<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">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.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">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.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">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 :-).</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">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.<BR><BR>-- robert</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif">----- Original Message ----<BR>From: Chris Goldenstein <cgoldens@yahoo.com><BR>To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee@heins.net><BR>Sent: Monday, January 7, 2008 7:48:18 AM<BR>Subject: Re: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?<BR><BR>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).<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>signed,<BR><BR>A
VERY pessimistic fan :(<BR><BR>----- Original Message ----<BR>From: Keith Magnuson <<A href="mailto:magnuson99@comcast.net" ymailto="mailto:magnuson99@comcast.net">magnuson99@comcast.net</A>><BR>To: <A href="mailto:oskee@heins.net" ymailto="mailto:oskee@heins.net">oskee@heins.net</A><BR>Sent: Sunday, January 6, 2008 3:30:04 PM<BR>Subject: [Oskee] Can we beat Northwestern?<BR><BR>You have to really start to wonder if you can't beat Penn St. at home, can<BR>you even make the NIT? I've bit my tongue so far, must have been overcome<BR>with Rose Bowl joy....<BR><BR>For those of you that are not happy with people booing Chester, I would be<BR>happy to listen to ideas of how Bruce Weber can be booed.<BR><BR>There is no excuse for inheriting a team full of talent that he had for the<BR>Final Four run and then subsequently in three years, lose to Miami of Ohio,<BR>Tennessee St., and Penn State consecutively at Assembly Hall. The Rose<BR>Bowl,
which I thought was a blessing in disguise for the basketball program<BR>at one point is starting to make me wonder. Will the football success make<BR>this slide in basketball tolerable by our fan base? I sure hope not.<BR><BR>A short phone conversation with a friend of mine from Sprinfield summed up<BR>what our basketball team has become. Due to his coaching job for middle<BR>school basketball and Rose Bowl trip, my friend has only been able to attend<BR>one or two games this year and he sits in Section A. Today was the first<BR>day he was able to get someone to take his ticket, he has eaten every other<BR>ticket. And yes I said, take his ticket, they were willing to take his<BR>ticket, but would not go if they had to pay for it. That folks, sums it up<BR>right there.<BR><BR>This is ridiculous.<BR><BR>Keith Magnuson<BR>"OrangeKrush99"<BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Oskee mailing list<BR><A
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