Levern Tart - Once a Brave......and more...

Noted is the passing at a relatively young age of Bradley great Levern Tart.
Tart was voted part of the Bradley Team of the Century (15 best players all time) as voted in 2003 - which was Bradley Basketball's 100th anniversary.

Levern was Bradley's MVP and the NIT MVP in 1964 - back when the NIT was essentially as prestigious as any other tournament.

He was a 6th round pick by the Boston Celtics & played 274 games in the NBA & ABA between 1967 - 1971. Just to show you how good Levern was, he has an astounding career average of 19.4 ppg over those 274 games, and an even more astounding 24.3 ppg in playoff action - 11 games. He also appeared in two ABA All Star Games.

Here are Levern Tart's numbers at Bradley - and you'll recall freshmen were not eligible to play on varsity at that time.

1961-1962 27 games, 124-273, 331 pts, 12.2 ppg
1962-1963 17 games, 82-175, 219 pts, 12.8 ppg
1963-1964 29 games, 177-353, 503 pts, 17.3 ppg
Career: 73 gms, 383-801(48%), 77%FT%, 1053 pts, 14.4 ppg

Here's some words from Joe Stowell on Levern Tart.
http://blogs.pjstar.com/pressrow/2010/06/25/remembering-levern/

Here are a few quotes from the Bradley player guides and Yearbooks of the early 1960's that I have among the items I have collected...

"After being one of the top freshman on the squad, Lavern (sic), a sophomore, was among the top scorers on the frosh squad with 133 points in eight games for an average of 16.5 per game. He was the number one rebounder as he grabbed 108 for a 13.5 average and hit better than 57 percent of his field goal attempts.
One of the "Florida Flashes" at Bradley, Lavern is currently the numbers two scorer for the varsity with a 14.3-ppg average...
His best effort to date (this season) has been a 26 point effort against the Gamecocks of South Carolina. He also had 26 against Notre Dame last year. He can play either forward or guard for Coach Orsborn.
A refugee from the cold of West Palm Beach, the biology and physical education major has not as yet learned to appreciate the "Yankee White Sand" which drifts down on Peoria through the cage season."

Finally by his senior year they had his name spelled properly in the publicaitons...
"Levern Tart has had some great nights in colege basketball including a 23 point game against LaSalle...
and a 26 point game against Notre Dame as a sophomore and a 26 pointer against South Carolina last winter...
He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Neal Tart, 1112 22nd Street and a graduate of Roosevelt High School, W. Palm Beach, Florida.
He ran into some scholastic trouble last winter that cost him some games but has worked hard to recover his full academic standing."

Here are some other links to info on Levern Tart..

His Wikipedia page and biographical info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levern_Tart

Obit:
http://www.legendsofbasketball.com/channel/187/

Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame:
http://www.gpshof.org/Inductees/tart.html
Team of the Century:
http://www2.pjstar.com/index.php?/bradleysbest/article/levern_tart

Some great pics!!
http://www.remembertheaba.com/TributeMaterial/Tart.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19680123&id=5dobAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QVEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5183,1480829






Here's a comment on how valuable is it to have recruiting experts rate kids who are still in junior high school.
This is the ranking of the Top 225 kids in the Class of 2010, but the rankings were done 5 years before these kids graduated.
Gues what...of the entire Top 225, only a handful were still in the Top of the rankings 5 years later when those kids were all high school seniors.
AND --
http://www.hoopscooponline.com/members/classof2010-7thgraders-230.html

Of those kids who were in the Top 20 5 years ago...only one (Ray McCallum who was #17 in the list from junior high and #20 now) stayed in the Top 20!

So I guess one could readily conclude that no matter how expert you are, trying to rank kids who are 7th & 8th graders, is next to completely worthless in trying to decide who will be the best recruits 5 years later when they are seniors!!
In fact, a full HALF of those kids who are ranked in the TOP 50 as junior high kids, are NO WHERE to be found in the rankings 5 years later -- in other words...they totally fizzled out and disappeared!
Best example is the guy who they ranked #1, Randy Collins! He is now a 2-Star recruit, totally outside the Top 225, and hasn't even gotten a high level D-I offer!!
http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=3226290

Likewise, the #2 kid, Kevin Gray, is now ZERO-Stars, unranked, and has no serious D-I interest whatsoever!!!
Good thing Billy Gillispie, Tim Floyd, and Greg McDermott didn't make to stupid mistake as they quite often have, of offering those kids when they were in middle school!!
http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=4334155


Happy Birthday to Osiris Eldridge....22 years old today but obviously disappointed he didn't hear his name on draft day.
He is still working out with professional trainers in Chicago hoping for a break at an NBA tryout or some other opportunity, or perhaps a gig in the D-League to try to convince the parent club GM's...
Here's a picture of Osiris getting mugged at a Memphis Grizzlies' workout a couple days ago...
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jun/23/seeing-is-believing/