Andy

ND's not going to be any good. The keys are going to be if Kyle McAlarney can be as good as he looked in spurts last year running the offense. It'd be foolish to hope for a Chris Quinn type season (Quinn was among the most underrated players in all of basketball last season thanks to his miserable team), but if he can score 10-12 points a game and run the offense well that'd be more than acceptable. Russell Carter has the most talent by far on the team, but he's a senior and has yet to put that talent together consistently, though he was getting there at the end of last season. Rob Kurz is a decent big man who can shoot 3's as well as anyone on the team and is a ballhawk on the boards. Oh, and Colin Falls is the best pure shooter in the country. The main problem is going to be depth. Beyond the starting five (assuming Luke Zeller is the fifth), there's really no one with meaningful game experience other than Ryan Ayers, who played plenty in the Irish's two NIT games and looked good. Definitely a rebuilding year but it will be fun to see what happens. Ball State is in the same boat as ND - young team led by a couple of good seniors who has major size deficiency. With one added wrinkle: This is the first year of the Ronny Thompson Era at BSU. The good news is that we managed to get a 6-10 260-pounder, Micah Rollin, to play center. The bad news is that he scored 4 points a game in NAIA play last year (granted it was his first season of organized basketball in his life). The team's going to be led by the guards Skip Mills and Peyton Stovall. Skip led the MAC in scoring last year and piled up 38 points in a valiant but losing effort in the first round of the MAC tournament last year, and Stovall was the leading returning scorer in the conference coming into last season when he tore his ACL in the 2nd game. Backing them up will be Brandon Lampley, Anthony Newell and Jalon Perryman, who all had one game each where they looked incredible but couldn't produce consistently, unsurprising since they were all freshmen. D'Andre Peyton will be the main source of inside scoring, he is a 6-6 220 pounder that plays bigger than that and really began coming on nicely at the end of last year. On the whole, I'd be surprised if either of my teams finished above .500 in conference play, but both have bright futures. And wow that wasn't supposed to be that long a post.

Yeah this couldn't possibly be why I'd want to see ND beat that overhyped conference. I actually think ND would match up better with SEC teams because ND's weakness is their defense and the SEC isn't known for having potent offenses. ND-Florida and ND-Auburn would be good games. I think Tennessee would pose a bigger threat to ND than any other SEC team. SEC teams that I think would beat ND: 1. Florida 2. Auburn 3. LSU 4. Tennessee 5. Arkansas 6. Georgia 7. Alabama 1. Probably 2. Possibly 3. Possibly 4. Probably 5. It'd be a good game 6. Are you freakin kidding me (see: home against Colorado, home against Tennessee) 7. Are you freakin kidding me (see: home against Vanderbilt, home against Duke)

Hahahahahahahaha, the White Sox are a joke

I can't stand the thought of an 83-win team in the World Series. Go Mets.

That's not too surprising. That's actually why early BCS standings have to be seen as only guides. For example, if Florida beats Auburn next week that will probably be enough to push them higher in the computers and pass USC. ND will start to drop closer to what the polls say as they continue to play the easy part of their schedule (although as teams lose that should counterbalance that effect). WV is getting killed in the computers because of their schedule (their opponents have a 5-19 record so far). As the weeks go on, look for most of the strange things to settle out-the interesting thing will still be WV. Can they rise in the computer rankings? They will definitely rise a lot higher than they are now in certain rankings, but they might even be ranked behind a couple 1 loss teams at the end in some computer rankings that award SOS so highly. If those rankings somehow held to form, I would argue that Florida vs. Michigan would be a far more entertaining game than tO$U vs. USC It would probably end up being Florida vs. ND...the Sugar Bowl has the SEC champ if they don't make the title game, plus the first at-large selection.

Ty was like this as well. You couldn't get a straight answer out of him if you asked what he had for lunch this afternoon, so much so that Nick Setta, then-kicker, disappeared from the Notre Dame team after the opening kickoff against Pitt in 2003 and never returned, and so far as I know, no one still knows what happened. (The excuse was a leg injury, but there was never anything to suggest that he was hurt.)

I'm coming for you, Vance and Soccer. Although by percentage Truffle is actually winning

Not the only one. Or one of only two.

"They don't hit and run much which is why you see all those DP balls" - Lou It's also part of the reason they're still playing baseball, but hey, whatever.

I'm not exactly sure what the hell he was trying to say. He wants a baseball player? And what does Moneyball say you should get, a microwave? And by the way Lou, I don't care about your views on the Yankees situation, but stay away from the north side please.

INGE!

I feel confident in saying that this would be the best baseball moment of my life.

DLee looked ok to me in his post-2nd time off the DL stretch. I wouldn't move him unless I was blown away. And there's a little thing called an NTC too.

We can't win. If Detroit wins, he'll hire an old manager and keep looking for that speedy leadoff guy (ignoring Granderson's abilities in other areas). If the Mets win, he'll bring in a bunch of Latinos regardless of talent level (Neifi, Macias, Loaiza...). If the Cardinals win, he'll assume we can win by building a mediocre supporting cast around his Pujols, Derrek Lee. If the A's win...well, I'm sure he'll think of some dumb reason why.

That's the worst argument I have heard this year. Good job. I actually didn't see anything wrong with that. Hendry's the kind of guy who would pride himself on stealing someone that another team supposedly wanted even if he isn't any good.

Ebay will probably have to be my route as well. I'm hoping for tickets to the 12/30 Cavs game or the 1/6 Pistons game, but my friend wants to see Adam Morrison for some reason so we might end up at that Bobcats game too.

Actually, if you really wanted to look at it, Florida probably has just as good a case for being ranked No. 1 as Ohio State does. I'd still rank OSU first if I had a vote, but it warrants mentioning. I don't think so. Florida won by 1 at Tennessee and won a close game at home against LSU. Ohio State won by 3 scores at Texas and at Iowa. The competition level is about the same, but OSU won their games more decisively and they were both on the road. Florida beat LSU by 13 and forced 5 turnovers (3 picks) against a team that almost never has problems taking care of the football. And Tennessee and LSU would both plaster Iowa. JaMarcus Russell doesn't have problems taking care of the football? The guy I've seen does. Regardless I don't know what your point is there. OSU forced Iowa into 4 turnovers (3 picks) when Drew Tate turns the ball over less than Russell. As far as your last comment, I'm guessing you've only seen Iowa play once this year. In that case I wouldn't be impressed either. But remember that we were banged up and Tate hadn't practiced 10 times since the beginning of fall camp and mid-week they didn't know if he would be able to go. We also made a tremendous amount of mistakes that killed us, including a turnover in OSU territory with 10 minutes left down by 14. That's not an excuse at all because OSU played flawless and just beat us up, but when you're evaluating a team you should take that into consideration. They would both plaster Iowa? First of all you missed the point. Going into Kinnick and beating Iowa by 21 is equivalent to beating LSU at home by two scores. Winning those two games on the road is more impressive to me than what Florida has done. You also ignore that we beat Purdue 47-17 last week. How did Notre Dame do with them the week before? Tate was finally able to practice for a full week and it showed. We'll be 6-1 heading into the Michigan game and we'll see how that goes. I didn't see Iowa play against OSU. ND's game against Purdue has no bearing on the discussion. The Vols would plaster Iowa because Tennessee just scored 50 points on Georgia, a team that was giving up 6 points a contest, in Athens. I don't know a lot about LSU, but I feel fairly confident that the 3rd or 4th-best SEC team could take care of the 3rd-best Big Ten team this year.

Actually, if you really wanted to look at it, Florida probably has just as good a case for being ranked No. 1 as Ohio State does. I'd still rank OSU first if I had a vote, but it warrants mentioning. I don't think so. Florida won by 1 at Tennessee and won a close game at home against LSU. Ohio State won by 3 scores at Texas and at Iowa. The competition level is about the same, but OSU won their games more decisively and they were both on the road. Florida beat LSU by 13 and forced 5 turnovers (3 picks) against a team that almost never has problems taking care of the football. And Tennessee and LSU would both plaster Iowa.

I'd rather have the Cubs job. There's pressure, but it's good pressure. Just win games and compete on a regular basis and they'll love you forever (note that it took almost halfway into the 2006 season for most of the Cubs fan base to turn on Dusty Baker after two winning seasons to start things off). Win a World Series and you're a hero for life. I think Joe wants that. Personally, as long as Lou is off the table I have no problem with any of the remaining candidates I've heard mentioned (except Fregosi, but he's only been brought up in passing and we haven't heard from him in well over a week now).

Actually, if you really wanted to look at it, Florida probably has just as good a case for being ranked No. 1 as Ohio State does. I'd still rank OSU first if I had a vote, but it warrants mentioning.

You need Michigan to keep rolling so the ass kicking ND took doesnt look anymore than another dead bug on Michigans windshield. Ok, seriously anybody that would vote ND ahead of UM would need their head checked. Just because someone loses doesnt mean teams should leapfrog them because their loss was 4 weeks ago. Thats so 1990's. Hey, I wasn't saying I agreed with it, just that it will happen. We all know how stupid pollsters are, and barring some exceptionally strange circumstance (like, say, the phantom timeout last year), if PSU were to beat UM, ND would jump them.

I've heard good things about Quade, but nothing about Listach.

It'd be real nice if Michigan and Florida could lose this weekend so ND can jump to No. 7 in the polls.

I could root for the Mets, because they are a team built on great offense and good pitching. They didn't put all their eggs in the pitching basket. If they win, Hendry might put some value in actually having a lineup that can score runs. More likely, Hendry will credit all the Latinos for them winning and bring back Neifi Perez and Jose Macias, sign Pedro Feliz, and acquire Ramon Ortiz and Esteban Loaiza for the pitching staff.

I meant more from a national interest perspective. NBC wants everyone to be interested, not just Bronco fans. But you're right of course. If the Bears were playing the Raiders, I'd sure be tuning in. :) Raiders and football fans may still watch for a while hoping for an upset. I'm rooting for Oakland and against Detroit the rest of the way this year. Big weekend for the Panthers. Luckily, they get a Monday night team from last week for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. Let's see if Peppers can break McNair's sternum.