Rex Hudler

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 11:29 AM) I have a feeling all this big ten sucks talk is going to lose alot of brackets for people who picked against them. Few people remembered it was a down year for the ACC and the Big 12. I'll be honest I don't think ANY conference was that great this year. The Pac 10 may be the only exception. The SEC had Florida. Kentucky was down. Vanderbilt a nice team, but nothing special. Tennessee was up and down and Alabama really struggled late in the year. The SEC West was terrible. The Big 12 had three solid teams at the top but not much else beyond that. The ACC wasn't as strong as usual. The Big East had several good teams, but a lot of really bad ones. The best teams seemed to be spread out across the conferences this year more than any year I can remember.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 13, 2007 -> 12:40 AM) Ya, I'm not sure what the problem is there. I sent an admin a PM as well a good while ago now about your situation and still haven't received a response I have given up. I sent two additional emails to their web master, even giving them an alternate email address, but have gotten no response. On a separate note, Evansville hired alum and former star Marty Simmons yesterday. He comes to Evansville from SIUE, where he has been Head Coach the past five years. The success Simmons brought to Edwardsville led to the decision by the school to go Division I, in which they will begin their transition next year. Simmons was Illinois' Mr. Basketball while playing for Lawrencville HS. Lawrencville won 68 straight games and two straight State Championships with Marty leading the way. He played two years at IU under Bob Knight. He was an important part of IU's Elight Eight team his freshman year, and scored 30 against Kentucky in one game. After falling out of favor with Coach Knight, he transferred to Evansville when IU assistant Jim Crews was named Head Coach at UE. Simmons averaged 24 ppg in two seasons at Evansville, leading them to an MCC co-championship and an NIT berth his senior year. He was an assistant under Jim Crews at Evansville during a time when UE earned two NCAA Tournament bids and one NIT bid. He took the reigns at SIUE following seasons of 9, 7 & 7 wins. Simmons lead them to seasons of 9, 16, 23 and 25 (Elite Eight appearance) before falling back to 15-12 this year. I feel good about this hire for Evansville. I think the only other candidate that made sense was Brad Brownell and he was going to be tough, if not impossible to get. Simmons is a UE alum and was a star player and fan favorite. He will bring instant energy to the program and his teams play with a toughness similar to what you see at SIU. While he has not been a Head Coach at the Division I level, I am confident he will make Evansville competitive in the Valley again.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 12:00 AM) We beat them in '02 in Maui. We got as high as #8 that year, and then we played Kentucky in December. Mike Davis went off on a no-foul call on Bracey, and then the wheels on his wagon began to really fall off for that year and the rest of his time at Indiana. I was about 8 rows from that Mike Davis tantrum. It was a very sad site to see.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 10:44 AM) It's not his fault he got put through into the top 24 when he didn't deserve. I blame the judges and the producers far more for this for even putting him through. I agree completely. He should have never been put in this position. So Simon can slam him all he wants, but it is ultimately the judges fault for it. He is a likeable kid, just not an elite singer. I also agree w/ Kid Gleason in that I am not enamored with LaKisha. I am not saying she reminds me of Fantasia, but she is like Fantasia to me in that I am not a big fan while she is getting admiration seemingly from everyone else. I like Melinda much better. Blake, who I could not stand at first, is growing on me. I like Chris, but don't think he has a chance to win it. I could get into Gina if she would keep the rocker chick thing going. Let's keep Haley around for another week or three. She is the only really nice thing to look at. Sorry if that sounds like I am objectifying her, but she is the one sporting the nice cleavage! Lastly, someone mentioned the songs this week were all kind of blah. Of course they were. They were all Diana Ross songs. While she sang some nice songs for the time, how many guys are going to sound good covering Diana Ross? The judges told both Chris and Blake they changed things too much and should have let the lyrics of the songs speak for themselves. I say that's BS. If they would have sang those to songs straight up, they would have gotten blasted. Endless Love was not a song written for a guy like Chris to sing. If there is a better Diana Ross song out there for him, I don't know what it would be.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Mar 12, 2007 -> 08:13 PM) The DVR makes it way too easy for people to choose. I will always opt for recording The Office whist I watch brainless crap like Idol. Why? Because I like to watch The Office and its kind more than once. I watch Idol once and am done with it. I enjoy the train-wreck aspect. But I never stop to think I might be effecting ratings. I agree. I have all but one of this season's episodes still on my DVR. I like to watch The Office when I can fast-forward through the commercials and focus on the show, with no distractions. I don't like to watch it live. You would think that the Nielson Ratings would somehow be able to account for what is being recorded in addition to what is being watched. That said, in all my years, I have never known anyone to be a "Nielsen Family". Is there some shroud of secrecy or is it just possible, in my 38 years, 3 cities and fairly large base of acquaintances it is purely coincidental?

QUOTE(WhiteSoxFan1 @ Mar 13, 2007 -> 04:43 PM) Take it or leave it, but I like Sanjaya. Everyone hates him but to me hes got a nice kind of soothing voice. No hes not going to "put on a show" because of his lackluster shyness, and hes not the most exciting performer, but despite all that I like him. I dont know why so much critisizm for his latest performance of "waiting on the world to change" because I thought it was good. He has zero power to his voice. He sings like he is singing a lullaby. He has no stage presence. Seriously, compare him to the others and he pales in comparison, even the other mediocre ones. He's a nice kid, with a big smile. But he never belonged in the top 24 in the first place, let alone the top 12.

I just filled out my first bracket in about 5 minutes and I still thought too much. Allow me to go on record now that my bracket will suck and finish in the bottom 20%!!

I'm going to throw a little defense Bruce Weber's way. While the Head Coach is ultimately responsible for recruiting the players the program gets, recruiting classes can be made or broken by assistant coaches. It is the assistants that do most of the legwork and beging the relationship building. If the assistant coaches aren't doing their job well, the Head Coach has an uphill battle if he even gets a shot. An assistant that is great at recruiting will put his Head Coach ahead of the game. A great example of that is Ohio St. Jim Groce. Apparently he is a relentless recruiter and develops a great rapport with the kids. There was an excellent article about him in this year's Rivals Recruiting Yearbook. He was named their basketball recruiter of the year. I tried to find the article on Rivals site, but had no luck. It is very apparent he is setting up Thad Matta to win. I know nothing about Illinois' assistants, and not much more about Indiana's in terms of recruiting ability, but I would venture to guess that either would be very lucky to have a guy like Groce doing the heavy lifting in recruiting.

Boy it sure would be nice to be able to get back on to ValleyTalk.net. But until an admin desides to actually help get me back in, I am looking in from the outside. This is pretty frustrating. Rowand, I sent them a message on Sunday through their admin form and have not heard back from anyone. I even gave them an alternate email address, but that didn't help either.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 10:38 PM) So what is going on now then? Could it be American Idol is that scary of competition??? Absolutely. American Idol has affected the way all networks schedule in those time slots. Their audience is just too great. Hell, they held off hugely popular Dancing with the Stars so they didn't have to compete directly with Idol. Apparently, CBS has been the most fortunate so far in that NCIS doesn't seem to lose ratings going up against Idol. But it is still a very distant 2nd. This week Idol goes two hours on Tuesday and just a half hour to eliminate one contestant on Wednesday.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Mar 12, 2007 -> 10:28 AM) Simon says he's going to quit if Sanjaya wins. Could this all be a crazy ploy to get ratings...or is this really happening? This really, really, really can't be good for Sanjaya mentally...can it??? Also, by Simon making this statement, he just got Sanjaya millions of extra votes! LOL! You just know everybody who hates the show is going to vote just to see if he really does quit. The kid will probably make the top 10 for sure now, which means he will be on the tour! I know who I am voting for now. I don't think Simon says anything specific just to get ratings. I think he says enough controversial stuff just being honest that ratings take care of themselves. I've been watching the first season and even back then he was calling a couple of the guys in the Top 10 losers, saying they did not belong in the same class as the others.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 12, 2007 -> 12:27 AM) http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/mar/...ooks-for-coach/ Don't get too excited. That article came out and simply listed names tossed around in the comments section from previous articles. To this date, I am the only one that has ever mentioned Neal and his inclusion in that article comes directly from that. If he is actually considered a candidate, I would be surprised.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 10:30 PM) Vs. Wisconsin, Duke, Texas Tech. Three tourney teams. Not great, but I've seen worse. That's also balanced by the fact that their conference schedule was so difficult. They played Louisville twice, Pitt three times, @ Georgetown, @ ND. I'm not going to make St John's out to be some powerhouse, but they're better than at least four teams in the Big Ten. But I digress -- I was the one who brought it up, and shame on me, but they're better than at least four teams in the Big 10 (I know -- nothing to crow about). I would guess this is the biggest reason for the eight seed. I don't want to ask for particulars here, just a general question -- do you guys get more info than the public does w/r/t injuries? Even so, by putting Marquette at an eight seed, the Selection Committee is essentially saying that there's AT LEAST 28 teams better than Marquette in the tourney. Sorry -- I'm not buying it. Their "body of work" is too strong. Not a chance on this earth that Indiana is better than MU. None at all. Part of the problem with Marquette's schedule wasn't the best teams they played, but the rest of their non-conference schedule. Hillsdale (D-II, win doesn't count), Idaho St., Detroit, Eastern Mich, Valparaiso, Northwestern St, Maryland-Baltimore Co, Morgan St, Savannah St. Their best out of conference wins were Texas Tech, Duke, North Dakota State, Delaware State and Oakland. The last three certainly don't make anyone shake in their boots. In conference they went 10-6 with two wins against Pitt, one over Louisville and Villanova. Nice wins. But the rest of their wins were not against tourney teams. Plus, I still can't get over the name change. They are supposed to be the Marquette Warriors! As far as injuries, the committee has its sources. They probably aren't much better than a fan who does their due dilligence to get the information, but we have to take injuries into account. We want to give a team credit for their body of work in terms of getting into the tournament, but seeding becomes just as much about how you are playing now and what kind of team you are likely to present once the tourney begins. In all honesty, I don't recall the teams being as bunched up in the middle as in previous years. I really don't think there is a whole lot os difference between seeds, even between 12's and 5's. A few other things to consider. Seeds lines are somewhat fluid and are influenced by certain rules. Among them are limitations on where a team can or cannot play, not sending teams too far from their home in consecutive years (whenver possible), spreading out teams from the same conference, etc. Sometimes a team has to be moved up or down one seed line to accommodate the above. Without giving away any specifics, it is entirely possible that Marquette and Duke were both 7-seeds and had to be moved. Setting the bracket has many complexities and is not as simple as tossing all the teams in easily. Sometimes, one necessary change has a domino effect and creates two or three other changes. Lastly, aside from my own personal work to create the Kansas/SIU/Illinois triumvirate, any other matchups, circumstances, etc are purely coincidental. The plight of the Big East was not planned or plotted. Sometimes that is just how things fall. Whether they have representation on the committee or not is irrelevant. When teams from specific conferences are discussed that do have representation, those members have to get up and leave the room. They are not allowed to participate in said discussion. The # of teams from a specific conference and how a conference is "treated" is simply not discussed at all. Hope that helps.

It's late and that dinner from St. Elmo's Steakhouse really took its toll, so I need to get some sleep after a long weekend. I hope I was able to make some sense of the selection process for some of you. Night all.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 10:18 PM) Did anyone have enough of a sense of humor to mention Kansas vs Belmont? You don't know how hard I tried to get that done, just for Jimbo. But, they had to put the play in game winner there to keep them as close to Dayton as possible. Once I knew I had no choice, I mumbled a little "sorry Jimbo" under my breath. But looking at it overall, the committee didn't want Kansas to lose in the first round again because the allure of Kansas vs. Kentucky in Round 2 was too great. Of course, the wrong Wildcats may show up, but we can't control that.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 10:07 PM) Rex -- Duke a six? Can there really be any other argument for them being that high besides, "they're Duke"? I know their RPI and SoS rate pretty well, but they didn't finish over .500 in their conference and bowed out in the first round of their tourney. Also, any comments on Marquette? Top 25 RPI and SoS, great resume of wins including two vs. Pitt, at Louisville, neutral court vs Texas Tech and Duke... Even with McNeal out, they won a road game comfortably at St. John's and a home game vs Pitt. I'm not putting this on you, but you can't honestly tell me with a straight face that Indiana is a better team than Marquette, right? *Note -- in case it isn't obvious, my complaining is with Marquette being rated as an eight seed, and having -- God willing -- a second round matchup at UNC. Duke is Duke. They are not the Duke of old, but an argument can certainly be made their "body or work" was one of the top 20-24 in the country. They did beat Indiana (the greatest #7 seed in the tourney), Georgetown and Gonzaga. Marquette, on the other hand, lost arguably their best player. Winning at St. Johns is like winning at the Little Sisters of the Poor. It just doesn't count. They are also still losing points in my mind for caving and changing their nickname from Warriors. Their non-conference schedule was very weak also. Bottom line is I didn't really care either way. I had no dog in the hunt so to speak, so I let others fight that one out.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 08:41 PM) Anybody remember the days when a TV series ran for a specific time period, with no re-runs thrown in, and then went away and the station showed the re-runs then? You would actually get the 11-13 or so new shows in a row! It was really neat the way that worked. What happened? To get better ratings, they basically pick and choose when to throw reruns in. They want to avoid certain times when other programming or events might cost them viewers.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 09:54 PM) How many times was "a win over Iowa State isn't a real win" mentioned....haha. Seriously though, I'd love to know what it's like in there. Is Iowa State still a Division I program? I don't recall their name mentioned at all. No wait, somebody mentioned something about the Sumo wrestling championships, but I can't remember. I think I was munching on BBQ Grippos at the time.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 07:32 PM) What was the discussion of Illinois like? After their pitiful performances in the Big Ten Tournament (be honest Illini fans, none of the three games were impressive), most of the committee wanted to ditch them. I think I remember one saying "How do they spell their nickname IlliNIT?". But I fought. I told them the Illini had a tough year and fought through adversity. It all began when they lost Eric Gordon. Then 8 of their players got hurt or thrown in jail at some point or another. The whole car wreck thing... well they fought their way through that when they could have crumbled. They beat IU twice who everyone knows is by far the best 7-seed in the tourney. Hell, they might be better than all the 5's and 6's too, but I wanted that rematch with Gonzaga and there is no way those assholes deserved better than a 10-seed. Bottom line is, Illinios has the potential to make some higher (or lower depending on which angle you are looking at it from) uncomfortable and I just couldn't listen to the Soxtalkers whine and b**** until October 2015 about how they got screwed. Instead, I just gave them a shot to win and then put up or shut up against little brother downstate. It was sweet, sweet music! QUOTE(Be Good @ Mar 11, 2007 -> 08:19 PM) I got UCLA I have Illinois going to the Sweet 16. I know this is the wrong bracket but: Did Georgetown even get consideration for a #1 Seed? Not saying they deserved it, just wondering. Nope. At least not serious consideration. They ended strong, but there were too many other deserving teams. Besides, unless you are Iowa State, there is no difference between being a # 1 or #2 seed.

Hey guys, I guess I should admit something. I was a part of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee and it has been a really long weekend. I hope fellow Soxtalkers will appreciate the matchups I helped create. 1. A potential Illinois - SIU matchup in round two! 2. A potential Sweet Sixteen matchup between either SIU or Illinois against Kansas (you're welcome Jimbo)! 3. A rematch for Indiana to avenge last year's 2nd round loss to Gonzaga! 4. Kentucky, should they win their opening game, having to play Kansas (a personal vendetta there) 5. Purdue facing Arizona in round one, and should they get lucky and get by the Wildcats, a definite roadblock against Kansas in round 2 (another personal vendetta) The only thing I didn't like (hey, I had to give up a few battles to get the big ones above) is having mid-majors matched up in two games: Nevada - Creighton and Butler - ODU. I voted to make Creighton an 11 seed and match them up against Vanderbilt who I think is overrated. That would have given them a 2nd round matchup potentially against Washington St, who I am not sold on as a #3 seed. I tried to get Creighton an easy path the the Sweet Sixteen, but that petterass (sp?) Hanrahan wouldn't given in if I wanted SIU, Illinois and Kansas all together. Oh well, can't win them all. It's been fun. If you have any questions - off the record, of course - about how the rest of the selections were determined, ask away!

I loved Boston. Delp had a very distictive voice and Tom Scholz gave them a very distinct style. I put Delp in a category with Geddy Lee and Steve Perry in terms of recognizable vocals. After reading this I went back and looked up Boston. I had no idea Scholz released two additional albums, Walk On and Corporate America under the Boston name. I knew Delp and Barry Goudreau released an album under the name Return to Zero, but I guess they released three. Didn't know that either. Guess I needed to keep up a little better. The one thing about creating music is that once the creators are gone, the music remains. Boston will always be around in my head.

Many shows take a hiatus the next couple of weeks especially if they are on Thursday, not wanting to compete with NCAA basketball. They also only film so many episodes (taking into things like that into account). Isn't there one more sweeps week in April or May? I'm sure they want to be building toward that time.

Wasn't Illinois' SOS within the Big Ten lower than even Indiana's? I could be wrong there, but I think Illinois had a slightly easier schedule in conference. Still, either way you look at it, with everything else that could happen the next two days, I would not be overly confident if I were a fan of either team.

As an Indiana fan, I am now somewhat worried about getting into the dance. I know IU has been considered a "lock" but I am not too comfortable right now. That was some ugly basketball last night by both teams

Man, when these two teams play they both look like the worst offensive teams in the entire NCAA. UGLY BASKETBALL!