Chicago Sports

Illinois gamblers wagered nearly $61 million on the Super Bowl, regulators announced Tuesday, a 33% increase from last year when the big game was on the board legally for the first time in state history.

The biggest day on the sports betting calendar saw Illinois sportsbooks come out on top to the tune of $9.5 million, generating more than $1.4 million in tax revenue, according to figures released by the Illinois Gaming Board.

The statewide handle, or the total amount of money wagered, was just $45.6 million on Super Sunday of 2021, when the house won by $7.7 million and $1.1 million went to state coffers.

Regulators are still tabulating the full breadth of Illinois’ bets, which were allowed on everything from the coin toss (heads) to the color of the Gatorade dumped on winning head coach Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams (blue).

Los Angeles Rams defensive end A’Shawn Robinson, left, pours Gatorade over Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay after the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals NFL Super Bowl 56 football game Sunday.Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP file

Of the state’s eight legal sportsbooks in operation, most of the wagers were taken by the online sports betting giants who have taken over the Illinois market since it launched in early March 2020. DraftKings at Casino Queen led with $21.5 million in Super Bowl bets, followed by FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing with $17 million.

They each turned profits of $2.5 million and $5 million, respectively, but two suburban casinos had tough nights, if not as bad as Cincinnati’s. Hollywood Casino Joliet ended up paying out almost $44,000 more to winning bettors than they took in, while the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin ended in the red by almost $145,000.

Illinoisans have wagered more than $7 billion on sports in less than two years since Blackhawks announcer Eddie Olczyk made the state’s first legal bet at Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. The state broke its monthly record with a handle of $840 million in December, the most recent month for which data is available.

Eddie Olczyk put $100 down on his hometown White Sox to win the American League pennant at 16-to-1 odds in 2020.Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times file

Wall-to-wall sportsbook advertising has raised concerns among counselors of a spike in gambling addiction. Calls to the state’s gambling addiction hotline nearly doubled in the year after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the law authorizing sports betting — but that legislation also opened more funding for counseling services.

Tax revenue from sports betting is earmarked for Pritzker’s $45 billion capital infrastructure improvement plan.

Sportsbooks could soon open at stadiums such as Wrigley Field and the United Center, but they still need to apply for state approval.

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The Bears have hired Brent Salazar as their first Clyde Emrich Director of High Performance — a new position created under first-year general manager Ryan Poles to oversee the team’s strength-and-conditioning and sports science departments. The post is named after Bears legendary strength coach Clyde Emrich, who died at 90 in November.

Salazar, a former all-conference college tennis player at New Mexico, has 11 seasons of NFL experience — most recently as the Vikings strength and conditioning coach in 2016. Prior to that he spent nine seasons with the Chiefs as assistant strength and conditioning coach. Poles was with the Chiefs’ personnel department from 2009-22, when he was hired as the Bears’ general manager.

After leaving the Vikings, Salazar was the director of performance at the United States Tennis Association from 2017-20 and was a performance strategist at Kitman Labs — a sports performance/analytics research outfit — the past two years.

“We are excited to add this key hire to our football operations staff, a newly created position to oversee, align and continue to develop our strength and conditioning and sports science to optimize player performance,” Poles said in a statement released by the Bears. “Players maximizing their potential in preparation, on the field, in recovery and rehabilitation is critical to their overall athletic performance and ultimately team success. To honor the late Clyde Emrich, a pioneer in this space, is very fitting for the Director of High Performance.”

The director of high performance is the second new position the Bears have added since hiring Poles to replace Ryan Pace as GM. Previously, they hired Ian Cunningham as assistant general manager.

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Please send scores and corrections to [email protected].

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

BIG NORTHERN

Stillman Valley at Genoa-Kingston, 7:00

CATHOLIC – BLUE

Brother Rice at St. Rita, 7:15

DePaul at Leo, 7:30

Loyola at St. Laurence, 7:00

Mount Carmel at Fenwick, 7:00

CATHOLIC – WHITE

Providence at Montini, 7:00

Providence-St. Mel at De La Salle, 7:00

St. Francis de Sales at Marmion, 7:00

DU PAGE VALLEY

Naperville Central at Metea Valley, 7:00

Neuqua Valley at DeKalb, 7:00

Waubonsie Valley at Naperville North, 7:00

FOX VALLEY

Cary-Grove at Crystal Lake Central, 7:00

Crystal Lake South at Hampshire, 7:00

Dundee-Crown at Huntley, 7:00

Jacobs at Prairie Ridge, 7:00

McHenry at Burlington Central, 7:00

ILLINOIS CENTRAL EIGHT

Coal City at Lisle, 6:45

Herscher at Manteno, 7:00

Streator at Reed-Custer, 6:45

Wilmington at Peotone, 7:00

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL

Francis Parker at Morgan Park Academy, 4:30

University High at Latin, 6:00

INTERSTATE EIGHT

Morris at LaSalle-Peru, 7:00

KISHWAUKEE RIVER

Johnsburg at Harvard, 7:00

Marengo at Woodstock, 7:00

Richmond-Burton at Woodstock North, 7:00

LITTLE TEN

Earlville at LaMoille, 7:00

Hinckley-Big Rock at IMSA, 7:00

Indian Creek at Hiawatha, 7:30

Leland at DePue, 7:00

Somonauk at Newark, 7:00

METRO SUBURBAN – BLUE

IC Catholic at Chicago Christian, 7:30

Riverside-Brookfield at Aurora Christian, 7:30

St. Francis at Wheaton Academy, 7:30

METRO SUBURBAN – RED

Ridgewood at St. Elmwood Park, 7:00

St. Edward at McNamara, 7:30

Westmont at Aurora Central, 7:30

NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY

Grant at Wauconda, 7:00

Grayslake North at Antioch, 7:00

North Chicago at Lakes, 7:00

Round Lake at Grayslake Central, 7:00

SOUTH SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Shepard at Thornton Fr. North, 6:30

SOUTHLAND

Rich at Bloom, 6:30

Crete-Monee at Kankakee, 6:30

Thornton at Thornwood, 6:00

SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE – EAST

Joliet West at Plainfield South, 6:30

Romeoville at Plainfield East, 6:30

SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE – WEST

Minooka at West Aurora, 6:30

Oswego East at Plainfield North, 6:30

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN – BLUE

Lockport at Homewood-Flossmoor, 6:30

Sandburg at Bolingbrook, 6:30

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN – RED

Andrew at Bradley-Bourbonnais, 7:00

Lincoln-Way West at Lincoln-Way Central, 6:15

TRI-COUNTY

Dwight at Lowpoint-Washburn, 7:30

Marquette at Midland, 7:00

Putnam County at Roanoke-Benson, 7:00

Woodland at Henry-Senachwine, 7:00

UPSTATE EIGHT

Bartlett at Glenbard South, 7:00

East Aurora at Glenbard East, 6:30

Elgin at West Chicago, 7:00

Fenton at South Elgin, 7:00

Larkin at Streamwood, 7:00

WEST SUBURBAN – GOLD

Addison Trail at Willowbrook, 7:30

Hinsdale South at Morton, 7:00

Proviso East at Downers Grove South, 7:00

WEST SUBURBAN – SILVER

Downers Grove North at Oak Park-River Forest, 6:3

Glenbard West at Proviso West, 6:00

York at Hinsdale Central, 7:30

NON CONFERENCE

Benet at LaLumiere (IN), 7:00

Christian Life at Orangeville, 7:00

Clemente at Solorio, 5:00

Dixon at Sandwich, 7:00

Elgin Academy at Westminster Christian, 7:00

Englewood STEM at Raby, 5:00

Foreman at Leyden, 6:00

Golder at Kennedy, 5:30

Hall at Seneca, 7:00

Harlan at Richards, 6:30

Intrinsic-Downtown at Senn, 5:00

Johnson at Raby, 5:00

Jones at Marist, 7:00

Kaneland at Rock Falls, 7:00

Lake Forest Acad-Org at Thornton Fr. South, 6:30

Lemont at Stagg, 6:00

Mansueto at ACERO-Soto, 5:00

Muchin at Back of the Yards, 5:00

Oregon at Morrison, 7:00

Orr at Notre Dame, 6:30

Phoenix at Intrinsic-Belmont, 6:30

Rochelle at Byron, 7:00

Schurz at Eisenhower, 6:00

Serena at Seneca, 7:00

St. Ignatius at Yorkville Christian, 6:30

Winnebago at Aquin, 7:00

CENTRAL SUBURBAN CROSSOVERS

Glenbrook North at Vernon Hills, 7:00

Evanston at Highland Park, 7:00

Maine South at Niles North, 7:00

New Trier at Maine East, 7:00

Niles West at Maine West, 7:00

CHICAGO PREP TOURNAMENT

at Hope Academy

Hope Academy vs. Rochelle Zell, 5:30

Christ the King vs. Ellison/Walther, 7:00

METRO PREP TOURNAMENT

McKinley-Horizon at CPSA, 5:30

MID SUBURBAN CROSSOVERS

Buffalo Grove at Fremd, 7:00

Elk Grove at Hoffman Estates, 7:00

Hersey at Conant, 7:00

Prospect at Palatine, 7:00

Wheeling at Schaumburg, 7:00

RIVER VALLEY ROUND-ROBIN

Donovan at Grace Christian, 7:00

Gardner-So. Wilmington at St. Anne, 6:45

Grant Park at Clifton Central, 7:00

Illinois Lutheran at Tri-Point, 7:00

Momence at Beecher, 7:00

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All right, fine, I’ll go first and admit it: I didn’t think Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu would be this good as a rookie.

Make the roster? Sure. Find a role? Yeah, probably. But shoot this well, pass this well, defend this well and become indispensable? Not to mention earn himself a spot in All-Star weekend’s Rising Stars game? Come on, not many rookies manage all that.

I can’t be the only one who failed to see it coming.

“That’s because people don’t really know these kids,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “You guys only know what you see.”

At Illinois, Dosunmu was a dynamic player who made clutch shots, defended with attitude, outraced opponents from end to end and set a hard-working tone on a team that ascended to a Big Ten tournament title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But there were plenty of others around college basketball with purer offensive talent.

Yet here’s Dosunmu — a second-round draft pick, taken 38th — playing DeMar DeRozan minutes with Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso out, shooting above 50% from the field and 40% from the arc, setting up teammates like he’s Chris Paul and essentially saying to coach Billy Donovan, “Take me out of the game — I dare you.”

Underwood is watching Bulls games on television when he can, following them on his phone when he can’t, texting with his former star on a regular basis and shaking his head — for months now — at the boobs and rubes who are surprised by Dosunmu’s instant NBA breakout.

“It’s hard to describe Ayo,” he said, “because I just say ‘winner’ and there’s nothing that gets in the way of that. But I also felt like he would be better suited to the NBA game because the paint opens up, his speed becomes more of a factor, his passing in space becomes easier. And I think he’s really, really effective because he’s got two, maybe three superstar-type guys around him and that elevates his game. And he guards. And he’s tougher than hell.”

Underwood watched the Bulls beat the Thunder over the weekend and saw Dosunmu come within two rebounds and one assist of a triple-double. The best part, though, was when the camera caught Dosunmu being coached up by Caruso near the bench while a play was being reviewed.

“Caruso has him cornered, just jumps up and grabs him,” Underwood said. “He’s guiding Ayo through, coaching him through a sequence, and you can see Ayo is just a sponge. He’s such a great teammate, and he wants to continually learn. That’s invaluable.

“So, no, nothing Ayo is doing surprises me. The talent was there. The game was more suited to the open court, which he succeeds and excels in. All the other factors, Billy’s getting to live with now and see how those help their team.”

Better hop on up and squeeze in. The bandwagon is filling up fast.

JUST SAYIN’

A tip of the cap to the Horizon League for reversing course and announcing Tuesday that UIC’s student-athletes are eligible to participate in all league championships. It’s such a positive development, administrators at the league offices and those at UIC may even stop firing public shots at one another.

No question, UIC invited trouble when it announced last month it will leave for the Missouri Valley Conference on July 1. According to Horizon bylaws — which UIC had helped write — less than a year’s notice meant ineligibility for championships, period.

The Horizon was well within its rights to stick to its guns, but it didn’t show any concern for the athletes themselves. What did they do to deserve that? Why punish them? The optics were terrible.

So now — hurry! — the swimming and diving teams will make it to Indianapolis for the Horizon championships, which begin Wednesday. The league’s premier diver, UIC’s Cydney Liebenberg, gets to try to add to her mountain of awards and honors. It’s all as it should be.

o My latest college basketball AP Top 25 ballot, submitted Monday morning: 1. Gonzaga, 2. Auburn, 3. Kentucky, 4. Arizona, 5. Purdue, 6. Duke, 7. Baylor, 8. Kansas, 9. Providence, 10. Texas Tech, 11. Illinois, 12. Villanova, 13. UCLA, 14. Tennessee, 15. Wisconsin, 16. Houston, 17. Michigan State, 18. Arkansas, 19. USC, 20. Texas, 21. Ohio State, 22. Notre Dame, 23. Connecticut, 24. Murray State, 25. Wyoming.

o Only 17 of 60 AP voters had Notre Dame on their ballots, leaving the Irish buried in “others receiving votes” territory. Makes (ahem) a lot of sense considering Mike Brey‘s team is on a 14-2 tear, is tied for first place in the ACC at 11-3, has won four straight league road games, hasn’t lost to anybody not named Duke in over a month and — don’t forget — beat Kentucky back in December before the good times even started to roll.

Some people really need to put their slide rules back in their pocket protectors and give the metrics a break.

o Multiyear extensions for Jon Sciambi and Jim Deshaies at Marquee? Nice.

As Billy Crystal‘s “Fernando Lamas” character on “SNL” might’ve put it, it’s better to sound good (in the booth) than be good (on the field).

No extra charge for the embarrassingly outdated cultural reference.

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In a season laden with disappointment, Kirby Dach might finally be turning a corner.

Dach’s performance Monday in the Blackhawks’ 3-1 win over the Jets was one of his best in months.

He made an impact nearly every shift, not only helping create both of the Hawks’ non-empty-net goals but also controlling the ice with his excellent skating, long stick and — at long last — confidence.

“He was great tonight,” Alex DeBrincat said. “He forced a lot of turnovers and kept it in their zone a lot, [which] makes it easier on everyone on the team.”

For the Hawks’ first goal, Dach took a neutral-zone breakout pass from Jake McCabe, gave the puck to an open Patrick Kane on the wing, then rushed ahead with a stride powerful enough to give Aaron Donald some competition. Dach’s net-drive — supplemented by a sly bit of interference — literally moved Jets defenseman Ville Heinola out of the way, providing Kane plenty of time and space to rip a five-hole shot.

For the Hawks’ second goal, Dach’s neutral-zone pressure this time flustered Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey, forcing Morrissey to turn the puck over to DeBrincat, then gap up away from DeBrincat on the ensuing rush in order to keep tabs on Dach’s presence down the wing. That provided DeBrincat just as much time and space to rip a top-corner shot.

In between those plays, Dach also had a breakaway in which he blew past another Jets defenseman in Dylan Demelo and got off a well-placed shot, a strong net drive that enabled a Brandon Hagel-to-Kane cross-seam pass and a Kane shot off the crossbar and several other subtly strong moments.

And Dach also played well defensively, as Connor Murphy later commended.

“All over the ice, he’s so effective when he’s coming back and stripping pucks,” Murphy said. “In the ‘D’-zone, he’s got such a long reach, and he’s able to have strength on his blade when he reaches around guys to pick their pockets. He was doing it against some of their top-line guys, [like Mark] Scheifele and [Blake] Wheeler.

“It’s impressive when he’s able to do that and control the game from center ice, to turn things over the other way and let his wingers get creative and make plays. That’s a sign of a great centerman. We’re definitely lucky to have him and to see how much he has been growing.”

Ironically, interim coach Derek King had, just earlier Monday, acknowledged for the first time that the Hawks have considered moving Dach to wing to cover up his faceoff woes. But his Monday night performance promptly exemplified all the reasons why he’s a natural center. King, after the game, named Dach among the night’s standouts in his eyes.

Dach now touts five points in his last five games, his most productive such stretch yet this season. And he has attempted 29 shots over his last 10 games (at even strength), his heaviest-shooting such stretch in two calendar years.

Certainly, the former third overall pick will need to produce many more excellent games like Monday — and continue these encouraging scoring and shooting streaks over much larger sample sizes — to fully restore the development trajectory the Hawks had imagined for him.

But it’s not hard to notice the timing of Dach deleting his social medias, changing his mindset and embracing his self-control over who he is as a person and player — all subjects he discussed in an introspective late-January interview — and his play improving significantly. It’s probably not a coincidence.

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The goal for the Chicago Bears moving forward is building the offense around quarterback Justin Fields and surrounding him with weapons. But going into this offseason, the Bears have just Darnell Mooney as the only receiver under contract that is not a future or reserve.

Chicago is likely going to address the receiver position in free agency but they also could in the NFL draft as well at No. 39 overall in the second round.

On Tuesday, Chad Reuter of NFL.com released his three round NFL mock draft and has a very interesting name for the Bears at No. 39 overall. It’s Fields’ former teammate at Ohio State in wide receiver Chris Olave. The 6-foot-1, 188-pound Olave is an intriguing prospect that could be taken anywhere from the mid-first round to early second round depending on what he does at the combine, pro day and how NFL teams feel about him.

Here’s the scouting report on Olave via Lance Zierlein:

The quiet storm of the Ohio State wide receiver corps, Olave is smooth, steady and makes things happen. His movements are fluid and easy from snap to the catch and all points between. He’s fast but efficient and plays with the bend and foot agility to uncover on all three levels. Olave possesses natural, well-rounded ball skills but needs to add play strength to ward off the physical challenges that are headed his way. His play traits should allow for success beyond the scheme and talent advantages surrounding him at Ohio State. He is an inside/outside hybrid appealing to offenses looking for a field-stretcher with the ability to take on a sizable catch load.

Olave and Fields played two seasons together at Ohio State and have an established connection with one another. Olave caught 99 passes for 1,578 yards and 19 touchdowns. That includes this beauty of a throw in the College Football Playoff:

There’s a long ways to go before the NFL draft but this is something Bears fans should keep an eye on.

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Marquee Sports Network will announce today that Cubs play-by-play voice Jon “Boog” Sciambi and analyst Jim Deshaies agreed to multiyear contract extensions. Sciambi will begin his second year calling the Cubs and Deshaies his 10th.

Sciambi will continue as the radio voice of ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball. Marquee will announce fill-ins for him at a later date. Sciambi joined Marquee after longtime Cubs TV voice Len Kasper left for the White Sox’ radio booth before last season.

Sciambi and Deshaies didn’t take long to connect on the air and deliver an entertaining and informative broadcast. They helped Marquee win a Chicago/Midwest Regional Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Live Sporting Event for the broadcast May 26, 2021, which was joined by Ryan Dempster and Taylor McGregor.

The duo benefitted from a previous relationship through Kasper, who called the Cubs for 16 years, the first 15 on WGN-TV. Sciambi worked with Kasper on Marlins broadcasts from 2002-04, and they became close friends. Sciambi would cross paths with Kasper and Deshaies while working for ESPN Radio. Kasper predicted their chemistry would be instant.

Their first broadcast of the year is on hold until Major League Baseball ends its lockout. MLB and the players last negotiated formally Saturday, when the players were unimpressed by the owners’ new proposal.

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BEIJING — Miroslav and Michaela Knies will have big smiles on their faces when their son Matt plays for the United States against Slovakia at the Olympics.

The quarterfinal matchup Wednesday is also special for Matt Knies, a University of Minnesota forward who has strong ties to his parents’ birth country, including playing for Slovakia in a youth tournament.

“It’ll be a moment I won’t forget for a long time,” said Knies, who also played for the U.S. against Slovakia in the world junior championship in December. “I love my roots. Obviously both my parents were both there and same with my older brother. All my relatives live there and I always go back when I can in the summer. I love Slovakia. Whenever I get to go visit there, it’s definitely a great time. But I’m born in the U.S., so I love representing my country. It’s going to be an exciting game.”

Slovakia earned a spot in the quarterfinals by beating Germany 4-0, knocking the reigning silver medalists out of the men’s hockey tournament in the qualification round. Denmark moved on to face the third-seeded Russians by coming back to beat Latvia 3-2.

Second-seeded Finland faces 10th-seeded Switzerland, which upset the seventh-seeded Czech Republic 4-1. Fourth-seeded Sweden will face Canada, which beat China 7-2.

“They have their way to play, like Canada always plays on the small rinks,” said Sweden forward Linus Johansson, who played for Canada assistant and former Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton in a lower-level Swedish league. “They’re going to go hard and they’re going to forecheck and they’re going to hit, so we’ve got to do the same.”

The U.S. practiced while Slovakia was playing Germany, and that’s just as well because coach David Quinn would rather his players worry about themselves than their opponent.

“It’s way more about us, our team and our progress and continuing to get better,” Quinn said. “We certainly (have been) taking a look at what Slovakia does and if there’s anything we haven’t seen before, certainly we’ll talk about it, make the adjustments, but at the end of the day, we want to keep rolling through and improving and tightening up the areas we need to tighten up on and keep doing the things we’re doing well more consistently.”

U.S. forward Brendan Brisson said he and his teammates haven’t felt better since getting to Beijing, thanks to a day off Monday and the confidence that’s going strong for the youngest team in the tournament. The U.S. goes into the knockout round as the only team to win all of its group games in regulation.

Slovakia has won two in a row and is starting to find its game just in time for the difficulty level to get ratcheted up.

“We build with every game,” former NHL forward Marko Dano said. “(We are) just believing in ourselves and sticking up for each other and being there for each other. That worked. I feel like with every game we play better, and hopefully (against the U.S.) we can play as a team again.”

Slovakia coach Craig Ramsay, who played 14 NHL seasons and spent more than two decades in the league as an assistant, does not want his team to get into a track meet up and down the ice against the young Americans.

“It’s going to be important for us to have good sticks, stick on puck, win the battles when we have to,” Ramsay said. “If we can continue to play with that kind of speed and aggressiveness, then teams have to chase us. You certainly don’t want to get in a battle with that U.S. team where you’re chasing them around the ice because they’re just too quick.”

Young Slovakia players Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec were also part of the world juniors game against the Americans before that tournament was abruptly canceled out of COVID-19 fears. Knies, fellow skaters Matty Beniers, Jake Sanderson and Brock Faber and goaltender Drew Commesso all played in that game.

“It’s good to face them again,” Slafkovsky said. “I just want to win.”

Sanderson is questionable with an undisclosed injury. He practiced Tuesday after missing the final U.S. preliminary round game Sunday against Germany. Even though Sanderson did not take part in team drills, Quinn said it was an encouraging sign that the University of North Dakota defenseman was on the ice.

“He really is day to day,” Quinn said.

Slovakia goes in as the underdog, but it’s still in the tournament thanks in large part to defenseman Mislav Rosandic, who was one of the best players on the ice against Germany. It’s a major accomplishment for him to be at the Olympics after being born in Zagreb in 1995 and growing up in postwar Croatia before emigrating to Slovakia.

“It means a lot to me,” Rosandic said. “My journey is not usually one for some young boy from a hockey country because in my country there is not much hockey. Maybe I will write a book about it after my career.”

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A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a prolific ticket broker convicted of a lucrative yearslong scam involving the Chicago White Sox to a year-and-a-half in prison.

A January 2020 indictment charged ticket broker Bruce Lee with wire fraud and money laundering, and a jury found Lee guilty last fall of several counts of wire fraud.

His trial involved the betrayal of the Sox by a decades-long employee, a secret recording at a pizza place near Sox park, and a brazen plan to take advantage of the South Siders’ complimentary and discount ticket programs.

Leading up to his sentencing, Lee’s lawyers made the eye-catching argument that the Sox benefited from Lee’s scheme because it brought fans to the ballpark to spend money. They even insisted that “White Sox fans are the baseball fans that drink the most alcohol at a game.”

Meanwhile, the feds say $1.1 million of Lee’s assets inexplicably disappeared sometime after December 2019,a month before his indictment.

Before he was sentenced, Lee told the judge his work as a ticket broker helped him rise up out of a difficult childhood. “From sporting events and concerts and theater, I found a good, honest profession that I excelled at,” he said. And he said he saw the White Sox ticket sales as part of that.

“I was fooling myself, and I should have known better,” Lee said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider repeatedly told jurors at trial “the White Sox got nothing” out of the arrangement between Lee and the longtime Sox ticket seller. But Lee’s attorney, Nishay Sanan, said any crime against the Sox took place inside the ticket booth. He said Lee legitimately thought he’d paid for the thousands of tickets he later sold on StubHub.

The scam first came to light in October 2019 with an FBI affidavit about the suspicious ticket sales, especially surrounding the August 2018 debut of pitcher Michael Kopech. A few months later, prosecutors accused Lee of making $868,369 by selling 34,876 fraudulently obtained tickets during the 2016 through 2019 baseball seasons.

The tickets had a market value of between $1 million and $1.2 million, authorities said.

The Sox’s data analytics team flagged Lee as a StubHub seller who had “sold more White Sox tickets than anyone else by a substantial margin,” and the team approached the FBI in October 2018. The analytics team also thought Lee might have had inside help.

A separate affidavit described an interview with a Sox employee who told the feds he and Lee had realized in 2017 that a “bad weather” ticket program for fans had “opened the door” for tickets to be printed “without the White Sox knowledge or consent” using the computer code “Rain17.”

“I printed more Sox tickets free of charge with the Rain17 code for Bruce Lee than any other code,” the employee told the FBI.

Two former ticket sellers for the Sox, James Costello and William O’Neil, later admitted their roles in the scheme. They acknowledged they generated thousands of complimentary and discount tickets — without required vouchers — and gave them to Lee in exchange for cash.

Costello used other employees’ ID codes to avoid detection, and he eventually recruited O’Neil to help with the scheme. Costello pleaded guilty to wire fraud and O’Neil pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Neither has been sentenced.

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Doug Bruno, Becky Hammon and Penny Taylor will headline the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022.

The trio is joined by Alice “Cookie” Barron, Delisha Milton-Jones, Paul Sanderford, Bob Schneider and Debbie Antonelli in a group that will be inducted on June 11.

Bruno has coached at DePaul for 36 years, guiding the team to 24 NCAA Tournament appearances. He’s a three-time Big East Coach of the Year and also has coached USA Basketball at nearly every level, leading them to gold six times.

Hammon is being honored for her playing career in the WNBA and at Colorado State. She was a six-time All-Star and was voted one of the WNBA’s 15 greatest players of all-time in 2011.

Taylor starred both with the Phoenix Mercury and the Australian national team. She helped the Mercury win three WNBA championships and Australia to its two Olympic silver medals.

Barron played for the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens and lead the Plainview, Texas, team to an undefeated mark of 104-0 in her time there from 1954-1957. Wayland won three national championships.

Milton-Jones won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. national team and also helped the Los Angeles Sparks to two WNBA titles. She won the Wade Trophy in 1997.

Sanderford led Western Kentucky to three Final Fours; the team finished second in 1992. He went 453-189 in his 25 seasons as a college head coach. Sanderford also guided Louisburg College to the JUCO national championship in 1981.

Schneider was the third-winningest coach in Division II history with 634 wins. In his 40 years of coaching at the collegiate and high school level, he only had two losing seasons while amassing 1,045 victories.

And Antonelli is being honored as a contributor to the game. She’s been a college analyst for 34 years and has helped start numerous in-season tournaments around the country.

The Hall of Fame also is giving its 2022 Trailblazers of the Game award to Title IX, the federal law that requires athletic departments to provide general equivalence for men and women that turns 50 this year.

“Without Title IX, our past and future inductees and trailblazers would not have had the opportunity to blaze those trails,” Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Trustees Chair Carol Stiff said. “It is only fitting that we honor Title IX as it has impacted so many female athletes not only in women’s basketball but in all sports.”

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