Chicago Sports

The new college basketball season arrived Monday with the force of a leaky faucet, the fanfare of a race for comptroller and the blink-and-you-missed-it excitement of your aunt Shirley and uncle Marv’s pinochle game. Every team in the Top 25 — including No. 23 Illinois — won. A few of them may even have broken a slight sweat.

You haven’t missed anything yet, is the point.

But more-enticing matchups will come soon — like at next week’s Champions Classic doubleheader in Indianapolis, where Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State will be on display. The Blue Devils have a new coach in Jon Scheyer, the Jayhawks have a national champion’s new swagger and the Wildcats have a new skew toward a veteran lineup. And the Spartans? Well, they have a new streak of being unranked in the preseason poll — two years in a row, for the first time since the 1990s.

And we have 10 storylines for the new season to get to:

1. Heel yes: Voters love North Carolina, which received 47 of 62 No. 1 nods in the opening poll. Caleb Love, Armando Bacot, R.J. Davis and Leaky Black are back from the national-runner-up squad, and transfer Pete Nance, on board from Northwestern, was the fifth starter in Monday’s opener. Gonzaga was next with 12 No. 1 votes, including mine. I had Houston at 2 and the Tar Heels at 3.

2. Coach S: Mike Krzyzewski has left the building, and Northbrook native Scheyer has moved into the highest-profile job in college basketball. Have there been bigger shoes to fill since Mike Davis took over for fired legend Bobby Knight at Indiana a little over 20 years ago? Honorary mention goes to Kyle Neptune at Villanova, where two-time national champ Jay Wright has retired.

3. Big East beware: Sean Miller — fired by Arizona amid scandal 18 months ago — is back at Xavier, where his head-coaching career began. Thad Matta, who walked away from Ohio State in 2017 due to health concerns, is back at Butler, his alma mater and where his own head-coaching career was launched. As if the conference waters weren’t hard enough for DePaul to stay afloat in, right?

4. The Big Meh: In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Triple Crown, Reggie Jackson earned the nickname “Mr. October” and Purdue came in at No. 12 in the preseason Top 25. Believe it or not, that was the last time — until this year — there was no Big Ten team ranked in the initial top 10. Indiana (13th), Michigan (22) and Illinois are the only ones getting any respect at all.

5. The skyin’ Illini: They will be tons of fun to watch because of how long and athletic they are, an enticing collection of “positionless” players — 6-6 Terrence Shannon Jr., 6-10 Coleman Hawkins, 6-9 Matthew Mayer, 6-7 RJ Melendez. This team will disrupt passing lanes, swat shots, run the floor and do a whole lot of dunking. Hmm, have we ever seen a group like that in Champaign before?

6. Large and in charge: Partly due to NIL enticements and more so because the NBA doesn’t quite know what to do with big men who aren’t ball-handling, three-point-shooting “freaks,” the college landscape is packed with high-quality inside studs. Kofi Cockburn — who was at Illinois’ opener as a fan — isn’t one of them and soon will leave for Japan to play professionally. But Oscar Tsiebwe is back at Kentucky, Hunter Dickinson at Michigan, Zach Edey at Purdue, Trayce Jackson-Davis at Indiana, Drew Timme at Gonzaga, Adama Sanogo at Connecticut, Bacot at UNC. It all has a nice throwback feel to it.

7. Beats digging ditches: This is Chris Collins’ 10th season at Northwestern and his sixth since an NCAA Tournament breakthrough that — with all the losing since — almost seems like it didn’t happen. How do the next four months look for the Wildcats? Bleak. That’s just reality.

8. Ramblin’ on: You might’ve missed that Loyola left the Missouri Valley for the Atlantic 10. No more Drake, Northern Iowa and Missouri State; now it’s Dayton, Saint Louis and VCU. One important difference for the Ramblers: They’re now in what typically is a multi-bid league, so making the NCAA Tournament won’t necessarily ride on winning the conference tournament. Another difference, though: Nobody’s picking the Ramblers to finish first in the A-10, and that could be the case for a while.

9. Ranking the conferences: The Big 12 is widely considered the best league, and it probably is. I had Baylor (No. 5), Kansas (9), TCU (12), Texas (14) on my opening ballot. But I also had five from the SEC — Kentucky (4), Tennessee (7), Auburn (16), Arkansas (20) and Alabama (22) — and can imagine Kentucky or Tennessee cutting down the nets in the end. At best, the Big Ten is third.

10. Mixed bag: Nobody’s having more fun than Tennessee and TCU fans considering how high those schools are in the College Football Playoff rankings, too. … I’m fascinated to see how Iowa’s Kris Murray and Wisconsin’s Jordan Davis progress. They are the twin brothers of Keegan Murray and Johnny Davis, who were NBA lottery picks. … Houston is plenty good enough to win the whole thing, and guess where the Final Four is? No, smarty pants, not San Antonio. A Cougars coronation in H-Town sure would be something.

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The feud between Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas continues 30 years later

The Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons rivalry was among the best in the late 80’s and early 90’s in the NBA. Both teams had star power headlined by Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas.

Eventually the Bulls got past the Pistons in the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals and went on to win six NBA titles in the decade. But the rivalry between the two players continued and it spilled over into the 1992 Olympics and the “Dream Team”.

It’s clear that Jordan didn’t like Thomas and there was a rumor that he was the reason why Isiah wasn’t selected to the team. “The Last Dance” documentary covered all of that a few years back but now, Thomas is firing more shots at Jordan years later.

Here is what Thomas said during the Abhi Dabi NBA games to the Greek NBA rights holder COSMOTE TV via EuroHoops.net:

When I was watching the “last dance”, I’m seating there and I’m watching it with my family and I’m thinking everything is good. And then this guy comes on television and he says that he hates me and then he calls me an asshole. And then I proceed to watch a whole documentary about him being an asshole. I’m like wait a minute, time out. Until I get a public apology, this beef is gonna go on for a long long time, cause I’m from the west side of Chicago”.

Yeah, this feud isn’t going away anytime soon, especially with Jordan not wanting to apologize and being how it is. It certainly seems like Michael Jordan is content with how things are right now. And the documentary that released a few years back probably didn’t help with things.

But either way, this could continue to get more and more interesting.

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Connections to the Kodai Senga seem to bode well for the Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are expected to be big players in this offseason’s free-agent market. Kodai Senga, (or Koudai Senga, various sources seem to conflict on the spelling) is a RHP from Japan. His successful 11-season career in Japan has made him a highly sought-after free agent now that he’s decided to give MLB a shot.

Last offseason, outfielder Seiya Suzuki signed with the Cubs after playing nine seasons in Japan. Suzuki and Senga happen to share the same agent, Joel Wolfe. Wolfe said that Chicago Cubs have “been in contact.” Gordon Wittenmeyer with NBC Sports compiled some other interesting quotes from Wolfe. Wolfe said, “Seiya said very nice things about his experience in Chicago” and “He really loved his experience with the Cubs and living in Chicago.” It definitely seems like the Cubs should have a head start when it comes to convincing Kodai Senga to sign with them.

It should be noted that Wolfe also represents Yu Darvish. It has been made public that Darvish helped influence Seiya Suzuki’s decision to sign with the Cubs last offseason. These connections certainly bode well for the Cubs’ hopes of landing Senga.

Kodai Senga has a career ERA of 2.42 and a win-loss record of 104-51. Much like Suzuki, many will be curious if his game will transfer over and be effective. Free agency opens on November 10th and the Chicago Cubs are expected to be active.

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It might cause a certain amount of anxiety for most NBA players.

To have to go into a road arena in which the fan base felt they were somehow wronged by you doesn’t exactly scream warm, cuddly welcome.

Then again, Goran Dragic isn’t most NBA players.

So rather than battling with hurt emotions Sunday in Toronto, the Bulls veteran let the home-town crowd know exactly where he stood with them, at one point putting his finger to his lips, sending the message they were better off staying silent.

“Just having some fun,” Dragic said of his actions.

Because for Dragic that was fun. It was actually a picnic compared to life in the Adriatic League.

“That’s nothing, the boos, nothing,” Dragic said, referring to his early days of growing up in European Basketball. “I played in Greece, I played in Belgrade, they’re throwing coins, golf balls, lighting fires just because of where I’m from. That’s a normal environment for us.

“We were in Croatia and we had a game against Zadar, and the fans came down from the bleachers, and they came after us. We all had to run into a locker room and lock the door. Then they smashed all the windows on our bus and we had to drive home six hours without showering, with no windows, and glass all over. The security loaded us on the bus out of the locker room and we had to keep our heads down with towels over them because they were still throwing stuff. That was one of the craziest experiences I’ve been a part of.”

In other words, Raptors fans have a long way to go to even make Dragic flinch, let alone shake his psyche.

Evidence of that was offered up in how he performed. In the Sunday game in Toronto, yes, the Bulls lost, but Dragic was 6-of-10 from the field and finished with 16 points. A night later against the Raptors, albeit back in Chicago, facing the organization he was a brief member of, Dragic had 10 points off the bench and was a plus-18 in plus/minus.

His message to Raptors fans was move on, because he has.

It was in the 2021 offseason in which Dragic was traded from Miami to Toronto in the Kyle Lowry deal.

“Toronto is not my preferred destination,” Dragic said back then. “I have higher ambitions.”

He immediately apologized for those comments, and let it be known that he had nothing but respect for the city of Toronto. It was more about not wanting to move his family after spending seven years in Miami and putting down some roots.

That didn’t matter in the social media universe, as Dragic was quickly turned into a forever-Toronto villain, despite having a reputation as one of the more down-to-earth teammates in the league.

He ended up playing five games for the Raptors, before it was reported that he left for a personal leave, but on Monday, Dragic said that was not the case at all.

“If I’m honest, [the Raptors] made that decision,” Dragic said. “They told me to go home, so it wasn’t on me. OK, I did say something at the beginning of the season and I did apologize, and that was it. I moved on. They told me they wanted to go young so I respect that.

“The fans can think whatever, and I know what’s true and what’s not. I understand it’s part of the business, so sometimes it’s not the right fit. You try and find the right one and move on. I have.”

The Bulls and Raptors play one more time this season. It comes in late February, and it’s back in Toronto.

The boos will again be loud.

That’s fine. Dragic has dealt with much worse.

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With someone banging on his front door early Tuesday, Damon Cook stumbled out of bed and noticed a neon glow coming from his bedroom window.

“Oh, the blood moon.” he thought. “Cool.”

But it wasn’t the gory-sounding overnight lunar eclipse that was casting the reddish light into his bedroom.

It was the fire at a house next door.

The man banging on the door was a neighbor trying to alert everyone.

“I ran back in and my boyfriend was up and I was like ‘Grab the dog! Grab the dog!” recalled Cook, 23, who was wrapped in a Red Cross blanket Tuesday morning as he stood outside of four fire-damaged homes on the 2400 block of North Washtenaw Avenue in Logan Square.

“I’m just glad that our baby’s OK, that’s all I care about,” he said, referring to his tiny dog, Chester.

“I feel lucky we got out OK and no one was seriously hurt,” said Cook’s boyfriend, Brian Wahnon, 28.

A man from the neighboring home where the fire began was hospitalized for smoke inhalation but was in good condition. No other injuries were reported.

The extra-alarm fire gutted one home before causing significant damage to three others.

“Fire is scary, you never think this s— is going to happen to you until it does,” Cook said.”But we’re OK. Now we just have to figure out where we’re going to go.”

The blaze began just after 6 a.m. at a three-story home before spreading. About 125 firefighters responded to the scene, according to Deputy District Fire Chief Robert Jurewicz.

The building where the fire started was gutted but lesser damage occurred at the three adjacent buildings, Jurewicz said.

At least seven people were displaced by the fire, officials said.

The blaze was under control by 8 a.m. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

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LAS VEGAS – The first bit of Cubs major-league news came out of the GM meetings in Las Vegas on Tuesday, as the team announced manager Davis Ross’ coaching staff for next year.

The announcement made official hitting coach Greg Brown’s departure and Dustin Kelly’s promotion from minor-league hitting coordinator to replace him. It also revealed several other internal shifts.

On the hitting side, Juan Cabreja and Jim Adduci join Johnny Washington as assistant hitting coaches, with Adduci specializing in game planning. Cabreja has been in the organization for two decades and spent the last six seasons as a major-league staff assistant. Adduci, a former MLB outfielder who played in the Cubs’ minor-league system and for two games with the major-league squad, joins the coaching staff after serving as the assistant director of run production for two years.

Jonathan Mota was promoted from staff assistant to major-league coach. This past year, he expanded his responsibilities working with the infielders. This will be Mota’s seventh season as coach or manager in the organization, after also spending his minor-league playing career with the Cubs.

Alex Smith joins the staff as a data development and process coach, transitioning from his role as assistant director of major league data and development. He’s been with the organization since 2015.

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Overreaction: Bengals can’t cure their Superbowl hangover.

After a rough Monday Night Football game Joe Burrow is now 0-4 against the Browns and the Bengals sit at 5-4 on the season. The Bengals are missing reigning NFL Offensive Rookie of the year Ja’Marr Chase and will be without him for the coming weeks while he nurses a hip injury. When the Bengals win the headlines are “Bengals are back to Superbowl form” but realistically they can’t seem to take a form at all.

Sitting at .500 Cincinnati’s four losses are to Mitchell Trubisky and the Steelers in OT, Cooper Rush and “Dem Boys” by 3, the Ravens by 2, and then getting trounced on MNF by the Browns 32-13. The wins are blowouts except for only beating the Saint by 6 in week 6, the rest of their wins are by double digits. The Bengals are still good, the problem has been the competition is too. Talent-wise, they blew other teams out and the score reflected it, but when the talent was even the flaws of the Bengals become magnified.

Joe burrow has been sacked the second most in the NFL, 30 times through 9 weeks. Only Justin Fields has been sacked more (33). Their inability to create an effective run game can also be tied to their offensive line issues and what leaves them having to throw so often. The Bengals rank in the bottom five in every major running category but are in the top five for almost every passing category. If the Bengals can find a balance they can find consistency in their play.

Not an Overreaction: The Jets have a legit defense.

Sunday’s win against the Buffalo Bills was a feel-good story for the rebuilding Jets, but it carries more weight than that. Though the offense has looked less than spectacular, putting up just shy of 22 points per game. However, it hasn’t needed to be anything but average with how well the defense has played.  According to Sportsnaut.com, the Jets have a top 5 defense in the NFL. They allow just 4.8 yards per play which is 5th in the NFL. 

This Jets defense tormented NFL MVP candidate Josh Allen and the Superbowl favorite Bills all Sunday. Holding the NFL’s number one offense to just 17 points. They even gave Allen his worst performance of his career, holding him to a sub-50 quarterback rating and holding him to 205 yards through the air with 0 touchdowns. Allen was sacked 5 times on Sunday, a season-high, and could only find success running the ball. Allen rushed 9 times for 86 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Bill’s loss.

The Jets also kept his favorite targets, Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, contained. Diggs managed 5 catches for 93 yards and Davis caught a measly 3 catches for 33 yards. Their success has come from the revitalized defensive line, first-round pick Sauce Gardner, new additions D.J. Reed and Jordan Whitehead, and long-time NFL Vet Lamarcus Joyner have all contributed to reshaping this defense and the culture of the New York Jets.

Overreaction: The 2021 quarterback class is filled with busts.

It may be too soon to call it, but the 2021 NFL quarterback class has not exactly lived up to the hype that surrounded them. Picks 1,2 and 3 were quarterbacks and 5 were taken in the first round, (8 in the first 3 rounds) the most in the history of the draft. Since the draft, Only Mack Jones was put in a situation to win once he was drafted to New England at pick 15.

Only Trevor Lawrence has been the outright starter since being drafted number 1 by the Jaguars. Lawrence had to battle the Urban Meyer experiment and has shown signs of improvement under Doug Peterson. Zac Wilson and Trey Lance have already battled serious season-ending injuries in their short careers, but both have excellent defenses to help ground the young QBs. Even Justin Fields has shown great growth in the wake of the Bears going full rebuild for the young QB.

It has only been a season and a half, the quarterbacks in every draft can’t be Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, they are generational talents. The teams need to build around their quarterbacks to gain success, and pending injuries most have. The Jags just traded for Calvin Ridley, the 49er’s traded for CMC, the Jets drafted a wide receiver in the first round (Garret Wilson), and traded for Jacksonville’s starting running back James Robinson after their electric rookie Breece Hall went down to injury. The Bears added a weapon in Chase Claypool and the Texans have a star in Dameon Pierce.

I would argue the most unlikely of all the quarterbacks that were taken and have had relative success is Davis Mills who was drafted 67th by the Texans. He became the starter last season beating out Tyrod Taylor and was named the starter for this season. Houston is in a full rebuild after Deshaun Watson’s ugly exit and much like all of the other teams with young QBs hasn’t put a full team around their starter yet.

Not an Overreaction The Vikings are a sleeper to win the Superbowl.

Though they only beat the Washington Commanders by 3 points, the Minnesota Vikings have all the makings of a Superbowl sleeper. Minnesota is loaded with Pro Bowlers on both sides of the ball and just added one of the best Tight ends in football at the trade deadline (T.J, Hockenson). The Vikings have notable wins on the season, but like usual, struggle when the lights are brightest.

This comes from their starting quarterback Kirk Cousins having known to struggle under the weight of Primetime Football. Cousins is 68-63-2 in his career as a starting quarterback in the NFL, he is a woeful 2-10 on Monday night football and he is 10-18 in Primetime. Cousins tend to fold when the pressure is on, since 2015 Cousins’ 18 Primetime losses are the most among active quarterbacks in the NFL according to stathead.

The Vikings have all the pieces to make a run at the Superbowl, especially with how open the NFC is, with the Eagles currently looking like the only contender in the conference. Minnesota could have a deep playoff run if they can find a way to win when the pressure is on.

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Arlington Heights Village Board gives pre-development nod to Chicago Bears proposed stadium plans.

The Arlington Heights Village Board has approved a “pre-development plan” for the Chicago Bears to pursue a stadium on the Arlington Race Track site.

The village’s agreement per the development with the team outlines potential uses for a stadium-anchored mixed-use project at the former Arlington Park as well as public subsidies that could be on the table.

The Bears presented their plans for the property at the former race track site as part of a pre-development agreement to city council members in October.

The plan is a non-binding “framework” agreement between the village and the Bears defining how issues like zoning and taxation would be worked out for the proposed project.

It also confirms earlier reports that the Bears will not seek Village assistance to pay for the construction costs of an NFL stadium.

The potential development is a massive undertaking and this meeting presents another step forward by both side.

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One person was hospitalized after an extra-alarm fire spread through four homes in the Logan Square neighborhood Tuesday morning.

The fire began just after 6 a.m. at a three-story home in the 2400 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, according to Deputy District Fire Chief Robert Jurewicz. The blaze spread to three neighboring buildings and about 125 firefighters responded to the scene, he said.

A man inside the home where the fire began was hospitalized in good condition, Jurewicz said. The nature of his injuries was unknown.

The building where the fire started was gutted but firefighters were able to keep damage to a minimum in the three adjacent buildings, Jurewicz said.

At least seven people were displaced by the fire, officials said.

The blaze was under control by 8 a.m. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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A former Bears wide receiver was signed to the 49ers practice squad

The Chicago Bears have recently seen some former talent at the wide receiver position land jobs elsewhere. The Bears unit has been upgraded recently with the addition of Chase Claypool. However, the team doesn’t have great wide receiver play outside of Darnell Mooney and Claypool. Some former Bears players the team had to cut for performance reasons are finding another chance as the league continues to add injuries in the 17-game regular season.

According to the NFL Transaction wide for Monday, the San Francisco 49ers signed former Bears wide receiver Tajae Sharpe to the practice squad. Sharpe signed with the Bears in the offseason and was placed on the teams’ injured reserve in August with a rib injury. The team released him in early September. When he was released, it was reported that head coach Matt Eberflus said Sharpe’s injury would sideline him for the entire 2022 season. That appears not to be the case.

Sharpe caught all two of his passing targets in the preseason for 44 yards with the Bears in the preseason. He was considered a big-bodied playmaker for quarterback Justin Fields before the injury. Now Sharpe will have the chance to prove he can get on the field for a 49ers team that is battling for a playoff spot in the NFC.

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