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Normani has had many false starts towards her debut album, but it seems like her long-awaited project could finally arrive this year — hopefully, that is. She’s spoken about the album on multiple occasions, including during a recent interview with Ciara. There, Normani confirmed the album is “almost done” and explained why it’s taken so long. “Coming out of a girl group, there was a lot that I had to figure out about myself and fears that I had to deal with head-on,” she said. “When you give your baby out to the world, which is our music, that’s the deepest part of me.”

While we’ll have to continue waiting for more on Normani’s debut album, we can enjoy a new single from her. She returns today with “Fair,” a vulnerable single that’s quite different from her previous release, “Wild Side” with Cardi B. On it, Normani struggles to pick up the pieces after a past relationship she was in comes to an end. “Is it fair that you moved on? / ‘Cause I swear that I haven’t,” she sings before later adding, “Hearts didn’t break down the middlе / Tell me how did that happen?”

Prior to the song’s release, Normani explained the inspiration behind her new single. “This song really captures me in one of my most vulnerable moments,” she said. “Sharing this record makes me uncomfortable because you have never really seen me in this light. Definitely aware that you might feel like you don’t know much about me but that’s only because it’s what makes me feel protected.”

You can press play on the new song in the video above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Coi Leray had a huge 2021 year. She kicked things off with her single “No More Parties” which went Platinum and peaked at No. 25 on the albums chart. She followed that up with “Big Purr (Prrdd)” alongside Pooh Shiesty, another record that entered the Billboard singles chart, this time peaking at No. 69. Additionally, she landed a spot on the 2021 XXL Freshman list alongside names like Blxst, 42 Dugg, Flo Milli, Rubi Rose, and more. The 2021 year came and went without a new album from Leray, but it looks like it could arrive this year. Until then, she’s back with a new single and features a very notable guest act.

Nicki Minaj stands beside Leray for their new song “Blick Blick.” It’s a record that the pair spent most of the last week teasing, and rightfully so. On the track, Leray and Minaj are a taunting duo that flexes their status and fires some shots at the competition, all without fear of being defeated at any point.

While “Blick Blick” arrived without delay, the song was almost released without Minaj’s verse. It came after Leray’s father Benzino leaked the news last month during a Clubhouse conversation. “I just felt bad that she was robbed of telling the world in her own way @ her own time,” Minaj said during a Twitter Q&A with fans. “But that’s water under the bridge now. Good vibes all 2022.” Prior to Minaj’s comments, Benzino apologized for his actions, saying, “I feel horrible and sad. I am 100 percent in the wrong and it will never happen again.”

You can listen to “Blick Blick” in the video above.

Pooh Shiesty is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

On Tuesday, the news that the Senate had unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, seemed to come out of nowhere. Though there were some rumblings in late 2021 about Marco Rubio and a few of his DST-hating cohorts working to follow through on the platform that Veep’s Jonah Ryan first introduced, there wasn’t much talk about it—including amongst the Senate itself.

“I was surprised that someone didn’t object,” Kyrsten Sinema, who announced the bill’s passing as Senate chair, told BuzzFeed News.

“Any single senator could have blocked the daylight saving bill from passing but many didn’t know it was even happening,” wrote BuzzFeed News politics reporter Paul McLeod. “Sen. Rick Scott, a permanent daylight saving time proponent who signed a similar bill into law when he was governor of Florida, said he would have gone to give a speech on the Senate floor if he had known. Asked to re-create his reaction to the news, Sen. Chris Coons issued a series of shocked stammers that is impossible to phonetically translate.”

While one source noted that Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton is a staunch advocate for the annoying habit of changing our clocks twice a year, yet “No comment” was his only response when asked whether he opposed the bill, and again when questioned why he did not object.

But Rubio asked for “unanimous consent,” which can be a bit of gamble, as it takes just one objection for the bill to be blocked. On the upside, it avoids having to spend any time debating a bill or voting on it. If no one objects, the bill is a go—which is exactly what happened.

While Mississippi senator Roger Wicker had planned to fight it, he ultimately decided that there were more pressing matters for him to address. “I chose not to stand in the way,” Wicker told BuzzFeed. “I’m more interested in fighting other battles.”

Still others, like Delaware senator Chris Coons, have no idea where they stand on the issue. “It’s literally an issue my staff and I had never discussed,” he said. “And they made an assumption that I don’t really care about Daylight Saving Time. And I don’t know if I do! I’ve never taken five minutes to stop and think about it.”

Don’t tell that to Jonah Ryan.

(Via BuzzFeed News)

The Atlanta Hawks season has not gone according to plan, as they find themselves fighting to make the play-in tournament in the East just a season after making a run to the Eastern Conference Finals and bringing back pretty much the exact same squad.

With just 13 games to go in the season, the Hawks are 34-35, placing them in the 10th and final play-in spot (albeit with a comfortable 4.5 game edge on Washington), a half-game back of the Hornets for ninth. Inconsistent play, poor defense, and injuries have all combined to make this a disappointing season in Atlanta, and things are apparently only getting worse on the injury front. John Collins has missed 10 of the last 14 games for the Hawks with a finger injury and a foot strain, and will now be out indefinitely after learning he had a plantar fascia tear in that right foot.

Collins’ importance to the Hawks is tremendous, as their best frontcourt scorer and a key part of their defensive plan when he’s healthy and able to use his tremendous athleticism. While there’s no timetable given for Collins’ injury, one would think he’s likely done for the season given how few games are left on the schedule, which means Atlanta will likely face needing back-to-back wins in the play-in without their secondary star next to Trae Young.

A March Madness miracle took place on Thursday evening in Indianapolis. Despite entering the evening as 18-point underdogs, the 15-seed in the East Region, the Saint Peter’s Peacocks, took down the 2-seed Kentucky Wildcats, 85-79, in an overtime thriller. The win marked the first time in school history that Saint Peter’s was able to punch its ticket to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The champions of the MAAC managed to keep things close all night, as they never seemed to be afraid of the blue blood from Lexington. The two teams went back-and-forth all evening, and with less than 90 seconds remaining, Doug Edert was able to get free and pull up from deep, giving the Peacocks a one-point lead. But Kentucky came down the floor and turned to Kellen Grady, who missed, got a second chance off of an Oscar Tshiebwe offensive rebound, and did not let it slip.

St. Peter’s, down by one, did not lose its collective cool. The team ran its offense and got the ball into the hands of Edert, who threw up a floater that stayed in the air for about an hour and a half before the ball decided to go in.

One Kentucky possession later and we got some free basketball, as the Wildcats were unable to get a particularly good look.

Any time Kentucky looked like it was starting to get a little bit of breathing room, Saint Peter’s would compose itself and respond with a haymaker. A pair of free throws gave them a lead with 100 seconds remaining, at which point they were the beneficiaries of a turnover, went down the floor, and got a layup from Hassan Drame.

Kentucky was unable to score on the ensuing possession, but it looked like they caught a break, as the ball appeared to go out of bounds off of a Peacock. A review indicated that it actually touched off of the Wildcat, and after a pair of free throws TyTy Washington cracked the door open by canning a three.

Matthew Lee got fouled and nailed both free throws to make the Peacock lead four, Grady missed a three, Edert hauled in the rebound, and after some more free throws, the outcome became inevitable.

With the win, Saint Peter’s became the second 15-seed in as many years to win a game in the first round after Oral Robert knocked off Ohio State in 2021. Daryl Banks III led the way with 27 points, while Edert pitched in with 20 off the bench.

Now, the Peacocks will wait to see if they will take on Murray State or San Francisco in the second round on Saturday.

After last week‘s queso and football challenges, this week on Top Chef Houston, it was time to celebrate Houston’s vibrant Asian community and Asian food scene with a good old fashioned NIGHT MARKET (also the name of favorite Bob Seger song. It’s a soulful bop about lo mein).

This celebration took the form of a kind of Restaurant Wars warm up, where each chef was tasked with cooking a dish for a hundred people from a stall at the night market, based on whatever theme happened to be on the knife that they drew — Indian, Japanese, Chinese, or Filipino.

Hung Hunyh showed up to guest judge, whom you may remember as the winner of Top Chef Miami, aka season three. Gosh, that seems like it was only yesterday. And yet it’s been… (*checks calendar*) FIFTEEN YEARS?! Holy shit this show has been on a long time. Empires have risen and fallen in the time Tom Colicchio has been nitpicking lackluster risottos.

Helping the chefs prepare for this challenge were a handful of local restaurants and popups, including Kiran’s, 7000 Islands, Himalaya, and The Fattest Cow — which my sources assure me was actually named after your mom. She’s massive in the Filipino community. Well, massive anywhere, really.

There was no quickfire challenge this episode, which in theory should make my job of handicapping these chefs easier. Only it didn’t, because last week’s underdogs seemed to become this week’s winners, and vice versa, and now the whole thing is one big pick-em jumble. Which was interesting, because this episode also had arguably the most obvious eliminee of any episode in Top Chef history. Oops, one sec, here comes Gail…

Dang, what were we talking about again? I totally lost my train of thought there for some reason. Not sure why.

RESULTS:

• Top Three: Evelyn, Jackson, Jae*
• Bottom Three: Buddha, Ashleigh, Sam**

*Winner
**Eliminated

Power Rankings (change from last week’s position in parentheses):

13. (-3) ((Eliminated)) Sam Kang

AKA: Ness. Two Luggages. Grillmaster Supreme.

I’m not sure if Sam’s performance this week was an example of when keeping it real goes wrong, an attempt to rebrand a mistake as a personal triumph through sheer force of will, or just a method of pre-empting devastating self-criticism through clowning (the latter of which I understand particularly well).

Sam drew Indian, which was already universally acknowledged as the toughest draw on account of “cooking Indian food for Padma” being one of the most traditional paths to defeat on Top Chef, along with attempting a risotto or cooking “a trio of _____s.” Sam immediately tried to spin this objectively bad draw as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “Sure, sticking the landing is great, but how often do you get the chance to faceplant in front of a supermodel? …Right, guys?”

Sam decided to make “Sam Aloo,” aka potatoes Sam-style, a fairly self-explanatory dish that he nonetheless attempted to “unpack” no less than 17 times. “Get it? Because I’m Sam, and these are potatoes, so these are ‘potatoes a la Sam.’ I know that’s pretty ‘inside baseball’ so I’ve prepared this helpful Power Point presentation to give you some background.”

Sam cooked a medium-successful potato last episode, so I guess he figured his best chance was to cook some more potatoes. Unfortunately, he left his potatoes on the stove (I guess he was trying to par-boil them before putting in the curry?) and his prep time ran out before he could pack them up for service.

A potato curry with no potatoes?? What’s a man to do? Sam’s galaxy brain solution to this problem was to take what potatoes he had left and grill them.

Grilled potatoes! Why hasn’t anyone tried this before? Who wouldn’t want to bite into a nice semi-raw russet potato wedge with some grill marks on it? (“Russet potato, the Chef’s Potato!” Sam joked, at least I’m 90% sure it was a joke, since russets are a garbage potato offering few benefits beyond being big enough to make longer french fries and more substantial baked potatoes).

Brilliant idea, Sam! I can’t count the number of times I’ve smelled some delicious aroma wafting over my backyard fence and shouted to my neighbor “Jeez, smells incredible! Whatcha grillin’ over here, russet potatoes?”

Sam’s Galaxy Brain Grilled Potato Curry set him up for the most no-brainer elimination in the show’s history. Which Sam once again attempted (sarcastically?) to spin as a great opportunity. “I stand behind everything I did, because I’m here to learn,” Sam grinned (the grin of quiet desperation?).

Aw, and what did we learn about grilling potatoes?

Uh… I guess we learned not to do it again.

12. (even) Sarah Welch

AKA: Lula Roe. Aunt Frances.

Notable Quote: “I’m allergic to shellfish, but only the shells.”

Chef Sarah, who nearly went home for her Dessert Hummus Sadpile last week, received the first human interest package of the episode, a Skype call with her husband, who helpfully advised her to cook the kind of thing she’d make for herself at home, but just make it really good. Decent advice! That guy might be a keeper!

Then during the preliminary research, Sarah revealed “I’m allergic to shellfish, but only the shells.”

Hmm, are there any doctors reading this who can confirm? Is being allergic only to the shells of shellfish a thing? Moreover, how does one go about discovering this? Was Sarah just walking around eating crab shells and shrimp peels when she broke out in hives?

Anyway, Sarah, who someone on Twitter suggested reminds them of Melanie Lynskey (not a bad pull, but I make the nicknames around here), drew Vietnamese and decided to make a chicken heart banh mi. Not a bad idea! Using an unusual ingredient but making it palatable is a pretty good way to not go home on Top Chef. It’s like a Reverse Risotto.

But for some reason, she chose to serve her banh mi, which traditionally comes in a delicious mini-baguette which is basically the defining feature of a banh mi, “open-faced.” Which looked to me suspiciously like she just put some sandwich filling on top of a slice of plain white bread on a grill. To be fair, Sarah is from Michigan, and I believe a slice of Wonderbread is considered a delicacy in the Midwest.

Bon appetit! Just go ahead and fold that slice of white bread over! It’s the old “oops we ran out of hot dog buns” method. Sarah managed to stay out of the bottom three this week, but the judges seemed unimpressed.

And on that note, this seemed like yet another dubious decision that the judges could’ve interrogated further. This is becoming theme this season. Luckily for Sarah, the judges had other questions on their minds, like why the fuck Sam decided to grill russet potatoes.

11. (+2) Luke Kolpin

AKA: Liddell. Die Hard. Meekus. Noma… Noma… Noma gonna be in this competition much longer, anyway.

Luke has been looking like a lock to go home soon these past few weeks, but he bought himself some time this week with a solid B+ of a samosa. Luke drew Indian, along with Sam and Buddha, and like Buddha, opted to make a samosa. Unlike Buddha, Luke opted to just listen to the Indian lady’s advice and bake his. Hey, at least the guy can follow directions.

That alone kept him out of the bottom three, but Padma even liked his chutney. And is there a greater feelings in the world than the feeling one gets at the sight of Padma appreciating one’s chutney?

It seems that in being forced out of his culinary comfort zone, Luke, the Noma product (I think they may have forgotten to mention it this episode!) may have accidentally discovered the value of cooking recognizable food that actual humans have been known to eat. Unsurprisingly his samosa fared much better than last week’s room-temperature pumpkin disc topped with seaweed-mushroom sludge, a dish I’m still not entirely convinced that I didn’t hallucinate.

I’m going to need to see a few more actually edible-looking dishes from Luke before I’m ready to call him a favorite, but this bumped him up a few slots.

10. (-5) Ashleigh Shanti

AKA: Moonjuice.

On any other week that didn’t include a chef serving grilled potatoes, Ashleigh probably would’ve gone home for her fried square of tough beef, accompanied by large potato chunk atop undressed raw daikon. Why the giant chunk of top sirloin? Was this the only cut of meat available? And if so, why not slice it thin or pound it out? WHY ISN’T ANYONE ASKING THESE QUESTIONS?

I guess the judges got too hung up on the raw daikon, which surely would’ve sent Ashleigh home had she served it any other week as the one that included grilled russet wedges.

Ashleigh has been solid up until, now so it’s anyone’s guess where she belongs on the rankings. One thing is for certain though, she owes Sam a fruit basket.

9. (-2) Monique Feybesse

AKA: Pebbles Flintstone. Henrietta Hawk.

Monique was barely in this episode. She drew Chinese and made some rice cakes with fermented beans and pork belly, which sounded and looked really good, but the judges thought were bland. I dunno, I’m racking my brain for something interesting to say about Monique here. She didn’t yell at anyone this episode. That was a little disappointing.

8. (-4) Jo Chan

AKA: Sarge. Smiles.

I’ve been calling Sarge “Smiles” ironically because she tends to get super serious when describing her food. But this week she assured us that “anxiety makes me funnier.”

Citation needed, I guess? Also, what anxiety? Jo, who is “culturally Filipino,” according to last week’s episode, drew Filipino food this week. Shouldn’t serving food within your wheelhouse lessen the anxiety? Jo’s dish felt like it should’ve been a lay up, but instead she served a bland chicken skewer with fancy condiments. I’m expecting better food and more hilarious jokes in the weeks to come. Lenny Bruce in a chef’s coat over here.

7. (+4) Jae Jung

AKA: Noodles.

After a few weeks near the bottom of the pack, Jae brought home the big win this week. Her million-ingredient noodles from the Hong Kong market, combining udon noodles, Korean melon, and ramen crumble (garnish game strong) had the judges, according to Gail Simmons, speechless, and “deep in slurp mode.”

Wow, that’s crazy, I’ve always said that your mom lives life one slurp mode at a time.

Jae won the whole challenge, so you could make the case that she deserves to be ranked higher. Does she?? Honestly, I have no idea with this one. I’ve so little to work with here that I’ve resorted to cheap mom jokes and nicknaming her “Noodles” because she made noodles. Would it kill you guys to give me a storyline to work with here? Sheesh.

6. (-3) Buddha Lo

AKA: Mr. International. Big Pun. Asian Ben Mendelsohn.

Buddha, who is Malaysian and grew up in Australia, this week drew Indian. Ignoring the advice of his Indian mentor, he decided to deep fry his puff-pastry samosa rather than bake it, which led to a greasy exterior and an undercooked, partly gooey center (is gooey really such a bad thing with puff pastry?), if the judges were to be believed.

That landed him in the bottom three, much to the befuddlement of Buddha, who grew up eating deep-fried curry puffs and had received only positive feedback from his diners. He couldn’t seem to let it go, which seems like very un-Buddhist behavior if you ask me.

Buddha has been one of my favorites from the beginning of this competition, but the fact that a guy with some Indian roots couldn’t make a good samosa or chutney (Padma was DISGUSTED with Buddha’s chutney) should give us pause. Not to mention the fact that a dude raised in Australia nearly went home for what was essentially a meat pie, the national dish of Australia. I’m starting to wonder if Buddha was ever really a favorite or if I’m just biased by my own Australophilia and the fact that when I close my eyes Buddha kind of sounds like Ben Mendolsohn.

5. (+1) Robert Hernandez

AKA: Damian.

Was Robert even in this episode? I know he made something with shrimp paste, which Hung described as “definitely down and dirty.” Padma and Gail were pleased, they love getting down and dirty almost as much as being in slurp mode oh god take away my keyboard. Meanwhile, Tom commented, “I liked the shrimp paste, I just thought there was too much of it.”

Well sure, yeah. You never want to be overpowered by shrimp paste. GIVE ME A MORE MODERATE AMOUNT OF SHRIMP PASTE, YOU ABSOLUTE FOOL!

4. (+5) Evelyn Garcia

AKA: Cuddles.

After a couple of off weeks, Cuddles nearly took home the victory this week for her chilled chicken salad on a sesame crisp covered in chilis with avocado crema, which out of all the dishes this week, arguably looked the tastiest. Which is not something I normally say about cold chicken.

Cuddles is so sweet-natured that she didn’t even respond in kind to Gail’s accusation-disguised-as-a-question: “Is that fresh rambutan?”

YEAH, THE FUCKIN’ RAMBUTAN IS FUCKIN’ FRESH, GAIL. I’M NOT AN IDIOT.

That’s probably how I would’ve responded, but Cuddles is nice as hell.

3. (+5) Jackson Kalb

AKA: Magoo. Andrew Lunk. Leghorn. Lurch. Bateman. Napholeon Dynamite.

Look, I admit it, I’m basically punting on 75% of the rankings this week because these chefs are about as consistent as Kanye West on an ether binge. At least Leghorn here gives me some nickname material. Andrew Lunk the Great Magoo drew Vietnamese this week, asking his mentor, in a gloriously breathy monotone, “What are the stable herbs in Vietnamese cuisine?”

It came out in virtually the same tone of voice as “Do the chickens have large talons?”

Unfortunately, I have to acknowledge that despite his Lurch-like appearance and occasionally Napoleon Dynamite-like voice, Jackson might actually be a genius. He decided to serve a spring roll (which has had mixed results in this competition, from the highs of Buddha’s Nacho Average Spring Roll last episode to the lows of Leia’s tough meat bladder infection disaster in episode one) — which meh in and of itself, if not for the decision to present it with a dipping sauce made from reduced Pho. Even the Vietnamese restaurant owners reacted with something like “holy shit, why didn’t we ever think of that?”

And he did it all despite still lacking a sense of smell because of COVID, something he’s contractually required to bring up at least 12 times per episode. Nice job, phoker.

2. (even) Nick Wallace

AKA: Domingo. Chocolate Mormon.

Does Nick deserve the number two spot? He missed out on the top three this week, but he won last week, so… I’m just keeping him here because who the hell really knows.

Anyway, the Mississippi-bred father of six drew Japanese food, which he’s never cooked before, but was relieved when his Japanese food mentors served karaage — aka fried chicken. Nick promptly, smartly served up some Japanese-spiced fried chicken of his own, which received positive reviews all around. It’s hard to go wrong with fried chicken, one of the most universally beloved foods, which seem to transcend time and culture. I watched this episode and immediately made fried chicken. It’s a no-brainer in concept, but easy to screw up in the execution, especially when you’re cooking for a hundred. I’m keeping Nick near the top for now.

1. (even) Damarr Brown

AKA: James Beard. Catchphrase.

The eternally-fed-up-with-your-shit-sounding Damarr had the other brilliant innovation of the episode: ham hock miso soup, which had me saying “oh fuck yeah” to my TV screen. It was embarrassing, but come on. That sounds amazing. He served it with togarashi hot sauce, and I don’t even really know what the main component of the dish was there but I know I want to eat it.

Damarr is keeping his head down and cooking good food every week, though he has his guard up so much that it doesn’t always make for good TV. Nonetheless, I would like to subscribe to his newsletter.

Personalities are great, but with the relative dearth of drama, not to mention engaging characters this season, maybe it’s time for the Top Chef producers to get a little more granular with the food. How many ham hocks are in that broth? At what temperature did Nick fry that karaage? What did Evelyn put in that avocado crema? I think there’s a way to get a little nerdier here without losing the spirit of the show or turning it into Alton Brown.

Which is to say: the nitpicks can never be bitchy enough. Let’s get in there, judges, really carve these f*ckers up like a Christmas goose. Canned rambutan? You’re banished from the house! Broken rice? Get the rope! Turgid souffle? OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

Read the rest of our Top Chef Power Rankings here. Vince Mancini is on Twitter.

Justin Bieber is nearly a month into his Justice World Tour, as he finally kicked it off last month following a series of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. Across the string of shows that continue until March 2023, with a few breaks in between of course, Bieber will have Jaden, ¿Téo?, Eddie Benjamin, and Harry Hudson serve as opening acts at different points on the tour. The Justice World Tour has experienced a few bumps, like a COVID-19 outbreak during its first week, but things continued to run smoothly until a recent stop in Denver. It’s here that Justin used the opportunity to speak about his wife’s Hailey recent hospitalization.

“You know, it’s kind of crazy how life randomly throws you curveballs,” Justin said in a video captured by a fan after an electrical fire caused the power to go out during his performance in Denver. “You know, we can’t really control much. You know, tonight the power cutting out. Obviously, you guys know, most of you probably know or seen the news about my wife.” He continued, “But she’s OK, she’s good, she’s strong. But it’s been scary, you know? Like, it’s been really scary. But I know for a fact that God has her in the palm of his hands and that’s a good thing.”

His comments come after Hailey shared a message about her hospitalization and revealed what caused it in the first place. “On Thursday morning, I was sitting at breakfast with my husband when I started having stroke like symptoms and was taken to the hospital,” Hailey wrote on her Instagram Story. “They found I had suffered a very small blood clot to my brain, which caused a small lack of oxygen, but my body had passed it on its own and I recovered completely within a few hours.”

You can view the fan-captured video of Justin above.

There is no matchup in the NCAA Tournament that is more popular for upset picks than the 5-12, where just about every year at least one 12-seed advances to the second round and takes plenty of brackets down in the process.

On Thursday, we got two such games as both Iowa and UConn were taken down by their 12-seeded opponents, with Richmond edging out Iowa in the afternoon window before New Mexico State went just about wire-to-wire on the Huskies. It was a hideous start for both teams in Buffalo, as UConn led 6-5 at the under-12 media timeout, but eventually, the Aggies started to find their footing and took control of the game, leading 32-22 at the halftime break.

In the second half, they extend that lead out to as many as 14, as Teddy Allen etched his name in March Madness lore with a herculean effort to lead the Aggies. Allen scored 37 of New Mexico State’s 69 points in what ended up being a 69-63 win, going 10-of-24 from the floor and creating some tough buckets as he had a sensational night against the Huskies.

On the other side, UConn’s RJ Cole started to cook a little bit, finishing the night with 20 points, as the Huskies mounted a run to cut into the New Mexico State lead, getting it down to one on this three-pointer with under seven minutes to play and eventually tying it up at 52-52 with just over five minutes on the clock.

However, they simply didn’t have answers for Allen, who made some tough buckets and attacked the UConn defense to get himself to the line throughout the close of the game, scoring the final 14 points of the game for the Aggies to close out the win, headlined by a go-ahead three with the game tied at 58-58 with under two minutes to play, and an and-1 bucket to go up six with 30 seconds to play.

The Aggies will face the winner of Arkansas-Vermont on Saturday, as they make their first trip to the second round since 1993. For UConn, it’s a gutting way to go out on a night where they simply could not get their offense going, shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from three-point range.

Chances are good that if you asked Marjorie Taylor Greene the exact same question 10 times in a row, you’d get 11 totally different—and mostly contradictory—answers. Which is why most people treat her as if she’s “some kind of crazy person” (and she hates that, by the way). But given that she’s an elected lawmaker, her general lack of knowledge about everything from history to politics to gazpacho should be alarming to anyone with a brain. Especially when even she doesn’t seem to know where she stands on an issue like Russia’s war with Ukraine.

At the moment, as Raw Story reports, Greene’s opinion seems to be that she doesn’t care about Ukraine because “real Americans” don’t care about Ukraine. On Thursday afternoon, the Georgia congresswoman addressed the House to let everyone know how tired she is of hearing and talking about Ukraine:

“All we’re hearing is ‘potential war with Russia over Ukraine.’ Ukraine is not a NATO member ally and President Biden had told them we would only be standing with our NATO member allies. All we’re hearing on the news is ‘Ukraine.’ But yet here in America, what real Americans care about is gas prices they can’t afford, inflation that goes up and up to where grocery bills are unaffordable, and they’re very concerned about our out-of-control open border.

“Crime is out of control, but yet Washington has completely disconnected and seems to care more about sending our sons and daughters to a potential war where they do not belong. So I’d like to urge my colleagues here in Congress, instead of working on a future COVID bill—spending billions of dollars on COVID that doesn’t exist—let’s care about our border and let’s care about working to have energy independence to lower gas prices for Americans.”

This is, of course, a very different sentiment than we got from Wednesday’s version of Marjorie Greene Taylor. Yesterday, she posted a 10-minute Facebook video proclaiming just how much she cares about the people of Ukraine, and that’s why she doesn’t want to give them false hope “to fight a war they cannot possibly win” (despite informed opinions to the contrary).

Shortly before she posted that video, she was in the crowd when all of Congress gave Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a standing ovation, while she neglected to clap and fiddled with her phone.

But tomorrow’s another day, and with it, quite possibly, another MTG entirely.

(Via Raw Story)

The 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament saw a return to full arenas for the first time since 2019, which has brought a familiar and welcome sense of atmosphere to the games that were missing a year ago.

However, there are benefits to having full arenas and all the pageantry of college basketball on the sidelines and in the stands beyond just atmosphere, as we learned in St. Mary’s-Indiana on Thursday night. After an errant shot, the basketball got stuck on top of the backboard and was out of reach of anyone and anything they had courtside, with an official even trying and failing to stand on a chair with the floor mop to get it.

As the delay wore on, Indiana’s cheerleading squad stepped up to the plate, putting one cheerleader on another’s shoulders to walk over to the backboard before he lifted her up to snatch the ball off the top to raucous applause (and an all-time call from Andrew Catalon on the call for TBS).

It really is an incredible moment in a game that had gotten away from the Hoosiers and brought a little life to the arena in a surprising way. Unfortunately for Indiana, this very well may end up as their top highlight from the game, but kudos to those cheerleaders for some quick thinking and quality fundamentals on the lift to pluck that ball off the top of the backboard.