Rowand44

I got here just in time to catch the end of the Evansville-Drake game and then I obviously saw the battle of the ISU's. From what I hear Webster just completely choked on two ft's at the end of regulation that would have given Evansville the win and then they went on to lose in OT. As for the battle of the ISU's, I'm not exactly sure how the Sycs pulled that off. The Red Birds absolutely dominated that game and are the better team. That being said, InSu just found a way to win, so kudos to them. We got the noon game tomorrow and I have to be awake in like 6 hours but I can't sleep, oh well. Drake should be tired as all hell and hopefully we'll be able to wear them down and advance, it's not going to be easy though. As for the other games: Creighton is going to win, that simple. The hardest game for me to pick is WSU-MSU. MSU is such a talented team, however in a game like this Hinson usually likes to get outcoached and the Shockers are certainly good enough to knock them off. I'm going to say WSU in the upset here, putting MSU squarely on the bubble which obviously didn't treat them well last season. UNI-Bradley is the other game and should be a good one as well. The Panthers have started to look a tad better since getting spanked in the BB two weeks ago, if they can get any kind of production out of their guards, they have a chance to do some damage in this tourny. Panthers in a close one and locking up a NIT bid for the Braves.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Mar 1, 2007 -> 02:34 PM) Fun rumor that Tywon Lawson has been kicked off the team for not going to class... Hmm.

66 degrees here.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 1, 2007 -> 12:58 AM) yes, tricep not bicep. Hey, what's one cep more or less between friends? And this whole thread has gotten rather silly. To Rowand and everybody else on the opposite side of thinking here, I believe the original comment that set this all off was J4Life innocently saying "I hope he gets [#500] against us" Then all of the silly scenario playing came out, with Rowand saying "no you don't" and others saying 'well what if it resulted in a loss that cost us a playoff berth?'. . . yada yada. . . Focking-A. No, there isn't anybody on this site that cheers over a Sox loss, or puts a former player ahead of the current team. But get some perspective. It's going to touch a lot of us to see Frank get #500, and if it happened at the Cell where thousands of lifelong Sox fans who grew up watching the man play could feel they were a part of it, that seems kinda cool to me. But for the record, I promise I only want to see it happen if: A ) it doesn't cost us the game, or B ) it costs us the game but doesn't affect the standings and/or C ) it doesn't eliminate our playoff chances or D ) it doesn't occur in post-season competition or E ) it doesn't result in so much excessive cheering that it shakes the rivets out of the stadium and we all fall to our untimely deaths Given all of those conditions, yes, it would be cool to be there if it happened in Chicago. My Cousin talks about seeing Denny McLain pitch at Comiskey in April of 1968, beating us in the second game of a double-header in a year where the Sox didn't win their first game until almost the end of that month. He doesn't dwell on the fact that the Sox lost the game (and they did that 95 times that year). Instead he talks about being there to see a pitcher who grew up on the South Side and went to Mt. Carmel win one game during his historic 31-win season. That's a pretty cool memory to have. If I was lucky enough to see Frank hit #500 at the Cell – even with a (*gasp*) Sox loss (so long as it didn't knock us out of playoff contention or somehow otherwise instantaneously cause us to lose every game for the rest of eternity) then, yeah, I think in 20 years I'd remember being at the game where Frank Thomas cemented his spot as a first-ballot HOFer a bit more than the fact that we dropped a game to the Blue Jays that day. I was more or less giving Jordan s*** and I think he knows that. Others actually came in and said that they would like to see Frank hit 500 against us even if it cost the Sox a game, that comment got to me a bit so that's where my comments came from. To cheer against the Sox for a player getting a milestone is ridiculous imo and nobody can convince me otherwise. Like I said, I honestly couldn't care less about Frank right now but i understand the people who still cheer for him, that's completely understandable, he meant a lot to a lot of people for a long time. Still, to cheer for an individual milestone over your favorite team makes 0 sense.

IT IS MARCH

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 11:58 PM) Go Foxes!! They lost . For the hell of it, I took Lunardi's bracket and entered it into College Hoops 2k7 and simmed it all the way through. Marist was so close, just not close enough. So sad.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 11:41 PM) I have some inside information you guys don't have. I'll take my final four as UNC Pitt Louisville Marist I agree. Pitt and Marist in the finals with Pitt winning. Should be one hell of a final four.

Texas finally played that out right and wins the game. Fun game.

He can't do it 3 times, can he?

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 10:10 PM) Acie Law is just insane...

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 10:13 PM) The problem with fouling is that law might have got a shot at the same time and then hes shooting 3 ft's. Its a rough call, but Id take my chances with him trying to shoot over Durant most days. They basically had him trapped before he stepped around to nail that 3, they could have easily fouled him and should have.

Acie Law is just insane...

It's 65 degrees here.

I wish I had 625 million dollars.

Just got back from class, can anyone give an overview so far?

Uh oh.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 02:12 PM) Care to elaborate? I agree, a lot of it will depend on what teams they run into. The only team I really have any faith in right now is UCLA (quite a difference from last year, huh? ), I have some questions about everyone else. Another one of your favorite teams, Texas A&M. I love everything about that team, and have been beyond impressed when I've seen them play. I know they're resume overall isn't that impressive but they're the best team I've seen play this year(I know this is going to cause quite the stir here). As for UCLA, I'm still a fan, but I think their lack of an inside presence is going to catch up to them in the tournament. They're going to miss Ryan Hollins a bunch come March imo.

I have one sure fire Final Four team and after that it's going to completely depend on matchups between about the other 4-6 teams that I think could get there.

QUOTE(MSHAWKS @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 10:15 AM) Since a lot of people disagree with you, maybe you're crazy and the rest of us are sane. QUOTE(rangercal @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 12:11 PM) Yup, cheering for an individual over the White Sox, w000000000000000000t. I'll never understand it, and trust me, there are plenty more who don't, it doesn't make any sense.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 12:49 AM) I can't take any complaint that Jim Boeheim makes seriously until he actually schedules a game outside the state of New York in their non conference schedule. Ding! That's the reason some of the major conference coaches really dislike the rpi, because it favors teams who win on the road.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 12:31 AM) I gotta admit, I'm not a big fan of the RPI either. IMO it factors in scheduling too much and skews the rankings. I just think anything that spits out Kentucky or Duke as a top-10 team or Arizona anywhere near the top can't be THAT useful. You can rack up a pretty impressive RPI by playing a lot of decent but not stellar mid-majors and one or two strong teams, espcially if you play in a decent conference (cough* Duke cough cough*). Plus, as Boeheim said just before that, a team gains about as much by losing to a good team as the do winning against a mediocre to poor team, and it doesn't account for teams that get better or worse as time goes on like Louisville or Oklahoma State. I don't mind using it as one of the criteria for judgement, but it seems to be a gigantic factor, which I don't think is right. There are always going to be flaws when you try to attach numbers to the quality of teams, there are just too many things that can't be measured. I agree with all of that, and I certainly don't use numbers when I judge teams who I'm picking to go further in my bracket, that's for sure. That being said, it's completely wrong imo for someone to just say "Well Florida State is better than Winthrop, so they belong in the tournament,"(just using those two teams cause that was the example on gamenight). Now if Florida State has more quality wins, has played a better schedule, etc then ya, they deserve to be in there over the Eagles. It's just completely unfair to pick FSU over Winthrop because someone thinks they're better, jmo. As far as the rpi, it has it's flaws, no doubt. I like it as a tool and that's it, nothing more. I don't think it's the main tool someone should use, but I do like it to group together teams if that makes sense.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 12:22 AM) I gotcha. Well, even though every year there are teams that are "snubbed" and very upset about being left out, for the most part the Committee gets it right. I really don't see a need for too much change. If anything, add more teams. But don't take away from the Mid-majors just b/c they play in a weak conference. Hell, if they didn't give mid-majors credit, would we have had George Mason in last year? Seriously, I don't know b/c I don't know if they won their conference tourney. lol... But, if they were an at-large, then I guarantee they don't make it in if they use Bilas' selection process (or at least how his process sounds from what you wrote). Mason didn't win their conference tourny(UNC Wilmington did), so there you go, that's one example. To be honest, the committtee probably did their worst job as a whole last year but for the most part they do a solid job. Like you said, you're always going to get snubs no matter what and using a persons opinion over actual numbers to put teams into a field just doesn't make sense to be honest as teams should have to earn their way in.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 12:07 AM) Eh, I was doing my homework so I turned it off. What did he say exactly? That's what you get for doing homework. Anywho, basically he just went on and on about the selection committtee "throw out the rpi, get different committee members, pick the best 34 at large teams(forget numbers)" and other crap as well. Basically sounded like he wanted to change the whole selection process. The thing is when he says you should just get the 34 best teams, there is no actual way to do that. I'm not a big fan of numbers when it comes to sports as a whole BUT for selecting teams you have to go by numbers, the thing is all the major conference teams are on tv much more than the so called mid majors, so you're not going to get a fair subjective view as you're not going to see the small conference teams as much as some of the bigger conference teams. So basically, nothing major and something that is pretty pointless overall that I brought up for no reason, but there you go.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Feb 27, 2007 -> 11:55 PM) Actually, I agree, lol... Bilas is definitely my favorite analyst on ESPN, and I think he's extremely fair and unbiased, which is rare, especially considering he played at Duke. Most analysts tend to show their true colors, but Bilas never (or very rarely) does. I usually like Bilas, but I wasn't a fan of his rant he gave on gamenight.