The Bulls’ future finally formed on the court, a full 18 months after the franchise-changing trade of Jimmy Butler.

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

CARBONDALE — The SIU women’s basketball team used a strong start to the second half to defeat Murray State 65-59 Tuesday night inside the CSFB Center.

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

The Cubs on Tuesday signed 32-year-old utilityman Daniel Descalso to a two-year, $5 million deal.

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

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois men’s basketball program announced the inaugural Mayor’s Cup initiative today, which will allow local communities to earn $500 for a community service project of their choice.

Local fans who purchase tickets to SIU’s January 2 men’s basketball game against Missouri State should enter their hometown as the promo codo at SIUSalukis.com/tickets. Any community with 50 or more tickets sold will have a chance to win a $500 community service project of their choice.

“We wanted to create a friendly competition between the surrounding communities to spread Saluki Spirit across Southern Illinois,” SIU assistant AD for marketing Marissa Poppe said. “This game allows us to bring everyone together to cheer on our Dawgs while giving back to our community. ”

The community with the most tickets sold will be recognized on the court with Director of Athletics Jerry Kill and will be presented with a trophy. The winning city will also have two courtside seats to watch the Salukis face the Bears. Every town in the competition will receive video board recognition.

“As a kid that comes from the surrounding area, I know how important SIU is to everyone in the region,” SIU Director of Group Sales Bryce Williams said. “We want to involve and give back to everyone as much as we can. This initiative allows people to get discounted tickets and ultimately allows us to give back to the community. It’s a friendly competition that is a win-win for everyone.”

SIU vs. Missouri State is the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both schools. Tip-of is set for 7 p.m. at SIU Arena. For more information, contact Bryce Williams at 618-453-1803 or willi21@siu.edu.

—

Illinois High School Association (IHSA) member schools approved eleven amendment proposals in the annual by-law referendum that ended December 17, 2018, including a proposal to implement a district scheduling system for football starting with the 2021 season. The online ballots were tabulated and certified in the IHSA Office on Tuesday, December 18.

Here is a summary of the proposals and the vote totals. (The numbers in parentheses indicate the total of yes, no, and no opinion votes. For an amendment to pass, yes votes must outnumber no votes.)

Proposal 1 (passed 440-170-89): Requires that the IHSA Executive Director make all eligibility decisions involving students transferring into any school district with ten or more high schools from a school outside the district’s jurisdiction.
Proposal 6 (passed 483-173-43): Allows the IHSA Executive Director to grant limited eligibility, which would not include varsity or state series competition, to international students who are not part of a qualified foreign exchange program.
Proposal 9 (passed 436-236-25): Allows the IHSA Executive Director to grant limited eligibility, which would not include varsity or state series competition, to a student who transfers before the start of his or her sophomore year, and who would otherwise be ineligible.
Proposal 10 (passed 414-120-164): Allows the IHSA Executive Director to grant permission for a diver to practice with an independent team during the sport season if his or her school lacks diving facilities.
Proposal 11 (passed 480-139-77): Allows the IHSA Executive Director to approve an athlete’s participation in an event conducted by the junior affiliate of a sport’s National Governing Body.
Proposal 13 (passed 415-159-125): Allows grade school and junior high school students to participate with high school students in interscholastic agricultural events.
Proposal 15 (passed 480-186-30): Moves the start of practice to Monday of Week 6 on the IHSA Standardized Calendar for the following sports: Boys & Girls Cross Country, Girls Tennis, Boys Soccer, Girls Volleyball, and Girls Swimming & Diving.
Proposal 20 (passed 539-79-80): Allows non-varsity football games to be played on Thursday of Week 8 on the IHSA Standardized Calendar.
Proposal 22 (passed 490-73-135): Allows schools that are members of the Illinois 8-Man Football Association to participate in a post-season playoff conducted by the I8FA.
Proposal 23 (passed 324-307-69): Directs the IHSA to implement a football scheduling system for regular-season varsity games that would involve the following: (a) a 9-week regular season, (b) playoff classes determined in advance of the season; (c) schools from each class placed into 8 geographic groups by the IHSA Office to play a round-robin schedule; (d) the remaining games on the regular season schedule to be arranged by the individual schools at their discretion; (e) the top 4 teams in each of the 8 groups qualify for the playoffs, based on games played within each group. This proposal will take effect starting with the 2021 football season.
Proposal 25 (passed 383-103-214): Sets separate team and individual season limitations for Girls Wrestling.

Following is a summary of member school participation in the amendment process over the past 10 years.
Year
Type of Ballot
Proposals on Ballot
Schools Voting
Percentage Voting
2009-10
online
8
430 of 785
54.8%
2010-11
online
13
416 of 786
52.9%
2011-12
online
14
500 of 794
63.0%
2012-13
online
11
464 of 802
57.8%
2013-14
online
11
463 of 808
57.3%
2014-15
online/email
6
(3 rejected)
613 of 810
75.7%
2015-16
online/email
3
597 of 811
73.6%
2016-17
online/email
8
589 of 811
72.6%
2017-18
online/email
6
(1 rejected)
609 of 811
75.1%
2018-19
online/email
11
702 of 818
85.8%

Proposal 23 is especially significant, as it charges the IHSA with scheduling the majority of regular-season football games for its member schools beginning in the 2021 season, while also changing the playoff qualification process.

“It is a historic change,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “The narrow gap in the voting indicates that there are pros and cons that impact our diverse football-playing membership in a multitude of ways. We hope that it will effectively address conference realignment and scheduling concerns, while helping create long-term sustainability and growth for high school football in the state.”

Beginning in 2021, the IHSA will assign football teams to eight or nine team groupings (i.e. “districts”) based on classification and geography. Previously, schools did not officially know their postseason classification until the completion of the regular-season. The IHSA will assign each school’s regular-season games against their district opponents. Districts will be set for two years, allowing home and away scheduling within the district. Schools will have the autonomy to schedule their non-district opponents for any open weeks, but those non-district games will not count toward playoff qualification. The district assigning process will be similar to how schools are assigned to Regionals and Sectionals in other IHSA sports and activities.

“We understand that everyone wants to know what district and class they will be in, but the reality is that we are two years away from being able to tabulate that information,” said Anderson. “Because IHSA districts will operate on a two-year cycle, schools will need the next two years to evaluate their participation. Some may choose to join coops or disband coops. Some may choose to play eight-man football. Chicago Public Schools will need to determine what schools it will make playoff eligible, and we will also have non boundaried schools that will change classes in that timeframe as they gain or lose multiplier waivers.”

The IHSA Football Advisory Committee and Board of Directors will work in conjunction with the IHSA staff to begin formulating recommendations on the classification cutoffs for football.

“Obviously, the ideal situation would be 64 schools in each class, giving each of the eight classes eight districts with eight teams apiece,” said Anderson. “The IHSA Football Advisory Committee, Board of Directors, and staff will work together to create policy that addresses situations with more or less than 512 teams.”

560 IHSA member schools participated in football during the 2018 season. 523 were eligible to qualify for the 2018 IHSA Football Playoffs. The district proposal will not change the IHSA Football Playoffs materially, as there will continue to be eight postseason classes with 32 qualifiers per class. Under the current playoff system in effect through the 2020 football season, conference champions in eligible conferences and any eligible team that wins six, seven, eight or nine regular-season games automatically qualifies for the playoff field. A tie-breaker system determines which five-win teams make the field. Beginning in 2021, the Top 4 teams in each of the eight districts will determine the playoff qualifiers for that class.

“This is the third time (2009, 2014) that a football district proposal has been brought forward to our membership and each time the support has grown,” said Anderson. “It is based on a concept that other state high school associations have used successfully, and we are committed to doing our part to make it successful here in Illinois. The beauty of our legislative system is that our member schools will have input in that process and the ability to offer recommendations on tweaks and changes as we progress.”

A more definitive timeline on the future release dates of districts and schedules will be developed in conjunction with the IHSA Football Advisory Committee over the course of the 2019-20 school year.

Chatting with a healthy Kris Bryant and addressing some changes to a few struggling pitchers will have to be the consolation prizes as the Cubs are unlikely to make a move before the winter meetings end on Thursday.

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

The White Sox might be the exception to agent Scott Boras’ post-negotiation forecast involving marquee free agent Bryce Harper.

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

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois men’s basketball team’s five-game winning streak came to an abrupt end with a 80-52 loss to Murray State on Wednesday night at SIU Arena. The Racers overwhelmed SIU from the tip and had a 49-18 lead at halftime.
“It was probably the most complete first half I’ve ever been a part of in any form in my time in basketball,” Murray State head coach Matt McMahon said. “I thought our guys were really dialed in. We gave up that first 3 to start the game. Ja (Morant) hit back-to-back big 3’s to get us going, and I thought our effort and toughness were really good.”

Murray State’s Ja Morant, a projected lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, lived up to the hype. In the first half alone, had had 15 points (on 5-6 shooting), nine assists against only one turnover, and three steals. The Racers were 8-of-13 from the 3-point line in the opening frame, led by Tevin Brown (5-for-7).

“I take full responsibility for the preparation of our guys tonight,” SIU head coach Barry Hinson said. “As coaches, we try to find a way to get our guys to compete and get ready for big games. I made a big mistake tonight. I put so much emphasis on Morant and how good we thought he was, and I scared our players. Our guys played scared tonight. It was Military Appreciation Night, and it’s a good quote from Patton: ‘Fear paralyzes all of us.’ We were paralyzed in the first half. Murray had a lot to do with that, but the head coach of the Salukis had more to do with it than Murray.”

Murray (6-1) ended the first half making 11 of its last 12 field goal attempts, while SIU missed 15 of its final 16 shots of the half. The Salukis shot 19.2 percent, the fifth-lowest shooting percentage in a half in school history.

Eric McGill had a big second half for SIU (7-4), scoring 15 of his 19 points after the break. McGill became the first Saluki this season with a double-double, adding 10 rebounds to his 19 points. The closest SIU got in the second half was 21 points, but Murray State responded with a 10-0 run to put any thought of a dramatic comeback out of the question. 

Aaron Cook (14 points) and Sean Lloyd Jr. (11 points) joined McGill in double-figures for SIU. Morant (23 points, 13 assists) and Tevin Brown (20 points, 6-of-11 from the 3-point line) led Murray State. 

The Salukis have a quick turnaround, traveling to No. 14 Buffalo on Saturday. Tip-off against the Bulls, who are undefeated at 9-0, is set for 1 p.m. CT in a game that will be streamed on ESPN+.

GOREVILLE — Thompsonville got off to a terrible start trailing Goreville after the first quarter, but rebounded in the middle periods to beat the Blackcats, 61-44, and remain undefeated in a non-conference boys basketball game Tuesday night.

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

You might have thought Cubs President Theo Epstein and White Sox general manager Rick Hahn had swapped bodies the other day if you weren’t paying closer attention.

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