thedoctor

great idea. nothing worse than dragging a car seat through an airport.

i'm enjoying it so far this year, but i do most years. the tournament is a little like sex. even a bad tournament is better than most things.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 08:54 PM) I thought it was interesting when "the others" lackey in charge of bringing in Michael said "some of us are allowed to leave the island". That...and when he kissed A DUDE. Is that the first confirmed homosexual on Lost? I don't think that Alex is "surrendering" to friendlies...there's no way that I can believe that "the others" could be firing on Carl and Rossaeu at the risk of Alex. I'm always impressed with how BIG they have created the lost universe that while they make us focus on details A thru F they hit us blindly with Details G thru P. Then Q thru U comes along and meanwhile we've forgotten about A thru F...and they hit us with that again..and so on and so on. There's so much left uncovered...and there's so much left to be explained. they alluded to tom being gay right after kate was captured by the others last season. interesting episode, though. it's interesting that sayid turns michael in, yet at the end ends up being the one assisting ben.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 03:39 PM) Gasol was teh one guy of the three you listed who Paxson had the ultimate control over getting. The T-Wolves turned down the Bulls offer, which by most accounts was better than what they got eventually from Boston. Kobe, but most accounts, wasn't willing to come to Chicago if the Bulls put together a package big enough to get Bryant in the first place. i don't even know if you could hold paxson totally responsible for gasol. espn magazine had a bit on the gasol trade and it said that the grizz gm was prepared to take the bulls offer of nocioni, noah, and joe smith for gasol. but that deal was nixed by the grizz gm, who preferred the lakers' offer because it was less expensive (i.e. had more expiring contracts included in the deal).

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 02:37 PM) They're comparing Hibbert to Joel Pryzbilla on nbadraft.net. Great size, good shot and good rebounder, but bad quickness and atheleticism. A few months back he was a borderline top 10 guy. Now he's slated to go around 19. His stock must have really slipped this season. that's a fair comparison, although i think hibbert has a little better shot.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 01:48 PM) Deng is the only keeper in that group of 3 you mention Bob right now. Aldridge over Thomas was a big mistake. But they also could of had Brandon Roy in that draft IIRC. Instead of Gordon they could of had Andre Igoudala. I think the Bulls just need a big center who can give you 15/10 a game. Lopez sounds like a guy who could develop into that, but right now he's slated to go top 5 I think. Memphis would rather DeAndre Jordan if they went a big I think. Suits their gamestyle better because he can get up and down the court like Dwight Howard. 2 other bigs who are slated to go top 15 are Hasheem Thabeet and JaVale McGee (and maybe Roy Hibbert). All are rated lower than Lopez and Jordan though. no thanks on thabeet, another offensively limited post player has no spot on this roster. hibbert is intriguing.

QUOTE(shipps @ Mar 22, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) Your guy seems like a great fit physically for the Bulls, but is Pax going to go on the same route of drafting players that played for big time winning programs in this draft?Maybe he will change his drafting theory in light of what has gone down this year. stanford has a pretty nice history of success. they don't have titles and probably aren't in the category of florida, kansas, or duke, but i've always felt the cardinal have a pretty strong program. i don't think pax would necessarily be altering anything if he took a guy from stanford. as for noah, i think a lot depends on his ability to develop offensively. he's shown that he's a guy who is a decent defender and provides of energy and rebounding, which is pretty much what he was billed as coming into the league. but right now most of the offense he provides is a result of that energy, not skill. if he can be a more consistent offensive player (specifically in developing a go-to post move and/or consistent 15-foot jumper) he can have everything you need in a center. that remains to be seen, though. either way, i think he'll at the least be what DBAH0 described--a varejao-type energy player.

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Mar 21, 2008 -> 04:18 AM) Shady in what way? Continuing to recruit all the way up until signing day like every other coach out there? Do you know how many of Michigan's players were still getting recruited the night before? Hell, Cal told Sam McGuffie that RB Coach Fred Jackson, who McGuffie loved, was leaving for the NFL, which was a lie. Illinois tried to recruit Michigan commits (Cissoko for sure off the top of my head), but they get a pass because our guy didn't change his mind? Joe Tiller can freakin whine all he wants, but that's a bunch of BS. There is nothing he's done at Michigan that's shady at all. i didn't have a problem with what rr did. football recruiting is much more aggressive than basketball recruiting and it is commonplace for the process to go right up until signing day whether or not someone has verballed somewhere. and as has been mentioned before, tiller has done the exact same thing before, so he should shut his pie hole.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Mar 21, 2008 -> 02:20 AM) Are you kidding? What an absolutely stupid comment. no, i think it's more stupid to continue to piss and moan over uribe's presence on the team. yes, he's overpaid and yes he represents a mistake. but i'm not going to sit here crying about it repeatedly, particularly at a time when our second base situation looks tenuous at best.

QUOTE(TheBigHurt @ Mar 20, 2008 -> 08:56 PM) Another 4.5 Million bites the dust. and so what? did jr come to your house and hit you up for it or something?

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Mar 20, 2008 -> 02:12 PM) I still think the last episode is going to have to be two straight hours (no commercials) of the creators in a room with white boards and power points explaining everything. The main story line will wrap up nicely, but I think there will be some sub plots here and there that don't get fully explained. finishing this show is going to be extremely hard. if they can pull off a great ending and keep the majority of the people satisfied, that will be their greatest accomplishment, imo. i am skeptical they can pull it off, but hopeful.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 05:57 PM) They have claimed from the beginning that the "Adam & Eve" skeletons found in Season 1 will show that they knew where the story was going to end the entire time. very true. plus, i remember from the first series dvd extras hearing abrams talk about how he and lindelhof essentially sketched out the entire story arc in their first meeting. things have changed since then (like ben becoming a major character) but supposedly the whole premise has been the same from the beginning. i know some people are skeptical of this but i do believe it. it explains some of the weaknesses in the show last year. i think they got to a point where they were just kind of killing time and not really sure how long it was going to take them to get where they need to go. that's why it was so key to put an endpoint, because now they can start working towards that end.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 19, 2008 -> 01:36 AM) No surprise: Hannity has pretty much declared all out war and character assassination on Obama.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 09:18 PM) She is now a follower... which falls right into the Obama campaign's playbook. I'll tell you, what you have witnessed over the last four days is nothing short of brilliant from Obama's campaign. It's almost like they wanted the flames of his pastor "fanned" so he could make this speech. Think about it. It falls right in line with him "taking back control" in basically three days time. Pretty interesting stuff, and now Hillary's following along. obama's entire campaign has been brilliant. when everything started, i didn't think he had a chance. with clinton's connections and experience i thought she'd kick obama's ass up one side of the block and down the other when it came to running a campaign. instead, it's been the opposite, which is the biggest shock of this entire election cycle thus far for me. twice now obama has been able to turn huge potential criticisms into positives. first he spun his lack of washington experience into a positive by championing himself as the change candidate. the message of change has been used many, many times before but it rings hollow when it comes out of the mouth of a washington lifer. now, he's pretty much turned this race issue on its head and looks to be gaining momentum at a critical time.

QUOTE(Brian @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 07:08 PM) Can anyone clarify the status of the show after this weeks episode? I have heard about a hiatus after episode 8 of the season, which is this week. yeah, there will be only 13 episodes this season instead of the 16 that were originally planned. the writer's have said they will work the three "lost" episodes in over the course of the final two seasons, so we'll still get 48 total.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 18, 2008 -> 02:52 PM) His speech *stands and claps*

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 09:21 PM) Maybe the NIT will select Illinois to extend the misery. i have mixed feelings about this. i do think this team hit its stride a bit over the past few weeks so in that regard it would be good to see it build on those strides. i also think more practice and game time for the freshmen is important (hey bruce, play semrau!). but i also recognize that this particular group of players is always going to be painful to watch on the offensive end. not having guys who can shoot consistently, break a guy down off the dribble, or just get to the rack and convert is maddening. it's also frustrating in the sense that our best offensive player is a center, but we don't have anyone who can get him the ball on a consistent basis. but the future will be bright, i think. pruitt and randle will be hard to replace, but when it comes to motion offense guards>bigs. next year we'll go five deep with good guards. that in and of itself should make the team better.

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 08:38 PM) bah, wisky comes out firing. this is over. oh well, at least Illinois made the tournament worth watching. I can't wait until next year. agreed. i didn't expect a win today (hoped for one for sure) but all-in-all i am not too disappointed with the way things came out. as people pointed out, illinois did not deserve to be in the ncaa tournament, and at the end of the day it worked out as it rightfully should have. i'm also excited for the future at illinois, too. i'll be happy to put this season in the rearview mirror.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 16, 2008 -> 03:35 AM) This shocked me, but looking at the numbers, Shaun Pruitt is having as good and perhaps a better season this year than last, despite the team dropoff. Points: 11.4 last year, 12.5 this year Rebounds: 7.5 last year, 7.3 this year Assists: 0.2 last year, 0.8 this year (and he's generally just been an improved, bit still flawed, passer) FG Pct: 54.9 last year, 57.1 this year FT Pct: 51.3 last year, 57.1 this year Steals, blocks, fouls, and minutes are all about the same I guess a bad season makes it look a lot worse though. people will think pruitt had a bad year for two big reasons. one, the suspension and talk about him being a disruptive force in the lockerroom make him look bad. two, the illinois game even casual fans most paid attention to this year was the game against indiana in champaign, and he choked royally that night. still, he's had a nice year and will clearly be difficult to replace. he's also really stepped up in the b10 tournament, which has helped. he'll need a huge (i mean HUGE) game today for us to have any chance against wisconsin. the badgers are really playing some fantastic ball lately.

looking for the repeat this year.

i'd go with message boards. it's boards are a better test of your critical thinking skills. with radio or television you are just sitting there listening, taking it in. on a message board you get to state your opinions and have them challenged, which i think is a far stronger way to build intelligence than just soaking up someone else's opinion.

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Mar 15, 2008 -> 01:07 AM) Sweet! IU gets to kick Illinois ass for the 3rd time this season. is the minnesota game over? fear the tubby.

QUOTE(Brian @ Mar 14, 2008 -> 07:55 PM) Surprised Brandon Paul made it. He was very good at times but also inconsistent. Really hit his stride after the holidays. He could be the best of the bunch of those Weber recruits. i think he will absolutely be the best of the bunch.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 15, 2008 -> 12:57 AM) Illini win, first 10th seed in history of big 10 tourney to advance to semi's. Congrats Illini, to bad you need to win the tournament to get to the dance because I think they might have a shot against Indiana or Minnesota, but itd be hard to then also beat MSU or Wisconsin. i can not see them winning this thing. four games in four days and finishing off with teams who are appreciably more talented than you is something i don't think this group can pull off. but, these are huge games for the future. two freshmen (mccamey and davis) really stepped up today. hell, i thought jeff jordan played some significant and important minutes.

illinois wins! nice!