thedoctor

big day for illinois basketball recruiting (who ever thought i'd get a chance to say that). richardson and paul are arguably the top-two guards in illinois in the 09 class, and also likely top-50 to 100 kids in the nation. frankly, i'm shocked. looks like jerrance was a good hire.

despite rumors to the contrary, illinois will indeed field a basketball team this year. shocking, i know.

i was moderately impressed by griese. i thought he moved around in the pocket a little better than grossman did, and he didn't turn it over. i don't expect spectacular things out of him. all that said, i mentioned before that the bears offensive problems go far past the quarterback. as the season progresses it's more and more apparent that our receivers are just not very good. too bad there's really no way to address that problem now.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 7, 2007 -> 05:28 PM) http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/usatpoll.htm How does one justify placing Wisconsin 4 spots ahead of Illinois? probably just an anomaly and an example of illinois being ranked so low and wisky so high coming into the week. i wouldn't make too much of it, and it's not like it matters much. anyhow, great win yesterday. i hope people start to give zook a bit of credit for his coaching as well. he is not and will never be a brilliant gameday tactician, but he's improved illinois in every single area since he took over as coach. that's worth noting, imo. dangerous game next week. i realize how crappy iowa has been this year, but i am curious to see how this team reacts to success. it would be very easy for a team without much experience to take things for granted and go into iowa bigheaded. if they do that they'll lose.

from our friends at northside baseball:

famine or pestilence?

QUOTE(Texsox @ Oct 2, 2007 -> 05:02 AM) Speaking of german dessert wines, I have a friend who is stuck on the white Zin I've gotten her to try and like a Gewurtztraminer (spelling???) and she likes that. IO wold eventually like to get her to a big Cab or Pinot Noir. Any suggestions on the road map? She also tosses in some salt to her beer but she's so damn cute. see what she thinks about liebfraumilch, too, if you get a chance. i'm usually a strict red wine person but the girl can't stand it. we find a little middle ground with liebfraumilch, which doesn't have as much balls as red but isn't sissy like zin.

man, to hell with the game saturday. i think we should just let krush and badger brawl. way to bring it, fellas! you got your gameday form on tuesday. mass kudos.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Oct 2, 2007 -> 07:02 PM) Um it was one game and Griese was more productive, albeit not that good, in that one game after a 2 season layoff than Grossman has been the last 10 weeks of football action going back to last year. fair enough. i did say above that i feel griese deserves more time to establish himself. i agree that a few spot playing points over two years isn't a great sample size. that said, it's my opinion that we're not going to get much more out of him than what we've already seen. how many quarterbacks through history have basically been either inactive or non-productive for three years and turned out to be worth a damn? and i'm not looking at it as a rex vs. griese argument. i think both of them are s***ty. i just think this expectation that we're going to get some turnaround because we switched quarterbacks is off-base. the bears offensive problems go way past the quarterback position.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Oct 2, 2007 -> 04:26 PM) rex sucks, deal with it. griese is a better QB, not a God, but a better QB, and he gives us the best chance to win. i'm not sure we have any evidence that suggests griese is a better qb right here and right now. his career passing numbers mean little or nothing as they relate to the situation he's facing at this point. now i agree that rex sucks, but what have we seen that proves griese is a better qb who gives the team a better chance to win? in his limited time last year he sucked. in his limited time this year he's sucked. it's been three years since he's even had a decent season so i'm not sure how you can definitively say he's the guy who gives us the best chance to win. frankly, i think all of our quarterbacks suck. which sucks.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Oct 2, 2007 -> 04:27 PM) Wisconsin is one of the top 5 teams in the country until proven otherwise. They have not lost a game since last year at Michigan. I do not know what else they can do except win games. I dont see in the standings "style points" and plenty of those teams that are generally stylish, lost this week. When you look at the top 10, how many teams are still there from week 1? Its around 50%. Id rather be disrespected by a fan group that has 1 loss, than have 1 loss. /shrugs You attacked 2 specific points? You said Illinois does not give up a lot of points, I showed how in almost every game they gave up more than the average to the other team. You said Wisconsin does not have a high powered offense, I asked when was the last time a team outscored them this year. Isnt that the point of winning football games, not to put up tons of yards and lose. But to win? I really thought thats what football was about, but when you talk to Illini fans it seems that: All winning is luck, the only reason Illini are not 12-0 each season is that they dont have the luck of OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin. 12-0 is the luckiest thing ever, nothing about skill. Hopefully Wisconsin brought their magic horse shoe, because they sure dont have talented players. whoa. ease up there man. i think it was one person, not "illini fans" who made the luck argument (which i wholly disagree with, btw). at the same time, if you're going to say a wins a win and that's all that matters, you can't try to debunk and illinois win by saying that morelli "could have won the game." he didn't. whether or not it was his ineptitude or illinois's defensive excellence is besides the point. as you say, a win is a win. either way, i expect saturday's game to be a good one.

meh.

well, i can't say i've been hugely impressed with our defense this year, particularly the pass 'd' (outside of vontae). that said, donovan's passing ability hasn't really set the world on fire, either, so i guess those concerns kind of negate each other.

QUOTE(chimpy2121 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 11:06 PM) "Grease the f***ing kicker" "you're FIRED, meyer!"

so, what's up with niu this year? i haven't had a chance to follow them closely and just noticed they'd fallen to 1-4. i know they graduated some talented players, so was this expected?

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 08:15 PM) What type of drugs was he involved with? I'm doubting it was crack cocaine. weed, iirc.

time will tell with griese and i do agree that a guy needs more than one game before you draw any conclusions. that said, when we went to griese i thought we were trading a young, immobile, interception-prone quarterback for an old, immobile, interception-prone quarterback. nothing i saw sunday dissuaded me from that belief.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 06:07 PM) Wisconsin has the longest streak at 14 games. I think you are not considering OSU losing to Florida, which was like 5 games ago lol Maybe longest regular season streak is OSU? if you talk to buckeye fans, the florida game did not happen.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 05:28 PM) Last year in Madison was a 1 half aberration. As for better opponents I think that needs to be played out, PSU and MSU are going to be about equal when it all plays out, and teams like Iowa, etc play up for Wisconsin, beating a top 10 team is a make or break game, so generally Wisconsin is seeing teams play at their peak. Its not that I dont think Illinois is talented, I just dont see them being as talented as Wisconsin. Penn State was ranked high, but why? It was nothing more than the belief that Morelli would take the next step with the defense and that they would therefore be a potential Big 10 contender. Morelli could have won that game, he made costly mistakes at in opportune times. I think Wisconsin is a bad match up for Illinois because Wisconsin has one of the the most high powered offense's in the nation and Illinois really has given up a good amount of points in almost every game. well, i disagree with a lot of that, but we'll just have to see saturday. should be a good game between two pretty solid big ten teams.

QUOTE(G&T @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 02:47 PM) Ours was across the street from the Daley Center. It wasn't that great. i'd imagine this one won't be that great either, considering the amount of cub fans likely to show up. a lot of cub fans=wack occasion.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 05:04 PM) I would be really shocked if Illinois wins. I can see them putting up 30 points, but I really dont see how Illinois can stop Wisconsin from putting up 40 in that scenario. The reason that Wisconsin plays close games is that they play ball control and run the ball. They dont go out there and just start airing it out trying to put up a huge lead. But then again I guess its cool to be disrespectful to the team with the longest winning streak in the nation? Because thats just luck right? Its not about being good winning 14 games in a row, its all about being lucky. College football is about winning every game, its not about style points, its not about how it gets done, its about at the end of the day still being undefeated. In each of the games this season Wisconsin has walked onto the field as the more talented team, and in each game they have walked off the field with a victory. Call me old fashioned, but last I checked Wisconsin was 5-0 i'd be less shocked, given this same group's strong performance in madison last year. that said, i am somewhat surprised that illinois is favored and if i had to pick i'd probably go with the badgers. they are indeed unbeaten, although i do think illinois has played better opponents up until this point. the run game has to concern you if you are an illinois fan. there were plenty of running lanes for psu runners last weekend, and i think the badger run game is better and more consistent. however, i also expect the illini to have better success running the ball this week than last. all-in-all, this is a hard game to call. it will be interesting to see how this illini team handles success.

illinois beats penn state. great win for the illini.

QUOTE(Purdue129 @ Sep 28, 2007 -> 11:02 PM) IU recruit Bud Mackey arrested for crack cocaine possesion. http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=7144153&nav=EQlp sucky. you hate to see a young man pissing away so much promise.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 28, 2007 -> 12:35 PM) Maddux' velocity was nowhere near what it is now when he was Broadway's age. I just don't like the suggestion that his velocity is "Maddux-like" because of its implications. His velocity is bad and his control is nowhere near Greg Maddux level. Greg Maddux on acid could throw more strikes than Broadway. Let's just compare Lance Broadway to Lance Broadway. Or someone more to the capabilities of Lance Broadway. i don't think there are any implications whatsoever and his control was never mentioned. i think the just about everyone here realizes that if broadway manages to become even a marginal major-leaguer it would be a plus. not sure why you need to get so defensive when the great majority of people on this board know exactly what broadway is.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 28, 2007 -> 11:56 AM) Let's stop comparing him or his stuff to 40 year old Greg Maddux. That's not all that hot a compliment, even if he can still put it through a lifesaver. And further, he will never have Greg Maddux' control. Precious few people ever will, and a guy whose control wasn't all that hot in AAA doesn't warrant such outrageous comparison. other than saying his velocity is similar to maddux's (which it is, btw) i don't think he made the comparisons you are suggesting.