Chicago Sports

Thursday, December 1, 2022

CATHOLIC LEAGUE

Fenwick at De La Salle, 6:30

LAKE SHORE ATHLETIC

Horizon-McKinley at Christian Heritage, 7:00

METRO PREP

Universal at Hinsdale Adventist, 6:00

NOBLE LEAGUE – GOLD

Comer at ITW-Speer, 7:00

Johnson at Butler, 5:30

Rowe-Clark at Bulls Prep, 7:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE RED-SOUTH / CENTRAL

Curie at Brooks, 5:00

Hyde Park at Longwood, 6:30

Kenwood at Lindblom, 5:00

Perspectives-Lead at Morgan Park, 6:30

Simeon at Phillips, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-CENTRAL

Bogan at DuSable, 5:00

Dunbar at Catalyst-Maria, 5:00

Hubbard at Englewood STEM, 5:00

Richards (Chgo) at Kennedy, 5:00

Urban Prep-Englewood at at King, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-SOUTH

Corliss at Agricultural Science, 5:00

Dyett at Harlan, 5:00

Fenger at ACE Amandla, 5:00

UC-Woodlawn at South Shore, 5:00

Urban Prep-Bronzeville at Vocational, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-CENTRAL

ACERO-Garcia at Tilden, 5:00

ACERO-Soto at Back of Yards, 5:00

Excel-Englewood at Kelly, 5:00

Hancock at Solorio, 5:00

Instituto Health at Gage Park, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-SOUTH

Carver at Bowen, 5:00

Chicago Military at Goode, 6:30

EPIC at Julian, 5:00

Hirsch at Air Force, 5:00

Washington at Excel-South Shore, 5:00

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Bradley-Bourbonnais at Sandburg, 7:00

UPSTATE EIGHT

Bartlett at West Chicago, 7:00

East Aurora at Streamwood, 6:30

Elgin at Fenton, 7:00

Glenbard South at South Elgin, 7:00

Larkin at Glenbard East, 7:00

NON CONFERENCE

Beacon at Hope Academy, 7:00

Blue Ridge at Donovan, 7:00

Collins at North Grand, 5:00

Harvard at Stillman Valley, 7:00

Mendota at Byron, 7:00

Morgan Park Academy at ACERO-Cruz, 5:00

Muchin at Little Village, 5:00

Peoria Christian at Putnam County, 7:00

Shepard at CPSA, 5:00

Westlake Christian at Grayslake North, 7:00

Westminster Christian at Christian Heritage, CNL

AURORA CHRISTIAN

Harvest Christian vs. Joliet Catholic, 4:30

Crossroads vs. Mooseheart, 7:30

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The immediate hit of losing top wide receiver Darnell Mooney for the season will be painful for the Bears. It’ll be tough beating the Packers or anyone else without their best offensive weapon other than Justin Fields.

But this season has never had immediacy. It was always going to be an arduous phase of the rebuild — one in which finding out what the team has for the future is always the real priority.

There’s nothing to find out about Mooney. The Bears know exactly how good and valuable he is. The upside to his exit is that it opens the floor for auditions.

No one player can fill the vacancy.

“You don’t replace Moon,” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. “Moon means so much to this football team — his approach, work ethic, intelligence, flexibility. And obviously the talent is there, too. You don’t replace him.”

Mooney played an average of 88% of the snaps before the Jets game, when he suffered the season-ending ankle injury. He got 41% of the wide receiver targets. His 40 catches for 493 yards doesn’t seem like a lot, but Equanimeous St. Brown is next among receivers at 14 for 195.

So there’s a lot of playing time and ample targets to go around. Who wants them?

First on the list will unquestionably be newcomer Chase Claypool. The Bears have taken it painstakingly slowly with him during his first month in the building, but he set a new high by playing 67% of the snaps against the Jets and had two catches for 51 yards on five targets.

Like Mooney, Claypool is in his third season and has an impressive r?sum? already. They were sure they knew what he could do the moment they gave up a second-round pick for him in the trade with the Steelers.

The three receivers with the most to gain over the final five games are Byron Pringle, N’Keal Harry and rookie Velus Jones. Those are also the ones the Bears must get a complete assessment on to determine where they fit for next season.

Pringle is the most curious of the three. General manager Ryan Poles knew him from their four shared seasons in Kansas City and immediately after him in free agency. At one year, $4.1 million, Pringle qualified as a splurge amid the Bears’ frugal offseason.

That move took a bad turn for the Bears when Pringle got hurt in training camp and then again in September. He has played just six games and has five catches for 57 yards and a touchdown.

“I’m always hungry,” Pringle said. “I’m just waiting on my number to be called.”

Harry (24), St. Brown (26) and Dante Pettis (27) are all in the conventional age range for a rebuilding team, but at 29, Pringle is far from ancient. The question isn’t whether the Bears want Pringle for a decade; it’s whether he can help them next season.

In the high-powered, smooth-running Chiefs offense, Pringle stepped in last season and caught 42 passes for 568 yards and five touchdowns. There’s no doubt he has potential to produce.

This is an ideal scenario for Pringle to make his case. He took a one-year deal intent on proving himself, and now that he’s healthy and the Bears have a big need, he has his chance.

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SAN FRANCISCO – It would have been easy for Billy Donovan to stand in front of his team on Thursday, grab the game film from the embarrassing loss to the Suns a night earlier, and simply toss it in a garbage can without a viewing.

But that’s not how the Bulls coach works.

In Donovan’s world, the players needed to watch it and wear it. And not just the players, but himself, the entire coaching staff, and anyone else involved in what went down in the clinic that was put on the Bulls 15 hours earlier.

This was a stink that Donovan didn’t want to just dissipate.

“There’s always things you can take [from the last game],” Donovan said. “It is only one game, but I always think there’s something you can learn from games. We can’t have the attitude of, ‘Well, it’s just one game, no big deal, let’s get on the plane and get to the next one.’ I’m not a fan of that at all. I’m not a big flush-it-down-the-toilet guy.”

What Donovan is, however, is a coach that’s trying to get his roster to understand that there’s a standard of basketball that needs to be played on both ends of the floor, and when that standard isn’t met, well, Phoenix happens.

Taking it a step further, and the real frustration with the 9-12 Bulls, this season isn’t like last year, when they were completely overwhelmed by the elite teams. In beating the likes of Boston twice, Milwaukee, and Miami already this year, the blueprint was seemingly understood and proven.

But that same resume also has embarrassing blowout losses to upper-echelon teams like Cleveland, Denver, and then what took place in the desert Wednesday night.

“The disappointing part, the challenging part … it’s consistently being inconsistent,” Donovan said. “At times we can be two different teams. We can be like the team in Utah [in Monday’s win] that’s really helping each other and we’re kind of on a string and moving. And there’s other times we’re not like that. When you play against a really good team like Phoenix, that’s won at a high level, that’s got obviously a lot of consistency in their team, whether they miss or make shots, whatever is going on, they’re going to play the way they play. We need to be able to play the way we need to in order to be successful. There’s times we do it and other times we don’t. We’ve got to be better at that.”

So how can Donovan accomplish that?

There’s the rub.

Until his players – specifically his “Big Three” of Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan – grab the reins and lead in that department, and do so on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, it’s just noise coming from the coach.

Donovan can only call for so many close-out drills in practice.

“To me the identity piece that you’re trying to build, any identity, is always purely and grounded in sacrifice,” Donovan said. “A lot of times it’s giving yourself up for that part.

“We’ve got to help each other more on both ends. We’ve got to be a team that’s gonna have five-to-seven guys in double figures, and we’ve got to have 25-to-35 assists per game. That’s how we’ve got to play. We don’t do that, we may get away with it, but it’s going to be hard to sustain it.”

As this roster has shown far too often this season, easier said than done.

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BEREA, Ohio — Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson refused to address non-football questions on Thursday in his first comments since returning from an 11-game NFL suspension over sexual misconduct allegations.

Speaking to the media for the first time since Aug. 18, Watson declined to discuss his suspension or the reasons behind it. He has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual harassment and assault during massage therapy sessions.

The 27-year-old will play his first game for the Browns on Sunday in Houston, where he starred for four seasons with the Texans and where the alleged misconduct took place.

Watson opened with a statement, saying he was advised by his legal and clinical teams to only address “football questions.”

“I’m focusing on football,” he said. “My main focus is locked in on the game plan and trying to execute and make sure that I’m keeping the standard up for the Cleveland Browns so we can try to win.”

Watson agreed to the lengthy suspension, a $5 million fine and to undergo professional counseling and therapy after an independent arbitrator ruled that he violated the league’s personal conduct policy.

He wouldn’t say what he learned during his time away or if the counseling helped him.

“I respect your question,” Watson said inside Cleveland’s indoor field house. “I understand. But that’s more in that phase of clinical and legal stuff and I’ve been advised to stay away from that and keep that personal.”

Watson’s return to the field will be his first game in 700 days. In addition to facing former teammates and fans who cheered for him, some of the women who sued him over the allegations are expected to attend the game, according to their attorney.

“I’m excited,” Watson said. “I’m excited to just play football in general in front of Cleveland Browns fans, but also in front of some of the Houston Texans fans. I respect the whole organization of the Houston Texans. I respect the McNair family. I respect everyone that was there that drafted me in 2017. There’s been great memories, fun memories.”

“I have so much love for the city of Houston and H Town.”

Watson’s suspension started Aug. 30. He was banned from the team’s facility and returned Oct. 10, when he was allowed to attend meetings and work out. The three-time Pro Bowler returned to practice on Nov. 16.

Watson settled with 23 of the women who sued him over the allegations. Two lawsuits remaining pending.

He has always maintained he didn’t harass or force himself on any women. Two grand juries in Texas declined to indict him over the allegations.

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Schools around the state are set to vote on a proposed Illinois High School Association rule involving transfers and the hiring of high school coaches.

Administrators from three south suburban schools, Andrew, Sandburg and Stagg, wrote and submitted the proposal, which modifies IHSA bylaw 3.070, Recruiting of Athletes. The proposal would add this sentence to the rule:

“School personnel, particularly coaches or athletic directors, may not engage in any conversation related to athletic participation with individuals representing or employed by private athletic organizations (eg. AAU, club/travel teams, etc.) who are speaking about or on behalf of any student athlete.”

Steve Schanz, Sandburg’s athletic director, says the sentence is “purposely vague.”

“This is a first step,” Schanz said. “The key is the quid pro quo where people are saying if you hire me you are going to get these guys on your team. There are a number of schools where you see coaches get hired and then you see one high-profile guy or five guys go there.”

IHSA rules already prohibit any recruiting for athletic reasons, but it is increasingly rare for any athletes that transfer to be ruled ineligible at all or for more than 30 days.

“We have schools that are flat out breaking the rules and they are flaunting it,” Schanz said. “Getting something on the books about this is a step in the right direction. Especially if there is a way we can add to it in the coming years based on reality and what is going on. Coaches are fed up.”

Young basketball coach Tyrone Slaughter, who also coaches for the Meanstreets club basketball team, which is run by Thornton basketball coach Tai Steets, says the sentence proposed is too vague.

“The number of coaches that are hired that have players attached to them is probably so minute that it doesn’t need a rule,” Slaughter said. “I’ve not seen that to any degree. No transfer I have had has been attached to a coach. I don’t know of that happening with transfers at Glenbard West or Riverside-Brookfield or St.Rita or anywhere else.”

More than 100 boys basketball players transferred over the summer. Some high-profile basketball teams have starting lineups composed primarily of transfers.

“Maybe there are some schools that are doing it just to keep up?” Schanz said. “That’s sad. They are opening up pandora’s box, all for the glory. Maybe this proposal gives them the opportunity to stop it.”

All of the 700-plus IHSA schools can vote on the proposal, which would pass with a simple majority. Voting begins on Monday and runs through December 18. The results will be posted on Dec. 19.

“You never know what will happen in a vote,” Schanz said. “But I think it will pass. I hope it will.”

Seven other proposals are on the ballot, including one that puts specific limitations on Name Image and Likeness activities. All the proposals are available to read on the IHSA website.

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Bears quarterback Justin Fields is likely to be limited in practice the next two days, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said Thursday. That would leave his status for Sunday in question, similar to last week.

“Yeah, I think that’s gonna be kind of the way it goes for the rest of the week, for sure,” Getsy said. “And just let it play out day-by-day, and we’ll it out as Sunday comes.”

He said what Fields did Wednesday — that he’s improving a bit each day.

“We’re just coaching him up,” he said. “Trying to take advantage of whatever we can, any moment that we can, any rep that we’re able to get just to continue his progression.”

Getsy said he didn’t expect backup Trevor Siemian to practice Thursday after he sat out Wednesday because of an oblique injury he suffered during pregame warmups. He wouldn’t say whether Nathan Peterman or the newly acquired Tim Boyle would be next in line.

Fields, who separated his shoulder and suffered partial ligament damage 11 days ago against the Falcons, was limited Wednesday, too.

Fields didn’t play Sunday against the Jets. Despite the fact that he couldn’t pass either of the Bears’ three established benchmarks — he needed to feel good, coaches needed to sign off and doctors needed to clear him for a game — the Bears waited until 90 minutes before kickoff to announce he wouldn’t play.

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The College Football Playoff announced Thursday it will expand to a 12-team event starting in 2024, completing an 18-month process that was fraught with delays and disagreements.

The announcement comes a day after the Rose Bowl agreed to amend its contract for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, which was the last hurdle CFP officials needed cleared to triple the size of what is now a four-team format.

“We appreciate the leaders of the six bowl games and the two future national championship game host cities for their cooperation,” CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said in a statement. “Everyone realized that this change is in the best interest of college football and pulled together to make it happen.”

The first round of the new playoff in 2024 will take place the week ending Saturday, Dec. 21. Exact dates are still to be determined.

The championship game for the 2024 season will be played Jan. 20, 2025, in Atlanta. The championship game for the 2025 season will be played Jan. 19, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Florida. Both are more than a week later than the current title game timing.

Expansion is expected to produce about $450 million in additional gross revenue for the conferences and schools that participate.

The plan to expand the playoff was unveiled in June 2021, but the conference commissioners who manage the CFP could not come to the unanimous consensus needed to push the proposal forward. Expansion for the 2024 season was pronounced dead back in February.

University presidents and chancellors who oversee the CFP stepped in and revived the process over the summer. They approved the original plan for use by 2026, and threw it back to the commissioners, directing them to try to expand by 2024, if possible.

The College Football Playoff’s 12-year contract with ESPN runs through the 2025-26 season.

No longer haggling over the format, the commissioners needed to work through when and where the games would be played and whether bowl partners and championship games hosts cities could accommodate a change in schedule for 2024 and 2025.

The Rose Bowl issue was the last to be settled, as organizers for the 120-year-old bowl game were hoping to get some assurances from the CFP that they would keep their valuable New Year’s Day time when new contracts went into effect in 2026.

CFP officials balked.

Facing the possibility of being painted as an obstructionist and potentially being shut out of the expanded playoff in the long-term, the Rose Bowl agreed to move forward in good faith.

“This is a great day for college football,” said Mark Keenum, Mississippi State president and chairman of the CFP Board of Managers. “I’m glad we are able to follow through and launch the expanded playoff early. It’s very exciting for schools, alumni and everyone involved.”

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Jujhar Khaira immediately knew he’d made a mistake.

Just three minutes earlier — during the second period of the Blackhawks’ loss to the Jets on Sunday — he’d been the one scoring a goal and celebrating in style. But in this instance, he’d let the Jets answer right back.

“I’ve got to know where I’ve got to go on that,” Khaira said Wednesday, thinking back. “Once I hand it off to the ‘D,’ I have to cover the middle. That’s the most important ice. I have to learn from that. That’s a mistake, that’s not how you want to learn, but unfortunately that’s what happens. Now it’s just [about] trying not to let that happen again.”

The error occurred when Khaira — who was briefly covering Jets puck-carrier Blake Wheeler as he skated down the right-side boards in the Hawks’ zone — let Hawks defenseman Filip Roos take over covering Wheeler as he progressed toward the goal line.

But then Khaira, instead of cutting into the middle of the zone and picking up a new coverage assignment — and he would’ve had two to choose from, since Jets forwards Cole Perfetti and Mark Scheifele were both open — simply stopped his motion and idly watched the puck. Wheeler curled behind the net and fed Scheifele in the slot for an easy goal.

Hawks coach Luke Richardson called out Khaira for it after the game, noting he needed to “float to the inside and have [his] stick to the inside” in that situation.

Richardson mentioned Wednesday, though, that Khaira is always the “first guy to ask to look at his shifts” and receive feedback. And coincidentally, that one glaring mistake seems to be an exception to Khaira’s rule lately. He’s arguably playing his best hockey in years.

In his first 12 games of the season, he tallied one point, 10 shots on goal and 10 scoring chances. In his last seven games, he has recorded four points, 13 shots on goal and 13 scoring chances.

Those four points equal his total from his entire previous Hawks tenure (39 games, dating back to October 2021) and mark his most productive seven-game segment since February 2021 with the Oilers.

He has been promoted from the fourth to third forward line, skating alongside Jason Dickinson and Colin Blackwell. His ice time has increased from 12:06 to 15:40 per game.

And during his five-on-five ice time, the Hawks’ team scoring-chance ratio has improved from 33.3% to 44.8%. That is still below the break-even point, but it’s better than most of his teammates; breaking even analytically on this tanking Hawks team has proven to be nearly impossible.

“It’s the same mindset I always have,” Khaira said. “But right now, they’re going in. So I’ll just try to stay confident and continue to do what I’m doing.

“As long as we’re creating those chances, that’s the main thing. But [to score some] greasy goals, we have to get to the net more and try to be in the right areas for those rebounds and tips and all that.”

Getting to the net is basically the Hawks’ No. 1 instruction for Khaira in any situation, be it in the offensive or defensive zone. He missed that assignment during the Scheifele goal Sunday, but he has been acing it more often than not recently.

“When he’s moving his feet, he’s strong on the puck and he can make things happen,” Richardson said. “When he stops moving his feet, he gets stuck on the wall on certain things, then he gets glued into the puck — as anybody would.

“He’s just trying to get into a rhythm … and he’s doing a good job for us. [In] versatile roles, he’s great.”

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The Blackhawks’ third-period rally Wednesday against the Oilers shared some similarities with the Stars’ epic third-period rally against the Hawks last Wednesday.

But that Stars’ rally succeeded. The Hawks’ rally did not. And both games ultimately resulted in regulation losses for the Hawks, whose 5-4 defeat against Edmonton marked their eighth straight and 14th in their last 16 games.

“If we play with that desperation, a little bit of emotion in our game, like we did in the third period, it can go a long way,” forward MacKenzie Entwistle said. “Now we see it. We’ve seen it for the past couple games now. We just have to get out of this little drought.”

Max Domi and Entwistle scored 19 seconds apart to cut the Oilers’ lead to 4-3 with seven minutes left, then Domi scored again to cut the Oilers’ lead to 5-4 with 71 seconds left, and the Hawks generated a golden chance for Taylor Raddysh to tie the game with 13.9 seconds left. But Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner made the save and the visitors held on.

Outside of those fleeting moments of Hawks hope, the Oilers’ blindingly bright star duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl largely controlled the game. They combined for three goals and five points, including two beautifully executed two-on-one rushes.

“If they’re on a two-on-one, the damage is done,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson. “Even when they’re on a two-on-four, it’s difficult.”

The Oilers outshot the Hawks 41-25, peppering Hawks goalie Arvid Soderblom with pressure– including quite a few shots off the post not included in that total. The Hawks’ new first line featuring Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews together did not fare particularly well; they were outshot 9-2 and outscored 3-0 during their five-on-five time together.

Richardson sounded skeptical when asked if the Hawks could’ve tried to play with their third-period desperation for the full 60 minutes, responding that he believed the Hawks’ breakdowns were more due to over-aggression than a lack of it.

“We [were] playing forceful and taking chances because we’re behind,” he said. “I don’t think you can do that against this team. We gave them way too many outnumbered chances as it is.”

“It is good to see that we do fight back to the end. But we have to be more stingy defensively without taking away from our offense.”

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A disappointing start to the season turned worse Wednesday night in Phoenix as Devin Booker torched the Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls faced the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night and Suns Guard Devin Booker decided to put on a show against a struggling Bulls team.

Booker started off hot, scoring 25 points in the first half on 10-14 from the field, with the Suns leading at the half 64-43.

Things only got worse for Chicago, who allowed Booker to score 26(!) in the third quarter alone, with this dunk pushing him past the 50-point mark before the third quarter ended.

That dunk put the proverbial nail in the coffin, with Booker not playing in the fourth. The Suns won 132-113 with Booker finishing with 51 points on 20-25 field goals, six made threes, and even tossed in four rebounds and six assists.

He even got a reaction from Kevin Durant:

For our Bulls, DeMar DeRozan led the way with 29 points and seven rebounds, and Zach LaVine finished with 21 points. No Bull finished with a positive plus/minus in this game. The Bulls are now 9-12 on the season and are in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.

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