SIUE's Ray'Sean Taylor broke down in tears after NCAA loss. The chance to play meant that much

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SIUE's Ray'Sean Taylor broke down in tears after NCAA loss. The chance to play meant that much

2025-03-21 06:12 Last Updated At：06:21

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The best assist that Brian Taylor II made on Thursday after SIU Edwardsville had been routed by Houston in the school's first trip to the NCAA Tournament came long after the teams had walked off the floor.

His buddy, Ray'Sean Taylor, was asked about the memories he'd take away from the day, and for him it had been the culmination of a dream. Ray'Sean grew up 20 minutes away from campus in Collinsville, Illinois, and he overcame two torn ACLs to shepherd the unheralded Cougars to an Ohio Valley Conference championship and a No. 16 seed in the March Madness field.

The score of the game — a 78-40 loss that was never really close — hardly mattered to him.

“We won a championship, at the end of the day. I think that's going to cement everything I worked for and everything I went through,” Ray'Sean Taylor said, before his words began to stumble, tears began to flow, and the senior guard broke down in sobs.

His coach, Brian Barone, put his arm around him. Tears were forming in Barone's eyes, too.

That's when Brian Taylor stepped in to help his friend out.

“It's about bouncing back, having the attitude to fight adversity,” he said, while Ray'Sean Taylor tried to compose himself. “This dude right here, he's been through a lot. It's a testament to his character, his work ethic, his community.”

“It's one team,” Brian Taylor said, “and it really is one family.”

It was the kind of raw, endearing moment that underscores exactly what the NCAA Tournament means to those who play in it, and the kind that Houston coach Kelvin Sampson hopes is always a part of it.

As power leagues continue to push for NCAA Tournament expansion, perhaps to 72 or 76 teams in the near future, small schools from low- and mid-major conferences are concerned they might be further marginalized. The extra at-large bids will be handed out to the Big 12, Big Ten, Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences, while smaller schools will be relegated to First Four-type games, and perhaps even have the automatic berths that are given to all conference champions eliminated altogether.

“This game is bigger than any individuals,” Sampson said matter-of-factly. “The people who sit in these back rooms and try to make decisions on kids’ experiences, sometimes those people forget where they came from.”

Sampson certainly hasn’t forgotten. He played at Pembroke State, a Division II school in North Carolina, and his first real coaching job came at Montana Tech, an NAIA school, because nobody else was willing to give him a chance.

“Having conference tournaments and having a chance to play for this tournament is great incentives for teams. It keeps teams in it,” he said. “Most of these low- to mid-major conferences are one-bid leagues, and you never know if you can catch lightning in a bottle. Win three games and you’re in. And once you’re in, you never know.

“I hope we never get to a point where we don’t allow everybody a chance to be involved in this and make memories for them.”

Barone had hoped for a better showing Thursday. Everyone from SIUE did, including the thousands of fans who made the drive across Missouri to watch their team. If they didn't outnumber fans from Houston, Georgia or Gonzaga, they certainly were louder, even when their team was trailing by 30 and hope had long been extinguished.

“We won a championship,” said Barone, whose father, Tony Barone, was a longtime college coach. “We earned the right to be seeded where we were seeded. That's how it works. ... That's what we did. That's what we earned.”

While top-seeded Houston was putting the finishing touches on its seventh straight first-round NCAA Tournament win Thursday, the 69-year-old Sampson did something curious: He began to watch SIUE players rather than his own.

“I got tired of looking at us,” he said later, “so I was really focused on their kids, and I was thinking, ‘What a great memory for them.’ They'll have this tape to show to their kids one day. ‘We played in the greatest event in the world, March Madness.’”

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New Social Security requirements pose barriers to rural communities without internet, transportation

2025-03-22 21:53 Last Updated At：22:01

WELCH, W.Va. (AP) — Veronica Taylor doesn't know how to turn on a computer, let alone use the internet.

The 73-year-old can't drive and is mostly housebound in her mountainous and remote West Virginia community, where a simple trip to the grocery store can take an hour by car.

New requirements that Social Security recipients access key benefits online or in person at a field office, rather than on the phone, would be nearly impossible to meet without help.

“If that’s the only way I had to do it, how would I do it?” Taylor said, talking about the changes while eating a plate of green beans, mac and cheese and fried fish with a group of retirees at the McDowell County Senior Center. “I would never get nothing done.”

The requirements, set to go into effect March 31, are intended to streamline processes and combat widespread fraud within the system, according to President Donald Trump and officials in his administration.

They say that's why it's vital for people to verify their identity online or in person when signing up for benefits, or making a change like where the money is deposited.

But advocates say the changes will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable Americans. It will be harder to visit field offices in rural areas with high poverty rates. Often these are the same areas that lack widespread internet service.

Many Social Security field offices are also being shut down, part of the federal government's cost-cutting efforts. That could mean seniors have to travel even farther to visit, including in parts of rural West Virginia.

Donald Reed, who runs a local nonprofit that operates two senior centers, said he has serious concerns about the policy change, and how it’ll affect the people his group serves.

“I’m not anti-Trump — let me say that,” he said. “I think the general public greatly supports looking for waste in government. I do not think the general public understands the consequences of the current actions of the government.”

One in three people live in poverty in McDowell County, once one of the nation’s largest coal producers. Around 30% of the population receives Social Security benefits and 20% lack broadband access. People already face huge challenges in accessing basic needs like food and clothing.

Non-profit groups like The Commission on Aging receive money from the federal government to provide rides to the grocery store, medical appointments and free lunch at the county senior center, and could in theory add a stop to the local Social Security office said Reed, who is the group’s director.

But the transportation grant money is already not enough to meet the need. Last year, Reed ran out of money during the last three months of the fiscal year and had to dip into the Commission’s savings. This year, he said he won’t be able to do so.

Then, last Friday, he found out the Commission had lost an almost $1 million grant he expected, again because of the federal government’s cost cutting.

He had planned to use the money to rebuild one of the two county senior centers, an aging 1980s-era doublewide trailer with limited seating.

“Once the money’s gone, you know, the money’s gone,” he said.

Seniors at the center gather each weekday for lunch. Usually, they might play bingo or cards. On this day, because of the presence of a reporter from The Associated Press, the conversation turned to politics.

Many are Trump supporters. Every county in West Virginia supported Trump in three presidential elections.

Yet all agreed that the recent flurry of executive orders had been difficult to follow, especially since the county’s last local newspaper shuttered, and they weren’t sure what effect they’d have on their lives.

“I don’t understand a lot of the stuff that’s going on right now, and I just can’t pinpoint things together, you know,” said Brenda Hughes, 72, who said she usually goes to the Social Security office in person anyway because she said she’s found it difficult to get a hold of the call center. “But maybe it’s meant to be like that.”

Mary Weaver, 72, said she doesn’t approve of Trump giving Elon Musk so much leeway to cut and change services, and she doesn’t see those measures helping McDowell County.

“He gone run for president, and he’s going to get the presidency, but he’s going to let someone else tell him how to run the country?” she asked, criticizing Trump’s relationship with Musk.

Other residents aren't concerned. Barbara Lester, 64, said she wishes she could sit down with Trump and Musk and tell them they’re doing a fantastic job.

“And with all the money they’re saving from the fraud, they could afford to give their senior citizens an increase,” said Lester, who is retired from construction work.

But for Taylor, who depends on rides from the aging commission for most of her outings, the changes to Social Security may be just one more thing that will be difficult.

There are already many places she wants to go and can’t get to. None of her grandkids live nearby, her daughter lives in Roanoke, Virginia, and her 39-year-old son, who used to live in the Welch area near her, died. The walk from her house to the Social Security office is six miles.

“If I ask people more than two times to take me somewhere, it’s like begging. And I don’t beg nobody to do nothing for me,” she said. “I’m independent like that. I don’t beg nobody for nothing."