Lots of Valley Happenings and more...

Here's a funny one....after all the legal woes, DUI's and even coaches getting arrgrivated DUI's and other issues, and players being booted...
IN A LONG THREAD ON THE SIU BOARD...
a few of the uninformed posters tried to defend the horrible mis-behavior by claiming Bradley was worse...
Thankfully, one of their own sensible posters put them straight...
"Right now, SIU is in a class by themselves in the
MVC for players (and coaches) gone wild. It might
even be more tolerable if we were having success,
but we're looking at 9th or 10th again this year.
Btw, Bradley has not had any DUIs that I could find."
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?t=33031&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=373

And this is true...Bradley has had a few minor behavior issues, but note how incredibly some try to blow it out of proportion.
None of the BU violations led to permanent charges...all had either deferred prosecution or dropped charges.
One post I saw even tried to drag the Kevin Clancy thing back out...an event that happened more than a decade ago - and was a distant memory even before Jim Les was ever hired. Not to mention it was also a minor spat that did not prevent Clancy from leaving and transferring to just about any place he wanted.


One more SIU note - or ex-SIU note...
this morning a reporter who watched a pickup game at open gym of all the Dayton players...says this......
"I was impressed with the University of Dayton basketball recruits after watching them in pickup games with the veterans last week. Very impressed.
Juwan Staten could be the best point guard at UD since Negele Knight arrived in 1985. Staten protects the ball, can get his own shot and is a jet going endline-to-endline.
Ralph Hill, the 6-foot-6 Columbus native, has a sweet stroke and surprising range. He also has a chiseled enough frame to bang down low. Huge upside..."
He also had some nice words about Devin Oliver & Brandon Spearman...and Kevin Dillard, but said this...
"I’m cautious about going overboard since I’ve only seen..Dillard once"

But it does look like Kevin Dillard is going to have a lot of competition for PG spot.....



Here's a name out of the past.......Jelani Poston...at South Suburban CC...(junior college)..coached by John Pigatti...
He started at Chicago Lincoln Park and was getting some attention and mention even before his sophomore season back in 2003.
Then he transferred to Simeon, then Boys to Men Academy where he played much of one year, then a couple prep schools....and finally got an offer and landed at UIC.
He was originally in Class of 2006, then reclassified as Class of 2007, then with his couple years of prep school, reclassified some more.........
now finishing his 2nd year of juco after a short and unwelcome stay at UIC...
He was once rated #5 in Class of 2007..although 5 of the top 6 flopped as many of those older rankings unfortunately demonstrate...
http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/brianstinnette11.html

I guess what intrigues me is how a kid who first started getting writeups in Chicago in 2003, and who was first set to be graduated in 2006, then 2007...
how can such a kid still be just now entering his 2nd year of junior college and thus be a juco recruit for the Class of 2011!
jelani would be about 23 before he steps on the court at D-I after completing juco..

Here's another example of those who were so highly ranked in 2007 & 2008 and how many of them have been total flops!
http://midstatehoops.com/v5/index.php?s=chicago&paged=16


Just when the NCAA starts talking about passing rules to prohibit recruiting the really young kids, especially middle schoolers...Bruce Weber goes after even more of them...
now he's after a couple 8th graders, including one from Springfield, Larry Austion, Class of 2014...
if you can't get this premium article, it also talks about Bruce going hard after Jahlil Okafor, an 8th grader in Rosemont, IL...who is 6-8 and projected to headed to at least 7-ft!
http://illinois.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1097750

Here's the story about the NCAA wanting to put an end to such early recruiting..but don't expect it to happen soon as long as it benefits the BCS guys...
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/13562063/ncaa-proposes-end-to-early-scholarship-offers/isg


Gotta love John Calipari ..he makes a power grab for lots of credit for himself and a lot of ME-glory, and finds he has to take a little heat from the long time Kentucky fans for his selfish comments.
After coaching a ton of lottery picks and 5-Star recruits to a good but disappointing year...and after five get drafted, he claims this is the greatest day in Kentucky Basketball history!!
As if his accomplishments beat out their multiple NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS!!
Hu-uh, JC, don't think so.....
but just another example of the me-first attitude prevalent there and in a lot of other places...
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/12838/calipari-sparks-minor-backlash


Many will recall this ex-Valley coach who is now doing some WNBA coaching...
SORRY - but I think coaching in the WNBA is a good and honorable position, but coaching WITH A PINK SPORTS COAT is far, far below some of those high points in Nolan Richardson's career, especially winning the NCAA Championship.
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/06/28/1327181/nolan-richardson-finds-new-challenge.html


I noted a little grumbling over on the Iowa State boards about how well two of their ex-players did in the draft...both Craig Brackins and Wesley Johnson going in about the first 20 spots...
That immediately led to a few grumbles about how bad of a coach McD must have been to have two guys who were or who were just outside of being lottery picks on his team at the SAME TIME and still couldn't win a danged thing and couldn't stay out of the cellar of the league.


Here's a great soccer picture.....
http://www.sportskeeda.com/2010/06/28/love-for-the-game-soccer/


Here's an interesting report....actually an errant report.
"Creighton, Iowa State, and Northern Arizona will go north to play University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, and Concordia University in the Battle of the Border tournament hosted by the University of Calgary."
http://www.azdailysun.com/sports/basketball/article_898632ec-7e8f-11df-bf78-001cc4c03286.html

...but this is wrong, Creighton is not going...
they just had a 5-game Canadian tour in 2007 and cannot go again for 4 years!
http://www.gocreighton.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=89385&SPID=69&DB_OEM_ID=1000&KEY=&Q_SEASON=2007

Here's a more accurate report - Creighton will not be there...
http://www.godinos.com/news/2010/6/21/MBB_0621102339.aspx


I have always gotten a kick out of the scoring numbers in some of the summer leagues...and the Capital City League in Iowa is no exception...
I just checked some of the totals from this past week's games...

First - the hype and legend of Rayvonte Rice has stalled just a bit...as RR had a pretty bad game.
He was only 3-13 from the floor, didn't look good, 0-3 on 3-pt and only 3 rebs, and 6 points.....thus, not a lot of drooling posts about him this week...in fact nobody else will even mention his stats...
also........his team lost 115-114, which in and of itself shows the total lack of any defense being played, and the fact the the leather on the ball was white hot with those teams launching about 100 shots each during the game.
Here are some other stats from this week's games over there in Iowa....

Chris Babb had 35 on 12-19 & 9-15 on 3's
Karl Madison 20 on 7-20
Melvin Ejim 32 on 12-26
Iowa State walk on Babu Palo 20 pts
many of the other 20-pt and even 30-pt scorers are kids you've never heard of!!!
Clearly those stats are about as meaningful as the ones put up at the "Y" in open gyms....


Here's a story on several area juco kids
http://midstatehoops.com/v5/?p=5351

Just saw a report that Jordan Eglseder is on the Pistons' summer league team..
Eglseder and Ali Farokhmanesh have been invited to the ESPY Awards -- rumor they might get the award for "Best Upset"...

More on how scheduling is hard...
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/12511/scheduling-still-difficult-for-mid-majors



PS-- For Bradley fans -- a couple bits of good news are on the way...

and one more time....
Michael Ochereobia spells his name...
OCHEREOBIA not Ocherobia.....this has been mentioned several times...and yet we see "experts" still making this same spelling mistake...(especially on other boards)
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=185058#post185058
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=183700#post183700


Edit --
one of the pieces of good news is out...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=185514#post185514

one last riddle...
IFEANYICHUKWU