Illinois basketball fans

[IlliniFan]

Yea the only reason i'm not is because I don't think much of Little. I know nothing about him really, but I can't imagine him contributing a whole lot. The fact is if we are relying on Mario Little then our recruiting needs to improve.

Congrats on all the commitments recently. Maybe Weber is taking Zook on the recruiting trail with him.

Well, you never know. If Kansas was going after him that hard, he must have something going for him. They don't just go after anyone. I guess we'll see in the coming years.

[JPR]

Errr, last year was the first year in a long, long time that we've led the conference in rushing. We've traditionally- at least over the last three decades- been a passing team. We've had five QBs pass for over 3,000 yards- not including No. 1 overall pick Jeff George, who threw for damn near 3,000 twice- but only two running backs run for 1,000 yards since 1980 (though Rashard Mendenhall is a couple weeks from changing that).

exactly what i said was year after year. and your post proved I was correct by saying that last year we were #1 and obviously we are this year again.

[wang4three]

damn, got home and saw the iowa score. wtf.

[IlliniFan]

damn, got home and saw the Iowa score. wtf.

we had an 82 yard Td pass nullified because of an ineligible receiver down the field............................................. .............
Then at the end we had another chance. We were at the 12 and McGee threw an int!!
We really blew it.

[TheGame414]

exactly what i said was year after year. and your post proved I was correct by saying that last year we were #1 and obviously we are this year again.

"Year after year" implies something happening on a regular basis, not simply two years in a row. So either you misused a phrase or got called out and tried to cover it up.

[TheGame414]

Yea the only reason i'm not is because I don't think much of Little. I know nothing about him really, but I can't imagine him contributing a whole lot. The fact is if we are relying on Mario Little then our recruiting needs to improve.

Congrats on all the commitments recently. Maybe Weber is taking Zook on the recruiting trail with him.

I'm not for taking jucos unless they're just phenomenal or fill an area of need, and don't come with academic/otherwise baggage that jucos too often seem to have attached.

Alexander, like I said, filled that need for Illinois this year. We'd have been a forward short without him. Don't know how much Little fills an area of need for KU without looking at other future commits, which I'm too lazy to do right now, but if he can make a quick adjustment to D-I ball I think he could step in and fill some of the wing scoring that Rush will take with him when he probably goes to the NBA next spring.

[TheGame414]

Well, you never know. If Kansas was going after him that hard, he must have something going for him. They don't just go after anyone. I guess we'll see in the coming years.

And for that matter, Kansas State with the level of recruits they've got in the last year, and Illinois. We may have totally whiffed in 2008, but at least we were whiffing on blue-chippers.

Reminds me of that line from Flight of the Concords:

"You talk about getting with more girls than you actually get with."

"Yeah, but I talk about getting with some really hot girls."

[TheGame414]

Videos:

Brandon Paul

Joseph Bertrand

D.J. Richardson

[TheGame414]

The future:

[IlliniFan]

The future, with their coaches.


Also, Stan Simpson is coming to Illinois.
http://www.news-gazette.com/blogs/ba...o_decide_today

[TheGame414]

Good news about Simpson. That's a solid addition to our future frontcourt, and it's good to at least have one guy in 2008.

He's a back-to-the-basket type of guy that's drawn some comparisons to Pruitt, though he's obviously not as highly ranked coming out of high school as Shaun was. Like Mike Davis, I keep hearing that Simpson is one of those guys with a really high upside that isn't ranked extremely high because he just hasn't put it all together on a consistent basis yet. I've talked to some people that like Simpson as much as, or even more than, Dunigan. I haven't seen enough video of Simpson to make that judgment myself.

The story within the story, of course, is Larry Butler's about-face in his attitude toward the Illinois program. You don't have to be a cheater to have a good relationship with AAU coaches, and for whatever reason Butler and Weber weren't seeing eye-to-eye. (Actually, I have an idea of what those reasons are, but that's another story.) I don't know if it's solely because of hiring Jerrance Howard or what, but it's a good development.

Even though Butler's kind of a shady guy, I think more blame was on Bruce for being stubborn in not wanting to communicate with Butler after some of the reported stuff with Julian Wright. I can't blame Bruce for being pissed, but for a time I believe Butler wanted to work things out and Bruce wasn't hearing it. He should've swallowed his pride a lot sooner and talked to Butler, and if that's what happened then kudos to him for dropping some of his stubborn nonsense.

[wang4three]

At this point, I'm wondering who doesn't want to come to Illinois? Man, if we had Jerrence earliar, who else could we have snatched up??? Give that man a bonus.

[TheGame414]

Simpson picked Illinois primarily because of Weber.

Simpson on Illinois

Richardson and Paul had both indicated Illinois was their favorite before Jerrance was hired, and it was widely believed awhile back that Bertrand would commit if/when Illinois offered (I don't remember when he was offered).

I'm sure Jerrance helped close the deal, but I don't think a few weeks is enough time for him to have made a huge difference. I think these are guys that probably were coming to Illinois regardless.

[IlliniFan]

Lamaar "Flash" Thomas should be announcing tomorrow on one of the ESPN channels. Come to Illinois!

[TheGame414]

I'm pretty sure it's Ohio State.