gflore34

Of course Jacob Grandison is out for the remainder of the season, just never horsefeathering ends with the Illini and injuries, etc. Guess a somewhat silver lining is Hawkins is starting to emerge and RJ Melendez is available - really like what I've seen of him. They, along with Goode, figure to get more playing time. Feel bad for Grandison, from what I understand, shoulder injuries can be quite complicated, can remain bothersome even after a successful surgery.

Wait the Bears are going to start beating the Packers at some point? wait, the Cubs will win the world series at some point? This and, I'm being optimistic, what the horsefeathers else do we have as Cubs and Bears fans?

His deal actually creates cap space for them. I get how that works, but damn doesn't seem right to me. To hell with it, he sucks in the playoffs hopefully that continues. He watched both Brady and Stafford move on and win Super Bowls. But he sticks around in GB. Hope it blows up in his COVID-denying face. horsefeathers GB, I'm glad that pissant lying sack of feces re-upped, I want him to be the QB when the Bears start beating the Packers.

Illini got a pretty rough draw in the BTT, first game vs. Indiana or Michigan should be very tough, if they can win this game, I really want them to get a shot at Rutgers again. Although I do not believe Rutgers is going to get by Iowa.

Don't get it either, they're everyone' darling, all you hear Johnny Davis, Johnny Davis, while his emergence and Wisconsin outperforming their preseason expectations is a great story. I believe Underwood may have a stronger case for BT coach of the year, they're 1 or 2 in number of games missed due to injury, COVID, etc. and still managed to tie for the Big Ten regular season championship. Where would Wisconsin be if Johnny Davis missed 4 games, Davidson missed most of the season like Kofi and Curbelo did for Illinois? I watched Wisconsin - Nebraska and was thinking if what happened to Davis could have been prevented, officials called a foul near half court but, did not appear to blow the play dead. Had they continued to blow the whistles, attempting to stop the ball, would Davis have kept going to the hoop? Or, is it unreasonable to expect that of officials? I believe he'll be OK, took a nasty hit off the base of the hoop, I was thinking a concussion along with the lower back. Apparently, he was moving and running in the tunnel, sounds like they kept him out of the remainder of the game as a precaution.

With that accuracy, he had 0TDs and 3INTs. Underlines the horsefeathers receivers that the Bears rolled out. This and, I remember reading Fields throws to open receivers were amongst the lowest, if not the lowest, in the NFL. That had to be a side effect of the fraud known as the Nagy offense.

Regarding Kofi's draft status I believe you're spot on, if he were to come back and add a mid range with the occasional 3 game to his resume his draft standing will improve. Guess, from what I read and seen, Hawkins is the one with the most first round potential, hope he sticks around because he may be a breakout superstar in the making. Kofi+Hawkins+Curbelo throw in a sharp shooting Goode, a smooth athletic Melendez, maybe one of Epps, Rodgers or Harris make an impact you have the makings of another BT title contender.

I think that’s AD Whitman’s area, and I am absolutely sure he’s doing everything he can to advocate for his program. Check out this thread: Kofi has only fouled out 3 times in his career. Brian Dorsey was the official for all three of those games. He called 9 of the 15 fouls Kofi incurred in those games and 11 of the 19 fouls Kofi’s incurred in the 5 games he’s officiated Kofi overall. An interesting read, some were legit fouls by Kofi, some were not, what boils my blood is the lack of consistency. Inconsistent officiating played a significant role in the outcomes of both the Purdue and OSU games. Kofi gets concussed by Edey - no call, Kofi repeatedly gets held by Key and Liddell - no calls, on that supposed Sports Center top 10 block of Kofi by Liddell, Liddell hit Kofi on the head - no call. If I'm Whitman I definitely lobbying the Big Ten that Dorsey gets no where near any of the Illini games.

Think we saw glimpses of what they could have been all season vs. Michigan, they didn't go through one of those 10-minute lulls. Believe a relatively healthy Curbelo and confident Hawkins had a lot to do it, going forward assuming Curbelo' OK. I don't think those no offense periods will be quite as common. I also believe the officiating will be more straight up in the tournament, for whatever reason Big Ten officials allow other teams to do anything while defending Kofi. From the OSU game alone I saw several images of Key holding/hanging on Kofi's arm during a rebound, Liddell had him in bear hug on another rebound attempt. All of that, no calls yet, they managed to foul Kofi out of the game, for the second time this season by that same bald headed Big Ten crew. It's no wonder Underwood was T'ed up. Does Underwood have official avenues available as far as crew assignments, filing complaints, etc.?

I think that's a good bet, and SSR's point is way valid, but dogging Wisconsin for SOS is silly. They are 13th in the nation in SOS, 6th highest in the Big 10. (Illinois is 6th and 1st, respectively.) I think the valid point when you look at Wisconsin is they don't have a matchup for a dominant big. Kofi had his way and so did Eddy, just they did a tremendous job against Eddy's supporting cast at Purdue. Plus Johnny went off. To sell them short is a bit unfair. The BIG schedule will have steeled them against teams that don't have a dominant big. No one likes him but if Davison is hitting his 3's they have 4 to 5 guys who can score double digits. I'll hear arguments that they aren't deep or they can't handle a big that can take over, but other than that, there's only a handful of teams that will have the best player on the floor against them. Johnny Davis is really really good. Also the poster earlier who called him a dick because he taunted the Indiana fans is the softest sports fan ever. If I'm not mistaken don't metrics advanced and otherwise suggest they're not as good as their record? Does this type of team usually fair well in the tournament? An honest question, not trying to antagonistic, plus I'm too lazy to do the research.

Wisconsin is the team I'm most confident will horsefeathers the bed come March. Other than a win @ Purdue, what have they really done? They beat Houston and St Mary's, I guess.............? No doubt, they, along with Providence, are going to be one of those teams that has a magical regular season and gets exposed in March. I really believe Purdue is going to smoke them tomorrow, the Boilers have their problems on defense so, Johnny Davis will get his. But, something tells me Ivey, Edey and Williams are going to go off on them.

Everyone, well, at least The Big Ten Network, wants to fall all over themselves to give Greg Gard Big Ten or even National Coach of the Year, he's deserving no doubt. However, I think Brad Underwood may have a stronger case when you consider the Illini have been the Chicago Bulls of the NCAA with injuries, suspensions, COVID yet, despite all of this he has them in position to tie for the Big Ten Regular season Championship and probably a top 16 seeding in the upcoming tournament. Pretty good job dealing with quite a bit of adversity.

I hope so as well, having flashbacks to Ayo last season, returned and, vs. OSU, towards the end of the BTT Championship game, was popped on the face. After effects showed up in the NCAA, most especially vs Loyola, you could see he wasn't right. Curbelo plus a confident, improving Hawkins makes this Illini team very capable of a run in the tournament.

Yeah, Howard's is fine, though I could see an argument for being out the rest of the year, not just regular season. Gard could have got one and it not been egregious, but I think 0 is right for him. But dudes throwing punches and only getting a game is nuts. Don't understand, a couple of years ago Alan Griffin got two games for stepping on someone, Kofi gets three for selling t-shirts, should have been at least two games. I wonder if Howard' anger was the result of what happened earlier in the game. Davison threw an elbow into Dickinson' gut, officials reviewed and deemed it a "basketball" play yeah, in prison rules basketball, it was a cheap shot.

Didn't him and Turgeon havea dust up last yr also? He clearly has a competitive temper. I always defended it as a quirky competitive dude but I never imagined it would escalate to that. Clearly unacceptable Mike DeCourcy made a good point last night stating that Howard was still pressing/coaching with the game no longer in question, as is his prerogative. But, somehow, its not OK for Gard to do likewise? Just nonsense, Howard brought all on himself, there's no excuse. By the way, should Howard be suspended or relieved of his duties Michigan may actually benefit. I'm willing to bet Phil Martelli is step up when it comes to in game coaching.

Howard should probably be fired but, the cynical side me has seen the Big Ten handle Michigan, for whatever reason, with kid gloves so, if the University does not take any steps. Will the Big Ten do anything, suspend him? Kofi got three games for selling some horsefeathering t-shirts.

Rutgers is a good squad and honestly I'm pretty nervous with them facing Illinois. No argument on the other two, but Northwestern does seem to at least keep it close the majority of the time. Pikiell doesn’t get enough credit for the job he’s done at Rutgers. I agree, he's done a great job at Rutgers. As for tonight, is the officiating going to allow the hack-a-Shaq treatment of Kofi? I know every Illini fan here likes to bitch about the officiating however, its a legitimate concern and could give Rutgers the edge. All they have to do is call a few earlier fouls and it'll temper Rutgers attempts to pound on Kofi.

It's been like 3 different coaches, completely different teams, but like clockwork they lose all February long which always include a couple blown 2nd half leads, a Wisconsin loss, and somehow always a loss to a bad Northwestern, Rutgers or Nebraska team. Thought they were going to win last night, defensively they're very good, offense is just a mess. Xavier Johnson sure, he's fearless but, he also can't shoot, his terrible shot selection is basically a turn over. When Wisconsin packed it in why couldn't Stewart or Thompson get a nice open look? You'd sure feel better about your chances with those guys shooting than Johnson trying to create or shooting a three.

Guess Underwood was told by the one of the officials Sunday they could call a foul every time Kofi has the ball. Why the horsefeathers don't they? I do not understand why other teams are allowed grab, hold, push a guy just because he's big and strong. Northwestern got Kofi to turn over the ball on several occasions, some were good defense forcing the bad pass, on the other hand, some were surround Kofi and hack the horsefeathers out of him until they knock the ball out of his hands. Underwood' has got to bitch load and often at Rutgers on Wednesday, it's almost certain they're going to take the same approach to Kofi. They've done it before and gotten away with it, I can recall that Mulcahy, amongst other things, literally hanging on Kofi' arm and of course, no foul calls.

And of course, who can forget -

Is it me or does Adam Hoge' pose above remind one a little of Blue Oyster Cult' Agents of Fortune album cover? It's a 180 of the cover. i see it. Every time I see his Tweets, it's the first thing that comes to mind, great album by the way, more than just (Don't Fear)The Reaper.

Where's the "dislike" button? Is it me or does Adam Hoge' pose above remind one a little of Blue Oyster Cult' Agents of Fortune album cover? It's a 180 of the cover.

Tough loss for the Illini. Cockburn looked like he was trying to put too much of this game on his shoulders. He has some magic moves in the post, but he was not passing out of the double team. He has the talent to overcome a double team, but it's just not a high percentage play even with his skills. I saw a lot of step-back 3 pointers from Illini. They have some good shooters, but too many of those step-backs were clangers. Again, not a very high percentage shot. Lastly, between the two games the Boilermakers have played against Illinois, I have seen some VERY physical defense. All it takes is one key guy getting in foul trouble in the tournament to spell disaster. I don't know if Illinois is amping it up against a top 4 team in the country, or if this is how they usually defend, but Purdue shot 50 FTs between the two games. There were WAAAAAAY too many loose ball fouls. Each half Purdue got in the bonus in a hurry. It may be Underwood's game plan, but I don't know that it's the best approach. Purdue is only shooting around 70% at the free throw line, but the volume they got in these two games tend to make that not as problematic. Especially when Jaden Ivey is taking 19 of those 50 FTs. I'm not looking forward to Illinois in the Big 10 tourney and I would much prefer if they do not get seeded in the same bracket with Purdue. I think the perimeter defense is tough for Purdue to deal with. That being said, it's hard to stop a star like Ivey in the tournament. I also don't share your concerns for Purdue's defense. Tough day for Illini fans, but both these teams should be looking ahead to the tournament. Should they play again and I think they will, probably for the Big Ten Tournament Championship, a different outcome for the Illini may hinge on how close Curbelo is to 100%. Yes, Ivey is nearly unstoppable, on the flip side, Boilers do not have anyone who can keep Curbelo in front of them, liked when he outran the whole team before the half. Also, was good to see Kofi beat Edey down the floor for an easy layup, provided someone else can get a rebound, that's a big ask I know, it's always there, Edey will never be able to keep up with Kofi in a foot race.

Well, they did remove Stefanovic from the equation but, Ivey and Purdue was just too good. Glad this the only shot for Purdue, couldn't imagine dealing with Ivey for more seasons. While Purdue does look very good, they aren't the greatest defensive team, in fact, they're average to poor. The Illini missed a ton of clean open looks they usually hit. Those defensive liabilities have a way of showing up at the worst times, it didn't hurt them tonight but, all it takes is that one team to take advantage of all the open looks, like say, in the NCAA. On a good note, at times, Curbelo, no one could stay with him, think conditioning, being out such a long time caught up with him. It's coming back, he'll get better, be able to go longer as the rest of season progresses.

.. Bob Avellini. arent they both from about the same time period? I remember Avellini..but not fondly I believe so, throw some Mike Phipps in there as well, jeez, our Bears have had some shitty QB's.