Didn't I just write yesterday that Team Finland has an elite goaltender? Yeah, I did say that. Whoops.

Miikka Kiprusoff (left) had the best save percentage among Olympic goalies entering Friday's semifinal showdown with Team USA. Well, guess what? The Americans scored on four of their first seven shots and chased Kiprusoff from the game on their way to a dominating 6-1 victory.

It was 6-0 by the time the game was 13 minutes old. The Americans played fast, smart and physical. The Finns were slow, stupid and weak. What a rout.

Patrick Kane scored twice. Ryan Malone, Zach Parise, Eric Johnson and Paul Stastny also dented the net.

"It was a crazy 12 minutes," Kane said. "I've never been a part of something like that. It seemed like we were scoring every shift."

Canada and Slovakia are under way in the other semifinal now. The winner plays Team USA for gold at 2 p.m. Sunday.

UPDATE: Canada hangs on to beat Slovakia, 3-2. The Canadians had a 3-0 lead halfway through the third period, but the Slovaks came storming back. Pavol Demitra rings the crossbar in the closing seconds for Slovakia. So close to sending it into overtime. But the Sunday showdown is set.

Who knew the Canadians would have a tougher time than the Americans today? Certainly not me. What a crazy Olympic tournament this has been.

There was a little bit of a stir around here Thursday night when it was noted that Illinois assistant coach Jerrance Howard was in the house at Plainfield North to watch one of our area's best high school players, Oswego East senior guard Jay Harris.

Harris (pictured) continued to light up the scoreboard as he has all season, pouring in 30 points in a 69-55 Wolves victory.

Illinois has no scholarships left for 2010, so it is interesting that they are taking a look at Harris. The guess here is the Illini staff is doing its diligence just in case junior point guard Demetri McCamey leaves early for the NBA. McCamey is not ready for the pros. He should stay at Illinois for another year, but in the event McCamey gets some bad advice, Howard is out scouting some of the high school senior guards around the state.

Also in attendance at Plainfield North Thursday, scouts from Illinois State and Texas A&M.

There is no doubt Harris would be a nice "get" in the late-signing period for any mid-major program. Can he play at the high D-I level? Well, that's a matter of some debate. But it only takes one high D-I coach that thinks Harris can play at that level for him to get a scholarship.

Thus far, we know Virginia Tech, Illinois and Texas A&M are among the BCS conference schools that have looked at Harris. Mid-major schools that have been heavily involved in the Harris recruitment include Wichita State, Ball State and Akron. Now, Illinois State is throwing its hat in the ring.

Given that two pretty decent MVC programs and two pretty decent MAC programs are in on Harris, it sort of makes you wonder what the mid-major right here in our backyard -- Northern Illinois -- is doing.

NIU should be all over a kid like Jay Harris, just in case he doesn't get the big offer from a big school. Hey, Ricardo Patton! Where are you at, dog?

It amazes me that NIU hasn't been recruiting some of the best players in this area. Kaneland's Dave Dudzinski is going to Holy Cross, and I never heard anything about NIU being a factor in Dudzinski's recruitment. Jordan Threloff, a 6-10 center from DeKalb, is going to play at Illinois State. Not a bad choice by Threloff at all, but shouldn't NIU be able to keep a kid like that at home?

Given the Huskies' sorry 9-18 record and Patton's laissez-faire recruiting of the Chicago area, you can't help but wonder if a change would do some good out there in DeKalb.

UPDATE: Now we know why Illinois is looking at 2010 seniors. Just announced today, little-used forward Richard Semrau will not return to the team next year. Semrau, a redshirt junior, is on track to graduate this year and will stay at the UI to do postgraduate work. That opens up a scholarship for next season.

During the final moments of Team Canada's 7-3 thrashing of Russia in Wednesday's Olympic quarterfinal, the Canadian fans chanted, "We want Sweden!"

Well, they aren't going to get Sweden. They'll have to settle for Slovakia instead.

Blackhawks forward Tomas Kopecky (seen celebrating at right) scored the game-winning goal late Wednesday as the Slovaks upset the Swedes 4-3. Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa finished the game with three assists for Slovakia, which will face Canada in Friday's semifinal round.

Team USA will face Finland in Friday's other semifinal.

Earlier this week, I pointed out that the bracket favored the Americans. Things have changed a little bit since then. With defending gold medalist Sweden out of the tournament, Canada actually has the easier of the two semifinal games.

Team Slovakia has shown well in this Olympics. They have upset wins over Russia and Sweden. Slovakia has a number of prideful veteran forwards -- Pavol Demitra, Ziggy Palffy, Jozef Stumpel, Miroslav Satan, Michal Handzus, Richard Zednik. For many of these players, they know this Olympics will be their last. Therefore, they've got a ton of motivation.

However, goaltending -- not motivation -- is the key to beating Team Canada. Ryan Miller played unbelievable in net for Team USA last Sunday. That's how the Americans beat Canada. Jonas Hiller played unbelievable in net for Team Switzerland, which allowed the Swiss to take the Canadians to a shootout during the preliminary round.

You need elite goaltending to beat Canada. While Jaroslav Halak is better than the goalies the Slovaks have had in previous Olympics, I don't think he is good enough to stop the Canadian onslaught. Frankly, I think a blowout win for Canada is more likely than a win for Slovakia.

The Americans have the tougher test against Finland, which does have an elite goaltender in Miikka Kiprusoff. The Finns are another team with plenty of motivation, as this is likely the Olympic farewell for beloved winger Teemu Selanne, a future Hockey Hall of Famer.

The question mark for Finland is its defense. The Finns have good forwards. They have the goaltender. But the Americans should be able to wear down the Finland blue liners with a physical forecheck.

If all goes to plan, the U.S. will play Canada Sunday for the gold medal. Of course, since when does it ever go to plan? While most of the world was asleep late Wednesday night, Slovakia turned the bracket upside down with the win over the Swedes.

Is there another surprise in the offing? The guess here is not, but you never know.

Four wins down, two wins to go for Team USA after its 2-0 victory over Switzerland in the quarterfinal round Wednesday at the Olympics.

It was a battle for the Americans. They didn't score the first two periods and had a goal washed out right as the second period expired. Swiss goaltender Jonas Hiller stood on his head, making 42 saves.

I have to admit I've seen just about enough of Hiller this year. My mother and I attended a Blackhawks game on Jan. 10 where the Anaheim Ducks beat the Hawks 3-1. Hiller made 42 saves in that game as well. The Hawks outshot Anaheim 43-12 and got nothing for their trouble.

For awhile Wednesday, I thought Hiller was going to do the same thing to Team USA. Fortunately, Zach Parise scored at 2:08 of the third period on the power play to break the ice. Later, Parise added an empty-netter to put the game away.

In other action Wednesday, Canada smoked Russia 7-3. The game wasn't as close as the final score. The Canadians led 4-1 after the first period and added two quick goals early in the second to make it 6-1. It was all over but the crying from there.

And believe me, there was plenty of crying. The Russians resorted to cheap-shot tactics late in the third period and generally made asses of themselves.

Russian goaltender Evgeni Nabokov was absolutely awful early, but he wasn't pulled from the game until the score was 6-1. I don't know who the Russian coach is, but whoever he was, he was sleeping behind the bench. It was apparent early that Nabokov didn't have it. He was left out there to get lit up behind the leaky Russian defense.

The Canadians are still looking like the favorites to win gold, but they face a possible semifinal game with defending champion Sweden. As for the Americans, they'll play either Finland or the Czech Republic. Finland leads 1-0 late in the third as I type.

UPDATE: (Bad pun alert) The Czechs are bounced. Finland wins 2-0 and plays the U.S. on Friday.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is rarely at a loss for words, and here are some highlights from an interview Oz did with the Sun-Times' Chris De Luca on Tuesday.

On the failed 2009 season, where the Sox produced a crappy 79-83 record: ''It was a miserable year for everyone. (General manager Ken Williams) hated me, I hated Kenny. I was miserable. The players hated me. ... We failed as an organization, from top to bottom.''

On the decision not to go with a conventional DH this season: ''We can create more runs. In the past, yeah, we could score 10, but all of a sudden, when we need to score one, we can't. That's why our philosophy changed. We have a bunch of guys in the lineup who can hit 20-plus home runs. I would rather have 10 guys hit 20 home runs than have one guy hit 50. How many times did we have men on second base and we couldn't score a run when we needed it? If everybody contributes -- not have a super year, but have the year they are supposed to have -- then this ballclub should be fine offensively.''

And if it isn't?: ''I say to Kenny and Jerry (Reinsdorf), 'Listen, if this thing don't work out because of me. ...' The first time something doesn't work, I'm not going hide ... from the media, the fans or the players. I take the blame. You know why? Because I'm the face of this ballclub. I'm the one that makes the move.''

I feel bad for the people who don't have MSNBC. They couldn't have watched last night's thrilling Olympic hockey game between the United States and Canada.

In one of the most fast-paced and physical games I've ever seen, the Americans upset the highly-regarded Canadians 5-3, despite being outshot 45-22. U.S. goalie Ryan Miller outplayed his counterpart, Martin Brodeur, by a wide margin. Miller made 42 saves and defenseman Brian Rafalski had two goals and an assist to highlight the American offense.

With the win, the U.S. delivered a haymaker to the collective psyche of Canada. The Americans also won their pool and clinched a bye into the quarterfinals. Best of all, the U.S. earned the No. 1 seed for the medal round after Sweden beat Finland 3-0 in late-night action Sunday.

Team USA and Team Sweden were the only two teams to complete pool play with a 3-0 record. The Americans won the tiebreaker by virtue of their +9 goal differential. The Swedes were +7 in their three victories.

More good news for the Americans: No. 2 Sweden, No. 3 Russia and No. 6 Canada are all on the opposite side of the bracket from the U.S. Those three teams were the consensus choices to medal coming into the tournament. Now, it's a guarantee that at least one of the three will leave Vancouver empty-handed. There is no chance the Americans will have to face any of those power teams until the gold medal game.

No. 8 Switzerland and No. 9 Belarus will play Tuesday for the right to play the Americans in Wednesday's quarterfinal round. While no team can be taken lightly in a one-and-done situation, the U.S. will be favored to advance into the semifinals. With a win on Wednesday, the Americans would likely face either No. 4 Finland or No. 5 Czech Republic in Friday's semifinal.

Neither the Finns nor the Czechs will be an easy out. I'd be especially wary of the Czechs. But frankly, I'll take my chances against either of those two teams. You have to be careful what you wish for, but I'd rather roll the dice against Finland or the Czech Republic than play Canada, Sweden or Russia in the semifinals.

The gold medal game will be played Sunday afternoon. Yes, it will be on NBC. Can the Americans get there? Well, the win over Canada sure sets the bracket up favorably for the U.S. It could not have worked out any better. Now, it's up to the players to take advantage of a golden opportunity.

I'm normally not into moral victories, but I'm encouraged by the way Illinois performed in a 75-65 loss at No. 4 Purdue on Saturday.

This game was closer than the final score indicates. It was 61-60 with about four minutes to go. It was a one- or two-possession game either way for the first 37 minutes. On the road against a top-five team, that's not a bad showing for Illinois. They couldn't quite finish, but as I've stated numerous times, the Illini have everybody back next year and they're a year away from being really good.

We've seen progress throughout the season with numerous individual players, and that was evident in this game. Demetri McCamey had 16 assists Saturday, including 11 in the first half. Purdue was hellbent on preventing McCamey from scoring -- he had only six points. Instead of forcing shots, he set up his teammates. That shows a maturity that wasn't there at the start of the season.

Mike Davis had 16 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks. A couple weeks ago, Davis was benched for indifferent play. He should be Illinois' second-best player. He was Saturday. Is the lightbulb starting to come on? Hopefully.

Freshman Brandon Paul had 13 points Saturday. I'm guilty of placing too high of an expectation level on this kid. I thought he would be good for double-digit scoring every night as a freshman. That hasn't happened, but he's a better player now than he was in December. He hit some open threes and had a couple of nice drives to the basket Saturday. A couple of times, he didn't get rewarded by the officials on his drives into the paint. That will change when he becomes a sophomore.

Illinois shot 49 percent from the floor to 36 percent for Purdue. Unfortunately, the Illini coughed up 15 offensive rebounds and that cost them.

In addition, Purdue shot 28 free throws. Illinois shot 5. Whenever Curtis Shaw shows up to officiate a Big Ten game, the road team should prepare to get screwed over a barrel. Shaw should have been fired years ago, and his officiating in Saturday's game was too pathetic for words. When the Illini are at home, I happily welcome Shaw into the Assembly Hall because I know he will screw the visiting team. When the Illini are on the road, I chalk it up as a loss when Shaw shows up. Brutal, just brutal.

Nevertheless, the Illini's compete level was where it needed to be Saturday. On any other day, against a team not ranked in the top five, with someone other than Curtis Shaw as the lead official, this would have been a win.

"If we play with this intensity, we'll be fine the rest of the year," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

Agreed. The Illini will make the NCAA tournament if they play this way in the remaining four regular season games. It's a big 'if,' given the inconsistency of this team. But it isn't like any miracles are necessary here. All it will take is four more games of solid play and everything will be OK for Illinois basketball.

We had an electrical meltdown here at The Beacon-News tonight. Servers were down for most of my shift, which makes it no fun on a busy high school basketball Friday.

Paper is done, but blogging activities are going to have to be canceled for this evening. Blogging will resume Saturday. We hope.

I've been working a Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule recently. While that has done nothing for my social life, it has afforded me numerous opportunities to watch ESPN's Big Monday college basketball telecasts on my nights off.

If you're unfamiliar with Big Monday, they always show a Big East game at 6 p.m., followed by a Big 12 game at 8 p.m. The announcers for that 8 p.m. Big 12 game are always 500-year-old Brent Musberger and Bob Knight, the erstwhile former coach at Indiana.

Kevin Kietzman, a sports talk show host in Kansas City, apparently doesn't care for the work of Musberger and Knight. In fact, he dislikes the duo so much that he has started a petition to have them removed from the air. Kietzman plans to submit the signatures to Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe at the conference tournament, which will be held March 10-13.

The petition rightfully points out that Musberger and Knight are prone to senile, obvious commentary. A good example came this past Monday, with Texas A&M trailing top-ranked Kansas by five points with 18 seconds left.

"I think they're going to look for a quick shot," Knight said as Texas A&M prepared to inbound the ball.

No kidding, Bob. They're down by five with 18 seconds to go. One would imagine that would necessitate a quick shot.

Strangely enough, I enjoy listening to Knight's commentary. That's odd because I absolutely hated the ground he walked on when he was the coach at Indiana. Knight is a jerk, but he also knows a ton about basketball. Between all his name mispronunciations and Captain Obvious statements, he does offer some pearls of wisdom that will make you more knowledgeable about the game. That's more than I can say for some other commentators.

In addition, Knight doesn't hesitate to rip referees when they make atrocious calls. There are a lot of broadcasters who act as if officials are beyond reproach. They are not. When they make a crappy call, they should be called out on it. Knight does that.

I've never been a Musberger fan, but here's the thing: I can think of numerous other broadcasters that I'd rather see off the air than Musberger or Knight.

Can we get rid of Dick Vitale? While we're at it, let's send Chris Berman packing too. The schtick got old years ago with those two guys. As I've said before about Vitale, the man knows college basketball. It's a shame he spends all his time screaming and hollering instead of offering his insights.

Vitale and Berman would be the first two ESPN personalities I would want gone. Can I petition to get John Kruk taken off Baseball Tonight? I can't stand him. My co-worker, Michael Lush, cannot stand ESPN NFL analyst Trent Dilfer. Maybe he should petition to have Dilfer sent somewhere else to talk about "the football."

I thank God each and every day that I'm not a Cubs fan. If I were, I'd have to listen to Ron Santo all summer and I might brain myself. "You're right, Pat, absolutely!" Whatever, Ronnie. Take a hike. If I were a Cubs fan, I'd start a petition to have Santo removed as well. I imagine non-White Sox fans would like to see Hawk Harrelson gone also. I would have to admit that Hawk's excuses grow tiresome when the Sox are on a losing streak.

There are plenty of others who should be wiped out before Musberger and Knight. I'm pretty confident I've just scratched the surface here. If anyone has any other announcers they want gone, feel free to drop a comment here.

The moral of this story: Be very, very careful when you use a photo to cover up lettering.

Those who are not careful end up with "Cubs 2010 Anal" on the cover of their book.

I have to take exception to David Haugh's column on Olympic hockey that appeared in the Chicago Tribune this morning.

Haugh says this is a "tense time" for Blackhawks fans because Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky are all representing their respective countries in the Olympics. Apparently, everyone is supposed to live in fear that a Blackhawks player will get injured and ruin the team's Stanley Cup hopes.

To me, that just isn't worth worrying about. It is true that a Blackhawks player could get hurt in the Olympics. And that would suck. But when the Olympics are done, there will still be 21 games left in the regular season. It's possible a Blackhawks player could get hurt in one of those games as well. Hell, a Hawks player could suffer an injury in practice. It happens sometimes.

The players are no more at risk in this tournament than they would be in an NHL game. Further, it isn't like the Blackhawks are the only team sending top players to the Olympics. San Jose's entire top line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau is playing for Team Canada. Maybe someone should write a column about what a "tense time" this is for Sharks fans.

I don't sit around and fret about players getting injured. If it happens, it happens. There's nothing you can do about that. As I watched Team USA beat Switzerland 3-1 Tuesday afternoon, I wasn't the least bit concerned about Patrick Kane's health. I just wanted the U.S. to win.

My advice to Haugh and others: Stop whining and worrying. The Olympics is a great showcase for hockey. Enjoy the games. Quit your bitching and cheer for the guys wearing your national colors.

Every now and then, you see a photo on the wire that gives you pause. As Bulls forward Taj Gibson sat on the bench during Friday's Rookie Challenge at the NBA's All-Star weekend, he seemed to be getting a nickel's worth of free advice from mascot Benny the Bull.

Whatever Benny is talking about, Gibson seems to be listening intently. What could Benny be saying? Perhaps he is regaling Gibson with stories from the Bulls' glory years in the 1990s. Or maybe he's asking why Tyrus Thomas is such an idiot. Could Benny be reminding Gibson that he needs to show hard on every ball screen and box out on every possession?

Maybe Benny is in line to replace Vinny Del Negro as the Bulls head coach next season. If that's the case, it's never too early to establish a good rapport with the players.

I'm sure Gibson appreciated Benny's support during the game, during which he scored six points and collected two rebounds in nine minutes of action.

And I've always wondered what's up with Benny's hair. Purple and orange? Seriously, dude...

I've been griping about Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther's idiotic scheduling for football for several years now. Last season, I thought Guenther set the Illini up for failure by scheduling a neutral-site game vs. Missouri, a true road game against Big East power Cincinnati AND a home game against BCS-slayer Fresno State all in the same year.

Not surprisingly, Illinois dropped all three of those games on its way to a lackluster 3-9 finish and a second consecutive season with no bowl game.

Hey, Ron! How about scheduling some damn home games in newly-renovated Memorial Stadium? Hey, Ron! We aren't exactly USC, in case you didn't notice, so how about scheduling some winnable games to give a struggling program (and a struggling head coach) some traction?

That call has finally been heeded. Take a look at the 2011 football schedule for the Illini.

For the first time in school history, there are eight home games on that schedule: Arkansas State, South Dakota State, Arizona State, Western Michigan, Penn State, Northwestern, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

To that, I say, "IT'S ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME!"

Yeah, there will be critics who say that Illinois is playing a soft schedule. I'll deal with and accept those criticisms. In the short term, Illinois needs to find a way to get some wins and get bowl-eligible. We aren't trying to win any national championships these days. First things first -- let's become more competitive in the Big Ten and get to a bowl game.

When you have an established, successful program (like Illinois does in basketball), then you start "scheduling up." But for now, the goal for Illinois football needs to be getting back to respectability. The 2011 schedule sets up to help the team avoid another 3-9 embarrassment. That is a good thing.

Of course, Illinois fans are going to have to live through the 2010 season first. It probably won't be pretty.

The best player the White Sox have had in my lifetime will announce his retirement at a press conference Friday at U.S. Cellular Field.

Frank Thomas (left), who played for the Sox from 1990-2005, walks away from the game with career numbers worthy of the Hall of Fame. Thomas is 18th all-time on the Major League Baseball home run list with 521. He will retire with a .301 batting average and 1,701 career RBIs. He won back-to-back MVP awards in 1993 and 1994, and quite a few in Chicago believe Thomas should have won a third MVP in 2000.

Thomas last played with the Oakland Athletics in 2008 and will be eligible for Hall of Fame induction in 2014. It's only a matter of time before the White Sox retire uniform No. 35.

There's are multiple threads on White Sox Interactive tonight with people sharing their memories of Thomas' career on the South Side. There were so many great moments. Heck, I attended 10 games during the 2000 season and saw Thomas hit 10 home runs. Not exaggerating at all. He homered in eight of the 10 games I went to and had two games where he went deep twice.

But my single favorite memory of Thomas came on Aug. 18, 2003. It was a half-price Monday, and I went to the ballpark with three of my friends. We got seats about 10 rows behind home plate -- $40 tickets for $20.

The game turned out to be a terrific pitchers' duel between Sox ace Mark Buehrle and Anaheim lefty Jarrod Washburn. The Angels led 2-0 into the seventh, and Washburn had a no-hitter through six.

In the seventh, Roberto Alomar rolled a single into right to break up Washburn's no-hitter. Thomas followed by blasting one out of the park to deep center. Game tied 2-2.

The game remained tied into the bottom of the ninth, when Sox utility man Tony Graffanino led off the inning with a double. Alomar bunted Graffanino over to third base, bringing Thomas to the plate with one out. For some reason, the Angels decided to pitch to the red-hot slugger. (Nice move, Mike Scioscia.)

With 32,000 people at U.S. Cellular Field standing and cheering, Thomas and Washburn had a tense, lengthy battle. The count ran full and Thomas fouled off several tough pitches from Washburn. Finally, the Anaheim pitcher left one in the middle of the plate and Thomas unloaded, sending a screaming line drive to left field that cleared the fence and gave the White Sox a 4-2 victory. It was quite an electric moment, and even the non-Sox-fan friends I went to that game with still recall it vividly to this day.

Here is the box score from that game. Thomas had so many big hits for the Sox in his career, but that performance in the clutch on an August night in 2003 was one that defined who he was as a hitter.

In a game where nobody else could touch Washburn, Thomas was all over him. He put the Sox on his back and carried the team to victory almost single-handedly. That's what the great ones do. That's why Thomas belongs in the Hall.

This really doesn't have anything to do with sports, but it isn't every day you experience something new. We had a minor earthquake here in the wee hours of the morning -- 3.8 on the Richter scale.

I had never actually felt an earthquake before in my life. When the shaking woke me up at 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, I frankly had no idea what was going on. I heard a crash, as if something had fallen outside my window, and the windows were rattling.

My first reaction was, "Is someone trying to break into my apartment?" I got up and looked around, looked outside and didn't see anyone or anything. I figured the noise had something to do with the snowstorm we had all day yesterday and into last night. The wind was howling and the snow was blowing around pretty good when I arrived home from work around midnight.

I thought perhaps the wind had knocked down a tree limb nearby, or maybe a snowplow had crashed into something, causing all that racket. It never crossed my mind that we had just had an earthquake. After looking around and realizing that everything was in order, I thought nothing further of it and went back to bed.

When I got up this morning, I heard on the news there had been an earthquake at 3:59 a.m. I had noticed that my alarm clock read 4 o'clock on the dot when I was awakened a few hours earlier. That was an "Aha!" moment for me. All that noise was, in fact, an earthquake. And I didn't even realize it.

What the hell is this? California? We have far too much snow here for that.

It's pretty hard to win in Madison, Wisc. Duke couldn't do it. Purdue couldn't do it. Neither could Michigan State. Much to my surprise, Illinois pulled it off Tuesday night, coming away with a 63-56 win over 11th-ranked Wisconsin.

Juniors Demetri McCamey and Mike Tisdale led the way in the upset. McCamey made 11 of 17 shots and finished with a game-high 27 points to go along with seven assists. Tisdale shot 8-for-11 and had 19 points.

A few other notes on this Illinois win:

1. Wisconsin had been 51-0 at home against unranked Big Ten opponents during the Bo Ryan Era. Make that 51-1. Ryan (pictured at right) doesn't look too happy.

2. The Illini broke the Badgers' 18-game homecourt winning streak.

3. Illinois becomes the only team to collect three wins at Wisconsin during Ryan's tenure. The Illini previously defeated Wisconsin in Madison in 2005 and 2006.

4. Illinois is 5-0 since holding a players-only meeting following an idiotic loss at Northwestern on Jan. 23.

In other Big Ten news, Purdue beat Michigan State 76-64 in East Lansing, Mich. Believe it or not, this creates a three-way tie for first place among Michigan State, Purdue and Illinois. All three teams are 9-3 in league play. Ohio State sits fourth at 8-3; Wisconsin is fifth at 8-4.

It's a five-way race for the Big Ten title at this point.

Blackhawks 4, Dallas 3 (SO)

Patrick Kane scored twice in regulation and Kris Versteeg netted the only goal in the shootout to get the Blackhawks into the winners' circle Tuesday night. If the season ended today, the Stars would not be in the playoffs. Just as well, because Dallas gives the Hawks fits. The Stars lit up Hawks goalie Cristobal Huet in winning the two previous meetings between the two teams earlier this year. Antti Niemi was in goal for the Hawks Tuesday. The Finnish netminder improved his season mark to 15-4-1 with the victory.

Bulls 109, Indiana 101

Given how sorry the Eastern Conference is, there's no reason the Bulls shouldn't be able to get the No. 5 or No. 6 seed for the playoffs. To do that, they'll have to start beating the dregs of the league on the road. No more losses to bad teams like Philadelphia. Tuesday's win over the Pacers is a start. Luol Deng scored 23 points and pulled down 11 boards. Derrick Rose and John Salmons added 21 points each in a balanced effort.

Illinois State 62, Bradley 61

Neither of these two teams is going to get an NCAA bid this year unless one of them wins the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, but Illinois State (17-8, 8-6) fans have to be pretty happy with a series sweep over Bradley (12-12, 7-7), their rivals from Peoria. The Redbirds are tied for third with Creighton in the MVC right now. Northern Iowa remains the odds-on favorite to get the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Second-place Wichita State appears to be the primary challenger.

Not sure I've ever seen this before in all the years I've watched basketball -- until last night. I was watching the Kansas-Texas game and KU guard Brady Morningstar had a little trouble with this free throw:

The top-ranked Jayhawks can laugh about it now. They defeated Texas decisively, 80-68.

We already know Bears coach Lovie Smith thinks Bears fans and football writers are all idiots. His "see no evil, hear no evil" approach to press conferences is insulting and wore thin in Chicago a long, long time ago.

Yesterday's decision to promote Rod Marinelli to defensive coordinator was foolish. The Bears badly need a new voice from the outside to inject some fresh ideas into their defense. Everyone seems to know that except Lovie Smith, and his reasoning for promoting Marinelli just sounded dumb.

"We considered outside possibilities, but I didn't feel our defense would benefit the same way it will with Rod in the coordinator role," quote the great Lovie. "From the first day I became head coach of the Chicago Bears I envisioned Rod as our defensive coordinator. I considered him for the role last year, but wanted him to have the opportunity to work exclusively with our defensive line and become acclimated to our team. He will remain in our defensive line room, but will add the responsibility of the defensive calls on game day."

We know the bolded part of that quotation is at best a rationalization, at worst an outright lie. For one, if Lovie envisioned Marinelli as the defensive coordinator, he should have given him the title last year. Get acclimated to the team? Please. Marinelli's been coaching football a long time. He doesn't need a year to "get acquainted."

Secondly, if Lovie envisioned Marinelli as the defensive coordinator, he would have made this move a month ago. In reality, he wanted Perry Fewell to be the defensive coordinator. But Fewell wisely ducked the Bears and took the same job with the New York Giants.

Lovie couldn't find any other outside options to serve as his puppet, so he just promoted Marinelli. That's the real reason this move was made.

When I pulled this week's edition of Sports Illustrated out of my mailbox Wednesday afternoon, I really had no idea I was looking at a cover that was going to spark a lot of controversy.

In fact, as I looked at the issue, my reaction was something along the lines of "Oh, Lindsey Vonn. She's a good skier. I'm not surprised she's on the cover for SI's Olympic preview edition."

Only later did I find out that I was looking at a highly objectionable photo that sexualized Vonn and is apparently demeaning to women.

After reading about this flap, I looked at the cover of my copy of SI again and said, "Yeah, I guess she does have her ass pointing up in the air, doesn't she?"

Here's the thing: When I first got the magazine, I was looking at Vonn as nothing more than a skier and one of America's best hopes for gold in the upcoming Vancouver Olympics. That's how we're supposed to be looking at her, right?

I never would have thought of that photo as being sexy in any way. At least until the feminists came along and started talking about what a provocative shot it supposedly is. Thanks to them, my reaction to the photo is entirely different now.

With that in mind, I'd like to congratulate all the left-wing whiners who created this firestorm. You've officially defeated your own cause.

I was scanning over the wires tonight when I noticed they've been having trouble with unruly fan behavior at West Virginia. People were throwing objects on the court during the sixth-ranked Mountaineers' 70-51 victory over No. 22 Pittsburgh Wednesday night.

Coach Bob Huggins asked the crowd to knock it off, which caused me to reflect on my favorite technical foul in basketball history. Back in 1989, Oklahoma coach Billy Tubbs took the microphone after fans littered the court to protest a call during a game against Missouri.

"The referees request that regardless of how bad the officiating is..."

Right at the end of the video, you catch a glimpse of the official assessing Tubbs a technical foul for his comments. Classic.

So much for Illinois football coach Ron Zook being a great recruiter. Hey, when you've gone 8-16 over the last two years and everyone wants you fired (including the operator of this blog), your chances of landing blue-chip recruits aren't very good.

Zook welcomed 20 kids into the Illini program Wednesday, and only one -- Downers Grove South quarterback Chandler Whitmer -- merited four stars from rivals.com. Whitmer is already enrolled at Illinois and figures to challenge for the starting job in the fall. With Juice Williams moving on, the competition is on between Whitmer, sophomore-to-be Jacob Charest and redshirt freshman Nathan Scheelhaase.

Northwestern is also looking for a new quarterback after the graduation of Mike Kafka. More importantly, that program needs a running game, too. The Wildcats lost their bowl game against Auburn, in part, because they had to throw the ball 78 times. I don't follow the NU football program that closely, but I'm a little surprised that coach Pat Fitzgerald has only one running back among his 17 recruits. I would have thought that would have been a position of need.

Locally, we've got a couple of Beacon-News area kids headed for Northern Illinois. The Huskies are getting a steal in Geneva defensive tackle Frank Boenzi. I think that kid could play in the Big Ten, but bigger schools backed off him because of concerns about grades. If Boenzi gets his academic house in order -- and the guess here is he will --  he'll be an impact player for the Huskies.

Boenzi's teammate at Geneva, Michael Santacaterina, is going to be a preferred walk-on at NIU. Santacaterina was a pretty solid high school running back for the Vikings. Look for him to play safety in college, or maybe bulk up a little bit and try his hand at linebacker. Here's a list of the other kids who committed to NIU coach Jerry Kill today.

In other local news, Geneva linebacker Bret Shannon is headed to the Air Force Academy. Shannon told our Jim Owczarski this evening that he plans to add 20 or 30 pounds in hopes of playing defensive end in college.

To find out how Big Ten schools rank when compared to each other, click here. And here are the national rankings from rivals.

It feels as though Mike Martz has been standing outside Halas Hall for the last month, cheeks pressed against the windows, peering inside, just begging the Bears to hire him. Finally, they did. Martz was named the Bears' new offensive coordinator on Monday.

I have two reservations about this move. First off, Martz has had his best success with pocket passers like Kurt Warner, Marc Bulger and Jon Kitna. While Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has a big arm, he's often at his best while outside the pocket. Former offensive coordinator Ron Turner didn't figure that out until the final two games of the season. Not coincidentally, Cutler had his two best games of the year against Minnesota and Detroit, when Turner finally realized it was OK to move the pocket a little bit. Will the notoriously stubborn Martz be willing to adjust to the strengths of his quarterback?

Secondly, Martz's offense has always emphasized the vertical passing game. For the record, I love the vertical passing game. I like coaches who pass the ball for six points, not for six yards. I just question whether the Bears have a good enough offensive line to protect Cutler long enough for the receivers to get downfield. Cutler took a lot of three- and five-step drops this past season. There was an emphasis on getting the ball out of his hands early. The reason for that was the line's inability to block long enough for seven-step drops and deeper routes to develop. Without personnel changes to the offensive line, can the Bears successfully implement the passing schemes of Martz?

On the bright side, Martz was clearly the most accomplished of all the potential candidates. He was 53-32 during his six years as a head coach in St. Louis, including one Super Bowl appearance (a loss to the Patriots in 2001). He was the offensive coordinator on the Rams' Super Bowl championship team in 1999. That resume is much, much better than those of the other names the Bears bandied about. (Hue Jackson? Huh? Who the hell is Frank Cignetti anyway?)

With Martz in place, the Bears now must turn their attention to the vacant defensive coordinator's job. There have been rumors that defensive line coach Rod Marinelli would get the position. That would be a mistake. Marinelli is best suited to coach the defensive line. Give him any more responsibility than that, and he'll fail. That was proven in Detroit. ESPN's Jeff Dickerson thinks Indianapolis secondary coach Alan Williams would be a fit.

In any case, the Bears should bring in somebody from the outside. Heaven knows someone needs to look at this defense with a fresh set of eyes. The whole Lovie Smith/Bob Babich/Marinelli thing didn't work out so well this past season. Maybe the Bears will talk to Williams after he gets done coaching in the Super Bowl this weekend.