Butter Parque

That sound like a statement from a person who has never watched a game before. By the way, my wish is that Duke could be a 16 seed in Illinois' bracket, so finally this "undefeated" team could be put away and everyone will stop talking about them. They deserve it though, it's tough going through the rigors of the Big Ten

Actually, if you ever watched a college basketball game or ever heard anyone talk about JJ Redick, you would have learned or seen that he has become one of the best players in the country at driving to the basket and drawing fouls. Whe he gets to the line, it's automatic. You would have also learned that he has improved his defense dramatically, if you saw the UNC game, you saw that, just ask Rashad McCants. With a statement like yours above, it shows just how little you know about college basketball, so before you make remarks, think. Should have known, coming from a Illinois fan. By the way, who was the last team to beat Illinois? Just a question.

It so great to be a Duke fan because everyone hates you until Duke beats their favorite team and then those fans crawl into their little holes for awhile. The fact is; is that you would choose JJ Redick over anyone on North Carolina, but you would never admit that. You keep talking about Rashad McCants, but wasn't it JJ Redick who had him locked up for those last seconds, preventing him from getting the ball. it's plain and simple; JJ Redick is a better player then anyone on North Carolina. I guess North Carolina fans and Duke fans will never agree on anything, and Illinois fans, well, they're enjoying their winning while it lasts.

I knew some jealous tarhole fan would bring this up. If you watched you saw Muhammad put his leg over Redick to try andd keep him down. Redick got offended and lost his temper. I thought it was a great call by the refs to just leave it as a double foul since both were at fault. Now I ask the tarhole fan, would you want JJ Redick on your team? Obviously you would. Redick didn't have a great shooting night, but he hit some big 3's and won the game for us with his 2 clutch free throws. He's better then anyone on UNC and everyone knows it. He showed that in their first game and he'll sbow it again on March 6th. It's great that people will still belittle this guy wh is gonna win the ACC Player of the Year. Some of these people need to get a life and start worrying about their own team. All I know is that Duke beat Georgia Tech on the road, and it's because of JJ Redick.

can anyone at least tell me the players in the game for the Whitesox

From watching all of his starts from last year, you could see he is a completely different pitcher then when he first came up. He changes speeds constantly to keep the hitters off balance to make up for his diminishing velocity. But from this and just thinking about our rotation, there are a ton of question marks. Mark Buehrle: It's known he's not a true ace, but has been very productive over his career. He has worked a ton of innnings and you go to hope injuries don't become a concern. Freddy Garcia: He was a highly touted prospect and came up and was great. Struggled a bit before rebounding last season. But when he was traded to Chicago, his numbers definitely slipped. Can he be as good as he was in the first half of last season? Jose Contreras: He's a headcase. I can understand struggling in NY. But when he came to Chicago, he still was 50-50 on how he was going to pitch. One game he was dominant, one game you had no chance to win with him in the game. Which Jose Contreras will show up this year? El Duque: The biggest question mark in the rotation. Hasn't been able to stay healthy and has gone through major arm surgeries. Just when you thought he had come back healthy and productive last year, he gets hurt and makes only one start in the postseason. 5 innings, 3 earned runs. Will he stay healthy? Jon Garland: Definitely an upgrade in the 5th startere spot, but he's a headcase, who in my opinion, doesn't want to be in Chicago anymore. He has the talent to win 20 games, but never gets past 12. He's a great 5 inning pitcher, unfortunatley he'll be counted on to go more then that. The onl;y constant inmy opinion is Buehrle. After that, theres a lot of question marks.

can anyone post the white sox roster with their rankings please?

Since the combine, free agency, and the draft are coming out, I began thinking about next year's Super Bowl sleepers. Jacksonville: They have a great young coach and a great defense, but no WR's and Leftwich is way overrated; he pretty much sucks. Carolina: Had a lot of injuries last season, but still played pretty good in a terrible NFC. If they cut Mushin Muhammad, it hurts their chances. (P.S. Kris Jenkins is retiring I think) Cincinnati: A great coach in Marvin Lewis, as well as an emerging star in Carson Palmer. If they could keep Rudi Johnson and TJ Houshmandzadeh as well as improve their run-defense through the draft and free agency, they could be contenders. New Orleans: They really emerged at the end of last season. They need Aaron Brooks to be more consistent and McCalister to stay healthy. I think a dominant LB could really help them. Buffalo: They were a contender, but turning to a rookie QB could hurt them severly, especially with a poor O-Line. Their defense will have to carry them to the Super Bowl. Arizona: if Denny Green can provide Josh McCown with abetter O-Line and a good RB (either Marcel Shipp or through draft), they could be contenders. Need to improve defense through FA. Detroit: They have a young improving defense, as well as Rogers, Williams, and Jones; but they have no QB, simple as that. What do you guys think?

I could say whatever I want about their heart. It was another big UNC game and another big UNC loss. This time though, they were the "so-called" better team. If they were so much better, they would have found a way to win the game or at least shoot the ball in the last 18 seconds. It was funny watching UNC in their game before they faced Duke (it was either against FSU or NC State) and I saw them with their flashy dunks and their showboating as they were up by 25, and I remember thinking to myself that they would be in for a rude awakening in a few nights, and I was right on the money. Why shouldn't I make those kind of comments against a team as classless as North Carolina. When Duke is up by 20-30 points, you don't see them doing fancy dunks like they were playing "Streetball". I thought that "locked up" comment towards Rashad McCants was fitting for a person with no class such as himself; from the throat slashing gestures to the comparisons of college to prison. I have news for him, if it wasn't for Matt Doherty recruiting him, he probably would have found his way into a prison. I believe that my "heart and chemistry over talent and depth" was right on the money. As we all knew, UNC had the talent and the depth to win the game, but where was the heart to pull out the game in the end, or the chemistry to stop committing turnover after turnover. After took the high-paced game away from them, they had no clue what to do. I would really like to see UNC advance in the ACC Tournament as well as the NCAA's but I don't see it as possible. They've had this core group for 3 years now and every year has been the same, big expectations leading to bitter dissapointment with an early exit in the NCAA Tournament. I see nothing different in UNC from last year to this year. If I had to compare UNC to anyone in sports, I'd have to compare them to the White Sox of the last couple years; tons of talent, but no heart and no chemistry, leading to no playoff apperances. My pipe dream is that we face UNC in the final four or the National Championship, but as it looks right now, it seems that Duke has a better shot then UNC, no talent and all.

Wow it seems Rashad McCants was "locked up" all night. HAHAHAHA!!! P.S. Where was UNC's heart?

I'm here to make my prediction for tonight's classic. UNC has more talent, more depth, and a better overall team on paper. Two problems though, first, this is a team that doesn't play with heart, they play with their talent and so far that's all they've needed. Second, lets see them react when the game is close. Will they be able to withstand the pressure. Theres no doubt the game will be close, Duke has already been in close games against stiff competition and responded well, even in the loss at Wake Forest (unlike UNC) Duke will have to stay out of foul trouble and get more production out of Daniel Ewing to win. I think most would agree that Shelden Williams is a better player than Sean May, but UNC has a lot of scorers, both in their starting lineup and on their bench. So the question comes; UNC's talent and depth vs. Duke's heart and chemistry. I pick Duke for 3 reasons: one, because I'm a Duke fan, two, I choose heart and chemistry over talent and depth always in sports (look at the Patriots), and 3, Duke is home in front of the Cameron Crazies. Prediction: Duke by about 4-6 points I'd like to hear other predictions

If Everett is in good condition and ready to go, he could force some major changes after Thomas gets back. He would probably go to left, Podsednik would move to Center, and Rowand would to right. Jermaine Dye better be ready to play from ST through September.

yeah, I don't see how you could put a guy who has never played a big-league game in the 2-spot. Put him in the 9-spot and get him some confidence. They should put Rowand in the 2-spot so he gets some pitches to hit and get him off to a good start.

I think you will see the white sox trade for Tony Graffanino, and then platoon him with Willie Harris. The team will then be set, and it leaves room for the sox to trade mid-season.

This Mid-season trade crap is retarded, why don't we just make our team good enough so that we don't need to trade the farm to get into the playoffs? That should be our goal, not to wait for the deadline to make our team a winner. I voted for Soriano, but I don't want any of them, i want to keep developing Willie.

C'mon Kenny, close up shop for this offseason and let Willie play 2nd with Uribe at short. I don't want Cora or Iguchi when we can save money with a guy who can hit just as good if given the chance. Neither one of those two play defense as well as Willie either. This thing about Willie being cocky and bad in the clubhouse, I believe is crap. No one had a problem with him when he was hitting over .300, he went into a pretty long slump (who doesn't, especially a guy who never started) and everyone is all over him. The only reason I can come with is the fact that he went on ESPN and talked about girls in the hotel lobby, I guess the players didn't like the fact that that ifo left the locker room. I got a message for those guys, Don't cheat on your wives or girlfriend's!!!

I went with "other" and chose Willie. I'm sure Iguchi would be a decent hitter in the Majors but we have a young guy who was a pretty good prospect and had a respectable average for his 1st season starting. I don't know why Ozzie hates him so much, just preach the fundamentals to him until he gets it. Tim Raines hou help him study the pitchers' motion so he could get some good jumps and develop into that 30-40 SB guy we all know he could be. If the sox don't sign anyone else and have Willie as the 2B, I GUARANTEE by the end of year, that Willie will be leading-off and S-Pod will be hitting 9th. I do expect though, S-Pod to have a decent year as well.

KW would get an A- in my mind if he is able to land AJ purely because I thought he could have done a little bit better then El Duque and maybe tried to get either Pierre or Castillo instead of S-Pod. Let me tell you if El Duque is throwing the same way he was last year, this rotation could be very scary. he really lokked like Shingo with his offspeed pitch. Like I said, it all depends on Contreras, if he bombs, so does our rotation.

Yeah, because you don't want those 3 championships in the last 15 years right? What an idiotic statement. As to another post, I guess your referring to JJ Redick as our best player. Well he might be our best scorer, but he's not our best player. His defense isn't great, it's average, but his driving has gotten so much better since his fresman season. He's still the best shooter in the country and I guess you forgot to mention that he shoots over 90% from the free-throw line. I guess you forgot that tidbit. Daniel Ewing is our best player because of his hustle, leadership, clutch shooting, and aggresive defense. Ewing is the reason why Duke will be in the Final Four again. As for depth, if I hear one more announcer sya that Duke doesn't have any depth, i swear. While the depth isn't as good as it once was, it's still quite serviceable with some really good role players, which I talked about in my opening post.

until you can answer my question about where has the respect been, It just shows how wrong you are.

See, I can always tell when someone's jealous.

Year in and Year out? Show me where they have gotten respect this year, not from ESPN, not from anybody. This year, everybody is all over Chris Paul and Dee Brown like they resurrected from the dead, and Dickie V hasn't shown Duke any respect this year at all. I've seen more Louisville praise this year then Duke praise. It's like tey all want to f*** that ass Petino. I guess all the Illinois fans are still angry about the tournament last year, c'mon, did you guys think you actually had a chance. Didn't think so.

I never said Duke would beat Illinois on the road, I think they always have a chance to sneak a win out at home. Face it, Illinois isn't facing Skip Prosser, they would be facing Coach K.

In that MSU game, Duke's defense in the 2nd half became very porous or else it would have been another blowout like last year.

Should have figured it was a North Carolina fan. I guess your just frustrated about losing to Duke. Man, that Duhon reverse layup was a dagger in the heart. I'm sorry, our schedule was a piece of cake and I know Santa Clara can be tough even for a storied program like UNC. You guys better not go back to Hawaii next year, I hear Chaminade is building one hell of a team. Difference between UNC and Duke (besides the fact that we don't have assholes like McCants on our team): We beat our cupcake teams!!!