith: Duke, Purdue, Florida, Virginia

Purdue over Florida for NCAA title

Seth Davis: Duke, Arizona, Houston, Michigan

Arizona over Duke for title

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Bruce Pearl: St. John’s, Arizona, Florida, Michigan

Arizona over Florida for championship

National championship odds

Early odds from DraftKings Sportsbook have Duke (+330), Michigan (+350), Arizona (+400) and Florida (+700) as the March Madness favorites.

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Purdue is at +3500, while Virginia is at +6000, Houston is at +1000. St. John’s is at +5000.

Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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Arizona teen who vanished in 1994 resurfaces decades later as mom of 3 who works for private investigator

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Arizona teen who vanished in 1994 resurfaces decades later as mom of 3 who works for private investigator


A runaway Arizona schoolgirl last seen 32 years ago is reportedly living as a married mom of three who works for a private investigator.

Christina Plante was 13 when she disappeared from her parents’ house in Star Valley, northeast of Phoenix, one Sunday afternoon in May 1994.

Missing teen Christina Plante has been found living as a married mother of three. Facebook / Shawn Hollon
Christina Plante lives in Missouri with her husband, Shaun Hollon. Facebook / Shawn Hollon

Now 45, the former missing teen was discovered living in Springfield, Missouri, in a five-bedroom house she shares with her husband, Shaun Hollon, 49, the Daily Mail reported.

Since her identity was revealed, Plante has given very few details about the past three decades.

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She reportedly married as a teen and had three sons before earning a psychology degree and getting a job with a private investigations firm.

The teen disappeared in 1994. Gila County Sheriff’s Office

“She isn’t being very cooperative with us. She wouldn’t say who she met with or how she even got out of town,” Gila County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jim Lahti told the Daily Mail.

“She did admit that she ran away. She didn’t want to be there,” he added.



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Mixed Arizona reaction to Trump’s chilling post before ceasefire deal

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Mixed Arizona reaction to Trump’s chilling post before ceasefire deal


PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A ceasefire announced Tuesday will suspend the war in Iran for two weeks and Iranian officials said they will negotiate with the United States starting Friday.

President Donald Trump agreed to a deal hours after he posted “a whole civilization will die tonight” on social media.

Before news broke about the cease-fire, Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona introduced articles of impeachment Monday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants, is also part of a growing list of Democrats calling for Trump to be impeached.

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“Iran is a country of 90 million people. Threatening them with annihilation is a monstrous war crime and puts them and American service members and Americans at grave risk,” Ansari said in a video posted Monday on social media. “As a chief enabler of this illegal war, Pete Hegseth is responsible for directing this insane military action against Iran, which has already killed thousands of civilians, led to the unnecessary deaths of American service members, and displaced over a million people in the region.”

Not everyone with strong ties to Iran agrees with her.

“I don’t see why they should be impeached,” said Amirdanial Azimi. He is the president of the Iranian Students Association at Arizona State University (ASU). He grew up in Iran and has family and friends there right now.

“Speaking to my friends and relatives, I’ve realized that they’re more scared of their own government than they are like external forces like the United States and Israel,” Azimi said.

Azimi predicted Trump would not follow through with his threat to destroy Iran.

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“I do take offense, like Iranians do take offense, like they don’t want their civilizations to be wiped off,” Azimi said. “This is the fault of the Iranian regime, their government, because they’ve been chanting death to Israel, death to America for the past years.”

Hessam Rahimian is a refugee turned American citizen. He said he escaped Iran decades ago, where his uncle was murdered and his cousins remain in jail. He said schoolchildren are taught to chant “death to America” every day.

He said he has hundreds of family members and friends still in Iran. In Arizona, Rahimian organizes rallies in support of the war to raise awareness about the reality of life in Iran and the thousands of protesters killed by the Iranian government.

Before the attack was called off, Rahimian said it was challenging to process Trump’s threat to wipe out his home country.

“So he did say that, but he has also said, in the same token today, that the Iranian people are good people, and he will do his best to make sure that they’re safe. So which one you go with, again, I go back to his actions in the past year, it has been against the Islamic regime and not the Iranian people,” Rahimian said. “Would I like for him not to use that language? Of course, absolutely. But we also know that the war talk takes place and they say things to create fear.”

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Daniel Rothenberg is a politics and global studies professor at ASU. He said the biggest question is why the U.S. is at war in the first place.

“This is, above all, a war of choice. The U.S. was not attacked. There was no imminent threat from Iran,” Rothenberg said.

Rothenberg said Trump has not clearly explained the point of the war that is costing billions of dollars a day and countless human lives or what a victory would look like.

“Wars tend to end through negotiations, not through military victory,” Rothenberg said. “I mean, what does it mean to wipe out a civilization? And frankly, why would you even make that sort of threat? What’s the purpose?”

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Kroger, Albertsons sued by Arizona, seven other states seeking antitrust lawsuit expense reimbursement

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Kroger, Albertsons sued by Arizona, seven other states seeking antitrust lawsuit expense reimbursement


Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. Inc. have been sued by Arizona and seven other states and the District of Columbia, all of which are seeking to be reimbursed for costs they incurred while fighting a merger between the two grocers that later failed on antitrust grounds.

The coalition of plaintiffs, which also includes the Federal Trade Commission, is seeking $10.3 million from Cincinnati-based supermarket giant Kroger and Boise, Idaho-based grocery rival Albertsons, according to the lawsuit filed March 31 in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore.

Kroger is the parent company of Fry’s Food Stores in the Valley, and Albertsons owns the Safeway brand in Arizona.

Read more of this story from the Business Journal.

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