Boogua

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 4, 2012 -> 09:58 PM) OSU lost a commit today because a pedo was tweeting players and stalked them and recruits after the spring game. Showing once again that social media and young athletes is a bad mix. Yeah, some tOSU fans are scared they might lose Bosa because of it too. He was in that same picture.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 27, 2012 -> 10:37 AM) My friend texted me that Scouts graded out McClellin a 92, Chandler 94, Mercilous 89. Hopefully Emery got a surprise here The thing with Chandler is that he's somewhat of a developmental guy. Right now he appears to be better against the run than pure pass rushing and the Bears need a pass rusher. He's got a ton of upside and if the Bears were in rebuilding mode I wouldn't have minded him. However, the Bears are in win-now mode with Urlacher, Peppers, and Briggs all getting old, so they had to take a guy that contribute right away. McClellan looks like the best guy to do that at DE with what was left on the board.

After reading more and more about McClellan I'm a bit excited about him. I don't hate the pick (the only pick I think I would have hated there was Chandler Jones), but the fact that DeCastro was still there makes it tough to swallow. I wish DeCastro was off the board so I could fully enjoy the McClellan pick, but I just can't.

Also, sure LT is more important than LG. I can agree with that. However, LG has shown to be pretty important. Logan Mankins is a pretty good player. How about Carl Nicks? Steve Hutchinson in his heyday? DeCastro graded out very, very well. I mean, Danny Watkins went #23 last year at Guard and the guy was 27 years old. DeCastro was insane value.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 10:51 PM) Im gonna have to assume that is referring to EDWIN Williams, not Chris, and Louis would be the starter I imagine, not Spencer. The only reason Louis wasnt playing RG was because of Carimi's injury. Edwin actually graded out pretty well last year. Better than both Chris Williams and Spencer. So it wasn't referring to Edwin. And Spencer started over Louis at Guard last year, so I'm not sure we can just assume that Louis starts at Guard this year.

According to ProFootballFocus, Williams and Spencer were two of the worst Guards in football last year. DeCastro was one of the highest rated G prospects in a while. You guys might be happy with Williams and Spencer with Lance Louis as a backup, but I'm not. If Tice likes Webb, fine, keep him at LT and Carimi at RT, but to say they didn't need a Guard was false. I've seen mocks where the Bears took Glenn at 19. I've seen other mocks where the Bears took Zeitler in the 2nd. Apparently other people think Guard was a need too...

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 08:47 PM) Kirkpatrick no, but DeCastro and Reiff. Just do not take Chandler Jones Bears, dont do it. +1 DeCastro falling to the Bears would be insane. I also hate Chandler Jones.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 08:07 AM) With their roster, they ought to be packaging that many picks and trying to move up. Couldn't they use some DT depth behind Raji? Raji was unbelievably bad last year. Maybe all those snaps two years ago had something to do with it, but yeah, getting some depth might help.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 11:25 AM) He should apply for the "Weber left the cupboard empty" exemption Eh, I don't know if I completely agree with the cupboard being empty. It's a poorly constructed team with imbalanced classes and a lack of a true PG, but there are numerous top 100 players on the roster and 4 of them are just going into their second season. If Abrams makes huge strides at PG next year the Illini could surprise some people, but I expect two years from now is when they are back in the top half of the Big Ten.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 11:21 AM) He's gotta sit out a year right? Unless he gets some kind of exemption? Yeah, he has to sit out a year. He should be pretty important next year when Brandon Paul and DJ Richardson are both gone.

Rayvonte Rice is transferring to Illinois from Drake. Averaged 16.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG as a true sophomore. Will have two years of eligibility left.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 23, 2012 -> 01:21 PM) Last week I read an article that Lovie was wining and dining him, but they expected Jones to be gone by the time they picked. Maybe his stock has risen in the past couple months due to workouts and combines. If he is built like his brother, he is pretty long and athletic I sincerely hope the Bears don't draft Chandler Jones. The guy had 4.5 sacks last year and 4 the year before. Wes Bunting has him as his 11th best DE in this class and gives him a grade of 6.0. He also missed time with a knee injury last year. I really, really hope the Bears don't take him. EDIT- I'd be fine if they took him, but not in the first.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 13, 2012 -> 09:31 AM) Yeah, but it's easier for LeBron to defend a guy that isn't hitting his jumper and shut down his game around the hoop than vice versa....A player that can hit like that from the perimeter is going to be much more difficult to guard than one who has to go to the hoop a lot more. Obviously, which is why I pointed out that Rose couldn't hit anything. Rose isn't a bad jump shooter. Two years ago, when teams still sagged off of him, he averaged nearly 7 attempts a game from 16-23 feet and shot 44%. Very, very solid. Teams have had to play Rose more honest over the past few years because of the improvement on his jump shot. It's just that last year's ECF has made everyone think Lebron is some sort of Rose stopper. If Rose is healthy, I just don't see it.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 13, 2012 -> 09:18 AM) I'm sure you guys see more basketball than me, so you are probably right...I dunno if maybe LeBron learned Rose's game more or if he just disrespects Rose's jumper so he doesn't have to play him like he would Terry. But let's make one thing clear here...Terry is a much much much much much better shooter than Rose is... Oh, no doubt, but Rose is obviously much better at driving than Terry. Rose isn't the greatest jump shooter, but he isn't Rajon Rondo either. He's usually a better jump shooter than how he looked in the playoffs. I don't know if it was the injury or the fatigue from the season. Maybe both. But he missed a lot of shots that he usually hits last year in the playoffs. And I don't think Rose will be 100% in the playoffs. He needs to learn how to play a step slower and set up his teammates a bit better. He looked absolutely terrible in pretty much every facet of the game last night.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 13, 2012 -> 08:59 AM) No, I know...I realize Rose is rusty and injured. But Rose was fine all the other times LeBron shut him down...and you can see it in Rose's game now...he is lost for what to do when LeBron switches to him.... Maybe in a few years when LeBron starts to lose a step and Rose is still young he will be able to get to the hole, but he just can't now... I tend to disagree with this. They put a younger Lebron (when he was with Cleveland) and he couldn't really stay in front of Rose. Rose put him on skates. Last year in the ECF Rose wasn't 100% (sprained ankle against indiana pretty badly IIRC) and his jumper was terrible. Even then he still got by Lebron pretty easily on a few occasions. The Heat defense just collapses and Rose has problems. Look, Lebron couldn't guard or stay in front of Jason Terry in the finals last year. Terry is quick, but a healthy Rose is quicker. Another big difference is that when Lebron sagged off Terry he hit the jump shot. Rose couldn't hit anything in the ECF last year. Lebron's man defense is wayyyy overblown.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 10:24 AM) And you are incredibly objective. Thanks for the zero examples of Matta being shady, once again cementing that you were making baseless claims. I especially enjoyed when you pointed out the OSU had hired Turners dad to an unrelated company when Evan was 10 years old in order to recruit him. You had missed how OSU and Matta got him accepted to a local high school (Ashtabula) and even paid them off to let him graduate in 1978 before Evan was born. Talk about foresight. That was my mistake. I didn't really do research on that and just posted something I had heard in the past. I'm still interested to hear how tOSU was in on Anthony Davis before he shot up in height and was in before everyone else though. And please don't talk about baseless claims when you were saying it might not be worth recruiting Jabari Parker because of potential shadiness. I'd like to see some evidence of that too. This is really going to go nowhere.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 02:24 PM) Ridiculous claims dont make me angry. Matta isnt shady or crooked. He was in on Davis before he shot up in height and before those guys. In case you havent noticed Matta recruits Chicago very well. He's had zero whispers of NCAA violations in the 3 major schools he's been at. He also was clean enough to take over a program in complete disarray from an extremely shady coach. The Davis recruitment was a very clear case of the school who was recruiting him for a long time got outbid by a guy who leaves NCAA violations in his wake. In case the relationships are in question that he develops, he has an offseason camp for former players and several of them have apts near campus just for that in the summer. The guy truly builds a program and now his coaching tree is proving itself out at other schools. Really? I find that hard to believe considering his only scholarship offer before he shot up in height was from Cleveland State. It's also documented that his first scholarship offer from a major program was from Syracuse. And didn't Evan Turner's dad find a job in Columbus during his recruitment which eventually led him to tOSU? Don't get me wrong, Matta has done a fantastic job at tOSU. I wish the Illini had him as our coach. Your perception of tOSU athletics is obviously skewed though.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 02:06 PM) Huh? Matta not being shady is what cost him Davis. We obviously see things differently and that's to be expected. Davis' final 3 was UK, Syracuse, and tOSU. Interesting final 3. I've heard people speculate that Matta was outbid for Davis. It'd be hard to beat the the 200k that Kentucky offered (according to the Sun times, haha). It's all speculation though and I don't mean to make you angry or anything.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 01:45 PM) I've heard Parker's recruitment is alot like D Rose's. Close family trying to keep things away from the kid himself, but alot of schools trying to give hand outs. It could always be sour grapes from fans who think Matta's not getting who he wants. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's sour grapes. A lot of people speculate that he's going to end up at Duke or MSU. Not the dirtiest of programs. I'd think it would be a little shadier if tOSU WAS in the picture (ala Anthony Davis).

I'm a little curious about the whispers regarding the Parker recruitment also. I've never heard a bad thing about him. Another thing to note is that Howard was part of a dysfunctional staff that had disagreements on how things should be run. Was he part of the problem? I'm not sure, but I heard that he boosts the players egos quite a bit (which probably helps him recruiting), but it supposedly caused some friction with Paul, Richardson, and Meyers regarding their roles on the team.

Jerrance Howard won't be on the illini staff anymore. It should be interesting how it plays out. If you would have told me a month ago that the illini would hire John Groce and he wouldn't retain Jerrance I would have flipped out. I'm pretty meh about it though. Groce has been extremely impressive thus far. He got James (never going anywhere) and Hill (who could be a 5 star) to stay firm with their commitments. The illini also look like the front-runners for Kenrick Nunn now. Jerrance was great because of his recruiting, but it doesn't appear like he'd be needed as much as he was during the Weber years. Good luck to him. Hopefully he doesn't end up in Kansas.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 29, 2012 -> 11:24 AM) I saw they may hire the Simeon coach. Not sure if that would be good or bad. He has to have alot of enemies in the city. I don't think they're going to hire Smith. I'd like them to, but I just don't see it happening. If hiring him would mean Parker and Nunn to U of I (and he apparently has a good relationship with Okafor from WY) then you do it in a heartbeat. Maybe bad long term, but that would be something to worry about 5 years from now. I don't think they hire him though.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 29, 2012 -> 11:08 AM) This process just turned into a bigger disaster if Jerrance doesn't return, especially when he makes a killing when he goes to Kentucky Have you seen some of the rumored assistants that the illini might be looking at? Dynamic recruiters with Chicago ties. It's obviously not certain yet, but neither is Jerrance leaving. Chill out man.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 28, 2012 -> 03:28 PM) I love it One fan base is donating its money to keep its coach The other wants to donate money so they dont hire the coach. Which one of these teams actually made the tourney? Which one has actually won its conference tournament in the last 5 years? I wouldn't use "fan base". Most knowledgeable posters that I respect from other sites think it's a pretty solid hiring.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Mar 28, 2012 -> 08:41 AM) I listened to the score and some other sports radio on my way to/and from Chicago yesterday... Seems like everyone is just getting pissed off at Thomas. This has been absolutely brutal. Should have hired a search firm. Would have been over with no leaks in 5 days. A search firm was hired....