Loyola has now appeared...

...in five of the last seven 8A championship games, winning the title in 2015. That's pretty good, isn't it?

Not for my brothers, apparently, one of whom played on that storied 1965 City Championship team (back in the Stone Age, before they had a state tournament). On Sunday morning my other brother -- not a Loyola alum -- texted me:

1-4. Not that impressive. With the numbers and money they have not sure any other school is as blessed.

(To be honest, I think he was just trolling our other brother. Families are like that.)

But let's take that seriously for just a second. (It's kind of a slow news day.) Who else has performed as well as Loyola in recent years? And is it true that the Wilmette school is "blessed" with more "numbers and money" than its competitors? Here are the results of the last ten 8A championship games. (I'll confine this to 8A; the news isn't that slow.)

2017: Lincoln-Way East 23, Loyola 14
2016: Maine South 27, Loyola 17
2015: Loyola 41, Marist 0
2014: Stevenson 31, Homewood-Flossmoor 25
2013: Naperville Central 13, Loyola 10
2012: Mount Carmel 28, Glenbard North 14
2011: Bolingbrook 21, Loyola 17
2010: Maine South 28, Mount Carmel 7
2009: Maine South 41, Marist 17
2008: Maine South 41, Hinsdale Central 21

The Ramblers, as you can see, have appeared in five of those title games, while Maine South has been in four but only once in the last seven.

(I said I'd only talk about 8A, but in fairness, Lincoln-Way East was in the 7A championship in 2012 and Mount Carmel has played in either the 8A or 7A contests in 2010, 2012 and 2013. The others have been in 8A the whole time.)

So who's done better than Loyola? I can't find anyone. In the last seven years, seven different teams have brought home the 8A crown. You have to go all the way back to 2008-10 (the Iron Age) when Maine South won three straight to find a dominant team.

What about my brother's contention that Loyola is uniquely "blessed" with "numbers and money"? Baloney. Sure, Loyola is the largest private school in the state and seems to reload every year. (I've often thought that while the Ramblers don't seem to produce a lot of Division I prospects, they sure seem to turn out a lot of D3s. And I wonder -- seriously -- how they'd do against one of the lesser D3 programs.) But if you're talking "numbers and money" no one takes a back seat to the likes of Stevenson (one of the largest schools in the state and the choice, it seems, of many of the offspring of Chicago's professional athletes), Homewood-Flossmoor, Naperville Central or Hinsdale Central. Even Lincoln-Way East and Bolingbrook seem well-heeled to me. (Have you seen their stadiums? And how many sets of uniforms does the Brook have? Does the University of Oregon have as many?)

So, no, Loyola doesn't have any special advantages and even plays in arguably the most competitive conference in the state. (Three of the five teams made it as far as the semifinals this year and one to the quarterfinals.) If you go back ten years then, yeah, Maine South has done better than them, but other than that, the Ramblers have done as well as, or better than, anyone else in recent years. Give credit where credit is due: head coach John Holecek has done a pretty darn good job.

The football season is over...

Could anyone have beaten Lincoln-Way East this year?

...and Mike Clark of the Tribune and Beth Long of the Sun-Times have courageously included their preseason rankings next to their final ones. (MaxPreps didn't; I added what I know.)

I say "courageously" only tongue in cheek; this isn't a "gotcha" moment for me. Rating teams is a mug's game, as the Brits would say, and I doubt if I would be any better at it than anyone else. The high school football season is long -- the teams in the finals play a total of 14 games!* -- and so I find the comparison useful only insofar as it's interesting to see what the experts thought before the season started and how individual teams either surprised or disappointed them. (I'd still like to know, for example, what happened with Waubonsie Valley. Was it injuries? How did they fool Mr. Clark and Ms. Long -- who are both very good at what they do -- and even the bloodless computers at MaxPreps?)

As for the final rankings themselves, I don't have much to quibble with. I probably would have wimped out and had Phillips and Prairie Ridge tied for second, but that's about it. Yeah, Phillips beat Loyola in Week One but Prairie Ridge was so dominant all season. Could either of them have defeated Lincoln-Way East? Possibly, but I'd say the Griffins would have taken at least two out of three with each of them. (We'll never know, will we?) And what about Maine South? Does it deserve its No. 2 ranking in MaxPreps? Maybe; the Hawks' only two losses were close games with Lincoln-Way East. This is the kind of stuff we can talk about all winter.

Again, here are the final rankings with records in parentheses followed by their preseason rankings. And the actual Week One rankings are below.

Tribune:

1. Lincoln-Way East (14-0) 4
2. Prairie Ridge (14-0) 5
3. Phillips (14-0) 14
4. Loyola (12-2) 6
5. Maine South (11-2) 2
6. Batavia (13-1) NR
7. Lake Zurich (13-1) 10
8. Naperville Central (9-3) 9
9. Marist (11-1) 12
10. Nazareth (12-2) NR

Sun-Times:

1. Lincoln-Way East (14-0) 7
2. Phillips (14-0) 8
3. Prairie Ridge (14-0) 1
4. Loyola (12-2) 3
5. Maine South (11-2) 2
6. Batavia (13-1) 23
7. Marist (11-1) 10
8. Nazareth (12-2) 17
9. Lake Zurich (13-1) 15
10. Oswego (10-2) 18

MaxPreps:

1. Lincoln-Way East (14-0)
2. Maine South (11-2) 4
3. Prairie Ridge (14-0) 1
4. Phillips (14-0)
5. Loyola (12-2) 2
6. Batavia (13-1)
7. Lake Zurich (13-1)
8. Naperville Central (9-3)
9. Rochester (14-0) 8
10. Marist (11-1) 3

WEEK ONE

Tribune:

1. Glenbard West
2. Maine South
3. Waubonsie Valley
4. Lincoln-Way East
5. Prairie Ridge
6. Loyola
7. Lyons
8. Homewood-Flossmoor
9. Naperville Central
10. Lake Zurich

Sun-Times:

1. Prairie Ridge
2. Maine South
3. Loyola
4. Waubonsie Valley
5. Lyons
6. Glenbard West
7. Lincoln-Way East
8. Phillips
9. Homewood-Flossmoor
10. Marist

MaxPreps:

1. Prairie Ridge
2. Loyola
3. Marist
4. Maine South
5. IC Catholic Prep
6. East St. Louis
7. Sacred Heart-Griffin
8. Rochester
9. Lyons
10. Waubonsie Valley

* I can remember a time when colleges only played 11 games in a season.

The other Name of the Day...

...belongs to Walter Wager, a novelist who wrote 58 Minutes, the inspiration for the Bruce Willis film Die Hard 2.

I bet you never heard of him.

Only in the New York Times...

...would a typewriter repairwoman's death make the obituary page. Mary Adelman, above, died last Wednesday at age 89.

And only in New York would a typewriter-repair shop be frequented by the likes of Isaac Bashevis Singer, David Mamet, Erich Maria Remarque, Nora Ephron, Gene Shalit, Philip Roth, Joseph Heller and Peter Shaffer.

Rance Howard, Ron Howard's...

...father, died at age 89. I didn't realize until now that it was Mr. Howard that played the blind man at the gym in this scene from Seinfeld.

The Name of the Day...

...belongs to Auburn running back Kerryon Johnson.

Since I don't follow college football like I used to, Mr. Johnson's may be a household name for all I know. But it's new to me and incredibly fitting. (And, what the heck, an opportunity to listen to three ancient rock 'n' rollers sing a classic tune again.)

Hat tip: Tom H.

The Tom Toles...

...cartoon of the day.

My son graduated from Dartmouth...

...in 2012. (I have only one son who went to college, he went to only one, and he left almost six years ago. That's my only personal experience with higher education -- except for watching college football games once in a while on TV -- since I got my own graduate degree way back in 1992. So it's admittedly a small sample; but it's all I have.)

One day, when my wife and I were visiting him on campus, we walked past a tent on a street corner with an "Occupy Dartmouth" sign. (It looked much like the picture above. I know it's not the best, but it's all I could find on Google Images.) I was actually encouraged by the sight -- college kids today are politically active? Who knew? But my son, who played a varsity sport, was a member of a fraternity, and dated a girl from Connecticut whose father was a big shot on Wall Street, i. e., a typical Dartmouth student, was dismissive. "That's just a couple of fanatics," he sniffed. Talk about a role-reversal!

But I've often wondered, is all this talk nowadays about colleges and universities being "politically correct" with "trigger warnings," "safe spaces," and fear of "microaggressions" more hype than reality? I mean, really, have you ever heard anyone in real life mention any of that? Like, "Boy, when I was in college just a few years ago, I couldn't believe all the time we spent talking about 'trigger warnings,' 'safe spaces,' etc." I haven't. (Is it just me?) Or is all this a figment of the fevered imaginations of the talking heads on Fox News? After all, "Occupy Dartmouth" was only about a dozen or so students out of a student body of over 6,000. (In other words, a fraction of one percent.) And I wonder, is all this current chatter about "politically correct" colleges and universities just made up of a handful of kids at a handful of schools?

P. S. From Paul Krugman's column this morning:

...according to Pew, 58 percent of Republicans now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country, versus only 36 percent who see a positive effect.

Gee, where do you suppose that came from? Could it be the constant bashing from right-wing outlets like Fox about "political correctness," etc. on campus?

There were so many notable...

...deaths this week that it's hard for even an Irish sports page a New York Times obituary junkie like me to keep up.

The first of which was Mel Tillis, who wrote “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” -- one of the few country songs I actually like -- and died on Sunday at age 85. I always assumed the song was about Vietnam, but I guess not. From his obit:

“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” an anguished ballad sung from the perspective of a disabled Korean War veteran whose wife is cheating on him, was covered by numerous artists. The 1969 recording by Kenny Rogers and First Edition reached the pop Top 10 and the country Top 40.

The second big death this week was Charles Manson, who requires no introduction, at age 83. (If you want to read a truly scary book, try Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry.)

No Name Maddox, as Mr. Manson was officially first known, was . . . believed to have fathered at least two children over the years: at least one with one of his wives, and at least one more with one of his followers. The precise number, names and whereabouts of his children — a subject around which rumor and urban legend have long coalesced — could not be confirmed. 

Now that would make for an interesting study in the whole "nature vs. nurture" debate, wouldn't it?

Finally, there was David Cassidy, from the 1970s television sitcom The Partridge Family, who died on Tuesday at age 67. (That's his co-star and real-life stepmother, Shirley Jones, in the video above.)

I never missed the show, of course, but did you know it was inspired by the Cowsills? From Wikipedia (my emphasis):

The Cowsills are an American singing group from Newport, Rhode Island. They specialized in harmonies and the ability to sing and play music at an early age. The band was formed in the spring of 1965 by brothers Bill, Bob, and Barry Cowsill; they shortly thereafter added their brother John. Originally Bill and Bob played guitar and Barry was on drums. When John learned how to play drums and joined the band, Barry went to bass. After their initial success, the brothers were joined by their siblings Susan and Paul and their mother Barbara. When the group expanded to its full family membership by 1967, the six siblings ranged in age from 8 to 19. Joined by their mother, Barbara Cowsill (née Russell), the group was the inspiration for the 1970s television show The Partridge Family.

The Name of the Day...

...belongs to former Oklahoma state senator Ralph Shortey. Hard to be afraid of a guy named "Shortey," isn't it?

I know that prediction markets...

...have performed -- ahem -- less than perfectly in the recent past, but I still think they're worth looking at.* (If you don't agree with them then place a bet. As we used to say at the Merc, "Got a hunch, bet a bunch.")

And on PredictIt, Roy Moore is a heavy favorite to beat Doug Jones in the special election in Alabama next month, 60-40.

* My TV weatherman doesn't bat 1.000 either, but who else am I supposed to consult for tomorrow's forecast?

The Tom Toles...

...cartoon of the day.

Here are just a few thoughts on...

...the Illinois high school football playoffs as we enter the semifinals.

First of all, the last two of my Magnificent Seven (actually Awesome Eight) went down to defeat in the Second Round. (I got a little distracted by my last-minute trip to Minnesota. Thanks for all the kind wishes; looks like the storm has passed.)

No. 8-seed Hersey (9-1) fell to No. 9 Lincoln-Way Central (9-1), 21-7, and No. 10 Buffalo Grove (9-1) bowed to No. 7 East St. Louis (9-1), 40-18. Kudos, though, to all eight teams that made the playoffs after what was in some cases a multi-season drought.

Second, two of the three Lincoln-Way teams, Lincoln-Way West and Central, that could have played each other in the 7A semis both lost on Saturday. That leaves only No. 1 Lincoln-Way East (12-0), which has a rematch with No. 5 Maine South (11-1), this time at home. (Sounds like the Game of the Week, doesn't it?)

If the Hawks should happen to win that contest they could face No. 6 Loyola (11-1) in a rematch from last year's 8A championship game which Maine South won, 27-17. (The Park Ridge squad came from behind to defeat my dark horse team, No. 13 Naperville Central (9-2), 39-28. Sounds like it was a heck of a tilt.)

The Ramblers, meanwhile, will travel down to No. 26 Edwardsville (9-3) on Saturday to take on this year's Cinderella team.

Speaking of Loyola, with two rounds to go we find ourselves in a situation where the three remaining Catholic League Blue teams -- No. 18 Mount Carmel (9-3) and No. 13 Providence (8-4) are the other two -- could conceivably win the 8A, 7A and 6A titles. Wouldn't that be something?

(To be fair, two East Suburban Catholic Conference schools, No. 17 Benet (9-3) and No. 2 Nazareth (11-1), could win 7A and 6A, too.)

But first the Caravan has to get past No. 3 Lake Zurich (12-0) and Providence would have to defeat Nazareth. Mount Carmel, you may recall, blanked the Bears, 30-0, in the 2013 7A championship. If the South Siders do win they could face Benet in a 7A final featuring another couple of dark horses.

Nazareth won the 5A title in 2015 and the 6A crown in 2014, while Providence captured the 7A title in 2014. I'm not sure if these two Catholic school powerhouses have ever played, but it sounds like they've been circling each other for a few years now.

Finally, we have two undefeated teams, No. 1 Phillips (12-0) at No. 2 Sterling (12-0), in the 5A semis. It has to be hard to win twelve straight games only to watch the championship on TV, but one of these two programs will have to. Oh, well.

Enjoy the games! (I'll be in New York at Night of Too Many Stars.)

The Name of the Day...

...belongs to Wendy Gooditis, a newly-elected Democrat to the Virginia House of Delegates. Sounds like some sort of medical condition, doesn't it? "The woman is too nice; she has good-itis."

I saw a picture...

...like this on TV the other night and thought to myself, I must really live in a liberal bubble. I can't imagine walking into a store like that and buying an assault rifle. Do people really do that? Who has a need for one of those? And what kind of a country allows that sort of thing?

I guess I'm really out of touch.

Robert P. Jones, the author...

...of The End of White Christian America, was on Chicago Tonight this week. I can't figure out how to upload the video, but you can watch it here. It's an interesting segment (and a reminder to myself to watch this show more often), and Mr. Jones says something at about 3:45 of the interview that I've been thinking about myself a lot lately.

Talking about how younger people are less affiliated with organized religions (beginning at about 2:30), Mr. Jones mentions that almost 40 percent of Americans under the age of 30 "claim no religious affiliation whatsoever."

He goes on to say that "a litmus test issue for this generation is conflicts around gay and lesbian rights." (My emphasis.) And, "a third of them say that negative teachings about, or negative treatment of, gay and lesbian people were one of the important reasons why they left."

And this is what I've been thinking lately about the Catholic Church. If you think in the convenient terms of "three strikes and you're out," this would be the last, and most devastating, strike for the Catholic Church. It may, I submit, be the death knell for Catholicism in America.

Too harsh? Maybe. But let's consider what I would term the other two strikes against the Catholic Church in modern America.

Strike One was Humanae vitae, the encyclical written by Pope Paul VI in 1968. "Subtitled On the Regulation of Birth, it re-affirmed the orthodox teaching of the Catholic Church regarding ... the rejection of most forms of artificial contraception." (My emphasis.)

Now, regardless of how you feel about this issue, it's been estimated that as many as "98 percent of U.S. Catholic women of childbearing age have used contraception at some point while they’ve been sexually active." Even if you cut that number down to, say, 80 percent, that's still an overwhelming majority of Catholic women. And what does that say? They're ignoring a pretty important teaching of the Catholic Church. One that touches them on a pretty regular basis. And what does that further imply? That the laity is going to be the final arbiter of what's right or wrong rather than looking to some institution for moral guidance.

Strike Two against the Catholic Church was the emerging awareness in the 1980s and '90s of child sexual abuse "by Catholic priests, nuns and members of religious orders, and subsequent cover-ups [that] led to numerous allegations, investigations, trials and convictions." And this led to two problems in my opinion.

The first is that the scandals cried out for reforms to the priesthood, namely allowing married and women priests. Why they haven't done this is a separate question, but the problem for me and many other people I suspect is that not only has the Church not taken these most obvious reforms, but they still don't have a good answer (or any answer I would contend) as to why priests can't marry or why women can't be priests, especially when almost every other denomination has evolved in that manner.

But even more important than that is that many studies have claimed "that priests in the Catholic Church may not be any more likely than other men to commit abuse." Now, on the face of it, that may seem to exonerate the Church. But I would contend just the opposite. In fact, it reveals an even greater and more damning truth about the priesthood: these men are no better or worse than anyone else. In other words, they're human beings and nothing special. (When I was a kid my parents seemed to think priests almost had some sort of special pipeline to the Big Guy Upstairs.) So why would anyone look to them for spiritual or moral guidance?

And that brings me back to Strike Three against the Catholic Church: its hostility to the LGBT community. If you know anyone under the age of thirty (and I have two sons in their twenties), you would know how differently they feel toward gays and lesbians than previous generations. While I was raised to think of homosexuality as some sort of personality disorder to be "cured" or at the very least contained, young people today seem to treat it as we would have treated left-handedness: a trait that appears in a certain percentage of people but not a big deal by any means. In fact, young people can't seem for the life of them to understand earlier generations' fear and loathing of gays and lesbians. Never mind gay marriage, of which the Catholic Church will never approve, just its unspoken and subtle hostility toward gays and lesbians will drive many of the remaining straight young people out of the Church. It's as if the Mormons still excluded blacks from most rites and ceremonies. How many white Mormons would still be comfortable with that today?

So, yeah, three strikes and you're out would imply that the Catholic Church is doomed. I'm not prepared to say that (organized religion has more "legs" than I would have thought), but it's going to at least hold back membership and most likely hasten its decline. While the Catholic Church will always be here (at least in my lifetime), I could see it going the way of the mainline Protestant churches: a place to get married, baptize children and have a funeral, but not something that holds a central place in one's moral or even spiritual life.

The other Name of the Day...

...belongs to Arjay Miller, a former president of Ford Motor Company who died on Friday at age 101. (That's him at the far left in the picture above.)

When I first saw that name in his New York Times obit I thought it must have been a nickname for his initials, R. J., that just stuck. You know, like Fuzzy Zoeller. Maybe his real name was Robert James Miller or something.

But then I read on and discovered (all emphasis mine):

Arjay Ray Miller was born on March 4, 1916, in Shelby, Neb., a village west of Omaha. The youngest of eight children, he was named for the first initials of his father, Rawley John Miller, a farmer.

Why not just name him Rawley John Miller, Jr. and call him "R. J." for short? Whatever. I guess after seven kids they ran out of good names.

Finally:

“I always thought it was some help coming from a rural situation,” Mr. Miller told The New York Times in 1966. “You aren’t so perplexed about the world: Milk came from a cow, not from the grocery store. Eggs came from a chicken.”

Is that all it takes to become president of a Fortune 500 company? Heck, I grew up in the suburbs and knew that. I must be less "perplexed" than I thought.

The first year of the Trump...

...administration has been, by any objective measure, an unmitigated disaster. (Don't believe me? Just look at his approval numbers. That's how Trump would judge it, wouldn't he?) While I won't go into all the details (mostly because you're well aware of them all), a piece in the Daily Beast, "One Year in, Trump-World Is Drowning in Regret and Chaos With Little to Show for It," has me thinking: how could things have been different for President Trump?

Imagine this scenario, if you will. After his very encouraging speech on election night, what if Trump had followed that up with an equally positive Inaugural Address? And what if, instead of having Mike Pence, Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan staff his cabinet and White House with Republican Party establishment figures and Beltway swamp creatures, Trump had reached out to more populists like Steve Bannon (without all the racism, etc.)?

And what if Trump had begun his administration by saying to Congress, "I want a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on my desk within 90 days"? "If it isn't truly bipartisan, I won't sign it. So get to work you guys! And after that, I want a truly bipartisan tax reform bill and a bipartisan fix for health care. I don't care if you repeal and replace Obamacare or just tweak it, but it has to be bipartisan." And then if nothing happened he could have campaigned against Congress, instead of railing at both parties like he is now for the Republicans' failure to put any bills on his desk.

What if a President Trump had run a truly populist administration and succeeded in breaking the partisan gridlock in Congress? Wouldn't his numbers be much, much better? Could they possibly be any worse?

Now, I know especially after rereading that piece in the Daily Beast that this is all pie in the sky. You'd have to imagine a President Trump who doesn't thrive on confrontation and controversy and doesn't tweet or watch Fox News all day. You'd also have to imagine a President Trump who released his tax returns and was sensitive to nepotism and the appearance of any conflict of interest. You would have to imagine a President Trump who turned his back on The Wall, the Muslim ban, and a bunch of other silly ideas. Oh, and you'd have to forget about North Korea and that whole Russia thing too.

So I guess this is all a waste of time. Trump is Trump. He's unqualified for the job and unfit for the office and we knew it all along. He's oddly thin-skinned and insecure while having a giant ego at the same time. Honestly, he's one of the weirdest guys I've ever seen in my life.

But a guy can daydream, can't he?

Just a few thoughts...

...on some of the other games this weekend.

In 8A No. 9 Oswego (10-1) will travel to No. 1 Lincoln-Way East (11-0). While I don't know anything about Oswego, Lincoln-Way East has won two close games in the last few weeks, 15-14 over No. 17 St. Charles East (8-2) last week, and 18-14 over Bolingbrook (7-3) three weeks ago. Are the Griffins beatable? Or will they meet up again with Maine South (10-1) in the semis next week?

And that brings me to No. 13 Naperville Central (9-2) at No. 5 Maine South (10-1). Will the Hawks get a chance to redeem themselves for their Week Two 28-26 loss to Lincoln-Way East? And will they get an opportunity to defend their 8A crown against Loyola (10-1)? Or will Naperville Central -- my dark horse -- spoil all that and get a chance of their own to play Loyola again in the 8A final after beating the Ramblers, 13-10, in the 2013 final? (A game, if memory serves, in which the Redhawks' offense didn't score a touchdown.)

In 7A, we could conceivably get a semifinal showdown between No. 9 Lincoln-Way Central (10-1) and No. 12 Lincoln-Way West (9-2). Sounds confusing, doesn't it? The only thing we can say for sure about that game is that it would take place in New Lenox. What's in the water down there?

During the regular season, Central topped West, 21-17, in Week Two, and the Knights' only loss came to -- you guessed it -- Lincoln-Way East, 28-14, in Week Five.

In the bottom half of the 7A bracket, No. 18 Mount Carmel (8-3) could face No. 11 St. Rita (9-2) in the semifinals. They're both underdogs this week, however, so it's unlikely. But wouldn't it be something if the Catholic League Blue had four teams (including Providence) in the semis?

In 6A the Game of the Week could definitely be No. 2 Nazareth (10-1) at No. 6 Sacred Heart-Griffin (9-2). The visiting Roadrunners won the 5A title in 2015 and the 6A crown in 2014. Sacred Heart-Griffin, meanwhile, has appeared in the state finals in three of the last four years, finishing second in 6A last year and winning the 5A title in 2014 and 2013. Could this be the most overlooked contest of the day?

Finally, in 5A, there's No. 4 Lemont (10-1) at No. 1 Phillips (11-0) at Gately. Phillips went undefeated in 2015 en route to the 4A crown and beat big, bad Loyola in Week One of this year, but the Indians have won ten straight after a Week One 21-0 shutout at the hands of 7A quarterfinalist Batavia (10-1). This could be a heck of a contest too. And even if Phillips survives this one they may have to face another undefeated squad, No. 2 Sterling (11-0), in the semifinals next week. Mama never said it would be easy!

The weather report for Saturday is crummy: high thirties and cloudy. But at least it won't be raining. This will be my last chance to see a game in person as we will be in New York next weekend. I have Loyola at Marist as my Game of the Week, but I just might have to go to a contest closer to home and earlier in the day. We'll see. Enjoy the games!

The Name of the Day...

...belongs to novelist Donna Tartt.

Would you believe...

...that before Loyola's 41-0 thrashing of Marist in the 8A title game in 2015* that the two Catholic schools hadn't faced each other since at least 2003? And maybe ever?

But Saturday's rematch at Marist could be quite a bit different. That's why it's my Game of the Week. (Although Naperville Central -- my dark horse -- at Maine South should be good too.)

The visiting Ramblers (10-1) are the defending 8A runners-up and seeded No. 6 in the bracket. The Wilmette squad is ranked No. 4 in the Tribune, No. 5 in the Sun-Times and No. 9 in MaxPreps. After losing the season opener to Phillips Loyola has rattled off ten straight, including six victories over winning teams. The Ramblers have outscored their opponents, 343-124, and four of those schools are still in the playoffs. In fact, all four teams that qualified from the Catholic League Blue -- Loyola, Mount Carmel, St. Rita and Providence -- are still in the hunt. (Only Brother Rice failed to make the postseason from that conference.) Oh, and Mount Carmel and St. Rita could conceivably meet up in the 7A semifinals.

Here's Loyola's full 2017 schedule (with home team in CAPS):

PHILLIPS (11-0) 20, Loyola 14
LOYOLA 13, La Puente (Bishop Amat), CA (4-4) 6 
LOYOLA 31, Mt. Carmel (8-3) 7 
Loyola 42, ST. FRANCIS (1-8) 7 
LOYOLA 41, Fenwick (7-4) 14 
Loyola 34, St. Rita (9-2) 14 
LOYOLA 49, Leo (4-7) 7
Loyola 28, PROVIDENCE (7-4) 3
LOYOLA 28, Brother Rice (2-7) 7
LOYOLA 35, New Trier (6-4) 32
LOYOLA 28, Hinsdale Central (8-3) 7

I'd say the most impressive victory in that list was the 25-point win over Providence while the closest call was that squeaker over New Trier two weeks ago.

As for the RedHawks, do you think they'll have a chip on their shoulder after that drubbing two years ago? Undefeated Marist (11-0) is the No. 3 seed and ranked No. 5 in MaxPreps and No. 6 in both the Trib and the Sun-Times. The Mount Greenwood squad defeated six opponents with winning records (Marian, Nazareth and Benet are still alive) and outscored its foes by an eye-popping 474-128. Here's their schedule:

MARIST 23, Brother Rice (2-7) 14
Marist 42, MISHAWAKA, IN (5-4) 15
MARIST 45, Carmel (1-8) 14
Marist 45, MARIAN CENTRAL (7-4) 20
Marist 63, MARIAN CATHOLIC (0-9) 6
MARIST 56, St. Patrick (2-7) 7
MARIST 42, Nazareth (10-1) 0
Marist 38, BENET (8-3) 24
MARIST 42, Joliet Catholic (3-6) 14
MARIST 44, Oak Park and River Forest (5-5) 0
Marist 37, CURIE (8-3) 14

The RedHawks' closest margin was nine points in Week One over archrival Brother Rice. And notice those two shutouts, against Nazareth and OPRF.

So what about this Saturday? Well, as I mentioned, Marist has to have a pretty big chip on its shoulder, they arguably have a much better team than two years ago, and the contest is on the South Side. If I were a bookmaker, I'd have the RedHawks about a one-touchdown favorite. But I'm going to be a little bit of a contrarian here and say the Ramblers pull this one out. I still see them in the 8A finals (in a rematch with Maine South?).

If you can't make it you can follow the action @BoringOldWhtGuy.

* Here's my preview of that game.

I was in Minnesota...

...over the weekend. Blogging should resume shortly.

Someone told me yesterday...

...that I looked like Dean Jagger -- not Mick Jagger, but Dean Jagger, the actor. Who? I thought. I quickly googled his name and recognized him as the general from White Christmas, above. (Is that a good thing? I guess there are worse-looking people.)

Jack Bannon, who played...

..."the genial and raffish assistant city editor Art Donovan on the long-running television series Lou Grant," according to his obit in the New York Times, died at age 77.

Lou Grant was "a newspaper drama spun off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which starred Ed Asner in the title role and was seen on CBS from 1977 to 1982."

I remember watching that show and really liking it.

Bob Schieffer was on Charlie Rose...

...recently and it reminded me of why I endure Mr. Rose and his show: he has such great guests. (By the way, either I'm softening on Rose or he's getting better as an interviewer.) But here are some great quotes from Mr. Schieffer (all emphasis mine).

On these crazy times in which we live:

...my favorite moment in 2016 was when the speaker at that time, John Boehner, called Ted Cruz Lucifer in the flesh and the devil worshiper society put out a press release and denied it.

On our current polarization, which I have likened to a religious war:

...we are in the midst of a communications technology revolution that is having as profound effect on our culture and the people of our time as the invention of the printing press had on the people of that day. But the difference is, while the printing press improved literacy, it caused the reformation, the counter reformation, it also was followed by 30 years of religious wars and it was literally 30 years, three decades before equilibrium was reached in Europe. We're at the very beginning of this communications revolution, it is having a profound effect on all of our institutions but especially on the way we get our news and also on our politics, and we're right in the middle of it right now.

And one of the causes of our current polarization, the tendency of most of us (myself included, if I'm honest) to consume our news from sources we already agree with:

In those days, which I call the gatekeeper era of journalism, where you had three television stations in every town and everybody had a pretty good newspaper in their town, people generally base their opinions on the data they got from those sources. Now with the echo chamber channels that we have and so many of the social media channels out there, if you get your news from this source over here, you're also getting one set of facts. If you get it from this source over here, you're getting another set of facts. So what has happened is we're now basing our opinions on separate sets of facts. We no longer have common data that we're basing our opinions on. So is it any wonder that the partisan divide grows deeper and wider.

To repeat: We no longer have common data that we're basing our opinions on. In other words, it's not enough to have your own opinions, we now have our own facts, our own realities. How do you bridge that? Are we in for another Thirty Years' War? Seems like it.

There are so many...

...interesting matchups this week -- No. 13-seed Naperville Central (8-2) at No. 4 Homewood-Flossmoor (9-1) and No. 2 Normal Community (10-0) at No. 18 Mount Carmel (7-3) (my upset of the week?) are just two that immediately come to mind -- but my Game of the Week has to be No. 1 Prairie Ridge (10-0) at No. 9 Cary-Grove (7-3). Remember, the Wolves beat the Trojans by only one point at home in Week One.

The two schools, less than eight miles apart, are both in District 155 and I imagine many of the parents and kids know each other. (And, for all I know, there may be some overlap in their feeder programs.)

Prairie Ridge is the newest of the four high schools in the district, having been founded in 1997 to address the overpopulation of the other three. The Wolves won the class 6A title last year and in 2011. 

This year Prairie Ridge has been, of course, perfect. The Wolves are currently ranked No. 2 in the Sun-Times, No. 3 in the Tribune and No. 10 in MaxPreps. Here's their schedule so far (home team in CAPS):

PRAIRIE RIDGE 7, Cary-Grove (7-3) 6    

Prairie Ridge 51, HUNTLEY 43 (8-2)    

PRAIRIE RIDGE 56, Crystal Lake Central (5-5) 13    

Prairie Ridge 56, CRYSTAL LAKE SOUTH (3-6) 14  

PRAIRIE RIDGE 63, Bartlett (2-7) 7    

Prairie Ridge 42, McHENRY (4-5) 14    

Prairie Ridge 55, HAMPSHIRE (1-8) 14    

PRAIRIE RIDGE 30, Jacobs (6-4) 16    

PRAIRIE RIDGE 55, Dundee-Crown (1-8) 14    

PRAIRIE RIDGE 61, Crystal Lake Central (5-5) 24

What a juggernaut! After that first game against Cary-Grove, the Wolves outscored their next nine opponents, 469-159, or on average, 52-18. Wow. And, including Cary-Grove, PR has defeated five playoff teams.

Cary-Grove, for its part, was founded in 1961. According to Wikipedia, the school's colors were originally purple and white and the tune for its song was borrowed from Northwestern University. In 1978, however, "while the school colors remained purple and white, the sports, cheerleader and band uniforms became navy and white. The school song remained the Northwestern University school song." But during the 1980s, "the change to navy blue and white became official." Was the principal at that time a Penn State alumnus? I wonder.

Also from Wikipedia (my emphasis):

Every year before school ends, all students who have not missed more than 12 days of school and have not received any discipline referrals are invited outside to a grill-out style party for two class periods. The event is accompanied by music performed by the school's jazz combo. All eligible students are given hot dogs grilled by the deans and parents as a form of reward for maintaining a good disciplinary and attendance record throughout the school year.

How many kids is that, do you suppose? And why didn't my high school have something like that? I would have had a much better record!

As for the football team, the Nittany Lions Trojans won the 6A title in 2009 and were runners-up in 2004, 2012 and 2014.

This year, though, Cary-Grove has been inconsistent. The Trojans outscored their opponents, 350-201, but have split with the six playoff teams they've faced. C-G is unranked in the Trib and Sun-Times and No. 46 in MaxPreps.

PRAIRIE RIDGE (10-0) 7, Cary-Grove 6

CARY-GROVE 29, McHenry (4-5) 7  

Cary-Grove 57, HAMPSHIRE (1-8) 14  

CARY-GROVE 52, Jacobs (6-4) 26  

HUNTLEY (8-2) 41, Cary-Grove 32  

CARY-GROVE 49, Dundee-Crown (1-8) 22  

CARY-GROVE 41, Crystal Lake South (3-6) 14  

SOUTH ELGIN (8-2) 21, Cary-Grove 6

Cary-Grove 36, CRYSTAL LAKE CENTRAL (5-5) 35

Cary-Grove 42, ST. IGNATIUS (7-3) 14

Of their seven common opponents -- McHenry, Hampshire, Jacobs, Huntley, Dundee-Crown, Crystal Lake South and Crystal Lake Central -- Prairie Ridge won by a greater margin than Cary-Grove in all but two. Needless to say, though, these are both really good programs.

To give you even more perspective, here's their record against each other going all the way back to 2004.

2016: Prairie Ridge 26, CARY-GROVE 14

2015: CARY-GROVE 21, Prairie Ridge 14

2014: N/A

2013: Cary-Grove 6, PRAIRIE RIDGE 0

2012: CARY-GROVE 35, Prairie Ridge 14

2011: Cary-Grove 22, PRAIRIE RIDGE 21

2010: N/A

2009: CARY-GROVE 40, Prairie Ridge 7

2008: N/A

2007: PRAIRIE RIDGE 16, Cary-Grove 14

2006: CARY-GROVE 48, Prairie Ridge 6

2005: Cary-Grove 42, PRAIRIE RIDGE 7

          Cary-Grove 28, PRAIRIE RIDGE 0 (playoff)

2004: CARY-GROVE 42, Prairie Ridge 14

The Trojans have prevailed in nine of the last eleven meetings. Is that helpful? Who knows? I like it.

Look, there's no way to sugarcoat this: Prairie Ridge is the heavy favorite Saturday. But this contest will be at Cary-Grove, could take place in the rain, and stranger things have happened in this crazy world. Just two weeks ago for example, the other No. 1 seed in 6A, Crete-Monee, was upset by No. 16 Hinsdale South, 28-20. So take a chance, drive up to Cary and check out this tilt -- it could be a good one!

If I decide to brave the weather and the distance -- Cary-Grove is almost 50 miles from my house! -- you can follow me on Twitter @BoringOldWhtGuy.