Last season couldn't have ended quickly enough for Miami. The Hurricanes — who were coming off a Final Four trip in 2023 — started 11-2 and were ranked as high as No. 8 in the AP Top 25 early last season.
Then came a thud. The Hurricanes lost 15 of their final 19 games to end the season, going 0-10 to close that miserable stretch.
The roster, as happens now in college basketball, has been totally overhauled. Nijel Pack, Matthew Cleveland and Paul Djobet are the only returning players, though Pack — a serious 3-point threat — and the versatile Cleveland played big roles last season.
Nijel Pack (graduate student, SG, 6-0, 13.3 ppg). Pack has thought about going to the NBA in each of the last two years, and certainly has a skill that will make teams at that level take notice: the ability to shoot from deep. When he's healthy, he can be lethal.
Matthew Cleveland (senior, F, 6-7, 13.7 ppg). He's a jack-of-all-trades guy for the Hurricanes who can shoot, pass and defend, plus has the versality to play a number of positions in a number of ways.
Lynn Kidd (graduate student, C, 6-10, 13.2 ppg at Virginia Tech). Kidd's tour of the ACC continues — he started college at Clemson, then went to Virginia Tech, had a breakout year last season in Year 4 of college and now looks to finish this chapter at Miami.
Kidd is the big get; Hurricanes fans might remember him going 8 for 8 against Miami last year at the start of the season-ending freefall. Fellow transfer Jalen Blackmon is a guard from Stetson with more than 1,000 points in his college career, and guard Jalil Bethea was a five-star recruit and a big part of one of the nation's top recruiting classes.
Miami opens at home Nov. 4 against Fairleigh Dickinson, gets a big test on Dec. 3 against John Calipari and Arkansas in the SEC-ACC Challenge and plays Tennessee in New York a week after that. Miami faces Duke twice and goes to North Carolina in league play plus has a West Coast trip at new ACC rivals Stanford and California in January.
Coach Jim Larrañaga is 10 wins shy of 750 for his career. ... The telltale sign about what was different from the Final Four team and last year's team? The Final Four team went 9-6 against NCAA Tournament teams; last year's team went 1-8. ... Expect this team to try to get to the line more. Miami was tied for 324th nationally in free throws made and 342nd in free throws attempted last season.
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FILE - Miami's head coach Jim Larranaga gestures during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Clemson, Jan. 3, 2024, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)
FILE - Miami guard Nijel Pack drives past Florida International guard George Pridgett Jr. (31) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Nov. 13, 2023, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Jim Rassol, File)
Rudy Giuliani must turn over a variety of his assets to two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him, including his New York City apartment, more than two dozen watches, sports memorabilia and a 1980 Mercedes, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
But U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan also said Giuliani does not have to give the election workers three New York Yankees World Series rings or his Florida condominium — for now — noting those assets are tied up in other litigation.
The property Giuliani must relinquish is expected to fetch several million dollars for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. They won the $148 million judgment over Giuliani’s false ballot fraud claims against them related to the 2020 presidential election. They said Giuliani pushed Donald Trump’s lies about the election being stolen, which led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.
Under Tuesday's order, Giuliani must turn over within seven days his Manhattan apartment, estimated at more than $5 million, as well his interest in about $2 million that he says Trump's 2020 presidential campaign owes him for his services.
Also on the list of assets that must be given to Freeman and Moss are a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL 500 previous owned by the actress Lauren Bacall, a shirt and picture signed, respectively, by Yankees legends Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson, a signed Yankee Stadium picture, a diamond ring, costume jewelry and 26 watches, including a Rolex, five Shinolas, two Bulovas and a Tiffany & Co.
One of those watches was given to Giuliani by his grandfather and he asked that he be allowed to keep it because of its sentimental value. But Liman rejected the request, saying Giuliani could have had it exempted if he proved it was worth less than $1,000 but he did not do so. The judge added, “However painful the circumstances, a party cannot claim that every family heirloom should be exempt.”
Liman wrote that Giuliani's surrendering of the assets to Freeman and Moss would “ensure that the liquidation of the transferred assets is accomplished quickly and consistently by the Plaintiffs’ chosen counsel, maximizing the sale value of the unique and intangible items and therefore increasing the likelihood of satisfaction of the Plaintiffs’ judgment.”
Lawyers for Giuliani did not immediately return email messages on Tuesday.
To date, Giuliani has not paid Freeman and Moss anything.
“We are proud that our clients will finally begin to receive some of the compensation to which they are entitled for Giuliani’s actions,” Aaron Nathan, a lawyer for Freeman and Moss, said in a statement. “This outcome should send a powerful message that there is a price to pay for those who choose to intentionally spread disinformation.”
Giuliani had asked the judge to bar Freeman and Moss from selling any of his assets until after his appeal of the $148 million judgment is completed. Liman also turned down that request, saying Giuliani could have asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., where Freeman and Moss won their defamation case, to stay any asset sales pending his appeal, but did not.
“The Court also does not doubt that certain of the items may have sentimental value to Defendant,” the judge wrote. “But that does not entitle Defendant to continued enjoyment of the assets to the detriment of the Plaintiffs to whom he owes approximately $150 million. It is, after all, the underlying policy of these New York statutes that ‘no man should be permitted to live at the same time in luxury and in debt.’”
As for the World Series rings, Giuliani's son, Andrew, filed court documents earlier this month saying he actually is the rightful owner. He said his father gave him four rings — one for each of the Yankees’ championships in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 — as gifts in 2018. Rudy Giuliani received the rings during his tenure as mayor of New York City. The younger Giuliani's claim is pending in federal court in Manhattan.
Freeman and Moss also asked Liman to order Rudy Giuliani to turn over his condo in Palm Beach, Florida, estimated to be worth more than $3 million. But that property is tied up in other litigation, with Giuliani claiming it should be exempt because it is his primary residence. Freeman and Moss have a lien on the Florida property.
Liman said he would take up the Florida condo at a hearing set for Oct. 28, and he barred Rudy Giuliani from selling the property or taking any action that would diminish its value in the meantime.
After the $148 million verdict, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy, which froze attempts by Freeman and Moss to collect the award. But a judge in July threw out the case citing repeated “uncooperative conduct,” including a failure to comply with court orders and disclose sources of income.
FILE - Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother, Ruby Freeman, right, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside federal court in Washington, Dec. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
