News items Wednesday morning

One last comment on the John Wilkins situation, and that is that indeed something truly unusual happened over the past few weeks, in that while every unsigned player from Kevin Noreen, to Dwight McCombs, to Will Yeguete, to Ben Brust, to Moussa Guyere, to Guy-Marc Michel, and many more even so totally obscure that nobody knows who they are...
have all been pursued with a passion by every school sitting on a scholarship.......
In fact the frenzy was so head-spinning, that you couldn't keep up with all the reports of big name coaches jetting across the continent to see any unturned stone-of-a-player in hopes of landing the kid.......

...and all the while....John Wilkins was NOT YET COMMITTED NOR SIGNED...and everyone is dropping off the guy...
It was so totally opposite of what was happening everywhere!!
Even truly DESPERATE programs with a total void of talent and a truckload of unclaimed scholarships like Iowa State, Iowa, Indiana, etc....were backing off John Wilkins like the plague....and why????
Could it be that there was some truth to the rumors?? I have reason and sources to believe there was truth to the rumors of certain demands and preconditions, regardless of the spin ever since.
So everyone is entitled to believe what they want....but then you have the unprecedented and puzzling events as they happened...where JW was basically left with only one school still offering.........you decide.


Finally a little more word out of St. Louis....
it is clear that something serious happened late Friday night and early Saturday morning in a dorm on the Saint Louis University campus.
A woman claims she was sexually assaulted, and the police rounded up at least 3 men who were SLU students, and apprehended them, questioned them, and then released them. There is said to be ongoing investigations and charges are pending, but plenty of unofficial reports say that there actually may have been as many as four Saint Louis University Billikens basketball players involved, and that two are starters.
Personally, I am stumped as to why the identity of the accused is being protected more strongly in this case than the identity of some victims in these kinds of cases.
Could there be a coverup?? Some people being quoted sure seem more worried about how this incident will affect the team's chemistry...and less worried that someone might have been raped!


--When an incident happened in Peoria, a woman alleges a busted lip, and within minutes DRuff's name and picture are all over the front page, he's charged (later charges significantly reduced) already tried and hanged for choking and ligatures, and he remains the main news story for a month...AND THIS WAS ALL even though the accuser did NOT want any charges pressed...

--In St. Louis, a woman alleges RAPE (on a campus with 4000 other women students), claims at least 3 maybe 4 of the Saint Louis University basketball players are the attackers, AND DOES WANT THE POLICE TO CHARGE THE ATTACKERS...
and yet...here we are MORE than 4 days later, and nobody has even hinted at the names of the perpetrators...and are intentionally keeping this
all quiet to protect the players...
All the while other women on campus are angry that they don't know who the alleged attackers are and haven't been given any of the details for some odd reason,
...and they still have to walk around on campus in fear that the attackers could be right next to them.
"We don't know anything that's going on.. I mean people could be walking around right now who were the attackers"
http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=201397&catid=3
http://www.bnd.com/2010/05/05/1243580/new-details-in-slu-rape-investigation.html

Now get this comment that seems to be worrying far more about the basketball team than the attacked woman...
"Students tell us they are disheartened hearing any of their fellow students could be involved in an attack... especially members of the men's basketball team.
"I hope that its not for the basketball team's future because that would not be good for them - they were doing great and now this would be I think a really big thing to hurt them"

OMG -- a woman claims to have been sexually assaulted, and this person gets quoted saying she's more worried about what the attack might do to hurt the basketball team??

Anyway....discussion on certain message boards hints that many people already know who the players are....and they are key players in the Billikens' lineup.......
Rumblings that they might be GONE if this is all true..........
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/05/slu_basketball_players_arrested_questioned_in_sexual_assault.php



More on all the players leaving at Southern Illinois under Chris Lowery...and the fan dissention...
http://thesouthern.com/sports/article_d3c1059e-5801-11df-b949-001cc4c03286.html

...also some talk that Eugene Teague, one of their remaining post players is really struggling with academics and may not be available to them next year!

One other funny note -- the school year isn't even over, but the #22 jerseys worn by departing Anthony Booker and being sold off by SIU - they must be hurting for cash and need it in a hurry...
http://siusalukis.cstvauctions.com/auctiondisplay.cfm?auctionnbr=20224

And this report that Butler might be interested in Kevin Dillard!!!
http://twitter.com/Title_BU/status/13153878571



Here's something odd....and I can't quite understand how the opinions changed so much.......

Two separate .....widely different opinions stated...on the subject of NCAA Tourney expansion to 96 teams....

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-state/8f22757a-1059-11df-be02-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.videtteonline.com/index.php?id=32224:illinois-coaches-discuss-68-team-field-in-ncaas&option=com_content&catid=38:sportsbasketball&Itemid=55


...in the top one --
--Jim Les says "Bradley’s Jim Les, who said expanding the field to 96 “absolutely should be done."

--Tim Jankovich says "Selfishly, I would vote yes because it gives us all a better chance"

......so BOTH Les & Jank are quoted as saying they favor it!!


Then....in the bottom link -
--Jim Les says "I wasn’t in favor of the 96-team field"

--Jankovich says "Greed is the root of all evil,” said Illinois State head coach Tim Jankovich “I believe that maybe as much as anything. When money is the master, maybe you’re not doing things for the right reasons. .....expansion just opens up the flood gates. ... I couldn’t vote for that."

Jankovich, an assistant coach at Kansas for four years before joining the one-bid plagued Missouri Valley, was never a proponent of expanding the tournament to 96 teams even though his Redbirds (three straight NIT appearances) would have been dancing for each of the last three seasons.
“We would have been in all three years easily. It wouldn’t have even been close,” Jankovich said. “If it’s a self-serving, selfish thing."

...now both coaches appear to have a 100% different opinion, and both strongly DO NOT favor 96 team expansion and Jank even goes one step further - really attacking the idea of that degree of expansion...something both he and Les a couple months earlier said they were among the supporters!!
Maybe it's the way the questions were asked....maybe they both changed their opinions somewhat in the interval....and of course, anytime the press is involved, maybe they were misquoted or taken out of context...



Here's a sad story on ex-Illini player Scott Meents....he's really in some serious trouble now........multiple charges in different states...
http://www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=490808

Two more of Kelvin Sampson's players have had serious arrests this past week...
Xavier Keeling - DUI, and Armon Bassett - assault..
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/92619834.html

A few other unfortunate incidents...
Iowa State's Charles Boozer...
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100502/SPORTS020604/100502002/-1/NEWS04/ISU-basketball-Charles-Boozer-arrested-on-assault-charge

A Ball State guy...
http://www.bsudailynews.com/men-s-basketball-myron-green-arrested-for-dwi-minor-consumption-1.2256651


Then on the discipline issue, I really found this one funny!!!
Bruce Pearl has been notorious for coddling and enabling all the thugs, druggies, and crooks on his roster...accepting them back multiple times until they are booted from school and he has no choice any more...

But now he's actually bragging about his strong discipline...what a total laugh!!
"..Pearl spoke openly about the suspension of four players, which included the dismissal of starter Tyler Smith.
"We were down to six scholarship players, and we had embarrassed the university and ourselves," Pearl said. "Like a parent, you have to discipline your children."
http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20100505/SPORTS/5050312/1006/sports

Gimme a break Bruce...you'd have played those guys if you could, but they were in jail, then suspended by your higher-ups!!
You have nothing to do with the suspension...and you got them ALL back as fast as you could and all but Smith played heavy minutes in the NCAA Tourney run anyway!!


One other Canarias Basketball Academy player verbally commits to and signs with Oklahoma!!! Big Time!
http://www.cbacademy.org/index.asp?modulo=23&id=38&idioma=en
http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/050310aaa.html

But this kid's stats in the National Prep Tourney in Rhode Island last February are readily available and they aren't anywhere close to the numbers quoted in the Oklahoma article. In fact Saer didn't start, had tons of turnovers, and never scored more than a couple points a game!!!



And it has been a bit more quiet....but still want to say so long to Alvin Brooks III and thank you for your years at Bradley - wish you well!!

BTW -- here's a report on how ex-BU AD Ken Kavanagh had to "fire" - or allow to step down... one of his coaches under some troubling circumstances...
..but still..read the entire article and you simply cannot get away from the fact of how much class Ken Kavanagh exudes....and he does a superb job with this job termination .. and everyone comes out on top...
http://www.news-press.com/article/20100504/FGCU/5040365/1010/sports/Another-FGCU-golf-coach-steps-down
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/may/03/womens-golf-fgcu-coach-bertilson-announces-resigna/


So nobody reads Newsweek any more...and the mag is going belly up??
Anyone wonder why??? Could it be their slant appeals to so few that they can't make it any more??
http://www.newsweek.com/id/237401



Another online chat coming up with Bradley Head Coach Jim Les....stay tuned.......
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=181585#post181585