whitesoxfan99

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 12:50 PM) Are you really forgetting where we were at in 2011? You don't remember the collapse? You may have been the only person who wanted to keep Zook around at that point. I guess back to back bowl appearances = Illinois contract for life? Unrealistic expectations? Come on. We also were 2-6 in conference that year and finished tied for second to last in the conference that year. Finishing tied for 10th in a 12 team conference isn't exactly something that should keep you around as coach.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 12:37 PM) Not really true. His teams won 2 bowl games in back to back years, which I don't think Illinois has ever done before. I think people need to be a little more realistic about Zook. He was far from good but he wasn't terrible, he did a lot of nice things, but ultimately his ceiling was too low for the Big Ten. He needed to be removed, earlier than he was, but he was better than a lot of other Illinois coaches, including Beckman. And why not Cubit? He did pretty good at Western Michigan and the offense turnaround was amazing last year. It's not as good this year, but he's got a lot of young transfer talent in key positions, on top of some injuries. He's not a home run hire, but people are dreaming if you think a great coach is coming to Illinois in down years (if ever). They aren't going to be able to hire a big name or someone who is a known quantity (well unless they pay just an insane amount of money and that isn't going to happen at Illinois) but that doesn't mean you can't find a great coach. They are out there, it is just a lot harder to find them at Illinois then it is at Alabama, OSU, etc.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 11:52 AM) Beckman inherited Buchanan, Pocic, Scheelhaase, Spence, Young, Ferguson,Hugh Thorton, Terry Hawthorne, Johnathan Brown, the current oline, to name a few. Not great but it wasn't completely rid of nice talent. I was fine with Zook being gone but Beckman has been the problem. There was talent in year 1 for Beckman (mostly on defense) based on Zook's pre-2010 recruiting classes. The fact the coaching on that side of the ball was so bad that year was a huge red flag.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 10:59 AM) I honestly don't remember which coordinator was when or what he did, just saw someone mention it on Twitter. Either way, there's yet another good reason why Zook should have never been fired. Wrong, a competent AD fires Zook in 2009 and Zook's recruiting had tailed off to the point that his 2010 and 2011 classes were absolutely horrible (there was only a handful of above average Big 10 players in those two classes combined) so I doubt he was going to be sustaining even 6-6 type seasons. The problem wasn't firing Zook but hiring Tim Beckman. And if Zook had been properly fired in 2009 and the new coach inherits a roster with a ton of talent (those 6-6 teams underachieved badly in typical Ron Zook fashion) they would have been able to get off to a great start and build a lot of momentum.

Elijah Thomas named Illinois his leader. I feel like Groce is so close to hitting a home run in this class but the scary part is that the possibility of striking out on all the top prospects we are in on still exists (although it sounds like they feel real good about Jalen Coleman).

The 49ers are playing remarkably stupid football so far this year.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 20, 2014 -> 06:39 PM) Congrats to IU who played great. Mizzou shot themselves in the foot a thousand times. And the oline is somehow a problem. Seriously, AJ ricker took an experienced oline that was the strength of the team and ruined it in four games Never hire a football coach from Illinois.

LOL at Pinkel waiting 30 seconds to call the timeout there. He's obviously a really good coach but it never ceases to amaze me how terrible coaches are at understanding clock management.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 16, 2014 -> 12:45 PM) Jose Abreu very well should win MVP. No

Colts got f***ed bad by the refs tonight.

Good stop inside the 10 and thank you to the 49ers for some awful play calling on 3rd down.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 14, 2014 -> 08:51 PM) Conte out with shoulder injury. D continues to pull weight The results have been fine but the 49ers are still running rather easily and they have had open receivers all night. Couple terrible plays by Kaepernick keeping the bears in it.

Shaping up to be yet another banner day for the Big 10.

East Carolina is absolutely destroying Virginia Tech. Did not expect that.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 12, 2014 -> 06:17 PM) IF this is true...AP is out a long time. One thing to do it once...but man, bleeding and everything. That is too far. Especially a 4 year old. What the f***, so many f***ing pieces of s*** and idiots in the NFL.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Sep 12, 2014 -> 01:05 PM) More than half that piece focuses on Dunn doing things that are bad if not terrible. Why not count GIDP and compare them to total number of balls that stayed in the IF? Better yet, what is the record for hitting into the shift? If it's Dunn there's actually 4 outcomes: K, BB, HR, hit into shift. So he did three things very well his entire career: hit HR, BB, and be left-handed. It's a shame Thome's name is mentioned here as well. Unfortunately Thome (even though he'll go to the Hall and Dunn won't) probably will get the K's thrown at him all the time to the point where you forget what a great hitter he actually was. Thome could actually shorten his swing up here and there. He could also make an adjustment. Dunn hit into very few double plays in his career so I don't understand your point there.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 12, 2014 -> 11:02 AM) I cant wait until the FIBA World Cup is over so i dont have to read the rollercoaster posts about how he looks better and then looks terrible. If he looks like this in December, I will panic. But this is an exhibition tourney He has looked ok physically but he has played awful throughout the tournament and really only has played one decent game.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 03:42 PM) I'll take your word for it, as I haven't seen Starks nor Crosby play. Tate's a decent player, but can't shoot or finish well, so you can only use him so much. So, will be interested to see what Starsk and Crosby can do. Tate was really awful last year against decent competition. He has good court vision but he can't blow by guys so unless his shot has improved dramatically you are playing 4 on 5 whenever he is in the game.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 03:28 PM) Certainly doesn't help things. Who knows how good he'll be in a year off it. Hopefully Starks is pretty good, because Tate can't handle the whole load. Starks is much better than Tate. Cosby is a better option at PG than Tate as well. And Illinois has now already lost 2 rotation players before the season has even started. It is going to be really interesting to see who starts now. I could potentially see Cosby starting at PG along with Nunn, Rice, Hill and Egwu. That lineup would potentially have a lot of firepower on offense but there really isn't a distributor in that group.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 02:50 PM) It's depressing to see how bad Rose looks. His "fixed" jump shot looks awful.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 09:41 AM) The time before that, it wound up OK. There were signs Dunn was on the downslope. He struggled the second half of 2009 and had never played in the AL or been pretty much a full time DH. There were a bunch of red flags. VMart is far less risky and a totally different hitter even if he is a little older. He isn't a swing and a miss type of guy. I think these guys age better. Harold Baines put up big numbers between ages 36 and 40. He was good in the second half of 2009 and in 2010 the year before the Sox signed him he was just fine in July and August and then struggled in September. However, he had sucked even worse in September of 2009 and September has been by far his worst month for production throughout his career so I don't really see how there were any red flags there. I don't disagree with you on VMart as a hitter though.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 05:13 PM) What's the connection that Groce/Illinois has to Evans? I'm not sure but they are actually in on a couple kids from Texas in this class (Evans and Thomas).

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:56 PM) Well first of all, it depends on your definition of elite, but I guess you are talking top 10/15 guys. Outside of that, he's landed good recruits, especially given where the program was at. Anyway, you're dead wrong on not playing from behind. Did you miss everything coming out of the Brunson's camp after the Snider fiasco? From all indications, Illinois was completely out of the running, and Groce worked his ass off to get back into it and even be considered, let alone top 2. So if we are taking what the Brunsons said as true, then Groce's own f*** up caused him to be behind in this recruitment so that doesn't exactly make me feel better about it. And yes, I'm talking about McDonald's AA caliber recruits. Groce is landing some very solid players and has gotten a couple of guys I think will be great college players. But Weber also landed similar caliber players (in terms of rankings) towards the end of his tenure. Land Evans and this all moot, strikeout on Evans and I see no way we land Thomas or Bragg and you will then be 3 years in without an elite recruit and I'm not optimistic about landing one in 2016 (well maybe Murray but our best chance there would be striking out on Evans and then convincing him to reclassify to 2015).

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:48 PM) Yes, because he's had just so many chances and has been playing from behind on every one of them. If you can't land a single elite recruit in 3 years I don't have faith that you are suddenly going to after that and he isn't playing from behind on any of the recruits in this years class.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:39 PM) Well, he better hope that Evans picks Illinois or it's going to be a rough couple of seasons. What's he like 1 for 3 now on 5 star guys, and the 1 became a zero on signing day? They will be ok. The problem is that it will be becoming pretty clear that Groce isn't capable of landing the cream of the crop.