es not old and has had better seasons in the past. With Heywards glove, he doesnt have to be an offensive superstar to be a valuable player; if he just gets back to the 110 OPS+ range, which is still likely,

MINNEAPOLIS -- Richard Pitino wants to make sure his players arent reading too much into their 6-0 record.After impressive wins against St. Johns and Arkansas, some Minnesota players said they expected an easier time against mid-major Southern Illinois.You cant overlook anybody; we cant do that, Pitino said Saturday night after his Gophers beat Southern Illinois 57-45. We should be a no-ego program. We have not earned the right to have an ego.Amir Coffey had 13 points, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer each scored 11 against the scrappy Salukis, who never led in the second half but always seemed within striking distance.With upcoming games against Florida State and Vanderbilt in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge next week, the Gophers acknowledged they may have gotten ahead of themselves.Came out flat, thinking it was going to be an easy game, McBrayer said. So weve just got to have the mindset that every game is going to be like a Big Ten game, or a Big Ten feel.The Gophers (6-0) won despite missing starting center Reggie Lynch, who sat with an ankle injury. Even without the 6-foot-10 Lynch -- whos averaging nine points and 3.6 blocks per game -- the Gophers size advantage ground down a Salukis team that entered the game averaging 81 points per game.Minnesotas much taller backcourt held Mike Rodriguez -- SIUs leading scorer -- to seven points, half his season average. Thik Bol led The Salukis (3-3) with 15 points, but no other Southern Illinois player had more than seven.This game tonight was two ends of the spectrum, Salukis coach Barry Hinson said. We played phenomenal defense and then we played, I wouldnt say bad offense, but we just didnt produce when the shots were there.Southern Illinois led by four in the first half before hitting an eight-minute scoring drought. The Gophers took advantage, ripping off a 12-0 run that put them in front for good.BIG PICTURESouthern Illinois: The Salukis, who didnt lose their third game last season until Jan. 9 against Wichita State, had their three-game winning streak snapped and are 0-2 against major-conference teams this season. They lost to Arkansas by 25 earlier this month, and will have at least one more chance to beat a major team this year at Louisville on Dec. 7.Minnesota: The Gophers are 6-0 for the first time since the 2011-12 season. All six games, though, have come at home; it marks the first time since 1999 that Minnesota has opened with six straight home games. They went 6-0 that year, too.FREE-THROW WOESMinnesota made a season-low 12 free throws on 22 attempts, which played a big part in allowing Southern Illinois to hang around.You know what happens, you miss a couple and then all of a sudden everybody gets a little tight, Pitino said.SILVER DEFENSIVE LININGSHinson called the game Southern Illinois best defensive performance of the young season. We just held a Big Ten team to 18 percent from the 3 and 38 percent for the game and we are the first team to do that in their six games. We are the first team to hold them under 80 points, Hinson said.UP NEXTSouthern Illinois will host Murray State next Tuesday; the Racers will try to snap a two-game skid Saturday against Alabama A&M.Minnesota travels for the first time this season to face Florida State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It gets a lot tougher now going on the road, so well see how we look with more adversity I guess, Pitino said. Stitched Bruins Jerseys . However, he did make them miss him a little less. Cundiff, who had the unenviable job of replacing Dawson last season, agreed Thursday to a one-year, $1. Boston Bruins Store . The (11-11-4) Jets are seventh in the Central Division with 26 points. Fifth place Dallas and sixth-seeded Nashville also have 26 points, but the Stars have three games in hand on Winnipeg while Nashville has two. https://www.cheapbruins.com/ . The 19-year-old Olsen played 34 games with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL this season. In that time, hes recorded 17 goals and 17 assists with 36 penalty minutes. Bruins Jerseys China . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. Boston Bruins Pro Shop . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. The Chicago Cubs ... ahem, the world champion Chicago Cubs return as the favorites to win the World Series again in 2017.The best team doesnt always win the World Series, of course, but in 2016, it did. And while it did involve a few sizable investments in the roster to get there, it was more the culmination of a long rebuild, in which short-term fixes were generally eschewed and the objective was to contend for five years, six years or even longer.Chicago does have a few losses coming this offseason, and the Cubs will never go into a season with the mean projection being 103 wins, but heres the bottom line: The 2017 organization stands just as strong as the 2016 one. Were he to leave, impending free agent Dexter Fowler would be the teams biggest loss this offseason -- Aroldis Chapman is better but was part of the team for only a third of the season -- but Fowler was considered a short-term addition anyway. The Cubs seemed perfectly happy playing Jason Heyward in center field before the opportunity to bring back Fowler fell into their laps.The Cubs also get a full-season return of Kyle Schwarber, the left-handed bat they were missing to go along with Anthony Rizzos in 2016. And its way too early to call the Heyward contract dooomed.dddddddddddd He was terrible this year, but hes not old and has had better seasons in the past. With Heywards glove, he doesnt have to be an offensive superstar to be a valuable player; if he just gets back to the 110 OPS+ range, which is still likely, hell be a plus to the 2017 team as the Cubs try to repeat.Unusual for a high-payroll team winning the World Series is that even with the loss of players to the Yankees in the Chapman trade, the Cubs still retain a strong farm system. This gives the organization flexibility in the coming years and means that the holes that pop up for the franchise this offseason are simpler to fix, either from within or by trading prospects for a more experienced solution.The Cubs were at the top of our Future Power Rankings this year, and after doing what no other Cubs team in living memory has done, theyre certainly not going to drop as a result!With that, we take a look at the preliminary ZiPS projections for the 2017 season. Obviously these projections will change tremendously as players re-sign, sign or are traded, but heres what things look like right now. ' ' '