CubbieBum

Ugh and that's really all I can think to say right now.

Well he's a well above average player now much improved from last year but still has a way to go. There's a reason most experts said he had the most potential of anyone in that recruiting class. He's beginning to show it this year. He has got smarter about getting good position down low which has led to a lot more scoring. Last year he settled for a lot of jump shots hence why he shot only 42 percent. This year he is getting mainly dunks/easy lay-ins hence why he is shooting55 percent. Last year he was already a very good shot blocker (1.0 blocks in 16 minutes per game) but it was in the Josh Smith kind of way where he always goes for the block at the sacrifice of playing good defense. He would get the block occasionally but a lot of times his man would fake him out or Johnson would have let him go by so he could try and block from behind. For the most part Johnson has stopped doing that and has turned into one of the best blockers. He's averaging 2.2 blocks a game in 24 minutes a game. He still needs to add more muscle and when he does he could be unstoppable. He's extremely athletic for his size and can shoot the jumper well for a center. So when he adds muscle, even 15 pounds of it, he can be strong enough to hold his position and athletic enough to beat his man down the court and get that position.

kramer's still better. And he is, but that's besides the point I'd just like to point out that Chester has been playing hurt for four years. I don't think he has ever been 100% healthy for any game. He is a warrior and I am glad the fan base is finally embracing him. I really like Kramer's game also, what is the latest on his injury, Purdue is not the same without him. I also read that Hummel is banged up, anyone have news on that? And so has Kramer. This year he has and a little bit at the end of last season, but I don't remember him being hurt freshman year? You should read about him then. He has constant pain that he has to play through in every game because of his shins. He essentially has severe shinsplints nonstop. After his freshman year is when he had the surgery on both shins. http://blogs.indystar.com/purdue/2008/09/false_alarm_on_chris_kramer.html That shows what he deals with. He wears a protective air cast on days he has to walk around campus a lot. The kid is always injured he just plays through it.

Thank you. If you go to Mackey you can probably say that to them in person because they are likely shooting free throws right now. yeah, because the refs are still calling fouls on the illini. The game was called fairly. not really. Eh, there were some questionable calls both ways. The only really bad call was the foul at the end of regulation on Davis. Typical B10 game other than that. i was just making a comment on how many more free throws purdue shot than the illini. the fouls looked even at the end because of the 7 fouls purdue had in the ot period. plus, purdue didn't lose the game, they were beaten. Just because one team shoots 10-15 more free throws doesn't mean the reffing was bad. Watch the game with open eyes and you will see the game was reffed well. Purdue shot more free throws because they had their guards driving a lot and JaJuan was getting great position. Ilinois was getting open jump shots from 10-15 feet out all game. Those are great scoring opportunities but you won't get a lot of free throws with jump shots. you should take your own advice, your one of the biggest homers here. purdue would get the ball on the block and get the foul every time, regardless of if they were touched or not. tisdale gets pushed and his hand gets tangled up in someone's baggy jersey and he gets called for a foul for grabbing. the free throws really speak for themselves. i think they just called another foul on tisdale, really. it's awesome though, if someone disagrees with you, that's generally your only response. just because no one agrees with you doesn't mean they aren't "looking at it with open eyes". It's unlucky but its a foul. Just because the guy didn't mean to doesn't mean its not a foul. Most fouls the players doesn't mean to foul. This one is a bit different but its a foul nonetheless. Same goes for the play Kramer got hurt on. The guy was trying to get past Kramer but in the end he ran over Kramer. Its a foul. Again watch the game and you will see Purdue doing a lot of guard driving from the key which in general leads to a lot of free throws while Illinois passes it around and if it goes into the post its from a pass. JaJuan Johnson also drew a lot of fouls because he would either get prime position and the only option was to foul or would get an offensive rebound and be fouled to avoid an easy putback. Were there bad calls? Sure like in every game there were but both teams had bad calls go against them. Remember the 20-30 second period where there were three straight no calls (two fouls and one traveling). Painter almost got T-ed up for that and he very rather gets a technical.

kramer's still better. And he is, but that's besides the point I'd just like to point out that Chester has been playing hurt for four years. I don't think he has ever been 100% healthy for any game. He is a warrior and I am glad the fan base is finally embracing him. I really like Kramer's game also, what is the latest on his injury, Purdue is not the same without him. I also read that Hummel is banged up, anyone have news on that? And so has Kramer.

If he has any say on how the offense is run they will never get out of the dumps. Chaney was ungodly awful as an OC at Purdue. If you look at just straight statistics you might think he was a pretty good OC but when he was around we had dominant offenses every year because we had great players. My family (some Purdue fans for over 80 years) used to scream and cuss almost every game over Chaney's play calling. If something works he will start doing something else to try and catch the defense off guard. For instance in games that Purdue would have almost 300 yards passing by halftime Chaney would have Purdue come out for the second half running. We used to play a QB1 style game when watching the games to see who could predict the play Purdue was about to run. No joke I was right about 70-75% of the time (had to name play type and primary direction). If I can guess what Chaney has called that much imagine what opposing defenses can do. It just happened that Tiller's spread offense makes it so 50% of the time you can't do anything to stop the offense as long as you have a good QB. Purdue had great QB's when Chaney was here so the offense succeeded in spite of him. In all seriousness I'm pretty sure I could have done better than Chaney as Purdue's OC.

Thank you. If you go to Mackey you can probably say that to them in person because they are likely shooting free throws right now. yeah, because the refs are still calling fouls on the illini. The game was called fairly. not really. Eh, there were some questionable calls both ways. The only really bad call was the foul at the end of regulation on Davis. Typical B10 game other than that. i was just making a comment on how many more free throws purdue shot than the illini. the fouls looked even at the end because of the 7 fouls purdue had in the ot period. plus, purdue didn't lose the game, they were beaten. Just because one team shoots 10-15 more free throws doesn't mean the reffing was bad. Watch the game with open eyes and you will see the game was reffed well. Purdue shot more free throws because they had their guards driving a lot and JaJuan was getting great position. Ilinois was getting open jump shots from 10-15 feet out all game. Those are great scoring opportunities but you won't get a lot of free throws with jump shots.

Thank you. If you go to Mackey you can probably say that to them in person because they are likely shooting free throws right now. yeah, because the refs are still calling fouls on the illini. The game was called fairly.

ditto

Thank you. If you go to Mackey you can probably say that to them in person because they are likely shooting free throws right now.

Well this could be the game Purdue looks back on know that it cost them the championship. Illinois deserves credit but Purdue missing open shots, including free throws, was the difference. On another note I'm not sure Kramer will be able to play much the rest of the way. From what I've heard and what I saw tonight looks like his shins have given out again. I had really bad shinsplints all the time and the way he was grimacing made me think that is what it is (grimacing, then stopping, then grimacing). Him not being able to play much has a big affect on our defense. Last two games just haven't been close to the same defense.

I love Big Ten basketball but good God its going to give me a heart attack. And its only game one ...

I haven't seen many bad calls in this game and its been officiated evenly. Illinois is taking a lot of jump shots rather than going inside and driving like Purdue.

Well we have an abundance of starters so we don't need Marquis and we saved 6 million in the deal so I only see positive. Well other than no more Marquis scapegoat.

What Purdue did last year is extremely relevant to this year's team because its virtually the same exact team (lost one speedy backup PG and gained one speedy backup PG). As for the three years thing the common way it is used is the last three years includes this season. So quit nitpicking because he used the last three years at home correctly by the way it is most commonly used. Prime example the play-by-play guy said Purdue has lost only three times in the last three seasons at home. As for what has happened so far is JaJuan Johnson showing he will be in the NBA someday. Hit two long jumpers and had a dunk where he beat Illinois down the court.

Ok I was just looking at a preview for the game. I had no idea Illinois had played only one away game. That's not right and pretty stupid to me. The committee will see that and probably heavily discount your entire non-conference schedule. That means you are even more than normal dependent on Big Ten schedule.

Losers say what?

With the strength of the Big Ten this year its probably 5. In last year's Big Ten its probably 8.

Little more articulate. I say Soprano half the time and then think wait a minute ...

I love the term "player's coach." Someone was being very diplomatic when he coined that one. It means "won't make anyone do anything." The term doesn't mean that but it is often missed used. There are coaches who can motivate you and at times be harsh but for the most part the players love him and will do anything for him. Then there are coaches we are like a drill sargent. They motivate you but they aren't exactly someone you love. Both types can be highly successful with the first being a player's coach. People (media especially) nowadays throw player's coach on any coach who is soft on his players and isn't a disciplinarian. They don't use the term correctly in my opinion.

The Jets will have a long period of losing now (5-10 years) is my prediction. Mangini is a great coach and they are extremely dimwitted to fire him. They deserve to lose now. Let's see team goes 4-12 so Mangini is hired. Team then goes 10-6 in the first season using practically the same team they had the season before. The next season they have a lot of injuries including Pennington being hurt. Even when Pennington got back he wasn't the same which is why he was benched a couple games. How is this Mangini's fault? Its not and the team goes 4-12 again. This season he gets a new QB but its actually an old QB who was carrying a media circus with him. The team goes 9-7 and would have made playoffs if the old/new QB hadn't fallen off. Bottom line is he took over a 4-12 team and proceeding to average almost 8 wins in three seasons using practically the same amount of talent.

I was thinking about this the other day. If Purdue goes 14-4 (one win worse than last year) they will be 25-6 and probably either a 2 or 3 seed. What I'm finding interesting for the conference going in is that the winner will probably have the record of the third place team last year (14-4). Just shows how the whole conference has taken a step up, minus IU of course.

Best game I've watched all season but I think that's the Purdue fan in me talking.

Floor has to be lower than that. Francoeur had a bad year last year but is still a good young player. No he doesn't have disapline but had a good average up until last year (I know OBP is more important but average still counts for something). He has good power and plays GG defense. If at worst Vitters is a career .270, 20 hr, GG defender I don't know many teams that wouldn't be very please with that. His floor is some guy no one remembers because he bombed out once he got to AAA/Majors. I don't think Vitters will but he could.

This may be social may be cub discussion move it if you feel the need mods. So I was telling my roommate, who's a Mets fan, about what K-Rod said about the Mets being the favorites in the NL. First let me set the stage by telling you Andy and I have argued multiple times with him about what is the best common stat indicating a pitcher's quality. We say ERA he says wins. Yeah. Anyways here's the conversation Him: I wish no one would say that kind of thing but its true. Me: *chuckle* You have to win your division at least one of the last two years to be able to claim that. Him: The Mets have the most talent and thus are the favorites. Me: No doubting the Mets are in the top 2 of most talented teams but its up for grabs whether its them or the Cubs. Plus they had all that talent the last two years and got them no where. Him: *chuckle/scoff* Typical Cub fan and thinking their team is the best. You guys are the worst fans in baseball because you know nothing but think you know everything. Me: We had the BEST record in MLB last year. So I'm wondering how many of you agree with him in that the Mets are the favorites.