[Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern? (Warning long)

Tue Jan 8 00:29:15 EST 2008

Couldn't be happier with Zook being our coach as the end result.  However,
that doesn't mean I agree with the way we arrived at it.

Self left us for one of the few programs other than say Duke, Carolina,
maybe Zona and a few select others that anyone would leave Illinois for.  So
what, it happened, you shouldn't be afraid to go after someone because of
that. If people are interested in that guy you brought in it's because he's
succesful and I don't think with Chicago in your back yard there is ever
going to be a lack of interest in the Illinois job.  There are only a
handful of jobs that anyone would leave Illinois for, the dominoes just
happened to fall into place with Roy to UNC.  What do you think Kansas fans
felt like when Roy left?  Did they mope and go with the safe choice? No,
they went out and got who they perceived to be the hot up and coming choice.
I guess the argument can be made that does Kansas ever really have to go
with a "safe choice?"

I can also see the argument being made for continuity in your coaching job,
but I think it is more important in football when you have to fill out a
much larger roster that theoretically takes longer to turn around than you
can turn around with a 13 player roster in bball.

But don't you kind of want a little bit of nervousness with your coach being
in high demand, why would you not want someone that would be sought after,
aren't you kind of settling or being complacent if that person isn't?  If
your that paranoid do you really belong in that upper echelon of college
basketball programs?

Again, just my $0.02...

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Livengood" <jdlive at yahoo.com>
To: "Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List" <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 7:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern? (Warning long)

> So you're not happy with the hiring of Ron Zook?
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Keith Magnuson <magnuson99 at comcast.net>
> To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
> Sent: Monday, January 7, 2008 7:37:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern? (Warning long)
>
>
> Not to pick on you Kevin, but you were the first to respond this way.
>   This
> is what bothers me about our fan base.  Going from National
>  Championship to
> maybe not making the NIT is tolerable in a 3-4 year span. Wow...
>
> As someone posted earlier, I believe it was Winston, Guenther made the
> "safe/loyal hire in Weber".  Too many times Guenther makes reactionary
>  hires
> instead of proactive hires.  Self, a good recruiter with aspirations
>  for
> bigger/better things burns him, so Guenther goes with the "loyal"
>  better
> supposed X's and O's guy that can't recruit in Weber.  In football he
>  gets
> burned by the supposed Offensive genius in Ron Turner who has no need
>  or
> desire for recruiting and wants his classes done with before Xmas, so
>  he
> hires Ron Zook the all world recruiter who battles for top guys until
> signinging day but who at times has had his in game coaching
>  questioned.
> It's almost like he thinks he needs to go with the total opposite of
>  the
> previous coach.  Extremely odd for the "one man search comittee".
>
> And to respond to who said this year can all be traced back to Jamar
>  sitting
> out this year and one Indiana guard pulling a fast one on our coaching
> staff, I have several questions.  What does that have to do with one
>  "senior
> leader" Randle fouling out with 2 points against Penn State??  What
>  does
> that have to do with second "Senior leader" Pruitt walking back on
>  defense,
> getting outrebounded by a guy 4-5 inches shorter than him, and not get
>  taken
> off the court by Weber when he does this?  What does it have to do with
> Weber writing up plays for Chester Frazier, one of our worst shooters
>  in
> game ending/winning situations not once, but twice this year? What does
>  it
> have to do with a Junior college player we spent a scholarship on only
> averaging 15 minutes a game?
> What does it have to do with us shooting under 60% from the free throw
>  line
> as a team?
>
> This is what ticks me off the most, we played with Duke, we played with
>  and
> should have beat 'Zona, why did we quit all of a sudden? No heart, no
> hustle, no leadership especially by the senior class.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Stewart, Kevin C ERDC-ITL-IL"
>  <Kevin.C.Stewart at erdc.usace.army.mil>
> To: "Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List" <oskee at heins.net>
> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 5:07 PM
> Subject: RE: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?
>
>
> 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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