NeifiIsMyHomeBoy

Oh and Tom Crean also let a 5'2" midget manager play basketball last year. What an act of kindness towards the young man.

But he already accomplished something because his team played hard last year. What a load of crap that was, every team plays hard and tries to win every game. If they don't then they don't deserve to wear the jersey.

I think it may be more the power of WWW and Fed Ex.

That really sucks. This opens the door for Wisconsin now.

I know his mom got pretty involved in the recruiting process. Wanted to make sure her son was going to the "right" place. Not sure how much that scared off/eliminated bigger schools. there's some innuendo out there regarding her, too. but illinois can't really talk, alex legion's mother is crazy crazy crazy and he's not even any good. She's not crazy. She is just a prophet put on Earth by God himself, to tell us all the Messiah is coming.

IU has a very tough non conference schedule. I just can't foresee a .500 year for them this season. They are too young, and I do not think they have a prayer of beating Pitt, Maryland, Kentucky. I can't comment on the quality of the Ole Miss basketball program, but I am assuming that will be a good test for IU. They will take a step forward, but I only see 6 gimme's on the non-conference schedule, and with the quality of the Big 10 this year I just can't see them posting a .500 record.

Yep, I thought he was ok last year, but could have been better. But the announcers on ESPN360 said he lead the Big 10 in assists. Am I the only one who did not know that? That caught me off guard as well, although I think they qualified by saying that he did it within league play.

He can't defend. For a team likely to struggle with defense more than scoring, there's no place for Cole on the court. i think the zone defense is designed to get him on the court. but watching him out there, he's not terrible, at least any more than tisdale. I like Cole's shooting ability a lot, but I just can't see Weber sticking with the zone idea. He is one of the most stubborn coaches in the country, and if it does not start to mesh soon it would not surprise me to see him trash the idea all together. The defense will improve a lot within the next month, and I don't think it is anything we need to be too concerned with yet. I only saw a little bit of the game, but D-Mac has a quicker burst this year with the weight loss. I like the attacking mentality of the freshmen, and I think Paul will be able to create offense off of the dribble come Big Ten season. I'm still not a huge Tisdale fan, but I am hoping he can hold up this year, and average somewhere around 11 and 7. DMac almost banged on the one kid, just missed the dunk. The talented freshman pushing him is the best thing that could have happened to him. I totally agree. Competition is what D-Mac needed. He was clearly the most talented player on the team last year, and I believe he got complacent because of it. Now he is actually being forced to compete with someone who can take his minutes. Weber has much more leverage over him, which I am hoping will help D-Mac reach his true potential.

He can't defend. For a team likely to struggle with defense more than scoring, there's no place for Cole on the court. i think the zone defense is designed to get him on the court. but watching him out there, he's not terrible, at least any more than tisdale. I like Cole's shooting ability a lot, but I just can't see Weber sticking with the zone idea. He is one of the most stubborn coaches in the country, and if it does not start to mesh soon it would not surprise me to see him trash the idea all together. The defense will improve a lot within the next month, and I don't think it is anything we need to be too concerned with yet. I only saw a little bit of the game, but D-Mac has a quicker burst this year with the weight loss. I like the attacking mentality of the freshmen, and I think Paul will be able to create offense off of the dribble come Big Ten season. I'm still not a huge Tisdale fan, but I am hoping he can hold up this year, and average somewhere around 11 and 7.

Indeed , with White's problems thus far at Minnesota I think that Big Ten Freshman of the Year is realistic for him. He is going to get the minutes to put up some numbers, and appears to be as good as advertised.

Illinois beat Quincy 84-63 tonight in its final tune-up before the regular season starts on the 13th. DJ Richardson lead the Illini in scoring putting up 23, on 9-13 from the floor. Brandon Paul started over Legion and scored 11, while Legion added 12 off of the bench.

His need to go deep all the time also factors into a lot of his sacks. He's got the Sexy Rexy streak in him, and it's not a good quality at all to have. That deep ball intended to Jennings was just plain stupid. He had four Bucs around him.

Rodger's looked like total crap today, he picked a horrible day to have his worst game of the season. I'm guessing that his feet may have been really bothering him. Rodgers has a tendency to fall in love with the deep ball, and I really hate it. We have some of the best YAC guys in the league and we are throwing 40 yard bombs at least ten times a game. Each time Rodgers was picked he was going down field. Also quit rolling him out, he holds onto the ball way too long when rolling out of the pocket. Get rid of the rock quicker. Ahman Green looked surprisingly good today and I think could prove to be a valuable addition down the stretch. Oline still sucks. I really hope Mike McCarthy is gone at the end of the year. The Packers are way too undisciplined, and special teams have been awful this year. Both are tell tale signs of poorly coached football teams. I should know too, because I've watched a Ron Zook coached team every game for five years.

Part of my dislike of Kramer has to do with the fact that Chester Frazier did essentially the same exact thing on a less talented team, and got little or no credit for it. For some reason the national media loves Kramer. He is a great defensive player with actual talent around him, but Frazier was the defensive stopper on a team that could not score consistently. Because of this I think his value to Illinois last year was much higher than Kramer to Purdue. Maybe I'm just jealous, maybe I'm looking at it through orange colored glasses, or maybe I just have an irrational hatred for Kramer. I'm not sure which one it is. BTW why did Purdue reach on Jay Simpson with all the talent in Indiana in 2012?

I would think people would hate Kramer more than Cardinal. Kramer whines a helluva lot more. Cardinal flopped, dove, etc., but he didn't piss and moan nearly as much when calls didn't go his way. Cardinal never faked getting elbowed in the face to get a player ejected either. While I completely agree that Kramer flopped big time on that play, he obviously did get hit (unless you want to make the case that the blood was caused from him hitting the floor). However, watching his reaction, you'd have thought he got shot. I have no problem with the hustle or trying to sell a call here and there. It's the constant whining when he doesn't get calls that bugs the crap out of me...even as a Purdue fan. And the fact that he ALWAYS handchecks and never gets called for it.

It's a new season, and I still hate Chris Kramer. Probably the most unlikeable Boiler since Brian [expletive] Cardinal. That is all. Apologies for the wasted post.

There were quite a few kids from my high school that ended up in Ames. Both Iowa and Iowa State draw a lot of their enrollment from the Chicago burbs. Iowa probably more than Iowa State.

That's a good question. I've grown up in Iowa and I've known like two of them and they didn't care that much about sports. There just aren't that many. Chicago suburbanites with average high school grades?

23 isn't bad. I think that is about where Illinois should be. I'll take it.

The Coaches poll is out. MSU 2 Purdue 7 Michigan 15 OSU 17 Minnesota 18 Illinois 27 I can't help but think overrated when I look at Michigan at 15. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings?pollId=2

I'm still having nightmares about that game in State College last year. The kid is a stud.

Having Duke play Wisconsin is a joke. I would have much rather seen them play OSU and have FSU play Wisconsin. I feel like those matchups would be much more interesting from a talent standpoint. I just don't think that Bucky stands a chance in that game, and I think that their tournament streak may finally be coming to an end this year. The league is too talented and I think Taylor Battle leads PSU into the tourney this year as the 7th team. This year is going to be awesome and I can't wait. Here's my predicted finish right now. 1) MSU 2) Purdue 3) OSU 4) Illinois 5) Michigan 6) Minnesota 7) Penn State 8) Wisconsin 9) NU 10) IU 11) Iowa

Please God do not let Brett Favre win this game. I don't think my poor, pathetic little heart could take it. 1st place in the division would be great.

There are racists everywhere, the media needs to get over the fact that it isn't just Cubs fans. It really sickens me that there are people in the world who don't have anything better to do than sit down and write a letter to a baseball player full of racist garbage.

Sosa really had a nasty 2001. I forgot just how great he was offensively that year. Those numbers are scary good. Too bad they probably came from the juice.