Chicago Sports

PHILADELPHIA — Derek King could only drop and shake his head.

Sure enough, the Blackhawks interim coach could count the players on the ice: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. They’d crossed the blue line with 1:30 left with Dominik Kubalik on left wing, Dylan Strome and Brandon Hagel in the middle, Patrick Kane on right wing, Alex DeBrincat trailing the puck and Seth and Caleb Jones back on defense.

Unbelievably, it was the Hawks’ fourth penalty for too many men on the ice in their past two games. The inexplicable gaffe mutilated their own last-gasp push in a 4-3 loss Saturday to the Flyers.

“That’s on me,” King said later. “I’ve got to do a better job on the bench making sure these guys know exactly who’s up. It’s my responsibility.

“There is a little bit of anxiousness where we’re trying to do the right things, we’re working, and we’re jumping a little too early. We want to get in there and try to be that guy who maybe gets the goal. That’s definitely on me and I’ll clean it up.”

Three second-period goals — two from Strome and one from DeBrincat — gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead to protect entering the third period. They’d played well up to that point, overcoming a slow start and watching the first line of Strome, Kane and Kubalik take over.

But the final frame careened off the rails. Seth Jones and Jonathan Toews miscommunicated on the Flyers’ tying goal, leaving Derick Brassard wide open, before a Cam Atkinson shot through high screens fooled Kevin Lankinen and gave the Flyers the lead for good.

Even off from the scoreboard, what started as a physical, emotional tilt — King described it as like “an old 80s game at the old Spectrum” — devolved into several 10-man scrums around the Flyers’ net. A cheap-shot hit by Kirby Dach that injured Kevin Connauton in the third period may well earn Dach some supplementary discipline from the NHL.

“It’s a tough way to lose,” Strome said. “When you have a lead going to the third, you’ve got to play a bit better than we did. Obviously [we] can’t take that penalty late in the game. … That one sucks. I feel like we played pretty good and probably deserve a bit better than that.”

Lankinen continues to be plagued by, if not soft, then mushy goals against. He’s now 3-6-4 with an .885 save percentage this season, which doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in a post-Marc-Andre Fleury goaltending future.

There was also a historical oddity involved. The Hawks have now lost 16 consecutive regular-season games in Philadelphia, with their last win coming in 1996.

It’s that too-many-men penalty, though, that overshadows everything else Saturday. The Hawks have now recorded nine bench minors this season, tied with the Devils for the league’s most. Although not all nine are for too many men, these past four definitely have been, dating back to two Thursday against the Oilers.

Through 58 minutes, if someone squinted tightly enough, they might have been able to write off Saturday’s loss as an entertaining, well-fought, excusable defeat — that is, if they ignored the fact the Flyers entered the day 16-28-10, with just three wins in their last 24 games. But playing with seven guys is, by contrast, absolutely inexcusable.

“I don’t know [how it happened], to be honest,” Seth Jones said. “We took two last game, two tonight. That should be good for the whole season, in two games. We need better communication.”

Added Strome: “It’s not one guy; it’s everyone. You’ve got to be aware of who you’re taking on the ice. If your guy comes off, you’ve got to go on. And if he doesn’t come off, you’ve got to be aware that maybe it looked like he was coming off and he didn’t come off.”

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Following a rather ho-hum start to the state tournament in regional play last week and sectional semifinal action earlier this week, the madness took over Friday night in sectional championship games across the state.

There were multiple overtimes and one-possession thrillers, buzzer-beaters, upsets and sold out gymnasiums.

The calendar has turned to March and “March Madness” isn’t just a catchy name.

We are down to eight teams in each class with all the dreams of playing in Champaign next weekend fully intact and alive for 32 teams in Illinois.

Here is a look at all that went down in a wild night of high school basketball across the state, starting with the magic that happened in Effingham.

The most incredible sectional game and dramatic finish

Game tied. Double overtime. Sectional final. That’s enough right there to create a vision of what basketball in March is all about.

But throw in a buzzer-beater — from 60 feet away — and it’s bedlam.

With 2.6 seconds remaining in double overtime in the Effingham St. Anthony Sectional title game, Meridian’s Graham Meisenhelter received an inbound pass on the far baseline, took one dribble and casually launched a three-quarter court shot just before the buzzer sounded for a 82-79 win over Tuscola.

Prior to the 60-foot heave, Meridian’s Riley Day drained an off-balanced three-pointer from 25 feet at the buzzer to send the game into a second overtime.

Tuscola’s Jalen Quinn, one of the top 10 prospects in the state headed to Loyola next season, finished with 35 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in the gut-wrenching loss.

Meridian, a 15-minute drive just south of Decatur, now advances to a Class 1A Carbondale super-sectional to face Steeleville Monday night.

And the least dramatic run

We go from one unbelievable Class 1A storyline to the other end of the spectrum.

Yorkville Christian was expected to roll through the Class 1A competition once state tournament play began — at least in getting to Champaign. And the Mustangs have done just that and then some

With its 81-47 sectional championship win over Putnam County, Yorkville Christian has now won five postseason games by 62, 46, 40, 44 and 34 points.

Now it faces the lowest seeded team remaining in Class 1A, Lexington, in the Normal Super.

Best postseason storyline: Lemont

Lemont vs. Simeon? Deep in the postseason? Squaring off in a super-sectional?

Yes. No double take is needed. It’s happening.

While Glenbard West was the talk of the state throughout the regular season and is dismantling everyone in its playoff path thus far, Lemont has emerged as the biggest and best story of this postseason.

And now it gets a shot at mighty Simeon, the state’s ultimate measuring stick in terms of the hierarchy of high school basketball in Illinois.

Lemont won its last regional in 1993. We all know what Simeon has done since then: six state championships and nine state trophies while winning 14 sectionals in the last 18 years.

But this one won’t be about history. It will be about this Monday night at UIC where a pro-Lemont crowd will be revved up.

Lemont, the No. 4 seed in the Thornwood Sectional, has defied the odds while playing with a very young team that was expected to be this good next year.

Sophomore Nojus Indrusaitis is the headliner as one of the top young prospects in the state. The junior duo of twins Rokas and Matas Castillo are fun and fearless junior guards. Several other juniors, including 6-4 Patrick Gardner, Joe Pender, Conor Murray and Gavin Kelby, have settled into their roles.

Despite showing promise and potential during the regular season, Lemont certainly had its hiccups. Youth could certainly be blamed.

There was a fizzle on a big holiday tournament stage in late December. Lemont lost in the second round and failed to even reach the quarterfinals of the 32-team Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York, then losing to Batavia in consolation play.

Lemont lost to conference nemesis Hillcrest and fell to Oak Lawn by 16 points late in the season.

No one could have expected Lemont to then go out and win one of the tougher sectionals in the state. They’ve taken down everyone, perennial powers included, en route to its first sectional title since 1975.

Lemont won what most considered a flip-of-the-coin game in a regional title matchup with Marian Catholic, a team fresh off winning the East Suburban Catholic Conference Tournament.

Then coach Rick Runaas’ team toppled top-seed Hillcrest in the sectional semifinals, the very same team it lost to just a few weeks earlier.

And then the stunner over Thornton and Ty Rodgers in the sectional championship, a Thornton team that had won 13 straight, including a road win at Kenwood to close out the regular season.

Lemont, a team recognized for its offensive firepower on the perimeter, held the Illinois commit Rodgers to six points and six rebounds.

Back in 1975, the last time it played in a super-sectional, famed Lemont coach John Jones led the way. At that time Lemont was a Class A school in the old two-class system.

Thus, Monday night will be quite a step up for a program that lost to Buda Western in its last super-sectional game 47 years ago in Sterling to facing mighty Simeon at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago.

Status quo in Class 4A

Of the eight teams remaining in Class 4A, six are No. 1 sectional seeds that took care of business. All six will face one another in super-sectional play Monday night, while No. 2 seed Bolingbrook and No. 3 seed Quincy will square off at ISU’s Redbird Arena.

But the storyline in Class 4A is the fresh blood and new faces all still alive this late in the journey to Champaign.

Glenbrook South and Kenwood won their first sectional championships in program history.

Glenbard West will be playing in its second supersectional in school history, while Barrington won just its second sectional title in over four decades.

Even Quincy, one of the most storied high school basketball programs in state history, has returned to the spotlight.

The Blue Devils have won a state record 31 sectional championships — Yes, you read that right! Thirty-one! — but ended the longest sectional title drought in school history Friday night. The lowest-seeded team in Class 4A upset 33-1 Normal, winners of 26 straight games, and celebrated a sectional championship for the first time in 22 years.

This sectional championship win comes on the heels of a buzzer-beating sectional semifinal win over Collinsville.

While Quincy is led by New Orleans commit Jeremiah Talton, a 6-5 shooting wing, the Blue Devils have talented young players that show this program is back.

Sophomore Ralph Wires hit the game-winner to beat Collinsville. Freshman Bradley Longcor is one of the best young players in the state and a double-figure scorer. Freshman Keshaun Thomas is a 6-5 freshman who went for 13 points and 12 rebounds in the sectional title game.

Public League power

The Public League is guaranteed to have one team playing in Champaign next weekend. Young and Kenwood meet in what should be a classic super-sectional in Class 4A.

Simeon will be favored in its Class 3A super-sectional matchup with Lemont.

But don’t forget about Marshall. The Commandos have won five postseason games after winning just two regular-season games. Marshall won its own sectional and heads into its Class 1A super-sectional showdown with Scales Mound with a 7-14 record.

Other sectional title game notes, thoughts and observations

? Burlington Central has seen enough of St. Francis.

In its quest for the first sectional title in program history, Burlington Central lost a heartbreaker to St. Francis, falling 37-35 in the final seconds of the game and ending its best season in school history. Sebastian Miller’s game-winning pull-up jumper with 14 seconds remaining was the difference.

St. Francis also knocked Burlington Central out of the state playoffs the last time there was one played in 2020.

St. Francis, which won a sectional title in 2013, travels to Ottawa to face Metamora in the super-sectional.

? The highly-anticipated Glenbrook South-New Trier sectional title game ultimately produced a big super-sectional favorite.

After putting together terrific regular seasons and splitting their two Central Suburban League South matchups, there was no doubt GBS and New Trier would go toe-to-toe, down to the wire in a sectional championship slugfest.

Now Glenbrook South will be heavily favored over Barrington in the Forest View Super, though the Broncos have been red-hot down the stretch.

? The most anticipated Class 2A postseason matchup is set, albeit before we get to Champaign. The final AP state rankings in Class 1A last month had Leo ranked No. 1 and DePaul Prep ranked No. 2. They will meet Monday night in the Joliet Central Super.

? Glenbard West has dominated in Class 4A. This was expected when state assignments came out and the top team in the state was placed in a relatively soft sectional.

But after crushing Wheaton South 68-41 in the Bartlett Sectional title game, coach Jason Opoka’s team has now won regional and sectional titles by victory margins of 46, 38, 29 and 27 points. I guess you could say each game is getting closer?

? Coach Mike Bailey has led the St. Patrick program since taking over for coach Max Kurland in 1994. After upsetting top-seed Lake Forest 53-52 Friday night, Bailey has now won three sectional championships in his nearly 30 years at the North Side private school. He’s seeking his first trip to the State Finals.

The Shamrocks face St. Ignatius in a Class 3A super-sectional. St. Ignatius is coached by Bailey’s former assistant coach, Matt Monroe, who spent eight years at St. Pat’s before taking over the St. Ignatius program.

? The Class 4A field of eight super-sectional qualifiers includes eight public schools. Half of the remaining teams in both Class 3A and Class 2A are private schools, while another private school, Yorkville Chrisitian, is the heavy favorite in Class 1A.

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It would seem like time is a luxury the Bulls no longer have.

Not with just 18 regular-season games left on the schedule and some of the opposing teams they have waiting for them.

Just don’t try and sell the locker room on that.

After the 118-112 loss to Milwaukee on Friday, the vibes coming out of that game was this was still a process and one that was moving in the right direction.

“You learn how hard it is to compete in this league, to beat a team like the Milwaukee Bucks that won a championship,” veteran DeMar DeRozan said afterward. “They had to go through plenty of growing pains as well until they got to their goal. We’ve got to take the growing pains and understand if you really want it, you have to get back up on your feet when you get knocked down. Competing versus the good teams, we’ve got to take on that challenge. It’s good for us to get hit and see how hard it really is to win in this league.”

That’s a great point … in December.

It’s a much tougher sell with the regular season in the final sprint to the finish line.

Even more concerning is as many great things as this roster has done this season, whether it was how quickly they came together or how bench players stepped into huge roles and succeeded when the coronavirus and injuries hit, the bottom line for true contending teams comes down to how they compete against the league’s best.

Sure, there’s going to be the outliers. Those elite teams that have your number, but every elite team has the Bulls’ number this season.

Of the three teams sitting ahead of them in the Eastern Conference as of Saturday morning, the Bulls were 0-3 against both Miami and Philadelphia, and now 0-2 against the Bucks.

Against the best in the West, the Bulls were a combined 0-4 against Golden State and Memphis, and 0-1 against the conference-leading Suns.

The only wins they have over teams with a winning percentage of .600 or better was a split with Dallas, and beating Utah back on Oct. 30.

That’s a combined record of 2-14 against true contending teams.

So how much “learning” have they actually been doing?

Now short-term?

The performances after Miami last week improved. The Bulls played Atlanta with more urgency, and the third quarter against the Bucks was as solid a 12 minutes as this group has displayed maybe all season long.

They actually played competitive two-way basketball into the fourth quarter, but slowly lost grip of the rope.

“It came down to the last couple of minutes, gave up a couple of offensive rebounds, Jrue [Holiday] got it going,” DeRozan said. “They are defending champs for a reason. We had it, made some mistakes, made it tougher on ourselves.”

Again, an on-going storyline far too often for the Bulls against teams that have a chance to hold the Larry O’Brien Trophy when the playoff dust settles at the end.

And it’s not like things get much easier.

They play the 76ers on Monday, still have two more with the Bucks and Cavaliers, one with Miami, and play in Utah and Phoenix in a few weeks.

Sure, Alex Caruso (wrist), Lonzo Ball (knee), and Patrick Williams (wrist) are all on the mend, but there’s no magic switch that can be flipped when they are healthy enough to return.

“The last thing I want is for us to have a false sense of reality of who we are,” coach Billy Donovan said. “We have to face the reality of the areas we have to get better at – there’s a light shined on it now.”

Grow or wilt under that light?

The Bulls have to decide, and quickly.

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Kyle Davidson has his work cut out for him. All the new Blackhawks general manager — “interim,” schminterim — must do is take an organization looking up at its championship past from the bottom of a ravine and somehow make it great again. What could go wrong?

In this week’s “Polling Place” — your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter — we asked how confident you are that this rebuild will be a success. “Cautiously optimistic” might be the very nicest way to describe the voting results.

“He has a real tough task,” @TopShelfSports0 commented. “[Predecessor] Stan Bowman sold the farm and committed him to some big contracts. He’s going to have to maximize his moves. It’s going to take probably five years.”

We also asked about Big Ten basketball and the postseason and — come on, guys — what the Bulls’ biggest problem is when they run up against top opponents.

“Health is definitely a great reason they have struggled,” @KurtisArndt wrote, “but I think size might be the underlying issue. When healthy, this squad is incredible.”

On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: How confident are you that the Blackhawks rebuild led by new GM Kyle Davidson will be a success?

Upshot: Nearly all the Hawks’ Stanley Cup winners are long gone. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews remain, but does that even make sense? And for how long? There’s so much Davidson and his staff have yet to even begin to work toward. “If he sticks with rebuilding, he will be successful,” @DadsThumb offered. “But success doesn’t guarantee a Cup.” That’s a fact, jack.

Poll No. 2: Which Big Ten basketball team will have the most postseason success?

Upshot: The Illini have guards who can really heat up from deep, a strong defensive mindset and — oh, yeah — one-of-a-kind Kofi Cockburn manning the middle. The Boilermakers have great size and depth and an off-the-charts athlete in Jaden Ivey. The Badgers? They’re merely regular-season champs who win each and every close game. It’s hard to choose, but one thing we know: 2000 remains the year of the league’s last national title.

Poll No. 3: What’s the biggest reason the Bulls struggle so much against top competition?

Upshot: As you can see, three in five respondents are pointing to the prolonged absences of Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams. If the Bulls were fully stocked, would things really end differently against the 76ers, Heat, Warriors and the rest of the best? It’s certainly a most forgiving way to look at it. “Poor Bulls fans,” @MJA773 wrote. “They’re never gonna learn.”

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Soccer is the most international sport in the world, and the Fire are no exception. Their starting lineup for last week’s opener included players from the US, Serbia, Germany, Venezuela, Argentina, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Poland, and a head coach from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

So even as the team has an air of optimism heading into tonight’s home debut against Orlando City, the Fire are keeping an eye on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

One example is goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina, a dual Polish-American national. During the Fire’s 0-0 tie last Saturday with Inter Miami, Slonina wore a yellow shirt that read NO WAR IN UKRAINE under his jersey. Following the match, Slonina, 17, discussed the situation with a maturity beyond his age.

“Of course, I have family in Poland, so it’s pretty close to their home,” Slonina said. “So I want to make sure that they are safe as well and the quicker that there could be no war, and love and peace in the world, they can stay safe and there’s less stress and worry about their safety and everything.

“Every war shouldn’t be on this earth. I think I believe in that and I’m going to continue to put as positive of a message as I can out there even if it’s just wearing it on my shirt after a game.”

Captain Rafael Czichos spoke carefully about what’s happening in eastern Europe. A German national born in Saudi Arabia, Czichos said it’s a really difficult situation, though he didn’t want to elaborate much further.

“I don’t want to talk about political stuff but I think in the year 2022, there shouldn’t be any war,” Czichos said. “And yeah, especially for me, my wife is half-Russian, so of course it’s a big subject at home. But yeah, it’s a political thing, and I don’t want to talk so much about it.”

On the soccer side, the Fire have plenty to talk about.

Slonina showed why he’s one of the world’s top prospects, making four saves, including a diving stop on an 87th-minute try by Miami’s Ariel Lassiter to preserve a point. Czichos looked like the leader and steady presence the Fire craved on the back line.

Xherdan Shaqiri’s high-level ability showed through, even though he was the focal point of Miami’s physical defense. Stanislav Ivanov had an encouraging night after a 2021 season marred by a knee injury, giving the Fire hope he could be an impactful winger opposite Jairo Torres when he arrives May 1.

Those are all reasons for the Fire to be positive about their soccer, though they’re fully aware of world events.

[The players] are humans, so they feel for people who find themselves innocently in war situations,” Hendrickson said. “I myself am very conscious about what’s going on in the world and how things are sometimes unfortunate for people who have no bearings or who [are] innocent people, innocent civilians. But we have a job to do and we have to continue to do our jobs and just hope and pray that things get better over there.”

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Ken Harrelson is many things: A former All-Star who belted 35 home runs and led the American League with 109 RBI during his All-Star 1968 season and Hall of Fame broadcaster for the White Sox.

He dabbled in professional golf and amateur boxing and was a flamboyant, bigger than life character with a lifetime of stories of brushes with great athletes and celebrities from many walks of life.

The Hawk is also a baseball fan.

And not a very happy one these days.

Baseball has come to a halt because of an owners lockout and their failure to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the players union, canceling the first two series of the season.

He’s like a lot of us. He’s perplexed by it all. And he’s angry.

“I’ll tell you what, it’s hard for me to understand, it really is,” Harrelson told the Sun-Times, speaking from his winter home in Orlando, Fla., by telephone this week.

“When I broke in, the minimum salary was $6,000. What is it now, $700,000?”

Harrelson chuckles at the number.

“I guess it’s what the market will bear,” he said.

At age 80, Harrelson’s passion and love for his beloved Sox are strong as ever. Primed for another season to contend for a World Series, his level of anticipation for the season is as high as it gets. Or was.

“I’m just going to sit back, strap it down and see what goes on,” he said. “I know one thing, it’s going to cost us some fans. There is no doubt about that. As long as I’ve been in the game — I love the game — but I’m [ticked off], I really am.”

Dadgummit!

“You ask what side I’m on, I’m on the side of the fans,” he said.

“It seems to me there certainly can be a compromise that can be reached. I’m not sitting in the room, but it just seems unnecessary.”

It seemed a good time to check in on Harrelson, a familiar voice who sat alongside Sox fans for 33 of his 42 seasons in the booth, cheering with them through many of the franchise’s greatest moments. Three seasons removed from his last one in 2018, Harrelson is well, thank you, but he navigates life at more moderate speeds.

“I’ve got a pacemaker that really helped but I just don’t have a lot of energy yet,” he said. “I haven’t played golf in two years. My right wrist is bad – too many strikeouts, too many fat sand wedges. I’ve been to the best [doctors] in the country and they all say exactly the same thing: You just wore them out.

“I swung the heaviest bat in the American League, a 40-ounce bat. You check that swing up and swing and miss over the years, it’s going to take its toll.”

A photo of Harrelson swinging a bat in an Indians uniform that gives a hint of how he did that.

“I’ve had people tell me that’s the only photo they’ve seen with the bat bending. It’s the only one I’ve ever seen with the bat bending. And I believe it’s of a home run they measured at 503 feet.”

These days, Harrelson spends more and more time reflecting on a life he says he’s extremely grateful for. Many of his afternoons are spent at home on the 17th hole at Bay Hill Golf Club, which is hosting the Arnold Palmer Invitational this weekend.

“So I’ll just sit here and have a couple of Smirnoff and tonics and watch a lot of the guys come through on the 17th hole,” he said. “I’ve lost enough money on that tough par three to build this house.”

Since he was inducted into the Hall of Fame last summer as the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, Harrelson has noticed an uptick in his fan mail.

“It’s amazing. It keeps pouring in,” he said. “I’m enjoying it, mainly for my family.”

For whom he is especially grateful. As he talks, he says he is looking at a picture of Jesus and counting his blessings.

“I count them every day,” he said. “Every day. First thing I do every morning.”

There is much to be thankful for.

“I had a great mom and that saved my life,” he said. “My beautiful wife, Aris, married almost 50 years, that saved my life. I’ve had a lot of help along the way and I really appreciate that. I thank the good Lord every day for what he’s given me. I can’t imagine anybody having a better life than I’ve had.”

Put this on the board: More White Sox baseball would only make it better.

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MESA, Ariz. — Living in the same apartment complex with your teammates. Access to high-performance technology and facilities. Athletic trainers, strength coaches and instructors working with you every day.

Premiere college baseball or Cubs offseason prospect camp?

“It was like the college we didn’t have,” said pitcher DJ Herz, whom the Cubs drafted out of high school in 2019.

The Cubs launched an offseason camp this winter, hosting about 30 prospects at their spring-training facilities in Mesa. It was a more robust program than anything the Cubs had typically held in the offseason, pushing the envelope on industry standards.

The timing made sense. Over the last year, the Cubs transitioned to an emphasis on the future. They bolstered their farm system with trades that sent out their ace and dismantled their 2016 championship core. So they had a lot of new, talented prospects.

They also had just experienced the effects of limited hands-on training opportunities when the pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor-league season. Even those players who weren’t yet in the minors felt the effects, navigating lost or shortened high school and college seasons.

This offseason camp was a swing in the opposite direction.

“It was outstanding just to have the guys under our supervision with our strength coaches, with our positional coaches, working on their skills,” Cubs vice president of player development Jared Banner said. “The players getting to spend time together was also a pretty cool byproduct.

“And I have to thank Jed [Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations] and our ownership group for giving us the resources to house and feed those guys all offseason. It’s a pretty special commitment, but it’s one that we really wanted to make.”

The Cubs set up their camp participants in an apartment complex near their Sloan Park facilities. They held morning workouts five days a week.

“It’s nice having to get up at 7 a.m., get your stuff done and go back and do the rest of your day,” outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said. “It taught me how to be a little bit more of an adult because that was something that I missed out on last year, not playing a full season.”

Crow-Armstrong, 19, tore his labrum in May, cutting his season short. So a big part of his offseason was continuing his rehab from surgery on his right shoulder. Crow-Armstrong entered minicamp this spring without restrictions.

“It was huge,” he said of the camp schedule. “I got to come here, and I had a lot of freedom, but I also had a lot of guidance.”

Even for the prospects who entered camp healthy, access to the athletic training and strength staff was a draw. Pitching development coordinator Casey Jacobson said he connected with trainers and strength coaches at the end of each day.

“Having the ability to track [the prospects’] strength numbers and do our assessments regularly to see how things are trending,” he said, “it just provides us such a good opportunity to maybe adjust a program slightly to get them towards the goal that we’ve set out.”

Sometimes that meant a tweak to a pitcher’s throwing program. Other times, they adjusted the lifting program. It was all interconnected.

Because of how young some of the Cubs’ top prospects are, putting on muscle will be a focus early in their careers. Those with lanky builds are expected to tap into more power in their swings, for example, as they add weight. Shortstop Reginald Preciado, 18, said he put on 10 pounds over the offseason.

Said outfielder Owen Caissie: “I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been, the best mental space I’ve ever been, my swing’s feeling great. So I’m ready to rock.”

Caissie, 19, credited the offseason program.

For all the physical gains over the winter, conversations about offseason camp kept turning to the interpersonal side.

“We’re all brothers,” outfielder Kevin -Alcantara said through team interpreter Will Nadal. “It’s the camaraderie, the brotherhood that we have here.”

That’s not always the case in the minor leagues among players who are competing for a finite number of roster spots at each level, trying to move up through the system. But the way the players tell it, the smack talk around offseason camp took on a lighthearted air.

Crow-Armstrong, for example, said he consistently posted top times in running drills early in camp.

“Then Kevin Alcantara decided to come back and be faster than me,” Crow-Armstrong said.

Alcantara smiled. He had joined camp in January.

“I’m always joking around with Pete,” he said. “If you would only know that it’s only by millimeters that we beat each other. So it’s really competitive, and what we really want to do is just challenge ourselves to get better all together.”

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CHICAGO — Fans at United Center may have reveled in Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr.’s flagrant foul on Milwaukee Bucks guard Grayson Allen on Friday night, but Jones insisted afterward that the foul was not intentional and denied being a dirty player.

Jones was given a flagrant foul 1 in the fourth quarter after delivering a hip check while trying to defend Allen on a drive to the basket and hitting Allen in the face with his elbow.

Jones said he was simply trying to “get a stop.”

“That’s all that goes through my head,” Jones said after the game. “I’m not a dirty player. Honestly, I talked to every ref that was there today. I didn’t think that was a flagrant. They said I hit him in his head. I didn’t even feel it. I just felt him bump my hip and fall. That’s all I felt.”

Allen had been the object of ire for Chicago fans all evening and was serenaded by boos from the sold-out crowd of 21,259 every time he touched the ball.

On Jan. 21, the last time the Bulls and Bucks matched up against each other, Allen committed a flagrant foul 2 on Bulls guard Alex Caruso, which resulted in Caruso suffering a fractured right wrist. Caruso has not played since.

It was the first time Allen had been called for a flagrant foul this season, and only the second time in his NBA career. Yet, he was suspended by the NBA for one game for the foul, which prompted the Bucks to release a statement defending Allen and disagreeing with the suspension.

On Thursday night, Bulls coach Billy Donovan insisted his team had left Allen’s flagrant foul in the past, telling reporters, “We’re not getting back what happened.”

However, Bulls center Tristan Thompson, who was a member of the Sacramento Kings when the incident occurred, said the Bulls were prepared to play “chippy” in Friday’s rematch.

“Take one of my dogs out like that, we’re gonna have issues,” Thompson told reporters Thursday in Atlanta. “You gotta set the tone. That’s what Bulls basketball is all about, setting the tone. What he did affected one of our guys, and I don’t think anyone should forget about that.

“I think guys have [it] in the back of their head, and if guys want to play chippy, let’s play chippy.”

Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer didn’t offer much reaction when asked about Thompson’s remarks before Friday’s game, saying he had not seen them.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. “Didn’t register with me. Nobody said anything to me.”

Aside from the reaction from the crowd, Friday’s game went along mostly without incident. Allen was jeered for 31 minutes and finished 2-of-6 from the field for seven points and four rebounds in Milwaukee’s 118-112 win. None of the Bucks players took issue afterward with Jones’ hard foul on Allen.

Jones maintained that he did not try to exact revenge for the play in January.

“I ain’t even tripping off that. It’s basketball,” Jones said. “I want to get a stop as much as they want to get a stop on the other end. What happened in Milwaukee, we didn’t like it. It’s obvious we didn’t like it. Nobody liked that. But I mean I’m not going to go out there and just try to take a man out.

“That’s not who I am. If I get a foul in the process of trying to get a stop, then so be it. But I ain’t [gonna] blatantly take that man out. He got a family to take care of. Why would I do that?”

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Mike Budenholzer isn’t big into social media.

Not in the slightest.

The Bucks coach admittedly doesn’t even really get caught up in NBA rumors and chatter outside of his own locker room.

So when Budenholzer was asked on Friday about the comments from new Bull Tristan Thompson concerning the Alex Caruso-Grayson Allen incident, of course he had a puzzled look on his face.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Budenholzer said. “It didn’t register with me.”

The way Budenholzer and the Bucks were viewing their first visit to the United Center this season? It wasn’t about tough talk. It was a business trip.

And in the final few minutes against the Bulls, business was good for the defending champions.

Thanks to Jrue Holiday’s late-game heroics on both ends of the floor, the Bulls dropped to 1-4 since the All-Star Break, losing to Milwaukee 118-112.

Not only was it a fourth-straight loss, but dropped the Bulls (39-25) to fourth in the Eastern Conference behind Miami, Philadelphia and the Bucks. Three teams the Bulls are yet to beat this season, sitting a combined 0-8 against them.

“I thought we really competed and were physical, tried to match [what they do] as well as we could,” coach Billy Donovan said of the loss. “It’s a starting point.”

As far as any carryover from Allen’s flagrant-2 that still has Caruso sidelined with a broken right wrist, Derrick Jones Jr. did put an elbow in Allen’s head on a drive to the basket that earned him a flagrant foul, but it wasn’t the “chippy” octagon that Thompson was talking about 24 hours earlier.

“Sh–, you take out one of my dogs like that we’re going to have issues,” Thompson said Thursday, after the loss in Atlanta when asked about what Allen did to Caruso. “What [Allen] did affected one of our guys and I don’t think anyone should forget about that. … if guys want to play chippy let’s play chippy. I like a little blood and sweat. I enjoy it.”

The problem was so does Milwaukee. As Donovan pointed out, the Bucks play physical without fouling. The Bulls? There’s a reason Milwaukee went to the free throw line 33 times, while the Bulls had just 11.

“Our inability to get stops and play against a set defense, and then the fouling,” Donovan said of the latest letdown. “If someone takes that many more free throws than you do it’s hard to stay in the game.”

The Bulls’ agenda right from the tip-off appeared to be doing all they could in beating Milwaukee rather than exacting revenge on Allen.

Sure, the fan base wanted the former Duke standout to hear the boos anytime his name was called or he touched the basketball, but the players were just looking to change the narrative that they can’t beat the league’s perceived top teams.

Midway through the third and into the fourth it looked like they would, especially after one of the more vicious dunks of the season, as Jones went over and through Giannis Antetokounmpo.

“I’m not even going to lie, honestly I don’t think anyone can jump with me in the world,” Jones said of the slam.

He then claimed he’s had better.

Just when the UC was in a frenzy, however, Holiday took over. Not only did the versatile guard do a great job of shutting down DeMar DeRozan in the fourth quarter – DeRozan was just 2-for-9 – but he also scored 16 points.

The Bulls still have two more meetings with Milwaukee and Allen, but it sounded like it was done as far as Jones was concerned.

“I’m not a dirty player,” Jones said. “What happened in Milwaukee, we didn’t like it, but I’m not going to go out there and try and take a man out.”

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City officials have negotiated a $20 million subsidy for a developer’s renovation of the landmark Congress Theater in Logan Square.

The city funds would support a proposed $70.4 million redevelopment of the 96-year-old former movie house at 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave. It has been closed since 2013.

The developer, Baum Revision, wants to refurbish the 2,900-seat auditorium for live music and performances. It also would have 20 residential units in the building that contains the theater, with 14 of those homes marketed as affordable under city ordinance.

Terms of the development deal were summarized in a Department of Planning and Development report. The city’s Community Development Commission is scheduled to vote on the deal Tuesday. If approved, it would go to the City Council for final action.

Chicago-based Baum Revision has won recognition for several preservation-oriented developments, including the renovation of the old Cooper Lamp factory, 2545 W. Diversey Ave., into a center for eco-friendly businesses. Managing Principal David Baum could not be reached for comment. He’s also involved in renovating the old Ramova Theatre in Bridgeport.

The city subsidy would come from tax-increment financing, representing property taxes set aside to support public works and redevelopment. The money would be drawn from what the city calls the Fullerton/Milwaukee TIF district that covers the stretch along Milwaukee from Fullerton to Belmont avenues, plus part of Armitage Avenue.

“Without the TIF funds, this project could not be financed and would not generate an acceptable level of return on investment,” according to the planning department’s report. It said the project would lead to 125 new jobs.

Milwaukee Avenue has seen substantial investments in multi-family housing. The city’s report noted the activity in supporting the theater renovation. “These factors ensure the project will add to the vitality and regeneration of the neighborhood while providing a new source of entertainment for the community and revenue for the city,” it said.

The project is within the 1st Ward of Ald. Daniel La Spata, who said Baum Revision has worked on a design that has broad community support. He said he will work to convince alderpersons the TIF help is justified. “This could be an incredibly catalytic project in the best sense for the community,” he said.

Baum is working with Anschutz Entertainment Group, which would operate the theater, and Chicago-based Woodhouse Tinucci Architects.

He would take over the Congress from Michael Moyer, who offered a development plan that ended with financial trouble. Moyer wanted to build 72 new apartments next door, and that element has been scrapped.

The redevelopment agreement specifies that $12.8 million of the project’s cost would be to acquire the property. It allows for restaurant and retail space on frontage along Milwaukee and Rockwell avenues.

The Congress became a Chicago landmark in 2002 on the strength of its Classical Revival and Italian Renaissance designs.

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