Packers GM Brian Gutekunst will be speaking at the combine on Tuesday — and more

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur apparently won’t be making the trip down to Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine next week, but general manager Brian Gutekunst will, as he’s scheduled to talk to the press on Tuesday. Gutekunst’s scheduled time is 10:15 am Eastern on Tuesday, the second-earliest slot of the day, presumably to get it out of the way.

Gutekunst got out of holding a mid-season press conference this year, as the Packers had an early bye week and didn’t make a trade at the 2025 deadline. He spoke to the media on February 4th, a delayed end-of-the-year presser due to the timing of the team’s extensions for LaFleur, Gutekunst and executive vice president of football operations Russ Ball.

LaFleur not going to the combine is hardly a surprise at this point, since he didn’t travel in 2023, 2024 or 2025, either. The Packers often bring in many of the players that they end up drafting in April via their allotted 30 pre-draft visits, and have since the pandemic. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like the organization values those in-person prospect interviews in Indianapolis much for the coaching staff, since they make it up on the back end with prospect visits to Green Bay.

For what it’s worth, the Packers still haven’t scheduled a press conference for defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who was hired nearly a month ago. Things are going to have to move pretty quickly here, since the combine ends on March 2nd, the legal tampering period begins on March 9th and the start of the new league year (including free agency) is March 11th.

On top of that, LaFleur still needs to hire a special teams coordinator, too, after Rich Bisaccia resigned on February 17th. So far, four coaches are reported to have scheduled interviews with the Packers for the vacancy, but one has since taken a college job.

In a game that saw 13 lead changes, the Missouri Southern State University men’s basketball team used a strong second-half performance Thursday night to come out on top with a 64-60 win over Fort Hays State University at Robert Ellis Young Gymnasium.

Fort Hays (17-9, 9-8) jumped out to a 7-0 lead off a jumper by JuJu Ramirez, a trey by Kyle Grill and a Dan Mukuna layup.

Southern (15-10, 9-7) stopped the bleeding with a Tyrone Wright score in the paint, but Hays responded with a Lucas Hammeke bucket to push the lead back to 7 points at 9-2 with 16:27 left in the half. The lead grew to 9 points, courtesy of a Blake Danitschek score in the paint.

The Lions battled back to within a score at 14-12 off a Hunter Fitch trey from the left side at the 12:43 mark and tied the game at 14 with a Fitch putback of his own shot.

The Tigers got their lead back to 6 points at 21-15 off a Grill trey with 8:53 left. Each team scored 9 points the remainder of the half as Fort Hays took a 30-24 lead into the break.

Lion guard Isaiah Atwater talked after the game about MSSU's ability to regroup for the second half.

“We just knew that our shots would fall eventually,” Atwater said. “We worked too hard to miss that many shots. We shot like 25% in the first half. We knew it had to come around and that it would have to start on the defensive end so we could get out and create some easy buckets, and that’s what we did.”

MSSU head coach Sam McMahon also talked about shots not falling in the first half and how Southern was able to adjust.

“That’s a testament to Fort Hays’ defense,” McMahon said of the first half. “They are one of the best defensive teams in the country and obviously in the MIAA, so we knew it was going to be a dogfight. We knew it was going to be like going to the dentist — no one wants to go to the dentist. Their physicality and toughness around the rim kind of stunned us at first. We weren’t getting great looks and kind of got used to it and had a really great second half offensively and were making the right reads on defense.”

Trailing 35-29, Southern got 7 straight points from Colin Ruffin to close the gap to 37-36 with 14:53 left in the game.

Hays took the lead back with a Jahvari jumper, but the Lions answered with an Atwater trey to go up 41-39 with 12:43 remaining.

Martino tied the game at 41-all and a pair of Mukuna free throws gave Fort Hays a 44-41 lead. Southern regained the lead at 45-44 after a Jaden Taylor jumper and a Ruffin lay up at the 10:33 mark.

The Tigers took the lead back after a Muhamed Kante score in the paint and a Ramirez bucket that made it 48-45 with 9:42 left.

A Wright layup and an Atwater 3-pointer put the Lions up 50-48 with 7:46 left. Several ties and lead changes later, the Tigers earned their last lead of the game with 2:45 left off a Mukuna free throw that made it 60-59.

Tyrone Wright tied the game at 60 with a free throw, and Taylor and Atwater both sank shots to secure the 64-60 win.

Taylor led the Lions with 14 points. Atwater netted 13 points and went 3 for 4 from behind the arc. Fitch tallied 12 points, and Wright finished with 10.

Grill led the Tigers with 15 points, and Kante finished with 13.

The Lions wrap up the home portion of their regular season schedule with senior day at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

“We know that every game matters at this point,” Atwater said. “That was a great opponent and a good win to have."

The win put Southern in a three-way tie for fifth place in the MIAA with Missouri Western State University and Pittsburg State University. The top 10 teams in the MIAA qualify for the conference tournament.