Should You Monitor Your Saturated Fat Intake?on March 29, 2021 at 12:57 am

Spiritual and Physical Wellness

Should You Monitor Your Saturated Fat Intake?

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Should You Monitor Your Saturated Fat Intake?on March 29, 2021 at 12:57 am Read More »

Lead, chance to upset No. 17 Murray State vanish in 2nd half for EIU Pantherson March 29, 2021 at 1:55 am

Prairie State Pigskin

Lead, chance to upset No. 17 Murray State vanish in 2nd half for EIU Panthers

Lead, chance to upset No. 17 Murray State vanish in 2nd half for EIU Pantherson March 29, 2021 at 1:55 am Read More »

Michigan blasts FSU 76-58, keeps alive Big Ten hopes of ending long, sad title-less streakon March 29, 2021 at 1:13 am

How good is the best college basketball conference in America?

So good, it wouldn’t know a national championship from a hole in the ground. So good, it hasn’t had a team cut down the nets in — count ’em — 21 years. So good, its 2021 NCAA Tournament experience has been roughly as pleasant as taking a charge from an ornery elk.

So good, it has been in Michigan-or-bust mode since the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Big Ten littered the top 10 of the national polls with its heavy hitters all season. The league got nine teams — a record — into the tournament. Who didn’t think it was better than the ACC, Big 12, SEC and the rest? We pretty much all did. And we were wrong.

Or maybe we were right. Who knows? It doesn’t really matter now, just like Illinois’ beef with Michigan’s regular-season title doesn’t really matter. The Illini were 16-4. The Wolverines were 14-3. A better winning percentage got the latter team a banner. Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman wrote an impossibly long letter. Yada, yada, yada.

Here’s what matters: Eight Big Ten teams wasted practically no time at all getting themselves booted from the Big Dance. No. 1 seed Illinois got caught spiking the punch bowl against Loyola. No. 2 Ohio State gagged against Oral Roberts. No. 2 Iowa took its typical turnstile defense to a whole new level against Oregon. Over and over, the league blew it — as is its March custom, come to think of it.

And now, East region No. 1 seed Michigan — which looked great Sunday in a 76-58 dismantling of fourth-seeded Florida State at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis — is all the Big Ten and its fans have left. That was true entering the Sweet 16, it’ll be true heading into the Wolverines’ Elite Eight matchup against Alabama or UCLA and it may or may not still be true for longer than that. But if the Wolverines don’t go all the way, it’ll be the 20th tournament in a row won by a team from another conference.

Anyone else remember a fresh-faced, chipper lad named Tom Izzo beaming in triumph after Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and Charlie Bell — aka “the Flintstones” — took it to a Florida team coached by an even more boyish lad named Billy Donovan in the final? OK, so Izzo was 45 at the time, not all that young. But Donovan was 34. What ever happened to him, anyway?

That’s how long it has been for the Big Ten, folks. It’s sad. It’s puzzling. It’s more than a little embarrassing.

But calling it a two-decade cold streak doesn’t do justice to the Big Ten’s March irrelevance, because the most recent title prior to Michigan State’s came all the way back in 1989. Yes, now we’ve receded into Nick Anderson-failing-to-box-out-Sean Higgins territory, which is never fun to relive. Illinois’ pain and Michigan’s glory all those years ago was the next-to-last time the Big Ten ended on top, if you can believe it. I just typed it, and I can’t.

The ACC has won it all eight times since 2000 — three times each for Duke and North Carolina, with individual breakthroughs by Maryland (ironically, now in the Big Ten) and Virginia.

The SEC got two titles from Donovan’s Florida heyday and one from John Calipari at Kentucky. The Big East got two titles from Connecticut and one each from Syracuse and Louisville, not that those three schools are even in the conference anymore. But the Big East also got Villanova’s triumphs in 2016 and 2018.

The Big 12 (Kansas in 2008) and the American Athletic (UConn in 2014) have cut down the nets more recently than the Big Ten, too. And they have Baylor and Houston, respectively, as heavy favorites in this tournament to get to the Final Four.

The Big Ten has — stop me if I’ve already mentioned this — Michigan and Michigan alone. Maybe a fresh-faced lad named Juwan Howard will lead the Wolverines to the top. Howard, 48, has accomplished one big thing after another in the sport since launching from CVS, but he’s in only his second season as a head coach.

“We’re grinding, man,” he said. “And we’re doing it collectively. And it’s beautiful just to see the development that is happening before our eyes.”

“Beautiful” and “Big Ten” don’t often go together in March. No need to tell the Wolverines that, though. They’ve already got all the league’s eggs in their basket.

Michigan blasts FSU 76-58, keeps alive Big Ten hopes of ending long, sad title-less streakon March 29, 2021 at 1:13 am Read More »

Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 high school football rankings for March 28, 2021on March 29, 2021 at 1:31 am

New additions to the Super 25

Barrington (2-0): The Broncos are off to a great start with wins against Palatine and Schaumburg.

Hillcrest (2-0): Mar’Keise Irving is a game-changing running back and the Hawks picked up a nice win against Lemont in Week 2.

Simeon (1-0): The Wolverines knocked off Hubbard and face Perspectives next.

Dropping out

Homewood-Flossmoor (1-1): This is a bit like Bolingbrook last week. Maybe it is too harsh to drop out after losing to Lincoln-Way East, but the Vikings were shut out 31-0. So they bow out for now.

Montini (0-2): It’s been a tough schedule, but 0-2 won’t get it done right now.

Phillips (0-0): This isn’t Phillips fault, but having a team that hasn’t played a game yet in the rankings just didn’t feel right when so many teams have played and won two games.

Week 3’s Super 25

With record and last week’s ranking

1. Loyola (2-0) 1

Thursday at No. 9 Brother Rice

2. Lincoln-Way East (2-0) 3

Friday vs. Lincoln-Way Central

3. Marist (2-0) 7

Saturday at No. 8 Mount Carmel

4. Batavia (2-0) 4

Friday vs. Geneva

5. Glenbard West (2-0) 6

Thursday vs. Downers Grove North

6. St. Rita (1-1) 9

Friday vs. Providence

7. Naperville Central (2-0) 10

Saturday at Naperville North

8. Mount Carmel (1-1) 2

Saturday vs. No. 3 Marist

9. Brother Rice (1-1) 5

Thursday vs. No. 1 Loyola

10. Warren (2-0) 11

Thursday at Waukegan

11. Nazareth (1-0) 12

Thursday at De La Salle

12. Maine South (2-0) 13

Thursday vs. Glenbrook North

13. Prairie Ridge (2-0) 14

Thursday at Crystal Lake Central

14. Hinsdale Central (2-0) 15

Saturday vs. York

15. Wheaton Warrenville South (2-0) 16

Saturday at Wheaton North

16. Joliet Catholic (2-0) 17

Thursday vs. St. Ignatius

17. Oswego (2-0) 20

Friday vs. West Aurora

18. Cary-Grove (1-0) 18

Will not play Week 3

19. Fremd (2-0) 23

Thursday at Palatine

20. Huntley (2-0) 24

Friday at McHenry

21. Barrington (2-0) NR

Thursday at Conant

22. Neuqua Valley (1-0) 21

Will not play Week 3

23. Simeon (1-0) NR

Saturday vs. Perspectives

24. Hillcrest (2-0) NR

Friday at Tinley Park

25. DeKalb (1-0) 25

Saturday at Waubonsie Valley

Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 high school football rankings for March 28, 2021on March 29, 2021 at 1:31 am Read More »

Four Downs: News and notes from Week 2 in high school footballon March 29, 2021 at 1:38 am

St. Rita has developed into one of the most fascinating football teams around.

The Mustangs feature junior running back Kaleb Brown, possibly the most dynamic and exciting player in the Chicago area. Brown has scholarship offers from Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan and a dozen more powerhouse schools. He’s a top-50 national talent in the Class of 2022.

St. Rita has a handful of other college-bound players, including receiver Henry Wilson, a Western Michigan recruit. The Mustangs almost knocked off top-ranked Loyola in Week 1. They led most of the way and lost 7-3. They routed Montini 51-13 on Saturday.

”St. Rita, I don’t know who is going to touch them in their conference play,” Loyola coach John Holecek said after his team beat No. 2 Mount Carmel on Saturday. ”They are a special team. . . . [St. Rita] just had so many athletes and so many disrupters on the front line.”

The Mustangs host Providence on Friday and round out the season against Marian Catholic, Benet and Notre Dame.

Phillips forced to wait

Phillips had its game against Raby canceled late last week. Raby doesn’t have enough players to field a team this season.

Wildcats coach Troy McAllister exhausted all his options but wasn’t able to find a replacement. That means Phillips will play four games this season at most. The Wildcats will play Westinghouse at Solorio on Saturday.

The football season is following a trend we saw during the COVID-19 basketball season: Teams from schools and leagues with a lot of resources get to play games, and teams in less fortunate circumstances end up barely playing at all.

Play the kids

Nazareth is going to be a stat-keeper’s nightmare this season — but for the best reason possible. Check out what Roadrunners coach Tim Racki told Friday Night Drive’s Josh Welge after his team beat St. Laurence on Saturday:

”These kids have been sitting around for an entire year, they’re only allowing parents into games, there’s no playoffs, [so] I’m going to play every one of my kids — and not just in cleanup time,” Racki said. ”These parents, after being shut down, I’m not going to have their kids sitting on the sideline. Whatever the result is on the scoreboard, so be it.”

That’s the best thing I’ve read from anyone involved with high school athletics in a while. It’s pretty clear why so many of the most talented kids in the area want to play for Racki, isn’t it?

Griffins making a case

On Saturday morning, it looked as though the big showdown between No. 1 Loyola and No. 2 Mount Carmel might not mean as much as expected.

Lincoln-Way East has opened the season with running-clock victories against Bolingbrook and Homewood-Flossmoor. That’s about as solid a case as a team can make for the top spot.

Mount Carmel or Loyola had to come out and make a significant claim to the No. 1 ranking, or the Griffins would have taken it over. The Ramblers did that by solidly handling the Caravan.

Four Downs: News and notes from Week 2 in high school footballon March 29, 2021 at 1:38 am Read More »

With Daniel Theis now in the mix, the Bulls need to get defensiveon March 29, 2021 at 1:47 am

Nikola Vucevic only has 11 playoff games on his resume.

What carries weight, however, is that’s about 11 more than most of his new Bulls teammates.

So when the big man stresses the importance of getting the defensive side of the ball organized as quickly as possible, he knows of what he speaks.

The question is how do the Bulls do that with so many new faces and so little practice time to get guys familiar with each other?

The first step started on Sunday with Daniel Theis joining his new team for a practice in San Francisco, after he was acquired from Boston on Thursday, but was delayed for family matters.

“The way I play, I’m physical,” Theis said in his first zoom call with the Bulls media. “That was my role with the Celtics too. Be a defensive anchor. Be vocal. Be loud.

“Put my body in there. Protect the rim. Protect the paint. Just be there for my teammates. Whenever I’m on the court, bring energy and help the team get better.”

Definitely a good starting point, but Theis can’t magically fix the defense all himself.

Those issues on that side of the ball were very present in the loss to San Antonio on Saturday, especially with the starters. Case in point was allowing 33 points in that opening quarter, but even more concerning looking confused on matchups, especially in transition and on pick-and-roll.

Donovan identified a number of those issues.

“The biggest thing we have to address is just our defense,” Donovan said of the new-look roster in its debut. “I didn’t think we had enough presence at the basket for a good portion of the game. I think it started out top. Our ball pressure and our guard pressure in the basketball pick-and-roll has to be much better. I thought the ball went wherever it wanted to go. And then I thought when it came downhill we didn’t have enough presence at the basket to contest and challenge.”

Vucevic agreed with all of that. Familiarity with each other will work some of that out. Understanding the new terminology will also smooth things out.

But at some point there just has to be a will that kicks in, especially against an aggressive team like the Spurs, who just went right at the Bulls’ defense.

“Part of it, for sure, was the terminology, for example, for me is very new,” Vucevic said. “The way certain things are done are new, so I had to get adjusted to that. But I think we weren’t doing a good job getting to the ball and helping and covering for each other and things like that. They were really aggressive coming at us and we just didn’t respond the way we needed to.

“If we play more aggressively there are going to be mistakes, but when you’re playing with more aggressiveness you can cover some of those things up.”

Covering up that better come sooner than later.

If the Bulls thought the Spurs put pressure on their defense with an aggressive mentality, take a look at what’s coming. The Warriors on Monday, then the Suns, Jazz and Nets.

“People tend to talk more about offense, which is very important, especially nowadays in the NBA, but we have to make sure we figure out both at the same time and get that right,” Vucevic said. “There are going to be games where we struggle offensively, and good defense is going to give us a chance. Hopefully once we get to the playoffs defense is very, very important.”

With Daniel Theis now in the mix, the Bulls need to get defensiveon March 29, 2021 at 1:47 am Read More »

Man fatally shot in drive-by in West Pullman: policeon March 29, 2021 at 12:26 am

A 29-year-old man was fatally shot Sunday evening in West Pullman on the Far South Side.

About 6:05 p.m., he was inside a vehicle in the 11900 block of South Prairie Avenue, when a vehicle pulled alongside him and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said.

He was struck multiple times and brought to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he died, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not yet identified the man.

Chicago police are investigating the shooting.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

Man fatally shot in drive-by in West Pullman: policeon March 29, 2021 at 12:26 am Read More »

Adbert Alzolay on making Cubs’ Opening Day roster: ‘It’s a huge step forward in my career’on March 28, 2021 at 11:29 pm

SURPRISE, Ariz. – Adbert Alzolay was speechless when finding out he made the Cubs’ Opening Day roster. Manager David Ross announced on Saturday that the right-hander had made the team for the first time.

Even with a day to process the good news, it still hasn’t set for Alzolay that when the team heads back to Chicago on Monday, he’ll be joining them.

“When he called me to the office, anytime you go into the office you are kind of in between because, right now, they have really hard decisions to make. But when he called me and told me, ‘Congrats you made the roster.’ It just brought joy to me. I was so happy I couldn’t say anything. The only thing that I could say back to him was that I was so happy to be getting this opportunity.”

Alzolay will begin the season as the Cubs’ fifth starter and he’ll likely see time in both the starting rotation and the bullpen as the team closely monitors his innings.

“I’m getting what I have worked for,” Alzolay said. “For me, it’s a huge step forward in my career. I feel that all the work that I’ve been putting in with all these guys here are at the complex this past offseason and these years, I feel like that is paying off. Like I said before, that was my main goal [to make the Opening Day roster]. I wasn’t paying attention to everything that was talking around me. I didn’t put any of those thoughts in my mind.”

Alzolay’s earned rave reviews this spring around the organization for his preparation and dedication to making himself the best pitcher he can be. Nobody has been a bigger advocate for Alzolay than veteran Jake Arrieta, who was as thrilled as anyone his mentee had cracked the rotation.

“It’s a tremendous honor to make an Opening Day roster and for Alzolay to be in a rotation, very happy for him,” Arrieta said. “I look forward to continuing to work with him and watch him grow. He’s nowhere near where he’s gonna be and that’s a good thing.

“He’s in a great place, he’s only going to get better. He’s a tremendous student of the game. He prepares himself extremely well and there’s still room to grow.”

Cubs sign Maybin to minor-league deal

The Cubs signed outfielder Cameron Maybin to a minor-league deal on Sunday. Maybin, 33, will report to the Cubs’ alternate site in South Bend to begin the season.

There wasn’t a spot for Maybin on the team’s Opening Day roster after the team’s final roster decisions and he was granted his release on Saturday. But the organization holds Maybin in high regard for both his professionalism and influence in the team’s clubhouse.

“When you get to have guys like that around your group and on your team, it’s a positive,” Ross said. “When I got the news this morning about that, I was super excited. Happy to have him around. He likes being around. He’s a breath of fresh air every time you see him. He’s a quality human being, great baseball player. He’s done a lot in this game seeing winning, seeing losing. He knows how to talk to young guys. He relates to a lot of different things. He’s played a lot of different roles. I couldn’t be happier.”

Adbert Alzolay on making Cubs’ Opening Day roster: ‘It’s a huge step forward in my career’on March 28, 2021 at 11:29 pm Read More »

‘Next man up’ is White Sox motto heading into 2021 seasonon March 28, 2021 at 10:04 pm

GLENDALE, Ariz. — There is no getting around the magnitude of the loss of Eloy Jimenez.

Publicly, teammates, coaches and front office voices are saying what they would be expected to say, that the White Sox are deep enough offensively even without Jimenez and coupled with a good-looking pitching staff to forge ahead and still be a postseason team as they have expected to be.

“Next man up,” as Opening Day starter Lucas Giolito said.

Privately, they must be thinking that losing a Silver Slugger poised to ascend into All-Star company, a middle of the order masher who hits for average and to all fields and over walls from pole to pole is a crushing blow. Jimenez was not forgotten Sunday, his red batting glove hanging out of MVP Jose Abreu’s back pocket.

He won’t be forgotten all season long.

With Jimenez, many viewed the Sox as the team to beat in the AL Central, and many saw them as the best team in the American League. Without him, Billy Hamilton might be getting more reps in left field than anyone imagined a month ago.

“That’s a big blow. No way around that,” Giolito said. “I think we have that mentality. Injuries are going to happen. Things out of our control are going to happen.

“It’s like, what do we do now? Next man up, we have that culture in our clubhouse where we are going to support each other. We are all going to fight and do everything we can. It really sucks to lose Eloy for these next X amount of months, we have guys for that role and it’s just more motivation.”

Andrew Vaughn, a first baseman by trade, played left field for the second time in three days Sunday, an indication the Sox are seriously considering using him there quite a bit. La Russa didn’t rule out the possibility and for the second time, Vaughn wasn’t a hazard out there, catching a routine fly and getting the ball into second on a double.

Reliance on a pitching staff featuring four who finished in the top 10 in AL Cy Young voting last season. A rotation of Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, Lance Lynn, Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodon (which has featured a combined 2.24 ERA this spring) and a bullpen touted as one of the best in baseball looks very good at the surface. With Jose Ruiz or recent waiver claim Nik Turley as the top 13^th arm candidates on the staff and largely untested prospects Jimmy Lambert and Jonathan Stiever first in line for next man up, the Sox’ depth will be tested.

With Adam Engel, who is working his way back from a hamstring strain, in left field – or Leury Garcia, who like Engel has played a lot in center — the Sox can be stronger defensively if La Russa chooses them to be.

“The only place you can look at is left field,” La Russa said. “Center field, right field, all four infield spots, catcher [are good]. … Whether it’s Andrew or who plays left field, they’ll hold their own. So I think it’s a contender kind of defense. Talk is cheap, but that’s what I think.”

After six weeks of spring training, in which the Sox lost reliever Jimmy Cordero to Tommy John surgery, Engel for the first couple of weeks and Jimenez, the Sox open the season with four games in Anaheim starting Thursday.

“The definition of how ready we are comes Thursday night when the other side is trying to beat you,” La Russa said. “I would not change anything about effort level of the club, the attention to the practices and nobody is been half-stepping it. No excuses.

“The weather has cooperated. We generated a lot of playing time. Lately we’ve been more competitive so that’s more fun. But there’s a lot of talent and in this game, you have to execute plays, pitches, at-bats, and I think we are a team that’s learning. But we are fast learners.”

‘Next man up’ is White Sox motto heading into 2021 seasonon March 28, 2021 at 10:04 pm Read More »

Man dead, firefighter hurt in East Garfield Park fireon March 28, 2021 at 10:24 pm

A man died and a firefighter was hurt in a fire Sunday morning in East Garfield Park on the West Side.

Authorities responded to a residence with its exterior on fire about 9:30 a.m. in the 2600 block of West Monroe Street, and found a 53-year-old male unresponsive inside, Chicago police and fire officials said.

The man was brought to Stroger Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, police said. A firefighter was taken to the same hospital as a precaution after suffering shortness of breath.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office hasn’t released details on the fatality.

Officials were investigating the cause of the fire.

Man dead, firefighter hurt in East Garfield Park fireon March 28, 2021 at 10:24 pm Read More »