WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The verbal sparring between the Houston Astros and others around the majors over the team’s sign-stealing scandal is reaching new levels of absurdity — from accusations of illiteracy to claims about a player’s partial tattoo.

Here’s the link to the story.

SPRINGFIELD — One month ahead of the tipoff of March Madness, Illinois lawmakers — backed by a pair of NBA brothers — are renewing a push to allow college athletes to profit from the use of their name and likeness.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The SIU men’s basketball team erased a 21-point Bradley lead, but the Braves held on for a 69-67 win on Saturday afternoon at Banterra Center.

“I’m proud of our guys for how they responded in the second half. The first half wasn’t us,” SIU head coach Bryan Mullins said. “We didn’t play the right way, and give credit to Bradley coming out and starting the game the right way. We challenged the guys at halftime, and they really responded. They gave themselves a chance to win the game. We need to do a better job executing at the end of the game; we need to learn from this and get better as a team.”

Bradley (18-9, 9-5 MVC) came out on fire, hitting 5-of-10 3-pointers in the first half. The Braves raced out to a 21-point lead. SIU’s Trent Brown hit a 3-pointer at the break to cut SIU’s halftime deficit to 18. But it was the start of a 19-4 SIU run that cut a 21-point deficit to just 6 with 14 minutes left. By the 8-minute mark, the Salukis (15-12, 9-5 MVC) had come all the way back to tie the game on a Marcus Domask 3-pointer, and Domask hit another 3-pointer a minute later to give SIU the lead. SIU was trying to pull off a 21-point comeback, which would have been the fifth-largest comeback in MVC history.

The loss snapped SIU’s 10-game home court winning streak, which was the longest for the program since 2006-08. But a big reason for that winning streak — SIU’s fan base — was on display. More than 5,700 in attendance nearly willed the Salukis back from the deficit.

“I’ll tell you what, Southern Illinois is rocking right now in their home arena. It’s as loud as I’ve heard this place in five years,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. “I give my players a lot of credit. We didn’t play great in the second half, but we didn’t lose our composure. We stayed with it. We made timely plays when we needed to stop their runs because I was running out of timeouts.”

SIU’s second-half surge was spearheaded by two freshmen: Domask and Lance Jones. The pair combined for 28 points on 10-of-18 shooting, and Jones added three assists. Eric McGill was steady all night, pouring in 8 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.

Right after SIU took the lead, Bradley star center Elijah Childs hit an and-1 to give Bradley the lead back. Childs was expected to be an MVC Player of the Year candidate this season but has battled injuries. This was his third game back on the court, and the Braves a 3-0 in those games. He scored 19 points in each of his first two games back and added 14 points and 9 rebounds today. Bradley, which won the MVC Tournament title last year, has all its major pieces in place after battling injuries all season.

“Bradley is a great team. That’s an NCAA Tournament team that is fully healthy,” Mullins said. “They were coming in here determined to win. I challenged our guys to be that type of team. If we play the right way, we’re as good as anyone in this league. With the type of guys we have in the locker room, with their character, I knew they would respond.”

Down the stretch, SIU’s offense and defense couldn’t feed the other. At one point, SIU scored on five-straight possessions, but Bradley scored on four of five possessions in that same stretch to maintain a 67-64 lead with 4:08 to go. Then, SIU got five-straight stops on the defensive end, but couldn’t score on the offensive end. Bradley’s Darrell Brown hit a free throw line jumper with 17 seconds left to essentially seal the game. SIU’s only points in the final 4:08 came on Eric McGill’s 60-foot heave at the buzzer that cut a 5-point deficit to a 69-67 final score.

UP NEXT: SIU is off until Thursday, when the Salukis host Evansville at 7 p.m. in Banterra Center.

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JUPITER, Fla. — The time Kolten Wong purchased by agreeing to a contract extension two years into his big-league career paid off for him and the Cardinals with a Gold Glove Award and career year offensively this past year.

Here’s a link to the story at St. Louis Post-Dispatch.