Auburn goes from early turbulence with players in the air to landing in the NCAA Final Four

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Auburn goes from early turbulence with players in the air to landing in the NCAA Final Four

2025-04-04 18:00 Last Updated At：18:11

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Auburn's season began with some real turbulence on its first trip.

While it is unclear exactly what happened in the air on Nov. 8, other than there was some kind of in-flight disturbance between players, the plane carrying the Tigers returned home and left two players there. The rest of the team then went on to win at Houston the next day in their first road game.

“I do believe that that plane ride, figuratively and literally, turned our season around,” starting center Dylan Cardwell said.

“That actually made us closer,” guard Denver Jones said.

Nearly five months later, the team's final flight this season landed in San Antonio this week with Auburn as the No. 1 overall seed in a NCAA Final Four filled with top seeds.

The Tigers (32-5) play in the first national semifinal game on Saturday against Southeastern Conference foe Florida (34-4), which beat them 90-81 on Feb. 8.

Houston (34-4) is in the other semi against Duke (35-3), which won at home against Auburn in early December.

About 40 minutes after taking off for that trip to Houston, the plane turned around and landed back at home.

“We had two players that got into a physical altercation, clothes were ripped,” the pilot was heard saying to air traffic controllers in audio obtained by WBRC-TV.

When asked Thursday what happened on that plane, Cardwell responded with a chuckle, “Next question, next question."

Freshman guard Jahki Howard and senior forward Ja'Heim Hudson, a transfer from SMU, weren't with the Tigers when they took off again. That was only two days after both played at least 15 minutes in the season opener. Howard missed four more games after the win in Houston before playing again, and Hudson was out two more.

Coach Bruce Pearl talked about how proud he was of how his team came together after 11th-ranked Auburn beat No. 4 Houston 74-69. He has never specifically addressed publicly what happened on the flight.

That win over the Cougars in the home of the NBA's Houston Rockets was an early statement for an Auburn team that had matched its best AP preseason ranking in 25 years.

Freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford scored 21 points with five 3-pointers while Johni Broome had 20 points and nine rebounds in a win that had even more significance for the Tigers.

“We knew if we lost that game it was going to be something that followed us the rest of the season,” Cardwell said.

Instead, it was part of a 7-0 start before the loss at Duke. They then won 14 more games before their home loss to Florida.

“I think the plane ride really helped us out. I'm so serious. We had a heart-to-heart that night,” Cardwell said. “And I think after beating Houston, that gave us confidence. That’s when we knew we were a really good team.”

The Tigers spent eight consecutive weeks as the nation's No. 1 team, even maintaining the top spot in the AP poll that came after losing to the Gators.

Auburn's other three losses came in the four games before the NCAA Tournament, against Texas A&M and Alabama to finish the regular season before falling to Tennessee in their second game at the SEC tournament.

“It just shows how special this team is,” Pettiford said. “Obviously going through a lot of obstacles this year, going through some ups and downs, but just being able to stay together and fight through everything and be able to make it where we wanted to make it is amazing.”

A highly touted recruit, Howard scored seven points while playing 20 minutes in a lopsided season-opening win over Vermont. He is now averaging 4.2 points and 1.1 rebound in his 21 games, and hasn't gotten into a game since they got to the Sweet 16 after playing two minutes in each of the first two rounds of this NCAA Tournament.

Howard, without getting into details, said the incident did have an impact on his first college season.

“Of course it did. Obviously overall, like me not playing as much, you know, that kind of played a role,” Howard said after Auburn's first practice in San Antonio. “It's just another learning point. Everybody has mistakes and everybody’s not perfect.”

With Auburn's starting lineup filled with four seniors and a graduate transfer, Howard said he has matured and gained experience by being around those older players.

“Talking to them and just listening and hearing the things that they went through in the past, especially like throughout the tournament,” he said. “How to be a winner, I feel like that’s the biggest thing being at Auburn ... learning how to be a winner.”

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.

Ecuador's incumbent president and a leftist lawyer again vie for the top job in election runoff

2025-04-14 02:07 Last Updated At：02:11

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorians are voting Sunday in the country’s presidential election runoff, facing the choice between incumbent President Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González.

Noboa, a conservative young millionaire, and González have both promised voters solutions to the extortions, killings, kidnappings and other crimes that became part of everyday life as the country emerged from the pandemic. Analysts expect the result in Sunday’s vote to have a very tight margin.

It’s the second presidential runoff election in less than two years in the South American country, where voting is mandatory.

Voters chose Noboa over González in the runoff of a snap election in October 2023. The candidates advanced to Sunday’s contest after polling most votes in February’s first-round election. Noboa won 44.17% of the votes while González garnered 44%.

Voters are primarily worried about the violence that transformed the country, starting in 2021 — a spike in crime tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru.

Both candidates have promised tough-on-crime policies, better equipment for law enforcement and international help to fight drug cartels and local criminal groups.

“My vote is clear,” said Irene Valdez, a retiree who voted for Noboa. “I want to continue living in freedom.”

Martín Constante, a 19-year-old university student, had a different view. “I think Luisa is going to change things, because Noboa has been very authoritarian,” he said. “Our country needs a lot of changes.”

More than 13 million people are eligible to vote, which is mandatory for adults up to the age of 65. It is optional for people aged 16 and 17 and over 65. Failure to vote results in a $46 fine.

In 2023, Noboa and González were largely unknown to most voters as they sought the presidency for the first time. They were first-term lawmakers in May 2023, when then-President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly, shortening his own mandate as a result and triggering that year’s snap election.

Noboa’s first foray into politics was his stint as lawmaker. An heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, Noboa opened an event-organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas.

González, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Rafael Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president.

Noboa, 37, declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” in January 2024, allowing him to deploy thousands of soldiers to the streets to combat gangs and to charge people with terrorism counts for alleged ties to organized crime groups.

Under his watch, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023, to 38.76 per 100,000 people in 2024. But despite the decrease, the rate remained far higher than the 6.85 homicides per 100,000 people seen in 2019.

Some of Noboa’s heavy-handed crime-fighting tactics have come under scrutiny for testing the limits of laws and norms of governing. He has also been criticized for allegations of electoral anomalies he made after February’s vote.

Following the first-round election, Noboa said there had been “many irregularities” and that in certain provinces “there were things that didn’t add up.” He provided no further details or evidence. Electoral observers from the Organization of American States and the European Union ruled out fraud.

Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.