Stock down: Ndamukong Suh
BASEBALL: Shohei Ohtani bid farewell to fans in Sapporo, Japan, as he sets off to join his new team, MLB’s Angels. Ohtani played for the Nippon Ham Fighters for five years. ... Jerry Kindall, an INF who played for the Cubs, Indians and Twins in a nine-year career, died at 82 in Tucson, Ariz. Kindall later coached Arizona to three College World Series titles.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: The top four teams stayed the same in the AP Top 25. Villanova (12-0) received 43 of 65 first-place votes to remain at No. 1 for the third straight week. No. 2 Michigan State (12-1) got 16 first-place votes, while No. 3 Arizona State (12-0) had six first-place votes to stay ahead of No. 4 Duke (12-1). Texas A&M (11-1) climbed to fifth, followed by Xavier, West Virginia, Wichita State, Virginia and TCU. Miami and Kentucky each fell nine spots to Nos. 15 and 16, while No. 13 North Carolina and No. 20 Gonzaga fell eight spots each . ... Tournament MVP Bennie Boatwright scored a career-high 33 points, including six 3-pointers, as USC (9-4) held off New Mexico State 77-72 in the title game of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu. Devin Cannady scored a season-high 28 points as Princeton (7-7) beat Hawaii 77-63 for fifth place. Freshman Kellan Grady made five 3-pointers and scored a season-best 30 points to help Davidson (5-6) beat Akron 91-78 for seventh . ... After losing at home last week to Western Illinois and Tennessee, Stanford (6-6) fell out of the AP women’s Top 25 for the first time since 2001.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Marcus McMaryion threw for a career-best 342 yards to help Fresno State (10-4) beat Houston 33-27 late Sunday in the Hawaii Bowl.
Ndamukong Suh is a player who demands a double team from offensive linemen on just about every snap. But that doesn’t mean it is okay to play a game without logging a single tackle. That was the case on Sunday. The game against the Chiefs showed that Suh can be an undisciplined freelancer, who likes to jump the snap count. The Chiefs baited him into two encroachment calls by changing up their snap count.
On Twitter @omarkelly McMaryion completed 33 of 48 passes to tie the bowl record for completions set by Hawaii’s Colt Brennan in 2006 and tied by Fresno State’s Derek Carr in 2012.
GOLF: Ernie Els received a special exemption to play in the 2018 Masters, Golfweek reported. Els is a four-time major champion but has never won the Masters.
SOCCER: Vitaly Mutko, a Russian government official who has been dogged by allegations of involvement in doping, temporarily stepped down as president of the Russian Football Union. Russian news agencies reported that Mutko will step aside as president for six months with Alexander Alayev succeeding him.
ALSO: The feud between President Donald Trump and NFL players protesting the national anthem was the runaway winner as the AP’s top 2017 sports story. It easily outdistanced the college basketball corruption scandal and the Astros winning their first World Series, which took second and third, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 were Tom Brady coming back from his Deflategate suspension to engineer a record-breaking comeback as the Patriots beat the Falcons in the first Super Bowl overtime game; the president of USA Gymnastics resigning amid a sexual abuse scandal; Russia’s ban from the Winter Olympics for its doping scandal; Clemson edging Alabama in the final seconds to win the College Football Playoff; the U.S. failing to qualify for the World Cup; Kevin Durant leading the Warriors to the NBA title; and MMA star Conor McGregor boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr.