Sports
No. 2 Michigan not taking Northwestern for granted
Ohio State Buckeyes guard Gabe Cupps (4) guards Michigan Wolverines center Aday Mara (15) during the NCAA men’s basketball game at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus on Feb. 8, 2026. Double-digit road victories have become the norm for No. 2 Michigan, which has won five straight away from home within its eight-game winning streak entering Wednesday’s clash with Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.
Complacency is another story for the Wolverines, though.
After rallying from a halftime deficit at Maryland to win their first conference road test in mid-December and surviving a scare at Penn State three weeks later, the Wolverines (22-1, 12-1 Big Ten) take nothing for granted.
“Those close games really shifted our mindset,” said Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg. “We’re not invincible, even though we feel like we are. And it just proved to us that we’ve got to be more mature in everyday approach.”
Michigan led throughout Sunday’s 82-61 victory at Ohio State by remaining centered and steady.
The conference-leading Wolverines plan to apply the same principles against Northwestern (10-14, 2-11), which has lost three straight and nine of 11.
“We know in the Big Ten, every road game is going to be really tough,” Aday Mara said. “But I think our preparation and just being ready and having a good intensity from the beginning, it makes the difference.”
Wildcats coach Chris Collins also has focused on his team’s mentality as Northwestern aims to avoid the league basement.
The Wildcats are one of five schools with double-digit conference losses — joining Maryland, Rutgers, Oregon and Penn State. Of that group, the Wildcats clearly boast the best power ratings. They opened the week at No. 69 in KenPom and No. 79 per the NET rankings.
While he insists Northwestern is “not a moral-victory program,” Collins sees progress amid the losses. On Sunday, fielding a starting lineup with three freshmen just four days removed from a 40-point blowout loss at Illinois, the Wildcats challenged host Iowa throughout a 76-70 defeat.
“When you get throttled like that, you worry about how that’s going to affect them going into the next game,” Collins said, “but I thought our effort was great, I thought our fight was great. I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win this game (Sunday).”
While Big Ten leading scorer Nick Martinelli paced Northwestern with 21 points, freshman point guard Jake West continued his development with a career-best 18 points, including a 4-of-5 effort from long range.
Collins lauded West’s poise as he goes against a deep roster of Big Ten point guards.
“Put yourself in his shoes as a young kid trying to go through this gantlet,” Collins said. “I’m proud of him. He’s learning a lot. But I think what you see about Jake is, he’s a competitor. He’s not going to back down. He’s going to play against these guys, he’s going to give his best. He’s learning with each game. He’s growing with confidence. We’re putting him out there.”
Collins cited Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau as the next point-guard challenge West will encounter, but the Wolverines are solid in the frontcourt as well.
Mara, a 7-foot-3 junior, scored a career-high 24 points on Sunday while connecting on his first two 3-pointers.
“I’m confident with my shot. It’s in my game,” Mara said. “It’s just that I haven’t (shot) it for two years, but I know it’s there, so I’m just going to keep taking the good shots.”
Meanwhile, Lendeborg (14 points, 14 rebounds) and fellow forward Morez Johnson Jr. (11 points, 12 rebounds) each registered their fifth double-double of the year.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Reports: Pacers F Johnny Furphy out for season with torn ACL
Feb 8, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Indiana Pacers guard Johnny Furphy (12) reacts after injuring himself during the second half against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images Indiana Pacers forward Johnny Furphy is expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, multiple outlets reported Monday.
Furphy injured his right knee on an awkward landing following a dunk in the third quarter of Sunday’s 122-104 loss to the host Toronto Raptors. He was helped off the court before he went to the locker room in a wheelchair.
The native Australian reportedly underwent MRI testing Monday which revealed the extent of his injury. The typical timeline for recovery from a torn ACL is 6-12 months, meaning Furphy’s absence could extend into next season.
In his second year in the league after being drafted by the Pacers in the second round in 2024, Furphy started 21 of his 35 regular-season appearances.
He averaged 5.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 18.4 minutes per game this season after he averaged 2.1 points per game last season in 50 games off the bench.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Joy Dunne leads US women's hockey to rout of Switzerland
Joy Dunne of the United States celebrates with Tessa Janecke and Laila Edwards after scoring the team’s second goal of its game against Switzerland in the Milan Cortina Olympics Caroline Harvey and Joy Dunne each collected a goal and two assists and Gwyneth Philips made 20 saves, fueling the United States to a 5-0 victory over Switzerland on Monday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Alex Carpenter scored for the third time in as many games and added an assist for the Americans (3-0-0), who have outscored the Group A competition by a 15-1 margin in the preliminary round.
The U.S. will look for revenge against Canada on Tuesday in a rematch of the gold-medal game from the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Haley Winn and Hannah Bilka each scored a goal and team captain Hilary Knight notched two assists to boost her Olympic total to 31 points, one shy of tying Jenny Potter as the all-time U.S. leader.
Ava McNaughton relieved Philips late in the third period and made one save.
Andrea Braendli turned aside 45 shots for Switzerland (1-2-0), which has dropped two straight following a 4-3 shootout win over Czechia on Friday.
Braendli denied Taylor Heise on a breakaway early in the first period before the Americans solved her at 6:04 of the session.
Harvey skated in from the left-wing wall and wired a centering feed that Winn directed home from the doorstep.
Dunne doubled the advantage with 5:52 remaining in the second period after a brilliant individual effort.
Dunne forechecked a Swiss defender off the puck in the corner before backhanding a shot that caromed off a skate and into the net for an unassisted goal.
Bilka accepted a feed from Heise in front of the net and swept the puck past Braendli to give the Americans a 3-0 lead at 1:17 of the third period.
Carpenter converted a breakaway before Harvey used a brilliant deke on Braendli to cap the scoring.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Defending champ Amanda Anisimova bows out of Qatar opener
Jan 28, 2026; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Amanda Anisimova of United States in action against Jessica Pegula of United States in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles at the Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images Amanda Anisimova, the No. 3 seed and reigning champion at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2026, was forced to retire due to illness in the third set of her opening match against Karolina Pliskova on Monday in Doha.
Anisimova fared well against her Czech opponent, splitting the first two sets 7-5, 6-7 (3), but trailed 4-1 in the third set when she packed it in.
“I was really happy to be back and excited to play,” Anisimova said in a statement afterward. “I got sick here, so I wasn’t feeling my best, but I thought it was a good match regardless. I feel we both played really well. Congrats to her, it’s good to see her back playing.”
Pliskova is also familiar with Qatar, winning there in 2017. She had seven aces and saved 6 of 10 break points on Monday.
“It feels great to be back,” Pliskova said in her on-court interview after missing a year with an ankle injury. “I missed (the fans) as well, last year. As you know, I won here, so I have great memories. Two years ago, I played the semifinals. So I just enjoy this place so much.”
Anisimova was not the only player to fall victim to illness in Qatar. Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu also retired in the third set of her opener Monday.
Raducanu was coming off a 6-0, 6-2 loss in the final of the Transylvania Open on Saturday, when she used a medical timeout and admitted afterward that she did not have her best effort. Her health was in question again Monday in her match against Colombia’s Camila Osorio; during a third-set timeout she saw a doctor who took her blood pressure, something that also occurred Saturday.
Osorio advanced out of the Round of 64, 2-6, 6-4, 2-0 (retired).
The Pliskova-Anisimova match was a Round of 32 affair, as was Russian No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva’s 7-6 (0), 6-1 win over Poland’s Magda Linette. Andreeva saved 10 of 11 break points in the one-hour, 43-minute battle.
The rest of Monday’s matches were Round of 64 fixtures.
Czech ninth seed Linda Noskova breezed past Australian Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0 in 65 minutes. No. 12 Emma Navarro defeated Germany’s Tatjana Maria 7-5, 6-1, while Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic upset No. 11 Clara Tauson of Denmark, 6-4, 6-1.
Indonesia’s Janice Tjen stuffed Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-0, 6-1 in 69 minutes, while Russian Anna Kalinskaya prevailed 6-2, 6-1 over Span’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in 67 minutes. Other winners included China’s Xinyu Wang and Qinwen Zheng, Maria Sakkari of Greece, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska and the Czech Republic’s Tereza Valentova.
–Field Level Media
Reports: Pacers F Johnny Furphy out for season with torn ACL
Joy Dunne leads US women's hockey to rout of Switzerland
