Another Three months (plus) has passed...

I'm just not good at updating this blog.  I think I had more to say about Chicago sports than I actually do.

Or maybe it's just that I haven't been following much too closely.

Our Bears started off 7-1, but have now lost 4 of their last 5, and currently have a record of 8-5, and are in second in their division, with a big game against Green Bay coming up Sunday at Soldier Field.  I listen to a lot of the sports commentary on the radio coming out of Chicago, and I hear a lot about Lovie needing to go, about how bad the O line is, about how the defense is slowing down and is not the same without the injured Brian Urlacher, about dropped passes.  All those things may be true, but what I've observed in my limited viewing and with my limited knowledge of football is that Jay Cutler, a quarterback with a whole bunch of physical tools, seems to lack some basic feel for the game.

Why do I say this?  Well, he does connect for some big plays now and then with his favorite target, Brandon Marshall.  Marshall may just be the best receiver the Bears have had in a long time, if not ever.  (People say the same thing about Cutler at QB.)  But to me it looks like Cutler rarely looks elsewhere for a target.  If I was designing a plan on how to defend the Bears' passing attack, I would start with taking Marshall off the board by double coverage, or whatever means I had at my disposal that could accomplish that goal.  Because with Marshall out there as a target, and effectively blanketed in coverage, it seems that Cutler won't connect with anyone else.  He won't even look until it's too late.  Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like, for Cutler, it's Marshall or no one. 

The other thing I have noticed is that he gets himself married to his play.  I don't know if that's because he has such confidence in his arm and abilities as a passer, or if it's just a lack of field vision.  But I've seen more than once plays where Cutler could have run for a first down and more, but stayed locked in on passing the ball, and it ends up incomplete or rushed or whatever. 

Are these things that can be corrected?  I don't know.  Others would have to tell me if they're seeing the same thing, if adding a receiver who won't drop the ball (they used to call it a "possession receiver", I think) might make Cutler more willing to trust another target and go to it.  They'd have to tell me if Cutler's just doing what he's told to do when he stays with a play at the expense of a sure first down, or if he can be freed to improvise a bit more.  As I said above, I don't claim to know football all that well.  I just know what I see.  Sometimes I think that the football geniuses try to make the game too complicated, like those of us who are just fans can't really understand what complexities go into a game plan.  In the end, it's about running backs finding holes and gaining yards through them, about QB's getting the ball to open receivers far enough down the field to move the chains, and to finally put points on the board.  Maybe I've read Semi-Tough too many times, but I wonder what would happen if they just told Jay to go out to the line of scrimmage, call a play, and then do whatever he has to do to move the chains, be it a scramble, a draw, a swing pass, a long throw, a screen, or a nice designed play that they've worked up in practice.  And have some fun doing it.  That's the other thing about Cutler.  He rarely looks like he's having much fun out there.  For as much money as he makes, he should be having a blast...

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Almost 3 months...

A lot can happen in 3 months.  And maybe it did.  But I didn't blog about any of it.  So here goes:

• The Cubs are still terrible.  Actually they were approaching respectable when the trade deadline showed up and several Cubs found themselves in new locations.  Gone are Soto, Baker, Maholm, Reed Johnson, and Ryan Dempster. Marlon Byrd was gone a long time ago.  In return we got...well, no one for the major league roster.  Since then they've only won 2 or 3 games.  Those guys were replaced by names like Castillo and Clevenger, Brett Johnson, Josh Vitters, Anthony Rizzo, Tony Campana, and a host of minor league arms vying for a major league tryout.  No one on the pitching staff to get too excited about.  But Rizzo is showing a major league bat.  There's always next year.  In the Cubs' case, though, it's looking like "next year" is two or three years away at the minimum.
• The White Sox are in first place, hanging in there against a good Detroit team.  Starting pitching, namely Peavy, Quintana and Chris Sale, have been very good.  Floyd and Humber, not as good.  Danks, injured.  Rios is having a great year.  Dunn is having a very good year.  I hope they can hang in there.
• The Bears look more loaded than I can ever remember on offense, with Forte and Bush in the backfield, Cutler at QB and Brandon Marshall and rookie Alshawn Jeffrey (sp?) looking solid at wide receivers.  Their defense looks solid, Brian Urlacher's health notwithstanding.  Special teams should be fine.  It could be a fun season.
• Lastly, the Bulls had to remake their bench, saying goodbye to CJ Watson, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, and Omer Asik, replacing them with Kirk Hinrich (hello again!), Vlad Radmonanov (sp again?), Nazr Mohammed, rookie Marcus Teague, and a bigger role for Jimmy Butler.  I actually like this bunch better.  Mohammed is a long time NBA backup who won't make dumb mistakes and who can score at least a little bit.  Vlad can shoot threes, and Hinrich will be an upgrade at point until D. Rose comes back.  He's better than Watson at defense and at running the offense.  And everyone says Butler is ready for the much bigger role.  He looked it to me, last year. 

So there it is...the summer of 2012 in a nutshell.  Or at least my take on it.  I know I didn't mention the Black Hawks, but I don't know what to say about them.  Did they do anything besides getting photographed shirtless in Madison Wisconsin? 

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Chitown Sports Update

I haven't been very good about updating this blog, so if you're depending on it for your
Chicago sports news, you've been disappointed and are ill-informed. 

But what the heck?  I thought I'd throw out these totally obvious factoids just to have something to post.

• The Cubs suck.  Oh, they've won three in a row, but they aren't good.  I understand that they're building for the future, but c'mon.  They should be able to score a few runs on occasion.  During their 12 game losing streak, it seemed that they couldn't buy a run or a hit. 
• The White Sox are good.  I suspected that they might be.  It all hinged on their pitching, and Danks, Floyd and Peavy are quality major leaguers.  Humber was pretty good last year, and their fifth starter has been solid, from what I've seen and heard.  (Can't think of his name.)  Everyone seemed to think that because Dunn and Rios were bad last year, they'd be equally bad this year.  They haven't been.  Getting them to play to their major league averages is like adding two solid free agents.  And that's why I thought they'd be better than a lot of people were saying they'd be before the season started.
• The Bulls were exposed in the playoffs.  They really didn't have anyone who could back up Derrick Rose, and it showed.  Rose was injured much of the year and while Watson, John Lucas III and Mike James did decent jobs, and at times way better than decent, their lack of postseason exposure (especially Lucas) showed.  When Noah went down, they were cooked.  I didn't understand why Thibs didn't go with Boozer and Gibson instead of starting Asik, but it is what it is.  5 and out.  Wait till next year...and they probably won't be all that good since Rose won't be there to start the season (probably out till December) and Deng may not be there to start the season either.  If I were the Bulls, I'd probably try to build for the following season and not worry about next year.  Let Boozer play a lot, hope he's better in the fourth quarter, and you're one year closer to the end of his contract.  (And who knows?  Maybe he lives up to it finally, next year.)
• The Black Hawks were a disappointment.  They just couldn't get it going in the playoffs and were 6 and out (I think it was).  Goaltending has been a problem since Niemi was allowed to leave.  Hope for better things next year.  They have the horses (if Hossa can come back from that horrific hit in the playoffs)...
• The Bears look to have had an excellent off-season, with their new GM Phil Emery addressing the weakness at wide receiver and picking up some help in the draft for the defense.  They didn't do much with the O-line, but maybe they figure with Tice moving to offensive coordinator, this group will suit the playbook...or maybe it's the opposite and the playbook will suit this group.  Either way, as long as they get Forte back, Cutler should have some weapons and I'm looking forward to watching them next year.

That's all for now.  Have a great summer.  I'll try to post more often (optimistically assuming that I have a reader or two...)

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Bulls Title Hopes Take a Crushing Blow

Game 1, Playoffs, vs Philadelphia:

Derrick Rose goes down with (as we later find out) an ACL tear. The Bulls championship hopes go down with Rose.

It's not that they couldn't win it all with what they have left. They could. But they have to be perfect. And the odds got way longer without Rose.

If last night's loss is any indicator (and I don't really think it is, at least not for this series), perfection is not something they are going to achieve in every game. Certainly not in 15 more games.

But we can hope, can't we?

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Cubs' 2012 Hopes Dashed...;-)

Remember the movie Back To The Future 2? Marty, Doc Brown and Marty's girlfriend go forward in time to see what they can do about Marty's kids, and arrive in 2012. He notices an electronic billboard proclaiming that the Cubs Win The World Series!!!

Well, here we are in 2012. Still no WS titles, and none likely this year.

We'd like to hope that the team, with their new management in the front office and on the field, are headed finally in the right direction. But it's hard to see evidence of it right now. All we can hope for is that Marlon Byrd starts playing really well and gets dealt for something of value, opening up CF for Brett Jackson.

Pitching has been a bright spot in the early season, except for Sunday's 10-3 shellacking by the Cardinals. Garza, Dempster, and Samarzidja have all looked pretty good, and Volstad hasn't been bad. Paul Maholm was apparently strong enough to keep Wells in the minors, but I think that was more about who had the options and who might be dealt down the road. Probably won't be Maholm, but perhaps Garza or Dempster could bring value back to this team.

I suppose stranger things have happened than a team like this winning it all. But I'm not holding my breath.

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Wells not good enough?

The Cubs announced that Randy Wells didn't make their starting rotation, and they shipped him to the minors since he has one option left.

I hope this says good things about the rotation, because I liked Wells. I thought he was a pretty solid starter in his time here. Last year he was hurt, and when he came back he looked like he needed some time to get back into the swing of things, but once he did, again I thought he was maybe their best, most consistent starter toward the end of the year.

Could it mean that they're going to actively try to deal Garza this year? It would seen to me that Wells would have some value to other teams looking for starters, and could have been dealt, but the fact that they've kept him - well, could it mean something more? Could he be in reserve for a potential deal of Garza? (I doubt that they could move Dempster if they tried but who knows? Maybe he'll go...)

Anyway, the Cubs' starting rotation looks to be Garza, Dempster, Volstad, Samarzidja, and someone not named Randy Wells or Rodrigo Lopez. (I can't come up with that fifth guy's name at the moment...) Keeping my fingers crossed...

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Bulls and Bears

Not Wall Street, we're talking State Street here.

The Bulls currently have the best record in the NBA and they're doing it without Derrick Rose at the moment. And without Rip Hamilton (but that's been the case all year). They haven't always won in dominant fashion, but they have been winning. It's again great to be a Bulls fan.

And the Bears - what is all this? They get the wideout they so desperately need, even if he does have some off-field issues. And they didn't overpay for him. They've filled holes, signed their own players when it made sense, let a few go when it made sense, and generally have looked like a team that's actually trying to win something next year! Gotta love it.

And we have a new start with Theo Epstein on the north side, and with Robin Ventura managing the south-siders. And the Hawks are in the playoffs, or so it looks, and they might be the team that NO ONE wants to play this year.

Right now, it's OK to be a Chicago sports fan!

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Loyola Ramblers' Basketball

It's been a long time since I updated this blog, but what the heck? Far as I can tell no one is reading it anyway.

There's plenty of Chicago sports news to write about, but the thing that I was thinking about today was how bad Loyola basketball has been for a number of years. Oh, there were a few years here and there where they were respectable in their division, but I don't think they've been to the NCAA tourney since the 1980's. They are in the Horizon League, which you would think would be a winnable league once in a while. Sure, there's Butler, which has been to the final four twice (I think) but the other teams range from up and down to usually consistent and respectable to more bad than good.

The last category (more bad than good) fits the Ramblers. I haven't really followed their recruiting or anything in a long time, but the last time I recall them being in the tourney they had guys like Alfredrick Hughes, Carl Golston, Andre Battle, Andre Moore, and Greg Williams among others. Tim Nolan and Gerry Mundt were on that team, as was Dan Burich (if I recall correctly).

Hughes was an anomoly - a star whose rise was unpredictable. Golston and Moore were transfers from bigger programs, and the others were solid role players. You can't go out recruiting looking for the next Hughes. You have to do it bit by bit.

If I were running Loyola's recruiting, I'd be looking for fundamentally sound players from smaller programs. I'd also be looking at the lesser lights on the big time high school programs. I'd build with strong shooters. Guys who seem to have a knack for rebounding and positioning. Guys who can shoot free throws. Ball handlers who aren't flashy but don't turn it over.

You get five or six guys like that and you're going to start winning games. Because now, from what I've seen when I have paid attention, they tend to beat themselves a lot with bad choices. Basketball skills aside, they need to find high basketball-IQ guys first.

The Alfredrick Hughes will come eventually, and will probably be as much of a surprise as Hughes himself was back in the 1980's.

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