LIFE WITHOUT BRET
ILLINI COACH AND EX-HAWKEYE BIELEMA TO MISS GAME WITH COVID, BUT HE’LL BE WATCHING
Bret Bielema can’t go home again. Not this time. A breakthrough case of COVID-19 will keep him in isolation — vaxxed, boostered and not feeling poorly aside from having to miss Illinois (+12½) at No. 17 Iowa (1 p.m., FS1, 890-AM). How hard is it to be unable to coach the Illini against his alma mater?
‘‘I’m sure this is going to be one of those out-of-body experiences that maybe parents have already lived many times in their lives,’’ he told reporters this week. ‘‘I’ve just got to watch them.’’
Assistant head coach George McDonald, who played receiver and returned kicks at Illinois, will steer the ship as the Illini — who were 100% vaccinated heading into the season — try to end a seven-game losing streak to the Hawkeyes and spark a fun week of bowl talk. Beating Iowa and then Northwestern would lock the Illini into a bowl at 6-6. Even if they finish 5-7, however, they might get an invite because of a shortage of bowleligible teams around the country to fill a typically absurd number of bowl slots.
‘‘Great story, great concept from the outside world,’’ Bielema said of the bowl business. ‘‘But this week’s game is about this week’s game.’’
OK, then. It’s about the Hawkeyes winning each of the last seven head-to-head games by at least nine points, the low point for the Illini coming when they were obliterated by 63 in 2018. And it’s about Bielema, 51, a longago Iowa walk-on who developed into a team captain and, to this day, sports — have you heard? — a Hawkeyes tattoo on his left leg.
‘‘I’ve never met a successful man who wasn’t proud of where he came from,’’ he said.
There are places in this country where interest in college sports reigns supreme. College football in Alabama, for example. College basketball in Kentucky, for another.
In a pro sports town such as Chicago? Yeah, good luck with that.
But even NFL nuts and NBA lovers eventually come around to the college hoops season. It’s a cold, hard fact because — come on — everyone comes around. If not in November, then maybe after the Super Bowl. If not then, then for March Madness. Go ahead, try to deny it. You can’t. You wouldn’t dare.
In this week’s ‘‘Polling Place,’’ your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter, we asked respondents when they start tuning in to college hoops: out of the gate, after football or not until March.
‘‘Never isn’t an option?’’ @mike9827 commented.
OK, fine, so he dared. We’d still bet he could at least hum along to ‘‘One Shining Moment.’’
Also this time: a Blackhawks poll and a Bears poll. Let’s get to ’em: