Some puzzling stories

First - the DUI at SIU ...
Assistant coach Marcus Belcher cited for speeding, issued a DUI, and charged with leaving the scene....
He has had DUI's before...but here's the puzzle...this all happened almost a month ago and news is just now leaking out - only on message boards and blogs.

This story had yet to be reported anywhere - not even in Carbondale where it might actually be big news.....until days after being discussed on the boards, and now there's a little mention in the media...
Other details are that he was not only drunk, but crashed the fairly new car into some property and a ditch then fled the scene....and was later apprehended at his home by police...
He tested 0.175 (BAC) - more than twice the legal limit...and the entire SIU coaching staff and athletic department is quite mum on this and not returning calls...

Certainly if this had happened to a Bradley assistant coach it would have been splattered all across the front page with allegations of "ligature marks" and "battery involving hands and feet"!!!
Of course had it occurred at ISU, then the Pantagraph would have helped suppress and hide the story until it got broke and widely discussed on the message boards - and would have barely mentioned it anyway and bought the whole coverup and lack of discipline that occurs there.

Anyway - is this going to be kept silent at SIU?? Maybe it'll get ignored...fans are lumping this one onto what they already hold Chris Lowery accountable for and some woud like a response.
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=183090#post183090



Next - the exodus at Iowa State...
When Greg McDermott was there the exodus was impressive...dozens of players, even most that he recruited and who came there to play for McDermott, changed their minds once they were there and left with plenty of eligibility remaining. Every program loses players for many reasons..homesick (this one is used a lot but is likely bogus 99% of the time), playing time, lack of talent, discipline, etc..
But many of the Iowa State players leaving made very little sense, because with so few players remaining there, playing time was abundant!!

Now one of the few remaining guys who could start and do OK at the Big 12 talent level, LaRon Dendy is bolting...
http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46661&SPID=4252&DB_OEM_ID=10700&ATCLID=204950809

Dendy says he simply made up his mind...but he'd have all the playing time he wants next year because there are so few returning players. AND - he is a senior now, and only one year of eligibility left, and on top of that it is late enough that a lot of other programs have already filed all their scholarships! So what would make him want to leave now??
Dendy was a top player, 4-Star, ranked as high as #37 nationally out of high school. He verballed to a couple programs, always reneging and then going to prep schools...he bounced around quite a bit, then ended up at junior college..
from there he went to Iowa State - but it's tremendously puzzling since the only reason he might have been unhappy was that he had a bad relationship with McDermott, something that was no secret...
He's a couple years older than most college seniors - so he is mature enough to know he's not a potential NBA player - so what's up??
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100525/SPORTS05/100525017/Keeler-Cyclones-will-need-freshman-basketball-players-to-furnish-depth

But now McDermott is gone, and new coach Fred Hoiberg desperately needs Dendy and wants him to stay - yet the kid is leaving!
This is a phenomenon that stumps me........something yet-to-be-explained is happening at Iowa State. The quantity and the degree of talent bolting from there is staggering...kids like Wesley Johnson who went on to be a superstar at Syracuse...and Shawn Taggert who went on to star at Memphis...
(ps- the other kid now bolting at Iowa State has already used his redhsirt so he must want out of there equally as desperately!!)

It'll be interesting to see if Fred Hoiberg can repair the major cracks in that program and whether Greg McDermott can avoid the same prolems at Creighton, but he's got a few early losses already with P'Allen, Denson, Bock, Nared, etc.....


Speaking of McDermott, he has a new hire as assistant coach at Creighton, Steve Lutz...currently assistant at SMU, and previously an assistant at Stephen F. Austin.
http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/lutz_steve00.html



Then the puzzle at Kansas...those guys are all among the highest paid and highest earning people in any athletic department anywhere - but they just weren't happy with the oodles of money they were earning already...
all the big wigs there have gotten into bed with sleazy characters, slimy AAU folks and promoters, and apparently even the mob...all in an effort to line their pockets with even more money..

note this comment by one of the Kansas crooks...
"We made a half-million dollars [that weekend]. I got on the MARTA (train) with $200,000 in each pocket. It was all in one-hundred dollar bills. Every $10,000 had a paper clip and they were rolled up."
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15724

I guess that's the definition of criminal greed - when millions is still not enough!!

But never to worry Kansas folks....the entire NCAA is all tied up trying to find ways to block the eligibility of the latest Bradley recruit or digging into Star Trucking's employmeny records... ;)


BTW - one Kansas fan tracked something on the premium Kansas message board..
it is a search of the people who have been involved in real estate deals with this fired Athletic Dept. head and fund raiser who was neck deep in the ticket selling scandal...
note the names...and many of these property deals and cash exchanges are in the million dollar range...
Bill Self, Scot Pollard (ex-Kansas player who is a booster and trustee at KU), Roger Mornginstar (big time booster and father of a current player), etc...
So ----someone try to convince me that Self and the other top dogs at Kansas were NOT involved and knew about this whole scandal!!
http://www2.ljworld.com/propertyvalues/?q=bauer+brook



Then this story ..about Tennessee forward Tyler Smith - who was booted after getting caught joyriding with guns, booze, and marijuana....but the other 3 players caught red-handed with Smith were all reinstated so they could play in the NCAA Tourney!!
Smith is now throwing his own 3-year old kid under the bus claiming the whole thing with the gun was because his kid was threatened..but he offers no evidence and never notified the police.....
I might even believe this, except - recall - the gun had the serial numbers filed off and was being carried in the rental car of one of the guys' girlfriends' mothers........yeah...right...
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/11738/tyler-smith-explains-gun-charge-sort-of
http://www.lex18.com/news/former-vols-star-says-gun-was-to-protect-son



Osiris and the draft....
for a while there were a few mentions that Osiris was at least being noticed..but in the past two weeks, despite the tons of writeups, mock drafts, and reports about the upcoming NBA Draft...there's not a mention anywhere on Osiris Eldridge...his name has dropped off the edge of the earth...
Is this a hint that the previous mention was just hopeful hype...and that he doesn't have a chance of getting drafted?
He isn't even mentioned among one site's Top 100 players/prospects in the draft!
http://www.hoopsworld.com/the_draft/Top100NBADraftProspects.asp