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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Champaign Central graduate Connor Milton and his Illinois baseball teammates are back home Tuesday night to host Indiana State.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Connor Milton is the latest Illini baseball player to win Big Ten Player of the Week honors after the conference office handed down the accolade on Monday. This comes after Drake Westcott and Jacob Schroeder won it earlier this season.
➜ 2. All Milton did this past weekend during a three-game sweep of Northwestern was go 9 for 12 with three home runs, eight RBI, two doubles and five runs scored. The Champaign Central graduate has carved out a spot in Dan Hartleb’s lineup as the Illini center fielder and is now hitting .313 with four home runs, 11 RBI and an OPS of .993
➜ 3. All the more impressive for Milton considering he barely played in his first three-plus seasons at Illinois. Didn’t hang his head. Just kept on working.
Illinois Luke Goode (10) at UI men’s basketball media day at Ubben on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.
Numbers game: 314
Career points Luke Goode scored with the Illinois men’s basketball team in three seasons. Illini coach Brad Underwood said halfway through Goode’s freshman season he could envision Goode reaching 1,500 career points at Illinois, but we’ll never know how many he could have ended up with playing for the Illini after Monday’s announcement that the 6-foot-7, 205-pound native of Fort Wayne, Ind., is the latest Illini to enter the transfer portal this offseason.
Ruby Tarr and the Unity softball team hits the road play at St. Anthony on Tuesday in a rematch of a Class 2A sectional title game from 2023.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Western Illinois at Illinois baseball. The eight-game homestand — and a chance at an eighth straight win for the Illini (23-13) — is set to conclude Tuesday night when they host Western Illinois (8-27) at 6 p.m. at Illinois Field.
➜ 2. Unity at St. Anthony softball. The visiting Rockets, led by Western Illinois signee Ruby Tarr, will want revenge when the two teams meet at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in Effingham. St. Anthony placed third in Class 2A last season, rallying to beat Unity in a sectional championship game.
➜ 3. St. Joseph-Ogden at Westville baseball. A quality nonconference game is on tap for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday between SJ-O (21-2) and Westville (16-3-1), who could meet later in the Class 2A playoffs.
Champaign Central girls’ soccer coach Steve Whiteley.
Coach’s corner
Three questions with Champaign Central girls’ soccer coach Steve Whiteley. The Maroons’ coach since 2015 and his 7-3-1 team has three home matches this week, starting Tuesday against Peoria Notre Dame, continuing Wednesday against Normal Community and concluding Saturday against St. Thomas More.
➜ 1. My favorite sports team is ... Borussia Dortmund.
➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are ... Jurgen Klopp, Steve Kerr and Bill Belichick.
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is ... spring weather in central Illinois.
