Rex Hudler

Super weird. I have the Minnesota game here in Birmingham, but not the UAB game in the CUSA Tournament. Not sure how to figure that one out??

QUOTE(The Bones @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 09:48 PM) Bucknell vs. Holy Cross is starting up. Bubble teams around the nation are cheering for the Bison. Bucknell took care of business. No bubbles burst in this one.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 09:54 PM) Yeah it appears Gullickson had a really nice game though, and Ill take the loss if it means come tournament time Gullickson is a viable player. Ray Nixon though shot terribly, from the ESPN updates I think the only shot he made was a dunk, lol. Anyways with a bunch of other good teams losing in their tournaments, the loss doesnt hurt that bad. Guessing Wisconsin can be anywhere from a 5 to 8 seed. Gullickson was what saved Wisconsin in the first half. IU was up 10-2 and, while not playing great offensively, he gave Wisky a huge spark and led them on a 17-0 run. The intensity of the two teams seemed to flip-flop when he came into the game. IU picked the intensity back up to open the 2nd half and never really let it get away, despite Tucker trying to almost singlehandedly beat them.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) The difference between 5-8 and 7-10 is 8 teams. It just all depends on how everything shakes down, if the Big 10 is getting high seeds, then Wisconsin may get a higher seed. If the Big is getting lower seeds then Wisconsin could be on the low end. Its all kind of dependent, if OSU is 1, Illini a 2, I would think most of the Big 10 seeds are going to be pretty good. On the other hand if OSU is a 2, Illini a 3, I would think the Big 10 are going to get lower seeds. In all actuality, once you go down below a 4 or 5 seed, dropping seed wise is not that bad unless your going to have to play a 1-4 seed in the first round. So let's think big here. How high of a seed could Indiana get should they beat Ohio State? Could they get as high as a 6? Where do you think they are now?

QUOTE(Soxy @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 06:28 PM) I know Bama Rex is a fan of Kellie, but no one I know in real life enjoys her. I can't believe she's still around after the lies about oh, I've never sung in public before, I've only ever sung in my shower. When she competed in beauty pagents and other talent competitions. She just adds to the golly-gee I'm a nice but stupid southerner stereotype. I do think she is real. Unfortunately, she isn't real bright and her best move would be to just smile and shut the hell up right now. I think she is one of those girls that has never been anywhere. Just real naive to the rest of the world. But she is starting to wear on me. I was really disappointed to see Ayla go. I don't know if it was because of the jock thing, but I really liked her from the very beginning. I knew she had no chance of winning, but I hoped she'd stick around for awhile. I still just can't jump on the Mandisa bandwagon. I think she is no better than Kellie, and a step behind Katharine, Paris and Lisa. The above three have shown some weakness recently, so I think the five of them are all pretty close. I think Ace is overrated, but his looks will carry him. I can't see Taylor going that deep as Means projected. My guess is he makes his exit somewhere around 7-9. I'm still okay with Chris and Elliott, but not sure I see either winning. Bucky and Kevin are by far the two weakest (boys and girls) remaining. I hated to see Gedeon go as well. I thought he was a potential sleeper in this thing if he could get past a few weeks and keep getting better. They now only eliminate one per week from here on out, right??

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 09:27 PM) Mrs. FlaSoxxJim has had a bad week. She is a middle school science teacher. On Tuesday she was driving home on the Interstate and she came upon a group of motorcyclists. It is Bike Week up in Daytona so there are 1000's of people riding their Harleys all across the state. My wife witnessed one of the bikers drive off the road and onto the median for unknown reasons, and hit a rut the sent him and his bike tumbling end over end multiple times. The biker's body took the impact on several of the flips. She called me at work after it happened and was barely able to keep it together as she told me what she saw. Now, I just got off of the phone with her and she told me that one of the 6th graders at her school dropped dead in gym today. The teachers did CPR, used a defibrilater on him, etc., but they never got him back. Needless to say, she is really depressed. I guess "tomorrow is another day" wouldn't work for her right now, huh? That definitely sounds like a tough week. Not that anyone needs to tell you what to do, but just being there for her will help. Hope she perks up soon.

Indiana can frustrate you soo much. They went 9+ scoreless minutes in the first half today and still were only down four! They can look so good one minute and 5 seconds later look like they have never ever played the game before. I'll take today's win, but it wasn't pretty.

I'm rooting for Xavier

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 03:39 AM) I think it's unlikely that Gonzaga loses in the first two rounds, but I think the odds are fairly high that they will lose the next game. They need to get a soft 3/6 team to get by that game in my opinion. I agree, but then again, there aren't many teams I would characterize as a shoe-in for the Elite 8.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 01:40 AM) Directed at me obviously. Rex, no joke here I have absolutely 0 money. I'm a college kid who doesn't work and I just went to St. Louis over the weekend for the mvc tourny and spent basically all of my money. I also already have 15 bucks in tournament pools and krush already took 20 bucks from me . I'm also not going to be a person that rubs it in anyone's face if Zaga loses before the sweet 16. I'm going to want it to happen and be happy if it does because I'm going to have them gone in my pools but no one is going to hear about it from me. What's the fun in being all classy about these things???

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Mar 10, 2006 -> 02:01 AM) No doubt, I like to take any shots I can get in at Louisville though! You should know that Rex. Fair point. I just wanted to point out the "downside" of having your team lose early in a really cool destination.

Here is a pretty good article from Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star on potential candidates. He says Matta has to be the #1 choice until he absolutely says he is out of the running. I don't like his thought of Kevin Stallings on the "B" list. Lots of interesting names and ideas. There is only 1 real choice for Indiana Any chance we can get this thread bumped into the Bracket Banter? It is not specific to the NCAA Tournament, but it seems like it belongs with the rest of the NCAA Hoops talk. Just a thought.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 06:20 PM) Well i've said all along it depends on the matchups, so this doesn't mean much to me. If that is your feeling then you are not who this is directed toward.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 08:51 PM) One thing I point to as far as teams bringing fans is Louisville in the Big East Tournament. There were a lot of idiotic Louisville fans who spent their hard earned money going up to NYC. I mean even though Louisville was a one and done, these people still went up there when their team had no shot. I'm not a fan of either UK or Louisville (these are my 2 hated teams), but from having to live around their crazy fans, it's quite apparent that they would travel just about anywhere to watch their teams. Even if they are pitiful. Well NYC isn't a bad place to hang out for a 3-4 day weekend!

QUOTE(MarlinFan84 @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 05:02 AM) No I havent, but I've drank in Carbondale during bracket buster saturday(2 years ago, against Hawaii), a town wide keggar...it was awesome. There is a bar in Chicago called Salukis. The owners daughters went to SIU (or something like that). The whole place is decorated in SIU memorabilia. Cool little bar.

Damn, Louisville almost came back to make my last post bite me in the ass!

Predictions on eliminations this week.... Girls Kinnik - no doubter Melissa - pretty sure Ayla - don't think she should be gone this week, but a possibility. I'll go with the above two. Guys Will - picked the wrong James Taylor song Kevin or Bucky - can't decide. If forced to do so, I am going to guess Bucky. Overall, I thought the guys were much better than the girls this week. I really liked Taylor's "Takin it to the Streets". I was happy he did well, because I think his star had begin to fade. I think Ace is overrated. His looks are what is keeping him high in the pecking order at this point. Sing like a guy, damnit!

I have see every episode except for #12 or #13 (can't remember which one) after not watching until the beginning of last season. I agree with whoever said earlier, that I would not want to hear spoilers. I enjoy watching each week way too much to know what is going to happen in advance.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 04:14 AM) I've got Gonzaga going Sweet 16. No arguments here. I'm sure if I am wrong, I'll be told as much by all the people that didn't have the cajones to step up now.

QUOTE(MarlinFan84 @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 11:55 AM) Hey all, been a while since I posted here. Good times, my Marlins are rebuilding, I am excited to watch these young guys play their butts off. But right now, lets talk college basketball. I am from southern Illinois, and have been a Saluki fan since birth. Best of luck in the tourney dawgs, suprise the world. The bigger question is, have you drank at Salukis in downtown Chicago??

Two things......... 1. This thread is for entertainment purposes only, of course! 2. Watchtower, you should STOP gambling immediately. If you took your own advice today you are 0-3. Then again, you can make it all back tomorrow. ;-)

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 03:47 AM) Rex... Not taking my offer aboz?? LOL

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 02:25 AM) After Boeheim went off on the reporters calling McNamara overrated, I started thinking about whether I agree with the reporter or Coach Boeheim. Personally, I'm a little torn. He's turning it over at a fairly high rate, and his shooting percentage is horrendous. It's gone down every year since his freshmen year too. I have a hard time supporting anyone that is shooting 35.5%, but he does have a lot of value to the team as a playmaker, and he does seem to hit the clutch shots. He's pretty good and he's very valuable for Syracuse, but there are quite a few PG's I'd rather have then him. His shot selection is just brutal most of the time. I laughed when I heard Boeheim's comments. I knew exactly what he was talking about. What many people do is look at numbers and tie a direct correlation to a players importance to a team. While individual performance is important in the makeup of a team, there is no I in team and never will be. Players can affect a team's performance both on and off the court in ways casual fans can never see. I recall a comment I made to a good friend of mine while in college. I was at Evansville in the late 80's and Mark Jewell, who was a Indiana Mr. Basketball transferred to UE from Iowa after George Raveling left. Mark and I became great friends. One day I made a comment about a player, Larry Brand, who was from Wheaton, IL. I said something to the effect that Larry only played a few minutes a game and rarely scored so he was in effect wasted roster space. Mark jumped my ass and quickly told me I was wrong. He emphatically stated that Larry was one of the team veterans and he was one of the guys that kept the team focused and on track. Even though his contributions rarely ever showed up in a box score, Larry was basically the team disciplinarian and also a great influence on the young guys, both on and off the court. Put very simply, Larry knew what TEAM meant and he was able to help the team in ways a box score could never reflect. I ate my words real quick that day. Later, I became good friends with Larry as well and as I hung around these guys more and more, I learned what Mark meant. Mark was the one putting up the numbers in games, yet not only did he look at Larry as a leader, he deferred to him knowing what Larry meant to the team. There is no doubt in my mind that Larry meant at least 5-10 wins a year to those teams. In 1989, UE beat Gary Payton and Oregon State in the NCAA Tournament and were within one point of eventual runner-up Seton Hall with 5 minutes left in their 2nd round game. They were not the same Evansville residing at the bottom of the Valley today.

QUOTE(MarlinFan84 @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 05:45 PM) It's been my experience that BCS teams dont want to play teams from the valley...you really think someone wants to go into the SIU Arena, or Qwest Center, or Carver Arena, or the UNI Dome...places where the home team almost always comes out on top? This dude says the Valley schools are ducking him? I say the BCS needs to grow some grapefruits and play the MVC. I have long wanted a MVC/Big 10 challenge, much in the same vein as in the ACC/Big 10 challenge, except all games on neutral courts(like the family arena in st. charles, MO), with the worst team in the big 10 from the previous season not able to compete. I have sent letters to the offices of both conferences. Detailed, well thought out, letters. The MVC is getting stronger and much more exposed(and overall play) without the BCS schools, so they might as well take their licks now before they get introduced come tourney time. Write all you want, but it will not happen. The only reason they do the ACC/Big Ten Challenge is because it is a made for TV event. A Big Ten/MVC matchup would not be nearly big enough for all Big Ten teams to take a game off of their schedules. It would not be a big enough TV draw to put on TV nationally. While it is a great thought in a perfect world, it doesn't work in the real world.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 02:08 AM) Rex, if you allow me to see the seeding first and THEN choose to make the bet, I will do so. No, that's not the way it works. I am willing to make the offer without seeing the seeding. The bet is for those that are SO sure Gonzaga is SO overrated they will flop in the tournament. If they are that confident, then they can put their money where their mouth is. $20 shouldn't break anyone. Then again, if they are that confident, then they should believe they will lose and they won't have to worry about the $. I find it funny that so many seem absolutely positive that Gonzaga is so vastly overrated that they crow about it with recklessness, yet won't back up their words!