Rex Hudler

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 25, 2012 -> 03:06 PM) We'll lose by 10 or 1 when we turn the ball over on our last possession and not even get a shot off to win. Nope four. Hung in there late, but couldn't get it done.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Feb 25, 2012 -> 01:09 PM) Man Anthony Davis is just a freak. Fetus ezeli is probably the next best center in the conference and Davis just had his way with him today Yeah, but his name is Festus. That's a helluva burden to carry.

Anyone see the Pat Knight rant going off on his seniors? It does remind me a lot of the days of his father. I have mixed feelings about it. In today's world it seems awfully harsh, especially mentioning specifics such as issues with drugs. But on the other hand its refreshing. Too often fans don't understand team dynamics and think coaches should turn out winners every year. Sometimes teams and players simply do not gel. Every sports team relies heavily on leadership within the team. A team without leadership from its players is a team that loses or underachieves. I can personally cite examples from my freshman and sophomore years on the baseball team in college. Freshman year we had talent and a lot of fun. Won more than we lost, finishing something like 31-27. Sophomore year, the seniors decided they weren't going to put fun over work and instituted some team rules and policed them themselves. We went 44-20, went to the NCAA Tournament and beat #1 Arizona State in Sun Devils Stadium in the opening game. We were definitely a better team, but also a much more focused team. If you have a bunch of seniors that don't care or push themselves and their teammates, mediocrity will be the result. Maybe calling the seniors out is what Knight needed to do to 1. get the team to focus the rest of the year and 2. send a message to the underclassmen that this is the end of that culture. Of course, depending on how many seniors he has, he could just kick them off the team, play short-handed and sent the message to the rest of his players that way. Knight goes off on seniors Thoughts?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 23, 2012 -> 09:59 PM) Odd game, refs were all over the place but I think they hurt both sides equally. If Gatens doesnt go insane Wisconsin probably wins, ah well, at least the rushed the court makes me feel a little better. He did the same against IU last week. Nailed three 3's in the second half, including one from 5-6' behind the line with Watford in his face as the shot clock was running out. All happened within 3-4 minutes and killed all chances of IU making a comeback. I think he finished with 29? It was bad enough I flipped him off after the last two and got yelled at by the girl I was watching the game with. She said he was good and wasn't acting like an ass. I told her I didn't give a sh*t and he could be good against someone else.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 23, 2012 -> 01:21 PM) 1. Round robin head to head. 2. Non conference strength of schedule. Okay, here is how things will shake out then. All of this is based on the premise that this weekend... Evansville beats Missour State at home Northern Iowa wins @ SIU Illinois State wins @ Bradley Drake loses @ Wichita State Indiana State losing at home to Creighton. (If ISU wins we would have a six-way tie!) If the above doesn't happen, then none of this matters. If all 5 finish 9-9 the head to head: Evansville and Illinois State finish 5-3 Northern Iowa 4-4 Drake and Missouri State 3-5 Based on strength of schedule I would think the seedings would be: 3. Evansville 4. Illinois State 5. Northern Iowa 6. Drake 7. Missouri State I guess Evansville's game against Mo St. this weekend is a pretty big game for both. A win guarantees Mo St. the #3 seed at 10-8. A loss would likely drop Evansville all the way to 8th, losing a tiebreaker to IN St.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 23, 2012 -> 01:30 PM) Sure they can, as a pool. Take each team's record against the other four, and that amounts to a H2H record amongst the tied teams. I stand corrected. Thanks

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 23, 2012 -> 11:37 AM) FWIW I pulled this off the salukitalk website W L W L Wichita St. 15-2(MVC) 24-4(overall) Creighton 13-4(MVC) 24-5(overall) Drake 9-8(MVC) 16-13(overall) Missouri St. 9-8(MVC) 16-14(overall) Northern Iowa 8-9(MVC)18-12(overall) Illinois St. 8-9(MVC) 17-12(overall) Indiana St. 8-9(MVC) 17-12(overall) Evansville 8-9(MVC) 14-14(overall) SIU 5-12(MVC) 8-21(overall) Bradley 2-15(MVC) 7-23(overall) I believe H2H is how it shakes out right now That doesn't answer my question. There is a very good chance that 5 teams will be 9-9 after this weekend, with Indiana State sitting in 8th place at 8-10. Head to head comparisons can't work in a 5-way tie.

For all of you MVC fans... It appears likely there will be 5 teams finish with a 9-9 league record, creating a logjam for positions 3-7 in the standings. Has anyone attempted to figure out how that mess will be sorted out in terms of seeding for the tournament?

I could live a happy man if I never have to see another soft one-handed pass by Jordan Hulls! I love Jordy and think he has made himself into a good player and improved immensly in the past two years, but in the past month he has gotten extrememly sloppy with the ball making terrible passes that are easily intercepted and picking up his dribble at the wrong time. Probably doesn't help that he hasn't shot nearly as well as early in the season, but combine the ball handling with his inability to play D and I am growing more frustrated by the day with him. Also, has anyone seen Christian Watford lately?? Maybe IU should make up some missing person posters and distribute them!

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 22, 2012 -> 08:59 PM) No Rex you are right. Thanks oldbadg... er Soxbadger!

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 20, 2012 -> 08:38 PM) That would be a pretty damn good hire. He was the scapegoat a year ago but had 12 years of leading an above average offense. Hopefully he can recruit too. That said, having not followed Texas football, I have no idea what/how he was. He also had all the talent in the world to coach. I had even seen rumors of Moore, although I call those rumors utter BS. Unless things have changed, Mack Brown's coordinators don't/didn't do much recruiting. That was one of the (keyword one) problems with Greg Robinson when he came from Michigan as DC. Probably one of the reasons he didn't do well at Syracuse as head coach either. Rarely did he leave campus to recruit. Coach Rodriguez let him follow a similar plan. Focus on being the coordinator, let the position coaches do the recruiting road work and talk to recruits when they are on campus. Sadly the formula didn't work at Michigan either in terms of recruiting or a better defense. With a background as a DC at Texas and the NFL, Robinson should have had a lot of clout with recruits. He didn't. Not sure how Muschamp handled recruiting with Mack Brown, but it is my understanding that is Mack Brown's general plan. Coordinators are coordinators and position coaches are recruiting foot soldiers.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 22, 2012 -> 06:24 PM) This is awesome: Turning the NCAA tournament into the College Basketball Champions League, UEFA-style. Maybe I'm old, set in my ways, stupid or just not focusing due to a headache tonight, but that seemed like a complete waste of time and cybe space.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 10:30 PM) Total BS by refs all night 42-15 free throws. I got no problem seeing Illini lose, but give them at least a fighting chance. Wah! Playing better help defense and not letting IU get the ball to the rim consistently might have helped their cause. The game was not called one sided. Hanging your hat on FT #'s to complain just doesn't cut it.

I agree with those that said the referees lost control tonight. They tightened up so much that it ruined the flow of the game. That said, the calls were not one sided. And complaining just because of the FT discrepancy is short-sighted. All you had to do is watch the game and see why there were so many more. It had everything to do with the styles of play, not homer or favorable calls. Illinois lost tonight because they weren't good enough. Brandon Paul was not very good. Leonard was strong early on, but faded. Especially in the 2nd half. Leonard's problem was in his head. Things got rough and he couldn't handle it. Sadly, he's the one that started that crap with the shove of Zeller at mid court early on. Richardson seemed to keep them in the game for awhile. I thought IU played very sloppy in the first half. I was surprised about halfway through that it was a close game. I felt like we were behind. Hulls hit some big shots and they did a much better job of driving and getting the ball inside in the 2nd half creating a ton of opportunities. Good win for the Hoosiers. Six games left, all are winnable. 4-2 is a more likely record. I'd like to see them win on the road at Iowa or Minny.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 07:43 AM) The Zeller family has too many kids. Too many? I think they need to get back to working on making some more!

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 10:03 PM) Congrats to your Aces. They remind me of a Seinfeld episode when Jerry realized he was even - steven. Win one, lose one. Been that way all year. But a nice win in front of the home crowd.

Down goes Creighton!

Only with Indiana Basketball? Lawrence Central HS in the Indianapolis area hosted a Hoosier Recruit Showcase yesterday. Four games, 8 teams, 7 Indiana commits plus the primary IU taget for the 2015 class. Here is how they did. 2012 Jeremy Hollowell - Lawrence Central - 34 pts 16 reb 2012 Ron Patterson - Indy Broad Ripple - 15 pts and broke the BR all time scoring record 2012 Hanner Perea - La Lumiere Academy - 12 pts 5 reb 2013 Collin Hartmann - Indy Cathedral - 21 pts 2013 Devin Davis - Warren Central - 17 pts 2014 Trey Lyles - Indy Arsenal Tech - 33 pts 18 reb 2014 James Blackmon Jr. - Ft. Wayne Luers - 10 pts (injured near end of 1st half; did not play in 2nd half) One of the top players in the 2015 class, freshman Jalen Coleman of Indy Cathedral had 28 pts on 10-11 shooting. Other notes: Purdue commit Raphael Davis had 23 pts for La Lumiere Big time football recruit Jaylon Smith had 13 pts and 5 reb for Ft. Wayne Luers. Not a bad collection of talent for one gym on a Saturday.

Pet Peeve #2 - The amount and degree of players flopping in college basketball is getting ridiculous. Two Ohio State players gave two of the biggest fake flops I've ever seen the past two weeks. One was so bad last week against Michigan, the OSU player (Thomas or Sullinger, I think?) flew back and hit the floor and the replay showed he was never touched by an elbow. It appeared there were 4-6 inches between the elbow and his face. I was watchign with the sound down so I might have missed something. They whistled the Michigan player for the foul and then went to the monitor to see if it was flagrant per the new rules and saw there wasn't any contact. The next thing I saw was Michigan taking the ball out of bounds, so they had to have reversed the call and taken the foul away. Last night, Robbie Hummel was driving on the wing leading with his forearm as is common. Before he made contact with the IU defender, he threw his head and shoulders back like he had been hit by a truck and ultimately went to the floor. There was contact and a foul was called on IU which will get no argument from me, but to watch his head and shoulders flop before contact was even made was ridiculous! I wish guys would just play the damned game!!! I am completely amazed that IU scored 78 points last night and even Purdue getting 61. At the 11:34 mark in the first half, Purdue led 9-8 and both teams were a combined 5-34 shooting from the field. If I wasn't an IU fan I would have changed the station in a hurry. I thought we were headed for another game in the 40's. Strange stat - In a game Purdue lost by 17 at home, they only had 3 turnovers for the entire game. Their first TO didn't come until about 5 minutes remained in the game. Amazing.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 31, 2012 -> 08:37 PM) I do believe the Illini fans here have toned down the complaining, etc, since they started getting called out on it more. I think it is more they quit posting during the games, which probably stems from frustration.

Just saw the IL - MSU score. Was there a delay? When does the 2nd half start?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 12:21 PM) Wow, I didn't even see that, that makes it worse. As soon as they crossed the 3-point line, stand still with your hands straight up. Or get the hell away and let him score! Yeah, and I just read a story about his personal life. His dad died at a young age, his mom is unable to work due to injury, and his brother is serving in Afghanistan. I would think his family could use the NBA money soon.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 08:41 AM) LOL @ Meyers Leonard, that's inexcusable. I'm starting to get excited to see who will coach Illini basketball next season. Hopefully the new coach can convince Leonard to stay one more year. If you're laughing at the foul on Leonard, Brandon Paul got him too. He made just as dumb of a swipe at the ball and got a good piece of arm and could have just as easily been called for the foul.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 08:32 AM) Evansville got a nice commit last night from Ernie Duncan of Evansville. There's 4 brothers, and he might be the "least heralded" one, as he's the oldest (2014). Could have a team of Duncans by 2016. Nice, I hadn't heard that. I've heard of him and knew there was more than one Duncan, but didn't know there were 4. Not sure how good he is in terms of DI talent, but Marty Simmons' son (Blake?) has been a primary player since his freshman year. He's 2014 as well. Too bad they won't find a way to steal Jaquan Lyle. lol

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 08:04 AM) How has Sawvell looked? I see he plays a lot. He was fun in high school. Good question. I had to look him up. He looked pretty good last night and I couldn't remember him so I was scratching my head. He's played a lot more lately, averaging just under 20 min/game. He only played 2 minutes against Butler, none against IU and mop up time against UNC, which are the only three games I had seen this year until last night. He's averaging 5.7 pts and 3.2 reb. Fouled out late in the game last night, but had 11 pts, 6 reb. What do you think his potential is? Obviously he is thin and adding bulk and strength will be important, but tell me what else you know about him.