DOBservations

Believe it or not, these are the last grades for January. My how time flies when you’re having fun. Wonder if winter will ever get here. Anyway, you know the drill. Feel free to text us your grades at 217-617-9437 and make sure to listen to WGEM SportsCenter on ESPN 1440 or online every weekday morning between 7 and 9 a.m. We’ll hash these over around 8:20 today.

A — Chicago Bulls. Yes, I’m a little biased here, but what the Bulls have done is a bit amazing. We’re almost a third of the way through the season and the Bulls have the best record in the league again. They’ve fought through injuries to several players, including Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, C.J. Watson and Taj Gibson, but haven’t missed a beat. I’d love to see everyone get healthy by the time May rolls around for the playoffs.

B — Quincy University men’s basketball. While the Hawks may not be leading the Great Lakes Valley Conference, their ability to deal with injuries has been nearly as impressive. When Tyler Thompson went down with a knee injury in the preseason, I thought that would throw the team for a loop. Thanks to a couple of freshmen playing wise beyond their years, the Hawks haven’t been affected too much by Thompson’s absence. First, Ricardo Carbajal filled Thompson’s role nicely. When Carvajal went down with an abdominal issue, fellow freshman Scott Hahn stepped right in. The Hawks have a huge test Thursday night against GLVC West leader Missouri-St. Louis. A win would put the Hawks back in the hunt for a West Division title.

C — Big Ten basketball. Will someone please step up and take control of the conference. The Big Ten is the only Division I basketball conference where every team has at least two losses and every team has at least two wins, so there’s not much separating first-place Michigan (6-2) from last place Penn State and Nebraska (2-6). Parity might be good for those folks who like to give ribbons to everyone for participating, but I want to see some establish themselves. I think Ohio State probably has the best team, but the Buckeyes haven’t lived up to their preseason billing as the league’s best team.

D — Billy Cundiff. I feel for the Baltimore Ravens kicker. Seems like we only remember kickers when they really goof up. Sure, kickers get some credit when they kick game-winners, but it’s rare that they’re the star of the game. Even when those game-winners are delivered there’s usually a quarterback or defender who gets the credit for putting the kicker in the spot to deliver. Cundiff said all of the right things in the aftermath of his missed 32-yard attempt in the final seconds of Sunday’s AFC Championship game loss at New England. Then on Monday, we come to find out that his routine was thrown off because the downs were listed wrong on the scoreboard. Really? Seems like a lame excuse to me.

F — CBSSports.com. As bad a weekend as Cundiff and his fellow playoff goat Kyle Williams of the San Francisco 49ers had, the folks at CBS trumped them all. The web site decided to go off a report by a student media source at Penn State on Saturday night that Joe Paterno had died. Of course, Paterno was still alive at the time. That was just terrible journalism by CBSSports.com. I can see the race to be first on coaching announcements and other news bits, but why race to announce someone’s death. And the only people who remember who scooped who are reporters. The general public doesn’t keep track and probably doesn’t care.