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Indiana-North Carolina: Hoosiers hand Tar Heels third straight loss

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Between Indiana-UNC last night and Texas-Creighton tonight, it’s a big week in men’s hoops.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏈 Deshaun Watson’s return

🏀 Indiana’s back on top

🌳 Baseball’s “treehugger”

If you’re reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.

Blue bloods headed in opposite directions

For the first time in years, the Indiana men’s basketball team deserves to be taken seriously.

The Hoosiers were ranked No. 10 in this week’s AP poll, their first top-10 ranking since December 2016. That point in the ’16–17 season was the beginning of the end for Tom Crean, who went on to lose 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 before last season. The IU alum and former NBA coach led the Hoosiers to a 21–14 record as they barely reached the NCAA tournament as one of the last four teams in.

This year, Woodson has Indiana back where it’s used to being—at the top of the men’s hoops pecking order. The Hoosiers entered the season ranked No. 13 and were 6–0 (including a strong win on the road against Xavier) heading into last night’s matchup with preseason No. 1 North Carolina.

The Tar Heels entered the meeting badly needing a win having lost two games last weekend in Portland at the Phil Knight Invitational: Friday against Iowa State and Sunday against No. 18 Alabama in four overtimes. But inside a raucous Assembly Hall, Indiana came away with a convincing 77–65 win. (You can watch the highlights here.)

Trayce Jackson-Davis was the key for Indiana, as he has been all season. The 6’9″ forward had a team-high 21 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Redshirt senior guard Xavier Johnson added another 20 points.

“The difference was Trayce Jackson-Davis,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “They have a player that they can run offense through that can generate points on every possession and as of right now we don’t have that. We don’t have that in the post.”

Indiana picked up a signature win before it begins conference play on Saturday at Rutgers but the Hoosiers’ two biggest tests are still to come later this month. On Dec. 10, they’ll face No. 4 Arizona on a neutral court in Las Vegas and on Dec. 17 they’ll travel to Lawrence to take on No. 9 Kansas. After that, they’ve got two games against mid-major 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 over .500 in Big Ten play since the 2015–16 season) but they also haven’t had a team this good in years.

As for the Tar Heels, they’re officially in free fall. Losing three straight—even away from home against quality opponents—isn’t something that title contenders do. They’ve got one more road game (on Saturday at 7–1 Virginia Tech) before they finally return home on Dec. 10 to face Georgia Tech in their first game at Chapel Hill since Nov. 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 will face 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, people in Cleveland are placed in the difficult position of supporting the Browns or supporting survivors of sexual abuse. Or are they? Michael Rosenberg writes in today’s Daily Cover that there has to be a third option:

We are all making a terrible mistake if we frame this as a binary choice: You either support 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 an awful idea. There has to be a better approach.

Ask Donisha Greene. She is the director of community engagement at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, showing survivors that there are people who believe 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 the key to everything the Heat are doing. … Brewers reliever Brent Suter is one of the few athletes who speaks out regularly about climate change, Emma Baccellieri writes. … Greg Bishop has the heartwarming story of the young fan who got Weston McKennie’s shirt at the USMNT’s win over Iran.

Penguins defenseman Kris Letang is out indefinitely after suffering the second stroke of his career. … Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly has a truly massive offer to play in Saudi Arabia. … The Rose Bowl is reportedly considering inviting Penn State over Ohio State. … Here is the potential copy for this week’s newsletter: Kansas State and TCU’s Big 12 showdown is the week’s most sought-after seat, with tickets listed for an average of $897 on SI Tickets.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Jerry Stackhouse’s blow-up after he got ejected.

4. Luis Chávez’s long free-kick goal for Mexico. (It wasn’t enough to send Mexico through to the knockout stage, though.)

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 that appear destined for College Football Playoff berths this year (Georgia, Michigan, TCU and USC) will hope to avoid the fate that befell No. 1 Missouri on this day in 2007 when it lost the Big 12 championship game. Who beat the Tigers in that game?

Oklahoma
Kansas
Nebraska
Oklahoma State

Yesterday’s SIQ: Which city hosted the first international soccer game (between England and Scotland) on Nov. 30, 1872?

London
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Manchester

Answer: Glasgow. The game was played at the Hamilton Crescent cricket ground in the Partick neighborhood.

The idea of an international soccer match arose two years earlier when Charles Alcock, the head of England’s Football Association, organized the first “representative” match. That match, played on March 5, 1870, featured an English team competing against a team composed of Scottish players who played for London-based clubs. Alcock organized four more matches between English teams and nominally Scottish teams. Players who actually played for Scottish clubs balked at how the “representative” teams were assembled, and Alcock agreed to send an English team north to face a team organized by the Scots.