danman31

Danks will be a NRI in spring training. I'm excited to see what happens to him.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 10:45 PM) Who said the Big 12 was the 4th best conference? You implied it. QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 05:12 PM) Big 12 will not get the most tournament bids of any conference, they probably will get less than the Big East (doesnt really count due to size) but also less than ACC, Big 10.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 05:12 PM) No it really isnt. Big 12 has 2 excellent teams KU and Texas, who could potentially meet in the National Championship game. The rest of the conference is a whole bunch of teams who have beat no one and played no one. There is a reason why the SOS rank for the conference is 6. But go ahead and believe what you want, the only people who will say that the Big 12 is the best conference are people who go to or went to a Big 12 school. I have no horse in this race, Im not saying that the Big 10 is the hardest, but I can come up with no objective rationale where the Big 12 is the hardest. ACC and Big East are harder than the Big 12, harder is top to bottom. Big 12 will not get the most tournament bids of any conference, they probably will get less than the Big East (doesnt really count due to size) but also less than ACC, Big 10. Big 12 will probably get the same amount of bids as SEC. But I guess that makes them the hardest conference?? I never said Big 12 was the hardest, but to say it's 4th is flat wrong. Most recent Bracketology has 8 from the Big East, 7 from the ACC, 6 from the Big 12 and 5 from the Big Ten. It's at least in the argument for 2nd best (Big East being my clear #1). There are 8 Big 12 teams in the RPI top 50 as opposed to 4 from the Big Ten and 4 from the ACC.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 05:19 PM) Sounds good. I like Pena seemingly more than most, I think he's going to be a very capable late inning reliever for us. Agree, capable being the key word. He's not great, but he's cheap enough for a capable reliever.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 03:36 PM) People put way too much stock into the B10/ACC Challenge to determine the strength of either conference. That's fine, but the Big Ten isn't good and won it. The ACC is usually a large amount better. QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 03:45 PM) I can see arguments for a variety of different conferences, just Big 12 seems a stretch. To say a variety of different conferences have a better argument than the Big 12 is simply ignorant to Big 12 basketball this season. We'll see what happens in the tournament, but the Big 12 has 2 top tier teams and a lot of depth. 3-9 are all capable of making the tournament and will beat each other up in conference season.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 01:26 PM) Nation's hardest conference? Big 12 has 2 National title contenders, 1 presumably good team (K-State) and then others. Id say the "hardest conference" right now is ACC or Big East. ACC has 4 ranked teams, Big East has 6. Even the Big 10 has 4 ranked teams. Just not sure by what objective standard Big 12 could be considered the "hardest conference". Its not #1 in RPI or Kenpom either. (In both of those ratings Big 12 is number 2, although in rpi has significantly lower SOS.) K State is vastly overrated. Their best win is what? Dayton, Xavier, @ UNLV? Nothing top tier there. Losses to Ole Miss and at Missouri aren't great losses either. Yet K State is top 10 in the rankings, good thing rankings don't matter in basketball. Of course they host Texas tonight so this will be put to the test. ACC proved it's not in a good year after the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Big 12 is probably a solid #2 in the conferences.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 12:24 AM) The blonde in the picture is Kiffin's wife. Nothing to see hear to create a scandal, unfortunately. Ha classic. His wife is quite gorgeous.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jan 16, 2010 -> 08:21 PM) Tennessee hired a "guy with a losing record" because there was no one else out there this late in the game. It's absolutely a top tier job. Look at the history. There's no question it's not... If we had been smart last year and hired Brian Kelly (yes, i liked Kiffin but at the time prefered Kelly), we wouldn't be having this discussion. Don't let 1 year and an unusual circumstance fool you in thinking UT isn't a great job. Maybe, but coaches leave good programs on a moment's notice to take an elite job. Therefore I don't think it's an elite job. Kiffin wasn't really an elite hire either. Turns out he's a spectacular recruiter, but I think our definitions of elite are just different.

QUOTE (Felix @ Jan 16, 2010 -> 06:42 PM) Purdue is choking hard here at the end. Looks like Northwestern is going to hold on by bunch, unless Purdue can stage a miracle comeback and start making shots in the final minute of play. They got cold, but that's a huge win for Northwestern. JaJuan Johnson was in foul trouble all game and as a result NU dominated the boards (how often can you say that against a Big Ten team?) NU still has a shot at the tourney now. The game vs. Illinois in a week will be huge for both teams. Both will probably be on the bubble come March so it could end up deciding the pecking order in Big Ten selection.

QUOTE (WHarris1 @ Jan 16, 2010 -> 03:27 PM) Well, competing was fun while it lasted. Time for a double digit loss. Illinois is shooting like crap and isn't getting blown away by a far superior team on the road. Tough to be too upset about that.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 16, 2010 -> 02:46 PM) Willingham - mediocre coaching record Parseghian - Good at Miami (OH) but not good at Northwestern I would say that's completely wrong. You have to factor in that Willingham and Parseghian were at Stanford and Northwestern. Those are not easy places to win and both had winning records. Willingham won a Pac-10 title. Parseghian had a winning record at NORTHWESTERN and beat Notre Dame 4 times in a row. You can't expect stellar records from the start when you are taking mediocre programs over because there has to be turnover and development. You aren't going to win 8 wins in year one at either place. For example, Jim Harbaugh has a losing record at Stanford (17-20). You have to factor in that Stanford was 1-11 before Harbaugh was there so even 4-8 in his first year was solid improvement. Your point still stands, but I wouldn't use Willingham or Ara in your argument.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 05:13 PM) Tennessee is a great college football job. Florida Texas USC Ohio St Alabama LSU Oklahoma Tennessee Michigan Florida St Miami Penn State In no direct order, are all prime football jobs. Tennessee proved they don't belong on this list by hiring a guy with a losing record at Louisiana Tech. It's a 2nd tier job. It's also hard to be an elite job when you have the 4th highest prestige (at best) in your own conference.

I don't understand this network ban concept from NBC. If they are firing Conan for bad ratings, they shouldn't be threatened by him going to another network. Seems to me the only way you feel threatened by him going to another network is if you think he can draw ratings. So either he's not going to draw ratings and you shouldn't worry about him leaving or he's a valid threat and you shouldn't be firing him in the first place.

Interesting list. Cabrera is the ultimate "Coop will fix 'em" guy except I don't think anyone can. Still a good signing.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 10:25 PM) Another good episode. Bill Lawrence says there is still a shot at another season. Obviously up to ABC. Yeah, tonight was very solid. Jordan, JD and Elliot though so it's not a surprise.

How embarrassing Tennessee. It's a football coach. Grow up.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 10:13 PM) With Chow as OC, Monte as DC and Orgeron recruiting, I could coach that team to 10 wins a season. Ha, yeah. Exactly what I was thinking. Unreal staff.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 08:40 PM) For the glasses marketed with the tv at CES, they had Bono and someone else rocking them and they retailed for like $229.00 Those are for glasses that you can wear all the time. You can go really cheap for standard 3D glasses.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 08:28 PM) Anything that I have to wear is too much effort. When I come home, I don't want that eye strain, nor go through the hassle of looking for the shades(or having to buy them for others) to watch some damn tv. Imagine having a Super Bowl party in 3D. You're going to have to pay thousands of dollars so you can have a party of 10 over. F that. I'm not a fan of 3D TV as an idea either, but the glasses cost a couple bucks at the theater. Not sure where you get thousands of dollars from.

WTF? That result makes very little sense to me. Watch Purdue go and win in Ohio State later in the year.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 07:29 PM) Lane Kiffin to USC according to ESPN. Very fitting. He will clean up that program. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Too funny. He f***ed over Tennessee, I'm incredibly not shocked. This is just classic. Monte and Orgeron going with. Tennessee's great staff is now USC's great staff. The Trojans made the best hire, that is if their program doesn't get destroyed.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 05:43 PM) If he is still bitter about something that happened 18 years ago, he needs to get a life. Except that was his dream job. A lot of people would never get over getting screwed out of their dream.

This is probably a sign that the Sox are worried about Flowers not being ready as a hitter. His K rate at Charlotte and with the Sox last year was just awful. I'm thinking Flowers isn't ready, forget what you hear about his defense.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 03:08 PM) Urban Meyer worked out okay for Florida (coming from Utah). That was after he succeeded at Bowling Green. He did it at 2 places. USC should get a bigger coach than someone who has been a head coach at one place.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 01:05 PM) Why wouldn't USC go hard for Boise State's coach? I personally think the big problem is the looming sanctions are scaring away any top notch coach. Because Dan Hawkins has massively failed at Colorado and he was the last Boise coach. USC should get someone proven they can win at a BCS school, not Boise.