whitesoxfan99

I've been around a little bit, just been busy and the Sox pissed me off to no end. I'm up for it again (not till my schedule allows though) but I know it takes a lot of bandwith so Jas and the rest of the admins have to make the call.

Just for comparison (and I truly believe Self may be the best recruiter in college BB) here were his classes at Illinois along with rankings for those who care. Rankings may be a little off but I didn't really feel like looking up the exact RSCI rankings when I know very close to where all these guys were ranked. 1. Blandon Ferguson JC (didn't do anything) Luther Head-NR (turned into a very good player) Kept Roger Powell who had already committed on board 2. Dee Brown - around 20 Deron Williams around 50 (great get for Self but not a whole lot of comp. as GT had already just signed Jarret Jack, also missed out on Sean Dockery) James Augustine around 80 (had to be convinced by Dee and assistants to take him after missing out on Shelden Williams, Michael Thompson, and Ike Diogu) Aaron Spears borderline top 100 (not with team) Kyle Wilson borderline top 100 (not with team) 3. Rich McBride around 30 (very good get coming out of HS) Brian Randle around 55 (extremely athletic, hasn't proven anything besides that yet) Warren Carter NR (could end up being a tremendous SF/PF at the college level) *Charlie Villanueva top 5 (committed ended up at UCONN where he contributed very little to their NC last year) Bruce Weber As Self had to keep Powell on board so did Weber have to keep Carter Randle, and McBride on board 1. Shaun Pruitt- 55-70 are the rankings I've seen for him, the kid is huge and rankings wise is better than any big man self brought into UI unless you count CV Calvin Brock borderline top 100 #3 player in Illinois last year (tremendous athlete easily the most explosive athlete on the team) 2. So far Marcus Arnold- transfer from ISU, averaged over 12 PPG last year and made our big men look horrible when we faced them Jamar Smith-terrific shooter borderline 100 type ranking David Palmer-this guy is a bit of an enigma, a one time top 25 player per insiders top 50 per rivals and at least one other source as slid drastically in the rankings due to an injury, is going to Oak Hill this year which should help him a lot and if he gets back to form is a very good get for UI While I'm worried who will fill out the class of '05 up to this point I'm very happy with the guys Weber has coming into the program.

I'm as big of an Illini fan as anyone but we never get the best player from the state of Illinois. Not even the great Bill Self could get that done. And with the constant early entries to the NBA draft I will be very happy with top 100 players. I think we are going to start to see a trend (assuming no draft age rule is passed) of teams with the 4 year type guys having the best teams. And rankings mean zero. The best players in the country last year Emeka Okafor #99, Devin Harris not ranked, Ryan Gomes not ranked, yet you have a guy like Kelvin Torbert who was the #2 player coming out of HS. Edit- And losing Shaun Livingston did nothing to hurt the program (I'll take 4 years of Calvin Brock thank you very much). I was pissed at the time, but looking back it was for the best.

Its just too bad those arms aren't anything that special. Not to mention Borchard has very little value and they would really only be receiving one top propect and Lee who will be making a pretty good amount of money next year. While the A's give up one of the best pitchers in baseball and their top bullpen guy. No way Billy Beane makes that deal. As for the Florida trade, are you kidding me, the Marlins gave up Brad Penny and Hee Seop Choi for just Mota and Lo Duca. Then their going to get a #5 starter (Garland), a third baseman hitting .230, one good prospect, Cotts who hasn't proved anything at the major league level, and then take on salaries for Contreras and Everett while in the process giving up Mota who may be the best set up man in baseball, an all-star caliber third baseman, an all star catcher, and one of the best leadoff men in baseball. Yeah, I'm sure lots of GMs are looking to trade 4 all star caliber players for none.

No way in hell would Oakland or Florida make those trades.

Plus they also have Schilling and Martinez in their rotation.

I liked it so far but a quick question, I know its not finished so it might get explained later, but how does Anthony get back in touch with Cheryl if the number was incorrect and he keeps getting the operator? Side note, the beginning reminds me a lot of Eternal Sunshine not necessarily a bad thing.

ESPN What a great QB class that turned out to be :rolly Out of the 5 QB's taken among the first 12 picks 3 are currently unemployed by no choice of their own (McNown, Smith, and now Couch). Culpepper and McNabb are both really good but that class was supposed to rival the 83 class in turns of star power at the QB position.

I have to say that the ACC will win the challenge again this year. My predictions N.C. State beats Purdue (home game for NC State and Purdue just isn't that talented) Georgia Tech beats Michigan (GT loaded and a home game) Florida State beats Minnesota (Minnesota is going to be absolutely horrible) Duke beats MSU (In Cameron, even with early entries Duke still is loaded) Wisconsin beats Maryland (nearly impossible to win in Kohl) Illinois beats Wake Forest (obviously I'm biased but its a home game for Illinois and we've had one of the best home court advantages in college basketball the last 4 years or so) Ohio State beats Clemson (Ohio State should be improved this year, I think this one could go either way) N. Carolina over Indiana (N.C. just has to much firepower and Indiana won't be experienced enough Virginia beats Northwestern (another one that could go either way) As for my comment on Bracey, yes it is true and never did I say he shouldn't have been on the team but lets not pretend like he played well.

Too bad he had the lowest FG % of anyone on the U.S. team over the course of the tournament.

He's been pitching well right now against all teams not named the Red Sox and the Yankees will probably eat almost all his salary. Not to mention that with Beckett still being hurt the Marlins could use another starter to try to make a run at the postseason again.

I don't feel that way at all and yes I do think we still have a great shot at the playoffs. All I am saying is that people let their emotions get the best of them. The reason it may be extreme in this case is that we are facing the team ahead in the standings and have performed very poorly. While it may not be logical to say the team is done, it is simply an emotional response. People like to vent their frustations and while it may be annoying when there is so many we suck threads this forum wasn't meant only for optimists.

Of course they would. People's moods about their teams are almost always linked to the teams current play. The team plays well and people are happy and optimistic the team plays poorly and, well you have the board in the current state.

The offense has been like this since 2001. I'm actually used to it now.

What proof is there that a guy will develop more in college than he would if he stayed in college for a longer period of time. Leaving early sure didn't hurt Allen Iverson, Magic Johnson, Garnett, Anthony, James, Amare Stoudemire, Moses Malone, Shawn Kemp, and the list goes on and on and on.

Yeah, screw those guys who are trying to live out their dream and earn a great living at the same time. But I'm sure they should all stay in college to get an "education". rolleyeyes.gif

Agreed and thats the exact reason I like announcers to be a fan of a team like Hawk is. It makes moments like that even more exciting.

The Heat will be the better team with a good chance of being the #3 seed in the east. The Lakers on the other hand may not even make the playoffs. San Antonio, Minnesota, Sacramento, Denver, Houston, Dallas, and Memphis are all teams that will probably be better than the Lakers plus Utah may make a push for that last playoff spot. The Lakers are no lock to even make the playoffs this year. Shaq>Kobe and Wade>Lakers supporting cast.

Since he left the Bulls he has played for Philly, Atlanta, and Milwaukee.

I-N-I

Hey DBAHO aren't those pictures from last year? That looks like Robert Horry on the Lakers bench.

As if there are no assholes among people who aren't elite athletes.

I thought it was a below average action flick. The plot was pretty weak and the action scenes were only ok. Spoilers The beginning when the Nacromanders arrived was pretty good but the movie got gradually worse from there on out. Once Riddick got taken to Crematoria the movie started to really suck IMO. Bringing Jack into the movie did nothing to help further the plot and the fight scene as they were on the surface was just a terrible action scene. And basically as soon as the Nacromanders said something about you keep what you kill it was obvious that Riddick would kill the Grand Marshall or whatever he was called.

Actually I kind of knew that Prince was going to cause Kobe problems seeing as how he did the same thing to McGrady in games 6 and 7 last year in the first round.

Hamilton, Vince Carter and Michael Redd over McGrady and Iverson??