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Random thoughts as 2008 nears its end

Posted by: Jeff Huth

Saturday, December 20, 2008 2:36 PM

Random thoughts for the final blog of 2008 before taking some time off for the holidays:

Here's hoping the Big Ten is successful with moving to a neutral site for its baseball tournament, but I can't help but wonder if the timing will work against its financial success.
Instead of holding the tournament at the site of the regular-season champion, the league will move the event to a new minor league stadium in Columbus, Ohio, in 2009.
From a promotional and logistical perspective, there are strong arguments for this change. Too often in the past, qualifying teams and their fans were forced to scramble to make travel and lodging arrangements mere days before the tournament. It wasn't uncommon for the site of the tournament to be determined on the final weekend of the regular season.
Now, teams and fans know where they're headed for the tournament even before the season starts. And the Greater Columbus Sports Commission has months to promote the event and sell tickets.
However, in the midst of a recession that shows little sign of easing its grip in 2009, will fans travel in sufficient numbers to not only cover costs, but give the Big Ten the financial cut it expects the event to generate.
As the Southeastern and Big 12 conferences have shown, these tournaments can be hugely popular and lucrative. Certainly, the Big Ten tournament has that potential, too, but whether the payoff is immediate is questionable. Will the Big Ten and its partner in this venture have the patience to stick with and attempt to grow the tournament if the crowds initially are disappointing? Remember, as it stands, this is a one-year deal with no commitments beyond 2009.
Of course, it would help if Ohio State not only qualifies for the six-team tournament next May but makes a deep run. OSU fans have long supported Buckeyes baseball in strong numbers. Whether they would show up for a tournament minus Ohio State, however, is doubtful. And whether more than family would travel from outposts like Penn State and Minnesota in these tough economic times perhaps is even more doubtful.

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Can't remember the last time Illini wrestler Mike Poeta wasn't nationally ranked, but it happened this past week. When InterMat came out Dec. 16 with its latest individual rankings, the 2008 NCAA runner-up's name was missing. Quite a change, considering the 157-pounder had been No. 1 in the previous four polls and never lower than No. 2 this season.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to Poeta's freshman season, when he finished the year ranked No. 9, to find the last time his name was missing from the rankings.
There is, of course, an explanation for that absence. It's the senior's injury-related absence from the mat. Poeta has yet to wrestle this season due to a ruptured bursa sack in one of his knees that required arthroscopic surgery.
Poeta is back in the wrestling room working out, but UI coaches are inclined to withhold him from the Midlands tournament Dec. 29-30 in Evanston because he's likely not prepared for the rigors of multiple matches in a short period.
His return to action is more probable when the No. 8 Illini visit West Virginia on Jan. 9.

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After months of waiting, new Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings are finally due out early next month. Team and individual rankings are scheduled to be released Jan. 6. They'll be the first since the ITA announced its preseason singles and doubles rankings in early September.
We're expecting, as usual, that the Illini men will be represented in both the team and individual polls. It's been that way since former coach Craig Tiley first elevated Illinois to national prominence in the mid-1990s. The more intriguing question is whether an improving Illini women's team will show up in or close to the Top 25? In coach Michelle Dasso's second season, Illinois finished the 2007-08 campaign No. 37.
Whatever the verdict from the first rankings of 2009, we're guessing Dasso's team will continue its ascension on the courts. And that rise will be reflected, sooner or later, in the polls.