whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Mar 18, 2011 -> 09:29 PM) Dragon Age 2 was a bit of a dissapointment really. The graphics have definitely improved for the original which is a plus, but the negatives are; 1 - The story. There's no main villian, and no direction really, definitely not on par with the 1st one. 2 - The area. You are pretty much in Kirkwall for the most part. That gets old pretty quickly. 3 - The supporting characters just aren't as good as the original. 4 - It's too console friendly now. For a PC player, you can't pause and zoom in and out on the battlefield as you could the original. It's still a good game, but it could have been better. The game just felt rushed to me. The gameplay and graphics were big improvements but I agree with all your criticisms, particularly about the supporting characters and the story. There was no depth to any of the supporting characters and it never felt like anything was at stake when your character was making decisions.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 05:25 PM) You'll never hear my argue that it wasn't the players fault to put themselves in that situation. It still doesn't mean I want to see a foul called 90 feet and 50 feet away from the basket when the plays has a combined chance of zero in changing the outcome of the game prior to the whistle blowing. That first foul absolutely could have changed the outcome of the game, with a little over 2 seconds left and where the Pitt player caught the ball you can get a makeable shot, not a good shot but a makeable one. That last shot would have been a prayer if Howard even gets it off to begin with so that is a little more questionable even if it was a clear foul.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 01:11 PM) So of the over 5.9 million brackets filled out on ESPN, only one bracket has 15 of the 16 sweet sixteen teams left (none have 16). Wow. I'm actually not surprised by this. College basketball is terrible this year (tourney has been fun, the teams just aren't good) and it was always going to be a crazy tourney with a ton of surprising runs.

QUOTE (hitlesswonder @ Mar 20, 2011 -> 09:58 PM) I don't think that's necessarily a fair assessment, especially to Mike Davis who really had a pretty good season. Lack of effort is always the first thing fans blame and coaches seem to like to pin bad performances on it as well (I guess because it is theoretically correctable while lack of talent isn't). I don't think I can be labeled as an apologist for Weber or Illinois, and I have to say that I think they had decent tournament run. Beating UNLV was an actual accomplishment and they played decently against Kansas in a hostile atmosphere for most of the game. The final score is lopsided, but I think if you watched the game you wouldn't think Illinois should be embarrassed by their performance against a very good Kansas team. Overall, I think the season probably was a disappointment -- a sweet sixteen berth seems like it would have been fair bar to set. Illinois failed to do that mostly because they didn't play well enough in the regular season to get a favorable seeding. But I have to admit they were a better team than I thought they were. This is fair. They were in the game for a little over 30 minutes and had a ton of chances to really make it a game but just couldn't hit the one big shot. Effort wasn't the issue tonight but Tisdale and McCamey were just awful.

Good riddance to Cole, McCamey, and Tisdale. Davis I actually wish we had you back. That game was there for the taking if McCamey and Tisdale didn't fail miserably at making open jumpers. This Kansas team is not a great team. College basketball is so freaking awful this year.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 20, 2011 -> 09:38 PM) Mugged. And then the cheapy on the other end goes in KU's favor.

Pathetic performance from DMac tonight. With even a C performance out of him Illinois would be right there.

I love Barkley just hammering the Big East this whole tourney. The Big East has been absolute crap in the tourney compared to their seeds since the Big East expanded.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 20, 2011 -> 12:08 PM) Once the refs called the foul on Mack, they had to call the rebounding fall. Id rather that they let them both play, but they set the precedent on the first call. I think OT would have been the fair result, but the Pitt player was just so stupid. It wasnt even close, it was a legitimate foul. You absolutely have to call the first foul. With 2 seconds left and where he was going to catch that you can get a makeable shot. And the second one was a clear foul but one that refs often would let go.

Also, I'll post again that for as much as Mike Davis drove me nuts with his lackadaisical effort and no show performances for 2 and a half years the last 2 and a alf months he has been Illinois's best and most consistent player and I think I'm to the point where I will actually miss him next year and if I could have one senior back it would be Davis without even thinking twice. I wish the light would have went on sooner because the kid could have been an absolute monster at the college level but I'm still enjoying his play right now and hopefully he has a handfull of games left in his college career.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 19, 2011 -> 09:08 AM) Come on WARREN!!!! vs. Simeon tonight for the title. Simeon is going to win their 2nd straight title with a very good chance at winning it the next two years as well to join Peoria Manual as the only school to win 4 straight. Of course Manual's run was more impressive (assuming Simeon even gets to 4) because there were only 2 classes and some of the teams they beat were just absolutely unreal.

So I thought the Big 10 sucked and should only get 4 teams in? 5 and 2 in the first round (I refuse to acknowledge the new "first round") and the 2 losses were by a combine 4 points.

Ugh, I heard Jim Burr is in Tulsa reffing games. How the f*** is that motherf***ing joke of a ref allowed to ref NCAA games? No f***ing accountability whatsoever.

UCLA is trying hard to complete the biggest choke job in college basketball history.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 17, 2011 -> 03:34 PM) Ask his teammates who lost their runner up trophy. Yeah, because I'm sure the rest of them were clean. That whole program is and was slimy. The rest of those guys are probably just happy it wasn't them being caught.

I hate work.

I'm not just saying this because Clemson is playing well (I can't actually see the game but they are winning) but does anyone else think playing in the play in game will actually be beneficial for teams. People will point to the short rest but you get a game under your belt and get rid of the jitters that comes from playing in the NCAA tourney since you have already won a game.

QUOTE (hitlesswonder @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 02:03 PM) I think a lot of teams have flashes of excellence...Penn State nearly beat tOSU earlier in the season and had some good home victories as well, but I think we all know a team like Kansas would be a good bet to annihilate PSU in the tournament. For me, the flip side is that if UI does beat UNLV I will be impressed -- it will be an accomplishment (biggest of the season IMO) regardless of how bad the subsequent beatdown by KU would be. Unfortunately for UI, I think beating UNLV would not be regarded by most of their fanbase as anything more than "expected". The difference is Illinois has only been blown out once all year and really has only had two games (@Wisconsin and @OSU) where they didn't have at least a decent shot of winning in the last 10 minutes. This team has shown over and over again they can play with any and everybody for 30-35 minutes and then they piss down their legs when things get tight.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 04:54 PM) Defensive basketball is winning basketball. Look at the NBA and which teams are successful this year. Wisconsin isn't winning because of defense this year though. They are winning because they are incredibly efficient on offense due in large part to their insanely good turnover rate and the reason Wisconsin is boring is because they have the slowest tempo in the country this year with only one team being even close to them in how slow they play.

People really like Arizona as a final four type team? They aren't a great defensive team and they feasted on bad competition in the Pac 10. They weren't particularly impressive against good teams this year. Williams is a beast but I just don't see that team as a final four team.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 12:50 PM) I cant believe I'm saying this, but Illinois has the talent to beat KU, and I think could really push the Jayhawks. I really hope they play like they can play. They could and because this team seems to like to make losing as painful as possible for the fans, I'm pretty much expecting them to play well and beat UNLV and then be playing well against Kansas but have the game look like any number of games this year where they play well for 30-35 minutes before pissing down their leg and losing in as painful of fashion as possible. This season wouldn't be complete without one last giant kick in the nuts.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Mar 13, 2011 -> 05:34 PM) Haha, Illinois plays former coach Lon Kruger in the first round and then if they win, plays former coach Bill Self in the second. The last three Illinois coaches all in the same part of the bracket. I have Illinois winning the first (homer pick) and then getting annihilated in the second. That wouldn't be painful enough. If Illinois wins against UNLV they will be playing very well against Kansas remember who they are and proceed to have an epic collapse.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Mar 13, 2011 -> 05:37 PM) The tournament has really lost a lot of its charm the last copule of years. The same old story is getting old. There is no way that the Big 10 deserves 7 teams while Missouri St. has to go to the NIT. It's bulls***. 73rd in Sagarin's rankings, 81 on Kenpom, and their best wins were against a non-tourney team.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Mar 12, 2011 -> 03:22 PM) So does Illinois get in or not guys? Lunardi is the best in the business and he says yes right now, so I will say yes until he says otherwise. They will probably benefit from a horrible bunch of bubble teams this year. Every single bracketologist has them in. Usually as a 10 or 11.

And the only possible scenario that could keep Illinois out of the tourney might be happening. Lose today, MSU beat Purdue so MSU, Illinois and Michigan are all close (and I think all 3 get in). PSU currently housing Wisconsin (albeit a lot of time left). IF PSU was to win today and tomorrow it is possible that Illinois is the Big 10 team that gets left out (although any of those 4 could get left out or all 4 could get in).