YSU bowling ranked 8th in poll

YOUNGSTOWN — As the spring portion of the NCAA Women’s Bowling season is in full swing, Youngstown State is ranked eighth in February’s National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 poll.

February’s poll of 44 coaches was released on Tuesday, and the Penguins dropped one position compared with the December rankings. Youngstown State received 1,192 points in the poll, which was comfortably ahead of ninth-place Wright State’s total of 1,054. YSU has now been ranked in the top 10 in 24 consecutive polls dating back to the final release of the 2020-21 season.

The top six and nine of the top 10 teams in the poll are all from Conference USA, and the top six teams remained the same from December. Maryville, the exception to Conference USA’s exclusivity, moved up three spots from 10th to seventh with 1,274 points, and YSU is followed by Wright State and Sacred Heart. The additional three teams in YSU’s conference are all ranked in the top 19 as Sam Houston is 14th, Tulane is 17th, and Valparaiso is 19th.

In the updated NTCA Power Index Ranking, which closely follows the NCAA’s RPI, the Penguins are ranked seventh following last week’s Flyer Classic. Youngstown State was ninth in the NCAA’s initial release of its RPI on Jan. 18, and a 10-3 record at its most recent event allowed the Penguins to jump two spots.

Youngstown State has three more tournaments remaining on its schedule before the Conference USA Championship. The Penguins are idle this week, and their next competition will be the Big Red Invitational on Feb. 20-22.

Verlander returns to the Tigers

LAKELAND, Fla. — For his 21st season in the majors, Justin Verlander is going back to the very beginning of his career.

All the way back to Motown.

Verlander returned to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, agreeing to a $13 million, one-year contract with his first big league team. The three-time AL Cy Young Award winner joins an improved rotation fronted by Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez, who also signed with Detroit in free agency.

Verlander, who turns 43 on Feb. 20, went 183-114 with a 3.49 ERA while spending his first 13 seasons in Detroit. He won his first Cy Young Award and was AL MVP when he had a 24-5 record and a 2.40 ERA in 2011.

Verlander was traded to Houston in August 2017 and helped the Astros win the World Series that same year and again in 2022. Now he gets an opportunity to chase a third championship with the Tigers, who are looking for the franchise’s first title since 1984.

Verlander’s deal with Detroit includes $11 million in deferred payments starting in 2030. The Tigers’ pitchers and catchers are scheduled to have their first spring training workout on Wednesday.

The right-hander is 266-158 with a 3.32 ERA in 555 starts, also playing for the New York Mets and San Francisco. He is tied with Bob Feller and Eppa Rixey for 34th in victories on baseball’s career list, while his 3,553 career strikeouts are eighth and closely trailing Don Sutton’s 3,574.

Verlander is coming off a frustrating year with the Giants, going 4-11 with a 3.85 ERA in 29 starts. But his 2.60 ERA from July 23 through the remainder of the season ranked fourth in the National League with a minimum of 60 innings pitched.

Indiana to build statue of Knight

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana plans to build a bronze statue of longtime coach Bob Knight inside Assembly Hall, where he led the Hoosiers to national championships in 1976, 1981 and 1987.

The announcement came Monday night while the Hoosiers were playing Oregon in a Big Ten game — and on the same night the school celebrated the 1975-76 team that remains the last undefeated national champ in Division I men’s basketball.

School officials say Knight’s statue will be placed next to one honoring the 1975-76 title team and will be funded by a longtime basketball donor who wants to remain anonymous.

“Coach Knight’s influence on the game of basketball is immeasurable, but his impact on this university and Hoosier basketball fans is even deeper,” athletic director Scott Dolson said in a statement. “On a personal level, having started my career here as a student manager under coach Knight, I saw firsthand the unparalleled standard of excellence he demanded. He taught me, and countless others, that success is the result of meticulous preparation and unwavering discipline. This statue will be a well-deserved tribute to a man who didn’t just win games; he changed how the sport is played.”

Knight won a school-record 662 games and 11 Big Ten titles during his tenure from 1971-2000. He was fired in September 2000 following an incident with a student in a hallway and later landed at Texas Tech, where he finished his career as Division I’s winningest coach, with 902 wins.

He also was known for his fiery temper — and once throwing a chair during a home game against rival Purdue.

Knight died in October 2023 and still ranks sixth among all coaches in victories. He also won a gold medal as the coach of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team and is a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, the National College Basketball Hall of Fame and Indiana’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

Super Bowl averages 124.9M viewers

Sunday night’s Super Bowl and Bad Bunny fell short of setting records for most watched U.S. broadcast and halftime show.

Seattle’s 29-13 victory over New England averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, according to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel rating system.

That fell short of the 127.7 million U.S. viewers that tuned in for Philadelphia’s 40-22 victory over Kansas City last year on Fox.

Bad Bunny’s halftime show averaged 128.2 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. Eastern. That would make it the fourth-most watched halftime behind Kendrick Lamar (133.5 million, 2025), Michael Jackson (133.4 million, 1993) and Usher (129.3 million, 2024).

Full global viewership for the halftime show is expected to be available early next week.