whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Apr 10, 2008 -> 11:38 AM) I would go with Illini Basketball in snow storms. How about going to bars with Kansas basketball players?

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 7, 2008 -> 11:36 PM) My bracket was so bad that I didn't win anything even though I picked Kansas to win it all, lol. Anyways, what a fantastic game. Congrats to Kansas and even all grudges aside, I kinda feel good for Coach Self. I just can't believe a team with Derrick Rose on it lost a huge game. I picked Kansas in November and before the tournament, but it just still amazes me Rose missed that free throw (although that all was CDR's fault overall that it went to OT). Also, I know Coach Cal said they were trying to, but that was yet another example why you HAVE TO FOUL when your up 3 at the end. It's just a common sense play. I was shocked that Rose missed that FT as well. And while I still don't like Self at all, the fact that recruiting at Illinois has completely turned around and I actually have hope for great things again in the future makes me care a lot less about him. But while I give KU credit for making some big plays at the end, Memphis just flat out lost that game. Missed FTs by CDR were pathetic for a star player in that situation and I still don't understand why Memphis forced that inbounds pass to the corner that led to Collins' 3. You have multiple timeouts left, use them. That is about as big of a choke job in a championship game as you will ever see. Even Chris Webber would be proud.

And Memphis choked away a national title tonight. First question that the media should ask to Calipari is if he still thinks FTs aren't a bid deal.

Why did Memphis foul there? It is a one possession game and if you stop KU you still have over 20 seconds left.

Unbelievable shot by Chalmers to send it to OT. If Memphis loses this game they can point to the FT line.

Memphis trying to lose the game at the FT line but gets a huge offensive rebound. Rose going to the line with 10 seconds left with a chance to basically ice the game.

Are the announcers seriously discussing what is wrong with Cabrera? It is the freaking the 6th game of the season.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 6, 2008 -> 02:29 PM) That's not possible until the next CBA, which is in 2011 I believe. http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/index...p;tb=1&pb=1 Maybe, but the rumor right now is that is what is being announced. I think these rules are ridiculous to be honest. I understand it in football because HS kids just can't physically compete at all with NFL players. But HS players have had a ton of success in the NBA and frankly I would be really pissed if I was forced to wait 2 years to make my money because of some ridiculous arbitrary rule. Why the hell should guys like Rose, Beasley, Durant, Oden, etc. be forced to stay in college when they gain absolutely nothing from it. People like to complain about college athletes not being compensated enough for playing for schools and yet at the same time we are keeping them from making money they deserve based on arbitrary rules. Edit: I do think a fair compromise would be a rule similar to baseball where you give guys the choice of going pro out of high school and if they decide to go to college they are required to stay for 2 years. Edit Part 2: The article was wrong and there was no announcement on a 2 year rule.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Apr 5, 2008 -> 11:25 PM) No he does not, and it's a huge issue with UNC fans now. Doesn't make any sense. I don't have any shame in saying that coach K is a much better in game coach than Roy, but thankfully Roy recruits circles around him. Kansas just played out of their minds in the first half and withstood the UNC run, and then put them away at the end. I still think Memphis and Rose will carve up the KU guards though. I also thought Roy's substitution patterns made no sense at times tonight. I understand you are trying to keep guys fresh but he pulled Hansbrough, Lawson, and Ellington at the same time right before the under 8 tv timeout in the 2nd half. UNC had the ball and was down 5 at that time. They had an empty possession and then sent Aldrich to the line for 2. It is the final 4 and you have all the momentum and 40 seconds really isn't going to make a difference in terms of how tired they are. That just didn't make any sense to me. I also think he played Thomas too much (even though Lawson didn't have a great game) because he brought absolutely nothing to the table.

Wayne Ellington has been absolutely pathetic tonight. What the hell was that last pass?

KU starting to take some really stupid shots.

KU is playing out of their minds and Self had a great game plan but UNC's performance is one of the most pathetic final four performances ever. Did they even prepare for KU? Getting beat to every loose ball, no ball movement, stupid shots. Absolutely pathetic, they should be ashamed.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Apr 5, 2008 -> 08:29 PM) Kansas vs memphis is going to be a sweet championship game Maybe but basically every game in this tournament has sucked so I wouldn't expect it. And it is to bad Carolina couldn't have pissed themselves like this in 2005. Bastards

Carolina looks like they did in the last 10 minutes against Georgetown last year and Kansas looks awesome. This tourney continue to freaking suck.

Brian's boy Lenzelle Smith got an offer from Illinois and Jereme Richmond had this to say, "It was fun, but it wasn't my experience. I've already been there," Richmond said. "It was for my good friend and future teammate at Illinois Lenzelle Smith. It was his experience so I just went down there to enjoy it with him, to play ball with him and be involved in his moment. It was fun. I'll probably go down there again in a couple of weeks and play ball with them, check it out."

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 3, 2008 -> 09:56 AM) That's called developing top 75 talent into lottery picks my friend, not being handed a sure bet. And what do you mean? There are plenty of posts saying Marquette would never want Weber after Crean, it would be a downgrade, yadda yadda. Wade was not a big recruit coming out of HS. I don't think he was even a top 100 recruit.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 2, 2008 -> 12:39 AM) As far as Weber, Marquette still has Buzz Williams aboard who, IIRC, is pretty damn good at recruiting the south (I'm pretty sure Scouts or Rivals credited the Taylor signing to Buzz). Recruiting would obviously be listed as a flaw of Weber's, but I don't think he's absolutely terrible in that department (he's got some good classes coming to U of I in the not-so-distant future, right? The guys in 99's sig?) and I think his positives (mainly that he's a great defensive coach -- I completely agree with 99 in that I'd much rather have my team struggle on the offensive end than on the defensive end) far outweigh the negatives. Since Webster left and Jerrance was hired Weber has landed Legion (top 40 07 transfer from Kentucky), Simpson who is an 08 big man from Simeon who has a lot of upside, Griffey/Paul/Richardson/Bertrand who are all top 100 type talents in 09, Dominique Keller a JUCO I don't know much about, and Richmond/Head who are both top 25 type talents in 2010. Between Paul/Richardson and Richmond/Head Weber has also landed the top 2 players from the state in consecutive classes.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Apr 2, 2008 -> 12:26 AM) Well, I'm just talking about what I saw this season really. So that's what you get when someone that's not that knowledgeable about basketball also focuses too narrowly. UI's defense in 2006-2007 was actually pretty impressive (again, that's me just watching the games and not backed up by stats or knowledge). So, I think you are right & he probably is a decent defensive coach. This season, it was frustrating to watch the same tight man-to-man get played every game regardless of how UI matched up with the other team but that decision was made by someone who knows a lot more about basketball than I do. whitesoxfan99 -- As I said, UI's offense could very well look a lot better with different players. I actually didn't see much of the 2005 season, but I remember the offense looking jaw-droppingly good in the Wake Forest game. But in general, I just don't see as much penetration from the guards as I would like. I don't know if that's personnel or the motion offense in general. Maybe both. I can't remember if 2005 was different in that respect, or if the team could just shoot a hell of a lot better. Offensively Weber's motion is more of the Bobby Knight school where they believe in ball movement, cutting, and passing over the dribble drive. When Weber has players who can create he gives them the freedom to do so. The 04-05 team took a ton of jump shots but Luther and Deron would drive and dish a lot and they would get a ton of open looks from the penetration. You don't see a lot of dribble penetration from Illinois because quite frankly they haven't had the players to do it the last couple years. Deron and Luther did it rather successfully in 04-05 but it was not Dee's strong point because he couldn't finish in the half court. Last years team didn't have a guard who had a prayer of driving and scoring and this year as the season went on McCamey started to become fairly effective in creating his own shot.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Apr 1, 2008 -> 11:57 PM) That is handy. In the interest of accuracy, it lists Weber's compensation at $900,000 while the number I got from Wikipedia was $750K. Probably bets to go with USA Today's figure I would guess. And of course money from endorsements and camps etc. also increase the compensation. But, financially the Marquette job is on another level than the UI job. CWSGuy406 -- Lowery and Weber may be good coaches, but for me UI basketball is not the most entertaining thing to watch. Maybe it would look better with guys that can shoot, but as run by Weber the motion offense seems to include a lot of moving the ball side to side for 30 seconds and then missing a jump shot that could have been taken much earlier. The guards don't seem to look to penetrate much at all, and one thing I really enjoyed about Marquette was watching James with the ball. On defense, Weber's refusal to play zone seems silly to me and UI also seems to insist that their guards get right up in the grill of opposing players regardless of whether or not they are quicker. This lead to a lot of fouls and a slower game. Maybe it would be different with other players in that system. Back on topic, it seems like a very good hire by IU. Crean has Midwest recruiting ties and ties to the big 10. He may have had trouble recruiting at Marquette but he wasn't terrible. And I would expect him to actually do better than expected next season if Ellis and Bassett stay. Maybe I'm overrating him, but I think Bassett would do particularly well with Crean next season. Illinois offense in the latter portion of 03-04 and especially in 04-05 was a thing of beauty. If you didn't enjoy watching the 04-05 team play offense than just stop watching basketball because you are hopeless. In 05-06 despite having stretches where we struggled to score they were still top 20 in adjusted offensive efficiency. The last two years of course the offense has looked awful at times because you have had two guys at most on the court who can shoot the basketball outside of 5 feet. Weber's teams have always been really strong defensively so I think it is silly to constantly harp on his refusal to play zone. I wouldn't mind seeing zone once in a while for a change of pace but defense has yet to be a problem under Weber. And teams that play almost exclusively man to man tend to be horrible when they go zone so that is another issue with trying to play zone. I would much rather them work on offense and being a strong man to man team than waste time working on a zone D.

Looks like Bassett and Ellis are gone from IU. Also, how exactly does Dakich have the power to do this right now? I would think this has to becoming from higher than him in the athletic department. Also, the reasoning sounds fishy to me. Letting a lame duck coach kick players off the team for missing a meeting? There has to be more to the story than that. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...049/1004/SPORTS

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 31, 2008 -> 05:21 PM) The reason the Brewers are going to finish behind the Cubs in the NL central just blew a 3-0 lead faster than you can say Gagne sucks. Not sure what Milwaukee was thinking with that signing. Fielder just made about the dumbest defensive play I have ever seen.

I'd predict right around 85 wins. I think we have an outside but realistic shot of competing for a playoff spot. But I do have serious concerns about the starting pitching outside of Buehrle and Vazquez and if they don't produce we could be looking at another long season.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Mar 30, 2008 -> 06:24 PM) Definitely will be the most talented final four in history. I think the UNC-Kansas game will be epic, but I wonder if Memphis and the way they have been playing lately will get the best of UCLA by 10+ points. Dorsey guarding Love will be Love's toughest matchup, and Collison being flanked by 6'4 Rose will be tough. I'll take 1982 with James Worthy, Jordan, Drexler, Ewing, and Olajuwon.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 30, 2008 -> 06:17 PM) BTW, Davidson scored 6 points after that terrible timeout. As my brother just informed me, they had a TV timeout coming at the next dead ball also. I couldn't believe that timeout either. Seriously what the hell are you thinking you are up four with momentum and the ball and it wasn't like his team was having a bad possession because Curry had just started to bring the ball up.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Mar 30, 2008 -> 06:16 PM) What kind of play was Davidson trying to run at the end there? Curry was just supposed to create his own 3 while being double-teamed? They ran a high pick for him with the idea being that he can shoot it coming off of the pick. But there isn't a chance in hell Kansas or any team is going to allow that to happen in that situation and the guy setting the pick really wasn't a good shooter so I didn't really get the call.