By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, Say what you want about the 2010 Chicago White Sox, but at least they hold true to form. Everyone talks about how up-and-down they are, how they (warning: a cliché as painful as Jim Belushi coming) “are consistently inconsistent.” But it’s not entirely true. About [...]

I truly was blessed this past season and post-season to have had the opportunity to closely cover college basketball’s most decorated player in Ohio State’s Evan Turner. “His Royal Smoothness” as we like to call him, won the Wooden, the Naismith and pretty much every other national college basketball player of the year award.  We [...]

The Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats have scheduled a football game to be played at Wrigley Field this year on November 20 at 11am.  How will it look you ask?  Well MPS has created a photoshop of the most likely scenario. It seems like a very cool idea.  The Winter Classic was amazing and although [...]

We all remember last summer, when Patrick Kane was arrested for disorderly conduct after him and his cousin gave their cabbie a beating in Buffalo over 20 cents.  He managed to avoid jail time and got off with a slap on the wrist, but fans around the league have not been so forgiving.  There were [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams, the highest NBA draft pick in Illini history, is currently the best player running the point in the NBA. He’s also now the best pro player by far in recent Illini history. And Williams seems to be getting better [...]

So you got some good information if you listened to the majority on last week’s Qualified Picks, as we went 8-4 collectively.  I chose both games incorrectly last week, so if you didn’t listen to me while filling out your sportsbook you did just fine.  This week we take a look at a NBA and NHL [...]

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, The year 2008 truly solidified my theory: to be a fan of either the Chicago Cubs and University of Illinois football means you know a lot about soul-crushing defeats. You know more than losing, you know exactly what it’s like to have any shred of hope [...]

By Paul M. Banks, Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net Forget the first round series loss to top-seeded Cleveland, the Chicago Bulls 2009-10 season actually begins on July 1st, the opening of the free agent signing period.

So the first month of Chicago Cubs baseball has been less than stellar. We all thought that this team would at least be putting up a fight in the NL Central now that Milton is gone and the team’s sale is no longer a distraction. So when we are playing .500 baseball we are a [...]

Like a kid having trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve, I sat up last night thinking about what exactly would be said this morning at the Berto Center. For much of the season I was on Team Gar-Pax, but after the March 30th incident, I began to drift over to Team Vinny. Now that didn’t mean [...]

We all knew the end was near for Vinny.  We thought it would happen on Christmas, but when it didn’t it just became a matter of time.  Well the time is now for Vinny.  He will be officially fired at a press conference today.  There will be a lot of time to look back on [...]

When we signed Alfonso Soriano be a Cub for the next century, we were all pretty excited.  Skeptical maybe, but excited to see the Cubs go out and sign such a big talent.  Unfortunately some realities have become apparent a few years into the contract that may not have been so obvious at the time [...]