Rowand44

AP poll out: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankingsindex

Nice to see that SIU now has a win against a top 25 team.

Aaron Brooks sinks a game winning shot to give Oregon a win on the road against a very overrated Arizona team.

QUOTE(CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 14, 2007 -> 06:00 PM) Explain it to me a little more clearly. Are you referring to letting Magglio go? If so Magglio was injured . It wasn't as much fiscal responsibilty as it was common sense. We signed Dye , AJ, Tadahito, and EL Duque all veterans who'd proven they were good players but had recent question marks. Dye had injuries , AJ was a troublemaker , El Duque was aging and injured and Gooch never played a day of major league baseball. I'm probably not remembering off the top of my head the other signings of other key players that led to the Championship. Right now its the exact opposite. We are not signing the players who brought us the ring. Buerhle and Crede look like goners for sure . I'm holding out some hope that the Sox can sign JD. Kenny knows this fiscal responsiblity plan is all contingent on the development and a fairly quick development of these young pitchers. Also someone explain to me how a guy who built a World Champ trading away our future because after all prospects are just prospects and look damn smart doing it ,can now put all his faith in a boatload of prospects. I am not advocating signing mediocrity for rich long term contracts but if the market has changed and 9 out of 10 GMs give pitchers more then 3 year contracts how can we compete if we don't give out contracts commensurate with the rest of baseball. Who will want to sign with us ? I am forever grateful for the World Championship but that doesnt mean that Kenny will work that magic again. When you fail to pull the rabbit out of the hat the rabbit ends up in the cellar. I hope Kenny can still work his mojo when he's completely changed his M.O. Trading Carlos Lee allowed us to sign most of those guys as we dumped a lot of salary with that trade.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 13, 2007 -> 11:10 PM) Has Oden been able to use his right hand yet? He can use it, he just doesn't have full range of motion in it. He can still shoot jump hooks and such with it. He's still using his left for ft's if that's what you're asking.

I really enjoyed the one season of Playmakers.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 13, 2007 -> 10:08 PM) For those of us sitting in windowless basement offices for the past 10 hours monitoring PBP online, what's the wow for? Saints had the ball with about 4 minutes left, ran a pitch to Reggie and it was fumbled. Eagles jumped on it. Eagles in trouble though now, 4th and 15. Eagles punt it away, 1:48 left, Saints ball. First down Saints. Barring something insane happening, game over.

Wow...

Bradley is about to beat Indiana State and that's going to make Creighton the last remaining one loss team in the Valley, everyone else has at least 2 losses. The league race is just going to be insane.

Huge day for the Salukis today. We just ran Mo State off the court, Falker was the man again. Josh Bone also chipped in 8 which was nice to see. Suddenly our W over Va Tech looks pretty damn good.

We just got our asses handed to us. Got completely outcoached and played like s***, and come away from this road trip 1-2. The one at UNI I could handle but this one stings. Absolutely f***in awful.

Up 2 at half. Had the game under control, Lowery takes Tatum, Falker and Shaw all at the same time, they quickly get it down to 5 and it's been a close game ever since. Way too many damn turnovers. In other news, Shockers losing at Indiana State by 6 with under a minute left in the game. If ISU holds on here, you can stick a fork in WSU as far as winning the Valley goes. And the Shockers do indeed lose. And with that loss goes any shot of them winning the league.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 07:01 PM) Yeah, but he really had no other option, that is an evil when you break in a struggling Rookie in CF with no other legit CF'ers on your team. I hate to get back to this Anderson/Mack stuff. But Anderson was just as good as Mack offensively in the 2nd half of the season. And we all know the huge difference that the two bring defensively. Yet, in the 2nd half of the season, Mack continued to play 3-4 times a week in center for absolutely no reason, costing us a bunch of games defensively.

IU taking it to Purdue in the first half, up 13. We're about to tip off in Peoria against Bradley, GO DAWGS!!!!!

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 03:27 PM) I had the biggest crush on the pink ranger from the Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger series growing up. Of course, I think any kid who watched the show did. Yup.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 02:08 PM) Yep, he's been playing much better recently. It's amazing how poor the point guard position is this season. T. Green has been playing better recently as well. Here's a question I've been pondering: In 5 years, who will be the better pro player: Tyrus Thomas or Josh McRoberts? Personally, I think McRoberts brings more intangibles to the game than Thomas. McRoberts also doesn't get single coverage every time down the court like Noah and Horford do, and teams don't have to worry about Duke lighting it up from the perimeter like they do with Humphrey, Green, etc. It was amazing last night to see how many short shots Horford and Noah get. I never thought I'd say this, but Donovan actually was designing magnificient plays to get those guys layups. Might I also add that I hate Duke, so please don't think I'm a Duke/Coach K/McRoberts homer. I hope they lose by 30 tonight. Duke does indeed have some decent 3 point shooters. McRoberts is a decent player but at this point imo he's not on Noah or Horford's level, he's got a long way to go before he becomes elite. Thinking about the pg's a little more, a guy who should get some votes for an all american team but definitely wont is Jared Jordan.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 01:57 PM) McRoberts has been fantastic in every aspect besides scoring this year. Anyone that was expecting him to replace Redick's scoring is going to be disappointing, but he's far and away the best player on Duke. Noah and Horford offset each other, and neither has been as good as they were last year. No one is a bigger fan of Aaron Gray than I am, but he's struggled recently. He'll be better when he gets more consistent playing time, even though teams are taking away his touches and making Pitt burn them from the perimeter. Sean Williams of BC had a great stretch of games, but he's fallen off the table now. Davidson is a solid center, even though he's trying way too hard to impress scouts with his outside game. He's gone through so much though, and I only wish he can be a first round pick. Ronald Steele has been bad this year, but that's due to injury. If Drew Neitzel qualifies as a point guard, he belongs in the top 3. He's really impressed me this season, and Mich St. would have been so much better the past few years if he played with this much assertiveness. McRoberts has been ok. He's a good player at this point but he certainly isn't special and he doesn't belong on an all american team. His scoring and rebounding numbers are similar to Noah's and Horford's and then when you realize they're both shooting nearly 20 percent better than him from the field, it's not much of an argument there.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 01:52 PM) And though Shakur has been better than in the past I'd still take Collison. He's got similar numbers across the board and plays much better defense. Man, this is a down year for PG's, my next two are probably an injured Ronald Steele and freshmen Javaris Crittendon. I'll throw Acie Law's name into the mix.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 01:32 PM) First, I explained the missed shot totals above, with the 5 FT added in. As for Rush, it's still crazy to see how some people list him as their best SF in the country. So far this year, he's not even one of the top 5 SF. I don't understand the way Self is using him. Rush just stands on the side out on the perimeter, and never moves. All the team has to do is face guard him, and he's taken out of the game. Other underrated players in the country include the Providence duo of McDermott/Hill, Levance Fields (stats aren't great, but he's a hell of a leader), D.J. Strawberry, and Rich McBride (I joke!). Ya, after I posted I figured you meant ft's added in, still, he didn't have a great game but he was still solid. And we can sit here for hours and list underrated players, a lot of people fly under the radar in college sports.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 09:36 AM) Tucker missed just as many shots as he had points. He's a good player, but he's severely overrated right now. I can't believe some people are claiming he's the Player of the Year in college basketball this year. Other players who are massively overrated are Dominic James and Brandon Rush. The most underrated players in the country are Mustafa Shakur and Richard Hendrix. Alando had 17 points last night and missed 10 shots. Alando is having a great year and before this game he's shined even brighter in Wiscy's biggest games(Pitt and Marquette). He's averaging close to 20 and 5 and shooting close to 50 percent, like I said, he's having a great year and he will definitely be in the player of the year talk at the end of the year. As far as Rush, he had a lot of preseason hype but that has cooled down big time. He is not having that good of a year at all but I certainly don't think he's severely overrated at this point either. Dominic James on the other hand is completely overrated right now. As far as your underrateds: Mustafa has been so inconsistant before this year that I think it's going to take him some time to earn some of that respect back, as he's been a pretty overrated player through out his career. And Hendrix will become pretty well known as the season goes, that whole Alabama team has just been under the radar so far.

QUOTE(CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 01:14 AM) What makes u feel good about it ? Jenks and MacD are the only 2 proven commodities and one has a history of injuries and the other one has a screw in his elbow. I like the arms that we have, that simple. It's hard to find consistant middle relievers from year to year, so if you just look by previous years, it's not always going to be the best way to determine future results. All of the guys that are either in the pen or have a shot to make it, have terrific arms.

If there is one part of the team I feel very good about, it's the bullpen.

Wow. What a finish.

Well then...

OSU is just a dumb team at the moment. They're going to have to mature a lot come March.