When reigning NBA MVP Derrick Rose went down with a torn ACL Saturday in the Bulls' Game 1 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, Chicago's 2012 championship hopes went down with him.

Sure, the Bulls could (and probably should) still win this opening round series against Philadelphia. Heck, they might even get past either Boston or Atlanta in the second round and reach the Eastern Conference Finals. But the idea that they can beat the Miami Heat without Rose and break through to the NBA Finals is wishful thinking at best.

For the Bulls organization, here's the real pity of it: Now they have no idea how to proceed this offseason. After losing to Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, team brass chose to keep the same group of players together. The thinking was, give this deep, talented roster another year together, and internal improvement by Rose and other players would (hopefully) be enough to push the Bulls past Miami and its triumvirate of star players.

It was a reasonable strategy by the Bulls organization. This group of players has posted the best regular season record in the NBA for two years running. They deserved the opportunity to stay together as is and take another shot at the title. If they failed to achieve that objective this spring, well, then maybe you go back to the drawing board.

Alas, the Rose injury throws a huge wrench in that line of thinking. Until Saturday, the concern was the Bulls might lose because they lack a strong enough second scoring option to help Rose out. The sad truth is now the Bulls are going to lose, and the reason will be Rose's injury. As a result, we and everyone involved with the Bulls organization will not get our answer as to whether this roster -- as currently constructed -- is capable of winning the NBA championship.

Now, there is no choice but to write this season off as a failure due to an injury suffered by a superstar player. So what do you do if you're Bulls GM Gar Forman? Do you bring everybody back and take another swing next season? Or has your patience run out? Do you package two or three of the quality players on this roster together, give up some depth and try to acquire that elusive second All-Star?

It's tough call with no definitive answer. I'm glad I'm not the one who has to make that decision.

With the 19th pick in the 2012 NFL draft, the Chicago Bears select Shea McClellin, defensive end/linebacker, Boise State.

Here is my analysis of this pick:

Sorry, I don't know anything about this dude. The next down I see him play will be a first. Maybe he'll be good. Maybe he won't be.

Waubonsie Valley High School graduate Michael Bowden is now a member of the Cubs, and he made his debut with his new team Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bowden worked a scoreless ninth inning in the Cubs' 3-2 victory in 10 innings. The right-hander entered with the Cubs trailing 2-1, and he was shaky to say the least. Bowden retired his first two hitters, then gave up a double to Shane Robinson and issued back-to-back walks to Daniel Descalso and Rafael Furcal to load the bases. The count went full on Skip Schumaker before the St. Louis second baseman lined out to shortstop allowing Bowden to escape trouble.

Believe it or not, Bowden almost ended up with the win. Bryan LaHair's solo home run in the ninth inning got the Cubs even at 2-2, and the North Siders had runners at first and third with two outs before St. Louis got out of the inning. Would have been a good story had the Cubs won in the ninth and handed the local boy a victory in his first outing with his childhood favorite team.

After throwing 29 pitches (only 13 for strikes), you can understand why Cubs manager Dale Sveum wasn't going to trust Bowden for the 10th. He put in left-hander James Russell, who worked a scoreless frame and earned the win when Alfonso Soriano singled home Tony Campana with the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th.

With the victory, the Cubs have won two straight over the Cardinals. It's the first series win of the season for the North Siders.

The Blackhawks season is over after a 4-0 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 6 Monday night at the United Center.

Phoenix wins the series 4-2 and advances to play Nashville in the next round.

Without question, the two differences in this series were goaltending and special teams. What can you say about Phoenix goalie Mike Smith? The guy had 39 saves in Game 6, many of them of the spectacular variety. The Hawks outshot Phoenix 39-20 in this game, yet they got blown out of their own barn as the Coyotes netted three goals in the third period to put the game away.

I don't think Hawks goalie Corey Crawford played a horrible series. He was up and down. He let in a couple softies in the overtime sessions of Games 3 and 4. At other times, he was spectacular. But he was nowhere near as consistently good as Smith. The best goaltender in the series won the series.

Then, there was the Hawks' anemic power play, which finished the postseason 1-for-19. The Hawks flubbed two more chances in Game 6, while the Coyotes went 2-for-4. The sad fact is the Hawks couldn't even gain the offensive blue line with the man advantage. Unacceptable when you consider the offensive talent on the roster. Unacceptable when you consider the Hawks had no problems gaining entry into the offensive zone in five-on-five situations.

We'll see what changes the Hawks make over the offseason. We already know they are raising ticket prices for next year. From where I'm sitting, they better raise their level of play too. I have to say, 2010 is over, yet fans are still being charged as if the team is of championship-caliber. It is not. It's time to fix that. Nobody should have to pay $45 per ticket to sit at the top of the United Center and watch a so-so brand of hockey.

White Sox pitcher Phil Humber fits the definition of a journeyman. All you have to do to realize that is take a look at the winding road he's traveled through professional baseball:

June 5, 2001: Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 29th round of the 2001 amateur draft, but did not sign.
June 7, 2004: Drafted by the New York Mets in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the 2004 amateur draft. Player signed January 11, 2005.
February 2, 2008: Traded by the New York Mets with Deolis Guerra (minors), Carlos Gomez and Kevin Mulvey to the Minnesota Twins for Johan Santana.
October 6, 2009: Granted Free Agency.
December 11, 2009: Signed as a Free Agent with the Kansas City Royals.
December 17, 2010: Selected off waivers by the Oakland Athletics from the Kansas City Royals.
January 18, 2011: Selected off waivers by the Chicago White Sox from the Oakland Athletics.

You look at Humber's profile on baseballreference.com, and the player he is most similar too statistically is the immortal Bob Tewksbury.

At age 29, Humber is already on his fifth organization. During his pro career, he's been down just about every path conceivable. He's been the first-round draft pick. He's been the top prospect. He's also been the guy who had Tommy John surgery. He's been the bust. He's been the guy who was given up on and traded. He's been the guy who was released (twice). He's been the guy who made the team in spring training, only to get sent back down. He's also been the guy who made the team in spring training and surprised everyone with a good season. He's been the guy who took a line drive off his face (twice) and lived to tell about it.

And, now, after Saturday, he's one of just 21 pitchers in MLB history to throw a perfect game, a 4-0 masterpiece against the Seattle Mariners. Here's the list that Humber just joined.

Days like Saturday are really what makes baseball special. You don't have to be a future Hall of Famer to achieve immortality. Each game is its own narrative, and on any given day, even a pitcher with a grand total of 12 career MLB wins can capture the country's imagination.

Phil Humber may be the fifth starter on a team nobody expects to contend, but for White Sox fans, his name will never be forgotten.

YAZ!

There he is, Hawk Harrelson's good buddy, Carl Yastrzemski, waving to the Boston crowd Friday afternoon.

Have we mentioned lately that Yaz was the American League's last triple crown winner? That was in 1967, in case you hadn't heard.

The Blackhawks lost 3-2 in overtime Thursday in Game 4 of their best-of-seven Western Conference series against the Phoenix Coyotes. They now trail three games to one heading back to Phoenix for Game 5 Saturday night.

For the third time in the series, the Hawks scored a late goal to tie things up -- this one off the stick of Michael Frolik, a forgotten man for most of the season.

Alas, it was all for naught as a bad pinch by Nick Leddy led to a goal from Mikkel Boedker at 2:15 of the extra session. Once again, it was a shot that Hawks goalie Corey Crawford should have stopped. Instead, he did his best Roberto Luongo impersonation and let it sneak through his pads. Now, the Hawks are facing elimination.

It is now a distinct possibility the United Center has hosted its last hockey game of the season. The top players on the Hawks aren't getting it done. No offense to tonight's goal scorers, Frolik and Brendan Morrison, but any production these secondary players provide is nothing more than a nice bonus.

The Hawks need their star players to start playing like stars. We all know Marian Hossa is out now, but the remaining big three of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp have been mostly silent in this series. Toews scored in Game 1, but has looked rusty after missing the last 22 regular season games with a concussion. Sharp scored the game-tying goal with five seconds left in regulation in Game 2, but wasn't heard from at all in the two games at the United Center. Kane has no goals in this series, likely because he never shoots. He's dingle-dangling himself right into an early summer vacation, trying to make fancy moves against a Phoenix team that plays a solid containment style of defense.

And, of course, the Hawks were 0-for-3 on the power play again Thursday. That makes them 1-for-13 in the series.

If the Hawks don't get some production from their power play and their top players, the season is over Saturday. You can't be counting on Michael Frolik to bail your ass out of the fire. It's not a good sign when Frolik has as many goals in this series as Toews, Sharp, Kane and Hossa combined.

In case you've been living under a rock the last 24 hours and haven't seen the dirty hit Phoenix forward Raffi Torres delivered on Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa Tuesday night, here it is:

Torres is suspended indefinitely pending an in-person hearing on Friday. You can pretty much take it to the bank Torres will get at least five games off for delivering this blow. As per the language in the NHL's collective bargaining agreement, the league has to have a face-to-face meeting to hand down a suspension of five or more games, and they usually do not take this step unless they intend to do just that.

But, here's the thing: So what?

It doesn't matter if Torres is suspended five games, 20 games, or sentenced to die by lethal injection. Hossa is out indefinitely, and the Hawks will be without their leading scorer as they attempt to overcome a 2-1 series deficit. Whatever value Torres might have to the Coyotes as a third-line agitator, he doesn't mean nearly as much to his team as Hossa means to the Hawks.

Torres and Hossa both out for the rest of the series? I dare say the Coyotes come out ahead on that deal. The damage is done, no matter the outcome of Friday's hearing.

Adding insult to injury, the Hawks didn't even get a power play out of the deal. In fact, Phoenix was rewarded a power play after Chicago winger Brandon Bollig roughed Torres in the aftermath of the hit, which went unpenalized. Hawks coach Joel Quenneville called the officiating "a disgrace" in his postgame presser, and you can hardly blame him. The guys in the striped shirts messed this one up bad.

So, where do the Hawks go from here? How do they get back in the series?

Rookie Brandon Saad will replace Hossa in the Blackhawks lineup. Of course, there really is no replacing Hossa. He's a legit superstar in all three zones, and few players in the league can do what he does. But Saad will add some size and offensive skill to the Hawks' lineup. The 6-2, 211-pound winger totaled 76 points in 44 regular season games with the Saginaw Spirit. He added eight goals and nine assists in 12 postseason games. The kid is good with the puck, and maybe he can provide a spark to Chicago's moribund power play -- the Hawks are just 1-for-10 with the man advantage in this series.

I've been saying for quite some time poor special teams would eventually lead to the Hawks' demise. I've seen nothing these first three games to change my opinion. All three of these playoff games have gone overtime. The Hawks scored a power play goal in their lone win of this series. They failed to score with the power play in each of their two losses. Coincidence? I think not. A timely goal with the man advantage goes a long way in a one-shot game. The Hawks need to get one to win Game 4, and they must get that hapless power play going if they have any hope of winning this series.

I may be piling on here, but as long as the NHL's system of discipline continues to be a joke, we're going to continue to rip commissioner Gary Bettman and his useless toady Brendan Shanahan for their remarkable stupidity.

Somehow, some way, this merits only a one-game suspension:

That is a video of Matt Carkner hitting a defenseless Brian Boyle not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, not five times, not six times, but SEVEN TIMES, while an on-ice official looks on and does nothing.

This is not hockey. This is criminal violence. Fortunately, Boyle was not hurt. He scored a goal later in this game, then scored the only goal of the game Monday night in New York's 1-0 win over Ottawa. Apparently, because Boyle was not injured, Carkner was given the leniency of only being suspended one game.

That, of course, is ridiculous on its face. In the real world, attempted murder is still attempted murder, regardless of the extent of the injuries the victim may have suffered. You adjudicate based upon the act, not the outcome. I don't know why it should be different in professional sports. Apparently, that's not what Shanahan believes.

If you are Shanahan, you somehow find reason to suspend Blackhawks winger Andrew Shaw three games for this:

Shaw's stick and elbows are down. The puck is right there. There's no intent to injure. This is incidental contact, something that happens routinely in hockey. In my world, this is two minutes for goaltender interference. In Shanahan's world, it's a three-game suspension.

"The contact Shaw makes with (Mike) Smith is not incidental," Shanahan said. "Rather, it is a forceful blow delivered by Shaw's shoulder to Smith's chin. Also, in our opinion, Shaw does not make a reasonable effort to avoid such contact."

OK, fine. Guess what? Carkner WILLFULLY delivered SEVEN FORCEFUL BLOWS to the head of Brian Boyle. Carkner got one game, Shanny. How come Shaw got three?

Just askin'.

And the NHL expects us to take them seriously when they say they are looking to eliminate blows to the head. From where I'm sitting, they are only serious when they feel like it.

Sure, the 5-2 start to the season the White Sox enjoyed was nice. Winning two games out of three against the defending AL Central Division champion Detroit Tigers was even better.

Still, there's no reason to expect the Sox to be serious contenders. They reminded us all to keep our expectations realistic with a horrific 10-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Monday night.

The Sox took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning in this one. The lead shrunk in the eighth when Jesse Crain gave up a solo home run to Matt Wieters. 4-2, still no big deal, right? Wrong.

Young closer Hector Santiago had his first meltdown of the season. He gave up a solo home run to Nolan Reimold leading off the ninth to make it 4-3. Then, he got the next two outs and looked like he might earn the save. Unfortunately, he grooved a 2-1 fastball to Baltimore clean-up hitter Adam Jones, who parked it to tie the game 4-4.

The Sox went quietly in the bottom of the ninth inning. The game went to extra innings, and the top of the 10th went thusly:

1. Z. Stewart relieved H. Santiago
2. M. Reynolds safe at first on center fielder A. De Aza's fielding error, M. Reynolds to third
3. C. Davis doubled to left, M. Reynolds scored
4. JB predicts a 10-4 loss in the WSI gamethread.
5. R. Andino singled to pitcher, C. Davis to third
6. N. Reimold singled to shallow left, C. Davis scored, R. Andino to second
7. J.J. Hardy reached on bunt single to pitcher, R. Andino to third, N. Reimold to second
8. N. Markakis grounded into fielder's choice, R. Andino out at home, N. Reimold to third, J.J. Hardy to second
9. A. Jones struck out swinging
10. M. Wieters homered to deep right, N. Reimold, J.J. Hardy and N. Markakis scored
11. R. Paulino grounded out to second

Pretty brutal pitching and defense. And there's your 10-4 loss.

OK, let me get this straight. This hit by the Blackhawks' Duncan Keith on Vancouver's Daniel Sedin merited a five-game suspension:

Yet, this cheap shot that Nashville's Shea Weber delivered to the head of Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg Wednesday night merited nothing more than a $2,500 fine:

You've gotta be kidding me. These two incidents are quite comparable if you ask me. Both Keith and Weber delivered a reckless shot to another man's head. Aren't these the exact kind of plays the NHL is trying to get rid of? Shouldn't the penalties for these two hits be similar?

I believe they should. Apparently, NHL chief disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan believes otherwise.

I've heard some people say Weber is being given leniency because this is the playoffs. The Keith hit, of course, occurred during the regular season. To me, a bad hit is a bad hit. I don't care whether it happened in the playoffs or the regular season. If the league wants to put a stop to this kind of unnecessary violence, the penalties need to be both harsh and consistent. Instead, we get the usual wishy-washy crap coming out of the league office.

Here's what Shanahan had to say Thursday about the Weber hit:

'This was a reckless and reactionary play on which Weber threw a glancing punch and then shoved Zetterberg's head into the glass. As is customary whenever Supplemental Discipline is being considered, we contacted Detroit following the game and were informed that Zetterberg did not suffer an apparent injury and should be in the lineup for Game 2.''

"Shanny" is full of crap, as usual. So, Weber gets off with a slap on the wrist because Zetterberg wasn't injured? What a bunch of bull. I can only assume Keith was given a harsher penalty than Weber because Sedin was injured and Zetterberg was not. Once again, a bad hit is a bad hit. It shouldn't matter whether the recipient of a cheap shot is able to skate away or not. My argument doesn't change: If the league is serious about eliminating these plays, the penalties must be harsh and consistent.

If the Duncan Keith hit is worth a five-game suspension, then this Shea Weber hit is also worth a five-game suspension.

Weber should be gone the next five games. Instead, he'll be on the ice for Game 2 of the Nashville-Detroit series. That's just ridiculous. The NHL's system of justice makes no sense whatsoever.

At one point during the ninth inning of Wednesday's 10-6 White Sox winner over the Cleveland Indians, broadcaster Hawk Harrelson noted the game had its share of "greased tee moments." I think that was our first "greased tee" reference of the 2012 season, in fact.

Harrelson seems to talk about greased tees being stuck up his behind a little more frequently than the average person. Here's an example:

This is one "Hawkism" you won't find on a T-Shirt anywhere.

Former White Sox manager and current Miami Marlins skipper Ozzie Guillen has stepped in quite a few piles of crap in his day, but his latest blunder is going to be pretty hard for him to overcome.

Guillen was suspended for five games Tuesday after he angered Cuban-Americans by telling Time magazine that he loves Fidel Castro and respects the retired Cuban leader for staying in power for so long.

That's not the smartest thing for the Marlins manager to say after the team just opened its new ballpark in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami. The team is trying to rebuild its fans base with the help of South Florida's large Cuban-American population.

I wish the Marlins a lot of luck with that now. These people look pretty pissed.

Guillen apologized profusely in two languages Tuesday, but here's the problem for Ozzie: This isn't the first time he's praised Castro.

Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander noted today that Guillen brought Castro up in a Sept. 2008 interview. The exchange went like this:

Telander: Who is the toughest man you know?
Guillen: Fidel Castro
Telander: Why?
Guillen: "He's a bull---- dictator and everybody's against him, and he still survives, has power. Still has a country behind him. Everywhere he goes, they roll out the red carpet. I don't admire his philosophy; I admire him.''

This is Chicago, so nobody really noticed those remarks at the time. But in Miami, that would be enough to start a riot. Now that Guillen has praised Castro not once but twice in interviews, I can see how some people would be reluctant to accept his apologies. After something like this, I have a feeling Ozzie is out of mulligans. One more slip of the tongue, and he's gonna get canned. Not even Baseball Tonight will want to hire him.

Meanwhile, White Sox fans are glad they don't have to deal with this garbage anymore. The circus has left town. Ozzie is Miami's problem now. Around here, we can just focus on baseball. Kinda refreshing, isn't it?

I don't think anyone would rank the Cleveland Indians among the most feared offensive teams in the American League this year. Nevertheless, the White Sox have to be pleased with what they saw from pitcher Chris Sale Monday night.

Sale won his first career Major League start, allowing just one run on three hits over 6 2/3 innings in the Sox 4-2 victory over the Indians.

The left-hander gave up only one hit over his first five innings before Cleveland nicked him for a two-out run in the sixth. Sale also gave up a leadoff single in the seventh, but he followed that by inducing a double-play grounder on his 100th and final pitch of the night. He struck out five, walked two and retired 12 consecutive batters at one stage.

Through the first four games, that's the best outing by a Sox starting pitcher so far.

The other positive for the Sox has been their bullpen. As a group, they've allowed only one run in 9 2/3 innings through four games. Rookie left-hander Hector Santiago has converted each of his first two save opportunites, although he allowed a solo home run to Cleveland's Jose Lopez in the ninth inning Monday. Santiago recovered, however, to retire the next three hitters -- two of them on strikeouts.

Brewers 7, Cubs 5

Former Cub Aramis Ramirez made his return to Wrigley Field Monday night as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The erstwhile third baseman went 1-for-3 with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly in the Milwaukee win. He also showed off his miserable defensive skills as he made a brutal error on a Marlon Byrd grounder in the bottom of the ninth that gave the Cubs an opportunity to rally.

Chicago scored two runs to cut a 7-3 deficit in half and had the bases loaded with two outs for shortstop Starlin Castro. Milwaukee closer John Axford caught Castro looking at an 0-2 fastball right down the middle to end the game.

I don't know what Castro was thinking up there. Axford possesses a 97-mph fastball. That's the pitch you have to protect against with two strikes against that particular pitcher. Castro couldn't have possibly been looking breaking ball, could he?

Good thing they don't have shootouts in the playoffs, huh? The Blackhawks really stink at them without captain Jonathan Toews in the lineup. For the second straight game, the Minnesota Wild beat the Hawks in a shootout, this time 2-1 Thursday night in St. Paul.

It's also a good thing for the Hawks their failure to take a second point out of this game mattered little in the Western Conference playoff race.

The Nashville Predators will finish ahead of the Blackhawks after their 2-0 win over the Dallas Stars Thursday night. They will have home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs if they win their final game against the Colorado Avalanche. They will face either the Hawks or the Detroit Red Wings to open the postseason.

Detroit lost 2-1 to New Jersey Thursday night, but it maintains the fifth spot in the West with 101 points. The Hawks sit sixth with 99 points, but they can move up to fifth if they beat Detroit in regulation on Saturday. The Wings will stay fifth if they either win the game, or lose to the Hawks in overtime or in a shootout. (Yeah, right, like the Hawks are going to win in a shootout. Ha, ha.)

If the Hawks and Detroit both finish with 101 points, Chicago wins the tiebreaker. The first tiebreaker is regulation and overtime wins. If the Hawks do win Saturday, both teams would have 39 such victories. So, it would go to the second tiebreaker, which is head-to-head competition. The Hawks are 3-0-2 against Detroit this year and have already clinched the season series.

For Blackhawk fans, the question is this: Do you want to win Saturday and play Nashville in the first round? Or would you rather lose, take the sixth seed and play whichever team survives the Pacific Division free for all?

All spring long, new Cubs manager Dale Sveum has preached aggressiveness on the basepaths. Generally speaking, I agree with that philosophy -- put pressure on the opponent and make them execute.

However, there is a difference between aggressiveness and stupidity. In Thursday's 2-1 Opening Day loss to the Washington Nationals, the Cubs demonstrated more of the latter than the former on the bases. They ran themselves into two unnecessary outs -- one in the fourth inning and one in the ninth -- and that looms large in a one-run game. Let's discuss.

Situation 1: No score, one out, bottom of the fourth. Alfonso Soriano on second base, Ian Stewart on first. Jeff Baker at the plate against Washington's Stephen Strasburg.

Soriano, apparently trying to turn the clock back six or seven years, attempts to steal third base and gets thrown out from here to China. Two outs.

What happens next? Baker walks, then Marlon Byrd singles in Stewart. The Cubs get one run out of the inning, but should have had two and could have had even more if Soriano had held his water at second base. No need to give Strasburg, who was struggling in that inning, an easy out in that spot.

Some might blame Sveum for the caught stealing, but I don't believe that call came from the bench. If it had, Stewart would have been running from first base as well. He was not. I think Soriano was going on his own, and it was a horrible, horrible choice. It cost the Cubs a potential big inning.

Situation 2: Washington leads 2-1, bottom of the ninth. One out, Joe Mather at third base, pinch-running for Stewart who had tripled. Brad Lidge pitching, Baker at the plate. Washington's infield is in.

Baker swings at the first pitch and grounds to third base. Mather, running on contact, is thrown out easily at the plate by Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. Two outs. The pressure comes off Lidge, and he strikes out Byrd to end the game.

This call did come from the bench, and I just don't like the contact play when you're down a run. When the game is tied, OK. But when you're trailing, I believe you have to make ground balls go through.

If Mather stays at third on Baker's grounder, yeah, it's still not an advantageous situation for the Cubs. There would have been two out, and that likely would have required Byrd to get a base hit to tie the game. However, with a man at third, Lidge has to worry about bouncing his slider and potentially allowing the tying run to score on a wild pitch. Maybe he leaves one up and Byrd comes through.

But with a man at first, Lidge had no such concerns. He got the third out and earned the save.

One day of bad baserunning isn't going to cause Sveum to change his philosophy, nor should it. But little things make the difference in close games, and it's mistakes like these that cause the Cubs to struggle the way they do.

Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews will travel to St. Paul with his teammates for Thursday night's game against the Minnesota Wild, but he will not play. This will be the 21st consecutive game Toews has missed with a concussion.

No one knows for sure when (or if) Toews will return, but just for the sake of argument, let's assume he's ready to play when the Stanley Cup playoffs begin next week. Once Toews is back, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville is going to have some tough choices to make with his line combinations.

Before Toews was injured, he was centering a line with Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane. Obviously, major changes were necessary once the captain got hurt. Kane moved to center and has been playing on a line with Marian Hossa and Andrew Brunette. Sharp has been playing with center Marcus Kruger and winger Viktor Stalberg in recent games.

Without question, the Sharp-Kruger-Stalberg line has been the most productive unit for the Hawks as of late. Sharp has scored in each of the last three games. He has seven goals in his last 10 games and now leads the team with 33 goals for the season. Stalberg has been playing his best hockey since he joined the Blackhawks, totaling five goals and five assists over his last 11 games.

You have to believe Quenneville would be loathe to break up that line. So, where does that leave Toews? Should Quenneville load up and put him with Kane and Hossa on the same line, as Jesse Rogers from ESPNChicago discussed a couple days ago?

Having those three guys on the ice at the same time is an intriguing possibiity, for sure. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's going to work. Hossa and Kane are both left-handed shots who prefer to play right wing. I'm not convinced either of them would be as effective moving over to left wing, even playing on the same line with Toews.

Hossa has never played left wing in his time with the Hawks. He's rather picky about where he plays and who he plays with, so I don't think I'd move him off right wing. Kane has played left wing at times, but has never been as effective there as he is on right wing. Much like Steve Larmer back in the day, Kane prefers to come off the right wing boards toward the center of the ice on his forehand. That's where he's most effective.

As exciting as a Kane-Toews-Hossa line might be on paper, I'd resist the temptation. I also would not break up the Sharp-Kruger-Stalberg trio. If you've got a good thing going, don't mess with it.

So what, should Quenneville do? Here's my suggestion:

Move Kane from center back to right wing and reunite him with Toews. Put Andrew Shaw on the top line as the left winger. The rookie has shown me he has enough skill and enough jam to play on an offensive line.

Keep Kruger's line together, then put Hossa on the "checking line" with center Dave Bolland and left wing Bryan Bickell.

I know it might sound crazy to put a world-class player like Hossa on what amounts to a third line, but Bolland's line sees plenty of ice time and often matches up with the other team's best players. In addition to being a top-flight scorer, Hossa is also a great defensive forward and won't be even slightly out of place playing on Bolland's line.

Remember the 2009 playoffs? The Blackhawks put the high-scoring Martin Havlat on a "checking line" with Bolland and left winger Andrew Ladd. That line helped the Hawks reach the conference finals that year by locking down the opponent's top players AND chipping in with some timely goals. It's not hard for me to envision a Bickell-Bolland-Hossa combination providing that same type of play for the Hawks this year.

On the fourth line, you use Brunette, Jamal Mayers and one of Jimmy Hayes, Michael Frolik and Brandon Bollig and take your chances.

To review, here are my suggested line combinations for the playoffs:

Shaw-Toews-Kane
Sharp-Kruger-Stalberg
Bickell-Bolland-Hossa
Brunette-Mayers-Hayes

I think these combinations would provide the Hawks with three lines that can score. There's plenty of balance there. If you're the opponent, which line do you send your top checkers out against? It becomes a pick-your-poison situation.

Of course, all this is dependent on Toews' return. Until he's on the ice playing in a game, that remains a big 'if.' However, it will be interesting to see how Quenneville sets things up if indeed the captain returns to the lineup for the postseason.

White Sox designated hitter Adam Dunn is batting .353 (6-for-17) with three home runs against left-handed pitching this spring.

By way of comparison, Dunn hit just .064 (6-for-94) with one extra-base hit against left-handers for the entire 2011 campaign.

Dunn has five home runs in 51 spring at-bats, which means he's going deep once every 10.2 at-bats. Last season, he hit just 11 home runs in 496 at-bats. That will pencil out to one home run for every 45.0 at-bats.

I'm not sure what any of this means for this season, but Dunn has looked more like the slugger he's been throughout his career this spring. Lifetime, he homers once every 14 at-bats on average. The White Sox will be a much better offensive team if he can get back to his career norm.

Kentucky won its eighth national championship Monday night with a 67-59 victory over Kansas in New Orleans. The Wildcats sure didn't wow anybody with their offense -- they scored only 26 points in the second half in what quickly turned into an eyesore of a game.

No, Kentucky won because of its defense -- particularly its ability to protect the rim. The one thing I noticed in this NCAA tournament is that teams tend to miss close-in shots with great regularity against Kentucky.

In Saturday's semifinal round, Louisville missed 16 dunks and layups in its 69-61 loss to Kentucky. Kansas seemed to befall the same fate. At one point during the second half, CBS flashed a graphic noting the Jayhawks had missed 11 layups and two dunks.

All told, Kansas shot just 17-for-51 from inside the 3-point arc. That's a miserable 33 percent. The Jayhawks' two big men, All-American Thomas Robinson (18 points) and Jeff Withey, combined to shoot 8-for-25. Even though Kansas hit five threes, that wasn't nearly enough to overcome an inability to finish inside.

The key to Kentucky's defense is Chicago product Anthony Davis, who was the most dominant player on the floor in this championship game -- despite totaling only six points on 1-for-10 shooting.

Davis finished with 16 rebounds, a championship game record six blocks, five assists and three steals. As a team, the Wildcats (38-2) blocked 11 Kansas shots and altered countless others. We saw why Davis is expected to be the top pick in the 2012 NBA draft -- he doesn't need the ball to make a major impact on a game.

The Jayhawks (32-7) demonstrated time and time again throughout the tournament they are a great come-from-behind team. They rallied from double-digit deficits in three of their five NCAA tournament wins this year. Once again, Kansas fell behind big Monday night. Kentucky led by as many as 18 points late in the first half. The Jayhawks rallied once more, cutting the lead to five with 1:37 remaining.

However, Kentucky got enough stops and did what it had to do to turn back the late Kansas surge. The Wildcats finished their season with 335 blocked shots -- an NCAA record. This team was just too hard to score on all year long. That's why they went 38-2 and won the title.

It didn't take long for new Illinois basketball coach John Groce to hit the recruiting trail in Chicago.

According to an ESPNChicago report, Groce has made Simeon junior Kendrick Nunn one of his top priorities. Groce has only been on the job since last Thursday, but he's already spoken to Nunn's father, Melvin, twice. The Nunns will make an unofficial visit to Champaign later this week.

Nunn, a 6-foot-2 guard, is ranked No. 57 in ESPN's Class of 2013 Super 60. His more celebrated Simeon teammate and classmate, Illinois Mr. Basketball Jabari Parker, is ranked No. 1 on that same list.

There's little doubt Illini fans are fixated on Parker. I've read and heard all kinds of banter on how Groce should go about trying to coax Parker to wear the Orange and Blue. People have suggested Groce offer Simeon head coach Robert Smith an assistant coaching position. Mark Potash from the Sun-Times says Illinois should hire Parker's father, Sonny, as an assistant coach/director of basketball operations.

Here's a better idea: Recruit other good players from Parker's class. Nunn may not be as highly-regarded as Parker, but there's little question he's a high-major talent. If Groce can secure a commitment from Nunn, he'll be off to a good start with his 2013 recruiting class and, just maybe, he'll open a door with Parker.

The decision to target Nunn early is excellent strategy by the new Illinois coach. There seems to be a widespread belief out there that Illinois will have to do something dirty and under the table to land these players. Baloney. Who are we to say that a good, clean sales pitch won't get the job done?

Groce is swinging for the fences during the first week of his tenure. That is good news for Illinois fans.