Boogua

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 18, 2015 -> 06:09 AM) I was at the UC last night, so I didn't se any of the Illini game. What did I miss? You just missed a team that looked lost out there. The Illini ended their season 13-11 with Rice and 6-3 without (with two of their best wins coming in this stretch with Jaylon Tate, the worst player on the planet apparently, getting 31 minutes and 29 minutes in those two wins). Good bye Egwu. Good bye Starks. Good bye Rice.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 17, 2015 -> 09:55 PM) Tate should have never been offered a scholarship. That's fair. I just don't think it would have been that big of a problem if he was getting

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 17, 2015 -> 09:24 PM) And I still can't get over how bad the 2011 class turned out. Ibby Djimde and Mike Shaw are terrible even at mid-majors right now, Devin Langford wasn't close to a high major player, Egwu isn't any good, Abrams is an average Big 10 guard and Myke Henry isn't any good either. Then we offered Michael Orris who is a f***ing joke in the 2012 class and Jaylon Tate in the 2013 class. I mean seriously what the f***, basketball isn't that hard. Yup. The only 2 players that were average longterm from the 2010, 2011, and 2012 classes were Abrams and Egwu. That's insane. Groce has screwed up not recruiting a better PG, but he was a bit unlucky by Abrams tearing his ACL too. He had to try to rebuild with a bunch of transfers that ended up being failures. I don't think Groce ever expected Tate to play this much for his program either. If Abrams was healthy Tate and Starks would have been splitting 10-15 minutes per game off the bench.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 17, 2015 -> 09:09 PM) I don't think simply making the tourney should be enough next year. If they get in as like an 8 seed or lower that just isn't good enough in year 4 at Illinois unless Groce has some fantastic players committed. It really shouldn't be this hard to win at Illinois. I think its hard to be great at Illinois (i.e. Self) but it just isn't hard to win there. I agree. Now I'm curious as to what coaching staff changes are made. Maybe Ford? Isn't he the big man coach? If so, he should probably be gone considering how the big men have developed recently. I have to think a change or two will be made considering how the season ended.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 17, 2015 -> 08:54 PM) We've said that about every class after Dee and Augustine graduated. We haven't had good enough players or coaches. Time for the university to either make a concerted effort to make the basketball program relevant again or why even bother. And it's frankly incredible how bad some of the players Weber and Groce offered scholarships to have been. Really isn't hard to find players better than CJ Jackson, Djimde, and Tate (among others). I don't think many were saying that about the Paul and DJ class. I also don't think people will be saying that when Hill and Nunn are seniors, but I know what you mean. This group of seniors just seem dumb. Starks with fadeaway 3s after no passes, Rice trying to go 1 on 5, and Egwu-king of the moving screen. At least Groce is gone if they don't make the tournament next year. I think they make it though (barring injuries).

I'm just happy I never have to see any of these seniors play again. Even Rice.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 09:09 AM) Pat Riley should have offered Lebron everything and let Wade walk I don't think there's any chance Lebron would have signed with the Heat. He wanted to win more rings and that was very unlikely to happen in Miami.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 03:33 PM) At the end of the day, everything is on Groce. He is the one who took on the failed transfers of Paul, Cosby, and Starks. He's the one who hasn't found any better recruits than Tate, Colbert, and Morgan. He's the one who let his team basically quit on him in several opportunities to get to the tournament. If we're talking trajectory, we've just missed the NCAA tournament for two consecutive years for the first time in 25 years. We still don't have a legit PG or C. We still haven't landed that big time recruit. The trajectory is every bit downward. I guess you could argue the recruiting has been better, rankings-wise, than Weber's last classes, but we're still doing the whole "let's recruit 10 wings and see how it works out for us" thing. He deserves another year, but he has a lot to prove. So it's all on Groce that the only upperclassmen on the roster that was highly recruited was Egwu? Groce had to take risks on transfers because of what he inherited. I'm not absolving him of the blame, but to say the trajectory is the same just seems to be a bit of an overreaction.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 03:08 PM) The Weber thing is always strange from an outside perspective. When he was at Illinois I always thought they played Wisconsin pretty well. He's a fine coach when he has guys that can fit his system. He didn't do well recruiting to his system at Illinois and doesn't seem to be doing well at K State either in that regard. The team was about to become devoid of talent. To put it in perspective to an outsider these are the schools where some of his last recruits are playing: DePaul, Bradley, NIU, SIU, San Jose State, and Kentucky Wesleyan. The only three guys that were weber recruits on the team last year were Bertrand, Abrams, and Egwu. You can include Hill if you'd like. That's it.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 01:09 PM) Honestly they are on the same trajectory. This isn't true. The trajectory with Weber was a perennial cellar dweller. If Groce got fired tomorrow, you couldn't honestly look at the team that Groce would leave behind and the team that Weber left behind and say that they're similar. I'm not giving up on Groce quite yet. On the surface, two straight bubble years is terrible, but looking deeper into both years one can see the problems that occurred. Last year the Illini got hot late and were a missed floater away from likely making the tournament. This was with the exact same projected starting 5 as this year and two of the guys were freshman. This year, he loses his best offensive big man to suspension, his starting PG to a torn ACL, his best player for an extended period of time due to hand surgery, and a key transfer losing his mind. Not to mention Nunn missed a lot of the offseason due to injury. Once the team started to gel after Rice went down (players had more defined roles), they looked like a tournament team. Rice came back and the team seemed to go to hell outside of the Northwestern game. I don't think that's a coincidence. Statistically Rice is an extremely efficient player, but the Illini are worse on offense overall when he plays. It's weird. I think the Illini would have had a better shot to make the tourney if Rice never came back. Just my opinion, obviously. All-in-all I think it's still too early to completely give up on Groce. There were some unfortunate events that occurred this year. If they don't make the tournament next year, for any reason, then I would want him gone though.

So I'm pretty sure the Illini are -19 with Starks on the floor so far.

K State loses to TCU again. The first time K State will miss the tournament since 2009. He's pretty good at turning programs around.

QUOTE (shipps @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 02:55 PM) If the Bears cant trade Cutler for a couple high draft picks like a second and third then they should just keep him. Yes those two picks would be an over pay for some dumb team but that's all I would trade him for if I am the Bears. I'm with you. No QB the Bears have over the next two years is going to be better than Cutler. Just keep him if you don't get what you want.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Mar 7, 2015 -> 06:35 PM) John "NIT' Groce is his trademark Luckily for him he doesn't have to worry about being fired this year due to the dumpster fire he inherited along with major injuries this year. If he misses next year he's gone though.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Mar 7, 2015 -> 10:03 AM) I need some betting the house bets today. Michigan State and Indiana? Illinois and Purdue? Any of these games an absolute lock? Neither of those games are close to being locks IMO.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Mar 6, 2015 -> 09:02 AM) Stop it. Not close. Briggs was a really good fit at WLB in the Tampa 2 defense. Urlacher is and was an absolute freak though. This is going to start a war but Brian Urlacher is the best LB in franchise history. Come on Butkus people, let me have it haha It's really hard to compare different eras. Urlacher is clearly much more athletic as most players now are much more athletic than the 60s. Butkus has more accolades. He has one more DPOY, one more first team all pro, and one more second team all pro. He also made two different all decade teams. Football is the sport where athleticism and strength matters the most IMO, so on the surface I would agree with you. In terms of what they accomplished Butkus is better though.

Lovett is postponing his decision. St. Johns is still actively recruiting him too.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Feb 28, 2015 -> 07:19 PM) He's done fine at KSU. Won their first conference title in a million years then followed it up with a tournament bid after everyone left them for dead. This year has been rough with the one of the biggest cancer in cbb Marcus Foster rearing his head but I guess they still have wins over KU, Iowa State and Oklahoma. O/U 3 years. Cancer Marcus Foster was one of their best players last year.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 28, 2015 -> 06:41 PM) Illinois can't miss Zone generally has problems against Illinois.Ohio St ran it against the Illini and the Illini were leading for a bit. Once tOSU went to man it was over.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 28, 2015 -> 05:02 PM) Bruce Weber can't coach What MVC school do you think he takes over after being fired from K St?

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 26, 2015 -> 12:17 PM) So what sites do people here use? I have a local that I use but would prefer getting into a large site with more options. Unfortunately i can't register at bovada because NY state is so awesome I have used betdsi and bookmaker and have been able to withdraw from both. Dsi sent a shady check one time, but they ended up sending me a new one that worked. So I like bookmaker better, but dsi tends to have better bonuses

Egwu showing the savvy that only seniors have. He has to be one of the dumbest players in terms of basketball IQ that I've ever seen.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 25, 2015 -> 09:55 PM) Their perimeter play should be fine but the post play is going to be mediocre Offensively they should be significantly better out of the 4/5 positions because Egwu is terrible on offense. They'll take a hit on defense though.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Feb 25, 2015 -> 09:45 PM) We need Coleman-lands to be a stud next year. At least Abrams/Tate should be much better at the 1 than Starks/Tate. Starks is a severely undersized SG. If JCL can give anything at the 1 that would be huge.

I never thought I'd miss seeing Tate out there so much.