Here's a thought - I just counted the number of games missed by the key players of each Valley school - and for reference I chose the top 8 kids in scoring average...
If I missed anyone, let me know, but it is a pretty accurate refelction of how important it is to play with all your players.....
Here's how the ten Valley teams rank in games lost to players from injuries and other issues (players who redshirted all season from the outset are not included but if the player had to come off redshirt then the games he missed do count as long as he was one of their main guys). I even allowed for key players who were disciplined or dismissed.
Bradley - 47 (Dunson 29, DSE 5, Taylor Brown 4, Jake Eastman 9)
Indiana St. - 39 (Kelly 19, Lathan 12, Marshall 6, Richard 2)
Evansville - 30 (Bouchie 18, Lacey 6, Hopf 4, Haarsma 2)
Creighton - 14 (P'Allen 11, Carter 3)
SIU - 12 (Evans 9, Dillard 1, Freeman 1, Booker 1)
UNI - 5 (Eglseder 3 - but they did LOSE to Evansville with him out, Moran 2)
Wichita St. - 3 (Hannah 3 early season cupcakes)
Drake - 1 (Josh Young 1)
Missouri State - none
ISU - none
So what is the point....?
The point is that the teams that finished 1-2-3 in the Valley were clearly the teams who were among the ones that lucked out and avoided injuries and player losses...
The teams with the most player losses clearly had the more disappointing seasons.....
It is as simple as that....Bradley had the most games lost to injuries and other personnel losses, and Indiana State was the only other Valley team close....and BOTH had somewhat disappointing seasons, especially at the end.
I know there's a never ending debate about whether you can use injuries as an excuse....and it seems the very people who say that about Bradley - also allow for other teams to use injuries as an excuse!! (Purdue, Indiana State, etc.)
But facts are facts....if you want to praise other teams then be fair and note how much they avoided the injury factor and had all their key players at the key times - and that's not always a factor of the players themselves or the coaching.
I guess if you are constantly going to compare Bradley with teams that you praise and call better teams, then please include this fact...
Northern Iowa was NEVER without more than just one key player, and they never lacked a key player when it mattered or in the tourney...while clearly other teams DID.
Even when they did lose Eglseder AFTER their team had clinched - then they clearly struggled and even lost to last place Evansville!
They might have made the correction, but in my paper this morning, there's A PICTURE OF THE UNI team holding the sign that reads
"State Farm MISSOURI VALLEY CHAMPS"
...The caption says,
"Northern Illinois players celebrate.."
(note to staff...UNI is NOT Northern Illinois!!)
Also, I agree with the sentiment that Valley schools need to schedule tougher...
but why does this column have to appear in the Peoria paper and not in the papers of Bloomington or Carbondale where it might do more good?
Bradley is the ONE school that BOTH this year and in the past several years HAS scheduled tough....while it's been ISU, SIU, WSU, and even Northern Iowa who have scheduled soft!
I included UNI but at least they tried to schedule tougher but they struck out horribly!
Tell me who were Northern Iowa's BCS opponents??
It just so happens that they did play FOUR BCS opponents...DePaul, Boston College, Iowa, and Iowa State...
all four were miserable this seaosn, as weak as BCS opponents come!
DePaul is pathetic and UNI even LOST to them!
Iowa State, Iowa, and BC are all sub-.500 and battling to stay out of last place in their respective conferences!
UNI couldn't have hand picked a slate of four BCS teams that were weaker...sorry, but it's the truth! BC even lost on their own home floor to MAINE!!
Oh, and the numbers in the PJS were wrong....Indiana State did NOT have the leagues best SOS - that honor goes to Bradley whose SOS ranks 60, while InSU ranks 63.
So how about the single most prevailing rumor that was swirling in St. Louis??
...That SIU's Chris Lowery is going to leave SIU and become the next head coach at DePaul??
Well...now there's an article being discussed about that topic...
Note that the article quotes Lowery ONLY as saying he has not signed anything with DePaul nor reached any kind of specific agreement...
It does NOT say he is staying at SIU or that he WON'T be the next coach at DePaul...
Anyway...once it gets started on the SIU board, then Saluki fans really seem to want Lowery GONE!!
http://www.dailyregister.com/sports/x2096602085/Lowery-remains-Southern-Illinois-head-coach
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=32218&sid=13a29204941c65d5a742fefb22a4384d
Speaking of SIU - read this long post by an SIU fan who was terribly embarrassed and upset by the behavior of several other Saluki fans...
he also tears into Chris Lowery and a few others...
the followup comments are pretty interesting as well.....
Seems that Salukiland is in complete turmoil and meltdown...
gotta wonder if the same thing would happen elsewhere....as I really doubt it except for maybe one other school whose fans I'd place in roughly the same category as Salukifans....where classlessness is a true art form...
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=32246&sid=13a29204941c65d5a742fefb22a4384d
The guy also confirms he's almost sure Anthony Booker (as well as other players) are gonna be gone from SIU...
Is Seton Hall the new haven for thugs and malcontents? We all know that Seton Hall has lived in the bottom of the Big East for a long time and pressure is on head coach Bobby Gonzalez to produce a winner. Surely he sees what is happening to his counterparts like DePaul's Jerry Wainwright and the recent firing of Tim Welsh and hiring of Keno Davis at Providence. He knows he has to get a winner soon - and drawing talented kids to Seton Hall has got to be tougher than getting them to Villanova or UConn!
So, he does what many coaches do in this situation, he starts recruiting marginal kids - the ones other coaches pass on because of behavior and attitude issues. This technique just blew up horribly at Binghamton, and of course at Baylor a few years ago under Dave Bliss, but I am sure Gonzalez thinks Seton Hall is no Binghamton or Baylor, and just maybe it's gonna work for him....
We had previously discussed Michael Glover - one of the well travelled Boys to Men kids who ended up never getting eligible at Seton Hall, then unsuccessfully suing the NCAA.
But - here's a couple interesting articles describing how Gonzalez has built his team around "high-risk, second-chance transfers", and how much trouble that plan is causing.....
also - add in the fact that Gonzalez is also a very volatile and divisive person and often throws his own players under the bus...and did so before departing his last job..
Just coincidentally, many of the high profile transfers have already had legal issues and most have even failed to qualify!!
Looks like Seton Hall is going to miss the NCAA again this season...so is this unorthodoz plan working??
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/sports/ncaabasketball/08seton.html?pagewanted=1&ref=sports
Bobby Gonzalez clearly has a history of fighting, illegal and improper behavior, cheating, lying, and selling his soul to win games...
They all knew that at his last coaching job (Manhattan) and they are still talking about how he ruined their program!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/sports/ncaabasketball/08manhattan.html
You have to wonder how long is Seton Hall going to risk going the same way Binghamton just did....how long before some really serious issue arises or the school finds itself hammered for their violations??
Here's a nice column from Drake that shows the classiness they have and honor and speak so highly of their own players.....
Nice to see it.....wish we'd see more instead of so much ripping and attacks...
http://www.timesdelphic.com/2010/03/08/end-of-one-era-start-of-another
Along this same vein, I talked with several of the players and their parents over the weekend...and anyone who says or thinks that what's said negatively on message boards isn't hurtful or insulting, and maybe even backfires and hurts the team, simply doesn't have a clue or they are using their ignorance as a defense shield. But in time even those boards where the insults are prevalent start to die and nobody goes there any more.
Case in point, while BradleyFans was buzzing with well over 200 people online Friday and Saturday after the games...the other places that purport to be Bradley fan sites - even the ones heavily promoted with tons of advertising....were languishing with maybe one lurker and a google-bot....seriously - nothing being talked about at all, except still some bozos trying to stir up discontent....
Nice article on Yuba, who ended up 24-4 after this was supposed to be a rebuilding year!
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/sports/cornelius-92497-season-49ers.html
Indiana and head coach Tom Crean just canned his top assistant and top recruiter...Roshown Mcleod, apparently an effort to deflect criticism over their continued bad play and terrible recruiting success.....
But isn't it time to get past all the blame game...blaming the previous coach for the shambles the program was in, blaming the NCAA even though they didn't really issue a single penalty on Indiana, now blaming his underlings....they brought it all upon themselves..
and now blaming they are other assistants!!
Indeed McLeod was brough in specifically to help them land kids like Kyrie Irving, David Williams, and Josh Selby....and he did help bring in Victor Oladipo....but I see this as a preemptive move by Tom Crean to label McLeod as the scapegoat for everything wrong at Indiana.
If you look closely, read the local press, and check their message boards, there is a growing discontent brewing...
Indiana fans wanted and expected a little bit better by now, and Tom Crean has not yet brought in any blue-chippers...
In fact, most of the players he has landed are mid-major caliber kids and the schools he's beating out for them are like Bradley (for Matt Roth), George Washington (for Will Sheehey), George Mason, VCU, and SMU (for Victor Oladipo), and a few jucos for Bawa Muniru, and they did get beat out by both UNLV and Valparaiso for Beas Hamga!!!
This move allows Crean to blame his underlings for his own failures....and it isn't likely to fool too many of the Indiana fans....who are growing restless that the team has been losing so consistently and plays more like Indiana State than Indiana.
Illinois had an incident that not many people saw...but on the sidelines, Bruce Weber wanted to discuss shot selection with Demetri McCamey and McCamey kinda pushed Weber away and didn't want to talk...
here's a video of the event...
Read Weber's lips....The "F" word then the "BS" word...
http://www.illinoisloyalty.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=11744
...well, they are the FIGHTING ILLINI!!!
One last rumor circulating in St. Louis, that one team's star player had a little incident involving the police at about 4AM....more to come later...
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