IlliniKrush

People who don't understand how incredibly stupid evaluating won-loss record in conference is, especially when it's a difference of one game, are idiots. Who'd you play, who'd you beat. Besides, everyone doesn't play the same teams in conference.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 14, 2013 -> 06:48 AM) Happy Steak and BJ Day! Fixed

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 08:02 PM) F that, we're a Biggest Loser household. This joke wrote itself, not even going to bother.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 08:00 PM) Sam Dekker should have been 6th man over Sheehey. They played 12 minutes difference, Dekker had more points, assists and blocks, also had less turnovers. Sheehey had more rebounds. Kind of funny Dekker gets honorable mention in media. Yeah, but Sheehy blew him away in douchiness.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 12:31 PM) Yeah, how you game plan for that, I'm not quite sure. Tecmo Bowl style defense, guess the play, kill the QB before play develops.

All Big Ten teams: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big10/...13AllBigTen.pdf

OMG BACHELOR FINALE TONIGHT, PARTY AT STEVE'S

QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 05:51 PM) I just looked on Stub Hub and tickets in my section in higher rows are starting at $250 a ticket. Doubt it will stay that way if IU doesn't get sent then. Will likely be a flood of tickets available at that point. Yeah, it'd be pennies on the dollar that point. IU fans likely own 3/4 of the arena at this point. Like we were talking about earlier, if IU lost the sweet 16 game, the elite 8 ticket would be such an easy ticket for the fans of the 2 teams involved.

QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 05:47 PM) I considered that and it definitely factors in. But how nice would it be to see them lose in the play in game and that be discussed for a couple of days. The play in game would almost be a slap in the face to Kentucky. There is more risk in that scenario though, I agree. That said, I just looked at the SEC Tournament bracket and it will shock me if they don't make it to the championship game, which will get them in clearly. They'll have to beat the Vandy-Arkansas winner which is a given since the game won't be in Fayetteville. Then the winner of Missouri - Ole Miss. I guess Missouri can beat them, but they have yet to win a half way difficult game outside of Columbia this year so I'm not holding my breath. It definitely would be hilarious to watch them playing in the play-in game. I guess missing the tournament brings up some trivia that I don't know the answer to, how many national champions have missed the tournament the next year? Hey now, Missouri beat Illinois on a neutral court, does that count? I mean, I'd say we're "half way difficult"

If I were you I'd take them not making it entirely, not risking the chance they could win a game or two and not have it be as embarrassing.

QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 05:28 PM) I did that last year in Atlanta and some Kentucky fan offered me 20 each for two tickets. I'd have sold them for $40, but I wasn't about to practically give them away to some blow hard Kentucky fan so I took them back to Birmingham and tried to give them away. No one took them so I ate them. Face value was $60 each. Oh well. The Big Blue can go to hell! Haha, I respect you more for that.

QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 05:00 PM) On that note, and I hope I do not have to resort to this. But what is the best way to sell tickets on the secondary market on short notice? What if I need to move my 4 tickets to the Indy Regional living in Alabama? Well I don't think you'll have to worry about it ahead of time. Like you said, you should get that regional. If you don't you get the regional you have time to put them online like stubhub, etc. Same thing if you somehow lose in the round of 32, you have time to use a place like stubhub. That or you can go directly to message boards of those teams and see if people are looking for tickets. Now, the more likely scenario is you lose in the sweet 16 and don't need the elite 8 tickets. To be safe, I'd bring them with to the game, you may be able to sell them to the winning team's (or the other winning team if they played before your game) fans on the spot. Another thing you could try is using your hotel concierge. When we lost in the exact scenario I referenced above, our concierge knew fans in the hotel looking for extra tickets when the game was over. Within a few hours we had cash for the tickets, and could check out of the hotel the next day without worrying about it.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 05:15 PM) It was almost ten years ago, but the one game I went to in Columbus had the atmosphere of a non-OKC NBA game. I was there in 04 and 05, 05 was a good atmosphere only because it was essentially their national championship game. 04 was OK. The place is pretty huge, I always think of it as a smaller United Center.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 03:02 PM) It was always great when you would see an 80 year old husband and wife stand up and cheer with the students. I think we have the best homecourt advantage in the country, and there's no way that's biased. Regardless of where it ranks though, you're right -- when you simply have that many students in an arena it's going to get loud. At least your 80 year olds show up to the game. QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 03:04 PM) I've said many times I am jealous of that homecourt advantage. We have the largest stadium in the conference and the quietest fans. The games where this is no student section is about as loud as a 3rd tier HS game. We can usually give you a run for your money. Half our A section people are rich idiots who don't show up. One thing they talked about yesterday Rock, did they move the student section away from behind the benches? There were games this year I swear it was like MSU, Michigan, etc where they were behind the benches. Luckily, we'll get more students towards the floor with the new renovation project. If you haven't seen it, here's a look: QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 03:57 PM) If you don't think I want them to "go win this f***ing thing" you're crazy. I bought $600 worth of tickets for the Indy Regional in October! But I also had delusions of an undefeated season at one point. And while this team has lost games I thought they should win, it just proves to me how tough it really is. The best coaches in the game who coached 30+ years have won the title no more than a handful of times. To look at IU and say it is a failure if they don't win it all is ridiculous. This team has been enjoyable to watch and regardless of how this turns out, that won't change. Will I be disappointed with an early exit, hell yes. But there are other good teams and all I have ever wanted for IU is to be one of them and to have a shot. Winning the whole thing is gravy and something to be celebrated, but not something to denigrate a team over. I sure as hell hope you don't remember your 2005 Illini that way! If so, that's very sad. And this whole "it's IU, you knew they weren't going to be down for long" is a bunch of crap. All people have been spewing on here for the last several years is how IU is no longer a top program and that they haven't done anything in 25 years, blah blah blah. Now you're going to tell me we should have all known it was coming? I'm sorry, but I get irritated when people sit on their couches and judge others without knowing the full story. I could care less whether you think Coach Crean is an a**hole, a great guy, an embarassment, or anything else. What you or anyone else thinks about "my" team means nothing to me. So forgive me if I have an opinion that doesn't jive with the masses that want to plaster something on TV and talk about how bad it is. Screw that. Coaches have beefs with each other. Should he have handled things differently, sure. But it's OVER. Why should anyone care? As soon at the first ball is thrown into the air Thursday, no one else will talk about it. $600 of tickets, geez. Better hope they get that regional... Honestly with how die hard you are I thought your stance would be different. I'll stand behind my "if they don't make the FF it's a failure." Have expectations, and hope they live up to them. That's how I was with Illinois. Do I look back on that season and hate it? No way. Still very disappointed they lost to a great UNC team. Like you said, FF is tough once you get there. But you could hear me saying with about 7 minutes left in Allstate Arena, "this whole season has been a waste, all this #1 stuff, all of it's irrelevant." And honestly, it would have been if they didn't make the FF. I'd always look back and say "yeah it was a fun season, but it was a bunch of nothing in the long run." It's the same thing with the Hawks right now. None of this matters unless they win the Stanley Cup. Maybe it's just me. To move it over to baseball, I don't look at the playoffs as "gravy" when the Sox make the playoffs. Go win the damn world series. And no, it's not crap...IU eventually was going to get a coach in there that could snag some recruits and get some IU guys to stay home. In college basketball, it's not THAT hard once you get a few recruits in there. Sorry, I'm seeing too many people act like this is NW winning the BTT. One of my best friend's brother is an IU alum and a huge fan, he says that a lot of IU fans right now are just thrilled with the BT title and almost don't care what happens in the tournament. WTF? That just doesn't make sense. As far as Crean...I'm FAR from the only one that thinks he's weird/arrogant/jerk, whatever you want to say about him. Sure coaches have beefs with each other, but I can't remember too many times a guy, after winning a title, goes out of his way on national tv to rub it in someone's face in the middle of the court. Whether you like it or not, just because it's IU doesn't mean it's not a news story or worth talking about. Your "why should anyone care" doesn't really do much...why should anyone care about anything?

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:31 PM) I would love to go Friday. Penn St says "hey, worry about us first" I think on a neutral floor they'll crush them, but who knows.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 01:23 PM) Yeah, I don't have a problem with that rule (needing a student ID with a student ticket). You're right that that's what IU does. If that's all this was, then no problem. But hypothetically, a Michigan student wearing an Indiana shirt would be unacceptable? That just seems too...1984...for my tastes. Plus, if we didn't allow that, we would never get an aerial picture of a full Memorial Stadium, since they only take those when we play Ohio State so everyone is wearing red. Even half the student section wears Buckeye gear for those games. Here's to eternally hoping Hoosier football isn't such a doormat for much longer.... There's no group in the sense that not ALL of the students are in one section. It's confusing, because there is a large mass of students behind the left side basket, and on the nearside lower left level. That looks like our student section, because it's big enough to be one. But that's only a small percentage of all the student seats. The rest are up in the corners of the lower level where it seems the balcony is about the fall down on you, and then scattered all over the balcony itself. The tickets do rotate every game. My freshman year (of my four years, that was by far our best team [the DJ White/Eric Gordon/Sampson's Debacle team]) I only had seats behind the basket or in that near lower level section for about 4-5 of the 15 or so home games. The rest were in random seats, or we didn't have tickets (that year, it was every student had tickets to every game except for two, which were randomly selected for each group of ticket holders). So yes, you don't have tickets to every game -- so, for the sake of this conversation let's say Assembly Hall has 10,000 students seats. There might be 12,000 student tickets, but 2,000 of them aren't there on any given night. A quick Google search couldn't give me any specific numbers on the student section, but I know at least IU's are out there somewhere, and I assume other schools' are as well. I'll look more later. EDIT: Looks like IU has 12,400 student tickets this year. Thanks for the info. I wonder how many schools actually have a "wait list" for tickets/can't get every game. It's a huge reason you have a great home court advantage, roughly half the place is students that are active. In the words of Dakich, "stand up old people."

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:14 PM) Ah I see. Krush did say Thursday, but my addled brain read that as Friday. Well I said Friday in the last sentence, maybe that's what you saw. Thursday early session (and I guess late session) are usually ones where you can get cheap tickets on the secondary market. Friday's sessions will be way higher, as will the rest of the weekend. However, a good way to get tickets a bit cheaper for Saturday/Sunday is to immediately go to the fans of the team that lost, while in the arena, and offer cash. They have a small window to get rid of those tickets and they can get cash on the spot - kind of hard to turn down and try to get more on stubhub or something. Same thing works in the NCAA tournament. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 02:17 PM) doesn't Stubhub charge a minimum $5 fee per ticket, plus delivery or pick up charge? Yeah, it's something like $15 to pick them up, which is ridiculous. I also hate how Stubhub, when you can have it shipped, costs $15 for Fedex. I stayed away from Stubhub this time, kind of feels odd to pay maybe $25 to get a $5 ticket.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 12:14 PM) Illinois v. Minnesota - which s***ty team shows up to play? Good question. I'm not sure, but at least it'll only cost me $7 to watch it. And bonus Michigan/PSU which I'll stick around for unless it turns into a blowout. If we win it'll cost a lot more to get in Friday morning.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 10, 2013 -> 04:19 PM) But that's my point -- my main experience with college basketball was (obviously) with Indiana, and in the student section* people could wear an opponent's jersey, even though we paid less to be in those seats. *I understand Indiana's "student section" is pretty convoluted. It's gotten better in the last few years though, because they made the lower left corner (on TV, it's on the near left side) a "General Admission" student section so people can all get up near the front and it looks like a legitimate student section. And then there's behind the left side basket. Saw a tweet today that IU's student section is 9% bigger than MSU's, Michigan's and Ohio State's student sections combined. That's misleading though, since besides the aforementioned improvements, students are really spread out in the arena. They're not in a cohesive "section." Apparently there was a listed rule, but the penalty shouldn't be "kicked out" as it said that they would be moved to another section. I'll admit it does look terrible if there's an opposing fan in the student section, apparently on TV. But if he bought the ticket, and there's no rule on being a Michigan student to be in that section, then I say he should be able to wear it, and you should go yell at the guy who sold his ticket to the opponent. IU, as of a few years ago, didn't care that there was an opposing fan in the student section, as I did it twice. I did, however use an IU student ticket to get in so I'm sure they could have kicked me out if I couldn't show them an ID. I wore all this crimson stuff on the way in, as soon as I got in I took it all off. It was actually pretty fun getting harassed minus one or two douchebags, but I realize that would happen everywhere. I never really understood the student section at IU, because like you said it's everywhere and there's no real "group," correct? I remember a few of my buddies were up in the 2nd level one game, some were behind the basket, and they said their seats rotated almost every game/couldn't actually get tickets for every game.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 11:52 AM) I like him as a coach because he's brought us back pretty quickly, and by all appearances without doing anything shady. But as a person, he annoys the hell out of me. Very cocky, and frankly way too preachy (including his never ending bible thumping). But frankly, although I want the coaches of the teams I'm a fan of to be likable, I'd rather I like them as coaches first. That's what they're there for. Like I said about this Meyer/Crean tiff, it is hard for me to be impartial about it because I'm not exactly Jeff Meyer's biggest fan, or anywhere close. I thought Dana O'Neill had a good piece on it (as she usually does). Doesn't matter if Meyer really did tell Crean to go f*** himself; Crean can't react like that. That negatively affects him as a coach and a leader. Crean, at best, is a very weird guy. You could call him a lot of other things. It's no surprise he seems generally hated by many. There's definitely something amiss about him. That creepy smile after that exchange yesterday was ridiculous. Yesterday was an embarrassment. Cmon Rex. "So what, move on?" You just won the BTT, go jump around with your team or something. Instead, let's take the focus off that and go call someone out in the middle of the floor and on national TV. Please don't tell me that he didn't know a camera would be on him, either. Post game cameras are always on the coach, especially the winning coach. This whole "we're back" thing is getting tiresome. Again, it's IU, you knew they weren't going to be down for long. In college bball, you need a few good recruits and you can turn it around in a minute. They got Zeller, etc...and they are where they are. This isn't a miracle for IU to be good again. Any IU fan that is satisfied with this season, regardless of what happens in the tournament, is setting the bar much lower than any IU fan should. If they don't make the FF, I would guess most fans with high expectations won't look back years from now on 12-13 and say "OMG remember that awesome team, what a year." They'll remember that they didn't finish the job, when they have arguably the best team/most talent in the country. This is the same team that played with Kentucky last year, basically went with them blow for blow, and there's not Kentucky this year. This could be the best chance IU has at a FF/title for the next 10 years, who knows. Seems that IU fans could be setting themselves up to be "OK" with an earlier than expected tournament loss. If you are going to be Indiana, and you want to play the banner pointing game, then play that card to the max. Expect championships and don't be satisfied by this drawn out "we're back" thing. Sorry Rex I just see you coming on here if they lose in the sweet 16 and saying "Disappointed they lost, but what a great season." I like Balta's attitude yesterday of "go win this f***ing thing."

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 10:16 AM) Rumors probably started on an IU board. If you win the outright conference title you don't do what he did. He's lucky they pulled that out yesterday otherwise it would have been a pretty large fail of a season. All that talent returning and that "unreal" recruiting class got him exactly one more win. Way to stay classy, Crean. It's still a fail of a season if they don't reach the FF, one could argue it's a fail if they won't win the title if they wanted to as well.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 05:47 AM) Isnt that part of fighting etiquette though? I know twice in Bruins games this year where one time Lucic dropped them right after taking a 2-0 lead in Carolina and the Hurricanes announcers saying that is what a professional does when asked to fight during a face-off. And just recently Shawn Thornton did the same thing and said during an intermission interview that as a fighter you should oblige because there are times when the roles are reversed and how that particular player gave him the same courtesy in the past. Almost as if its part of a code. I don't see that. I'm sure every fighter wants to have a fight when they want one, but no, nothing says you have to fight if a guy wants to fight. Guys are turned down a decent amount of the time. Your first job is to help your team win the game. You can turn down a fight if it's going to end up possibly hurting your team. QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 11, 2013 -> 08:32 AM) I so hate fighting in hockey. I absolutely hate staged fighting in hockey, but I'm fine with the spontaneous scraps.

So Izzo went all meatball fan today. During his senior day speech postgame, said in different words, "I'd rather not win the Big Ten if it means we needed Michigan to win to do so." Um, OK.

Hell of an entertaining hockey game. 4 goal deficits aren't overcome very often. Among other things, I'd like to thank Mayers for putting the game at 4 goals. Ridiculously stupid. No one on Edmonton is going to drop their gloves to try to wake the Hawks up, he drops them and gets the unsportsmanlike. I said right away that I guarantee they would score on this PP, it's just one of those penalties you know will end up on the scoreboard.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2013 -> 05:39 PM) The logic was to try to give teams trailing in a game a bit more a chance to catch up, instead of the game being virtually over. It keeps some level of interest in games that used to be over. It's definitely weird though. What other game has an automatic strategy to get back into the game at the end? It definitely takes away from the sport as a whole IMO. Play basketball the whole time. Under a minute left? Series of fouls and free throws. QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Mar 10, 2013 -> 07:30 PM) A few thoughts.... 1. With Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan in the same side of the bracket, I'm not convinced the 2 and 3 seed didn't get the better draws in the BTT. 2. I do not think the foul on Watford should have been called differently than what it was. I will argue this whether it is IU or the Topeka YMCA playing, if the defender makes a legitimate attempt at the ball the call should simply be a foul. End of story. Hacking the right arm of a right handed player about to lay the ball up is a basketball play. The problem lies in the use of the word intentional. The rule was placed into effect in essence to prevent overly harsh, aka flagrant fouls that could hurt someone. There are "intentional" fouls throughout EVERY game in college basketball and 10 or more could be called every night. Murking up the waters is the newer, yet different rule on Flagrant 1 and Flagrant 2 fouls. If Watford (or Johnny Stevens from Topeka) pushes the player in the back with both hands, that's a different call. Watford simply placed one hand on the players back as he swatted at the ball. He got his shooting arm instead. That's no different than hand checking. My opinion on this would have been the same had the roles been reversed. In fact, I hate it every time I am at a basketball game and there is a foul late in the game and half the crowd stands up with arms crossed yelling "intentional". I've hated it for years. Unfortunately, you don't see it interpreted consistently across the country so there is confusion as to the correct intention of the rule. Just my $.02 Here, I'll show how I am indeed objective...I actually agree with you since he made a play on the ball first. The shove was an extra "oh s*** I didn't get the ball...let's make sure he doesn't make this" but since the play on the ball was there and close enough, I was OK with that call. It also wasn't such a hard shove that you'd have to call it regardless of the play on the ball.