PosterToBeNamedLater

Why wouldnt you have felt confident? The dude was getting his timing and rhythm back. Every game he played since coming back from that ankle injury he looked better and better. He showed flashes of explosiveness on Saturday that I didnt see in the prior two games. There is no doubt in my mind, barring injury (which obviously occured), he would be been at least 90-95% of last years Rose by the time we played Miami. Also, Rose makes a huge difference when he's on the court even if he's not doing much. It all comes down to how the opponents defend the Bulls. Rose is the only player on the Bulls that can create his own shot and is the only elite scorer on the team. Because of this, even if Rose is struggling, teams focus a lot of their defensive game plan on Rose and have to gamble a bit on other players like Korver, Rip, Deng etc. It opens up the whole offense to have him on the court. I understand he was getting timing back. I didn't care if his shot was a bit off in the games. It just seemed that it was more than timing. He didn't seem very explosive. When he tried to make a move around a guy, it seemed like he had large exaggerated motions instead of just blowing by them. I was just worried he still had soreness--whether that was from the groin, or ankles. He definitely may have gotten back to form, I just wasn't confident in it. I know he makes the team better regardless, which is why I said they aren't better without him. I guess that although it was a horrible blow, I was already prepared for the fact that he wasn't going to be quite himself. I still think they should make it to the ECF--but obviously the chances of them winning that will be pretty slim now. I am almost frustrated more as a basketball fan than a bulls fan that we won't get to see that series at its best.

Also they didn't forget to rebound, play defense or lose their front court depth when Rose went down. Moreover, was a 65% Rose that much better than a 100% CJ Watson/JLIII? Yeah... it really sucks Rose went down, but I am more upset for future implications. It almost didn't seem like it affected this season as much as you would think since he hasn't seemed the same since coming back. He wasn't as explosive and for the most part seemed to have to settle for jumpers. I know he made 3 threes in game 1, but we obviously can't count on that from him every game. Clearly, we aren't better off without him, but he wasn't the same player as last year. I was hoping he would get back to form by the time they played Miami, but I wasn't very confident it would happen.

how in the world has Howland attracted these guys after he's run the program into the ground AND gotten blistered by that SI article? Wasn't the article all about how the star players got away with anything and everything? Maybe it helped.

They really don't. Is this even fun for Phoenix fans (assuming there are any). They go like 30 minutes between shots and are just getting dominated... but one freaking player keeps them in the game.

Lol, it really "pisses you off?" OK, that is a little strong. I don't really care. I just don't get why people like the cycle so much.

First of all, does this count since it was against the Mariners? That lineup is pretty brutal. Second, does anyone get sort of annoyed at how excited people get for no-hitters. Maybe it is just because of the recent string of perfect games in the past few years, but a no-hitter just seems so much less important to me now. Maybe it was just the Edwin Jackson no-hitter. He walked 8 batters, they had an error... I don't know it just didn't seem that impressive to me but the Arizona fans acted like it was awesome. I get why a perfect game is impressive, but if you can walk certain hitters as many times as you want, or even give up runs (and even lose the game) the no-hitter just seems a bit overhyped. Sort of off-topic, but another thing that annoys me is hitting for the cycle. There are so many combinations of hitting days that are better than hitting for the cycle. It annoys me when people talk about a batter only needing a single for the cycle. "He should stumble around first so that he has to settle for the single." A HR, triple and two doubles is better than a cycle. Pisses me off.

That is awesome. I was literally just thinking about this the other day--wondering if they cut their prices some whether they would get way more people to sign up and make more in the end. I have almost signed up in the past, but always ended up passing based on the price. For $200, I will definitely sign up this year. I would have paid $200 just to get Bears games, but this will be great.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nhl/story/_/id/7828639/2012-stanley-cup-playoffs-phoenix-coyotes-raffi-torres-suspended-hearing-hit-chicago-blackhawks-marian-hossa Man I can't stand Tippett. Of course before game 3 he refers to Shaw's hit as a blatant hit to the head with no intent to miss the goalie. If you "slow it down" you can see that it was way more of an embellishment from Smith and that Shaw didn't go in there with some big intent to hurt Smith. Whereas when you slow down the Torres hit, you can tell exactly his intent.

The Phoenix announcers were saying something to the effect of "Crawford doesn't want what's behind that door, I'll just leave it at that."

I am stuck with the Phoenix coverage (I live here). The CNBC broadcast is blacked out. I think the color guy is Tyson Nash. When they first showed the replay he said, "That's as clean as a hit as you're gonna get."

One of my favorite simpson's quotes.

Is he still wearing the super-light shoes? I feel like his ankle problems last year came right after they debuted the new shoes. I remember thinking at the time that it was bad publicity and bad timing for adidas. I know re-injuring a healing ankle can be pretty easy, but now it seems like he is rolling an ankle every time he plays. Maybe it is the shoes.

Seriously. I don't get when even people that believe there should be instant replay in baseball always add, "But NOT for balls and strikes!" I would rather an ump have someone in his ear telling him what the K-zone said over any other replay they have in baseball. I think strike zones that differ between half-innings affect way more games than anything else. Are these people that don't want balls and strikes to be included thinking it will be some sort of challenge from the player? Just let K-zone call it. Let the ump stand there and he can give us the result.

Not to mention Bosh shot like 60+% for the series--with a lot of jumpers... then followed it up with something like 30% through the first few games of the finals.

Too little too late. By far. I would like to know what he really said to Collins. Was it a real apology or a "I'm sorry I had to put a kid through that ordeal" kind of an apology. Sort of like when someone says, "I'm sorry you were offended." If it was real, I wish this would get any kind of media attention--more than just a twitter message that only Illinois boards will notice. Instead, the only time a national media member brings it up is to mention he was just "being a whistleblower and doing the right thing." This is what I figured: "Pearl said his Friday apology wasn't for what he did, so much as for the unfortunate circumstances it brought about." http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2012/apr/01/pearl-collins-find-closure-in-big-easy/

Maybe it's as simple as wanting to get a mild mannered, squeaky clean guy in there on the heels of Martin. To people who don't know any better, he could be sold as being a good coach. Still, it's surprising. I don't think it's that surprising. Coaches/managers in every sport get jobs after failing, and many are worse than Weber. Right... and it is Kansas State. It isn't exactly a destination for great coaches. I was way more shocked when Huggins went there, and I don't think Huggins is some great coach or anything. I mean, for people that weren't following Illinois basketball closely, Weber has been a national coach of the year before.

Too little too late. By far. I would like to know what he really said to Collins. Was it a real apology or a "I'm sorry I had to put a kid through that ordeal" kind of an apology. Sort of like when someone says, "I'm sorry you were offended." If it was real, I wish this would get any kind of media attention--more than just a twitter message that only Illinois boards will notice. Instead, the only time a national media member brings it up is to mention he was just "being a whistleblower and doing the right thing."

It is frustrating. It seemed Illinois was on its way to doing it in the late 80's, and then Bruce Pearl happened. Then it seemed they were going to do it again with Self, then Kansas happened. If they can get back to where they were a decade ago, I think more of the top recruits would start to go there. I think if we were coming off of seasons like 2001-2004 (not even the title game season) we might have a really good chance at Parker. Get someone like him and others would follow like Ohio State.

Have there been any rumors that Smith would be an assistant (outside of fan speculation)? I would love it if it happened. I just thought that he put his name into the ring for the HC job.

Well there will always be the kid who chooses those schools or that Illinois has no chance for for various reasons (Anthony Davis), but there is so much talent that you could easily do very well with. To get the Dee Brown's, Sharon Collins', Evan Turner's, etc. Those should be very realistic. I know it probably just seems this way to me because I notice Illinois kids, but how often do you see a good team in the tournament that has some kid from Chicago as a major contributor? To answer the question about what kind of a coach would we need, I think Self was the answer. He would get those kind of kids. It can be done. I think that is why I am trying to talk myself into Groce over some other candidates. I would rather take a chance on someone who might have that personality to make inroads into Chicago than someone who might be a pretty good coach but won't be able to get the talent. If this guy can recruit anything like Ohio State has the past few years we would be set. Screw being a 4th place team in the Big Ten. Self would have had us being first or second every year (not because he is some amazing coach)... and if we were 2nd, we would still be a 2-seed in the tourney.

To me its that if you just recruited Illinois (but could get almost anyone you want), you would compete for the title every year. I don't know if there is another state like that that doesn't also have other major in-state options. There is no other school in Illinois that competes with them for recruits, yet, we haven't been able to recruit Chicago very well. It would be nice if there was pressure for those kids to go to the state school like there is in Indiana.

"Groce was also an early believer in analytics and tempo-free statistics. Egelhoff jokes that Groce was into Ken Pomeroy’s Web site “before KenPom was KenPom.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/sports/ncaabasketball/rise-of-ohio-coach-groce-fueled-by-drive-and-coffee.html?pagewanted=all

I don't know why anyone thought Stevens was coming. He wasn't going to, he won't leave Butler unless its for IU. Smart hurt, the other guys who said no I am not sweating. What pisses me off the most is that we're going to hire a guy based off two tournament wins. That's not to say he won't be a good coach, but I'd like to see more consideration of names like Marshall and Mack. True, but that seems how most mid-major coaches become hot names. Like I said earlier, if VCU misses the tourney last year, we may not care at all about Shaka. I kept reminding myself that he may not be the best hire since we are basing everything off of getting to the final four, but I was still really hoping he would say yes. I think I mainly was excited about his personality and how the team seemed to play unafraid--as opposed to how Illinois always seemed to play not to lose the past few years. What if Groce stays at Ohio and they return the whole team and become a fringe Top-25 team next year (not sure if that is possible, but if they get off to a good start voters might be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt for their success this year) or win a game or two in the tourney? Then he will be a really hot candidate that schools hope he says yes to.

As much as I would have been incredibly excited for Shaka or Stevens, there was always a small part of me that wondered whether Groce could turn out to be like Matta. Obviously Ohio State hasn't had a whole lot of trouble recruiting since he has been gone, but he did help to start things there. I know he isn't as big of a splash, but maybe his recruiting abilities will better fit Chicago than the other two would. I definitely think you are right about the gamble. I am willing to give him a chance as well. I would be less excited if it was just a coach who had some success at a mid-major, rather than a coach who has a reputation for being a good recruiter. Matta's 4 seasons before getting the OSU job: 102-31, 50-12 in conference play combined at Butler and Xavier. 3 trips to the second round and one Elite Eight. Groce's 4 seasons: 85-56, 34-30 in conference play, one 2nd round and one Sweet 16. The two are practically identical. Believe me, I know Matta had a much better record. But Xavier was a much better basketball school at the time he took over than Ohio ever was. I didn't say I love this move, but what are we supposed to do. We went after the two hottest names and they didn't come. (Speaking of which, it was pretty lucky of VCU to get into the tourney last year. If they don't, how many people know who Shaka is right now?) If a really big name coach like Sean Miller or Donovan aren't going to leave the situations they are currently in, we pretty much have to go the mid-major route. It seems like the Ohio fans love him (I know Illinois is on a completely different level, but they seem to think he finally had a team of his own players and are really excited for next year). Reading some Ohio State fans responses on some other boards, it seems like they would love to have him if Matta were to move on. I don't know, big name coaches had to start somewhere. Sometimes a hire doesn't work out (Lickliter and many many others), sometimes they turn out to be Self, Matta, etc. I just would rather take a chance on someone that at least has the possibility of being a good recruiter. Obviously he may not work out--hence the mention that it is a big gamble.

As much as I would have been incredibly excited for Shaka or Stevens, there was always a small part of me that wondered whether Groce could turn out to be like Matta. Obviously Ohio State hasn't had a whole lot of trouble recruiting since he has been gone, but he did help to start things there. I know he isn't as big of a splash, but maybe his recruiting abilities will better fit Chicago than the other two would. I definitely think you are right about the gamble. I am willing to give him a chance as well. I would be less excited if it was just a coach who had some success at a mid-major, rather than a coach who has a reputation for being a good recruiter. I at least will be excited for something new next year. I couldn't watch the games at the end of this year. Too much of the same story every game.