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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Brian Cardinal guards LeBron James during the 2011 NBA Finals.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Many thanks to the 11 guest pickers we’ve used so far this high school football season for our weekly predictions on 10 games. Including this week’s guest: Brian Cardinal.
➜ 2. Cardinal, a 1995 Unity graduate who played four seasons of college basketball at Purdue and then 12 seasons in the NBA, is working for the NBA these days. The 47-year-old helps oversee the Academics and Player Pathway for the NBA Academy, traveling internationally to help out the program that includes academies across Australia, Mexico and Senegal.
➜ 3. When not traveling, Cardinal lives in Westfield, Ind., with his wife, Danielle, their three children — 18-year-old Bryson, 16-year-old Emery and 14-year-old Delanie — and the family German Shepard, Paxton.
St. Thomas More’s bench cheers as they start to tun the game around in a Class 2A volleyball sectional semifinal matches at Monticello High School on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.
Numbers game: 3
area high school volleyball teams who will try to win sectional titles on Thursday when all those matches start at 6 p.m. In Class 3A, Mahomet-Seymour (35-3) hosts Normal U-High (35-3), while St. Thomas More (34-4) tangles with Bloomington Central Catholic (32-4) in Monticello for a 2A title and Cissna Park (33-3) squares off against Lexington (29-7) in a 1A title match at Ottawa Marquette.
Jasmine Brown-Hagger and the Illinois women’s basketball team opens the season on Thursday night when the Illini host No. 19 Florida State at State Farm Center in Champaign.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. No. 19 Florida State at Illinois women’s basketball. The fact the Illini return 83 percent of their scoring from a 19-15 team that won the WBIT title last season is cause for optimism around C-U before Thursday night’s season opener.
➜ 2. Southern Illinois Edwardsville at Illinois men’s basketball. The Illini have never lost to the Cougars, going 3-0 and winning the three games in 1981, 2009 and 2011 by an average of 27.6 points before Friday night’s 7 p.m. tip.
➜ 3. Southern Cal at Illinois volleyball. The Illini are 0-2 against ranked teams at Huff Hall — and 0-4 against ranked teams on the season — before hosting the No. 20 Trojans at 5 p.m. Friday in Champaign.
Taylor, Frances and Michael Rosenbaum.
Coach’s corner
Three questions with first-year Tuscola girls’ basketball coach Michael Rosenbaum. His Warriors open the season Nov. 18 at Marshall:
➜ 1. My favorite sports teams are … Illinois basketball, TCU football and the San Antonio Spurs.
➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … Dale Schuring, Gregg Popovich and Tim Kohlbecker. All the world’s problems would be solved.
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … giving a direction and then repeating myself five seconds later.