SouthSideRyan

Starts putting it together means not playing like dogs***? You honestly expected the Illinois team that played Purdue to be the team that showed up the rest of the year? Again reverse the situations, (following ILLINOIS BEATING INDIANA)"unless Indiana starts putting it together, I think they lose at Iowa, Purdue, Michigan, and MSU" You'd laugh your ass off and probably come up with some new Eric Gordon factoid. To consider a team's true talent level based one game is ridiculous, especially when you just saw them play a better game 4 days earlier against your own [expletive] team.

I'm guessing his roommate from ND does.

That was a bad loss for the Cats, but they have also stuck with UW and OSU at home for most of those games, so it's not like they are always that bad. They've also let bad Western Michigan, Miami, and Loyola MD teams stick with them on their home court, not to mention a 1 point win over 0-20 vs. D1 N. Florida and a 2 point win over D3 Wheaton College. They have 3 losses to sub-150 RPI teams, 2 of them at home the other a blowout against Penn St. They have one win against a top 100 team, that being Depaul(69) the 2nd game of the year. You didn't like the rest of my post? I didn't like the rest of your post because it didn't apply to what I was talking about. Illinois against Purdue was one of their worst performances of the year, and definitely their worst of Big 10 play. Yes, if Illinois plays their worst game of the year, they could easily lose to NU, but you predicted UI to lose to NU, you never said anything about they better not play like crap again, or if NU gets hot, it was a flat out prediction, and it's kind of absurd. if I said IU is going to lose to Iowa on Saturday because you know how tough road games are in the Big 10, additionally Indiana looked terrible against U of I, you'd call me out for complete BS, and you'd be completely right. And that's with an Iowa team that hasn't looked nearly as incompetent as NU lately.

That was a bad loss for the Cats, but they have also stuck with UW and OSU at home for most of those games, so it's not like they are always that bad. They've also let bad Western Michigan, Miami, and Loyola MD teams stick with them on their home court, not to mention a 1 point win over 0-20 vs. D1 N. Florida and a 2 point win over D3 Wheaton College. They have 3 losses to sub-150 RPI teams, 2 of them at home the other a blowout against Penn St. They have one win against a top 100 team, that being Depaul(69) the 2nd game of the year.

Northwestern lost to Minnesota at home last night. Care to give us back our win at NU ronnie?? Iowa beating UM last night might be enough to take Michigan out of the tourney. 8 games left playing Minnesota twice, MSU twice, OSU twice, at U of I and at home against IU. Even stealing a game they're supposed to lose(Pomeroy gives them their best chance with 42% against MSU which seems generous to me), they wind up 7-9 in conference and 19-12 overall. 1 conference tourney win would put them at 20 making it tough to pass them up, but you've got MSU, IU, OSU, and Wisky looking like locks, with U of I looking fairly certain to go at least 8-8 in conference with 20 wins pre-conference tourney. Barring a couple hot runs by the middling teams, I can't see the Big 10 getting more than 5, and right now it looks like Illinois's spot to lose. If Iowa can hold serve at home(a tough task with IU and Illinois left), they could go to 10-6 in the Big 10 and wind up with 18 pre-tourney wins, which would at least put them on the bubble, but I'd guess those early losses to ASU and Drake are going to keep killing their RPI. Purdue needs to hold serve at home(again, tough with MSU and IU coming to West Lafayette), and they need to actual win some road games for the first time in a couple years. Penn St. and NU are obviously musts, and Iowa on the road coupled with one of those tough home wins would go a long way towards pushing Purdue equal to Illinois. The wild card in this is that MSU could lose their lock status when put under further scrutiny. MSU's best win RPI wise is over #35 BYU in essentially a home game (Auburn Hills, MI) They'll have their chance to get a marquee win(RPI wise) with home games against IU and Wisky, but slip ups there could put them in some jeopardy, with their only 2 gimme wins on the schedule being Iowa at home and UM at home. There's really only one good matchup this weekend with OSU at MSU, but Saturday could go a long way towards clearing things up. An Iowa loss to IU would put them at 12-11, and probably out of tourney contention An MSU win against OSU would alleviate any fears of a late season slip out of the tourney and losses by Illinois or Purdue may force those teams to just about run the table to save their seasons. I of course see none of these happening.

I'm a pretty big bears fan, but they don't come close to touching the Cubs. They don't even touch U of I basketball who also can't come close to touching the Cubs.

I'd have to ask why. The Cubs need OBP and Ichiro provides a lot more of it than Jacque. That difference isn't worth 7MM in 2007, much less trading away a decent pitching prospect in Gallagher and a ptbnl. Jones/Ichiro is a tradeoff, not an across the board upgrade. Jones '07: .285/.334/.499/.833 Suzuki '07: .322/.370/.416/.786 36 points in OBP is worth 7MM? I think not. We could get more than that at SS (not to mention more power) w/o spending that kind of loot. CF/RF is a silly place to throw away 7MM on this Cubs team. I'm always quick to complain when somebody throws out the "who cares, it's not my money!!" excuse. But seriously, who cares, it's not my money. The odds of upgrading elsewhere before the season are slim to none, and it's not like that money is tied up in future years, it's just '07. That said, the rumor probably isn't true.

I didn't actually crunch the numbers but if we're assuming the same output from the Cards offensively, I definitely think Derrek Lee instead of Neifi and Soriano instead of Pierre is enough to make up 65 runs of offense.

I really hope WCIU is showing this.

Illinois's remaining schedule vs. Minnesota at Northwestern at Indiana vs. Northwestern vs. Michigan at Penn St. at Iowa I'm not saying it's impossible for Illinois to lose 3 of those games(I assume you meant finish 9-7 when saying win 6 of their next 8), but it doesn't look very likely to me. Bruce Weber stated they need to win 6 of their last eight (including tonight's game) to get an invite to the dance. I think they need to go 6-1 in their last seven. Even if they finish 9-7 in the conference, they will likely lose their first round Big Ten conference tourney game and I think they wouldn't get invited if that happens. I'm an IU fan, I don't like U of I, if you want to disregard my opinion because of that, feel free to do so. Unless U of I starts putting it together I think they lose at NU, and IU, and at Iowa. Unless you are UW or OSU road wins are still really tough in this conference. I don't disregard a fan's opinion just because they root for another team than my favorite team. Based on what you wrote, you were agreeing with my feelings toward Illinois right now. Although I wouldn't rule out a loss at PSU as well. This will be the first time in many, many, many years that I won't be sad to see the seniors leaving on senior night. I really don't like this team much. I didn't mean you personally by "you", I just have been in enough arguments in this thread to know what was coming if I didn't include that first sentence. Who are the U of I seniors? Carter, McBride, and Marcus Arnold(Praise Jesus) are the seniors.

Illinois's remaining schedule vs. Minnesota at Northwestern at Indiana vs. Northwestern vs. Michigan at Penn St. at Iowa I'm not saying it's impossible for Illinois to lose 3 of those games(I assume you meant finish 9-7 when saying win 6 of their next 8), but it doesn't look very likely to me.

Another must-win for Illinois tonight. I'm tired of must win games.

I bet it revives though. Colorado needs to trade him, Boston wants him and they were close it sounded like. Why does Colorado need to trade him when his value is at its lowest?

Agreed. Disagree. Circle gets the square.

The thing that sucks for me is I don't care about the Bulls. The last team I cared about that was one win away from the championship was the Bears. The Blackhawks were the last to play for a championship, but they never got within one win, they were swept. I've never actively cheered for a team that won it all. Ever. I had just turned 2 when the Bears won the Super Bowl. The only team I've even had make a championship was Illinois basketball in '05.

Who's the #3?

Haha what a great picture. thanks for my facebook picture!!! Me too.

The Pac-10 is really really good.

The Red Sox are pissed that the Rockies are asking for an actual player in return for a stud 1st baseman that they're giving to them cheaply, all while taking back overpriced contracts in return.

How things have changed in the last 6 months. 6 months ago, I would have wanted Illinois to kill Purdue, but this IU-UI rivalry has become so intense very quickly, and I found myself rooting for freaking Purdue to win a game. HA HA HA you have beat us once in the last what, 5 years now? I wouldn't say it is too intense just yet. Whatever this rivalry is between IU and UI has nothing to do with any games in the last 5 years. It's all about EJ. We got him, and craziness ensued (By the way, he scored 50 points again tonight in high school). There was no IU-UI rivalry 8 months ago. IU's rivals were UK and PU. UI's rival was Mizzou, I guess. All the real bad blood between these two programs surrounds a recruit, who decided to go to IU. Remember when we just beat you. That was fun.

HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU CALL THAT [expletive] CHARGE AND BASKET 2 WEEKS IN A ROW??? AND WAYNE LARIVEE YOU SUCK FOR NOT QUESTIONING IT.

Indiana was out of its mind from 3 point range and Michigan was out of its mind from the free throw line. Minnesota and Penn St. are 2 horrible basketball teams.

If anyone's wondering, Briggs wasn't actually at the event I was at last night, I just got the tickets through him. It was mostly just millionaire nobodies along with Mike McCaskey and Tony Dorsett. The Halas trophy was on display though which was pretty cool, and I got to pretend to be in the social elite for a few hours. Rachel Nichols was down in the lobby having drinks, and she is not nearly as good looking in person.

The only way you count the offensive basket and call the charge is if the player released the ball well before running into the defender. Landry released the ball AFTER running into the defender and AFTER THE FRIGGIN WHISTLE.