SouthSideRyan

I don't think it's just you. He seems to have a real arrogance about him. The way he talks, you'd think he's built an absolute dynasty. Between he and Guillen, it's not hard to dislike that team. Not because they are "rivals" of the Cubs (I don't consider them to be rivals), but because they are both clowns. Williams has been talking like that since he took over the job, it has nothing to do with them winning in '05.

(fat joke)

A half-way mediocre effort by Illinois and they win by 25.

UM beats IU in the ugliest game I've watched since the masochist in me got me to watch Northwestern/Minnesota for more than 30 seconds.

IIRC, Weber phrased it as get himself together physically, mentally, emotionally, and academically, sort of vaguely inferring that it shook him up inside, but I'm quite sure he's got some legal trouble coming his way. Driving that mess of a car a mile back to his apartment afterwards is just a horrible sign.

Lets see how he performs before making bold statements like that. If he reverts back to his sub 4.00 ERA form, $7MM a year will be a bargain, if he puts up a 6.00 ERA it was a horrible signing. Yeah, I can't give the nod to Marquis until he actually pitches his way to something worse than Todd Hundley. Hundley at least didn't look insane at the time. He looked as if he had recovered from his injuries and the Cubs had a massive crater at catcher. The '07 Cubs have 5 guys I would have rather given the spot to(all things considered) than Marquis.

I'm not sure if I'm misreading some people, but you're sorely mistaken if you think there's a chance Marquis isn't in the starting rotation. Hope he pitches great, but man this is the worst FA signing in Cubs history, past, present, and future.

Not much bubble movement today. Purdue gets the big win over IU which puts them in the drivers seat for a 4th Big 10 berth. Providence missed on their chance to become a serious at large contender. Stanford leads Oregon St. by 9 at home. They should hold on after OSU put up a good fight. They blow this lead, and they're in some trouble.

Problem for them is that since they didn't beat any of the good teams they played earlier(they still play Mo. State, but they're a bubble team), and the Big South is so terrible(29th of 32 Conferences in RPI) that they'll likely be in a situation like last year, having to beat a real good team in the first round(they're 3-4 against the RPI Top 200). True, but they'll probably be better than a 15 seed like they were last year. Bracketology has them as a 12 right now, and if they finish out the year strong I don't see too many teams passing them that are that far down, so they would be at least a 13 in that scenario-facing a 4 or a 5 seed is a lot easier than facing a 2. They should've been higher than a 15 seed last year too. I had them as an 11 in my personal rankings, and I'm pretty sure our mock committee had them no lower than 13.

I kinda liked the "towel drill" reference. :lol: Yeah so did I. The first time I heard it. In 2004.

Heh, it's amazing what rooting for a bubble team will do for your interest in all of college basketball in February. Washington's computer numbers are crap with a 75 RPI and a 277 non-conf. SOS. That's before the home loss which should drop them a few spots despite WSU being ranked highly. Their real problem is their 3 game road trip coming up with Pitt, Oregon St., and Oregon. Washington's only road win this year is against a brutal ASU team, and it was only by 5 points. Besides at Oregon and Pitt, they close out with USC and UCLA at home. 3-1 would keep them alive, but I think 2 will be hard enough to come by. 2-2 in that stretch puts them at 11 losses heading into the Pac-10 tourney, which would put them at 12 losses as an at large. I personally put 12 losses on the same level as 20 wins as in if you have 12+ losses or less than 20 wins, there better be some heft behind your games, or you don't stand a chance. And I think the Pac 10 is the best conference in the country, but this loss probably killed their chances. EDIT: Continuing on the PAC 10, Stanford better pick up at least one of those games in their tough 4 game stretch (Oregon, at USC, at UCLA, Arizona) 2 wins should lock them in at 19-10, only 1 and they're gonna have to sweat it out save for a run to the pac 10 title game.

wins like this keep them on the bubble, regardless of what happens in the Big East Tourney. They're playing with confidence at the right time here What hurts them is that they already have 11 losses thanks to inconsistency, and they have a few big games coming up against good teams. (@ Notre Dame, and 2 games that can be won against South Florida. They also have Cincinnati, which has only 1 win the Big East) If they manage to win out, which would not be easy, they'd be 19-11 going into the Big East Tourney with key wins over Kansas, ND twice, and Marquette. Not looking good, but they almost need to win out, or do some damage in the Big East tourney. They need to do both, or I guess if they lose to ND, make it to the finals of the BE tourney. One of those regular season wins is agasint a non D-1 school, so they'd only be 18-11.

What exactly is the hold up, then? This is absurd. Whenever teams have money to sign guys they just do it immediately, irrelevant to whether they're paying him 10M per year more than they have to?

Clemson endangering their at large with a loss at Wake. Arkansas in bubble trouble getting killed by 20 at Mississippi St. Bama blows a big early lead and is probably going to lose to Florida. The SEC West BLOWS. I called Wichita dead after their last loss. Now they lost at Drake. EDIT: Ole Miss comes back to beat LSU and is still alive for a tourney bid.

It sounds weird to say it after team made a great comeback like that. But DeChelis just coached a horrible game.

FLOYD CAN'T PLATOON WITH JONES THEY'RE BOTH LEFTIES. Anywho, the OF defense won't be bad. I'd put them as slightly above average range wise.

People's asses.

Ahhh 18 pages, just what I was hoping for. If we could have the mass suicide threats/giving up on the Cubs threats the day before he signs his long term deal, that would be just spectacular.

im sure people said the same thing about Maddux in 92 They didn't trade Maddux though. People wouldn't be nearly so bent on the Maddux situation if we had, say, Chipper Jones to show for it. And people would be more bent on it if we had, say, Todd Van Poppel and 1 less year of Maddux to show for it.

I hope this contract situation spawns threads like the Ramirez and Lee contracts spawned. Cause those were just great.

Creighton and MO St. better be careful down the stretch. Creighton's profile is looking a lot like MO St. '06's and they were robbed of a spot in the tourney. If MO St. loses to SIU on Tuesday they'll have been swept by them and Creighton, and could be in real trouble despite an early season neutral win over Wisky. Dropping that game in addition to Winthrop or at Wichita(No shame in either loss) puts them in real trouble. The MVC worked out well for the tourney teams last year as you had 4 pretty bad teams in Drake, Ind. St., Ill. St., and Evansville. This year the depth of the Valley with those 4 teams becoming medicore it's made the conference tighter and gives the potential for bad losses that weren't there last year. The Mountain West this year looks pretty similar to Valley '06 with BYU, Air Force, and UNLV piling up wins against down teams from the MWC.

I wish Troy O' Leary was just our AAA roster filler rather than our 4th OF. And does that seem crazy to anyone else, that in a bench guy teams wouldn't want OBP as one of their primary skills?

The sun rises, the sun sets, and Duke loses again.

Wichita is toast IMO. Their complementary wins against Bradley, Syracuse, and LSU just keep getting worse, and their bad losses are staying bad.

Rereading this thread for the IU/Illinois talk and saw this for the first time. My eyes lit up. Surely he's got to be done for the season, right? Why in the hell would you subject yourself to that?