NEW YORK — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay his hush money criminal trial, taking just 12 minutes to swat aside an argument that it should be postponed while the former president fights a gag order.

Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling was the second time in as many days that the state’s mid-level appeals court refused to postpone the trial, set to begin next week, further narrowing any plausible path to the delay that Trump’s legal team has repeatedly sought.

Trump’s lawyers wanted the trial delayed until a full panel of appellate court judges could hear arguments on lifting or modifying a gag order that bans him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush-money case.

They argue the gag order is an unconstitutional curb on the presumptive Republican nominee’s free speech rights while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.

“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state’s mid-level appeals court.

Bove argued that Trump shouldn’t be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, routinely assail him. Both are key prosecution witnesses.

Bove also argued that the order unconstitutional restricts Trump’s critiques of the case — and, with them, his ability to speak to the voting public and its right to hear from him.

Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, countered that there is a “public interest in protecting the integrity of the trial.”

“What we are talking about here is the defendant’s uncontested history of making inflammatory, denigrating” comments about people involved in the case, Wu said. “This is not political debate. These are insults.”

Wu said prosecutors already have had trouble getting some witnesses to testify “because they know what their names in the press may lead to.” Wu didn’t identify the witnesses but noted they included people who would testify about record-keeping practices.

The gag order still affords Trump “free rein to talk about a host of issues,” noting that he can comment on Judge Juan M. Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg and “raise political arguments as he sees fit.” Trump has repeatedly lambasted Bragg, a Democrat, and the judge.

Barring further court action, jury selection will begin on April 15.

Merchan issued the gag order last month at prosecutors’ urging, then expanded it last week to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump lashed out on social media at the judge’s daughter, a Democratic political consultant, and made what the court system said were false claims about her.

Tuesday was the second of back-to-back days for Trump’s lawyers in the appeals court. Associate Justice Lizbeth González on Monday rejected their request to delay the trial while Trump seeks to move his case out of heavily Democratic Manhattan.

Trump’s lawyers framed their gag order appeal as a lawsuit against Merchan. In New York, judges can be sued to challenge some decisions under a state law known as Article 78.

Trump has used the tactic before, including against the judge in his recent New York civil fraud trial in an unsuccessful last-minute bid to delay that case last fall and again when that judge imposed a gag order barring trial participants from commenting publicly on court staffers. That order came after Trump smeared the judge’s principal law clerk in a social media post.

A sole appeals judge lifted the civil trial gag order, but an appellate panel restored it two weeks later.

Trump’s hush-money criminal case involves allegations that he falsified his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to Cohen, who helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included paying Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump has made numerous attempts to get the trial postponed.

Last week, as Merchan swatted away various requests to delay the trial, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case. The judge rejected a similar request last August.

Trump’s lawyers allege the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter Loren’s work as president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm with clients that have included President Joe Biden and other Democrats. Trump’s attorneys complained the expanded gag order was shielding the Merchans “from legitimate public criticism.”

Merchan had long resisted imposing a gag order. At Trump’s arraignment in April 2023, he admonished Trump not to make statements that could incite violence or jeopardize safety, but stopped short of muzzling him. At a subsequent hearing, Merchan noted Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and said he was “bending over backwards” to ensure Trump has every opportunity “to speak in furtherance of his candidacy.”

Trump reacted on social media that the gag order was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional” and said Merchan was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals.

Trump suggested without evidence that Merchan’s decision-making was influenced by his daughter’s professional interests and made a claim, later repudiated by court officials, that Loren Merchan had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.

After the outburst, Merchan expanded the gag order April 1 to prohibit Trump from making statements about the judge’s family or Bragg’s family.

“They can talk about me but I can’t talk about them???” Trump reacted on his Truth Social platform.

SACRAMENTO — California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over a five-year period but didn’t consistently track the outcomes or effectiveness of its programs, according to state audit released Tuesday.

The report attempts to assess how effective the state and local cities have been spending billions of dollars to address the ongoing homelessness crisis in California.

An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S. Despite the roughly $24 billion spent on homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, the problem didn’t improve in many cities.

Among other things, the report found that the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, which is responsible for coordinating agencies and allocating resources for homelessness programs, stopped tracking spending on programs and their outcomes in 2021 despite the continuous funding from the state. It also failed to develop a collect and evaluate outcome data of these programs due to the lack of a consistent method.

With makeshift tents lining streets and disrupting businesses in communities across the state, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating issues in California.

The report notes that some data regarding the number of program participants and bed inventory in the state system might not be accurate or reliable.

The council, which lawmakers created to help the state deal with its homelessness problem, also has only reported on homelessness spending once since its creation in 2017, according to the report.

Without reliable and recent data on its spending, “the state will continue to lack complete and timely information about the ongoing costs and associated outcomes of its homelessness programs,” the audit contends.

California funds more than 30 programs to tackle homelessness. The audit assesses five initiatives and finds only two of them — the efforts to turn hotel and motel rooms into housing and housing-related support program — are “likely cost-effective.” The remaining programs, which received collectively $9.4 billion since 2020, did not have enough data to be fully assessed, the report says.

However, a recent Bay Area News Group review of the hotel initiative, dubbed Homekey, found some of the program’s sites struggled with habitability and drug problems amid limited state oversight, and that hundreds of people ended up back on the street after spending time at local facilities throughout the five-county region.

The state auditor also reviewed homelessness spending in two major cities, San Jose and San Diego, and found both failed to effectively track revenues and spending due to the lack of spending plans.

Staff writer Ethan Varian contributed to this report. 

WASHINGTON — Hard-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is escalating her criticism of House Speaker Mike Johnson, blistering his leadership in a lengthy letter to colleagues and renewing threats of a snap vote that could remove him from office.

As lawmakers returned to work Tuesday from a two-week spring recess, the fresh onslaught from the Georgia congresswoman dragged the still-new speaker back into the Republican chaos that has defined GOP House control and threatens to grind work to a halt. Johnson may very well be unable to execute the basics of his job.

“Today, I sent a letter to my colleagues explaining exactly why I filed a motion to vacate against Speaker Johnson,” Greene said on social media about the procedural tool that could force the quick vote.

Greene in stark terms warned Johnson not to reach across the aisle to Democrats for votes he would need to pass pending legislation that hard-right Republicans oppose, particularly aid to Ukraine. That aid package as well as other agenda items are in grave doubt.

“I will not tolerate this type of Republican ‘leadership,’” wrote Greene, a top ally of presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, in the five-page letter first reported by The New York Times.

The standoff threatens to mire the House in another standstill, saddling the Republican majority with a do-nothing label after months of turmoil that has sent some seasoned lawmakers heading for the exits.

It comes during what is typically a springtime legislative push in Congress to notch a few priorities before lawmakers turn their attention toward the November election campaigns.

For Johnson, who took the helm just six months ago after the House ousted Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s post, it is political payback for his efforts to keep government running by compromising with Democrats on must-past legislation to fund federal operations and prevent a shutdown.

Partnership with Democrats is about the only way Johnson can pass any bills in the face of a thin majority and staunch resistance from his right flank. He can lose barely more than a single Republican from his ranks on most votes.

Greene, who filed the motion to vacate the speaker before lawmakers left for spring break in March, has stopped short of saying she would call it up for the vote and her next steps are uncertain.

Other Republicans, even some of the eight who voted to oust McCarthy, the California Republican who has since retired from Congress, have cooled on Greene’s effort, trying to prevent another spectacle. McCarthy’s ouster left the House essentially shuttered for almost a month last fall as Republicans argued over a new leader.

And Democrats led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York have signaled they may lend their votes to Johnson, a courtesy they did not extend to McCarthy, which could save the Louisiana Republican’s job in a bipartisan effort to keep the House open and functioning.

But Greene, during a rousing town hall late Monday in her home district in Georgia and in the scathing letter delivered Tuesday as lawmakers returned to work, left clear the threat that hangs over Johnson if he seeks any partnership with Democrats.

In the letter, she outlined the promises she said Johnson made to Republicans during the fight to become speaker, and listed ways she said he had broken them — for example, by passing the spending bills needed to fund the government with existing policies many Republicans oppose, or by failing to include legislation with Republican proposals for securing the U.S.-Mexico border.

“This has been a complete and total surrender to, if not complete and total lockstep with, the Democrats’ agenda that has angered our Republican base so much and given them very little reason to vote for a Republican House majority,” she wrote.

RIO DE JANEIRO — A crusading Brazilian Supreme Court justice has included Elon Musk as a target in an ongoing investigation over the dissemination of fake news, and has opened a separate investigation into the U.S. business executive for alleged obstruction.

In his decision, Justice Alexandre de Moraes noted that Musk on Saturday began waging a public “disinformation campaign” regarding the top court’s actions, and that Musk continued the following day — most notably with comments that his social media company X would cease to comply with the court’s orders to block certain accounts.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who took over Twitter in late 2022, accused de Moraes of suppressing free speech and violating Brazil’s constitution, and noted on X that users could seek to bypass any shutdown of the social media platform by using VPNs, or virtual private networks.

Musk will be investigated for alleged intentional criminal instrumentalization of X as part of an investigation into a network of people known as digital militias who allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices, according to the text of the decision. The new investigation will look into whether Musk engaged in obstruction, criminal organization and incitement.

“The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, incitement of crime, the public threat of disobedience of court orders and future lack of cooperation from the platform are facts that disrespect the sovereignty of Brazil,” de Moraes wrote Sunday.

X’s press office did not reply to a request for comment from The Associated Press, and Musk hadn’t publicly commented as of Monday morning, apart from brief posts on X.

Brazil’s political right has long characterized de Moraes as overstepping his bounds to clamp down on free speech and engage in political persecution. In the digital militias investigation, lawmakers from former President Jair Bolsonaro’s circle have been imprisoned and his supporters’ homes raided. Bolsonaro himself became a target of the investigation in 2021.

The justice in March 2022 ordered the shutdown of messaging app Telegram nationwide on the grounds that the platform repeatedly ignored requests from Brazilian authorities, including a police request to block profiles and provide information linked to blogger Allan dos Santos, an ally of Bolsonaro’s accused of spreading falsehoods. Dos Santos’ account is one of those blocked on X in Brazil. Less than 48 hours after issuing his order in 2022, de Moraes said Telegram had complied and permitted it to resume oeprations.

De Moraes’ defenders have said his decisions, although extraordinary, are legally sound and necessary to purge social media of fake news as well as extinguish threats to Brazilian democracy — notoriously underscored by the Jan. 8, 2023, uprising in Brazil’s capital that resembled the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.

“Judicial decisions can be subject to appeal, but never to deliberate non-compliance,” Luís Roberto Barroso, the Supreme Court’s chief justice, said in a statement Monday.

On Saturday, Musk — a self-declared free speech absolutist — said on X that the platform would lift all restrictions on blocked accounts and predicted that the move was likely to dry up revenue in Brazil and force the company to shutter its local office.

“But principles matter more than profit,” he wrote.

Brazil is an important market for social media companies. About 40 million Brazilians, or about 18% of the population, access X at least once per month, according to the market research group Emarketer.

Musk later instructed users in Brazil to download a VPN to retain access if X was shut down and wrote that X would publish all of de Moraes’ demands, claiming they violate Brazilian law.

“These are the most draconian demands of any country on Earth!” he later wrote.

Brazil’s constitution was drafted after the 1964-1985 military dictatorship and contains a long list of aspirational goals and prohibitions against specific crimes such as racism and, more recently, homophobia. But freedom of speech is not absolute.

Musk had not published de Moraes’ demands as of Monday morning and prominent blocked accounts remained so, indicating X had yet to act based on Musk’s previous pledges.

Moraes’ decision warned against doing so, saying each blocked account that X eventually reactivates will entail a fine of 100,000 reais ($20,000) per day, and that those responsible will be held legally to account for disobeying a court order.

“Including Elon Musk in the digital militias investigation is one thing. Blocking X is another. With this, Moraes is making a nod, saying that he didn’t remain inert amid provocations from Elon Musk,” Carlos Affonso, director of Rio de Janeiro-based think tank Institute for Technology and Society, said by phone from Washington. “It is a warning shot so that lines aren’t crossed.”

Affonso, a professor of civil rights at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, on Monday was attending a symposium at Georgetown Law School about Brazil’s business climate and legislation, and that the implications of Moraes’ decision for Musk and X were “the talk of the town.” Affonso also wondered what the brewing spat might mean for Musk’s Starlink satellites that provide internet service to remote Brazilian regions like the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands.

“Our freedom today is largely in his hands,” Bolsonaro said about Musk in a live broadcast on social media Sunday night. “The action he’s taking, what he’s been saying and he hasn’t been intimidated and has said that he’s going to put forward this idea of fighting for freedom for our country. That’s good.”

The lower house lawmaker who is in charge of handling a bill that aims to establish rules for social media platforms said on X that the episode underscored the urgency of bringing the proposal to a vote. It was approved by the Senate in 2020. Brazil’s attorney general on Saturday night had already voiced his support for regulation.

“We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities. Social peace is non-negotiable,” Jorge Messias wrote on X.

And President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s minister of institutional relations, Alexandre Padilha, wrote Monday on X that the administration will support the Supreme Court and its probes, and work with Congress and civil society to build a regulatory framework.

Sá Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo. AP videojournalist Tatiana Pollastri contributed.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A makeshift ferry overcrowded with residents reportedly fleeing a feared cholera outbreak capsized off Mozambique’s northern coast, killing at least 98 people including children, local media said Monday.

The ferry with an estimated 130 people aboard capsized Sunday after it departed the southeastern African nation’s coast for the nearby Island of Mozambique and at least 11 people were hospitalized, state-run Radio Mozambique quoted island administrator Silvério Nauaito as saying.

Most of the dead were recovered Sunday, but an additional seven bodies were found Monday, bringing the death toll from 91 to 98, the Noticias newspaper quoted Nauaito as saying. State TV showed what they said was the vessel pulled up on a beach a day after the tragedy, though it wasn’t immediately clear how it had been brought ashore.

Maritime authorities continued to search for additional survivors, Nauaito told the radio station, adding that “it is not easy to say with precision how many remain missing.” Government officials were heading to the accident site Monday to get more precise information, he said.

The Nampula provincial authority released a statement attributing the accident to the “use of a vessel unsuitable for transporting passengers and overcrowding,” Radio Mozambique reported.

Noticias, one of the country’s main and oldest newspapers, said the boat ordinarily was used as a fishing vessel and that residents of the town of Lunga were trying to flee what they believed was a flare-up in cases of cholera that the country has suffered in recent months.

They wanted to reach the Island of Mozambique and departed “in a stampede” using boats “unsuitable for navigation,” the newspaper reported. The boat capsized before it could reach the island.

Some people still managed to reach the island’s shore but died there after not being able to get medical help on time, the newspaper said. The country’s national public broadcaster, Television of Mozambique, said two bodies of children remained uncollected in a morgue.

Authorities in Mozambique and neighboring southern African countries have been trying to contain a deadly cholera outbreak that spread in recent months.

Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, has recorded 32 deaths from about 15,000 cholera cases since late last year. Nampula is the worst affected province with over 5,000 cholera cases, including 12 deaths, according to government data.

Many areas of Mozambique are only accessible by boats, which are often overcrowded. The country has a poor road network and some areas are unreachable by land or air.

MADISON, Wisc. — President Joe Biden said Monday that college graduates would see “life-changing” relief from his new plan to ease debt burdens for more than 30 million borrowers, the latest attempt by the Democratic president to make good on a campaign promise that could buoy his standing with young voters.

Biden detailed the initiative, which has been in the works for months, during a trip to Wisconsin, one of a handful of battleground states that could decide the outcome of Biden’s likely rematch with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Biden said he wanted to “give everybody a fair shot” and the “freedom to chase their dreams” as he lamented the rising cost of higher education.

“Even when they work hard and pay their student loans, their debt increases and not diminishes,” he said. “Too many people feel the strain and stress, wondering if they can get married, have their first child, start a family, because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt.”

Biden’s trip comes less than a week after primary voting in Wisconsin that highlighted political weaknesses for Biden as he prepares for the general election.

More than 48,000 Democratic voters chose “uninstructed” instead of Biden, more than double his narrow margin of victory in the state in 2020.

Trump also saw a significant number of defections during the state’s primary, with nearly 119,000 Republicans voting for a different candidate than their party’s presumptive nominee.

But Biden’s results, which echoed similar protest votes in states like Michigan and Minnesota, have rattled Democrats who are eager to solidify the coalition that catapulted him into the White House in the first place.

A critical fracture has been the war in the Middle East. Young voters are more likely to disapprove of Biden’s enduring support for Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which has caused heavy casualties among Palestinian civilians.

Some have also been impatient with Biden’s attempts to wipe away student loan debt. The U.S. Supreme Court last year foiled his first attempt to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, a decision that Biden called a “mistake.”

Since then, the White House has pursued debt relief through other targeted initiatives, including those for public service workers and low-income borrowers. Administration officials said they have canceled $144 billion in student loans for almost 4 million Americans.

At the same time, the Department of Education has been working on a more expansive plan to replace Biden’s original effort. Although the new federal rule has not yet been issued, Monday’s announcement was an opportunity to energize young voters whose support Biden will need to defeat Trump in November.

Republicans said Biden’s plan shifts the financial burden of college tuition onto taxpayers who didn’t take out loans to attend school.

“This is an unfair ploy to buy votes before an election and does absolutely nothing to address the high cost of education that puts young people right back into debt,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs a committee on education and other issues.

Biden will make the announcement on Monday in Madison, the state’s liberal capital and home of the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus. The president is scheduled to speak at a nearby technical college.

Nearly 15% of Democrats in Dane County, home to Madison, voted “uninstructed.” That is nearly double the statewide total of 8%.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who represents Madison, said he was struck that concerns about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza were top of mind among voters at five town halls over the past two weeks in more rural parts of his district.

“I was surprised to see the intensity on the issue of Gaza coming not from a student voice out of Madison, but older voters in more rural parts of the district,” Pocan said.

Pocan said the number of “uninstructed” votes shows the concern in Wisconsin and that Biden needs to address it. He said he planned to talk directly with Biden about it on Monday.

“I just want to make sure he knows that if we’re going to have a problem, that could be the problem in Wisconsin,” Pocan said.

Biden’s new debt plan would expand federal student loan relief to new categories of borrowers through the Higher Education Act, which administration officials believe puts it on a stronger legal footing than the sweeping proposal that was killed by a 6-3 court majority last year.

The plan is expected to be smaller and more targeted than Biden’s original plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for more than 40 million borrowers. The new plan would cancel some or all federal student loans for more than 30 million Americans, the White House said. The Education Department plans to issue a formal proposal in the coming months, with plans to start implementing parts of the plan as early as this fall.

“President Biden will use every tool available to cancel student loan debt for as many borrowers as possible, no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stand in his way,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a call with reporters.

Details the White House released on Monday largely mirror a plan drafted by the Education Department. It lays out five categories of borrowers who would be eligible to get at least some of their federal student loans canceled if the rule is approved.

The plan’s widest-reaching benefit would cancel up to $20,000 in interest for borrowers who have seen their balance grow beyond its original amount because of unpaid interest. Borrowers could get the entirety of their interest erased, with no limit, if they are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan and have annual incomes of less than $120,000 or couples making less than $240,000.

That part of the plan would forgive at least some unpaid interest for an estimated 25 million borrowers, with 23 million getting all their interest erased, according to the White House.An additional 2 million borrowers would automatically have their loans canceled because they’re eligible but have not applied for other forgiveness programs, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

The plan would forgive debt for those who were in college programs deemed to have “low financial value.” It’s meant to help those who were in programs that ended up losing eligibility to receive federal student aid or programs found to have cheated students.

A final category would cancel debt for borrowers facing hardships that prevent them from repaying their student loans, either because they’re at high risk of defaulting or are burdened with medical debt or child care expenses, among other criteria.

Cardona said in a call with reporters that the relief that would be provided under the new plan would be “on top of the $146 billion in student loan debt relief for 4 million Americans that we’ve already approved, more than any other administration in our country’s history.”

Hearings to craft the rule wrapped up in February, and the draft is under review. The Education Department will issue a formal proposal and open it to public comment before it can be finalized.

Associated Press writer Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

Maybe that will make this version of March Madness something to remember after all.

Reigning champion UConn meets Purdue on Monday night in a matchup of top seeds that have combined to win their first five tournament games by an average margin of 22.3 points. They have been at the center of a tournament lacking in drama, with its second-highest average margin of victory since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, only one last-second winning shot and few of the highlight-reel thrills that had become a staple of the event.

Don’t expect the Huskies or Boilermakers to feel the least bit bothered by their dominance, either.

“People that love basketball and people that really know the game, you watch good basketball,” Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer said Sunday. “Obviously the upsets are fun and real cool and they get attention. But real basketball, you like to see the two best teams go at it. And I think that’s what we have here.”

The tournament’s allure remains strong, from casual-at-best basketball fans scribbling out their own bracket projections to TV ratings that keep coming in strong. Yet there’s a short list of unexpected moments this year: namely, Jack Gohlke making 10 3-pointers to help Oakland stun blueblood Kentucky in the first round and North Carolina State’s wild ride as an 11-seed to the program’s first Final Four since the “Cardiac Pack” title run of 1983 under the late Jim Valvano.

As for those last-second shots that live on in tournament lore, the closest this year was KJ Simpson rattling in a baseline jumper with 1.7 seconds left to lift Colorado past Florida 102-100 in Round 1.

Everything else has largely been about UConn’s run to greatness, and Purdue’s march to redemption from last year’s stunning loss to 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson.

“Once you get to this time of year, everything is just you are who your identity is,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “The way you play, it’s very automatic. It just comes down to hoping that it’s your night.”

UConn (36-3) has looked like a runaway train from before the first game in its push to become the first men’s team to repeat as national champions since Florida in 2006 and 2007, and become only the third program to become a repeat winner since UCLA’s run of seven straight under John Wooden from 1967-73.

“The way they’ve won, you know, there’s been some teams that have hung in there with them, then they’ve separated from them,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “There’s some other teams that have gotten flat-out blitzed.”

Last year, UConn became the fifth title winner since the 1985 expansion to win all six games by double-digit margins, the closest coming by 13 points. This year, the No. 1 overall seed has been even more dominant; the Huskies’ closest game was Saturday night’s 86-72 win against Alabama, and they’ve won five games by a combined 125 points — an average of 25 per night.

By comparison, North Carolina in 2009 holds the record for highest points differential of that elite group at 121 points through six games, so another double-figure win by the Huskies to complete a 6-for-6 run would shatter that record.

UConn forward Alex Karaban figures that’s still compelling stuff, too.

“To witness greatness from both teams and to witness greatness from what we did last year, too, I think it’s special,” Karaban said. “And it doesn’t have to be close, doesn’t have to be any of that for it to be March Madness. It can be March Madness … and making history.”

As for the Boilermakers (34-4), they have won five games by an average of 19.6 points, including the 63-50 win against N.C. State in the national semifinals. The only close call was battling from 11 down before halftime to beat Tennessee 72-66 — behind 40 points from 7-foot-4 star Zach Edey —to clinch the program’s first Final Four trip since 1980.

Now they’re in their first title game since their only other appearance, a 1969 loss to Wooden’s Bruins, and Edey will have to tangle with 7-2 defensive force Donovan Clingan.

“It’s cool with me winning by enough points where it’s not that your palms are sweaty, being nervous like that,” Purdue guard Lance Jones said with a broad smile. “So I think having that margin of victory is good.”

But that has also been at the forefront of what has been a blowout-filled tournament.

The average margin of victory in this tournament has been 14.4 points, according to Sportradar. Only the 1993 tournament (14.9 points) has had a higher margin since 1985, and the average margin had been 11.8 points for the previous 29 tournaments.

Now Purdue has the final chance to stop UConn’s March, and maybe have two teams tussling in a compelling finale.

“You give respect to a team like UConn that can go and handle their business and go and beat a team by 15 to 20 every night,” Loyer said. “That’s tough to do and respect to them for it. So it’s making sure we’re ready to go and giving the people a show because it’s the two best teams in college basketball. I don’t know what more you could ask for.”

NCAA Men’s Tournament championship

Who: UConn (36-3) vs. Purdue (34-4)

When: 6:20 p.m. Monday

Where: State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.

TV: TBS

The NCAA’s all-time leading scorer poured in a game-high 30 points in Sunday’s national championship against unbeaten South Carolina, including a record 18 in the opening quarter.

The 22-year-old cooled off a bit from there, however, as the Gamecocks pulled away for an 87-75 victory, making the Hawkeyes the national runner-up for a second straight season.

Clark made 10 of 28 shots — including 5 of 13 3-pointers — and finished her four-year stay in Iowa City, Iowa with 3,951 points, an NCAA record for both men and women. Clark added five assists and eight rebounds.

Her run to a second straight NCAA final helped turn the women’s tournament into appointment television. Her performances have set a new TV ratings record for women’s college basketball twice in the last week alone, with another record likely waiting after the title game.

Clark has tried to take her blossoming stardom in stride, frequently deflecting much of the attention to her Iowa teammates and a sport that is having a moment.

“I personally want to thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. “She carried a heavy load for our sport. … Caitlin Clark if you’re out there you’re one of the GOATs of our game. We appreciate you.”

She always had the full attention of opposing coaches. And South Carolina’s depth proved to be too much in front of a packed Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. It never is with Clark.

She came out firing, scoring 18 of Iowa’s final 20 points in the first quarter as the Hawkeyes built a quick 27-20 lead. The Gamecocks used multiple defenders to try to keep up with Clark. It didn’t seem to matter. She knocked down three 3-pointers in the opening 10 minutes, including a rainbow over 6-foot-7 South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso.

The 18 points broke the single-quarter record of 16 set by LSU’s Jasmine Carlson in the second quarter of the Tigers’ win over Iowa in last year’s title game.

The NCAA went to a quarter system in 2016.

South Carolina, however, recovered to capture its second championship in three years.

Clark checked out with 20 seconds remaining, earning a huge from coach Lisa Bluder while the crowd gave her a lengthy standing ovation.

With Staley directing a relentless attack from the sideline, the Gamecocks (38-0) became the 10th Division I team to go through a season without a loss. And they accomplished the feat after they lost all five starters from last season’s team that lost to Clark’s squad in the national semifinals.

“It doesn’t always end like you want it to end, much like last year. But my freshies are at the top of my heart because they wanted this. It’s awesome. …. It’s awesome. It’s awesome. It’s unbelievable,” Staley said. “When young people lock in and have a belief, and have a trust, and their parents have that same trust, this is what can happen. They made history. They etched their names in the history books.”

Clark did all she could to lead the Hawkeyes to their first championship. She scored 30 points, including a championship-record 18 in the first quarter. She will go down as one of the greatest players in NCAA history.

She rewrote the record book at Iowa (34-5), finishing as the career leading scorer in NCAA Division I history with 3,951 career points.

She hopes her legacy isn’t defined by falling short in two NCAA championship games, but more by the millions of new fans she helped bring into the game and the countless young girls and boys that she inspired.

As the final buzzer sounded, a stoic Clark walked off the court, through the confetti, and into the tunnel heading to the locker room.

South Carolina has won three titles in the last eight years, including two of the past three, to lay claim to being the latest dynasty in women’s basketball. Staley became the fifth coach to win three national championships, joining Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt, Kim Mulkey and Tara VanDerveer.

The Gamecocks, who have won 109 of their last 112 games, became the first team since UConn in 2016 to go undefeated. South Carolina had a couple scares throughout the season, but always found a way to win.

With most of the team returning next year — except for star center Kamilla Cardoso — Staley’s team is in a good position to keep this run going.

Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with 19 points. Cardoso, the NCAA tourney’s Most Outstanding Player, had 15 points and 17 rebounds.

Led by the 6-foot-7 Cardoso and Ashlyn Watkins, South Carolina enjoyed a 51-29 rebounding advantage. It also finished with 30 second-chance points.

The Gamecocks also showed off their impressive depth. Johnson helped the team to a 37-0 difference in points by reserves.

South Carolina trailed 46-44 late in the second quarter before going on an 11-0 run spanning halftime to open a 55-46 advantage early in the third quarter. Clark finally ended the run with a layup.

The Hawkeyes closed to 59-55 and had a chance to get even closer, but Hannah Stuelke missed a wide-open layup on a brilliant pass from Clark.

South Carolina responded with the next eight points, including two 3-pointers. The Gamecocks, who were 4 for 20 from behind the 3-point line during last season’s Final Four loss to Iowa, went 8 for 19 from deep against the Hawkeyes this time around.

The Gamecocks were up 68-59 after the third. They led 76-64 early in the fourth before back-to-back 3s by Clark and Gabbie Marshall got Iowa within six.

Iowa was down 80-75 after a three-point play by Sydney Affolter with 4:12 left. That would be the last point the Hawkeyes would score as South Carolina got the last seven of the game.

Clark checked out with 20 seconds left when Iowa coach Lisa Bluder subbed in fellow senior Molly Davis, who hadn’t played since she got hurt in the regular-season finale against Ohio State.

Unlike the semifinals, when Clark struggled against UConn’s defense, she got going early against South Carolina. Clark scored 13 straight points for Iowa after the Hawkeyes jumped out to a 7-0 lead, including another logo 3-pointer, to help her school to a 20-9 advantage by the first media timeout.

South Carolina cut it to 22-20 with 1:30 left in the period before Clark scored the final five points, including a 3-pointer over Cardoso. Clark’s 18 points in the opening quarter set a championship game record, surpassing the 16 that Jasmine Carson of LSU had last year against the Hawkeyes.

She only had three points in the second quarter, hitting a 3-pointer with 1:53 left in the period. Meanwhile the Gamecocks used their depth and inside dominance to get back in the game. Cardoso had 11 points and seven rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.

The Gamecocks trailed 46-44 in the final minute when Te-Hina PaoPao hit a 3-pointer and Raven Johnson stole the ball from Clark near midcourt and went in for a layup. South Carolina led 49-46 at the half.

Force had a 4.033-second run at 318.24 mph in his Chevrolet Camaro SS for his eighth victory in the event postponed two weeks ago in Pomona.

“I’m just facing the truth in life, that, you know, time’s running out, and I’m trying to hang on,” Force said. “This morning, I was talking about, ‘You know, maybe this is it, maybe I should just walk out the gate and go to the casino.’

“And then all of sudden you win and your weight and your personality just changes. Things went right, and I got the win, so I’m excited.”

Justin Ashley won in Top Fuel and Dallas Glenn in Pro Stock in the other divisions from Pomona. In the Arizona event, Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), Austin Prock (Funny Car) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) topped qualifying, and Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), J.R. Todd (Funny Car) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock) won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge specialty races.