illiniguy

Have we actually proven that Sulley will exist if he can't speak out against those speaking ill of the Illini? I like to think of it as a public service. well, since that's pretty much everyone on this board, my existence is ensured for a very long time. and btw, the overlooked fouls over the last 4 minutes of that game were just payback for 2001. they are still calling fouls on arch in that one. I sending ill thoughts your way about the Illini ... whatchew gonna do about it? Probably beat you again at least once this year. So before you go thinking that Purdue was just amazing last year and that they are a lock to win the big ten. Remember they lost to us last year and we were about as bad as you could be and still be considered a D1 team.

Have we actually proven that Sulley will exist if he can't speak out against those speaking ill of the Illini? I like to think of it as a public service. well, since that's pretty much everyone on this board, my existence is ensured for a very long time. and btw, the overlooked fouls over the last 4 minutes of that game were just payback for 2001. they are still calling fouls on arch in that one. and we were more than paid back in full against UNC. What with Sean May having 0 fouls the entire game and James Augustine playing 5 minutes before he fouled out. Hopefully we can get back to that level before I die.

I could see that, but I see him averaging more points per game then Christie did in his career (11 ppg). Other then that yeah Thabo should fit into that Bowen/Christie/Posey type player, but only if VDN gives his plenty of run while Hughes is out. Christie could have scored more was he not on a team with a lot of good scorers for the bulk of his prime in Sactown. 20 were going to Weber, 20 to Peja, 18 to Bibby, 15 to Miller, and with Turk of the bench there wasn't a need for him to score a lot.

Or Budinger, who I believe as lured back by Lute. I have to think Gaddy to UCLA is as good as done. I would think the worst thing about being Chase Buddinger would be each morning when you have to look in the mirror.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/8710842?MSNHPHCP&GT1=39002 Has anyone else seen this?

If we would still have Jamar I would have guessed us. Now, eh maybe Penn State. Might still be us. If it is us the Big Ten better get 3 bids.

Let me clarify that I don't think Iowa will be a good team and don't expect them to win 20. But I do think (and could definitely be wrong here also) they're a fairly safe bet to win at least 15-16. With that as a baseline expectation, all it takes is some favorable luck in close games to get there. I expect about 17 wins. That could happen as the Big Ten is down this year. I guess a lot depends on how good Gatens is right away.

Well if the College Hoops video games is accurate I imagine that Mark Few takes this job next year. After all he always does on my XBOX360.

Oh come on. This team will win 15+ games and I would put quite a bit on that. Now 20 is higher than I would go but I don't think it's impossible. They won 13 overall and 6 in the Big Ten with a terrible team that had 9 players (not even enough to scrimmage with), no players that he recruited and the best player ended up killing the team at the end of the year and creating problems. They'll win 9 games in the non-conference and that's counting every decent game as a loss (West Virginia, K State/Kentucky, at Boston College, at Drake). I would predict an 8-10 or so Big Ten season. At that point you're at 17 and it's not outrageous to add a win like Drake or go 9-9 in the Big Ten. I'm excited for the year and hoping they can get in the NIT. They have a full roster and much more talent, at least talent that fits what he wants. Inside game will be solid with Tate and Cole back healthy. Kelly had a solid year as a freshman and will be with Gatens on the wing. PG is the biggest weakness and we'll see how that's resolved. Point guard is a glaring weakness and the most importanat spot on the court. Losing Freeman was a huge blow. I don't know your schedule, but I imagine 20 wins would be a miracle.

Instead of Dunn I would offer Bonds the minimum. See if he really would play at that rate.

As long as we frontload it. I'd prefer to pay him this way: Year 1: $50 million Year 2: $60 million Year 3: $1.25 million Year 4: $1.25 million Year 5: $1.25 million Year 6: $1.25 million Can you imagine the effort Manny would be giving by year 5 and 6 of that deal?

He was the only thing last year that was worth watching. I would say Calvin Brock had some good moments. But, yeah there wasn't much.

Yeah, although I still think he has some growing pains this year. Playing point guard as a rookie in the nba isn't easy.

I used to be able to jump that high. That being said Rose could probably cram on an 11 foot rim, I could not do that.

Purdue played some games against some very strong competition in Australia over the summer. All reports from that indicate that Moore showed a stronger ability to create shots for himself than he did as a freshman. I think he was a little tentative for the majority of his first season. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that his ball-handling skills weren't anything great. It sounds like he's really improved that part of his game, and that's one of the reasons I can see him really taking off this year. Like you said, Hummell is a player. I'm curious to see how he builds off of his success as a freshman, since he was a strong all-around player. It wouldn't surprise me if he really improved his rebounding numbers this season. Moore averaged 27 points per game against the Australian teams. It should be noted they didn't play other Australian college teams they played the professional teams and went 2-3. Morgan or someone from MSU will almost have to be on first team because they will finish in the top three. I wouldn't just pencil them in the top 3. Purdue is better than them. Wisconsin will be in the top of the conference, they always are and Bo rents Izzo's butt out each year as he owns him. Ohio State has as much talent as they do. I do think that MSU will be at the top, but I do not think they are a lock to finish above any of those teams.

My first team Big Ten if I was choosing a preseason Trevon Hughes E'twaun Moore Evan Turner Robbie Hummell Marcus Landry I know that sme will disagree with this list, but hey it's only my thoughts. I went with Hughes and Landry because they play for Bo Ryan and Bo Ryan always has a good year. His system is a very good one and both these guys were very good last year. Landry won the big ten toruney mop. Hughes is, in my opinion, the best point guard in the big ten. The two Purdue guys I really like. Robbie Hummell is a player. Hell he might have been the best player in the conference last year. E'Twaun Moore is just oozing with potential, he is one of the few guys in the Big Ten that you can just give the ball to and get a very good shot out of reguardless of the situation. I wonder though if he is the type of kid who ends up being a better pro than college player. As for Turner, I just like the guys game. I know he is young and really doesn't have a true position, but it's my team and I am going with him. Other guys who could challenge for this team are Legion-Illinois McCamey-Illinois Cornley-Penn State Mullins-OSU Lighty-OSU Coble-NU Roe-MSU Morgan-MSU Harris-MU Sims-MU While these guys aren't a who's who of pro prospects, the good news for the conference is they are all pretty young. Couple this with the big recruiting classes coming at Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Indiana and there is no doubt the Big Ten should be on the way back up in the national spotlight.

Ummmmm he made second team All Big Ten last year and Hummel is the only returning first teamer meaning there are plenty of open slots. He is also the conferences leading returning scorer and Michigan will likely be better than they were last year. Moore was second team as well I have a strong feeling that Moore is going to have a monster season. The one thing that troubles me about Purdue is that Johnson didn't put on much weight in the offseason. Apparently though, he worked his tail off on his defense. Let's hope that pays off. Why did the other white kid transfer, not Hummell but I am blanking on his name? Was that ever really elaborated on?

Lose a lot more than Yost did.

That scares me to think of the Cardinals picking up Prior as a reclamation project. http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3654950&name=olney_buster At this point I hope he goes there and does well. I like the guy and think he got a terrible break. Would really like to see him succeed.

Friend of a friend is pretty close to the situation and it would be a pretty big surprise if he doesn't go to Illinois. Iowa got in on him very soon after arriving and he's been down to visit but he's a heavy Illinois lean. That's what I like to hear. Snacks has really helped with the recruiting.

I want Mike Shaw the most out of the guys we are after. But, I wouldn't mind Randle at all :D

NIT unless Alex Legion immediately lights the world on fire(he won't) The team is going to be a lot better if just for regression to the mean. Last year was not a 16-17 team(or whatever it is we finished at). This year's team is a little better at best but will probably manage 19 wins just by not losing every game that's a coin flip or slightly better. I bet we win about the same. I think we are worse than last year. I know how frustrating Pruitt and Randle were, but I also know between the two of them they got about 40 percent of our rebounds. I am not sure if Keller can replace all of that. I also doubt Legion gets the minutes he should even once he is elligible, Bruce has a thing for Chester. I think DMa takes another big step this year though.

I think we technically only have two open schollies, but there's talk of someone transferring, Morningstar paying his own way, and the possibility of Sherron and/or Cole trying the NBA. That's another reason why Wall is a longshot, IMO. He'd have to wait until the spring signing period to see what's happening with our roster. We kinda have the same problem with our classes right now. We are still going after Chris Colvin even though we have no openings. Makes me think someone is leaving or will be asked to leave. I am not really sure how to feel about that. I would love to have Colvin, but don't want to force out any kid who wanted to play for us during a period when no one else wanted to. It is a tough spot to be put in. Yeah, recruiting over guys kinda sucks, especially since guys like Morningstar, Reed, and Teahan (who might be a walkon, can't remember) actually contributed to our championship. Then we've got juco guys like Appleton and Little--new recruits for this year--who may have signed for a perma-bench role. Not sure why we bothered with them at all. But how can you pass on a guy like Wall/Henry/Snaer/or Cheek? Kind of an ugly situation. I am not sure why Bill signed sme of the last class he did. The way he recruits, he shoulda have known he would regret that quickly. Especially after winning a national title. He is going to be very hard to stop on the recruiting front now. I think he was worried about having enough bodies for this next season. We lost Kaun, Chalmers, Rush, Arthur, Jackson, Stewart, Robinson, and Case. Case and Stewart were used sparingly, but they did play some. Those other guys, obviously, clocked huge minutes. If we didn't bring in a bunch of new guys, a real down year was a possibility. I think he got the JUCO guys because he wanted a bit of maturity. But then, after we'd signed all those guys, Tyshawn Taylor fell into our lap. I guess he was too good to pass up--he's been getting rave reviews--but it made the Appleton signing pretty regrettable. I actually like what Bill has done though. He got some solid 4 year guys to blend in with some superstars. The same formula he used with this past team. Although he lucked out in Rush getting hurt to stick around another year after getting hurt. I actually almost went to late night at the Phog, but had a rec league basketball game of my own to go to. I am interested to watch you guys play this year. I know some are predicting you to be down a bit, but I still think you win the big 12.

I think we technically only have two open schollies, but there's talk of someone transferring, Morningstar paying his own way, and the possibility of Sherron and/or Cole trying the NBA. That's another reason why Wall is a longshot, IMO. He'd have to wait until the spring signing period to see what's happening with our roster. We kinda have the same problem with our classes right now. We are still going after Chris Colvin even though we have no openings. Makes me think someone is leaving or will be asked to leave. I am not really sure how to feel about that. I would love to have Colvin, but don't want to force out any kid who wanted to play for us during a period when no one else wanted to. It is a tough spot to be put in. Yeah, recruiting over guys kinda sucks, especially since guys like Morningstar, Reed, and Teahan (who might be a walkon, can't remember) actually contributed to our championship. Then we've got juco guys like Appleton and Little--new recruits for this year--who may have signed for a perma-bench role. Not sure why we bothered with them at all. But how can you pass on a guy like Wall/Henry/Snaer/or Cheek? Kind of an ugly situation. I am not sure why Bill signed sme of the last class he did. The way he recruits, he shoulda have known he would regret that quickly. Especially after winning a national title. He is going to be very hard to stop on the recruiting front now.

I think we technically only have two open schollies, but there's talk of someone transferring, Morningstar paying his own way, and the possibility of Sherron and/or Cole trying the NBA. That's another reason why Wall is a longshot, IMO. He'd have to wait until the spring signing period to see what's happening with our roster. We kinda have the same problem with our classes right now. We are still going after Chris Colvin even though we have no openings. Makes me think someone is leaving or will be asked to leave. I am not really sure how to feel about that. I would love to have Colvin, but don't want to force out any kid who wanted to play for us during a period when no one else wanted to. It is a tough spot to be put in.