<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div>I'm sure you've all seen the story by now that Juice has been benched (though curiously it is not reported on fightingillini.com). Opinions? Personally, I don't see how you can possibly pin the losses on him entirely, but as the team leader, he's ultimately responsible, and I can't really blame Zook for wanting to shake things up. As with last year, consistency continues to be his biggest problem -- he's either really on or really off. I was really shocked to read how bad his stats are, though -- it didn't seem that bad from watching.<br><br>From a purely pragmatic perspective, this season is over before it even really started -- I don't see any way for this team to make a bowl. Yes, they have faced tough competition, but it's not really going to get much easier, and I just
don't see any spark on this team. It's like they're going through the motions. There just doesn't seem to be any hope of them beating a team that's better than they are, because they are so lacking in intangibles. The defense can be exciting at times, but it's so inexperienced. And the offense continues to be so much less than the sum of its parts, for whatever reason. So I guess there's really nothing much to lose, except further demoralizing Juice, which really is regrettable. He seems like a decent kid, and he's done some amazing work in his career, but he's just not getting it done. If there's any hope for next year, it's getting Eddie some solid experience in this offense.<br><br>Sigh. When does basketball season start again?<br><br>-- robert<br></div></div></body></html>