whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (danman31 @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 11:51 PM) How good can a team really be with a bunch of freshman though? Unless they are landing 3 Evans/Rose caliber recruits, I don't see it. Henry, Cousins, and Wall are all top 10 players nationally and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Wall is a Tyreke Evans level player next year. They also have Nolan Dennis who is a top 40 guy on the RSCI coming in as well as a couple of 4 star Juco guys. Juco guys almost never produce at high levels but they have a ton of talent coming in. Of course they have to land Wall first for this discussion to even matter.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 27, 2009 -> 11:34 AM) Not nearly as much money as if he would have stayed a year and improved his status. He's a fringe first round pick, he would have easily made it into the lottery. He spent part of his childhood in a homeless shelter which really motivated him to make the jump now, which is 100 percent understandable, but I agree with most of the experts that say he could improve both his game and his wallet with another year in college......As well as my Bucks chances at a Big Ten title. I'll still be extremely happy if Turner stays like he said he would He could just as easily improve in the NBA. Why do people act like you improve more by staying in college then playing in the NBA? There really is no evidence of that at all even for guys who aren't getting a lot of PT early on.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 02:49 PM) He's looking at late first, early second from what I've seen projected. If he continues his progression, leads the Big Ten or is top 3 in eery category like he was close to this season, and is a all american, he could go lottery next year. He's a 6'7" slasher and should only improve his stock IMO, especially if he adds an outside shot and some defense. Buford has nowhere to go but up. He cant play a lick of defense at this point. The Bucks get Lightly and Kecman back next season which will help the team overall as well. If you aren't a sure fire first round pick I don't think it is wise to go pro. If you are a sure fire first round pick there is really no reason to stay in school unless you really want to win a championship. If Turner doesn't hear he is a sure fire first round pick he should stay, if he is a lock for the 1st round he should go. Same with Buford and any other player.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 02:14 PM) Turner has a tough decision, because he will become a better player if he stays another year or two at Ohio State so it would be a good decision in that sense, but it would probably be a bad financial decision because he won't go as high in either of the next two drafts simply because this draft class is so incredibly bad. Buford in theory is in the same position, although he was only a freshman this year he would have more room for improvement. I believe both are projected as consensus first round picks in 2010 anyways though, so maybe the decision isn't as hard as I think it is. He could just as easily become a better player by going pro and playing against the best in the world on a nightly basis and he would also be getting paid to do it. There really isn't any advantage to sticking around college if you are a sure fire first round draft choice.

QUOTE (The Bones @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 05:42 PM) A question for other Illinois fans like myself. Why didn't Illinois press more? They've had success with it previously (Northwestern). I've tried to forget about this loss by saying WKU was just the better team and I think they were in the first half when they were hitting their shots. But the way Illinois played in the last 5 minutes leads me to believe that this could have been a win for Illinois. If they had put it on for a few minutes in the first half to throw WKU's rhythm off it might have helped. It seems Bruce is sometimes too stubborn to change things up and won't use it until desperation time when it was too late. Oh well, we have good recruits coming in the next few years and we certainly exceeded my expectations this year. It's just tough for a program like Illinois to go three straight years without winning a game in the NCAA Tournament...especially when we had 2 games that were very winnable. Hopefully, we see Chester in some type of assistant role soon. I was really hoping they could win for him...such a tough way for him to go out. They don't have great depth and presses tend to be more effective late in games because other teams are trying to ice the game and tend not to attack it. A press earlier may have worked but it also could have easily resulted in a ton of layups and dunks for WKU.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 10:26 AM) It was a pretty deplorable effort by Illinois, they showed no effort on defense for the vast majority of the game, and you can't beat anybody, not even a Sun Belt team, doing that. At the same time, Illinois isn't the same on defense without Chet and in reality probably wouldn't have been able to handle Gonzaga's firepower without him anyways, plus this was a very flawed team that overachieved in the first place. The excitement starts next year and continues in the years coming in the future with the recruiting going as well as it is though. And congrats to Michigan, I didn't think they had a chance in hell at beating Clemson, but they played a fantastic game. Demetri reminds me a lot of Frank Williams in this sense. I don't think he's ever going to be as good as Frank, but he's similar in the sense that he's very talented, puts up some fantastic performances in games, but also has games where he simply doesn't appear to have his head in the game. I never agreed with the people who said Frank didn't care, and I don't agree with the people who say Demetri doesn't care either, but I can see how you can gather such an opinion when players like them can look so good at times, and so absolutely useless at other times. Frank played D, McCamey often doesn't. I don't think Demetri doesn't care but he doesn't play near hard enough, and he often takes himself out of the game mentally when he gets off to a bad start, and he is extremely lazy on D. Frank didn't always assert himself as a scorer but he always played D.

Anyone see that guy on Morgan State, flip Griffin over his back. What the hell was that? One of the most ridiculous things I have seen a player do on a basketball court.

That should have been an and 1 for Meacham. Western Kentucky player stepped underneath him.

QUOTE (SnB @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 11:10 PM) coughbrianrandlecough Randle at least was injured all the time and had no skill. McCamey just doesn't work hard.

QUOTE (BaseballNick @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 10:38 PM) No energy. Way too many second chance points for WKU. Poor overall effort (aside from Brock). McCamey is the laziest guard I've seen in a long time. Oh, and god-awful perimeter defense. Where is Tisdale? Where is Davis? I am really starting to hate McCamey. Hard to like a guy who has a ton of talent and shows no desire to make himself great and gives no effort on D.

McCamey needs to lose 20 lbs in the offseason or I wouldn't start him next year. His defense today on Slaughter has been beyond pathetic.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 10:12 PM) I hate how the announcers almost never question a call. There response was that Brock should have used a jump shot. He was running full sprint and the defender slid under him. If Illinois is going to get back into this game, they are going to need to start taking better shots and give the ball to Davis more. Im pretty sure the guy who took the last shot of the first half for Illinois is not a 3 point shooter so no real reason to take that shot. I think that Davis can cause some real problems for WKU. Also I expect law of averages for some of WKU's shots. Its going to be tight, Illinois really needs to hit them hard to start. And Brock was on the way down after already releasing the shot which makes the call way worse.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) Refs arent doing Illinois any favors, the guy clearly moves under Brock on that lay up. Should have been and 1. That call was absolutely pathetic. College refs are horrible at their jobs across the board. Although we are playing so bad it doesn't matter. And I would love to see college basketball add the semi circle. I'm sick of seeing charges taken while standing under the basket.

Demetri McCamey is playing horrible basketball lately. Giving no effort on D and missing easy shots on offense.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 18, 2009 -> 01:26 PM) Quan Connor missed the game for Waukegan. He is a huge part of their defense and gets about 12 pts a game. Richmond should win Mr. Basketball in Illinois. Richmond should finish first with Paul 2nd and no one else should really be close.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) I love our draw here. We hadn't had much hope entering the tourney, but WKU isn't exactly a great 12 seed. If we lose, it'll be because of ourselves. Tisdale should be able to feast, and they'll also being showing a zone versus us. The Zags out in Portland isn't too much fun, but we would definitely have a chance. Their resume outside of beating on WCC opponents is not exactly great. Yeah really the only thing that scares me against WKU is that we go into one of our prolonged shooting slumps. Gonzaga is one of the most talented teams in the country but they haven't played well against good competition this year. It will be interesting and I would love to make the Sweet 16 to get our beat down from UNC.

Western Kentucky shoots a ton of 3s which gives me some concern because our perimeter defense isn't as strong without Frazier. And I really don't like us that much vs. Gonzaga without Frazier because I think our guards will struggle keeping Pargo out of the paint. Basically with Illinois this year though it comes down to whether we hit our jump shots, we do that we are a very good team. When we don't we can lose to just about anyone.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Mar 14, 2009 -> 03:36 AM) I understand that part, but the committee is supposed to be smarter than that. The real problem it is impossible to know how good Memphis is right now. Teams getter better as the season goes on so the team that played in November and December may not be the Memphis team now, but because they haven't played anyone good since that time it is hard to really evaluate how much they have improved.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 14, 2009 -> 12:50 AM) LOL@the two guys saying "OH MY GOD!" about 15 times. Thanks for both of these. What a shot. Here is a better quality video of the shot

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 14, 2009 -> 12:09 AM) Were you there? I'm hoping somebody at least puts up the game-winner on YT. Here is a really crappy copy of it. And here is Meyers Leonard winning the dunk contest for 2A in Illinois

Really nice win for Illinois today. If I'm Weber I give the bench a ton of PT tomorrow. I'd like for them to win but it isn't a very big game in the grand scheme of things. Rather have fresh legs going into the tourney and I'd like to get Legion some confidence.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 13, 2009 -> 06:09 PM) Trent Meacham has to be the worst shooting 40% 3 pt shooter ever. Make a damn wide open shot. I don't expect a ton out of him but for a guy who is a good shooter he has really sucked at making open shots in Big 10 play. I love when I call out a player and they make me look like an idiot.

Trent Meacham has to be the worst shooting 40% 3 pt shooter ever. Make a damn wide open shot. I don't expect a ton out of him but for a guy who is a good shooter he has really sucked at making open shots in Big 10 play.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 11, 2009 -> 10:35 AM) Perhaps its me being an Illinois homer, but it's ridiculous to me that Chester Frazier didn't win Defensive player of the year and that Weber didn't win Coach of the Year. I'm fine with the media choosing Dechellis, but Izzo? Come on... MSU won the Big 10 going away this year and was fantastic on the road. Izzo had the most talent but they also dominated the conference. I have no problem at all with him winning. Weber, Dechellis and Izzo were all deserving.

The episodes I watched last week were pretty horrible.