Blah…Blah…Shut this guy up!

It isn’t as if Illinois hasn’t had success in basketball in the last several years,  It is frustrating when so many other coaches, somehow associated with Illinois, good and bad, remain in the tournament.  Let’s take a look.

Lou Henson “retires” from Illinois.  We all know though he was forced out.  Illinois convinces Lon Kruger to come on as coach.  Who takes over at Florida?  Billy Donovan.  After all, all he has done there was win a National Championship and still is favored in this year’s tourney.  Lon Kruger came and left Illinois.  Who could blame him when you are being offered three to four  million a year for four years from the pros?  I don’t.  After his stint of guaranteed money in the NBA, he comes back to UNLV.  Where are they?  The Sweet 16 and knocked off a team in Wisconsin that Illinois couldn’t beat in two tries—once in Champaign and once in the United Center (Illinois’ home away from home).   It should be noted that Kruger’s name was mentioned for the Illinois job when Weber got it and Gunther dismissed it stating he would never be the Illinois coach. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when Kruger left we get a young coach out of Tulsa name Bill Self.  He comes in and leads Illinois to the Elite 8, Sweet 16 and round of 32, getting progressively worse.  Then turmoil strikes, and Roy Williams leaves Kansas for North Carolina.  Self leaves Illinois for Kansas.  A search is started and do you know what?  No coach of note is interested in the Illinois job.  So, we get the SIU coach Bruce Weber.  Well, let’s see….. Williams leads UNC to a National Championship over Illinois and has his team in the Sweet 16 this year as a number one seed.  Self, after a couple of dismal years at Kansas, has his team as a number one seed and in the Sweet 16.  SIU, where our current coach left, has a new coach and is now in the Sweet 16.  It should also be mentioned, that Weber was being groomed to take Gene Keady’s position at Purdue, but when the Illinois job fell in his lap, he had no choice but to accept.  Meanwhile, the coach Purdue never intended to have, Matt Painter, got his team to win a round in this year’s NCAA without any players anyone knows.

Recently Trust but Verify  (http://trustbut.blogspot.com) linked to a discussion with LA Times report Michael Hiltzik.  The discussion was very enlightening.  It seemed that there is a segment of the cycling population that thinks the only way Landis can get off is on a “technicality.”  That is just ridiculous.

A technicality would be if the arbitrators state something like this, “We believe both the A and B samples to be positive, but due to the fact the A and B sample were tested by the same technician, thus a violation of WADA procedures, we are forced to dismiss the case.” 

Compare the above to the following, “Due to the fact the same technician tested both the A and B samples, we are unable to determine the accuracy of those results and thus the case must be dismissed.”

 The first one is a technicality.  The second is not.  One states the evidence is untrustworthy, the other states a procedural rule had been violated.  Sometimes, a procedural rule can be violated that makes evidence suspect.  That is not a technicality.

It doesn’t have to be the circumstance stated above, it can be any of the defenses.  Some of Landis’ arguments are “procedural” and others bring the evidence under suspicion.  If Landis wins this case due to the evidence being untrustworthy, it is not a technicality.  After all, if the positive test is untrustworthy, it could mean that either Landis doped and the evidence doesn’t prove it to a high enough burden, or it means that the test was just plain wrong.  There is no way to tell and thus Landis should get the benefit of the doubt.  If Landis wins on a procedural out, even though the arbitrators think the evidence points to his guilt, Landis will lose in the court of public opinion anyway.