RockRaines

We are just good enough to not get an impact pick. And to me, thats sad. Its good that our coaching will never truly allow us to be totally crappy but damn I would have liked a top 5 pick.

And for my team. Please please start to gel better. We have so much talent, LaQuinton Ross has the ability to be an top player in the country, we just need to grow up.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 01:23 PM) To be fair, norfolk st. was a tourney team last year. I know they lost a good player, but, no name in college basketball doesn't necessarily mean bad. Listen, not trying to annoy but you should still crush those teams. LBS was a tourney team last year and we smoked em. Illlinois is still finding its legs and cold nights with a basic offense are going to suck. However its a long time to March and thats your target. I have no reason to believe they wont make the tourney.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 06:58 PM) So he backtracked, and that makes what he said fail to exist in the first place? Let's re-write history. More like corrected himself based on a job opportunity. Smart kid smart move. Another year of bball wasn't getting him to pros.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 05:58 PM) Hard to believe that article, when Roth comes out and says everything in that article was either fabricated or taken out of context.... http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1401618 As for SoxBadgers post, citing urban dictionary? LOL in your Indiana Rivals article you posted he even says he found out there was no room at the inn. Why cant you just accept that players are being turned away if they arent needed? Its not illegal. Did Roth deserve to be done that way? Probably not, but its pretty clear in that article that other job opportunities were put on the plate if he walked away and was positive and he did the smart thing since his future is not in playing basketball. QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 06:01 PM) Bawa can't even get minutes at some directional school in Tennesee, yea obviously he didn't transfer because of playing time... Patterson... You obviously knew nothing about him coming in. Crean went to bat for him in front of the dean of admissions board and he barely was admitted to even start taking "partial" summer school classes. He then got busted cheating in a level 100 course where he was BARELY getting a C. Try again. And here's the "its annoying arguing with IU fans on this subject" proof. Anything anyone says it going to have a carbon copy answer from your peeg boards or whatever and frankly nobody really cares. Creaning is real, its happening and going into next year and the year after your numbers will magically work again. He's just smart enough to be doing it better than most other bball coaches in the conference. In football IU is WORLDS behind so maybe it just evens out.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 05:32 PM) Is that a fact you learned from someone with the team, or just more speculation? I really think the next coach that leaves a successful major college program for another and doesn't get slammed by his former team's fan base as being a bad coach, or an asshole or some guy who was about to get fired, will be the first. Coaches ultimately get judged by wins and losses. Bielema had a better win ing percentage than Alvarez and most likely will have a better one than his successor. Eh, Alvarez turned the program around and made it legit, BB just followed his plan. Comparing winning percentage is a really terrible way to look at it. Alvarez inherited a program that hadnt won a conference title in almost 30 years. Wisconsin fans will remember the guy who resurrected the program and had 8 bowl wins over the guy who took over and and 2-4 including 2 BCS losses back to back. Also alot of people will always say Barry fell off a bit at the end. His talent level took awhile to rebound but he also ran into the buzzsaw that was Michigan, the resurgent Ohio State, and a good PSU program.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 05:07 PM) So let me get this straight. They were flat out "cut", but no one speaks up. Make sense. Matt Roth Spoke up until Crean made it clear he would be a good job reference since he is in sports mgmt. Creaning isnt just a bunch of people getting together wishing something would happen to whats been the doormat of the conference for the last 10 years. IU was oversigned for this year so they got rid of a guy. Patterson developed academic troubles all of a sudden, Story, Bawa. You are oversigned next year and are at limit the year after. I'm betting those numbers will round themselves out somehow. Crean plays the numbers game well, its not an NCAA violation but its a real thing. Why not just own it while you are at the top? Football teams have been using "attrition" for decades, the SEC does it in spades. A&M has 35 recruits signed next year and 10 are enrolling early to offset that number. Hell FWIW OSU has scholly restrictions the next few years so Urban deliberately ran a few players off that he thought were dead weight and a few left on their own. Whatever. We were running with roughly 62 scholarship athletes this year.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 04:51 PM) Might as well show me who got cut. Been down this road, ends with a bunch of finger pointing with no proof, and no former player saying anything bad about Crean. Ever. Going to be awfully hilarious when UI continues to pursue Alexander and co from the 2014 class. No it ends with IU fans getting butthurt and it getting too annoying for anyone to respond. IU signs more players than they have schollys at this point and so far have just worked with convincing older players to go off scholarship. Its the same game thats been played in football for a long time. Nothing illegal about it, but you guys keep being so defensive. Might as well just own it, you are the #1 team in the country until March, so who cares.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 03:28 PM) Are the reports true that Swisher exited Chicago becasue Ozzie didn't like his showboat attitude? I've heard it was more prominent players that he rubbed the wrong way. Ozzie obviously was one of the culprits, but there are several players that Ozzie hasnt liked that stayed.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 04:09 PM) smh.. Might as well own it.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 10:32 PM) 45 accounts, some of which hold as many as 40 seats. Probably a thousand seats they are talking about here. There are so many more though. Alot of those guys got their comeuppance last year when tickets were going for $1 on stubhub. This year wont be much better.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 12:49 PM) And it's funny that no one ever mentions Atlanta. I don't care how good their record is, they never seem like a serious threat. I was just going to. They are killer at home, thats about it.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 09:19 PM) They can still trade Upton. I don't see why they can't. They probably wont, but it doesnt matter, he was never coming here anyway.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 07:50 AM) Jabari Parker to announce decision next Thursday at Simeon. With what I have heard recently, I think he is leaning towards Duke. But wouldn't be surprised if its MSU. Its MSU IMO.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 07:23 PM) Hmm. If I had to guess, that's better than usual. There's at least more "star power" than usual. It's an improvement but I think they have to grab a top 100 for this class to be a jump.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 07:15 PM) Indiana lands Kristopher Smith (3* on Scout, 4* on ESPN), LB out of Georgia. Haven't checked the numbers, but this has to be our best rated class by a landslide (not like that would take much). What's especially exciting is that most of the talent is on the defensive side of the ball, where we obviously need the most help. Hopefully these kids can produce. They'll get a chance to show their stuff right away, as Wilson isn't shy about playing freshmen. Sitting at #51 class nationally, 10th in conference, 2.86 star average.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 04:42 PM) AJ did a much better job this past season in holding runners because our pitchers finally did a better job. Other than he k's too much and probably won't hit for much of an average I have nothing against Tyler Flowers. We may very well be starting the season with him behind the plate, but I think AJP makes us a better team Finally coaching stepped in and righted what was a huge hole in our game. Also taking infield seemed to lead to a huge improvement on knowing what to actually do with the ball in certain situations.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 10:13 AM) ESPN, and, not sure if you are aware, but it's 2 week playoff rounds, 2 each. I hate them. I am the #1 team in my league, scored the most points and tied for the best record, and because I had one bad week and my opponent had one good week, I'm screwed and I have to hope for 2 more good weeks to end the season just for 3rd place and make my money back In fantasy, the top 6 should make it. #1 and #2 should get a bye, #3 and #6 should play, #4 and #5 should play; quarters are 1 week, semis are 1 week, championship is 2 weeks. 2 weeks is great though because it takes out outliers generally speaking. I am behind right now because of this week but it should all even out next week.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 9, 2012 -> 03:38 PM) I'm concluding/continuing some pretty intensive foreign film study, so hit me up if you're interested in some good stuff from other countries. FWIW, Hulu seems to be the king of all-time great foreign films via their "Criterion Collection." Le pact des loups (the brotherhood of the wolf) Fantastic f***ing film. is dubbed or subtitles.

How bad could your calf get hurt in warmups? Geez Robbie

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 10:14 AM) Good LTs are not available where the Bears draft. Signing them as free agents is also hard to do, as teams know the good ones are worth their weight in gold. They are going to have to get lucky. There have been a ton of tackles they've missed out on in the last few drafts. In 2011 they could have drafted Marcus Gilbert among other. 2012 there are several, Mike Adams is starting at RT for the steelers and is in the two deep at LT and he was taken in the second round in 2012. There are plenty of misses with their picks because they decided to go another direction. A team with such a weakness at OL needs to load up in the draft.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 09:38 AM) With his injury history, I thought there was a decent chance Wooten wouldn't be with the team coming out of TC. Like any good fan I had full confidence in every player's injuries getting better. I really like his ability, at times I get him confused with Peppers.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 09:32 AM) That's what I meant, my fault. Yeah I was just clarifying for you. That was primarily one of the reasons the Sox told him to kick rocks. They werent going to set the market for a guy that other teams still view as a clubhouse cancer.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 09:31 AM) It depends on if you bought into the "Martz's system" explanation for the struggles of the Bears O-line. I did, and frankly still do somewhat (although my belief in Tice has declined precipitously since the offense looks to have the exact same structure), and if you buy into that, then the Bears' biggest needs were DE and WR. Ill give you WR, I didnt think DE was a huge need especially with Wooten coming back. I thought LB was a larger need.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 07:08 PM) For all the people complaining about the Shea pick, let me just remind you that Emery also took alshon jeffery who before his injury was leading all rookie Wr's in yards and tied for most TDs with Stephen Hill. He may well be the BEST rookie WR in the league. So I'll take that. And who knows, Shea might still be good. Yes but still we took a 3-4 rush end for a 4-3 defense when our biggest need was OL. That's flat out bad drafting.