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Kurtis Rourke, No. 10 Indiana shred hapless Purdue

NCAA Football: Purdue at IndianaNov 30, 2024; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers running back Justice Ellison (6) runs the ball while Purdue Boilermakers defensive back Dillon Thieneman (31) defends in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Kurtis Rourke threw for 349 yards and six touchdowns Saturday night as No. 10 Indiana appears headed for an unlikely spot in the College Football Playoff with a 66-0 Big Ten Conference rout of visiting Purdue in Bloomington, Ind.

Picked 17th among 18 teams in the conference’s preseason poll, the Hoosiers improved to 11-1 overall and 8-1 in the conference. While they lost the tiebreaker to No. 4 Penn State to meet No. 1 Oregon in the conference title game on Dec. 7, they should be among the 12-team CFP field when it’s announced on Dec. 8.

Rourke completed 23 of 31 passes, and Elijah Surratt finished with eight catches for 165 yards and two touchdowns as Indiana found the offensive form that was missing in a 20-15 win over Michigan on Nov. 9 and a 38-15 loss last week at No. 2 Ohio State. The Hoosiers rolled up 582 total yards.

Their defense stifled the hapless Boilermakers (1-11, 0-9), which managed just 67 yards and five first downs in absorbing their 11th straight loss.

Hudson Card hit 6 of 13 passes for 35 yards with an interception for the Boilermakers before leaving the game in the third quarter. They failed to win a conference game for the first time since 1993.

Indiana took the lead on its second possession, driving 86 yards and scoring on Justice Ellison’s 2-yard run. After a missed field goal attempt, the Hoosiers scored touchdowns on three straight possessions an led 28-0 at halftime.

For the first of those, Rourke connected with Ke’Shawn Williams for a 14-yard touchdown at the 11:31 mark, followed by an 84-yard strike to Sarratt just over four minutes later. Ty Son Lawton added a 4-yard touchdown run with 2:52 remaining in the half.

The game became a laugher in the third quarter with 17 more points. Nicolas Radicic hit a 26-yard field goal, followed by Rourke’s 24-yard scoring strike to Sarratt and a 5-yard touchdown pass to Zach Horton with 1:31 remaining.

Rourke added 34 and 17-yard scoring connections to Miles Cross and Omar Cooper in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter.

–Field Level Media

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Why Tiger Woods Playing the Masters Seems Unlikely

I think I’m getting ready to turn off mobile notifications for Tiger Woods’ tweets.

I must have turned them on sometime after the car crash in 2021, when he almost lost his leg and his remaining golf career hung by a thread. Or it could have been later on in 2023, as I waited to see how he’d address the ludicrous PGA Tour-LIV “merger” that never happened.

Really, I just want to hear when Woods will try to play again. But any golf fan knows the two kinds of Woods tweets.

1. The statement announcing he’s going to have another surgery. Or 2. The promotional post, for his foundation or something else.

I got a notification this week that Woods posted, only for it to be a retweet of his apparel brand, Sun Day Red. Did you know “The Pioneer Willow applies a clean blucher construction to our highest performance technology, built from the ground up to serve the athlete first”? Riveting stuff.

He didn’t tweet the week of the Genesis Invitational, perhaps too busy with his responsibilities hosting the event. But he knows how to make a headline, to keep the hype building.

That week, at Woods’ press conference in the capacity as host, he didn’t rule out playing the Masters in two months, or playing the PGA Tour Champions now that he’s 50, or captaining the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup team. But the more you think about it, the more you see these as empty headlines. Not ruling it out means no decision has been made one way or another.

OK. Let us know when you know, I guess!

If anyone needs a brief refresher, Woods last played at the 2024 Open Championship. He had his sixth back surgery that fall for a nerve impingement, ruptured an Achilles while ramping up his training in March and had back surgery No. 7 for a disc replacement this past October.

As recently as December, he told reporters he could only chip and putt at that point, but he’s graduated to hitting full shots now. “Yeah, I’m able to. Not well every day, but I can hit them,” Woods said this month at the Genesis.

That’s why I’m skeptical about this Masters return.

He needs to be hitting full shots well, every day, by Round 1 on April 9. If not, his record streak of 24 made cuts will be in danger. The rest of the golf world is getting younger, more fit; Woods’ last three Masters finishes — 47th, WD after making the cut on the number, 60th — are his three worst since he was 20 years old.

I’m intrigued by the idea that he could sign up for the Champions Tour just to get a couple of rounds in while being allowed to drive a cart. Honestly, he’d be near the top of the leaderboard if not lapping the field, and it would send a bunch of people scrambling to figure out just how you can watch the old guys’ circuit.

But as his body breaks down, the real struggle for Woods has been to walk the course for four rounds, and as he’s said in the past, Augusta National is no breeze in that department.

So the not-ruling-it-out declaration was a salesman’s tactic from someone who’s been around the block and who knows the golf media and fandom all too well. Someone give me a ring if he’s playing in April. Notifications — off.

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Lu Dort’s Antics Outshine Big Win for Oklahoma City Thunder

Luguentz Dort is a dirty player.

I’m not saying something entirely unheard of with this take. Dort, along with most players on the Thunder, benefit from a whistle not given to the rest of the league. Friday night’s matchup between the Nuggets and Thunder showed that at full effect.

This game was very physical from start to finish. These two teams do not like each other, and I feel much of that comes from the SGA vs. Jokic MVP debates. Jokic is probably the better player, but Gilgeous-Alexander won the MVP last year and knocked the Nuggets out of the playoffs.

Things are different this time around. Jokic has far more help than in years past. Denver isn’t quite fully healthy yet, but in spurts, you’ve seen what this team could do in the playoffs.

OKC and Denver met at the start of the month, but the Nuggets were still missing multiple role players, and Jokic had a bit of a down night in only his second game back from injury. Even still, we saw a level of chippiness in this one that you normally won’t see in the NBA.

What happened on Friday had been building for the better part of two seasons.

While trying to get back on defense on a made basket, Dort purposefully hip-checked and tripped Jokic, leading to a mid-court fight between Jokic and Jaylin Williams.

Dort was given a flagrant two and ejected from the game, something Coach Daigneault disagreed with. He claimed that any player who trips someone running up the floor should be ejected now that this precedent has been set.

In most cases, if something like this occurs, a player should probably be ejected. Rocket’s Tari Eason did something similar earlier this week, and it led to Vince Williams Jr. tearing his ACL. Physicality is great in basketball, but dumb plays like the one Dort made are dangerous and could potentially injure a superstar like Jokic.

Another key factor is that Dort doesn’t deserve any benefit of the doubt. This isn’t a one-off play. He’s a Draymond Green-like character who is always toeing the line between fair and foul.

Dort has countless plays like this. If you feel like he’s close to doing anything dirty, he should be removed from the game and fined, because he’s constantly committing non-basketball fouls.

The Thunder did go on to win in OT, but luckily, these teams meet again in less than 10 days, so I doubt this is the end of this beef.

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After capturing gold, Wild trio focused on Blues

NHL: Minnesota Wild at Nashville PredatorsFeb 4, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy (12) celebrates defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) winning goal against the Nashville Predators during the overtime period at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

A trio of United States Olympic gold medal winners are about to return “home.”

It’s likely that fans from the “State of Hockey” will welcome them back with a roar.

Matt Boldy and defensemen Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber will be front and center when the Minnesota Wild face off against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday in Saint Paul, Minn. It will be their first home game since Feb. 2 for the Wild, who had a three-week break for the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Faber might get the loudest cheer when he is recognized as part of a U.S. team that won the nation’s first gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980. The local product grew up in suburban Maple Grove, Minn., and starred collegiately for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

How’s he feeling after the whirlwind of February?

“Good enough, right?” Faber said. “I played hockey the whole time, so I’m still in game shape.”

The Wild have split their two games since returning from the Olympic break. They stormed to a 5-2 road win against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night but lost by the same score versus the Utah Mammoth on Friday.

The loss might have come with added cost as veteran forward Joel Eriksson Ek left the game after taking a high stick to the face.

Eriksson Ek’s status is uncertain for Sunday. He has 42 points (17 goals, 25 assists) in 54 games this season.

“We all know the type of player ‘Ekky’ is and the situations we count on him to play in,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “It’s unfortunate, but hopefully he’s OK.”

St. Louis also will try to bounce back from a loss after falling short 3-1 against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night. Pavel Buchnevich scored the lone goal for the Blues.

Blues forward Jake Neighbours said he and his teammates needed to come out with a better effort against the Wild. He said the team recorded a 5-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday because of a great effort level and lost its most recent game because of a reduced effort level.

“To me, it’s battles,” Neighbours said. “I thought on Thursday, our compete (level) was really high. We were excited. There was a lot of energy on the bench and in the dressing room.

“For whatever reason, (on Saturday), it just didn’t seem like we could muster up the momentum and the energy to take over the game.”

Joel Hofer could get the start for the Blues in net one night after Jordan Binnington turned aside 30 of 32 shots against the Devils. Hofer is 13-11-3 with a 2.87 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage this season, and he is 1-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and a .944 save percentage in his only career game against Minnesota.

Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson likely will get the nod after fellow netminder Jesper Wallstedt started against Utah. Gustavsson is 21-9-6 with a 2.60 GAA and a .909 save percentage this season, and he is 5-2-0 with a 2.32 GAA and a .919 save percentage in eight career appearances against the Blues.

–Field Level Media

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