thedoctor

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Dec 20, 2006 -> 04:19 PM) yesterday's news, im more inclined to talk about Brian and his chance with townies in Carbondale. i wasn't really talking to you. enjoy your discussion with brian.

first off, due to the nature of the rivalry i think it's pretty shallow to just look at who missouri played previously, add that to the result of the illinois game and draw any conclusions about anything. with last year excepted, missouri and illinois generally play each other really, really tough. with all that said, i've seen illinois three times now and am thoroughly unimpressed. this is easily the worst team we've fielded in quite some time. this team is inconsistent, lacks quicks in the backcourt, and has no real leader or go-to person. all that said, they'll come out of the non-con with at least 12 wins, and will probably win at least 10 in the big ten and earn a tournament berth. however, that's more of an indictment of the big ten's weakness this year than any reflection of how good this team is or isn't.

you know, i didn't particularly care for the way the gordon thing went down, but i understood it. i also put more blame on the gordon family for the way they handled the situation. fact is, they just weren't straight with illinois and if they were the situation would have gone down differently. my issue is more with their handling of it than sampson pursuing the situation. if sampson was my team's coach, i'd want him to do exactly what he did. but let's not get on our high horses and put this as "oh, illinois fans are just pissed they didn't get their guy." tommy amaker, tom izzo, matt painter, and jim delaney are all on record saying they thought the situation was handled poorly. now, whether that situation is an example of poor character, lack of ethics, or just a guy trying to get a foothold in his new home state is up for debate. i'm also not at all comfortable just absolving sampson of blame in the phone thing because "everyone does it." that's b.s. the rule is the rule and to flout the rules while your chairing the nabc's ethics committee strikes me as at the least hypocritical. if you can't see that you need to take the crimson and cream goggles off.

oh that indian. i was thinking this was a kaz tadano thread. never mind.

well that's fine, but i try to judge folks as individual posters not by whatever team they root for. if you think some illinois fans would react that way, that's fine. i know i wouldn't. i call it as i see it, illinois grad or not. for example: -i think bruce weber really should work on his recruiting or change his strategy. he clearly has shortcomings. -i think zook's game day coaching is bad to horrid. -i'm no big fan of chief illiniwek. -i think rich mcbride should have received a stiffer penalty than he did. so yes, i love illinois, but i think i'm far from a homer who's just going to tote the party line. no doubt i'm more inclined to defend my team, but oh well. i'm sure the same goes for you about wisconsin. as for carr in illinois you said yourself that michigan hardly recruits there. why is that? because there aren't great players? no. it's because they don't have great connections there now. maybe in the future they will, but now they don't. now, i'd agree that carr didn't like zook's vote. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if he runs it up on them next year if given the chance. but i don't see it affecting his recruiting approach whatsoever.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 09:22 PM) Michigan barely recruits in Illinois. If you look at the guys Zook recruited he beat out teams like UF, FSU, and ND. He almost never went head to head against UM and OSU. And if you dont think being dicked by a fellow conference member will change UM's philosophy, I think you are wrong as well. UM, OSU, did not care about Illnois this year. Look at U of I's top recruits: Mccray, No OSU or UM. Benn, No OSU or UM. Only Morris so far has been recruited by either UM or OSU. Now that may change with Martez and Brent who both were recruited by UM and OSU, but for the overall class that would mean Zook only took 3 players who either OSU or UM wanted and every single one of those players were from Illinois, meaning Zook was only retaining in-state talent So it is unseen whether or not Zook can hold his own against UM and OSU. He has beaten Urban Myer and Charlie Weiss, 2 coaches who are pretty new to the recruiting scene at major Universities. It will be interesting what happens next year when OSU and UM start to challange Illinois for its own recruits. As for voting UF over OSU, I really dont see how you can defend it. If it happened to Illinois you would have a thread about how it was bulls*** that another Big 10 team screwed them, etc etc. Its hard for me to believe that Zook finds UF the better team, unless he believes that the SEC is a better conference (which would be a slight to the entire big 10). On the other side every single SEC team voted for UF #2. I hope Illinois is never in the position of needing help from its conference in terms of voting, because I have a feeling Zook burnt a few bridges. Also Zook's reason for moving Florida from 3 to 2 the last vote was that UM didnt play a 13th game. I dont understand how if you watched the ARK-UF game you could honestly say that UF deserved to be ranked higher for winning that game. If Zook had voted UF 2 constantly then I could see an argument, but docking UM for the fact the Big 10 doesnt have a championship is ridiculous, especially coming from a Big 10 coach. i wouldn't say a word about it if someone lloyd carr didn't vote for illinois in the poll and i sure as hell wouldn't start a thread on it. besides, i think this was a unique situation. zook recruited just about every significant player on that team and he has relationships built with those kids. i have no problem with him honoring those relationships ahead of conference ties. as for the rest of what you said, i never said he was going to be outrecruiting michigan and ohio state for players with regularity. that will never happen, because they are ohio state and michigan and we aren't. my quarrel is with the very thought that since zook "pissed off" michigan, that all-of-a-sudden lloyd carr is going to start making sure to target illinois kids or kids they are recruiting. i don't think lloyd carr or michigan are ever going to set their recruiting agenda by anything illinois does. they'll target the players they want in areas where assistant coaches have strong connections. that's what shapes a recruiting philosophy, not getting "pissed off" because someone didn't vote for you. this is college football not junior high school.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 08:10 PM) So UofI never had any idea at any point that this kid had committed to ND? Please. i don't know if they did or didn't. but there is a huge difference between a kid committing and there being a rumor of the kid committing. eric gordon held a press conference and told the world and everyone he was going to illinois. if you can't see the difference between what he and benn did, then we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

he did not publicly commit to notre dame. now i'm not saying he didn't tell the irish coaches that he was going there, but there was never anything public about it. gordon held a press conference at his high school and announced for illinois. when reports about him hedging surfaced, he himself posted on illinois's message boards saying he was still solid. up until a week before he switched to indiana he told weber flat out that he was solid in his commitment. he reportedly even gave weber a list of 10 reasons why it wasn't a good fit for him at indiana. imo, there are absolutely no similarities between benn and gordon and the way their recruitments progressed. QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 07:47 PM) I cant believe Zook voted UF over UM. UM may be rivals as a Big 10 member, but when it comes to everything outside of the Big 10, they are one of us. I believe Zook is the only Big 10 coach to vote UF over UM. The only thing that makes sense is that guys like Leaf were his recruits so he wanted to give them a chance at the NC. But on the other hand UF ran him out of town, you would think that the last thing he would want is Meyer to get a chance at a NC. Or you would think that Zook would not want to piss off UM, because if they start really setting up shop in Illinois I have a feeling this may be one of the last great classes Illinois gets. you really think lloyd carr's going to change his recruiting philosophy because he's mad at zook? c'mon. and besides, zook has just gotten verbals from kids who were also considering schools like florida, florida state, notre dame, ohio state, and others. zook can hold his own with anyone when it comes to recruiting, so that wouldn't worry me at all. as for not voting for michigan, i have no problem with it. i want coaches voting for who they think is the best team, not just holding up some old boy network.

eric gordon himself was quoted in the sun-times a month ago saying there were no death threats. sun-times

isn't that other guy the dude from the apple commercial?

QUOTE(The Critic @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 02:23 AM) My daughter loves them, and since the whole Christmas thing is way more about her than it is about me, I'm okay with them. i hear ya. on more than one occasion my daughter has said, "daddy, daddy, look at that, can we get one?" i'll usually pause, summon up my best dad voice and say, "too expensive. i'll buy you a car."

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 02:13 AM) i couldnt agree more... but alas, it looks as though they are here to stay. *sighs* *bows head in resignation*

QUOTE(Fotop @ Dec 14, 2006 -> 04:57 AM) Lemming is paid by ND? That sounds ridiculously untrue. Any solid source on that, or is that comment hold the same validity as a "zook pays his players" statement? i don't know that he draws a check from notre dame, but i do know he draws a check from the south bend trib and it's irish insider property. anyhow, mccray is a really nice get for illinois at a position of need. i say lets take wilson, brent, austin, cornell, and ray and call it a day.

anyone know who i can blame for this trend. nothing like watching a six-foot blow-up santa humping a four-foot snowglobe on a windy afternoon. sheesh. can we get rid of these things?

television ratings for just about everything are down, primarily because there are so many options now. the market for viewers is intense, and the nhl has done just about everything it can do to hurt itself in a competitive market. these days, you have to make it easy for people. playing a niche sport on an obscure network is not the way to succeed or build viewership. you combine those factors with the fact that hockey on television is just not as good as it is in person, and you have a big problem. and i really enjoy hockey. i've been to plenty of games both pro and minor league, and i've always had a great time. but when i try to watch on television the lack of seeing the big picture really hurts. hockey on television is very meh.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Dec 12, 2006 -> 04:03 PM) I think you meant McCray. Man, if they could pull off Hughes, Ray and Cornell...Zook should be demoted to Assistant Head Coach/Recruiter!!! whoops. fixed.

mccray, brent, wilson expected to choose illinois

yeah, i tend to think purcell is next up. interesting to look at illinois class so far and see how weighted it is to ohio players. five of 12 commits are from ohio. zook seems to be doing a pretty good job out here.

new illinois linebacker commit: enrique robertson

nice recruiting weekend for illinois. mark jackson, an offensive lineman out of columbus (via cincinnati) committed to illinois after his visit. jackson also had an offer from michigan among other schools. also, simeon's five-star defensive end martez wilson and bloomington's four-star defensive tackle josh brent have said they will make a co-announcement on dec. 20 at simeon high school. brent declared illinois his leader after this weekend's visit to ohio state.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Dec 9, 2006 -> 03:02 AM) Marquette vs. Wisconsin tomorrow. You guys with no allegiance to either team better be cheering for the Eagles... (I'm looking specifically at the guys I shared a hotel room on a certain Cincy trip) sorry, i won't hate on marquette, but i have to support my big ten brethren. wisconsin

freddy's has a permanent part of white sox history. for that, he'll always be all right with me. good luck freddy. i hope you shut out the cubs a bunch of times.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 8, 2006 -> 06:23 PM) Wow, that is very interesting. apparently the lodge that was near their car was closed for the winter, so that wouldn't have been an option. his disrobing has he went along is the subject of a fair amount of speculation. he could either have been trying to leave some kind of trail, or he was losing it at that point. either way it is sad. but as you've pointed out, entirely avoidable.

google earth images of kim's path

coop can fix him.