SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Florida’s Alex Condon has already been through the physical battle with Auburn’s Johni Broome and came out the other side battered but victorious.
Now come the muscular Houston Cougars in the fight for the national championship in the NCAA Tournament final. It’s time for the Aussie to lean into those skills he learned in the rough-and-tumble world of Australian rules football, where he also is a promising prospect.
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Auburn's Miles Kelly (13) looks to pass the ball as Florida's Alex Condon (21) and Rueben Chinyelu defend during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Florida center Rueben Chinyelu shoots over Auburn center Dylan Cardwell during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Duke forward Cooper Flagg drives to the basket past Houston forward Joseph Tugler during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Duke forward Cooper Flagg slips as Houston forward Joseph Tugler looks on during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Houston's J'Wan Roberts (13) celebrates after Houston beat Duke in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Houston forward J'Wan Roberts dunks past Duke guard Kon Knueppel during the first half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Houston's J'Wan Roberts (13) reacts during the first half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Florida forward Alex Condon and forward Thomas Haugh celebrate their win against Auburn in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Auburn's Tahaad Pettiford (0) goes up for a shot as Florida's Alex Condon (21) defends during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Auburn's Tahaad Pettiford (0) goes up for a shot as Florida's Alex Condon (21) defends during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The 6-foot-11 Gators sophomore forward at times looked overwhelmed by Broome's physical play, as he got backed into the basket or struggled to find his own position against Auburn's beefy front line.
“That game was the most physical game I've had all season,” Condon said Sunday.
He scored just one point and missed all five shots, but he persevered, and was still on the court late, drawing a key charge on Broome and challenging shots.
And that's where the Australian rules football comes in.
Condon was a rising prospect in that sport when he signed a deal with a professional club that he calls a fallback in case basketball “doesn't work out.”
But for now, he's taking the hard-knocks experiences of playing “footy” and the bodies crashing on the Aussie oval to the hardcourt.
“After I played football, it was the most physical basketball I’ve played because I wasn’t scared to get hit and I was able to initiate physicality with guys who are stronger than me," Condon said. “Don’t be scared or back down.”
Enter Houston.
The Cougars' J'Wan Roberts is a 6-foot-8, 23-year-old sixth-year center who gives up 3 inches to Condon but more than makes up for it in muscle and sheer determination to own every inch of space near the basket. Joseph Tugler is a sophomore carbon copy of Roberts and the Cougars' shutdown defender.
Tugler had four blocks in Houston's semifinal upset of Duke. Roberts disrupted Duke star Cooper Flagg's potential game-winner in the final seconds.
“You look at a guy like Tugler, Roberts, they have incredible length and athleticism and physicality inside the paint," Florida coach Todd Golden said. “They wear you down, make it really hard on you.”
Condon won't have to go it alone. The Gators counter with a rotation of 6-10, 260-pound Rueben Chinyelu, 7-1 Micah Handlogten, and 6-9 Thomas Haugh.
Haugh played the most against Auburn and scored 12 points in 25 minutes even though he also got caught in a few physical mismatches with Broome. Chinyelu grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
“We've got taller guys. We just have to play with elite-level energy and pace,” Condon said.
Chinyelu said he's ready for that.
“You have to go in with the mentality that this is war. It's down to two teams,” Chinyelu said.
Houston takes measure of the Gators' height and length but the Cougars don't seem too impressed. Or worried.
“Duke had size on us, too," Roberts said. “I feel like we have heart.”
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Auburn's Miles Kelly (13) looks to pass the ball as Florida's Alex Condon (21) and Rueben Chinyelu defend during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Florida center Rueben Chinyelu shoots over Auburn center Dylan Cardwell during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Duke forward Cooper Flagg drives to the basket past Houston forward Joseph Tugler during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Duke forward Cooper Flagg slips as Houston forward Joseph Tugler looks on during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Houston's J'Wan Roberts (13) celebrates after Houston beat Duke in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Houston forward J'Wan Roberts dunks past Duke guard Kon Knueppel during the first half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Houston's J'Wan Roberts (13) reacts during the first half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Florida forward Alex Condon and forward Thomas Haugh celebrate their win against Auburn in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Auburn's Tahaad Pettiford (0) goes up for a shot as Florida's Alex Condon (21) defends during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Auburn's Tahaad Pettiford (0) goes up for a shot as Florida's Alex Condon (21) defends during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Like many in the tech industry, Jeremy Lyons used to think of himself as a relatively apolitical guy.
The only time he had participated in a demonstration before now was in the opening days of Donald Trump’s first presidential term, when he joined fellow Google workers walking out of the company’s Silicon Valley campus to protest immigration restrictions. Google’s co-founder and its chief executive officer joined them.
Last weekend was Lyons' second, also against Trump, but it had a very different feel.
The man directing thousands of marchers with a bullhorn in downtown San Jose on April 5 was another tech worker who would not give his full name for fear of being identified by Trump backers. Marchers were urged not to harass drivers of Tesla vehicles, which have gone from a symbol of Silicon Valley’s environmental futurism to a pro-Trump icon. And no tech executives were anywhere to be seen, only months after several had joined Trump at his January inauguration.
To Lyons, 54, the change says as much about what’s happened to Silicon Valley over the past quarter-century as it does about the atmosphere of fear surrounding many Trump critics nowadays.
“One of the things I’ve seen over that time is a shift from a nerdy utopia to a money first, move fast and break things,” Lyons said.
The tech industry's political allegiances remain divided. But as some in the upper echelons of Silicon Valley began shifting to the right politically, many of the tech industry’s everyday workers have remained liberal — but also increasingly nervous and disillusioned. Their mood is in stark contrast to the prominent tech leaders who have embraced a conservative populist ideology.
“I think you're seeing a real gap between the leadership elite here in Silicon Valley and their workforce,” said Ann Skeet, who helps run a center at Santa Clara University studying the ethics of the tech industry.
“The shift hasn’t been for a lot of people,” said Lenny Siegel, a former mayor of Mountain View and longtime liberal activist in the valley. “It’s a handful of people who’ve gotten the attention.”
The biggest example of that is Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and CEO of the world’s best-known electric car company who has taken on a prominent role slashing federal agencies in Trump's administration. Musk has been joined by several tech billionaires, including investor David Sacks, who helped fundraise for Trump's campaign and became the White House’s artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, and venture capitalist Marc Andreesen. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also attended Trump's inauguration in Washington.
Zuckerberg began praising Trump after the then-candidate, angered over money Zuckerberg steered toward local election offices in some states in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, threatened last summer to imprison him. Zuckerberg also donated $1 million to the president's inauguration fund and co-hosted an inauguration reception for billionaire Republican donors.
Trump has filled a number of his administration's posts with billionaires and his support from wealthy tech leaders led Democratic President Joe Biden to warn that the United States risked becoming an oligarchy ruled by elites. During Trump's first term, the valley and its leaders were a bulwark of resistance to the Republican, especially over immigration, given that the industry draws its workforce from around the globe.
It's against that backdrop that thousands of people attended the recent rally at a downtown San Jose park to protest the actions of Trump and Musk.
Santa Clara County, which comprises most of Silicon Valley, swung 8 percentage points toward Trump in November election against Democrat Kamala Harris, matching the shift across California. Even with that swing, the county voted 68% to 28% for the then-vice president and remains a Democratic stronghold.
“We’re still in the belly of the beast,” said Dave Johnson, the new executive director of the Santa Clara GOP, who said the party has gained some new members in the county but few from the tech industry. “If the lake was frozen, there’s a little glimmer on top. I would not say there are cracks in the ice.”
The valley has long leaned Democratic, but with an unusual political mix: a general dislike of getting too involved in Washington’s business coupled with an at-times contradictory mix of libertarian individualism, Bay Area activism and belief in the ability of science to solve the world’s problems.
That has persisted even as the tech industry has changed.
The tech boom was fueled by scrappy startups that catered to their workers’ dreams of changing the world for the better. Google’s motto was “don’t be evil,” a phrase it removed from its code of conduct by 2018, when it and other companies such as Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, had grown into multinational behemoths. The companies have had layoffs in recent years, a shock to an industry that not long ago seemed poised for unlimited growth.
Entrepreneurs once dreamed of building startups that would change the world, said Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University professor who has been studying Silicon Valley culture for more than 20 years.
“Now,” she said, “if you’re part of a startup, you’re hoping you’ll be absorbed in a way that’s profitable.”
Even before some prominent tech leaders shifted toward Trump, there was mounting discontent among some in the industry over its direction. IdaRose Sylvester runs a business promoting a Silicon Valley-style approach to entrepreneurs in other countries.
“I feel sick to my stomach now,” she said.
Sylvester was already disenchanted with the growing inequality in the valley and the environmental cost of all the energy needed to power crypto, AI and data centers. She took part in protests against Trump in 2017, but felt that energy fade once he lost the 2020 election to Biden.
“I saw a lot of people get out of politics once Biden won. There was a feeling it was all OK,” Sylvester said. “It was not all OK.”
It is worse now, she said. She helped organize one of several demonstrations across the valley last weekend during a national day of protests against the new administration.
At first glance, the one in downtown San Jose could have been a typical anti-Trump protest anywhere. A large crowd of largely middle-age and older people carried signs against the president and Musk while chanting against oligarchs.
But it was clearly a Silicon Valley crowd, one still reeling not only from Trump’s challenges to the country’s system of checks and balances but also from the actions of the valley’s top executives.
“The money is all shifting to the wealthiest, and that terrifies me,” said Dianne Wood, who works at a startup. “Unfortunately, you’ve got the Zuckerbergs and Elon Musks of the world who are taking that over.”
“Just coming here, everyone’s saying turn off the facial recognition on your phone,” Wood added. “We’re all scared.”
Kamal Ali, who works in AI, said he felt betrayed by that shift.
“The trust is broken. A lot of employees are very upset by what's going on," he said. "It's going to be different forever.”
Associated Press writer Sarah Parvini in Los Angeles and video journalist Haven Daley contributed to this report.
Demonstrators sing a song of protest at a rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day of action on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
Demonstrators rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 5, 2025, as part of the nationwide "Hands Off!" protest. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
Michelle Parvool chants into a megaphone at a rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 5, 2025, as part of the nationwide "Hands Off!" protest. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
A Tesla vehicle drives past demonstrators during a rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 5, 2025, as part of the nationwide "Hands Off!" protest. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
Demonstrators rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day of action on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
Connie Chew, right, and Aggie Goltiao, left, sing a song of protest at a rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day of action on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
Demonstrators rally against President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in San Jose, Calif., as part of a national day of action on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Steinberger)
