Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

Last week, however, was an exception.

Leiber and the starters?

So we’re bringing back ol’ Liebs huh? Not what I was hoping for, but the big fella can throw strikes and everybody likes the guy. On paper, I have some concerns about the rotation heading into ’08. Z will be Z. He will continue his trend of being better at controlling his emotions, but it certainly will not last all season. He’ll have his allotted share of emotional lowlights. He’ll also likely win 15-20 games and continue to be one of the best starters in the National League. I have trouble believing that Lilly will be able to repeat his ’07 season despite his absolutely outstanding initial campaign with the Cubbies. He was 15-8 with a 3.83 ERA and a better than 3:1 K/BB ratio at 174/55.

Back in early November, when I began considering topics for the winter editions of this column, I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t have enough column inches to devote to both the Illini men’s basketball team and the Bulls. That is to say, that both teams would be providing me with plenty of material. Of course, I had hoped to be chronicling a transitional Illini team capable of making the NCAA tournament, not a team whose fall from the Big Ten’s upper echelon has been monumentally embarrassing. And I had expected to be covering a Bulls team fighting for a No. 1 seed in the weak NBA East. Instead, the Bulls are fighting for the No. 1 overall draft pick.

Needless to say, some weeks it’s difficult enough to find a reason to watch either team’s games, let alone write about them. (I actually won a pair of free tickets to Sunday’s Northwestern game, and it almost feels like a punishment.) It’s quite the challenge to avoid sounding like a broken record. So for the next couple weeks, I’ll be changing the subject. Next week I’ll focus on the Illini women’s basketball team; this week, I’m focusing on the women — rather, woman — in my life.

Coming into the season, it was clear that there was simply no heir apparent for the Big Ten regular season title. That sentiment remains, with Indiana and Wisconsin undefeated and Michigan State and Purdue close behind with just one loss; over a third of the season cashed and the standings look as locked up as the predictions did in October (save for a strong surprise start from the Boilers).

Indiana seemingly looks to be the most impressive thus far in that they have lost just one game overall, as opposed to Michigan State and Wisconsin, who have each dropped a deuce. But looks can be deceiving — especially when you have a known cheater for a coach. Let’s take a look at the three obvious choices for Big Ten supremacy this season.

I’ve resisted writing about the St. Louis Cardinals’ offseason for too long. The time is right; someone needs to defend the masses from the incessant babble of the Homers at the Post-Dispatch.

St. Louis fans were set up for a franchise-altering offseason for the Redbirds, with the theme being addition by subtraction. Longtime general manager Walt Jocketty, winner of two pennants and deliverer of Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter, was shown the door. His stubborn refusal to embrace a more youth-oriented focus and his immature treatment of the nexus of that movement, VP of player development Jeff Luhnow, forced ownership’s hand.

Five years into his NFL career, Romo and his headline-hogging social life are far from the relative quiet of Charleston, Illinois, fifty miles south of Champaign- Urbana. In Charleston, which is home to Eastern Illinois University, Romo was a man known about campus for winning the Division I-AA’s prestigious Walter Payton Award after climbing to number three in all-time Ohio Valley Conference passing yards with 8,212. But despite his talents on the field, he was merely a solid player at a mid-sized college on the prairie, and the national tabloids cared little about what he did on a Friday night.

Matt Painter will be keeping his job this year, and he may even have it for the next three, at the least. Ten weeks into his third assignment at Purdue, there is a palpable buzz in West Lafayette — and it’s no fluke: This team, with literally the youngest starting five in the nation, are bound to disrupt top teams in the Big Ten this year and potentially be the team to beat in years to come.

Fans of the Illini men’s basketball team should be excused if the Democratic or Republican presidential races have become more interesting than the Big Ten race (which is all of three games old). If one wants to root for a winner in the state of Illinois this year, the smart money is on the presidential race — not the University of Illinois men’s basketball team, losers of four straight for the first time under Bruce Weber (pictured).

When Tubby Smith stepped down from the most illustrious coaching job in college basketball — you know, the University of Kentucky — he had to have known that the next place to hire him would be sympathetic to his plight:

“We don’t want you to feel any pressure.”

“We think that this could be a long term relationship.”

“Set your own pace — we know that you are worth trusting.”

“What did you say you needed in signing bonuses?”

The ticker on the bottom of this screen shot is clear: Minnesota lucked out in a big way when they sold Tubby Smith on their cold, Midwestern program.

Big Surpise

So Mark Prior went home after all. San Diego, like Chicago, wanted him to sign a one year plus club option deal, but Prior again refused. Unlike the Cubs brass, Padres GM Kevin Towers, a neighbor of Prior’s and fellow morning neighborhood jogger, removed the club option and decided to pay him a couple million for (possibly) two months of pitching. Towers isn’t taking a huge gamble. If Prior pitches poorly or simply doesn’t regain his control or velocity, then he’s out $2 million, which for a baseball club is the equivalent to the cost an iPod for your everyday fan.

Twelve teams are in; 20 are out. At this time of year, when the mercury dips and the circle of competitors contracts, fans find themselves navigating that great expanse known as the human emotional landscape. For some, there’s relief (i.e., the Tennessee Titan fan). For others, there’s confidence bordering on hubris (i.e., the New England Patriot fan). And yet for others, there’s a sense of deep vulnerability (i.e., the Miami Dolphin fan, or the St. Louis Rams fan, or the New York Jets fan, or — well, you get the picture).

In the final installment of the Polite Power Rankings this season, we’ll devote the bulk of our time to the teams whose fans occupy the brighter side of that emotional continuum. These teams, of course, are the playoff contenders. Enjoy the January showdowns….

There are certain truths that come to light around this time, and this year one of them is as easy to see as Bruce Weber's orange blazers: The Big Ten is extraordinarily weak. Whereas it seemed possible early in the season to expect six and maybe seven teams to creep into the Dance come March, it now seems like the conference will be lucky to send five, and a lot of that might just depend on how much parity will come into play across the country, and how well Big Ten teams play on the road.