Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 210, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 28, 2018 Page: 18 of 22
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4B
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Denton Record-Chronicle
Mavs allegations could dog potential Cuban campaign
himself a fiscal conservative and
a centrist on social issues.
Trump, “tapped into a popu-
lism in the GOP electorate that
was under-represented. Cuban’s
more centrist views don’t seem
to be in line with a similar phe-
nomenon in a Democratic pri-
mary” said Tim Miller, a former
spokesman for Jeb Bush’s 2016
campaign.
“Someone like [Cuban]
would be a very tough out for the
president,” Miller said, adding
he didn’t know enough about
the allegations within the Mav-
ericks to comment on their po-
tential damage to Cuban.
Trump was elected in 2016
despite facing a cascade of accu-
sations of sexual harassment
and misconduct, while Cuban
hasn’t faced any personal mis-
conduct allegations.
But the claims of an abusive
culture thriving within the Mav-
ericks have surfaced in the “Me-
Too” movement of women
speaking out and standing up
against sexual harassment and
misconduct, a wave that has tak-
en down powerful men in Holly-
wood, business, the media and
politics.
A problem for Cuban could
be that his national brand is
built upon the Mavericks and
any major crack in that founda-
tion could prove costly.
The impact of the team’s alle-
gations has yet to be measured
against Cuban’s business and
media interests. Sponsors
haven’t bailed on his team or his
television show. Two days after
the Sports Illustrated report,
Cuban pulled out of a scheduled
appearance next month at the
South by Southwest music, tech-
nology and film festival in Aus-
tin. Festival organizers said it
was Cuban’s choice to cancel.
Even if Cuban can show he
was unaware of misconduct and
reacted swiftly to correct it, the
episode has already created a
new target in politics, said Re-
publican strategist Matt Macko-
wiak. Media and political strate-
gists from both parties will be
looking into how Cuban runs his
businesses. Any lawsuits or
complaints will get new scrutiny,
Mackowiak added.
“There may be nothing more,
but all those things become
much more relevant, more in-
teresting, more valuable,” Mack-
owiak said. “The best thing he
could do right now is say ‘I’m not
running for president in 2020’
and figure out how to get the
Mavericks in the playoffs next
season.”
Mavericks
Mark Cuban
By Jim Vertuno
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Mark Cuban, the
billionaire owner of the NBAs
Dallas Mavericks and driving
force behind TV’s Shark Tank,
has for months teased the no-
tion of running for president in
2020 in a campaign that could
President
have hired outside investigators
to look into the allegations
raised by the magazine.
Cuban said he’s talked to the
investigators who will issue a re-
port. He previously had told SI,
“this is all new to me.”
“Today’s not the time for me
to talk about anything,” Cuban
said Monday. “This is about us
moving forward.”
Cuban has dangled the pros-
pect of a 2020 presidential run
and seems to relish the attention.
In several interviews, he has said
he is “seriously considering” or
“actively considering” it.
He’s wealthy enough to cast
an aura of not being beholden to
special interest. With more than
7 million Twitter followers, he’s
brash and outspoken both in the
media and on social media,
where he’s taken potshots at
Trump and his policies. He’s a
star on ABC’s Shark Tank,
where he critiques hopeful en-
trepreneurs’business ideas. He’s
even explored a comer of the re-
ality TV universe Tmmp never
did: Turns and dips on Dancing
With the Stars.
“Donald Tmmp’s election as
president encouraged all kinds
Donald
mirror
Tmmp’s blend of reality televi-
sion and politics in a ride to the
White House.
%
But Cuban’s would-be politi-
cal career could be derailed be-
fore it even gets started by sexual
harassment and misconduct al-
legations within his team. The
allegations range from a history
of sexually suggestive remarks
by a former team executive, to
another employee being ac-
cused of domestic assault.
They leave Cuban facing
deep questions about his leader-
ship and how a team owner with
a reputation for meticulous at-
tention to detail could not be
aware of nearly two decades of
problems.
At his first public appearance
since allegations were first re-
ported by Sports Illustrated on
Feb. 20, Cuban on Monday de-
flected questions about how
much he knew was going on un-
der his watch. The Mavericks
Ron Jenkins/AP
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reacts to a play during the
team’s Monday game against Indiana in Dallas.
of people with fame and success
but no real political experience
to be thinking, ‘I can do it too,“’
said Cal Jillson, political science
professor at Southern Method-
ist University in Dallas.
That it took Cuban a week to
hold a news conference on the
allegations after they were first
reported indicates he’s got a long
way to go as a politician, Jillson
said.
ready be a war room,” Jillson
said. ‘A person in the post-
Trump world that thinks you
can stagger your way to a nom-
ination ... that was a one-off
deal.”
Like Trump, Cuban’s politics
are pliable enough that it would
be hard to mold him into a Re-
publican or Democratic platform
in the primaries. Cuban en-
dorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016
and had a front-row seat at one of
the televised debates to support
her. But he also has said if he does
run he would probably be a Re-
publican because he considers
“If Mark Cuban were serious
[about running], he would al-
ready have a half-dozen people
whose job it is to lay the ground
work to react... There would al-
NASCAR vets aren’t pulling over for rookies
i
T
Open title in 2012. Hamlin add-
ed his own message: “All the old
drivers after Sunday.”
This isn’t about jealousy,
rather reality. The older drivers
know their laps are limited, but
they aren’t going to simply go
By Jenna Fryer
AP Auto Racing Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kev-
in Harvick put the brakes on the
“New NASCAR!
»i.
A
movement
with a dominating victory on a
weathered old racetrack.
r )
away.
Motor sports
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
COMMENTARY
Away from Daytona, the vet-
erans showed the young new
drivers how to race on the
dogged surface at Atlanta Motor
Speedway.
Harvick put on a clinic, and
the top eight finishers were the
familiar faces that seem to com-
pete for wins every week.
All the new kids who spar-
kled in the Daytona 500 had
their hands full at Atlanta, a
track that requires an entirely
different skill-set.
In the season-opening show-
case, the idea is to go as fast as
you can while avoiding the mis-
haps of others.
But the style of racing at Day-
tona, as well as Talladega, comes
just four times a year. The rest of
the NASCAR schedule is where
the true talent rises. So at Atlan-
ta, where experience matters,
the finishing order showed five
former series champions — four
Daytona 500 winners — cross
the finish line in order.
Experience matters and it’s
going to take seat time for the
newcomers to figure out how to
contend on a weekly basis.
Elliott, for example, is win-
less in the Cup Series but has
seven runner-up finishes. He’s
still working on closing races.
Kyle Larson was the same, and
when he finally figured it out, he
knocked out four wins last sea-
tTr
£
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
Texas pitcher Matt Moore, left, grabs his arm Feb. 17 as he
talks with teammates during practice in Surprise, Ariz.
E3 QtiikTrip
it sch
Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images
Kevin Harvick celebrates Sunday after winning the QuikTrip
500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.
Moore seeks revival
with Rangers after
rough 17 with Giants
son and was a legitimate title
contender.
Harvick noted there’s going
to be a balance all season be-
tween the radically different
ends of the spectrum.
“We’re in a great spot in our
sport because we have these
young guys that are fired up and
can drive the car fast and have
great stories and have ties to
great family heritage,” he said.
“The diversity from young to
old is something that we haven’t
had in a long time, and we’re go-
ing to corral everybody to make
sure that they realize that we all
need each other in order to
make this sport what we all want
it to be.”
“This is a racetrack that takes
a lot of experience, and there’s a
lot of things that you have to
know about your car and know
about the racetrack to get the car
around,” Harvick said. “This is
where experience pays off”
That doesn’t fit the fresh nar-
rative that came out of Daytona,
where the new crop of NASCAR
drivers ruled. Alex Bowman
won the pole, Chase Elliott and
Ryan Blaney won qualifying rac-
es, Blaney led the most laps in
the Daytona 500, Austin Dillon
won the race and Bubba Wallace
finished second in his debut. At
27, Dillon is the oldest driver in
that bunch.
Harvick, meanwhile, is 42.
The shift in focus to the new
generation is not lost on anyone
who follows NASCAR, particu-
larly the veteran drivers. Some
have nitpicked about the mar-
keting push behind this “New
NASCAR!” and they had to have
felt the change in dynamic at
Daytona.
Denny Hamlin, a former
Daytona 500 winner who fin-
ished third in the 500 and
fourth at Atlanta, shared his
thoughts on Twitter on Monday
night by posting a video of pro
bowler Pete Weber screaming
‘Who do you think you are? I
am!” after winning his fifth U.S.
By The Associated Press
SURPRISE, Ariz. - Matt
Moore had plenty of time to
ponder the worst season of his
career when he made the long
drive last fall from San Francisco
to his home in Florida.
The left-hander concluded,
among other things, that he re-
lied too much on his cut fastball,
a theory that he’ll be testing with
a new team.
The Giants traded Moore to
the Texas Rangers in December
after he matched the National
League high with 15 losses and
had the worst ERA in the majors
(5.52) among pitchers with at
least 162 innings.
“Last year I was throwing it
considerably more than certain
pitches,” Moore said. “I think the
overall usage of the pitch is going
to be reformed a little bit. It is
definitely a very usable pitch, but
I just want to make sure every-
thing else is coming along with
Rangers
Spring training
the second of two straight trips
to the World Series.
“I didn’t realize the moment I
was in,” said Moore, who was a
22-year-old rookie making just
his second big league start.
Moore had season-ending el-
bow surgery after two starts in
2014. He was ineffective after his
return from Tommy John sur-
gery and spent a month in the
minors in 2015 before going 13-
12 combined with a 4.08 ERA
with the Rays and Giants two
years ago.
There was another playoff
highlight in 2016 when Moore
allowed two hits and two runs in
eight innings, helping the Giants
take a 5-2 lead into the ninth in-
ning of Game 4 of the NL Divi-
sion Series. But the Cubs scored
four runs against the San Fran-
cisco bullpen to clinch the series.
The only highlight for last
season came late, when Moore
backed off the cutter and threw
more four-seam fastballs.
“Toward the end of the sea-
son I was up to 94-95-96
[mph],” Moore said. “Just to see
that still in there was encourag-
ing as far as velocity.”
Now Moore and the Rangers
are hoping to see better results.
well from 3 like they do, you can
put a lot of pressure on teams.”
takes time. We don’t have any
seniors. It’s a process. It was a
matter of finding the right
combinations.”
UNT has tried different com-
binations with its doubles teams
throughout the season and be-
lieves it has started to build
chemistry late in the season.
Kononova’s win against La-
zaro was a milestone. No UNT
player has ever beaten an high-
er-ranked opponent.
“Maria had an incredible
match,” Lama said. “She had lost
some tough matches against
great players. To win that match
was huge for her confidence.”
Lama credited the Mean
Green’s performance against
Marshall partly to the challeng-
ing schedule UNT faced earlier
in the season. The Mean Green
lost to Kansas State, Washing-
ton State, Oklahoma and FIU
before bouncing back to beat
Marshall.
“Playing tough teams helps
prepare you for the conference
tournament and for the
NCAAs,” Lama said. “We had
four tough losses, but I would
rather struggle because that is
what makes you better.”
Golf
Snyman named C-USA
golfer of the week
UNT junior Ian Snyman was
voted as the Conference USA
men’s golfer of the week for the
second week of February.
Snyman finished in a tie for
11th at the All-American Inter-
collegiate at the Golf Club of
Houston. He finished with 12
birdies in the three-round tour-
nament and finished with a 6-
under 210.
UNT finished fourth as a
team in the N.I.T., a 16-team
tournament in Tucson, Arizona.
The Mean Green finished at 28-
under, ahead of Colorado State
and Santa Clara, which entered
the event ranked No. 21 and No.
35 nationally, respectively.
From Page IB
UNT
Duffy questionable
for UTSA game
UNT could be without Jor-
den Duffy against UTSA on
Thursday due to a concussion he
suffered in the loss to Florida At-
lantic last week.
The junior guard was hit in
the head on a dribble hand-off.
Duffy has suffered a series of
injuries this season, beginning-
over the summer when he broke
his foot. He has endured ankle,
knee and hip ailments since and
still has managed to average 6.5
points and 2.7 rebounds in 19
last game, a 74-54 clunker at
Florida Atlantic.
“It’s not all that different from
how we have played all year
long,” McCasland said. “You
have a couple of basketball plays
that work for you offensively and
make a couple of stops, and
you’re 3-2.”
McCasland readily admitted
it would have taken more than a
few plays for UNT to reverse its
fortunes against FAU, which
turned out to be a rare blowout
loss.
it.’
Moore is set to put the trou-
bling 2017 season behind him.
The 28-year-old’s first spring
start is Wednesday against the
Chicago White Sox.
There’s plenty to forget be-
yond the 6-15 record. How about
lefties hitting .373 against him, a
big league high? Or allowing 80
extra-base hits, second-most in
the NL?
In the last two starts before
his cross-country drive, Moore
threw six scoreless innings in a
4-0 win over Colorado before
eight of the 13 batters he faced
scored in an 11-4 loss to Arizona.
“I think that’s when the re-
flection started, coming off abad
last start of the season,” Moore
said. “The one before that was
pretty sharp so I wanted to finish
up stronger. I think just trying
not to be too tough on myself”
The Giants, who acquired
Moore at the trading deadline in
2016, wanted to dump his $9
million salary.
The Rangers are hoping they
acquired a version of the Moore,
who went 17-4 with a 3.32 ERA
in 2013 for Tampa Bay. Or the
Moore who allowed two hits in
seven scoreless innings for Tam-
pa Bay to beat Texas in the open-
er of an AL Division Series in
2011, when the Rangers made
games.
UNT led by 26-24 late in the
first half before Justin Massey
made a 3. The Owls were off and
running at that point and quick-
ly pulled away.
“Most of the time, we have
stayed composed and grinded
out possessions to get back into
games,” McCasland said. ‘At
their place, we tried to make too
many big plays.”
UNT (14-15, 7-9 Conference
USA) will look to get back on
track against UTSA (17-12,10-6).
The Roadrunners have won
seven of their past eight, but lost
star freshman guard Jhiwan
Jackson to a knee injury he suf-
fered in a win against Louisiana
Tech. Jackson averaged 18.4
points per game and was named
the C-USA Freshman of the
Week seven times. He is not ex-
pected to play again this season.
“They have some great offen-
sive firepower and have guys
who are shooting it well and
know their role,” McCasland
said. “When you shoot the ball
“He is day to day,” McCasland
said. “It started with his foot,
went to his knee, hip and now it’s
his head. I told him I think we
Source: Lincecum,
Rangers in discussions
Two-time NL Cy Young
Award winner Tim Lincecum is
deep in negotiations with the
Texas Rangers on a one-year
contract, a person with direct
knowledge of the discussions
said.
Softball
UNT to host second straight
home tournament
UNT will host its second
straight home tournament this
weekend in its final tuneup for
the opening of the Conference
USA season.
The Mean Green will host Tul-
sa 1:30 p.m. Friday before taking
on Texas-Arlington and Nicholls
State in doubleheaders on Satur-
day and Sunday. UNT will face
UTA in the opener of Saturday’s
doubleheader at 2:30 p.m. and
Nicholls State at 11 a.m. in the
opener of Sunday’s doubleheader.
UNT (7-4) has won four
straight games after sweeping the
Schutt Invitational last weekend.
The Mean Green beat Prairie
View A&M and Grambling State
twice each during the event
BRETT VITO can be
reached at 940-566-6870 and
via Twitter at @brettvito.
are through it now, unless it’s his
hair next.”
Tennis
Lama pleased with progress
after breakthrough win
UNT snapped a four-match
losing streak with a 4-0 win
against Marshall on Sunday.
The win was the highlight of a
big weekend for the Mean
Green, who also saw Maria Ko-
nonova post one of the most im-
pressive singles wins in program
history.
The junior knocked off An-
drea Lazaro of Florida Interna-
tional 6-3,4-6, 6-4. Lazaro was
ranked second nationally.
UNT lost to the Panthers 4-1
but bounced back against the
Thundering Herd to improve to
4-5 on the season.
“We have a heck of a team,”
Lama said. “Some years, it
The person spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity Tuesday be-
cause no deal had been reached.
The 33-year-old Lincecum
pitched in a showcase for major
league teams, executives and
scouts earlier this month near
his hometown of Seattle.
The Freak appears ready to
mount another big league come-
back.
Swimming and diving
UNT finishes fourth
in C-USA meet
The UNT swimming and
diving team finished fourth in
the Conference USA Champi-
onships, which wrapped up ear-
lier this week at the McAuley
Aquatic Center in Atlanta.
Florida International won
the six-team event, while Rice
finished second and Marshall
third. UNT has finished fourth
in each of the past three seasons.
He hasn’t pitched in the ma-
jors since a disappointing nine-
start stint in 2016 with the An-
gels. Texas would likely consider
him for a bullpen role, perhaps
as a closer.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 210, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 28, 2018, newspaper, February 28, 2018; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1137779/m1/18/: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .