illiniguy

Yeah between that and the two chippies on Tisdale makes me wonder where this game is at.

I suppose you guys are right.

Self's done a good job this year. This team is very young, and the talent isn't superstar caliber outside of Collins and Aldrich. Hell, Brady Morningstar is starting. Starting off 4-0 in the Big 12 with two road victories--even if the teams all are bad--is a pretty good. And Mario Little is going to be a really good player. I wish he were 100% healthy. He can score. Agreed Self has done well, but its sad to think they might win a Big 12 title because they have to play the South only once. I still doubt they'll win the title. We'll lose to MU once and at OU. We'll struggle with both UT and Baylor. I think we'll win one of those, but we could lose both. OSU could bite us, too. And we'll probably drop one more head-scratcher--@ Nebraska is my guess. I think we'll end up 12-4 or 11-5. 12-4 gives us a shot, but 11-5 won't cut it. That maybe, but the fact remains that conference needs to do something to give the South a level playing field.[/quote Like what? Reorganize the conference? I doubt that'll happen. They just need Mizzou to get good and stay good, and have one other program get good again. Like eliminate some precon games. What good is it beating the crap out of UMKC every year? At least that way you could play a more big ten type schedule. I doubt many coaches from either side would like that. I suppose it doesn't do KU much good to drum crappy competition, but most of the programs--from the North and South-- rely on those easy wins to pad their W-L/tourney resume. I can't see teams like Baylor, Tech, Neb, MU, KSU, etc. being too eager to lose some of those guaranteed wins just to balance the schedule. True, but it could help your rpi and strength of schedule too.

Self's done a good job this year. This team is very young, and the talent isn't superstar caliber outside of Collins and Aldrich. Hell, Brady Morningstar is starting. Starting off 4-0 in the Big 12 with two road victories--even if the teams all are bad--is a pretty good. And Mario Little is going to be a really good player. I wish he were 100% healthy. He can score. Agreed Self has done well, but its sad to think they might win a Big 12 title because they have to play the South only once. I still doubt they'll win the title. We'll lose to MU once and at OU. We'll struggle with both UT and Baylor. I think we'll win one of those, but we could lose both. OSU could bite us, too. And we'll probably drop one more head-scratcher--@ Nebraska is my guess. I think we'll end up 12-4 or 11-5. 12-4 gives us a shot, but 11-5 won't cut it. That maybe, but the fact remains that conference needs to do something to give the South a level playing field.[/quote Like what? Reorganize the conference? I doubt that'll happen. They just need Mizzou to get good and stay good, and have one other program get good again. Like eliminate some precon games. What good is it beating the crap out of UMKC every year? At least that way you could play a more big ten type schedule.

Self's done a good job this year. This team is very young, and the talent isn't superstar caliber outside of Collins and Aldrich. Hell, Brady Morningstar is starting. Starting off 4-0 in the Big 12 with two road victories--even if the teams all are bad--is a pretty good. And Mario Little is going to be a really good player. I wish he were 100% healthy. He can score. Agreed Self has done well, but its sad to think they might win a Big 12 title because they have to play the South only once. I still doubt they'll win the title. We'll lose to MU once and at OU. We'll struggle with both UT and Baylor. I think we'll win one of those, but we could lose both. OSU could bite us, too. And we'll probably drop one more head-scratcher--@ Nebraska is my guess. I think we'll end up 12-4 or 11-5. 12-4 gives us a shot, but 11-5 won't cut it. That maybe, but the fact remains that conference needs to do something to give the South a level playing field.

What an awful call that was.

Self's done a good job this year. This team is very young, and the talent isn't superstar caliber outside of Collins and Aldrich. Hell, Brady Morningstar is starting. Starting off 4-0 in the Big 12 with two road victories--even if the teams all are bad--is a pretty good. And Mario Little is going to be a really good player. I wish he were 100% healthy. He can score. Agreed Self has done well, but its sad to think they might win a Big 12 title because they have to play the South only once.

I'm anxious to see them play Wake this week. Should tell us a lot about both teams.

Yeah Steven tip your hat to Self being smart enough to have all the other North schools be god awful.

Apparently we offered him, do you remember that Sully? no. but i remember offering mario little from kansas. i'll have to look that up. I don't either, but they are talking about it on the IB.

I do because I don't want to lose by 20.

Apparently we offered him, do you remember that Sully?

Gus doesn't do nearly enough BTN games. He narrorated the greatest season thing they did on 1989. Almost made it bearable to watch the end of it. Almost.

How bout we trade you two of the titles we won from the MJ years for LeBron?

30-4-7. Not too shabby. :D http://a.espncdn.com/media/apphoto/15249773-bab4-4fe4-a7bd-d9562476b5ff.jpg Russ is great, too bad he is wearing a biddy ball league type jersey there. Seriously those ones are nasty.

yeah, we would have taken lenzelle but i think he was reticent with all of the other guards we had already committed. i don't know much about him, but warren better win. I think it was a two way street with Smith. All our big men except Simpson and Griffey will be seniors his freshman year. We needed a post player for some class balance and so we weren't running a freshman out in the rotation in '11. I know Richmond was pushing hard to get him here. Meyers Leonard will also be in the '10 class. I think we offered him and Smith and said "here it is who wants it?" I wouldn't have minded either guy. Luckily Lenzelle was smart and jumped on OSUs offer, didn't want to get the same deal Colvin did by waiting around too long.

There's the issue. Who is Indiana a decent bet to finish ahead of next year or '10-'11? For next year, I've got their best case scenario as 8th in conference. For '10-'11, I'd think MSU, Purdue, Illinois, OSU, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are all pretty safe bets to finish ahead of IU. That leaves them as 7th at best fighting with 4 other teams with way more experienced talent. A couple not-so-quick points (and it seems I'm commenting on your string of posts, not specifically the above quoted one): 1) IU is near certain to have an easier schedule next season (admitting that I don't know what it will entail exactly). Pomeroy has their overall schedule as No. 4 in the nation, and No. 55 for non-conference only. IU won't be in Maui, should get a much easier ACC/Big Ten opponent than Wake Forest, won't be playing Gonzaga again, will play a Kentucky team that likely loses both Meeks and Patterson to the NBA, and, finally, I think you'll see Crean ease up on the schedule regardless. Some of the wins they'll need will simply come from easier games. 2) With the current crop of coaches in the Big Ten, and the recruiting renaissance, I think you'll see the tournament berths increase. I'd expect six or seven most every season from here on out. While upward mobility will be more difficult, the selection committee is likely to include more Big Ten teams. Your "seventh at best" may, in fact, be good enough. 3) As Big Ten fans, we probably should just get accustomed to Ohio State having about the most talent in the league every year. As long as Matta is there, I doubt many -- if any -- will out-recruit him. That said, their on-court results (excepting, of course, a once-in-a-lifetime Oden/Conley Jr. class) figure to lag behind their paper talent. I don't think any talented teams should concede a higher finish to Ohio State because of talent. Who has more talent this year, Ohio State or Illinois? Ohio State. Who is better? Illinois. That may be near axiomatic. Point three is arguable. Illinois and Michigan State both have a ton of talent coming in, but yes OSU will always put a ton of talent on the floor. I don't mean to say Ohio State will invariably have the most talent in the league. They figure to be right near the top every season though, and I've seen little to suggest that their league finish will correspond directly to that. Yeah Matta really loads his teams there is no debating that.

There's the issue. Who is Indiana a decent bet to finish ahead of next year or '10-'11? For next year, I've got their best case scenario as 8th in conference. For '10-'11, I'd think MSU, Purdue, Illinois, OSU, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are all pretty safe bets to finish ahead of IU. That leaves them as 7th at best fighting with 4 other teams with way more experienced talent. A couple not-so-quick points (and it seems I'm commenting on your string of posts, not specifically the above quoted one): 1) IU is near certain to have an easier schedule next season (admitting that I don't know what it will entail exactly). Pomeroy has their overall schedule as No. 4 in the nation, and No. 55 for non-conference only. IU won't be in Maui, should get a much easier ACC/Big Ten opponent than Wake Forest, won't be playing Gonzaga again, will play a Kentucky team that likely loses both Meeks and Patterson to the NBA, and, finally, I think you'll see Crean ease up on the schedule regardless. Some of the wins they'll need will simply come from easier games. 2) With the current crop of coaches in the Big Ten, and the recruiting renaissance, I think you'll see the tournament berths increase. I'd expect six or seven most every season from here on out. While upward mobility will be more difficult, the selection committee is likely to include more Big Ten teams. Your "seventh at best" may, in fact, be good enough. 3) As Big Ten fans, we probably should just get accustomed to Ohio State having about the most talent in the league every year. As long as Matta is there, I doubt many -- if any -- will out-recruit him. That said, their on-court results (excepting, of course, a once-in-a-lifetime Oden/Conley Jr. class) figure to lag behind their paper talent. I don't think any talented teams should concede a higher finish to Ohio State because of talent. Who has more talent this year, Ohio State or Illinois? Ohio State. Who is better? Illinois. That may be near axiomatic. Point three is arguable. Illinois and Michigan State both have a ton of talent coming in, but yes OSU will always put a ton of talent on the floor.

This, when I played at a small school and we won our tourney it meant we got to play in the National tournament. The next year we won the regular season title, but were upset in the championship and missed the tournament. So yeah for a small school the regular season doesn't mean howry.

They're inconsistent without Lighty. Evan Turner is a stud. BJ Mullens (#1 recruit in '08 class) has not done much of anything. Lauderdale is the big man to worry about. Tis is probably gonna get abused on the boards again. Illinois: 71 OSU: 58 ETA: Forget what I said about Mullens, he's got double digits in each of his last 4 games. The number 1 recruit from '08 was either Monroe or Jennings depending on which service you like. BJ Mullens was not that highly reguarded. http://indiana.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1617 That ranking no longer exists in our system. We are sorry for the inconvenience. awesome.

They're inconsistent without Lighty. Evan Turner is a stud. BJ Mullens (#1 recruit in '08 class) has not done much of anything. Lauderdale is the big man to worry about. Tis is probably gonna get abused on the boards again. Illinois: 71 OSU: 58 ETA: Forget what I said about Mullens, he's got double digits in each of his last 4 games. The number 1 recruit from '08 was either Monroe or Jennings depending on which service you like. BJ Mullens was not that highly reguarded.

I imagine they will be building around Matt Weiters as well.

Hell yes I would love to play you this year too, since you actually aren't stacked for a change.

7 big 12 teams this year? The big 12 is awful this year.

I really want to win this game this weekend. Then I want to see the justification for us not being ranked.