Transmogrified Tiger

Lenny Harris hit .262/.295/.357/.652 in ST of '03 and still made the team. Grissom had a hamstring strain last year, I don't know if that was his only injury.

Hunter Cantwell did a great job for Louisville...he's about as tough as they come. What a way to step up in a pressure situation. And Marcus Vick is a punk with absolutely no class. How can everyone in the world see him stomp his cleat into Dumervil's calf but none of the officials did? What a loser...... He just got out of prison so maybe he thought Dumervil was going to take his smokes? I can't believe Syracuse knocked your QB out for the year. :x Well, I forgive Syracuse....but not the turf...that's what happened to Broehm. His cleat got stuck and that's when he twisted his knee... Turf shoes....

The way I see it, Texas's defense stands a much better shot of stopping USC's offense than the other way around. USC has been giving up points all year long, and for all the talk about the O at USC, Texas puts up points like no other.

i would argue that not picking them #1 until they prove that they aren't is a knock on them. one can't some out and say "illinois isn't good". that would be lunacy. what they say is "illinois is going to finsih third and they're going to have to like it." as i've said, illinois has turned over their team a couple of times without finishing lower than second. So, should UNC be #1 this year? By that logic it would seem they would be. They lost players as did U of I. It's not the same team that won it last year, that's why they aren't picked to win. So why was Duke selected as preseason number one. They return a guard who has less talent than Dee Brown, and a center who has more than James Augustine. Demarcus Nelson is pretty much Brian Randle. Paulus and McRoberts were highly touted, but so was Shavlik. Before the year how did they know what these guys would be? Who said Duke deserved to be number 1? But if you have to compare them to U of I, Redick is much better than Brown, and Williams is much better than Augustine. Their recruits are ranked higher than U of I, and most importantly, they are DUKE, who the media loves to pump up at every opportunity. And don't use that as an opportunity to use that as a platform to claim Illinois is underappreciated, because then that claim is made about every team in America.

I don't know if it was his senior year or his "5th" high school year. Either way though, Ginn didn't do that, he was a public HS guy all the way through.

Ridiculous. It's more of a knock to the rest of the B10 to have that attitude.

I'm really disappointed that I missed most of the second half of the Fiesta and most of the Sugar being in Airports around the midwest. Especially this Georgia comeback. Oh, and FYI AJ Hawk is dating Brady Quinn's sister.

This may be true if things like speed and actually being on the field didn't matter. Walker's managers DO PH (remember he's lefty only), PR (he's 2/6 in SB in the last 3 years) and sub for him on defense (while Soriano's mgrs leave him in). And Walker gets hurt while Soriano doesn't. What you get then are the subs totals added to Walker's. That and the kind of difference that 30SB in 32 attemps can make means this isn't even close. Metrics like Runs Created include SB, and Walker still tops Soriano as a rate. You can't punish Walker for getting leg-whipped by Carlos Lee, or for the incompetency of managers.

Walker is a better offensive player than Soriano. His 45 point advantage in OBP is much greater than Soriano's 35-30 point SLG advantage. I know you've made that point before and you have the numbers which you believe establish and I do not want to recreate that thread but I remain steadfast in my opinion that your statement would be found incredible by most. How? It's been proven that a point of OBP is more valuable than SLG, and even if you count them equally Walker has an advantage in OPS. If you don't like OBP Walker had nearly 40 points of AVG on Walker. This doesn't even include that Soriano had astonishing discrepancies in his home/road splits, and he was worse than Neifi away from hitter's haven Ameriquest.

Walker is a better offensive player than Soriano. His 45 point advantage in OBP is much greater than Soriano's 35-30 point SLG advantage.

RJ Jackson should compete at RB, no? He should. LSU has had some very good recruting classes lately. While Sabean was there, they had their pick of the very best in Louisiana and made in-roads into Texas and Mississippi as well as the entire Gulf Coast. Hopefully, Miles will continue that. Whooping the dog mess out of Miami should help in the recruitment as well. Maybe Sabean should give up on the Giants and go back to football. I kinda see LSU as the new Texas, not that Texas has moved on or up though. They'll always have great talent, it's just a matter of are they going to screw up a game or two over the course of the season that'll keep them out of the NC hunt. Well...I'll admit LSU always seems to drop a game they shouldn't each year. But unlike Texas (at least for now), LSU does have a national championship in recent years. Absolutely, the comparison wasn't meant to be a bad thing. For the forseeable future, LSU should be a NC contender and a top 10 team. Talent shouldn't be a problem.

That's Thom Brenneman. And he's horrible with football. That's probably the 8th time I've made that mistake. I should've figured he couldn't do an NFL game yesterday then the Cotton bowl today.

RJ Jackson should compete at RB, no? He should. LSU has had some very good recruting classes lately. While Sabean was there, they had their pick of the very best in Louisiana and made in-roads into Texas and Mississippi as well as the entire Gulf Coast. Hopefully, Miles will continue that. Whooping the dog mess out of Miami should help in the recruitment as well. Maybe Sabean should give up on the Giants and go back to football. I kinda see LSU as the new Texas, not that Texas has moved on or up though. They'll always have great talent, it's just a matter of are they going to screw up a game or two over the course of the season that'll keep them out of the NC hunt.

Attention Joe Buck: there are not two quarterbacks named Brody Croyle playing in the Cotton bowl. Attention Texas Tech: please score a touchdown.

translation: the big ten has sucked the last 2 years because illinois has won it. despite putting 2 teams in the final four, the big ten sucked because illinois won it. illinois could win 8 national titles in a row and each of those 8 years would be a "down year for college basketball". what a joke. people are so afraid to give illinois any credit for anything they do. Do any group of fans whine more about "no respect" than Illinois fans? Who cares what people say, prove them wrong on the court, like Illinois has done the past couple years. If your wining it shouldn't matter what others say. The inferiority complex is getting old. this is a message board, the place for whining. and what's getting old is the repeated lack of respect for the illini, who, as you've said, should have earned it with their performances over the last few years. i don't know if the illini just aren't exciting enough for some people, or maybe it's that they don't have the program pedigree of an MSU or IU, or even an OSU, or maybe they don't like players who get angry with their girlfriends when refuse to watch roots--i don't know--you tell me. why do you think the illini get disrespected every year? I don't think they get disrespected every year. Everybody heaped praise on Illinois last year, and deservedly so. I don't think its a slap in the face to not predict them #1 in the conference this year. There are some very good teams in the Big10 this year. Hell, finishing 2nd or 3rd this year could still equal a top 10 team. Illinois is undefeated, but besides a win against a young (up and down) UNC team, who have they beaten? Xavier is a decent squad, but not top 25 material. They are a good team, but I don't think they are top 5 in the country good. Michigan state has had its ups and downs as well, same can be said for IU. But again, It wouldn't surprise me to see any of those teams win the conference. Nobody is out to get Illinois, picking them third still means they are a damn good team. i think that they've returned enough players from the 2004-2005 team to deserve respect as the #1 team in the conference until someone knocks them off. and i think it patronizing to tell the two-time returning big ten champs that a #3 finish would be at all validating. illinois hasn't finished below 2nd in the Big Ten standings since the 1999-2000 season. finishing below #1 would be a major disappointment for them and their fans. Seriously, it's hard to talk B10 hoops with you if you are going to be this paranoid about Illinois getting disrespected.

Do people not like Sammy so much that they go to lengths to bash him in his appreciation thread? If you don't miss Sammy, then maybe this isn't the thread for you. :? I miss the Sammy that hit lots of home runs.

Neifi Perez is/was a better offensive player than Ozzie Guillen. Think about that for a second.

You can't ignore his '05, especially since he's nearly 40.

Greenberg's HBP was a hired hit!

The BA book is under $20 before shipping at Amazon.

They're irrelevant to the current argument. You constantly claim that those players were claimed to be superstars by people on here, and constantly ignore the fact that the outrage is due to the crappy players that played instead of them.

And you know this how? Sorry, but you always seem to be calling people out for statements similar to this one. Calling people out? That's your opinion. I try to treat people with respect whether I agree with them or not. Dubois was traded because he was a bad defender. I think that speaks volumes. That and he couldn't hit a major league curve. He doesn't seem to be in Cleveland's plans either, along with other former Cub minor league phenoms, Cruz, Choi, Hill, Harris and others that many thought would be stars. Yes, all those other names are relevant. Do Hollandsworth, Karros, and Estes have better chances?

PICKED OFF BY TERRELL!!!

I have no idea why it took so long for King to break into the starting lineup, great read on the slant.

Hollandsworth and Dubois were identical in Rate last year, they weren't that much different defensively. That is not a good thing considering Dubois had fewer opportunities. The rate may have been identical at year's end but Dubois was worse by far. He rarely took a good route to a ball, he didn't throw accurately, and his misjudgements caused runs to score. Hollandsworth was a more consistent defender. Rate is an all-encompassing metric. I'm not saying it's gospel, but it's a misconception that Dubois was significantly worse than Hollandsworth defensively.