ZoomSlowik

QUOTE (Chi Town Sox @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 03:58 PM) Jeff Green can be Paul Pierce lite but all of the vets on that team are one year older next year. I think this was their last definitive shot at getting another ring This year = stupid trade Future = good trade Jeff Green isn't NEARLY as good as Pierce. He's a horribly inefficient scorer that's kind of a 'tweener. He's a lot closer to Luol Deng, and could be similarly overpaid soon considering he's a restricted FA at the end of the season. I really think Boston will regret trading Perkins, he really helps their defense and rebounding. Green just gives them another jump-shooter, and an inferior one to their current starters at that.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 10, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) Zoom, let me know if anybody has a problem signing up. I made sure I signed up with my 2006 email. Shouldn't be any problems this time. And you're not staying with 14 teams, are you? No, that was my temporary fix for the "league is full" error.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 9, 2011 -> 12:22 PM) Didn't you say that you were resetting keepers this season? I was met with some rather vehement protests.

I want to bring up a suggestion... I know this has traditionally been a standard 5x5 league, but do we want to tweak the categories a bit? It seems silly to me that walks don't matter at all and a single is worth just as much as a double or triple. I could drop batting average and add OBP, possibly slugging% as well (though that would probably overvalue homers a bit). My only problem with that is that I don't really like any of the additional pitching categories and I feel like keeping it relatively balanced is important. The most standard ones seem to be holds (totally changes roster composition), shutouts (far too random and not enough of them) or homers allowed (meh). Anyways, feel free to discuss or make suggestions.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 07:03 PM) Wait, what did I do? It sent the invite to your 2k6 ID and you joined with your 2k10 one, so it thinks we'll have 13 managers when everyone joins.

I see, it's all J4L's fault for using a different ID. I couldn't find a way to un-invite him, so I temporarily upped it to 14 teams. I will drop it back down once we get closer to the draft.

I'm thinking I'm going to bow out this year. My activity sucked last season, we'll see if cutting back to one league improves it any. I'll fill in if you still need someone right before the draft.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 06:04 PM) It won't let me accept the invite. Try doing it the old fashioned way... League ID- 10558 password- soxtalk

Bump. Invites sent for 2011!

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 02:45 PM) Kanter is the only player I've seen give Sullinger problems from his defense. I wouldnt say he destroyed him though. Was that game televised? I just went off what I read after the game. All I really know is Kanter ended up with 34-13.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 02:23 PM) I wish the Bulls had something that makes sense for Melo, but unless Denver wants Deng + Taj and as many picks as we can legally send, it appears that the Bulls just cant get a deal done. Noah isnt going to be moved, so itll be interesting to see how this goes. From the last week Im starting to feel that Nuggets are going to trade Melo before the deadline, they just are trying to figure out which city that Melo will agree to will pay the most. Every indication so far has been that he really only wants to go to New York, MAYBE the Bulls. Then again, LA is a totally new entity in the equation.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 7, 2011 -> 03:50 PM) 2006 draft comparable? I realize I'm way late to this party, but I'd say Kyrie Irving can be a pretty solid PG if he gets over that weird toe injury and Perry Jones, while raw, has a ton of potential. Some might also say Enes Kanter, who hasn't played this year but supposedly destroyed the US big men (including Sullinger) at the Nike Hoops Summit. There's certainly no slam-dunk savior at the top though.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Feb 7, 2011 -> 01:13 AM) Quietly, UNC is 7-1 in the ACC. I knew they were playing better (and yes I know the ACC isn't that good), but 7-1 is pretty legit. With all that talent, and ultimately a young team, it makes sense they're turning it around. Plus people probably overreacted to losses to good teams in the non-con. I sure wouldn't want to play them in March. It's funny, the second I saw that Drew was leaving the program, I thought that UNC was probably my favorite tournament sleeper. They have two extremely talented players up front and a glut of talented wings, but their PG situation was a bit of a mess. Now Roy will be forced to play their best pure passer until he collapses every game. They're definitely a tough matchup for a lot of teams with their length and athleticism.

QUOTE (Elgin Slim @ Feb 3, 2011 -> 10:12 PM) I finally picked up a PS3, because my Xbox 360 ate my games, but it is an old 40 GB one. I was playing today and the fan started to go on and a yellow light started flickering. I know the yellow light thing=red ring of death for 360. Is my PS3 f***ed, or is it possible to save it? The system works at the moment. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think it's not the dreaded yellow light of death. The 40 gig looks similar to mine (the standard 120g one), and on mine there's a little yellow light that flashes any time it's accessing the hard drive. Given your system still works, I'd lean towards that answer. I think the only time you have to panic is if the power button light is flashing yellow.

DePaul gets some nice recruits now and then (list at the end), but never enough to sustain any success. Interestingly, many of them weren't from Chicago either. It's hard when the program hasn't done anything of real note since the early 80's. Moving to the Big East has been horrible for them, they just can't hang, and this may be bulls***, but I would think that not playing midwest teams in conference hurts their appeal a bit to the local kids. The off campus stadium can't help either, though supposedly the alums like it a lot because of a much easier commute. Some stud DePaul recruits: Quentin Richardson (5-star, Whitney Young) Bobby Simmons (high 4 I think, Simeon) Lance Williams (4 I believe, Julian) Andre Brown (5-star I think (McD's All American), Leo) Wesley Green (#44, Eustis Florida) Tyler Smith (#49, Baltimore Maryland) Jamal Nichols (listed as a 4 on rivals with no ranking, Philadelphia) Wilson Chandler (#44, Benton Harbor Michigan) Rahad Woods (#48, Westbury Texas) Will Walker (#95, Bollingbrook) Mac Koswal (#18, Boys to Men) Dar Tucker (#34, Saginaw Michigan)

No idea who said it, but... "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 04:49 PM) Fredette reminds me of Ben Gordon. Ben is/was WAY quicker than Fredette. The problem with these 6'2"/6'3" combo guards is that for every good one like Gordon or Curry that are 2 others that are nothing but role players and three more that never even got a shot at the league.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 30, 2011 -> 04:17 PM) He's actually said he's staying for 2 years. And not alot of NBA scouts or execs would agree with you that he is a question mark in the top five. He is probably one of the most if not the most polished post player in college basketball. I think he should go personally for a few reasons (unless he wants to avoid worrying about the lockout): 1) This draft class looks very weak and I'm not sure his stock would get any higher. I could see him pulling a Joakim Noah and sliding from the top-5 to somewhere around the 10th pick in a stronger draft. 2) The main concerns teams have about him are his lack of ideal quickness and leaping ability (and to a lesser extent height/length, though he seems decent there). That's not going to change by going back to school. 3) As you said, he's already very polished inside. There's not much more he can show with his post game. Sure, an improved jumper would help his cause, but that's not totally crucial for his draft stock.

There were a few reasons that game was closer than it should have been, none of which had anything to do with Sullinger... 1) Diebler and Lighty were basically non-factors and Buford had a very quiet 11 points as well. Those guys average 36 a game on the season and finished with 19. 2) The pace was horribly slow. NU ran 25 seconds off the clock before even thinking about shooting most possessions and OSU was extremely patient in pounding it inside as well. In a faster paced game, OSU likely would have blown them out since it looked like Thompson was the only Wildcat trying to create a shot most of the time. 3) That was probably NU's best effort defensively and on the glass the entire season (side note: how sad is it that I said that in a game where OSU shot almost 58% from the floor?). Their matador defense came out on a few occasions, but they double-teamed Sullinger effectively at times and didn't give up as many wide-open 3-pointers. They also attacked the offensive glass much more often than usual, as opposed to their standard "let's not get within 10 feet of an offensive rebound" approach. Part of that was probably Cappocci's aggressiveness, part of it was probably that OSU likes to go small and play Lighty at PF. 4) OSU was still up 12 with about 7 minutes to go before NU had an extremely fluky 7-point possession. They called Lauderdale for an intentional foul right when Thompson was hitting a 3 (Curletti hit 1 of 2 from the line and Cobb hit another 3 on the ensuing play). That had a huge role in making the game closer than it should have been. Sullinger was essentially the only reason they won (though Craft had a pretty solid game too), he scored or got fouled pretty much every time he got the ball in the low post.

QUOTE (hitlesswonder @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 04:15 PM) I think Indiana is a far more coveted job. Witness the fact that Crean went to Indiana after holding press conference previously in which he essentially said he would not leave Marquette for Illinois. Indiana has a better recruiting base than Illinois -- they can pull recruits from Chicago just as easily as Illinois plus they have an advantage over Illinois recruiting the state of Indiana. Crean's incoming classes are light years better than Illinois. The Indiana fanbase in terms of selling out the arena is better. And Indiana has the history that give it a bigger national media presence than Illinois. It's true Indiana hasn't put up W's much lately, but I think you'll see Indiana basketball leave Illinois in the dust starting as soon as next year and definitely by 2012. I wouldn't go as far to say the bolded part. The Assembly Hall (the Champaign one) is a pretty packed and highly regarded home venue, so at best that's a push for IU (though I agree nationally they're pretty highly regarded). On the recruiting front, Illinois has 9 4-stars from the 2009-2011 classes (several of them in the top-50) which gives them a highly talented roster. Over that same period Indiana got one 5 and 3 4's (and on top of that Creek has been hurt a lot and Elston hasn't made much of an impact). I will say that IU is off to a HUGE start recruiting in 2012 with two 5's and a 4 and Zeller was a huge get. That gives them a chance to turn things around from 2012-2013 on.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 03:11 PM) And if Indiana is a top program, so is Illinois. I just dont see what advantage Indiana has over Illinois going forward. Indiana's tradition was years ago, and furthermore they have not shown the ability to keep the top in state recruits from leaving. Conversely, Illinois was in the NCAA finals within the last 10 years and has had significant success recruiting in Chicago. If I was going to be given a Big 10 team, no way would I consider Indiana over Illinois. There's no question that Illinois is a better program right now. However, that's not exactly saying much since Indiana was basically scorched earth after Sampson. That also may or may not be the case 5 years from now. It certainly wasn't the case for the previous 30 years before they forced Knight out. Heck, even with Davis they made a Final Four. Illinois hasn't shown any kind of consistency as a program, something Indiana at least used to have. They haven't exactly kept the top recruits in state either. In 5 classes from 2003 to 2008, they signed a total of 3 4-star recruits. They've done a hell of a lot better the last 3 years, but like every school, they lose a few. Julian Wright, Jon Scheyer, Shannon Brown, Evan Turner, Sherron Collins, Derrick Rose, Anthony Davis, Wayne Blackshear, to name several. Illinois is a loaded area so they still do pretty well. That said, they've also had way more on the court success than Indiana of late when they still got high-demand recruits like Zeller, Watford and Creek (albiet the last two aren't helping them much). Indiana is at its' lowest point right now. That doesn't mean a quality coach can't/won't show up like Roy Williams or Ben Howland did at two of the other traditional powerhouses and get them out of their funk. You didn't seem too hot about their Sampson or Crean hirings, but I'd bet that those two have a higher profile than the next Illinois hire. I feel like Illinois has the POTENTIAL to be a damn good job. By no means is it there right now though. For whatever reason, Indiana just has more cache as a program. Even when they suck, they still hired a fairly solid coach and can get a few good recruits in there.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 03:10 PM) I get what you are saying. If Coach K or Roy Williams were suddenly jobless and had the choice between MSU & OSU, I think that they may pick MSU over OSU, simply because they know they would be the top dog on campus. I just believe that is a factor when selecting which jobs are on the top of the list. I really don't think most coaches would care, certainly not nearly as much as with things like salary, facilities, fan support, program tradition and recruiting base. Since both of those coaches are already higher on the totem pole, let's go with a different hypothetical: how confident would you be in Illinois getting their candidate of choice if Texas also offered him the job? I know I wouldn't be terribly confident.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 03:07 PM) Discussing elite programs is different than elite jobs. Yes, Calipari may have made Memphis an elite program for several years as a #1 & #2 seed consistently, but it was never an elite coaching job. It's not like any big names were jumping at that position when he left. I never said anything about Memphis, other than that they were elite for a short period. Ohio State has a lot more going for it than just having one of the best recruiters in the country. If Matta were to leave, I don't think they'd have a whole lot of trouble replacing him with a solid coach given the resources at their disposal.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 03:00 PM) Eh I think youre overrating the Indiana job. Right now if Crean, Izzo, Matta and Weber all left their respective schools, id say that MSU, OSU, Illinois are a toss up (Id go Illinois, OSU, MSU) and that Indiana is significantly behind. (Edit) Indiana hasnt been an elite job since Bob Knight left. Im sorry but Mike Davis, Kelvin Sampson and Tom Crean are all B level or worse coaches. I said that's a program that's going through a rough patch right now. It happens from time to time. Kentucky was a bit down before and after Pitino, UNC in the Matt Daugherty era, UCLA for long periods, it happens. I still think most coaches would tell you it's one of the top jobs in the country because of their tradition and fan base.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 02:56 PM) I would have to disagree that OSU is the top job. Yes, Matta has shown how successful you can be there, how many good recruits you can get, and of course the athletic dept. is loaded. However, no matter what you win, you are always gonna be second fiddle to OSU football. I just think that a top basketball coach would rather be the #1 attraction on campus, not always be in the background to Sweater Vest. If you look at all the elite jobs, none of them have a top football program to compete with. That doesn't make any sense. So because Illinois football generally sucks that makes them an elite/potentially elite basketball school? I don't really think that matters at all, not if you have the kind of funding, facilities, recruiting and coaching that OSU basketball has right now. Florida was top-dog for a few years there despite an equally elite football team, and Texas has a pretty solid program despite being a heavy football school. Football is going to top basketball every time anyways if the former goes on a solid run.