Nov 27, 2022 3 min read

In college football

Wisconsin is bringing Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell back to the Big Ten.

Athletic director Chris McIntosh announced Sunday that the Badgers had hired Fickell to take over their football program after his successful run with the Bearcats.

Fickell posted a 57-18 record in six seasons at Cincy and helped the Bearcats earn a College Football Playoff berth last year. The former Ohio State defensive lineman and longtime assistant went 6-7 as the Buckeyes’ interim coach in 2011 after Jim Tressel’s resignation.

n Arizona State hired Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, making the 32-year-old the youngest head football coach in a Power Five conference.

A Phoenix native, Dillingham returns to the school he graduated from 10 years ago in hopes of turning around a program that fired Herman Edwards in September after a 1-2 start.

n Tulsa fired coach Philip Montgomery, who spent eight seasons at the school and reached four bowl games.

In college basketball

Mark Sears had 24 points, five rebounds and five assists, and No. 18 Alabama sent top-ranked North Carolina to a second straight loss with a 103-101 victory in a quadruple-overtime thriller on Sunday in the third-place game of the Phil Knight Invitational tournament.

Jahvon Quinerly added 21 points off the bench for the Crimson Tide (6-1), who knocked off the top-ranked team for the first time since upsetting Stanford in the 2004 NCAA Tournament.

n Zach Edey had 21 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 24 Purdue beat No. 8 Duke 75-56 in the championship game of the Phil Knight Legacy men’s tournament.

Fletcher Loyer scored 18 points for Purdue (6-0), and reserve Caleb Furst finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The 7-foot-4 Edey was 7 for 13 from the field and 7 for 8 at the line. He was named tournament MVP.

Duke (6-2) shot 36.2% (21 for 58) from the field. Tyres Proctor scored 16 points for the Blue Devils. Kyle Filipowski and Jeremy Roach each had 14.

In the NFL

NFL free agent Odell Beckham Jr. was removed by police from an aircraft before takeoff at Miami International Airport after officials said he failed to respond to requests to buckle his seatbelt and appeared to be unconscious, police and airline officials said Sunday.

“Fearing that Mr. Beckham was seriously ill, and that his condition would worsen through the expected 5 hour flight, (flight crew members) called for police and fire rescue,” Miami Dade Police Officer Luis Sierra said in a statement following the 9:30 a.m. Sunday incident.

“As they tried to wake (Beckham) to fasten his seat belt, he appeared to be coming in and out of consciousness,” the statement said.

American Airlines representative Alfredo Garduno confirmed that flight 1228 to Los Angeles returned to the gate before takeoff “due to a customer failing to follow crew members’ instructions and refusing to fasten their seat belt.”

World Cup

The U.S. Soccer Federation briefly displayed Iran’s national flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic, saying the move supported protesters in Iran ahead of the two nations’ World Cup match Tuesday.

Iran’s government reacted by accusing America of removing the name of God from its national flag.

The USSF decision added yet-another political firestorm to the Middle East’s first World Cup, one organizers had hoped would be spared of off-the-field controversies.