whitesoxfan99

Huge win. That was a horrid last possession by the Celtics.

What an unbelievable shot by Gordon. Now freaking guard Ray Allen.

Horrible clutch FT shooting by both teams today.

How the f*** does Ray Allen get that open for a 3 pt shot?

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Apr 23, 2009 -> 08:27 AM) Wow. He'll still have to wait until the '11 draft though, so he'll have to spend 2 years over there until he could play in the NBA If he can handle being away from home and adapt to the culture there are far worse things then spending a couple of years in a foreign country while making six figures (I'm assuming he will be making under a million there).

It is really time for the Sox to cut their losses with Macdougal. He is freaking awful.

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Apr 7, 2009 -> 12:53 AM) Dickie V picked the Jayhawks to win it all next year. First time in 500 years he did not take UNC or Puke. I think Kansas will be really good but it is way too early to be making predictions. It is entirely pointless to speculate on who will win the NC before finding out where the remaining top recruits are heading and who is going pro.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 5, 2009 -> 02:02 PM) It would be nice to see MSU win it and have their last loss to my Buckeyes. I cant see it happening though. UNC is pretty damn good. When UNC plays well there isn't a team in the country this year that can beat them.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 27, 2009 -> 04:56 PM) Can we have a link to your supporting evidence? That seems to be your argument. And I said that he would improve his draft stock and his wallet by staying a year. Its supported every season in college bball when sophs, juniors and seniors raise their draft status, my link is www.espn.com I don't think you definitely improve more in the NBA by sitting on the bench but I think if someone is a hard worker they are going to improve more when their job is playing basketball and they can devote their time entirely to the sport then when they have to go to class and are limited by NCAA rules as to how much interaction they can have with their coaches. I think it is laughable that people assume you improve more by staying in college then you do by playing against the best players in the world. And you are improving you wallet short term, not necessarily in the long term. If you become really good in your first 4 years in the league you are better off getting to the NBA as early as possible because then you get to your 2nd contract where the big bucks are more quickly. For instance if you stay an extra year in college and improve your draft slot from say 20 to 10 you will make about 3 million dollars more in your first 4 years in the league. However you are also losing a year of earnings which could cost you a salary that is significantly higher than 3 million. Also there are obvious flaws in this data by Grant Wahl but it does suggest that if you are a first round pick and a lock to be a first round pick you go. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writ....bag/index.html

QUOTE (WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Mar 27, 2009 -> 04:25 PM) Because you don't get better sitting on the bench. Link? Improvement by players comes in practice and in the offseason. Game experience is certainly important , but even if you aren't playing a ton you are going up against better players in practice then you ever do in college basketball. You have more time to work out and practice then you do in the NBA and you have more money to improve your diet which makes a big difference for some players. Now if you don't have a good work ethic then you won't improve if you aren't playing but if you are going to put in the work there is no reason you can't improve more by going to the NBA then you would by staying in college. Also based on the pay scale of the NBA it is more important to get to your post rookie contract as early as possible then make a little more during your first three years in the NBA. Rashard Lewis for instance averaged only 7 minutes a game is rookie year after coming out of HS. The next year he went up to 19 and he averaged 8 pts a game. He then made a huge jump to 35 minutes per game and averaged 15 pts. I'm sure he would have been better though if he had gotten a ton of minutes as a freshman in college as opposed to being stuck on the bench? Al Jefferson played under 20 minutes a game his first two years and in year 3 he averaged a double double. Bynum averaged 7 minutes a game his rookie year, then averaged 8 and 6 while starting the majority of games his 2nd year, and by his 3rd year he was big time when healthy. Guys might not be ready to contribute when they enter the league but there really is no evidence they don't improve by "sitting on the bench". It all depends on the individual and how hard they are going to work.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 11:51 PM) How good can a team really be with a bunch of freshman though? Unless they are landing 3 Evans/Rose caliber recruits, I don't see it. Henry, Cousins, and Wall are all top 10 players nationally and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Wall is a Tyreke Evans level player next year. They also have Nolan Dennis who is a top 40 guy on the RSCI coming in as well as a couple of 4 star Juco guys. Juco guys almost never produce at high levels but they have a ton of talent coming in. Of course they have to land Wall first for this discussion to even matter.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 27, 2009 -> 11:34 AM) Not nearly as much money as if he would have stayed a year and improved his status. He's a fringe first round pick, he would have easily made it into the lottery. He spent part of his childhood in a homeless shelter which really motivated him to make the jump now, which is 100 percent understandable, but I agree with most of the experts that say he could improve both his game and his wallet with another year in college......As well as my Bucks chances at a Big Ten title. I'll still be extremely happy if Turner stays like he said he would He could just as easily improve in the NBA. Why do people act like you improve more by staying in college then playing in the NBA? There really is no evidence of that at all even for guys who aren't getting a lot of PT early on.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 02:49 PM) He's looking at late first, early second from what I've seen projected. If he continues his progression, leads the Big Ten or is top 3 in eery category like he was close to this season, and is a all american, he could go lottery next year. He's a 6'7" slasher and should only improve his stock IMO, especially if he adds an outside shot and some defense. Buford has nowhere to go but up. He cant play a lick of defense at this point. The Bucks get Lightly and Kecman back next season which will help the team overall as well. If you aren't a sure fire first round pick I don't think it is wise to go pro. If you are a sure fire first round pick there is really no reason to stay in school unless you really want to win a championship. If Turner doesn't hear he is a sure fire first round pick he should stay, if he is a lock for the 1st round he should go. Same with Buford and any other player.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 02:14 PM) Turner has a tough decision, because he will become a better player if he stays another year or two at Ohio State so it would be a good decision in that sense, but it would probably be a bad financial decision because he won't go as high in either of the next two drafts simply because this draft class is so incredibly bad. Buford in theory is in the same position, although he was only a freshman this year he would have more room for improvement. I believe both are projected as consensus first round picks in 2010 anyways though, so maybe the decision isn't as hard as I think it is. He could just as easily become a better player by going pro and playing against the best in the world on a nightly basis and he would also be getting paid to do it. There really isn't any advantage to sticking around college if you are a sure fire first round draft choice.

QUOTE (The Bones @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 05:42 PM) A question for other Illinois fans like myself. Why didn't Illinois press more? They've had success with it previously (Northwestern). I've tried to forget about this loss by saying WKU was just the better team and I think they were in the first half when they were hitting their shots. But the way Illinois played in the last 5 minutes leads me to believe that this could have been a win for Illinois. If they had put it on for a few minutes in the first half to throw WKU's rhythm off it might have helped. It seems Bruce is sometimes too stubborn to change things up and won't use it until desperation time when it was too late. Oh well, we have good recruits coming in the next few years and we certainly exceeded my expectations this year. It's just tough for a program like Illinois to go three straight years without winning a game in the NCAA Tournament...especially when we had 2 games that were very winnable. Hopefully, we see Chester in some type of assistant role soon. I was really hoping they could win for him...such a tough way for him to go out. They don't have great depth and presses tend to be more effective late in games because other teams are trying to ice the game and tend not to attack it. A press earlier may have worked but it also could have easily resulted in a ton of layups and dunks for WKU.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 10:26 AM) It was a pretty deplorable effort by Illinois, they showed no effort on defense for the vast majority of the game, and you can't beat anybody, not even a Sun Belt team, doing that. At the same time, Illinois isn't the same on defense without Chet and in reality probably wouldn't have been able to handle Gonzaga's firepower without him anyways, plus this was a very flawed team that overachieved in the first place. The excitement starts next year and continues in the years coming in the future with the recruiting going as well as it is though. And congrats to Michigan, I didn't think they had a chance in hell at beating Clemson, but they played a fantastic game. Demetri reminds me a lot of Frank Williams in this sense. I don't think he's ever going to be as good as Frank, but he's similar in the sense that he's very talented, puts up some fantastic performances in games, but also has games where he simply doesn't appear to have his head in the game. I never agreed with the people who said Frank didn't care, and I don't agree with the people who say Demetri doesn't care either, but I can see how you can gather such an opinion when players like them can look so good at times, and so absolutely useless at other times. Frank played D, McCamey often doesn't. I don't think Demetri doesn't care but he doesn't play near hard enough, and he often takes himself out of the game mentally when he gets off to a bad start, and he is extremely lazy on D. Frank didn't always assert himself as a scorer but he always played D.

Anyone see that guy on Morgan State, flip Griffin over his back. What the hell was that? One of the most ridiculous things I have seen a player do on a basketball court.

That should have been an and 1 for Meacham. Western Kentucky player stepped underneath him.

QUOTE (SnB @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 11:10 PM) coughbrianrandlecough Randle at least was injured all the time and had no skill. McCamey just doesn't work hard.

QUOTE (BaseballNick @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 10:38 PM) No energy. Way too many second chance points for WKU. Poor overall effort (aside from Brock). McCamey is the laziest guard I've seen in a long time. Oh, and god-awful perimeter defense. Where is Tisdale? Where is Davis? I am really starting to hate McCamey. Hard to like a guy who has a ton of talent and shows no desire to make himself great and gives no effort on D.

McCamey needs to lose 20 lbs in the offseason or I wouldn't start him next year. His defense today on Slaughter has been beyond pathetic.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 10:12 PM) I hate how the announcers almost never question a call. There response was that Brock should have used a jump shot. He was running full sprint and the defender slid under him. If Illinois is going to get back into this game, they are going to need to start taking better shots and give the ball to Davis more. Im pretty sure the guy who took the last shot of the first half for Illinois is not a 3 point shooter so no real reason to take that shot. I think that Davis can cause some real problems for WKU. Also I expect law of averages for some of WKU's shots. Its going to be tight, Illinois really needs to hit them hard to start. And Brock was on the way down after already releasing the shot which makes the call way worse.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) Refs arent doing Illinois any favors, the guy clearly moves under Brock on that lay up. Should have been and 1. That call was absolutely pathetic. College refs are horrible at their jobs across the board. Although we are playing so bad it doesn't matter. And I would love to see college basketball add the semi circle. I'm sick of seeing charges taken while standing under the basket.

Demetri McCamey is playing horrible basketball lately. Giving no effort on D and missing easy shots on offense.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 18, 2009 -> 01:26 PM) Quan Connor missed the game for Waukegan. He is a huge part of their defense and gets about 12 pts a game. Richmond should win Mr. Basketball in Illinois. Richmond should finish first with Paul 2nd and no one else should really be close.