ZoomSlowik

Frustrating loss, they just took too many stupid, contested shots in the second half. Illinois played a lot better down the stretch, NU had no answer for them inside.

Ugh, so many stupid shots this half for NU.

NU really needs to stop letting Mirkovic shoot, he's thrown up an awful lot of ugly shots. He's not exactly the guy I would want taking contested shots.

They'd definitely still need a SG that could knock down 3's even after adding Bosh. Still, it'd be nice to see some positive progress for once. But yes, I'm starting to assume Bosh goes to Miami.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Dec 10, 2009 -> 09:48 AM) It's pretty crazy the hype he's getting right now. He's all over ESPN's main page after a 25 point, 7 turnovers, 2 assists, 1 rebound game. He plays very well at the end of games, but goodness, 14 turnovers by yourself in two games is absurd. Where is the hype for Greg Monroe at Georgetown? Monroe is 3 months younger than Wall and is putting up big numbers. Wall is having a damn good year so far. Yes, he's turning it over a lot, but he's also averaging 19-4-7 with 3 steals while shooting 56% from the floor. It's quite obvious that Kentucky is far better when he's on the floor, they simply stop scoring when he goes out. He's also the odds on favorite so far to be the #1 pick, so yeah, they're going to start hyping him up so people watch the lottery and draft. Monroe isn't having nearly as good a year. Yes, he's averaging about 15-11, but he's also averaging 3 turnovers per game himself and is only shooting 45.6% from the floor. Outside of the rebounding, he was actually performing better last year. I'd have chosen someone like Wesley Johnson, Evan Turner or Xavier Henry as an example instead. I would imagine we'll hear an awful lot more about Derrick Favors and Ed Davis as the year goes on as well.

I gotta agree with nitetrain, this roster is not top-5 caliber talent-wise. With Gordon gone their outside shooting is abysmal and they have no post scorer that can help bail them out when their shooting is off. Rose has the athleticism to be a difference-maker, but he still needs to learn that he needs to attack every night on both ends of the floor. The rest of the roster isn't doing him any favors, he basically needs to dominate every night for his team to have a chance. If they really passed on multiple offers to dump Hinrich for an expiring contract (I know there were rumors but didn't here anything was definitively shot down) that royally blows. I'm not a big Gordon fan, but he clearly had more of a positive impact on this team than Hinrich. If they had moved him, kept Gordon and drafted someone like Lawson or Collison to be the backup PG that would have been far more desireable than this current roster. They're banged up now and that definitely hurts, but they're still a lower-tier playoff team even at their absolute best the way everyone is playing right now. They're pretty much screwed if they don't snag a top-notch FA this off-season.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 5, 2009 -> 09:55 PM) Greg Oden might have just suffered a really bad knee injury. The video of it looked terrible. He had started to play really well and looked like he might begin to live up to his potential. They're reporting a fractured left patella, probably out for the year again. The guy just can't catch a break.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Dec 4, 2009 -> 02:54 PM) I give up like Rowand said you guys need to get off your high horse. The Valley in a down year last year had two teams in Creighton and UNI that would have finished higher then 7th in the Big Ten, with the potential for a 3rd in ISU. No, they really didn't. Even playing a less daunting schedule UNI and ISU went 23-10 and 24-9 respectively. Penn State missed the tournament last year at 22-11 and 10-8 in conference. Do you really think they wouldn't have picked up a couple of more losses playing a more consistently challenging schedule? Keep in mind that UNI went 1-3 against BCS-conference teams last year, losing to Iowa State and Iowa as well as UIC and Wyoming out of conference. Creighton wasn't any better, losing to Arkansas Little Rock and Nebraska out of conference and going 1-2 against BCS teams, with the win coming against an awful DePaul squad. Losses like that can be resume-killers for teams from power conferences. ISU didn't even have any out of conference games against BCS-conference competition until the NIT against K-State, which they lost. SOME mid-majors can definitely hang with the big boys, but those teams typically run up 25-5 type records and win some tough games out of conference. There's also a big difference between winning one game against a more highly regarded opponent and doing it consistently. Even perrenial doormat Northwestern typically beats one good team a year and took out Michigan State and Purdue on the road last year. They still didn't make the tournament because they weren't consistent enough to win more than 17 games.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Dec 4, 2009 -> 02:36 PM) It just doesn't end does it? The argument of being lucky to win one is gone, you lost to Bradley and Utah. In a top 25 coaches poll done the same way the the real coaches poll is done just with mid majors coaches Illinois state is 5th.. Bradley and Utah are worse the ISU and Illinois lost to them two nights in a row. That alone is enough to tell me that ISU would win 2-3 games(but then again you guys would just blame them on Jordan getting to much PT). Rock and everyone else I'm not saying that the Valley should get the same amount of bids as the big conferences I'm just saying the the 2nd and 3rd teams in the Valley are better then the 6th and 7th teams in the Big Ten. So when the Tournament gets picked leave the 6th and 7th teams of the Big Ten out, and put in the 2nd and 3rd teams in from the MVC. You saying that the top MVC teams wouldn't be able to compete for the Big Ten is true(most years) but ISU, UNI, and Creighton could finish higher then 7th in the Big Ten which according to the committee last year is tourney worthy. Um, no. If you lose 9 or 10 games playing in the MVC like UNI and ISU did last year, you're not going to have a tournament-caliber resume in the Big 10.

Go Cats! The season is far from over, they've still got some pretty solid players. If they make their shots, they'll be dangerous.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 08:19 PM) And you don't think ND could up the bar once again? I'm not saying it's going to happen but it's a fact that ND would win the money battle. Florida is one of the most profitable football programs in the country, Notre Dame would have to go into the stratosphere to come up with a salary big enough to make a drastic difference over what Florida can pay him, and that's on top of paying Weis $18 mil to go away. If Meyer were to leave, and I doubt he will, money will not be the major reason. He's already the third highest paid coach in college football and could easily shoot to first if he wins another title.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 06:29 PM) Thank you. I'm glad someone else realized this. Florida will give him a raise when he is extended. He's already making 4 million a year and that ND offer is 5. A raise puts him in the same ballpark. Exactly, $1 mil a year that Florida could easily match if it came down to it and an extra 4 years that probably won't even matter after an eventual raise and extension/buyout depending on how things go isn't going to be the reason Meyer leaves.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 01:41 AM) ND could blow Florida out of the water with the money they can offer. Either way I doubt he leaves too. I just really hope they don't fire Weis without someone they know can take over the program and be successful, I'd rather not go through 3 years of a terrible coach because they fired Weis at the wrong time. His current contract at Florida pays him 24 million for 6 years. Yeah, totally on a different pay scale.

Kentucky has some pretty awesome talent, but they're allowing another epic 3-point barrage to keep a game closer than it should be with Corey Almond going 10-14 from the arc. They're going to have to play some perimeter D against better teams.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 09:58 PM) Butler beat NU handily, but top 10? They don't have much talent. They run their system well, but Butler has mid-major talent. Butler has had multiple better teams recently that didn't get top 10 love. Gotta love preseason polls. Hayward is pretty damn good, and Howard is quite tough inside. I'm not a huge fan of their guards, but all they really have to do is handle the ball and hit 3's for them to be successful. Obviously that happened tonight since they were playing NU. 07/08 was probably their best team, I think this one could be comparable if their guards are even decent.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 10:43 AM) Carmoday said yesterday Coble is out for the year, gonna try to convince him to redshirt so he can play next year. They also lost senior Jeff Ryan with a torn ACL. So much for NW's first NCAA bid ever. There are now three bad teams in the Big Ten I wouldn't say BAD yet until I see them against Butler. They're still way more deep and talented than they've been in the past, I'm just not sure who's going to score. They've got a few guys with skill like Shurna, Mirkovic and Crawford, they're just not proven.

The Hornets' roster is a mess outside of Paul and West, that's not his fault. Their wing players are pretty awful, and they're stuck paying Peja and Okafor more than they are worth. That Chandler for Okafor trade will probably come back to bite them; though Okafor is the superior player, Chandler's deal expires after 2011 while Emeka's is much longer. They're stuck with this roster through next year and will still only have 7-10 mil in cap space in 2011 after Peja's deal expires when it could have been at 20+ with Chandler's expiring deal. Paul and West will keep them respectable, but they're going to have to work some magic to make them dangerous again.

Well, NU's tournament chances just took a big hit. Kevin Coble injured his foot. No diagnosis yet, but early reports range from several weeks to the whole season if he needs surgery.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Nov 9, 2009 -> 02:35 PM) I think there would be a market for those guys. I don't think it'd take much work either. I have a very hard time seeing them totally revamp their roster like that considering that most people already consider them the favorite to win it all again.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Nov 9, 2009 -> 01:55 PM) or the lakers, which makes the most sense for everyone. That's not even possible. Kobe, Gasol and Bynum alone puts them over the cap much less adding James' salary and everyone else on the roster. They'd have to do a sign-and-trade with Gasol or Bynum+filler to even get in the neighborhood of feasibility.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 9, 2009 -> 11:17 AM) Here's my biggest worry, structure-wise...hypothetically if we do sign Lebron, how exactly are we going to move Deng's contract out of the way? We'd have $33 million or so tied up at the SF position. If we could seriously see someone willing to take on Deng's contract, then that makes it vastly more palatable. If we're stuck paying Deng and Lebron for 2-3 seasons, then we're suddenly in no-flexibility land and we're relying on the parts we have right now with little ability to get better because our backup SF is making so much money. I'm sure we'd go small and play both Lebron and Deng. Lebron is so huge you can get away with it, he's built like a power forward and rebounds pretty well.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Nov 5, 2009 -> 01:36 PM) The problem is that Bradley isn't a PG, and would be out of position like AJ Abrams was as you mentioned. Bradley has senior Justin Mason, sophomore Varez Ward, and red-shirt frosh J'Covan Brown all in the 6'2 SG role vying for minutes along with Bradley. There's no doubt that Bradley is the most talented, but there's just too many talented cooks in the kitchen at the SG position for UT for Bradley to put up 15ppg. Never mind the post scoring ability with James, Pittman, Johnson, Jordan Hamilton, etc etc. I do admit that UT really needs his outside shooting this year. I'm guessing he posts somewhere between 10-12 ppg and returns to school for a heralded sophomore campaign. Balbay and Lucas will probably get the bulk of the point guard minutes, but especially early in the year while Lucas can't play I suspect Bradley will get some time there. He's not a real PG, but with his driving ability he should be able to make some plays by default, kind of like Wade does in the NBA. Abrams was much more of a spot-up shooter, so playing off the ball suited him much better. Mason will probably get most of his minutes as the third guard/SF as the role player/spot-up shooter much like last year, which really only leaves him with Ward and Brown fighting for minutes. Bradley is very likely to win that battle convincingly. Texas is going to average in the high 70's/low 80's, there should be quite a few points to go around. It's also in his favor that most of their other guard options like Balby, Ward and Mason are pretty limited offensively and they will need some production from the perimeter to complement James, Pittman and Johnson down low. Their only real options to do that are Bradley, Lucas and Hamilton and Avery seems to be the most likely to do that by a fairly wide margin.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Nov 5, 2009 -> 07:58 AM) Don't forget that Texas has Dogus Balbay and Justin Mason returning as upperclassmen at the PG/SG role. They also have Jai Lucas, UF transfer, ready for PG minutes this year, as well as Varez Ward who might be the best athlete on the team along with Bradley. Bradley is a tremendous talent, but he's going to be playing in a group that is 5-6 deep with guys that can play and have more experience. I also forgot J'Covan Brown, who red-shirted last year, he will get some minutes as a red-shirt frosh at SG. Texas is loaded. Most of those guys are depth/role player types outside of Lucas, who won't be eligible until the second semester, and possibly Brown (haven't really seen him play). There's a reason that Texas struggled with their backcourt at times last year: it was all of those guys getting minutes and Abrams being forced to play the point for long stretches. Bradley is clearly the most talented player in the bunch and should get considerably more PT than the rest of those collected masses. I don't think it's a stretch to say he could replace most of AJ Abrams' production. That's a bit different than Henry's situation where Collins is clearly ahead of him on the list of scoring options and Taylor likely is as well.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Nov 4, 2009 -> 03:51 PM) Bradley and Henry will have too much talent around them to put up huge numbers. Newcomer of the year should be a two man race between Wally Judge and Gilstrap. Gilstrap is an instant impact SF type that could end up averaging something like 15 and 7, depending on how much he feeds Brackins inside. They will challenge Collins and Aldrich for the best 1-2 punch in the Big 12. Well I'll also add my guy David Tairu in there as well for TTU, he's supposedly Ronald Ross II in practice so far. That would be fun. Henry I can buy that argument, just threw him in there because he's another big name recruit coming into the conference. I would think Bradley will put up plenty of numbers for Texas though, he's pretty damn athletic, will be a key scoring option and could end up being their primary ball-handler as well.

How exactly is Gilstrap the pre-season Big 12 newcomer of the year? We're talking about a conference that's adding Avery Bradley, Wally Judge and Xavier Henry. That seems quite dumb to me...