UMFan83

Ohio State is going to beat MSU giving Indiana a 2 game cushion at the top of the standings. Obviously Indiana could still falter down the stretch but either way its going to be interesting to see how the 1-5 positions play out prior to the tourney with MSU, Wisconsin, Michigan with 4 losses and OSU with 5 losses. Not that the 5 seed is the end of the world because they will play Penn St but it would be nice to play for the bye.

Lol at first I thought that was Scioscia making the Blackhawks comparison. Edit: and lol I had no idea Jerome Williams was still in baseball.

Fouls: UM 9 Ill 9 FTA: Ill 12 UM 7 *ducks*

Geez only 1 field goal attempt by Illinois in the first 5 minutes of the half?

Meh. I hate them quite a bit still. There's too much history there. I would hate anything that would damage the rivalry. Although it seems like Detroit doesn't care all that much since they are desperate to move to the east.

Man I wish michigan didn't randomly decide to stop being awesome at basketball.

like you care about rules

No but they'll probably need to beat Indiana now.

The Hawks have also played the 2nd toughest SOS so far this year which is amazing because I think it accounts for teams going 3-14 against us. The only team with a tougher SOS so far is San Jose, and that's weighted by playing us 3 times already.

Small breakdown of the best start in NHL history: Home: 7 (6-0-1) Road: 10 (8-0-2) VS. 2012 playoff teams: 11-0-1 VS. 2013 proj. playoff teams: 8-0-3 By team (last year's playoff seed): 1. VAN 1-0-1 2. STL 1-0-0 3. PHX 2-0-0 4. NAS 1-0-0 5. DET 1-0-0 7. SJ 3-0-0 8. LA 2-0-0 CAL 1-0-0 DAL 1-0-0 COL 0-0-0 MIN 0-0-1 ANA 0-0-1 EDM 1-0-0 CLS 1-0-0 Also, as I mentioned before, the 8th place team last year (LA) had 95 points in 82 games (1.14 PPG). Using that benchmark, the 8th place team this year would have 56 points in 48 games. The Hawks have 31 points in 17 games. To hit 56 points, they'd have to take 25 points in their remaining 31 games, or 25 of the remaining 62 points available to them, 0.82 PPG. To play at a 0.82 PPG pace over a full year would give a team 66 points over a full 82 game season. 66 points last season would be 1 point better than Columbus for worst record in the NHL. So basically if we play like Columbus the rest of the year we will still make the playoffs.

Again, I highly doubt the players association would have allowed him to decline the provision that was specifically negotiated into the new CBA to benefit players like him right after the CBA was ratified. It was one of the few concessions they were able to get from the league.

I don't think Chicago is a premier NBA destination, but I don't think its a particularly unattractive destination either. It's probably right after Miami, NY, LA, Orlando and Phoenix in terms of places an NBA player would want to play. It's even higher profile because of MJ's legacy and the fact that the Bulls currently have a team first superstar. Melo and Kobe both were open to playing with the Bulls when they wanted out of their current destinations. Occasionally you'll get someone like Howard, but it's not like we're in Cleveland or even somewhere like Portland.

No Seabs or Craw though?

I am so sick of people questioning Rose for taking the max deal off his freaking rookie contract and then pointing out Miamis stars on their 3rd contract taking slightly less. Please point out one NBA star coming off their rookie contract taking less than max when they were worth max. Also I'm sure the players association would have been thrilled with Rose for not agreeing to the new provision that they negotiated into the CBA, which was basically designed with him in mind and was widely referred to as the "Derrick Rose provision" before it was even ratified. It's a completely different scenario than the Miami 3 trying to fit 3 max worthy players onto one team at the same time. Please just stop with that crap.

at least its not the wrist?

It's as though they exist just so there can be a team that's even less fun to watch than Wisconsin. At least losing to Wisconsin doesn't have that stench of missed opportunity. It does when your team loses on a half court buzzer beater.

Yup, Hossa milked an injury by laying on the ice and then purposely didn't return to a relatively close game all so that a Canucks 3rd line wing player could get a suspension.

DRose's brother ripped the Bulls for not getting better players, and said something about it possibly being a factor in when he comes back. http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/8971475/derrick-rose-brother-says-no-trades-big-factor-return

I'll do one, if for some strange reason the Cubs don't go 173-0.

Can't believe they got something of value for a guy with a torn ACL and a rather small expiring contract (I think only 1.2m)

Jorge hits a HR in a day game, that's Soler Power *ducks*

Damn I take what I said back, if all this is true.

And this is why my interest in the Bulls continues to decline. If this continues throughout Rose's prime, Reinsdorf is going to enter Wirtz territory. Lets start by saying that I am not sure if I believe that JR will ever pay the luxury tax (i guess we could know for sure after today). But lets say he does....even if that is the case, there's no way he's going to be ok with paying the repeater tax in a couple of years. So if its true that JR will pay the luxury tax at some point, but will not pay the repeater tax, I guess it makes sense that they would want to avoid paying it this year when its unlikely Rose is playing like Rose, and even if he does its not super likely that they can actually win the title. Next year Taj's extension kicks in and its an all but certainty that they will pay the tax next year. If we don't cut the salary this year, that will be 2 straight years of paying the tax...meaning we'd have to go under the tax the next 2 seasons to avoid the repeater penalty. Presumably those are the years that you'd want to go all out to win a title, as Rose will presumably be 100%, LeBron might be off to Cleveland, Wade will be 2 years older, the Bulls will probably have more flexibility to potentially build a better supporting cast with Deng and Boozer's contracts coming off the books, etc. Of course, you can rip JR for not being ok with paying the repeater penalty being in the 3rd largest market and being the most profitable team in the NBA for several years and never paying it in the past, etc. But that's a different discussion. Accepting that he won't pay that repeater penalty it makes sense that they'd want to avoid it this year.

The logic makes sense, but I'm not sure how they are just coming to that conclusion now, unless they thought they could get reddick without giving up a pick.

And Wisconsin. Along with decent wins against Memphis and Stanford, two other potential bubble teams. They should win 3 of their last 4, and that'll make things safe for them. I think their SOS is like 3rd right now, and their RPI is still in the teens, so that should help them. But man have they been awful. They will probably recover after this next game and save their spot in the tourney, but who knows...their confidence could be completely shot by that point.