[Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?

Mon Jan 7 18:07:15 EST 2008

The guard situation was also hurt by the loss of Watkins to the
Clearinghouse. I agree this will be a down year (maybe very down), but I have
hope for the future (we pick up Smith and Legion next year) and have good
classes lined up for the next 2 years after that. Illini fans should give
Weber and the team a break. One bad year out of 6 or 7 is okay by me.

Kevin Stewart

-----Original Message-----
From: oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf Of
John Livengood
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 4:29 PM
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?

Robert, certainly Gordon's reneging hurt, but it only made a bad situation
worse. With Jamar out, the only recruited guards we have from 4 recruiting
classes are Frazier and McCamey (I consider Brock a forward). Chester plays
hard, but he really should be at a low major program or coming off the bench.
While having Gordon and Smith would make this team a lot better, we'd still
be servicable with another decent guard or two.

What puzzles me is how well they looked playing in Maui and even vs Arizona.
I guess they've just lost confidence, but I really thought that team looked
like at least an NCAA bubble team at worst. As of now, I don't even think the
NIT is going to happen unless they start playing a lot better. I don't see
them beating anyone on the road, and if you've lost to PSU and Tennessee St
at home....?

When does football season start? ;-)

JL

----- Original Message ----
From: Robert Mingee <mingee at swbell.net>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2008 10:42:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?

OK, I'll weigh in here as well.  Let me start first with a question: what
would this team look like right now if Jamar and He Who Must Not Be Named
(HWMNBN) were on the floor?  Is it really all Bruce's fault that Jamar
imploded and HWMNBN doesn't understand the meaning of the word "commitment"?
There's no doubt this team has major issues right now, lack of scoring
primary among them, but I'm still having a hard time hanging all of the
talent issue on Bruce -- it would have pretty tough to not only forsee this
situation, but scramble to recover from it.  McCamey and Tisdale look pretty
good so far, and Davis for that matter, and I'm willing to give Bruce a
couple more years to see how he recovers from the HWMNBN fiasco.

That's not to say there aren't plenty of things I am willing to hang on Bruce
and his staff, and I've spouted off here at length about one of them -- our
pathetic free throw shooting, which seems to be about the only thing actually
improving in this train wreck of a season (though I haven't checked the stats
-- that's just a gut feel).  And the lack of heart and effort is another.  We
just plain got out-hustled and outplayed on the boards yesterday, and that's
flat-out inexcusable.  NO WAY should a team like PSU be beating us that bad
on the boards, and it was all lack of effort and position.

And I have one suggestion to add to your playing time point -- make Brian
Randle a nice comfy seat at the end of the bench and leave his sorry %$@#*&
there the rest of the season.  I'm not sure I've ever in my life seen such a
pathetic waste of raw athletic ability.  I think we can live without his
constant fouling and missed free throws the rest of the season.  I really
hope for his sake he got a good education, because I can't imagine him making
a living playing basketball anywhere -- he just plain doesn't get it.  I
think there's still some value in playing Pruitt some, because I think
Tisdale can learn from him (so long as he doesn't pick up his bad habits :-).

Like those that have already posted, I feel that the NIT is far from a given
at this point.  You never want to give up on a season, but playing the youth
is different -- I'm not convinced they'll do any worse than the vets, and the
program benefits from getting them experience.

-- robert

----- Original Message ----
From: Chris Goldenstein <cgoldens at yahoo.com>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2008 7:48:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?

I'm not sure we can win another game at this point, NU might be the only one,
which is really sad.  I think the confidence has been all but beaten out of
this team and we have yet to hit rock bottom this year, IMO (although the TSU
game sez otherwise).

I'm happy to hear that McCamey is getting the start @ WIS (yikes).  I'd like
to see major minutes at this point for McCamey, Tisdale, Cole, Davis, etc.
If Bruce is gonna dig himself outta this, he should build for next year, IMO.
NIT looks to be slim and none right now, but I guess things can change, but I
don't see it.

signed,

A VERY pessimistic fan :(

----- Original Message ----
From: Keith Magnuson <magnuson99 at comcast.net>
To: oskee at heins.net
Sent: Sunday, January 6, 2008 3:30:04 PM
Subject: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?

You have to really start to wonder if you can't beat Penn St. at home, can
you even make the NIT?  I've bit my tongue so far, must have been overcome
with Rose Bowl joy....

For those of you that are not happy with people booing Chester, I would be
happy to listen to ideas of how Bruce Weber can be booed.

There is no excuse for inheriting a team full of talent that he had for the
Final Four run and then subsequently in three years, lose to Miami of Ohio,
Tennessee St., and Penn State consecutively at Assembly Hall.  The Rose
Bowl, which I thought was a blessing in disguise for the basketball program
at one point is starting to make me wonder.  Will the football success make
this slide in basketball tolerable by our fan base? I sure hope not.

A short phone conversation with a friend of mine from Sprinfield summed up
what our basketball team has become.  Due to his coaching job for middle
school basketball and Rose Bowl trip, my friend has only been able to attend
one or two games this year and he sits in Section A.  Today was the first
day he was able to get someone to take his ticket, he has eaten every other
ticket.  And yes I said, take his ticket, they were willing to take his
ticket, but would not go if they had to pay for it.  That folks, sums it up
right there.

This is ridiculous.

Keith Magnuson
"OrangeKrush99"

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