“Howard-less” Wolverines over Rutgers – Thursday Morning Sports Update

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NCAAMBKB – Men’s College Basketball
Last Night
Michigan 71, Rutgers 62
Notre Dame 79, Syracuse 69

Michigan 71, Rutgers 62 – Michigan, without suspended Howard, beats Rutgers 71-62
Caleb Houstan scored 13 of his career-high 21 points in the second half when Michigan pulled away to beat Rutgers 71-62 without head coach Juwan Howard, who was serving the first of a five-game suspension. Former longtime Saint Joseph’s coach and current Michigan associate head coach Phil Martelli was filling in for Howard. Howard was suspended for the remainder of the regular season and fined $40,000 by the Big Ten Conference after hitting a Wisconsin assistant coach in the head during the handshake line after a loss Sunday. Ron Harper Jr. scored 19 points for Rutgers.

Notre Dame 79, Syracuse 69 – Atkinson has 20 & 17, leads Notre Dame past Syracuse 79-69
Paul Atkinson Jr. scored 20 points with a career-high 17 rebounds to lead Notre Dame to a 79-69 win over Syracuse. Atkinson made four free throws and Blake Wesley three in the final 63 seconds as the Irish scored the last seven points of the game while the Orange missed their last three shots and had a turnover after Cole Swider’s jumper made it 72-69 with 1:30 to go. Nate Laszewski scored 17 points for the Irish , who reached 20 wins for the 16th time in coach Mike Brey’s 20 seasons. Jimmy Boeheim, a graduate transfer from Cornell, led the Orange with a season-high 27 points and Buddy Boeheim added 20

Tonight
Central Michigan at Miami-OH, 7:00 p.m.

NHL – National Hockey League
Last Night
Colorado Avalanche 5, Detroit Red Wings 2

Michigan 71, Rutgers 62 – Landeskog scores twice, NHL-leading Avs beat Red Wings 5-2
Gabriel Landeskog opened the scoring 1:12 in and capped it with an empty-netter for his 25th goal of the season, helping the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 on Wednesday night. Tyson Jost, Nazem Kadri and Valeri Nichushkin also scored and Pavel Francouz stopped 31 shots. Colorado beat Detroit for the eighth consecutive time. Filip Zadina and Robby Fabbri scored for the Red Wings. Thomas Greiss made 26 saves. Darren Helm, facing his former team in Detroit for the first time, had an assist on Landeskog’s opening goal. Helm played 744 regular-season games with the Red Wings.

NHL – Blackhawks forward Khaira has season-ending back surgery
Chicago Blackhawks forward Jujhar Khaira will miss the rest of the season after he had surgery on his lower back. Khaira had the operation on Tuesday, and team physician Michael Terry says he is expected to be sidelined for 10 to 12 weeks. The last game of the regular season for the struggling Blackhawks is scheduled for April 29. The 27-year-old Khaira had three goals and no assists in 27 games in his first season with the Blackhawks. He agreed to a two-year contract in July that carries a $975,000 salary-cap hit.

NBA – National Basketball Association
Tonight
Cleveland Cavaliers at Detroit Pistons, 7:00 p.m.
Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls, 8:00 p.m.

NCAAWBKB – Women’s College Basketball
Last Night
Ball State 64, Western Michigan 56
Toledo 76, Central Michigan 52
Northern Illinois 72, Eastern Michigan 65

Tonight
Michigan State at (6) Michigan, 6:00 p.m.
Clemson at (14) Notre Dame, 8:00 p.m.

MLB – MLB: Season to be shortened if no deal by end of Monday
Major League Baseball gave locked out players five days to salvage March 31 openers and a full season, telling the union that games would be canceled if a labor contract is not agreed to by the end of Monday. After the third straight day of negotiations with little movement, MLB went public with what it had told the union on Feb. 12. Players have not accepted Monday as a deadline and have suggested any missed games could be made up as part of doubleheaders, a method MLB said it will not agree to.

MLB – MLB lockout could cost Scherzer $232K daily, Cole $193K
Sometime soon, lockout costs become real: Max Scherzer would forfeit $232,975 for each regular-season day lost, and Gerrit Cole $193,548. Based on last year’s base salaries that totaled just over $3.8 billion, major league players would combine to lose $20.5 million for each day wiped off the 186-day regular-season schedule. Major League Baseball has told the players’ association a labor deal must be reached by Monday in order for opening day to come off as scheduled on March 31 and a 162-game season to remain intact. The union hasn’t said whether it believes that deadline.

NFL – Packers GM: ‘We’ll know here shortly’ on Rodgers’ decision
Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst says he’s not giving Aaron Rodgers any deadlines on when to decide on a possible return, and he believes the four-time MVP will reach a resolution soon. Rodgers has said he hasn’t made up his mind regarding his plans for next season and hasn’t ruled out returning to the Packers, retiring or requesting a trade. Gutekunst says that “I feel confident we’ll know that shortly.” Gutekunst acknowledges Rodgers’ decision will factor into other choices the Packers make as they build their roster for the 2022 season.

Olympics – NBC’s scores are in: Record low Olympics ratings
NBC will be happy to put the Beijing Winter Olympics in the rear-view mirror, as the event had a record low viewership for an American audience and the Olympics. The games reached an average combined audience of 11.4 million in prime time on NBC, cable and the Peacock streaming service. Those numbers are down 42 percent from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018. A lack of buzz for the Olympics, held half a world today in an authoritarian country with COVID-19 restrictions, kept large numbers of viewers away. But in a diminished TV world, the Olympics still did better than anything other than pro football this season.

Golf – Monahan: Players tempted by Saudi tour need to make up minds
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has told players in a meeting at the Honda Classic that anyone who joins a rival league will be off the PGA Tour and shouldn’t expect to return. Tuesday’s meeting had been scheduled weeks in advance, but it began just minutes after Phil Mickelson released a statement in which he apologized for “reckless” remarks about the Saudis and praised Greg Norman’s LIV Golf Investments for sharing his goal of making golf better. Monahan declined to comment when asked if Mickelson had been suspended or faces punishment.

Soccer – US women win SheBelieves Cup title, beating Iceland 5-0
Catarina Macario and Mallory Pugh each scored two goals and the U.S. women’s national team beat Iceland 5-0 on Wednesday night to win the SheBelieves Cup. The Americans won the annual four-team tournament, now in its seventh year, for the third straight year.  The United States has 17th straight shutouts on American soil, dating to March 2020. The national team also is unbeaten in 65 straight games at home. Kristie Mewis also scored in the victory that came as the team celebrated an agreement with U.S. Soccer to settle a dispute over equitable pay with the men’s national team. The two sides announced the agreement early Tuesday.

MCCAA – Junior College Basketball
Last Night
Women’s Basketball
Muskegon Community College 66, Lake Michigan College 42

Men’s Basketball
Muskegon Community College 85, Lake Michigan College 76

MHSAA – High School Sports
Last Night
Boys Basketball
Eau Claire 90, Michigan Lutheran 65
White Pigeon 63, Decatur 53
Battle Creek Central 51, Kal. Loy Norrix 47

Girls Basketball
Non-Conference
Coloma 40, Berrien Springs 34

Tonight
Boys Basketball
Non-Conference
Benton Harbor at Berrien Springs, 7:30 p.m.
Kalamazoo Phoenix at Howardsville Christian, 4:30 p.m.

Southwest 10
Mendon at Cassopolis, 7:30 p.m.
Bloomingdale at Centreville, 7:30 p.m.
Hartford at Marcellus, 7:30 p.m.

Girls Basketball
SMAC
St. Joseph at Portage Central, 7:00 p.m.
Lakeshore at Portage Northern, 7:00 p.m.
Gull Lake at Mattawan, 7:00 p.m.
Battle Creek Lakeview at Loy Norrix, 5:45 p.m.
Battle Creek Central at Kal. Central, 7:00 p.m.

BCS
Lake Michigan Catholic at Howardsville Christian, 7:30 p.m.
River Valley at Michigan Lutheran, 7:30 p.m.
South Haven at Brandywine, 7:00 p.m.

Non-Conference
Benton Harbor at Wyoming Lee, 5:30 p.m.

Wolverine
Vicksburg at Niles, 7:00 p.m.
Otsego at Edwardsburg, 7:00 p.m.
Allegan at Dowagiac, 7:00 p.m.
Paw Paw at Sturgis, 7:00 p.m.
Plainwell at Three Rivers, 7:00 p.m.

Southwest 10
Mendon at Cassopolis, 6:00 p.m.
Bloomingdale at Centreville, 6:00 p.m.
Hartford at Marcellus, 6:00 p.m.

SAC
Coloma at Parchment, 7:00 p.m.
Watervliet at Schoolcraft, 7:00 p.m.
Lawton at Galesburg-Augusta, 7:00 p.m.
Gobles at Kalamazoo Christian, 7:00 p.m.
Saugatuck at Kalamazoo Hackett, 7:00 p.m.
Fennville at Delton-Kellogg, 7:00 p.m.
Martin at Constantine, 7:00 p.m.