The Bears are hiring former Texas head coach Tom Herman. | Tim Warner/Getty Images
He’ll serve in a newly created role — offensive analyst/special projects coach.
The Bears are hiring former University of Texas head coach Tom Herman in a newly created role — offensive analyst/special projects coach.
The Longhorns fired Herman in early January after four years, during which he went 32-18 at one of America’s premier coaching stops. His 7-3 showing in 2020 wasn’t deemed good enough, though, and he was eventually replaced by Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
Herman was the head coach at Houston for two years, going 22-4 before taking the Texas job.
Herman has never coached outside of college football — or, except for a five-year period, the state of Texas. It’s unclear what special projects he will oversee, and how much time he will spend inside Halas Hall. He joins former Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, who was named a senior defensive assistant last month.
Also Monday, the Bears named Anthony Hibbert assistant strength coach. He spent the past six seasons at Oklahoma State.
Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler stands next to midfielder Vanessa Dibernardo who was celebrating her 100th NWSL appearance in 2019. | Daniel Bartel/ISIPhotos.com
The announcement comes on the heels of a number of newly named celebrity investors in NWSL teams.
The announcement comes on the heels of a number of newly named celebrity investors in NWSL teams. The Red Stars’ 14 new investors include industry leaders in entertainment, technology and business with ties to Chicago. Their goal is to continue developing a world-class environment reflective of the athletes playing for the Red Stars.
For Coyne Schofield and her husband, NFL unrestricted free agent Michael Schofield, their investment is deeply personal.
As a member of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, which just embarked on its second Dream Gap Tour, Coyne Schofield is all too familiar with the lack of investment in women’s sports. Her involvement — like her career as a player, a broadcaster and a development coach — is to show women what’s possible.
Annie Costabile/Sun-TimesKendall Coyne Schofield addresses a group of young athletes before they break up into different groups at the PWHPA’s youth clinic at the United Center in 2019.
“As two professional athletes ourselves, we’ve had two very different experiences in the professional sports world,” Coyne Schofield said. “Our involvement is beyond capital. It’s about bringing awareness to the disparity between men’s and women’s professional sports.”
“Kendall is one of the hardest working athletes I know,” Schofield said. “Women’s sports don’t get the respect they deserve. By us investing in it, we hope that it helps grow the women’s game. And when I say the women’s game, I mean all of them.”
Coyne Schofield jokes that even though her life revolves around women’s sports and advocating for the sustainability of women’s professional sports leagues, women’s hockey more specifically, her husband might be the biggest women’s sports fan in their household.
Regardless, they’re hoping their investment will inspire others to invest in women’s sports when they see the difference it makes.
Before making their final decision, Coyne Schofield said she was fortunate to have a conversation with Spain. When she learned Spain was on board, along with other investors such as music executive Colleen Mares and entrepreneur Marie Tillman, it reinforced the reasons she wanted to be involved.
The Red Stars are the latest NWSL franchise to announce the addition of high-profile investors. In January, four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka joined the back-to-back championship-winning North Carolina Courage. After the news broke, founding and majority Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler texted the Sun-Times that the Red Stars spoke to the tennis star, too.
Introducing the newest caretakers of this team – they are owners, fans, community members, dreamers, builders, movers, growers, and more broad shoulders to stand upon. It’s a Chicago thing.
Spain said she felt inspired by colleague and two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist Julie Foudy’s ownership stake in Angel City FC. It didn’t occur to her that the Red Stars might be expanding their ownership group or that she would be approached by Whisler. She just knew she wanted to be an owner.
“At the ESPNW Summit, one of my panels was with Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle,” Spain said. “Abby talked in her book about if they don’t give you a seat at the table, screw pulling up a chair and build a new table. I think I kind of joked with [Julie] Foudy and Glennon and Abby, saying, ‘Well, I’m going to be an owner.’ ”
Spain began earnest conversations with Whisler in October. When she brought the idea to her financial advisor, she was told, “This is a perfect fit for you.”
When Whisler originally set out to expand the Red Stars’ capital base, he did it with a few goals in mind. He wanted to reflect the diversity of the organization’s fan base in its owners, to be able to attract global soccer stars and to secure the future success of the organization.
Chicago’s new ownership group was introduced to the media Monday afternoon. During the zoom press conference, Whisler said he expects fans to return to the stadium this season at 25% capacity. The Red Stars’ first home game will fall between May 15 and May 22, Whisler added.
The continuous growth across the NWSL from league sponsorships that include Budweiser, Twitch, Verizon and CBS, to team investors indicates the future of women’s soccer in the United States is bright. There is still a huge gap between women’s professional leagues and men’s from the obvious disparities in media coverage all the way, to pay and training environments.
Idonije addressed those differences saying he never could have imagined working multiple jobs in order to sustain his 11-year professional football career. A reality for many professional athletes in the NWSL and other professional women’s sports leagues.
“These are elite pro athletes, period,” Idonije said. “Everything they experience needs to be on that level, the same level that other pro athletes are experiencing in other leagues.”
Based on the revenue from attendance expectations for 2021, sponsorships, camps and clinics and merchandise the team has already added $500,000 in spending that can be put towards training environment, housing and front office hires.
As far as how this investor group alleviated the financial strain caused by the pandemic, Whisler said the first funds weren’t brought in until November. By that time, the organization had weathered much of the fallout without assistance other than the federal PPP loan it received for $127,924 last April.
What Whisler said this group gave was a commitment to the 2021 season and beyond and the team is not done adding to its new list of investors.
“There are more coming,” Whisler said.
The list of owners, which the team said is still developing:
Four people were shot Feb. 28, 2021 at a gas station in East Chicago, Indiana. | File photo
The shooting happened Sunday at a gas station in the 1200 block of West Chicago Avenue.
A 7-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were among four people wounded in a shooting Sunday night at a gas station in East Chicago, Indiana.
The shooting unfolded about 9:10 p.m. after two women, 23 and 20, drove to a gas station with the child and teen in the 1200 block of West Chicago Avenue, according to East Chicago police.
The two women entered the gas station to purchase items and noticed a man and woman inside staring at them, police said.
When the women returned to the vehicle, they noticed the man and woman had also left the station and then heard gunfire, police said.
The 23-year-old woman was shot in her upper back and hospitalized in serious condition, police said.
The girl was shot in the right arm and the teen boy was struck in the right ankle, police said. Both were taken to St. Catherine Hospital where their conditions stabilized.
The 20-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the left arm and was taken to the same hospital, where her condition stabilized, police said.
GettyActress Erica Watson attends the “CHI-RAQ” New York premiere at Ziegfeld Theater on December 1, 2015 in New York City.
Chicago actress and stand-up comedian Erica Watson died in Jamaica on Saturday from COVID-19 complications, according to a family member. She was 48.
On Sunday, Watson’s brother, Eric Watson, confirmed his sister’s death via a Facebook post, writing, in part: “We are not taking this easy. Please respect our privacy right now … as we make arrangements to bring my sister home. Keep us in your prayers.”
Watson, a Kenwood Academy High School and Columbia College alumna, wore many hats as an actress, stand-up comedian, public relations representative and activist. Her acting credits and media work include Showtime’s “The Chi,” NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” Spike Lee’s feature film“Chi-Raq,” ABC 7’s “Windy City Live” and WCIU’s “The Jam.”
In 2018, Watson created “Fierce,” a cosmetic collection in a brand partnership with Nena Cosmetics, where she was one of the cover girls for their advertisements.
“When I was a little girl ‘What Are Little Girls Made Of’ was my favorite nursery rhyme, but I wasn’t the normal little girl where it was just sugar and spice and everything nice. There was a little naughty in the mix,” she told the Sun-Times in 2018.
2:50 p.m. Excitement, tears and masks as CPS students head back to school for 1st time during pandemic
Nicole Ramirez thought she’d be able to handle it, but then she saw staff at Walt Disney Magnet School swipe her 7-year-old daughter’s forehead with a thermometer.
And Ramirez started to cry.
“It’s something about everything we’ve gone through this year. Dropping her off has been really emotional for me,” said Ramirez, 40, still teary eyed as she talked Monday morning in Uptown.
Ramirez’s daughter was one of more than 37,000 K-5 Chicago Public Schools students expected to return Monday, with another 18,500 in sixth to eighth grade set to return next week. That’s the largest group to return since the pandemic started, although 145,000 have chosen to continue learning remotely.
12:54 p.m. Johnson & Johnson’s one-and-done vaccine arriving in Chicago this week, mayor says
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she expects Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine to arrive in Chicago in day or two and the city is ready to put the third option to immediate use.
Two days after the Food and Drug Administration cleared the J&J vaccine for emergency use, Lightfoot told reporters she’s chomping at the bit to take advantage of the one-and-done option it provides.
“We anticipate that it will be here, if not today, then tomorrow. I don’t have a firm lock on what the amount of doses is, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But we do expect it here this week,” the mayor said at a news conference on the gradual re-opening of Chicago Public Schools.
“We will put it to work as soon as we get it. CDPH has been preparing now for some time, as we saw the Johnson & Johnson vaccine kind of moving through the regulatory approval process. And it gives us obviously another tool to use to get people vaccinated. So we’re excited for that opportunity.”
Johnson & Johnson initially is providing a few million doses of its one-shot vaccine, with shipments to states expected to begin Monday. By the end of March, the pharmaceutical giant has said it expects to deliver 20 million doses, ramping up to 100 million doses by summer.
11:40 a.m. It’s another back-to-school Monday for CPS
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times Children walk to George B. Armstrong International Studies Elementary School as students return to in-person learning at the Rogers Park neighborhood school on the North Side, Monday morning, March 1, 2021.
Nicole Ramirez thought she’d be able to handle it, but then she saw staff at Walt Disney Magnet School swipe her 7-year-old daughter’s forehead with a thermometer.
And Ramirez started to cry.
“It’s something about everything we’ve gone through this year. Dropping her off has been really emotional for me,” said Ramirez, 40, still teary-eyed as she talked Monday morning.
More than 37,000 K-5 students are due to return Monday, with another 18,500 in sixth to eighth grade set to return next week. That’s in addition to the 5,000 pre-kindergarten and special education cluster program students who have been in classrooms already.
Disney Principal Paul Riskus stood outside the North Side school, greeting parents — many of whom were, perhaps not surprisingly, a little confused about which entrance to use at the sprawling concrete-and-steel campus.
“We’re ready. We’ve been getting ready since July,” Riskus said. “There have definitely been challenges, but I’m really excited about today. We feel the building is safe and we’re really just excited about seeing the kids.”
9:39 a.m. Near West Side’s profit lure outlasts the pandemic’s lull
Wander the sidewalks of the Near West Side, and it’s easy to get an eerie sensation. It’s almost like a “Twilight Zone” episode about a place with evidence of human habitation right there, maybe just around the corner, and yet you don’t see anybody.
It’s just the mind playing tricks, after all. Whatever name applies — West Loop, Fulton Market, West Town — the region was Chicago’s busiest place for development and an extension of downtown’s commercial might.
It’s hushed now, as people are still staying out of offices. With capacity limits in place, restaurants are groggily stirring to life, but there is still less reason than before to be out and about, even with the weather easing up.
Look closer, though, at the signs of ongoing investment, and the neighborhood gives off a different vibe. Having recoiled in the pandemic, parts look ready to spring back to business.
State health officials reported an additional 22 people have succumbed to COVID-19, bringing the number of virus-related deaths to 20,516. Eight of Sunday’s 22 fatalities were reported in the Chicago area and included three Cook County men in their 60s.
8:28 a.m. Pandemic makes obvious another great health threat to African Americans: obesity
As COVID-19 descended on us last March, the Fat Nag watched with dread and hope.
Dread, knowing this 21st-century plague would hit Black folks hardest. When it comes to health disparities, we always weigh in on the wrong side of the scale.
And as the Fat Nag always reminds, there is another plague that affects us most — our everlasting battle with obesity.
I harbored hope, however, the pandemic would usher in a new awareness that the fat is killing us.
For years, as the self-proclaimed Fat Nag, I have been reminding, railing and begging Black folks to get the fat out.
Arson and homicide detectives were investigating a Sunday fire in the Gresham neighborhood in which a mother and her daughter died.
The cause of fire hasn’t been determined, but there was enough evidence at the scene to turn over the investigation to police, according to Chicago fire spokesman Larry Langford.
Chicago police bomb and arson detectives, as well as homicide detectives, were investigating the cause of the fire, a police spokeswoman said Monday.
Porche Stinson Ford, 15, and Ieshia Ford, 34, were found in the burning house by firefighters about 4 a.m. Sunday in the 8600 block of South Hermitage Avenue, officials said.
They were taken in critical condition to Little Company of Mary Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
Autopsy results were expected to be released later Monday by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Neighbors told CBS2-Chicago that the fire broke out in the rear of the home where Ford and her daughter lived. Neighbors told the station that the girl was 10 years old, but the medical examiner’s office listed her age as 15.
Two other women and two men were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for treatment, police said.
The home had no working smoke detectors, fire officials said.
A 72-year-old man died while trying to escape from a fire Friday in West Garfield Park.
The man was identified as Edward Lemon by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
He tried to escape but succumbed to heavy smoke after a blaze broke out about 4:45 p.m. at a home in the 4300 block of West Maypole Avenue, Chicago fire officials said.
Firefighters found the man in the back of the home and he was taken to West Suburban Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.
Autopsy results released Saturday found he died from thermal and inhalation injuries from an apartment fire. His death was ruled an accident.
In just a few short years, Recess at City Hall has become a staple in the Chicago bar scene and for good reason. It’s spacious atmosphere, great drinks, and games make it one of the best places for day drinking in the West Loop neighborhood. It also is a perfect venue for pop up bars that you don’t have to travel all the way to Lincoln Park for, and now, they’re hosting the Sugar Rush Pop-Up at Recess. What do you need to know?
Who doesn’t love candy and cocktails? I definitely do and as far as I’m concerned you should too. Here you will feel like a kid in a candy store with its bright and colorful cocktails. Recess has been known for its bars, food stands, and cabana houses during the winter months, but now they’ve gone above and beyond to offer you a sweet and vibrant experience.
Every Thursday through Sunday until March 14th, The Sugar Rush Pop Up will be offering colorful and tasty cocktails alongside the fire. They also offer boozy hot chocolate if you’re not a cocktail kind.
And if that’s not enough, the candyland has an array of giant colorful walls and backdrops for the perfect photo op. Displays consisting of giant ice cream cones,lollipops, hard candy, donuts, cupcakes, and many more fill the space so you feel like Willy Wonka of the West Loop. As if all of that wasn’t enough to convince you, each pop-up ticket comes with a Sugar Rush specialty cocktail, a boozy peanut butter hot chocolate, a gourmet rice krispie treat, a Recess beanie, and a goodie back of treats. But you need to hurry, because these tickets will not last! You definitely do not want to miss this sweet and tasty adventure.
Although I had so many things that I needed to accomplish this weekend, I spent it watching Netflix, mostly binge-watching season one of Ginny and Georgia. Although no one seems to call it binge-reading, I do this with books also. Other than the obvious reason to be entertained by a good story, why else do I binge on a show or a book? Why can’t I stop? To binge on something is defined as excessive indulgence. To break that down again, indulgence is to yield to a desire. Did I have a desire to watch hours of TV or read for nine hours? I’m not sure about that, but I do know that I have some personal struggles going on, in addition to the stress of this never ending pandemic, so I spent most of the weekend zoning out and actively NOT thinking about my own life. It was a bit of escapism, or maybe big-time escapism. In the past when I was troubled or had decisions to make, I would talk to friends and family, go for a drive or even take a long walk or run, but now I sat and watched TV and tried my hardest not to think. I have admitted to myself and to others that I believe I have a repetitive type tendency. I can eat the same think for breakfast for 25 years; I can drive the same way to work every day, and I can keep the furniture in my room the same for years. It makes sense then that I can sit and watch a show for hours on end, but should I? Everyone talks about binge-watching shows, but for me it does feel hard to break the cycle. I was up until 4:30 Saturday night reading a book, and 2:30 Sunday night watching Netflix. I was tired both nights and knew I should just stop and go to sleep. Luckily, I am off work today, but I know that I can’t pick up a book or turn on the TV or I will not get anything done all day.
While it is easy to focus on the negative aspects of life, I choose to continue looking for the good in people and in the world around me, and I want to share why they do what they do. I am the proud mother of three adult daughters and live in the Chicago area. I have worked in the Early Childhood Education field since 2001, and I write books when the inspiration comes.
In this image from a video, anti-coup protesters run away from tear gas launched by security forces in Yangon, Myanmar Monday, March 1, 2021. Defiant crowds returned to the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city on Monday, determined to continue their protests against the military’s seizure of power a month ago, despite security forces having killed at least 18 people around the country just a day earlier. | AP
The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar after five decades of military rule.
YANGON, Myanmar — Police in Myanmar’s biggest city fired tear gas Monday at defiant crowds who returned to the streets to protest last month’s coup, despite reports that security forces had killed at least 18 people a day earlier.
The protesters in Yangon were chased as they tried to gather at their usual meeting spot at the Hledan Center intersection. Demonstrators scattered and sought in vain to rinse the irritating gas from their eyes, but later regrouped.
The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar after five decades of military rule. It came Feb. 1, the same day a newly elected Parliament was supposed to take office. Ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party would have led that government, but instead she was detained along with President Win Myint and other senior officials.
The army has leveled several charges against Suu Kyi — an apparent effort by the military to provide a legal veneer for her detention and potentially to bar her from running in the election the junta has promised to hold in one year. On Monday, Suu Kyi made a court appearance via videoconference and was charged with two more offenses, her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters.
Accused of inciting unrest, she was charged under a law that dates from British colonial days and has long been criticized as a vaguely defined catch-all statute that inhibits freedom of expression. That charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The other charge from Monday carries a one-year sentence.
Following her detention on the day of the coup, the 75-year-old Suu Kyi was initially held at her residence in the capital of Naypyitaw, but members of her National League for Democracy party now say they don’t know where she is.
Since the takeover, a movement of protests in cities across the country has been growing — and the junta’s response has become increasingly violent.
The U.N. said it had “credible information” that at least 18 people were killed and 30 were wounded across Myanmar on Sunday. Counts from other sources, such the Democratic Voice of Burma, an independent television and online news outlet, put the death toll in the 20s.
Any of the reports would make it the highest single-day death toll since the military takeover. The junta has also made mass arrests, and the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reported that as many as 1,000 people were detained Sunday. Several journalists have been among those detained, including one for The Associated Press.
At least five people are believed to have been killed Sunday in Yangon when police shot at protesters, who have remained nonviolent despite provocation from the security forces and pro-military counter-demonstrators.
People erected makeshift sidewalk shrines Monday at the spots where several of the victims were shot and also paid their respects by standing outside the hospitals where the bodies were being released to families.
In Dawei, a small city in southeastern Myanmar where five people were reported killed Sunday, the number of protesters on the streets Monday was lower than usual, but they paraded to the applause of bystanders.
Confirming the deaths of protesters has been difficult in areas outside Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw. But in many cases, there was evidence posted online such as videos of shootings, photos of bullet casings collected afterwards and gruesome pictures of bodies.
In a statement published Monday in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry declared that the junta “is exercising utmost restraint to avoid the use of force in managing the violent protests systematically, in accordance with domestic and international laws in order to keep minimum casualties.”
But U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and arbitrary arrests “unacceptable,” said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“Words of condemnation are necessary and welcome but insufficient. The world must act. We must all act,” the U.N.’s independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said in a separate statement.
He proposed that countries could institute a global embargo on the sale of arms to Myanmar and “tough, targeted and coordinated sanctions” against those responsible for the coup, the crackdown and other rights abuses.
Social media posts from Myanmar have increasingly urged the international community to invoke the doctrine of the “responsibility to protect” to intervene directly to restrain the junta.
Any kind of coordinated action at the United Nations, however, would be difficult since two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China and Russia, would almost certainly veto it.
Instead, some countries have imposed or are considering imposing their own sanctions. In Washington, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan issued a statement saying the U.S. is “alarmed” by the violence and stands in solidarity with Myanmar’s people.
Washington is among those that have levied sanctions, and Sullivan said it would “impose further costs on those responsible,” promising details “in the coming days.”
Members of Suu Kyi’s party have also created a committee that they are asking other countries to recognize as a provisional government and the true representatives of Myanmar’s people.
The committee recently appointed a doctor and philanthropist from the ethnic Chin minority to be a special envoy to the United Nations.
In an interview Sunday night with the AP, the envoy, Sasa, who uses one name, said he would discuss with U.N. human rights expert Andrews pursuing legal actions against the generals through international courts.
“We are looking at international criminal courts and other U.N. mechanisms. It will be a little bit difficult to do it though the United Nations Security Council but we are looking at great length what can be done” to bring these generals to account, he said, speaking from a secret location due to fears for his safety.
Many expect Myanmar’s military to be intractable, but Sasa said he believes the junta is already beginning to see the difficulty of running a functioning government.
“I hope that they will come to the negotiating table, so we can talk together,” said Sasa.
Among the arrests made Sunday, the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners was able to identify about 270 people, bringing to 1,132 the total number of people the group has confirmed has been arrested, charged or sentenced since the coup.
Thein Zaw, an AP journalist, was taken into police custody on Saturday morning while providing news coverage of the protests. He remains in police custody.
The AP called for his immediate release.
“Independent journalists must be allowed to freely and safely report the news without fear of retribution. AP decries in the strongest terms the arbitrary detention of Thein Zaw,” said Ian Phillips, the AP’s vice president for international news.
According to information collected by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and local media reports, at least seven other journalists were detained over the weekend — all of whom work for local media. At least another 13 have been detained since the coup.
Illinois moved up to No. 4 in the new AP Top 25 poll. | Morry Gash/AP
The Illini climbed to fourth and Iowa gave the Big Ten three teams in the top five.
Michigan finally broke the stranglehold of Gonzaga and Baylor atop The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll on Monday, taking advantage of the Bears’ loss at Kansas to leap into the No. 2 spot behind the Bulldogs.
Gonzaga continued to hold down the top spot in the Top 25, just as it has all season, receiving 59 of 63 first-place votes among national media members. But the Wolverines picked up the other four to climb into second while the Bears, whose unbeaten season was foiled by the Jayhawks on Saturday night, dropped back to third place.
Illinois climbed one spot to fourth and Iowa gave the Big Ten three teams in the top five.
“We look at it like there’s room for improvement,” said Wolverines coach Juwan Howard, whose team pushed its winning streak to seven with an easy win over Indiana on Saturday. “Our guys have that kind of growth mindset, ‘What can we do better?’ I don’t think there’s ever such a thing as playing a perfect game, (but) one possession at a time, competing for 40 minutes, from start to finish, that’s been our mindset going into ballgames.”
Now the question is whether the Wolverines can hold onto its No. 2 spot. They have a showdown with the Illini on Tuesday night before wrapping up the regular season with a home-and-home series against Michigan State.
“No question, they deserve all of the whatever the word you want to use — accolades, praise. They deserve it all,” Hoosiers coach Archie Miller said. “They have a great spirit about them. That’s one thing you’d probably have to look at Michigan and just look at the way that they vibe and they play, both ends of the floor. They get after you, they play hard for one another, they have a great bounce to them, so you can tell they’re very together. That’s a big part of what they’re doing.”
West Virginia continued its steady climb, up four spots to No. 6 after its third consecutive win. Ohio State fell three spots to seventh after its loss to the Hawkeyes. Alabama, Houston and Villanova rounded out the top 10.
Florida State was next while Arkansas leaped eight spots to No. 12 after running its winning streak to six, including victories over then-No. 10 Missouri and the Crimson Tide. It’s the highest the Razorbacks have been ranked since Feb. 16, 1998.
Also making a big move was No. 13 Kansas, fresh off its win over the Bears; the Jayhawks have won six of seven after their record 12-year streak in the Top 25 came to an end, with the loss coming to then-No. 14 Texas in overtime.
Creighton dropped one spot to No. 14, followed by the Longhorns. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were next, followed by Big 12 rival Texas Tech, with San Diego Staten and Loyola Chicago rounding out the top 20.
Virginia was No. 21, followed by Virginia Tech, Purdue, Colorado and Wisconsin. The newcomer Boilermakers and sliding Badgers give the Big Ten six teams in the Top 25, one fewer than the poll-leading Big 12.
MORE ON THE BEARS
Baylor has struggled since coming off a three-week pause for COVID-19 issues, needing a frantic rally to beat bottom-dwelling Iowa State before falling in Allen Fieldhouse. Bears coach Scott Drew was quick to congratulate the Jayhawks on the win, but he also made it clear that his team is still trying to find its legs after a long break.
“Anyone that’s had COVID would know, when you come back, you’re not 100%,” Drew said. “The people that didn’t and weren’t able to practice or work out, I would say that’s rust. And then the last thing I would say, it’s a chemistry game.”
IN AND OUT
Oklahoma State went from the first team out all the way to No. 17 on the strength of Top 25 wins over the Red Raiders and Sooners last week. Purdue entered at No. 23 after blowing out Penn State for its third consecutive win, and Colorado went from barely on the radar to No. 24 after back-to-back wins over then-No. 19 Southern California and UCLA.
They replaced the Trojans, Tennessee and Missouri. USC has lost three of its last four, the Vols have dropped three of their last five and the Tigers, who were No. 10 at the start of February, have lost four of their last five.
ON THE DOORSTEP
BYU was the first team out of the poll after the Cougars’ fourth straight win solidified their place behind Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. Florida appeared on seven ballots after not appearing on any last week, and St. Bonaventure found its way onto eight ballots after the Bonnies edged Davidson in back-to-back games and routed George Washington.
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