BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The No. 8 Alabama basketball program got back on track on Wednesday defeating the No. 25 Illinois Fighting Illini 100-87. The Crimson Tide program is still in the process of getting to know its personnel as Alabama welcomed eight new scholarship players for the 2024-25 season.

The Crimson Tide faithful knew it had a lot to be excited about with the talented players returning and a highly rated recruiting class that included two McDonalds All-Americans in Derrion Reid and Aiden Sherrell, however, the biggest surprise may be one of the team’s best players in freshman guard LaBaron Philon.

The freshman guard from Baker High School by way of Link Academy in Missouri logged his fourth college game with double digit scoring as he tied for third on the team in points against Illinois with 16. Additionally he chipped in nine assists with seven rebounds, two steals and a block.

“Philon showed why he’s a pro and moving up everybody’s draft board. That’s a bad boy right there,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said.”

Has the Alabama product surprised Oats in his ability to assimilate to the college game so quickly?

“Go back to last spring when he opened his recruitment up and we took him. Yes, I’m surprised from then, but if you’d have asked me after the summer after watching what he did in June, July, August. He came in an established himself as one of the best guards in the program right out of the gate in the month of June.” Oats said.

“I think he came in and competed. He had the right mindset coming in. When he opened up his recruitment he made the point, ‘If I’m not going to play much, because Kansas took a lot of transfer guards, that’s where he’d signed. ‘If i’m not going to play much I’d rather be home in Alabama at Alabama, if I’m not going to play much’. I just said ‘Look, just come in and work hard and we’ll see what you can earn’. So he kind of just came in expecting nothing, had to earn everything. When you feel like you’ve got to earn everything, that’s when I feel like you starting playing your best. That’s why we don’t ever promise anybody minutes, starting spots, really anything around here. I think you make everybody come in and earn it. All of the sudden you get guys like Labaron that blossom”

Oats said in his Tuesday press conference he’s already hearing from NBA scouts about his freshman sensation. Philon is third on the team in scoring through five games and added a hard hat award for his efforts against the Fighting Illini. He credited preparation and a calm mindset for his quick start tot the current year.

“Really just being in the moment. As a young guy you probably get nervous or a lot of butterflies. I just try to stay calm in every moment and confident. Once you get in the gym, once you get on the court it’s all confidence then.”

Rich Klein will take over as the dean of the Stuart School of Business at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology on January 1, 2025. Illinois Tech photo

Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology has a new business school dean — again.

Thirteen months after naming longtime economics professor Liad Wagman to the top job, and about five months after Wagman’s departure to take the deanship at another B-school, the Stuart School of Business this month announced the hiring of Rich Klein as its new dean. Klein’s deanship begins in the new year.

Unlike his predecessor, Klein does not have a deep connection to Illinois Tech, coming to Chicago from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he has been vice chancellor since January 2022. What he does have: significant experience in industry and as a consultant for major corporations.

BIG SHOES TO FILL

Klein’s predecessor Wagman joined the Stuart School in 2009 as an economics professor after earning his Ph.D. from Duke. He was a 2015 Best 40 Under 40 Poets&Quants honoree who assumed the interim deanship of the B-school in June 2022 — and proceeded to oversee a 140% surge in enrollment across all programs.

Under Wagman’s interim deanship, the Stuart School overhauled its curriculum, offering new programs in analytics, finance, economics, management, marketing, and more — including, notably, five new Tech+ majors, interdisciplinary degrees that blend core principles from fields such as business, engineering, psychology, information technology, policy, and cybersecurity. The curricular makeover helped to position Stuart as a destination of choice for students at a time when demand for graduate business education was fluctuating nationwide.

His interim deanship portended great things, but Wagman left Illinois Tech in June 2024 to take on the deanship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management.

A FORMER CONSULTANT FOR UPS & THE U.S. ARMY

Klein joins Illinois Tech from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he serves as vice chancellor of institutional effectiveness and student success. He also holds dual faculty appointments in UNO’s College of Business and College of Information Science and Technology. He will become the Stuart School’s dean on January 1, 2025.

Prior to UNO, Klein was the associate dean of the R. Kirk Landon Undergraduate School of Business at Florida International University’s College of Business, as well as interim director of the college’s School of Accounting. He also has more than a decade of industry experience with Automatic Data Processing and First Data Corporation, as well as consulting experience for Fiserv, General Electric Healthcare Systems, Sage Health Management Solutions, United Parcel Service, and the United States Army.

He earned his doctorate in computer information systems from Georgia State University, a Master of Science in Technology Management from Mercer University, and both a Master and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Boston University.

STUART ‘A PIONEER IN MEETING STUDENTS WHERE THEY ARE’

Among his predecessor’s accomplishments, Klein applauds the Stuart School’s recent partnership with Coursera to offer a tech-focused MBA program that allows students to take core courses in finance, marketing, and digital transformation, as well as electives in artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, and more. Since last year the Stuart School’s enrollment is up 73%.

“I am incredibly honored and excited to join Illinois Tech as the dean of Stuart School of Business,” Klein says in a report on Stuart’s website. “Higher education stands at a crossroads, facing unprecedented challenges that demand bold, innovative solutions. I’m eager to join Stuart, which is already a pioneer in meeting students where they are, ensuring the enduring value of their degrees, and providing a quality education that prepares them for the world today and in the future.

“I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, students, and alumni to lead the charge in redefining higher education.”

DON’T MISS AFTER 140% ENROLLMENT BOOM, THIS B-SCHOOL GAVE ITS INTERIM DEAN THE TOP JOB and THIS CHICAGO B-SCHOOL IS LAUNCHING 4 ONLINE PROGRAMS — WITH PERFORMANCE-BASED ADMISSION

The post New Dean Named At Illinois Tech’s Stuart School appeared first on Poets&Quants.

CHICAGO – An Illinois Lottery player is $650,000 richer!

The Chicago winner, who goes by the name Big Money D, revealed that his winning numbers were inspired by his late wife.

“I typically play Pick 4, but that day, I noticed that the Lucky Day Lotto jackpot was pretty high so I decided to switch it up and try something new,” said Big Money D. “I picked numbers related to my late wife—when I won, it felt like it was a message from her.” 

Big Money D purchased the ticket for the Nov. 16 evening drawing at Mariano’s, located at 5201 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood.

Matching all five numbers—9, 11, 12, 13, and 17—he landed the $650,000 jackpot prize. 

The emotional win left him overwhelmed with joy.

“I’m still so shocked and excited about the win, I have barely been able to sleep!” said Big Money D.

The jackpot will allow Big Money D to fulfill a long-standing dream. 

“I’m already looking at houses, and can’t wait to purchase my dream home for myself and my kids—it truly is a dream come true,” he said.

Mariano’s, the store where the winning ticket was purchased, will receive a $6,500 bonus, equal to one percent of the prize amount.

There were more than 27,600 winning Lucky Day Lotto tickets purchased for the Nov. 16 evening drawing, netting Illinois Lottery players over $724,000 in prizes.