WINDY CITY SPORTS

In front of a full capacity homecoming crowd, the Maroons notched their first win of the season with a 33–7 dismantling of Oberlin College (1–4) Saturday. The victory brought Chicago to 1–3 for the year and showcased the squad’s growing talent along with some veteran leadership.

Just as the race for the UAA title is about to heat up, women’s soccer is clicking together in all the right ways. The Maroons (6–4–1, 1–1 UAA) put on a fine display of inventive attacking soccer in the 3–0 victory over Carnegie Mellon (5–4–2, 0–2) Saturday, led by third-year midfielder Claire Gill, who scored her fourth and fifth goals and picked up her third assist of the season.

With as many as five key free agents this off-season, change is inevitable for the White Sox.There are several routes general manager Ken Williams can take to maintain the Sox as an American League title contender, depending on how much emphasis he places on speed to complement the power that the club uses to the max during the summer at U.S. Cellular Field.Well before the Sox were eliminated Monday night, Williams identified the need to add balance to the offense and defense, presumably with more speed.It appears unlikely, however, the Sox will embark on a free-agent shopping spree. They already...

The Cubs' brain trust will have plenty on its plate when organizational meetings begin Oct. 19 in Mesa, Ariz.Despite having most of the current team under contract for 2009, and several players, including Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Kosuke Fukudome for much longer, there will be many big decisions to debate about the future of the team.

Reputations are difficult to shake, not that Kyle Orton cares one bit.One prognosticator in Detroit picked the Lions to win their first game Sunday against the Bears. His reasoning? The Lions were not so bad that they couldn't beat Orton at Ford Field.As people are beginning to notice, this isn't the same Orton who quarterbacked the Bears in 2005 or even at the tail end of last season. The cynicism is understandable. It comes with the position in this city, following the starter at the time (starter of the month at times) like a bad credit report.

The Blackhawks are still making decisions on their 2008-09 roster but a few things were decided Monday.Jack Skille and Kris Versteeg appear to be the survivors of the battle for the open winger positions as the Hawks have sent Troy Brouwer to Rockford of the American Hockey League, placed Joakim Lindstrom on waivers and sent Kyle Beach and Akim Aliu back to their junior teams. Decisions on Colin Fraser and free agent Kevyn Adams are still to come."It looks good for Versteeg and Skille," general manager Dale Tallon said. "They're quick, competed hard and just played with a lot of energy and skill."

A surefire way to make any NBA coach lose his hair, turn beet red or emit steam from his ears—Scott Skiles would do all three while angrily calling a timeout—is to allow an uncontested dunk because of poor defensive rotation.And while nothing is officially available statistically, suffice it to say the Bulls allowed more uncontested dunks last season than a carnival barker with baseballs and a water tank.The Bulls lost their defensive intensity—and identity—last season, dropping to ninth in field goal percentage defense after finishing first or second the previous three seasons.Perhaps more telling,...

One aspect of campus life that bothers Northwestern running back Tyrell Sutton is his classmates' wardrobe choices."We want people to stop wearing Michigan shirts and Ohio State shirts and start representing our school and bleeding purple," Sutton said. "That's one of the biggest things as upperclassmen that we're trying to change around the school."The Wildcats have experienced being overlooked during underachieving seasons and seeing fans' attention and loyalties diverted elsewhere around the Big Ten. But with a 5-0 record, their best start in 46 years, a No. 22 national ranking and heading...

Mark Buehrle stood in front of his locker after the White Sox season-ending loss at U.S. Cellular Field on Monday, dressed in street clothes and ready to get back to Missouri with his family.Before Buehrle exited, though, he was asked a question about defining this 2008 season. Certainly, if absolutely nothing else, it was a huge step up from last year's 72-90 debacle."Last year was miserable pretty much the entire second half," said Buehrle with a smile. "But this year, we made it to the playoffs. That's the first goal, to get in, and then you see what happens."We still didn't get to where we...

The off-season began Monday for the Cubs, with general manager Jim Hendry returning to work at Wrigley Field after his team was swept out of the playoffs by the Dodgers.Hendry will have some housekeeping items to deal with this week. All of field manager Lou Piniella's coaches have been invited back for 2009, and Hendry will meet with them this week.