NBA Draft Combine includes Illinois' Shannon, Hawkins; Northwestern's Buie not invited

Nam Y. Huh/AP

Boo-hoo?

Nah.

Boo, who?

Unfortunately, that’s more like it.

The NBA Draft Combine will be at Wintrust Arena all week, with 78 prospects having been invited to participate. They’ll take medical exams and have their anthropometrics (read: a bevy of body measurements) recorded. They’ll do vertical jumps, sprints and shuttles and throw 185 pounds around on the bench press like it absolutely matters, which it absolutely doesn’t. They’ll go five-on-five in scrimmages and one-on-however-many with teams that want to interview them.

They’ll give it their best in hopes of getting cracks at the NBA life, but Northwestern’s Boo Buie — whose college career was right up there with the best of theirs — won’t be among them. The Wildcats’ career scoring leader, a two-time all-Big Ten guard who chopped down favorites as one of the conference’s most uncanny closers and carried two modestly talented teams to NCAA Tournaments, wasn’t invited.

Not that anyone’s crying for Buie, only 6-2, 180, already 24 years old and not showing up in the second rounds of many, or any, mock drafts. It’s business, and it’s life. But for those who followed Buie’s remarkable career in Evanston, it might be a bit startling to see him overlooked so soon after it ended — and in his own backyard, no less.

"We were all disappointed that he didn't get a chance to be at the combine this week," coach Chris Collins said. "But you take it as it is and get yourself ready. … All it takes is one team, one out of 30 in the league, to value what you can bring."

Illinois’ Elite Eight team will be represented by All-American guard Terrence Shannon Jr. and forward Coleman Hawkins. Shannon — scheduled to stand trial in Kansas next month on first-degree felony rape and felony sexual aggravated battery charges — is potentially a first-round pick, though it’s far from a certainty. The versatile Hawkins is a borderline prospect with much to prove.

Indiana’s Kel’el Ware, Minnesota’s Cameron Christie and Iowa’s Payton Sandfort are the other Big Ten players — along with two-time national player of the year Zach Edey from Purdue — in the combine. No one will be more fascinating to monitor than the 7-4 Edey, a pure post player the likes of whom almost doesn’t exist any longer in the NBA.

At the combine a couple of years ago, watching Illinois’ 7-0, 300-pound Kofi Cockburn throw up bricks in shooting drills — especially from the three-point line — was painful. Cockburn went undrafted and took his post skills to Japan. Edey, a better player by any measure, and certainly much taller, is sure to at least get a shot at the NBA and very well could be a first-rounder.

Buie, meanwhile, will have an extra-long way to go to make some basketball fans remember him. Northwestern hasn’t had a player drafted since Evan Eschmeyer went in the second round to the Nets in 1999.

"He's always been undervalued, underrated, but always found a way to get it done," Collins said. "I certainly wouldn't bet against him."

Three-dot dash

A day after manager Pedro Grifol said the semi-streaking White Sox have worked their way into “expecting to win” mode, they lost 7-0 to the first-place Guardians in the finale of a four-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field. With that, a degree of balance was restored to the universe.

Still, the last-place Sox winning three out of four was easily the highlight of a hopeless season. And the four-game winning streak that ended Sunday was their longest since last June. That deserves at least a halfhearted tip of the beer helmet.

“The key is going out there and preparing and expecting to win a baseball game — [that’s] when you start building,” Grifol said. “It takes a little bit of time. But when you start building, that’s a lot of fun.”

Yes, sure, why not? Fun.

So much fun. …

What a spot Cubs reliever Adbert Alzolay found himself in Sunday in Pittsburgh. Was he pitching for his Cubs life in the 10th inning in Pittsburgh? True or not, it was tense enough just watching to feel like he was. The massively struggling Alzolay — with no more minor-league options — entered with a 5-2 lead, gave up a two-run bomb and survived for a save so dicey, there’s no legit way to paint it as progress. …

Eight times — including once in Chicago, in 1992 — a city has had teams in the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup final in the same year. Alas, those cities went 0-for-8 at winning both. Is this the year it finally happens? New York, Denver, Dallas and Boston all are in play. …

In April, the NCAA changed its rules to allow athletes to transfer an unlimited number of times without losing any eligibility, as long as they meet academic requirements. Now, according to widespread reports, the NCAA is instituting a rule that will allow men’s and women’s basketball programs to pay for unlimited official recruiting visits — in other words, from what was 28 on the men’s side and 24 on the women’s side over a rolling two-year period to, well, infinity and beyond. Doesn’t college sports just get more adorable all the time? …

The sports gambling world is in a tizzy about a bettor who placed a $100 three-team parlay last year — on the Rangers to win the World Series (check), the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl (check) and, a huge long shot at the time, the Thunder to win the NBA Finals — for a $1.7 million payout if the third leg of the parlay comes in. Why the heck didn’t we think of that?