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Phil Miller's short takes
- Updated: November 18, 2011 - 12:07 AM
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• The question was about how Ron Zook could keep rumors about his job security from affecting his team. Judging by his response -- Illinois' perpetually embattled coach walked out of his weekly press conference -- Zook is having difficulty keeping the rumors from affecting himself. But whether the coach likes it or not, Zook appears to be in trouble once more. Hard to believe, given the team's first 6-0 start since 1950, but the Illini are fading badly in Big Ten play. At 6-4 and with Wisconsin visiting Champaign this week, Zook could be playing for his job -- or saying farewell -- when Illinois arrives in Minneapolis next week.
• Brady Hoke has charmed Michigan fans with his refusal to call his team's biggest rival anything but "Ohio." Donors love it, after all, when they feel like their coaches and players share their own passions. So credit Mark Dantonio with some good public relations this week. When asked if he would root for Michigan on Saturday against Nebraska, since a Wolverines victory would allow the Spartans to clinch the Legends Division, Dantonio answered, "I'm not built that way." It was an enormously popular answer on campus. So popular, in fact, that Jerry Kill might want to downplay his friendship with Wisconsin's Bret Bielema in the future.
• It's November, time for those big rivalry games, the ones preserved by the Big Ten's crossover scheduling. The Gophers met Wisconsin last week while Nebraska played Penn State, games that are guaranteed by the league to be played annually. Ohio State visits Michigan next week in the league's biggest rivalry game. And this week? Why, it's time for those bitter Iowa-Purdue and Indiana-Michigan State rivalries to be renewed. Oh, wait -- they're not rivals? "I don't think there was any compelling logic" to the matchups, Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke admitted to the Lafayette Journal Courier this week. He's contemplating a trophy to try to juice up the annual matchup. Or perhaps one other suggestion: "Maybe we could change it around" after a few years.
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| Chicago Cubs | 0 | Bottom 1st Inning |
| Pittsburgh | 1 |
| Baltimore - K. Gausman | 6:07 PM |
| Toronto - B. Morrow |
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