Ayo Dosunmu drives to the basket while being guarded by Jacob Young during the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament quarterfinals Friday night in Indianapolis. | Justin Casterline/Getty Images
Ayo Dosunmu scored 23 points, and the Illini easily defeated the Scarlet Knights 90-68.
INDIANAPOLIS — Ayo Dosunmu scored 23 points and No. 3 Illinois easily beat Rutgers 90-68 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday night.
The junior guard was too quick in creating open looks off the dribble, often provided chances for teammates. Dosunmu shot 8 for 11 from the field, 7 of 9 from the line and added six assists and five rebounds.
Illinois (21-6) has won 12 of its last 13 games and avenged a regular-season loss to Rutgers (15-11) to advance to Saturday’s semifinals against the winner of No. 5 Iowa and Wisconsin.
When the second-seeded Illini weren’t hitting shots, they were forcing the action with drives to the rim and getting fouled. Illinois made 21 of 31 free throws. Seventh-seeded Rutgers converted 16 of 22.
Center Kofi Cockburn threw around his 7-foot, 285-pound frame, and had four emphatic dunks. He finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Illinois dominated the boards 44-19, including 17-3 in offensive rebounds.
Rutgers reduced a 19-point halftime deficit to 13 early in the second half, but got no closer.
Ron Harper Jr. scored 21 points and Jacob Young had 13 for the Scarlet Knights.
The Illini scored the first nine points. Rutgers closed within four points before Illinois pulled away. Cockburn punctuated the early effort with a one-handed dunk off an offensive rebound for a 45-26 lead in the final minute of the first half.
BIG PICTURE
Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights were ranked as high as 11th during the regular season, but injuries took a toll. A modestly successful season after 20 wins the year before was a letdown without an NCAA Tournament bid. Perhaps the NIT will provide a chance to keep playing.
Illinois: The last time the Illini were as high as a second seed was in 2009, when they were also a No. 2. A tourney title could legitimize the team as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. … Sixteen conference wins in the regular season were the most in team history.
Sunburned Hand of the Man are a loose Boston-based collective whose work has sprawled across multiple genres, including free improv, noise, folk, drone, and psychedelic jams. Founded in 1997 out of the ashes of art-rock trio Shit Spangled Banner, they became part of a scene that specialized in indulgence and reveled in long builds, endless permutation, improvisation, and minimalism that could get pretty damn maximal at the drop of a hat (or the stomp of a pedal).…Read More
Terry Ferguson, 56, of Willowbrook, admitted during a virtual hearing that he distributed 1.5 kilograms of cocaine in 2016 and 2018 and illegally possessed 23 firearms in 2015.
Ferguson’s co-defendant, Jesus Dominguez, had negotiated the sale of those firearms to an undercover ATF agent, but he stored and moved them in a deli truck owned by Ferguson, who got a cut of the deal, according to Ferguson’s plea agreement.
Ferguson knew how Dominguez was using the truck and maintained his ability to control it and the firearms despite a January 1997 drug conviction, according to the plea deal.
Dominguez pleaded guilty in November to a drug conspiracy and illegal gun possession, records show. Another defendant in the case, William Walsh, pleaded guilty that same month to the drug conspiracy.
Ferguson faces a potential sentence of as many as 10 years in prison, according to his plea agreement. He has also pleaded guilty in a related case to obstructing a court order for telling someone subpoenaed by the grand jury investigating Ferguson that the person would go to jail if he went to court. For that, Ferguson could face another year in prison.
Dominguez faces a potential sentence of more than eight years, though prosecutors have said they would recommend he get a break if he cooperates with them. Walsh faces a potential sentence of more than two years.
A man was charged with fatally shooting a woman Sept. 6, 2020 in Englewood. | Adobe Stock Images
Kobayashi Wylie-Hill, 36, was killed in her Englewood apartment on Sept. 6. Jerry Yarbor was ordered held without bail for her murder.
A 49-year-old man killed an Englewood woman because he believed she was responsible for his brother’s deadly overdose, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.
Jerry Yarbor’s younger brother had been found unresponsive in a vehicle on Sept. 5.
Shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 6, Yarbor went to Wylie-Hill’s apartment, in the 6100 block of South Carpenter Street, and allegedly confronted her while she was in the bathroom.
Wylie-Hill, 36, said she had nothing to do with Yarbor’s brother’s death. Still, Yarbor fired multiple times into the bathroom door before leaving the apartment, prosecutors said.
Several witnesses who were also in the apartment either saw the shooting or saw Yarbor walking out of the unit with a gun, prosecutors said.
Wylie-Hill was able to leave her building after she was shot, but collapsed outside and later died, prosecutors said.
Yarbor’s brother’s death was eventually determined to be an overdose, prosecutors said.
A witness who did not know Yarbor’s real name, told investigators his nickname was “Red Rum” and pointed them to his Facebook page, prosecutors said. Yarbor has a tattoo that reads “Red Rum” and friends refer to him as “Red” on his social media account, prosecutors said.
Yarbor was taken into custody Wednesday in Roseland and charged with first-degree murder.
When asked about Wylie-Hill after he was taken into custody, Yarbor allegedly said “May she rest in piss” but denied killing her.
Any of Yarbor’s relatives could have had the same motive for killing Wylie-Hill, an assistant public defender argued Friday.
There was also no physical evidence connecting Yarbor to the shooting, the defense attorney added.
Yarbor was ordered held without bail. He is expected back in court on April 1.
Pat O’Donnell punts against the Saints in November. | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
One day after bringing back kicker Cairo Santos, the Bears are doing the same for punter Pat O’Donnell.
One day after bringing back kicker Cairo Santos, the Bears are doing the same for punter Pat O’Donnell.
He will return to the team on a one-year deal, NFL Network reported.
O’Donnell was one of three members of the Bears’ special teams corps staring at free agency at the start of the week. After O’Donnell agreed to a deal, the Bears are down to one specialist in limbo: long snapper Patrick Scales.
The Bears drafted O’Donnell in the sixth round in 2014. He’s played every season for them since. Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor seemed pleased with him in late December.
“I think he’s having a good year …” he said. “Obviously I think he’s handled field position real well for us, with regard to inside the 20s and 10s and those type of things. I think just him holding for field goals. The little things of manipulating the football, with regards to, ‘It’s a left-to-right wind, right to left, how I’m going to work the laces,’ and those type of things.
“I mean, those are really important things that he’s really good at. So I’m glad he’s here, and I think he’s playing at a high level.”
The victims, Lavelle R. Lee and Lee’s 31-year-old cousin, were shot in January on Blackstone Avenue.
A Burnside man was ordered held on $1 million bail Friday after he was arrested in Mississippi for allegedly killing a man and wounding the victim’s cousin in Calumet Heights.
Christopher Luckett, 41, was getting his car serviced at a mechanic’s garage around midnight on Jan. 16 when he saw two men park their cars nearby, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.
After asking the mechanic who the men were, Luckett began walking toward them.
The mechanic went into his basement to put away his tools and did not see what happened next, but prosecutors said the men, who were cousins, waved Luckett off as he approached them and walked toward a liquor store.
That’s when Luckett allegedly opened fire with a 9-mm handgun.
Lee’s cousin, 31, was also hit but managed to hide in some bushes until someone came to get him in a car, prosecutors said. He was later taken to a hospital by ambulance and he identified Luckett as the shooter, prosecutors said.
The mechanic heard the gunshots and was returning to his garage when he saw Luckett get into his car and drive away, prosecutors said.
When a Mississippi sheriff tried to take Luckett into custody recently, he attempted to escape multiple times, prosecutors said.
A 9-mm handgun was found inside the home where Luckett was taken into custody, but prosecutors said tests determining whether the weapon matched bullet casings found at the crime scene were pending.
Luckett was returned to Cook County this week to face first-degree murder and attempted murder charges for the shooting, Chicago police said.
“There must be millions of 9-mm handguns” across the county, an assistant public defender said Friday in Luckett’s defense.
Judge Charles Beach agreed, saying the “9mm is now the most common weapon manufactured and sold in the United States.”
Beach ordered Luckett held on $1 million bail.
Luckett, a father, was employed in construction until he was laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic, his lawyer said.
In this Feb. 22, 2021 file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference at a COVID-19 vaccination site in the Brooklyn borough of New York. | AP
“I’m not going to resign,” Andrew Cuomo told reporters. “I did not do what has been alleged. Period.” He also said, “People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture and the truth.”
ALBANY, N.Y. — Facing unprecedented political isolation, a defiant New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted on Friday that he would not step down in the wake of sexual harassment allegations and condemned the expansive coalition of Democrats calling for his resignation as “reckless and dangerous.”
By day’s end, the three-term Democratic governor had lost the support of almost his state’s entire congressional delegation. None of the defections hurt more than those of New York’s two U.S. senators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
“Due to the multiple, credible sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York,” the Democratic senators wrote in a joint statement. “Governor Cuomo should resign.”
Hours before the statement, Cuomo, a leading critic of former President Donald Trump’s coronavirus pandemic response, evoked the Republican in defending himself against “cancel culture.”
“I’m not going to resign,” Cuomo said during an afternoon phone call with reporters. “I did not do what has been alleged. Period.”
He added: “People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture and the truth.”
The embattled governor’s comments came on the day his party in New York and beyond turned sharply against him following allegations of harassment as well as sweeping criticism of Cuomo for keeping secret how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19 for months.
Cuomo’s growing list of detractors now covers virtually every region in the state and the political power centers of New York City and Washington. A majority of Democrats in the state legislature and all but a handful of the state’s 29-member congressional delegation have called on him to step down.
The escalating political crisis jeopardizes Cuomo’s 2022 reelection in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, and threatens to cast a cloud over President Joe Biden’s early days in office. Republicans across the country have seized on the scandal to try to distract from Biden’s success with the pandemic and challenge his party’s well-established advantage with female voters.
The senators’ statement, which cited the pandemic as a reason for needing “sure and steady leadership,” came shortly after Schumer stood alongside Biden in a Rose Garden ceremony celebrating the passage of the Democrat-backed $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday declined to say whether Biden believes Cuomo should resign. She said every woman who has come forth about harassment by the New York governor “deserves to have her voice heard, should be treated with respect and should be able to tell her story.”
Dozens of Democrats had already called on Cuomo to resign this week, but the coalition of critics expanded geographically and politically on Friday to include the likes of New York City progressive U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the leader of the House Democratic campaign arm, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney; Buffalo-based U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins; and a group of Long Island-based state lawmakers who had been Cuomo loyalists.
Never before has the brash, 63-year-old Democratic governor — the son of a New York governor himself — been more politically alone.
“The victims of sexual assault concern me more than politics or other narrow considerations, and I believe Governor Cuomo must step aside,” Maloney said.
Ocasio-Cortez said she believes the women who accused Cuomo of wrongdoing.
“After two accounts of sexual assault, four accounts of harassment, the Attorney General’s investigation finding the Governor’s admin hid nursing home data from the legislature and public, we agree with the 55+ members of the New York State legislature that the Governor must resign,” she tweeted.
Cuomo on Friday insisted that he never touched anyone inappropriately, and said again that he’s sorry if he ever made anyone uncomfortable. He declined to answer a direct question about whether he’s had a consensual romantic relationship with any of the women.
“I have not had a sexual relationship that was inappropriate, period,” he said.
The governor in recent days has been calling lawmakers and supporters asking them to refrain from calling for his resignation, and instead support the ongoing investigations. His strategy does not appear to be working.
The state Assembly allowed an impeachment investigation into Cuomo on Thursday as lawmakers investigate whether there are grounds for his forcible removal from office.
The firestorm around the governor grew after the Times Union of Albany reported Wednesday that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her at his official residence late last year.
The woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint, but a lawyer for the governor said Thursday that the state reported the allegation to the Albany Police Department after the woman involved declined to do so herself.
Additionally, Cuomo is facing multiple allegations of sexually suggestive remarks and behavior toward women, including female aides. One aide said he asked her if she would ever have sex with an older man. And another aide claimed the governor once kissed her without consent, and said governor’s aides publicly smeared her after she accused him of sexual harassment.
Rarely in the modern era has a leading elected official survived such a political backlash from his own party, but there is precedent.
Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, refused to resign in 2009 after a scandal involving an extramarital affair. He would go on to serve in Congress. And in 2019, Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam resisted sweeping calls for his resignation after a photo emerged of him in a racist costume. Northam is still in office.
Cuomo on Friday vowed that he’d still be able to govern despite a growing list of New York elected officials who say they’ve lost faith in his ability to govern.
He didn’t address the reality of an increasingly untenable position: Cuomo is seeking a fourth term next year, managing the state’s pandemic response and negotiating a state budget with state lawmakers who’ve lost confidence in his leadership.
He again raised questions about the motives of women accusing him of inappropriate behavior.
“A lot of people allege a lot of things for a lot of reasons,” he said Friday. “I won’t speculate about people’s possible motives. But I can tell you as a former attorney general who has gone through this situation many times, there are often many motivations for making an allegation. And that is why you need to know the facts before you make a decision.”
“Serious allegations should be weighed seriously, right?” he said. “That’s why they are called serious.”
But dozens of Democrats have already determined the allegations are serious enough to warrant his immediate removal. Other Republicans in New York’s congressional delegation previously called for Cuomo’s resignation, including Nicole Malliotakis, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney and Lee Zeldin.
Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, who chairs the powerhouse U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said Cuomo has lost the confidence of New Yorkers.
“The repeated accusations against the governor, and the manner in which he has responded to them, have made it impossible for him to continue to govern at this point,” Nadler said.
___
Peoples reported from New York City. AP writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed.
First baseman Anthony Rizzo says his deadline will be Opening Day. Hopes to focus on the season after that.
Anthony Rizzo isn’t worried about his contract status and after expressing his desire to try to work out a contract extension this spring, the Cubs’ first baseman is still hopeful the two sides can get something done prior to Opening Day.
President Jed Hoyer has spoken this spring about how the team would still like to talk to some of their impending free agents about staying in Chicago long term. Rizzo, Javy Baez and Kris Bryant are all set to hit the market at the end of the season.
“I’m very optimistic,” Rizzo said “We got a couple more weeks until opening day. Everything between now and then is exciting stuff. Either good or bad, whatever happens is exciting and for the future. Once Opening Day comes, this team is going to be focused on just playing baseball.
“For everything that I’ve expressed about wanting to be here and we’ve had really good conversations top to bottom. Just for me and everything I put into my teammates, they deserve all the I have this year, and I’ll give that to them and our fans, and once April 1 comes, it’s all about baseball. It’s not about money. It’s not about contract extension or future. It’s about April 1 and winning that game and getting the best out of everyone on the team.”
Rizzo’s sentiment about being in Chicago long term is one shared by his fellow teammates who are set to hit the market. The value of comfort and the environment created over the last eight years can’t be understated. Those things have helped lure players like left fielder Joc Pederson in free agency and were a reason right-hander Jake Arrieta returned this offseason.
“I think it’s a testament to ownership and the front office and the coaching staff and all the staff that guys want to be here,” Hoyer said last month. “They enjoy the environment. Obviously, we got the ballpark and the fan base and the city, but people want to be here. And that’s a great thing. … I think that’s great that they feel that way about this place. And, you know, it’d be disappointing after this much time with these players if they felt otherwise.”
It appeared the Cubs would be heading toward a rebuild this offseason after the trade of Yu Darvish, the non-tender of Kyle Schwarber and Albert Almora Jr., but the fact that they were able to find the means to make additions late in the offseason didn’t go unnoticed by the Cubs’ vocal leader.
While being in Chicago is Rizzo’s top priority, being in a winning environment is just as important for the 31-year-old first baseman.
“It’s big. [Winning] is big,” Rizzo said. “My goal is bringing the next championship here in Chicago. It’s coming, it’s coming soon. It’s coming to the city and that’s my focus. It’s how are we going to win? We feel really good. It’s March. Everyone feels good, right? But we got to go and build and believe and gain momentum.
“But as far as potentially rebuilding and all that stuff they’ve been, [people] have been trading guys and blowing up this team for the last three years. So it’s all part of the business, what comes with it and just staying focused on the task at hand.”
Jimenez makes a sliding catch last season. | Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
One of the most likable athletes in Chicago, Jimenez is delighted to be here, there, anywhere. But being seen as a less-than-complete player is never fun.
Nobody makes an entrance like White Sox slugger Eloy Jimenez.
Not into a room. Not into a Zoom.
His loud, happy hellos and wide, beaming smiles are merely signs of all the other charming things that come with the 6-4, 235-pound 24-year-old. This is a guy who’s delighted to be here, there, anywhere.
Especially when he homers off a scoreboard during the same game in which he hits a rare stand-up triple, which was the case for Jimenez on Thursday.
“I liked both!” he cracked a day later after asking reporters which hit they thought he enjoyed more.
But one of the most likable athletes in Chicago turned almost sullen and slipped into a monotone when asked about his defense in left field and the reality that the picture many have of the 2020 Silver Slugger winner continues to be that of a less-than-complete player.
“I don’t want to come out in the seventh inning,” he said. “That’s why I work hard every single day and try to do my best at being a complete player. That’s why I take so much pride to do everything I can to go out and play hard for my team.”
We should point out that Jimenez’s “sullen” didn’t last long. It never does. But there is no doubting at all that this — his subpar defense — is his least favorite baseball subject. There’s also no doubting that, as the stakes get higher for a Sox team expected to contend for a division title and more, the subject isn’t going to go away.
“I try not to hear that,” he said at the start of the spring.
But he really doesn’t have any choice. Especially not if he produces more gaffes such as falling into the protective netting while a batter circles the bases for an inside-the-part home run. Or merely falling into the netting without consequence, which also happened last season. Or — as all shaky outfielders do sometimes — taking poor routes to the baseball and turning outs into hits.
Or even — yes — having center fielder Luis Robert run all the way over and catch a ball that Jimenez is perfectly well positioned to field routinely. That has happened, too. It’s not on Jimenez when it does, but such a spectacle only perpetuates the image of a defensive weak link.
“I’ll keep working hard and try to change their minds with my work,” he said.
Jimenez keeps at it with Sox coach Daryl Boston and remains driven in large part by his preference not to be forced into a designated-hitter role. This isn’t a new story. But just like Cubs fans saw Kyle Schwarber go from awful to perhaps almost average as a left fielder, Sox fans can at least hope to witness something similar.
“I think he’s tremendous,” teammate Adam Eaton said. “I think it speaks for himself [that] the willingness to learn is huge.”
Jimenez has said he wants to win an MVP award, and soon. He’s openly gunning for 40-plus home runs this season. Manager Tony La Russa sees Jimenez these days as being further along than most Sox hitters in preparation for Opening Day. He could be in line for a monster 2021 at the plate.
But that doesn’t give him any extra rope in left.
As general manager Rick Hahn said last month: “He doesn’t like being defensively replaced. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. … The short answer is, yes, he’s the left fielder. The longer answer is it’s not inconceivable that Tony deploys him from time to time as the DH.”
As likable as Jimenez is, the sight of him lying helplessly in the netting is definitely more alarming than charming.
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