Week 2 Fan Poll Underway

Revamped the poll page and found a script that works for showing the visitors IP address. By adding Sitemeter to the page the IP address can be verified quickly. The Cheats are very easy to find and delete.

Wikipedia data on the USA Today, CNN, ESPN basketball poll indicates the voting for the top 25 teams is done by 31 college coaches from around the country. Wonder what chance the 13 varsity coaches would do that. Slim and None.

12/23 -- So far we have had only two votes which required pitching. The fanboy vote that placed Pekin as the best area team was completely deleted as having no value. Also had one voter not fill out the required numbers. Have to suspect they were attempting to vote again.

The 12/23 results will be posted here and on the PJStar basketball forum. The PJStar "pro" selection will be posted here for comparison and comment. Add your observations and comments if you wish. No username or password required.

Fan Poll Selection For Best In Area December 23, 2008
Team	Best	2nd Best	3rd Best	Total Points
Limestone	6	3	3	33
Richwoods	4	7	1	31
Manual	2	2	4	16
Woodruff	1	1	1	7
Washington Metamora Central	- - -	- - -	2 1 1	2 1 1

1st is 4 points, 2nd is 2 points , and 3rd is 1 point.

The Standings and records when the poll was taken.

Mid-Illini Standings
Limestone 3-0 (9-0)
Metamora 2-1 (6-2)
East Peoria 2-1 (4-4)
Morton 2-2 (4-2)
Washington 1-1 (5-2)
Dunlap 1-2 (3-4)
Pekin 1-2 (2-8)
Canton 0-3 (1-5)

Here is how the PJStar had them ranked this week.
Richwoods 7-1
Manual 8-3
Limestone 9-0
Woodruff 9-1
Washington 5-2

The Best Team In The M-I and MS. 12/16 results

The first poll is over and we had 23 people voting "fairly"  I did find a few people who attempted to vote more than once.  Might have been a couple more but I called it quits without digging deeper the raw ip log. 

Also had fanboys from Washington and Pekin vote straight tickets.  Pekin is the best , second best, and third best team in the area.  The Washington fanboy did the same using Washington.   I guess this a typical Illinois voting procedure.  Ignore the rules and do what ever you need to do to win an election,

The results placed Limestone first, followed by Richwoods and then Woodruff.  Manual was fourth with four first place votes. As a point of reference, the Peoria Journal Star writers rankings had Manual first, followed by Limestone, Richwoods, Woodruff and Washington.

The next poll opens Saturday night at 10 following completion of this weeks games.  I am thinking of changing the voting to use a different process to keep the fanboys away and the folks who want to vote more than once.  (CHEATS)

Now what about those Lady Dragons trip to Metamora.  Wished I could have captured the moment for the ladies when Lady Dragon Basketball started back up the ladder.  (Sure wish the Pekin Times would have given the space/time/effort to the young ladies they deserve for such a victory.).  

Hope they have a good game for the Saturday match with the Eagles.  With it in the Hawk House we will be there even in this cold weather.

My First Date ...

was a few years in the past. But, we can still enjoy meeting a classy grand lady for the first time. I had on my calendar the Dragon L' Giant game in Canton and expected to see and shoot it in the cookie cutter gym at the Canton high school gym on campus. Luckily I read in the PJStar forum the game had been moved because of a water break which put the sterile high school gym out of order. What a lucky break for the girls from Pekin and ME.

We went to where the Canton boys play -- "The ALICE"!

What a Grand Lady.  A floor with spring, real springs under it, goal supports I remember from watching the state tournaments on b/w TV from Huff Gym.  She even has a butterfly backboard in house that probably saw action in Huff -- No break-away rim on this one.

And then the memories that greet you when you enter from the street.  

And for me the picture taker, smile hunter, she has modern lights that are only turned on above the court.  Oh what a sweet background that makes.  

Well what about the games lover boy? The Dragon sophomores, who I joined early in the 3rd quarter took a victory home.  Surprise of the game -- I looked a the roster and count 15 L;Giants. I look on the floor and count five and then on the bench I only see two more players. Trouble in the Land of Giants?

In the night cap the L' Giants never trailed and were only challenged a few times by the Dragons.  It did look like an eight and zero team against a team facing challenges this season.  A double double by the Jr. L' Giant Martin was the biggest problem for the Dragons.  

My view of the L' Giants - with only two seniors on  the club, they are one year from being a contender in the Mid-Illini.  They will be respectable and fun but they probably are not in the Redbird Potter class at this time.  Can they be a spoiler -- YOU BET!

First Tuesday In The Mid-Illini 12/09

The Mid-Illini boys basketball season has just finished a Tuesday night full of action and a surprises for me.

Looking at the games.

Dunlap (1-3) at Morton (3-0)
East Peoria (2-2) at Canton (1-2)
Pekin (1-5) at Limestone (6-0)
Washington (3-1) at Metamora (4-1)

Now here is what happened.

The Panthers stumble(?) at Metamora 51-74.

Here is one view of the game.

A forum poster said

"...Although I wont say I predicted this I dont find this loss suprising for the Panthers. People dont realize that Washington is one player away from being a 5-6th place team in the MI, DSE was shut down tonight and the whole team just folded with him. Washington will certainly bounce back this year but I think its very likely that there reign at the top of the MI is coming to an end."

I have only seen the Redbirds against the Warriors where speed and pressure was too much for the physical Birds to handle.

East Peoria makes the trip to Canton and returns with a 59-52 win.

Read the tree killers account.

In it Raider Coach Kelch remarks ... "I don't want to say that you expect that kind of a night out of Bryce," EP coach Ron Kelch said, "but we do expect him to be the guy who gets things going. He's a three-year starter and has been through this and knows."

Haven't seen either team so I don't know how good the Raiders are going to be.

Get this one over -- Pekin went to Limestone and "escaped" with a 72-51 loss.

I say escaped because from what I have seen of these two teams, the Rockets are the class of the M-I and the Dragons are going to battle Dunlap for last. The PJS report is here. Rocket Sparrow remarks ... "This could be a very dangerous team if we ever decide to put the ball in the hole,"

And My game of the night was the Eagles rough landing and takeoff in the Potter Dome. We opted or this game for the comfortable setting on the baseline line stage for getting action around the basket and bench reactions. With snow falling I made a departure after three but by then the Potters had iced the game. In reality it was iced after the first quarter. Kewl part is, you can't tell the score from the pixs so they can be enjoyed by grandma on her frig just as much as if the score had been completely opposite. The final score, from reading the PJStar, was respectable 62-47. This margin gains a hat-tip to Morton Coach ... "That was an awful good half," said Morton coach Steve Schupp, who had cleared his bench by the middle of the second quarter and saw each of his 12 players make type of statistical contribution to the 31-point halftime lead.

Find the free pixs of the VARSITY HERE and the SOPHOMORE GAME HERE.

Add your comments and views. Try and keep it based on YOUR first hand observations of GOOD THINGS -- NOT BAD REF CALLS!