whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (hitlesswonder @ Mar 1, 2011 -> 09:55 AM) The Big Ten will be trash next season. It will be Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan that might be good...other than that I don't see much. Purdue loses Moore and Johnson...Minnesota will lose Tubby...Indiana probably needs another year to become good. MSU obviously has good recruits and a great coach but it will be hard to replace Lucas. Illinois is likely to be very bad...no point guard at all and multiple players trying to look good for NBA scouts... Tracy Abrams is a solid PG and is tied with OSU's McD AA PG in the RSCI rankings. Brandon Paul has actually been solid running the PG position in Big 10 play for the most part as well. I'm worried more about the development of the big men and how the team chemistry will be then the PG position.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 1, 2011 -> 10:54 AM) Overall it may be worse, but there are alot of young players you are overlooking here at places like IU and Michigan that will improve their collective teams. Sullinger and his Dad have both said he's coming back. OSU loses Lighty, Buford, Diebler and Lauderdale, but gains another solid recruiting class and another year from their current crop of star freshman. I wouldnt sleep on them next year, they have size in the front court, a couple of big wings and another dynamic PG. Any time you bring in 2 McD's AA players, you are getting play right away talent. I'll believe Sullinger is coming back when I see it. He would just add to the long line of college players who say they are coming back and then go back on their word when they realize it is stupid to return to college when you are a first round pick. I agree that if Sullinger comes back OSU will be really good, if he isn't they are going to be mediocre. Amir Williams and Scott are good players with a lot of talent but frankly neither should be a McD AA based on rankings. Williams is 49 in the RSCI and Scott is 60 in the RSCI. Both could end up being big contributors right away but it is far from a sure thing for guys ranked around those spots, especially for Williams who is supposed to be a pretty raw big man. Who am I overlooking? I said Michigan will be solid. They certainly aren't going to be great and the upside for that team is probably about a 6 seed. I gave IU credit and said they have a chance to be a bubble team. What has IU shown this year that tells you they should be more than that? Iowa may have some young players but outside of Basabe it isn't like those guys are all that talented. Purdue doesn't really have any good young talent. Illinois has a lot of talent but who the f*** knows what to expect out of those guys. MSU has one impact freshman in Dawson but the rest of those kids aren't supposed to be great contributors early on and MSU loses Lucas who has been by far and away their best player recently.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Mar 1, 2011 -> 09:22 AM) I think the Big East, Big Ten and possibly ACC will be better. Kansas will lose the Morris twins, Texas will lose all their bigs, K-State is losing most of their scoring and the big 12 is mostly out of the top classes picture (except Texas) The Big 10 is almost certainly going to be worse next year than it is this year. Unless OSU gets insanely lucky and Sullinger comes back they are going to be much worse, even with Hummel Purdue will be worse, Wisconsin will be very good and the odds on favorite if Taylor returns but without him they are mediocre, MSU will likely be a bubble team, Illinois will have a ton of talent but I give up predicting how they will develop, Michigan should be solid, IU might be able to work their way to bubble status, Iowa will still be bad, Minnesota will be a bubble team at best unless their guards make miraculous jumps, NW will be mediocre, and PSU will be one of the worst major conference teams in the country.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 28, 2011 -> 03:54 PM) But that really means nothing in terms of film quality. It's up to the user to read reviews, seek out trailers, and decide. Everyone has their own taste, and I don't want to start arguing that, but you won't find many experts or pundits or average movie-goers who didn't think this year was quite exceptional when it came to truly great movies. It, without doubt, blew the 2009/2010 Oscar season out of the water. I don't think it was an all time great year but it was a really good year for the top movies. The King's Speech was phenomenal, I loved Toy Story 3, the Social Network and The Fighter were both excellent films. I thought True Grit was very good but not a great film. And I thought Inception was merely good. I still need to see 127 Hours. I haven't seen Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right or Winter's Bone and don't really plan to even though I'm sure they are good movies.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 28, 2011 -> 04:45 PM) No place is even close to as good of a fit as Miami. Agreed. Miami gives a great shot at winning a title and he is almost certainly the starting PG for the Heat and because he is a very good 3 pt shooter he fits in well with that roster. On the rest of the teams he is a backup PG.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 28, 2011 -> 02:50 PM) I liked Inception, but admittedly the only other nominee I saw was True Grit. When I think about Best Picture, I add into the category "uniqueness". The reason I never saw the King's Speech is because Ive already seen so many historical period pieces (especially about World War II) that I just would rather actually see the real history. Im sure that it was a very moving tale about a Monarch who had a speech impediment, but if you are going to get me to pay money at the theater to watch another WWII film, I better see at least 1 action sequence, otherwise Ill just go read about it on the internet. As soon as its available Ill catch it on Netflix, but in my opinion the only movie that I felt I needed to see in the theaters this year was Inception. Hate it or love it, at least it brought something different to the table. Overall I thought movies this year were meh, which would be evidenced by my lack of movie going. I enjoyed Inception and thought it was a good move but didn't think it was remotely worthy of winning an Oscar. Also, as someone who has watched a ton of science fiction movies, I didn't really feel it brought anything new to the table.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 27, 2011 -> 10:58 PM) whereas LeBron's resume includes many more misses that hits in that spot. You mean like just about every other player in the NBA?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 25, 2011 -> 10:28 AM) Watching Deng's last shot again, and I'm fairly sure we wouldve gotten the board, Boozer had inside position and Noah was taking the long rebound. And that block for an and-1 against Rose still angers me this morning. Meh, I have no problem bashing officials for missed calls but that was either a no call or a foul on Rose. It certainly wasn't a charge on Lebron and with that much contact officials are generally going to call the foul.

QUOTE (IamtheHBOMB @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 11:00 PM) What would it take for you to believe the Bulls could take a playoff series against Miami? A blowout win in the final regular season match up? Unless they have home court I don't think they can beat Miami in a series. They aren't going to win all 3 home games and I don't think they can split in Miami.

QUOTE (IamtheHBOMB @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 10:47 PM) f*** yea. Deng stuck it up the Heat's ass in the 2nd half. 99, how do you feel about the Bulls matching up with the Heat in the playoffs after tonight? I still think the Heat would win in 6 but honestly at this point it wouldn't shock me if the Bulls push it to 7 so getting home court will be huge.

Also going back to a fun argument from this summer, Deng>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Hinrich

Thank you Dwyane Wade for helping off of Deng when Rose had really no play himself.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 10:26 PM) So Bosh has to have one of the worst shooting percentages(>0) in a game ever. The amount of wide open 10-15 footers he has missed in this game alone is incredible.

LOL at Bosh tonight. You would think at some point you would stop shooting jump shots when you haven't made one and go to the basket but he just keeps putting them up.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 04:33 PM) No luck would have been if the Bulls had no choice but to take Rose. Its easy to say now Rose was the right pick, but back then there were plenty of people who thought Beasley (myself included). If you watched them in college youd have thought Beasley would have put up Love type numbers in the NBA. Just doesnt always work that way. The guy averaged 26 pts and 12 rebounds, Love averaged 17 and 11. Picking Rose was much more difficult than you make it out to be. I was always on the Rose bandwagon and I didn't think it was a particularly difficult pick, especially once Beasley measured in at 6'7 without shoes (I realize that was far from the consensus though). I'm just not a fan of drafting a guy who looked like a combo forward #1 overall when you had the most athletic PG to ever enter the draft available to you.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 04:00 PM) God damn. OJ Mayo has quite a rep for a f***ing pretty s***ty player. FIRE FORMAN! BEST RECORD SINCE 96 FIRE HIM!!! I WANT OJ MAYO!!!!! FIRE PEOPLE!!! OJ MAYOOOOOO! Ridiculous. Take it the f*** easy, Mayo isn't taking us to another level, and when Boozer or Joakim go down next year and we can insert Omer you'll see why keeping him was smart. I'm not on board with firing Forman but the sole reason the Bulls have their best record since 96 is because they lucked into the #1 pick when they had the 9th worst record in the league and less than a 2% chance at the pick. If that doesn't happen the franchise is still a mess because they refused to trade guys like Hinrich and Deng for top talent early in their careers.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 02:56 PM) Perkins to OKC for Jeff Green. Awful trade for the Celtics. I don't get how adding a combo 3/4 possibly that won't start and getting rid of a very good defensive C possibly improves that team. Especially since they just made it easier for the Heat to match up with them.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 03:05 PM) I gotta disagree here. The Bulls need to make their run this year. First, no one knows if there will even be a next year, let alone what the draft and FA situations will look like if it happens. Second...look at guys like Paul and Williams. Each of them had a year where they really broke onto the scene and led their team to 55-ish wins. Since then, the teams around them have aged, occasionally gotten hurt, and combined with the occasional injury to them, they both have taken steps back. If the Bulls go into this playoffs healthy but with Bogans at SG, it's really throwing away an opportunity. Especially when one of your key players (Boozer) is constantly hurt and could easily break down at any time and another one of your key players (Noah) has missed substantial time in two consecutive years.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Feb 23, 2011 -> 04:51 PM) It's what I was concerned about going into this year and has been the downfall of the team. Im glad Weber is saying it but we couldve used a good wake up call before Big Ten play. They lost to f***ing UIC, if that isn't a wake up call nothing is. That team is unbelievably bad. Weber has done a poor job this year and the seniors are losers. End of story.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 23, 2011 -> 11:32 AM) That was my initial thought. You dealt important draft picks and a decent young PG AND your top young "prospect" in Favors just to save face and say you landed a superstar. Let's see how Deron looks with such a s***ty supporting cast. it depends on which 1st round picks the Nets gave up and whether they are protected or not. Mid to late first round picks just don't have a ton of value in the NBA unless you are the San Antonio Spurs.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 23, 2011 -> 11:41 AM) And franchise tags. I really think the NBA is going to have an extended lockout, it seems like there are going to be huge philosophical differences between the owners and players that aren't going to be easy to solve.

QUOTE (hitlesswonder @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 10:44 PM) I think Mike Davis falls into the category of getting too much crap, too. Overall he's had a solid season. He's thoroughly reviled on message boards but if people look over his career he's been a good player for Illinois. I understand that given his height and jumping ability people want more, and he never really added aggression going to the hoop but Illinois was lucky they managed to pick him up late in the recruiting cycle. He and Tisdale are bad fit together, I think. In fact, the whole Illinois team is less than the sum of it's parts. It's funny that until 4 years ago the opposite was usually true. Davis has been a solid player, my problem with him has always been that I think he could have been great and I am generally harder on guys that I think actually have a lot of talent. The lazy passes, constantly missing wide open 3 footers at inopportune times, generally lackadaisical attitude, inconsistent effort, etc. is what has driven me nuts the last 3 years. The thing is as DMac and Richardson have disappeared the 2nd half of Big 10 play, Davis has for the first time in his career given consistent effort on D and on offense and has finally been making far fewer stupid plays.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 10:10 PM) I didn't expect to win, but when you shoot that hot from three for the first 3/4 of the game or so (I believe we were 10/12 at one point), you would think you'd be in it. Bottom line is this team can't get to the line, they can't get in the paint, so sometimes even if they shoot well it's not enough. I will say this though, OSU seemed really good at denying dribble penetration. The lane was always clogged. OSU played really well, let's give them credit. Very efficient offensively. I have to ask though, why does Lauderdale still start? Actually, why the hell does he play at all? He dunks the ball once in a while and that seems like that's about all he does. Craft is super valuable, I don't see why Lauderdale takes any minutes away from him, and starts over him. Hell even that Thomas kid seems alright sometimes. OSU is 5x better when Craft is out there and he can drive and play shut down defense. Offensively the lineup of Sullinger-Buford-Diebler-Lighty-Craft is really, really hard to stop. They beat you 20 different ways. Thomas has been an absolute disaster against teams not named Illinois in Big 10 play.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 08:52 PM) I still think Tisdale gets way, way too much crap from Illini fans. You really want Leonard on the court more? Tisdale is what he is...great shooter, weak interior offensively, mediocre defense. Better than Leonard who contributes negatively on the court right now. Agreed. Leonard is a great athlete but unless he is within 2 feet of the hoop when he catches the ball I cringe. And this wasn't just the seniors tonight, I thought the effort from basically everyone not named Crandall Head in the first half was pathetic. Guys not fighting through screens, lazy help defense and rotations, lazy close outs on shooters, lazy passes, etc. Don't get me wrong OSU is really good and obviously a much better team than Illinois but coming out with that effort in the first half is inexcusable. And the sad thing is Illinois was having one of their lights out shooting games so if they had played with energy from the start they might have had a shot to pull off the upset.

Rock, one of the big reasons that the officiating has been all over the place is because Burr is involved. The guy is the worst official in any sport.