whitesoxfan99

And Illinois back to looking like Illinois to start the 2nd half, key drop pass on third down, offensive line not blocking anyone, etc.

QUOTE (chimpy2121 @ Sep 4, 2010 -> 01:42 PM) UF looks great. They got bailed out by a pretty weak personal foul call on the goal line or they would be in real jeopardy of losing this game.

Wow great half of football for Illinois. Knock on wood but the defense is actually tackling well and although he has made a couple of mistakes Scheelhaase has played very well for his first ever collegiate game.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 06:41 PM) Well its going to be the case of teams in one division beating up each other perhaps. It really makes zero sense to me the way they split it. You have 3 out of the 4 top programs on one side while the other IMO has only one real good program. Michigan is a ways off from being relevant again and the others are second tier teams. Is the split necessary in basketball? Because then its even more lopsided. Split is supposed to be only for football. And I don't think Wisconsin is a better program than Iowa or Nebraska.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 04:04 PM) Eh Minnesota, NU and Michigan State arent exactly world beaters. Indiana is probably the worst team in the Big 10. Illinois is a hit or miss team, they went to the Rose Bowl a few years ago, which is more than a team like Minnesota or MSU can say. Purdue has been solid in the past. Id say Indiana is the worst, but on any given year NU, Illinois, Minnesota, MSU could be the 2nd worst. Honestly I consider Illinois to be the team with the highest upside of that group (long term). That being said, its more about the top teams in the conference. I dont expect Iowa to lose to Minnesota, NU or MSU on a consistent basis. And Id much rather face those 2 teams than having to face PSU/OSU instead of UM/Nebraska. Most Wisconsin sites are reporting that Iowa and Wisconsin were considered equals. Im just not sure how Nebraska= PSU and UM= OSU. Geography must have played a role, because the more logical split would have been PSU/OSU as the 1/2 split. And this isnt about right now, its about since 1993. And since 1993, I believe NU/Illinois have more Big 10 titles and more Rose Bowl appearances then MSU and Purdue. I don't disagree that Illinois has more upside than those other teams, but the fact is that despite making 2 BCS games in the last 10 years they have only made 3 bowls in the last 15 years and have had several 3-9 type seasons. I think Nebraska under Pelini likely will be as good as PSU will be the big difference is that OSU is clearly the class of the conference and there is no indication that Michigan will be back to being an elite program any time soon.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 03:27 PM) Early results on ESPN poll have fans saying Division II is stronger by a 2 to 1 margin. Only states that say Division 1 is stronger, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska and North Dakota. What a joke. Division 1 has significantly more depth than Division 2 when you consider that right now Purdue, IU and Illinois are probably the worst 3 teams in the conference. From an Illinois standpoint I honestly don't think the division is bad for us. We aren't close to competing for conference championships on a consistent basis anyways and to win one we were going to have to beat other top teams anyway. But with this setup we get to face Purdue, IU and NW every year so if they schedule a weak non conference schedule they should be able to make bowls on a consistent basis.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 12:28 AM) The whole 3D thing has started to run its course...I can't think of any movies since AVATAR that 3-D really enhanced the experience to make it worth the surcharge. Maybe STEP UP 3...and some of the animation movies like DESPICABLE ME or TOY STORY 3. I could list about 10 movies that have come out in 3D that weren't worth the glasses, where the movie was retrofitted or 3D added later to take advantage of potential profits. Now, maybe maybe RESIDENT EVIL has a chance to be worth it, as it was actually filmed in a way that 3D glasses would enhance the viewing experience, from watching the preview with 3D glasses on and from everything I've read. Tron it the only movie coming out the rest of the year I would pay the surcharge for because it was actually filmed in 3D and the visuals look amazing.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 06:05 PM) Was Billy Zane the bad guy in Titanic? Yes

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 09:39 PM) I'm saying a team lead by 3 seniors (who i think are 4 year starters, maybe 3), 2 sophomores that aren't typical sophomores because of the minutes they played, and a freshman that's a 5 star kind of guy....that's not a team with experience problems. Purdue was a legit final four team last year before hummel went out. They lose kramer, who has a defensive stopper, but an offensive liability. And that one guard that played significant minutes last year (jackson? too lazy to look up his name, i just know he's short) played really well so I don't see that as being a big loss. MSU is the national runner up and lost no one and izzo just reloads every year. IMO those two are givens to be better than Wisconsin. OSU gains the 5 star stud, but have a lot of question marks with the guard spots. Still, lots of talent. Wisconsin has probably the best pure post player in the conference, but otherwise not much. As I said before, I expect them to be good, but I just don't think they'll be as good. They're ceiling isn't as high. They'll play typical Bo Ryan half court, ball possession basketball. I think with the talent those top 4 teams have, it's going to be about which team can run the other out of the gym. MSU lost Raymar Morgan and Chris Allen. That is a lot.

AJ is terrible

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 06:20 PM) Im just wondering how you guys think Wisconsin will finish 6th? Even if they have what would be considered a horrific home record of 7-2, all they have to do is go above 500 on the road and they finish with a 12-6 record in the Big 10. Barring a horrific injury to Leur, Id expect Wisconsin to be at worst 12-6 in Big 10 play and finish 4th. If they play up to what I think they should be in the top 3 with a chance for the title. For a 12-6 record all they have to do is: At home beat Michigan, PSU, Indiana, Minnesota, NU and go 2-2 vs Illinois, MSU, OSU, Purdue On road beat Iowa, Penn State, Indiana, Michigan and go 1-4 vs Illinois, Minnesota, MSU, OSU, Purdue Unless Wisconsin all of a sudden loses their home court magic, its going to be hard for them to ever finish lower than 4th. They may tie with several teams for 3rd or 4th, but its unlikely theyll finish below them. I think Wisconsin is the 5th best team in the Big 10 and that they have no where near the upside of the other 4 teams. It wouldn't shock me if they finish higher than 5th though.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 05:42 PM) Here's an even harder question to answer: Who is the Big Ten Freshman of the year? Sullinger without a doubt IMO. He is the best player of a very talented group but more importantly is in the best position to put up big numbers.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 04:51 PM) Yes. The guy who has no problem with Jenks' disgusting facial hair and Joakim Noah's wild sideshow Bob look will want Manny to cut his hair. It is also the same guy that had Dennis Rodman of all people on his team.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 12:48 PM) Your thoughts on Gregg Doyel saying that weber was behind the whole Anthony Davis thing? I'd pretty much guarantee its not true. Illinois was eliminated really early in that recruitment and didn't really have a dog in the fight. Gregg Doyel is a f***ing joke (this is a guy sporting a mohawk at age 40, brags about his high school athletic achievements and talks about how he could kick your ass, its hard to dream up a bigger douche) who likes to suck off Calipari. The Anthony Davis stuff almost certainly came from a coaching staff actually involved in the recruitment (OSU or Syracuse being the most likely). Illinois didn't do anything about the Derrick Rose stuff and they were much more involved in that recruitment. And I love that Doyel rips on O'Brien for starting a "unsubstantiated rumor" even though O'Brien has sources and pretty much everyone in the AAU scene knew Davis was being bought but then starts his own rumors.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 10:08 AM) He shouldnt be saying anything. The guy recycled dances with wolves and pocahantas and suped it up with 3D for effect and made bank on it He also writes dialogue that belongs in a soap opera and his villains in both Titanic and Avatar were lol bad.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 30, 2010 -> 08:23 PM) There was that one year where we (LITERALLY) subsidized his batting average, and he was absolute trash against everyone else. That was irritating as hell. Gomez has had more success against the White Sox than every team in baseball except for the Cubs.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 30, 2010 -> 08:20 PM) WTF. How many times do we get hit? Can we bean someone finally??!?!?! That was pretty much entirely Beckham's fault that he got hit there.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 29, 2010 -> 08:03 PM) $40 a ticket, on average. 10,000 people. = $4 million. Concessions, parking etc on top of that. And a single playoff game...with nearly 40k paying $50 a ticket and also guaranteeing season ticket sales for next year... It doesn't take much in terms of publicity to cover $4 million. 10,000 times $40 is 400,000 not 4 million

So not that I had any expectations for Illinois football anyways but the defensive backfield could be a f***ing disaster this year since there are rumors Terry Hawthorne has a stress fracture which means that Illinois has lost 2 starting safeties (Sanni and Aikens) and a starting CB in the last 2 weeks.

An eyedrops salesman? WTF?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 04:46 PM) I didn't really see that at all. I saw Harrell as lucky that he had a ball that wasn't two feet up the middle. Harrell came very close to giving up a grand slam in the 2nd inning as well that might have knocked him out of the game.

Wow this bullpen is just awful

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 21, 2010 -> 11:23 PM) Excellent decision to have Jackson pitch in a game that obviously wasn't going to play out. Now we lose 2 today and wipe out our pen for tomorrow. Yep should have just had one of the position players throw some bp to the Royals yesterday. Unreal that they wasted Jackson yesterday.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 21, 2010 -> 11:18 PM) Hopefully Pena can fool them the 2nd time they see him. Not looking promising

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 03:08 PM) However, AJ happens to hit Baker at a .304 clip. Further, he tends to do well against MIN. I'd rather have seen AJ today. AJ has been horrible against the Twins in his career. .260/.288/.639, 4 HR, 21 RBI in 328 abs. Also, while his BA against Baker is good, he hasn't hit for any power whatsoever and he hasn't taken a walk against Baker so he really hasn't been that productive against him.