CBB: UCLA Opens Pac-10 With Road Win at Stanford

Home

Sports
- NFL
- MLB
- NBA
- NHL
- NCAAF
- NCAABB
- NASCAR
- Soccer
- Golf
- Tennis
- MMA
- more »
Teams
Fun & Games
- Trivia
- Quizzes
- Pick'em
- Polls
- Leaders
Meet People
Feed
Quick Fantasy

Fan Articles

Home

Newest

NFL

MLB

NBA

NHL

NCAAF

NCAABB

NASCAR

Soccer

Golf

More Sports

Area man discovers Cleveland Browns really are a professional football...

At least one person out there doesn't think Redskins' owner Dan Snyder is...

Aaron Rodgers Gets A Break, After Being Beaten Up By The Vikings Again...

SEC Refs Made Another Bad Call To Help Their Undefeated Team? Shocking.

Jahvid Best Has A Concussion, But Fortunately It Looks Like He's Doing...

Fedor Continues His MMA Dominance

Sammy Sosa Seems To Be Getting Lighter

Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward has his leg cut by a skate in game vs Blue...

Cal's Jahvid Best injured, carted off field after nasty fall vs Oregon St.

As further proof that no one really knows how good anyone is this year,...

Well, that was quick. Allen Iverson has left the Grizzlies for ''personal...

CJ Spiller Gets Another Chance To Make His Case For The Heisman Trophy...

1/4/08

CBB: UCLA Opens Pac-10 With Road Win at Stanford

NCAABB

CriticalFanatic

more posts by author

Your almost daily college hoops roundup is back. Meaningful games have begun, so here's my meaningless commentary ...

Conference road wins are always big Particularly when it comes against a ranked team. #5 UCLA kicked off Pac-10 play with a win in Palo Alto. Stanford is apparently ranked 20th, which is a bit of a stretch, but either way hopefully this gets the Bruins back into the conversation. I think Darren Collison missing the first month of the season will ultimately be the biggest factor in UCLA's final four run. Back up Russell Westbrook got plenty of experience and continues to play well (15 pts, 6 ast). Now we just need to work on his hair.

How bad are the Illini? Better yet, how long is Bruce Weber going to last. Normally I'd say the Buckeyes getting a win on the road in Champaign was significant, but Illinois is dreadful at the moment. Watch out for Tennessee State!

Notre Dame is Harangoody Most underrated big man in the country just might belong to the Irish which is a nice balance to their perpetually overrated football brethren. Start paying attention to the Irish hoopsters, I think they'll make a solid dent in the Big East.

DePaul upends #16 Villanova Big East confusion has already begun.

Women's Nugget: Arizona plays with 2 players for final minute because everyone else fouled out. That makes it hard to win, obviously.

COMMENT

ADD FEED

8 comments

Vote!

Comment!

Your votes determine top comment

1/4/08

CHansen

How bad are the Illini? Better yet, how long is Bruce Weber going to last. Normally I'd say the Buckeyes getting a win on the road in Champaign was significant, but Illinois is dreadful at the moment

Man, I expected this to be a rough year for the Illini after losing 2 of their top scorers from last year, as well as Jamar Smith and Quinton Watkins, but they are really, really bad. I guess the Illini are finding out how much recruiting really does matter, and that Weber can't take a team of scrubs and turn them into something magically better.

The most disappointing thing to me is that I thought their new guys would be better, but their new guys haven't done jack. I'm stunned that McCamey hasn't been good enough to replace Frazier, who might be the worst starting PG in a BCS conference.

1/4/08

CriticalFanatic

CHansen wrote:

It says a lot he's only done well with Bill Self's recruits. I actually thought Weber was a pretty good hire at the time, but he's either totally lost the team or recruited horribly.

I still believe there's enough talent on the team to finish in the Top 5 in the Big Ten so maybe it's the later. They keep this up and the NIT might be a longshot.

1/4/08

CHansen

CriticalFanatic wrote:

His recruiting has been bad, but I think it's a little overblown. I thought this year's class that he was bringing in was pretty decent, although it probably needed to focus on getting more guards, but McCamey was supposed to be the answer at point, and he hasn't worked out yet. I still think he might get there, as freshman PG's tend to take a little longer to develop, unless your name is Derrick Rose.

Re: losing the team, I think that might be the even better answer. Who knows how much the team has been affected by Weber's comments about needing better players in his postgame comments. That's not to mention how poorly I felt he handled the Jamar Smith DUI situation. I mean, the kid almost killed his teammate and left him to die out in his car, while they called coaches and other people, before even calling the ambulance, and Weber suspends him for this year, essentially giving him a redshirt? What kind of message is that?

Of course, the biggest thing might be the Illini's horrendous free throw shooting, to which I don't know who is to blame. When your team is terrible at it every year, I tend to think the coach is to blame, but I generally believe the free throw shooting is on each individual player, and they are leaving a lot of points at the line.

1/4/08

CriticalFanatic

CHansen wrote:

Completely agree on Jamar Smith situation. It seems like the whole athletic department botched that. It's not a little thing, but it's the little things that surround that event that could loose the trust of a team.

Or it could just be that recruits don't want to listen to his voice 24-7. I know I wouldn't.

1/4/08

Fat

0	(Edited by Fat) I would like to note that Xavier beat an ACC team on the road by 28 last night. Xavier is one of the ten best teams in the country in my opinion.

1/4/08

CriticalFanatic

0	Fat wrote: I would like to note that Xavier beat an ACC team on the road by 28 last night. Xavier is one of the ten best teams in the country in my opinion. When they're ticking no doubt, but all I've seen is a win over Indiana. Impressive, but balanced out by losses to our beloved Redhawks, Arizona State and Tennessee. They could do some damage in March, but I think Top 20 is even in doubt.

1/4/08

IlliniBob72

CriticalFanatic wrote:

Bruce Weber is safe, for now. He's got Smith back next year and Alex Legion transferring in. His recruiting committments for 2009 and 2010 are stellar. They are saving his job.

As for the Smith situation, yes, it was screwed up, that's for sure. This may be a minor point, but it is relevant. Smith didn't leave Carlwell to die...he thought he was dead already and panicked. I know, either way it's bad, but it is differnet.

The story is that the team wanted Smith to stay on the team, Carlwell moreso than anyone. He and Jamar Smith are still real tight. A year and a half suspension for a drunk driving incident...I can't say for sure, but that is probably on par with what many other progams would do, maybe even more severe.

1/4/08

Scott

I think this goes to show you just how much Weber and company were relying on the committment of Eric Gordon for this season. He was to be the centerpiece of this team and when he backed out at literally the last minute, Illinois had no backup plan. Weber and Illini Nation are now feeling the effects of not having great recruiting classes in '05 and '06 to carry this team. The '07-'08 team lacks leadership and smarts on the floor. Randle and Pruitt have there moments but arent consistent enough as seniors and Chester Frazier has regressed instead of progressed from last year. Trent Meachem seems to be the only bright spot but you cant expect him to score 30 points a night. If this season continues to go south, I would like to see the younger guys get there chance. Let's see what Mike Davis, Bill Cole, Mike Tisdale and Demitri McCamey can do with more playing time.