Wisch List

Thursday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) When it comes to college football, the state of Illinois has an attendance deficit.

Here in the Land of Lincoln, we have three FBS programs in Illinois, Northwestern and Northern Illinois. The school’s home venues – Memorial Stadium (cap. 60,600), Ryan Field (47,130) and Huskie Stadium (24,000) – boast a combined 131,170 seats, but not one program can brag about filling them.

Or even coming close.

For Illinois, the problem is a lack of wins (just two this year). For Northwestern, it’s probably a lack of football aficionados (most students don’t go to NU to watch sports). And for NIU, it’s a lack of …

Well, what exactly is the reason why the 12-1 Orange Bowl-bound Huskies – who are enjoying a 21-game winning streak at home – are unable to draw big crowds?

Earlier this month, Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren left DeKalb for North Carolina State and said that his biggest regret was that the team with the nation’s longest home winning streak didn’t sell out one home game while he was on the sideline.

To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …

My latest piece on Wednesday for ChicagoSide …

He’s never won a bowl game. His career record in the Big Ten is 26-30. And, this season, his Northwestern Wildcats, while compiling an impressive 9-3 record, were perhaps best known for squandering leads.

Nevertheless, Pat Fitzgerald remains as popular in Evanston as the Purple Line, and is considered among the most highly respected football coaches in all of America.

So, how’s that work?

In today’s pressure-packed, results-driven, big-money college sports environment, it hardly seems possible for a major conference coach to enjoy a level of popularity that exceeds his on-field accomplishments, especially after seven seasons at a school. Yet, that’s the story of Pat Fitzgerald—a story unlike any other in college football today.

“Coach Fitz is a fascinating study,” said Chris Emma, who covers Northwestern athletics for FOX Sports Next and Scout.com. “But he’s doing things the right way, and I think that helps a lot with his public perception.”

On New Year’s Day in Jacksonville, Fla., Fitzgerald will lead 20^th-ranked Northwestern against SEC foe Mississippi State (8-4) in the Gator Bowl. The 38-year-old coach—who starred at linebacker for NU during the Rose Bowl heyday of the mid-1990s—will be shooting for the first postseason victory of his career, having suffered through frustrating losses each of the past four seasons.

Meanwhile, the NU fan base is hoping to see its first bowl win since the Wildcats beat Cal 20-14 in the 1949 Rose Bowl. In the 63 years since that California dream, Northwestern has lost nine consecutive bowl games, a drought so epic and so unlikely that you’d have to be a fan of the Cubs or Buffalo Bills to relate.

To continue reading, visit ChicagoSideSports.com …

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Come this evening in front of a rabid crowd in St. Louis, Illinois will defend its border against Missouri during the two schools’ annual Braggin’ Rights game.

Three weeks from today, Illinois will defend its border against Wisconsin. The following month, it will stage a border battle against Indiana, and then cap that with another one vs. Iowa in March.

Yes, from south to north and east to west, Illinois butts heads in basketball with its state border rivals each and every season. Except, of course, for one notable exception.

Kentucky.

It’s been nearly 30 years since the Illini and the Wildcats last faced off in a basketball game – the highly controversial 1984 NCAA Mideast Regional Championship. But I’m here today to say that it’s high time for Illinois to add a new “Border War” rivalry with its other downstate neighbor and schedule a series with John Calipari & Co.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

This weekend’s Wisch List newspaper column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …

The WISCH LIST

Dec. 22, 2012

This week, a friend out in California wished me a Merry Christmas and said that perhaps I’ll find a new Illinois football coach in my stocking. I told him I’d settle for an Illini victory over Missouri in tonight’s annual Braggin’ Rights game.

For years, a December win in St. Louis has made for a happy holiday as much as anything as anything that Santa has brought me. Conversely, a loss to the Tigers feels like a big lump of coal.

Suffice to say, with Mizzou on a three-game Braggin’ Rights winning streak, I’ve had my fill of coal.

At 5 p.m. this evening, No. 10 Illinois (12-0) and No. 12 Missouri (8-1) will tangle in a game that could be reminiscent of their matchup in 2000 when the Illini won 86-81 in overtime to snap a three-game losing streak in the series.

After that gut-wrencher, Illini Sergio McClain heaved the basketball into the rafters and teammate Marcus Griffin described the victory as, “Like winning an NCAA title game. That’s how I feel right now. You can’t believe the relief we all feel right now.”

Tonight, Illinois seniors Brandon Paul, D.J. Richardson and St. Louis native Tyler Griffey – who all are 0-3 vs. Mizzou – could experience similar relief. As they prepare for the game, here are some facts to get you prepared for what’s the best nonconference rivalry in college hoops.

Continue reading “For Illini and Tigers, ’tis the season to brag”

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Perception can be a funny thing.

Last week, for example, after a Twitter storm about free agent pitcher Anibal Sanchez’s supposed imminent signing with the Cubs failed to blow anything but rumors into the Windy City, Chicago Tribune beat writer Paul Sullivan offered his take on the saga in a story the next day.

The Cubs, Sullivan wrote, “wound up with the losing hand in a stare-down with the Tigers, but proved they will spend some money if they find the right fit.”

From my vantage point, however, the Sanchez story looked quite differently for the Cubs. First off, I would hope it’s never been a question of whether one of the wealthiest teams in baseball would spend money at some point.

Rather, the problem with Sanchez was that he didn’t really want the Cubs’ cash, and his rejection of Chicago was instead a stark sign of the challenges that Theo Epstein & Co. will face when attempting to lure A-list free agent pitchers to play for the D-list team at Wrigley Field.

Continue reading on CBSChicago.com …

Tuesday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

I’m pretty sure that old Charles Dickens didn’t pen those words with Notre Dame in mind, but here in the waning days of 2012, he certainly could have.

That’s because, on one hand, the Fighting Irish are flying as high as ever with a No. 1 ranking and a chance to win their first national championship in a quarter century when they face Alabama on Jan. 7 in the BCS Championship Game. But on the other hand, the future of Notre Dame’s athletic programs – despite the football team’s current success – has never been less stable, or clear.

On Monday, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick acknowledged that the implosion of the Big East has left the Irish in an oh-so-precarious position. Notre Dame announced in September that its sports teams – except for the fiercely independent football program – are leaving the Big East for the ACC but that the school is contractually obligated to play in the league for two more years.

However, with the Big East’s seven Catholic basketball schools declaring last week that they’re departing the conference, the Big East may not exist at all by next fall. And, as a result, Notre Dame could be without a conference in which to play basketball and other sports next season.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

This weekend’s Wisch List newspaper column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …

By Dave Wischnowsky

The WISCH LIST

Before he left Yale to become president of the University of Chicago in 1890, William Rainey Harper was billed as the “busiest man in America.” And it was said his stamina was fueled by eggnog.

Yes, eggnog.

According to Fanny Farmer’s 1904 cookbook, Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent, eggnog – infused with brandy or rum – was considered a “strengthening” drink at the turn of the 20th century. Sort of an ancestral Red Bull, I suppose.

In his biography about Harper, Young Man in a Hurry, Milton Mayer wrote that a typical day for the dean of Yale Divinity School unfolded as such: “His schedule took him to his first class at 7:30 in the morning. He taught until 11:00, and went to his office to work on his mail, discuss perhaps a dozen matters with each of his five assistants, and drink a quart of eggnog at his desk. Catching the 1:00 o’clock train to New York or Boston, he would deliver a lecture in the afternoon and another in the evening. The midnight train took him back to New Haven and his study.”

Upon his move to Chicago, the U. of C. writes on its website, “Harper’s to-do list lengthened – but his lunch of eggnog remained in force.” For Harper, the drink was a treat that apparently never went out of season. But if you want to enjoy a seasonal beverage in the Windy City this month, I suggest warming up with these choices at the following hotspots:

Continue reading “Holiday Cheers: The best seasonal drinks in Chicago”

Today’s column for CBS Chicago …

(CBS) With no games scheduled until Monday, the Northwestern basketball team is taking a break this week. But here in the meantime, what I’m wondering is if the Northwestern basketball program will ever decide to break away from coach Bill Carmody.

Or if the school will just let it remain perpetually broken.

Now in his 13th season with the Wildcats, Carmody has been in the Big Ten since Y2K was a thing and around the league longer than any coach not named Tom Izzo. So long, in fact, that first-year Illini coach John Groce was still in his 20s when Carmody made his debut.

Probably had hair, too.

Yet, in all those years, Carmody has compiled just a 186-192 record (.492), lost two out of every three conference games he’s coached (he’s 66-136), and still never made an NCAA Tournament (not even in this era of an expanded 68-team field).

Last season, Carmody & The Cats thought they might finally get their first invite to the Big Dance in school history. But then they went and lost their Big Ten Tourney opener, and found themselves relegated to the NIT – for the fourth straight year.

Back in March, I thought that Northwestern’s 19-14 record, which included an 8-10 conference mark, would likely spell the end of Carmody’s lengthy tenure in Evanston. But clearly, I thought wrong.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Today’s column from ChicagoSide …

It’s been more than 280 days since we’ve seen a snowfall in Chicago, perhaps because a torrential bad-luck weather system has been parked above Illini Nation the entire time.

The Illinois football team went 2-10 this year, and last year’s basketball tam was an abysmal 17-15. After so much darkness, Fighting Illini fans have been in serious need of sunshine. Enter new basketball coach John Groce, he of the gleaming scalp and the glistening record, who has brightened the spirits of many an Illini supporter thus far in 2012.

So much so, in fact, that this morning, just 12 hours after Illinois beat Norfolk State to move to 11-0, and four days after toppling previously unbeaten Gonzaga to move to No. 10 in the national rankings—Illini supporters far and wide were poking their heads out of hiding like so many Punxsutawney Phils. Their forecast: brighter days ahead.

Out in Portland, Trail Blazers rookie and former Illini Meyers Leonard tweeted a photo of himself wearing orange-and-blue basketball shorts and sneakers. Down in Alabama, a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he is able to, again, wear his Illinois T-shirts to the gym with pride. And out in Naperville, another pal said the start to this hoops season has been, “Like a good book. You can’t wait to read the next chapter.”

Yes, after a frustration-filled football season, Illinois fans have indeed turned a page this month. And Groce—who is just two wins shy of matching Fletcher Lane’s 12-0 record from 1907-08 for the best start by a first-year coach in school history—has taken notice.

Continue reading at ChicagoSide …

Tuesday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) In Chicago, the heat is cranking up on Lovie Smith, Jay Cutler and the rest of the Bad News Bears. But even as the team’s championship hopes fade away, support for the embattled coach and quarterback hasn’t cooled among some members of the fan base.

Last week I took a look at Smith’s career regular-season record against winning teams (it was an ugly 19-38 in nine years) and then placed it beside Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy’s career mark (a solid 21-25 in seven years). Naturally, I heard from a reader who took issue with those numbers.

“This isn’t a fair comparison,” the reader said. “McCarthy has enjoyed stability at the QB position throughout his coaching career. Lovie Smith has not had that luxury. This is a passing league and a coach looks good if he has the QB. A fair comparison would be what is Lovie’s record with Cutler. Clearly, nobody can deny it has been stellar.”

That’s a fair enough request. However, I’m sorry to break it to the reader – and anyone else on board the Lovie and Jay bandwagon – but I am going to have to deny that Smith’s record with Cutler has been stellar. Because, the truth is, it really has not.

To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …