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IU wins the game they needed to win to secure a spot in the tournament. That makes the 4/5 game as Iowa/Purdue, with Illinois the 6 seed. I think Purdue has to beat Iowa to get into the dance, and I think Illinois had to beat the 11 seed and a quarterfinal victory over Indiana to get in. I don't think another victory over the 11 will help much, and I think they are just barely out right now.

Uh, that's actually one thing that I thought Dusty did say a great deal. I don't really think so. Dusty would, more often than not, find a way to deflect blame for why they didn't get the job done and he certainly never came out and said play was unacceptable. I also don't recall Dusty, publically, challenging guys; telling them to step up their collective game if they expect to play. I guess we have different memories then. Dusty would deflect it some of the time, but he said all of that plenty of times. He also challenged people to step up their game-Rich Hill is a perfect example of somebody who he said had to step up if he expected to play. I thought that Dusty talked about execution in the way Piniella is there most of the time when addressing what was wrong with his team. In fact, he was widely criticized for blaming it on simply not executing in that way. I agree on the Hill memory but the difference, as I see it, is Lou is challenging the entire team without singling out (or possibly alienating) a particular player. I think his mantra, thus far, has been for the whole team to execute. He's not just talking about the young guys here because Jacque also left a runner in scoring position... Well, the question is, does he consider somebody like Jacque to be one of his boppers? That's the thing-he is excusing some of the people in that quote and only focusing on some.

Uh, that's actually one thing that I thought Dusty did say a great deal. I don't really think so. Dusty would, more often than not, find a way to deflect blame for why they didn't get the job done and he certainly never came out and said play was unacceptable. I also don't recall Dusty, publically, challenging guys; telling them to step up their collective game if they expect to play. I guess we have different memories then. Dusty would deflect it some of the time, but he said all of that plenty of times. He also challenged people to step up their game-Rich Hill is a perfect example of somebody who he said had to step up if he expected to play. I thought that Dusty talked about execution in the way Piniella is there most of the time when addressing what was wrong with his team. In fact, he was widely criticized for blaming it on simply not executing in that way.

Uh, that's actually one thing that I thought Dusty did say a great deal.

The bubble teams can breathe a sigh of relief-Butler wins 67-66 in OT over Loyala-Chicago, and moves onto the Horizon League finals.

Butler and Loyala-Chicago are heading to OT-Butler's in regardless, so all the fans of teams on the bubble are probably big Butler fans now.

Many bubble teams are looking anxiously at the Butler game right now-they are tied with just over 2 minutes to go.

Definitely-2 easy steals for OSU, a missed dunk, a missed 1 and 1, two missed rebounds, 1 that led to an easy fast break for OSU and the other that led to the winning free throws-you don't see too many better examples of choking then that.

It sounded like he did all right-he gave up a couple of hits and a run in the second, but he also struck out two in 2 innings and only had 1 hard hit out. 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K How did we score? Cedeno solo home run, Barrett inside the park home run, Perez sac fly, I forget the other run. Jones single, maybe? That's it-thanks to texas for the help also, my memory is failing me :D

It sounded like he did all right-he gave up a couple of hits and a run in the second, but he also struck out two in 2 innings and only had 1 hard hit out. 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K How did we score? Cedeno solo home run, Barrett inside the park home run, Perez sac fly, I forget the other run.

It sounded like he did all right-he gave up a couple of hits and a run in the second, but he also struck out two in 2 innings and only had 1 hard hit out. 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K

They definitely are-they've been much better recently. Michigan State officially lost their chance for a bye in the BTT with that loss. In fact, I think the best they can finish is 7th now, and possibly 8th if Michigan somehow upsets OSU (I think Purdue would win any ties over MSU or Michigan). IU might have the 3 seed locked up already, and they certainly will if they beat PSU today. Then you could see a 3 way tie for 4-6, and I'll wait till after the Purdue game to see the tiebreakers there.

This is the quote from Bruce yesterday: Gallagher was used yesterday-I think it was because Cotts was supposed to go 2 innings and didn't make it that far, so scratch Gallagher off that list. The others will probably go though.

Well, Tampa Bay has found their replacement for Plummer-Jeff Garcia. http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/10033511

The team is holding him out for a few days as a precautionary measure-I believe I read that Floyd thinks that he's ready to go, but the team wants to be absolutely sure.

Thanks Bruce-I guess you can tell that tomorrow's a TV game from that lineup :D

I've heard that too the last few days-I've also heard it's almost certainly dead now though that the Pats have picked up Adalius Thomas. I do hear they may go after Randy Moss though (but that's not a huge issue for this thread I guess :D)

Did anybody see this one coming? I dont remember ever reading the Pats being interested. From PFI... While not completed the number will be basically be $7.5 million per year and $17 million guaranteed. Yeah, I knew the Pats were interested all along-they have the space, and their linebackers are getting very old-I was just hoping that SF would land him instead, but they decided to go with Clements I guess. They made a good point on NFL Network (Adam Schefter, I think) about the Pats signing Thomas. They said there might be some unrest in the locker room if the Pats start signing guys to big money deals. Yeah, it definitely will be a problem-the Pats haven't been willing to sign anybody to big money deal, and paying people now might result in all of their underpaid players (which are almost all of them) to start demanding their money like Branch did last year.

There's speculation on the Colts board that Dominic Rhodes might go to the Titans and they might officially re-name their team Colts South :D

Apparently Ward will start at 1B and Pie in CF (it's in the bottom notes section): http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070302&content_id=1824141&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

When's the last time in the NFL that there was a consensus #1 pick 2 years in a row?

Did anybody see this one coming? I dont remember ever reading the Pats being interested. From PFI... While not completed the number will be basically be $7.5 million per year and $17 million guaranteed. Yeah, I knew the Pats were interested all along-they have the space, and their linebackers are getting very old-I was just hoping that SF would land him instead, but they decided to go with Clements I guess.

http://news.bostonherald.com/blogs/patriots/ Uh-oh-according to this, Adalius Thomas is about to head to the Patriots.

I'd hold up on the predicitons for a while. Most of the players these guys are playing against aren't going to be around once the season begins and many times ST numbers don't carry over into the regular season. I put much more faith in PECOTA than I do ST. I didn't really say much about predictions-the players I'm watching are for the most part to see if they are healthy or if they have changed their mechanics. I'm just seeing if anybody has any other people they're watching. For example, I'm not watching Soriano or Ramirez that closely because their ST results will tell me almost nothing about their season, while those whose production only suffered because they were hurt can prove they are healthy during ST.

Murton has actually all 4 RBI's-with 2 outs, Izturis, Lee, and Ramirez loaded the bases, and then Murton drove 2 home, and Murton later had an RBI single after an Izturis double.