Curtis Stuckey played only two years at Bradley but he was a great scorer...
averaging 24.5 ppg and tallying a career total of 1,248 in just those two seasons.
Curtis Stuckey - one of Bradley's Best
Curtis lived in the Peoria area and I used to run into him and talk at some of the local youth basketball events, but he moved three years ago to Las Vegas.
Curtis' son, Curtis, Jr. is one of the top players for Canyon Springs High School. Here is a story about how Curtis, Jr. helped his Canyon Springs Pioneers to a 78-71 win a few days ago...with 12 points scored. His team moved to 13-3 with this win (but have won 4 more since and are now 17-3).
Canyon Springs beats Chaparral
Last night Curtis, Jr. had 15 points in a 66-50 win over Eldorado.
But Monday night they played Racho HS (Canyon Springs won 80-76, these guys are pretty high scorers!) and an odd event occurred......
After the game it was found that Curtis Stuckey Sr.'s car had been broken into in the parking lot and stolen.
Among the items in the car that are now missing were the JV team's uniforms...
Curtis Sr. is one of the junior varsity coaches.
here is the coverage from Las Vegas...
"MISSING UNIFORMS — Canyon Springs’ junior varsity boys basketball uniforms were stolen along with a coach’s vehicle from the Rancho parking lot Monday, Pioneers varsity coach Daryl Branham said.
Branham said the program received a donation from Supplier for Champions to provide for new uniforms.
“We don’t have any leads right now as to the car or the jerseys,” Branham said Wednesday.
“We’ve got to move forward. We appreciate the support from the community."
Canyon Springs is now ranked 4th in the state of Nevada...Milos' school, Liberty is ranked #22...
Nevada State Rankings
Here are Curtis Jr.'s stats
http://www.maxpreps.com/athletes/pRkVGEqOrECPJVopsu7MNg/basketball-winter-09-10/stats-curtis-stuckey-jr.htm
Here is even more coverage about Curtis'car theft...
http://kvbc.m0bl.net/w/main/story/9057658/
But the uniform company has come through with an offer to supply a new set right away!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35098596/
Dodie's little bro Brandon Dunson (at Wabash Valley) tweeted that he had received a scholarship offer from Arizona State. Other recruiting sites have picked up on this...
Congrats!!
Here's Brandon Dunson's twittering...he talks a lot about offers...
http://twitter.com/brandondunson
http://midstatehoops.com/v5/?p=4171
More followups....
Zach Andrews (#12), playing for Huesca in the Spanish pro league, is in 1st place in their division at 14-4. Zach is their leading rebounder at 9 rpg and 2nd leading scorer at 14 ppg.
Here's some video showing Zach....he has quite a few dunks and one great pass in just the first few minutes of this video.
http://www.cbphuesca.net/index.php
http://competiciones.feb.es/estadisticas/Equipo.aspx?i=507875&med=0
http://www.cbphuesca.net/Equipo.php
Theron Wilson is leading his team, Gryfony Symferopil, in both scoring and rebounding, and here's a nice story from a couple weeks ago about Theron...
http://cjonline.com/sports/basketball/2010-01-06/column_highland_park_alum_thriving_in_ubl
Several ex-Braves have been at recent games, Phillip Gilbert, Danny Adams, Daniel Ruffin, David Collins, Marcello Robinson, Michael Stewart, Reggie Hall..
Here's a story that fits right up there with John Edwards preening himself on camera for 10 minutes in a stretch or with Bill Clinton parking his plane on the runway for two hours and obstructing flight traffic just to get a haircut...
Dick Vitale will be at the Kansas-Kansas State game this wekend...and he and his entourage will command the entire visitors locker room...
the visiting team, Kansas, is relegated to using a lesser facility...
http://cjonline.com/sports/basketball/2010-01-28/column_dont_be_in_a_rush
You don't think fans elsewhere have the same meltdown mentality that some supposed Bradley fans have??
Check this post out...these guys are RANKED and just knocked off the top team..
http://www.volnation.com/forum/tennessee-vols-basketball/94796-you-all-have-emotional-stability-15-a.html
As time has dragged on, the discussion about who are the top candidates for the DePaul job has evolved...
First it was Chris Lowery and Brian Gregory..
Oddly, most people naming Chris Lowery were perhaps going on memory of his good years, and now that they've read up a little more about how he's struggling, has had tons of player defections and dismissals, and has been losing a bunch lately...the talk of CLo to DePaul has all but disappeared.
Here are some of the names begin bandied about...
Billy Gillispie, Wichita's Gregg Marshall, Butler's Brad Stevens, Tulsa's Doug Wojcik, Ex-Blue Demon Tyrone Corbin, and a couple mentions of...Harvard's Tommy Amaker, Jeff Hornacek, Jamar Howard...
The get this...someone has started the rumor of Bobby Knight possibly being interested in the Rutgers job if Fred Hill gets fired..
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/333268-is-knight-right-for-rutgers
http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/bozich/blog.html
Bob Knight will reportedly not be among the broadcasting team when Indiana goes to Illinois this weekend. But there is an odd rumor that present Indiana coach Tom Cream has taken a play from the Bobby Knight handbook.
It's rumored that he has locked the players out of Assembly Hall and they have to practice elsewhere, after a poor showing against Iowa.
(although a lot of people think the coach was the cause of the poor showing at Iowa).
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=170&f=2353&t=5524244
As mentioned earlier, Kentucky's Demarcus Cousins is being reported to have punched a South Carolina fan after the Kentucky loss to the Gamecocks...
Apparently even some video supports it..
Is this NOT the epitome of RENEGADE"?? Where is the press coverage of this, or of Memphis' Pierre Niles' punching of a fan...how come Calipari players are given a free pass on this stuff?
http://bustersports.com/blog/buster-blog/2010/01/27/demarcus-cousins-might-have-gone-bloodsport-on-a-south-carolina-fan/
http://backporch.fanhouse.com/2010/01/28/demarcus-cousins-allegedly-punched-some-south-carolina-fans-afte/
Here's the infamous Pierre Niles sucker punch -
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=78048&postcount=52
Do we need a correction here??
This guy says Kentucky State's Travis Grant is the all time scoring leader in college basketball at 4,045 points in his career.
http://www.allkyhoops.com/2010/01/nice-recognition-for-kentucky-states.html
Unfortunately, this is wrong -- as Grant is only the all time NCAA career scoring leader.
Pete Maravich holds the D-I record, but the overall all time college record is held by NAIA's John Pierce, from David Lipscomb University, 4,230 career points.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_is_the_all-time_leading_scorer_in_men's_college_basketball
Lastly....whew...we can all breathe a sigh of relief....the NCAA has caught and severely hammered a couple of true renegade programs.....
good...because I was worried that USC might just get away scott free...so at least the NCAA is hammering someone!
They really clobbered someone named Geneseo
And they also nailed Georgia Southern
And they really hammered West Georgia
But these guys really deserved it - especially with a name like SUC-Buffalo!!
Glad to know the NCAA is stepping on all those cockroach programs......the rest like USC, Kansas, UConn, I guess, are squeaky clean......
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Creighton 73 - Bradley 68
The game was close right down to the wire, and if any of a few shots go in at the end, game is tied, and we don't need to foul which is what created the final 5-pt margin..but really, the game was a single possession game.
Whenever a single possession decides a game, you can think of a lot of missed opportunities. A few missed bunnies, a turnover, and especially a couple of really bad charging fouls that even the Creighton fans nearby agreed were horrible.
Lawson had a good game - 16 pts/5 rebs, but then so did Will Egolf, 10 pts/5 rebs.
Sam Singh added 7 rebounds, and Taylor Brown got his 5th career double-double with 19 points & 12 rebounds.
Sam Maniscalco had 11 points and 7 assists. His missed "3" at the end was heartbreaking as he has made a lot of crucial shots in his career so far. Even Dana Altman claimed in his post-game comments that Sammy's missed 3 at the end was a lucky break for them.
As mentioned, a whole family of Creighton folks sat right behind me...a doctor and his family who have two kids in Creighton right now. We had a couple doctors sitting in our row, so we had some frequent conversations throughout the night, and one of the folks in our row caught one of the souvenier balls and gave it to the young son of the Creighton family for a souvenier. The Creighton fans have not been to every game, but over the years they had been to every MVC arena and here's what they said...
First they agreed that last night was the best that Creighton has played all year. They passed well, looked for shots, had less selfishness, and hit their shots at a markedly better pace than usual.
They also said they have never been to a visiting arena and been treated as nice and as courteously as they were at Carver Arena in Peoria....
they had some not-so-nice words for the fans at a few other arenas (WSU, ISU, SIU) and related how poorly the visiting fans are treated there. But the BU people need to be proud that there was such a huge difference in the treatment and how polite and friendly the Peoria fans were.
In other MVC games last night, ISU lost to Wichita with Osiris Eldridge getting just 9 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist.
UNI beat Drake 67-51, with Drake having a bad shooting night. Josh Young did not make a 3-pointer - a rarity, and Ryan Wedel was 0-7 and scoreless for the first and only time this season.
Missouri State beat Evansville 76-66, with Weems getting only 4 points. Adam Leonard also did not make a basket, and it's only the 2nd time all year he hasn't hit at least one three pointer.
Evansville's Colt Ryan hit only 1 of his 7 3-pt attempts....
Statistically in Valley play, Bradley is still right at the top of the teams in offense....averaging over 70 ppg, and in the top 3 Valley teams in scoring offense, FG defense, and 3-pt shooting pct. and both offensive and defensive rebounding.
The top dozen individuals in scoring include three Braves...
1. Marshall, Harry-INS 16.0
2. Warren, Andrew-BU 15.8
3. Eldridge,Osiris-ILS 15.1
tie - Maniscalco, Sam-BU 15.1
5. Holmes, Denver-UE 14.4
6. Ryan, Colt-UE 14.2
7. Hannah, Clevin-WSU 14.1
8. Young, Josh-DU 13.9
9. Freeman,Tony-SIU 13.9
10. Lawson Jr.,Kenny-CU 13.6
11. Brown, Taylor-BU 13.6
12. Mallett,Jermaine-MSU 13.5
Taylor Brown is also tied for 3rd in rebounding, Will Egolf is 10th, and Will is also 4th in FG% (.569).
Andrew Warren at .952 has the best FT shooting in Valley play and is 42nd nationally in FT% counting all games.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/ncaa-m-baskbl-div1-ind-free-throw-percentage.html
Among other top teams, Illinois wins AT Penn State - DJ Richardson getting 20 pts, and Bill Cole getting 12 points for his first time in double digits this season, and the first time in his entire collegiate career that he had scored in double digits!
Oddly , none of these fine accomplishments are even mentioned in the release from University of Illinois....I'd feel a little miffed if I was Bill!
Bill also had 7 rebounds, 3 assists without a single turnover, and 2 blocks!
http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/012710aaa.html
I do admire Illini fans....at least when they are dead wrong about a player, they post a humble apology!
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=169&f=2616&t=5533293
Tennessee loses to Vandy and hits a 2-game losing streak for the first time this season. They play Florida on Sunday, and Tennessee has not had a 3-game slide since losing to Vandy, Ohio State, & Auburn in early January of 2007, 3 years ago...
There was an interesting game on Tuesday, with D-I wannabe Seattle playing at Washington...and it shows what happens when you have whistle happy refs combined with aggressive defenses....
The Seattle coach is Cameron Dollar, an ex-Washington assistant.
But the game started off with gobs and gobs of fouls being called against Seattle, and Seattle couldn't get a shot off and the refs strangely swallowed their whistles........and it was obvious that the Seattle coach was not at all happy the way his visiting team was being treated by his old boss.
He even decided to foul harder in the 2nd half as almost 80 total fouls were called in the game, including lots of ticky tack ones in the 2nd half with a 40 point margin in the score.
The game even got uglier and the refs began lecturing the coaches on how not to foul...something I guess coaches don't care to hear...so the fouls kept coming...
The game ended Washington 123 - Seattle 76 with Washington shooting 61 FT's, and SIX Seattle players fouling out, and Seattle ending the game with only four players on the court!
http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=885
http://beyondthearc.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/27/2186911.aspx
Seattle owns a win over Pac-10 - a 51 point blowout over Oregon State
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201001060450
A few misc items...
-here's the precise definition of a low life gold-digger...
http://www.hoopsworld.com/FeedItem.asp?FEED_ITEM_ID=1179175
-more proof positive that a whole lot of the ridiculous climate claims are based on horrible weak and counterfeit data.
http://www.upiasia.com/Top_News/International/2010/01/28/Agency-Climategate-scientists-hid-data/UPI-16001264695241/http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2010m1d28-Seminal-climate-change-report-rife-with-questionable-claims-unproven-science
-Greg Oden embarrasses himself
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Teens-React-to-Greg-Odens-Sexting-Scandal-82843772.html
-I don't know about you, but it wouldn't take much of this before I'd get my kids out of this high school!
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=101656
Whenever a single possession decides a game, you can think of a lot of missed opportunities. A few missed bunnies, a turnover, and especially a couple of really bad charging fouls that even the Creighton fans nearby agreed were horrible.
Lawson had a good game - 16 pts/5 rebs, but then so did Will Egolf, 10 pts/5 rebs.
Sam Singh added 7 rebounds, and Taylor Brown got his 5th career double-double with 19 points & 12 rebounds.
Sam Maniscalco had 11 points and 7 assists. His missed "3" at the end was heartbreaking as he has made a lot of crucial shots in his career so far. Even Dana Altman claimed in his post-game comments that Sammy's missed 3 at the end was a lucky break for them.
As mentioned, a whole family of Creighton folks sat right behind me...a doctor and his family who have two kids in Creighton right now. We had a couple doctors sitting in our row, so we had some frequent conversations throughout the night, and one of the folks in our row caught one of the souvenier balls and gave it to the young son of the Creighton family for a souvenier. The Creighton fans have not been to every game, but over the years they had been to every MVC arena and here's what they said...
First they agreed that last night was the best that Creighton has played all year. They passed well, looked for shots, had less selfishness, and hit their shots at a markedly better pace than usual.
They also said they have never been to a visiting arena and been treated as nice and as courteously as they were at Carver Arena in Peoria....
they had some not-so-nice words for the fans at a few other arenas (WSU, ISU, SIU) and related how poorly the visiting fans are treated there. But the BU people need to be proud that there was such a huge difference in the treatment and how polite and friendly the Peoria fans were.
In other MVC games last night, ISU lost to Wichita with Osiris Eldridge getting just 9 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist.
UNI beat Drake 67-51, with Drake having a bad shooting night. Josh Young did not make a 3-pointer - a rarity, and Ryan Wedel was 0-7 and scoreless for the first and only time this season.
Missouri State beat Evansville 76-66, with Weems getting only 4 points. Adam Leonard also did not make a basket, and it's only the 2nd time all year he hasn't hit at least one three pointer.
Evansville's Colt Ryan hit only 1 of his 7 3-pt attempts....
Statistically in Valley play, Bradley is still right at the top of the teams in offense....averaging over 70 ppg, and in the top 3 Valley teams in scoring offense, FG defense, and 3-pt shooting pct. and both offensive and defensive rebounding.
The top dozen individuals in scoring include three Braves...
1. Marshall, Harry-INS 16.0
2. Warren, Andrew-BU 15.8
3. Eldridge,Osiris-ILS 15.1
tie - Maniscalco, Sam-BU 15.1
5. Holmes, Denver-UE 14.4
6. Ryan, Colt-UE 14.2
7. Hannah, Clevin-WSU 14.1
8. Young, Josh-DU 13.9
9. Freeman,Tony-SIU 13.9
10. Lawson Jr.,Kenny-CU 13.6
11. Brown, Taylor-BU 13.6
12. Mallett,Jermaine-MSU 13.5
Taylor Brown is also tied for 3rd in rebounding, Will Egolf is 10th, and Will is also 4th in FG% (.569).
Andrew Warren at .952 has the best FT shooting in Valley play and is 42nd nationally in FT% counting all games.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/ncaa-m-baskbl-div1-ind-free-throw-percentage.html
Among other top teams, Illinois wins AT Penn State - DJ Richardson getting 20 pts, and Bill Cole getting 12 points for his first time in double digits this season, and the first time in his entire collegiate career that he had scored in double digits!
Oddly , none of these fine accomplishments are even mentioned in the release from University of Illinois....I'd feel a little miffed if I was Bill!
Bill also had 7 rebounds, 3 assists without a single turnover, and 2 blocks!
http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/012710aaa.html
I do admire Illini fans....at least when they are dead wrong about a player, they post a humble apology!
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=169&f=2616&t=5533293
Tennessee loses to Vandy and hits a 2-game losing streak for the first time this season. They play Florida on Sunday, and Tennessee has not had a 3-game slide since losing to Vandy, Ohio State, & Auburn in early January of 2007, 3 years ago...
There was an interesting game on Tuesday, with D-I wannabe Seattle playing at Washington...and it shows what happens when you have whistle happy refs combined with aggressive defenses....
The Seattle coach is Cameron Dollar, an ex-Washington assistant.
But the game started off with gobs and gobs of fouls being called against Seattle, and Seattle couldn't get a shot off and the refs strangely swallowed their whistles........and it was obvious that the Seattle coach was not at all happy the way his visiting team was being treated by his old boss.
He even decided to foul harder in the 2nd half as almost 80 total fouls were called in the game, including lots of ticky tack ones in the 2nd half with a 40 point margin in the score.
The game even got uglier and the refs began lecturing the coaches on how not to foul...something I guess coaches don't care to hear...so the fouls kept coming...
The game ended Washington 123 - Seattle 76 with Washington shooting 61 FT's, and SIX Seattle players fouling out, and Seattle ending the game with only four players on the court!
http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=885
http://beyondthearc.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/27/2186911.aspx
Seattle owns a win over Pac-10 - a 51 point blowout over Oregon State
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201001060450
A few misc items...
-here's the precise definition of a low life gold-digger...
http://www.hoopsworld.com/FeedItem.asp?FEED_ITEM_ID=1179175
-more proof positive that a whole lot of the ridiculous climate claims are based on horrible weak and counterfeit data.
http://www.upiasia.com/Top_News/International/2010/01/28/Agency-Climategate-scientists-hid-data/UPI-16001264695241/http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2010m1d28-Seminal-climate-change-report-rife-with-questionable-claims-unproven-science
-Greg Oden embarrasses himself
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Teens-React-to-Greg-Odens-Sexting-Scandal-82843772.html
-I don't know about you, but it wouldn't take much of this before I'd get my kids out of this high school!
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=101656
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Kentucky nailed with first loss & lots of other stuff going on in college basketball
OK -- is President Obama's influence and power waning?
Well, politically it would seem so......but all politics aside, President Obama called the University of Kentucky's basketball players and wished them well and told them not to have a letdown!
The very next day, they had a letdown and lose their first game to South Carolina!!
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/01/is-obamas-notsomidas-touch-extending-to-sports-.html
Speaking of the loss to South Carolina...maybe this will convince some that UK isn't a shoo-in for the National Championship this season!
One of Kentucky's superstuds seems to have cold-cocked one of the South Carolina fans, but not much is being made of it, because.....well, I guess because he plays for Kentucky and is one of Calipari's studs......
Kentucky's DeMarcus Cousins punches South Carolina fan in the face
Also - some other interesting results from last night...
-Dayton loses (at home to Rhode Island) their 3rd in the last 4 games to drop to 3-3 in the Atlantic-10.
They are now in 7th place in the A-10, and despite being ranked once by many in the Top 20 to start the season, they have some fans worried that a 7th place conference finish would be extremely HARD to sell to the NCAA Selection Committee...and their chances of playing in the NCAA Tournament might be taking a serious hit!
-Michigan played last night with their star, Manny Harris - coming off a suspenion...
and almost knocked off #5 ranked Michigan State, losing 57-56.
-DePaul loses again...yawn...so what's new...at least this game had some action....intentional and flagrant fouls and technicals!
-Minnesota holds John Shurna to "only" 19 and beats Northwestern.
-Kentucky's DeAndre Liggins (scoreless-no shots) and Darius Miller (scoreless-2 shots) must be getting a little peeved playing at Kentucky....
sure they get some playing time (some of it garbage time behind the touted freshmen), but they never touch the ball!
John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins took 33 shots between them and had a grand total of JUST 2 assists!
But those guys still get more PT than Josh Harrelson...who didn't even get off the bench last night!
If Calipari brings in a whole bunch of new 5-Star freshman (which he's already in the process of doing) for next year, look for a few of these guys to cut and run knowing they won't get any playing time next year either....
They'll hang around this year in hopes of al least enjoying a run into the Final Four...but I can't imagine they'd want to hang around for another wasted year next season.
BTW - the game was lost when John Wall muffed a pass and fumbled it out of bounds...
-Rutgers started the season 9-2 and were on a 6 game winning streak when they began losing about Christmas time...amid some rumors of player discontent...
Echineque left, but he was injured and not playing anyway...
and now Rutgers has proceeded to lose NINE in a row..including a 23 point drubbing last night by Marquette.
Look for some brewing talk of head coach Fred Hill relocating to the hot seat.
-here's a video of a coach who makes a half-court shot while BLINDFOLDED...thinking he wins a big prize.....
truth is, though, that they were so sure he wouldn't make it that they never arranged for the prize, and the coach got stiffed.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/sports/coach-makes-half-court-shot-blindfolded-012710
-Ex-Illini player CJ Jackson, who transferred to Hawaii-Hilo (D-II), is having a fine year...
Just maybe the Illini could have used the guy's size and toughness, recall he was also a scholarship footballer at Illinois!
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100126/SPORTS06/1260352/sportsfront/HPU+tops+Hilo+in+OT
-at Indiana, there's talk of Matt Roth healing faster than predicted from his fracture, but...they still will not likely bring him back this year for just a few games.
http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=6743
Speaking of Indiana, a couple long threads on the Hoosier board are interesting...
one discussing how Crean lays the blame on the players for the losses...
Crean blames players
and one where lots of posters blast Crean for bad coaching...
Bad coaching from Coach Crean
-nice story on ISU's Tony Lewis
http://www.videtteonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31285:knockout-former-boxer-lewis-provides-fighters-mentality&catid=38:sportsbasketball&Itemid=55
-funny story on the Shocker board...
http://www.shockernet.net/sn/viewtopic.php?t=16046
-after a few recent issues, the Celtics' Glen "Big Baby" Davis wants to drop the nickname!
http://www.wapt.com/sports/22350977/detail.html
-Bulls make a trade - Patrick O'Bryant's old nemesis, Aaron Gray is no longer a Bull!
http://www.nba.com/2010/news/01/25/bulls.hornets.trade.ap/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2
-I know there's ban on teens texting while driving...but here's a new reason why you might not want to text while in bed...it appears it may be dangerous like smoking in bed...
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/offbeat/girl-burned-by-cell-phone-012610
Well, politically it would seem so......but all politics aside, President Obama called the University of Kentucky's basketball players and wished them well and told them not to have a letdown!
The very next day, they had a letdown and lose their first game to South Carolina!!
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/01/is-obamas-notsomidas-touch-extending-to-sports-.html
Speaking of the loss to South Carolina...maybe this will convince some that UK isn't a shoo-in for the National Championship this season!
One of Kentucky's superstuds seems to have cold-cocked one of the South Carolina fans, but not much is being made of it, because.....well, I guess because he plays for Kentucky and is one of Calipari's studs......
Kentucky's DeMarcus Cousins punches South Carolina fan in the face
Also - some other interesting results from last night...
-Dayton loses (at home to Rhode Island) their 3rd in the last 4 games to drop to 3-3 in the Atlantic-10.
They are now in 7th place in the A-10, and despite being ranked once by many in the Top 20 to start the season, they have some fans worried that a 7th place conference finish would be extremely HARD to sell to the NCAA Selection Committee...and their chances of playing in the NCAA Tournament might be taking a serious hit!
-Michigan played last night with their star, Manny Harris - coming off a suspenion...
and almost knocked off #5 ranked Michigan State, losing 57-56.
-DePaul loses again...yawn...so what's new...at least this game had some action....intentional and flagrant fouls and technicals!
-Minnesota holds John Shurna to "only" 19 and beats Northwestern.
-Kentucky's DeAndre Liggins (scoreless-no shots) and Darius Miller (scoreless-2 shots) must be getting a little peeved playing at Kentucky....
sure they get some playing time (some of it garbage time behind the touted freshmen), but they never touch the ball!
John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins took 33 shots between them and had a grand total of JUST 2 assists!
But those guys still get more PT than Josh Harrelson...who didn't even get off the bench last night!
If Calipari brings in a whole bunch of new 5-Star freshman (which he's already in the process of doing) for next year, look for a few of these guys to cut and run knowing they won't get any playing time next year either....
They'll hang around this year in hopes of al least enjoying a run into the Final Four...but I can't imagine they'd want to hang around for another wasted year next season.
BTW - the game was lost when John Wall muffed a pass and fumbled it out of bounds...
-Rutgers started the season 9-2 and were on a 6 game winning streak when they began losing about Christmas time...amid some rumors of player discontent...
Echineque left, but he was injured and not playing anyway...
and now Rutgers has proceeded to lose NINE in a row..including a 23 point drubbing last night by Marquette.
Look for some brewing talk of head coach Fred Hill relocating to the hot seat.
-here's a video of a coach who makes a half-court shot while BLINDFOLDED...thinking he wins a big prize.....
truth is, though, that they were so sure he wouldn't make it that they never arranged for the prize, and the coach got stiffed.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/sports/coach-makes-half-court-shot-blindfolded-012710
-Ex-Illini player CJ Jackson, who transferred to Hawaii-Hilo (D-II), is having a fine year...
Just maybe the Illini could have used the guy's size and toughness, recall he was also a scholarship footballer at Illinois!
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100126/SPORTS06/1260352/sportsfront/HPU+tops+Hilo+in+OT
-at Indiana, there's talk of Matt Roth healing faster than predicted from his fracture, but...they still will not likely bring him back this year for just a few games.
http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=6743
Speaking of Indiana, a couple long threads on the Hoosier board are interesting...
one discussing how Crean lays the blame on the players for the losses...
Crean blames players
and one where lots of posters blast Crean for bad coaching...
Bad coaching from Coach Crean
-nice story on ISU's Tony Lewis
http://www.videtteonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31285:knockout-former-boxer-lewis-provides-fighters-mentality&catid=38:sportsbasketball&Itemid=55
-funny story on the Shocker board...
http://www.shockernet.net/sn/viewtopic.php?t=16046
-after a few recent issues, the Celtics' Glen "Big Baby" Davis wants to drop the nickname!
http://www.wapt.com/sports/22350977/detail.html
-Bulls make a trade - Patrick O'Bryant's old nemesis, Aaron Gray is no longer a Bull!
http://www.nba.com/2010/news/01/25/bulls.hornets.trade.ap/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2
-I know there's ban on teens texting while driving...but here's a new reason why you might not want to text while in bed...it appears it may be dangerous like smoking in bed...
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/offbeat/girl-burned-by-cell-phone-012610
Monday, January 25, 2010
All Valley @ the half way point
Here are my picks for the players that qualify for individual honors at this mid-point in the 2009-2010 MVC season.....
A little heavier emphasis is placed on the individual's IN-CONFERENCE performance and stats over their full year numbers which in many cases were games played against woefully weak opponents.
All MVC 1st Team
Andrew Warren
Sam Maniscalco (** POY)
Kyle Weems
Kwadzo Ahelegbe
Jordan Eglseder
All MVC 2nd Team
Taylor Brown
Harry Marshall
Kenny Lawson
Osiris Eldridge
Clevin Hannah
All MVC 3rd Team
Will Egolf
Josh Young
JT Durley
Adam Koch (17th in conference scoring/20th in conference rebounding!)
Kevin Dillard (tie)
Toure Murry (tie)
All Newcomer Team
Colt Ryan (** NOY)
Jackie Carmichael
Dwayne Lathan
Adam Leonard
Tony Freeman
All Freshman Team
Colt Ryan (** FOY)
Jackie Carmichael
Jermaine Mallett
Dyricus Simms-Edwards
Ethan Wragge
Most Improved
Will Egolf
All Transfer Team
Tony Freeman
Dwayne Lathan
Ryan Wedel
Adam Leonard
Adam Templeton
All Juco Transfer Team
Chris Roberts
Jermaine Mallett
Justin Carter
Lloyd Phillips
Clevin Hannah
Lastly - one little update for those who like the climate debate...
Legitimate media outlets are finally beginning to report about the use of selective, false, phony, and fabricated data by the "global warming" crowd...
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Scientists+using+selective+temperature+data+skeptics/2468634/story.html
Why are they using only certain selected data and totally ignoring all the rest?
“NOAA (whose data Nasa used with their reports). . . systematically eliminated 75% of the world’s stations with a clear bias towards removing higher latitude, high altitude and rural locations, all of which had a tendency to be cooler,” the authors say. “The thermometers in a sense, marched towards the tropics, the sea, and to airport tarmacs.”,
The major countries, USA, England, Canada, etc...all now have top authorities that are beginning to seriously question anything those global warming people are saying, as their credibility is taking hit after hit with the revelation of flawed, cooked, and erroneous data and bias...
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/25/steve-janke-climate-panel-s-credibility-melts-over-glacier-goof.aspx
Now the latest embarrassment for the warming crowd...the very people who claim theirs is the only legitimate "PEER REVIEWED DATA"!!!
(don't you get tired of them using that phrase, "peer reviewed", especially when they reserve the right to name the only legitimate peers who are entitled to review??)
Guess what.......here is a nice column exposing the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) - the very people holding worldwide conferences and trashing everyone else's data...
But note that the IPCC Conference's special AR4 report (a Nobel winning report from 2007) contains data that comes from at least 20 different sources that did NOT pass peer review...
In other words...they intentionally violate their own ground rules in order to make their point!
http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-scandal-deepens-%E2%80%93-ipcc-ar4-riddled-with-non-peer-reviewed-wwf-papers.html
http://nofrakkingconsensus.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-dodgy-citations-in-nobel-winning.html
A little heavier emphasis is placed on the individual's IN-CONFERENCE performance and stats over their full year numbers which in many cases were games played against woefully weak opponents.
All MVC 1st Team
Andrew Warren
Sam Maniscalco (** POY)
Kyle Weems
Kwadzo Ahelegbe
Jordan Eglseder
All MVC 2nd Team
Taylor Brown
Harry Marshall
Kenny Lawson
Osiris Eldridge
Clevin Hannah
All MVC 3rd Team
Will Egolf
Josh Young
JT Durley
Adam Koch (17th in conference scoring/20th in conference rebounding!)
Kevin Dillard (tie)
Toure Murry (tie)
All Newcomer Team
Colt Ryan (** NOY)
Jackie Carmichael
Dwayne Lathan
Adam Leonard
Tony Freeman
All Freshman Team
Colt Ryan (** FOY)
Jackie Carmichael
Jermaine Mallett
Dyricus Simms-Edwards
Ethan Wragge
Most Improved
Will Egolf
All Transfer Team
Tony Freeman
Dwayne Lathan
Ryan Wedel
Adam Leonard
Adam Templeton
All Juco Transfer Team
Chris Roberts
Jermaine Mallett
Justin Carter
Lloyd Phillips
Clevin Hannah
Lastly - one little update for those who like the climate debate...
Legitimate media outlets are finally beginning to report about the use of selective, false, phony, and fabricated data by the "global warming" crowd...
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Scientists+using+selective+temperature+data+skeptics/2468634/story.html
Why are they using only certain selected data and totally ignoring all the rest?
“NOAA (whose data Nasa used with their reports). . . systematically eliminated 75% of the world’s stations with a clear bias towards removing higher latitude, high altitude and rural locations, all of which had a tendency to be cooler,” the authors say. “The thermometers in a sense, marched towards the tropics, the sea, and to airport tarmacs.”,
The major countries, USA, England, Canada, etc...all now have top authorities that are beginning to seriously question anything those global warming people are saying, as their credibility is taking hit after hit with the revelation of flawed, cooked, and erroneous data and bias...
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/25/steve-janke-climate-panel-s-credibility-melts-over-glacier-goof.aspx
Now the latest embarrassment for the warming crowd...the very people who claim theirs is the only legitimate "PEER REVIEWED DATA"!!!
(don't you get tired of them using that phrase, "peer reviewed", especially when they reserve the right to name the only legitimate peers who are entitled to review??)
Guess what.......here is a nice column exposing the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) - the very people holding worldwide conferences and trashing everyone else's data...
But note that the IPCC Conference's special AR4 report (a Nobel winning report from 2007) contains data that comes from at least 20 different sources that did NOT pass peer review...
In other words...they intentionally violate their own ground rules in order to make their point!
http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-scandal-deepens-%E2%80%93-ipcc-ar4-riddled-with-non-peer-reviewed-wwf-papers.html
http://nofrakkingconsensus.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-dodgy-citations-in-nobel-winning.html
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Bradley beats Evansville 74-64, and who are the Valley's best players?
Evansville showed that they have a few fine, young shooters, but they just don't have all the pieces..
Their inside game is lacking and they don't have a lot of defensive prowess.
The crowd was good, the refs were OK, and Bradley really didn't have any long dry spells....
Early in the 2nd half, Evansville had a couple consecutive good possessions, but they never got closer than a couple points under 10.
I think Bradley is really playing hard, especially on defense.
But here are a few comments about the offensive performances of players in the Valley............
The top scorers in the Valley yesterday were:
Josh Young (DU) - 20 (8 Field Goals Attempted)
Sam Maniscalco (BU) - 19 (just 10 FGA)
Clevin Hannah (WSU) - 19 (17 FGA)
Kevin Dillard (SIU) - 18 (8 FGA)
Denver Holmes (UE) - 18 (11 FGA)
Seth Van Deest (DU) - 17 (9 FGA)
Andrew Warren (BU) - 17 (just 7 FGA)
JT Durley (WSU) - 16 (13 FGA)
Dinma Odiakosa (ISU) - 16 (9 FGA)
Osiris Eldridge (ISU) - 16 (21 FGA)
Tony Lewis (ISU) - 16 (6 FGA)
Toure Murry (WSU) - 15 (8 FGA)
Justin Bocot (SIU) - 14 (8 FGA)
Then, if we add a look at the very best scoring performances from the rest of this week in the Valley:
Denver Holmes - 23 (13 FG attempts)
Sam Maniscalco (1/20) - 21 (on 9 FG attempts)
Harry Marshall (InSU) - 21 (on 13 FG attempts)
Carl Richard (InSU of 1/19) - 20 (on 10 FG attempts)
JT Durley - 19 (on 11 FG attempts)
Josh Young (1/20) - 18 (on just 7 FG attempts)
Then what we see is that the Valley really does have a lot of good scorers who aren't getting their points just by jacking up tons of shots, with some going in...
note Sammy's total this week of 40 points in two games taking only 19 field goal attempts...getting more than 2 pts per FGA!!
Josh Young of Drake is even more efficient, which likely explains a little why Drake is on a run...he's got 38 points in the past two games since last weekend, taking only 15 shots!!!
In fact there's only one performancxe this past week that stands out starkly as BOGUS.....when a guy has to take over 20 shots to corral 16 points...then just maybe he'd help his team more by letting someone else take a shot once in a while.
Now we'll move on to the scoring in the Valley since the beginning of league play......
Here are the best eight scorers........
1. Marshall, Harry-INS SR 16.4
2. Warren, Andrew-BU JR 16.1
3. Eldridge,Osiris-ILS SR 15.8 (142 pts on 112 FGA)
4. Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR 15.6 (140 pts in 85 FGA)
5. Weems,Kyle-MSU SO 15.1
6. Holmes, Denver-UE SO 14.8
7. Ryan, Colt-UE FR 14.6
8. Young, Josh-DU SR 14.1
Now a list of the eight best in the Valley in FG shooting percentage...
1. Carmichael,Jackie-ILS 29-50 .580
2. Eglseder, Jordan-UNI SR 43-75 .573
3. Egolf, Will-BU SO 37-65 .569
4. Odiakosa,Dinma-ILS SR 38-69 .551
5. Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR 45-85 .529
6. Templeton, Adam-DU SR 37-70 .529
7. Koch, Adam-UNI SR 31-59 .525
8. Patterson,Caleb-MSU SO 27-53 .509
Basically that's the only 8 players in the Valley shooting at or better than 51% - and then compare the two lists.....
There is only one name on the BOTH lists.....Sam Maniscalco....
so he's not only scoring quite well, he isn't missing many shots and giving the ball right back to the opponents for them to score!
And I just wonder how many more pts Sammy would have if he was at 112 field goals attempted...
of course he'd have to be forcing a lot of those shots, but surely he'd have made at least 30-40% of those extra 27 shots, and some would be 3-pointers, so Sammy would have at least 30-40 more points and would be averaging close to 20 ppg, way ahead of everyone else in the Valley............interesting to contemplate!!
Now let's turn to turnovers.........
Kevin Dillard 26
Harry Marshall 23
Kwadzo Ahelegbe 22 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Osiris Eldridge 21
Colt Ryan 20
Adam Koch 17 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Josh Young 17
Tony Freeman 17
Clevin Hannah 17
Lloyd Phillips 16
Adam Leonard 16
P'Allen Stinnett 15 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Sam Maniscalco, who may actually handle the ball for more actual minutes than anyone else on the entire list - is way down the list at only 14 total turnovers thus far in Valley play AND...
he isn't even in the TOP 30 players in the MVC!!!
Here's Sammy compared to the other TWO first team preseason shooting guards...
Sam Maniscalco - 15.6 ppg, 53% FG%, 38% 3ptFG%, 81% on FT, 29 assists, 14 TO
Osiris Eldridge- 15.8 ppg, 41% FG%, 40% 3ptFG%, 91% on FT, 22 assists, 21 TO
P'Allen Stinnett- 8.0 ppg, 34% FG%, 22% 3ptFG%, 63% on FT, 15 assists, 15 TO
Wow, despite playing well enough that Sammy could well lay claim to being the best PG in the league, he also has a pretty solid argument for being the best SG in the league at the same time....
Did anyone see this coming??? (besides me?? ;)
Then the last stat I will look at...at the end of the game, they are going to foul the guy with the ball, so let's look at the free throw percentages of the guy who handle the ball in Valley play...............and for the sake of comparison, these are the ones in the Valley who average MORE than 4 FT attempts per game...
Warren, Andrew-BU JR .950 (38-40)
Brown, Taylor-BU SO .868 (33-38)
Koch, Adam-UNI SR .865
Marshall, Harry-INS SR .854
Mallett,Jermaine-MSU JR .824
Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR .805 (33-41)
wow...three of the top SIX of them are BU guys and all three are over 80%..and all three of the Bradley guys have gone to the line well over four times a game and have made well over 30 pts on FT's (Osiris Eldridge has gone to the FT only 3.6 times per game and has made only 30 pts on FT's..way below what might be expected)
Just a couple other random stats...
Will Egolf is among the leaders at 57% FG accuracy (3rd in the league and ahead of perennial leader Dinma Odiakosa)
Also - BU's sophomore duo of Will Egolf and Taylor Brown are BOTH in the Top 10 in the Valley in rebounding...with Andrew Warren just outside the Top 10.
Get this...only ONE team has THREE of the BEST 15 rebounders in the Valley, and it's BRADLEY (so much to dispel the myth that BU can't rebound because we don't have our "bigs coach"!!)
Andrew Warren is 3rd in Valley play with 47.5% on 3-pointers
Sam Maniscalco is 4th in Assist to Turnovers at 2.1
And contrary to what some have said, Sam is not playing more minutes than everyone in the Valley....
In fact...not at all...Sam is barely in the Top 10...I guess I'd be surprised if our PG wasn't in the Top 10, and Sammy is playing 3 minutes per game less than Evansville's Colt Ryan and two mpg less than Osiris Eldridge.
One final comparison...
Remember, ISU's Dinma Odiakosa was ranked in the preseason as one of the best if not the best center in the league...
many listed Dinma on their First Team All-MVC!
Well, here is a direct, side-by-side comparison between 5th year senior Dinma, and "hobbled" sophomre Will Egolf - who didn't get any notice in the preseason because he was coming off an oft-career-ending, devastating knee injury and hadn't played in a FULL year!
Dinma--9 games, 39-69 (56.5%), 8.4 rpg, 7 blocks, 30 mpg, TWO foul-outs
Will----9 games, 37-65 (56.9%), 6.0 rpg, 8 blocks, 25 mpg, has NOT fouled out
and Will is still getting better..........so who'd have thunk it??
Their inside game is lacking and they don't have a lot of defensive prowess.
The crowd was good, the refs were OK, and Bradley really didn't have any long dry spells....
Early in the 2nd half, Evansville had a couple consecutive good possessions, but they never got closer than a couple points under 10.
I think Bradley is really playing hard, especially on defense.
But here are a few comments about the offensive performances of players in the Valley............
The top scorers in the Valley yesterday were:
Josh Young (DU) - 20 (8 Field Goals Attempted)
Sam Maniscalco (BU) - 19 (just 10 FGA)
Clevin Hannah (WSU) - 19 (17 FGA)
Kevin Dillard (SIU) - 18 (8 FGA)
Denver Holmes (UE) - 18 (11 FGA)
Seth Van Deest (DU) - 17 (9 FGA)
Andrew Warren (BU) - 17 (just 7 FGA)
JT Durley (WSU) - 16 (13 FGA)
Dinma Odiakosa (ISU) - 16 (9 FGA)
Osiris Eldridge (ISU) - 16 (21 FGA)
Tony Lewis (ISU) - 16 (6 FGA)
Toure Murry (WSU) - 15 (8 FGA)
Justin Bocot (SIU) - 14 (8 FGA)
Then, if we add a look at the very best scoring performances from the rest of this week in the Valley:
Denver Holmes - 23 (13 FG attempts)
Sam Maniscalco (1/20) - 21 (on 9 FG attempts)
Harry Marshall (InSU) - 21 (on 13 FG attempts)
Carl Richard (InSU of 1/19) - 20 (on 10 FG attempts)
JT Durley - 19 (on 11 FG attempts)
Josh Young (1/20) - 18 (on just 7 FG attempts)
Then what we see is that the Valley really does have a lot of good scorers who aren't getting their points just by jacking up tons of shots, with some going in...
note Sammy's total this week of 40 points in two games taking only 19 field goal attempts...getting more than 2 pts per FGA!!
Josh Young of Drake is even more efficient, which likely explains a little why Drake is on a run...he's got 38 points in the past two games since last weekend, taking only 15 shots!!!
In fact there's only one performancxe this past week that stands out starkly as BOGUS.....when a guy has to take over 20 shots to corral 16 points...then just maybe he'd help his team more by letting someone else take a shot once in a while.
Now we'll move on to the scoring in the Valley since the beginning of league play......
Here are the best eight scorers........
1. Marshall, Harry-INS SR 16.4
2. Warren, Andrew-BU JR 16.1
3. Eldridge,Osiris-ILS SR 15.8 (142 pts on 112 FGA)
4. Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR 15.6 (140 pts in 85 FGA)
5. Weems,Kyle-MSU SO 15.1
6. Holmes, Denver-UE SO 14.8
7. Ryan, Colt-UE FR 14.6
8. Young, Josh-DU SR 14.1
Now a list of the eight best in the Valley in FG shooting percentage...
1. Carmichael,Jackie-ILS 29-50 .580
2. Eglseder, Jordan-UNI SR 43-75 .573
3. Egolf, Will-BU SO 37-65 .569
4. Odiakosa,Dinma-ILS SR 38-69 .551
5. Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR 45-85 .529
6. Templeton, Adam-DU SR 37-70 .529
7. Koch, Adam-UNI SR 31-59 .525
8. Patterson,Caleb-MSU SO 27-53 .509
Basically that's the only 8 players in the Valley shooting at or better than 51% - and then compare the two lists.....
There is only one name on the BOTH lists.....Sam Maniscalco....
so he's not only scoring quite well, he isn't missing many shots and giving the ball right back to the opponents for them to score!
And I just wonder how many more pts Sammy would have if he was at 112 field goals attempted...
of course he'd have to be forcing a lot of those shots, but surely he'd have made at least 30-40% of those extra 27 shots, and some would be 3-pointers, so Sammy would have at least 30-40 more points and would be averaging close to 20 ppg, way ahead of everyone else in the Valley............interesting to contemplate!!
Now let's turn to turnovers.........
Kevin Dillard 26
Harry Marshall 23
Kwadzo Ahelegbe 22 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Osiris Eldridge 21
Colt Ryan 20
Adam Koch 17 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Josh Young 17
Tony Freeman 17
Clevin Hannah 17
Lloyd Phillips 16
Adam Leonard 16
P'Allen Stinnett 15 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Sam Maniscalco, who may actually handle the ball for more actual minutes than anyone else on the entire list - is way down the list at only 14 total turnovers thus far in Valley play AND...
he isn't even in the TOP 30 players in the MVC!!!
Here's Sammy compared to the other TWO first team preseason shooting guards...
Sam Maniscalco - 15.6 ppg, 53% FG%, 38% 3ptFG%, 81% on FT, 29 assists, 14 TO
Osiris Eldridge- 15.8 ppg, 41% FG%, 40% 3ptFG%, 91% on FT, 22 assists, 21 TO
P'Allen Stinnett- 8.0 ppg, 34% FG%, 22% 3ptFG%, 63% on FT, 15 assists, 15 TO
Wow, despite playing well enough that Sammy could well lay claim to being the best PG in the league, he also has a pretty solid argument for being the best SG in the league at the same time....
Did anyone see this coming??? (besides me?? ;)
Then the last stat I will look at...at the end of the game, they are going to foul the guy with the ball, so let's look at the free throw percentages of the guy who handle the ball in Valley play...............and for the sake of comparison, these are the ones in the Valley who average MORE than 4 FT attempts per game...
Warren, Andrew-BU JR .950 (38-40)
Brown, Taylor-BU SO .868 (33-38)
Koch, Adam-UNI SR .865
Marshall, Harry-INS SR .854
Mallett,Jermaine-MSU JR .824
Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR .805 (33-41)
wow...three of the top SIX of them are BU guys and all three are over 80%..and all three of the Bradley guys have gone to the line well over four times a game and have made well over 30 pts on FT's (Osiris Eldridge has gone to the FT only 3.6 times per game and has made only 30 pts on FT's..way below what might be expected)
Just a couple other random stats...
Will Egolf is among the leaders at 57% FG accuracy (3rd in the league and ahead of perennial leader Dinma Odiakosa)
Also - BU's sophomore duo of Will Egolf and Taylor Brown are BOTH in the Top 10 in the Valley in rebounding...with Andrew Warren just outside the Top 10.
Get this...only ONE team has THREE of the BEST 15 rebounders in the Valley, and it's BRADLEY (so much to dispel the myth that BU can't rebound because we don't have our "bigs coach"!!)
Andrew Warren is 3rd in Valley play with 47.5% on 3-pointers
Sam Maniscalco is 4th in Assist to Turnovers at 2.1
And contrary to what some have said, Sam is not playing more minutes than everyone in the Valley....
In fact...not at all...Sam is barely in the Top 10...I guess I'd be surprised if our PG wasn't in the Top 10, and Sammy is playing 3 minutes per game less than Evansville's Colt Ryan and two mpg less than Osiris Eldridge.
One final comparison...
Remember, ISU's Dinma Odiakosa was ranked in the preseason as one of the best if not the best center in the league...
many listed Dinma on their First Team All-MVC!
Well, here is a direct, side-by-side comparison between 5th year senior Dinma, and "hobbled" sophomre Will Egolf - who didn't get any notice in the preseason because he was coming off an oft-career-ending, devastating knee injury and hadn't played in a FULL year!
Dinma--9 games, 39-69 (56.5%), 8.4 rpg, 7 blocks, 30 mpg, TWO foul-outs
Will----9 games, 37-65 (56.9%), 6.0 rpg, 8 blocks, 25 mpg, has NOT fouled out
and Will is still getting better..........so who'd have thunk it??
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Followup on Hersey Hawkins and his kids...
OK - it's time to catch up on Hersey and his boys....
Hersey Hawkins surely has to be one of the top favorite players of EVERY Bradley fan....
Hersey's oldest son is Brandon Hawkins...who had some offers - even from Bradley but chose to go to Pacific University....he left Pacific when some seriuos turmoil hit there causes by assaults that Brandon had nothing to do with.
Brandon now is at Fresno City College (junior college)..
he is in his sophomore season there and averages about 6 ppg, and a few asst & steals..
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763201&id=70819564966&fbid=177248944966
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763202&id=70819564966&fbid=177248954966
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763203&id=70819564966&fbid=177248974966
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763204&id=70819564966&fbid=177248989966
http://rivals.yahoo.com/louisianatech/basketball/recruiting/player-Brandon-Hawkins-62143
Hersey's 2nd son, Corey Hawkins is a prolific scorer at Estrella Foothills HS in Arizona, where his father helpled as assistant until this year. Corey is closing in on the all time Arizona state scoring record presently held by Henry Bibby, and should get it this year (his senior year)!
Corey has been hitting for 25-50 points per game..and averaging 35 ppg...and headed to Arizona State next year!
http://tucsoncitizen.com/wildaboutazcats/2010/01/22/unrated-asu-recruit-out-to-prove-he-is-the-best-player-in-the-state/
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Richardobert/72171
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Richardobert/71137
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Richardobert/70350
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/nFIKivrWEd6UswAcxJTdpg/arizona--mesa-boys-basketball-eyes-return-of-baruti.htm
Youngest brother Devon is a freshman...just getting his feet wet in high school ball...but has a high game of 23 and is already averaging 12 ppg.
This first link contains a picture of Devon.
http://coachesaid.com/Article/2009/12/28/Hawkins-brothers-lead-Foothills-over-Dobson
http://www.qcsunonline.com/articles/mexico-2307-enmvarsity-arizona-new.html
Father, Hersey Hawkins is now working in the front office of the Portland Blazers...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13105
Hersey comments on guns in the lockerroom...
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/12804762/wizards-dark-episode-should-shed-light-on-imagedamaging-actions
Hersey Hawkins surely has to be one of the top favorite players of EVERY Bradley fan....
Hersey's oldest son is Brandon Hawkins...who had some offers - even from Bradley but chose to go to Pacific University....he left Pacific when some seriuos turmoil hit there causes by assaults that Brandon had nothing to do with.
Brandon now is at Fresno City College (junior college)..
he is in his sophomore season there and averages about 6 ppg, and a few asst & steals..
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763201&id=70819564966&fbid=177248944966
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763202&id=70819564966&fbid=177248954966
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763203&id=70819564966&fbid=177248974966
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=763200&id=70819564966#/photo.php?pid=763204&id=70819564966&fbid=177248989966
http://rivals.yahoo.com/louisianatech/basketball/recruiting/player-Brandon-Hawkins-62143
Hersey's 2nd son, Corey Hawkins is a prolific scorer at Estrella Foothills HS in Arizona, where his father helpled as assistant until this year. Corey is closing in on the all time Arizona state scoring record presently held by Henry Bibby, and should get it this year (his senior year)!
Corey has been hitting for 25-50 points per game..and averaging 35 ppg...and headed to Arizona State next year!
http://tucsoncitizen.com/wildaboutazcats/2010/01/22/unrated-asu-recruit-out-to-prove-he-is-the-best-player-in-the-state/
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Richardobert/72171
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Richardobert/71137
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Richardobert/70350
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/nFIKivrWEd6UswAcxJTdpg/arizona--mesa-boys-basketball-eyes-return-of-baruti.htm
Youngest brother Devon is a freshman...just getting his feet wet in high school ball...but has a high game of 23 and is already averaging 12 ppg.
This first link contains a picture of Devon.
http://coachesaid.com/Article/2009/12/28/Hawkins-brothers-lead-Foothills-over-Dobson
http://www.qcsunonline.com/articles/mexico-2307-enmvarsity-arizona-new.html
Father, Hersey Hawkins is now working in the front office of the Portland Blazers...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13105
Hersey comments on guns in the lockerroom...
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/12804762/wizards-dark-episode-should-shed-light-on-imagedamaging-actions
Friday, January 22, 2010
Bradley beats SIU 57-55
Wednesday night Bradley gutted out a really tough game in Carbondale...the first win there for a Bradley team in 9 years and Jim Les' first win at SIU.
There were some really odd plays and some officiating that I still do NOT understand, and maybe some day someone can offer an explanation.
Early in the game with Bradley leading 17-2 thanks to some hot shooting by Sammy and Will, Taylor Brown goes for a rebound, gets mauled by a couple of SIU guys (see the picture in the link below), then chases the loose ball towards the end line.
As the ball is going out of bounds, Taylor tries to save it inbounds and turns to throw the ball at the opponent's feet...a good play and nothing out of the ordinary.
And the fans sitting nearby universally agree Taylor uttered NO innapropriate words!
As that's happening, the ref whistles a foul on Taylor - who most certainly did NOT foul anyone, but in addition the ref sees the throw of the ball and erroneously presumes it was flagrant and calls a "T" as well. That single call cost us possession, then the 2 FT's, then the basket on the gift possession from the "T"....a 6-point swing! The score went from 17-2 at 13:24, to 17-6 at 13:06, then quickly SIU had closed the gap.
Anyway - I thought it was a horrible call, maybe the ref was trying to "even it up" as stats and studies show refs are prone to doing when one team begins to run away with a game.
Here is more, plus the link...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=159848#post159848
Then numerous other calls were bad....the flop by Carlton Fay after a missed 3-pt attempt...nobody touched the guy yet the ref sees it out of the corner of his eye, calls the foul and gives SIU three freebies!
Many BU players like Jake Eastman, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts...were repeatedly bumped and mugged as they went for shots in the lane and yet no fouls called.
Although it didn't involve the refs..one other play was quite interesting...
Nick Evans missed a wide open, time-for-a-sandwich-first, monster DUNK.
Here's a bit more plus a picture....
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14423
The other really weird call was the intentional foul call on Andrew Warren.
First, I have to wonder what was going through Andrew's mind...we were three points up and didn't need to foul. Anyway, it was a gentle touch of a foul exactly like when you want to stop the clock at the end of a game or put an opponent on the FT line. In fact it was NO different that a Carlton Fay foul just about a minute later when Fay came running all the way in from half court just to wrap his arms around Sammy and foul him to stop the clock....if anything, Fay's was FAR more intentional, even at the urging of the bench..and was a more aggressive foul.
BUT - for some really weird reason, the ref just couldn't let Andrew's foul go without whistling an intenional foul with 2 shots and ball out of bounds.
It was almost as if he was thinking how might I twist this situation to give SIU the most extreme advantage despite the reality of the situation!
Then, the stat crew at SIU erroneously assessed Andrew Warren a technical foul as well....
it is designated as a "T" in both the play-by-play and in the box score.....weird...
Here is more plus the links if you want to confirm all these facts with the SIU box score and PBP.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=159944#post159944
But the Braves overcame and played well enough to win....
Here's another irony.....
The Bradley writers in the paper graded BU as all A's & B's after the win, and the SIU writers (in The Southern) gave the Salukis all D's and D-'s.
But if that one last shot by Freeman goes in...just one microfraction of an inch different in trajectory...then SIU would have won, then the BU guys would have been graded all D's and the SIU guys would have got vastly different grades.
But I think the grades given should be dependent more on effort and performance...and not so tightly hinged on the final score and they always are...
Today's PJS has a really nice story on Sam Maniscalco...
http://www.bradleyhoops.com/homepage/x190609348/One-big-reason-for-BU-s-improvement
By contrast, SIU also has a fine guard in Kevin Dillard....a kid that was highly rated...Illinois Mr. Basketball, and the Saluki fans have bragged on him (rightfully) since day one...
But all it took was one bad game against BU, where our guys held Dillard to just 5 points...and check out what people on the SIU board think of Dillard now...
Note-- this is from an SIU fan and he apparently is not the only one who feels this way.....
"Dear Mr. Basketball,
Please take your shiny award and shove it where the sun doesn't shine....etc..."
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=31185&sid=d7f4a5051bee4116786da42111854bc3
...ahem..if anyone wants to help out with citizen arrests over in Bloomington-Normal....let me know.....there are a couple of arrest warrants now issued...but nobody wants to cover this news.......
I still haven't seen any real evidence that there was a supposedly "national" writer in town to cover both the BU win over MSU and the ISU game Sunday...
There were some really odd plays and some officiating that I still do NOT understand, and maybe some day someone can offer an explanation.
Early in the game with Bradley leading 17-2 thanks to some hot shooting by Sammy and Will, Taylor Brown goes for a rebound, gets mauled by a couple of SIU guys (see the picture in the link below), then chases the loose ball towards the end line.
As the ball is going out of bounds, Taylor tries to save it inbounds and turns to throw the ball at the opponent's feet...a good play and nothing out of the ordinary.
And the fans sitting nearby universally agree Taylor uttered NO innapropriate words!
As that's happening, the ref whistles a foul on Taylor - who most certainly did NOT foul anyone, but in addition the ref sees the throw of the ball and erroneously presumes it was flagrant and calls a "T" as well. That single call cost us possession, then the 2 FT's, then the basket on the gift possession from the "T"....a 6-point swing! The score went from 17-2 at 13:24, to 17-6 at 13:06, then quickly SIU had closed the gap.
Anyway - I thought it was a horrible call, maybe the ref was trying to "even it up" as stats and studies show refs are prone to doing when one team begins to run away with a game.
Here is more, plus the link...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=159848#post159848
Then numerous other calls were bad....the flop by Carlton Fay after a missed 3-pt attempt...nobody touched the guy yet the ref sees it out of the corner of his eye, calls the foul and gives SIU three freebies!
Many BU players like Jake Eastman, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts...were repeatedly bumped and mugged as they went for shots in the lane and yet no fouls called.
Although it didn't involve the refs..one other play was quite interesting...
Nick Evans missed a wide open, time-for-a-sandwich-first, monster DUNK.
Here's a bit more plus a picture....
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14423
The other really weird call was the intentional foul call on Andrew Warren.
First, I have to wonder what was going through Andrew's mind...we were three points up and didn't need to foul. Anyway, it was a gentle touch of a foul exactly like when you want to stop the clock at the end of a game or put an opponent on the FT line. In fact it was NO different that a Carlton Fay foul just about a minute later when Fay came running all the way in from half court just to wrap his arms around Sammy and foul him to stop the clock....if anything, Fay's was FAR more intentional, even at the urging of the bench..and was a more aggressive foul.
BUT - for some really weird reason, the ref just couldn't let Andrew's foul go without whistling an intenional foul with 2 shots and ball out of bounds.
It was almost as if he was thinking how might I twist this situation to give SIU the most extreme advantage despite the reality of the situation!
Then, the stat crew at SIU erroneously assessed Andrew Warren a technical foul as well....
it is designated as a "T" in both the play-by-play and in the box score.....weird...
Here is more plus the links if you want to confirm all these facts with the SIU box score and PBP.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=159944#post159944
But the Braves overcame and played well enough to win....
Here's another irony.....
The Bradley writers in the paper graded BU as all A's & B's after the win, and the SIU writers (in The Southern) gave the Salukis all D's and D-'s.
But if that one last shot by Freeman goes in...just one microfraction of an inch different in trajectory...then SIU would have won, then the BU guys would have been graded all D's and the SIU guys would have got vastly different grades.
But I think the grades given should be dependent more on effort and performance...and not so tightly hinged on the final score and they always are...
Today's PJS has a really nice story on Sam Maniscalco...
http://www.bradleyhoops.com/homepage/x190609348/One-big-reason-for-BU-s-improvement
By contrast, SIU also has a fine guard in Kevin Dillard....a kid that was highly rated...Illinois Mr. Basketball, and the Saluki fans have bragged on him (rightfully) since day one...
But all it took was one bad game against BU, where our guys held Dillard to just 5 points...and check out what people on the SIU board think of Dillard now...
Note-- this is from an SIU fan and he apparently is not the only one who feels this way.....
"Dear Mr. Basketball,
Please take your shiny award and shove it where the sun doesn't shine....etc..."
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=31185&sid=d7f4a5051bee4116786da42111854bc3
...ahem..if anyone wants to help out with citizen arrests over in Bloomington-Normal....let me know.....there are a couple of arrest warrants now issued...but nobody wants to cover this news.......
I still haven't seen any real evidence that there was a supposedly "national" writer in town to cover both the BU win over MSU and the ISU game Sunday...
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Bradley 74 - Missouri State 56
First, let me say that if anyone in the US is feeling like we never get a break or that we really are not a blessed nation, the just check some of the pictures of the tragic situation in Haiti, then maybe say a prayer for those people and help in some form of support to restore that nation.
We as Americans do have so much to be thankful for....
next time your car breaks down or your basketball team loses a game, instead of thinking about anything negative, say a prayer thanking God that you are blessed with a car and that we can enjoy such recreation!
(BTW - the SUV I drive is great and gets 20 mpg, so e mail me or PM me ASAP and I'll put you onto the guy to talk to....)
OK back to basketball --
Yesterday was the most satisfying game I have enjoyed since Chris Roberts landed the long one...
I really enjoyed BU's big win over MSU. We played well, the kids gave us 110% effort, and the crowd was good.
For those who don't have the links......
Story -
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204870096
Box score -
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204870163
My observations........
This Missouri State team simply looked like an entire busload of different guys than we played last week. I really don't have an explanation, but maybe they all had the flu? They not only didn't shoot well, they seemed slow, and disinterested at times.
By the time Weems flung up a frustrated-looking attempt from 12 feet past the 3 point arc, it was obvious the Bears were no longer going to try to rely on their skills and coaching, they were just going to send up the Hail Mary and hope for the best...and just maybe that's what actually happened last week...just maybe some of those very same long shots just took better bounces and went in. Even as I watched the game last week, I wasn't so sure that MSU was the better team, as that their shots found the hole.
And Coach Les set some nice matchups...using Roberts, Warren, Jake to cover Adam Leonard...and then it was funny watching Leonard try to launch a few of those bombs over defenders who are 4-5 inches taller...
Did you note that Weems & Leonard took 27 shots to end up with 27 points between them?
Some of the defensive jobs the Braves did were marvelous...
Mallett started and played 27 minutes, ended with 4 points - only 37% of his average.
Creekmore and Furhmeyer were starters and combined for 3 pts (Furhmeyer was scoreless).
Juco player of the year Nafis Ricks, 24 minutes, 1-7 and just 3 points,
and we defended free throws better....they made just 7-13 (53.8%).
And Eddren hit his only two shots, one of the few remaining things we need to see improvement on!
Now, I think we see we are as good as anyone in the Valley, and hopefully this confidence will drive BU to a long stretch of wins...
The Missouri State fans have really done a 180 !!!
They have gone from confidently thinking they can win the Valley, to truly believing they are going to be playing on Thursday in St. Louis...all this in just about 2 weeks!!!
Read this thread from the Missouri State board!
In fact...some of the most intriguing comments are in their game thread where before the game was midway through the 1st half....the posters on the board are saying things like...
"I feel like puking"
"There is no worry of losing Coach after this year"
(before the thread is over, there are guys ripping on Cuonzo Martin!)
"Game over. I'm sick of this"
and seriously ...one guy says.... "Boooooooo ..."
He's even booing his own team before the 1st half is over....
but at least one comment was enjoyable.....one guys says this......
"(Cuonzo Martin) should have gone after Dyricus Sims Edwards. He is very good."
(got that right!!)
At this point in Valley play, Bradley has played 3 home game and four road games,
and we are 3-4, not too far from where we figured we might be.....
So now it's our turn to get hot...
Three of the current top 4 teams right now in the Valley have had the MORE favorable schedule, playing MORE at home than on the road...
Donivine Stewart was sitting right behind the Bradley bench where's he's been for just about every game this year...
I have a daughter that plays on the same travel soccer team as the daughter of Donivine's coach, Dan Sparrow of Limestone, and I had a chance to talk with Coach Sparrow a bit - there's more but I will put that into the private blog!!
Lastly - two odd things I found while checking some stories this morning --
Note this box score of the Iowa State 56-53 win over Nebraska...
There are TWO different attendance figures given in the box score.
This is the first time I have ever seen this...
"Attendance: 11367
Actual attendance: 9427"
http://media.scout.com/media/doc/77/771287.pdf
Maybe this'll be a new trend at other schools, too....then we will see how much Illinois State inflates their attendance figures when we can all see those empty seats!
Then it was really reassuring to see this headline...
"Latinos are no longer rare in college basketball"
http://newsok.com/latinos-are-no-longer-rare-in-college-basketball/article/3431515
But the truth is that Latin American kids are still quite rare...as they did some digging and came with only about a dozen examples.....can anyone recall a Latin American kid who played for Bradley??
Here's one I suspect you recall...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12922
we could certainly use a few more like Marcel!!
We as Americans do have so much to be thankful for....
next time your car breaks down or your basketball team loses a game, instead of thinking about anything negative, say a prayer thanking God that you are blessed with a car and that we can enjoy such recreation!
(BTW - the SUV I drive is great and gets 20 mpg, so e mail me or PM me ASAP and I'll put you onto the guy to talk to....)
OK back to basketball --
Yesterday was the most satisfying game I have enjoyed since Chris Roberts landed the long one...
I really enjoyed BU's big win over MSU. We played well, the kids gave us 110% effort, and the crowd was good.
For those who don't have the links......
Story -
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204870096
Box score -
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204870163
My observations........
This Missouri State team simply looked like an entire busload of different guys than we played last week. I really don't have an explanation, but maybe they all had the flu? They not only didn't shoot well, they seemed slow, and disinterested at times.
By the time Weems flung up a frustrated-looking attempt from 12 feet past the 3 point arc, it was obvious the Bears were no longer going to try to rely on their skills and coaching, they were just going to send up the Hail Mary and hope for the best...and just maybe that's what actually happened last week...just maybe some of those very same long shots just took better bounces and went in. Even as I watched the game last week, I wasn't so sure that MSU was the better team, as that their shots found the hole.
And Coach Les set some nice matchups...using Roberts, Warren, Jake to cover Adam Leonard...and then it was funny watching Leonard try to launch a few of those bombs over defenders who are 4-5 inches taller...
Did you note that Weems & Leonard took 27 shots to end up with 27 points between them?
Some of the defensive jobs the Braves did were marvelous...
Mallett started and played 27 minutes, ended with 4 points - only 37% of his average.
Creekmore and Furhmeyer were starters and combined for 3 pts (Furhmeyer was scoreless).
Juco player of the year Nafis Ricks, 24 minutes, 1-7 and just 3 points,
and we defended free throws better....they made just 7-13 (53.8%).
And Eddren hit his only two shots, one of the few remaining things we need to see improvement on!
Now, I think we see we are as good as anyone in the Valley, and hopefully this confidence will drive BU to a long stretch of wins...
The Missouri State fans have really done a 180 !!!
They have gone from confidently thinking they can win the Valley, to truly believing they are going to be playing on Thursday in St. Louis...all this in just about 2 weeks!!!
Read this thread from the Missouri State board!
In fact...some of the most intriguing comments are in their game thread where before the game was midway through the 1st half....the posters on the board are saying things like...
"I feel like puking"
"There is no worry of losing Coach after this year"
(before the thread is over, there are guys ripping on Cuonzo Martin!)
"Game over. I'm sick of this"
and seriously ...one guy says.... "Boooooooo ..."
He's even booing his own team before the 1st half is over....
but at least one comment was enjoyable.....one guys says this......
"(Cuonzo Martin) should have gone after Dyricus Sims Edwards. He is very good."
(got that right!!)
At this point in Valley play, Bradley has played 3 home game and four road games,
and we are 3-4, not too far from where we figured we might be.....
So now it's our turn to get hot...
Three of the current top 4 teams right now in the Valley have had the MORE favorable schedule, playing MORE at home than on the road...
Donivine Stewart was sitting right behind the Bradley bench where's he's been for just about every game this year...
I have a daughter that plays on the same travel soccer team as the daughter of Donivine's coach, Dan Sparrow of Limestone, and I had a chance to talk with Coach Sparrow a bit - there's more but I will put that into the private blog!!
Lastly - two odd things I found while checking some stories this morning --
Note this box score of the Iowa State 56-53 win over Nebraska...
There are TWO different attendance figures given in the box score.
This is the first time I have ever seen this...
"Attendance: 11367
Actual attendance: 9427"
http://media.scout.com/media/doc/77/771287.pdf
Maybe this'll be a new trend at other schools, too....then we will see how much Illinois State inflates their attendance figures when we can all see those empty seats!
Then it was really reassuring to see this headline...
"Latinos are no longer rare in college basketball"
http://newsok.com/latinos-are-no-longer-rare-in-college-basketball/article/3431515
But the truth is that Latin American kids are still quite rare...as they did some digging and came with only about a dozen examples.....can anyone recall a Latin American kid who played for Bradley??
Here's one I suspect you recall...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12922
we could certainly use a few more like Marcel!!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Lowery to DePaul, then Tracy Webster back to SIU??
Interesting....
start with this column from the Southern...
http://www.thesouthern.com/sports/article_4071f31c-00d0-11df-a02b-001cc4c03286.html
it says Chris Lowery states he hasn't been contacted by anyone from DePaul...but this doesn't rule out that either someone else at SIU might have taken the call or that someone acting in the interests of DePaul might have made the call.
Anyway, Lowery is being touted as the Top Choice for the head spot at DePaul.
If he goes to DePaul, and how could you blame him as it is a big step up the ladder no matter what some think, and the finalcial security of $1.5 to $2 million per year would be hard to ignore, who would take over at SIU?
It could be an assistant but I don't see that, as nobody on the SIU staff looks right now to be a leading candidate. Anyway, Lowery might just want to take a couple assistants with him from SIU to DePaul.
But DePaul just cleaned house and hired four new assistants, Booth, Garrett, Webster, Kleinschmidt. I doubt they will want to lose them all, and may require the new incoming coach to accept 1, 2, or 3 of them for a certain period as part of the negotiations.
Anyway, I have also heard from a pretty reliable source that other coaches (head coaches and assistants) in the area also were called. (First - the AD must give approval before anyone can talk to the coaches under contract but that's mostly a formality).
These kinds of early calls are for gauging interest, for asking other potential names, and simply out of courtesy for other respected coaches that might be future options, either now or next time around.
I heard at five other MVC coaches' names mentioned as getting at least some degree of consideration, as well as some of the bigger names like Dayton's Brian Gregory, Jerrance Howard, Craig Robinson, and Isiah Thomas.
it'll be interesting........as Lowery is under fire from some fans in Carbondale and some want him fired!!
Numerous threads on the SIU message boards discuss getting rid of CLo and who they might go after next!
Speaking of Tracy Webster...he is one of the names some have mentioned to go to SIU if Lowery goes to DePaul...that would be odd....a straight up one=for-one trade of head coaches!!
Webster starts his career as head coach going 0-1, with a big loss at home to Keno Davis' Providence, 79-62. Mac Koshwal, who was rushed back from a nagging foot injury to help salvage what DePaul might have left of this season, has now reinjured his foot and was a late scratch just before the game. Now it is being said Koshwal's foot is serious and he could be out 4 more weeks or longer.
P'Allen Stinnett is another Valley player closing in on 1000 career points, as are Andrew Warren and Sam Maniscalco. Stinnett is less than 20 points away but the way he's been playing lately...who knows...
If you haven't seen it - here's the link to the YouTube video of an Osiris Eldridge basket from 1/9/10. It's a 2-pointer in a 15-point losing effort vs. UNI...but it is a 360 degree spinning layup...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBsuX94YHlw&feature=youtube_gdata
US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan seems awfully interested in basketball and the NCAA.
Arne Duncan was chief of the Chicago Public Schools before taking the federal job....
if he's got all the right ideas for colleges..then someone tell me how he left the Chicago Public Schools in such a mess, and was in charge with all the grade changing and academic fraud probelms plagued the league and Simeon (Derrick Rose, etc..) and other scandals...
One site says the Chicago Public schools currently face dozens of various pending lawsuits and other issues that are various degrees of scandals...
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/12302/the-u-s-secretary-of-education-talks-basketball-development
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/01/13/arne-duncan-city-limits
Lastly -- Indiana got a chance to meet in a rematch, the only team they've beaten so far in the Big Ten, Michigan. The game was close for a while then the wheels fell off and Indiana loses by . They were 1-15 from 3-pt, and only one player had more than 7 pts.
Indiana's hopes of finishing high enough in the Big Ten to maybe hope for an NIT bid are slipping badly.
Speaking of Indiana...here's an interesting thought.......
We hear all the time about how well the last round of Molinari recruits would have done if they were allowed to stay and complete their eligibility at Bradley.
I have even seen the stats the BU guys who left then put up at other schools as evidence......guys like Granger, Tucker, etc...
It's all somewhat speculative...but I noted that a lot of the guys who were run out at Indiana after the Kelvin Sampson scandal are putting up pretty good numbers elsewhere........
SO- here are the current tabulations of their current performance, and what a team they'd be if they were all still together!!!
Eric Gordon - is in the NBA but surely if he had stayed at Indiana and were still playing this season, he'd be averaging at least 25ppg
Xavier Keeling is now a starter and a key contributor at Detroit - 13.2ppg, 5rpg, 2.6 apg
Eli Holman is likewise also a starter and a key contributor at Detroit - 12.5ppg, 9rpg, 61% FG accuracy
Ben Allen is finishing up at St. Mary's and is a senior this year....10ppg, 8rpg
Armon Bassett went first to UAB then to Ohio, now averaging - 12.2ppg, 3.4rpg, 3 apg
Joey Shaw is at Nevada - 11.1ppg, 6rpg, 2apg,
Jordan Crawford is at Xavier and is a stud - 19.3ppg, 5rpg, 2.5apg, and a monster dunk over LeBron in his resume
Jamarcus Ellis finished up at D-II Oklahoma City College, one of the top D-II programs around...14ppg, 5rpg, 5.5apg
DeAndre Thomas 10ppg at RMU but he'd be graduated unless he took a RS year
Brandon McGee at Wabash juco 15ppg, 7rpg
so do the math....
If you add all those guys' scoring averages, you'd get about 140 ppg!!!!!
I guess we are left to wonder how good they could have been and how good they could have become...
they could have run up records as good as 30-3 or 16-2 in the Big Ten.....
Instead...over the course of the Tom Crean era...
the Hoosiers are 13-34, 2-20 in Big Ten play.
Gotta wonder what could have been.....maybe someone (some day) still ought to hire Kelvin to help with recruiting!
start with this column from the Southern...
http://www.thesouthern.com/sports/article_4071f31c-00d0-11df-a02b-001cc4c03286.html
it says Chris Lowery states he hasn't been contacted by anyone from DePaul...but this doesn't rule out that either someone else at SIU might have taken the call or that someone acting in the interests of DePaul might have made the call.
Anyway, Lowery is being touted as the Top Choice for the head spot at DePaul.
If he goes to DePaul, and how could you blame him as it is a big step up the ladder no matter what some think, and the finalcial security of $1.5 to $2 million per year would be hard to ignore, who would take over at SIU?
It could be an assistant but I don't see that, as nobody on the SIU staff looks right now to be a leading candidate. Anyway, Lowery might just want to take a couple assistants with him from SIU to DePaul.
But DePaul just cleaned house and hired four new assistants, Booth, Garrett, Webster, Kleinschmidt. I doubt they will want to lose them all, and may require the new incoming coach to accept 1, 2, or 3 of them for a certain period as part of the negotiations.
Anyway, I have also heard from a pretty reliable source that other coaches (head coaches and assistants) in the area also were called. (First - the AD must give approval before anyone can talk to the coaches under contract but that's mostly a formality).
These kinds of early calls are for gauging interest, for asking other potential names, and simply out of courtesy for other respected coaches that might be future options, either now or next time around.
I heard at five other MVC coaches' names mentioned as getting at least some degree of consideration, as well as some of the bigger names like Dayton's Brian Gregory, Jerrance Howard, Craig Robinson, and Isiah Thomas.
it'll be interesting........as Lowery is under fire from some fans in Carbondale and some want him fired!!
Numerous threads on the SIU message boards discuss getting rid of CLo and who they might go after next!
Speaking of Tracy Webster...he is one of the names some have mentioned to go to SIU if Lowery goes to DePaul...that would be odd....a straight up one=for-one trade of head coaches!!
Webster starts his career as head coach going 0-1, with a big loss at home to Keno Davis' Providence, 79-62. Mac Koshwal, who was rushed back from a nagging foot injury to help salvage what DePaul might have left of this season, has now reinjured his foot and was a late scratch just before the game. Now it is being said Koshwal's foot is serious and he could be out 4 more weeks or longer.
P'Allen Stinnett is another Valley player closing in on 1000 career points, as are Andrew Warren and Sam Maniscalco. Stinnett is less than 20 points away but the way he's been playing lately...who knows...
If you haven't seen it - here's the link to the YouTube video of an Osiris Eldridge basket from 1/9/10. It's a 2-pointer in a 15-point losing effort vs. UNI...but it is a 360 degree spinning layup...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBsuX94YHlw&feature=youtube_gdata
US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan seems awfully interested in basketball and the NCAA.
Arne Duncan was chief of the Chicago Public Schools before taking the federal job....
if he's got all the right ideas for colleges..then someone tell me how he left the Chicago Public Schools in such a mess, and was in charge with all the grade changing and academic fraud probelms plagued the league and Simeon (Derrick Rose, etc..) and other scandals...
One site says the Chicago Public schools currently face dozens of various pending lawsuits and other issues that are various degrees of scandals...
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/12302/the-u-s-secretary-of-education-talks-basketball-development
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/01/13/arne-duncan-city-limits
Lastly -- Indiana got a chance to meet in a rematch, the only team they've beaten so far in the Big Ten, Michigan. The game was close for a while then the wheels fell off and Indiana loses by . They were 1-15 from 3-pt, and only one player had more than 7 pts.
Indiana's hopes of finishing high enough in the Big Ten to maybe hope for an NIT bid are slipping badly.
Speaking of Indiana...here's an interesting thought.......
We hear all the time about how well the last round of Molinari recruits would have done if they were allowed to stay and complete their eligibility at Bradley.
I have even seen the stats the BU guys who left then put up at other schools as evidence......guys like Granger, Tucker, etc...
It's all somewhat speculative...but I noted that a lot of the guys who were run out at Indiana after the Kelvin Sampson scandal are putting up pretty good numbers elsewhere........
SO- here are the current tabulations of their current performance, and what a team they'd be if they were all still together!!!
Eric Gordon - is in the NBA but surely if he had stayed at Indiana and were still playing this season, he'd be averaging at least 25ppg
Xavier Keeling is now a starter and a key contributor at Detroit - 13.2ppg, 5rpg, 2.6 apg
Eli Holman is likewise also a starter and a key contributor at Detroit - 12.5ppg, 9rpg, 61% FG accuracy
Ben Allen is finishing up at St. Mary's and is a senior this year....10ppg, 8rpg
Armon Bassett went first to UAB then to Ohio, now averaging - 12.2ppg, 3.4rpg, 3 apg
Joey Shaw is at Nevada - 11.1ppg, 6rpg, 2apg,
Jordan Crawford is at Xavier and is a stud - 19.3ppg, 5rpg, 2.5apg, and a monster dunk over LeBron in his resume
Jamarcus Ellis finished up at D-II Oklahoma City College, one of the top D-II programs around...14ppg, 5rpg, 5.5apg
DeAndre Thomas 10ppg at RMU but he'd be graduated unless he took a RS year
Brandon McGee at Wabash juco 15ppg, 7rpg
so do the math....
If you add all those guys' scoring averages, you'd get about 140 ppg!!!!!
I guess we are left to wonder how good they could have been and how good they could have become...
they could have run up records as good as 30-3 or 16-2 in the Big Ten.....
Instead...over the course of the Tom Crean era...
the Hoosiers are 13-34, 2-20 in Big Ten play.
Gotta wonder what could have been.....maybe someone (some day) still ought to hire Kelvin to help with recruiting!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Transfers
First - kudos to the Braves who hung in at UNI and played them tougher than anyone else has. We showed we are and can play at their level. Our guys didn't give up when it got tough and they got some bad calls and bad breaks. I still like this group and am looking forward to the game Saturday.
GO BRAVES!!
Creighton just got a top kid in transfer...Greg Echenique.......
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14328
I decided to look back to the beginning of the Jim Les era, 2002, and see just which Valley school has relied the most on getting in transfers from other 4-year programs.
I am not counting kids who come in from junior colleges, and am only counting the kids who transferred in and played or are currently rostered, even if they transferred to another sport (like Pedescleaux - who transferred for basketball but then went on to play football.)
I think you will be a little surprised, as the two schools we have talked about the most over the years getting transfers do indeed dominate the list and battle virtually head to head for the coveted title of
..........TRANSFER U!
Bradley - NONE!!!...Some will argue but Bradley only has a couple players who come close.......but none have come to BU from another 4-year school and then actually played even one minute of one game, so I think we can crown BU as the team that seeks the least to rely on robbing talent off other schools' rosters.
Creighton - five - Brody Deren, Jeff Day, Nick Bahe, Chad Millard, and the new guy, Greg Echenique - Deren even went on to be an impact player and Echenique is expected to be.
Drake - seven - Nate Richie, JJ Sola, Aliou Keita, Adam Templeton, Jordan Clarke, Ryan Wedel, Brett Spiker.
Evansville - six - Tobias Brinkley, Andre Burton, Ian Hanavan, Tyler Best, Art Stalbergs, Bryan Bouchie.
Illinois State - eight - Trey Guidry, Najeeb Echols, Neil Plank, Sead Odzic, Blake Mishler, Champ Oguchi, Landon Shipley, Trey Blue. Then if you view their bulk of juco players who fill their roster - they really do battle for that top spot.
Indiana State - four - Trent Wurtz, Josh Crawford, Dwayne Lathan, Jake Kelly
Missouri State - seven - Jason Gilbert, Tommy Johnson, Deke Thompson, Spencer Laurie, Adam Leonard, Caleb Patterson, Will Creekmore
Northern Iowa - eleven - Blake Anderson, Matt Schneiderman, Pete Schmit, Adam Salow, Jon Godfread, Eric Crawford, Everette Pedescleaux, Tyler Griffin, Joe Green, Carlton Reed, Adam Rodenberg -- amazing how many transfer guys went on to completely obscure careers at UNI! How many even recall that Matt Schneiderman actually played first at a D-II school and was lured to transfer to UNI by Greg McDermott?
Southern Illinois - three - Kobby Acquah, Tony Freeman, Diamond Taylor funny how Coach Lowery went seven years without much trolling for transfers, but has come on strong of late and now SIU is linked to just about every big name transfer!
Wichita State - six - Bret Wise, Kyle Wilson, Karon Bradley, Phillip Thomasson, Gabe Blair, Jonny Coy
So there you have it....the title of Transfer U. has to be shared between ISU and UNI, although UNI has gotten away from that ploy of late, while ISU is making a late surge to use this ploy as one of their main tools....they are going after every available D-I transfer it seems.
Time will tell if it pays off for them...but as we have seen, none of the teams have substantially parlayed their transfers into any kind of NCAA Tournament appearances!!
GO BRAVES!!
Creighton just got a top kid in transfer...Greg Echenique.......
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14328
I decided to look back to the beginning of the Jim Les era, 2002, and see just which Valley school has relied the most on getting in transfers from other 4-year programs.
I am not counting kids who come in from junior colleges, and am only counting the kids who transferred in and played or are currently rostered, even if they transferred to another sport (like Pedescleaux - who transferred for basketball but then went on to play football.)
I think you will be a little surprised, as the two schools we have talked about the most over the years getting transfers do indeed dominate the list and battle virtually head to head for the coveted title of
..........TRANSFER U!
Bradley - NONE!!!...Some will argue but Bradley only has a couple players who come close.......but none have come to BU from another 4-year school and then actually played even one minute of one game, so I think we can crown BU as the team that seeks the least to rely on robbing talent off other schools' rosters.
Creighton - five - Brody Deren, Jeff Day, Nick Bahe, Chad Millard, and the new guy, Greg Echenique - Deren even went on to be an impact player and Echenique is expected to be.
Drake - seven - Nate Richie, JJ Sola, Aliou Keita, Adam Templeton, Jordan Clarke, Ryan Wedel, Brett Spiker.
Evansville - six - Tobias Brinkley, Andre Burton, Ian Hanavan, Tyler Best, Art Stalbergs, Bryan Bouchie.
Illinois State - eight - Trey Guidry, Najeeb Echols, Neil Plank, Sead Odzic, Blake Mishler, Champ Oguchi, Landon Shipley, Trey Blue. Then if you view their bulk of juco players who fill their roster - they really do battle for that top spot.
Indiana State - four - Trent Wurtz, Josh Crawford, Dwayne Lathan, Jake Kelly
Missouri State - seven - Jason Gilbert, Tommy Johnson, Deke Thompson, Spencer Laurie, Adam Leonard, Caleb Patterson, Will Creekmore
Northern Iowa - eleven - Blake Anderson, Matt Schneiderman, Pete Schmit, Adam Salow, Jon Godfread, Eric Crawford, Everette Pedescleaux, Tyler Griffin, Joe Green, Carlton Reed, Adam Rodenberg -- amazing how many transfer guys went on to completely obscure careers at UNI! How many even recall that Matt Schneiderman actually played first at a D-II school and was lured to transfer to UNI by Greg McDermott?
Southern Illinois - three - Kobby Acquah, Tony Freeman, Diamond Taylor funny how Coach Lowery went seven years without much trolling for transfers, but has come on strong of late and now SIU is linked to just about every big name transfer!
Wichita State - six - Bret Wise, Kyle Wilson, Karon Bradley, Phillip Thomasson, Gabe Blair, Jonny Coy
So there you have it....the title of Transfer U. has to be shared between ISU and UNI, although UNI has gotten away from that ploy of late, while ISU is making a late surge to use this ploy as one of their main tools....they are going after every available D-I transfer it seems.
Time will tell if it pays off for them...but as we have seen, none of the teams have substantially parlayed their transfers into any kind of NCAA Tournament appearances!!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Bradley at UNI
Just the next in the line of must-win games. The Braves left yesterday on a bus and travelled to Northern Iowa, preparing for the game tonight at 8PM.
The trip from Peoria to UNI is marginally scenic up 'til you get to the Mississippi River, then it gets downright lackluster (sorry Iowans).
So I hope the kids got good rest and are ready to go.
Northern Iowa is living up to their preseason billing as the top Valley team.
Here are a few observations...
UNI has won 13 in a row and 5 Valley conference games in a row.
Last year they also had a long stretch to start the Valley season that included only one loss in their first 12 Valley games, and a stretch of 11 straight wins...
But then they kinda hit the wall and faded a bit, allowing Creighton to catch them in the Valley standings.
After BU nearly pulled off the win vs Northern Iowa last February in Peoria, the Panthers went on a little bit of a slide and lost 4 of their next five, including even a 26 point home loss to SIU (who were 11-13 at the time and under .500 in the Valley).
The conventional wisdom says Bradley has no chance...but I am sure not ready to give up on the Braves...
UNI has the same starting five this year...
But of those five guys, only one has really increased his production by much over last year.
--Jordan Eglseder's production is up substantially in his senior year. He has stayed healthy and is averaging 13.3 ppg up from 10.2 ppg last year. His rebounds are up 8.5 rpg compared to 6.4 rpg last year. So he will be a challenge for Will Egolf and the others, but oddly, anyone who follows Bradley closely knows Jordan Eglseder had never really had a big game against Bradley.
That's not to say he isn't capable, but our defenses have always been good against him.
In the 3 seasons Eglseder has already completed with UNI, Bradley has played them eight times (6 regular season and twice in the MVC Tourney).
In those eight games, Jordan didn't even get into the game twice, was scoreless one other time, and in two games he had either one or zero rebounds.
His point total over that 3-season spread and 8-game spread is 38 points, and he has a total of 26 rebounds in his career vs. BU.
Here's hoping we can shut him down again!
--Adam Koch's scoring average is up by only a little more than a point from last year but rebounds and assists are both down.
--Kwadzo Ahelegbe is in my opinion their MVP. But again, his numbers this season don't differ much from last year. Points per game is virtually identical, FG% is the same, rebounds almost the same, and oddly his assists are actually DOWN from 3.1 apg last year to 2.6 apg this year.
So even tho he's a very important player for them, his produciton is overall down a little from last year.
--Ali Farokhmanesh's scoring, rebounding, and assists are all DOWN somewhat from last year.
--Johnny Moran likewise, has seen his scoring average drop from 8.4 ppg to 5.9 ppg this year, while his assists, rebounds and shooting percentages are all way down.
He killed us with his 3-pointers last year, but he's only hitting 25% this year.
--no other UNI player contributes more than about 3 or so ppg, and their top subs, Dunham, O'Rear...are all down with their numbers from last year.
So they don't win with flat out individual eyepopping play, they win with teamwork...and we need to disrupt that.
Let's get behind the Braves and cheer them on...I guess I can't figure out all the negativity. It's always been there but a few losses brings the negative element out of the woodworks. Like I say, the negativity and attacks on BU have been out there for years but it hasn't squelched the enthusiasm of most fans. Wear red today, get to a viewing party, and cheer 'em on!!!
Here's more game info and discusison:
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14284
Here's an odd one, but not totally surprising...if you follow the actions of the NCAA...
Oral Roberts has a walk-on named Mikey Manghum. He is from England, and in the summer before he came to ORU, after graduating from high school in England, he competed on England's National U-18 team...and finished 4th in the European U-18 Championships.
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Basketball-Manghum-live-American-dream/article-1142882-detail/article.html
http://admin.okblitz.com/MyPhoto.aspx?id=13220
But even though Manghum was definitely an amateur and had never played any pro ball, a couple of the other kids on the U-18 National team had played on some pro teams, thus Manghum was NOT cleared as an amateur, and was "suspended" 16 games...only now being cleared to begin play at Oral Roberts.
http://krmg.com/blogs/krmg_sports_with_rick_couri/2010/01/oru-gets-a-basketball-player-b.html
Actually, he even has to sit out one extra game as a penalty, since he played in one game earlier in the season for ORU when the coaching staff was unaware of the NCAA eligibility ruling.
http://krmg.com/blogs/krmg_sports_with_rick_couri/2010/01/oru-gets-a-basketball-player-b.htmlhttp://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0110/695025.html
This is the same type of "professionalism" penalty John Wilkins has already been assessed, except Wilkins has been given 5-games...but the 16-game penalty to Manghum, for a walk-on athlete, who is undoubtedly an amateur and nobody even disputes that -- and who was only playing for his native country's NATIONAL team...seems a little severe!
Anyone else think so???
Ex-Kelvin Sampson recruit Bud Mackey is in the news again...and seemingly can't stay out of trouble after his drug arrests and probation violations...
http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/1091042.html?storylink=omni_popular
One interesting yet familiar name in the news...
http://www.hoopsworld.com/FeedItem.asp?FEED_ITEM_ID=1177545
The trip from Peoria to UNI is marginally scenic up 'til you get to the Mississippi River, then it gets downright lackluster (sorry Iowans).
So I hope the kids got good rest and are ready to go.
Northern Iowa is living up to their preseason billing as the top Valley team.
Here are a few observations...
UNI has won 13 in a row and 5 Valley conference games in a row.
Last year they also had a long stretch to start the Valley season that included only one loss in their first 12 Valley games, and a stretch of 11 straight wins...
But then they kinda hit the wall and faded a bit, allowing Creighton to catch them in the Valley standings.
After BU nearly pulled off the win vs Northern Iowa last February in Peoria, the Panthers went on a little bit of a slide and lost 4 of their next five, including even a 26 point home loss to SIU (who were 11-13 at the time and under .500 in the Valley).
The conventional wisdom says Bradley has no chance...but I am sure not ready to give up on the Braves...
UNI has the same starting five this year...
But of those five guys, only one has really increased his production by much over last year.
--Jordan Eglseder's production is up substantially in his senior year. He has stayed healthy and is averaging 13.3 ppg up from 10.2 ppg last year. His rebounds are up 8.5 rpg compared to 6.4 rpg last year. So he will be a challenge for Will Egolf and the others, but oddly, anyone who follows Bradley closely knows Jordan Eglseder had never really had a big game against Bradley.
That's not to say he isn't capable, but our defenses have always been good against him.
In the 3 seasons Eglseder has already completed with UNI, Bradley has played them eight times (6 regular season and twice in the MVC Tourney).
In those eight games, Jordan didn't even get into the game twice, was scoreless one other time, and in two games he had either one or zero rebounds.
His point total over that 3-season spread and 8-game spread is 38 points, and he has a total of 26 rebounds in his career vs. BU.
Here's hoping we can shut him down again!
--Adam Koch's scoring average is up by only a little more than a point from last year but rebounds and assists are both down.
--Kwadzo Ahelegbe is in my opinion their MVP. But again, his numbers this season don't differ much from last year. Points per game is virtually identical, FG% is the same, rebounds almost the same, and oddly his assists are actually DOWN from 3.1 apg last year to 2.6 apg this year.
So even tho he's a very important player for them, his produciton is overall down a little from last year.
--Ali Farokhmanesh's scoring, rebounding, and assists are all DOWN somewhat from last year.
--Johnny Moran likewise, has seen his scoring average drop from 8.4 ppg to 5.9 ppg this year, while his assists, rebounds and shooting percentages are all way down.
He killed us with his 3-pointers last year, but he's only hitting 25% this year.
--no other UNI player contributes more than about 3 or so ppg, and their top subs, Dunham, O'Rear...are all down with their numbers from last year.
So they don't win with flat out individual eyepopping play, they win with teamwork...and we need to disrupt that.
Let's get behind the Braves and cheer them on...I guess I can't figure out all the negativity. It's always been there but a few losses brings the negative element out of the woodworks. Like I say, the negativity and attacks on BU have been out there for years but it hasn't squelched the enthusiasm of most fans. Wear red today, get to a viewing party, and cheer 'em on!!!
Here's more game info and discusison:
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14284
Here's an odd one, but not totally surprising...if you follow the actions of the NCAA...
Oral Roberts has a walk-on named Mikey Manghum. He is from England, and in the summer before he came to ORU, after graduating from high school in England, he competed on England's National U-18 team...and finished 4th in the European U-18 Championships.
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Basketball-Manghum-live-American-dream/article-1142882-detail/article.html
http://admin.okblitz.com/MyPhoto.aspx?id=13220
But even though Manghum was definitely an amateur and had never played any pro ball, a couple of the other kids on the U-18 National team had played on some pro teams, thus Manghum was NOT cleared as an amateur, and was "suspended" 16 games...only now being cleared to begin play at Oral Roberts.
http://krmg.com/blogs/krmg_sports_with_rick_couri/2010/01/oru-gets-a-basketball-player-b.html
Actually, he even has to sit out one extra game as a penalty, since he played in one game earlier in the season for ORU when the coaching staff was unaware of the NCAA eligibility ruling.
http://krmg.com/blogs/krmg_sports_with_rick_couri/2010/01/oru-gets-a-basketball-player-b.htmlhttp://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0110/695025.html
This is the same type of "professionalism" penalty John Wilkins has already been assessed, except Wilkins has been given 5-games...but the 16-game penalty to Manghum, for a walk-on athlete, who is undoubtedly an amateur and nobody even disputes that -- and who was only playing for his native country's NATIONAL team...seems a little severe!
Anyone else think so???
Ex-Kelvin Sampson recruit Bud Mackey is in the news again...and seemingly can't stay out of trouble after his drug arrests and probation violations...
http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/1091042.html?storylink=omni_popular
One interesting yet familiar name in the news...
http://www.hoopsworld.com/FeedItem.asp?FEED_ITEM_ID=1177545
Monday, January 11, 2010
BU Toughness and other misc. news...
The Braves are 2-3 in the Valley and a whole lot of criticism is flying. Outside of being president (or maybe a message board moderator), I have to think there's no more dangerous job in regards to criticism shot at you than being a D-I college coach. Everyone has an opinion, and they all claim to be experts.
We all saw the criticism in the local Peoria newspaper...but maybe it'll have its desired effect. Maybe it'll spur the Braves to even work harder.
But isn't it odd, that one day after we see a column claiming the entire team and all the players and coaches are soft, NOW we see a column by the guy at the newspaper that knows the most about Bradley coning in specifically on Andrew Warren and detailing how tremendously hard he's been working and how very well he has done.
Andrew Warren is averaging about 20 points per game since the start of Valley conference play and is one of the best players in the league right now. Thankfully someone other than a few Bradley fans now notices that, and he highlights the very HARD work Andrew has put in to get to where he is.
For those who don't know Andrew Warren, he is one of the most pleasant people you'd ever meet. Polite, friendly, easy to make friends with, and even a little bit of a comic at times. But he is dedicated to being the best he can be on the court. And his talents were overlooked by a lot of college recruiters when he came to Bradley 3 years ago.
Andrew is not even half way through his junior season, and now has 798 career points at BU. Andrew now has career averages of 10 ppg, 3 rpg, 81.2% on FT's and 41.3% on 3-pointers...but it's Andrew's performances of late that are most noticable...as the past 5 Valley games have been tough, yet Andrew is performing well and getting better every game. He is showing power and moves that he hasn't shown in more than a year.
Here is the link to the local column on Andrew...
Andrew Warren: "Successful Return to Court"
Here's wishing Andrew and the Braves a great run through the end of the season....
But there's more....let me next highlight another Bradley Brave whose work ethic is anything but soft. Will Egolf had a devastating knee injury little over a year ago. The process of recovery is hard and quite commonly quite unsuccessful....just ask a couple of ISU players who have tried to come back from ACL surgery, Bobby Hill and Jeremy Robinson...neither of whom have been able to even make a dent in the lineup as the injury and surgery simply left them unable to be what they once were.
What many people don't know is that Will's ACL rupture was quite complex and way worse than most...involving multiple ligament tears, cartilege tears, and even bone injury.
But Will Egolf has now begun to show athleticism and moves we have never seen before from him. His pivot move down the lane Saturday was nice and he's been getting up off the floor better. And we really haven't been hurt in the paint by the guys he's been guarding! (he'll get a test against Eglseder!)
Again...Will is anything but soft...often leaving the court with a fat lip or blood trickling from his nose, but never backing down. He didn't play a lot of post in high school so this is something he's had to put some effort into and learn.
BTW- check out this video of Will running the wing in high school!!
Note the behind the back dribble and high rise dunk!
Will heating up in Alaska
Then there's Dyricus Simms-Edwards...who is also - anything but soft.....
This kid was set to rest his injured foot with stress reaction in the 4th metatarsal for at least 4 weeks.
But in only about 3 weeks he was back...
and in the 2nd game back Dyricus logged almost 20 minutes, and I don't know anyone who'd use the word soft in the context of DSE. The best is yet to come.
Same goes for Taylor Brown, Sam Maniscalco, Jake, Chris, Eddren.......these guys are going through a tough spell...but it will make them tougher individuals...
Their shots - GOOD SHOTS that they are taking- like layups - just aren't falling, the opponents have always seemed to get someone hotter than heck, and in each game we've shown bursts of excellent play...so I remain optimistic.
I know a portion of the fan base is fickle and at the same time vocal...
Those fickle, vocal fans got Molinari fired, then the same people ironically and paradoxically whined for years about how the fine players Mo had recruited (Granger, Tucker, Tisby..) never had a chance to stay in Peoria and show everyone how good of a team we'd have had.
Amazing and at the same time ironic...I think this proves that the sentiment from the fickle, never-happy crowd is more dangerous than helpful.
These are to a large part, the same people who saw Patrick O'Bryant as a freshman and declared him a long term project and a wasted scholarship....
and the same people who ranted incessantly how we should get rid of JJ Tauai, and dump the juco players like Will Franklin, Taylor Brown, or Theron Wilson.
Recently we've seen their convoluted logic when they claim we have terrible production out of our bigs, yet we should have done everything we can to hold onto the guy coaching our bigs when he decided on his own to leave!
BTW-- Here's a stat to chew on....
at the time our "bigs-coach" left, Will Egolf was averaging 6.5 ppg and 4.5 rpg.
In the games since then, against what is CLEARLY the tougher part of the schedule...he's averaging...8.0 ppg, and 4.5 rpg...so I'd give Will the credit for getting better.
The Bradley game Tuesday at UNI will be on ESPNU!!
http://www.bradleybraves.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204867473
Meltdown at USC continues....head football coach Pete Carroll is gone to the NFL. The truth is finally trying to come to light that USC has been cheating for years...
but this whole act of letting the FB coach go and and slapping the hands of the basketball program will probably be enough for NCAA and they'll look the other way and never bother to really expose the cheating that's gone on from Reggie Bush to OJ Mayo!
Watch it unfold...and see that the NCAA literally gives them a pass despite the cheating they've done...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/01/pete-carroll-to-take-seattle-seahawks-coaching-position.html
Here's a laugh and also shows how fickle fans can be...
Kansas is rated #1 and goes on the road to suffer a tough loss to a ranked team...
Guess what??? There's a freakin' meltdown on the Kansas message board!!
They are crying like the sky is falling, looking for someone to rip or blame, even blaming head coach Bill Self - calling him "stupid!", and talking about who they'd want "if Bill Self were not their coach"!!!!!!!!!!
"If Self wasn't our coach, who would you want?"
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2481&t=5425012
"I blame Bill Self ........"
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2481&t=5441041
"Nice zone, coach"
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2481&t=5439622
BTW-- Bruce Pearl has finally realized now that fate has taken away all his gun-toting, drug-using studs, that he actually does have kids sitting on the bench that can play and who want to play!
He even seems to concede he never knew that before!
...duh...."We have a basketball program here"
But it's not like they have no talent...
they have basically the same level of talented kids as far as the 4-Star and 5-Star recruits as Kansas has!!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=157586#post157586
DePaul will announce today that head coach Jerry Wainwright is stepping down. Look for one of the assistants, Billy Garrett, David Booth, or Tracy Webster to take over while DePaul searches for their next head coach.
Right now the going rumble is that it'll be Tracy Webster.
Will any of their players bolt??? BU had previously wanted Devin Hill.
ESPN is reporting Wainwright will step down.
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1213866806468167855
Another player Bradley pursued, Chris Colvin - freshman at Iowa State, has been suspended for unspecified behavior.
After Illinois tore Indiana apart in the paint and Mike Tisdale went off for 27 pts, 9 rebs, while IU post players were all but non-existent...
Indiana is out beating the bushes for anyone available to play in the paint.
They have offered one big kid from Carmel-
http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1038396
and are also reportedly after Greg Echineque, who just left Rutgers a few days ago, looking to transfer elsewhere for playing time...and a couple other juco big men.
But if the kid can't find playing time at Rutgers, then won't he just be yet another benchwarming big man at Indiana?
Recall, the Hoosiers do have two 7-footers already on the bench...
senior Tijan Jobe and Bawa Muniru who's been a few prep schools before joining IU.
It's only 1/2 way into Crean's 2nd season but there are already some pretty impatient and unhappy Indiana fans who are wondering why even when the Hoosiers have a big lead, that Tom Crean gets outcoached all the way down the stretch and gets beaten.
Saint Louis saw the debut of Cody Ellis, the top player in Australia and an incoming freshman, as he played in his first game since finally being cleared by NCAA.
SLU beat Richmond 63-58...still showing signs of struggling with scoring...but Ellis had 10 pts, 5 rebs in 23 minutes.
Rick Majerus now has two Aussies on his roster, as SLU goes to 10-5 and 1-0 in the A-10.
GO Braves!
We all saw the criticism in the local Peoria newspaper...but maybe it'll have its desired effect. Maybe it'll spur the Braves to even work harder.
But isn't it odd, that one day after we see a column claiming the entire team and all the players and coaches are soft, NOW we see a column by the guy at the newspaper that knows the most about Bradley coning in specifically on Andrew Warren and detailing how tremendously hard he's been working and how very well he has done.
Andrew Warren is averaging about 20 points per game since the start of Valley conference play and is one of the best players in the league right now. Thankfully someone other than a few Bradley fans now notices that, and he highlights the very HARD work Andrew has put in to get to where he is.
For those who don't know Andrew Warren, he is one of the most pleasant people you'd ever meet. Polite, friendly, easy to make friends with, and even a little bit of a comic at times. But he is dedicated to being the best he can be on the court. And his talents were overlooked by a lot of college recruiters when he came to Bradley 3 years ago.
Andrew is not even half way through his junior season, and now has 798 career points at BU. Andrew now has career averages of 10 ppg, 3 rpg, 81.2% on FT's and 41.3% on 3-pointers...but it's Andrew's performances of late that are most noticable...as the past 5 Valley games have been tough, yet Andrew is performing well and getting better every game. He is showing power and moves that he hasn't shown in more than a year.
Here is the link to the local column on Andrew...
Andrew Warren: "Successful Return to Court"
Here's wishing Andrew and the Braves a great run through the end of the season....
But there's more....let me next highlight another Bradley Brave whose work ethic is anything but soft. Will Egolf had a devastating knee injury little over a year ago. The process of recovery is hard and quite commonly quite unsuccessful....just ask a couple of ISU players who have tried to come back from ACL surgery, Bobby Hill and Jeremy Robinson...neither of whom have been able to even make a dent in the lineup as the injury and surgery simply left them unable to be what they once were.
What many people don't know is that Will's ACL rupture was quite complex and way worse than most...involving multiple ligament tears, cartilege tears, and even bone injury.
But Will Egolf has now begun to show athleticism and moves we have never seen before from him. His pivot move down the lane Saturday was nice and he's been getting up off the floor better. And we really haven't been hurt in the paint by the guys he's been guarding! (he'll get a test against Eglseder!)
Again...Will is anything but soft...often leaving the court with a fat lip or blood trickling from his nose, but never backing down. He didn't play a lot of post in high school so this is something he's had to put some effort into and learn.
BTW- check out this video of Will running the wing in high school!!
Note the behind the back dribble and high rise dunk!
Will heating up in Alaska
Then there's Dyricus Simms-Edwards...who is also - anything but soft.....
This kid was set to rest his injured foot with stress reaction in the 4th metatarsal for at least 4 weeks.
But in only about 3 weeks he was back...
and in the 2nd game back Dyricus logged almost 20 minutes, and I don't know anyone who'd use the word soft in the context of DSE. The best is yet to come.
Same goes for Taylor Brown, Sam Maniscalco, Jake, Chris, Eddren.......these guys are going through a tough spell...but it will make them tougher individuals...
Their shots - GOOD SHOTS that they are taking- like layups - just aren't falling, the opponents have always seemed to get someone hotter than heck, and in each game we've shown bursts of excellent play...so I remain optimistic.
I know a portion of the fan base is fickle and at the same time vocal...
Those fickle, vocal fans got Molinari fired, then the same people ironically and paradoxically whined for years about how the fine players Mo had recruited (Granger, Tucker, Tisby..) never had a chance to stay in Peoria and show everyone how good of a team we'd have had.
Amazing and at the same time ironic...I think this proves that the sentiment from the fickle, never-happy crowd is more dangerous than helpful.
These are to a large part, the same people who saw Patrick O'Bryant as a freshman and declared him a long term project and a wasted scholarship....
and the same people who ranted incessantly how we should get rid of JJ Tauai, and dump the juco players like Will Franklin, Taylor Brown, or Theron Wilson.
Recently we've seen their convoluted logic when they claim we have terrible production out of our bigs, yet we should have done everything we can to hold onto the guy coaching our bigs when he decided on his own to leave!
BTW-- Here's a stat to chew on....
at the time our "bigs-coach" left, Will Egolf was averaging 6.5 ppg and 4.5 rpg.
In the games since then, against what is CLEARLY the tougher part of the schedule...he's averaging...8.0 ppg, and 4.5 rpg...so I'd give Will the credit for getting better.
The Bradley game Tuesday at UNI will be on ESPNU!!
http://www.bradleybraves.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204867473
Meltdown at USC continues....head football coach Pete Carroll is gone to the NFL. The truth is finally trying to come to light that USC has been cheating for years...
but this whole act of letting the FB coach go and and slapping the hands of the basketball program will probably be enough for NCAA and they'll look the other way and never bother to really expose the cheating that's gone on from Reggie Bush to OJ Mayo!
Watch it unfold...and see that the NCAA literally gives them a pass despite the cheating they've done...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/01/pete-carroll-to-take-seattle-seahawks-coaching-position.html
Here's a laugh and also shows how fickle fans can be...
Kansas is rated #1 and goes on the road to suffer a tough loss to a ranked team...
Guess what??? There's a freakin' meltdown on the Kansas message board!!
They are crying like the sky is falling, looking for someone to rip or blame, even blaming head coach Bill Self - calling him "stupid!", and talking about who they'd want "if Bill Self were not their coach"!!!!!!!!!!
"If Self wasn't our coach, who would you want?"
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2481&t=5425012
"I blame Bill Self ........"
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2481&t=5441041
"Nice zone, coach"
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2481&t=5439622
BTW-- Bruce Pearl has finally realized now that fate has taken away all his gun-toting, drug-using studs, that he actually does have kids sitting on the bench that can play and who want to play!
He even seems to concede he never knew that before!
...duh...."We have a basketball program here"
But it's not like they have no talent...
they have basically the same level of talented kids as far as the 4-Star and 5-Star recruits as Kansas has!!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=157586#post157586
DePaul will announce today that head coach Jerry Wainwright is stepping down. Look for one of the assistants, Billy Garrett, David Booth, or Tracy Webster to take over while DePaul searches for their next head coach.
Right now the going rumble is that it'll be Tracy Webster.
Will any of their players bolt??? BU had previously wanted Devin Hill.
ESPN is reporting Wainwright will step down.
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1213866806468167855
Another player Bradley pursued, Chris Colvin - freshman at Iowa State, has been suspended for unspecified behavior.
After Illinois tore Indiana apart in the paint and Mike Tisdale went off for 27 pts, 9 rebs, while IU post players were all but non-existent...
Indiana is out beating the bushes for anyone available to play in the paint.
They have offered one big kid from Carmel-
http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1038396
and are also reportedly after Greg Echineque, who just left Rutgers a few days ago, looking to transfer elsewhere for playing time...and a couple other juco big men.
But if the kid can't find playing time at Rutgers, then won't he just be yet another benchwarming big man at Indiana?
Recall, the Hoosiers do have two 7-footers already on the bench...
senior Tijan Jobe and Bawa Muniru who's been a few prep schools before joining IU.
It's only 1/2 way into Crean's 2nd season but there are already some pretty impatient and unhappy Indiana fans who are wondering why even when the Hoosiers have a big lead, that Tom Crean gets outcoached all the way down the stretch and gets beaten.
Saint Louis saw the debut of Cody Ellis, the top player in Australia and an incoming freshman, as he played in his first game since finally being cleared by NCAA.
SLU beat Richmond 63-58...still showing signs of struggling with scoring...but Ellis had 10 pts, 5 rebs in 23 minutes.
Rick Majerus now has two Aussies on his roster, as SLU goes to 10-5 and 1-0 in the A-10.
GO Braves!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Valley News and More
Bradley's Strength of Schedule is now Top 30!!....They also have a Top 100 RPI!
BU is the only Valley team with even a TOP 100 SOS and TOP 100 RPI!!!
http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_mvc_Men.html
An interesting thing happened in the Wichita State-Missouri State game Wednesday -- an altercation occurred where a Missouri State fan gave a 2-handed shove to the Shockers' Toure Murry, shoving him into the cheerleaders.
This is really a classless act by the Missouri State fan/thug.
http://www.kansas.com/sports/story/1127518.html
(if anyone can find this clip on YouTube - let me know)
This is reminiscent of Central Illinois native Chas McFarland of Wake Forest being attacked by a classless Clemson fan!
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Video-Clemson-fan-tackles-Wake-Forest-player?urn=ncaab,135081&cp=2
SIU fans are ticked...they want to know why Chris Lowery didn't start Kevin Dillard, they are booing, and some are ticked that Chris Lowery is firing back and criticizing the crowd!
Saluki fans are booing...
but I have no sympathy at all for them...The Southern (their local newspaper) reports that with nearly 12 minutes to go when SIU fell behind by 22, the fans started en masse heading for the exits...
Gimme a break....what kind of fans are those?? Good riddance to them...
In my entire life I have never seen BU fans exit in large numbers that early!
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=30789
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=30837
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=30836
Here's a surprise comment from ESPN Chicago....
the guy says SIU head coach Chris Lowery is dangerously close to being canned and is an embarrassment to SIU fans!!!
read this...
"I have always liked SIU coach Chris Lowery, but he is dangerously following the Lovie Smith path. He was at the Sweet 16 a few years back but has really underachieved since getting his big contract. After six straight seasons of making the NCAA tourney under Bruce Weber, Matt Painter, and Lowery, the Salukis will probably make it three straight years of not making it to the dance. If Butler could stay on top through a few coaching changes, why couldn't SIU? Wednesday's loss to the University of Northern Iowa on ESPNU was an embarrassment."
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog/_/post/4806886/name/silverman
Anyone see the Michigan-Penn State game last night...I watched it at Buffalo Wild Wings, and Michigan trailed 31-16 at half and already looked beat!
But Michigan outscored PSU 48-24 in the 2nd half to win 64-55!
Penn State's Talor Battle sure didn't look all that good...4-12 overall and 1-6 from 3-pt. Penn State draws only about 5,000!!
As many predicted, Illinois' Joseph Bertrand appears to be going to redshirt-
http://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois/article_9e952c20-fbee-11de-9112-001cc4c03286.html
The Illinois game at Indiana is only a day away and Bruce Weber is reluctant to reveal his starting lineup - and won't answer questions about player personnel at all.
Where is the outrage from the Peoria press and message boarders who demand transparency and want to know these things...and claim the God-given right to know??
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14247
One of the Pantagraph blogs stated that Dodie Dunson was out for the season with a "season-ending knee injury" - but that's obviously just a mistake as we all saw Dodie Wednesday night and his knee is fine!
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_862ea3dc-fa63-11de-b105-001cc4c03286.html
DePaul is doing so bad (and now that Koshwal's back they can't use the excuse of their best player being out) that they really didn't need more bad news....or could this be good news in disguise?
Head coach Jerry Wainwright was knocked down in the last game by a diving player at the sidelines, and has reportedly sustained "a MCL tear and a fractured tibia."
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=430&f=2585&t=5421011
http://twitter.com/ZachZaidman
DePaul fans have long since bailed and really don't care...
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=430&f=2585&t=5415027
Although a lot of people have been touting Chicago native and Obama brother-in-law, and current Oregon State coach Craig Robinson as the potential next coach to replace Wainwright.
But that might be a real disaster as badly as Robinson (Michelle Obama's brother) is doing.
Oregon State just got blown out by Seattle by 51 points!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14241
Did you see where a hacker broke into and disrupted the Big East Conference phone in press conference??
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/1407/hacker-invades-jim-calhoun-conference-call
There's turmoil at Quincy University! Quincy, home of Peoria's Josh Edwards, has had two players suddenly leave this past week.
First Billy Hayes leaves, likely over the issue of playing time..
then a much higher-level player, Larry Dumas, has now bolted. Dumas was a pretty good player out of high school, who went to WIU. But he bolted when that coach left and Molinari took over. Then he went to Southeastern CC in Iowa (where John Wilkins is)and was a key player with Dwight Buycks, Dwight Hardy, and Laron Dendy....but then took the D-II scholarship to Quincy.
He hasn't played yet at Quincy since he's been in so much legal trouble after beating up another student.
He kinda sounds like a poor-man's Ryan Hare.
http://www.whig.com/story/sports/Dumas-gone-for-1-8-10
http://www.whig.com/story/news/Dumas-for-10-27-09
BTW- Quincy is actually doing pretty well...they are 14-0, with only 5 games even closer than double digits, and no game closer than a five-point win!
Ex-ICC Billy Baptist is their best player, Josh Edmonds averages 8 ppg.
http://www.quincy.edu/Athletics/MBasketball/0910mbbstats_003.HTM
The Cornell-Kansas game was interesting....Cornell, a good team, almost went to Lawrence, KS and knocked off the Jayhawks. Only a phenomenal game by Sherron Collins prevented the upset.
Kansas goes to Tennessee Sunday, and it looks like Tennessee will play without their four gun/drug criminals but only one was a starter...I am sure Bruce Pearl will give alibis of how shorthanded they are. But the shorthandedness is really due to Pearl janking scholarships from Daniel West, Josh Tabb, Duke Crews, Ramar Smith, Josh Childress, Tony Passley, Cordell Passley, and many others (including all the druggies he recruited) while playing walk-ons like his son Steven Pearl and ex-Saluki Josh Bone....all the while going hot after every available disgruntled transfer - almost as passionately as Tim Jankovich & Chris Lowery do.
Remember - it was Bruce Pearl's lust for the instant help he got from the talented Iowa transfer Tyler Smith, that has now blown up in his face!!
This is just another of the special favor NCAA waiver players who didn't have to sit out a year when transferring that has totally backfired in a kind of karma-payback!
Ex-USC commit and now Mississippi State freshman Renardo Sydney still hasn't been cleared by NCAA as it is obvious that his family was taking illegal benefits from agents and living in a $1.2 million California home, and none of the family will release the records to prove what they claim.
Think of it...if even chronically cheating USC cut the kid loose, he must be a total loss, but the NCAA is still looking for ways to clear the kid...
had the kid gone to a mid-major, he'd have been closed out long ago - trust me!
http://www.sportingnews.com/college-basketball/article/2010-01-08/attorney-mississippi-state-mishandling-renardo-sidneys-eligibi
BU is the only Valley team with even a TOP 100 SOS and TOP 100 RPI!!!
http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_mvc_Men.html
An interesting thing happened in the Wichita State-Missouri State game Wednesday -- an altercation occurred where a Missouri State fan gave a 2-handed shove to the Shockers' Toure Murry, shoving him into the cheerleaders.
This is really a classless act by the Missouri State fan/thug.
http://www.kansas.com/sports/story/1127518.html
(if anyone can find this clip on YouTube - let me know)
This is reminiscent of Central Illinois native Chas McFarland of Wake Forest being attacked by a classless Clemson fan!
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Video-Clemson-fan-tackles-Wake-Forest-player?urn=ncaab,135081&cp=2
SIU fans are ticked...they want to know why Chris Lowery didn't start Kevin Dillard, they are booing, and some are ticked that Chris Lowery is firing back and criticizing the crowd!
Saluki fans are booing...
but I have no sympathy at all for them...The Southern (their local newspaper) reports that with nearly 12 minutes to go when SIU fell behind by 22, the fans started en masse heading for the exits...
Gimme a break....what kind of fans are those?? Good riddance to them...
In my entire life I have never seen BU fans exit in large numbers that early!
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=30789
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=30837
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=30836
Here's a surprise comment from ESPN Chicago....
the guy says SIU head coach Chris Lowery is dangerously close to being canned and is an embarrassment to SIU fans!!!
read this...
"I have always liked SIU coach Chris Lowery, but he is dangerously following the Lovie Smith path. He was at the Sweet 16 a few years back but has really underachieved since getting his big contract. After six straight seasons of making the NCAA tourney under Bruce Weber, Matt Painter, and Lowery, the Salukis will probably make it three straight years of not making it to the dance. If Butler could stay on top through a few coaching changes, why couldn't SIU? Wednesday's loss to the University of Northern Iowa on ESPNU was an embarrassment."
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog/_/post/4806886/name/silverman
Anyone see the Michigan-Penn State game last night...I watched it at Buffalo Wild Wings, and Michigan trailed 31-16 at half and already looked beat!
But Michigan outscored PSU 48-24 in the 2nd half to win 64-55!
Penn State's Talor Battle sure didn't look all that good...4-12 overall and 1-6 from 3-pt. Penn State draws only about 5,000!!
As many predicted, Illinois' Joseph Bertrand appears to be going to redshirt-
http://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois/article_9e952c20-fbee-11de-9112-001cc4c03286.html
The Illinois game at Indiana is only a day away and Bruce Weber is reluctant to reveal his starting lineup - and won't answer questions about player personnel at all.
Where is the outrage from the Peoria press and message boarders who demand transparency and want to know these things...and claim the God-given right to know??
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14247
One of the Pantagraph blogs stated that Dodie Dunson was out for the season with a "season-ending knee injury" - but that's obviously just a mistake as we all saw Dodie Wednesday night and his knee is fine!
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_862ea3dc-fa63-11de-b105-001cc4c03286.html
DePaul is doing so bad (and now that Koshwal's back they can't use the excuse of their best player being out) that they really didn't need more bad news....or could this be good news in disguise?
Head coach Jerry Wainwright was knocked down in the last game by a diving player at the sidelines, and has reportedly sustained "a MCL tear and a fractured tibia."
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=430&f=2585&t=5421011
http://twitter.com/ZachZaidman
DePaul fans have long since bailed and really don't care...
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=430&f=2585&t=5415027
Although a lot of people have been touting Chicago native and Obama brother-in-law, and current Oregon State coach Craig Robinson as the potential next coach to replace Wainwright.
But that might be a real disaster as badly as Robinson (Michelle Obama's brother) is doing.
Oregon State just got blown out by Seattle by 51 points!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14241
Did you see where a hacker broke into and disrupted the Big East Conference phone in press conference??
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/1407/hacker-invades-jim-calhoun-conference-call
There's turmoil at Quincy University! Quincy, home of Peoria's Josh Edwards, has had two players suddenly leave this past week.
First Billy Hayes leaves, likely over the issue of playing time..
then a much higher-level player, Larry Dumas, has now bolted. Dumas was a pretty good player out of high school, who went to WIU. But he bolted when that coach left and Molinari took over. Then he went to Southeastern CC in Iowa (where John Wilkins is)and was a key player with Dwight Buycks, Dwight Hardy, and Laron Dendy....but then took the D-II scholarship to Quincy.
He hasn't played yet at Quincy since he's been in so much legal trouble after beating up another student.
He kinda sounds like a poor-man's Ryan Hare.
http://www.whig.com/story/sports/Dumas-gone-for-1-8-10
http://www.whig.com/story/news/Dumas-for-10-27-09
BTW- Quincy is actually doing pretty well...they are 14-0, with only 5 games even closer than double digits, and no game closer than a five-point win!
Ex-ICC Billy Baptist is their best player, Josh Edmonds averages 8 ppg.
http://www.quincy.edu/Athletics/MBasketball/0910mbbstats_003.HTM
The Cornell-Kansas game was interesting....Cornell, a good team, almost went to Lawrence, KS and knocked off the Jayhawks. Only a phenomenal game by Sherron Collins prevented the upset.
Kansas goes to Tennessee Sunday, and it looks like Tennessee will play without their four gun/drug criminals but only one was a starter...I am sure Bruce Pearl will give alibis of how shorthanded they are. But the shorthandedness is really due to Pearl janking scholarships from Daniel West, Josh Tabb, Duke Crews, Ramar Smith, Josh Childress, Tony Passley, Cordell Passley, and many others (including all the druggies he recruited) while playing walk-ons like his son Steven Pearl and ex-Saluki Josh Bone....all the while going hot after every available disgruntled transfer - almost as passionately as Tim Jankovich & Chris Lowery do.
Remember - it was Bruce Pearl's lust for the instant help he got from the talented Iowa transfer Tyler Smith, that has now blown up in his face!!
This is just another of the special favor NCAA waiver players who didn't have to sit out a year when transferring that has totally backfired in a kind of karma-payback!
Ex-USC commit and now Mississippi State freshman Renardo Sydney still hasn't been cleared by NCAA as it is obvious that his family was taking illegal benefits from agents and living in a $1.2 million California home, and none of the family will release the records to prove what they claim.
Think of it...if even chronically cheating USC cut the kid loose, he must be a total loss, but the NCAA is still looking for ways to clear the kid...
had the kid gone to a mid-major, he'd have been closed out long ago - trust me!
http://www.sportingnews.com/college-basketball/article/2010-01-08/attorney-mississippi-state-mishandling-renardo-sidneys-eligibi
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