Brian34Cook

That was ugly.. maybe it's a better game on a neutral or even home court.. the only reason Illinois hung with Duke is cuz the game was in Hawaii IMHO.. anyways Wisconsin wont be a bad team.. look at this crappy conference.. they are a Top 25 team still if ya ask me.. maybe not right now.. but will be..

Nimreitz

Yeah I know. Duke better come to the Kohl Center next year. After this I really hope they don't screw us and make us play in Milwaukee. I also hope we get a rematch next year.

TM

haha... don't hold your breath, Nim. See you in Milwaukee

coolpohle

lol, you guys are funny.

Nimreitz

Yeah I know. At least it will be easier for me personally to get tickets.

Nimreitz

Just a couple quick thoughts:

1) Trevon Hughes is going to be one hell of a player his senior season. The sad thing is that his talent level sort of reminds me of Devin Harris mid-way through his sophomore year. I don't want him to slow down his development, but I assumed he would be a 4 year guy, and there's probably a 5% chance that he could leave after next year, which would suck.

2) Krabbenhoft is still useless on offense, but god dammit I love that kid. He's someone that always has to be out there.

3) Jason Bohannon, come on man. You are better than this.

4) Marcus Landry is a very intriguing player right now, but god damn his shooting form is ugly.

5) Where has John Leuer been?

6) Michael Flowers is still dope.

7) Butch is still the man.

8) Steimsma continues to impress me when he's out there, but Bo refuses to play him. I know it has a lot to do with him being vulnerable on switches in the man to man defense, but come on. The big man needs to play more.

So I'm happy with the team, and they are really shaping up exactly how I hoped they would. I still can't beLIEVE we lost to Marquette, but we made up for it with the Texas win. Our schedule is the easiest Big Ten schedule I have ever seen, and I figured if we split with Indiana we would win the Conference. Here are the remaining games, with the ones we COULD lose in bold:

@ Minnesota
@ Iowa
Purdue
@Indiana
Minnesota
@ Illinois
@ Ohio State
Michigan State
Penn State
@ Northwestern

So by my count, if we lose ALL of those games, we will still enter post season play at 13-5 in the Big Ten and 23-7 overall. Not bad. I think we'll only lose 2 of the 4 (at Indiana, and one other), and finish up at 15-3, which should probably give us at least a share of the Big Ten Title. Awesome.

I also would like to mention that last year when I was eagerly counting the days until Alando Tucker's graduation, I said that we would be better without him. Maybe we wouldn't win as many games, but we would be a better team. I think this year's team could be last year's, and as long as we don't get Duke (haha) in an early round, I think we're going to do a lot of damage in the NCAAs this year. I think we could take UCLA, I think we could take UNC, Wazzou is guaranteed, I WANT a rematch with Marquette. Kansas would take us, but I think we matchup so well against that Memphis system we could shock the world.

coolpohle

@ Illinois is definitely a losable game for us. The Illini might look ugly at 10-12 and 2-7, but 10 of those losses are by 10 or less.

__________________
'07-'08 Locks of the Day Champ 73-42-1 (63%) ATS

My Bracketology:
http://www.basketballforum.com/colle...ml#post7474778

Nimreitz

Nah, Illinois sucks. They really do. I mean, that's a great crowd down there, but they have the talent of an average A-10 team.

Beat Minnesota today in a game that was never contested up in Williams Arena. Big win that hopefully continues the flow of recruits over the border. I'm really worried about Tubby up there, but I guess you can't turn a program around overnight.

So by my count, we have only 3 losable games left and I'm pretty confident about Ohio State and Michigan State. We actually might go 14-2 in the Big Ten, which by the way is 1 game better than "superstar" Alando Tucker's senior season.

coolpohle

Well, we can't go 14-2 since there's 18 games this year, but I guess 16-2 is a possibility.

I'll stick by my comments that we can still lose @ Illinois. I mean, we beat them by 10 @ the Kohl center, the home/road swing is 8 points. It's definitely a game we should win, but one that could easily go down to the last couple of possessions. Guess we'll have to re-visit this in a couple of weeks.

__________________
'07-'08 Locks of the Day Champ 73-42-1 (63%) ATS

My Bracketology:
http://www.basketballforum.com/colle...ml#post7474778

apelman42

There's no doubt in my mind that we play with more intensity on the road. As for getting that regular season championship, a win @ Iowa on Wednesday will go a long way to that...as for now let's just take this one game at a time.

I'm starting to seriously wonder if this team was better than last year's...our defense is sick.

coolpohle

I agree with this comment, apleman. We're pretty similar to last year. Maybe lacking a little bit more on offense this year, but we're arguably the best defensive team in the country this season.

__________________
'07-'08 Locks of the Day Champ 73-42-1 (63%) ATS

My Bracketology:
http://www.basketballforum.com/colle...ml#post7474778

Nimreitz

Yeah my bad. I actually edited it from 16 to 14 after looking at last year's record, but I guess I was right the first time and the Big Ten has expanded to 18 games. How awesome that we avoid the home and home against MSU and OSU this year?

By the way:

Nimreitz

I have to wear a Purdue shirt all next week

apelman42

Haha.

They beat us...plain and simple.

We have to run the table to win the Big 10 regular season outright.

Nimreitz

Well check this out. We beat Indiana, beat Minnesota, beat Illinois... and lost at home to Purdue. Still, we're right where I thought we would be. If we can get out of this OSU, MSU stretch with 1 or 0 losses, we'll be looking very good. So I see us at either 15-3 or 14-4 (at worse). Incredible.