by talkhawkeye on January 22, 2009
So Anthony Tucker got in trouble for drinking too much one night causing him to miss games while spending time in the dog house. Then when he was out of the dog house, he didn’t play because he had mono. But the way that was all announced just seemed a little delayed and weird.
Now we learn that Anthony Tucker is done for the rest of the year because he is not academically eligible. Kind of makes you wonder how much of that was suspected when Tucker seemed to have trouble getting back on the floor during that awkward period before the mono became public.
Oh well. Hopefully Tucker will learn from all of these setbacks. I know getting sick isn’t his fault but he can still use the time away from the game to motivate himself in the off season. Hopefully Tucker will be like Shonn Greene, get his academics in order, and come back meanier and better.
In other bad news, Cyrus Tate missed today’s game against Wisconsin and will probably miss the Saturday game against Penn State. The ankle just doesn’t want to get better.
Fortunately, the Hawks still managed to beat the Badgers in overtime tonight. David Palmer is taking to the playing time quiet well. 21 points, 7 rebounds and only 1 foul will go a long way to making sure he finds his way back onto the court.
by talkhawkeye on July 21, 2008
I read a decidedly non-Hawkeye related article today and since it is the middle of the dullest part of the Hawkeye sports season, I’d rather talk about it today. The article is a look at the contenders and pretenders as we head into the second half of the baseball season.
The article has the Cubs as the runaway favorites in the NL. They have the best record in baseball so that seems fine. Here’s my beef. For the Cubs they list their weakness as:
They’re bad: At pinch-hitting. In 126 at-bats, Cubs pinch-hitters have only 22 hits, and their .175 average is worst in the NL.
Sure that sounds pretty sucky. But I think the Cubs have a bigger issue that is completely overlooked in the article. The Cubs have a losing record on the road. They are 21-28 away from Wrigley. The Cardinals, who are just a couple games back from them are 27-22. The Brewers who are only 3 games back from the Cubs are 24-26.
I like teams that can win wherever they play and while the Cardinals are not quite as scary as the Cubs or Brewers, especially with the recent pitcher additions to both teams, the Cardinals are capable of winning on the road and at home.
Which makes me wonder at why the Cubs would have 4/5 odds of getting to the post season while the Cardinals and Brewers are 10/1 and 6/1 respectively.
Especially with the 3 teams as close as they are with so much of the season remaining. I have no trouble giving pretty strong odds to all three teams to make the post season since currently all three teams have records quite a bit better than the 2nd place team in the other divisions, so the 2nd place team in the Central should be in good position to get the wildcard. I’m just not sure that the Cubs are that much more likely to get to the post season than the Cardinals or Brewers.
I’m not sure if those odds are Jeff Passan’s odds or Vegas’ but it sounds like somebody might be getting a little swept away by Cubs hysteria.
by talkhawkeye on July 19, 2008
Sometimes I get little ideas for posts but don’t write them because I don’t want to spend the time researching details and finding facts. I’m not really a details and facts type of fan. I’m more of an emotional fan that just has fun watching the teams, making fun of the opponents, and occassionally making fun of the Hawkeyes when they do something really stupid.
The summer is a particularly bad time to write a college sports blog but I won’t let this hold me back anymore.
I just sent in my check for the football season tickets so it is probably about time to start complaining about scheduling Maine and Florida-somebody-or-other (one of those teams that will actually play for a championship instead of a BCS trophy). It is probably time to start figuring out how many different ways Illinois and Notre Dame are going to suck (I’ve spent most of my life in Illinois getting abused by fans of those two programs so I have a health hatred for them).
But this post is more for me than you. It is a reminder not to go months without writing something because I feel like I should be trying to cover sports like a reporter. I’m no reporter. I normally don’t even bother spell checking. But I am an annoying Hawkeye fan and this is my reminder to write more about that.
by talkhawkeye on June 7, 2008
I was fairly shocked when I heard that Coach Lickliter pretty much told Tony Freeman that he would be better off to pack his bags and play his senior season somewhere else. After all, he was the leading scorer on the team and the only person that seemed to want to take the ball and even try to do anything with it after the first couple Big 10 games. And he definitely was one of the better defenders and most athletic guys on the team.
Plus, he was a guy that seemed to be a good person and never seemed to have any hints of causing any trouble off the court (that I heard of at least).
So let me break out my tin foil conspiracy cap for a second. Maybe Freeman realized that Lickliter’s style doesn’t quite fit with Freeman’s skills. Or maybe Lickliter realized that Iowa was not going to turn into a power house and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Feel free to swap Freeman and Lickliter’s names above.
So, then let’s say Freeman and Lickliter are playing pool and drinking a couple beers and start talking about all of this out loud to each other and the subject of Freeman transferring schools comes up.
Lickliter says something along the lines of, “We’d really love it if you stuck around this year but I totally understand if you want a better chance of playing somewhere that will highlight your skills and give you a better chance of making it into the NBA.”
Freeman says something like, “I had thought about it but I really don’t like the thought of sitting out a year.”
Lickliter: Yeah, that rule blows when coaches come and go like we do these days. What you need is a hardship?
Freeman: But coach. I’ve got my shit together. My family is fine. My injury from last season is completely healed.
Lickliter: Well, I’ll make you a deal. You announce that you are going to transfer and I’ll make up some story about how I told you that you weren’t going to get any playing time during your senior season even though you were the best player on our team last year while fighting through an injury. It’s not 100% guaranteed to work. But maybe everybody will think I’m an ass and totally screwing you over and the NCAA will let you play without sitting out for a year.
Freeman: That just might work. I love you, man.
I know it is a little far fetched but I just can’t think of any reason why Lickliter would not want Freeman to be a part of the program so at least a conspiracy theory would answer that nagging question. Plus, SIU really does have a much better chance of making it to the Sweet 16. They do it way more often than Iowa these days. And Lickliter doesn’t really seem like a mean guy that would kick a guy under the bus for no good reason.
Good luck at SIU, Tony. I hope to catch you on TV a few times this winter.
These are the headlines ripped straight from the NCAA Football on Yahoo! Sports on July 24th, 2008. You might notice some Iowa news there but I’ll talk about that one last.