IlliniKrush

Visibility is about 10 feet right now in Chicago.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 09:24 PM) Heard there were some bars running some crazy deals tonight in the city. If only I wasn't so far f***in north I definitely would have made an effort to get down there. No, it's not worth it for some cheap drinks. The driving conditions here are brutal right now.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 08:21 PM) Assembly Hall is packed It was paint the hall gray night.

Lot of people stranded on LSD going north right now and have been there for hours. Ouch.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 29, 2011 -> 10:33 AM) Alright guys, educate me. Normally I don't get into college hoops until March Madness... hell, I'm not a college hoops fan. But my gym has like no channels, so it seems like every night I'm watching college basketball on ESPN or Saturday mornings watching GameDay or CBS or whatever, and all the sudden I've gotten into it. Anyway, tell me some teams to watch out for, and some of the best players. I don't start normally looking til closer to the end of February. From what I've gathered over the last two weeks, Jared Sullinger is the f***ing man (and will make a pretty damn solid NBA talent if my eyes do not deceive). Anyway, educate me. I'll bite, but try to be brief. Some top teams, no order: Duke - They have Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith back for their senior seasons. They have a STUD freshman - Kyrie Irving - but he got hurt (toe) in early December and hasn't played since. It is questionable whether or not he'll return at all this season. He is a do-it-all point guard and his status will determine whether or not Duke is a good tournament team or a possible favorite for the title. He's supposed to start rehab soon. Ohio State - As you said, Sullinger is a beast, no one's really been able to shut him down. They have a lot of experienced guys back and they can shoot really well, including from three point land. Kansas - They can score with the best of them, they have pretty good depth. Texas - They are led by a freshman and a sophomore. Very athletic. Good on defense. Pitt - They have a couple of pretty good guards. Is this the year they finally get to the Final Four? Some top players - Besides the guys mentioned above - Singler/Smith/Irving (if he comes back), Sullinger...some other guys: Jimmer Fredette, BYU - Stud guard. If you remember Stephen Curry from Davidson a few years ago, he is similar to him in that he'll shoot from anywhere and make it. He puts up 30+ many nights. Very fun to watch - if BYU is ever on, tune in. Kemba Walker, UCONN - Another guard, has put up huge numbers this year. If he's hot, he can carry the team at times. Jordan Hamilton, Texas - Really good scorer as a forward, he was solid when he played my Illini. Derrick Williams, Arizona - I haven't seen him play yet, but he gets a lot of ink. Supposed to be really good offensively as a forward. Other big ten names - Jon Leuer from Wisconsin, JuJuan Johnson from Purdue, Talor Battle from Penn State, Demetri McCamey from Illinois Not sure how deep you want to go here, but this is a start...

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 29, 2011 -> 01:11 PM) Gonna brag here for a second: Got me 5th and 6th graders to a 4 and 0 record after a blow out win today. Much more fun than I ever thought I'd have coaching, real solid experience so far! Did you eat lucky charms after the game, coach leprechaun?

QUOTE (farmteam @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 01:53 PM) That actually doesn't bother me like storming the court did. It was the first win over a ranked opponent in Crean's tenure, and we've been starving for this. I actually think it's neat he went to the lobby. Somehow after how pissed off I was about losing, I'm feeling better by the minute realizing that by defeating us, IU won the national championship. Wow.

Bears are sure doing a great job covering up this fake injury he should have played with, even though he did once after being advised not to do so and couldn't play effectively afterwards. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/morrissey/3...lic-injury.html

I hate that parties are bigger than the game itself. It's the game that's meaningful, but so much is taken away from it due to all the commercial excitement, the long breaks in the game (sometimes it's hard to remember where the ball is on the field, those types of things), etc. It's more of a spectacle than a game. As such, I think for the first time I'm going to purposely DVR the game, start it late, and be able to watch only the game. Screw the commercials, which aren't more important than the game (to sports fans at least). The times I do this with other games, on purpose or not it's such a great experience. You are so in tune with the game because it's all game play, no commercials, no riff raff halftime crap (unless you want to watch part of the analysis, which is an easy few minutes to find). I find that when I have to start a game late, and I catch up to real time, I almost always hit fast forward on accident, and then get pissed off I've caught up.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 03:07 PM) Tom Brady, 2001 AFC Championship Game, pulled himself with a Grade 1 MCL sprain. Did not return. If only we had Twitter and the even more intense coverage back then...?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:58 PM) After the game the players defended him, and I don't know why anyone would expect anything different. As far as they knew, the guy was injured. No one really even knew the extent of the injury then. Sunday night and Monday morning, I feel pretty confident that the Bears' brass coordinated with one another to determine the best way to handle the situation with the press. I think it was decided that the injury would be reported, that the coaching staff would shoulder as much of the blame as possible, and that all parts of the organization would fire back and defend their franchise quarterback. It was absolutely critical that Jay be painted in the best light possible if he would have any future in Chicago, because if it was acknowledged that he came out of the NFC Championship game, against the Packers, for any reason than that he could no longer play, he would have an extremely difficult time here. I believe the reporters are going with what the organization is saying, and trying to shed light on when Jay did talk to Hanie or others. I'm sure they feel sympathy for him. Players not knowing the extent of the injury gave them evey opportunity to question his reason for coming out of the game. I think the Bears actually did a terrible job getting on the same page and making this look as well as they could, both in-game and post-game. The reporters have no reason to go with what the organization is saying, and have been on the air 5 minutes after the game ended, up until now and nothing's changed.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:47 PM) Secondly, a conspiracy theory is just your way of making this sound far-fethched. There is a reason that the Fox commentators, players from around the league, and millions of fans immediately thought he quit on his team. Because his behavior up to this point doesn't exactly make that such a huge leap. Now you are making a different argument, that the guy is a jackass. Which I'm not going to argue with you - or even disagree with. The argument is whether or not he essentially quit on his team, which he has never done even after getting the crap beat out of him for 2 years.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:49 PM) I know you've argued your position, I just haven't seen any support for it. To have a good theory, your idea needs to be consistent with what reliable evidence is known, and it needs to explain that evidence. You also need to have good reason for dismissing any evidence that goes against your idea. All you've given so far is personal incredulity, and that's not really support for an argument. Couldn't say it much better than that. Well put.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:47 PM) And it was squashed like two seconds later. And I don't get a boner to whatever Brian Urlacher is thinking regardless. That was over two years ago. How the hell is anybody gonna know for certain IF he was faking or not? I mean, I don't think he was but let's not act like there's no reason to question the guy. He WAS hurt. But was he HURT? That's the question. I don't recall a single person ever denying that he didn't get hurt. COULD he have played? That's the argument. And all you guys are acting like somebody raped your mothers. I stayed out of this thread. I do my Bears posting on another site. But this s*** is ridiculous. I would've been suspended long before now. Props to Shack, fathom and sqwert for keepin' it clean. What? How will he know if he was faking or not? If the MRI showed nothing maybe? You don't have to think he wasn't faking because, well, he wasn't. ************* He did play again, despite the recs of doctors and trainers, and couldn't go after it. So yes, he was injured. And it makes sense why he couldn't play. There's a lot of evidence, medically, as well as stories/opinions from those close to the situation's opinion that he didn't quit. The other side is just conspiracy.

Here's a nice article on the nuts and bolts of the injury http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/201...tory?id=6054809

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:30 PM) Are you going to compare Cedric Benson's importance to the Bears and Bears fans as that of Jay Cutler? Not even close. I'm really unsure what this is supposed to prove.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:28 PM) Seriously, you and Illini are just being incredibly ridiculous with your burden of proof. It's as if an organization has never misled anyone to protect itself or their players. It's as if players have never refused to throw their teammates under the bus. It's as if reporters have never looked the other way when they knew damn well what the organization was spinning was bs (umm, steroids, people?). I cannot prove to you that Jay did anything other than get injured and ruled out by his coaches and athletic trainers for the remainder of the second half. Nor was it ever my intention to. And yet, it is clearly your intention to try and prove to me everything happened as it has been reported by the Bears. Well I just don't believe their version of events at this time. I am sorry if that offends you. I am sorry if you can't accept that. But it's my opinion and my belief. The burden of proof IS on you because you are the one with the HUGE conspiracy theory. Everyone is lying, including doctors and MRI results. You think he quit, that's the bottom line. Then the MRI came out, and the media stories and player interviews, and you stuck with it. Props to you.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:19 PM) Jason Whitlock is trying to take the meatball side vs. B & B.... To say it's been entertaining wouldn't do it justice.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 02:20 PM) And you keep believing everything the organization tells you. As if they had a choice to say anything else. And reporters who aren't part of the organization. And and MRI. You're right, I shouldn't believe players. No one has ever called out a teammate in any sport. I believe facts, and you believe the make up world of what you want to believe. It is what it is.

Again, you are making stuff up and ignoring facts. Now, it's the players that are completely covering it up. They're all liars, and they were damn good at being angry about it, too. To a man. This is the biggest cover up in the history of sports, even though he came out with an injury, which is a fact. He went and played in the 2nd half despite the rec of doctors and trainers, and couldn't do it well enough. Then he didn't help, even though it's documented he did. This is awesome.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 01:54 PM) Ok, you're right man. I didn't see constant shots of the guy standing by himself sulking. Every time Jay stopped teaching Hanie how to dissect the Packers' defense, the producer yelled out "Go to camera 5!" because he wanted to catch Jay doing nothing again. There is a vast conspiracy by Fox Sports to make Jay appear as though he quit on the Bears. In fact, I bet that video they were showing was taken from a preseason game earlier this season when Jay was on the bench, and then they changed the background to make it appear as though he was on the bench milling around during the game Sunday! You forgot the green

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 01:50 PM) You're also cherry picking facts that help your case. Why discount the perspective of someone that was actually at the game? So using facts is cherry picking? I didn't discount the perspective of someone at the game. I used the perspective of media that were as close to the situation as possible. What's your feeling - pissed you don't think he helped when he did, or that he actually quit and wasn't injured? It's 2 different arguments.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 01:45 PM) I'm going to look at everything I saw and the entire picture of events and not just believe anything that comes out of the organization or the players' mouths. If you can't recognize that this is a huge PR issue right now, I just don't know if there is a reason to continue the debate. There's the issue. Problem is you didn't see most of it. None of us did. You weren't down there. Instead, you are disagreeing with reported facts, and calling it a cover up, which is what you hope happened, but have no proof.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 01:42 PM) How could he not see more if he's there compared to those watching TV? Really? So everyone at the game saw everything else that was going down on the sideline? Including HEARING things? Where was Barkley, a sky box?

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Jan 25, 2011 -> 01:38 PM) It says in the article that Barkley was at Soldier Field. On the sideline reporting? Or seeing what everyone else on TV saw?