Utah’s 2023 General Legislative Session brought a number of disappointments, with many bad bills passing and good bills getting buried. However, we saw one passed bill that will make a meaningful positive change in our state.

Rep. Jordan Teuscher’s H.B. 102 will allow DACA recipients in Utah to qualify for in-state tuition, making college much more affordable for those students. Nonetheless, while this bill is a step in the right direction for treatment of immigrants in Utah, we need to do more.

The Spirit of DACA

When people are brought to the United States as children, illegally or not, they grow up here. They consider the U.S. their home because they remember no other. Sometimes they only speak English. Undocumented children, often dubbed “Dreamers,” are American in so many ways, but they are excluded from citizenship and its benefits. They face constant risk of deportation and can’t get a license or go to college because they don’t have a social security number.

In 2001, national legislators knew that undocumented children needed more protection and access to opportunity, so they drafted the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act bounced around the halls of Congress for revisions that ultimately proved fruitless in helping it pass. Finally, in 2012, Barack Obama used an executive action to create DACA, which does many of the things the DREAM Act aimed to do. It offers temporary protection from deportation to Dreamers and allows them to get a social security number so they can work, get a license or receive a higher education.

The ultimate goal of these protections is to help Dreamers succeed, and DACA has done well in accomplishing this. Ninety-one percent of DACA recipients are employed and earn, on average, more than before they were on DACA. Additionally, 45% are currently in school and 72% of those in school are seeking higher education.

DACA greatly benefits recipients, but also everyone in the U.S. Giving people access to licenses improves public safety, and DACA recipients provide a lot of money to the federal government and the economy more broadly. It also affects everyone in much more personal ways.

Sonia Perez, a DACA recipient pursuing her master’s degree in social work at a university in California, explained that without DACA, she wouldn’t be able to get her degree. She wouldn’t be able to help her community in the same way or as a clinician with a background in social work. Anyone she helps in her future career will be receiving the benefits of the DACA program.

The Limitations of DACA

DACA’s statistical achievements show that offering undocumented people access to opportunities helps them succeed, which in turn creates benefits for everyone. Still, DACA recipients face challenges that citizens don’t because they lack access to assistance that American citizens receive.

For instance, only three states and the District of Columbia offer Medicaid access to DACA recipients. Access to education and educational support is also lacking for many Dreamers, as the resources available to them vary in each state.

Perhaps most importantly though, undocumented students do not have access to FAFSA, making college much more unaffordable. Perez explained that as she’s been working to complete the final semester of her master’s degree, she still has unpaid tuition. She worries that without paying tuition, she won’t receive her degree, but she cannot afford to pay it because she’s ineligible for federal student aid.

Beyond limited opportunities, Dreamers face uncertainty about their futures and the futures of their families. As an executive action, the DACA program is subject to the whims of every new president, leaving millions of Dreamers uncertain about their immigration status. As recently as 2017, DACA came under attack by Donald Trump. More than a third of DACA recipients think about being detained or deported on a daily basis.

DACA recipients do not have a pathway to citizenship, so they carry this uncertainty indefinitely. Unless more is done to codify DACA, the recipients and their families will always face the risk of losing the lives they’ve built in the U.S.

“There’s always the fear I’m going to be deported but most importantly, the fear that my parents are going to be deported because they don’t have DACA,” Perez said.

I’m glad our state legislators passed H.B. 102, which will make college affordable to DACA recipients in our state, but it is far from enough to combat the limitations placed on their success.

Perez’s brother lives in Utah and goes to school here as a DACA recipient. She explained that he does this with much less help because Utah has significantly fewer DACA programs than she has in California.

Utah needs to do more to help Dreamers. We could start by providing more resources for people who speak other languages, making DACA recipients eligible for Medicaid and providing more opportunities for financial assistance for higher education.

Utah has over 250,000 immigrants, over 15,000 of which are DACA recipients. When we help those people succeed, it benefits everyone and makes our economy healthier. It also makes the “American Dream” available to people who want to make a home here or have known our state as their home for most of their lives.

k.cushman@dailyutahchronicle.com

@cushman_kcellen

UH is at its best when Jamal Shead, who leads the Cougars in plus-minus this season, is on the court. | Sean Thomas/The Cougar

Playing under Kelvin Sampson is no joke.

Ask anyone who has played for the 67-year-old coach since he took over at Houston in 2014 and they will all say that nothing can prepare you for what it’s like to play under Sampson. You simply have to experience it to understand what it’s like.

While the demands are already high for anyone on the team, being the point guard for Sampson’s team takes things to a whole different level.

The expectations are higher. The responsibilities are larger.

“That position gets coached harder in September and October and November than the other positions because their roles are different,” Sampson said. 

Jamal Shead was thrown into UH’s starting point guard role sooner than expected.

After playing sparingly as a freshman, Shead was thrust into the fire during his sophomore season due to the season-ending injuries Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark suffered that December.

Sampson admits that Shead wasn’t ready for that big of a role at the time but it was his only option given how shorthanded the Cougars were at the guard position.

Sure, the 6-foot-1-inch point guard made plenty of mistakes when he took over the starting point guard job in December 2021. But he got back up each time he fell down.

“The first thing about Jamal (is) to understand is he’s not afraid,” Sampson said. “He’s not afraid to fail.”

UH’s glue guy

When recruiting, Sampson doesn’t just hope that the players he signs will step up into a leadership role. He identifies specific players he knows will be leaders.

“I don’t develop captains,” Sampson said. “I recruit them.”

From the moment Shead got on his radar, Sampson knew the Manor High School product would one day be a captain for his team at UH.

While Shead doesn’t always fill the box score with flashy numbers, he has become the engine that makes UH go.

Marcus Sasser, Houston’s newly minted first-team AP All-American guard, said he has always seen the natural leadership instincts in his backcourt mate since Shead arrived at UH in 2020.

“That leadership skill is natural for him,” Sasser said. “The point guard position I feel like comes kind of easy to him. He’s very smart, his IQ. His competitiveness is off the charts.”

As a sophomore, Shead got the opportunity to show the rest of the country what Sampson and Sasser already knew. 

Despite playing without two starters for the majority of the 2021-22 season, Shead held the new-look Cougars together.

It resulted in a trip to the Elite Eight.

“What Jamal did was make everybody fit,” Sampson said about his point guard’s impact during the 2021-22 season.

This season, Shead has used his experience from his sophomore year to take on an even bigger role for a UH team that is the betting favorite to win the national championship.

“Last year gave me a lot of experience to help them out this year,” Shead said.

Whether it’s CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein or The Athletic’s Seth Davis, Shead is a name that appears on all the college basketball experts’ lists of the country’s top glue guys.

Evan Miyakawa, a college basketball analytics expert, has created his own formula which takes into account a player’s individual stats as well as the impact he has on his team’s performance while he’s on the floor.

It’s no surprise that the UH point guard is No. 1 on that list.

“Where he’s taken a step is taking ownership of the program,” Sampson said. “He knows what to say to these guys and they go to him. If they are a little bit cautious about asking me something, they’ll go ask Jamal.”

What makes Shead the perfect glue guy?

To Sampson, it’s because the point guard only cares about one thing when he’s on the court — winning.

“Jamal’s will to win equals his refusal to lose,” Sampson said.

A coach on the court

While Sampson barks out orders from the team’s bench area, Shead has been described by his teammates as the Cougars’ coach on the court. This is exactly how Sampson has always envisioned the role of his point guard.

“Jamal’s role is to be an extension of me,” Sampson said. “He has to understand the game plan. He has to understand who we’re going to attack, what matchups we want.”

Shead’s role is especially crucial in the first half because the Cougars’ basket is always on the opposite side of the court compared to where the team’s bench is.

“The first half he has to be the offensive coordinator,” Sampson said. “He has to know what the game plan is at a different level than what the other players do.”

For freshmen like Jarace Walker, a 6-foot-8-inch forward projected to be an NBA lottery pick in the upcoming draft, Emanuel Sharp and Terrance Arcenaux, Shead provides a comforting presence for them when they are on the court.

By just watching Shead on the court, it’s clear that he never misses an opportunity to point out the things he sees, both the good and bad, to UH’s younger guys.

“He’s definitely our leader, our go-to guy,” Walker said. 

The high-level respect Shead has garnered from his teammates is a direct result of the UH point guard holding himself to even higher standards, taking it upon himself to set the tone each and every day. 

“(Shead) has learned to hold guys accountable on the court during the game because he’s learned to hold himself accountable,” Sampson said. “You can’t hold other people accountable unless you hold yourself accountable.”

An all-around playmaker

When asked about Shead’s importance to the team, “solid” was the word that came to the front of UH forward J’Wan Roberts’ mind.

“The most important thing is having a point guard that you trust to make the right play every time,” Roberts said. “He just stays solid. As he goes, we go.”

It starts with what Shead does being the Cougars’ point of attack on defense, one of the major pillars Sampson has built the UH program around.

Shead said it is his job to be a disruptor.

His teammates notice his impact defensively.

“He sets the tone with his defense,” Walker said.

On the other side of the court, Shead has a pass-first mindset and is among one of the nation’s best in assist-to-turnover ratio.

When the game is on the line, it is easy to see why Sampson wants the ball in Shead’s hands.

“His playmaking just makes the game so easy for us,” Walker said when asked about Shead. “He puts us in the right spots. He gets us the ball where we want it, when we want it.” 

While his first instinct is to look to create an open shot for his teammates, Shead has also taken great strides in creating his own shot off the dribble.

Shead credits the improvement of his shot to his work with UH assistant coach Quannas White, who played point guard for Sampson at Oklahoma from 2001 through 2003.

From regularly watching film together to doing the same shooting workout every day, White has been a crucial piece in Shead’s development as a scoring threat.

“He’s made me so much better,” Shead said. “I wouldn’t be the player I am today without him because of just how much he impacts me.”

In UH’s regular-season finale against Memphis, Shead’s shot-creating ability was on full display.

Not being able to find an open teammate, Shead dribbled to his right, created a window of space and rose up for the game-winning jumper just a few feet inside the 3-point line.

With his ability to do a little bit of everything, both offensively and defensively, Shead’s teammates see him as the epitome of what a point guard should look like.

Heading into the NCAA Tournament as the Midwest Regional’s No. 1 seed, there’s no other player in the country that the Cougars would want to lead them.

“He’s the perfect point guard,” Walker said.

sports@thedailycougar.com

—
“‘The perfect point guard’: Jamal Shead is the glue that holds UH together” was originally posted on The Cougar

After state officials destroyed two homeless encampments in Cedar-Riverside in January, Minneapolis legislators have grown frustrated by what they see as the city’s lack of support for unhoused residents.

The push to clear the encampments came after a shooting on Jan. 12 that left one dead in Minneapolis’ largest homeless encampment, located near 15th Avenue South and Samatar Crossing.

In response to the shooting, Ward 6 Council Member Jamal Osman, who represents Cedar-Riverside, called for the city to close the encampment.

“My staff and I have been begging for action at this encampment for months,” Osman said in a statement. “The Governor, MnDOT, and everyone else involved have avoided responsibility, passed off blame, and used accounting to ignore a homeless encampment in the middle of Cedar-Riverside.”

State patrols from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) showed up with bulldozers six days after the shooting, destroying the homes of more than 100 residents, according to KJ Starr, executive director of the West Bank Business Association (WBBA).

The patrols destroyed another encampment nearby on Cedar Avenue and South 7th Street, which was established about eight months ago, Starr said.

The encampments sat near an interchange between Interstates 35W and 94. State and county officials cleared the encampment because they oversee areas near interstates.

Both encampments were gone by noon after residents had been removed and their belongings scooped into dumpsters. Minneapolis received more than three inches of snow the next day, leaving many who had just lost their belongings in the cold.

“We always had camps in our neighborhood”

Despite his calls for the encampment’s closure, Osman partnered with local nonprofits to place hygienic supplies such as toilets in the Samatar encampment before they were bulldozed.

The WBBA was one of several groups that partnered with Osman’s office. According to Starr, government inaction stalled the installation of the toilets for weeks.

“The city was telling us that it was a state problem, and the state was telling us the city should deal with it,” Starr said. “It was mind blowing, this total failure of government to provide basic human services to people living there and ignoring the impact of that on everyone else living in the neighborhood.”

MnDOT did not respond to the Minnesota Daily’s requests for comment.

The WBBA, along with several other organizations, sent a letter on Jan. 19, the day after Samatar was destroyed, calling the government’s response “incredibly frustrating.” The letter called for a standardized encampment policy across all levels of government to determine when to clear encampments and provide resources to existing ones.

Although encampments exist throughout the city, Cedar-Riverside and its surrounding neighborhoods have a history of housing large encampments. In 2018, the Wall of Forgotten Natives along Franklin Avenue in the Phillips neighborhood became one of the city’s largest encampments.

West Bank was home to one of the city’s first major encampments, The Pines near the Franklin light rail station, which was established around 2016. Like many others, the site now sits vacant and fenced off, Starr said.

Starr said she has fought to ensure unhoused residents in the neighborhood are treated humanely after seeing encampments enclosed by fence and concrete barriers and workers power washing the underside of overpasses drip water on residents and their belongings.

“We have staked a role to play in encampment policy because we always had camps in our neighborhood,” Starr said. “We need humane and consistent policies that are transparent to the public.”

“It’s just a death bell”

Once officials stake out a site to clear, an encampment is surrounded by either police tape or officers. The officers, under helmets and bulletproof vests, openly carry rifles or machine guns and are equipped with megaphones to tell residents to “Get out.”

Encampment residents grab what they can carry and scatter to make room for the bulldozers. Tents rip. Wood cracks. Bicycles scream as metal warps. In a matter of moments, a community turns into an empty dirt lot.

“Part of the reason they are going through to kick everybody out isn’t just to physically remove the people because they shouldn’t be there, but because they’re going to bulldoze it instantly,” said Andy, who grew up experiencing homelessness and currently works to distribute supplies to unhoused residents.

Andy, who did not share his last name for privacy concerns, said he has watched along with encampment residents as officials destroyed and sometimes burned their homes. Some residents leave, some stay to watch and some are too numb from the trauma to verbally react, he said.

Deaths such as the one in the Samatar encampment are typically a “death bell” signaling an encampment’s impending destruction, Andy said. Residents often leave immediately to avoid city and state officials.

Although he was disappointed in Osman’s support of encampment clearings, Andy said Osman was working within a political system that would have destroyed the encampments regardless of his advocacy.

“Maybe [Osman] wants to do it, to support camps more, but he knows from a political standpoint that the people who have the power right now are not interested in that,” Andy said. “Does he want to spend his time and political power on a fight that a lot of people see as just ongoing and never ending?”

The Minneapolis City Council voted on Oct. 20 against pausing homeless encampment clearings after city officials evicted multiple encampments throughout the month. Osman was one of eight council members to vote against the pause.

A Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) report from 2017-2021 found death rates among people experiencing homelessness in the state to be three times higher than the general population, according to the Star Tribune.

The report found 20-year-olds experiencing homelessness had the same mortality rate as a 50-year-olds in the general population.

The report also found people experiencing homelessness have higher death rates among all racial and ethnic groups and experience 10 times higher death rates from substance use compared to the rest of Minnesota’s population.

The hardships of experiencing homelessness combined with the trauma of continuous encampment destructions have left many unhoused residents in a kind of “survival mode,” Andy said.

“They just have to take care of themselves because no one else is going to,” Andy said. “It’s really unfortunate because when these communities have the safety and support to keep each other safe and to flourish, they can, and it’s amazing.”

“It’s basically a free-for-all”

Taking care of unhoused residents was one of Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign promises in 2017, in which he vowed to end homelessness within five years by implementing inclusive housing policies, according to reporting from MPR.

During his reelection campaign four years later, Frey prioritized addressing the root causes of homelessness and proactively managing encampments.

“Mayor Frey is committed to ensuring public health and safety within and surrounding homeless encampments. He is partnering with neighboring jurisdictions like Hennepin County and St. Paul to do so in a manner that respects the dignity of residents,” Frey’s campaign website states.

Ward 2 Council Member Robin Wonsley countered Frey’s method of using “hundreds of officers” to evict residents with nowhere to go.

“There’s definitely widespread and justifiable concern about having police actively kick people off the streets,” Wonsley said. “Having an over-militarized response to people who have very little to nothing and saying they are a public safety threat … that’s a sad image.”

Frey’s office did not respond to the Minnesota Daily’s requests for comment.

Since 2019, the city has increased its number of affordable housing units by roughly 200 per year and invested more than $200 million into improving its homelessness response system, according to city spokesperson Sarah McKenzie.

The MDH’s homelessness report, which measured the first four years of Frey’s five-year plan, recommended additional investments into health and housing programs with input from people with lived homelessness experience.

In 2022, the final year of Frey’s plan, Hennepin County reported nearly 2,700 unhoused residents in a single night, according to the state’s Homeless Management Information System.

Wonsley said the city’s current policy arbitrarily treats encampments like “Whack-A-Mole” by randomly and inconsistently clearing encampments without consideration for where people living there will go or if they are in the process of obtaining more permanent housing.

“It’s basically a free-for-all — everyone is deflecting to one another,” Wonsley said. “It’s [the government’s] collective responsibility to deal with this, to find better solutions to this, but we need a standardized process that we all understand and that we all uphold.”

However, any attempts at the council passing comprehensive policy regarding homelessness has either been blocked by council members or vetoed by Frey under the city’s government restructure, Wonsley said.

The restructure increased the mayor’s administrative power over city departments and relegated the City Council as a legislative entity.

As a result, Frey has played an “obstructionist role” in having meaningful policy move forward relating to encampments, Wonsley said.

Wonsley said any policymaking will have to come in spite of city leaders who refuse to pursue a comprehensive encampment response.

“While we can’t do anything about the failure of the executive side to do meaningful work around this, we can on the legislative side do whatever we need to do to make change happen,” Wonsley said.

Columnist Benjamin Lee breaks down José María Enríquez Negreira’s scandal and Napoli’s recent success.

In Salt Lake County last year, thousands of citizens banded together and petitioned against the creation of a mine in Parleys Canyon. Adhering to warnings from local health officials, the Salt Lake County Council wisely struck down the mine. Unfortunately, the mining industry was able to rear its soot-covered head again during this year’s legislative season in the form of H.B. 527.

This bill, introduced by Rep. Keven Stratton, would have allowed new mining operations to bypass local regulations. While it didn’t pass, Stratton’s bill endangered Utah’s public health and environment, and chose to overturn the democratic process in favor of destructive corporations. H.B. 527 was dangerous and we cannot allow similar legislation to ever pass.

Mining: A Cause of Contamination and Deforestation

Without proper context, many may be unaware of the dangers mining operations release upon the state. Despite providing us with materials necessary for creating infrastructure and consumer goods, mining is an inherently invasive and destructive process with drastic consequences.

Water in the west is increasingly scarce due to poor resource allocation, Utah’s rapidly growing population and climate change. Despite these local issues with water, Stratton believed in drastically and irresponsibly expanding our state’s already water-polluting mining industry. Today, over 40% of our watersheds’ headwaters are polluted in the west, filling our rivers with billions of tons of heavy metals and acidic waters yearly. This toxic waste in our rivers can have serious health consequences for humans and local wildlife.

If Stratton’s bill passed, developers would have built an open-pit mine in Parley’s Canyon, which could have produced up to ten times more waste than a traditional mine. Additionally, the location of this mine would have been up the hill from Parley’s Creek, which runs directly into the heart of Salt Lake City. While this will not be the only case where this mining expansion in Utah can lead to severe water pollution, it shows just how poorly thought out this bill was.

However, water quality in Utah is not the only aspect of our environment that will be threatened by similar legislation: air quality also stands to worsen. Besides increased emissions from heavy machinery and automobiles, mining can cause toxic dust, a well-known contemporary staple of Utah’s environmental situation. Smelting operations, which were to be expanded with H.B. 527, can release unrefined toxic metals into the air. These airborne metals devastate respiratory health and sometimes lead to “black lung” in serious cases and prolonged exposure.

The Function of H.B. 527

This bill’s main purpose and deadly flaw was the deregulation of mining expansion across Utah, Parley’s Canyon being a prime example. The proposed quarry, headed by Tree Farm LLC and Granite Construction, was deemed potentially dangerous by local lawmakers and thus shot down. It is, therefore, surprising that an elected official would draft a bill whose primary function was the expansion of vested mining use. While this may not mean much to the average citizen, these expansions would exempt new mining operations across the state from local land-use regulations. One can quickly see how this sort of freedom for corporations can promptly get out of hand and detriment the lives of our citizens.

Community Response to H.B. 527

Similar to the backlash other bills in this controversial legislative season have received, H.B. 527 has also faced widespread criticism from members of the community. Save Parley’s, the association responsible for the initial petition against the Parley’s Canyon mining operation, was formed in late 2021. Since then, they have tirelessly worked against the poor regulation of the Department of Oil, Gas, and Mining. The Chronicle was fortunate enough to get ahold of their representative, Sam Dunham, to discuss their feelings on H.B. 527.

When asked about the state’s regulation of mining in Utah, Dunham said how it was “[A]n eye opener as far as the lack of regulation in the state of Utah, concerning oil, gas and mining.” This low amount of regulation is even more surprising when learning that the state is the seventh-largest mineral producer in the nation.

With mining being such a large and destructive industry, one would expect the state to act responsibly for the safety of our citizens. Dunham reinforces this need for responsibility by the state, mentioning that the bill “will affect every single citizen in the state of Utah because of all the mining claims found throughout the state.” Despite the difficult nature of the DOGM of Utah, Dunham and his associates continue their fight and inform others of its disregard for Utah’s safety. On their website, Save Parley’s since 2021 has made various videos and blog posts wherein much important information on their fight can be found.

With his support of corporate colonialism in our state and the destruction of its environment for material gain, Rep. Stratton has proven himself to be an inadequate representative. Despite the clear public health, environmental and moral issues associated with introducing H.B. 527, Stratton chose to continue with the bill regardless. This bill would have undoubtedly brought ruin to our state. But just because it didn’t pass doesn’t mean Stratton or other legislators may not try again with similar bills.

We must always band together to fight against such clear greed and irresponsibility. If bills like H.B. 527 ever come to light again, we must do everything we can to strike them down.

j.langley@dailyutahchronicle.com

@JeffLangleyII

It was all celebration for the USC women’s basketball team on Selection Sunday.

As Virginia Tech rolled across the screen at the team’s watch party, both the coaches and players knew their name was soon to be called. Then, after Chattanooga was announced as the 16 seed, the television broadcast could barely say the letters U-S-C before an uproar engulfed Rock and Reilly’s and everyone in the jam-packed restaurant began to celebrate.

“Honestly, I was kind of nervous. But it’s very exciting,” said graduate forward Kadi Sissoko. “It’s been a minute since [the Trojans] actually won anything or went to March Madness. So it’s very exciting and we’re all trying to come together and prove something.”

The Trojans, who are an 8 seed in their region, will play No. 9 seed South Dakota State on Friday. But Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said the team could enjoy the Sunday Selection feeling before thinking about SDSU.

“Today, it’s okay to celebrate. It’s a lot about joy. We’ll get back to work tomorrow, but I think it’s okay to take a moment and appreciate that it’s been a long time for USC since getting an at-large bid,” Gottlieb said. “We were picked [to finish] ninth in this conference and now we’re a tournament team.”

On the other side of the bracket, the USC men’s basketball team received a 10 seed in the East region and will play Michigan State in Columbus, Ohio on Friday. 

“We’re excited to be in March Madness. Our players had an outstanding season this year,” said Head Coach Andy Enfield in a press conference Sunday. “We’re excited to go compete for a National Championship and it starts with our game on Friday.”

The Trojans are 0-1 against the Spartans this century, losing in their first and only matchup in 2009, 74-69. USC will now get a good look against their future Big Ten opponent before they join the conference for the 2024-2025 season.

This is the first time the women’s and men’s teams have made the NCAA tournament in the same season since the 1996-1997 postseason. The 2023 tournament also marks the sixth time this has happened in the history of the two programs.

The women’s team, which has won two national championships in its history, has now made their first NCAA tournament since 2014.

“I feel like hard work has been showing off now. I feel like our competitive spirit is out there for everyone,” said sophomore forward Rayah Marshall. “We’re turning heads and I’m just extremely proud to be a part of it.”

Contrary to the team itself, Gottlieb, in her second season as USC’s head coach, and four Trojan players have tournament experience. Gottlieb led the UC Berkeley Golden Bears to seven NCAA tournaments as their head coach, including a Final Four run.

“Whatever I can do to prepare them and make them comfortable in the moment just so that we can be the best version of ourselves, I’ll try to do,” Gottlieb said.

Enfield has now led the men’s team to the NCAA tournament for three straight years, marking his fifth trip to the tournament in his 10 year tenure at USC. 

“As a coaching staff, we’ve enjoyed coaching all of those teams, all been very successful,” Enfield said. “This team is a little unique because with two experienced players, [fifth year guard] Drew [Peterson] and [senior guard] Boogie [Ellis], coming into the year, we didn’t know what to expect and they improved dramatically and we’re very proud of them.”

In last year’s tournament, USC was bounced in the Round of 64 by No. 10 seed Miami despite being the No. 7 seed in their region. 

“We’re experienced now. We’re one year older, feel like we’re a better team,” Ellis said. “So I feel like we’re ready for the challenge and I’m excited.”

The Trojans were the third-to-last team called during the Selection Show, but Enfield was confident USC would be selected.

“I think we all thought that we deserved to be in the tournament,” Enfield said. 

Both the men’s and women’s lost in their first game of the 2023 Pac-12 tournament, but those losses were not enough to keep the teams from receiving an at-large bid. Both Trojan teams will look to move past Las Vegas and make a run during March Madness.

The women’s team tips off at 5 p.m. and the men’s team will play at 9:15 a.m. on Friday.

The post It’s time to dance: Both USC basketball teams selected for NCAA tournament appeared first on Daily Trojan.

Tech softball played host to four teams this previous week: University of Georgia, Northern Iowa, Southern Mississippi, and Brown. In-state rival UGA came to Mewborn on Tuesday, Feb. 28 for the annual Clean, Old Fashioned Hate matchup, which Tech dominated 12-3 last year, mercy ruling the Bulldogs in five innings. However, the story was flipped this year as the Jackets never could find their footing in the game. 

The No. 18 Bulldogs were the favorite coming into the game and Tech played stubborn early, solidifying a scoreless first inning between the two teams. UGA found contact in the top of the second though, as they scored five runs on a pair of RBI-doubles and a ground-out run to put the game at 5-0. 

Tech was unable to respond in the following frame and a quiet third inning preluded more UGA runs as the Bulldogs brought home another two in the top of the fourth, making it 7-0. Tech, again, could not find any consistent batting and it led to UGA running in another in the top of the sixth followed by another scoreless inning for the Jackets, which ended the game in the sixth inning at 8-0. 

The Jackets took the rest of the week to regroup before hosting the annual I-75 Tournament, slotting the team against Northern Iowa, Southern Mississippi, and Brown throughout the weekend. Friday, March 3 brought the Northern Iowa Panthers to town and Tech made quick work of them. After a scoreless first inning, the Jackets found their stride as sophomore second baseman Grace Connelly hit her first career grand slam in a five run second frame. The Jackets did not let off from there as they closed in on a mercy rule with four runs on four consecutive at-bats in the third inning to make it 9-0. The team added three in the fourth to make it 12-0. Northern Iowa would add on two runs in the fifth, but it was over by then and the game was called at 12-2 in the fifth, securing a great bounce back win for the Jackets. 

The team moved on to a tougher opponent in Southern Mississippi on Saturday. Tech needed all the pitching help they could get as the game itched on. The first three innings went scoreless, but Connelly found home plate in the bottom of the fourth for the Jackets, securing a 1-0 lead and what would be the go-ahead score in a game which only saw seven hits between the two schools: six being by Tech. Senior pitcher Blake Neleman took it from there as she pitched the last three innings, allowing no runs and only one hit as Tech took the game 1-0 over the Golden Eagles. 

Tech moved on to their final matchup of the weekend, looking to remain undefeated in their tournament and defend home field against the Brown Bears. For the first time all week, Tech scored in the first inning as junior right fielder Sara Beth Allen launched a ball over the left field foul pole to give Tech a 1-0 edge off the bat. Senior pitcher Chandler Dennis continued her amazing work from the bump as she threw four strikeouts and held Brown scoreless in five innings of her pitching. Dennis kept the score 1-0 for Tech until the sixth inning when the Jackets batting started heating up. Junior shortstop Jin Sileo batted in two runs on a single and Connelly came shortly after to get a three-RBI which put Tech up 6-0 going into the seventh and final inning. Tech emerged victorious by the same score, cementing an undefeated weekend in the I-75 Tournament. 

The Jackets climbed their way to a 11-8 record this week and now will travel to Virginia for their first ACC series of the year. 

Despite a thrilling comeback, women’s basketball fell short against Holy Cross in the Patriot League Championship game.

Sophomore infielder Turiya Coleman and the Cougars picked up two wins in their three-game road series against Tarleton State. Oscar Herrera/The Cougar

The Houston softball team wrapped up its three-game series against Tarleton State, as the Cougars won two of three and moved to .500 on the year. 

The Cougars opened up the series with a 7-0 shutout victory on Friday.

A stolen home plate by sophomore infielder Turiya Coleman led a four-run first inning for the Cougars.

After tacking on two runs in the fifth and another run in the seventh, the Cougars closed out its opening game of the series moving to Saturday.

Coleman finished the game with two RBIs, two runs, and a home run while graduate pitcher Kenna Wilkey tossed six strikeouts for her sixth win of the year.

On Saturday, the Cougars dropped the second game of the series in a 9-1 loss.

Tarleton State flipped the script on the second day with four runs of their own in the first inning for an early 4-0 lead.

The Cougars’ lone run of the game came in the third inning off a Coleman RBI in the top of the third inning before the Texans responded with a solo home run in the bottom frame to lead 5-1.

Another four-run inning, this time in the bottom of the fifth, capped off a run-rule victory for Tarleton State to even out the series heading into the final day.

The final game of the series saw UH shut out Tarleton once again with a 5-0 win for the series victory.

After scoring three runs throughout the first four innings, senior Bree Cantu’s two-run home run in the fifth capped off the scoring for the day at 5-0. Wilkey picked up her second win of the series to improve to a season record at 7-5. Cantu hit 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a home run while senior infielder Britaney Shaw cracked two doubles on the day.

The Cougars will remain on the road and travel to Louisiana to face McNeese State on Wednesday, March 15 at 6 p.m.

sports@thedailycougar.com

—
“UH softball takes two of three against Tarleton State” was originally posted on The Cougar

While aging currently coincides with a myriad of chronic health conditions — thanks to Dr. David Sinclair’s lab at Harvard—age may soon really be just a number.