Schusters bedroom features a Cubs blanket and she regularly drinks

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- Kentucky was already up big when Isaiah Briscoe snatched down a second-half rebound, took a dribble and fired an outlet pass ahead to Malik Monk. The ball was high and off target, but Monk went airborne and redirected the ball with his right hand to Wenyen Gabriel for a transition reverse dunk.Yes, the top-ranked Wildcats were so good Monday night that they were turning even mistakes into highlight-reel plays.Freshman DeAaron Fox posted the second triple-double in school history with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to lead that dominating effort as Kentucky beat Arizona State 115-69 on Monday night.Monk scored 23 points for the Wildcats (7-0), who dominated an undersized team and quickly turned the game into a romping show of their athleticism and ability to run in transition.Kentucky led by double figures roughly 6 minutes in, led 58-30 by halftime then scored the first 12 points after the break to go up 40 with 15 minutes left.My question now when I go back will be: how now do we take this to another level? coach John Calipari asked.The game, billed as the Atlantis Showcase, was played at the same ballroom-turned-arena that hosted last weeks Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. Fox was the easy choice as MVP, though the Wildcats had five players score in double figures and put up dominating numbers in just about every area. They shot 52 percent. They finished with a 59-33 rebounding advantage. They scored 21 points off turnovers and finished with 33 assists on 44 baskets.We just love playing together, said freshman Bam Adebayo, who had 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Were like brothers, so were going to give each other the ball.Sam Cunliffe scored 14 points for the Sun Devils (4-3), who shot just 34 percent and made 8 of 26 3-point attempts (31 percent).As a competitor you feel a little shell-shocked in these moments, Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. I wouldve hoped we wouldve performed a little better. ... I thought they were spectacular.BIG PICTUREArizona State: Hurley knew it would be a tough task to slow the Wildcats and noted his team would have to avoid turnovers to do so. Instead, the overmatched and undersized Sun Devils had as many turnovers as baskets in the first 8 minutes and could manage little more than to fire up 3-pointers.Im going to think long and hard about what were going to learn from it, Hurley said. Hopefully well get something out of this.Kentucky: Calipari said he wants to see how his team handles a close game. The Wildcats still havent gotten one; their closest margin has been 21 points. Kentucky has scored 100-plus points in three straight games for the first time since December 1977.FOXS BIG NIGHTFox, a 6-foot-3 point guard from Houston, had 10 points and nine rebounds by halftime on the way to MVP honors and triple-double No. 2 for Kentucky. The other one came from Chris Mills in December 1988.Fox finished 6 of 9 from the field.I didnt even know thats how long its been, Fox said. But it felt good. Honestly it was my most efficient game shooting-wise, so thats what I feel good about.POLL IMPLICATIONSKentuckys hold on No. 1 in the AP Top 25 doesnt look to be loosening anytime soon.THE HIGHLIGHT MOMENTThe Briscoe-to-Monk-to-Gabriel dunk gave Kentucky an 83-40 lead with 11:58 left.SportsCenter just popped into my head, Hurley said. That the first word I saw when I saw that play. You dont see many plays like that. Just crazy, athletic. And those guys, theyre trained to do that, they really are.WELCOME BACKBriscoe had missed the past two games with what Calipari described Sunday as a butt bruise, but the sophomore finished with 20 points and seven assists. In addition, Derek Willis, who left Fridays win against UT Martin with a thumb injury, finished with 11 points and six boards in 16 minutes.UP NEXTArizona State: The Sun Devils host UNLV on Saturday.Kentucky: The Wildcats return home to host No. 11 UCLA on Saturday.---Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap---More AP college basketball at http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-Top25 Cheap Brand Shoes From China .J. -- Josh Cribbs was in the Pro Bowl in February and out of a job six months later. Discount Shoes China . He was followed closely by David Clarkson, donning red, seconds later. 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WILLOWBROOK, Ill. -- With one out in the first inning of the National League Championship Series Game 5 on Thursday night, Gail Schuster shuffled to the end of her motorized wheelchair, sat up as straight as she possibly could and began yelling at the flat-screen television a few feet in front of her.Hurry up! Schuster beckoned. Oh hurry up! Please hurry up!Half a country away, Chicago Cubs leadoff man Dexter Fowler was attempting to score from first base on a double into the right-field corner by Anthony Rizzo. And the 75-year-old Schuster, confined to a wheelchair for more than a half-century due to a rare bone disease, couldnt watch quietly without begging Fowler home.Hurry! she kept repeating.As Fowler rounded third, a flip phone in the Cubs bag draped over the arm of Schusters wheelchair began to buzz. CALL FROM 2-0-7... Schuster ignored it, waiting until Fowler crossed the plate, Rizzo was safely at second and her beloved Cubs had a 1-0 first-inning lead to pick up.Hello? she said to a caller who probably should have known better. Im watching the game.It was a scene surely repeated in living rooms, hospital rooms and nursing homes around the country. Elderly Cubs fans, in the late innings of their lives, starting to believe what was once unthinkable: the Chicago Cubs playing in their first World Series since 1945.You always think its going to go the same way it always does -- they freeze up, Schuster said. A couple nights ago, thats what it looked like, very much timid and afraid. But now theyve come together.There were so many years they fell apart, I never thought it would happen, added David Baker, like Schuster a resident at Chateau Center in Chicagos southwest suburbs. But maybe this is the year.At 88 years old, Baker admits that his long-term memory is a far cry from what it once was, not entirely a bad thing for a lifelong Cubs fan. Baker says he doesnt remember the collapse of 69, the ground ball rolling through Leon Durhams legs in 1984 or the crushing Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS.Steve Bartman? Baker asks. I have no idea who that is.Schuster, on the other hand, remembers all the heartbreak. But she wouldnt have it any other way. The Cubs have always been there for her, so until the day she dies she will return the favor. A self-described die-hard, she has listened to or watched nearly every Cubs game since she was a teenager and health issues forced her to drop out of school in the seventh grade and confined her to a wheelchair at the age of 21. On her darkest, most depressed days, she would turn to Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Billy Williams to lift her spirits.I fought that wheelchair the entire time. I didnt want it, she said. But every day I looked forward to the ballgame. My mom would get hot dogs, potato chips and a Coke and I would watch them and listen to Jack Brickhouse. It helped me get through a lot of hard days.No matter what was going on, the Cubs became a constant for me. They were always there. And as I became older it was a bridge to talk to people and meet people.Schuster made her first trip to Wrigley Field in 2007 and says she has been there about six times since. Today, Schuster has no surviving family. She was never able to have children and was an only child. But in the halls of Chateau Center she has built a reputation as the biggest of Cubs fans.Night games arent exactly easy for the elderly. As Thuursday nights Game 5 began, most of the other residents of Chateau Center were either in bed or on their way there.dddddddddddd Yet there was Schuster, in the nursing homes media room, barking at the TV with the passion of someone 50 years younger.Of course I stay up and watch, Shuster explained. I dont get up at 6 a.m. like a lot of these people do. I just sleep til 10.Ninety-year-old Bobby Clark quietly watched the first two innings with Schuster before fading and heading back to his room. He planned on reading about the game in Friday mornings newspaper. I read it every day, he said.Two other Cubs fans, Baker and 86-year-old Joe Zahradnik, hung around the media room for pregame but called it a night before Fowler had even scored in the first. Said Zahradnik: I can only watch day games. And Baker: Ill find out in the morning if we won.But there was Schuster, starting her night in the media room and ending it in her bedroom, glued to the Cubs game all the way until the final out. Through the course of the night, she revealed that Kris Bryant is cute and she admires Addison Russells baby face. He looks like its too late at night for him to be out, she said. In the NLCS, shes quickly grown a dislike for the Dodgers?Adrian Gonzalez. He just seems so nasty to me. When Gonzalez struck out to end the first inning and chirped to the umpire afterward, she made note. See what I mean? she said. Hes just so intimidating. You dont need to act that way. And she was less than pleased with L.A.s baserunners jumping off first base in an effort to distract Cubs left-hander Jon Lester. I cant believe the way they are acting, she said. Its so ignorant.Schuster believes this is the Cubs year because they are no longer led by aging veterans and instead have such a young, talented core. We used to always get players at the end when they were limping on the field, she said. I dont know why we would buy them. But this new guy, Theo [Epstein], hes done some great changes.Schusters bedroom features a Cubs blanket and she regularly drinks from a Cubs mug. Wrapped around her left wrist is a Cubs bracelet and strategically positioned on her nightstand are a pair of Cubs rings that she would prefer others dont touch. She insists she isnt superstitious, yet when she found out the daughter of another resident works in Guest Services at Wrigley Field, she gave the woman a miniature plush goat that said curse breaker on it to take to the ballpark during the division series against the Giants.It worked, she said. They won.But now comes the real test. Up 3-2 in the series and headed back to Wrigley Field, the Cubs stand at the same point they did 13 years earlier against the Florida Marlins. But this time, Schuster, Clark, Baker, Zahradnik and elderly Cubs fans all across Chicago believe the outcome will be different. They have no choice. Their time is running out. They need the Cubs to beat the Dodgers and go on to win the World Series this year.And when they do?A beer, Zahradnik said. A very good beer.I will probably order a pizza, Schuster said. That would be such a great way to celebrate. Spinach, mushrooms and black olives. Yum.Baker has other thoughts.Ill celebrate quietly, the 88-year-old said. At this age, I dont need to be loud. ' ' '