UR MAG

AsIsraeli strikes continue in Lebanon, humanitarian workers are reporting grim and heartbreaking details about the toll on the civilian population.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said that, as of Sunday, at least 850 people have been killed, including 107 children and 66 women. Additionally, more than one in seven people, or at least 1 million are internally displaced as of Monday, according to official figures.

Aid workers spoke with ABC News about overcrowded conditions at shelters, women and children being disproportionately affected, and the need for psychosocial support.

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"Over the last few weeks, the situation has drastically deteriorated. We are currently going through catastrophic times, heartbreaking times," Cyril Bassil, communications coordinator at CARE International Lebanon and based in Beirut, told ABC News.

"The fear and anxiety is through the roof amongst the people living in Lebanon. Internally displaced people ... they don't know if tomorrow they're gonna be able to send their kids to school. They don't know if they're gonna eat tonight. They don't know if they're gonna have any form of future," Bassil said.

Displacement affecting women, children

Due to limited capacity at shelters,displaced people in Lebanon are shelteringin public spaces, open areas and other temporary locations, such as parking lots and restaurants.

Some humanitarian workers told ABC News they've seen families sleeping in their cars or on sidewalks with no mattresses, pillows or blankets.

Displacement has disrupted education, with around 120,000 people staying in collective shelters, most of them set up in public schools, according to theUnited Nations.

Bassil said that because classrooms are sheltering dozens of families, many children don't have access to school.

"Out of these [1 million] people, several hundreds, thousands of children that are out of school, right?" Bassil said. "You have among them people that need immediate medical assistance. ... We've met children that were dehydrated, that were laying down on the floor for hours because, if they got up, they would be dizzy and fall."

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Pregnant women in Lebanon are also facing risks because of the displacement crisis. According to theUnited Nations Population Fund, there are 11,600 pregnant women affected in Lebanon, 4,000 of whom are expected to give birth over the next three months.

Aid workers said many of these women cannot access a hospital or a clinic and some have been forced to give birth in dangerous conditions.

"I met a lady that gave birth in the middle of the street while stuck in traffic," Aline Kamakian, World Central Kitchen chef corps member based in Beirut, told ABC News. "Because she was stuck while fleeing the south, and traffic was around 12 to 14 hours. So, she gave birth in the middle of street, in the middle of traffic."

Similarly, Nour Kassab, gender and protection coordinator for CARE International in Lebanon, described a scene that will "stay with me for a long time."

"A woman who gave birth by Cesarean section just four days ago was lying on the sidewalk in Ain El Mraiseh with her newborn baby," Kassab said last week, referencing a neighborhood northwest of downtown Beirut.

"She should be resting, recovering and caring for her child in a safe place, but instead she is sleeping on the pavement. She told us she is still in pain and cannot properly take care of her surgical wounds. Watching a mother who just gave birth trying to protect her four-day-old baby while living on the street is heartbreaking. No woman should have to face such conditions at such a vulnerable moment in her life."

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Psychological impacts

Research has shown people living in war zones are atincreased risk of many mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and more.

At least 10% of those who experience traumatic events in armed conflict will have serious mental health problems and another 10% "will develop behavior that will hinder their ability to function effectively," according to the World Health Organizationin a review of research findings.

More recently, astudy published in The Lancetfound that in the first month of the Russian-Ukrainian war in March 2022, the first survey of Ukrainians' mental health showed 53% of Ukrainian adults were experiencing severe mental distress, 54% were experiencing anxiety, and 47% were experiencing depression. Six months into the war, 26% of parents still in Ukraine had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 15% had developed complex PTSD.

Bassil said that CARE is providing psychological first aid and professional therapists for those in need of mental health care as well as safe spaces for people to "express their emotions."

In one instance, Bassil said he met a mother with three children ages 3, 5 and 8 who have been going through what he described as a "roller coaster of emotions."

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"They wake up in the morning, they start crying. And then they have hyperactivity, they start playing soccer, they start throwing things. They start picking fights," Bassil said. "They start doing anything to release their emotions, and then suddenly they switch to another emotion. So, it's a roller coaster of emotions that she was telling us she doesn't know how to handle this."

Another man Bassil said he met, whom he estimates is in his 70s, was distressed after losing the home he built by hand in southern Lebanon due to airstrikes and being forced to evacuate.

"He said he's spent the last 50 years enduring wars," Bassil said. "Fifty years, five decades, and he cannot take it anymore, and he has lost the desire to live. ... He meant it. He wasn't just saying like 'Okay, I cannot continue living like this. It's unbearable.' No, he was beyond depressed."

Kamakian, who was born and raised in Lebanon and has lived through several conflicts, said the mental health impacts among the civilian population are quickly becoming apparent.

"People are on the edge, mad, angry, depressed," Kamakian said. "Everyone is on the edge. [Someone] who lost their home and business doesn't have anything to lose. There is no hope. Like every day, it's getting worse and worse."

Reduced resources

Some of the aid workers said that funding cuts from global humanitarian organizations are making the crisis in Lebanon worse than the 2024 conflict.

In 2024, the U.S.provided nearly $157 millionin humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by the conflict in Lebanon, partly through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

President Donald Trump's administration made major cuts to USAID and, last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced his department would be taking over programs previously run by USAID.

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Rubio announced at the time a post onSubstackthat USAID -- which oversaw foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs -- would no longer be providing assistance to other countries.

Additionally, during the 2024 conflict, Kamakian added that countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, provided significant assistance in Lebanon.

However, these countries are now being affected by the wider crisis in the Middle East and do not have the resources to help Lebanon similarly, she said.

"You had the GCC sending some aid [in 2024]. You had European countries," Kamakian said. "Today you don't have USAID. You don't have GCC countries."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel said Tuesday it killed twosenior Iranian security officialsin overnight strikes in a major blow to the country's leadership. Iran, which did not immediately confirm either death, fired new salvos of missiles and drones at its Gulf Arab neighbors and Israel in a war thatshowed no signs of abating.

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's all-volunteer Basij force, were "eliminated last night," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said. Larijani was considered one of the most powerful figures in the country sinceSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneiwas killed in an airstrike on thefirst day of the war.

Both men were key to Iran's violent crackdown onprotests in Januarythat challenged the theocracy's 47-year rule. The killings would strip Iran of important leaders during a war that presents that greatest test for the Islamic Republic in recent decades.

With concerns growing about aglobal energy crisis, Iran launched fresh attacks against several of its Gulf Arab neighbors and oil infrastructure throughout the region. Dubai, a major transit hub for international travel, briefly shut its airspace, the second disruption to flights in the city in as many days. An Iranian official said Tehran had no intention of relinquishing its tight grip on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said NATO and most other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the strait as the war rages on. Trump, who has been pressing allies to help safeguard the critical waterway, fumed that the U.S. is not getting support "despite the fact that almost every country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot" be allowed to secure a nuclear weapon.

The Israeli military also said it had begun a "wide-scale wave of strikes" across Iran's capital and was stepping up strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Israel says it has killed two top Iranian officials

Larijani hails from one of Iran's best-known political families. A former parliamentary speaker and senior policy adviser, he advised the late Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration.

Larijani was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in January as Tehran violentlysuppressed nationwide protests. It identified him as being "responsible for coordinating the response to the protests on behalf of the supreme leader of Iran."

Soleimani also was sanctioned by the U.S., as well as the European Union and other nations, over his role in helping suppress dissent for years through the Basij.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the killings were aimed at weakening Iran's government. "We are undermining this regime to give the Iranian people the opportunity to remove it. It won't happen quickly or easily, but if we persist, they will have the chance to take their destiny into their own hands," he said.

There have been no signs of anti-government protests since the war began, as many Iranians are sheltering from the American and Israeli strikes.

The reported killings of Larijani and Soleimani came on the eve of "Chaharshanbe Souri," or the Festival of Fire, in Iran on Tuesday night and shortly before the Persian new year.

State media aired footage Tuesday of pro-government demonstrations, including images of some men in plainclothes branding assault rifles and shotguns on the back of motorcycles — a sign of the government wanting to prevent renewed protests against the theocracy.

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Iranian strikes pressure neighbors and oil markets

Iran kept up the pressure on the energy infrastructure around the region, hitting an oil facility in Fujairah, an emirate in the United Arab Emirates that has been repeatedly targeted. State-run WAM news reported that no one had been injured in the blast from the drone strike.

A man was killed by the debris of a missile intercepted over Abu Dhabi, the eighth person to die in the UAE since the start of the war, authorities said.

Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and areunnerving the world economy.

A handful of ships have crossed through the strait, and Iran has said the vital waterway technically remains open — just not for the United States, Israel and their allies. About 20 vessels have been struck since the war began.

With oil prices rising, U.S. President Donald Trump saidhe had demandedthat roughly a half-dozen countries send warships to ensure ships can pass through theStrait of Hormuz. But his appeals brought no immediate commitments, with many saying they arehesitant to get involvedin a war with no defined exit plan and skeptical that they could do more than the U.S. Navy.

UAE briefly closes airspace as Iran launches new attacks on Gulf neighbors

The UAE shut down its airspace early Tuesday as its military reported it was "responding to missile and drone threats from Iran." The closure was soon lifted but it underscored the balancing act Emirati authorities face in trying to keep their long-haul carriers, Emirates and Etihad, flying as Iran continues to target the country. The UAE said its air defenses responded to 10 ballistic missiles and 45 drones Iran fired Tuesday at the country.

Countries around the region also came under fire: Saudi Arabia said it intercepted drones, while air defenses could be heard targeting incoming fire over Qatar's capital, Doha. Attacks from Iran-linked proxy forces continued in Iraq, where the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was hit with shrapnel from intercepted drones.

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The Israeli military early Tuesday said it had launched new attacks across Tehran and targeted Hezbollah militants in the Lebanese capital. Hezbollah began firing rockets into the northern Israel after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran last month.

In Iran, it said it hit command centers, missile launch sites and air defense systems. There was no immediate confirmation from Iran, where little information has been coming out due to internet outages, round-the-clock airstrikes and tight restrictions on journalists.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the conflict, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.

Israel did not immediately release details of its attacks on Lebanon, but the Lebanese army said that one of its soldiers died and four more were wounded in an airstrike on the village of Kfar Sir. Two more soldiers were killed in another Israeli strike near the southern city of Nabatiyeh, the army said, and an airstrike near Beirut's international airport killed one person and wounded nine, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israel's strikes have displaced more than 1 million Lebanese — or roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says some 850 people have been killed.

Israel reported two Iranian salvos early Tuesday fired toward Tel Aviv and an area south of the Sea of Galilee, and then more later in the day. More launches from Lebanon were also reported.

In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.

Top US counterterrorism official quits over Iran war

A top U.S. counterterrorism officialresignedTuesday, citing concerns about the justification for military strikes in Iran. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said he "cannot in good conscience" back the Trump administration's war.His resignation reflects unease about the war within Trump's political base just as midterm election races start to heat up. Trump's MAGA coalition is splintering over what it sees as the president's failure to keep his "America First" campaign promise by leading the U.S. into a war that is driving up gas prices.___Rising reported from Bangkok, Corder from The Hague, Netherlands, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

A top U.S. counterterrorism officialresignedTuesday, citing concerns about the justification for military strikes in Iran. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said he "cannot in good conscience" back the Trump administration's war.

His resignation reflects unease about the war within Trump's political base just as midterm election races start to heat up. Trump's MAGA coalition is splintering over what it sees as the president's failure to keep his "America First" campaign promise by leading the U.S. into a war that is driving up gas prices.

Rising reported from Bangkok, Corder from The Hague, Netherlands, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Authorities in New Mexico are conducting an extensive search for a retired U.S. Air Force general who disappeared from his home nearly three weeks ago.

Retired Maj. Gen.William "Neil" McCasland, 68, was last seen on the morning of Feb. 27 at his residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office said ina statement. His wife reported him missing later that day after returning home from a medical appointment to find he was gone, leaving behind his phone, glasses, and other personal items.

Following McCasland's disappearance, local authorities issued aSilver Alert, which is an advisory for a missing person who is 50 or older and has an "irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties," according to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. The sheriff's office initially reported that the alert was issued for McCasland due to unspecified "medical issues."

During anews conferenceon March 16, the sheriff's office said the Silver Alert remained in effect and had been issued because McCasland previously reported that he was experiencing a "mental fog." But Lt. Kyle Woods of the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office underscored that investigators do not believe McCasland was cognitively impaired at the time of his disappearance.

"There's no indication, and we are not putting forward that Mr. McCasland was disoriented, confused," Woods said. "Arguably, he would still be the most intelligent person in the room that any of us would be in. Highly intelligent, highly capable, but that information was given to us early on, and out of an abundance of caution, we escalated to a silver alert to try to garner as much public attention as possible to try to help locate him as soon as possible."

The sheriff's office said there were still no confirmed sightings of McCasland and reiterated that there is currentlyno evidence of foul play. The case remains an active missing-person investigation.

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Timeline of William McCasland's disappearance

A repairman interacted with McCasland at his home at around 10 a.m. local time on Feb. 27, according to atimeline released by the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office.

McCasland's wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, left for a medical appointment at about 11:10 a.m. and returned shortly after noon to find him gone, the sheriff's office said. He left behind his phone, prescription glasses, and wearable devices at the residence.

After attempting to contact family and friends, McCasland Wilkerson reported him missing at about 3:07 p.m., and the investigation began immediately, according to the sheriff's office.

Investigators later determined several items appeared to be missing from the residence, including his hiking boots, a wallet, and a .38-caliber revolver with a leather holster, the sheriff's office said. Investigators believe he may have been wearing a light green long-sleeve outdoor shirt at the time of his disappearance.

On March 7, a gray U.S. Air Force sweatshirt was discovered about 1.25 miles east of the home and prompted additional search efforts in the area, the sheriff's office said. Authorities said the sweatshirt has not been confirmed to belong to McCasland, and initial testing detected no blood.

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The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office said investigators have conducted extensive search operations involving drones, helicopters, K-9 teams, and volunteer search crews.

Investigators have also expanded a neighborhood canvass to more than 700 homes while requesting security camera footage that could help determine whether McCasland left the area or indicate a direction of travel, the sheriff's office said.

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Despite those efforts, investigators have not identified any confirmed sightings or videos showing McCasland "leaving the area or indicating a direction of travel," according to the sheriff's office.

The sheriff's office described McCasland as an avid outdoorsman who frequently hikes, runs, and cycles in Albuquerque's Northeast Heights and the Sandia foothills. McCasland is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He has white hair and blue eyes.

Investigators are asking residents and local businesses to review security camera footage from Feb. 27 and Feb. 28, particularly from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Feb. 27, and submit any possible sightings. They are also asking hikers and others who were in the Sandia foothills during that time to review GoPro or cellphone recordings that might have captured McCasland.

Anyone who believes they see McCasland is urged to call 911 immediately, authorities said. The FBI's Albuquerque field office is assisting the investigation, though the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office remains the lead agency in the case.

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McCasland's Air Force career and Wright-Patterson role

McCasland was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, according to his Air Force biography. He managed a $2.2 billion science and technology program, as well as $2.2 billion in additional customer-funded research and development.

He joined Wright-Patterson in 2011 andretired in 2013, reported theCincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network. The Dayton Air Force base was home to Project Blue Book in the 1950s and 1960s, according to "The Air Force Investigation into UFOs" published by Ohio State University.

During that time, it logged 12,618 UFO sightings, with 701 of those remaining "unidentified." The U.S. government created the project because of Cold War-era security concerns and Americans' obsession with aliens.

Because of McCasland's leadership role at Wright-Patterson, his disappearance has prompted speculation online about possible connections to classified programs,according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Earlier this month, McCasland Wilkersonshared a statement on social mediato "dispel some of the misinformation circulating" about her husband and his disappearance. She said after his retirement, McCasland briefly worked on UFO-related projects by Tom DeLonge, a UFO researcher and guitarist for the band Blink-182.

"It is true that Neil had a brief association with the UFO community through Tom DeLonge, former frontman for Blink-182 and founder of the organization To The Stars,"McCasland Wilkerson wrote. "Neil worked with Tom for a bit shortly after his Air Force retirement as an unpaid (Neil's choice) consultant on military and technical/scientific matters to lend verisimilitude to Tom's fiction book and media activities."

She also noted that McCasland did not have "any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt" and that it "seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him."

Contributing: Chad Murphy, Cincinnati Enquirer

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Retired US Air Force major general missing for weeks: What we know

Over the last half-century, only a few handful Division 1 basketball teams have finished the regular season undefeated. The list includes some of the most memorable teams in the history of the sport — Larry Bird's 1979 Indiana State team, the 1991 Runnin' Rebels of UNLV and John Calipari's 2015 Kentucky team full of future NBA stars.

This year, they were joined by ... Miami (Ohio), a midsized public school in Oxford, tucked in the southwest corner of the state. The RedHawks play in the Mid-American Conference, with schools such as Bowling Green and Ball State. Their roster is not stocked with high-profile recruits or players with NBA upside.

But Miami finished the regular season a perfect 31-0, jumped into the Top 25 rankings and became the talk of college basketball — until it stumbled Thursday in the MAC Tournament. The RedHawks lost to UMass, a middling team with a 17-16 record, blowing their chance at a guaranteed spot in the NCAA Tournament.

On Sunday, the RedHawks had to watch the March Madness Selection Sunday show, like everyone else, to learn their fate. They ended up making the tournament as a No. 11 seed, but there was a catch. They have to play SMU on Wednesday night in one of the "First Four" games, to determine which of the two made the full field.

In other words, despite Miami's historic regular season, it had been one of the last teams picked and had squeaked into the tournament. Such is the plight of the mid-major school in today's college basketball landscape.

"I felt we were in when we finished 31-0," David Sayler, Miami's athletic director, told NBC News. "At the end of the day, just being in is all that matters. Having a seat at the table."

Sayler tried to look at the positive. The SMU game will be played in Dayton, about an hour up the road. "My phone has not stopped buzzing for ticket requests," he said Sunday night.

To Miami's students, alumni and boosters, it has been a Cinderella season, probably the best in school history. Miami made the Sweet Sixteen in 1999, powered by future NBA great Wally Szczerbiak. But over the next 25 years, the RedHawks made the tournament once, a first-round exit in 2007, and had been largely irrelevant.

"There were, like, 200 people" for his first game at Miami in 2022, coach Travis Steele recalled. Official attendance was listed around 2,000, but Millett Hall, the team's arena, can hold 10,000 people. On the court, you could basically hear the person talking in row 15.

"The atmosphere was the worst in our league, and I would tell you, it was probably the worst I've seen in college basketball," Steele said. "I mean, it was horrendous."

Steele had spent the previous 14 years at Xavier, a Jesuit university known for its basketball prowess, less than an hour away from Oxford in Cincinnati. Steele worked there as an assistant when the Musketeers were fixtures in the Sweet Sixteen, and he was elevated to head coach in 2018.

But Steele couldn't continue his predecessors' success. In four seasons, he went 70-50, never made the NCAA Tournament and was ultimately fired. "You're going through a lot of emotions — angry, sad, frustrated," Steele said. "I had been there forever."

Soon, Sayler, the Miami athletic director, reached out about its open job. The RedHawks had never really been consistent winners, but Steele was intrigued. At Xavier, he felt he couldn't really change the culture, how things had been done before. At Miami, Steele could "knock down the house," he said, "and build from scratch, build it exactly like I wanted to build it."

In discussions with Sayler, Steele mapped out a plan. While other schools (with bigger budgets) recruited players in the transfer portal, he'd focus on high school students, focus on coaching them up, getting them better and creating an environment in which they wouldn't want to transfer if bigger schools with bigger budgets came calling.

"I told him I think there's good enough players within a five-hour radius of Oxford in order to win championships and get this thing to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament," Steele said. "And I have the connections to do that in this region," from his time at Xavier.

"I thought that was the right recipe for [Miami]," he added. "While everyone was zigging, we were zagging."

By year three, last season, the RedHawks won 25 games, a school record at the time. In the MAC championship game, Miami led Akron by nine points with under nine minutes to play, only to slowly let the lead slip away. Akron ended up winning on a last-second push shot to secure the conference's only berth in March Madness.

A few days later, Steele met with his players one by one. In today's college basketball landscape, players are threats to transfer every year. Steele needed to pitch them to stay and not leave for bigger schools.

"You've got to figure out who's on the ship and who's not," he said.

Like a scene out of "Rudy," one by one, the players told him they would stay — all of the RedHawks' top underclassmen except one who bolted for Georgia Tech and another to Kentucky. Most players decided to "run it back again," said Brant Byers, a RedHawks guard, "just the way last year ended. ... We got that close and just fell short."

During offseason workouts, Steele noticed the players were putting in extra effort, had a chip on their shoulder. "I basically had to tell these guys, listen, slow down a little bit," he said. "They're diving on the floor for a loose ball in three-on-three in April."

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The RedHawks seemed poised for a great year; there was just one problem — nobody wanted to play them.

Each March, the NCAA selection committee evaluates prospective at-large teams, the teams that won't get automatic bids, using advanced analytics that consider details like strength of schedule. In this system, Miami didn't have much standing. That meant if a bigger program played the RedHawks and won, it wouldn't help their résumé that much in the eyes of the selection committee.

"It's a lose-lose for them to play us," Steele said. "It's a numbers game."

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Miami reached out to more than 70 schools, trying to schedule games. Matt Brown, a journalist who covers sports on the website "Extra Points," filed an open records request and obtained internal emails showing the length to which the RedHawks went. It turned out they had tried contacting some of the best teams in the country: Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, UCLA, Kansas, BYU, Florida, Illinois and Nebraska.

Of all the requests, "half of them didn't even bother to respond," Sayler said. "The others responded with 'Sorry, we just can't work it out.' Then a couple of them, who they're good friends, would call and say, 'Sorry, dude, you guys are too good.'"

Steele typically leaves scheduling to one of his assistants. This time, he got involved. He reached out to friends in the sport, tried calling in favors, even resorted to begging.

"I was like, coach, play us!" Steele said. "Why are you scared about us? You've got 15 million [in NIL money] in your team. You're scared to play Miami?"

As one might expect, Miami's schedule this season wasn't very good. It included little-known schools like Indiana University East, Milligan and Trinity Christian. The analytics website Kenpom now ranks Miami's strength of schedule 269th in the country.

The RedHawks went undefeated in the regular season thanks in large part to their balanced offensive attack. They have six players averaging more than 10 points per gameandall six shot better than 34% from 3-point range. They score 90.7 points a game, the second-most in the nation. "The go-to guy for us is the open guy, not one specific player," Steele said, "which makes us very hard to prepare for."

At the start of the season, the RedHawks' home games were still sparsely attended. But as the season went on and the wins piled up, students and alums took notice. By February, Miami was selling out Millett Hall with 10,000-plus crowds. Szczerbiak and Ron Harper, another Miami legend, attended games. So did the Cleveland Browns' Myles Garrett and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

"Tickets were going for, like, $300 on StubHub," Steele said. "Like, are you kidding me? At Miami? It's never been that way. Ever."

But as the NCAA Tournament approached, critics started poking holes in Miami's résumé. The loudest might have been Bruce Pearl, the former coach-turned-TV commentator. Pearl said the RedHawks were "not built for the grind" of a bigger conference, like the Big Ten or the Big East. He suggested they would make the NCAA Tournament only if they won their conference tournament for an automatic bid.

To some, Pearl had a point. Even with a weak schedule, the RedHawks nearly lost several games. They hadeightwins decided by three points or fewer. Their defense seemed vulnerable, too; they allowed 75.3 points per game, which ranked 220th in the country. Plus, Miami had lost its starting point guard, Evan Ipsaro, to a torn ACL in December.

Amid some backlash, Pearl changed his tune. He interviewed Steele on TNT and said, "I kind of feel like you're Cinderella and I'm the ugly stepmother."

Then Miami lost to UMass, and the RedHawks' magic moment lost some of its shine. Now they'll play SMU on Wednesday in Dayton, just to get the chance to play No. 6 seed Tennessee on Friday in Philadelphia. The Volunteers happen to be one of Pearl's former teams.

In the meantime, Sayler, the athletic director, is trying to keep the good times rolling. He recently persuaded the school's Board of Trustees to approve $281 million for a new arena. He also offered Steele a contract extension that would tie him to the school for eight years.

Steele hasn't reviewed the contract in detail yet. He will when the season ends. By January, agents and other schools had already begun contacting him, asking whether he had interest in higher-profile jobs. He figured his players were being contacted, too, and so he made a pact with them then "to wait until the offseason to deal with stuff," he said.

Steele knows how that looks, delaying signing the extension. But he points out that his wife has strong ties to the Cincinnati area, not far away, and the Steeles still live in the same house they did at Xavier. "I would tell you we're very happy here at Miami," Steele said.

Still, Sayler said he had to "always be on alert" that another school would poach his basketball coach or the players who changed the course of the program.

"The system is just so tilted toward those schools with the big money," Sayler said. "They can schedule how they want. They can pick players how they want to come replace their other players. Then, at the end, when they don't think you measure up, they can say, 'Well, you don't have good enough metrics.' Well, that's because you didn't let us! You wouldn't play us."

In his public comments recently, Sayler has been citing Yoda from the "Star Wars" franchise. He said it felt like Miami was "fighting the Evil Empire," fighting for "the heart and soul of March Madness. It's Cinderella. It's great stories."

"That's why this team is so special," he added. "It's what college athletics is still supposed to be, even though people don't think it can happen anymore. It's happening in Oxford, Ohio."

By Sam Tobin

Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams walks outside the High Court, in London

LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - Gerry Adams, one of Northern Ireland's most prominent political figures, told London's High Court on Tuesday he had never been a member of the paramilitary Irish ‌Republican Army, but said he would not distance himself from the group.

The ex-leader of Sinn Fein, formerly ‌the IRA's political wing and now the largest party in the Northern Irish Assembly, became the best-known face of the movement seeking to end ​British rule in Northern Ireland.

He later reinvented himself as a peacemaker after helping secure the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict known as the Troubles, in which some 3,600 people were killed.

But Adams has long faced accusations that he was a member of the Provisional IRA, including from former members of the paramilitary group, ‌which he has always denied.

He is being ⁠sued in a civil case by three people injured in three bombings: one at London's Old Bailey court in 1973, the Provisional IRA's first on the British mainland, and two ⁠1996 blasts, targeting London's Docklands and Manchester.

They are seeking a finding on the balance of probabilities that Adams is personally liable for the bombings as a senior member of the Provisional IRA and later its powerful Army Council.

The 77-year-old told the ​court that ​he was never involved in the paramilitary group. He added: "I'm ​glad that there is a peace process but ‌I don't distance myself from the IRA."

ADAMS SAYS HE WAS 'NEVER INVOLVED' IN IRA

The lawsuit is the culmination of decades of allegations that Adams, who became Sinn Fein leader in 1983, was also a senior Provisional IRA leader.

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Adams entered the witness box in his defence on Tuesday, wishing "a very happy St Patrick's Day" to the judge before he was questioned by the claimants' lawyer Max Hill.

Hill asked Adams if he would speak about his involvement in the IRA ‌if there was a truth and reconciliation process focused on the ​Troubles.

"I can't talk about my involvement in the IRA because I ​was never involved," Adams said.

He added that he ​did previously defend some actions by the IRA "based on the broad principle (that) people have the ‌right to resist occupation," citing both the Palestinians ​and Ukraine.

Hill said Adams had ​chosen to "stand by the IRA" because he was a member.

"I don't stand by everything they did, but yes - these were my neighbours," Adams said in response.

Adams said: "I'm glad that the IRA have left the stage ​and I'm glad that nobody else has ‌been killed ... I'm glad that there's a peace process, but I don't distance myself from the ​IRA."

Adams added that the IRA had done "dastardly things" which should not have been done.

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(Reporting ​by Sam Tobin, Editing by William Maclean and Andrew Heavens)