UMFan83

Exactly. Illinois played perfect D against Michigan tonight. Michigan couldn't do anything offensively except hoist up contested 3's. They didn't adjust their game to get more action in the paint.

EDIT: Would more call it outplaying the other team severely more than "finding a way to win"... no offense intended at all. That's not what I meant. I just mean they find a way to win every night, not just tonight. Most nights they blow out a team, but sometimes they scrap together a win. They win in all sorts of ways. I love it.

shut up, you know they'll be in. Why do I know they'll be in?? They were 16-4 at one point in 06-07 and didn't get in, they were 16-3 the year before and didn't get in. This is Michigan. When you haven't made the tourney since 1997, its hard to envision, especially when we've still got by far the hardest part of our Big 10 schedule to go. We've already played Indiana and Iowa once. I just won't believe it until I see it, especially when I saw how we played today. i'm sure that illinois is a tourney team and michigan is just about even with them. So Michigan somewhat matched up with Illinois in the 2 games they played. Doesn't really cause me to jump for joy. I watched the game with my Illini fan roommate, and its funny how a fan of a successful program thinks, as he without hesitation said Illinois will make the tourney. I've seen Michigan have better starts than this and not make it so I'm not holding my breath.

Very nice win tonight. This team just finds a way to win almost every night. Very impressive and something I haven't seem from a hockey team in some time.

shut up, you know they'll be in. Why do I know they'll be in?? They were 16-4 at one point in 06-07 and didn't get in, they were 16-3 the year before and didn't get in. This is Michigan. When you haven't made the tourney since 1997, its hard to envision, especially when we've still got by far the hardest part of our Big 10 schedule to go. We've already played Indiana and Iowa once. I just won't believe it until I see it, especially when I saw how we played today.

Michigan's not going to make the tourney. They live and die by the 3 and more times than not its gonna kill you. I couldn't believe that they didn't make halftime adjustments because Illinois' perimeter D was awesome all night. Oh well 13 straight years without making the NCAA tourney for Michigan. I was only 12 when they did it. Now I'm 25 :(

Thanks for the recap nilo, I enjoyed reading it.

Please set me an email or PM with verification else your name be tarnished on this board forever.

Who even cares though? If it's true, we'll find out soon enough If it's not true, the guy is getting what he wants by having people discuss it on here for 2-3 pages. Life is too short to debate the validity of such a randomly ridiculous rumor. If a blog mentioned something, or if a real beat writer mentioned something, then by all means investigate. But if its some random "friend of a friend knows someone" rumor thats actually legit less than 1% of the time, why bother?

lol, there was a time 6-7 years ago where news like this would get me excited for at least 30 seconds before common sense took over.

WSCR the Score reports a trade is iminent, details after the break. :-)) Que?

Yeah I was a little shocked when he was hitting the jumper so well early in the season, because that is the least seasoned part of his game, so it definitely didn't shock me when it fell off. He shot 43% in December and less than 41% in January so far. However, his hot streak in November makes me feel confident that he will eventually develop a consistent jumper.

We should lock this thread until there is new news. There is nothing productive to discuss on topic here.

:banghead: I had N.D. +6.5. Way to blow it guys. I picked ND to make more 3-pters in the ESPN Streak. Seemed safe since Notre Dame shoots 40%+ and Louisville shoots in the 30's. Like all my safe bets on the streak (home teams, highly favored teams) I lost. yeah, i lost my streak of 7 lastnight on UNC I'm 19-2 all time, and have a 15 game winning streak going back to last year. Only 2 in a row since it reset though. I just do it so infrequently, I only make a pick when I feel like its an absolute no brainer or I have a great feeling about a game. My streak started when I picked the Dodgers in games 1 and 2 against the Cubs :(

i think psu wins either 7 or 8 games the rest of the way, ending up 21-10 or 20-11 going into the big ten tourney. their OOC schedule was such a joke that i think they need to end up a couple of games better and then win at least one game in the big ten tourney. thing is, his projected W's and L's are hard to argue with. He has PSU beating IU twice (duh), then Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan at home. If you want to squeeze out 2 or 3 wins, you're talking about a win @ Iowa (totally doable), then maybe Wisconsin at home or @ OSU. i don't think illinois is as good as they're rated right now; i actually think that penn state should beat illinois here. i don't think any of the home games (including wisconsin and michigan st) are out of reach. the only road games that are basically auto-losses are @purdue and @michigan st. @illinois is probably a loss but for some reason we seem to do okay there. i don't think there are any road games, aside from indiana, that penn state should necessarily be expected to win. You should be favored at Iowa His predictions have PSU losing by 2 @Iowa and by 2 at home against Wisconsin, which basically means two coin flips. By his numbers, PSU could win both yeah but he also penn state at 52% to beat michigan at home, 59% to beat iowa at home and 29% to beat illinois at home. those all seem too low to me. I'm not sure I can trust any projection where simple math can't be done correctly. http://kenpom.com/team.php?y=2009&team=Purdue He has Purdue going 12-3 the rest of the way but somehow finishing 22-9 (11-7). If they go 12-3 they will be 24-7 (13-5). Makes me question what else is wrong. I think the actual record is adjusted to take into account close games or something. It's not supposed to add up correctly.

Gonna be great to see the time distribution (for tonight only) PG: Rose 30/Hinrich 10/Hughes 8 SG: Gordon 30/Sefolosha 12/Hughes 6 SF: Deng 20/Nocioni 20/Sefolosha 4/Thomas 4 PF: Thomas 20/Gooden 10/Nocioni 12 C: Gooden 25/Noah 20/Gray 3 Playing half of a quarter without a power forward is a risky move, we'll see how it works out. :D) I was still working on it when it became quitting time, so I just posted it as is :)

Gonna be great to see the time distribution (for tonight only) PG: Rose 30/Hinrich 10/Hughes 8 SG: Gordon 30/Sefolosha 12/Hughes 6 SF: Deng 20/Nocioni 20/Sefolosha 4/Thomas 4 PF: Thomas 20/Gooden 10/Nocioni 12 C: Gooden 25/Noah 20/Gray 3

Bagwell should be first ballot. He had a great career before the supposed "steroids era" began.

I'm not sure there's such a thing as an easy week in the Big Ten...well, except for Illinois last week (v. Indiana + bye). Illinois this week: v. Michigan @ Michigan State Fortunately, by the first week of February, they'll have already played their road games at Purdue, Michigan, MSU, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Schedule breaks extra rough this year, as their two missing games are @Iowa and vs. Northwestern. The only easy weeks in the Big Ten are the ones that involve Indiana, probably Iowa and maybe Northwestern. Luckily Michigan had IU and Iowa last week. Our easy week is gone. Should be a good game between Illinois and Michigan this week. I can't see UM sweeping Illinois unless they get just on fire from beyond the arc. Yes, I would classify trailing 44-24 in the second half as "easy" too. lol, I'm not saying we didn't have an issue with Indiana, but in terms of the teams we played it was supposed to be an easy week.

They have Michigan finishing 19-12 :( Going to suck if we go 6-9 the rest of the year, but its not impossible

I'm not sure there's such a thing as an easy week in the Big Ten...well, except for Illinois last week (v. Indiana + bye). Illinois this week: v. Michigan @ Michigan State Fortunately, by the first week of February, they'll have already played their road games at Purdue, Michigan, MSU, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Schedule breaks extra rough this year, as their two missing games are @Iowa and vs. Northwestern. The only easy weeks in the Big Ten are the ones that involve Indiana, probably Iowa and maybe Northwestern. Luckily Michigan had IU and Iowa last week. Our easy week is gone. Should be a good game between Illinois and Michigan this week. I can't see UM sweeping Illinois unless they get just on fire from beyond the arc.

BTW, for all those interested. ESPN1000 said that Lu, Thabo and.....Kirk Hinrich will be back tonight. Kirk will probably only play 10-15 minutes.

If we have $25 million free and someone isn't happy in their current situation, and they have a chance to play with a potentially budding superstar (Rose) a pretty decent 3rd or 4th option (Deng) in the 3rd largest city in the country that has a pretty decent (although not great) tradition, why wouldn't they? Consider our ownership. I don't think that matters. Lets say by the end of next season, Rose is putting up 20/4/8 while shooting 48% and is generally considered a budding superstar that will make players better. We have the money and we have the ideal situation to win. If a player is looking to leave his current team (which will be the team that can offer the most), Chicago would be the 2nd most attractive option after New York. Let NY get LeBron and Bosh, then we can throw a bunch of money at Wade or Amare or Dirk or Pierce. If that doesn't work out, we might be able to sign a player for $16 million and another for $10 million and get 2 pretty good players to go along Rose. I know you're thinking of 2001 and thinking we're going to get burned again, but times have changed. We actually have some players in place. Hell at the end of next season VDN's contract runs out, we might tell Amare or Wade that he can pick his own coach to come here. You still have to be willing to throw alot of money at one of those free agents. It isn't like they will play for the MLE because of Derrick Rose. Yeah, and I'm saying we'll have $25 million to throw at a FA most likely if we can get rid of Hinrich (should be easy, and something that's been discussed), and let Gordon, Gooden and O'Neal go. I haven't thought it out fully though, its just a topic to discussed. If you can get DWade for $20 million to team with Rose, you have to do it right? If Lebron, Bosh, and Amare are all gone, then yes. But IMO, Wade and Rose would not be a good fit as they both demand the ball at the top. They would be redundent parts. I would still love Wade, but a low post guy like Bosh would be so much better. Rose has shown he can adapt his play to fit the style that is needed on that given night. You're probably right though, Rose and Wade both take the ball to the whole very well for a majority of their points, and both don't rely on long jump shots and 3's. I still think Rose will be a better distributer than scorer when all is said and done.

If we have $25 million free and someone isn't happy in their current situation, and they have a chance to play with a potentially budding superstar (Rose) a pretty decent 3rd or 4th option (Deng) in the 3rd largest city in the country that has a pretty decent (although not great) tradition, why wouldn't they? Consider our ownership. I don't think that matters. Lets say by the end of next season, Rose is putting up 20/4/8 while shooting 48% and is generally considered a budding superstar that will make players better. We have the money and we have the ideal situation to win. If a player is looking to leave his current team (which will be the team that can offer the most), Chicago would be the 2nd most attractive option after New York. Let NY get LeBron and Bosh, then we can throw a bunch of money at Wade or Amare or Dirk or Pierce. If that doesn't work out, we might be able to sign a player for $16 million and another for $10 million and get 2 pretty good players to go along Rose. I know you're thinking of 2001 and thinking we're going to get burned again, but times have changed. We actually have some players in place. Hell at the end of next season VDN's contract runs out, we might tell Amare or Wade that he can pick his own coach to come here. You still have to be willing to throw alot of money at one of those free agents. It isn't like they will play for the MLE because of Derrick Rose. Yeah, and I'm saying we'll have $25 million to throw at a FA most likely if we can get rid of Hinrich (should be easy, and something that's been discussed), and let Gordon, Gooden and O'Neal go. I haven't thought it out fully though, its just a topic to discussed. If you can get DWade for $20 million to team with Rose, you have to do it right?

If we have $25 million free and someone isn't happy in their current situation, and they have a chance to play with a potentially budding superstar (Rose) a pretty decent 3rd or 4th option (Deng) in the 3rd largest city in the country that has a pretty decent (although not great) tradition, why wouldn't they? Consider our ownership. I don't think that matters. Lets say by the end of next season, Rose is putting up 20/4/8 while shooting 48% and is generally considered a budding superstar that will make players better. We have the money and we have the ideal situation to win. If a player is looking to leave his current team (which will be the team that can offer the most), Chicago would be the 2nd most attractive option after New York. Let NY get LeBron and Bosh, then we can throw a bunch of money at Wade or Amare or Dirk or Pierce. If that doesn't work out, we might be able to sign a player for $16 million and another for $10 million and get 2 pretty good players to go along Rose. I know you're thinking of 2001 and thinking we're going to get burned again, but times have changed. We actually have some players in place. Hell at the end of next season VDN's contract runs out, we might tell Amare or Wade that he can pick his own coach to come here.