The Pulse newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse straight to your inbox.

Good morning! Dive in for Ja Morant today.

While you were sleeping: Excitements!

Three quick basketball stories for this morning. First, the surprises in the men’s college competition:

• Unranked Creighton defeated No. 1 Kansas 76-63about as big as the surprise a regular season basketball can deliver. It was the Jayhawks’ first loss of the year.
• No. 9 Duke ran from No. 2 Auburnwhich was already undefeated with two wins over top-five teams, 84-78 at Cameron Indoor. It is the current record win for these Blue Devils. Star freshman Cooper Flagg had 22 points and 11 rebounds.

There was also excitement on the NBA hardwood:

• The Lakers are a disaster right now, after falling from a 10-4 start to 12-10 41 point defeat to the 10-10 heat last night. However, the eye test is even worse than her record. They have also lost their last seven games by scores of 29, 27 and 25. Jovan Buha made it clear how bad the situation was before Last night’s defeat and the lesson remains.

Let’s continue:

Hello my name is: The best Chinese NHL prospect of all time?

Haoxi Simon Wang is many things at once. As a student living in Canada, playing hockey and making friends, he also happens to be a bona fide NHL prospect – and probably the best to ever come out of China. He’s also only 17.

Written by Scott Wheeler an excellent profile yesterday, which I think deserves a closer look. I found the facets of Wang’s story amazing:

• Wang grew up in China and started playing hockey for fun at the age of 4. At that time, interest in ice hockey in China was low. He and his mother Willa – more about her in a moment – had to travel across the vast city of Beijing just to find an ice rink. However, Wang was hooked.
  
• In 2015, Beijing won the bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics and investment in ice sports increased. Willa, spurred on by her son’s interest, won some of the start-up capital and opened an ice rink. It now owns several youth teams in China and the sport has exploded across the country.
  
• Wang began getting serious about hockey in 2019 and moved to Toronto. where his game flourished. He compared hockey in Beijing to just “running around” and said he really learned the game in Canada.

Now? He is 1.90 meters tall and is on the radar of NHL scouts. An elite defenseman for his age, Wang is headed to Boston University to play college hockey. He is expected to be selected in the second or third round of next year’s NHL Draft. If he’s in that range, he’ll be the highest-drafted Chinese prospect of all time.

It’s a remarkable story. Scott has a lot more detail throughout the story, This is worth your time today.

Interesting facts

Loyd asks for trade
Drama in Seattle: Storm All-Star guard Jewell Loyd has requested a trade with the franchise, a source confirmed The athlete last night. This came right after the franchise announced the end of a workplace misconduct investigation that found no wrongdoing by the team. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Loyd filed the first complaint that sparked the investigation and that the outcome is the reason Loyd wants out. More context here.

UCF asks about Riley
Filed under bold: Following the departure of head football coach Gus Malzahn, UCF has inquired about the availability of Lincoln Riley. At USC, Riley makes about $10 million per year, while UCF paid Malzahn about $4 million — and that doesn’t even take into account the difference in status between the two programs. Riley is in crisis at USC, where his teams have regressed since his arrival in 2022, but he has expressed no interest in such a move. Our entire report is worth reading.

Arnold should change
Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold, a former five-star recruit, is entering the transfer portal, a source confirmed The athleteDays after the end of a hectic season for the Sooners. Arnold clearly wasn’t influenced by the hiring of new Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ryan Arbuckle. It’s fair to wonder if Washington State quarterback John Mateer will follow Arbuckle, who served as Wazzus’ OC this year, to Norman. You can get the full overview here.

Ravens suspend Johnson
Baltimore wideout Diontae Johnson will miss the team’s Week 15 game against the Giants after the receiver – acquired from Carolina earlier this season – refused to enter the game during the Ravens’ loss to the Eagles on Sunday. Johnson has been frustrated with his lack of playing time since arriving in Baltimore, but I can’t imagine how the relationship could be repaired from here. You can find more details about cucumber here.

More news

---

Watch, listen and play

📺 NFL: Packers at Lions
8:15 p.m. ET on Prime Video
This is a massive NFC North matchup, and despite Detroit’s 11-1 dominance this season, two teams – the Eagles (10-2) and the Vikings (10-2) – are within touching distance of the No. 1 seed NFC. The full playoff scenarios can be found here.

📺 NCAAW: No. 8 Duke at No. 3 South Carolina
9 p.m. ET on ESPN
The defending champion Gamecocks aren’t invincible, as evidenced by their loss to UCLA two weeks ago, but the first of their two straight games against top-10 opponents is absolutely still a draw.

Get tickets for games like these Here.

🎧 “The Athletic FC” about what it’s like to be David Ornstein during the transfer window.

---

Pulse picks

Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

The Steelers and talented wide receiver George Pickens are at a crossroads. Is the team relying on its maturity? Or let one of the best wideouts in the league walk? Mike DeFabo has an excellent breakdown of what lies ahead.

Harman Dayal looked at it NHL’s The five most surprising breakout teams and tried to decide who was real and who was pretending.

Also Dom Luszczyszyn ranked the 4 nations Roster schedules. It’s America’s tournament to lose.

MLB Winter Meetings Start on Monday and Jim Bowden did it Seven shops he would like to see it done before they close.

Shai Gilgeous Alexander is sneaky become one of them NBA’s All-time goalscorersas Marcus Thompson II explains.

I thought Jeff Gluck’s column on the state of racing was fantastic. Drivers in both F1 And NASCAR I just want to be heard – But it only listens to one series.

Most clicked on in the newsletter yesterday: Dane Brugler’s NFL Mock Draft. Never fails.

Most read on the site yesterday: Dan Pompeis Excellent story about Lions lineman Penei Sewellthat we presented yesterday.

📫 Do you love the pulse? Checkout The athlete‘s other newsletters.

(Top photo: Rob Kinnan / Imagn Images)