So just how desperate is Tom Crean?? (plus a little on player movement and the IBCA All Star Game)

As we've already seen, Indiana's Tom Crean has been desperately going after every high schooler, juco player, and available transfer with eligibility - just to try to land one iota of talent...
Names like Walter Offutt, Ben Brust -- etc....even though the chance of landing any of them was slim.
In the end, the only recruits he's got coming in are marginal Big Ten caliber kids...some are even downright marginal D-I candidates like the juco kid Guy-Marc Michel who averaged only 6 ppg at a low level juco.

But even with the marginal kids - the roster was overloaded for years to come, and Crean had more kids lined up than scholarships available - so he had to jettison some dead weight and recently creaned the roster once again and sent Bawa Muniru packing. I am not sure how the IU fans & gurus could be so wrong on the talent level of the big 7-footer Muniru, who some had as a Top 100, 4-Star talent.
But - after 6 years in high school and prep schools, the guy still couldn't score in most games. Shouldn't a 22 year old 7-footer playing against 16-17 year old high schoolers kinda dominate more than 2 points per game?? Bu tthe IU folks still predicted he'd be their full time starting center and he'd be a ton.

Oh well...nobody denies Crean works hard on recruiting, but he sure isn't the world's greatest judge of talent...

But now, as he is still going hard after anyone who can hit the rim, he's now beating the bushes for yet another well-traveled, multi-transfer kid....
Roburt Sallie........

Roburt Sallie - is a Class of 2004 SG - already nearly 25 years old!!
He is leaving Memphis but has a year of eligibility left...
(hard to believe since he was originally a 2004 high school grad!)
http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1097181
http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=182864

Sallie went to high school in California, then was a non-qualilfier after verballing to Washington, so went to Laurinburg Prep (now closed down due to being a diploma mill), then Patterson Prep (now closed down due to the same reason -both now out of business) - then after signing with Washington and going back to a 2nd year of prep school - then verballed and even enrolled at Nebraska - then failed clearinghouse and went to City College of San Francisco and sat out 06-07..playing in 2007-2008.

Then, since he had enrolled at Nebraska and left - he was banned from playing at any other Big 12 school, so he finished the juco and went to Memphis..but
after 2 troubled years there he's transferring again...but eligible..due to already being a graduate - he can play right away.
BUT - does Crean know what he's getting into??
Sallie has baggage and issues com,ing from Memphis...
seriously - everyone at Memphis has issues and yet is still coddled and plays...but Sallie has issues where he's not even welcome at Memphis of all places!!!
Sallie and current Memphis coach Josh Pastner had major differences, which led to a reduction in Sallie's playing time, and he lost his startaing spot by lat ein the season.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gp8yXuE0rVoJ:69.2.101.50/newsflash/index.ssf%3F/base/sports-303/127431041699790.xml%26storylist%3Dsports+%22roburt+sallie%22+and+%22arrested%22&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

So is this the guy that'll make a difference at IU?? I doubt it. If he does go to IU, and especially if he gets any playing time there, it's just going to make the other kids angry who have put their time in there and who, as usual, would expect playing time.
Anyway - if the kid only has one season left - would he want to go to a place that'll battle at best for last place?? Doubt it....if that's what he wanted, he'd go to Iowa State or Iowa where playing time would be assured...

So the roster turnovers continue at Indiana like they did at Boys to Men Prep...
funny how some schools have so many roster turnovers....Iowa State leads the known universe, but Indiana, SIU, Saint Louis and a few others are not far behind. Ex-IU players Armon Bassett, Jordan Crawford, Ben Allen, and others all shined for other programs, many making it to the Sweet Sixteen with their current programs after being run out at IU.



On that topic...
Here's a great letter from a Purdue fan to set his thoughts straight on why the fine Indiana in-state talent needs to rethink IU as the premier destination...
http://www.purdue.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=52&tid=144204623&mid=144204623&sid=892&style=2



Here's a story from yesterday...
Michael Beasley says now he should have stayed in college..yeahhh....rrrright...
baloney - he made millions and he never went to class anyway!
Had he stayed at K-State he'd have likely been declared ineligible or been kicked out for drugs...and he'd be saying he should have gone pro and taken the payday.
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/12697/beasley-advises-pullen-on-nba-draft

We all know that the number of lottery pick one-and-done players who skip classes is more than the numbers of Bruce Pearl's players who have been booted for drugs and guns!!

Ex-SIU player Torres Roundtree - is headed to D-II !!! Harris-Stowe!! Hard to believe, it's a little step below where Booker landed...although the way Iowa State's been lately under McDermott, not much lower...

As a recap...here's more on all the players who have bolted from SIU...
http://www.bigdeadsidebar.com/tag/siu-mens-basketball/

But this list doesn't even mention Drew Barham - Lowery's sharpshooting, Class of 2009 6-6 guard who decided to walk on at Memphis instead of playing under scholarship at SIU!!
BTW - Braham may just not be the sharpshooter Lowery though he was...
He ended up hitting only 27% of his shots this year at Memphis and 32% of 3-pointers, even playing a lot in garbage time. And he only averaged 4 assists for every 100 minutes of play....sorta a world record low for a guard!

Standing head and shoulders above all other D-I programs in players defecting.... Iowa State, Tennessee, SIU, Saint Louis, Indiana, and even DePaul...all have massive players leaving, coming and going .....even Creighton is headed in that direction now that McDermott is there.



The Boys IBCA All Star Games are this Saturday.......
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15858

I can't help but recall with some amusement, the conversations and message board rants we saw after last year's IBCA All Star Game...
The ISU fans raved at how great Terrence Johnson and Zeke Upshaw were, and how great of additions they would be to the ISU Redbirds..
Some even predicted that Terry Johnson would step right in and be not just a solid scorer but also compete right away for the point guard spot!!
This, of course, despite the facts being pointed out that he never bothered to pass in high school, what would make anyone ever think he'd do it in college?
And of course facts proved those thoughts correct. He was a horrible gunner/shooter with the worst shooting stats of just about any freshman ever in the Valley.
He hit only 8% of his 3-pt attempts (yes, EIGHT percent - that's NO typo..)
..which was even worse than the 18% Justin Clark hit.

Upshaw never even saw the court as he was redshirted from the outset......
So will we hear the same drooling rant over Jordan Threloff?? Time will tell...
But -- if Threloff has anything less than an outstanding game, maybe 20/10, then you would have to wonder what happened...
the IBCA 3A/4A South squad that Threloff is facing really has NOTHING at center...
they have only two players over 6-5/6-6 and both are extremely obscure 6-8 guys (NATHANIEL HAYNES and BRAD HALLSTEIN) - so Threloff ought to be able to score at will.