IlliniKrush

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 12, 2014 -> 04:41 PM) That's not a real school. Shows how much you pay attention to mid-majors. QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 12, 2014 -> 04:58 PM) It all comes down to winning and lifestyle while winning. At Kentucky you live in a bazillion dollar dorm specifically for basketball players where the players are provided anything and everything you can think of. 99.9% of other schools don't have that. I don't disagree with those benefits but that's not the point. And yes it's about winning too. But it's not about "which coach can make me an NBA player."

I don't understand the whole "X school will get me to the NBA" thing, it doesn't make any sense. You could play for eastwest southern alabama state a&m. If you have NBA talent, they'll find you, and they'll draft you. If you want to talk about it helping their development a little bit? Maybe a LITTLE bit. But one year of a player "developing" at a school isn't going to change much when people are calling the player a possible lottery pick before he even plays a game in college. Do you know why Kentucky and Kansas "put" guys into the NBA? It's because NBA-level talent go to that school.

More lies. "Your story was ambiguous." Yet sources all over are saying Rice told him everything that happened, there was no ambiguity. Which, BTW, if there was ambiguity, wouldn't you go find the tape to clear things up? What's the next lie?

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 03:35 PM) Starks is much better than Tate. Cosby is a better option at PG than Tate as well. And Illinois has now already lost 2 rotation players before the season has even started. It is going to be really interesting to see who starts now. I could potentially see Cosby starting at PG along with Nunn, Rice, Hill and Egwu. That lineup would potentially have a lot of firepower on offense but there really isn't a distributor in that group. I'll take your word for it, as I haven't seen Starks nor Crosby play. Tate's a decent player, but can't shoot or finish well, so you can only use him so much. So, will be interested to see what Starsk and Crosby can do.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-dad...-211458347.html

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 03:25 PM) Tracy Abrams officially out for the season with a torn ACL Certainly doesn't help things. Who knows how good he'll be in a year off it. Hopefully Starks is pretty good, because Tate can't handle the whole load.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 03:20 PM) That icing faceoff rule is interesting, something that I didn't really notice. The Spin-O-Rama rule makes sense, they say the puck is still moving "forward", but not really. It happens a lot, and every team started to do it last year, especially in the playoffs. On most of them, the puck nor the player are moving forward, but another complaint I have is when the skate would make contact with the goalie on it, moving them out.

I'm fine with all of them. The wing taking the draw to waste 10 seconds had to go, easy change. Good with the spinorama gone as well. In other news, HBO not doing 24/7, hopefully someone else picks it up or NHL does it.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 11:30 AM) Now that they hired the guy to run the investigation, any question from here on out will be answered the same ("I can't comment and won't until the conclusion of the investigation"), football continues, 6 months from now we'll all be over it and the investigation will find some communication lapses in the NFL offices such that persons A, B and C were found to have not acted properly. The NFL already has a new DV policy in place, so, the end. Onto the next crusade. Or can we go back to Redskins now? Yeah, either Redskins or gun control.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:52 AM) IMO this is mostly nonsense. This isn't the first time a professional league has tried to cover up something damaging. Perhaps the dumbest example, but not the first. And this isn't the first case of some deplorable act by a major professional sports figure that we've been upset about, but ultimately forgiven. Someone else brought up the example of Hope Solo. How about Floyd Mayweather? Mike Tyson? Countless others. Where was national outrage then? Tyson is still seen as a lovable dumbass despite being a pretty reprehensible person. Taking such strong, unreasonable stands - like Rice or anyone else involved in domestic violence should never be employable again - just seems over the top to me. I'm not justifying Rice, I'm not justifying the stupidity of the NFL. They do deserve what they're getting, and Goodell should resign or be fired. But I can't help feel like there's lynch mob taking over just to pile on and be upset about it. It's just the flavor of the month. It reminds me a lot of the people who were totally fine saying Redskins 6 months ago, but once it became a story they decided how deplorable it was and chastised anyone else who didn't agree with them. I dunno, to me, this has the importance of like a 3 or 4 on a 10 scale. A company trying to cover up it's embarrassing mistakes? Shocking! Not really, no. And it's the NFL, not a school district or a church or some other institution that holds itself to a much higher standard. They (and other professional leagues) have stood by murderers, adulterers, cheaters, gang bangers, etc. This is a league that's all about money and always has been. Why are we shocked when they act in their best monetary interest? And finally, on top of all of this, who among you is going to do anything about it other than be upset on the internet? Who's going to stop watching the product? Great, you've demanded Goodell gets fired. What does that achieve? Like he won't be replaced by someone who will act in a way that protects the NFL and it's money interests? Flavor of the month...yet you agree a commissioner should lose his job, which is kind of a big deal. That's not flavor of the month material. Furthermore, it's not about what I do about domestic violence, it's about what the NFL does (or in this case, didn't do). That's why this started. I guess we'll agree to disagree if you think this is a 3 out of a 10.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 08:49 AM) RG3 or Cammy Cam? I'm leaning towards rg3, no one else seems to be though Cam

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:04 AM) Can we just admit that at some point this is all just piling on? That everyone has this, jealousy for lack of a better word of the NFL, so now's a good time to go after them? I mean, it's pretty sad that the focus of the outrage has shifted from Rice and domestic violence issues in sports to the NFL and how it handled this. Over a video that, again, didn't need to be seen to understand what happened. Absolutely not. They covered it up, lied about it, didn't take it seriously enough, etc. This is a HUGE deal. Piling on? The commissioner might lose his job. I think you're severely underestimating the scope of this. I don't really care if it was the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS etc. My reaction would be the same. To chalk it up to some sort of jealousy? What? They've completely mishandled this thing from the beginning and deserve everything coming to them.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 09:24 PM) Regardless of what both fan bases think, neither team is close to playoff caliber. 2016 is much more realistic time frame for both. I realize neither is close, although 2016 is only 2 seasons from now.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 07:42 PM) Sometimes a .500 pitcher on a bad team is still a .500 pitcher on a good team. I know people don't think a pitching record matters but guys have won 15 or more on teams with a losing record. Some players bring confidence to a team with their presence. I thought Jack McDowell was that kind of guy. So is Chris Sale. People don't think a pitching record matters because, well, pitching record doesn't matter. Especially when there are 100 more better stats to evaluate past performance and predict future performance. If he brings so much confidence, why do the Sox struggle to score runs/hold leads in some of his starts? Why did he have a losing record last year? Not enough TWTW? Sale is good at throwing the baseball past people. It does not have any impact on the offense or the bullpen. Baseball is an individual game.

A quick glance at the standings shows the Sox and Cubs within a half a game of each other. I didn't realize it was that close. What's scary is that the Cubs have a deep system and talent being added to what they've got...the Sox, well, don't outside Rodon at this point. For as "far off" as the Cubs are with this "long rebuild," I'm really not sure the Sox are any closer to the playoffs, and they haven't accomplished anything (playoffs) in the same time frame as this Cubs rebuild anyway.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 07:18 PM) After getting mocked for suggesting this probably wasn't the first time, I don't feel bad about it at all. Yup. BTW, Shack, I pointed out something that I don't think was pointed out before - his actions after the punches. I think that's relevant/interesting.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 06:25 PM) Good guy Ray who only made this one mistake, spit on his fiancé twice before he knocked her out. http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/115...h-lines-reports She was probably being really annoying. You know what else is telling? Even after she was knocked out, he didn't have any sort of "oh s***" moment, he was just dragging her out, looking annoyed. Didn't have the looks of someone who hit her for the first time.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 05:04 PM) So if we are taking what the Brunsons said as true, then Groce's own f*** up caused him to be behind in this recruitment so that doesn't exactly make me feel better about it. And yes, I'm talking about McDonald's AA caliber recruits. Groce is landing some very solid players and has gotten a couple of guys I think will be great college players. But Weber also landed similar caliber players (in terms of rankings) towards the end of his tenure. Land Evans and this all moot, strikeout on Evans and I see no way we land Thomas or Bragg and you will then be 3 years in without an elite recruit and I'm not optimistic about landing one in 2016 (well maybe Murray but our best chance there would be striking out on Evans and then convincing him to reclassify to 2015). Please define "Groce's f***up." Would that be recruiting an elite PG when the chance arose? THAT'S a f***up? The Brunson's, IMO, took offense to it for no logical reason. Yes, Rick, let's put all our eggs into your son's basket. I promise I won't talk to anyone else but you. That would be very smart. And let's not go after guys a year ahead of you either, and build the program any quicker. If Rick took offense to that, so be it. You need to recruit guys whenever the opportunity arises, and we landed him before the crazy late switch. Even if it "cooled" on Jalen for a very short period of time, does that not make sense? Wouldn't Jalen cool on Illinois knowing they had a PG coming in? It was taking offense to something that was clearly nothing, unless you can show me otherwise.

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:51 PM) It's all about protecting their brand. They don't want to lose any customers ($). Roger is just a puppet for the owners. Oh, and that guy in San Francisco is still playing, why? Because there isn't an incriminating video playing on every local and national news channel. under the rug Being soft on Ray Rice doesn't protect the brand, and you could argue actually cost then more customers and money.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:51 PM) If you can't land a single elite recruit in 3 years I don't have faith that you are suddenly going to after that and he isn't playing from behind on any of the recruits in this years class. Well first of all, it depends on your definition of elite, but I guess you are talking top 10/15 guys. Outside of that, he's landed good recruits, especially given where the program was at. Anyway, you're dead wrong on not playing from behind. Did you miss everything coming out of the Brunson's camp after the Snider fiasco? From all indications, Illinois was completely out of the running, and Groce worked his ass off to get back into it and even be considered, let alone top 2.

Not the right move to have his Dad inform the coaching staff he wasn't coming here, but that tells you what you need to know about this recruitment, IMO.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:40 PM) They will be ok. The problem is that it will be becoming pretty clear that Groce isn't capable of landing the cream of the crop. Yes, because he's had just so many chances and has been playing from behind on every one of them.

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) It wasn't to protect Rice. It's all about keeping the money train rolling. They don't care about women who get hit. They don't care about their own players dying prematurely from liver failure and such from being fed pain pills like candy. They fought tooth and nail to squash any concussion research regarding longterm affects from playing football. Except he ultimately started out protecting Rice with this whole thing. It had zero to do about money at that point, and really, still doesn't.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:24 PM) I literally can't believe it. It is unfathomably stupid for a guy as smart as Goodell and for the smart people in the league. You can't lie about these things and not get caught. No chance. Goodell must not have known an executive received it. That's the only logical explanation. If it's an attempt to cover up, just wow. Unbelievably stupid. Historically stupid. I just can't buy that, though. Now, doesn't mean someone doesn't try to take the fall for it, but there's no chance that video doesn't go to the higher ups, including Goodell.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:20 PM) I can't believe how stupidly they've handled this thing. It's really something.