One year ago, senior Austin Starr was Bloomington’s hero. Back then, Hoosiers everywhere rejoiced when the then-junior sent a 49-yard field goal through the uprights in the season’s penultimate moment. His celebrated kick sent the Hoosiers to their first bowl berth since 1993 and seemingly revitalized the program. But now, in a downtrodden year marked by disappointment, Starr and his team have sunk back to the bottom of the Big Ten. But they’ll get one last shot at redemption Saturday. “It is kind of surreal, but it hasn’t gone too fast,” Starr said, reflecting on his upcoming final game. “I’ve been taking it in.” Injuries and inconsistencies have plagued the 2008 Hoosiers, and Starr is no exception. A nagging hip injury prohibited him from putting up the same performance throughout his senior campaign that he displayed as a junior. A year ago, Starr kicked 21-of-23 field goals, hit all 48 extra points and, at one point, nailed 15 field goals in a row.
INDIANAPOLIS – Peyton Manning watches the last three games and sees progress. Not perfection, but at least he and the Colts are beginning to play like their old selves. Manning is throwing more touchdowns, fewer interceptions, avoiding sacks and winning games with his masterful play-calling. He’s spreading the ball around, opening up running lanes with passes and, yes, he’s finally in sync with the receivers. Memo to the NFL: Manning is back. “The way they’ve played the last three weeks, it looks like Indianapolis to me,” San Diego coach Norv Turner said Wednesday. “To do what they did against Pittsburgh, I was awfully impressed with that.” The Colts’ recent turnabout has forced critics, who not long ago were immersed in finding faults, to reassess their viewpoints. Suddenly, Manning is playing like a two-time league MVP and his team has taken the cue.
NEW YORK – After years of relentless expansion, college football’s nearly monthlong holiday party – the bowl season – finally seems to have maxed out. Those involved in the bowl business say that, with the national economy flailing, events which are as much about tourism and corporate sponsorship as football now are staring at a set of challenges that will level off the number of second-tier bowls, if not reduce them. There are a lot of second-tier bowls to choose from. “We’re talking about disposable income, and that’s drying up as fast as water in the desert,” said Paul Hoolahan, chairman of the Football Bowl Association and CEO of the Sugar Bowl. The bowl roster now stands at 34, giving 68 teams the opportunity to play a nationally televised game and be pampered by the host community. That’s more than half of the 119 schools playing college football at its highest level. The NCAA has been liberally licensing new bowls in recent years. Since 2002, 11 new bowl games have been established, while only three have closed up shop. Two games will debut this season, the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C., and the St. Petersburg Bowl in central Florida.
The NFL has dropped the ball this season more times than Colts receivers did in their first quarter last week. This NFL season has been in shambles and none of it has to do with the players. Fines have turned the game soft, officials have made wrong calls and Vegas is suffering because of it all. This past Sunday, the second big officiating botch of the season (the first being Ed Hochuli’s forward pass mistake in Week 2) caused hundreds of thousands of dollars to change hands.
Love him or hate him, Jimmie Johnson officially added his name to the list of the best NASCAR drivers of all time Sunday night. Despite a mediocre 20th-place finish thanks to a conservative pit strategy, Johnson won his third-consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway after besting Carl Edwards by a comfortable 69 points. Edwards did all he could, however, to take away Johnson’s three-peat in the season’s final race by winning the Ford 400 on an impressive fuel mileage gamble – the second race he’s won in that fashion in the past three events.
Sophomore Paul Young said Monday his goal was to wrestle a perfect match. While he might not have met his goal of perfection, the team did, winning all 20 matches they participated in and winning by a total score of 107-0 in a tri-meet against Manchester and Wabash Colleges, two Division-III schools, on Tuesday. “It went good,” IU coach Duane Goldman said. “For the first time with a one-hour weigh-in, we wrestled pretty well.” The team pinned 13 of its 20 opponents, 12 falling in the first period alone, and gathered up two tech falls and a major decision during the tri-meet.
Each game and scrimmage for the young IU men’s basketball team brings new lessons.BLOG: Basketblog
Without taking a shot from the floor the entire game, Daniel Moore led the Hoosiers to their second win of the season Tuesday, beating IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, 60-57.Down one with 27.1 seconds to play, IUPUI coach Ron Hunter called for a time-out. After dribbling out most of the clock, Jaguar freshman forward Alex Young launched a 3-pointer from the top of the key.The ball ricocheted off the rim, and a scrum for the ball ensued under the basket.Moore, the 5-foot-11 walk-on guard, came up with the rebound.“I don’t even know if I boxed out,” Moore said. “I just kind of felt my way and got lucky.”
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators on Monday charged Dallas Mavericks owner and IU alumnus Mark Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.
