bukie

This just in, Peter King is a moron. Film at 11.

Thanks, my only regret is that it didn't work out well for team 65.

How do you access the group?

Oh, and my shocking Final Four team: Duke.

I'd like Cornell and Wofford against any of the other 4 or 5 seeds, but I think Wisky and Temple are the best 4 and 5 seeds, respectively. It's the toughest overall pod, by far. Michigan State, on the other hand, got lucky.

I have Richmond and UTEP. EDIT: And Xavier.

Do the Royals play the Nationals this year? In this instance, every fan in attendance is a loser. So, 2 sounds about right.

Except his contract runs out the same time Pujols's does.

Keep in mind that in year two, Weber took the team further than it's ever gone before during the modern tournament era. That buys a guy a good amount of leeway. He almost used all that up in 3 years with the recruiting disasters, emphasized with the Eric Gordon fiasco. Last year, after 4 years with one year's worth of good recruits, he coached the team to second in the Big Ten and a 5 seed in the tournament. This year, the recruits are finally coming through, and the defensive intensity dropped off a cliff, not just in the recruits but in the returning players like McCamey and Davis. Frustrating, but worth at least another year to see if it can be fixed.

The fact is, even if you did know all that, you ignored it in your first post. That is the definition of ignorant. EDIT: Instead, you focused on two things that anyone who wants to fancy themselves a sports journalist should know the committee doesn't consider: a team's specific RPI number, and their record of late.

If McCamey comes back they're going to contend for the Big Ten title next year. I'm sorry but big freaking whoop. Your sights should be higher than contending for a conference title once every few years. If Kruger or Self had stuck around you'd be looking at a perennial powerhouse, IMO. I don't see that ever coming out of Weber. What's holding Illinois back from being one of the 5-10 best jobs in the country? Weber's coaching ability isn't and shouldn't be in question. Recruiting was an issue for a while, but the recruits are finally coming. Getting the recruits to buy into Weber's system right now is the challenge.

They were 5-9 against the top 25, 6-3 against 26-100. Their conference strength schedule was 4th, and the top 5 were basically interchangeable. They had two bad losses in Vegas in November.

75 RPI, 14 losses. No, not really. Not even close matter of fact. As stated many times in this thread, RPI is garbage. And we had far more quality wins than anyone else on the bubble. Lots of wins against garbage competition doesn't mean much. I can't believe someone is arguing against this. Sure Illinois had some big wins. They also had a lot of losses. You can say RPI is garbage all you want (all of sudden RPI is garbage to Illinois fans) but it is a pretty credible ranking. It's not the end all, be all but it holds some weight. How about Pomeroy? Illinois is a whopping 52nd on there (Utah St. is 20). We can also go to Saragin where Illinois is 59th (Utah St. is 40th). Illinois had some big wins but that doesn't get you in the tourney. Illinois had 14 freaking losses, lost six of their last eight and aren't high on any rankings whether it be the polls, RPI, Pomeroy or Saragin so face it already. They were also the first team left out, so they did something right. They had so many more good wins than the other bubble teams, it wasn't close. They lost 6 of their last 8, 5 of which were to the RPI top 25. They scheduled better non-conference than any other bubble team, and finished in the top half of a top tier conference, and played all the top teams twice. So, before you post your ignorant nonsense yet again, at least take a look at some things.

For those that are still paying attention, and care about the NIT: Illinois Bracket #1 Illinois vs. #8 Stony Brook -- Since Illinois scheduled the circus in Memorial Hall, they will not play home games. #4 Kent State vs. #5 Tulsa #2 Cincinnati vs. #7 Weber State #3 Dayton vs. #6 Illinois State Arizona State bracket #1 Arizona State vs. #8 Jacksonville #4 Seton Hall vs. #5 Texas Tech #2 Ole Miss vs. #7 Troy #3 Memphis vs. #6 St. John's Virginia Tech bracket #1 Virginia Tech vs. #8 Quinnipiac #4 UConn vs. #5 Northeastern #2 Rhode Island vs. #7 Northwestern #3 Wichita State vs. #6 Nevada Mississippi State bracket #1 Mississippi State vs. #8 Jackson State #4 UNC vs. #5 William and Mary #2 UAB vs. #7 Coastal Carolina #3 South Florida vs. #6 NC State EDIT: And yes, Illinois was the #1 overall seed at the NIT.

It looks like Cirque Du Soleil is at Assembly Hall from 3/17-3/21. I predict a first round Illini loss.Nah, they've played much better on the road for the last month.

61 teams within one seed line too if I'm correct. (Cal, Marquette, Texas) Yeah, this was probably the best bracket we've ever done. I'm going to drink heavily, now.

Our bracket ended up tied for 98th overall in the selection sunday challenge, as we got 64 of 65 teams right, 32 of 65 were the correct seed, and we placed 9 teams exactly right.

Just curious, who got in that you didn't have in there (I know Illinois got left out)? Utah State.

64 out of 65 teams right, and I'm right pissed off now.

Somebody go make sure Andy is still alive.

Notre Dame.

Oh [expletive].

Cal an 8? Yikes.

Predict the south bracket! 2 - Villanova 3 - Baylor 4 - New Mexico 5 - Purdue 6 - Texas A&M 7 - ND 8 - Richmond ...

Marquette is the first team we were off by more than a seed on.