The Southwest Prairie doesn’t jump to anyone’s mind when the topic of best basketball conferences comes up.

And it shouldn’t, but it is impossible to ignore that the conference is on the rise. Joliet West and the Fears brothers are already making waves, Oswego East has been producing good teams and steady flow of D1 players for years, West Aurora and Romeoville have exciting young teams and Yorkville’s 6-9 Jason Jakstys is an intriguing prospect.

“The conference has been getting better for several years,” Oswego East’s Mekhi Lowery said. “I think it is probably at an all-time high right now.”

The Wolves picked up their first conference win tonight by knocking off West Aurora.

Bold statements in November are wacky, but here’s one: Oswego East might have a higher ceiling this year than it did last season.

The Wolves were 33-2 last season, so feel free to think I’ve lost my mind. It’s unlikely Oswego East will enter the playoffs with that gaudy of a record (that’s unlikely for any team), but coach Ryan Velasquez has a deep and talented squad that looked more well-rounded to me than last year’s group.

That team set a high bar, losing a one-point game to Bolingbrook in the sectional final. This year the Wolves will have chances to open eyes at Hinsdale Central over the holidays and in games against Bolingbrook, Curie, Joliet West and Hillcrest.

Understandably, Velasquez wasn’t about to make bold statements of his own in November.

“I want to see how we respond to adversity,” Velasquez said. “We aren’t going to go undefeated so how will we bounce back when we lose a game. I like this group but I want to see how resilient we are.”

Tuesday’s top games

Marian Catholic 64, Carmel 49: Quentin Jones exploded for 25 points and James Bullock added 14. James Dwyer led the Corsairs with 13 points.

Brother Rice 81, Morgan Park 47: Ahmad Henderson led with 18 and junior Cale Cosme added 11 off the bench.

Naperville Central 96, Glenbard East 88: What a DVC shootout. Simon Krugliakovas scored 40 points. I’ll admit I have never heard of him. But I’m intrigued.

Joliet West 93, Plainfield Central 56: Sophomore Jeremiah Fears scored a career-high 32 points and Jeremy Fears Jr. finished with 20 points and seven assists. I hear it was a sellout for the Tigers.

Romeoville 69, Plainfield South 59: Meyoh Swansey scored 21 and Troy Cicero added 11 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

Yorkville 66, Plainfield North 51: The Foxes have six transfers and are now a perfect 4-0. Dayvion Johnson, a Yorkville Christian transfer, scored 20.

Bolingbrook 77, St. Charles North 52: Mehki Cooper is a handful. The senior guard had 30 points and six rebounds.

DeKalb 56, Glenbard West 54 OT: The Hilltoppers lose to an Illinois team for the first time in a long while. Sean Reynolds hit the game-winning three and scored 28 points. Davon Grant added 10.

Fenwick 53, Rich 52: I didn’t see any stats, but I did watch Damian Porter Jr. hit the game-winning three-pointer on Fenwick’s twitter. I’ll see the Friars twice this week. Thursday at De La Salle and Friday against Oak Park.

Kankakee 94, Vocational 33: The Kays open the season with a solid win. Larenz Walters scored 16 and Sam Yohnka, Damontae May and Naz Hill each added 14.

Kenwood 70, Bogan 63: Kind of an interesting final score. Dai Dai Ames had 19 points and five assists. Calvin Robins scored 14 and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Lemont 68, Sandburg 43: Lemont is on a roll. Rokas Castillo scored 25 and his brother Matas added 11. That’s 5-0 now.

Rolling Meadows 68, Glenbrook South 55: Cam Christie poured in 26 points and Tsvet Sotirov added 15. Nick Taylor led the Titans with 19.

Simeon 67, Thornwood 36: The top-ranked Wolverins win the season opener. Sam Lewis scored 18 in his first game with Simeon and Miles Rubin had 10 points, eight rebounds and five blocks.

Manley 73, Providence-St. Mel 62: Senior Jajuan Newby did it all with 21 points, 16 rebounds and a pair of blocks. Freshman Jaali Love added 16 points and nine boards.

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Long, athletic and promising sophomores and juniors are all over the area. That glittering potential doesn’t always produce a dominant, capable senior basketball player.

It did this time. Mekhi Lowery, Oswego East’s 6-7 forward, has matured into a multi-faceted weapon for the Wolves.

“I’ve definitely learned how to use my athleticism in other ways,” Lowery said. “Trying to crash the glass and get putbacks and stuff like that. And I’ve taken the role of leader, which feels good.”

Lowery and Patrick Robinson led Oswego East to a 33-2 record last season. Robinson graduated, but the Wolves reloaded with a couple of transfers: point guard Bryce Shoto from Plainfield Central and junior Jehvion Starwood from Yorkville Christian.

Starwood scored 14 points to lead No. 11 Oswego East to a 61-46 win against No. 19 West Aurora on Tuesday in Oswego.

The transfers appear to be fitting in. The Wolves moved the ball well, which helped them overcome 21 turnovers.

“Over the summer we really worked on the chemistry, just getting to know them personally and that helped build a relationship,” Oswego East’s Ryan Johnson said. “This group is versatile and I love how we distribute the ball.”

Lowery, a Towson recruit, finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

“He’s always had the work ethic but the leadership has been contagious to everybody,” Oswego East coach Ryan Velasquez said. “He’s being more aggressive this year and I love that. He brings so much to the table for us.

Johnson, a 6-7 senior, added six points, eight rebounds, three blocks and three assists. Senior Micah Gatewood scored 13 off the bench and Mason Blanco had 12 points.

“The returning guys from last year are very unselfish players,” Velasquez said. “We preach that from freshman year. The best way to play the game is everybody touched the ball, cut hard, play unselfish. Those new additions feel that and they love it too.”

The Wolves (5-0, 1-0 Southwest Prairie West) beat West Aurora in a Thanksgiving tournament championship game on Friday. Then they led 21-8 midway through the second quarter on Tuesday.

“We definitely lost some focus at that point,” Johnson said. “This season we’ve gone up a bunch of points and just let teams back into it. We have to stay focused and put teams away.”

The lead slowly evaporated through the quarter and then a three-pointer from West Aurora junior Josh Pickett put the Blackhawks ahead 31-30 with 4:08 left in the third quarter.

Oswego East ripped off an 11-0 run after Pickett’s shot and never let West Aurora (3-2, 0-1) back into the game.

Pickett, who emerged last season as a sophomore, took over the game for two different stretches. He finished with 23 points and seven rebounds.

Junior Calvin Savage added nine points and sophomore Terrence Smith had nine points and seven rebounds for the Blackhawks.

“[West Aurora] is a good team and they knew what they were going to see from us,” Velasquez said. “So we had to be mentally prepared for that and come out with energy, which we did. That’s a big thing on a Tuesday. It wasn’t perfect basketball but that’s what practice is for.”

Watch the final minute of West Aurora at Oswego East:

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Billy Donovan did sign a multiyear contract extension with the Chicago Bulls, 

The Chicago Bulls and head coach Billy Donovan agreed to a contract extension before the start of the 2022-23 season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Donovan, who already had two years left on his four-year deal, will now remain under contract with Chicago for a few years more.

The Bulls confirm that Billy Donovan signed a contract extension before the season, which @ShamsCharania had 1st.

Local reporting from all corners of the beat has been very consistent that the partnership between Donovan and management remains as strong as when it began.

— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) November 29, 2022

Donovan joined the Bulls in September of 2020 following five seasons as the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Donovan has won 57.8% of his games as a coach in the NBA and helped lead the Bulls to a 46-36 record last season, their first winning season since 2015-16 and first playoff appearance since 2017.

The Bulls are off to a 9-11 this season but have won three of their past four games, including Monday’s 114-107 road victory against the Utah Jazz.

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The Chicago White Sox plan to add a new outdoor bar at Guaranteed Rate Field, according to a building permit issued by the city.

The permit calls for construction “at two existing 500-level locations at Guaranteed Rate Field for a new outdoor bar with premium seating skybox.”

The team did not share more information. A spokesperson said in a statement: “Ballpark projects are underway, but details, including any renderings, will be announced closer to the start of the season.”

The renovation requires demolishing eight rows of seats and rearranging entrance and exit stairs, according to the permit issued Nov. 18. It’s unclear exactly where the bar would be on the 500 level. The estimated cost of construction is $284,500.

The last major renovation at the field was to add a premium seating section in right field, dubbed the Goose Island, in 2019. The area was renamed Miller Lite Landing earlier this year. In 2016, the team installed three HD video boards.

The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which manages renovations at the ballpark, referred questions to the Sox.

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Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews’ names are mentioned in the same sentences as often as salt and pepper, but for whatever reason, they’ve never had the greatest results actually playing together.

Even in the preseason this year, when new coach Luke Richardson tried uniting the two cornerstone forwards, their line conceded three goals in less than 10 minutes of five-on-five ice time together before he promptly split them apart again.

But with the Blackhawks mired in as deep and dry a slump as they currently are — having won just twice in their last 15 games, having been outscored 61-32 over that span — it’s probably worth changing something for the sake of changing something. Things can’t possibly get much worse, after all, if the change backfires.

So ahead of Hawks practice Tuesday, Richardson pulled a new idea out of the idea jar, and that idea was to try Kane and Toews together again.

“It’s been done before, but I haven’t done it,” Richardson said, presumably referring to the regular season only. “So let’s try it. I think that makes the most sense.”

Toews now centers the Hawks’ first line with Kane on his right and Andreas Athanasiou on his left. Max Domi has slid down to the second-line center role between Taylor Raddysh and Philipp Kurashev.

“I mentioned it to [Kane and] all the guys this morning, and they’re all good with it,” Richardson said. “They realize there has to be some shuffling and changes just to change things up. Let’s rock the boat and get things going in the right direction.”

Added Kane: “We’ve played together before, so I know his tendencies, of course. And what he likes to do out there, and where he’s good on the ice. Even with Max, we’ve been snakebitten a little bit. We’ve had some looks, we’ve had some chances, it just hasn’t [gone] in for us, so hopefully we can get some bounces and get back on track.”

Richardson has been remarkably patient with combinations this season — much more than predecessors Jeremy Colliton and Derek King ever were. Other than by necessity due to injuries, the Hawks’ attacking lines have barely changed since training camp, and the old first line of Kane, Domi and Athanasiou literally hadn’t changed since camp.

Furthermore, as Kane mentioned, that line actually looked dangerous in Sunday’s 7-2 loss to the Jets. The Hawks surprisingly finished with a 22-21 edge in scoring chances at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick, and the first line accounted for an 11-2 advantage, not even including Athanasiou’s overturned first-period goal.

But only so much patience can be justified given the team’s dire lack of success in November. And in contrast to Sunday, the first line had admittedly been out-chanced by a massive 62-27 margin over its previous nine games.

So when the Hawks host the Oilers on Wednesday, that trio will sport a new look with the captain in the middle.

Coincidentally, that’s the exact same matchup that began this losing spiral for the Hawks back on Oct. 27. And in another coincidence, the Oilers also recently united their two star forwards — Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — on a rare line together, and they’ve won consecutive games since doing so.

The Hawks engaged in battle drills at game-speed intensity during practice Tuesday and will attempt to carry that energy into Wednesday.

“The biggest thing is competing and making sure that we’re ready to play right when the puck drops,” Kane said. “We’ve had games in here that we could’ve had points or could’ve won those games, but it just hasn’t come through for us. We’ve just got to stay with it and compete a little bit better.”

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PHOENIX – Jerry Reinsdorf will never change.

We’re at the part of the movie where that’s clear.

The chairman of the Bulls and White Sox decided long ago to operate in the petty, especially in how he deals with the Chicago media. That’s his choice, and his success in life has certainly earned him that right.

While other owners of major-market teams such as the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones and the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban have understood trying to use the media for the benefit of their product, Chicago’s media to Reinsdorf is a dirty piece of gum that he takes enjoyment scraping off his shoe.

It doesn’t matter to Reinsdorf that it’s a disservice to his fans, but his latest move was a complete disservice to Bulls coach Billy Donovan.

First, it’s important to note that all major decisions in either organization must get Reinsdorf’s thumbs up or down. Son Michael has been given a huge amount of power in Bulls business, but even Michael admitted several years ago that his father had final say.

Second, the news that leaked Tuesday that Donovan’s contract was secretly extended in the preseason barely registers on the Richter scale, especially with how in sync executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and Donovan remain since joining forces in 2020.

It was a bigger deal when Reinsdorf hid the news about then-White Sox manager Rick Renteria’s contract extension in 2017.

Unlike Renteria, Donovan was a made man since Day 1, just based on his resume — college and pro — and nothing was changing on that front with the 2022-23 season underway.

So why let it sit in the shadows?

Why not come out during fall camp in September and capture the news cycle by celebrating the decision to keep Donovan beyond next season when his original four-year deal was set to expire?

It’s not like Jerry Reinsdorf has been bashful in the releasing-statement department.

He did so earlier Tuesday, doing his best to say farewell to slugger Jose Abreu, while still trying to save face that an offer was made by the Sox to keep the fan-favorite.

Reinsdorf had no problem releasing a statement on the day Tom Thibodeau was fired in 2015, trying to portray the former Bulls coach in a bad light — knowing Thibodeau couldn’t fire back publicly if he wanted to collect the remaining $9 million still owed on his deal.

But with Donovan’s extension, there was no face to save. No bad light to shine on anyone.

There was a message about “continuity” from the organization with every roster move made last summer, and the chance to put a nice bow on it by also stressing “continuity” with the coaching staff.

A chance now missed.

As for Donovan, he enters Wednesday’s game against the Suns with an 86-88 (.494) record since joining the Bulls, after going 243-157 (.608) with Oklahoma City. He also led the Bulls to their first playoff appearance since 2017 last season, before losing in the first round to the Milwaukee Bucks.

For his part, Donovan did not seek out the extension before this season.

“Very, very humbled,” Donovan said of the extension getting done. “Very appreciative, grateful. Arturas came to me over the summer to talk about it. We had that conversation. For me, it’s really important who I’m working with, who I’m working for. Love the relationships inside the organization.

“I don’t want to use words like alignment, but I think we’re all on the same page as we see things.”

Almost true.

All on the same page except one. And unfortunately, he owns the page, the book, the whole damn library.

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