Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 09:46 AM) It seems that Groce has now reached Jay Cutler status in your world. I'm more passionate about Illinois basketball than any other sport so I tend to go overboard with my posts. I would trade every Bulls, Sox, Bears and Blackhawks championship for one Illinois championship. That's where my fandom in sports lives and dies. And it kills me that simple things are not done right, repeatedly. And the program continues to be mediocre save for a few bright spots for almost a decade now. Let's put it this way: 2 years ago I was a 100% believer that Groce was going to get Illinois back into the national discussion again on an annual basis. Now? It's probably 40%. He continues to disappoint me with some pretty obvious stuff. His leash with players is way too long. I get that's part long-term coaching (don't want to kill a guy's confidence so early in conference play) and part style of play, but it's infuriating that he can't coach the players to read who is hot and who should be getting the ball at important junctures in the game. His recruiting at this point has been good but not spectacular. He's really no better than Weber on average. He's obviously got much more potential and it's nice that he's in on the big boys but he's yet to reel one in. Missing on Ulis was big, but somewhat understandable given he was a late bloomer. Bates-Diop was a bigger miss, right next door. The handling of Brunson is well documented and I think the reason we didn't get him. His coaching in terms of play designs is excellent. Always impressed with his out of bounds plays. His coaching in terms of development has been pretty solid, I guess, but there's not much sample size here. Morgan and Colbert haven't improved at all. Nunn and Hill improved, but how much of that is their natural talent and just getting bigger and how much is coaching. Tate didn't improve his shot at all. Rice may or may not have developed without the coaching staff. This one is too difficult to tell right now, when Black, Finke, JCL, etc. develop we'll see. His coaching in terms of halftime adjustments has been average. They routinely lose leads in the 2nd half and there are rarely adjustments to stop the onslaught. His coaching in terms of substitutions is downright terrible. His biggest issue. He has really strange reads on momentum. A game like last night, Tate was actually playing really well despite not scoring the ball. He penetrates. He kicks. He plays very solid defense. He just has a knack for setting guys up. Yes, it sucks that he can't hit a jumpshot, but so long as he penetrates he's finding guys that can hit jumpshots. Starks...ugh. Groce and Co. will point to the 3-4 jumpshots he hit which were big, but so many terrible shots. 17 games in that shots haven't stopped. It's crazy that he hasn't gotten benched at least to send a message to play smarter. And the misc. coaching (use of timeouts, getting T's, working the refs, etc.) is probably average. He doesn't appear to get calls, but I suppose that has more to do with longevity and success than anything else.

Well, road win.

Groce is a f***ing moron. Sticking with Starks over Tate most of the game and then letting Starks keep the ball and shoot in the 2 biggest possessions of the game instead of giving it to Hill or Nunn.

Wtf happened to this team?

Tate too. Good D, good passes. Find a jumpshot and he's a legit big ten guard.

Rose looks like he's got some lift tonight. Good sign.

I see what you did there.

Of course no team in NBA history under .500 this far into the season has won an NBA title so....history is against them. Think of all the teams in the east with legit big guys that will destroy them. Wizards, Hawks and Bulls...

QUOTE (SnB @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 09:36 AM) Started 'The Wire' on prime this week. I'm usually not one for cop shows, but it's always in the conversation w/ Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc so I thought I'd give it a shot. What makes it so good? Everything fits. The things you see in episodes 1 and 2 come back by the end of season 1 (and further). The writing is top notch. The acting is good. It can by funny and poignant. The fact that it's based on a lot of real crap in B-more and other cities make it "real." I can go on and on. I finished a re-watch of season 1 a couple of weeks ago and it all still holds up to me.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 02:04 PM) No they won't. A healthy LeBron can't change the fact that the Cavs have weak bigs, a healthy LeBron won't help Kyrie and KLove not suck on defense, a healthy LeBron can't change the fact that the East top teams are actually good this year... Back to the "he has no help" meme.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 01:42 AM) Did anyone catch the season premiere of Parks and Rec tonight? They introduced a law firm named something like Fwar, Vorp, Pecota, Babip, Dips, and Eckstein attorney at law. A nice sabermetrix hat tip. Thats been around for a couple seasons I think.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 12:27 PM) I really wish Long would leave twitter alone for a while. I really like the guy and he is one of the couple talents ever unearthed by one Phil Emery but he gets into too much drama in the twitter world. Not too long ago he was starting up a fight with Laurence Holmes on twitter. What is the point of this juvenile back and forth with words on social media with your teammate? Grow up dude. I blame Trestman.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 12:48 PM) Is he selling because he actually needs the money due to all the issues going on in mother russia? I'm going to guess is net worth has taking a massive hit. I'm guessing he invested heavily all over the world to protect himself against this very realistic issue with Russian's currency.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 12:04 PM) I don't agree with this. Defense is this team's identity and they have always relied on defense to win games. And guess what, their defense was awful last night (has been for a while now), you can't blame the guy for trying to enforce better defense with that lineup. Run and gun is not Bull's strong suit, you can't beat Orlando in their own game, especially when Gasol was the slowest guy out there and was beat on numerous occasions getting back on defense. I think the blame on Thibs is he didn't put a different look on defense when Vucevic was just abusing Gasol out there. We played too much man to man and there was no way Gasol could have stopped him. In games like this, you'd like to see more traps, double teams, or even some zones. We just let their offense get too comfortable out there, as evident by only forcing 10 turnovers. If fact, we're 29th in the league in opponent turnovers, that has been one of our biggest weaknesses this season. Their defense WAS what they relied on. Now they rely on scoring 105 pts a game. They have offense now and because of Thibs' mentality he doesn't utilize it. And it's frustrating when, as you say, their defense sucked and has sucked for the majority of the season. Make an adjustment, Thibs. Utilize the strengths of the players you have and what they're offering. Right now that's more offense and less defense.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 12:07 PM) http://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-army Slightly different, abduction versus recruiting, but I suppose you're right.

To my knowledge Christians never did this: http://mashable.com/2015/01/13/islamic-sta...om-Tw-main-link

QUOTE (gatnom @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 11:50 AM) Nebraska dared Tate to shoot unlike Maryland, and like everybody expected Tate wasn't able to make them pay. The result: we were playing 3 on 5, and the offense stagnated. That's how things are going to be until Tate actually hits those open shots or until Starks magically becomes worthy of playing time. The team just isn't good, and doesn't look to be good for the foreseeable future. Unless JCL becomes Melo Trimble or we get Lovett/Murray. Then if you're Groce you tell Tate to take 10 shots in a game to keep the defense honest. They both shoot about the same percent (32% for Starks on 3 times as many shots, 40% for Tate).

Yeah i'm not seeing anything great either. On the one hand you can say he "rebuilt" Carolina and took a 1 win team to a Superbowl in 2 seasons, but that same team was pretty crappy the rest of his tenure there. And then he lucked into a playoff off team with a top ten defense adding the best or 2nd best QB to ever play the game. Of course they were going to have some success. I think it would be a good hire, but nothing exciting. But maybe that's just what the Bears need. Some veteran coach that knows how to run a pro-team.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Jan 12, 2015 -> 03:12 PM) For the same reason that you don't see teams running and gunning against Wisconsin. If you aren't turning a team over, they use a lot of clock on offense and they aren't crashing the offensive glass it is hard to play at a fast tempo at the college level without taking bad shots. Pushing the ball against a defense that is set when you don't have guys who are great at creating their own shots generally isn't that effective. Wisconsin's offensive efficiency is #3 according to Kenpom. Nebraska is #259. We instituted a moronic gameplan against them, plain and simple.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Jan 12, 2015 -> 03:09 PM) Sit his ass down for who? Cosby? Rice/Abrams? Hill/Nunn? Tate? As far as running and gunning, we need our guards to rebound because our F/C can't, which limits our ability to have those opportunities. I don't disagree with you in principle, but the roster as constructed is just not good enough. And that is definitely mostly Groce at this point. Everything changes if he can land a point guard or center, though. Tate. Tate isn't a threat offensively, although he's shown that he's capable of driving and getting some FT's or hitting a jumpshot every now and again. What he does do is run the offense better. He's a better passer. He understands how to dribble into the lane and pass to an open shooter. I get that the roster isn't 100% and isn't what Groce was planning, but it's called adjustments. That's what good coaches do. I haven't seen it yet from this guy. Also totally disagree on the run and gun comments. That's how you attack good defenses with terrible offenses. I'm not saying you run down the court and jack up a three (they do that anyway!) i'm saying you quickly get into your set to maximize the number of possessions you have when you know the other team on their offensive possession is going to take the entire shot clock and won't be very efficient scoring the ball. I saw (and continue to see) way too much Weber bulls*** offense where everyone is at the three point line, passing for 30 seconds before jacking up a contested three. It's garbage offense and hasn't, and doesn't, work unless everyone is on fire (the Maryland game). I mean, someone explain to me why they weren't doing some ISO post plays for Hill? Why is it that after 4 years Egwu hasn't learned to look for a cutter during his post "moves" (I think i've seen him pass one time out of the post in about 50 attempts this season). Why aren't they running designed plays to get Egwu an open 15 footer on the baseline which he's deadly at? Why is it either terrible post move or 3 pt shot from him? Snider is absolutely the biggest issue here. He changes the trajectory of this entire program if he honors that verbal. As it is, this program is stuck out of the big dance unless Murray reclassifies or JCL becomes the best freshman in the conference next year. I don't see this team being any better next year with the additions of Abrams, Paul and JCL and the losses of Rice and Egwu. Jesus, we have to rely on Maverick Morgan and Darius Paul for an entire season. That's scary.

Three big things holding this team down: Rose, Noah and Thibs. Which is crazy to say but it's true. Rose's defense is atrocious, as is his jumpshot. Teams are going under the pick and roll so he'll shoot, and Rose is taking them for some stupid reason. He's hurting the offensive flow when he's in the game, and his defense, well, is just terrible. Noah. I love the guy, but he's either hurting our out of place or something. He looks terrible. He still makes the occasional great play, but on defense he and Pau are not communicating enough. And his offense game is non-existent. Thibs. Tough to criticize the man, but his substitutions are terrible. He keeps defensive guys in there (sans-Taj) when they're down 15. What they really need is their explosive offensive group out there - Pau, Mirotic, Butler, Snell/Moore/Rose and Brooks. Let them run and gun. And it so happens that Mirotic, Snell and Moore, along with Butler, have been playing some fantastic defensive minutes the last 2 weeks. I don't understand why Moore isn't playing over Hinrich at this point. He's looked really good all season. There's been nothing I've seen that indicates that Hinrich is a better option at this point. Moore is younger, more athletic, more explosive and has a better get-to-the-rim game.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 12, 2015 -> 03:09 PM) Midas is a criminal outfit. Take it to a mechanic you trust next time. I don't know one, that's the problem.

What really grinds my gears is his inability (or refusal) to call set plays. He gives guys way too much freedom. When Starks jacked up about 3 of his bulls***, rec-league, fall away three pointers, he remained in the game. f*** that. Sit his ass down. Those are TERRIBLE shots. You can't mount a comeback against a 9 or 11 point deficit with wasted possessions. Not to mention his whole game plan last night was stupid. Nebraska is a very good defensive team and a terrible offensive team. So why are they spending 30 seconds every time down the floor? Run and gun that s***.

SS - I feel your pain. The other morning my car starting smoking from the engine and I noticed a belt had slipped off a pulley near the engine (one month after paying the car off). Took it to a Midas, they tell me the water pump broke and was seized. $550 bucks parts and labor. Had them fix two sway bar links in the front while they were working on it. Another $175. Have no clue if I was getting screwed or not. Total trust that (1) they're telling me the truth and (2) the prices are somewhat reasonable.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 12, 2015 -> 07:47 AM) Definitely. It's the ignitor, so at least I was able to start it with a grill lighter and it's warming up in here. What a pain in the ass that you can't just buy replacement parts yourself, though. If Home Depot etc. carried parts, I'd have this thing fixed already. Instead, I've got to call an HVAC company, have them come out and "diagnose" what I've already figured out, try to sell me a bunch of other services and ultimately charge me probably $150 for a part that can't cost more than $10 to replace myself. You can buy most parts online. I had a similar issue with a heat sensor last year. 2 dollar part that I replaced in 5 minutes.