ST. LOUIS – Loyola Chicago (19-12, 12-6) is the State Farm MVC men’s basketball tournament top seed after sharing the league’s regular-season men’s basketball title with Drake (23-8, 12-6).

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — LeBron James was trading lob passes with Dwyane Wade again, one last time. Lobs from Kyrie Irving once again, too. And after making a stepback 3-pointer late, he stared down Joel Embiid to send a message without saying a word.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

JUPITER, Fla. — The math might seem to mitigate against both Jose Martinez and Jedd Gyorko being on the Cardinals’ bench at the start of the season, especially if the roster math says 13 pitchers and four extra men on a 25-man roster.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

Look out, White Sox. It appears the Padres are serious about signing free-agent infielder Manny Machado.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

After the principal talks to the students, the teacher will take a hands-on approach in the instruction of his students on the first full day of class.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

February IHSA Board of Directors Meeting Recap

The IHSA Board of Directors met for their regularly scheduled meeting at the IHSA office in Bloomington on Monday, February 11, 2019, where the Board approved three action items.

ACTION ITEMS
1. The Board approved a recommendation to provide a waiver request to IHSA By-laws 3.021 and 3.022 for Champaign (St. Thomas More) due to their move to a five-class block scheduling system.

2. The Board approved a recommendation to move 2019 IHSA Boys Golf Regionals to Monday of Week 14 and 2019 IHSA Girls Golf Regionals to Thursday of Week 14 based on the date of Yom Kippur.

3. The Board approved a recommendation to set its meetings dates for the 2019-20 school year:
Monday, August 26, 2019
Monday, September 16, 2019
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Monday, December 16, 2019
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Monday, June 15, 2020

ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
Minutes from all Advisory Committees can be viewed by clicking here.

1. The Board approved the consent items from the Advisory Committees in the following sports & activities: Boys/Girls Cross Country, Football, Boys/Girls Golf, Boys/Girls Tennis, Boys/Girls Volleyball, Sportsmanship.

Consent items are recommendations that received approval from the sport/activity advisory committee, the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee and the IHSA staff. Consent items can be viewed by clicking here.

Non-consent items are recommendations from sport or activity committees that did not receive a majority vote from the Athletic Advisory Committee or IHSA staff.

Two non-consent item was/were approved.

Volleyball
1. The IHSA will create a webinar to help train line judges, while encouraging schools to begin experimenting with assigning adults to serve as line judges for conference matches.

Sports Medicine
2. The Committee recommends that for all IHSA postseason contests, each host school must have an AED immediately accessible at each venue.

Some consent items of note include:

Tennis
1. Three rounds from the main draw will now be played on Thursday to provide greater flexibility in scheduling as tournament progresses in the event of weather.

Golf
1. Circle 10 rule may now be applied in the Regional and Sectional rounds.

APPEALS & ELIGIBILITY RULINGS
No appeals or rulings.

DISCUSSION ITEMS
At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain items the Board discusses, but upon which no action is taken. The following is a report of those items from the February 11, 2019, agenda:

1. The Board discussed the IHSA Girls and Boys Basketball State Final hosting contracts, which are set to expire after the 2020 state tournaments. The Board intends to seek feedback in the coming months on a potential schedule change beginning in 2021 that would shift the IHSA Girls Basketball State Final Tournament to playing all four classes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of IHSA Week 34 (March 4-6, 2021). The IHSA Boys Basketball State Final Tournament would play all four classes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of IHSA Week 35 (March 11-13, 2021).

2. Representatives from Country Financial and Findley provided the Board with an update on IHSA investments, financial planning and retirement plans.

After missing the National League Championship Series for the first time in four seasons, everyone in the Cubs organization is on notice.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

Two people familiar with the discussions tell The Associated Press that Major League Baseball is considering one of two matchups for its 2020 series in London: New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals or Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

When freshman guard Javon Freeman scored to open a nine-point lead with less than eight minutes left in Sunday’s Missouri Valley Conference game, it appeared Valparaiso might be on its way to upending Loyola.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

The mound that Yu Darvish stood atop Sunday felt like a cozy home.
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.