Some Valley News Items

Bradley's Preseason 2010-2011 Basketball Prospectus is now available online...
http://www.bradleybraves.com//pdf8/701023.pdf?SPSID=25964&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400

One of their headlines right at the top says
"18 NBA Players",
but I think there's more than that...
Here is a link that lists 21...plus we've had a numbers of other Bradley people make the NBA in other capacities, guys like Dick Versace, Stan Albeck, Tony Barone, Chicak Hearn...
http://basketballreference.com/players/bycollege.htm?sch=Bradley+University



Here's a mention of a name that's new to some...Garrett Jones...they mention he has been hearing from Bradley........
http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/garrettjones2.html

...but if you follow BradleyFans.com you might recall we have talked about him....here's much more...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13722



So now we hear SIU's Anthony Booker is transferring to Iowa State. For the last 2 months it's been Oral Roberts - and was even reported by FoxSports to be Oral Roberts..
FoxSports' list still says ORU (but it might get changed by the time you check this link):
http://community.foxsports.com/goodmanonfox/blog/2010/05/25/updated_transfer_list

I guess Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg has the open scholarships to fill, but he'll have to use up 3 years of scholarship to get just two remaining years of eligibility out of Booker, who has a total of only 297 career points thus far in D-I and 5 ppg, 3.7 rpg averages.
He has a penchant for launching 3-pt shots, but has hit only 15.8% of them over his career. He also has a total of only 26 career assists in 59 games.
One of the comments by Booker in the Iowa newspapers is that he likes that Hoiberg has experience in the NBA and knows how to help Booker get there....duhhhh.....
yeah.....there's a whole lot of guys in the NBA who were 5 ppg scorers in college..

One other quote from Booker stumps me...
"The 6-foot-8, 230-pound power forward is leaving Southern Illinois after two seasons mainly because he feels his type of game fits a different style from what he played with the Salukis.
"I had a great relationship with Coach (Chris) Lowery but what I realized after two years is that I didn't think I fit his style of play," said Booker."
http://iowastate.scout.com/2/978228.html

.....now wait a minute.....seriously???? SIU has had a slow-down, low scoring, defensively-oriented STYLE OF PLAY for more than a decade....
and it took Anthony Booker years and years - those years he was in high school and being recruited, and those two years he was at SIU --- probably FOUR full years - including TWO full years of actually playing in the system...
before he finally concluded that this style of play does not "fit" the "type of game" he has??

What the hey -- is this guy dense....??
He goes on to say that Coach Hoiberg at Iowa State
"said that they are going to play a more open and up tempo style of game and that is what I have come from throughout my entire playing career."
Amazing....so he sees himself as the type of player that would do best and flourish in an up-tempo and fast paced style, but he never noticed SIU plays 100% the opposite style and so he chose to go there anyway...figuring out after TWO full years of practices, sessions, games, and face to face meetings with the coaching staff, that maybe he didn't fit at SIU.
I don't know what's more incredulous...that he actually is saying this, or that he expects someone to buy it??

The other funny thing is a press statement that Hoiberg's time at Iowa State is so different thus far from McDermott's -- because McDermott's regime was characterized by tons of players wanting to transfer OUT - while Hoiberg's thus far is characterized by lots of players transferring IN!!
Booker also brags about how loyal he is - weeks after quitting at SIU and moving elsewhere. LOL!!

One thing the Iowa State fans are learning is that Anthony Booker tweets and is maybe just a little bit worse with his tweeting than any Bradley player ever was...
In between the foul and profane tweets, Booker says things like this...
"Is thanking god that It's official, I'm the newest member of the Iowa state basketball family...#cyclonenation here I come!!!!"
http://twitter.com/booker22/status/16412711068

but also these that I won't quote...and there's more...
http://twitter.com/booker22/status/16432336867
http://twitter.com/booker22/status/16441631625
http://twitter.com/booker22/status/16431120831



Many of you know about the semi-suggestive/obscene hand gesture that has become virtually the equivalent of the Wichita State Shockers' mascot...
http://espn.go.com/media/pg2/2006/0321/photo/667_350.jpg
http://image.minyanville.com/assets/FCK/Image/OBS/shocker.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shocker_(hand_gesture)

Well now, someone has kinda got the ball rolling...wonder if the NCAA will allow this one when they won't allow the ones Bradley fans would love to have??
http://www.getpranks.com/images/items/big/shocker-big.jpg



Interesting discussion of some of the behind the scenes details of the recruiting of Manual HS's
Marvin Jordan...although I suspect we are not hearing all of the story from the Ball State side, since I suspect they are not able to talk freely.....
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15834



Some further discussion of Donivine Stewart and Bobo Drummond - looks like Bruce Weber isn't too interested...and a link to a column about Donivine by Dave Reynolds.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15822



Yet another Canarias Basketball player is going D-I - and still only one out of roughly 25 of the CBA kids has ever had any trouble getting qualified by NCAA - guess which one...
http://www.cbacademy.org/index.asp?modulo=23&idioma=en#



Missouri State's Kyle Weems averaged 12.5 ppg in his four games in Poland as part of a touring squad.
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20100612/SPORTS040101/6120335/-1/BLOGS07/Weems++Williams+call+Poland+trip+a+success

A comment on Dinma still working out for some NBA teams..
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jun/17/new-deal-waits-on-wallaces-signature/

Here is some video and a lot of video quotes from Tony Barone..
http://fanpeeps.com/-7Bsk

A comment about ISU recruit John Wilkins...he's presently in Europe and won't be on campus for a while..
http://www.pantagraph.com/app/blogs/main/?p=5172



As expected, Tom Crean is starting to unload the dead weight on his roster...
they were oversigned and had extended more scholarships than they had available so we knew someone was gonna go....

Sort of "Spring Creaning".....and this one was fully predictable well over a year ago....remember this kid only averaged 14 ppg and 7 rpg at a tiny high school in Alabama when he was a few years older already than everyone else...
and we're talking a high school that was about 200 enrollments - playing the kind of competition that a high school like Williamsfield plays here...
Then in his year at the prep school - he went scoreless in many games...couldn't even break into the starting lineup!!!

Now - Tom Crean, this morning, booted 7-foot center Bawa Muniru....so at least for now it appears Matt Roth is safe....
The IU folks had talked about Muniru like he was the next Hakeem Olajuwon - and the kid was a 4-Star recruit - but we all know how gaga those evaluators seem to go over every 7-ft African center who ends up panning out to be D-II material!



The NBA Summer League will start in about 3 weeks....it is possible there might be some Valley players on some of the rosters...but rosters won't be set until after the teams draft.
http://www.nba.com/2010/news/06/15/summer.league/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2



As predicted - the NCAA is already softening USC's penalty even before the ink is dry on the document naming the sanctions!!
They have pushed the penalties back a FULL YEAR!!!
Watch for more of this as NCAA gradually lets USC off the hook and softens everything as the appeals and lawsuits go on...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/06/usc-football-hawaii-season-opener-ncaa-investigation.html



Long, long after every other school has filled their coaching vacancies....Chicago State is still available....
It appears nobody wants to be head coach there. Of course all the corruption and sleaze that has gone on there has something to do with it - and also has a bit to do with why CSU was booted out of its own conference and is now such a horrible place to be.
Just in case you need more to know how bad a place Chicago State is ...they finished #343 among 343 D-I schools in the recent NCAA Academic data....dead last...
Chicago basketball writer Scott Powers says a new Chicago State head coach could be named as soon as today!!
"According to a source, Illinois State assistant coach Paris Parham, UIC assistant coach Tracy Dildy and Chicago State acting head coach Matthew Muhammad, an assistant under Taylor, have been among the candidates."
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/colleges/post/_/id/553/chicago-state-coaching-search-will-end-shortly



A big contrast to the Chicago fans when the Sox won and recently when the Blackhawks won...there were no riots at all..
but Los Angeles had riots, cars burning, etc...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287588/Riots-LA-streets-Lakers-WIN-NBA-basketball-championship.html?ito=feeds-newsxml



University of San Francisco slammed by NCAA penalties...keep in mind these were student athletes trying to BUY textbooks - the things people use to study...
they weren't getting money yet the NCAA still slams them...
NOTE *** this is a WORSE penalty than USC basketball got for paying OJ Mayo and other crimes!!!
http://ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/media+and+events/press+room/news+release+archive/2010/infractions/20100617+san+fran+summ+disp+rls



Lastly - the rumor mill gone wrong....
someone on the ISU board posted that some big announcement would be made soon...and before you know it other boards are now reporting that Illinois State could be leaving the Valley and headed to the MAC!! LOL!!
http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=440218