illiniguy

A five seed in the same bracket as KState?

I agree with you. As far as career goes, LeBron is a better distributor. BUT... people do forget that Jordan average 8 assists game in his '88-'89 season though. So you can't say "than Jordan ever was". I'm convinced that MJ would've had more seasons like '88-'89 in the early 90s if Pippen wasn't there. illiniguy has it right though. Lebron is in the conversation, but he's just not quite there yet. He's very close IMO as he's there or even better right now as a player than MJ, but he needs the awards/rings/etc to catch up. According to per he's still behind him and that's with LeBrons decline to go. That's true. He is behind, but it's only by .4 or something like that at the moment and Lebron isn't declining yet. Not sure how much a .4 difference would make. Regardless we're debating between the all time PER career leader vs the #2 all time PER career leader. Peak/prime years wise... they're just as close and LeBron is still in his peak/prime for another 3 years probably. Top 6 PER seasons: MJ- 31.7/31.6/31.2/31.1/29.8/29.7 good for 30.85 avg LeBron- 31.7/31.4 (this year so it still go up or down)/31.1/30.7/29.1/28.1 good for 30.35 avg Yeah they are really close.

More than anything I think it showed just how crushingly famous he was. He was boxed in for a lot of his life.

I agree with you. As far as career goes, LeBron is a better distributor. BUT... people do forget that Jordan average 8 assists game in his '88-'89 season though. So you can't say "than Jordan ever was". I'm convinced that MJ would've had more seasons like '88-'89 in the early 90s if Pippen wasn't there. illiniguy has it right though. Lebron is in the conversation, but he's just not quite there yet. He's very close IMO as he's there or even better right now as a player than MJ, but he needs the awards/rings/etc to catch up. According to per he's still behind him and that's with LeBrons decline to go.

He's not untouchable, LeBron is very much in the conversation. That said he's not quite at Jordans level, at least yet. Of course, but how close is LeBron to Jordan, when Jordan was at the same point in his career? Oh he's on pace with him. The only difference right now is LeBron has been to more finals. But he has already lost two. The first one I don't think hurt him, it was more amazing he made it there. The second one though I think is one where MJ Has a leg up now. The heat were favored and choked that title away.

He's not untouchable, LeBron is very much in the conversation. That said he's not quite at Jordans level, at least yet.

They we, but part of mjs lore is 6 finals, 6 titles, 6 finals MVPs.

I'm loving it. The thing of it is if LeBron doesn't win a few more titles he won't be remembered as great as MJ.

The article where MJ said this was kind of depressing.

That was joking post game trash talk, you guys should have beat us in West Lafayette, this is the worst Purdue team in years. Yes we should have. Had way too many calls go against us in the closing seconds for that to happen though. That's why I found it so ironic Painter got tossed against us. I believe he has history with the ref that tossed him. It was definitely weird. He got tossed so quick and there really wasn't anything that stood out in the game to warrant that. I would have been pissed when Abrams tackled your guy for the backcourt call, but wouldn't have got tossed over it.

That was joking post game trash talk, you guys should have beat us in West Lafayette, this is the worst Purdue team in years. Yes we should have. Had way too many calls go against us in the closing seconds for that to happen though. That's why I found it so ironic Painter got tossed against us.

I agree with it. That said the three I care about Illinois is ahead in two of and tied in the other. Thatis the FF, EE, and SS. Thus I think we are a tick better than you, but it's close.

I agree whole heartedly with this. I think this relates to Illinois too though and I think there's a couple of UofI fans that are dangerously close to being in the looking-down-your-noses crowd. For sure. But I can tell you that personally, I haven't felt a whole lot of bluster about Illini hoops for a few years now. I think things are definitely headed in the right direction, but we haven't been very good for a while now. But homers will be homers, and we all have a few. That said, I'm not about to take any crap from Purdue fans (no offense). Which Purdue fan other than da bum, years ago, is giving you crap? I was defending Keady. There are a lot of Illini fans that mistakenly believe Illinois is a blue blood program. Purdue is a very solid program with good tradition. We've won a lot of games, a lot of B1G titles, and have had limited NCAA tournament success. You talked about bum bringing up titles and stats from the 50's and older. Since 1980: Final Fours Purdue 1, Illinois 2 Elite Eights Purdue 3, Illinois 4 Sweet Sixteens, Purdue 8, Illinois 8 B1G Titles, Purdue 7, Illinois 6 Big Ten Coach of Year, Purdue 10, Illinois 2 Big Ten Player of the Year, Purdue 3, Illinois 4 Consensus All Americans, Purdue 3, Illinois 1 (Brown did it twice though) Very recent history Purdue has dominated the series until this last game. Our programs have a lot more in common that you guys ever like to admit. Lots of tradition no title. Lol at the big ten coach of the year. You can wipe your butt with that one.

Scary, smack did start talking crap. Telling us to enjoy it after you've owned us. We know that. It's been a really crappy last six or seven years to be an Illinois fan. We've now had a decent week and feel excited because our coach seems to get it when it comes to recruiting. We don't need a purdue homer to hammer us. We know we've sucked for a decent amount of time.

Yep, I clearly think we have the best history ever, you got me. In reality I'd say in history we are the best program to not win a title. A whole lot of wins and a great winning percentage. Just haven't got the big one. who is the competition? Purdue? Houston or Memphis Yeah thats the thing. We need to win a title. Been painfully close twice.

I agree whole heartedly with this. I think this relates to Illinois too though and I think there's a couple of UofI fans that are dangerously close to being in the looking-down-your-noses crowd. I'm not trying to be. I just like to take shots at Weber anyway I can. Just went with the Purdue angle to fire up Smack. You should've bad mouthed Robbie Hummel. I don't really like doing that I actually enjoyed watching him. I will do it, but I don't like it.

Jesus Christ you are a wet blanket. I've said I was trying to get a conversation going with Smack.

Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers. I can't believe we only got one after how awesome the big ten has been this year.

I think you missed the part where I said I was trying to get Smack fired up. I realize Keady is a hall of fame level coach. I selected the 89 cutoff because that's when I was old enough to really start following though, thus that's my memory of the two programs. While what came before is cool, I didn't see any of it so it doesn't leave as deep an impression on me. Nothing more.

Yep, I clearly think we have the best history ever, you got me. In reality I'd say in history we are the best program to not win a title. A whole lot of wins and a great winning percentage. Just haven't got the big one.

89 and 90 were pretty good. one was a final four year. Then we got probation. No bubble there for obvious reasons. You can say a school is dirty for getting on probation, but you really can't then hold that probation record against them. 89 31-5 90 21-8 91 21-10 92 13-15 93 19-13 94 17-11 95 19-12 96 18-13 Thos are bubble years. Looks pretty similar to Purdue and that's while on probation. Does that hurt my argument?

I agree whole heartedly with this. I think this relates to Illinois too though and I think there's a couple of UofI fans that are dangerously close to being in the looking-down-your-noses crowd. I'm not trying to be. I just like to take shots at Weber anyway I can. Just went with the Purdue angle to fire up Smack. I thought this may be the case and that's why I said dangerously close instead of lumping you in there outright. I watch my kids by myself on Thursday and Fridays. Sometimes when they nap I need something to do. ;)

Oh, and the MCDAA roster came out, Kentucky has 5 guys. Could add a 6th if they get Wiggins. The Big Ten has 1. Ugh, I sure hope we don't stop recruiting well. It is fun having the conference be this good again.

I agree whole heartedly with this. I think this relates to Illinois too though and I think there's a couple of UofI fans that are dangerously close to being in the looking-down-your-noses crowd. I'm not trying to be. I just like to take shots at Weber anyway I can. Just went with the Purdue angle to fire up Smack.

you realize illinois is no better over that span, right? especially since i'm going to arbitrarily take out the bill self years (obviously awesome though). 97 22-10 98 23-10 99 14-18 00 22-10 04 26-7 05 37-2 06 26-7 07 23-12 08 16-19 09 24-10 Those were really our only bubble years in that time span. That's not really all that close to what Keady was doing. After that of course we were bubble central. I'm assuming you wouldn't count our probation era years, since you know we didn't have the full amount of scholarships and weren't allowed to play in the tourny.