Google's Schmidt to sell roughly 42 percent of stake

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is selling roughly 42 percent of his stake in the Internet search company, a move that could potentially net the former chief executive a $2.51 billion windfall.

Schmidt, 57, will sell 3.2 million shares of Class A common stock through a stock trading plan, Google said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

The plan, which Google said would give Schmidt "individual asset diversification and liquidity," allows Schmidt to spread trades out over a period of one year to reduce the market impact.

Shares of Google were down $4.11 at $781.26 in after-hours trading on Friday.

A Google spokeswoman would not comment on why Schmidt is selling the shares at this time.

Wedbush Securities analyst James Dix said Schmidt's stock sales did not worry him or signal a loss of confidence in the company by Schmidt.

"I'd be more worried if the current CEO or CFO sold a lot of their stake," said Dix.

Schmidt, who served as Google's chief executive until 2011, currently owns roughly 7.6 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock. The shares represent 2.3 percent of Google's outstanding stock and roughly 8.2 percent of the voting power of Google's stock.

The fact that Schmidt will still own a significant amount of shares after the sales means he'll have a good deal of "skin in the Google game," said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice. But he said it could hint at Schmidt playing a less central role within the company going forward.

"My speculation is that Eric's relationship with Google is evolving," said Rice. "I would assume that as he decides he wants to diversify away from Google - both his career and financially - he's got ideas of what he would like to do with some of his funds."

Schmidt, who helped turn Google into the world's No.1 search engine during his decade as CEO, handed the reins to Google co-founder Larry Page in April 2011.

As executive chairman, Schmidt has been particularly involved in government relations, taking a leading role in the company's discussions with antitrust regulators in the United States and the European Union. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission ended its investigation into Google last month without any action. Google has offered to change some of its business practices to appease European competition regulators.

"As Google moves to maybe more tactical battles, as opposed to the strategic battles it's been waging with the government, once those are concluded, maybe his role can be lessened," said Needham & Co's Rice.

Schmidt has also made headlines apart from Google. In January, Schmidt traveled to North Korea with former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for a "personal" trip. The trip was criticized by the U.S. State Department as ill-timed - coming weeks after North Korea conducted a rocket launch in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Shares of Google are trading at all-time highs, finishing Friday's regular session at a record closing price of $785.37. At that price, Schmidt's share sales would be worth $2.51 billion.

Google said that Schmidt entered into the stock trading plan in November.

Schmidt was ranked 138 on the Forbes list of global billionaires with a net worth of $6.9 billion in March 2012.

Given Schmidt's changed role at the company and the amount of his wealth tied up in Google's stock, it was not unreasonable for him to diversify his holdings, said Wedbush Securities analyst Dix.

"As good as Google stock is, it isn't as good as cash if you actually want to buy something," he said.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Lisa Shumaker)

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Bryant leads Lakers over Bobcats 100-93

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Even though Kobe Bryant and the Lakers were able to escape with a 100-93 win Friday night over the Charlotte Bobcats, the Los Angeles star was left feeling "irritated" after the game.

Irritated at his team's shot selection.

Irritated at his team's selfishness.

And especially irritated that the Lakers needed to overcome a 20-point deficit to beat the NBA's worst team.

"We have to play the right way," Bryant said. "When we have shots available, we take them. If we don't, move the ball on. It can't be about individual touches. It can't be about that."

Still, the Lakers won.

Bryant shrugged off a scoreless first half — he attempted only two shots — to finish with 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and the Lakers improved to 4-2 on their road trip heading into Sunday's game in Miami against the Heat.

Bryant didn't come out for warm-ups to start the second half.

But he was there to provide the spark the lackluster Lakers needed in the third quarter. He scored 14 of his points in the final period, including a driving layup with 40 seconds left to push the lead to five and help seal the win.

"In the second half I got in position where I could catch it and turn and shoot it a little bit," Bryant said. "They were reluctant to double team because we started knocking down some shots. I think that makes the game a lot easier."

Steve Nash and Earl Clark each had 17 points and Dwight Howard had 12 points, all in the first half, and 11 rebounds for the Lakers (24-27).

Howard played his second straight game despite nursing an injured right shoulder.

"Continuity," Howard said when asked of the Lakers offensive woes. "We have to do a better job of spreading everything out and moving and getting everybody involved. When we do that, we are pretty good."

Byron Mullens and Gerald Henderson each had 20 points for the Bobcats, who have lost six straight.

Charlotte led 71-51 in the third quarter, but the Lakers stormed back behind a 9-0 run. They cut the lead to one on a driving layup by Bryant with 6:06 left in the game and Antawn Jamison gave the Lakers their first lead with 4:46 remaining on a left-handed finger roll in the lane.

The Lakers took the lead for good at 92-91 when Jodie Meeks made a 3-pointer with 3:02 left in the game.

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni wasn't pleased with the overall effort, but liked that his team bounced back after a 116-95 loss to the Boston Celtics the night before.

"We just got to be able to put our earplugs in, or mufflers on, or blinders on," D'Antoni said. "It's like the Kentucky Derby with horses, just get those blinders on and just get out there and run.

"We have so much stuff going on out here that every little thing is blown to bits and whether it is right or wrong or blown out of proportion it is. But, it affects us. It is a distraction. It saps energy. We got to be able to just close that out somehow."

The Lakers have been unpredictable this season, particularly on the road where they were 8-17 coming into this game.

Before Friday night's game against Charlotte, D'Antoni was asked if the Bobcats were a dangerous opponent for his team.

"We're playing, aren't we? (Then) there's a danger," D'Antoni said with a laugh. "If they play the national anthem, we're in danger."

He was right.

The Lakers started slow, looking out of sync just as they have for a good portion of the season as pick and rolls turned into turnovers and layups on the other end.

Nash had four early turnovers and Howard threw a pass across court that hit the side of the backboard.

The Lakers turned the ball over five times in the game's first eight minutes and fell behind 20-9.

Bryant missed his only two shots in the first half, his slowest start since March 31, 2012, when he went three quarters without scoring a point before beating the New Orleans Hornets on a game-winning shot.

The game was similar to earlier this season when the Bobcats led by 18 in Los Angeles only to squander the lead.

"We had them down pretty much the whole game," Bobcats guard Kemba Walker said. "You know, they made a really good run. Kobe made a lot of good plays, made the right passes and guys just made shots."

NOTES: Bobcats rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist returned to action Friday after missing two games with a concussion. ... At halftime Bryant had five rebounds, two assists and no points. ... The Bobcats had been one of three teams with a .500 or better record all-time against the Lakers, but fell to 8-9 with Friday night's loss.

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Recovering ‘Good Morning America’ host Robin Roberts sets return

(Reuters) – “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts will rejoin the ABC morning television show on February 20 after treatment for a rare blood disorder, the show said on Thursday.

Roberts’ doctors deemed her healthy enough to return to work five months after receiving a bone marrow transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder triggered by treatment for breast cancer five years ago.

“I’m excited to rejoin my wonderful ‘GMA’ family,” Roberts, 52, said in a note posted online on Thursday. “I’m also looking forward to thanking YOU … for your many prayers and well wishes. Your compassion has been an enormous source of comfort to me and my family.”

Roberts will begin appearing on an abbreviated schedule and eventually return to working five days a week, co-anchor Sam Champion said on the show.

Roberts revealed her illness in June and started medical leave in August.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.

Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.

"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.

In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.

Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications

But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.

Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Kiefer Sutherland honored by Harvard theater group

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Golden Globe-winning actor Keifer Sutherland has been awarded the pudding pot after being honored as Man of the Year by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

The roast for the actor took place despite a massive snowstorm hitting the Boston area. The Friday evening event, including presentation of the traditional pudding pot, was moved to the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.

The 46-year-old Sutherland has been in dozens of films. He's perhaps best known for his role as Jack Bauer in the television series "24," for which he won Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy awards. He is currently starring in the television show "Touch."

Last year's Man of the Year was Jason Segel.

The 2013 Woman of the Year, Marion Cotillard (koh-tee-YAR'), was honored last week.

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Rosenthal: Chevrolet restores style to Impala name

Because a brand embedded in our subconsciousness can find a space in our garage, the Impala endures.

About 16 million Chevys named for an African antelope have hit the road since 1958. And even though the one you recently returned to the airport rental lot bore little resemblance the one whose "giddy-up" the Beach Boys sang of a half-century ago, General Motors is betting the bloodline still can claim hearts.

A revamped 10th-generation 2014 model is now on display at the just-opened 105th Chicago Auto Show as a prelude to its dealership debut in a few weeks, a bid to re-establish its good name.

"It's always been a great brand name," Russ Clark, director of Chevrolet marketing, said alongside one of the made-over Impalas on the Auto Show floor at McCormick Place. "In fact, when we did research on the name, we found Impala is one of the strongest in terms of consideration and favorable opinion of any name in the industry. A lot of that is heritage. A lot of it is the fact that people say, 'I know people who have had them, and everybody loved them.'"

The brand has been ubiquitous for decades, even if you don't remember the Beach Boys immortalizing the vintage growl of a "four-speed dual-quad Posi-Traction 409" or how Robert Blake's 1970s TV tough guy Baretta drove a rusted-out Impala from '66, the era when Chevrolet could move about 1 million Impala sedans and station wagons a year. My own first car was a four-door V-8 '72 Impala, a powerful and roomy hand-me-down whose weather-beaten body — like the brand's identity — clearly had seen better days by the late '70s and early '80s.

More recent Impalas have hardly been the stuff of song, and it's hard to imagine them inspiring nostalgia. They've been too dully utilitarian to be iconic.

Nonetheless, although sales have slowed, it has been the overall best-seller among big sedans. Three-quarters of those sales have been as fleet vehicles for corporate salespeople, government agencies and rental companies. That means the premium has been on space, reliability and keeping costs down rather than the kind of panache and extras that might foster pride of ownership.

The goal of this Impala overhaul in both four- and six-cylinder iterations — drafting on similar nameplate revivals for models such as Ford's Taurus, Dodge's Charger and Chrysler's 300 — is to flip that 75-25 ratio of fleet sales to retail on its head.

"It makes perfectly good sense on General Motors' part to finally put some style back in the Impala," auto industry analyst Art Spinella, president of CNW Research, explained. "If you have a great brand name, to almost toss it off, treat it as an orphan and send it off to the fleet sales department with bland styling and cheap interiors, that's a disgrace. What they've done is kind of salvage themselves with this.

"It's finally dawned on General Motors that you can sell a consumer car to fleets, but you can't sell a fleet car to consumers. You always keep fleet cars (looking) relatively obscure and you keep the price way down, and that's what General Motors had been doing for years to keep the (Impala sales) volume up. Now they're taking another look. I don't think they've necessarily gone far enough, but it's a step in the right direction."

To wander through the vast Auto Show, which runs through Feb. 18, is to be reminded of how deeply many of us connect to vehicles, starting as children playing with toy trucks and cars. There's a teenage rite of passage when car keys and a license expand the world. Certain makes and models mesh with what played on their radios, the places traveled in them, the stage of life they marked.

That emotional bond doesn't form so easily with a mere box with wheels.

"What was it that made us fall in love with cars in the first place?" Henrik Fisker, executive chairman and co-founder of high-end hybrid carmaker Fisker Automotive, asked the crowd at Thursday's Economic Club of Chicago luncheon. "It struck me that most of us, when we really start to get our heart pumping about cars, it's usually not the cars of today. It's usually the cars of the '50s and '60s."

Road salt, slush and rain were my old '72 Impala's kryptonite. In time, its front bench seat reclined like a La-Z-Boy whenever I hit the gas because the floor beneath had rusted through. Whatever my affection for the vehicle, I could see the road we were on — literally and figuratively — both looking ahead and glancing down.

Thirty years after I traded it in for a sporty red Pontiac with seats that reclined only how and when I wanted, I would not have expected my old flame to generate much heat.

Carmakers, like most marketers, know that even when a brand is disconnected from what it once represented, it still can resonate. The new Impala is neither the muscular car of old nor the generic conveyance of late. Yet Impala means something to would-be buyers, and good or bad, it gives them something to measure this latest version against.

"They have equity in the name and you never get rid of a brand that has a good reputation," Spinella said. "Some people will buy it because it's an Impala. Some people won't. But they'll look at it because it's an Impala and they remember the Impala. It's easier to reintroduce a name than to introduce a name nobody knows."

I can still remember driving around with my friends with no particular place to go, a song on the radio about a horse with no name. If there was a tune about a nameless car, I don't recall it.

philrosenthal@tribune.com

Twitter @phil_rosenthal

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Hawks nail Torres, and then drill Coyotes 6-2

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jamal Mayers punched Raffi Torres in the face, then Patrick Kane punched the rest of the Coyotes in the gut.

It didn't take long for the Blackhawks to get their reprisal on Torres and not much longer to get the last laugh, too, as they drilled the Coyotes 6-2 on Thursday night at Jobing.com Arena.

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In Torres' first appearance against the Hawks since his 21-game suspension for an illegal hit that seriously injured Marian Hossa during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs ended, Mayers confronted the Coyotes veteran just 2 minutes, 35 seconds into the game.

Hossa watched from the bench as the two dropped the gloves and threw flurries of punches during the spirited bout. With that out of the way, it was time for Kane & Co. to get to work.

Kane had two goals and an assist — all in the first period — Jonathan Toews, Bryan Bickell and Viktor Stalberg each had a goal and an assist and Dave Bolland also scored as the Hawks remained unbeaten in regulation at 9-0-2.

"I realize what my job is at this point," Mayers said. "It still doesn't excuse what (Torres did) but give (him) credit that he was willing to go."

Said Torres: "(The Hossa incident) is in the past and part of the game but I understand that if I go out there and run around and throw some hits then I'm going to have to answer the bell sometimes. (Thursday night) was a perfect example."

Patrick Sharp added three assists and Ray Emery earned the victory in goal to help the Hawks move to 3-0-2 on their season-long, six-game trip. Martin Hanzal and Torres scored for the Coyotes and Mike Smith, who was yanked in the second period, suffered the loss.

"What Jamal did was great for the team and put that to rest," said Emery, who made 22 saves to up his record to 3-0-0.

"More important was to get the two points and stay focused, not let that whole situation get the best of us. I think we did that."

After the Mayers-Torres showdown, the Hawks exploded with four unanswered goals: one from Stalberg and two from Kane surrounding one from Bolland.

"We had a great start," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had real good purpose to our game. … It was a great effort across the board. I was pleased with every aspect of our game, the contribution from each guy."

After Hanzal's goal early in the second, Toews and Bickell put the game out of reach.

Kane has eight goals and 10 assists in 11 games.

"It's always nice scoring goals when you're winning," Kane said. "Hopefully it's something I can continue and we can keep winning games."

ckuc@tribune.com

Twitter @ChrisKuc

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How Einhorn turned from Apple advocate to agitator

(Reuters) - Hedge fund star manager David Einhorn was arguably Apple Inc's biggest cheerleader on Wall Street with a stake worth about $600 million and an oft-cited prediction that the company's market value would hit $1 trillion some day.

So it was a shock on Thursday when Einhorn announced that he was suing Apple to get it to deploy its $137.1 billion cash pile more effectively and arrest a 35 percent drop in its share price from a record high logged last September.

Unknown to Wall Street, Einhorn had for months been imploring Apple's chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, to have the company issue dividend-paying preferred shares to reward investors and juice the stock price.

Einhorn told Reuters he felt blindsided when he received Apple's January 7 annual proxy statement and saw that it contained a proposal that would make it more difficult for the company to issue preferred stock.

"We saw that the proxy came out and we saw they were planning to get rid of preferred and then we said, 'Wait a minute, we are not going to be able to bring this up again in a good way if we allow them to do this. So we should contest it now,'" Einhorn said in a phone interview.

Einhorn's $8 billion Greenlight Capital Inc on Thursday sued Apple in U.S. District Court in New York, asserting that its Proxy Proposal 2 would "restrict the board's ability to unlock the value on Apple's balance sheet.

The 44-year-old hedge fund manager, who made his name and fortune by predicting the collapse of Lehman Brothers, is also urging Apple shareholders to vote against the proxy proposal at the company's annual meeting on February 27.

Apple said in a statement that it will evaluate Greenlight's recommendation and denied that its proxy proposal was aimed at preventing the issuance of preferred stock. If Proxy Proposal 2 is adopted, Apple said it could still issue preferred stock as long as it obtained approval from shareholders.

But the extra hurdle, from Einhorn's point of view, was unacceptable and so he took the matter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The way Einhorn tells it, Cook was more receptive than his CFO and the two sides are still talking. But Einhorn decided to file suit anyway because of the approaching annual meeting.

"The lawsuit is just to get the proxy sorted out," he said.

LONG ON APPLE

Einhorn began investing in Apple in 2010 and holds 1.3 million shares worth about $600 million at current values.

He emerged as a prominent advocate for the stock after it began to fall last year following some disappointing quarterly results, stiffer competition in the smartphone market, and product snafus that fueled fears Apple had lost its innovative edge following the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.

Einhorn said in a letter to investors last month that Greenlight had taken advantage of the drop in Apple's shares to buy more stock in the fourth quarter. That was one reason the fund posted a negative return of 4.9 percent in the quarter.

Since May last year, Einhorn has been urging the company to unlock several hundred billion dollars of shareholder value by distributing preferred stock, which he favored over a share buyback because it did not deplete cash immediately.

In private conversations with Oppenheimer, Einhorn said Apple could initially distribute $50 billion of perpetual preferred stock with a 4 percent annual cash dividend paid quarterly at preferential tax rates.

But, according to Einhorn, Oppenheimer and his advisers calculated the dividend to be 8 percent, which they deemed too high.

"We said, that's crazy. That's crazy. We think 4 percent. If we're wrong, maybe it's 4.5 percent or 4-1/4 percent - it is not 8 percent. So, we kind of agreed to disagree. We kind of sat on it for a few months," Einhorn said.

When he eventually took the matter to Cook, Einhorn said he felt that the CEO did not know all the details of Einhorn's discussions with Oppenheimer.

"When I discussed this with Tim Cook, and actually, the conversation has been going on for the last couple of weeks, he said that he wasn't familiar with my previous conversations with Peter Oppenheimer and whoever Peter Oppenheimer's advisers were. I was surprised by that.

"I think we got the brush-off the first time," Einhorn said about Oppenheimer and his advisers. "I don't know what the communication was" between Oppenheimer and Cook.

Apple declined to comment on the specifics of the discussions with Einhorn.

A source familiar with the matter characterized the interaction with the hedge fund manager as "cordial," saying that there had been "friendly disagreement" only on whether common shareholders should be allowed to vote on something as significant as an issuance of preferred stock.

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

Einhorn said in a television interview that despite their differences, he felt Cook was doing an excellent job as CEO, but he described Apple's management as having a "Depression-era" mentality that led it to hoard cash and invest only in the safest, lowest-yielding securities.

"In other words, people who have gone through traumas...and Apple has gone through a couple of traumas in its history, they sometimes feel like they can never have enough cash," Einhorn said on CNBC.

Cook and Oppenheimer both joined Apple during the turbulent late 1990s when the tech company was struggling to stay afloat and before Steve Jobs engineered a sensational turnaround with products like the iPhone and iPad that became must-haves for consumers around the world.

Oppenheimer later earned a reputation on Wall Street for extreme conservatism in cash management. The company likes to remain liquid by investing in safe but low-yielding U.S. Treasury and agency debt, shies away from big acquisitions, and repeatedly preaches a "capital preservation" mantra to investors.

Under Cook in 2011, Apple gradually loosened the reins, announcing its first multi-year dividend and share repurchase programs.

Einhorn and Apple will have another bout when they air their arguments on February 22 in court. Before then, the outspoken fund manager will be lobbying other shareholders.

Analysts say one benefit of preferred stock is that up to 80 percent of the dividends can be tax-free for corporate investors, although preferred shares tend to be less liquid than ordinary shares or bonds.

"The idea is powerful and when I have a chance to explain it to the shareholders, most will see it as an enormous win-win," Einhorn said.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Additional reporting by Edwin Chan and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Matt Driskill)

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Illini buzzer-beater upsets No. 1 Hoosiers, 74-72

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Tyler Griffey made the easiest and biggest shot of his career.

The senior forward took an inbounds pass and made a wide-open layup with 0.9 seconds to play to give Illinois a 74-72 victory over No. 1 Indiana on Thursday night, the fifth straight week the nation's top-ranked team lost.

Hoosiers coach Tom Crean, whose team has been No. 1 for a total of seven weeks this season, doesn't have a reason for the recent weekly changes on top of the poll.

"I can't answer that. I'm not sure," Crean said. "I just know that these games are 40-minute games. We played at a high level for most of the game."

The Hoosiers were in charge until the final 3 1-2 minutes when the Illini (16-8, 3-7 Big Ten) finally put together a run to take and then retake the lead.

"I know this, when we turn the ball over we're not very good," Crean said. "And the biggest difference tonight was 28 points off turnovers to our 16."

And nothing could have been worse for the Hoosiers (20-3, 8-2) than the way the game ended.

With 0.9 seconds left Griffey left defenders Cody Zeller and Christian Watford behind on an inbounds play from the baseline, took the pass from Brandon Paul and delivered the uncontested buzzer-beater for the Illini.

The shot sent hundreds of students onto the court — holding their collective breath as officials checked the replay to make sure the clock hadn't beaten Griffey — and Paul and fellow guard D.J. Richardson hugged and teared up with relief.

Illinois had lost eight of 11 since starting the season 12-0. The Illini had been ranked as high as No. 10 and were now falling to the bottom of the Big Ten.

Griffey, accustomed to struggling in recent weeks, seemed surprised with the ease he was able to make the game-winner.

"I just made a simple curl cut and left two guys behind me, and Brandon got off a heck of a pass," he said. "Zeller and Watford were both right in front of me and just kind of stayed there."

Crean, whose team just moved into the No. 1 spot after knocking off then-No. 1 Michigan on Saturday, said the play was a lot like the other breakdowns in the Hoosiers' game that let Illinois climb back from a 12-point halftime deficit.

"We didn't communicate," Crean said.

"They're very deserving of the win, they never gave in," he added, but he qualified that with, "We didn't put them away when we had the opportunities."

Indiana's loss drops them into a three-way tie for first in the Big Ten with Michigan and Michigan State. For the Illini, the win means a move out of 10th in the 12-team conference up into a ninth-place tie with Iowa.

More importantly, it's a potential lifeline for an Illini team that still has to face No. 18 Minnesota on the road Sunday and had been watching its season slip away.

"It was good to get back to having that toughness and togetherness and trust that we needed," Illinois coach John Groce said.

Illinois hadn't beaten a No. 1 team since a 2004 win over Wake Forest. But the Illini had won nine of the last 10 against the Hoosiers in Champaign. And this season, whatever else has gone wrong, Illinois has delivered against the big boys. Coming into Thursday night the Illini had already beaten three teams now in the top 15: No. 6 Gonzaga, No. 10 Ohio State and No. 14 Butler.

Richardson had 23 points for Illinois, Paul had 21 and Griffey finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Zeller led Indiana with 14 points, while Will Sheehey had 13, Watford 12 and Jordan Hulls 11.

Indiana shot 50 percent from the field (25 of 50), 52.9 percent from 3-point range (9 of 17) and 93 percent from the free throw line (13 of 14). The Hoosiers led by an 8- to 10-point margin for most of the second half.

And when 6-foot-11 Nnanna Egwu fouled out with just under 5 minutes to play, Indiana looked in control. Egwu is the only Illini player with the size to realistically match up with the 7-0 Zeller.

Watford made two free throws after Egwu's fifth foul and, at 69-59, the Illini looked done.

But with the clock under 3 minutes, Richardson went on a run of his own, first burying consecutive 3-pointers and then hitting a midrange jumper on the run to tie the game at 70 with 1:17 to play.

Oladipo's layup put the Hoosiers back on top with 50 seconds left, but Paul answered with two free throws, the first banked in, to tie the score again at 72.

With the clock under 30 seconds, Indiana had the ball for what would have been a last shot but Oladipo fumbled the ball. Richardson picked it up and sprinted down court. Oladipo slapped Richardson's layup out of bounds to set up the final play.

Groce credited Richardson for sparking the comeback.

"I thought he was absolutely terrific on both ends of the floor," Groce said. "He battled, he fought."

Griffey was benched several weeks ago after a blowout loss at Wisconsin. On a team that had lost its shooting touch, the senior forward had grown especially cold. And, though one of Illinois' bigger players at 6-9, he wasn't adding much to the inside presence the Illini desperately needed.

The play that brought him to life Thursday, though, had nothing to do with Illinois' late surge. Griffey hit a 3-pointer less than 4 minutes into the second half. He had missed 20 straight 3-point attempts, dating to the start of the Big Ten season.

"I said to myself, 'Finally,'" said Griffey, who said he has been doing so much extra shooting that he's had to have regular ice treatments on his wrist.

Groce said that, even after he benched Griffey, he never gave up on him.

"I just have told him numerous times here I believe in him," the first-year Illinois coach said. "I do."

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Broadway Motown musical features civil rights, love story

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. watched with approval on Thursday as the cast of upcoming Broadway show “Motown: The Musical” tore through the storied record label’s hits at a 42nd Street rehearsal studio.

The show traces Gordy’s rise from a struggling boxer and autoworker to a music mogul who made stars of Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5 and others.

“So many other people were telling the story in different ways who were never there and never understood it, just for the sake of exploitation,” Gordy, 83, a producer of the show, told Reuters.

The media preview featured hits ranging from The Contours’ “Do You Love Me” – sung as a segregated audience in Birmingham, Alabama, breaks through a rope to hear the group – to “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas.

Director Charles Randolph-Wright, who grew up in South Carolina in the 1960s, said Motown was in his DNA.

“Motown opened the emotional door to the civil rights movement,” he told Reuters. “Motown is the thing that brought people together. We started dancing to the same music and listening to the same music.”

Gordy’s relationship with Ross – the couple had a daughter together – is shown beginning in Paris, to the hit “My Girl” by The Temptations.

“That’s the love story in our show,” Randolph-Wright said.

The musical begins previews on March 11 and officially opens on April 14. It features a book by Gordy and music and lyrics from the Motown catalog.

Although the show is from Gordy’s perspective, it doesn’t duck some of the criticism that surrounded him, especially in Motown‘s early days, Randolph-Wright said.

As Gordy explained: “At one time, people were feeling that how could a black kid from Detroit do a Motown without being a crook, without being in the Mafia, without being something bad, because it was such a big endeavor.”

Gordy, the creator of what was once the largest black-owned business in the United States, was an inspiration to him, Randolph-Wright said.

“Berry Gordy was someone who had his own company, who literally changed the world with what he did,” he said. “And to see that, it gave me and so many people like me – black, white, whatever color – that gift of possibility.”

Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Gordy, said it was “hard to have a greater honor than having Berry Gordy respect you as an artist.”

Valisia LeKae, who appeared in “The Book of Mormon,” plays Ross. “It is the soundtrack of people’s lives,” LeKae said of the music. “I definitely expect people to sing along.”

(Reporting By Noreen O’Donnell, editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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