hawkeyecub

I'm an Iowa fan and I see no reason Iowa would be ranked higher than eighth or ninth in the Big Ten right now. Iowa may have the worst recruiting area of any Big Ten team, and hasn't been able to snag the few top recruits that have come out of the state. The facilities are Big Ten-average at best. Iowa City certainly isn't a "destination", unless drinking is your game. The fan base support is certainly near the bottom of the league. As far as prestige, the last ten years has eroded a lot of the prestige Iowa built up during the previous 20 years. To my memory there have been no more than two or three Top 25/NCAA tournament caliber teams during that time. One of those teams (the 2002 Recker/Evans debacle) underperformed so much that they settled for a short-lived NIT bid. With this being said, there isn't that much separating Iowa and the four or five teams above them. The right coach can win there, but it certainly cannot be considered a top job at this juncture. That's pretty accurate. The Gazette has been doing a series about the state of Iowa basketball and what led it to this point. Basically you've had a timeline which started with weakened recruiting by Dr. Tom, the botched handling of his dismissal, the Pierce case, the debacle of the '02 team and then now 4 straight non-NIT years that have led to this. The talent base is never going to be great but on the other hand at least you're a relatively short drive to Chicago, Minneapolis, KC/STL. The facilities have really hampered Alford and Lickliter but that will change next year. They won't be elite but at least they'll be competitive with the rest of the league. The 80's and '90's were very solid overall. You had some good coaches, facilities were up to date, they won and had great fan support. In late January of '01 we were something like 18-4, tied for first in the Big Ten, every game was sold out and Alford had a top 5 recruiting class. It all looked so great. Then Recker got hurt and we fell apart down the stretch. But they won the BTT, Recker and Evans both came back and they were top 10 preseason. Then that season went up in flames, Pierce had the sexual assault thing and we underachieved in the Big Ten consistently. Then we had the '06 season that looked so great...

Most QBs get killed when they don't have a good o-line in front of them. His last 3 years his QB's averaged taking 56 sacks a year. The previous two years were 43 and 50. That's not the norm. Even Cutler only took 35 last year. If their o-line isn't improved he's going to take an additional 20-25 sacks in this offense and take even more hits. That's bad news. sooooooooo whaaaaaaat hey, quick question. If Favre doesn't come back next year, Peterson fumbles another 10 times, the MN legislator screws Ziggy again, what do you think the over/under on their names becoming the "L.A. Cholos"? probably better then the Vikings. Then?

Most QBs get killed when they don't have a good o-line in front of them. His last 3 years his QB's averaged taking 56 sacks a year. The previous two years were 43 and 50. That's not the norm. Even Cutler only took 35 last year. If their o-line isn't improved he's going to take an additional 20-25 sacks in this offense and take even more hits. That's bad news. 1. the bears are going to improve their line. 2. warner, green, bulger, kitna,and o'sullivan are all statues. i don't know enough about shaun hill to judge one way or another, though. he may be mobile. 3. don't you have another nfl team to worry about? why do you care so much about what a bunch of bear fans think or why they have hope for next season? better yet, why do you feel the need to be a troll about this all the time? just let bear fans be unreasonably hopeful, i know viking fans will be, what with all of those super bowl rings they got last year. You honestly think I'm trolling in this thread? I think you should re-read my posts here. I was telling Rusch it was stupid for being worried about how much he throws. It was relevant to the Martz discussion. You're way to sensitive. I post in Bears threads sometimes because I spend time in Chicago, read Chicago papers and hear Chicago radio. So I'm more aware of most everything going on with them than anyone besides the Vikings.

Most QBs get killed when they don't have a good o-line in front of them. His last 3 years his QB's averaged taking 56 sacks a year. The previous two years were 43 and 50. That's not the norm. Even Cutler only took 35 last year. If their o-line isn't improved he's going to take an additional 20-25 sacks in this offense and take even more hits. That's bad news.

There it is, there's the joke I knew you had in you. Basketball Prospectus last year had a study on teams that returned 90% of their minutes from the previous season. Those teams averaged something like a 4 game win improvement in conference from the previous year. Iowa will be right around that number, maybe 1-2% below it. So just following that trend along with adding some actual depth and increasing the talent level, I think that's a reasonable expectation. Northwestern in '08 was 8-22 and 1-17 in the league. They only had 1 senior that year who was a role player. Last year in a tougher Big Ten they went 17-12 in the regular season and 8-10 in the Big Ten. That happened because all of their fresh-soph's got better and added three less-heralded recruits than what we're bringing in.

I need to get a clue? You're the one defending the worst team in the 100+ year history of the program and the coach with the worst record in program history. I don't care how you try to strech the numbers, they've been blown out in more games than they were competitive in. You said they weren't competitive in a game where they had the ball with a chance to tie with 40 seconds left. So yes I stand by my point. That's not stretching any numbers. You're making a strawman. I simply said they've improved greatly and have 1 non-freshman or soph contributing consistently and they're not going to finish 10th or 11th like everyone thought. They trade Bawinkel who has almost become a non-factor for 4 recruits, all of whom had high-major offers and a class that's ranked top 30 by at least a couple of sources. Of course I'm pissed that the program is in this state in year 3 but I at least have some hope for next year. If they keep everyone around I think they'll be similar to Northwestern this year. The key is not having any defections because with Kelly and Peterson they're probably a .500 team this year. I do have to give you credit for not making a gay insult or joke which apparently is what caused you to change your name.

Don't do it Chester. Throwing the ball isn't a major strike against Martz. The thing I would be concerned about are the deep routes he runs and number of 7 step drops he uses with that o-line. His QB's have gotten killed when they haven't had a good o-line in front of them. For the Bears, OL is a much bigger need than WR or anything on defense in my opinion.

Fixed your post. Come on, man. You crazy. If you don't think this team has improved dramatically then you haven't been watching. From the middle of January to the end of February they had one game where they weren't competitive. What game is that? Northwestern game? Are you forgetting the Purdue game @ Purdue, or the Michigan game @ Michigan? That's three right there. Also @ Ohio State and home vs Illinois. But hey, that's only half the games where they were totally uncompetitive. At Ohio State was 5 at halftime and it got up to 14 once which was the largest lead. Illinois at home was between 3-5 for basically the last 5 minutes. We had the ball down 3 with 40 seconds to go. That's not competitive? Get a clue. I miscounted by one. We played 10 Big Ten games from the middle of January until the Northwestern game. At Purdue and at Michigan were the only games they weren't competitive.

Fixed your post. Come on, man. You crazy. If you don't think this team has improved dramatically then you haven't been watching. From the middle of January to the end of February they had one game where they weren't competitive.

Poor logic when it comes to rebounds but not surprising manbearcub. Fuller's offensive rebound rate is 15th in the country. He's the leading rebounder in the Big Ten and by far the best offensive rebounder. He's been efficient offensively. Outside of the Northwestern game this team beats the November/December version by 20. Of course no one wants to be in this stage but this team got better and it's all freshman/sophomores. IF they keep everyone they trade Bawinkel for 4 guys who are the best class we've had under Lick. I think they'll be very similar to Northwestern this year. The key is keeping everyone.

The power play wasn't great all tournament but it was awful today. Fortunately the penalty kill was solid.

Parise is such a [expletive] stud on both ends. I fell in love with that man in a week and a half. Stastny and Kessel were clearly the weak links. They gave us nothing. Parise's goal was just a moment on pure jubilation. Would have liked to have seen if Kane could create something in that 2-2 before he lost the puck. When Crosby was carrying that puck in I was thinking "anyone but him". Then they got it in the corner, he slipped to the net and was all alone in front of Miller. [expletive]. That was such a great tournament. I wish the 2014 games weren't going to be played in the middle of the night. And the NHL better not block their players. The majority of this team would be there, many of them better.

Rafalski also.

That was the most annoying big win I've seen in a while. No flow due to all the whistles. Something like 55 total fouls, 30+ in the second half. The second half took over an hour by itself. IU looked disinterested early but then I think it was more a case of being bad. They did keep playing when they were down 21 late and got it down to 11 or 12. I'm convinced Crean has to be doing massive amounts of coke. It's just not natural to act the way he does and some of his mannerisms are just odd. I would think his cheerleading nature would wear thin pretty quickly if they finish in the bottom 3 again next year.

Can't wait. Have to think the start will be crucial again, put the pressure on them early and get everyone doubting. Keep them from camping out in front of the net like they did early against Slovakia.

I've seen him play roughly a handful of games the last 3-4 years and then his play in this tournament plus the recent SI article made me question whether I should give the Devils my allegiance. God he is so fun to watch in all aspects. After we got the 4th goal (maybe the 3rd) the Fins completely mailed that one in. They looked like Russia the other night. Kiprusoff couldn't pull himself fast enough after that 4th goal. Even before that we looked so much faster and were playing with way more energy. Is Jokinen considered a dirty player? That was so weak. That play on Kane came pretty early and the only drama in the last two periods was hoping that no one got hurt or baited into a misconduct.

He means he could do it from Evanston. I'd pay to see that.

Stephen Bardo: "Shurna is so hot right now he could throw the ball in the ocean without even looking" Pretty sure I could do that too Steve. Even on a cold shooting night.

Jumping on the hawks bandwagon now wouldn't be like wanting to be a bulls fan in 1992, they had already won a title by then. Also, it's not like Chicago has a Jordan on the roster and you are just waiting for the inevitable title. It is not a foregone conclusion by any means that they win. I think they are a perfectly acceptable bandwagon to join, especially if you are just getting into it. Jersey has the plus of being a team that will beat the NY and Philly teams, but other than that, they are fairly boring. This is true. I'll take it under advisement.

He's always struck me as a miserable ass. He kind of reminds me of Sean Salisbury.

Can't take one of the first three. Like I said I've been a casual fan since the lockout ended, watching national games, watching as much of the playoffs as I can, playing NHL and watching some Hawks games. The Hawks make the most sense because of geography, tv (love Olczyk) and being fun to watch. I would just feel like a dirty ho for jumping on the bandwagon. It's like someone deciding he wants to be a Bulls fan in 1992. The same goes for the Pens and Caps but they would be even worse because they don't have the geography. Yeah I don't think I could get into the Devils, I just love watching Parise and he sounds like a pretty cool dude. I need an American cold weather team that's enjoyable but doesn't make me feel like I'm jumping on a bandwagon. The Blues are in St. Louis, so that's that. The Wild are just meh.

Defensively, yes. Obviously Canada was pretty scary last night but how many of those opportunities would they have gotten that clean against us? Evgeni was terrible, they turned it over like mad and their D's were terrible. They gave up after that 4th goal. Watched all of those first 3 games on DVR and think we're the 2nd best team remaining. I love the way our first line is playing and think we'll get the opportunities against Finland. Unfortunately the guy in net has been pretty good. I wish Sweden would have pulled that out though. Also I'm probably the only guy in here who likes watching national hockey games and occasional Blackhawks games, but have never really adopted an NHL team. I want to adopt the Devils just so I can root for Parise (and to a lesser extent Langenbrunner). Tell me why I shouldn't.

Not sure I believe it as he said that there have been no talks. I think if talks were initiated his tune would probably change. He said he doesn't think there would be a domino effect which I think is pretty naive. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4943237 I'm guessing the Big Ten women's soccer coaches put the kibosh on inviting Texas. What reincarnation are you. Making comments like that with only 100 posts. You must be a banned person. manbearcub

he's playing much worse in this tournament than he has for the flyers this year. very very very much looking forward to russia-canada. i have a volleyball game in the middle of it but i'm definitely using the dvr. I'm hoping I can avoid hearing anything about the USA game until I get home. I'll have that dvr'ed and can then start the Canada/Russia game right away.

I wish Michigan would have shot somewhere in the middle between scorching and dreadful last Tuesday.