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Mayfields 1, Rest of the world 0

By Jeff Mayfield

[DEC. 16, 2000]  Last evening a most amazing thing took place. A new little child was born into the world. Now we’re told that thousands of births are recorded each day, but from this reporter’s viewpoint, none was like this. Sure it was in a sterile environment, in a nice clean hospital with all the amenities you would hope to have on hand if you were going to be giving birth to a baby. Yet, something was unique about our experience.

We were blessed with a heaven-appointed doctor who throughout the pregnancy has displayed outstanding skills and the most wonderful bedside manner. But even he is not what has made this occasion so special.

 

Family and friends have bombarded us with so many cards, gifts and well wishes that it is downright humbling. My wife and I much prefer to be on the giving end rather than the receiving end of those kinds of expressions, and still that encouragement is not what is setting this moment apart.

Having the delivery in central Illinois is incredibly exciting but not enough to be the factor to make this situation so memorable.

At the same time this historic event was taking place, sports fans all over the area were asking such questions as: Will the Illini make it to the Final Four? How will all of the Railer sports teams do this winter? Will the Rams and Colts collide in the Super Bowl? Will Earnhardt and Gordon make comebacks on next year’s NASCAR circuit? Will the Cubs and Cardinals make themselves better in the off-season?

[to top of second column in this article]

The answer to all of these questions is…who in the heck cares? My son has just arrived into the world! Stop the earth, stop the presses, and stop the sports schedules…I’m taking a big TIMEOUT. And if you think some of those TV timeouts are long, wait to see the one I’m taking! I’ve been saving up all those 20s those fans in the stands said I should’ve used way back when I coached college basketball, and I’m using them all…right now! I don’t care what any athletic team anywhere on the planet or even in the universe is doing right now. I’m sorry…but, I couldn’t care less. I’m not even doing any scoreboard watching…the only boards I’m watching now are the monitors that tell me how my wife and son are doing. The only one I’m coaching and the ONLY one I’m a fan of, is this beautiful little boy.

 

Please give a warm LDN hello to Payne Montgomery Mayfield, who was born on Friday, Dec. 15, at 9:59 p.m.! As far as I’m concerned, the only game that counted yesterday was the one that I was involved in. And I score it Mayfields 1, Rest of the world 0.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

[Jeff Mayfield]


Illinois now ranked No. 5

Cook & Bradford heroics cap
improbable comeback rally

Bradford ties NCAA record

[DEC. 11, 2000]  With their backs against the wall and one more 8-count away from having the fight stopped, the Illini dug early into Santa’s bag and pulled out an improbable 87-79 overtime win over Seton Hall. The Pirates were better than advertised...in fact, to this reporter, one of the top three teams in the country...and to rally back from 21 points down and capture a win over a team this good at a time when we really needed a close, hard-fought win bordered on the incredible.

 

The first half was painful to watch. The Illini went out of the frying pan into the fire. Sensational Seton Hall guard Darius Lane must have felt that Illini fans hadn’t yet seen any festivals of lights. He stepped to the plate and delivered his own spectacular light show...lighting up Illinois’ defense for 18 first-half points on 4-of-7 triples...and some of those were bombs. On the Illini side of things, we were launching enough bricks to build new gyms for both LC and LCC. It doesn’t get any uglier than 0-10 from downtown; many fans were running for cover. Add to that the magnificent play of true freshman Eddie Griffin who had nine at the break and the seven that Marcus Toney-El chipped in by intermission, and the Illini’s hole looked much more devastating than the 17-point deficit. Had it not been for the play of Illinois’ Marcus Griffin and Robert Archibald, while the rest of the Illini were working on their version of Houdini’s disappearing act, it would actually have been much worse. It’s conceivable that the point of no return was looming on the horizon.

 

No one really knows what happened at halftime. Illini head coach Bill Self says he didn’t yell at the guys...although that’s a little hard to take. The players said they had their say, and they came up with a phrase that they said would be unsuitable for family media outlets. Perhaps even aliens entered the Illini locker room and the Illini uniforms, because when they came back out on the floor they were almost back in the game instamatically (that is not a Dr. Seuss word, but a quote of Pauly from the "Rocky" movie). From there it was a dogfight, a battle...no, it was a war. The Illini made the long climb back and were almost derailed on the way up. During an Illini timeout, Robert Archibald was accessed a technical foul for getting too close to an official, and of course that meant two more points for Lane.

[to top of second column in this article]

Then it was MJ time...I mean, Frank Williams time. I don’t know if he’s been watching all of those Jordan videos where Michael just takes over at the end of every game or not, but he sure has manifested it out on the court. Watching him in the last 10 minutes of this game was magical...it is the kind of game that legends are made of. His circus reverse layups were a thing of beauty. His go-up-with-the-right-hand, switch-to-the-left jumper that put the Illini up with less than a minute to play was Jordanesque.

 

Enter Brian Cook. Cook was mired in foul trouble and had not been much of a factor. After Toney-El drained two free throws with 3:46, Cook got the ball out beyond the arc. He looked up at the clock and fired what Self later called "a courageous shot and play." Brian’s 3-pointer made the sold-out crowd of 16,683 spectators delirious. That set the stage for the overtime theatrics.

Enter Cory Bradford. Bradford was having one of those ugly days were nothing seems to go right. Not only was he missing his shots, but they were way off the mark. As the teams headed for overtime, Bradford was 0 for 8 from 3-point land. Twenty-eight seconds into the extra session, the ball somehow got into his hands. Ignoring the miserable day he was having, he launched again from a ZIP code just outside of Chambana. The ball hovered over the rim for what seemed like an eternity...before it finally found its way down the hole. Cory had tied the record of making a 3-pointer in 73 straight games, and the Illini never looked back. In fact, they never trailed again. Cook found Bradford a few trips later, and for good measure, Cory buried another one.

 

And when it was all said and done, less was said than was actually done. The Illini had a cleared a major hurdle. They had beaten a quality team in a close game.

This may be the game that is pointed to at the end of the season as the Illini’s tipping point. Next up for the newly crowned No. 5 team in the nation is No. 6 Arizona.

[Jeff Mayfield]

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