Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 02:01 PM) A lot of people want nothing to do with Illinois football, which is the primary reason they hired the "200th guy". I never understood why. It's a basketball school yes, but as a kid my family tailgated every home game from the mid to late 80's to the late 90's and it was a decent program back then. They'd win some games, lose some games and usually end up in a decent bowl game (and lose, but still). Since then they've won a big ten championship and gone to 2 BCS bowls, so clearly you CAN win there. Wisconsin is what Illinois should aspire to be at this point. They were awful for a long time and then got a coach and stuck with him for a long time.

I love and hate the holiday season. Picked up Assassins Creed IV for $35 ($38 after tax) at Best Buy over the weekend, thinking that was a great deal. And now Amazon has it for $30.

QUOTE (onedude @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 11:46 AM) Well for show's sake maybe they're phasing them out...and if they're doing that, wouldn't it make sense to show the characters and finish their story early in the season? I don't see the Brody family being an important part for the rest of the series. All 3 seasons have been great, and season 1 is still the best. I didn't think there was a need to bring them back at all. Maybe one episode that shows they've had difficulty moving on and that's that. But it's pretty clear that the future goal is to get Brody to somehow reconnect with at least Dana if not his entire family. Otherwise there would be no point in concentrating on Dana so much.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 10:22 AM) That is just it though, there is nothing in Zook's 2010 and 2011 recruiting classes that suggests this would have been a middle of the pack big ten team going forward. Zook was also coming off a 3-9 season in 2009 where the team wasn't even competitive in most games despite having a number of NFL players. There was literally nothing to suggest he was going to build Illinois into a consistently middle of the pack big ten team after that season. But in those years he had the same problem Beckman has right now - how do you convince 18 year olds to come play for you when all they hear is that you won't be around when they get on campus? It's basically an impossible task for a losing program.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 09:49 AM) His 2010 and 2011 classes were Ron Turner level bad (maybe worse when you factor in attrition) and his 2012 class wasn't going any better before he was fired. Propping Zook up with coordinators who did most of the coaching led to a couple mediocre seasons where Illinois had as much or more NFL talent then pretty much any other team in the Big 10 not named OSU or Wisconsin but predictably Zook's recruiting also fell off because no one had any confidence in him after the 2008 and 2009 seasons and none of the coaches on that staff were particularly good recruiters. If that staff stays together last years team might have been ok but with the lack of talent coming into the program Zook had Illinois heading back to the end of the Turner era. A real program would have fired Zook in 2009 and the next coach would have come into a really good situation to succeed right off the bat. But that would have actually required balls and forward thinking and sadly Guenther doesn't have either of those. Seriously besides Jonathan Brown and Cvijanovic there isn't a single player from the 2010 class who is an above average Big 10 player and you have to stretch to find average Big 10 players. And the only good Big 10 player from the 2011 class is Josh Ferguson with Lacosse and Jon Davis being solid Big 10 tight ends. Notably there isn't a single legitimate Big 10 defensive lineman in either of those classes. Beckman was a bad hire but I have no problem with the decision to fire Zook. Either they should have accepted the fact that he would have built a consistently middle-of-the-pack big ten team with a chance at a decent bowl every few years, or they should have fired him in 2009. Keeping him around as a lame duck coach hurt his recruiting, and by the time they got rid of him it was too late. I think if they had been satisfied with what he was doing and supported him he could have kept up the recruiting and we would have been an average program. Instead, they waited too long and hired a s***ty coach. I can't believe 1 big ten win in 2 years is enough to keep you around for 3 years, talent or no talent. There has been little improvement. He better hope Cubit stays and Lunt is worth the hype, otherwise it's going to be another winless season next year. I still would have given him a 5-600k contract to be a recruiting coordinator. The dude can find hidden NFL talent better than most.

Did someone remind Crean that 'Cuse plays zone? Someone should text him. My predictions: Illinois over GT Cuse over IU Pitt over PSU Mich over Duke Iowa over ND FSU over Minn OSU over UMD Wisconsin over UVa NCST over NU NC over MSU Purdue over BC Miami over Neb Tie, 6-6.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 09:24 AM) Season 3 has been phenomenal. Dana was the focal point of what? One episode? You have got to be kidding. What's been so good about it? And any Dana is too much Dana. The entire Brody family shouldn't be a part of the show. They add nothing.

Oh Christ, you have to be kidding. I loved season 1 of Homeland, and really liked season 2, but season 3 has been pretty bad up to this point. Too much Dana, too much Crazy Claire Danes Carrie, and totally unbelievable in parts (they literally shot her because she compromised a mission for personal reasons and 2 weeks later is allowed in the situation room during a covert CIA operation. GMAFB). I love that it's finally coming together and I hope it continues, but the first 5 episodes were not good television.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 2, 2013 -> 06:33 PM) In the last week I've seen The Artist and Life of Pi and loved them both. I caught Life of Pi last week and thought it was good as well.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 08:46 AM) You're impossible to please. This entire season has been incredible. You must really love Dana.

Finally a good Homeland episode.

The name rang a bell once someone told me he was the star of Fast and Furious, but I couldn't tell you anything else he has been in or what he has done outside of those movies.

Am I the only one who heard this news and immediately asked "Who?"

I'm debating whether to surprise my wife with a laptop this year for christmas. I like the HP Envy series and Sams Club has a pretty good cyber week deal - 15.6 inch touchscreen, backlit keyboard, 4th gen i7 processor, 8gb of ram, 750 gb hard drive for $699. It's the cheapest 4th gen i7 touchscreen with more than 4gbs of ram by $150-200. I like everything about it and the price except for the "HD" screen. It's not true HD, it's only 1366 x 768. Not sure if it's worth spending so much extra money for true HD resolution for an "around the house" (web surfing, photo/video viewing/minimal editing, word processing, email, etc) laptop.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Dec 1, 2013 -> 03:22 PM) You know as well as I do that it's not happening, so may as well give it up. Thomas said this morning he's coming back next year.

I know it's kind of a dying product, but has anyone bought a camcorder recently? This will be my 16 month old son's 2nd christmas, but first real one where he may know what's going on (at least to the extent that there's something inside a box he needs to unwrap). So, my wife and I are looking into a camcorder of some type. We've been using our phones and/or tablet but they don't have the memory (or the right set up really) to leave on for an hour while we unwrap gifts. And it's kind of annoying having videos on three different devices.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 01:54 PM) The heavy workload still irks me, not that that's the reason for the injuries. I just think that's what separates him from someone like Pop who does a great job of taking care of his players when necessary. Duncan averaged between 38 and 40 minutes per game for the first 6 years of his career. 34 mpg and above for this first 10 years. Tack on an extra 3-5 minutes to those averages during the playoffs. And how many long postseason runs did he have? It's really a myth that Pop manages the minutes like some genius. The numbers went down as Duncan got older. No one on the Bulls IMO is old enough to complain about minutes.

And screw an ally by acknowledging China's disputed ownership?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 12:24 PM) It's not on thibs. The guy can't just purposely lose games. It's on the FO. They have to do the right thing. They do that, it won't matter what thibs says or does for this year. Unfortunately, this is the Bulls' front office. Yahoo will go 24 hours without a Kardashian article before the Bulls do something creative. I agree it's ultimately on the FO to make moves, but Thibs can do his part by not playing/coaching like very game is his last.

Based on Thibs' comments, no chance they tank or even try to lose honorably. They will win 40-45 games, get a 4-5 seed and get a s***ty draft pick.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 10:48 AM) I would argue he's had 1 major knee surgery. The other surgery is not very major but unfortunately requires a long rehab time. I have zero doubt that Rose will have the same athleticism as before (I had that doubt when he went down 2 years ago), however, the question is whether he will be able to be healthy. He's got weak knees and, unfortunately, a style of play that puts an insane amount of force on the knees. You simply cannot have him as your main guy going forward.

This upcoming draft is much deeper than Randle, Wiggins and Parker. Those are your three franchise-changing guys, but there are probably 7 or 8 really good/all-star potential guys. Aaron Gordon, Marcus Smart, the dude from Greece, etc.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle...o-tell-the-tale

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 10:20 AM) But even if you blow it up, it isn't going to help the Bulls that much. Get rid of Deng, Boozer, Hinrich, you have enough money to add a Taj Gibson-like player. If Rose isn't Rose, the Bulls will be screwed for a long time. They're not "screwed," but the immediate window is closed. You still have Mirotic. You still have the Bobcats pick. And you can still tank and try to get a top 7-8 guy in this years loaded class.

Are you going to mount it or buy a stand?