gatnom

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 02:25 PM) Its stuck on the bubble, which is not where you want to be if you are a basketball school Illinois is a golf school.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 01:13 PM) "Can't wait until Mike Tisdale is gone. It'll be so much better!" Not necessarily better, just different

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) FWIW, Darius Paul is dominating his JUCO and seems to have his head on straight. It will be weird having a player who plays offense at the 5 next year. Seems like we've been watching Egwu forever.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 01:08 PM) I mean, Illinois is much worse off now than they were under Weber. I understand he wasnt going to sustain his success, but Groce has been pretty bad. Honestly they are on the same trajectory.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 12:56 PM) That's the thing, how can it be Bruce Weber's fault they got blown out today? How can it be Bruce Weber's fault they fell apart after a nice start at Purdue? It's only partially Weber's fault for leaving so many empty recruiting classes and marginal players. Unfortunately, Groce hasn't done much better.

If only this team had Michael Orris, Jalen James, Ibrahima Djimde, ...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 11:57 AM) They lost to Nebraska, Indiana, and Minnesota when he was suspended. The NIT is what he deserves. Feel sorry for his teammates. That they're bad?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 11:36 AM) Just terrible. I'm not even sure I want them to win this game. I'm ready for the season to be over with. I feel bad for Rice. He shouldn't have to end his career on the road in the NIT.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 06:29 AM) No. He was literally lying about their resume. I didn't see the segments, either. What was he lying about?

This has to be one of the saddest performances I've seen when a team has its entire season on the line.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 25, 2015 -> 09:55 PM) Their perimeter play should be fine but the post play is going to be mediocre To be fair, it can't get much worse than it already is.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 06:00 AM) DJ Williams in the big city title game! 4 pts. Simeon gets upset. Did DJ Williams kick your dog or something? Lol

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 08:17 PM) Jesus. This game is unwatchable. Thanks refs. Let them play football the 1st half. And now tag

For as much as I want this Illinois team to make the tournament, I think it might just be better not to have to watch this year's team any longer than necessary.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 02:31 PM) Losing another top state recruit, this time toe St Johns, could send some Illini fans over the ledge. Yep. I'm sure the media will have some fun with them too.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 01:48 PM) I would pray for Lovett and it than it won't matter. True. It doesn't sound too good on that front though.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 08:19 AM) DJ Williams now the 4th best player on Simeon. Has been all year. Illinois fans better control their expectations of him. And Stevenson sucks. I'm not worried about it. Coleman-Lands is obviously the crown jewel of the class.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 07:36 PM) Kinda silly of RV to set himself up for failure like this. Be optimistic and all... but man... it would literally take career years out of a number of our guys for us to reach the playoffs. It would take a 2005-style feat. I think it's more accurate to say that it would take an unusually healthy year because I think the Sox are fairly solid outside of a few positions but have practically nothing in terms of depth anywhere.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 12, 2015 -> 09:30 PM) That Albrecht basket shouldn't have counted. He didn't come back down with it, so I don't see why not?

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 12, 2015 -> 08:36 PM) Just an absolutely brutal effort by Illinois so far. Egwu and Tate have been particularly awful. Starks... keeping them in it.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 10:26 AM) Even at that rate though, you can do better with your money elsewhere, on other debt or investing. My wife's loans were consolidated at 3%, then went down to 1.75% after 3 years of making every payment on time. No doubt. The 1.75% figure just really stood out. I paid my loans back a bit faster than I should have, but I also had no other outstanding debt so I don't feel too bad about it.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 08:26 AM) Exactly. We still have my wife's student loans. We've paid off car loans and equity line balances, but always pay the minimum on the student loan. Heck, better to put your extra money in investments than pay off that debt, unless you have capital to reach out and pay it off entirely AND monthly cash flow is a problem for you (which is an unusual combo that doesn't apply to many people). My wife's loans started around 40k, they are now around 17k. Payments are about 220/month, but the rate is just 1.75%. At that rate it is basically free debt on an inflationary basis. Compare that to the car loans we've had (say 3 to 5% rates and higher monthly payment amounts), for example, and it's obvious you pay the other debts first. Or investments - if you do your garden variety mostly-large-equity mutual fund or ETF type stuff, in the long run you can expect an average return of around 8%. Again, gaining 8% is way better than 2%. Now if your student loan rates are high, that's different math of course. But in the example above, we are going to basically continue paying the minimum until it pays off around 2018. Wow, none of my loans were below 3.4%.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 5, 2015 -> 11:11 AM) Aaron Bailey transferring from Illinois. That sucks, particularly with how fragile Wes Lunt has proven to be so far in his college career. Had plenty of talent, but if the coaches aren't going to trust you to throw the ball, what can you do?

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 4, 2015 -> 04:53 PM) After Texas State I thought that team was a borderline FBS team. That they improved into conference play says a lot. It definitely beat a number of teams with better talent, so not much more you can ask for there. They have a long way to go but they had a long way to go when he was hired. Defeating a number of teams with better talent is a bit of a stretch, but I'm going to be happy for one of the few good things that has happened to the program in the last 5 or so years. We'll see where it goes from there. The west is pretty weak sauce.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 05:27 PM) That's true. However, as you pointed out it is often more successful. So you will win more than you lose which is how you build a good team. The trading prospects away for Samardzja only worked because he is a one year rental and now will become very expensive to keep. It's the reason the price was so low, compared to the talent received. It's a somewhat unique situation where the team hopes to get a little hometown discount or at least an edge to keep him. So the sox may be giving away 4 players for a player for one year. Continuously doing that will deplete the farm system very quickly so you are really arguing against maintaining minor league talent if the Sox do this type of deal often. Unless they are willing to give out huge deals to veterans on a regular basis. But you will lose. When you lose you have Adam Dunn and John Danks taking up large chunks of your payroll, and even when you win you don't often get surplus value out of a veteran. When a prospect fails you have negligible money tied up in them, so it doesn't bog down your payroll. But, since they fail more often it's tough to just throw out a bunch of top prospects and have it translate directly to winning. On the other hand, when a prospect is successful, you get a massive surplus in value relative to what they are paid. So, you make calculated gambles on keeping some prospects, trading some prospects for "proven" talent, and signing some free agents in an attempt to have a sustained run where you aren't completely out of the resources of talent to win games or money to pay your talent.