Laney College athletic director John Beam, a prominent figure on Netflix’s ‘Last Chance U’ series, was shot on the school’s campus in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 13, and later died on Nov. 14, according to the Oakland Police Department.

Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell announced Beam’s death at a news conference on Nov. 14.

Assistant police chief James Beere said it was a targeted attack, adding the suspect and Beam knew each other, although weren’t close, according to the AP. Beers also said the suspect played football at Skyline High School, where Beam formerly coached, although the suspect didn’t play there during Beam’s tenure.

Oakland Police Lt. Gloria Beltran said Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Cedric Irving Jr., 27, in an Oakland suburb rapid transit station. Irving faces possible murder charges, Beltran said.

It’s the second shooting on an Oakland campus in two days, after a student was shot and injured at Skyline High School on Nov. 12.

Beam, 66, was featured on season five of ‘Last Chance U,’ a popular series about college football at the junior college level, focusing on players aiming to turn around their careers. He was the head coach of the team from 2012-24.

Oakland mayor Barbara Lee issued a statement after the shootings.

‘My thoughts are with Coach John Beam and his loved ones. We are praying for him,’ Lee wrote. ‘Coach Beam is a giant in Oakland — a mentor, an educator, and a lifeline for thousands of young people. For over 40 years, he has shaped leaders on and off the field, and our community is shaken alongside his family.’

The Peralta Community College District also released a statement, which didn’t name Beam.

‘This is a frightening moment for our community. We encourage everyone to follow official instructions and rely only on verified communications from the District and law enforcement.’

Laney District spokesman Mark Johnson added in an emailed statement to USA TODAY:

‘We are stunned and heartbroken that such violence has touched our campus and one of the most respected and beloved members of our Laney, Peralta, and Oakland community. John Beam is a renowned coach, teacher, mentor, and leader whose impact extends far beyond athletics.’

The college was placed on lockdown, with the campus closed the remainder of Nov. 13. The campus re-opened Nov. 14.

Beam produced 20 NFL players during his tenure as head coach at Laney College, according to his bio. He also sent over 100 players to the Division I level.

(This story has been updated to include new information and to add a video.)

Former NBA player Patrick Beverley was arrested and charged with felony assault Friday, Nov. 14 in Fort Bend County, Texas.

The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s public information office confirmed the arrest to USA TODAY Sports.

Deputies were dispatched to a home in Rosharon, Texas, a suburb of Houston, in reference to an assault on Friday morning, the sheriff’s office said.

‘Upon arriving, Deputies learned that a situation transpired between family members leading to a family violence incident. The suspect, later identified as Patrick Beverley, was subsequently arrested and charged with Assault, Family Violence/Household Member.’

Beverley was booked in the Fort Bend County Jail with a bond of $40,000.

The investigation remains ongoing.

A statement was issued from Beverley’s account in a subsequent post:

Beverley played for seven different teams during his 12-year career, including his first five with the Houston Rockets, beginning in the 2012-13 season. He also played with the Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers before ending his career with the Milwaukee Bucks.

He was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team in 2016-17 and the second team in 2013-14 and 2019-20.

The New Orleans Pelicans fired head coach Willie Green after four-plus seasons on Saturday, the team announced.

Assistant coach James Borrego, who served as the Charlotte Hornets’ head coach from 2018 to 2022, will take over as the team’s interim head coach.

“After careful evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at head coach,” Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars said. “I have the utmost respect for Willie Green, and I’m sincerely appreciative of his contributions to the Pelicans organization and the New Orleans community. We wish him and his family all the best in the future.”

The move comes hours after the Pelicans suffered another loss, this time a 118-104 home defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers, bringing their record to 2-10, the worst in the Western Conference.

Green led the Pelicans to the postseason twice, in 2022 and 2024, both first-round playoff defeats. He had a 150-190 record.

New Orleans had been hit with the injury bug; star forward Zion Williamson has missed the last six games with a left hamstring strain, and guard Dejounte Murray is out as he tries to work himself back from a torn Achilles suffered in January.

“As I have stated, Joe Dumars is in charge of basketball operations decisions, and as one of the best basketball minds in the business, I trust him to make the right decisions for our franchise,” said Pelicans Governor Gayle Benson.

Mikaela Shiffrin can fill in if Santa Claus ever needs a break.

Shiffrin now has a herd of nine reindeer after winning the season’s first World Cup slalom race, at Levi, Finland, on Saturday. The winner of the race gets a reindeer, and this one will join Rudolph, Sven, Mr. Gru, Ingemar, Sunny, Lorax, Grogu and Rori.

Shiffrin was presented with her newest reindeer, a male, after the medals ceremony. It sniffed at her gloves before she gave it some food. Shiffrin said she doesn’t have a name picked out yet; she often waits to meet the reindeer before deciding on its name.

The reindeer will stay with Shiffrin’s other reindeer at a farm in Finland. Shiffrin visited them after last year’s World Cup.

The win was Shiffrin’s 102nd career World Cup victory, extending her own record.

‘It was really nice to race today,’ Shiffrin said after the race. ‘… I really enjoy being here and so happy to kick off the slalom season.’

Colturi had a strong second run, but it would not be enough to surpass Shiffrin. The American was near-perfect, posting the fastest time in the second run to extend her lead. Shiffrin finished with a combined time of 1:48.92, 1.66 seconds ahead of Colturi.

Germany’s Emma Aicher was third. Fellow American Paula Moltzan finished fourth, moving up from 19th after the first run.

‘This season for me, it’s been really important to start the season with a really good mentality so I can practice that every race. Because last year and the year before I was not racing so much with the injuries. So I’m super happy to have two races now that I felt really good,’ said Shiffrin, who opened the World Cup season last month with a fourth-place finish in the giant slalom in Soelden, Austria.

Shiffrin missed two months last season after a crash in the GS in Killington, Vermont, left her with a deep gash in her abdomen. She returned and got her 100th World Cup win, then finished the season by winning the slalom at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.

The West Virginia women’s basketball team upset No. 11 Duke, 57-49, on Friday despite losing its entire bench during a skirmish at the end of the second quarter that led to seven total ejections between both teams.

The incident happened at the halftime buzzer at Colonial Hall in West Virginia as the Blue Devils led the Mountaineers 23-20. Duke forward Jordan Wood blocked West Virginia guard Jordan Harrison’s 3-point shot attempt as time expired and appeared to yell ‘Let’s go,’ in Harrison’s direction following the play. Harrison subsequently pushed Wood, which caused pushing and shoving to momentarily break out between both teams.

Both Wood and Harrison were assessed Flagrant 2 fouls for fighting and were ejected. Duke guard Ashlon Jackson and center Ari Roberson were given Flagrant 1 fouls for making contact during the incident.

West Virginia’s entire bench ran onto the court during the scuffle — Jordan Thomas (starter), Kierra Wheeler (starter), Gia Cooke (starter), Carter McCray and Madison Parrish — and were also ejected, leaving the Mountaineers with only five available players for the entire second half of the contest.

West Virginia still had enough players to pull off an upset.

Despite losing four of its starters to ejection, West Virginia outscored Duke 24-9 in the third quarter and led by as many as 15 points with 4:33 remaining in the game without making any substitutions. Duke went on a 12-1 run to cut the Mountaineers’ lead to four points with 0:37 remaining. West Virginia’s Sydney Shaw came up clutch in the end and hit four free throws to end Duke’s comeback bid and pull off the upset.

West Virginia head coach Mark Kellogg pumped up the crowd after the win, putting his hand to his ear. ‘Come on!’ he shouted as his players celebrated and sang John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ together.

‘Disappointed in the ending of the half. I think we are better than that, we are going to learn a huge lesson,’ Kellogg said after the win. ‘But I think we’ve seen it in sports where things like that happen and you rally together. … I’m so proud of that group of five. I’m proud of the whole team. … That’s as good of a win as I’ve probably had.’

West Virginia outscored Duke 37-26 in the second half. Shaw, the only starter remaining, played 38 minutes and led the way with a team-high 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists. The Mountaineers improved to 4-0 on the season.

Duke falls to 2-2 on the season following the loss.

It shot 38% from the field including 2-of-12 from the 3-point line. Only guard Taina Mair reached double-digits for Duke with 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Jackson was held to nine points and six assists.

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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the injury occurred at a team dinner on Thursday night. ESPN described the incident as a ‘freak accident.’

‘The expected return to play timeline is eight weeks and he will be re-evaluated at the six-week mark,” the Devils said in a statement.

Hughes played for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off and is expected to be a candidate for the U.S. Olympic team. The eight-week timeline would put his return around Jan. 10. The Winter Olympics start in February.

Jack Hughes injury update

The Devils said Jack Hughes would be re-evaluated in six weeks and is expected to return to play in eight weeks.

The Devils play 27 games over the next eight weeks.

Hughes, 24, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2019 draft, had missed 20 games in each of the last two seasons. He needed season-ending shoulder surgery last March after crashing into the boards.

But he had come back strong this season with a team-high 10 goals and 20 points in 17 games for the Eastern Conference-leading Devils.

Hughes had a team-record 99 points in 2022-23 when he played 78 games.

NHL injury updates

Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, a U.S. Olympian and Jack’s brother, was scratched from Friday’s game. He left Tuesday’s game with an injury but later returned. Goalie Thatcher Demko (lower body) was placed on the injured list, retroactive to Nov. 11.
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk (thumb surgery), named to the U.S. Olympic team, took part in an optional practice on Friday.
Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews, another U.S. Olympian, was placed on the injured list, retroactive to Tuesday. He suffered a lower-body injury.
Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook (broken ankle) and defenseman Caiden Guhle (adductor muscle) had surgery. Newhook will be out four months and Guhle eight to 10 weeks.
Minnesota Wild forward Marco Rossi is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He went on the injured list.

Former Penn State coach James Franklin and Virginia Tech are in early talks for the Hokies’ coaching vacancy, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Nov. 15.

A resolution is expected in coming days, according to ESPN. There is mutual interest between both sides, although Virginia Tech is still conducting a full search.

Franklin was fired by Penn State on Oct. 12 after the Nittany Lions lost three consecutive games to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. Penn State opened 2025 viewed as national championship contenders after reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals last season.

Virginia Tech was one of the first programs to fire its head coach in 2025, parting ways with Brent Pry after an 0-3 start to the season. Pry went 16-24 at Virginia Tech after being hired away from defensive coordinator at Penn State in 2021.

Franklin overall stabilized Penn State but fell short in big games. He went 4-21 against AP top-10 ranked teams at Penn State, although he left the school with a 104-45 record and finished with double-digit wins six times in 12 seasons.

Virginia Tech hasn’t found much success since Justin Fuente’s first two seasons with school, when the Hokies won 10 and nine games in 2016 and 2017. VT hasn’t won more than eight games in a season since then.

The 2016 Big Ten champion would likely be quite the hire for the Hokies, who are searching for program stability.

Bringing back free agent Cody Bellinger is a top winter priority for the New York Yankees, who also want to sign another starting pitcher, bullpen help and a backup catcher.

Acquired before the 2025 season, Bellinger hit 29 home runs with 98 RBIs for the Yankees, seeing time in all three outfield positions as well as first base. The 30-year-old opted out of his $25 million deal for next season to become a free agent for the third time in four years.

‘We’re very interested in bringing [Bellinger] back,’ Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “He’s going to have a lot of choices because he can do a lot of different things. He was a terrific addition for us last year … We’d be better served if we could retain him. But if not, we’ll have to look at alternative ways to fill it and see where that takes us.’

With late-inning relievers Devin Williams and Luke Weaver hitting the free agent market, bolstering the bullpen is another major goal for the Yankees before spring training. Trade deadline acquisitions David Bednar and Camilo Doval are penciled into the back end of New York’s bullpen as the offseason gets underway.

‘Hopefully we’ll have a pretty clear definition of what’s going on’ by the time MLB’s winter meetings begin in early December, Cashman said at the GM meetings.

What will Yankees’ payroll be in 2026?

At $293 million, the Yankees had MLB’s third-highest opening day payroll in 2025, according to the league’s present-day calculations.

Cashman said at the GM meetings that he hasn’t received a specific budget from owner Hal Steinbrenner.

“We are always fluid with our payroll situation,’ Cashman said of the team’s financial flexibility this winter. “Payroll is usually not an issue that we have had to deal much with.’

Will Trent Grisham accept Yankees’ qualifying offer?

The Yankees extended a one-year, $22.05 million qualifying offer to outfielder Trent Grisham, who had a career-best season, hitting 34 home runs with 74 RBIs in 143 games.

Grisham was one of 13 MLB players to receive the offer and has until 4 p.m. ET on Nov. 18 to accept or decline.

“(Grisham) had a hell of a year for us,’ said Cashman. “We’d be happy if he accepted.’

Even if the 29-year-old Grisham turns it down and becomes a free agent, Cashman said the Yankees plan to pursue him on the open market.

 “We’ll be talking to both Grisham and Bellinger, regardless,’ the Yankees GM told reporters.

Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest player in Dallas Mavericks history, spending all 21 years of his career with the organization.

Nowitzki now serves as an NBA analyst for Amazon Prime and spoke about the Mavericks’ recent firing of general manager Nico Harrison.

The Basketball Hall of Famer was asked why the move had to happen.

‘I think there’s just too many distractions, too much going on to keep going this way,’ Nowitzki said. ‘This move should have probably happened this summer, honestly. I didn’t want this negative energy and this black cloud over the Cooper Flagg era, but here we are now.’

The Mavericks decided to move on from Harrison with the team sitting at 3-8 after the first 11 games of the season.

The fan base also continued to share its frustration during home games with ‘Fire Nico’ chants. Those chants started last season after Luka Dončić, who helped lead Dallas to the 2024 NBA Finals, was traded in February.

“I just knew, I figured this fanbase is passionate and loyal,’ Nowitzki said. ‘I was lucky enough to experience it for 21 years, and I knew they weren’t going to just get over it, as people say, or forget about it. They are extremely passionate, and this trade just made no sense. It made no sense to them and really, there was no explanation for it, either. You go to the Finals the year before, you give up all these assets to build, really, the team around Luka. … The team was built around him.’

Nowitzki and Dončić have a history together, having played for one year in Dallas – Nowitzki’s final season in the NBA and Dončić’s first. The two have remained close beyond that year.

‘It was very sad,’ Nowtizki said of the Dončić trade. ‘It was very sad how that ended and the fans feel like they got robbed of actually seeing the end, seeing this through, seeing Luka develop into hopefully a champion one day and it feels like they never got to see the end to this.

‘This was very heartbreaking, but now, I think it’s time to move on. It’s time to move on now. Focus on this team, on this franchise. This definitely set the franchise back but now it’s about building it back up. Obviously, this team is struggling a bit. It needs the support, all they can get. Hopefully, we can have a good year here from now on and cheer the team up.’

Nowitzki made an appearance in Los Angeles and showed his support for his former teammate, who was making his Lakers debut in February.

‘We texted a bit, and I felt a little disappointed and sad for him,” Nowitzki previously told 96.7 The Ticket in Dallas-Fort Worth. “… He invited me out to his first game in L.A. I felt like I had to support him.’

How did Dirk Nowitzki find out about Mavericks-Lakers trade?

Nowitzki was on vacation in the Maldives when he heard about the trade that sent Dončić to the Lakers in a deal that also sent Anthony Davis to Dallas.

‘I was as shocked and surprised as everybody was,’ Nowitzki said. ‘I just spent the next hour following everything on social media.’