whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (zenryan @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 05:29 PM) I dont see how Florida's resume is worse than Illinois'. No quality road wins, same amount of neutral court wins. They have 2 (really 3 bad losses South Carolina is no different than Bradley or NW in terms of quality), Illinois has 4 bad losses. Illinois had two really good road wins at Wisconsin and at Clemson. Had good home wins against Vandy and MSU and a neutral court win against Wisconsin. Florida lost to South Alabama which is dramatically worse than any losses Illinois had.

QUOTE (Felix @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 05:25 PM) I'm shocked they're a better seed than the Gophers. I don't get that at all. Their resume is worse than both Illinois and Minnesota.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 05:23 PM) What is Seth Davis smoking. He said Florida has been playing well down the stretch but they have lost 4 of their last 5 games. Florida is lucky to be in the tourney. A 10 seed is a freaking joke.

Congrats Felix. If you guys are an 11 we certainly should be in but I'm feeling Illinois will be out right now.

With OSU and Michigan St. both in the Midwest it is almost certain that the Big 10 is getting at least 5 teams.

QUOTE (WHarris1 @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 03:56 PM) If Mississippi State gets in over Illinois, I'll raise hell Utah St. is the biggest one to me. That team has no business being in the tourney. If you refuse to play anybody then you don't deserve to play in the tourney if you don't win your conference tourney. Cal and UTEP also haven't beaten anybody this year.

Minnesota has no answers for OSU.

Minnesota is in danger of getting run out of the gym right now.

FWLIW Most people have Illinois and Minnesota in right now. Frankly after looking at the other bubble teams I can't say Illinois would be screwed if they don't get in but they are certainly more deserving than teams like Utah St. who didn't beat anyone all year.

In 2004 Utah St. went 25-2 lost in their conference tourney had only one good win against BYU and was left out. Hopefully history repeats itself.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 12:15 AM) Thank God. An NIT game at Assembly Hall would be beyond embarrassing. Just tank the first game and go home, winning the NIT would be more embarrassing than missing the tournament. I'd play in it just to get extra practice time but I would let DJ, Paul and Griffey each play 30 minutes plus.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 12:11 AM) Illinois isn't going to make it, although you could argue they should over teams like Utah State, Virginia Tech, and UTEP. Anybody that shows up to an NIT game at Assembly Hall should be shot btw. Need Kentucky to win tomorrow so Illinois at least has an outside shot at getting in. The funniest thing is they won't get a home game because Assembly Hall is booked, so they will play a road game and lose to whoever they play because you know Davis and the upperclassmen would be no shows.

Literally everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for Illinois. But I'm sorry for a team like Utah St. if you can't win your garbage conference you don't deserve to go to the tourney. And further just watching Utah St. they don't look anything like a NCAA tournament team. They certainly don't have the talent and can't play as at high of a level of Minny, Illinois, etc. And yes I know if Illinois can't beat Utah and Bradley they don't deserve to go to the tourney.

Seth Davis and Greg Anthony (not that they would know) had the loser of the Pac 10 title game out. Cal has a high RPI but reminds me a lot of MVC and other mid major teams that have been left out. Decent record but not great record haven't beaten anyone and have some bad losses. Btw a great way to put the quality of the Pac 10 into perspective is that UCLA and Oregon St. both almost finished .500. Oregon St. lost by 51 to Seattle and UCLA was 3-3 against low majors.

BTW I'm going to say it again if Cal wins the Pac 10 should only get one bid. The Pac 10 is about equal with the MVC in terms of quality this year. A UCLA team that couldn't beat low majors consistently in non conference play and lost their best player finished nearly .500. Oregon and Oregon St. who are about equal with PSU and Iowa in terms of quality were very competitive. That conference is a freaking joke. Hell I'm not convinced Cal deserves to go if they lose this game. They would have one quality win on the entire season while having 3 bad losses.

Lewis Jackson injured now for Purdue. He sucks but it still hurts them.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 06:23 PM) you're crazy. He's played 3 freshman with significant minutes. They're the 2nd youngest team in the conference. I dunno how you could have expected more. They should have been a little better. Certainly no excuse for losing to Bradley and Utah.

This game is over time for CBS to switch to the Cal/Washington game. If Cal wins the Pac 10 really should only get 1 team. That league is no different than the MVC in quality this year.

I'll say this under ESPN"s ridiculous eye test, both Minny and Illinois look a lot better than teams they are being mentioned with.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 06:03 PM) I don't trust Bruce Weber anymore after this season. They had enough talent to easily have 5 or 6 more wins right now, but for whatever reason they just didn't show effort for large portions of the season. In theory, they'll have enough talent to be really good for a long time, but Bruce has lost all of my trust because this might be the first time where one of his teams underachieved at Illinois. I guess you could make an argument for 2008, but I think they just sucked. Of course the counter to that is that he had a team without a ton of talent last year and was able to get a 5 seed.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 05:58 PM) I sure hope you are right. For some reason, the true measure of how pathetic it was Illinois didn't make the tournament didn't hit me fully in 2008 due to the Big Ten Tournament run and the fact that the final was Illinois' last game of the season. Watching Illinois play in the NIT however would make it really hit home, I wouldn't even able to watch that. There are a lot of programs even bigger than Illinois who are not even close to the tournament this year (UConn, UNC, UCLA), but it just doesn't seem as bad for them since they have all won titles (UConn and UNC recently), or had a multi Final Four streak like UCLA did a few years back. Plus they are just better programs, and haven't missed 2 in 3 years like Illinois would. I think the difference for me is I knew that team was bad and the Big 10 tourney run was a lot of fun and a good note to go out on. This years Illinois team would have a chance to make the Sweet 16 and if the upperclassmen would play with the intensity they did today and yesterday all season long they wouldn't even be on the bubble. The only thing that makes me not really upset about this season is that with the incoming talent and the talent of the current freshmen the program is definitely on the upswing and won't be on the bubble again any time soon. Unless DMac is a dumbass and goes pro only to not get drafted.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 05:51 PM) I don't think anybody has the quality wins Illinois does who is currently on the bubble. But 14 losses and 6 out of 8 to end the season is going to be hard to overlook, and few bubble teams have those either. The one saving grace Illinois has is all of those losses were to tournament teams, but the neutral losses to Utah and Bradley and road loss to Northwestern are just killers. I think they'll either be like the first team in or last team out, which is why I used the phrase coin toss earlier. But the problem is that if you compare Illinois just to Miss St. they have the same bad losses as Illinois without having the wins. Should they be in over Illinois because they played in the SEC West and played more bad teams over the course of the year? It will be interesting tomorrow though. I think the quality wins help Illinois and the fact that they showed today they can play with anybody in the country (Because the tourney committee head let it slip a bit that they were watching the OSU/Illinois game).

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 05:44 PM) The way the committee looks at teams like Mississippi State and Virginia Tech against a team like Illinois will determine whether or not they get in. None of us really know how they will separate such teams though. Miss St. resume really isn't close to Illinois though. Good wins are only Old Dominion and Vandy (both neutral) and they have just as many bad losses. They lost to Arkansas, RIder, Auburn, and Western Kentucky. Illinois has wins at Clemson, at Wisconsin, neutral against Wisky. All three of those wins are better than any of Miss St.'s wins. And then obviously Illinois also beat Vandy and MSU at home.

Miss St. is going to win. I still think Illinois deserves to be in over them. This is only their 2nd top 50 win this season. The more I look it the two teams resumes there is no f***ing way that Miss St. should be in over Illinois. They have just as many bad losses and fewer good wins. They just happened to face more s***ty teams than Illinois. They also got to play in the SEC west which is basically the equivalent of the Big 10 being Michigan, IU, Iowa, PSU, and NW.

QUOTE (Felix @ Mar 13, 2010 -> 05:25 PM) Damnit.. they reached double digits for the first half. 37-11 going into the break. Obviously we aren't going to shoot 62% all game, and they aren't going to shoot 19%, but if we blow this, heads should roll. Moore would have to score 30 in the 2nd half for Purdue to have a chance.