hawkeyecub

Where is anyone "scooping that"? They contacted him to gauge his interest and he told them (probably indirectly) he would be interested. They then asked for Bowlsby's permission and he granted that. I really don't remember Majerus being under NCAA investigations but apparently he was.

I agree. This was his 3rd trip to the NCAA's in 7 years though. He made it in '01 and '05. He has grown into the position though and I feel he has become a much better head coach and he would run a clean program at Mizzou. But you're right, you guys could do better.

Are you hearing anything on this Tiger? You could do worse than Alford. He's certainly grown as a coach and if he brings Craig Neal with him, he should be able to recruit fairly well. Very strange.

Alford may be headed your way Tiger. Wow, I never saw this coming.

Tiger you have to look deeper at it than just his K-State stint though. First of all that's not the easiest place to succeed under normal circumstances. But when Snyder got there they put most of the athletic department funds behind him and the football program. In addition he was still fairly young and inexperienced and it was his first big gig. What he has done at Creighton has been very impressive. And he's only in his 40's he isn't exactly old. I also highly disagree that just because he's not in his 30's that his abilities have maxed out.

Any reason for that? He's the best coach in the MVC in my opinion. Yeah you can point to to his struggles at K-State but there are many reasons for that. By the way I don't think the Iowa job will come open.

Yeah my fault, major overreaction. Still in a fragile state from yesterday's loss. But honestly I'm not sure where you got the impression that Bru complains about officiating. As far as flopping, he takes a lot of charges and usually it takes a decent amount of contact for him to go down. Doug Thomas flops much more often and that's why he doesn't get as many calls. Seriously I've been to 24 Big Ten home games over the last four years, six road games over the last four years and two Big Ten tournaments, I've never heard anything but postitive about Greg Brunner (and Horner) from opposing fans. In fact I think the worst I've heard is "I hate that he kills us but damn I wish we had him." Of course you're entitled to your opinion and can dislike whoever you want. But if you can't like a couple of players like Brunner and Horner, who can you like? Especially when you're aware of all the crap they've had to put up with and how they've handled everything.

Big Ten free throw attempts in the last 3 losses: MSU- 5 George Mason- 26 Illinois- 11 Washington- 39 Indiana- 6 Gonzaga-41 I was too distraught to see the MSU game and most of the other two. Were the opponents really that much more aggressive? Were the Big 10 teams really playing that much more physically?

That's just completely false. Greg Brunner hardly ever complained to officials. Ask any Big Ten fans on this board who actually watched the games for four years, rather than just looking at the stats, seeing a couple games on ESPN and making your assessment off of that. But hey maybe the Big Ten Wonk guy said it once, so it must be true, right? On second thought, how could you make such a claim when it can't be found in any stat sheet? Remember, your eyes can decieve you or you can overreact to one thing you see, so you've got to use the stats. I would be willing to bet that even illiniguy would disagree with you.

Or because I was rooting for the Big 10, and Iowa blowing an 18 point lead with 8 minutes left made us all look like jackasses. How does it make you look like a jackass? But yeah, that's an even better reason to hate someone. Good logic.

You hate him because he missed the final free throw of his fantastic career because it hurt your little bracket? Wow. You should be proud.

I suppose you probably should when we've owned you guys for 3 years now with 4 straight wins. Must be rough when you're a fan of a one-sport school and you get dominated in the one sport you're supposed to be successful in. Other than that I have no idea why you would hate Iowa. Honestly what is there to hate about us? It's not like we've been a longtime rival or been a threat to your success for a long time. We don't cheat and I don't think we had any players this year that give other teams a reason to dislike us. I can't stand Illinois (mostly because of their fans) and I'm not a big fan of Weber, but I'm pulling for them in the tournament this year. I don't necessarily like Dee Brown and James Augustine, but I can respect them because they seem like generally good kids who have played clean and been great competitors in this league for 4 years. Pretty much everyone in that group is someone I would like to have on our side. I can't imagine anyone in our league looking at Brunner, Horner, Haluska, Hansen, Thomas, Hansen or Henderson and dislike them for any reason other than being successful or not want them on their team.

Couldn't we probably break up the NCAA Tournament into threads by round or something? This thread will be 100 pages if it stays as is.

West Virginia has a tough road and relies too much on the 3. They could easily be bounced on Friday by SIU, then have to likely play Iowa, Texas and Duke. I think Atlanta is the toughest region and Oakland is the weakest.

Exactly. I really hope Southern Illinois can knock them off. I think all of the top three teams in the Big Ten are more than capable of getting to the Final Four this year. It's about matchups and I think OSU, Illinois and Iowa all matchup fairly well if they get to the Sweet 16. Illinois matches up with UCONN much better than Iowa would simply because of athleticism, but they still play the kind of defense that will keep you in every game. Then they really can get any of the teams from that bottom region. Ohio State should handle Florida if they're hitting their shots at an even decent rate. Villanova is good, but OSU has the kind of perimeter oriented team that can get them, especially if they're shooting well. I actually expect MSU to get to the Elite 8. Davis can handle Hansborough and their guards can win their matchups. Tennessee just really isn't a better team than MSU. They'll turn it up in the tournament again and make a run. I really hope the Big Ten does well as a whole and can prove how tough the league was this year. The more I watch of other conferences, the more I see that no other conference plays defense the way the Big Ten does, especially Iowa, Illinois and Ohio State. You could see some of these Big Ten offenses explode against weaker defenses.

I like Iowa as a final four sleeper after seeing their bracket. They are as good as Texas. We've got to get past this weekend first though. Friday we play a team that presses the hell out of you and runs in 5 new bodies at every timeout. Then Sunday we would have to get past either West Virginia (who is very similar to Northwestern's style that has always killed us) or win a slowdown defensive game against Southern Illinois. I feel pretty good about our bracket if we get to the Sweet 16 though. We almost beat Texas on a neutral court in November despite shooting horribly and I think we're pretty equal to them as a team. Duke just doesn't scare me and I'm not sure that they'll get to the Elite 8 anyways. But if they do I think we match up very well with them.

That's exactly what happened a few years ago. During Davis' first year (when he was interim coach) Alford was considered the next likely IU coach, and IU played Iowa in the championship game of the Big Ten tournament (Iowa won). It almost turned out to be deja vu all over again, as Yogi would say. Yep with 5 minutes left, Packer said it was "the most important 5 minutes in the history of these two programs" for what it would mean with the coaching situation. Then during the trophy presentation he asked Alford if he was planning on taking the IU job. Nice tact Billy. If Iowa wins we will hear that same exact question. CBS just needs to fire this guy. He picks the team he wants to win and researches them but finds out nothing about the other team. What he did to Frank Williams was laughable. What did he do to Frank Williams? No discussion of the Big Ten championship game? Great game, OSU looked like the fresh team early on but then seemed to wear down as Iowa got stronger. Iowa's defensive strategy of taking away the lane and allowing teams to chuck 3's paid off again. Doug and Hansen did a number on Dials and it didn't hurt that he was in foul trouble. Iowa and OSU both ended up 14-5 in Big Ten games and Iowa beat OSU twice. Still not enough to claim a Big Ten championship, but I think it's safe to say that the two teams were very even.

That's exactly what happened a few years ago. During Davis' first year (when he was interim coach) Alford was considered the next likely IU coach, and IU played Iowa in the championship game of the Big Ten tournament (Iowa won). It almost turned out to be deja vu all over again, as Yogi would say. Yep with 5 minutes left, Packer said it was "the most important 5 minutes in the history of these two programs" for what it would mean with the coaching situation. Then during the trophy presentation he asked Alford if he was planning on taking the IU job. Nice tact Billy.

The article gave plenty of other reasons why the scoring has been down. I guess I just don't understand your argument. This is the way major conference tournaments have been for as long as I can remember. Every major conference tournament plays their games on consecutive days. That doesn't mean all of them are ugly. This year the games haven't been pretty but there are a variety of reasons for that. when games are more physical, as they are in the Big Ten, more time is needed to recover. If you watch the games, the teams are clearly fatigued and that is a big part of the ugliness. Come on, the Big Ten isn't THAT much more physical than the Big East, Big 12 and ACC that you need that much more time to recover. It's simply not rare and I don't think it's a big deal. College kids are more than capable of playing 3 games in 3 days. They play 3 games in a day sometimes in high school in AAU tournaments. When they play professionally they'll have to play 3 games in 3 days. In past Big Ten tournaments there have been some great high-scoring games in the semi's and finals. This year there isn't, but there are a lot of reasons for that.

The article gave plenty of other reasons why the scoring has been down. I guess I just don't understand your argument. This is the way major conference tournaments have been for as long as I can remember. Every major conference tournament plays their games on consecutive days. That doesn't mean all of them are ugly. This year the games haven't been pretty but there are a variety of reasons for that.

Hats off to Izzo he doesn't make any excuses. The first question in his press conference was about fatigue and he kept repeating that it had zero effect on them and that it shouldn't even be written as a possible factor. Just gave credit to our defense and said their offense did a poor job of protecting the lead and settled for too many 3's. Other than the way that I think he's able to bully the refs, there isn't much to dislike about Izzo. He's a class guy, doesn't make excuses (even when he could) and always gives credit to the opponent. There's a reason why his teams are always so physically and mentally tough, especially down the stretch.

Big win. Hopefully this is enough to get us a 3. Like I said I think Iowa and Illinois are neck and neck right now for a seed when you compare their resume's. Iowa will have a higher RPI, better SOS, an extra win against the top 50 (2nd most in country) and a better record down the stretch. The big thing for Illinois is their road/neutral record though and that could very well be enough. By the way I know MSU looked gassed and definitely was today, but could Packer have given any credit to our defense? We do have the 2nd ranked defense in the country and part of their struggles today could partially have been due with us not letting them get many open looks or making them work if they did. I hate when Iowa fans (or any for that matter) complain about announcers disliking us, but Packer has always seemed to go out of his way to not give Iowa any credit.

Never coached his own kids though, he's winning right now with what Watkins left him. He may be able to, as he's pulled in some nice classes, but we still don't know for sure. It's pretty amazing the way he's recruiting and turning things around at A&M. They were 0-16 in the Big 12 the year before he came and now have won 8 and 10 conference games, and had back to back 20 win seasons with an NCAA appearance this year. Plus the job he did at UTEP was very impressive. I think it's pretty safe to say that the guy can coach. He's been successful everywhere he's been and if he can win with these less talented leftovers, I'm sure he can compete with his own recruits. The biggest concern would be that he's always been able to recruit in Texas and that's where all of next year's class is coming from. I know there was some discussion about it on the Illini board though and they were concerned about him getting the Iowa job and being able to get guys out of Illinois, Chicago especially. Apparently he was one of Self's top recruiters while at Illinois.

A couple weeks ago the Kansas City paper mentioned discussed him for the Mizzou job. The writer said that it wasn't likely though because it would be too messy to switch from A&M to Mizzou. The writer said (to many Hawkeye fans surprise) that he was told that Billy would be Bowlsby's top candidate if Alford left and that Gillespie had told sources he wanted to get back in the Big 10.

I don't think either has a very good shot at the last 2 seed right now. I think you have UCONN, Duke, Villanova, Memphis, OSU, Texas, Pitt, Gonzaga and UNC in front of them. If any of them aren't I think LSU, UCLA are or could jump in front of them this weekend. In fact a lot of bracket predictions had Tennessee as a 3/4 seed before yesterday's loss. Their RPI is great but they've looked terrible down the stretch and have now lost 4 of 6. I think they're a 4. I don't want to be accused of being a homer here so I'll ask for honest opinion. Is it possible that Iowa could jump Illinois for a 3 seed this weekend? If they win today Iowa will be 24-8 while Illinois is 23-6. Iowa would also move in front of Illinois in the RPI up to 13th, possibly higher. Iowa's SOS is 29th while Illinois is 50th. They tied at 11-5 in the conference with each team winning at home. If Iowa wins today they would have the 2nd most wins against top 50 in the country, behind only UCONN. Iowa would also be coming in a little hotter. The biggest thing Illinois has over Iowa is the road/neutral record and I think that's what will keep them in front. Illinois is 10-5 while Iowa would be 7-8.