whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 08:24 PM) 25-8 Knicks... OK this would be a great day to fire VDN. Rose is the only player on this team worth a damn (well Noah is ok). You have to love our 10 million dollar backup PG/SG who can't shoot and has never been a good distributor. I will never understand the love Bulls fans gave Kirk Hinrich, a decent but not great defender who never was a good shooter and never a good distributor. The one thing I will give him is he defends Wade really well. Our wings thrive at taking 20 ft jump shots which are basically the worst shot in basketball. Brad Miller has no business getting more than 10 minutes a game for an NBA team at this point and he is starting, just awesome.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 02:22 PM) Absolutely the best situation possible. As I said before, let Zook be the recruiting coordinator with the title of head coach. Give these coordinators a ton of money (Petrino is 2 years at 495k, is that a lot for an OC in college?) and let them run the team. That is a very high salary for a college coordinator.

Sounds like Vic Koenning will be Illinois's DC. Sounds like another really good hire, Georgia was actually targeting him as their DC. So basically, it looks like Zook is being made into a recruiting figurehead with some really good assistants around him to do the actual coaching. I hate getting even remotely optimistic about Illinois football but this may actually work.

Illinois hires Paul Petrino as their OC. This actually sounds like a damn good hire, they must be shelling out the money.

Unbelievably stupid challenge, well really the challenge itself was bad but challenging after the TO is what makes it truly indefensible. Also, Greg Olsen please make a difficult catch for once in your life.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 10:55 AM) It looks to me like 2 hours of a video game. I think as a film, it will be terrible. But it will look and sound cool. The early reviews are good so far but I'm just not at all excited about this. The plot just doesn't interest me at all and quite frankly isn't creative at all and has been done to death in science fiction movies. The entire plot seemingly has been lifted from other movies and I think the film is really just a vehicle to show off the new visual techniques that apparently Cameron came up with. And at the same time , while some of the visuals look cool I can't get over how terrible and fake the aliens look.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Dec 12, 2009 -> 12:36 AM) Welcome to my world... You guys aren't on the same planet of suck as Iowa. Also, can I just say that studying for finals on a Friday night freaking sucks.

Iowa currently leads Craig Brackins 30-24. Unfortunately for Iowa, Iowa St. also has other players.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 11, 2009 -> 05:41 PM) I'll give him credit for the bball program, but it's not like it was in the tank and he resurrected it. The bball program has been consistently in the top 10-15 in terms of winning and getting to the tournament (hence the #6 all time ranking, *cough brag *cough). It wasn't in the tank, but Henson's last few years were really mediocre and the program appeared to be heading on the decline before he brought in Kruger.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Dec 11, 2009 -> 05:40 PM) My guess is that its just not economically feasible to fire Zook. The University of Illinois is in shambles in terms of budget, they are cutting everywhere right now. Im not sure how the athletic department is coping but they may not have the capital to cut loose Zook and afford a high price tag coach. I've heard that the RG had the money from boosters to buy out Zook and hire a new coach so I don't think that would have been a major issues. And even if it would hurt in the short term financially to fire him, if you think long term, keeping him around losing a ton of revenue from donations and a decline in season tickets next year it is very possible that you end up hurting your bottom line significantly by keeping Zook around. But that is the problem with the Illinois athletic department, they consistently think small.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 11, 2009 -> 05:23 PM) I have a feeling the 5.2 million dollar buyout is the biggest hurdle. I guess that's the biggest thing - how is this financially a good move? Season ticket holders are dropping like crazy which I'm sure the admnistration loves considering the gigantic addition and upgrade project they just completed (and now have to find the money to pay for). Who in their right mind is going to pay for those tickets when you know that next years team is just going to be awful? Also, how is RG still the AD? What has he done exactly? I'm not even sure when he started as AD, but there's been 3 GOOD years of Illinois football in the last 3 decades - 1984, 2001, and 2005. The rest they've been absolutely horrible. I know the school has become more basketball oriented, but it's sad to know that a "traditional" powerhouse from about 1920-60's, with 2 of the greatest players of all time in college AND the NFL, can't get it's friggin act together and actually demand a winning program. I say scrap the whole lot of them. RG, Zook, all of his assistants, everything. I agree with you that this move essentially dooms us for at least 2 crappy seasons before we have even the hope of being a bowl team. RG has done a good job with his basketball hires and has done well with the non revenue sports. Kruger, Self and Weber were all good hires and Weber could be the guy that actually gives Illinois stability and makes us into a 2nd tier elite program (not traditional elites, so not on the same level as UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, etc. but possibly on the same level as MSU, UConn, etc. at the national level). But the job he has done with the football program has been really poor. And the biggest issue has been holding on to coaches too long when they are on the decline. If you fire Zook now, the guy basically did his job to a certain extent. He dramatically upgraded the athleticism and talent and even gave the program one great season. Instead you hold on to him too long and now there is the possibility the next coach has to start from scratch again.

So Illinois decides to keep Zook and the offensive assistant coaches become the sacrificial lambs. I just really don't understand this. The 2010 recruiting class has completely fallen apart and Zook is going to have a really hard time recruiting in 2011 as basically a lame duck head coach. So unless the team has a year similar to 2007 it is likely that the 2011 class sucks as well. What kills me is that there is enough talent on the current roster for a competent coach to come in and have a winning season and build momentum. But no instead of just saying the 2010 class is going to suck regardless lets also sacrifice the 2011 recruiting class, and continue to employ a head coach in over his head. The only way this would even make remote sense is if the assistants that they hire to take over the OC and DC positions are big time coaches but nobody that is a big time coach is going to come be an OC or DC when there is a good chance the HC only will be here for 1 more year.

I can't wait for the Richmond v. Barnes showdown on ESPN next Thursday.

The Steelers offense should be ashamed of their performance tonight.

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Dec 10, 2009 -> 02:59 PM) Sad that people picked Howland as a top 5 coach in the nation also. He did go to three straight final fours with UCLA and quickly turned Pitt into a really strong program after they hadn't even been in the tourney for the 7 years prior to Howland arriving.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 10:11 PM) I noticed the guy's name that plays Cole is Franco. Wonder if he is related to James Franco. They look similar. That said, James Franco would rule in that role. Due it up like he did in Pineapple Express. The guy playing Cole is James Franco's younger brother.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 08:49 PM) and considering it's between 3 teams and involves 8 players, 7 of which have played at the MLB level, it's going to be considered a blockbuster trade. Yeah outside of a trade with a true superstar this is pretty much as big as a trade gets.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 09:37 PM) Eh, it might not be soon enough to keep me watching. The show is horrible on its own merits, at least so far. I haven't hated it so far, but only because there are enough good moments between Cox, Denise, Turk, and JD to keep it somewhat passable.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 09:17 PM) Eventually he has to acquire some redeeming quality. Even as big of jerks as Cox and Kelso are, they have things about them to like. Even then I don't think he will be a remotely likable character. He isn't remotely funny which is the biggest problem with the character since he is clearly just supposed to be there for comic relief.

So after watching tonight's episode, I still really don't like Cole at all as a character and I'm still not really liking Lucy. Drew is starting to grow on me though. I like what they are doing with Denise's character as well. But I'm still concerned the show won't be very good once JD isn't there to carry it.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 12:37 AM) How the hell did Indiana manage to beat Pitt tonight? It looks like they did it pretty handily. I had a 2-game parlay tonight. Took Illinois and Pitt straight up. Thanks, Pitt... Pitt is a freaking terrible basketball team. Truly awful. They were up 15-7 on New Hampshire at half time the other night, Duquesne took them into overtime and Wofford (who actually isn't that bad for a low major) only lost by 3 to them. They also got handled easily by Texas which is the only good team they have faced. They were essentially a 3 man team last year with Blair, Young, and Fields and those guys are all gone now and there is no one to replace them.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 03:30 PM) I think this deal ends up being better for the DBacks than expected. If anything, this has to take the Yanks out of the Doc sweepstakes as one of the main parts that was asked for was AJax. I'm guessing Jackson could easily be replaced as he isn't really that great of a prospect and NY has substantially better prospects than him in their system.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 02:13 PM) The Tigers made out like bandits on this one. And i hate this for the Yankees. Why? Kennedy probably has little to no value right now because even when he is healthy he doesn't have great stuff and he has had a ton of arm trouble. Coke is a solid reliever but nothing special. Jackson is a good prospect but probably overrated considering his OBP is only about .350 in the minors and he hasn't shown any power. Even in a bad down year Granderson posted a higher OPS in the majors than Jackson posted in a good year in AAA.

Over 300 yards of penalties between the Packers and Ravens tonight.

Looks like Suh actually has a chance to win the Heisman http://www.stiffarmtrophy.com/