Starting Five

1. Jack Taylor, who was arguably the hottest member of Duran Duran (Whaaaaaat?), scores an NCAA-record 138 points as Grinnell (3-0) beats Faith Baptist Bible College (0-5), 179-104. We were able to hang with head coach Dave Arsenault (and assistant coach David Arseneault) last March because our editor at The Daily, Chris D’Amico, was cool enough to know a good story when he saw one. The story here is not about Taylor, but about Arsenault’s hoops philosophy. Against this same team last season Grinnell had an NCAA-record 19 different players make at least one three-pointer. It had been a pre-game goal of team.

Taylor will make his feature film debut in “Hoosiers 2: Three-Point Boogaloo”

2. Boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho, 50, is on life support after being shot in the face in Puerto Rico. Camacho, 79-6-3, won world titles in three classes in the 1980s. He was seated in the passenger seat when a gunman approached the vehicle and opened fire. The driver, Mojica Moreno, was mortally wounded. Police told espn.com that Moreno had nine bags of cocaine in his possession — and a tenth one open– at the time of the shooting. UPDATE: Camacho has been taken off life support and is brain dead, per ESPN.

3. YouTube sensation Sam Gordon gets her (first?) moment of fame, with a Wheaties cover and an appearance on both “Good Morning, America” (where host Josh “Misdemeanor” Elliott unabashedly flirted with the nine year-old girl gridiron sensation) and ESPN “SportsCenter.” For those keeping score, Harvard baseball team mash-up of “Call Me Maybe” has 16.8 million views, while this video of Gordon running to daylight has 951,000 views.

Sam Gordon: Gary Barnett has already said she cannot play for him.

4. “And it’s one, two, three/What are they fightin’ for/Don’t ask us, we don’t give a damn/Next stop is the Holy Land…” Okay, so we tweaked the lyrics of “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixing-To-Die-Rag”, the Vietnam era protest tune by Country Joe and the Fish, but we still have to ask: Isn’t everyone in the Middle East tired of fighting? We know: it’s a naive question. Still… And another thing: Country Joe was pretty badass.

5. Today’s non-story of the day: USC quarterback Max Wittek saying, “We’re going to win this ballgame.” Of course ESPN turns this into Joe Namath’s Super Bowl III guarantee because breathless, young, ambitious ESPN producers who kneel before a statue of Jamie Horowitz each night before they hit the pillow (or is that “the other side of the pillow?”) have no time for nuance or perspective or insight — that won’t reel in viewers!  Wittek spoke those words on ESPNRadio Los Angeles and bully for him, before making his first start, for expressing confidence and letting his teammates know that he believes in them. That’s exactly what he should say, isn’t it? Our thoughts on pre-game guarantees go thusly: As soon as you’re willing to put $1,000 down on that statement, we’ll take you seriously ($100,000 if you’re a pro athlete).

The Max Factor: USC’s quarterback says, “Fight on, Irish.”

Reserves

Our 2 1/2 cents (“ceennnnnts”) on the Irish-Trojan tussle to take place on Saturday night. Some unbeatens enter a game like this feeling as if they have something to protect (witness No. 1 Notre Dame, then 11-0, defending national champions and owners of the nation’s longest win streak, 23 games, heading to Miami to face the No. 7 Hurricanes). Others, such as the ’88 Irish, have yet to taste such success and are hungry to do so. That squad also traveled on Thanksgiving weekend, then to face No. 2 USC, and obliterated the Trojans. The game was not as close as the 27-10 final score. ESPN sent Tom “Teardrop” Rinaldi to South Bend this week and the angle by Rinaldi, a former South Bend-based broadcaster, was the pressure on the Irish now that they’re No. 1.

As Col. Potter used to say, “Horse hockey!”

Sherm often has this reaction to Rinaldi’s pieces

There’s no pressure on the Irish. This entire season is gravy, having gone from unranked to No. 1 in a dozen weeks. The older players on this squad (Te’o, Theo, etc.) experienced too much humiliation earlier in their careers to shrink from this moment now. The younger players (Golston, Nix) are having too much fun to care. Did you ever head into a final exam after really studying diligently for it and saying to yourself, “I got this?” It might’ve been a tough exam, but you knew you’d prepared adequately enough (“I can do stoichiometry in my frickin’ sleep!”)

USC will be this easy for the Irish

Anyway, that’s how we think Notre Dame feels about USC. They’ve studied hard and they simply cannot wait to take the exam, then head back to the dorm and crack open a few Keystone Lights. After all, they’ll have about 46 days until their next final.

This only LOOKS like Jake Golic. Trust us, it’s Keith Stone.

Will Notre Dame win? I’m not going to go Wittek on you, but what I do know is that they won’t feel any pressure. They’ll be chomping at the bit to play this game. May the better team win.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

So began Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” on the afternoon of November 19, 1863 at the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln spoke for just over two minutes, but it’s regarded as one of the greatest speeches in the history of the country as Lincoln perfectly summarized what it meant to be a free and equal country. It clearly didn’t resonate with U.S. citizens, as “Lincoln” finished a distant third at the box office this past weekend, behind “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2,” and “Skyfall.”

 “Well, as near as I can figure out, it’s ’cause I, uh, fight and fuck too much.” Well, it wasn’t the Gettysburg Address, but Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of Randall McMurphy in, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was nearly as arresting. The movie, which hit screens today in 1975, was just the second to win the five main Academy Awards: Best Movie, Best Actor, (tell me you don’t see Tom Cruise at the 1:28 mark) Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Today in Pullman, Washington, in 1973, Steve Prefontaine won his third NCAA Cross Country title. Prefontaine had won it as a freshman and as a sophomore, but didn’t compete in 1972 because he’d trained for the Olympics instead.

U2 was at, for my money, their creative peak when they released, “Achtung Baby” today in 1991. The album was universally acclaimed by critics who praised the step forward for the band while also congratulating them on dropping some of their pretension. The album landed at #63 on Rolling Stones 2012 list of the 500 best albums of all-time. The album is full of single hits: “Mysterious Ways,” “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” “One,” “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around the World,” “The Fly,” and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?”

The Barenaked Ladies finally broke through in the United States with one of the best albums to ever come across the border, their live disc, “Rock Spectacle” hit shelves today in 1996. “Brian Wilson,” “Jane,” “What a Good Boy,” “The Old Apartment,” and “If I Had $1,000,000 were all hits.

Today in 1978 the Giants tried a hand off when they really shouldn’t have. The “Miracle at the Meadowlands” saw Herm Edwards scoop up a fumble and take it all the way on the game’s last play. You play to win the game, indeed.

Today in 1980 CBS banned the new Calvin Klein jeans ad starring Brooke Shields. On Klein’s 38th birthday nonetheless.

The Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons brawled tonight in 2004. It just so happened to be on my first month on the NBA beat at ESPN. It was a long night.

Birthday wishes to Meg Ryan (51) and Jodie Foster (50) and their five best:

Ryan:

1. When Harry Met Sally

2. Sleepless in Seattle

3. You’ve Got Mail

4. Top Gun

5. When a Man Loves a Woman

Foster:

1. Silence of the Lambs

2. Taxi Driver

3. The Accused

4. Nell

5. Foxes

— Bill Hubbell

Starting Five

1. One week shy of 23 years after undefeated and top-ranked Notre Dame headed south to face Miami (10-1), the Fighting Irish are finally ranked No. 1 again. Notre Dame rose to the top of the polls after “mushroom-clouding” Wake Forest, 38-0, to move to 11-0. No. 2 Oregon lost in overtime to Stanford and No. 1 Kansas State became the latest victim of the SI cover jinx. The Irish, who also have the top graduation rate in college football (99%), become the first school to be atop both rankings in the BCS era.

The “No. 1” sign is lit up atop Grace Hall on the campus of Notre Dame last night

2. The Hurricanes, by the way, have self-imposed a bowl ban for this season, the second season in a row, tossing yet another sacrificial lamb at the altar of Charles Robinson and the NCAA (who are mutually exclusive, and yet are not). 

3. Speaking of bowl bans, Ohio State is 11-0 and would be ranked no worse than No. 2 in the nation in the BCS right now if only it had chosen to accept its bowl ban LAST season. But, hey, you know, the Buckeyes were in the midst of losing their final three games en route to a 6-6 campaign, so why would you want to squander such a gleaming performance by denying those Luke Fickell era gridders of their just reward. I argued in favor of the Buckeyes taking their lumps last season and was told  to sit down and shut up. Because, after all, what was Urban Meyer going to be able to accomplish in Year One in Columbus? Apparently, a lot.  

4. Get Christie Love. New Jersey governor Chris Christie (already has our vote for 2016) appears on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” and quotes the chorus of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City.” By the way, we love the personalized fleece idea. “Hey, is that my fleece?” “Does it have YOUR name on it?” (Is it too early to request a Christmas present fleece that reads “JDubs, Serial Tweeter”?

5. Maryland joins the Big Ten, and Rutgers may soon follow. B1G commissioner Jim Delany would frack the Pope’s water supply if it meant more money for his conference. Some day we will erect a statue to Jim Delany, only that it will be upside down and it will be buried up to its ass.

Reserves

Last week’s Sports Illustrated cover story on Collin Klein by Thomas Lake was titled “27 Things You Need to Know About The Best Player on the Nation’s Best Team.” I was unable to locate the text on-line, but if you have the mag, you may notice the story construction’s resemblence to a 2007 profile of then-USC coach Pete Carroll titled “23 Reasons Why a Profile of Pete Carroll Does Not Appear in This Space.” The author of that piece, which ran in Los Angeles Magazine, is Pulitzer Prize-winning  journalist JR Moehringer. But, hey, 27 and 23 are like, four entire integers apart.

Just so you know… we love Les Miles. Always have. This is the latest reason why. He’s the Huey Long (or Willie Stark for you fans of “All The King’s Men” — and if you are not, you should be) of the SEC. What sets Les’ rants apart from, say, Mike Gundy’s, is that Les is always in control, even when he appears not to be. That “if you’re a girl” parenthetical is priceless.

USC is 7-4 and headed for a date versus the No. 1 Scoring Defense in the nation without its starting quarterback (and presumptive preseason Heisman favorite), Matt Barkley, who is dealing with a sprained or separated shoulder after taking a wicked hit in last Saturday’s ugly, soggy loss to UCLA. Penn State is 7-4 with a chance to finish 8-4 after this weekend’s home date with Wisconsin . The Trojans, No. 1 in the preseason AP poll, have clearly underachieved while the Nittany Lions have clearly overachieved. Observations?

Matt Barkley will never forget the last time he met Anthony Barr

1. Silas Redd took a calculated risk and at this point we’d say he lost. He lost because no matter what any current Nittany Lion will say publicly about their former teammate, deep down they must feel that he abandoned them in a time of crisis for what appeared to be a better opportunity (Does this make USC Paula Broadwell?). When we spoke to Mrs. Redd last summer, we inferred that she was against his transferring (again, this is only our inference). If Redd knew he’d be playing for a school that would do no better than a lower-tier bowl and the price he would pay is the compromised friendships of his former teammates, would he have still done his entire “Grapes of Wrath” exodus?

2. This is what I euphemistically refer to as a “bullshit sports column” by Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times (you should read how I really feel). Why? Well, if you read it you will ascertain that Mr. Plaschke asked Trojan head coach Lane Kiffin about his job status moments after USC loss to crosstown rival UCLA for the first time since 2006. That was the Trojans’ third loss in four games.

So Kiffin tells Plaschke that athletic director Pat Haden has assured him of his job security and invites him to phone Haden to confirm. Plaschke does, and this all happens in a short time span. So let’s invite a few hypotheticals: either Kiffin texts his boss, Haden, to inform him that Plaschke may soon phone re: this issue, or he doesn’t. Either way, when Haden (one of the smartest and, for my money, decent men you’ll ever meet) fields Plaschke’s call, he knows how this will look in the LA media if he is anything less than 100% (Did I say 100%? I meant 150%) supportive of Kiffin.

What’s the upside for Haden to be diffident at this moment? It’s a bullshit sports column because Plaschke made a phone call to an athletic director who has no reason to be candid to him and got his quotes. He made no effort to relate to readers the compromised position in which he put Haden and why any smart administrator would provide exactly this answer. In short, Plaschke’s question was the equivalent to an eight year-old asking, “Are we there yet?” and expecting an actual ETA.

3. I return to it again and again — and again — but the Zen master scene from “Charlie Wilson’s War” packs a lot of wisdom into 2:03. Lots (and lots) of college football observers thought Redd’s exodus to USC was a no-brainer back in July, but they were making this determination based on what they expected the Trojans to be. Maybe the life lesson of the Silas Redd Affair is that you should make decisions based on values as opposed to expected outcomes. You’ll be better off that way.