Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy reacts to a call against his team during the second half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021, in Chicago. | Kamil Krzaczynski/AP

Bettors who recall history of low first-half scores during coach’s tenure can win big

LAS VEGAS — The Bulls and Blackhawks begin their respective seasons over the next week and a half, but we’d be derelict to not trumpet one of the sweetest current sports trends that happens to involve the Bears.

Under fourth-year coach Matt Nagy, the Under in the first half of Bears games is 36-17. Second-generation Vegas oddsmaker Kenny White presented this gem here in a preseason preview, and it’s 4-0 this season.

A bettor using $100 as an average wager — or unit, actually $110 to win $100 — is up 17.3 units, or $1,730, with this action over the past 38 months.

Sunday against the Lions at Soldier Field, the Bears led 14-0 at halftime. The first-half total was 21 at the South Point, differing little around town.

For the Bears’ game here Sunday against the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium, Panama-based BetOnline posted a midweek first-half total of 22.

“That screams bad in-week coaching and bad game plans, offensively, and poor preparation off of film study,” said Long Island-based handicapper Tom Barton. “It also means the exact opposite for the defensive coordinator.”

Sean Desai, a Bears defensive assistant for eight years, replaced Chuck Pagano as defensive coordinator in May. The Bears made Nagy a first-time NFL head coach in 2018.

“I also believe it has a lot to do with the age and effectiveness of the Bears’ defenders,” said Barton, tapping 30-year-old linebacker Khalil Mack and 31-year-old defensive tackle Akiem Hicks.

“A lot of these guys are older and they’ve been playing through injuries the past few seasons. They get a week to rest, come out in the early part of a game and are fresh.”

In the summer, the Westgate SuperBook lined every game of the NFL season. The Bears were favored four times, and they won those first two. They were also favored Week 12 at Detroit and Week 17 at home against the Giants.

It would doom Nagy, no matter who’s playing quarterback, if the Bears win just those four games. At +275, he and Jacksonville’s Urban Meyer are the OddsChecker favorites to be the first NFL coach to get fired.

For now, raise a pint to the continuation of a glorious first-half Under run.

GROWING PAINS

The NBA and NHL both have returned to 82-game schedules, and the Bulls begin their season at Detroit on Oct. 20.

Their regular season-wins total is 42.5 at the South Point, suggesting the Bulls might have a winning campaign. They last won at least 43 games in 2014-15, at 50-32. They were 31-41 in coach Billy Donovan’s debut last season.

“I like the addition of some exciting young guards with a few savvy veterans,” said Against the Number handicapper Noah Parker.

Ayo Dosunmu, fresh out of Illinois, fourth-year players Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, and quick-trigger shooter Coby White provide backcourt depth. Parker favors Caruso’s championship pedigree (with the Lakers in 2019-20).

The high-flying Zach LaVine, whose eighth season will be his fifth for the Bulls, is “the face of the team,” said Parker. Men’s Journal tapped LaVine as the game’s fifth-most-exciting modern-era dunker.

Parker calls the addition of small forwards DeMar DeRozan and Derrick Jones Jr., along with last season’s additions of power forward Patrick Williams and center Nikola Vucevic positive moves. However, he doesn’t predict instant success.

“The Under is a solid play,” said Parker. “The Bulls will be more durable and stronger in a few years. For now, I would wait out the growing pains. There’s so much youth and inexperience.

“That could be a problem as I’ve seen Billy Donovan struggle with young talent in the past after a team rebuilds.”

RAINING GOALS

John the Barber, the resident NHL tout at the South Point, has marveled at the waves of preseason scoring, due in part to the league’s stricter cross-checking enforcement.

That creates more power plays — hence, more goals. The gregarious barber known as John Taddio recommends betting on Over game totals early this season.

“I’ve never seen as many goals as I’ve seen this preseason,” said the Buffalo native. “That’s big. New Jersey, in every game, is scoring five, six, seven, eight goals!”

Monday, the Blackhawks beat Detroit 6-4. In upstate New York, Steve Bennett, founder of the Sports-Casters podcast, noted that new Chicago keeper Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 36 of 40 shots.

The Blackhawks open against Colorado on Wednesday in Denver. In their last four seasons, they have a high of 84 points (2018-19). Their season-points total at the South Point is 90.5, -110 both ways.

If forced to wager, Bennett would bet on Under.

“Could be a lot of that,” he said of the high number of shots Fleury faced. “That’s certainly not the team he had in front of him in Vegas.”

Barton taps the Islanders Over 98.5 points, Panthers Under 102.5 and Wild Under 97.5.

As he did masterfully with the Padres this past winter, Barton will watch the public inflate the Vegas total (currently at 106.5) a bit more before making an Under wager on the Golden Knights.

Taddio is partial to Florida at 20-1 (down from 30-1) and New Jersey at 60-1 (trimmed from 100-1) to win the Stanley Cup. For potential long-shot value, he suggests Detroit, at 150-1, to win the Atlantic Division.

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Notre Dame running back Chris Tyree (25) in action against Toledo in an NCAA college football game in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. Notre Dame won 32-29. (AP Photo/AJ Mast) ORG XMIT: _A121572 | AJ MAST/AP

Chris Tyree is well aware of Ismail’s legacy, aims to honor it with more electrifying kick returns

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — His beard is thick now and filled with more salt than pepper, but Raghib “Rocket” Ismail’s 51-year-old eyes flash with youthful memories at the mere mention of Chris Tyree.

The latest Notre Dame speedster to wear No. 25 in honor of the 1990 Heisman Trophy runner-up, Tyree ended a five-year program drought when he returned a kickoff 96 yards for a game-changing touchdown against Wisconsin on Sept. 25.

Ismail, a 2019 inductee to the College Football Hall of Fame, took five kickoffs to the house in his three unforgettable years with the Fighting Irish. So it was only fitting that he was at Soldier Field on the afternoon of Tyree’s breakthrough.

“That was huge,” Ismail said last Saturday after spending an hour outside Notre Dame Stadium posing for pictures at a promotional appearance. “And in that moment we needed that. It changed the whole spirit of the game, the momentum of the game. It just made me feel really good.”

Irish hearts would sink later in the day as No. 7 Cincinnati ended a 26-game home winning streak. Tyree’s costly fumble on a first-half kickoff return contributed greatly to that 24-13 loss.

Yet, as Tyree returns home this Saturday night to face Virginia Tech, there’s no denying the potential for the sophomore’s greatest attribute to impact future victories.

“I just feel like that was the tip of the iceberg,” Ismail said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, the next generation is taking it to new heights.’ And that’s my expectation. Regardless of what people say, I’m expecting him to do that and more.”

The two have never spoken, although Tyree said he was well aware of Ismail’s legacy, even before Notre Dame invoked his golden name during the recruiting process. Richard Tyree would sit with young Chris on college football Saturdays at the family home in Chester, Virginia, outside Richmond.

“My dad is a really big football guy,” Tyree said. “He was the one that introduced me to football. I was 4 years old watching ESPN, watching random teams. I understand that there’s a lot of history at Notre Dame. I knew who Rocket was.”

Receiver Braden Lenzy, who wore the number as a Notre Dame freshman in 2019, had switched to No. 0. When Tyree arrived on campus in June 2020, the No. 25 jersey was waiting in his locker.

Tyree knew immediately what that meant and called home to share the news with his father.

“It was a really cool sight,” Tyree said. “It’s a big honor to be able to wear it.”

Despite Ismail’s towering legacy, Tyree downplayed any notion of an added burden that might go along with wearing No. 25.

“I wouldn’t say there’s any pressure,” Tyree said. “I have so many things to worry about during the game, but I understand the honor and I understand who came before me.”

Taught proper running form as a freshman at Thomas Dale High School by track coach Jamarri Price, Tyree became a state champion sprinter and still glides effortlessly, even in full football gear. At Price’s urging, Tyree studied tape of all-time great Usain Bolt and Olympic-level sprinters Trayvon Bromell and Christian Coleman.

What would he ask Ismail about?

“Just being that he was so fast, being able to take advantage of that and just manipulating defenders,” Tyree said. “Even watching old YouTube clips of him, it was like he was just running by people. I would definitely ask him how he attacked angles and stuff like that.”

Ismail, his accessibility to the team limited by the pandemic, looks forward to meeting Tyree. He plans to tell the young man about Laura Bauknight, the grandmother who raised Ismail and younger brother Qadry in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

“She was a Sunday school teacher, and she used to always tell us about Christ and the principle of greater works,” Ismail said. “Anytime you see [number] 25, my expectation is always that there will be a great return, whether it’s a kickoff return, punt return or in production.”

There’s more, of course.

“I’m going to tell him that he’s supposed to expect the same thing,” Ismail said. “The tradition that the No. 25 represents at the University of Notre Dame, he’s going to put an extra shine on it, extra light. It’s going to be a higher expectation, and expect to be able to accomplish it — period.”

The famous eyes flash again.

“No fear, no worries, no anxiety, man,” Ismail said. “God gave him everything he needs to shine his light.”

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Patrick Kane’s Blackhawks and Justin Faulk’s Blues will compete among a large group of teams for playoff spots this season. | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Between the Avalanche at the top and the newly added Coyotes at the bottom, it’s difficult to predict in what order the Central’s other six teams — including the Hawks — will finish.

The NHL’s familiar divisions have returned for 2021-22, but the Central Division nonetheless isn’t quite the same as before.

The Coyotes have joined the group, thanks to the Kraken bumping them out of the Pacific, and the Central’s mainstays may soon greatly appreciate their presence. All seven regulars look like potential playoff teams — the Coyotes, meanwhile, will serve as a much-needed punching bag.

In between the Coyotes at the bottom and likely the Avalanche again at the top, the much-improved Blackhawks fall into the mushy middle, where every team could finish anywhere from second through seventh without much surprise.

After correctly predicting 13 of the 16 playoff teams last year, here are the Sun-Times’ projected standings for every division in 2021-22:

CENTRAL DIVISION

1. Avalanche: Regular season dominance is essentially a given for the Avalanche. What will truly determine the success of their season is whether they can finally advance past the second round of the playoffs, having lost there three straight years.

In the meantime, though, the Avs — 81-33-12 over the last two seasons — should cruise to first place. They crucially re-signed captain Gabriel Landeskog and Norris Trophy runner-up Cale Makar this summer, notably still have one of the world’s best players — Nathan MacKinnon — and also maintained a deep core around those three.

The only question is with their goaltending unit, which was already a relative weakness even before this year and now features injury-prone Darcy Kuemper instead of Philipp Grubauer.

2. Wild: Kirill Kaprizov’s NHL explosion transformed the Wild from perennially average and boring into good and exciting. They finished with the same number of points (75) as the Lightning.

Kaprizov returns after a long negotiation process, and the Hawks will have to contend with him for the first time this season. Ryan Suter and Zach Parise are gone at last, but the Wild somehow lost neither top defenseman Matt Dumba nor starting goalie Cam Talbot in the expansion draft. They sit atop the Central’s middle tier entering the season.

3. Stars: The Stars were just as disappointing last season as the Wild were surprising, with injuries and COVID outbreaks derailing any carryover momentum from 2020. But from the wreckage emerged two rising stars in Roope Hintz and Calder Trophy runner-up Jason Robertson. If those two continue their ascendance this year, the Stars should be primed for a bounce-back season.

Defensive mainstays Miro Heiskanen and John Klingberg and a very deep goalie group — Anton Khudobin, Jake Oettinger, Braden Holtby and Bishop — provide a steady foundation regardless.

4. Jets (wild card): Defensive additions Nate Schmidt and Brendan Dillon will be asked to solidify what has been a shaky unit for the Jets the past two seasons.

Whether those two prove enough — a top four of them plus Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk still doesn’t seem too intimidating — could decide the Jets’ fate, because the team still boasts a talented top-six and, in Connor Hellebuyck, one of the NHL’s very best goalies.

5. Blues (wild card): The Blues have steadily declined since their 2019 Cup title and look like a true bubble team for 2021-22.

Pavel Buchnevich and — sadly for Hawks fans — Brandon Saad were savvy offensive upgrades, but the defense lacks both an elite No. 1 guy and competent depth. It’ll be fascinating to see if Vladimir Tarasenko lasts the whole year in St. Louis. Jordan Binnington will need to keep up with Hellebuyck for the Blues to jump the Jets.

6. Blackhawks: The Hawks obviously believe they’ll be much better than they were last year, and logic backs up that optimism.

But just how much better depends on just how good the team’s three biggest additions — Marc-Andre Fleury, Seth Jones and functionally Jonathan Toews — turn out to be. If all three play like stars, this is a playoff team. If any of them fall short, however, the Hawks will have a tough time finding a way in.

They’ve played at only an 83-point prorated pace during Jeremy Colliton’s tenure. They’ll probably need at least 10 more points this season to vault into the postseason.

7. Predators: Considering the Predators’ domination of the Hawks last season, winning seven of eight meetings, it feels unjust ranking them seventh. But one team has to finish this low.

The Predators do appear clearly on the decline following their misguided Victor Arvidsson and Ryan Ellis trades this summer. Defenseman Roman Josi and goalie Juuse Saros are still great at keeping the puck out of the Preds’ net, but this roster direly lacks offensive talent.

8. Coyotes: This offseason, the Coyotes blew up a roster that peaked just below the playoff bubble to start from scratch. The result is a team designed to lose, and lose often, in 2021-22.

Unheralded defenseman Jakub Chychrun is the only really good player left. The forward lineup is easily overlooked. The new goaltending tandem of Carter Hutton and Josef Korenar — who together went 4-15-1 with an .891 save percentage on other teams last year — seems comically bad.

PACIFIC DIVISION (playoff teams in bold)

1. Golden Knights

2. Oilers

3. Flames

4. Canucks

5. Kraken

6. Kings

7. Sharks

8. Ducks

METROPOLITAN DIVISION

1. Islanders

2. Hurricanes

3. Capitals

4. Flyers

5. Rangers

6. Penguins

7. Devils

8. Blue Jackets

ATLANTIC DIVISION

1. Lightning

2. Maple Leafs

3. Panthers

4. Bruins

5. Canadiens

6. Senators

7. Red Wings

8. Sabres

CONFERENCE FINALS

Avalanche def. Golden Knights

Panthers def. Hurricanes

STANLEY CUP FINAL

Avalanche def. Panthers

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Niki Moran (middle) stands with her fellow Second City comedians Nicky Margolis (left) and Amanda Blake Davis (right). Moran performed with The Second City between 2002 and 2008. | Provided

The Second City says the performer, who was known in Chicago as Niki Lindgren, approached her life and her three-year cancer battle with “a limitless capacity for laughter.”

The first time Nicky Margolis saw comedian Niki Moran perform, it was a solo show in 2002 for iO Theatre.

Mrs. Moran walked onto the stage, oozing confidence, nunchucks swinging from her hand. Intense music filled the theater as she took her spot on stage, and all Margolis could think was, “She’s gonna really use these nunchucks!”

She was right — sort of. Instead of being the master martial artist expertly swinging nunchucks around, Mrs. Moran ended up just beating herself up.

“I remember sitting in the audience crying-laughing because that was just, to me, the essence of Niki,” said Margolis. “She always surprised you.”

Margolis was Mrs. Moran’s coach, and even then, she could tell Mrs. Moran was a shining star.

Mrs. Moran — an actor, a writer, a comedian, a singer and a dancer — died Tuesday morning after a three-year battle with metastatic breast cancer, her family confirmed in a Facebook post Thursday. She was 45.

“It seems impossible that her irrepressible light has been extinguished. If you knew Niki, you experienced her authentic goodness, her overwhelming generosity, her unselfish love, and her next-level crazy sense of humor,” her brother Kjell Lindgren wrote for the family. “She was the model of courage in the face of adversity and unrelenting pain. Her radiant smile blessed us until the end. She will be deeply missed.”

She had shared the news of her diagnosis in July on Facebook. Despite a hormone suppressant treatment plan, Mrs. Moran wrote, the cancer had spread from her spine to several other parts of her body. She’d been given five years at most to live.

During Moran’s Chicago years, she was known as Niki Lindgren. Her love of performing arts brought her to the Annoyance Theatre and iO Chicago, where she became part of a team called Bevy, notable for being entirely female but also for the performers’ commitment to supporting one another.

“If someone gets a good laugh, everyone is proud of it,” Moran told the Sun-Times in 2003.

Mrs. Moran first performed with the Second City in 2002 and remained active there until 2008, co-writing and performing in three revues at the e.t.c. theater.

As is Second City custom, she played many roles in every show. In her first, “Immaculate Deception, (2005), she appeared as school pageant director as well as a no-nonsense obstetrician trying to divide an expecting couple. Most strikingly, she played a steely-eyed Chinese restaurant owner who would make withering comments to the other actors. Then, turning to the audience, she’d ask some of them questions — and say devastating things about them, too.

“I actually kind of forgot that she did that!” Margolis said with a laugh. She had co-starred with Mrs. Moran in “Immaculate Deception,” as well as her other e.t.c. shows: “Disposable Nation” and “Pratfall of Civilization.”

The Second City
Niki Moran (then Niki Lindgren) is front and center during a choir scene in the 2005 show “Immaculate Deception” at Second City e.t.c., with castmates Alex Fendrich (from left), Rebecca Sage Allen, Ithamar Enriquez, Nicky Margolis and Robert Janas.

“She had such a rapport with [the audience] that they were almost welcoming,” Margolis added. “She just had an ability to really express herself in a way that was so daring, and yet made everybody feel safe. She was that sort of living paradox.”

In a statement, The Second City said it was “devastated” by the news of Mrs. Moran’s death.

“Niki’s creative prowess was only outshone by her big heart and fearless spirit,” the statement, posted to Facebook, read. “Our hearts go out to her husband Joe [Moran], her family, her colleagues in the improv community, and the countless lives she touched during her lifetime. Niki approached her illness the same way she approached her life: with a limitless capacity for laughter.”

Accompanying the post was a video, posted in January 2019 after her diagnosis, showing Mrs. Moran as her husband shaves off her hair. She bows her head briefly when the deed is done before a jump cut shows her dramatically snapping her head up, in perfect makeup and a gold bodysuit with a red cape.

She and her husband, dressed in a green bodysuit and blue Speedo, run through an alley, a playground, a front porch, dancing in their costumes. And it’s all to the soundtrack of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

“It tells you everything you need to know about Niki,” said Margolis. “It’s all at once so funny and amazing and then you’re just crying because that’s just Niki’s spirit.”

Mrs. Moran’s family will hold a “celebration of life” on Nov. 6 in northern Virginia, where she and her husband Joe Moran lived with their dog, Loki, near her parents.

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15 people were wounded in citywide shootings Friday. | Sun-Times file photo

A 2-year-old girl and a man were shot about 4:45 p.m. in Gresham on the South Side.

A 2-year-old girl was among 15 people wounded in citywide shootings Friday.

The girl and a man were shot Friday afternoon in Gresham on the South Side. They were getting into a car in the 8400 block of South Sangamon Street when someone drove by in a silver SUV and opened fire about 4:45 p.m., according to Chicago police. The girl was struck in the arm and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, police said. The man, 25, was shot in the thigh and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was also in good condition.
About an hour later, three people were wounded in a drive-by shooting after a funeral in West Englewood. They were attending a repast about 5:40 p.m. in the 6000 block of South Ashland Avenue when someone in a dark Jeep drove up and opened fire, police said. A 55-year-old man was shot in the shoulder and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said. Another man, 70, was struck in the hand and transported to St. Bernard Hospital in good condition. A male, whose age wasn’t known, was shot in the shoulder and drove himself to the University of Chicago. His condition wasn’t immediately known.
A 19-year-old man was seriously hurt in a shooting in Englewood on the South Side. The man was standing outside about 10:30 p.m. in the 5600 block of South Throop Street when two males got out of a black Chevy Malibu and fired shots, police said. He was struck in the back and abdomen and was taken to the University of Chicago in serious condition, police said.

At least nine others were wounded in shootings in Chicago Friday.

Two people were killed and 13 others were wounded — including three teens — in shootings in Chicago Thursday.

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Joliet Catholic’s Tajhaun McClellan (7) forces Brother Rice’s Aaron Vaughn (5) out of bounds. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

Scores from the ranked teams.

1. Loyola (6-0)

Saturday vs. Providence

2. Brother Rice (5-2)

Lost 56-49 vs. No. 3 Joliet Catholic

3. Joliet Catholic (7-0)

Won 56-49 at No. 2 Brother Rice

4. Neuqua Valley (7-0)

Won 28-0 at Waubonsie Valley

5. Cary-Grove (7-0)

Won 36-22 vs. Jacobs

6. Maine South (6-1)

Won 51-21 Friday at Niles West

7. Warren (6-1)

Won 54-0 at Mundelein

8. Batavia (7-0)

Won 35-0 at Geneva

9. Wheaton North (6-1)

Won 10-8 at Wheaton Warrenville South

10. St. Ignatius (7-0)

Won 38-13 vs. St. Viator

11. Mount Carmel (5-2)

Won 48-13 at St. Laurence

12. Marist (6-1)

Won 34-0 vs. Montini

13. St. Rita (5-2)

Won 44-28 at Marian Central

14. Hersey (7-0)

Won 42-18 at Wheeling

15. Lockport (7-0)

Won 14-13 in OT at No. 18 Bolingbrook

16. Naperville Central (4-3)

Won 48-20 vs. DeKalb

17. Lincoln-Way East (5-2)

Won 24-6 vs. Homewood-Flossmoor

18. Bolingbrook (5-2)

Lost 14-13 in OT vs. No. 15 Lockport

19. Lemont (7-0)

Won 44-0 at Tinley Park

20. Hinsdale Central (6-1)

Won 27-23 at No. 22 York

21. South Elgin (7-0)

Won 29-0 vs. Elgin

22. York (6-1)

Lost 27-23 vs. No. 20 Hinsdale Central

23. Glenbard North (5-2)

Won 28-7 vs. Lake Park

24. Fenwick (5-2)

Won 42-14 vs. St. Patrick

25. Glenbard West (6-1)

Won 13-10 at Downers Grove North

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