Rarely does a college basketball game provide such stark contrast between the sport's haves and have-nots as when Jackson State faces No. 9 Kentucky on Friday in Lexington, Ky. While Kentucky claims eight NCAA Tournament crowns and the most wins in college basketball history, Jackson State has never won an NCAA Tournament game and enters the matchup looking for its first win of the season. Impressive tradition and current record aside, Kentucky (4-0) returned no scholarship players from last season's team that was knocked off by Oakland in the NCAA Tournament. New coach Mark Pope and his essentially all-new Wildcats are off to a promising start. Through four games, Kentucky is averaging 94.3 points per game, and with 11.5 3-pointers made per game, the team is on pace to set a school record from long distance. The Wildcats boast six double-figure scorers with transfer guards Otega Oweh (from Oklahoma, 15.0 ppg) and Koby Brea (from Dayton, 14.5 ppg) leading the team. The Wildcats defeated Duke 77-72 on Nov. 12 but showed few signs of an emotional letdown in Tuesday's 97-68 win over a Lipscomb team picked to win the Atlantic Sun Conference in the preseason. Kentucky drained a dozen 3-pointers while outrebounding their visitors 43-28. Guard Jaxson Robinson, held to a single point by Duke, dropped 20 points to lead the Kentucky attack. Afterward, Pope praised his team's focus, saying, "The last game was over and it was kind of on to, ‘How do we get better?' That's the only thing we talk about." Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff also delivered a ringing endorsement, calling Kentucky "the best offensive Power Four team we've played in my six years at Lipscomb." Jackson State (0-5) and third-year coach Mo Williams are looking for something positive to build upon. Not only are the Tigers winless, but they have lost each game by nine or more points. Sophomore guard Jayme Mitchell Jr. (13.8 ppg) is the leading scorer, but the team shoots just 35.8 percent while allowing opponents to shoot 52.3 percent. The Tigers played on Wednesday at Western Kentucky, where they lost 79-62. Reserve Tamarion Hoover had a breakout game with 18 points to lead Jackson State, but the host Hilltoppers canned 14 3-point shots and outrebounded the Tigers 42-35 to grab the win. Earlier, Williams, who played against Kentucky while a student at Alabama, admitted the difficulties of a challenging nonconference schedule for his team. "Our goal is not to win 13 nonconference games," Williams said. "We're already at a disadvantage in that regard. We use these games to get us ready for conference play and for March Madness." Jackson State has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2007. The Tigers had a perfect regular-season record (11-0) in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 2020-21 but lost in the league tournament. Kentucky has never played Jackson State before, but the game is being billed as part of a Unity Series of matchups in which Kentucky hosts members of the SWAC to raise awareness of Historical Black Colleges and Universities and provide funds for those schools. Past Unity Series opponents have been Southern in December 2021 and Florida A&M in December 2022. --Field Level MediaOklahoma Gov. Stitt fires member of cabinet over court appearance

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No. 9 Kentucky, focused on getting better, welcomes Jackson St.Londonderry school officials working through budget detailsBy Hadriana Lowenkron | Bloomberg Billionaire Elon Musk called for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, highlighting the renewed threat under President-elect Donald Trump to a regulatory agency that has long been a target of Republicans and business advocacy groups. “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” Musk wrote in a post on his social-media platform X early Wednesday. Musk’s criticism is notable because he, alongside technology entrepreneur and fellow businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tapped by Trump to run a new effort, dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to slash the federal bureaucracy and reduce government spending. And Musk’s move signals a new stage in a long-running Washington fight over the agency’s powers and very existence. The CFPB — the brainchild of progressive Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in the wake of the financial crisis and given the job of overseeing parts of the financial industry that interact with consumers. The agency, though, has endured a rocky political tenure, facing multiple legal challenges since its onset. During his first term, Trump took steps to largely neutralize the agency, easing the CFPB’s enforcement of banks. But under President Joe Biden and Director Rohit Chopra, the agency has taken an aggressive regulatory approach to consumer finance, cracking down on home foreclosures and bank overdraft fees. Earlier this year, the agency also scored a win in the courts when the US Supreme Court upheld its funding system. Project 2025, a controversial blueprint for a second Trump term crafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation, calls for abolishing the agency, calling it “highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable,” and “returning the consumer protection function of the CFPB to banking regulators and the Federal Trade Commission.” Related Articles Business | LA County supervisors start the ‘how’ of reform, led by a 13-member task force Business | CalOptima audits Andrew Do’s tenure with the agency following corruption plea Business | 2024 election results: Thursday update for Congress, Assembly, state Senate representing LA County Business | A year after the Tustin hangar fire: no cause determined and tough choices ahead Business | LA County OKs supplemental spending; budget rises to $49.2 billion Chopra’s own future as head of the CFPB is in jeopardy. Since a 2020 Supreme Court ruling making the role at-will, the incoming president will have the power to fire Chopra if he doesn’t resign first. Removing him would be a victory for businesses that have sought to weaken independent federal regulators. Musk has already demonstrated his influence over the incoming administration, including sitting in on transition meetings and calls with foreign leaders. But it is unclear how much power his Department of Government Efficiency will wield in its efforts to scale back the federal government. Trump has said it will “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform.”

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