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Neither Toews nor Murphy would reveal the specifics of what players said, “but the gist of it was, there’s clearly times in these last two games where we’re playing really good hockey and then we just decide to take a few shifts off, give up momentum and take some tough penalties that we’re not killing off,” Toews said.
“K.J. Osborn has been a nice discovery for them in a disappointing season,” the scout said. “He started his career at the University of Buffalo and was a graduate transfer to Miami, where he played for one season. I liked his tape at Buffalo. That offense back then was spread heavy, lot of bubbles, lot of RPOs.
Jamarra Dosunmu, left, and Quam Dosunmu, parents of Bulls guard and former Illinois star Ayo Dosunmu has his jersey retired during halftime of a game against Maryland on Jan. 6, 2022, at the State Farm Center in Champaign. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
The Illini (11-3, 4-0 Big Ten) sprinted to a 21-7 lead with Cockburn scoring one-third of those points. His last basket of the first half put Illinois up 14 with 10:50 left before the break, but 16 seconds later he picked up his second foul and went to the bench.
At the United Center, it’s never a question when Dosunmu checks into a game. From the moment he lines up at the scorer’s table, the crowd begins a low, excited rumble. When the rookie jogs onto the court, he is greeted with one of the loudest cheers of the night.
“The young guys come out, they’re eager, they need to learn, they need to be taught. Here, they already know how to play, you just have to manage them, have conversations with them: What he sees, what I see, whether it’s Kane or even (Ryan) Carpenter or JJ (Jujhar Khaira) or whoever it is. The conversations are a little bit different.”
“I definitely feel for (Fields),” said offensive tackle Larry Borom, who was on the COVID-19 list last month. “It’s tough to be doing something one day, then all of the sudden, boom, you’re stuck in your house or a hotel or whatever it may be quarantining X-amount of days by yourself. It’s tough.”
“And he actually had this grin on his face where everyone’s, like, that’s really cool, but there’s something else that’s going to happen,” Alex Cohen, the director of broadcasting, told the Tribune. “Something like that you can never expect. But if anybody’s going to pull it off and do it the way that he did, it’d be Michael.”
Pace traded four draft picks, including first-rounders in 2021 and 2022, to move up to draft quarterback Justin Fields at No. 11 in April. The hope, of course, is that Fields will fix the Bears’ decadeslong problems at quarterback. The ruling on that, however, is still out with only one game remaining in a rookie season during which Fields has completed 159 of 270 passes for 1,870 yards with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions for a passer rating of 73.2.
“I think everybody’s feeling it, so I don’t want to make it simply about me or simply about someone lessening the rules for me,” Irving continued. “I know what the consequences were. I still know what they are, but right now I’m just gonna take it one day at a time, like I said, and just enjoy this time that I get to play with my guys and however it looks later in the season, then we’ll address it then.”