gflore34

I just watched the game (i've been working a ton and had it taped). How can you call that a clean block? Moody got hammered. Not that it mattered. I can't believe we gave that game away. Self cost us that one. You tell your kids explicitly, "Don't shoot until ten seconds are left in the clock." But were just jacking it up. Unbelievable. We should be undefeated in conference. Instead we're 2-2 with losses to our two biggest rivals. We've got our work cut out for us if we want to make the tourney now. self's not a great in-game coach. he'll do something with those recruits, though, provided that they stay for a couple years. and moody DID get hammered. you'd think a 3-4 time academic all-american could develop some type of consistent and repeatable free-throw shooting form. it's not that hard. Ok try and follow me with this. If Self keeps all of those kids there with Collins, I think he might be able to win it all. That said I don't see it happening. I think Rush goes pro after this year. But if he doesn't, he comes back at the 3. That pretty much assures that Downs is gone. But, Collins is his 1. Robinson will be a junior and will have to play. In a lot of ways Chalmers is his best player. All three of those guys are gonna play. So if Rush stays I guess Wright becomes his 5, if he can beat out the three MCDAAs KU has in Giles, Kaun, and Jackson. What a mess. Why did Bill recruit all of those kids at the same position in the same year? I will never be able to figure that out. First--Kaun, DJ, and Giles weren't McD's. As for a rotation next year. I'm not sure what Rush will do. 2 weeks ago, I thought he was gone. Now, I'm not sure. He's been real hit or miss. So he might stay, and if he does, there will still be plenty of room for Downs. We could have a 9-man rotation as follows. 1. Robinson/Collins 2. Chalmers 3. Rush/Downs 4. Jackson/Wright 5. Kaun/Giles If Rush goes, which is still the more likely scenario, this would be the rotation, w/ Wright playing 3/4: 1. Robinson/Collins 2. Chalmers 3. Downs/Wright 4. Jackson/Wright 5. Kaun/Giles Case, Morningstar, and Stewart would probably fight for the last spot. Either way, I don't see any scenario where Wright plays the 5, and I think we also have to expect Collins to be eased into the game. As for why Self recruits so many players, that's simple. One, many of the players he recruits can play multiple positions. (Collins, Chalmers, Robinson can all play 1 and 2. Downs, Rush, and Wright are not locked into any one position.) Two, recruiting isn't an exact science. Sometimes a guy flames out or transfers or goes pro or sucks. If you put all your eggs in that basket, you're screwed if he flops. If you have multiple guys who can fill in, you've covered yourself and your team better. It's simple recruiting, and most of the premier programs do it. NOT ANY MORE!!! Downs just left KU. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/13700764.htm That is 7 in 2 and 1/2 years. I guess now Bill can go after Rose as he has another scholly open. I told ya three guys that good at one position in one class is just plain ignorant. Here's hoping that the Illini can out-recruit Slick Willie for Rose, there's a fairly long standing, good relationship between Simeon and Illinois. Benn Wilson (probably), Nick Anderson, Calvin Brock and I know I'm missing others, let's hope that counts for something with Rose.

Oden had 33 points, 17 boards and 6 blocks. The announcers called him the best defensive (high school) center they've ever seen. The dude is 18 and looks about 25. There ought to be an investigation. what was your impression of gordon? i should've taped it. Slow start. They made some halftime adjustments and he started to score in the second half. His team is not on the same playing level as Lawrence North. I would like to see the 4 teams that are better than LN in the country since they are #5. As far as Oden looking 25, not sure where that comes from. Is it because he is filled out more than most 18 year olds? He is at the school 2 hours before it starts working on his game and lifting weights. I had the chance to meet him the summer between his sophmore and junior seasons and everything the announcers were saying about him being grounded and well-mannered are correct. Unlike other high-schoolers with that much hype, he still treats everyone and still wants to be treated as an average guy. Oden was certainly fantastic but, Gordon may have had the highlight of the night. On a break away by a Lawrence North G, he (Gordon) came flying in from the left to block the layup. His hand was near the top of the box, simply amazing! Gordon also showed no fear of Oden, hit a couple of sweet floaters over him, even tried to jam one but, was fouled by Oden.

they have a better option on their roster right now, if all you want is a utility IF who can play defense and can't hit. Jerry Hairston would/could fill that role for less money, and give you signifigantly better offensive production. Perez had an OBP under .300. In about 500 or 600 AB's. Think about this. He's bad unless he only plays the last 2 innings in a defensive role only, and maybe gets a pity start every couple weeks. And for the right to enjoy below replacement level production, they paid $5m over 2 years. You've got a point, the whole problem with Neifi is how Baker utilizies him. In the proper role he's as good an option as any but, over the last two seasons Baker as shown an inability to correctly utilize the skills of a player.

Seconded, I'm fairly certain they used to play 18 Conference games before Penn State became a member. Why not 20?

I second that, due to an extremely favorable schedule they'll probably win the Big Ten. And as a result, get seeded, as the Big Ten's best team, fairly high in the Tournament. However, I don't believe they'll make it to the second weekend. Why do you think that? They made it to the Sweet 16 last year, and although they lost a lot from last years team, they are much deeper this year which I think will help them come tournament time. They're deeper no doubt but, beyond Arlando Tucker there's no inside game. Come Tournament time Brain Butch hanging out around the perimeter shooting 3's is not where he'll be most effective. What happens, and you know it well because, things like this always happen in the Tournament, if Tucker gets in foul trouble?

Good luck trading up into the top 5. New Orleans should trade down. No top pick will want to sign him them. If they sign Young they better put him at wide reciever or get the best QB coach they can find b/c right now he is not pro QB material. He is the most overhyped QB to come out since Lief. Different game but same QB talent. You mean Ryan Leaf, right? I was thinking the along the same lines, he had his TE wide open all night vs. USC yet, I don't believe he managed to hit him once in stride. It seemed every pass was fluttering and without much accuracy. Sure, he showed great leadership and tremendous poise but, all he did effectively was run the ball (behind a pretty terrific OL). If running is all he brings to NFL, he won't last long.

I second that, due to an extremely favorable schedule they'll probably win the Big Ten. And as a result, get seeded, as the Big Ten's best team, fairly high in the Tournament. However, I don't believe they'll make it to the second weekend.

he's definitely one of the best defensive players in the country. however, he has no shot whatsoever, this limits his ability to get into the lane consistently. if he works on his outside jumper, he could be a POY candidate when he hits his senior year. Good point, he does need a jumper by the way, has Marcus Arnold ever made a shot as an Illini? Thus far, all I've seen from him is shot that's either a little short or an air-ball.

I too was impressed with the play of Randle and Pruitt. Sure, they'll lose a couple more road games but, with the continued improvement of Randle and Pruitt they be quite formidable come tournament time. Speaking of Randle, after Shannon Brown and Maurice Ager, he may very well be the Big Ten' most talented player, his combination of speed, length and jumping ability is amazing.

Its OK, let Delhomme act like fool or any way he wishes, I'm certain several of the Bears caught his act. They'll be another time and another place for Mr. Delhomme and the Bears.

In some ways this is similar to the 1984 Post Season, the young Bears were embarrassed in the NFC Championship by the 49'ers. They learned from that and we all know what happened the next season. I'm not saying the 2006 Bears will be as good as the 1985 Bears but, I believe they'll be superior to the 2005 Bears.

By the way does anyone think Seattle will jump that WR screen to Smith and return it for a TD? Seemed like they ran that play exclusively on 2nd down.

I'm upset the Bears lost but, I look upon this loss as a learning experience and ultimately more good will come from it than bad. This is a very young team (3rd or 4th youngest in the NFL) with a very good defense in a division in which every other team just fired their head coach. This team will improve by leaps and bounds next season, a full season of Grossman and the offense will be become a legitimate threat. I'd like to see the Bears draft a shut down corner (to replace and reduce Tillman' role to nickel situations) or playmaking WR or TE this year. Carolina deserves all the credit they were the better team and have an excellent chance at beating Seattle. However, if I had to bet on which team will reach the Super Bowl (after this season) in near future, it’s the Bears hands down.

I was thinking along the same lines, granted the Cubs coaches are barely competent if at all, but, do we really think they're that inept as to not work with Corey on pitch selection and working the count? Most especially the Sarge, think he knows about taking a pitch or two and working the count? Remember 1984? When is it the player’s responsibility? We like to blame every failure on Cubs management but, at some point the player has to be solely responsible for success or failure.

But isn't this better than not tending him a contract? I mean I think (K)orey pretty hit rock bottom here and needs a change of scenery. Hendry totally mishandled the Sosa and Farnsworth deals, but I think this is different. If he never pans out, then this isn't a terrible trade, IMO. Agreed, I believe this is the best deal he could get for Patterson, don't you believe if he could have aquired a Soriano for Patterson he would have done so? Face it, there's wasn't a team out that was going to offer even an average ML player for Patterson.

The key point, no concept of the strike zone and a swing with multiple holes are what did Patterson in and will continue to do so if doesn't learn how to recognize the strike zone. I'm not a fan of the Cubs coaching but, I'd be a fool not think they didn't work with him on pitch recognition. It's possible he may never aquire or learn that skill...

You guys shot very poorly from the outside but then seemed to get really tentative in the second half. We were playing very good defense (as we have all year) but just got lucky with you guys missing some open looks in the first half. In the second half I thought our defense was better, but when Dee and others got looks they passed them up and had to scramble late in the shot clock to throw something up. Jamar Smith was the one guy who took the shot every time he got an open look and I was surprised at the ones he missed in the first half. I don't know if I've seen that guy miss this year when I've seen an Illinois game. Taking Augustine out of the game was huge, he never really got involved. After he had that big dunk mid-way through the 2nd half I thought he was going to go on a tear but never did. Same thing with Dee when he knocked down that 3 early in the second half. I think everyone in the building thought he was going to get hot and take over after that shot but it never happened. You guys looked a lot more one-dimensional offensively than last year but I also think you play much better defense than last year's team. Guys are just a lot quicker on switch outs, get up on you much closer and really gave us no open looks in the first half. It looks to me like Bruce has put a much bigger emphasis on defense this year. Yeah Bruce has to concentrate more on defense this year because we don't have the same talent on offense. iowa would have probably beaten us anyway, but fwiw, the officiating in that game was the worst i've ever seen in any game this year, so far. every call favored iowa, every call. wait until we go to madison, everyone is paying us back for last year. Even the referees. Really can't complain about the Officiating, in my 25+ years of following the Illini and Big Ten BB, it's always been 8 on 5 when comes to road games. You've got to expect that going into to a road game and adjust, it's never going to change. IMO no other conference comes close in giving preferential treatment to the home team.

But the fact is they don't have a lineup to compare. You speak in generalities, like Lee and Ramirez stack up against Rolen and Pujols. Simply "stacking up" doesn't mean much. Comparing teams and lineups this way doesn't take you far. STL's lineup routinely outproduces the Cubs lineup, and their lineup is no worse than it was, while the Cubs is not significantly better, if it's better at all. But you are also speaking in generalities. St. Louis's lineup in recent has outperformed Chicago's, but not at the core of the team (3-4). It's the unexpected overproduction out of roleplayers in St. Louis, and the unexpected lack of production out of key or role players in Chicago. With the core of each team stacking up comparatively, all it takes is for the breaks to fall to the other side: Pierre ignites the Cubs in the same way Eckstein did for the Cardinals, Grudz returns to old Grudz, the OF fillers for St. Louis don't have a career years, and Murton finds his sride as an everyday player. I have no issue looking at both teams lineups on paper right now and saying they are close. I do give St. Louis an edge, but not a drastic one. I'm not speaking in generalities, I'm speaking toward specific trends. Saying that certain parts of the lineup "matchup" is meaningless. Those parts have "matched up" before and still led to consistently better offense from STL. The fact is Pujols is likely to outproduce Lee, and Rolen could easily outproduce Ramirez if he plays just as long. Last year Ramirez outperformed because he had more games, and Lee slightly outperformed because he had a career year, and the teams were still not close in the rankings. The Cubs don't have anybody who comes close to Edmonds. STL is significantly better offensively than the Cubs. They've been significantly better for quite a while, and they will be, more likely than not, significantly better in 2006. Pujols outproducing Lee is a given however, Rolen easily outproducing Ramirez is not a given, chances are it'll be the other way around. It's been argued Jones being 30 is more likely to decline in production, well, Rolen is the wrong side of 30. Why wouldn't the decline in production argument apply to him as well? Whereas Ramirez has shown marked improvement the last three seasons and is still on the right side of 30, there's a very good chance Ramirez will equal if not better Rolen' production in 2006.

But the fact is they don't have a lineup to compare. You speak in generalities, like Lee and Ramirez stack up against Rolen and Pujols. Simply "stacking up" doesn't mean much. Comparing teams and lineups this way doesn't take you far. STL's lineup routinely outproduces the Cubs lineup, and their lineup is no worse than it was, while the Cubs is not significantly better, if it's better at all. I believe the Cubs 2006 lineup is better, as much as we disliked the cost of aquiring Pierre, there's no way his addition doesn't represent a huge improvement over what the Cubs used in the 1 spot last season. Jones will produce at least what Burnitz did in 2005, if not, slightly more. And given an opprotunity, I believe there's a real chance Cedeno and Murton will out produce what the Cubs got of SS and LF last season.

Are you forgetting Pujols, Rolen, and Maybeline? You have to parden me if I don't buy what you are selling. The Cubs don't have the run producing capeablilities of St. Louis and don't have the overall pitching of Houston. The real dark horse is Millwaukee. They have good starting pitching, Kolb has to show 2004 wasn't a fluke and the youngsters have to hit around Lee and the Cubs will be sucking their exhaust too. The Cubs scored 10 more runs than the Astros, had a higher OPB, SLP and BA than the Astros and White Sox (scored 38 less runs). I don't believe the run producing capabilities of a St. Louis are necessary, pitching is the key. After Oswalt, Pettitte and Clemens who did the Astros have? Aren't a healthy (and younger) Wood, Prior and Zambrano at least the equal of Oswalt, Pettitte and Clemens?

The past two seasons the key to the Cardinals' success has not been career years from the baseball flotsam and jetsam that is Womack, Nunez, etc. It’s been a healthy starting staff and a great bullpen, there's no reason why such a formula won't work for the Cubs. A healthy Prior, Wood and Zambrano is the equal or better of any 1,2 and 3 in the NL Central, couple that with what on paper appears to be a very good bullpen and these Cubs are capable of winning 90+ games. Of course, some element of luck is involved and these are the Cubs so, there's probably a greater chance one of us will prove the trisection of arbitrary angles with a straight edge and compass than there is of Prior, Wood and Zambrano remaining healthy and the bullpen not imploding.

Did the Badgers really need those last four points? Does Bo Ryan have some sort of an inferiority complex? Reminds me of two years ago when he had them firing 3's in last moments when they were up by 20 or so on the Spartans. I believe Izzo didn't offer a post game handshake after that incident.

Didn't they use their first pick in 2004 to draft Eli Manning only to trade him to the Giants for David Rivers? Question answered, guess I was slow on the draw.

Didn't they use their first pick in 2004 to draft Eli Manning only to trade him to the Giants for David Rivers?

I wondered this myself, but Eric seemed to do well last year even while his brother was faltering. Eric has the personality to handle the situation. While Corey is not very expressive, Eric is outgoing and known as a clubhouse leader. I actually think this ordel will make Eric stronger mentaly and I have little doubt that he will be the more successful pro among the Patterson brothers. I thought that Eric has commented about this before and he realizes that it's a business and these things happen. I hope that's true - too many sports figures (in my opinion) do alot of complaining about mistreatment by management and lack of loyalty and respect (especially when arbitration cases and free agency come up), but as you stated above, baseball IS a business nowadays and the players do what's best for them while ownership does what's best for it. That would be a mature way to look at it by Eric and hopefully there won't be any grudges held against the organization as he progresses throughout the system. ...and I hope he has some concept of the strike zone.