First we have Bruce Weber losing his mind when somebody asks him about the lack of respect for the Big Ten.
Shockingly here is another no call on Duke for a travel. Watch where John Scheyer catches the ball, and then look to see where his pivot foot ends up when he finally gets called for a foul. I believe that this is the definition of egregious!! This was at the end of the game, and Duke was winning by 3.
Here is a great article by Bill Simmons about the NBA and what we can all look forward to in the next 4-5 years. Normally I don't link him because I think most of you read him anyway, but this is one of the better articles that he has written, so I wanted to make sure all 6 of you read it.
Johnny "Red" Kerr passed away on the same day as Norm Van Lier earlier this week. It is a very sad time for Bulls fans everywhere, as both of them were icons with the team. Here is part of Red's half-time tribute with the Bulls and MJ. On a side note, for those of you who think that LeBron James is so creative with his "throwing the chalk in the air" before games, Michael and Magic had been doing superstitious pre-game chalk rituals before Lebron could afford a TV to watch them, steal their acts and pass it off as his own. I can almost guarantee that some marketing genius came up with the idea, because Lebron is a moron, he could have never thought up something like this.
This is funny as shit! I found this on a Illinois message board. It is a video of Rich Rodriguez recruiting some players. I have to think that shit like this makes people like Ron Zook and Jim Tressel laugh their asses off. My favorite part is when the 2 kids stop listening to him and just start busting up. I almost feel bad for Michigan.
And finally, just for fun, I found my favorite NIKE commercial that did not involve MJ. I spent 6 months trying to dribble with my knees because of this damn commercial.
To take a step away from sports for a minute, here is the trailer to Judd Apatow's new movie. In case you are wondering, to determine if Judd Apatow is involved in a movie, just look for a fat white guy with an afro. Odds are if you see one, then Apatow is either the director, or a producer.
This was the last week for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. I'm not sure why they had to make such a big deal of moving all of the shows up 1 hour? On a side note, is Jay Leno's face getting longer somehow? Maybe we should have a congressional hearing to determine whether Leno is on performance inhancing drugs? Although it would not be for comedy, because he is terrible. Anyways, Conan went back and showed some of his favorite clips and this baseball one is awesome!
And Jerry Seinfeld agrees with me that Jay Leno sucks as a comedian.
This is just plain amazing. You want to know why the ACC is so much fun to watch, while the Big Ten is painful? It is because they play with a different set of rules in the ACC. Watch this and tell me exactly what the official could have been looking at other than the obvious travel.
Thanks to Deadspin for the link.
While we are on the subject of Duke, here is another youtube video comparing Duke's flopping to scared goats. It is pretty funny.
So to recap, the reason teams like Duke are so good, and able to score so many points is because they aren't allowed to travel. You can't get within 3 feet of them when they are shooting a 3 (kinda like the halo rule for returning punts) and you are not allowed to drive into the lane against them.
We are now pretty much 3/4 of the way through the Big Ten Season, so lets recap what has happened right now and try and predict how many Big Ten teams will make the NCAA Tournament. Everyone is delusional if they think the Big Ten will get more that 7 teams. I think that even 6 is a stretch, and more than likely it will be 5 teams that get in, with perhaps Wisconsin and Minnesota getting bounced into the NIT. Here is the best case scenario for Big Ten teams as far as making the tournament.
It is pretty amazing how Michigan State has such a good record even though they played without Goran Suton early in the year, and they haven't had Raymar Morgan healthy for most of the Big Ten season. Tom Izzo is an amazing coach who will always get the most out of his talent. It also helps that he gets a lot of amazing talent. Michigan State almost gave away a game today against Wisconsin, but they played great down the stretch to pull it out. Not only will they win the Big Ten, but because Morgan is getting healthier, they should win the Big Ten tournament also.
Remaining Schedule: Iowa and Purdue @ home, and Illinois and Indiana on the road.
Final Record: 14-4 #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament
Purdue
Like Michigan State, they were not completely healthy either during the Big Ten season. Robbie Hummel is now trying to play, and is at least getting some solid minutes, but he is not nearly the player that he was last year. They made up for getting swept by Illinois by pounding MSU at home, but they have to go to Michigan State for the last game of the year. That game at Michigan State could determine who wins the Big Ten title, but I don't see them winning that game. Jajuan Johnson is playing great inside, and they are getting good point play from Freshman Lewis Jackson. Purdue has solid play all around, and I don't think that they will crap the bed in any of the easier games they have left.
Remaining Schedule: @ Michigan and Michigan State, Ohio State and Northwestern on the road.
Final Record: 13-5 #5 seed in NCAA Tournament
Illinois
As much as it frustrates the hell out of all of us when Illinois plays games like Penn State and Minnesota, no one could have predicted that they would be 22-6 right now. It is also amazing that Illinois swept the season series with Ohio State and Purdue, who were 2 teams that everyone thought would contend for the Big Ten title. The one thing that has helped Illinois this year is the fact that they have had the same starting line-up for the last 26 games. One thing that all Illinois fans should pray for is that they play some teams in the NCAA Tournament that play a zone defense. Every team that has played a zone against Illinois has payed for it, and also teams that have tried to press the Illini. The remaining schedule for Illinois is against teams that they have already lost to, but only Michigan State should scare Illini fans. Illinois shut down Talor Battle, and Minnesota was another game where Illinois shot terrible. As they have proved all year, they can have games where they play like shit, but when they are focused, they can play and beat anyone.
Remaining Schedule: Minnesota and Michigan State at Home, Penn State on the road
Final Record: 13-5 #4 seed in the NCAA Tournament
Penn State
The Illinois game pretty much sealed up a NCAA tournament bid for Penn State as long as they finish 3-1 down the stretch. I was not impressed with Penn State at all during the Illinois game, but there was nothing impressive about that game for either team. Talor Battle seems to be back on track after having to deal with an illness in his family. Cornley is still the most impressive big man in the conference because he can shoot outside and finish inside against much larger defenders. He also rebounds like a monster. Their biggest game is coming up on Tuesday when they go to Ohio State. OSU plays no defense what so ever, so look for Battle to have a big game, but the winner of that game will go to the Tournament, while the loser will have work to do in the Big Ten tourney to get a spot.
Remaining Schedule: At Ohio State and Iowa, Illinois and Indiana at home.
Final Record 11-7 #7 seed in NCAA Tournament
Minnesota
I still hate this team, and I told all of you that they would absolutely shit the bed on the road. They really should thank the God of Golden Gophers for the overtime win in Wisconsin when Wisco couldn't buy a win! Road wins at Iowa and Indiana by a combined 7 points tells you everything you need to know about this team. They should be in the tournament, but that is only because they beat Louisville this season and have the win at home against Illinois. If they lose out, which is a distinct possibility, their lack of road wins will bite them in the ass. I understand that Tubby has a young team, so he wanted to schedule an easy non-conference to give his team some confidence, but he might have scheduled them into the NIT. Michigan and Wisconsin will be playing for their NCAA lives since they both lost today, so I think Minnesota could be on the outside looking in. You can't finish below .500 in your conference and get in the NCAA's unless you play in the Big East.
Remaining Schedule: At Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin at home.
Final Record: 9-9 #10 seed in the NCAA Tournament
Wisconsin
Losing today at Michigan State really hurt this team. Losing the way they did has to kill them. Wisconsin was up 41-29 with 12 minutes left, and then lost 61-50. They really needed this win to help them get in the tournament. Their only signature win is against Illinois at home, other than that they haven't beaten a tournament team unless Penn State makes it in. Illinois is the only ranked team that they have beaten. Already having 10 losses, and losing 6 in a row will kill this team. They have to win out to have a shot at the tournament, if not, they need to make the finals of the Big Ten Tournament. On the bright side, all of their remaining games are winnable, but they really need to bounce back well after falling apart today.
Remaining Schedule: Michigan and Indiana at Home, at Minnesota
Final Record: 11-7 NIT Tournament (unless they have a good run in the Big Ten Tournament)
Ohio State
Even though Ohio State lost to Illinois again today, they will get the last bid from the Big Ten in the NCAA tournament. They have lost 3 in a row to Illinois, Northwestern and Wisconsin, but wins against Notre Dame, Miami, and Butler will give them enough quality wins. That is as long as they win at least 2 of their last 4 games and at least one in the Big Ten tournament. They will get bounced early because they don't play any defense, but they can ride Evan Turner like they did today to maybe grab more than 2 wins to finish Big Ten play.
Remaining Schedule: Penn State and Northwestern at home, Iowa and Purdue on the road
Final Record: 9-9 #9 seed in NCAA Tournament
Michigan
By losing today at Iowa, Michigan kissed its chance to make the NCAA Tournament good-bye! I am going to pat myself on the back with an assist from Yerk for this one, because I told you that Michigan was a terrible road team, and that they wouldn't win on the road in the Big Ten unless it was a fluke. They can beat Duke and UCLA again, and it still won't get them in, and by the way, now the UCLA win doesn't look so good since they are crap now. They not only will not make the Tournament, but now they will probably fold and lose out for the rest of the season.
Remaining Schedule: Purdue at home, Wisconsin and Minnesota on the road
Final Record: 7-11 NIT
Northwestern
Northwestern is 4 late game meltdowns away from being a possible NCAA team. They gave away games to Illinois, Iowa, Purdue and Michigan and now they need to finish at least 2-2 to hope to get into the NIT. In their defense, the have the worst athletic ability of anyone in the Big Ten, and they have still one some big games and weren't the doormat that they usually have been. It will be fun to see how good they can be next year. God, would I love for them to play spoiler for Ohio State in their last game!
Remaining Schedule: Iowa at home, Indiana, Purdue, and Ohio State on the road.
Final Record: 7-11 CBI
Iowa
Iowa like Northwestern needs to win at least 2 games at the end of the year in order to become eligible for any post season Tournament. I know that their is now a 4th tournament, and I'm not sure you have to be .500 to get into that, but who cares. Iowa could also play spoiler for a couple of teams, but it is not likely to happen. Unfortunately I don't see them winning another Big Ten game.
Remaining Schedule: At Michigan State and Northwestern, Ohio State and Penn State at home.
Final Record: 4-14 No Tournament
Indiana
Well Iowa ruined our hopes of Indiana's unperfect Big Ten season, but we can all still revel in the fact that they are one of the worst Division 1 basketball teams in the country. I still think that Tom Crean is a total d-bag for getting into a pissing match with Mike Davis. Many people think that because he is getting a good recruiting class next year, Indiana will be back. Well I hate to break it to you, but all of the teams that are above the Loosiers are led by Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors!! Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Iowa will have almost all of their talent coming back. Also because they will have more talent next year, teams won't take them so lightly. At best, they will be this years Minnesota, but the Big Ten will be much better next year. They will try to steal another win this season, but it won't happen.
Remaining Schedule: Northwestern and Michigan State at home, Penn State and Wisconsin on the road.
Here is an Outside the Lines report about recruiting in college basketball and how the NCAA is now monitoring the situation of giving AAU coaches or parents jobs in order to sign a player. In all reality it doesn't matter too much, because teams like USC, Baylor, and KSU are never gonna be great programs. What did OJ Mayo and Michael Beasley bring to those programs? One year and one tournament win.
And I picked this up from the Illinois Scout Forum. It was posted by a Purdue fan, and is pretty funny and for the most part hits the delusional nail right on the head.
The trade deadline has passed, and thank our god above that the bulls still have Tyrus Thomas and D-bag Noah on the team. At first I was upset when I realized that they Bulls didn't get a "good" post player, but then I had a shocking realization.... Nobody wants Tyrus Thomas or Noah! I'm pretty sure that a package of Tyrus, Gooden, and the Bulls First round pick for next year was not nearly enough to get anyone, let alone Amare or Chris Bosh. So here is a recap of how the Bulls moved half their team, didn't get any better, and most likely got a lot worse. Here is your new Bulls roster:
Starters:
Derrick Rose Ben Gordon Luol Deng Tyrus Thomas Brad Miller
Bench: Kirk Hinrich John Salmons Joakim Noah Thabo Sefolosha Aaron Gray Lindsey Hunter Tim Thomas
So first the Knicks trade:
Larry Hughes who hasn't played in lord knows how long gets dealt basically for 2 contracts that equal his contract. The Bulls basically got Tim Thomas who will probably back up Tyrus Thomas and come in and jack the ball up just like Larry Hughes used to. Thomas did play for the Bulls in 05-06 and didn't do anything so the Bulls let him go so he could go to Phoenix and play his ass off for them in the playoffs. If you think that Tim Thomas will play hard for the Bulls this time around you are an idiot. Jerome James is out for the season, so the Bulls will try to get his contract off the books this year. So this trade is basically a wash, and a way for 2 teams to get rid of horrible contracts that they have. In the case of Jerome James, he will most likely never see the floor in Chicago, and Tim Thomas is riding his last wave of absurd money for skills that diminished 5 years ago.
The Kings trade:
You can try and convince me that this is a good trade until you are blue in the face and I won't buy it! Brad Miller is 32 years old, hasn't ever averaged more than 16 points and 10 rebounds a game during his career, and he is injury prone. John Salmons is a good scorer, but that is not what the Bulls need. With Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, and Loul Deng, you have enough jump shooters on the team. This is the reason that Larry Hughes did not fit into the situation. The Bulls average 100 points a game, but they give up 102. So how do you fix that? You trade your best defender and your most consistent rebounder. The only upside to this deal is that we don't have to see Side Show Bob start for this team anymore, that is until Miller gets hurt in his 5th game. The Bulls actually took on salary in this trade, and they don't have any more cap space for next year. So Paxson is basically praying that the Bulls somehow get Haseem Thabeet with the draft pick that they weren't willing to trade.
With Salmons though, you do have some trade value, as a few teams in the West like San Antonio wanted him to come in off the bench. Seeing as Chicago is where talent goes to get overpaid and die (Ben Wallace, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni) it would not shock me to see Salmons numbers drop as a Bull and his trade value dwindle. Just for the love of God do not give this guy an extension. A contract extension from the Bulls in the Post-Jordan era is pretty much a kiss of death for your stats and value as a basketball player. By value I mean that the Bulls will pay you so much over your actual worth or foreseeable potential that it takes an MBA from Wharton to figure out how another team can acquire you without torpedoing their salary cap. Is anyone shocked that Kirk Hinrich, who is now our back-up point guard makes 10 million this year? If this is the standard, the Derrick Rose will most likely get the first Billion dollar contract in NBA history from the Bulls. When Luol Deng is probably lost on another NBA teams bench in 5 years, and there fans are wondering how the shit their team owes him 14 million dollars, they have to look no further than John Paxson.
The NBA needs to create a new rule right now. If you are not an All-Star, then you can't make over 10 million dollars a year!! If you don't start, then you can't make over 5 million a year. This rule needs to be created because agents and players are just plain stealing from teams, and more importantly inept GM's. Does anyone else think that being a former NBA player is probably not the best prerequisite to be in charge of a 100 million dollar payroll!!? Most of these guys couldn't spell their name right on their ACT's or graduate college, but by all means let them negotiate multi-year, multi-million dollar deals. This is why the 4 out of the top 5 Knicks salaries right now are Stephon Marbury, Larry Hughes, Eddy Curry, and Cuttino Mobley! Isiah Thomas is not some super-genius who got his business degree in the 2 years he attended college, he probably spent his time in college drinking milkshakes and coloring. What next? Is David Justice going to be the next GM of the Atlanta Braves, because he was married to Halle Berry, and she made lots of money? Every professional sport needs to learn a lesson from the New York Knicks and the Detroit Lions, and never put a former player in charge of your organization.
Now that Salmons is here, Thabo Sefolosha is never going to see the floor, which is absolutely fine by me. When you have a long player like Thabo who can's shoot for shit, you know what people start calling him? A great defender! Illinois fans have seen this before with Brian Randle. Thabo was an okay defender when he had a hand in a players face, but he was not overly great with dribble penetration. If anything, the Bulls rotation is now set, with Salmons backing up Deng, and Hinrich backing up Rose and Gordon. We can all rejoice in the fact that we will not have to see Noah flailing around on the court as much, and the robot known as Aaron Gray will never see the floor.
Finally today John Paxson announced that he is not stepping down, and will remain the GM of the Bulls. Congratulations New York!! Paxson will make the rest of the NBA forget how bad of a GM the Isiah Thomas was.
Alright, I took my shoelaces out, I'm not wearing a belt, locked up all of the pills (although I'm pretty sure that you can't overdose on Advil and cough drops) and I can't afford to have enough alcohol in my place to drink myself to death, so I guess I am almost ready to get into the debacle that occurred tonight.
Before we do that though, I think that it is fitting to post this video from Big Ten Network. It puts into perspective not only that it is just a game, but also that these players have to deal with so much more than most of us imagine. I have been talking about how I think that Chester Frazier will go down in history as my favorite Illini, and I have written about it a couple of times, but here is a video about why I feel that way.
On to the game:
I was lucky enough to miss the second half of the game because I had to go to a Physics class that I don't understand. I was texted by 3 different people about every 3 minutes with updates of the game so I was prepared when I got home. Thank God I didn't watch the game live, because I would have definitely broken all 3 of the expensive things that I own. Unlike most of my Illini posts, I am going to try to dissect them from the stand point of a non-fan.
First thing is that Illinois on most of it's possessions can get pretty much any shot that they want. The only shots that was taken that had a defender anywhere near the shooter in the first 4 minutes were inside the paint. However, Illinois has absolutely nobody who can step up and either make a shot or get fouled when it is needed. Demitri McCamey is not that type of player. He tries to be, but he is not at that level. I know that he was still sick this game and apparently he threw up at half-time, but he still is not at the level of other players in the Big Ten. The only other teams that don't have this type of player are Indiana and Iowa. Mainly I mean a ball-handler who is capable of creating his own offense consistantly outside of the normal offense. The other teams in the Big Ten have these players:
MSU - Kalin Lucas Purdue - E'twan Moore and Robbie Hummel Michigan - Manny Harris Minnesota - Lawrence Westbrook Ohio State - Evan Turner Wisconsin - Travon Hughes Penn State - Talor Battle Northwestern - Kevin Coble
It is imperative that you have somebody who can get you a score when you need it all on his own. All of the players above get to the foul line quite a bit which helps slow down the game and curb opposing teams momentum. Nobody for Illinois can just make up his mind and say "I'm either getting to the hoop, or getting to the line on this play" Illinois gets to the line by passing and getting post defenders out of position, none of their fouls come on dribble penetration.
It is a testament to this team that they have won as many games as they have this season because they run their offense so well and are not selfish, but nobody on this team should scare anyone in the Big Ten. Look at Illinois' losses in the Big Ten this year. Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State, Illinois led late, and when it came to crunch time, nobody was able to step up and win the game on the offensive end. Minnesota was a horrific offensive performance, and you had nobody to keep them in the game even though Minnesota was not playing well either. Wisconsin was the only game where the Illini really weren't in the game from start to finish.
Mike Tisdale should dominate this league. He can get his shot anytime he wants, and the fact that he can shoot from 2o feet out normally would make him unstoppable. However, he is not good at posting up. There were at least 4 turnovers because he either lost his position, or there was a weak entry pass. He doesn't like contact at all and still moves away from contact on his shot rather than getting into his defender. At 7'1 there is nobody outside of Deshawn Sims who can block his shot clean without contact as long as he leans into it. Tisdale had at least 4-5 inches on everyone who defended him tonight, yet there was not one double team when he got the ball in the post. Why? Because a double team is used against players who post up in order to make a move towards that hoop. In Tisdale's case, he is either going to turn baseline and shoot a jump hook, or take a dribble to the lane and shoot over the top of the defender. It makes a double team pointless since his main move is baseline which is normally away from any help. If he did have an effective post move towards the hoop it would cause teams to help, which would leave a shooter or cutter open. This occurred a few times against Indiana, but Indiana doesn't count because they are barely a Varsity high school team.
He can't be content with just shooting over the top of everyone, because when he has nights like tonight where his shot isn't falling he needs to get to the line to score. I understand the argument that he is still skinny and doesn't have a solid base, but good post players use the defenders movement to get them out of position. How effective has the high low been with Mike Davis passing to Tisdale from the top of the key? As soon as Tisdale loses his position on the block though, he never seals his man to get a pass over the top or along the baseline. James Augustine was great at this because he would beat his man to the spot, and when the defender overplayed, James had the baseline with a only a backside guard between him and the hoop.
All of the blame can't be given to the post players though, because the guards don't look inside enough. I think you can attribute that to the fact that in previous years when the ball went into the post, you might as well run down and set up your defense, because that ball was never coming back out.
The only thing that keeps Illinois in games is their defense, because you are guaranteed to have at least 2 4-5 minutes stretches where Illinois won't score in games. When Jeff Jordan enters the game along with Calvin Brock, it is much easier for teams to shut down the other 3 players. Neither of these players look for their shots, and they only feel comfortable shooting in certain spots on the floor. For JJ it is on the wing at 18 feet, and Calvin loves the baseline or a pull up in the lane. Keller and Legion will shoot from anywhere on the floor, but only Keller is a threat to score. Chester Frazier is no longer a liability on offense because he has shown that he can hit open 3's and more importantly penetrate and dish at times, but he can't do it whenever he wants. This is the same as Trent Meacham, so you are left with McCamey, Tisdale, and Davis as your consistant threats. When none of those 3 have a good game, then you have a shitty night like tonight.
You also don't have to worry about Illinois in transition after a missed shot because all 5 guys have to crash the boards. Tonight Mike Tisdale tied his season high in rebounds with 10. On the flip side Chester Frazier has a game of 13 and 11. Even on steals, Illinois does not run the break well because realistically the only guard that is athletic enough to finish one on one is Chester Frazier. How many times have you seen Trent or Demitri miss contested lay-ins on the break?
Finally this team does not have a killer instinct what so ever!! They were up 9 tonight with 10 minutes left and couldn't get Penn State to tap out. They were up 6 at MSU with 10 minutes left and lost that one. Pretty much every game they have won other than Indiana at home and Northwestern they were destroying teams and they let up. They let everyone get back into games or at least let them get a run. They grind out there wins, which is consistent with a team that plays great defense, but has long lapses on offense. It is strange to see how they can go from showing great emotion one game to playing like the game doesn't matter the next. Both Purdue games they were into it, both Indiana games they were into it, but against Northwestern and Penn State they looked like they were on Xanax!
Now on to the positives:
We are 21-6, and have showed heart in every game except for Minnesota, we still have 2 games at home, and we are still sitting pretty for at least a 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. No matter what happens from here on, this season has been a pleasant surprise, and we are building a solid base for the future with good unselfish players who understand the way that Bruce wants them to play.
Mike Davis continues to rebound the ball well, with 9 rebounds tonight, and Mike Tisdale seemed to try much harder on the boards. Neither of them are just tipping the ball out as much as they used to do.
The defense is still amazingly solid, and the offense has been really good except for 2 games. Tonight, just like the Minnesota game, we were not shut down by great defense. We got all of the shots that we normally do, we just didn't make them. We just need to get to the foul line more consistently.
There is one other factor that has helped Illinois to this impressive record, but I am afraid to mention it because I don't want to jinx anything. Here is a hint. What has Michigan State, Purdue, and Ohio State all lost that Illinois has yet to lose? Now if this comes to fruition, I can't be blamed. (Think Brian Randle)
One final note about the game. Is anyone else really annoyed with the god damn camera angles that Big Ten network is falling in love with? I don't want to watch entire possessions from a camera on the opposite baseline. When you have a camera that shows the entire half court, why the shit do I have to watch only 6 players for 30 seconds at a time? Is the normal camera guy taking a leak? Is he outside having a smoke? You can't see the 3 point line, and you get no depth perception at all. It looks like you have 6 guys playing basketball in a Volkswagon when they use this angle. I am about to write an e-mail, but I am hoping that Mike Hall might read this first (Joker make this happen). By the way Mike, we at Durty Butter absolutley love everything that you do on "The Network". Also, maybe you can explain to me how Mizzou is ranked so far ahead of Illinois, because I am clearly missing something.
That is pretty much all I can come up with and to be honest, I really don't want to talk about this anymore. Stay tuned for a post about John Paxson's final Eff you to Bulls fans all over the country, and also we might be welcoming another writer, so you will probably have a much better and more enjoyable perspective to read.
Here are some videos and reads for you to help you waste time at work. Enjoy.
Big Ten Networks One-on One with Mike Davis of the Illini
Here is Shaqtus' intro to the NBA All-star game if you missed it. Imagine if free-throw shooting was as easy as poppin and lockin!!
Now that the Suns have fired Terry Porter, it looks like Amare is staying there, or so I thought. Now the Bulls are looking at trading for Chris Bosh, with Amare going to Toronto in a three way deal. I like his upside, and he doesn't have a micro-fracture injury to hamper his future. Even if the Bulls don't get him, they need to do something.
So Billy Clyde, or Bill Gillispie (for those of you who are not familiar with his booze loving alter ego) is a real dick when it comes to getting interviewed by Jeannine Edwards of ESPN at half-time. Here are the 2 interviews where Billy basically tell Edwards that she is an idiot. It looks like she is doing the Kentucky - Vandy game tonight, so tune in to see if Gillispie goes for the Hat Trick. For a little background, Billy was an assistant at Illinios for Bill Self, and then was the head coach of Texas A&M before taking Tubby's job at Kentucky, and rumor has it that Billy loves to imbibe alcohol. By rumor, I mean that he has not 1 but 2 DUI's. It looks like Billy Clyde doesn't take rejection very well.
Tonight, MSU plays Purdue. The game has a lot of ramifications with Illinois' season. If Purdue wins, then they are tied with the Illini and only a game back of MSU, if MSU wins, then Illinois will be in second alone, and MSU will most likely run away with title.
And Finally thank you to Deadspin for this story. Apparently Carrie Underwood is dating some hockey player, but she doesn't want anyone to know about it. So this is how Carrie decides to solve her problem of being noticed at Mike Fischer's game.
I think it is safe to say that Illinois fans hate Indiana (for obvious reasons), Duke (because everyone hates Duke) North Carolina (for obvious reasons) and any team that is coached by Bruce Pearl. Even though a 13 point win against Indiana on Sunday doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things, I would be lying to all 5 of you if I didn't admit that this was one of the most enjoyable wins of the season for me.
Everyone came out and played pretty solid and pretty hard. You could make a case that Demitri McCamey had one of his worst games of the year, but he had the flu over the weekend so he gets a pass. The only thing that scares me about this, is that he might get other people sick, and this is a week where Illinois needs everyone to be at 100%.
I'm not sure if all of you heard about the argument between Tom Crean and Mike Davis. Basically when Davis dunked on Indiana at the end of the first half, he stared down the players inbounding the ball for Indiana. He didn't say a word, didn't flex or pound his chest, he was just staring. Crean took exception to this because he doesn't want the fragile mind set of he collection of walk-ons and D-2 caliber players to be damaged any further than it has been already. Apparently he made a comment to Davis about showing some class as they walked by each other at half-time, and Davis yelled something back at him. Ted Hillary who is fast becoming the worst official in the Big Ten pulled Davis aside and told him to knock it off. This basically led to Calvin Brock getting a tech for dunking a basketball and then being happy about it. If you wanna talk about class, how about Tom Crean condoning large paper cut-outs by the student section of Indiana of Eric Gordon and Rod Blagovich? This is Tom Crean's idea that he brought over from Marquette, not the Indiana student sections. Also is it "classy" to get into a verbal altercation and then a staring contest with a player when you are the coach of one of the most "storied" programs in college basketball. If Bruce Weber had done this, every major paper and web-site would have dedicated at least 3 writers to this, because Bruce is a whiner for being upset for losing a recruit to a cheater. Just to put your minds at rest, if you are an Illinois fan, you don't have to like Tom Crean because Indiana finally hired a guy who is not a cheater or a player-beater. He is a douche who is paid a ton of money, so you don't have to feel sorry for him because he has no players. It is okay to start hating him now, you don't have to wait until 2012 when Indiana will matter again.
- Mike Davis passes to Mike Tisdale so well in the post. I can't wait to see what these guys are like when they are seniors after playing together for 3 years. Indiana had no answer to Tisdale at the top of the key, or Davis at the top looking for Tisdale on the block. I really want one of these guys to become a vocal leader on the floor though for the future. Tisdale did miss 2 cutters for easy lay-ins when he got double teamed though. I have a feeling that he will get this rectified in the future unlike a former post player who couldn't understand that when 3 players are guarding you, somebody else might be open.
- To continue my on-going man crush on Calvin Brock, did you guys enjoy his hustle plays as much as I did? He had a dive on a loose ball that started a fast break, a great charge, and then the awesome tip dunk on an offensive rebound. I am gonna miss Chester and Calvin's hustle next year. For the record, his technical foul was one of the worst calls of the year. It is the NCAA way of trying to keep fans in the seats for Indiana games though. The only way that Indiana doesn't lose games by 40 every night is due to officials, plane and simple.
- Best sign of the year so far: Never. Never. Never. GIVE UP!!! Whatever helps you losers sleep at night. Also can somebody answer these 2 questions for me: 1) Why did the fans have cut-out of Peyton Manning? and Why chant ERIC - GORDON? If I remember correctly, Eric Gordon led Indiana to 3rd place finish in the Big Ten, a first round loss in the Big Ten tournament, an 8 seed in the NCAA tourney, and then a first round loss there. All Gordon did was use the University for one year to showcase his skills for his NBA payday, leave a hole at shooting guard for the next year, and create a hatred from Bruce Weber that will cause him to want to destroy Indiana for as long as he coaches. Both teams lost here.
- Indiana went to a Triangle and 2 and it did cause problems, but I was actually impressed with how Chester Frazier handled it. I know everyone was screaming at him to shoot when he was open, but there is absolutely no reason for him to do this. They were playing off of him, so he basically could shoot a 3 whenever he touched the ball. Chester was patient, tried to penetrate and find open people, and shot when he absolutely had to. The only thing he did do was over dribble when he should have passed and moved. I can handle Chester shooting an open 3 with 5 seconds on the clock, but if he started jacking them with 25 seconds left, then I would have been pissed. His 3 with 5 minutes left was huge and this was Chester's take: "It's all a mind game. It was a different tactic because our big guys were killing them, so they figured, 'Hey, we'll give Chester a shot.' But it backfired on them and they lost." God I love this kid!! He said that he hopes more teams play off of him because it takes pressure off of him and allows him to find open players easier.
- Loved the bounce back game for Alex Legion. For the first time since the Michigan game, Legion looked comfortable running the offense, and took open shots instead of contested shots. We need him to continue this type of play down the stretch for Illinois. The Illini basically have their 5 remaining games against NCAA tournament teams. Penn State might be out, but that doesn't make them an less dangerous, then they have Minnesota, Michigan State and Ohio State. If they take care of business at home, Illinois will finish 3-2, and with a 24-7 record. This is a big week thought with Penn State at home, and OSU on the road on Sunday.
I am right now in the process of watching the Illinois Northwestern game on TV since I was actually in the crowd for the game tonight. All I could think about for the first 35 minutes of the game was how unbelievably disappointed I was going to be in the Illini because they were going to lose to Northwestern. My reasons for this were basically A) the Illini need to win easy road games kike this if they want to stay in the Big Ten hunt. B) Road tested teams will get big wins in the tourney. C) Most importantly, this was a home game for Illinois. I was there, it was at least 70-30 Illinois fans. I was right next to the Orange Crush, and they were amazing tonight. If Illinois lost this game, Bruce and every player should have apologized to the 5,000 Illinois fans for coming to this game and making it a home court for them, and then pissing the game away. I am writing this right now at 2 AM because obviously I had to have some beers after the game, but all I could think about after the game was "God please let the DVR work!!" So I am going to talk about what I notice now and, also what I was thinking as Yerk and I were melting down in the stands.
- First, don't kids pay at least 40,000 dollars a year to go to Northwestern? So, riddle me this? How the shit do they have only 3 ceiling fans in the place? It had to be at least 90 degrees in this glorified high school gym! I was dying, and I was not the only one. Maybe if Northwestern could sell more than 2,500 tickets a game they could afford to get some AC in the place.
- Northwestern is shooting so hot right now that if you had never seen basketball before you would think that they are actually a good team. I wish that NW had to come to Champaign because that game would be an absolute shit-kicking! You have to give Bill Carmody credit for making NW presentable as a Division 1 school. Mike Davis missing 2 free-throws pretty much set the tone for the next 30 minutes of this game.
- I am now at 10:11 in the game and it is 18-11 NW, even now I can't understand how this game is being officiated? When you are becoming an official this should be your first lesson: BE CONSISTENT!! This will come into play later in the game, but for goddamn, if you want to call cheap reaches then call them all game, if you are gonna let them play, then let them F'ing play!! Ted Hillary should either be fired, or only be allowed to officiate with Ed Hightower.
At this point in the game, NW is 4-9 from 3, and 2-3 from 2. (Right now I am thinking there is no way that this dogshit team can shot this well all game long)
- This was a terrible game for DemitriMcCamey on paper before the game. The reason why is that McCamey doesn't play defense all the time. We all know it. Well in this game, not only did he have to chase his man all over the place, but he had to do it for 35 seconds at a time. To expand on the defensive point, NW is a terrible match-up for Illinois. The Illini thrive on ball pressure, denying passing lanes, and helping on dribble drives. Northwestern's offense in made to exploit ball pressure and over playing passing lanes.
- I missed the elbow that some d-bag white guy threw on my boy Calvin Brock. What the shit is going on in the Big Ten this year? My theory is that, teams are recruiting more athletic players, so less athletic idiots are getting frustrated. Joe Krabbenhoft, Devin Dumas, Zach Novak, and some idiot on NW are realizing that they are overmatched and become idiots! (For the record, Manny Harris should not be included, because his elbow to Chris Kramer's face was legit)
- Alex Legion checks in for the Illini with 5 minutes left in the first half, and guess what, he does absolutely nothing. I don't want to bash him because I believe that he will be probably our best player in the next two years, but he is bringing nothing to the table this year. People are saying that we will need him in the tournament. Why? We are 20-5 right now, and I'm pretty sure that other than the game @ Purdue he hasn't contributed to a close game that we have won. If he can come in and give us 5 good minutes at a time then we should be happy about it. There is also a bandwagon that said that he should start over Trent Meacham, and to be honest I was about to hop on it, (I wanted Calvin to start over Trent tonight, and I was right for the most part because Coble ate his lunch in the paint) but Trent finally did what I have been asking him to do his entire career: Win a game for us!! He did it tonight. It is really easy to drop 25 on a D-2 school, but in crunch time, if you can step up then I will always love you.
- Every post player for NW traveled with the ball at the top of the key, and now I will start my Kevin Coble rant. Coble is a good player, he is a better version of Tim Doyle which means that he doesn't just score on junk. That being said, he works officials so much with his flopping and flailing that it is a shock to me that he doesn't play for Duke!! This is the perfect system for him because he can shoot outside, drive on players that are bigger than him, and post up smaller players than him. Back to walking, Coble shuffles his feet more than any player in the Big Ten, watch him when he is posted, it is like watching Dirk Nowitski it is so bad.
- To start the second half, Illinois came out playing great, but NW matched them pretty much shot for shot. McCamey drills 2 3's in a row and then I jinxed him by saying that he will drop 30 tonight. With 5 minutes left in the game I was about to take all the blame for us losing this game. - Coble flops like a douche, and thank god he gets called for a foul. Mike Tisdale couldn't knock over a toddler fighting for position, let alone a 6 foot 8 college basketball player. Gotta love having Steven Bardo doing this game. He just said that Coble pulled a "Mel Gibson". I'm pretty sure that he meant that Coble was acting, not that he was being an anti-Semite or a misogynist. It must have killed Bardo to announce this game impartially because I'm pretty sure that even a front-runner Illini fan who can't name more than 6 players on the team was screaming at the TV during the first 35 minutes of this game.
- The most frustrating part of the second half for Yerk and I was the fact that KlyeRowley, who is 7 feet tall and 280 pounds switched out on our guards at least 5 times and they did nothing with that mismatch!!! That however is one of the knocks on a motion offense, it exploits teams that can't keep up with the movement and use space created by screens for open shots. It is not an offense that looks to create mis-matches to create shots.
- Again gotta love Bardo, gotta hate the refs, and gotta hate the guy who is calling the game with Bardo because he is now officially an idiot. Coble drives baseline, gets double-teamed, picks up his dribble, jumps in the air and then drops the ball to the ground. When he picks it back up again, he passes it back out and there is no travel called. Bardo's partner, who we will now refer to as numb-nuts, says that it is okay because he "let it go, it bounced, if he would have picked it up then it would have been, but it hit the floor." What a fucking idiot!! (sorry Gerald, I had to) New rule for announcers: Learn the rules of the sport that you are calling before you start telling your partner (who was a great college basketball player) that he is wrong. Listening to some of these idiots like numb-nuts is like me becoming an anchor on Power Lunch on CNBC because I took an advertising class in college.
- The score is now 51-37 NW with 11:15 left in the game. NW only scores 8 more points for the rest of the game. This is amazing based solely on the fact that Illinois was trailing in this game until the last 3 seconds, yet they did not have to foul at all to come back. Gotta put this one on the coach right? If each possession takes the entire 35 seconds then there is only 19 possessions left for both teams. If Illinois shoots the ball in 10 seconds every time, it means that there are 15 possessions. If you are up 14 and you play your game, it means that Illinios has to score 14 points in 7 possessions, so they basically have to be perfect down the stretch. Isn't this what the Princeton offense was designed to do? How do you not run down the clock, prepare for a press, and try to get to the free throw line? Illinois would have had to foul so that NW would not use the shot clock. Instead they shot early in the shot clock, when they beat the press, they held the ball in places that they could be trapped, and allowed Illinois to trap on missed shots. In reality, teams should only be able to press when they can do it on an in-bounds play, But NW never pushed the ball into the front court to make Illinois foul to save time. This is one of the biggest melt-downs I have ever seen from a major college team.
- 7:27 left and the score is 51-41. Another terrible call by the refs. Chester deflects a ball off of Nash out of bounds, but the ball stays with NW. This wouldn't be to hard to stomach if the ref wasn't 2 feet away. Numb-nuts actually agrees with Bardo that this is a bad call after watching it in slow motion. However he thinks it went off of Nash's leg even though the ball was never below a midget's waist. Maybe Play-by-Play guys should also have to pass a vision test? For the record, NW has had 6 possessions in the last 3 minutes, and 2 of them have lasted less than 15 seconds, and the other 4 lasted less than 25. They haven't scored yet. Bill Carmody is begging the Illini to win this game. This is the first possession that they have had that they have ran the clock down past 10 seconds.
- 3 more questionable calls: Demitri drives, gets bumped and hacked but there is no call. Chester ties up the token foreign guy for NW but gets called for a reach, and Mike Davis gets called for a goal-tending. I can agree with the goal-tending, because it is too close not to call, but on Demitri's play, when you are calling every dribble drive a foul at the hoop, how can you not call a guy contesting a shot by touching McCamey's arm and bumping him with the body? Also Chester had his right arm wrapped around the ball. I know many of you (all 5 of you who read this) are thinking "At least we got the calls at the end of the game!" My point is that you should never have a game where you don't make these calls in the first 38 minutes, but all of the sudden you let change your officiating style at the end. JUST BE CONSISTENT!!!!!
- 5 minutes left and I have to acknowledge on point that I made during the game that almost made Yerk and I call the I.N.S on each other. I can't stand Mike Davis' body language during the game, and so I compared him to Brian Randle. Now before you act like I just crapped in your Corn Flakes, I said that emotionally he acts like Randle used to act. Every time he makes a bad play or misses a shot, he hangs his head. Everytime he gets called for a foul that he doesn't agree with, he puts his hands behind his head and just stares in disbelief. I am not comparing his game to Randle, because as soon as Mike Davis put on an Illinois uniform he was a better player than Randle, I just can't stand the emotional roller-coaster that this kid goes through during a game. However, Randle used to do this at leaast 10 times a game, Davis has ! or 2 moments like this. Can you imagine if he had McCamey's mind-set? This kid would be unstoppable!! However, since he doesn't, he allows his emotions to take him out of games for long periods of time. Score is now 57-45, and NW has run it's last 2 possesions down to the end of the shot clock. Here is where everything goes crazy, and to be honest, I pretty much blacked out the next 5 minutes due to shear excitement, so I can't wait to see what happens!!
- Illinois uses a full-court press/trap for the first time in god knows how long. Obviously NW was not ready for this because Trent steals a pass and gets an easy lay-in. If any of you can remember the last time Illinois used a full-court press please let me know because for the life of me I can't remember. And playing full court man is not the same as a full court press.
- McCamey hits the first free-throw of the game after Kevin Coble jacks up a 3 with only 13 seconds gone on the shot clock. Numb-nuts refers to the crowds excitement as a "Bronx cheer" which is exactly what I said in the stands. I now hate myself for having the same train of thought as a douche bag!!
- I hate when Bruce subs in Jeff Jordan for defense, because you are stuck with him on offense for the next possesion. In theory this would work if you have enough shooters on the floor, but when your line-up is JJ, Brock, Chester, Meacham, and Davis, who can create anything if there isn't any open shots? Also here is another blown call when Coble travels before he calls timeout. Bardo saw it, and made sure that everyone knew about it. To go back to my point earlier about NW traveling, if you look their guards when they penetrate and then pick up their dribble, they either drag their pivot foot, or switch them enitirely. NW used to always get called for this, but not tonight.
- When Mike Davis missed his lay-in I thought it was over, and again Mike bitched about the call and then hung his head. I love this kid, and there is no way that we have 20 wins without him, hell we probably wouldn't have 10 wins without him, but for the love of God Mike, stop pouting!!!
- Bardo calls it when he says that "this finish for NW has and erie feeling to it like the Purdue game" and Trent drills a 3! Calvin set a good screen, and also got run over, but huge shot by Trent Meacham. I will not doubt this kid the rest of the season, and he is no longer on the verge of joining the Brian Randle/Dick McBrick club for me!! 59-56 NW 59.4 seconds left.
I can't really do the last couple plays justice, so thanks to Soham for e-mailing me the link to the last 6 minutes.
I have had numerous conversations about ESPN's rankings for high school basketball and football with many people. My contention is that ESPN is pretty much a joke as far as doing any research what so ever. If you want proof, watch the NFL draft after the first 45 picks. McShay and Kiper know every player, but the other 17 people that ESPN puts in front of the camera don't know a damn thing.
I say this because on signing day they had Illinois in their top 25 classes even though 3 of the players they listed for Illinois did not commit. It took them over a week after signing day to update things.
So a couple of months ago I came across a really funny story on an Illinois message board about a high school football player in Chicago. The kid named Earlzo Singleton was being touted by somebody as one of the best players in Chicago. He claimed to have offers, and coaches coming to visit him. Well all of that was bullshit. Here is the article from the Sun-Times by Taylor Bell about the kid. Make sure you read the comments after the article, because that is the best part.
Anyway, ESPN with all of their wisdom has listed Earlzo to their ESPN Top 150 watch list. Basically ESPN bought into the crap that this kid and his handlers were selling. Just another reason not to believe everything you read from ESPN.
After watching countless hours of college basketball this year and texting back and forth between friends about said games, here is a few revelations that I have made.
1) John Beilein is one of the worst coaches I have ever seen. Michigan was tied with #1 UConn on the road with 12 minutes left in the game and proceeded to piss the game away. How you ask? Well they shot 12 3's compared to 5 shots inside the arc. They made 4 of those, but 2 were prayers by Stu Douglass at the end of the game. They were 9-29 in the game behind the arc. Is it too much to ask to see a little pick and roll with Manny Harris and DeShawn Simms? Michigan fans will have to use "We beat Duke and UCLA" for the next 3 years until they fire Beilein.
2) Yerk made a great point one night when he mentioned that Marquette's guards are really similar to the Illini trio of Dee, Deron and Luther. Marquette is 9-1 in the toughest conference in America. Don't be surprised at all to see them in the Final Four and Tom Crean wandering the streets of Bloomington, Indiana talking Adam Sandler gibberish to himself in a bath robe and slippers.
3) Has anyone ever done less with more talent that Rick Barnes at Texas? I understand that he had 2 players leave after one great year with LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant, but he should have made more than 1 Final Four. Texas has been the Anti-UCLA the past 8 years. Since 2000 they have been a #1 seed, #2 seed twice, #3 seed, #4 seed, #5 seed #6 seed twice and #8. By not being less than an #8 seed the last 9 years you would expect more that 1 Final Four, 2 Elite Eights, and 2 Sweet Sixteen finishes.
4) I am really glad that Notre Dame is tanking lately because Luke Harongody is on of the most over-rated basketball players in college in a long time. Yes he averages 24 points a game, but he shoots 20 times a game. He makes no one around him better, and if anything has held back Notre Dame because he is a black hole. He gets double teamed constantly, yet only averages 2 assists a game. Shooting 47% for a post player is not very efficient, but I will give him rebounding, because he is great at that. Jodie Meeks averages more points on less shots.
5) I think the ACC has a rule that you can't stop dribble penetration. No one in this league will defend the dribble. When Duke has 4 players on the floor that can get to the lane with the dribble any time they want, then you know that this is not an area of emphasis for the conference. They do have great guards, but even average players can get to the hoop. Don't be surprised when only 2 or 3 teams from the ACC make the Sweet Sixteen.
6) The Big East also has a lot of dribble penetration, but they bully their way into the lane, and everyone can finish with contact. If there is a match-up with a Big East vs. ACC take the Big East, unless it is against Duke, because Coach K will get at least 5 "bitching" calls and the complexion of the game will be changed in the first 10 minutes.
7) At the start of the season the question was will anyone beat UNC. Now the question is will anyone beat UConn? They have better players at pretty much every position than UNC does. I am praying for this match-up in the tourney, because it will be awesome.
8) Teams like Memphis and Gonzaga should have their seeding determined by who they played in their Non-conference vs. their overall record. Both of their conference schedules are what amounts to Non-conference schedules for major conference teams. By that I mean the entire line-up is cupcakes with maybe 2 tough teams thrown in there. Both teams will run the table in the their conference and finish with probably 3 and 5 losses respectively. Memphis' toughest games were against Xavier, Syracuse and Georgetown, and they lost to all 3 of them. They have beaten Cincinnati, Seton Hall and Gonzaga. Gonzaga has beaten Tennessee twice, Maryland and Washington State. They lost to UConn, Utah, Arizona, and Portland State. Yet even though they have that terrible resume, they will keep climbing the polls because every other team is playing tough conference games.
Memphis is ranked #10 and Gonzaga #21. Considering that they won't play another tournament team again, how can you justify the top 4 seed that both of these teams will get? Utah State will probably got a top 5 seed also, even though they have not played one ranked team. Memphis and Gonzaga are guaranteed Sweet Sixteen births because of the crap conferences that they play in which is an absolute travisty. The only hope is that they both win their conference tournament so that a team that deserves an at-large bid doesn't get bounced. Every top 5 team in the ACC, Big Ten, Big East and probably the Top 3 teams in the Pac-10 and SEC would have the exact same if not better records than these 2 teams if they played their schedule. Both teams will be ranked in the top 15 by the end of the year, but neither will make it past the Sweet Sixteen.
9) The Big East needs to drop at least 4 teams. 16 teams are absolutely absurd for a major conference. Geographically speaking, DePaul and South Florida make no sense at all, and how do you really do seeding for the tournament when you have such an unbalanced schedule. Each Big East team plays 3 teams twice and then everyone else once. If you are not going to drop the extra teams then either add 3 more teams and play everyone once, or just play in Thanksgiving tournaments and 5 non-conference games. Sound dumb? Well those are probably the options that the Big East/Midwest/South are considering. A more simple conclusion. Divide the conference into 4 divisions. Each team in the conference plays each other 2 times, and everyone else once. The top 3 teams from each division are seeded into a 12 team conference tournament, with #1 seeds getting byes, or just do a 16 team tournament. This way you create division rivalries, yet you still have the semblance of a conference. It is much better than picking games out of a hat which is what I believe their method is now. Here would be the divisions:
Midwest: Notre Dame, Marquette, DePaul, and Cincinnati
South: South Florida, Louisville, West Virginia, Georgetown
North: UConn, Providence, Villanova, Pittsburgh
East: St. John's, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Syracuse
Each conference is pretty even except for the East, and you maintain rivalries that exist between close schools, such as Nova and Pitt. This seems like it would be an easy fix, but so does losing the BCS.
10) Steve Lavin should replace Jay Bilas on the Gameday crew. I think Bilas is good, but he is too much of a homer for the ACC, way too opinionated when he doesn't agree with something, and more importantly he has no personality what so ever!! Steve Lavin would fit the Kirk Herbstreit roll much better than Bilas. Plus I think he would knock Digger Phelps of his high horse. I love Lavin, but he actually has been getting a little too catch phrase driven lately. Bilas does an excellent job on analysis during games. However this gets trumped if Lavin is teamed up with Brent Musburger, because those two are amazing together. Every announcer should take a page from Lavin and Musburger and relate to their audience by mentioning alcohol and gambling, since 90% of the people watching are partaking in both of those vices.
For the first time in what seems like months, we finally got to see the first 5 minutes of an Illini game on Sunday. Illinois played a great game against Purdue, and I know that Robbie Hummel did not play, but a win is a win, and we needed this one. With Illinois' win, they swept the season series from the a team that most predicted would win the Big Ten. A lot of great things happened in this game, so lets hop on the good foot and do the bad thing!!
- First it is really annoying when you follow a team for an entire year, and then you have to listen to the likes of Doris Burke, or in the case of this game, Vern Lundquist announce the game with no prior knowledge of the teams they are covering. For Purdue fans this game must have been one of the worst experiences that they have had to drink themselves through in a long time. Not only do you never lead in the game, play without Robbie Hummel for the second straight game, but you have to listen to Vern create a new player called Keaton Moore. After watching the game a couple times, I'm pretty sure that Vern was referring to Keaton Grant, but he sounded so old and senile during the game that he could very well have been replaying a 1986 Australian Open tennis match in his head. For the record "Keaton Moore", Keaton Grant, and E'Twan Moore all played like shit.
Also Greg Anthony kept mentioning how Bruce Weber and Matt Painter were greatly influenced by Bobby Knight. What? He didn't mention Gene Keady once, but refered to Knight 3 times. Other than being Big Ten coaches and being white, I'm not sure that you can draw too many other parallels between the 2.
- I was about to go back and look at the play-by-play for every game to see if Demitri McCamey has taken the first shot in all of them, but contrary to popular belief I don't have that much time on my hands, and I am not that insane. That being said, I think it is safe to say that Demitri leads the NCAA in "first shot" taking, although this game it wasn't a 3.
- Mike Tisdale has officially not shown up at the start of the last 3 games. He got yanked after 1:57 in this game after getting burned baseline, then not denying the ball in the post, then not blocking out, then fouling after not blocking out. Not a great start. On the bright side, Dominique Keller came in for him and promptly scored 6 points. Even Keller's missed lay-in and dunk looked goofy as hell. It makes me wonder if he does everything in his life abnormally. Does he brush his teeth by moving his head up and down, and back and forth? Does he have to sit down to tie his shoes so he doesn't fall down? Does he hang his shoes up in his closet, and place his shirts and pants on the ground? Maybe Dominique isn't only changing the fundamentals of basketball, but also life? Somebody needs to follow his everyday activities and report back, because his unorthodox style is definitely efficient on the court, maybe he is on to something in everyday situations as well.
- So Mike Davis not only has Tonsillitis, but he also has Bell's Palsy which is a paralysis of the face. I can't believe how well he is playing with both of the afflictions. He was an absolute monster on the boards, and made great jump shot after great jump shot! Also I am loving the Tisdale to Davis alley-oops that we have been seeing in the last few games. I still don't know how Davis caught the lob in this game and threw it down. On the flip side though, I don't know how he rim checked himself on a wide open dunk under the hoop.
- You have to love the way Demitri is penetrating to the hole a lot more than he has been in the past. If anything, he gets to the foul line where he has been shooting very well this season. He also opens up our post players for jump shots, which at this point in their careers is much better than their post up skills. The real reason I brought this up is because CBS had a graphic that said McCamey is a "Very Good Penetrator" and after 3 beers, Yoder, Tom and I made various penetration jokes for the next 5 minutes while Yoder's fiancee looked at us like we were one of her high school students. My 2 favorite jokes based on this are "At least we have that in common" and "I hear he doesn't finish very well" So to recap: 3 frat boys + 3 Coors lights + unintentional innuendo = Inappropriate High School Humor.
- Thank God Trent Meacham shot well in this game, because I'm pretty sure that nobody would have been able to take another Meacham-Legion shooting debacle. He is still not off of my shit-list though, because he has played terrible in 9 of our 11 Big Ten games. I want 2 big games out of him this week at Northwestern and Indiana.
- You know why Chris Kramer is such a good defender? Because he hacks on every play. He reaches on every drive, swats at the ball when you go up for a shot, runs through screens instead of around them. That being said, he doesn't get called for it, and most times gets alot of ball, so he is effective. After this game though, I think that Chester Frazier will be the Defensive MVP of the Big Ten. He has now shut down Robbie Hummel, E'Twan Moore, Travon Hughes twice, Evan Turner and Kalin Lucas. This guy is gonna be sorely missed next year. Did you ever think that in 2009-10 you would say outloud "Man I wish we had Chester Frazier out there right now"? Probably not, but mark my words, you will.
- The most alarming thing with this team right now aside from the fact that we can't win on the road is Mike Tisdale's rebounding. Mike had only 1 rebound against Purdue. That was his second straight game with only 1 rebound. The most rebounds that he has gotten in the Big Ten so far? 6 against Purdue on the road. On the road especially he needs to step it up. We play Penn State twice, and if you haven't seen them yet, trust me, they crash the hell out of the offensive boards! Tisdale needs to focus on this coming down the stretch, because obviously this is a weakness that opposing teams are going to look to exploit. Tisdale has one more rebound (28) in Big Ten play than Mike Davis (27) has had in his last 2 games!
Overall this was a really good game by Illinois. They did have their typical strecthes of not hitting any shots, but the difference in this game was the fact that they only had 2 turnovers in the second half. To add to that, they screened much better in this game which allowed for many open jump shots. The last thing that I want to add to this is how much I love watching Chester Frazier trying to dunk on people! The only thing that could happen this season that would be more memorable that Chester dunking on DeShawn Sims and trying to dunk on Keaton Moore-Grant would be a Final Four.
Now that the Super Bowl is over, we can all focus on NCAA basketball for the next 2 months. Whats that you say? They still have the Pro Bowl this weekend? Well the Pro Bowl is about as exciting as watching the Antiques Roadshow on PBS. The last exciting thing to happen in the Pro Bowl was this:
After that hit they should have adopted a rule that you can't run a fake punt in the Pro Bowl. On the topic of rule changes since the season is over, here are a couple of things that Roger Goodell should consider.
1) Why in God's lovely green earth is it a 15 yard penalty for a facemask on defense, yet on offense a ball carrier can rip your helmet off with a stiff arm? During the Super Bowl Rogers-Cromartie got a face mask penalty while Santonio Holmes was performing the previously mentioned stiff arm. Cromartie couldn't even see Holmes because his head was being pushed back so far. Every ball carrier now puts his hand directly on the tackler's facemask as soon as the defender is within arms reach and this is completely legal? I call BS!
2) The five yard contact rule should be extended to ten yards. It's bad enough that corners and safeties get flagged for any deep pass play that has contact, so they should be allowed a little more room to push receivers off routes. Either do this, or create an illegal contact on receivers who push off after five yards. Receivers already have the advantage of knowing the play and where the ball is going to be thrown, but now in the NFL you basically have to let them catch it too. If a corner can't make contact, then a receiver shouldn't be able to either. Offensive Pass Interfernce should be called more.
3) I understand that teams pay a lot of money to their quarterbacks, so to protect their investment, the NFL started calling roughing the passer more often, but this shit has gotten out of hand. Do you really expect a defensive end who weighs 250 pounds and runs a 4.5 forty to be able to stop his speed rush in one step. Either give them another step or just put quaterbacks in red jerseys and make it two hand touch like practice. I think NFL officials are intelligent enough to determine if a defensive player could stop his momentum before he clobers a quarterback. This must secretly drive quarterbacks from the 80's and 90's crazy. Troy Aikman would still be playing right now if games were called the way they are now. Instead I have to see Kurt Warner's tired ass every 15 minutes for two weeks on TV, and I have to listen to an overly concussed Aikman babble on and on about Warner without making any sense. Does this seem unfair to anyone else?
4) They need to change the rule for holding, because if you go by the what the definition of holding really is, then this occurs on every damn play. Offensive lineman grab jerseys, they hook one arm around defensive lineman all of the time. This is only called when it is extremely blatant or an official is bored and wants to kill a drive. I blame this on Fred Miller, because if he was not allowed to get away with a hold on almost every play, then their would never have been a quarterback controversy in Chicago 2 years ago because Rex Grossman would have been dead. It would have worked out for the Bears though because they would just march down the field with all of the roughing the passer penalties. That would have been the best offensive scheme that Ron Turner has ever come up with.
5) Why is there only booth reviews in the last 2 minutes of a half? This makes no sense what so ever. Basically the NFL is saying that they could care less what happens during the rest of the game, but we want to cover the officials asses in the last 2 minutes of the game so we don't get crucified for a blown call by the media and fans after the game. Do it like college does and have the replay booth buzz the official if a play seems like it was called wrong. Why is it so difficult for people to admit that they made a damn mistake?
6) Please place cameras in the pylons so that there is actually an angle straight down the goal line. I'm pretty sure that cameras are small enough now that you can actually place them there, so this will save us time during reviews of touchdowns instead of using the camera that is planted on the Goodyear blimp that is flying above the stadium. You have a camera in a blimp, there is a series of wires above the stadium that control a camera that gives you every possible angle of every worthless play, yet when it comes to crossing the goal line, we have a guy standing 15 yards away at a 45 degree angle with a Sony camcorder as our only evidence.
Basically the NFL took a page out of the NBA's handbook and made the rules favor the offense. Why? Because people want to see scoring, not shutouts, but it has gone too far. The game was fine 20 years ago, but now the NFL has become too dependant on the likes of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning to allow anything to change. That is why Kurt Warner can play football until he is 50 and make the Hall of Fame, but the NFL life span of a running back is about the same as a gallon of milk in a broken fridge.
We are now at the halfway point of the Big Ten season so lets recap and look forward to the second half.
Standings
Michigan State 7-2 Purdue 6-2 Minnesota 6-3 Illinois 6-3 Penn State 6-3 Ohio State 5-4 Northwestern 4-5 Michigan 4-6 Wisconsin 3-6 Iowa 2-7 Indiana 0-8
Michigan State
MSU is undefeated on the road in the Big Ten, but have lost to Northwestern and Penn State at home. The Penn State game should not have even been as close as the 72-68 final. They just got lucky that PSU decided to channel last year's Illinois team and shoot like crap from the free throw line. I still believe that MSU will end up winning the Big Ten title. The only thing that could stop them is if Raymar Morgan is still out with walking Pneumonia. With him back and healthy, MSU has too much depth and talent at every position. Maybe Purdue could overtake them, one reason that they could drop from the top spot is that they are obviously not as dominant at home.
The only 3 games that I think they can lose are @ Purdue, Illinois and Purdue at home.
Final record: 14-4
Purdue
PU lost their first 2 Big Ten games and have now rattled off 6 straight. That was during an easier stretch in their schedule though. None of their players are over achieving, yet none of them other than Keaton Grant are under achieving. Grant is pretty consistent, but I expected more. I don't think that they will be able to beat MSU because I feel that MSU is much bigger and more athletic. That still means that they will hang on to the second spot in the Big Ten.
Remaining Schedule: Not easy. MSU twice, OSU twice, @ Illinois, @ Michigan. Only three wins that should be automatic and that is Iowa, Northwestern and Indiana. Should win against Michigan and OSU at home. So they should be at least 11-7. I think they might steal 1 or 2 games more.
Final Record: 13-5
Minnesota
I have been bashing them all year, and even though they beat the hell out of Illinois at home, I am still going to bash them a little. So far they have beaten the 3 worst teams in the Big Ten on the road. So you know what that means? They are going to get tested on the road big time!! I was impressed with how well Minnesota played defense and how their bigs shot free throws, and that was it. Illinois lost that game by shooting terrible, not by anything that Minnesota was doing to them. On the road so far they almost and should have lost to Iowa, beat Wisconsin in overtime, which is not as good of a win in hindsight, and got their asses kicked at Northwestern. If you are a Minnesota fan what gives you any confidence that they can win @ MSU, OSU, Penn State, Illinois or Michigan? They luck out that they don't have to go to Purdue. Now if they can win 3 or 4 of these road games then I will be impressed.
Remaining Schedule: Home games against Indiana, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Michigan. They should and probably will wins these games, because they do play good at home, but on the road I think they maybe win @ Michigan if they are shooting bad. They could also beat OSU since it seems as though Lighty will not be back anytime soon.
Final Record: 11-7
Illinois
The Illini kinda bounced back from getting their asses kicked at Minnesota by beating Iowa at home. I think that Illinois is starting to hit a bit of a wall, which is not a good thing right now. They need at least 2 out of McCamey, Davis, Meacham or Legion to start shooting the ball better or their great start could go to crap. The bright spot is that Tisdale has played decent against some of the bigger Big Ten post men, and Keller is starting to get comfortable in the offense. Their defense will always be there so as long as they don't collectively lay another egg like Minny, they should have a good shot in all of their games.
Remaining Schedule: Not Pretty. @ Wisconsin after Wisco has lost their last 6, then Purdue at Home. Back to Back road games @ Northwestern and Indiana, finish with Penn State twice, MSU and Minny at home, and OSU on the road. None of the road games are gonna be easy, and that includes Indiana. Not sure if Illinois can beat MSU at home, but I do think they can take Minny and PSU. This week will tell a lot, because Illinois really needs to bounce back from a sub par 2 games. They can win both of these games, but also very easily lose to both Wisconsin and Purdue. Lighty will not be a factor against OSU, so that is a game we can steal.
Final Record: 12-6
Penn State
Talor Battle has solidified the fact that he is the best scorer in the Big Ten, having dropped 20 and 26 against MSU and 21 on Purdue. Cornely is a beast, and until Sunday, everyone wanted to know if they can win on the road in the Big Ten. Well they beat MSU on the road, so they have proven that they can beat anyone. 5 of their wins have been by 4 points or less. You can look at that as either they are barely winning, or they know how to close out tough games. The only bad loss was @ Minnesota by 20. They do have a lot of tough games left, but I think the confidence that they have gained after the MSU game will help them to the Tournament, and possibly a top 3 finish. What surprises me is that they are not a great defensive team. They are 6th in scoring average, and they don't cause a lot of turnovers. They are 3rd in the Big Ten in offensive rebounding which is shocking considering their lack of size. Like I said, Cornley is a beast. Right now I would give Penn State the best backcourt in the Big Ten with Battle and Pringle.
Schedule remaining: Illinois twice, @ Michigan, Purdue, Ohio State and Iowa. Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesota at home.
Final Record: 12-6
Ohio State
OSU could have been really good with David Lighty. Now there are rumors that he might shut it down and look for a medical redshirt. Even if he does come back, it won't be until at least March since he hasn't really started any rehab yet, so he will not be in any shape to play significant minutes. William Buford is getting better, and Evan Turner is really good. Diebler is a glorified Trent Meacham, except he can't defend a quick guard, and you all know how I feel about the premature ejaculation that is known as BJ Mullins. Their 5 wins are Indiana twice, Michigan twice and Iowa at home by 3. Nothing that I have seen from them makes me think that they will do anything in the second half of the Big Ten. Their only saving grace is that they only play Wisconsin and PSU once.
Schedule Remaining: @ Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue, Iowa and at home against Illinois, Minnesota, Penn State, and Northwestern
Final Record: 9-9 maybe 10-8
Northwestern
Northwestern slows games down with their 1-2-2/ 1-3-1 half court trap, and they lull you to sleep on offense and cut back door all game long. The difference between this team and the Northwestern of the past is that they can actually shoot the ball from outside. Craig Moore has been really good from 3, and Kevin Coble is good for at least 2 ridiculous shots a game. They are playing with a ton of confidence, and their system makes up for their lack of athleticism. At the start of Big Ten play I thought these geeks would only win 5 games, now they look like they could pull off at least a few more than that. It has to piss off Northwestern that pretty much every home game is split 50/50 between the fans. There are so many alumni of each school in Chicago that instead of going to your Alma Mater to watch a game, you can just hop the El to Evanston. The bitch of it is, is that the tickets are cheaper and you will get much better seats.
Schedule Remaining: 5 road games hurts, but they will win @ Indiana. Other than Indiana, they have @ Minnesota, Iowa, Purdue, and Ohio State. They have Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State at home. 4 out of last 5 games are on the road which hurts them. Even though they won at MSU, they also lost @ Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Final Record: 8-10
Michigan
I already predicted that Michigan would fall apart because of their crap offense. On a side note, I thought that it was strange that little d-bag Zach Novak went crazy after he got cut by Alex Legion when they accidentally bumped heads. He looked like he wanted to run out on the floor and try to choke Alex out, even though he is a fluffy little white guy, and Legion is a 6 foot 5 black guy from Detroit. Now I understand why he was so upset. This kid is a psychopath!! If you did not see the elbow that he landed on PJ Hill during a rebound on a free throw, you missed one of the most blatant fouls I have seen. He is now serving a one-game suspension. I am looking forward to watching him lose his mind the next 3 years, because playing for Michigan is like riding a horrible roller coaster next to a fat guy who smells like week old nacho cheese. They might beat people at home if they can actually hit 35% of the 70 3's they shoot a game. On the road they will suck like normal. They are 1-4 on the road in the Big Ten and here is their 3 point shooting in those road games.
Indiana 12-40 Illinois 7-26 Penn State 5-30 Ohio State 7-26 Purdue 6-23
That is 37-145, John Beilein is by far the worst coach in the Big Ten, your system does not work!! Every other coach game plans to figure out how to win every game. Beilein wakes up every morning and prays that his team can get hot and maybe steal a game (Duke and UCLA). Not what you want in a Division 1 head coach. Michigan has the worst 3 point % in the Big Ten, yet they lead the league in attempts by 103 and they lead the league in makes by 4! 582 of their 1237 shots are 3's. Deshawn Sims is dying in Ann Arbor! It still kills me that Illinois lost to this garbage team. Also if you are a betting man (which at least 2 out of our 3 readers are), Michigan beat Indiana on the road in overtime, their 4 road losses have been by 15, 15, 18, and 18. If the spread is close with them on the road, take the home team.
Remaining Schedule: Penn State, Michigan State, Minnesota and Purdue @ Home. Northwestern, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota on the road. They might win one, possibly 2 games at home, and maybe one on the road.
Final Record: 7-11
Wisconsin
I wrote before that I really couldn't fathom that Wisconsin would lose 4 in row before they played Illinois on the road. Well, know I can't fathom 7 in a row with them playing Illinois at home. The only game they weren't in was at Purdue, their other 5 loses have been 2 in overtime, 1 point loss to Purdue, 3 point loss at Northwestern, and a 7 point loss at Illinois. This team just chokes down the stretch, Landry has not improved since last year, Hughes has not improved, and I think Jason Bohannon has a running bet going with Trent Meacham to see who can play worse in big games. Krabbenhoft is the exact same player he was a year ago, and should have joined his buddy Zach Novak on the All Big Ten Suspension team after he fore-armed Lewis Jackson on a blind screen. Here it is, watch his left arm follow through on Jackson's chin. Bull Shit!!
Not sure if Wisconsin can bounce back after losing 6 straight. It is safe to say that teams don't fear playing them anymore. They are out of the NCAA Tournament for sure and if they don't get their act together soon, they can kiss the NIT goodbye. Lets just hope that they get it figured out after they play Illinois on Thursday.
Remaining Schedule: @ Penn State, Indiana, Michigan State and Minnesota. Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan and Indiana at home.
Final Record: 8-10 (and this is very generous)
Iowa
I was actually a little surprised by how well they played at Illinois, at least in the first half. They are a tough team, but they just don't have the talent and experience right now to win any big games. They might surprise somebody at home, but other than that I don't see them accomplishing anything but getting their young team some experience. With Cyrus Tate back, they will beat somebody they are not supposed to at home.
Remaining Schedule: @ Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Northwestern. Northwestern, Purdue, Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State at Home.
Final Record: 4-14
Indiana
I used to think 40 minutes of hell refered to teams like Mizzou and Clemson that press all game long and want to run you out of the gym. I think it should now refer to having to watch an entire Indiana game. They actually are starting to play teams a little tighter, but that's not because they are really getting that much better, its because it takes teams until the second TV timeout to get off the bus. Nothing about this team tells me that they will win a game. Even Iowa will come in and play hard to get a win, and everyone else is fighting for a post-season tournament so they can't afford to shit the bed against Indiana. I think that Indiana's real punishment from the NCAA was that they can't win any games in the Big Ten. It is absolute bull shit that the NCAA figured that the program had enough damage done to it and didn't give them any other penalties, so I will enjoy the win-less season almost as much as I enjoyed Illinois' Final Four run in 2005.
Remaining Schedule: Who cares, they will lose anyway
Final Record: 0-18
Final Standings
Michigan State 14-4 Purdue 13-5 Penn State 12-6 Illinois 12-6 Minnesota 11-7 Ohio State 10-8 Northwestern 8-10 Wisconsin 8-10 Michigan 7-11 Iowa 4-14 Indiana 0-18
