Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Between Indiana-UNC last night and Texas-Creighton tonight, it’s a big week in the men’s hoops.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏈 Deshaun Watson’s return
🏀 Indiana is back at the top
🌳 Baseballs “Treehugger”
If you’re reading this on SI.com, you can sign up at SI.com/newsletters to receive this free newsletter in your inbox every weekday.
Blue flowers went in opposite directions
For the first time in years, the Indiana men’s basketball team deserves to be taken seriously.
The Hoosiers finished 10th in this week’s AP poll, their first top-10 finish since December 2016. That point in the 16-17 season was the beginning of the end for Tom Crean, who lost eight of his last 11 regular season games and was fired. After four disappointing seasons under Archie Miller (no NCAA tournament appearances), Indiana hired Mike Woodson prior to last season. The IU graduate and former NBA coach led the Hoosiers to a 21-14 record as they narrowly reached the NCAA tournament as one of the bottom four teams.
This year, Woodson has Indiana back where it is accustomed – at the top of the men’s pecking order. The Hoosiers started the season in 13th place and were 6-0 (including a strong win on the road against Xavier) ahead of yesterday’s matchup against preseason No. 1 North Carolina.
The Tar Heels entered the meeting desperately needing a win after losing two games in Portland last weekend at the Phil Knight Invitational: Friday to Iowa State and Sunday to No. 18 Alabama in four overtime. But in a tumultuous assembly hall, Indiana walked away with a convincing 77-65 victory. (You can watch the highlights here.)
Trayce Jackson-Davis was key to Indiana, as he was all season. The 6’9-inch forward had a team-high with 21 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Redshirt senior guard Xavier Johnson added another 20 points.
“The difference was Trayce Jackson-Davis,” said UNC coach Hubert Davis. “They have a player who they can lead on offense and who can score points with every possession and at the moment we don’t have that. We don’t have that in the mail.”
Indiana clinched a signature win before starting conference play at Rutgers on Saturday, but the Hoosiers’ two biggest Tests are still up this month. On December 10th they meet No. 4 Arizona at a neutral ground in Las Vegas and on December 17th they travel to Lawrence to take on No. 9 Kansas. After that, they have two games against mid-tier opponents (Elon and Kennesaw State) before diving into the meat of the Big Ten schedule. Conference play has been a killer for the Hoosiers in recent years (they haven’t finished .500 in Big Ten play since the 2015-16 season), but they also haven’t had a team this good in years.
The Tar Heels are officially in free fall. Three losses in a row – even away against high-quality opponents – is not something that title contenders do. They have one more road game (on Saturday at 7-1 Virginia Tech) before finally returning home on December 10 to face Georgia Tech in their first game at Chapel Hill since November 20. UNC has time to turn things around, but the schedule isn’t getting any easier. After a game against The Citadel on Dec. 13, the Tar Heels meet Ohio State and Michigan on neutral courts before diving headlong into conference play.
The best of sports illustrated
As Deshaun Watson prepares to return to the field, the people of Cleveland find themselves in a difficult position to support the Browns or survivors of sexual abuse. Or are you? Michael Rosenberg writes in today’s Daily Cover that there must be a third option:
We all make a terrible mistake when we frame this as a binary choice: you either support the survivors or you cheer for the Browns. There are Cleveland fans all over northeast Ohio—there always will be. Pitting them against survivors of sexual violence is a terrible idea. There has to be a better approach.
Ask Donisha Greene. She is the director of community outreach at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, showing survivors that there are people who believe in them and love them. She is also the wife and mother of two Clevelanders who love their football team.
Rohan Nadkarni examines how Bam Adebayo is key to everything the Heat do. … Brewer’s helper Brent Suter is one of the few athletes who regularly speaks out about climate change, writes Emma Baccellieri. … Greg Bishop has the heartwarming story of the young fan who got Weston McKennie’s jersey in the USMNT’s win over Iran.
Penguins defenseman Kris Letang is out indefinitely after suffering the second stroke of his career. … Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly got a really massive offer to play in Saudi Arabia. … The Rose Bowl is reportedly considering inviting Penn State instead of Ohio State. … Here’s potential copy for this week’s newsletter: Kansas State and TCU’s Big 12 Showdown is the most coveted seat of the week, with tickets listed at SI Tickets for an average of $897.
Top 5…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. The Explosion by Jerry Stackhouse after being ejected.
4. Luis Chávez is long Free kick goal for Mexico. (It wasn’t enough to send Mexico to the knockout stages, however.)
3. Connor McDavid’s speed on this goal.
2. Russell Westbrook’s two buzzer beaters in the Lakers’ win over the Blazers.
1. Devin Booker’s 51 points in just three quarters.
SIQ
The teams destined for places in the college football playoffs this year (Georgia, Michigan, TCU, and USC) will hope to avoid the fate that befell No. 1 Missouri that day in 2007, when the Big 12 championship game lost. Who beat the Tigers in this game?
- Oklahoma
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- State of Oklahoma
Yesterday’s SIQ: In which city did the first international football match (between England and Scotland) take place on November 30, 1872?
- London
- Glasgow
- Edinburgh
- Manchester
Answers: Glasgow. The game was played at the Hamilton Crescent cricket ground in the Partick borough.
The idea of an international football match came about two years earlier when Charles Alcock, the head of the English Football Association, organized the first ‘representative’ game. This match, played on March 5, 1870, pitted an English team against a team made up of Scottish players playing for clubs based in London. Alcock organized four further matches between English sides and nominally Scottish sides. Players who actually played for Scottish clubs balked at how the ‘representative’ teams were put together and Alcock agreed to send an English team north to play a team organized by the Scots.
Due to the dispute over the origins of the players of these earlier games, FIFA recognizes the 1872 game as the first official international football game. The game attracted around 4,000 fans who witnessed a 0–0 draw.
Earlier this month, the Scottish Football Association announced that Scotland will play England in a special ‘Heritage Match’ in Glasgow in September to mark the anniversary of their historic clash.
Check out more from SIs archives and historical images at vault.si.com.
sports illustrated may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this site.
