Iowa Hawkeyes:
Steve Alford, Jacob Jaaks, Dean Oliver
We’re gonna surprise some people this year…Especially the clowns from Chambana
Bring it On!!!
Obviously the c in rap
is silent
Dwyer-Land
NonTarheel-you got me pegged-over the last few years, the Twerps can beat #1 UNC at the Smith Center, #2 Kansas, Umass, and Wake Forest with Tim Duncan, and play with anybody else but, God forbid taking Duke. WTF–frustration indeed.
I don’t have any references in front of me, and it’s been a while since I followed the ACC with a passion; but Duke not having any talent that particular year? Doesn’t Coach K get like 4-5 HS All-Americans a year? Shit, at MD our best players were guys that nobody knew of in HS-Smith (#1 in the NBA draft) and Francis (#2, and he didn’t even really play in HS). Hell, we’d love (and I sure just about any other program would) to have Duke’s recruits. So, what suck-shits were on that team? Duke did all right before and after that season.
At MD, we blame the refs for holding a grudge because we were the only state in the ACC not in the Confederacy during the Civil War; old hates die hard. ;-). Thank God Lenny Wertz retired; if his head was up Dean Smith’s ass any further-it would’ve come out Smith’s mouth.
Kentucky vs. Maryland tomorrow night (1st of two); I’m feeling nervous, but you can’t say MD plays a pussy schedule.
The Chambana Posse is going to roll the dominant Big Ten this year. Expect 8 teams to go into the conference schedule with double digit wins, and the Illini on top. The Orange and Blue will trample the Dookies, the Twerps, and the Gayhawks, sweep the in-state match ups, and rule the Battle of the Border. Then things get exciting without a single easy week in the conference schedule.
The Hickeyes will beat up on several teams simply by playing Big Ten ball, but they can’t run with the big dogs in the conference. The Hoosiers (this is a better insult than any I can think of) will crumble again, but will pick off a few of the top teams, their biggest threat is in the Big Ten tourney.
I expect a long trip into March this year.
BTW–I like DePaul–saw them last year against the Terps, with all their youngsters. Look out.
The Fresno State Bulldogs is the most over-rated college basketball team in the country just because they have Jerry Tarkanian as coach. Every year it’s the same shit, Tark says his team will go all the way to NCAA tournament, Bulldogs lose all their games to the good teams, Bulldogs have a losing record and end up in NIT (Not Important Teams) and loses in the 1st round.
…and remember, duct tape fixes all your problems, big and small.
Fun with HTML (tutoral) : The True Sequal
Give someone an FU
I’m here, representing the most important part of Big Ten Country: Boiler Land. Purdue has a lot of experienced players coming back this year. I think they can make some noise with the players they have. They just took down #5 Florida last night, and I think that’s just a taste of what they can do. They were underrated a few years back…every single year that they won their 3 consecutive Big Ten titles. They’re underrated this year. I think the same result could very well follow.
People are stupid. That’s all that ever needs to be said.
A Boilermaker jumps in following 2 Hoosiers and does not make any jokes? That is tremendous self-control. Here’s my Keady vs. Knight list:
[ul]
[li]Knight: loud, fat, belligerent, bad sweaters;[/li][li]Keady: loud, fat, whiny, bad hair;[/li][/ul]
I can’t imagine either one in my living room telling my parents that I should go to their school. Neither could win a recruiting war with Mike Kryzswzskjzski or Roy Williams. I, too, am impressed with the IU recruiting class of 2000. But I have 2 questions. How many will stick it out? Is Bobby’s style of play too outdated to stay with Duke, Kansas, Florida, etc.?
Sunset: impressive win by the Boils last night against Florida. With all that senior leadership, teams will have to play mistake-free basketball to beat them.
One (admittedly trash-talking) question: with the recent surfacing of less-than-Kosher activities by one of your assistant coaches and former players, doesn’t at least one of your recent Big Ten titles deserve an asterisk? 
Yours,
ThereWolf, proud follower of the clean program of the Indiana Hoosiers
Scarred,
Obviously, you haven’t been following the recruiting wars during the past few years. Bob Knight has won just about every recruiting battle he’s gotten into with Krzyzewski. Jared Jeffries & Alan Henderson are two that come immediately to mind. And re: Roy Williams (whose program I like a lot), I’m not sure we’ve gone head to head with him in recruiting too often. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
As for the “leaving early”, that’s another misleading story. IU has had fewer recruits leave early in Knight’s tenure than almost any other Big Ten team, and is below the national average for players leaving early as well. IU has given 117 scholarships in the past 28 years. Of those, 37 players have left (which includes players like Zeke, who left early to be drafted, and those kicked off the team, like Sherron Wilkerson), and 80 have played for four years. Even if you include all of them in the mix, that’s a 32 percent “transfer” rate. The national average is 38 percent. And given the new NBA collective bargaining agreement, which incentivizes leaving early so a younger player can get to free agency sooner, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more early defections from all the top schools (like the 3 that left Duke this past year). But, of course, detractors being detractors, the story will always be Knight.
Add to that plastic, overcooked wife.
Not much to add, except the Illini’s disturbing tendency so far this season to not play ball until the second half. They only lead WIU by what? 3? at the half on Friday. Somewhat the same story on Monday, neh? They’ve got the power, obviously, to put teams away, but doing it in the first half is much more convincing and more likely to win.
Then he said, “That is that.”
And then he was gone.
-Dr. Seuss, * The Cat in the Hat*
Therewolf, interesting statement made. I was aware of those allegations. However, I thought they were brought into the limelight after the championships were won. Most of the Purdue staff are trustworthy people. I know through talking with some of them. Also, I think that the team itself is full of well-mannered people, and I don’t think they should take the fall for the actions of one assistant coach. Happy tournament viewing!
People are stupid. That’s all that ever needs to be said.
ThereWolf,
I have been a hoosier supporter since my days on North Jordan, which ended in '79. I don’t give to IU Foundation, but that’s another story. I have heard all of the numbers before. Where IU gets in trouble is in the quality of the defection. I firmly believe Bob Knight can get more out of a less talented athlete than any coach out there. However, he seems to be having more problems dealing with the high-quality ones. You can go back to the late '70s and early '80s and find 2 transfers who ended up starting in the national title game for other teams. Bingo–IU becomes the answer to a trivia question. Mr. Jeffries is a definite plum. But so was Luke Recker. And as for Mr. Reckers defense, I seem to recall Steve Green, Ted Kitchel, Mike Woodson,and Steve Alford as shooters, not defenders. In a basketball game, there is no better feeling for me than coming around that screen and immediately getting the ball and nailing a jumper. It takes at least 3 people doing their jobs to make that work.