Busting Ignorant Myths

Someone has to do it, so it might as well be me...but there have been a few really silly myths being propageted lately.........

First...I'll start with this one...
There was a flat statement on BradleyFans that a juco player cannot sign a Letter of Intent until and unless
"he has to play 2 semsters of JUCO ball before he can sign" (sic)

Well, this simply is not and never has been true. In fact, a kid doesn't even need to play ONE minute of one game in junior college...he is eligible to sign a LOI if he is on track or can reasonably expect to get his 2-year, junior college Associates Degree the following spring.
Thus players like Ehimen Orupke (at Three Rivers CC and planning to sign this fall with Wichita), Kenyon Smith (at Lincoln College and planing to sign with ISU this fall), and JOHN WILKINS (who is at Southeastern CC in Iowa and planning to sign his LOI with BU next week) - even thos NOT one of those players has even played a single minute of junior college ball...and it's possible that any of them might never play juco ball, but they're still allowed to sign a LOI.
http://www.bradleyhoops.com/homepage/x880803559/Braves-recruit-is-ineligible


Another comment said..
"he had to graduate before he could sign"
--which isn't even close, as every juco kid, even the ones who wait 'til spring to sign their LOI's still sign before the graduate. In fact, some kids sign, then do NOT graduate...even spending extra time doing MORE summer courses to try to graduate.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=142660#post142660
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=142866#post142866

OK..now the myths that are going to maybe get people mad..but here--- this is what it boils down to....
just who do you believe....?
Do you believe an amateur reporter or message board poster who claims he talked to John Wilkins or saw him somewhere or do you believe the very words that are reported in the newspaper that come directly from John Wilkins and his junior college coach?
I will leave it for you to decide...

First...a couple message board posters --
--"Wilkins is uncommitted"
--"No, Wilkin's recruitment is wide open as of right now. Will officially visit Iowa State, has unofficially visited ISU, Bradley, and Illinois State. Kansas is very intererested."
--" it's the truth...if you really want to know, ask Wilkins, he'll confirm what I just said. Also, if Wilkins is firmly committed, why has he already visited Iowa State multiple times?"
--"Wilkins has been seen visiting ISU"
...etc...


Here's the report by Dave Reynolds of the PJ Star...
"...when asked about other schools’ interest in Wilkins. “We’re recruited pretty heavily all the time and when schools stop by at practice and see him here, they’ll say, ‘Who’s this guy?’ But nobody has (targeted) him (as a potential recruit) that I’m aware of..
Said Carroll: “As far as I know, he’ll sign his letter (next week with Bradley).”
http://www.bradleyhoops.com/homepage/x880803559/Braves-recruit-is-ineligible

and anyway...where's the scholarship going to come from at ISU? But, then this isn't the first time we've seen a couple schools in the MVC "over-recruiting"...and offering MORE scholarships than they currently have...knowing that they will have to get rid of some present scholarship athlete somewhere down the line.
But only TWO schools do this....ISU and SIU.....
as I have said many times before, BU would never and has never done this....they might keep their eyes open and follow kids, but BU has never offered a scholarship that they DID NOT HAVE and place themselves over the limit, and only offered when and after a player leaves and thus opens a scholarship.
BU values its relationships with the current players too much to send that signal that the kids are expendable.
Seems every year ISU is doing this and over-recruiting and recruiting over kids...and then they have to find some kid to send packing...
In the end kids like Bone, Roundtree, Odzic, etc...are sent packing after being targeted and recruited to come there.....given the promise of a scholarship, then have it yanked (janked?) out from underneath them while they still had eligibility remaining.
You decide...but I cannot and never have found a single example of it happening anywhere else in the Valley except ISU and SIU.
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BTW-- I spoke personally again yesterday with someone who viewed the closed Bradley scrimmage against DePaul...and again (in keeping with the strict NCAA rules) I will mention only the generalities, that the experience was quite good overall, and that playing against a talented D-I opponent revealed certain needs that the team has, better than intrasquad scrimmaging would do...and perhaps even better than playing a lesser talented or D-II opponent.
But also several players did extremely well, and some coming off injuries played better than expected!!
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Here are a couple of surprising exhibition scores!!

Tiny LeMoyne beats Top 20 ranked Syracuse!! 82-79..
Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson scored 34 for Syracuse.
I think this is pretty decent evidence that not only Syracuse but the entire Big East is already wayyyy overrated...
http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2009/11/lemoyne_stuns_syracuse_82-79_i.html

Utah Valley lost kinda BIG to weakling Canadian school Trinity Western, 77-58.
UVU has a kid from Bloomington, IL whose dad played at Illinois State.
http://www.wolverinegreen.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/woods_kevin00.html

Indiana State beat Rose-Hulman 89-50 - preseason All American :-) Jake Kelly played 25 minutes (more than anyone else) and had 13 pts, 1 asst, and 5 turnovers.
Carl Richard had 7 and only one starter was in double figures.
http://www.gosycamores.com//pdf5/653564.pdf?SPSID=65149&SPID=7259&DB_OEM_ID=15200

also --
Xavier beat Rollins 86-47 - LeBron dunker Jordan Crawford had 13 - but no mention if he had any dunks.
Dayton beat Ferris State 88-73
USF 110 - Florida Southern 79
Duke 84 - Findlay 48
Kansas over Ft. Hays State 107-68 (KU starters played 24-27 minutes!)
----AND Tyshawn Taylor and the Morris twin thugs, etc.. all played showing Bill Self clearly has no consciousness whatsoever about discipline....you can get into as many campus-wide brawls that involve arrests, shootings, sending people to the hospital, rape allegations, and threatening others with weapons...and still if you are a star basketball player...you never have to worry that any such thing as discipline will ever cut into your guaranteed playing time!
Maryland 75 - Indiana (PA) 54 (Maryland only 15% from 3-pt)
Memphis 98- Lemoyne-Owen 68 (Wes Witherspoon 13, and highly touted ex-SIU recruit Drew Barham was 0-3 and had 0 pts, 0 rebs, 0 assists, but had 4 fouls...maybe SIU dodged a bullet on this guy!)
Oklahoma 93 - British Columbia 53
New Mexico 98 - New Mexico Highlands 68
Florida State over Delta State 81-38
Colorado St. over Regis 74-65
Purdue 78- California (PA) 44 (Hummel 9 and ex-BU recruit Ryne Smith was scoreless on 0-3 from 3-pt, Lewis Jackson sat out)
ETSU 113 - Milligan 61

Here's a Matt Roth interview- he has to wear a mask, he has a broken nose...
he should call Sam Singh for advice.
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/110309aab.html