whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Jan 31, 2013 -> 02:42 PM) This. I'll be a homer too and say Brandon Paul. No thank you. As a flyer late in the 2nd round maybe, but I'm not taking a SG who doesn't shoot it all that well and can't dribble in the 1st round.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 31, 2013 -> 09:04 PM) Yeah. I was going to leave a massive rant on how terrible Griffey and Groce are. But I can't tonight. They have not been given a fair shake tonight. Griffey is still terrible. Groce's coaching has been fine tonight. Had a good game plan. Offense has been good for the most part other then the stretch where Paul decided to hand the ball to Michigan St. every other possession.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 31, 2013 -> 08:29 PM) Why can't they just get blown out instead of hurting me like this? It sadly doesn't really bother me anymore. Until Groce turns over the roster there is nothing to get excited about. I just hope this team finds a way to make the tourney for the sake of recruiting.

Brandon Paul sucks. Three unforced turnovers in the 2nd half and playing no defense.

Remember when Brandon Paul was good at basketball? That was nice. Now he can't even dribble 3 consecutive times without losing it.

Myke Henry could solve a lot of this teams issues if he would actually play as hard as he did in the first half all the time. It would give Illinois a legitimate PF with good athleticism (albeit slightly undersized) and another guy to stretch the floor which they haven't had since Griffey went into his epic slump.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 31, 2013 -> 07:40 PM) 10th point lead! Until Griffey blows every defensive assignment possible and they cut that lead down quick. Stretching it back out now. He needs to not play the rest of the season. Henry is playing D for the first time in his career tonight, hopefully that continues and Groce permanently sits Griffey.

We will see if it continues, but the Illinois offense the last 3 games has been producing a ton of open looks and they are finally making some tonight. The defense looks much better tonight as well and that is the area I've felt Groce's coaching has been most questionable so far this year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 28, 2013 -> 01:14 PM) Hasn't Groce's reputation always been that he's a good, energetic recruiter who plays a player-friendly style, but his in-game coaching is fairly mediocre? Hard to say, he was only a head coach for 4 years prior to getting the Illinois job and it isn't like anyone was watching a ton of Ohio basketball. He did a really good job in postseason play there but had pretty mediocre regular season results. Basketball is almost all about talent anyways. There are a few coaches that are able to consistently elevate their teams and a few coaches who consistently underachieve despite having talent but at the end of the day talent generally wins out as long as you are able to manage players and get them to play hard and play defense. I think we will know in year 3 whether Groce is the right guy for the Illinois job or not. I don't think that team will be great since unless something changes you will only have 2 upperclassmen worth a damn but you will have 3 years to evaluate his recruiting and he will have had a chance to implement his system to a pretty large number of his recruits since we have 5 commits in the 2013 class and I think they bring in 4 commits in the 2014 class (I expect that 2 of the 2011 kids will transfer after this year).

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 28, 2013 -> 11:33 AM) Brandon Paul is the 2nd leading scorer in the B10 but he's regressed? Sounds like Malcolm Hill is legit. I'd stop worrying about what Weber did. Nunn is going off for Simeon the past few weeks as well. What happened to Mike Shaw? Since he committed as a junior, he hasn't done anything. High school or Illinois. Paul hasn't regressed from last year, he is the same player he has basically always been. Incredibly streaky and inconsistent on offense and good for at least 1 or 2 really stupid turnovers per game. His defense has also slipped in Big 10 play. And considering Weber single handedly destroyed Illinois basketball despite taking the program over when it was one of the two best programs in the Big 10, inheriting a ton of talent with the 2004-2005 team getting as much hype and media attention as any in the last 10 years, and the quality of the team for this year and next is mostly tied to Weber it is fair to talk about how awful he is. If we suck in year 3 under Groce then Groce will rightfully get all the blame.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 28, 2013 -> 11:27 AM) Time will tell with Weber. I think what he admitted to during some of those last press conferences - that he coached and recruited not to lose/get the fans upset - are problems he won't have to deal with at KSU. I think they'll be a Purdue-like program in that they take character guys over skilled guys and after 2-3 years they develop into good players. Finishing in the top half of the conference will be much easier to do, and tourney appearances will be much easier to come by. But I guess we'll see in three years. And yes, obviously the three ball is an issue. My point was more that it just doesn't matter anymore. Unless they're hitting 60% of their threes, they're still not good enough to beat the top 4-5 teams in the big ten. If they hit 40% of their threes against Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin, they still lose those games. Everyone in the conference knows they're weak inside and they don't run an offense at all. They've been exploited just like last year. Groce is to blame for part of that. I'm not seeing much adjustment. I mean, at some point it's just a lack of execution. But why aren't they running more designed plays? They've reverted back to last years offense where they just stand around and wait for someone to throw up a brick. Weber used to say they were fine when option A worked but they sucked at options B and C. Well, they're that same team again. The offense was much better yesterday than it has been recently. They got quite a few open looks and there was more movement away from the ball. There was also a couple of really nice sets where our big men got the ball in position to score but they simply suck and don't finish. In one instance McClaurin got the ball in a position where most big men take it up and dunk but he isn't athletic enough to do it so he took an extra dribble and then tried to throw a pass to Egwu in traffic that resulted in a turnover. Later in the half they ran a set that ended up with Henry getting the ball on the block where all he needed to do was turn to his left shoulder and make a layup but his court awareness sucks and he didn't know where he was so he shoots a fadeaway that he missed instead. These guys just aren't very good basketball players and they fit together horribly.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 28, 2013 -> 10:17 AM) Meh, I think he'll do well there. Expectations aren't as high, he's doesn't have the pressure to bring in 5* guys and finishing in the top 4 in the conference won't be that difficult. At Illinois he didn't recruit the right guys or missed out on guys and had no plan B. Hence why we're stuck without a decent PG or PF. I'm still in absolute shock that they've regressed so much. The morons on TV keep talking about the three ball, but that's not the issue. They shot well yesterday and still got beat easily. I really don't see this team making the tournament. Weber can't recruit and has no idea how to build a roster. He runs a system that is predicated on 3 pt shooting and yet he recruited one guard in his entire tenure at Illinois that came in as a great 3 pt shooter and that was Jamar Smith in his second recruiting class. Kansas State will be struggling to make the tournament by year 3 of Weber's tenure there. The 3 ball is the issue for Illinois btw. We have no post presence (or even a big man that the other team really has to guard) and none of our guards are good passers when they go to the basket (Bertrand and Paul never even look to pass and Abrams rarely does which is consistent with what those guys have always done) which means in most basic terms that your two ways to score are making 3s and driving to the basket and we don't have anyone good enough to beat opposing teams by taking the ball to the basket on a consistent basis. Which leaves 3 point shooting which is the only reason Illinois was ever successful this year. Unless they start making a bunch of 3's like they did early in the season this team will be bad for the remainder of the year.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 28, 2013 -> 09:18 AM) I was at gameday and the game that night. What a blast. I actually feel bad for KSU fans that their program is soon going to be ruined (not that there is a ton to ruin given their basketball history is mostly awful) and most of them actually know it is coming.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Jan 27, 2013 -> 07:19 PM) Does anyone understand what Illinois is trying to accomplish on offense? I just don't understand. If you want to settle for a jumpshot every. single. time, why not run a VCU type defense with the length you have. We have no good shooters, nobody with a post game, no good passers and only a couple players who can actually create a shot. The only reason this team was good at any point this year was that they were making a ton of 3's. Once the 3's stopped dropping the offense went south.

I honestly wouldn't care if no one from this roster was back next year except for Egwu and Abrams. We need roster turnover badly. There is legitimately one player on Illinois' entire roster that can dribble a basketball. Paul has gotten his pocket picked a ton lately.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 26, 2013 -> 09:23 PM) Is Abrams actually signed on for any more Star Trek films? Few years ago I could swear I heard that everyone was on a 2 film contract. He isn't going to be directing Star Trek films after the one coming out this year. He is signed on to produce the third installment though.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 24, 2013 -> 07:33 PM) Why does Joss Whedon get NO love? He's obviously brilliant and has a massive following If he wasn't directing the Avengers 2 for Disney in 2015 he probably would have been one of the top candidates for Star Wars VII. Also, Disney is going to be rolling in cash that year. Avengers 2 and Star Wars VII in the same year.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 24, 2013 -> 04:32 PM) I dont disagree that Wisconsin is physical. I just think its nonsense to say that Wisconsin is so physical that 1) you are worried about the health of your team so much that you are just "overjoyed" that no one was injured, not caring whether you won or lost (convenient when Indiana hasnt won in 11 games) or 2) that they are so beyond other Big 10 teams that youd forget about Purdue. Purdue fouls on literally every possession. I'm not sure I've seen a team at any level that holds and hand checks as much as they do.

I'm not sure it has been discussed in here but the Walking Dead video game is awesome. I can't wait for season 2.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 23, 2013 -> 09:31 AM) This is no surprise - the worst NBA player is 1,000x better than any s*** amateur white guy from Boston. I wish I could recruit Scal for my Thursday night league. He should try that in Chicago though - D-Rose at age 16 would have smoked him! Agreed. Not surprising at all. I played with guys like Deron Williams and Luther Head when they were at Illinois and their level of play when they actually decided to play for real during stretches of pick up games was unbelievable. It is almost like they are playing a different sport.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 10:52 AM) When Kirk Hinrich goes for 22 against Steve Nash...don't you have to consider putting Kobe Bryant on the opposing team's best backcourt player, whether its' a SG or PG? I mean, what would Rose have done if Hinrich can do that? They don't really have a choice. Kobe has to guard the other teams best perimeter player unless it is a Paul Pierce type that is slow enough where World Peace can somewhat stay in front of him. World Peace doesn't defend well anymore, Nash is the worst defensive player in the NBA, Gasol is incredibly slow and Howard is awful defensively right now and no one on their bench is exactly a defensive stalwart. Some of this is on D'Antoni but that roster was always going to struggle defensively. I was saying as much before the season started.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 12:07 AM) EDIT: Great win again, this is the Hinrich I thought we're getting when he signed. You thought he would get defended by Steve Nash every night? Kirk isn't good, I'm happy he played one of like 3 good games he has had the entire season tonight though.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 12:01 AM) An alien has taken over Kirks body The Lakers are a joke. I don't get it They should be fine offensively eventually but they are built horribly on the defensive end. Nash is as bad as it gets defensively, World Peace can't defend at all anymore, Kobe is mediocre on that end at this point but is being asked to guard every teams best perimeter scorer which will also take away from his offense. Gasol is old and slow and Dwight is a shell of himself right now. They have major issues. And it doesn't help that their personnel is a terrible fit for D'Antoni's offense since they have no shooters and none of their big men are completely ideal for the pick and roll since Gasol can pick and pop but is incredibly slow going towards the basket and Dwight can't make anything other than a dunk. They also have no bench at all.

QUOTE (WHarris1 @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 11:52 PM) Have a f***ing night Kirk. Is Steve Nash the worst defensive player in the NBA? I say yes.

It is remarkable how bad Dwight Howard looks.