danman31

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Dec 22, 2010 -> 10:22 PM) It was bad judgment, I dont think you can look at the circumstances objectively and come to any other result. Even if my team won that way, I would still in my heart feel that it was cheap.You dont kill a team unless the guy really went out of his way to hurt him. It was my team and I feel pretty good about it. It was the right call. The ref saw two extended arms to the waist, when he sees extended arms he will call it every time. It's a potentially dangerous play. People complaining about those calls not being made are wrong. How often do you see a guy extend both arms to the lower back of a player well in the air? It comes up so rarely. Also, the free throw (he made both on the intentional) would have made it a 4 point game with 40 seconds left. That's not over, but that call didn't decide the game. It just ended it. QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Dec 22, 2010 -> 10:32 PM) How many good recruiting classes must we see come into Illinois and play for underachieving and mediocre teams before Bruce Weber, the man who has driven Illinois basketball into irrelevance, is rightly fired? I have to say, from my viewings of Richmond this year (which are bits and pieces before tonight's game), that he is surprisingly untalented. He's slow, doesn't have a great jumper, isn't aggressive enough on the boards (though that's expected for a freshman) and didn't wow me with athleticism that is probably still somewhere in that body. He looked lost out there. I'm sure he'll be fine in the long run, but given the hype I thought he would come in and be a solid starter as a freshman. QUOTE (farmteam @ Dec 22, 2010 -> 10:35 PM) IU loses to Northern Iowa. On a neutral court against the 2nd or 3rd best team we've played all year, I wanted a win...but I'm not entirely surprised. Crean said it best recently...Oladipo needs to focus on being a great player, not making great plays. At what point does the Indiana fan base turn on Crean? He's done a pretty awful job there. Calipari turned Kentucky into a #1 seed in a year and has them ranked the following year with a brand new team. Crean is looking at the NIT (at best) in year three. Year three! Why haven't I heard more hot seat rumors about him? QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 22, 2010 -> 11:06 PM) Sucks to lose this game they could have won, but Mizzou had to win a Braggin Rights game eventually. Eventually? That's two in a row. The days of Illinois winning every year are over with Mike Anderson coaching. I expect more fantastic games to come.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Dec 21, 2010 -> 11:28 PM) Let's not go crazy here. Losing to a middle of the pack Big East team because they played their worst half of the year isn't going to kill them. Everything still depends on what happens in conference play. St. John's is likely not a middle of the pack Big East team. They have wins over NU and Arizona State with losses to St. Bonaventure, St. Mary's and Fordham. St. Mary's is fine, but St. John's will get smashed in the Big East. The loss also proves to me that Northwestern isn't capable of going 11-7 in the Big Ten. If you can't beat St. John's, there aren't 11 wins in the Big Ten to be had. Even then, with an awful OOC resume, 11-7 only puts them on the bubble anyway.

Northwestern just took themselves out of tournament consideration. Can't lose to St. John's when your best OOC win is Georgia Tech.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 20, 2010 -> 09:03 PM) Up until Saturday, UI was one of just a few teams to score 70+ in all of their games. Then they gave UIC a game because they dipped down to 54. I'm guessing it was just a huge aberration. I agree, but it still needs to be noted. UIC isn't supposed to beat a top 15 caliber team even on a bad night.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 20, 2010 -> 09:24 AM) IMO Illinois is a top 10-top 15 team. I think they have the potential to make a deep run in the tourney. It obviously all depends on if they show up to play. These players, lead by the worthless Mike Davis and the soft Mike Tisdale, have always played down to their competition. That's been the theme of their tenure here. Wow, so to you the UIC game didn't happen? I find it interesting the range of reactions here. Some saying Illinois is a bubble team, some saying top 10-15 team. It's probably somewhere in the middle though. I don't think Illinois is a second week of the tourney team, but you never know what the draw gives.

I refuse to call a team with a 2-5 record against major competition a good win.

Right, but like I said you had to be thinking that before Saturday's game anyway. It's a terrifying loss, but it shouldn't drastically change the perception of the team. This is not a top 15 team in the country. Their only good win is North Carolina and I don't know how good that is.

I hate saying this, but shooting less than 33% excuses most losses, especially close ones. Granted, getting easy shots it part of a good offense, but a bad shooting night happens and shouldn't be looked into too much. Same goes for 4-17 3s. It happens, whatever. If you get blown out by UIC, it's another story, but having an outlier of a shooting night and losing close isn't an indictment. At worst, it's a concern and if you weren't concerned about this team going in, I think you haven't been watching much of the team.

The year Tennessee is consistent is the year the world ends (or Bruce Pearl isn't their coach). How do you beat Villanova and Pitt and then lose to Oakland and Charlotte?

After seeing highlights of Eastern Washington's semifinal from tonight, their red turf is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. At least Boise's blue is close to green in terms of color. Red is just out of control.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 08:26 PM) The Heat are making puppy chow outta the Knicks tonight. The Big 3 look totally unstoppable. Miller will be back soon. They're gonna be a tough out come spring. The playoffs this year should be fantastic. The West always has some solid teams, but the second round and beyond in the East has some potentially amazing match ups. If all four teams are healthy, the Bulls, Magic, Heat and Celtics makes for a great final four. Of course, Atlanta could give someone trouble in the first round. Heat vs. Magic second round and Heat vs. Celtics conf. finals? Wow.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 06:00 PM) Pretty excited about Golden being hired. Turned Temple around and he is a young, energetic coach with a blue collar mentality. We'll see how long he stays once JoePa dies. I find it interesting that Kansas and Miami hired coaches with similar resumes. I'm not sure if that's a bad sign for Miami or a good one for Kansas.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 05:25 PM) I'm in 'Bama for the week for work. Man, it's crazy how much more everyone is into college football down here. More than 50% of the people have Alabama or Auburn gear on. Well one is the defending champ and one is going to the title game this year. Both fan bases have extra reason to be showing their colors.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 07:28 PM) Considering they shredded the press 2 years ago that is simply false. They were awful against Mizzou last year but that is an outlier. Mizzou has only been good for 2 years under Anderson. That's 1-1. How do you know which is the outlier?

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 09:37 AM) Mizzou and Vandy last night had a GREAT game. I honestly don't remember a time where a lead was built up over 3 points. Mizzou is really overrated. They're struggling against good, but not great teams and blew that Georgetown game. They might have the worst perimeter d in the country.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 11:20 PM) Oh I'm aware of their tendencies, doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen every year. And that's part of my problem with all the MSU fans I have to deal with daily. I respect Izzo, but after that I can't stand anything about that school and it's fans. They make it seems like it's ok to lose games all the time. If I had a $1 for every time I heard "They'll be fine in March" I'd be a thousandaire. The thing is, they've made 6 Final Fours in the last 12 years. That's as close to a lock as it gets. The statement "They'll be fine in March" is usually right.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 10:46 PM) I love it when Michigan State fails. They do this every year. Ranked top 5 preseason, lose some games out of conference, win the Big Ten, make the Final Four, repeat.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Dec 6, 2010 -> 11:10 PM) If Wisconsin was a finesse team like Oregon then I would be concerned. Sitting 5 weeks for a team like Oregon can make then fall out of sync. Which is exactly why I'm going to bet the heck out of the under.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Dec 6, 2010 -> 01:07 PM) You realize this is Mizzou's Super Bowl. Just like it was for Northwestern. And Wisconsin. And Ohio State. And Minnesota. And Arizona. And Iowa State. We're the only team to lose our Super Bowl against Iowa. Their (vocal) fans are f***ing retarded. I don't understand why this is our super bowl, but ok. I'm good with playing a name program like Iowa. I'm not as good with having to play a 7-5 team, but I'd rather win against a crappy team than lose to a powerhouse. That said, I'm sure Ferentz will have Iowa ready to play well. I just think their o-line is going to get Stanzi killed against our pass rush.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Dec 5, 2010 -> 07:46 PM) M-I-Z LOL. I've been reading some Iowa stuff since the announcement and I had no idea they thought their program was that good. Who knew? I feel like I could show a Northwestern logo to an Iowa fan and they would cower like a vampire to a cross so I've always looked down upon Iowa ha.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 4, 2010 -> 12:36 AM) Also, no major college team should ever play a game at Fresno St. That field is a f***ing joke. It makes the turf at Soldier Field look majestic and Ian Thomas almost certainly blew out his knee in large part because of that piece of s*** turf. I think it was actually his ankle that got f'd up. His foot got contorted in an awful way. QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 4, 2010 -> 01:03 AM) The 4th down spot was bad enough that the Sportcenter anchor made fun of the officials for screwing it up. That said, the 3rd down spot was in Illinois' favor.

Wow Kansas gets bailed out by the refs. UCLA hit a 3 to tie it with less than 10 seconds. On Kansas' possession there was a loose ball and they called a foul that wasn't even a shooting foul on UCLA with less than a second to go. That's terrible.

So it's going to be 100 and you have to wear clothes covering shoulders and knees? Yeah, I hope no one goes.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 01:46 PM) I think we should feel more dirty about missing than the US, the US at least had the World Cup 16 years ago, we've never had it, and if FIFA is all about taking the World Cup to new places, we should have got it. We have the stadiums built, we're a mad sporting nation and it would have been as good as Germany 2006 was IMO. FIFA is more corrupt than the IOC, NBA and other major sporting organisations around the world put together, the Panorama Documentary by the BBC proves that. Just sickens me. Yeah, I was hoping Australia would land it if the US didn't. New area plus a more developed, bigger nation that actually has a solid team as well. It's a shame. QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) Australia does have a better case than the US. The US, almost by default, can put together the best bid every cycle. In fact the US could most likely run a World Cup with less than 2 years planning (my guess is that the US is almost always the back up plan in case their is a problem with the selected bid). There is precedence for this with the Women's World Cup in 2003. China was going to host, but SARS made them move it. They had 4 months notice. Granted, it's not the same scale, but it furthers your point.

Overshadowed by the ACC Big Ten games was far and away the match up and game of the night: Mizzou-Georgetown. Mizzou came back from 18 down, but blew the game with free throws in the last 30 seconds. They missed 3 out of 6 in the last minute and Georgetown hit a chuck at the buzzer. Then Gtown continued the onslaught of 3s (3-4 in OT and 15-32 for the game). One of the sicker 3 point shooting performances. To shoot almost 50% on that many attempts is unreal.