Minnesota Vikings fans need to close their eyes, take a deep breath and recover after the mix of emotions at U.S. Bank Stadium Sunday afternoon.

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CHAMPAIGN — Matthew Mayer scored 21 points and added seven rebounds to help No. 18 Illinois overcome Alabama A&M’s comeback attempt for a 68-47 win Saturday.

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The Chicago Cubs landed their new shortstop.

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The full college football bowl game schedule for the 2022 season was released on Sunday, and it features 43 contests spanning three weeks in December and January.

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Brittney Griner, who was released from a Russian prison last week and freed in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, on Friday said she was “grateful” to be back in the United States and plans to be back on the basketball court for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season.

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What a sad time for St. Louis.

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The Chicago Bears return from their bye week to one of their toughest tests of the season — a meeting with the 12-1 Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday at Soldier Field (noon, Fox-32).

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SIU announced Thursday that its Missouri Valley Conference home game with Belmont on New Year’s Day has been selected for a national broadcast on ESPN2 or ESPNU with a 4 p.m. tip-off at the Banterra Center.

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CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois basketball will play its fourth game in 10 days Friday night when the team welcomes Chicago State to town. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. from Banterra Center and tickets can be purchased by clicking HERE or calling 877-SALUKIS during normal business hours.

PROMOS
• Discount $6 SIU Faculty & Staff Tickets – More Info
• Visit with Santa Pregame

THE BROADCAST
• The game will be available nationally on ESPN Plus with Mike Trude (play-by-play) and Dominic Hoscher (analyst) calling the action.
• The radio broadcast can be heard on the Saluki Radio Network with SIU Hall of Famer Mike Reis (play-by-play) and Rodney Watson (analyst) on the call.

QUICK HITS
• Marcus Domask (16.9 ppg) and Lance Jones (12.6 ppg) lead the Salukis offense.
• As a team, SIU has 168 assists in 11 games. The 15.3 assists per game rank third in the MVC. Domask leads the team with 3.5 assists per game while Jones is averaging 3.2 per game. Five Salukis have 10 or more assists.
• SIU’s 62.4 points allowed per game is third in the MVC and 43rd nationally.
• The Salukis are holding opponents to just 27.8 percent from behind the arc — leading the MVC and ranking 28th nationally. Only five teams have shot over 30 percent from distance against the Salukis this season.
• SIU’s 8.5 steals per game ranks second in the MVC. Lance Jones leads the team with two steals per game and has recorded multiple steals in five of his last seven games.
• Marcus Domask moved to 17th in SIU history with 270 assists. Domask is 10th in school history, averaging 3.2 assists in 84 career games. He has multiple assists in all but two games this season.
• Clarence Rupert is shooting 73.9 percent (34-46) — the best of any Saluki with more than 10 attempts. The forward has shot 100 percent from the field in three games this season, including a pair of 6-for-6 outings.
• Xavier Johnson set a career-high in 3-pointers made at Evansville (4) before setting a new career high in his next game with six at SLU. He is leading SIU, shooting 13-of-28 (46.4) from deep on the season. Redshirt freshman Foster Wonders ranks second on the team in 3-point percentage at 46.2 percent (12-of-26) averaging just over 10 minutes per game.
• Southern is shooting 48.2 percent from the field which ranks second in the MVC while ranking third in the Valley shooting 34.3 percent from deep.
• With the win over Alcorn State, head coach Bryan Mullins picked up his 50th career win at Southern Illinois. He is the 11th coach in program history to reach 50 wins.

THE MATCHUP
• Friday’s game will mark the 13th meeting between the two programs with Southern Illinois leading the series 11-1. SIU is 7-0 at home against the Cougars and 3-1 on the road. The last meeting with Chicago State came in the 2014 season with SIU coming away with a 65-50 victory.

• Chicago State enters the contest at 3-9 on the season and has dropped two games in a row. The Cougars built a double-digit lead on the road at Murray State in their last outing before the Racers rallied back to win the game in the final minute of play. CSU holds wins over IUPUI, Valparaiso and Southern Indiana.

• As a team, Chicago State is averaging 68.3 points per contest and shooting 42.5 percent from the floor. The Cougars are led by a trio of double-figure scorers in Wesley Cardet Jr. (16.2), Jahsean Corbett (14.4), and Elijah Weaver (10.9).

SALUKIS PICKED FOR ESPN BROADCAST
• Southern Illinois will ring in 2023 on national television on Jan. 1 against Belmont. The game will air on either ESPN2 or ESPNU on New Year’s Day with tipoff set for 4 p.m. from Banterra Center. It marks the first national TV broadcast at home on the ESPN family of networks since the 2020-21 season when the Salukis defeated UNI 71-68 in front of an ESPN2 audience.

DUO CONTINUES TO CLIMB THE CHARTS
• Both Marcus Domask and Lance Jones have entered the Top-30 in program history in scoring after Tuesday’s game. Domask is tied for 24th with SIU Hall of Famer Chris Carr with 1,251 points. Jones entered the top 30 after passing Stetson Hairston last game, now with 1,198 points in his career. The duo is also on pace to enter the top 20 in assists in SIU history. Domask currently sits in 17th with 270 assists in 84 games while Jones is just eight assists away from entering the top 20.

Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Salukis by following the team on Twitter at @SIU_Basketball, on Instagram at @SIU_Basketball and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SalukiAthletics. Fans can also download the “Salukis” Mobile App on the App Store or Google Play Store.

It was supposed to be a milestone accomplishment for Dan McLaughlin, his silver anniversary season behind the microphone to do Cardinals television play-by-play.

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