Jim O'Donnell
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O'Donnell: Pay to play at Arlington Park this year? Don't bet on itApr 28, 2021 1:00 am - THE SPECTER OF AN OPENING DAY at Arlington Park was once so deliciously nefarious. Naive goslings down on the apron breaking their virgin betting bones alongside aged bu...
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Jim O'Donnell: A year later, 'The Last Dance' remains a very neat TV featApr 23, 2021 1:00 am - ONE YEAR AGO THIS WEEKEND, the United States was reeling as the COVID-19 pandemic steamrolled into its second month. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. The dim...
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Jim O'Donnell: Illini links to young Masters ace Zalatoris run orange, blue and trueApr 12, 2021 1:00 am - DURING THE CBS COVERAGE of the final round of The Masters Sunday, Jim Nantz and Sir Nick Faldo made one thing redundantly clear: Hideki Matsuyama was carrying "the weigh...
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Jim O'Donnell: A grateful goodbye - Stan Albeck, Michael Jordan and the telling lookMar 26, 2021 1:00 am - STAN ALBECK WAS the head coach of the Bulls for a solitary season - 1985-86. It was Michael Jordan's second year with the team. Albeck had the extreme misfortune to have...
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Jim O'Donnell: NCAA tourney masters dodge half of a buzzsaw with Loyola advanceMar 24, 2021 1:00 am - NO ONE IS EVER GOING to accuse the nattering nabobs who rule the NCAA of particularly enlightened thought. But the stiff-suited Babbitts who indenture teenage servants f...
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Jim O'Donnell: After that embarrassment, Illini should dump Underwood and hire Porter MoserMar 22, 2021 1:00 am - IT WILL BE FOREVER REMEMBERED as the game that launched 100,000 emotions. On the Loyola side, among them, unbridled joy, dancing in the Zooms, warm fuzzies about the sev...
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Jim O'Donnell: 'No action' for legal books and bettors in Illinois on Illini-LoyolaMar 19, 2021 1:00 am - WANT TO LEGALLY BET Sunday's round of 32 NCAA Tournament match between Andre Curbelo's Fighting Illini and Cameron Krutwig's Loyola in the state of Illinois? Not today, ...
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Jim O'Donnell: Former Bulls play-by-play voice brutalized in Lyft carjackingMar 17, 2021 1:00 am - WHEN "THE LAST DANCE" aired on ESPN last spring, Bill Hazen had some renewed pep in his step. Snippets of Hazen's work as Bulls play-by-play man alongside Johnny "Red" K...
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Jim O'Donnell: Chasing the brackets - 4 steps to a perfect Final FourMar 12, 2021 12:00 am - YES, OPRAH DID a marvelous job with Meghan and Harry. But she failed to ask the Brexiting royals for their NCAA men's selections. Because it's that weekend again. It's w...
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Jim O'Donnell: Stop devouring their own - a cure for Big Ten men's basketballMar 10, 2021 12:00 am - AS W.C. FIELDS ONCE SAID, "Start a day with a smile and get it over with." Maybe that thought contributed to the foundational philosophy when they started the Big Ten me...