Illini May be OK This Year

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team

This past weekend, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini got some measure of redemption from their week one DISASTER in St. Louis. The Illini responded from their 37-9 thrashing at the hands of Missouri to rout FCS opponent Illinois St. 45-17 in Champaign. Granted it was against a lower tier team predicted to finish near the bottom of their vastly inferior conference, but the Illini did without the services of arguably their three if not best, most important, players: QB Juice Williams, WR Arrelious Benn, and LB Martez Wilson. Williams, a Chicago native who’s been tutored by another Chicago product and star quarterback, Donovan McNabb contributed just one series before getting hurt. His injury is not supposed to be extremely serious and his return is key, for the Illini to have a legitimate leader.

Williams spoke about what he learned from working with McNabb. “Keep your head…a majority of quarterbacks know that when things start going on around them, people start talking, things start to tank. It’s just the quarterback mentality to let everything go and just stay focused and go from there,” Williams stated.

His top-flight receiver in a highly heralded corps is Arrelious “Rejus” Benn, a projected top ten pick in the NFL Draft. But his stock is falling because Rejus has been a total non-factor so far. The Illini receivers have been extremely hyped, and if Benn isn’t 100% healthy then other players like Jeff Cumberland, Jarred Fayson, and Tight End Michael Hoohoomanawananuii (have fun with trying to pronounce that) will need to step up big time.

Illini Head Coach Ron Zook also needs to realize who his starting tailback is. It should be Daniel Dufrene, with Jason Ford as a capable back-up, not the other way around. They’ve battled some injuries as well this young season, so they fit right in with the rest of the team.

On the other side of the ball, it comes down to another well-recruited Chicago product, Martez Wilson, who moves over to Middle Linebacker, and needs to be the “quarterback” of the defense.

“The last two, actually the last three years, our Mike linebacker has led the Big Ten in tackles,” Zook said. “I don’t want to put the pressure on him that he’s not doing a good job if he doesn’t lead the Big Ten in tackles, but he’s a guy that a lot of things revolve around him, with our calls and so forth, and it’s going to be important that he has the kind of year that we think he can.” Wilson was also hurt and missed the last game. But Illinois won in impressive fashion, despite all the key missing pieces, which is a good sign. It’s also a good thing they have this week off- to get ready and healthy for mighty Ohio St. on September 26th.

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at The Sports Bank, Washington Times, Walter Football.com

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Area College Football Teams Need to Step it Up

 Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team  If you follow college football, you know by now that Illinois was pretty much the biggest disappointment coming out of the gate in week one. Of course, that’s another story for another post, they’ll get their shot at redemption tonight when they host Illinois State.

More concerning for the Big Ten conference could be the unexpectedly impressive showing by “Directional Michigan,” who gave the conference numerous problems on Saturday. 15 point underdog Central Michigan upset Michigan State 29-27. (Usually, MSU screws up mid-to late season, and dominates in September. Guess they got started early this season)

Eastern Michigan, a 20 point dog to our hometown Northwestern Wildcats, took NU down to the final seconds before junior place-kicker Stefan Demos nailed a 49 yard field goal with 6 ticks left. And Western Michigan lost to Indiana by just four. Maybe it’s a good thing Northern Michigan is a D-II school in the GLIAC conference. And yes, I did have to look that up. And I’m not sure Southern Michigan University exists, but if they did, they’d likely be a thorn in the side of the Big Ten as well. Not that I’m advocating gambling or anything, but who actually ever picks a school that starts with a direction? Other local favorites in this city, Wisconsin and Ohio State, have looked shaky so far too.

There’s an old football saying claiming, “you improve the most as a team from week one to week two.” If true, it could be a long year for the Big Ten, and maybe a very productive year for the MAC (Mid-American Conference).

“To win a game they way that we did is worrisome across the board. We need to execute better in all aspects. It’s easy when you see the ball run the way it was today, to point the finger at the defensive line. But I’m not prepared to do that yet. I need to watch some video. It is disappointing. We should be better than that,” Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald said after the game. To their credit however, they were missing their top DB (CB Sherrick McMannis) and best DT (Adam Hahn). And their best overall player (DE Corey Wootton) may not even be 100% yet.

 

Another positive to take away is the fact that Northwestern posted its seventh straight victory versus a Mid-American Conference foe, and they avoided their traditional early season slip-up at the hands of a vastly less talented team. Beating EMU by 3 in ’09 is a lot better than losing at home to D-1 laughingstock Duke in ’07 or to D-1AA opponent New Hampshire in ’06. So, the program has shown some growth, at least in the month of September.

And please join in the conversation by commenting in my live college football blog here

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at the Washington Times, Walter Football.com and The Sports Bank

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College Football is Soon Upon Us

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team

Football season commences in about three weeks, and Chicago is the capital of Big Ten Country, so it’s time to sort the league’s macho men from the weaklings. Of course these rankings are highly subject to change. In-depth previews of Chicago’s two teams (Illinois and Northwestern) coming soon!

1. Ohio State

Once again it’s re-loading, not re-building in Columbus. With Boom Herron filling it for Beanie Wells and a whole slew of new talent filling in at key defensive positions, the scarlet and grey will have a new look this fall. Although the Bucks have looked terrible in January bowls lately, they’re still the class of the league, and look for the “sweater vest” to maintain that.

2. Penn State

Like President Barack Obama said, “it’s not enough to change the players, you have to change the game” and the 82 year old Joe Paterno and his staff have innovated the “Spread HD” enough to make the Nittany Lions consistently win again. QB Darryl Clark, LB Sean Lee and DT Jared Odrick are all ballers, and if this team can find some good replacements at OL and CB, the BCS could come calling.

3. Michigan State

It all depends on how well they replace Javon Ringer. They’ll also be breaking in a new starter at Quarterback, but you can tell the new QB, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell,” WR Mark Dell, one of the best in the league. Throw in an outstanding defense led by Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Greg Jones, and they’ll be solid.

4. Northwestern

Sure, they have to replace everybody at the offensive skill positions, but the new starter at QB, Mike Kafka, is an upgrade. With a QB rushing record already on his resume, he’s more of a dual threat (and less of an interception risk) than C.J. Bacher. Not to mention the heart and soul of this team (the defense) returns mostly in tact from last year- when they set a school record for stopping the run. And the easy schedule (Towson, Eastern Michigan, no Ohio State or Michigan) just screams ten win season.

5. Iowa

They have some big, dominating corn-fed boys on the O line who can go to-to-toe with just about any front seven. But losing some of their defensive playmakers (and trying to replace RB Shonn Greene with Jewel Hampton) will take its toll. If their Jewel is IGI Certified, not a Cubic Zirconia 8-4 or better looks reasonable.

6. Illinois

A program with no consistency. The orange and blue often falter under high expectations and only seem to thrive when people don’t take them seriously. This fall, projections are mixed, so 7-5 and a third-tier bowl sounds about right. With the combination of QB Isaiah “Juice” Williams and WR Arrelious “Rejus” Benn (go to 7-to-9.com), the offense will shine brighter than the diamond in Juice’s right ear. However, defense was lacking last season, and they lost their best playmakers, so mediocrity is imminent.

For the Full Conference Power Rankings click here

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at the Washington Times, Walter Football.com and The Sports Bank

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Big Ten Tournament Preview

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team

When the 12th Annual Big Ten men’s basketball tournament tips off Thursday it will feature one of the deepest fields in recent years. If a couple of the bubble teams make a strong showing at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, as many as nine teams could have a case to be in the Big Dance next week.

Michigan State (25-5, 15-3) claimed the No. 1 seed after capturing the Big Ten title for the fifth time under Tom Izzo. Illinois (23-8, 11-7) earned the No. 2 seed, while Purdue (22-9, 11-7) clinched the No. 3 spot. Wisconsin (19-11, 10-8) claimed the No. 4 seed and Ohio State (20-9, 10-8) earned the No. 5 seed.

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Illini Lose Ludicrously Low Scoring Game

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team When you saw the box score of #16 Illinois’ (21-6, 9-5) 38-33 home loss to unranked Penn St. (19-8, 8-6) on Wednesday night, you might have thought you were glancing at a Girls’ high school basketball result. In football, the two schools combined to score 62 points last fall, in roundball just nine more. If you ever wondered why the Big Ten, the 2nd highest rated conference in RPI, doesn’t nationally receive the respect it might deserve, it’s because of ugly games like these. Wednesday night’s affair made the Dick Bennett “stall-ball” era at Wisconsin look like Magic Johnson’s “Showtime” years at the Great Western Forum. This contest was about defense, but it was much more about ludicrously bad offense. The Illini motion attack stood still, and the Nittany Lions (notice how their team name starts with N-I-T) got an offensive boost from the officials.
The home crowd at the “House of Paign” were boisterously critical of the refs, and perhaps rightfully so, given the disparity in free throws: Penn State attempted 11, Illinois zero. “Very flat, not moving, didn’t get good cutting,” Illini coach Bruce Weber said of his team’s non-existent “O.”

Illinois Senior guards Trent Meacham and Chester Frazier “led” (I can’t make air-quotes strong enough to invoke the necessary sarcasm) the Illini with 7 points apiece. The other three starters contributed 6, 5, and 4 points. But at least the scoring was balanced. “They played good defense all night, we missed some shots we usually make, it was a combination of both,” Meacham said. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn was in attendance for this game: which was to offensive fundamentals what his predecessor Rod Blagojevich was to ethical governance. In the nearly 50 year history of Assembly Hall, this game broke records for: lowest winning score, fewest combined points, worst combined field-goal accuracy, and fewest point scored by Illinois.

Penn State Coach Ed DeChellis was asked if he had seen anything like this in all his years of college basketball. “It was uncharted water, sometimes I looked up at the score and I didn’t know what half we were in. At the end, we set this back a few years, Naismith must be rolling over in his grave,” the winning headman replied.

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at the Washington Times and The Sports Bank

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Illini vs. Northwestern: One-Sided Rivalry

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team If there’s one game that Northwestern circles on the schedule each year, it’s Illinois. The Illini directly compete with them within the city of Chicago on all levels: for coveted recruits, building a dedicated fan base, and the publicity of coverage from the nation’s third largest media market. While NU fans utterly despise Illinois, Illini Nation abhors Indiana, the only Big 10 program with more tournament appearances and wins than Illinois, the most. Eric Gordon certainly turned that up a notch! It may not be Duke/North Carolina, but it’s unfortunate that this season sees our in-state rivals meet just once: Thu 8PM at Welsh-Ryan Arena, ESPN2.

Illinois-Northwestern is an exciting rivalry in football, but in basketball it’s EXCEEDINGLY one-sided. UI leads the all-time series 125-34, with a 60-21 advantage in Evanston. The Illini also carry a nine-game series winning streak into Thursday’s game. However, nothing is certain for opponents game-planning against the Wildcats’ unique style on both ends of the court (Princeton set on offense, 1-3-1 zone on defense) Despite the recent records overwhelmingly in Illinois’ favor, Illini senior point guard Chester Frazier expressed caution towards the Wildcats, who enter the game with an 11-2 home record and the nation’s 20th ranked scoring defense. “That’s gonna be one of the roughest games of the year in my opinion. Their style of play is very different, very unorthodox. With the 1-3-1 they cause a lot of turnovers and create a lot of havoc, so we gotta take care of the ball and be ready to play every possession,” Frazier said.

Northwestern senior two-guard Craig Moore is NU’s emotional and scoring leader. He’s also second nationally in 3pt field goal percentage. Moore discussed the Illini’s upcoming visit to the North Shore. “It’s a good rivalry, they’ve handled us a bit the past couple times we’ve played them,” NU’s all-time three point scorer said. Even though Illinois has looked uglier than Michael Phelps’ recent PR on the road, I predict they’ll win 61-59. They have an impressive RPI of 15, according to all 3 (Real Time, ESPN Inside, and Jerry Palm) ratings percentage indices. The Illini slaughtered the Wildcats 70-37 in their only meeting last year and Cats coach Bill Carmody is just 1-14 against the Orange and Blue.

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at the Washington Times and The Sports Bank

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Who is the Illini go-to guy?

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team

Remember the Bulls glory years, when Michael Jordan was the finest late game finisher? When somebody had to be the team’s go-to guy and knock down the big shot, MJ was the Bulls’ assassin. The 21st ranked Illini lack this quality- a true ‘balla” to close games out, a star carrying this team on their back when necessary. I asked Head Coach Bruce Weber if the team’s current leading scorer and most athletic player, Demetri McCamey can be the guy- “Our team doctor mentioned to me before the Michigan State game, the one thing we don’t have is someone who can just take it over and make a play when we need it, Alex {Legion, Weber’s highest rated recruit} jumped up and made some shots against Michigan St. but if one guy would made a couple plays in gut check time, we could have found a way to win that thing. I think he {McCamey} has the potential. He’s got to learn the game: how to use screens, how to play without the ball, and if he could do that he could be the guy. He passes well, shoots the three, he’s got a big body and can pull-up,” Weber responded.

Another reporter followed up my question by asking “if not McCamey, then who?” Weber reiterated that it could be Legion, the transfer from Kentucky or forward Mike Davis. “I’m not sure right now, I think Alex has the potential to make big shots because he can just jump up and shoot it over people and maybe Mike Davis can continue to develop a triple-threat game so he can beat somebody by doing his little half-hooks and turnarounds, but Demetri has the most potential no doubt,” Weber answered.

Currently, Illinois (18-5, 6-4) is nationally ranked: 17th in RPI, 16th in Sagarin, 23rd in the AP and 21 in the Coaches poll. They appear to be a #5 or #6 seed come tournament time. Illinois has great balance -four different players: McCamey, Davis, Mike Tisdale, and Trent Meacham are or within a point-per game of being the team’s leading scorer- and resembles the 1998 team, who used balanced offense to go 13-3 and win the Big Ten, but imagine what they could be with a true closer? Their struggles on offense the past three games accentuate the urgency.

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at the NBC Street Team, the Washington Times and The Sports Bank

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Illini vs. Badgers Media Exchange

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC5 Street Team & David Kmiecik, NBC 15 Madison

When the University of Illinois visited the University of Wisconsin, I sat press row next to NBC 15 Madison’s David Kmiecik, who covers the Badgers regularly. And also happens to be the man who helped co-found my website, The Sports Bank.net. Since our days growing up together in Palos Township, we’ve had numerous college hoops conversations like the one we typed out below, but now we share our observations with NBC’s online audience.

(PMB) Is it me or does Illinois coach Bruce Weber sound like the squeaky voice teen from The Simpsons?

(DK) If I break-out into laughter during Weber’s post-game, it will be because of the Paul M. Banks impression of Weber, complete with the dead-on squeaky voice.

(PMB) Thanks man, I only lampoon those I love. The Badgers’ style of play is the reason people around the country think Big Ten basketball is slow-paced with final scores in the 50s for every game. To their credit, they do use “stallball” to reach the conference tourney finals pretty much every year.

(DK) Well, Jason Bohannon just hit his fifth three of the first half, partially because Demetri McCamey is excelling at his typical half-hearted defensive effort (or lack thereof). If Cames tried as hard on defense as he does at chucking up threes, he could actually be a good player. I hope you get to hear Bo refer to someone as playing “like a man” tonight.

(PMB) Who are Bo’s “men,” the big slow white outside shooters (Mike Wilkinson, Andy Kowske, Brian Butch, Joe Krabbenhoft et al) that he LOVES to recruit?

(DK) Don’t forget about Greg Stiemsma. Looks like the Badgers are going to get one in the “left hand column.” (That’s another Bo-ism.)

(PMB) If Illinois’ defense continues to be this awful, then the media covering Illinois might have to start talking about Michael Jordan’s kid playing at UI again- even though he never plays more than 10 minutes a game. Anybody here with NBA Draft potential? Could any underclassmen show up in a mock draft down the line?

(DK) I think Leuer has the most pro potential. He’s 6-10, can shoot from the outside, put the ball on the floor, and has a nice set of moves on the block. He will need to get stronger- which he definitely already has over his year and a half at Wisconsin.

McCamey and Davis are potential second round picks if they continue to develop. But if McCamey isn’t on fire, the Illini are very beatable. Mike Tisdale just fouled out and was a complete non-factor tonight. That doesn’t help Illinois either.

(PMB) Like you might have heard once or twice or three-thousand times, Tisdale is on a 6,000 calorie a day diet. Sometimes when I look around in a room full of sports writers, I think they share his dining habits. Speaking of unsightly, that’s how I feel about the Illini deficit. Given that the team you cover is dominating tonight, I’ll let you have the last word.

(DK) First of all, the Badgers aren’t “my” team. Since I graduated from Marquette, they will always have my heart. I have grown to appreciate and respect the Badgers, but will NEVER refer to them as “my” team. Badgers win 63-50. That’s three straight lackluster performances from YOUR boys. Time to get a little worried…

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at the Washington Times and The Sports Bank.net

For David Kmiecik’s NBC 15 Blog, click here

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Surprisin’ Illini Having Stellar Season

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank 

At 14-2, our home-state Illinois Fighting Illini currently possess the most wins of all Big Ten teams. After last season’s abysmal 16-19 showing — a school record for losses — this year looks MUCH better than most people expected at midseason.

The Illini have two signature wins: a triumph at No. 9 Purdue (the program’s first road victory over a top ten team since the 1989 Final Four “Flyin’ Illini” days), and an utter thrashing of No. 25 Mizzou in the “Braggin’ Rights” game. Sure, Purdue has not looked like the preseason conference favorite that they were hyped to be, and maybe Illini Nation no longer feels the need to abuse their bragging right privileges obtained from handing the Missouri Tigers their first loss this season.

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Illini and Wildcats off to surprisingly Good Starts

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank Most college basketball geeks around the country didn’t expect much from Illinois -predicting them to reach the NIT at best- and Northwestern, who has never reached the NCAA tournament in program history. Their conference, the Big Ten, was expected to be very weak as far as the six power conferences go. Yet our state’s two Big Ten teams have a combined record of 11-1 today. As the made-for-ESPN event that is the Big Ten/ACC Challenge begins, the Midwestern power conference has a 55-9 overall record, second to (yes, you guessed it) the ACC’s 61-10. What’s the secret to this early season success? Defense, as the Big Ten is first in scoring against average, holding opponents to 59.3 points per game. Northwestern is second only to Ohio State with a 50.2 scoring against average. Illinois is third, yielding 56.2 ppg.

After a 59-43 drubbing of UC-Riverside, NU coach Bill Carmody spoke about the size added to his lineup this year and how it’s improved his team’s defense. “They (bigger teams getting extra shots) have plagued us for years. I don’t know if the big guys necessarily get all the rebounds, but they’re always at least keeping their man away from it, so maybe it’s just our presence inside,” Carmody said. Senior guard Craig Moore, holder of the school record for three-pointers, talked about the team’s new crashing-the-boards philosophy and how it helps augment the team defense. “Coach always says in practice, keep crashing, keep crashing, he told me to crash and I looked at him like he was crazy, but it’s a different style and we’re just trying to play hard and really get after it on defense,” Moore said.

On the other end of the floor, both teams have found unexpected leaders. Point guard Juice Thompson runs NU’s Princeton offense with a solid 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. And if you play the one at a Big Ten school, “juice” is the perfect word to describe your on-campus reputation. The Illini were expected to rely heavily on their guards for offense this year, but their leading scorer, Mike Davis actually plays the four. Mike Tisdale, his complement in the post, was just named Conference player of the week. Sure, the season is less than a month old and the Big Ten has largely feasted on cupcake teams with almost as many hyphens in their names as victories, (both UI and NU beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi by about 20 points) but both squads look much better than expected so far.

For more Chicago Sports Analysis and discussion.

For my Washington Times.com blog “Chicago Blue State.”

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Illini Juice not Fresh Enough

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank The St. Louis-bred social philosopher Nelly once told us, “Can’t nobody stop the juice, so baby tell me what’s the use” in his 2002 hit “Hot in Here.” This maxim was true for opposing defenses all season as Illinois quarterback Juice Williams broke the school record for single season total offense with 3,892 combined passing and rushing yards. On his way to breaking the record of Tony Eason –the New England Patriots starting QB in Super Bowl XX- Juice broke single game total offense records for both Memorial Stadium and Michigan Stadium, the latter of which is especially impressive given the rich history of Michigan Wolverines football.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Fighting Illini didn’t have juice like Williams did on the field. After 2007’s Rose Bowl Champaign campaign, most people in Illini Nation expected a similar encore in 2008. Instead, Illinois finished just 5-7 after getting walloped by #20 Northwestern 27-10 on Saturday. This “earned” them the dubious distinction of being the first team to go from Rose Bowl one year to no bowl the next since (well, Illinois again in) 1984. However that team was sanctioned by the NCAA and allowed no bowl appearance. The last team to legitimately go from Roses to thorns was over 40 years ago. Soon after Juice watched the fans of his rival team storm Ryan Field in celebration, I asked him if expectations were too high in Champaign and if that led to collapse: “I don’t think the pressure really got to us, I think it’s more a matter of not coming out every Saturday and performing like we know we can. We can’t have morale victories out there. We can’t have games where we say we should have won that game, that’s not enough. We’re at the point where we can win games, we just got to go out there and do it.”

Had Illinois won and later secured a bowl berth, it would have been the first time since 1992 that the program procured consecutive bowl game seasons. Juice talked about the pain and disappointment of coming up just short. “It’s like you expect something on Christmas and then you wake up and it’s not there: It’s the type of feeling you have when you realize there’s really nothing more you can do about it…We worked so hard to come out and be successful and to be one game short of being bowl eligible is a feeling that is going to eat at you.”

For more Chicago Sports Analysis and discussion.

For my Washington Times.com blog “Chicago Blue State.”

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You Can’t Go Home Again

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank According to legend, the traditions of both homecoming and tailgating started at my alma mater, the University of Illinois. Although it’s difficult to scientifically prove these facts, anyone who’s seen a football game at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium would concur. Homecoming, the Christmas of college football, saw Illinette alumni dancing on the sidelines, marching band alumni sitting in with the current band and myself working and socializing with my fellow media alums at this year’s Champaign campaign. Like Kanye West & Coldplay’s Chris Martin sing, “I’m coming home again.”

However, what we lacked was a win over a 12 point underdog University of Minnesota team that Illinois out-gained in total yardage 550-312. Next to me in the press box was my Lakeview neighbor, and UI classmate, Paul Schmidt of Chicago Sporting.com. We witnessed the Illini making a lot of mistakes: short yardage inefficiencies, twice kicking off out of bounds for some odd reason. (I didn’t get the press release stating that the Golden Gophers had Devin Hester as their return specialist.) From our 8th floor vantage point, the two of us might have sounded like a young-man college football version of the Muppets’ Statler & Waldorf. (Two old guys in the balcony always criticizing the show.)  (“You know the Illini red zone offense isn’t half bad,” and then the other could respond, “no they’re all bad.” Ok, we didn’t really do that, but you get the idea!

 

Conversely, the 27-20 outcome had some bright spots. Sophomore stud wide receiver Arrelious Benn set new career highs in receptions (12) and yards (181, 5th most in school history). “The things that we did and the plays that we made, as far the numbers, I would never have thought we would lose, but that’s how stuff goes,” Benn said.

Benn’s mentee, freshman receiver A.J. Jenkins also had a huge day catching a career high three passes for 117 yards and 2 TDs. “Rejus has kind of been a big brother to me,” said Jenkins. Of course, I can’t write an Illini post without mentioning Illini junior QB Juice Williams, who set a Memorial Stadium (est. 1924) record for single game passing yards (462) and total offense (503). It was the second highest total offense total in school history behind Dave Wilson in 1980. However, Head Coach Ron Zook said it best in the post game presser, “we had a lot of great individual performances today, but this is a team game, not an individual game. And the object is to win.” For more Chicago Sports Analysis and discussion.

For my Washington Times.com blog “Chicago Blue State.”

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