ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday granted a request for a hearing to learn more about an investigation that led to charges against former University of Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore, who was arrested soon after he was fired for a relationship with his executive assistant.

It’s a victory for Moore and lawyer Ellen Michaels who is defending him against charges of felony home invasion, stalking and illegal entry. They ultimately want the case dismissed.

Moore, 40, is accused of entering the woman’s apartment without permission and threatening to kill himself in front of her on Dec. 10. Authorities quoted him as saying she was to blame for him losing one of the top college football jobs in the country. She had spoken to university officials.

Judge J. Cedric Simpson expressed concern that a police detective didn’t disclose Moore’s employer-employee relationship with the woman — a “glaring omission” — when a magistrate authorized a warrant for his arrest.

“Defendant’s due process may have been violated,” Simpson said.

“This was not solely this personal relationship. The magistrate should have been able to look at that,” said the judge, who set a March 2 hearing to hear from police and other witnesses.

The woman ended the personal relationship a few days before Moore’s firing and did not answer a dozen calls or respond to some text messages from him before his dismissal, police said.

Michaels said a coach calling and texting an executive assistant that many times was reasonable while Moore was preparing his team for a bowl game.

“It’s not stalking if the communication has a legitimate purpose,” Michaels said.

Before Simpson set the hearing, Washtenaw County assistant prosecutor Kati Rezmierski said it wasn’t necessary and would be outside the judge’s discretion.

Moore coached the Wolverines for two seasons as the successor to Jim Harbaugh, who won a national championship before quitting to become coach of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. Kyle Whittingham, who coached Utah for two decades, is Michigan’s new coach.

Michaels accused the woman’s personal lawyer of giving information to police to “villainize Mr. Moore and maximize the chances of obtaining a large settlement from the deep pockets of the University of Michigan.”

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Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior accused an opponent of racially insulting him during Tuesday’s Champions League game against Benfica, leading to the game being halted for nearly 10 minutes amid angry scenes at the Stadium of Light.

Madrid defender Trent Alexander-Arnold called the incident “a disgrace to football” while Benfica manager Jose Mourinho said Vinícius had incited his players and fans by the way he celebrated his goal in the 1-0 win for Madrid.

Vinícius had just curled in a shot into the top corner when French referee François Letexier had to stop the match in the 52nd minute, making a signal with his arms to show that an accusation of racism had been made.

Benfica fans had reacted angrily to Vinícius celebrating his goal by dancing by the corner flag, throwing bottles and other objects toward the Madrid players. Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni then confronted Vinícius and said something while covering his mouth with his jersey.

The Brazil forward then suddenly pointed to his Argentine opponent and ran toward the referee.

Cameras picked up Vinícius telling Letexier that Prestianni called him “monkey.”

After the match, Vinícius posted a photo on Instagram of him celebrating by the Benfica corner flag. He wrote: “Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to cover their mouths with their shirts to show how they are weak. … Nothing that happened today is new to me in my life and in my family’s life. I was shown a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t know why.”

When Vinícius made his complaint, the referee immediately stopped the match and crossed his arms above his head to start the anti-racism protocol. Vinícius, who is Black and has been repeatedly subjected to racist abuse in Spain, went to the sideline and sat in the dugout while play was stopped. Some of his teammates also started to walk toward the sideline.

Mbappé and midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni said the team considered leaving the field but eventually decided to continue playing. Mbappé said he asked Vinícius to see what he wanted to do.

“What’s happened tonight is a disgrace to football,” Alexander-Arnold said after the game. “It’s overshadowed the performance, especially after such an amazing goal. Vini has been subjected to this a few times throughout his career, and for it to happen tonight and ruin the night for us as a team is a disgrace. There’s no place for it in football or society. It’s disgusting.”

The 20-year-old Prestianni just looked on from afar as Vinícius talked to the referee.

“The players who were near said that (Prestianni) said something ugly, that shouldn’t be said,” Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde said. “If you cover your mouth to say something it’s because you are saying something that is not nice. I’m proud of my teammates who defended Vini and of Vini.”

Benfica players said Prestianni told them that he provoked Vinícius but never used any racist insult.

“I asked him and he said it was a normal provocation between players during a match,” Benfica midfielder Leandro Barreiro said. “He said it was nothing racist.”

Both coaches, Benfica’s Mourinho and Madrid’s Álvaro Arbeloa, talked to Vinícius near the benches.

Mourinho said he did not want to say he believed one player over the other after talking to both, but criticized Vinícius for celebrating near the fans.

“Unfortunately he was not just happy to score that astonishing goal,” Mourinho told Amazon Prime. “When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.”

Mourinho said he told Vinícius that the greatest player in Benfica’s history — Eusébio — was black, but seemed to question why the Real Madrid player is so frequently targeted by racist abuse.

“There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium,” Mourinho said. “The stadium where Vinicius played something happened. Always.”

The referee appeared to show that he did not hear anything and gestured that Prestianni had the shirt over his mouth.

The Argentine player was not shown a yellow card and continued playing. He was substituted in the 81st and was applauded by Benfica fans.

The game restarted in the 60th and Vinícius was jeered loudly by the home crowd during the rest of the match.

He was hit by the bottle in the final minutes while near the sidelines in front of Benfica fans. The referee asked for an announcement to be made through the stadium’s loudspeakers to warn fans not to through objects onto the field.

Mbappé, who was defending Vinícius while Benfica players confronted his teammate, was also jeered by Benfica supporters. Cameras also showed Mbappé apparently telling Prestianni that he was a racist, along with expletives.

“We can’t accept that a player who plays in Europe’s top competition behaves like that,” Mbappé said. “He shouldn’t keep playing in the competition. Let’s see what happens now.”

The Brazilian soccer confederation showed solidarity with Vinícius, saying in an X post that he was “not alone” and that “racism is a crime” and has “no place in soccer anywhere.” It called Vinícius’ decision to complain to the referee ”an example of courage and dignity. We are proud of you.”

Mourinho sent off

Mourinho, a former Madrid coach, was shown a red card in the 86th for complaining to the referee.

He said the he referee was not awarding yellow cards to the Madrid players as he should have, hinting that it was because they would miss the next game because of an accumulation of cards.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tiger Woods did not rule out a return to the Masters just under two months away, even as his immediate future appears to include just about everything but golf.

Woods again painted an uncertain future about when or where he plays next because of a seventh back surgery to replace a disk. He said Tuesday at the Genesis Invitational that he remains plenty occupied, mostly with trying to reshape the PGA Tour schedule.

“I thought I spent a lot of hours practicing in my prime,” Woods said. “It doesn’t compare to what we’ve done in the boardroom.”

Those hours also are an obstacle in his decision whether to be the U.S. captain for the Ryder Cup for the 2027 matches in Ireland. Woods turned down the job two years ago because he didn’t think he had the time to do the job justice.

Foremost this time of the year is the Masters, which Woods last played in 2024 when he made the cut for a record 24th time in a row. Woods is a five-time Masters champion.

Asked if playing the Masters, which starts April 9, was off the table, Woods replied without elaboration, “No.”

As for his golf anywhere — he turned 50 at the end of last year and is eligible for the PGA Tour Champions — Woods said he is still working his way back from the disk replacement surgery in October and has no timetable for a return. He has yet to play in the indoor TGL matches, either.

“Well, I’m trying — put it that way,” he said, adding that he can hit full shots but not every day “and not very well.”

Last year was the first time in his career he did not compete in a single tournament. He had surgery in March 2025 for a ruptured Achilles tendon, which is no longer holding him back. He said his lower back was sore, and at his age, “It’s probably going to take me a little bit longer.”

“My body has been through a lot,” Woods said. “Each and every day, I keep trying, I keep progressing, I keep working on it, trying to get stronger, trying to get more endurance in this body and trying to get it at a level at which I can play at the highest level again.”

His chief interest is indoors. He is on the board of the PGA Tour and the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises, heading the “Future Competition Committee” that is trying to create a model to meet CEO Brian Rolapp’s goal of fewer tournaments that are more meaningful for the best players.

The only thing clear is that a new model most likely won’t be ready by 2027. The committee has reached agreement on a big start to the season — that could be the week after or before the Super Bowl — taking the big events to bigger markets and becoming the must-see sport of the summer.

Another players-only meeting was scheduled Tuesday at Riviera. Rolapp is expected to pull back the curtain on some aspects at The Players Championship in March, with a little more clarity expected in the summer.

Among items under consideration is moving some prime California stops — Riviera and Torrey Pines get most of the attention — to August as part of the PGA Tour’s postseason.

“We’re looking at things like that, looking to go to bigger markets later in the year for the playoffs. Just trying to make our competitive model better, and how do we do that?” Woods said, adding that moving the Genesis Invitational to August “certainly is on the table.”

All the while, Woods said it was important to create a path for the next batch of stars.

“We’re trying to create opportunities for that turnover … to get more youth out here because eventually they’re going to take over the game,” Woods said. “So trying to create that opportunity, trying to create the right competitive model and the environment to foster that, that’s been the greater challenge of it all.”

As for the Ryder Cup, that also is in the wait-and-see mode.

The PGA of America waited longer than it ever has before choosing Keegan Bradley for the ’25 matches at Bethpage Black because it was waiting on an answer from Woods.

He doesn’t appear to have made much headway.

“They have asked me for my input on it, and I haven’t made my decision yet,” Woods said. “I’m trying to figure out what we’re trying to do with our tour. That’s been driving me hours upon hours every day and trying to figure out if I can actually do our team — Team USA and our players and everyone that’s going to be involved in the Ryder Cup — if I can do it justice with my time.”

Woods became involved at Riviera in 2017 when his TGR Venture began running the event, and now he is the official host in the same capacity of Jack Nicklaus at the Memorial and the late Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill. Those three signature events are the only ones with a 36-hole cut.

Genesis announced it was renewing as title sponsor at Riviera, even amid questions whether it might move to late summer. Genesis also is title sponsor of the Scottish Open in July. There also is a question of how Riviera could be held in August 2028 a month after the Olympics.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Utah Jazz center Jaren Jackson Jr. underwent successful left knee surgery, the team announced via social media Tuesday. 

Jackson’s surgery was done to remove a localized pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) growth in his left knee. He’ll begin rehab and be evaluated after four weeks. The procedure was performed by Dr. Travis Maak on Tuesday morning in Salt Lake City.

Utah acquired Jackson at the trade deadline earlier this month in an eight-player multi-draft pick deal with the Memphis Grizzlies. But the team announced just three games into his tenure with him that he’d be out for the rest of the campaign with the injury. Jackson is in his eighth NBA season and making $35 million this season. That number jumps to $50 million next season and to over $52 million the following year. 

In 48 games this season, Jackson averaged 19.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.4 blocks per game. The Grizzlies are in 11th place in the Western Conference at 20-33, while the Jazz are in 13th place at 18-38 as one of the worst teams in the NBA. 

Jackson was drafted No. 4 overall by Memphis in 2018. During his time with the Grizzlies, Jackson developed into one of the league’s best defenders and took home Defensive Player of the Year honors for the 2022-23 campaign. 

With the Grizzlies, Jackson was a three-time All-Defensive selection, two-time All-Star, two-time league leader in blocks and finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2019. He also finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season. 

Mike Conley Jr. is returning to Minnesota after a trade deadline pinball trip through the league.

After being traded twice ahead of the NBA trade deadline (and subsequently waived), the longtime NBA veteran has signed with the Timberwolves, the team confirmed Tuesday. 

Conley, 38, was first dealt from the Wolves to the Chicago Bulls as part of a three-team trade that sent Kevin Huerter and Dario Šarić to the Detroit Pistons. Detroit also received a 2026 protected first-round swap with Minnesota. Also in the deal, Jaden Ivey went from the Pistons to the Bulls. 

A day later, Conley was on his way to the Charlotte Hornets with Coby White in exchange for Collin Sexton and three second-round picks. The Bulls also acquired Ousmane Dieng from Charlotte in a deal in which the Oklahoma City Thunder got Mason Plumlee. 

Yet neither the Bulls nor the Hornets intended to keep Conley and his $10.7 million salary for the 2025-26 campaign. He can be a free agent after the season. 

[Get more Timberwolves news: Minnesota team feed]

The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement says teams are not allowed to trade a player and then re-sign him if he’s waived. However, Conley was able to return to Minnesota since he was traded a second time before he was let go. 

Following the brief interruption to his stay, Conley will resume his fourth season with the Timberwolves. He returns to a Minnesota team that added Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips in another deadline deal that sent Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller and four second-round picks to Chicago.

Before being dealt, Conley was averaging 4.4 points, 2.9 assists and 1.8 rebounds while limited to 44 games with back spasms and tendinopathy in his right Achilles.  

Overall, Conley has played 19 seasons in the NBA, 12 for the Memphis Grizzlies and four with the Utah Jazz. During his career, he has averaged 13.7 points and 5.6 assists while shooting 39% on 3-pointers. 

Minnesota is 34-22 and in sixth place in the West.