End of the calendar year in sports offers excitement in football and basketball in playoffs, bowl games, tournaments, and football and basketball back-to-back, mostly in top-level college games. Mix in important National Football League games in preparation of playoffs, a plethora of high school holiday basketball tournament games, both boys and girls, and the generic sports fan is busy, and usually at once both fulfilled and unfulfilled.
The sports fan in this space sneaks peeks at television sports, however, works in the office away from the television set, or, far less work would be accomplished.
We saw two plays Monday this week of the University of Illinois football RellaQuest Bowl game in Tampa, Fla. against Mississippi State. It was the first Illinois bowl game since 2019. Illinois men’s basketball has exceed success of the U. of I. football team, although the school’s football head coach, Bret Bielema, is making fast strides into improved play by the team. The two plays: Prior to the final play of the first half against Mississippi State, Bielema lobbied for and won two seconds to be added at the end of the first half and the play was a short-gain running play to lead the Illini to a 7-3 halftime. Purely coincidentally the next play viewed Monday was the last play of the game and Illinois ball carriers, trailing on the scoreboard, were throwing laterals around the field in an attempt to score a touchdown and win the game. The laterals failed when a Mississippi State defender intercepted and scored a touchdown for what provided for a 19-10 final score. Wait ‘til next year. One step at a time for the Illini’s return to competitive, bowl-game football.
• The University of Michigan and Ohio State both failed in their semifinal football playoff bids, semifinal playoff games Saturday, Dec. 31. Michigan fell to Texas Christian, 51-45, in its first defeat of the season in 14 games. Ohio State was defeated by Georgia, 42-41. Ohio State fell to 11-2. Ohio State fan-base impatience proved strong with no Big Ten Conference championship, no bowl victory, no national championship game Monday, Jan. 9. Some Buckeye fans want to replace head coach Ryan Day whose won-loss coaching totals are a mere 45-6 at Ohio State. What?
• High school basketball tournaments will lead to East Aurora at West Aurora, first in girls varsity at 3 p.m. then boys varsity at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7.