Valley News and More

First - get well wishes to Missouri State freshman Michael Porter...
Porter didn't play much of his first year at Missouri State due to injuries and should get a medical redshirt, but now he's facing the unfortunate prospect of missing playing time next year as well, although right now the more pressing issue is just for Porter to get well.

Late on Wednesday night, Porter was injured severely in a one-car accident in which he was ejected from the car. Early reports indicate he has suffered a severe hip injury.

"According to a Missouri Highway Patrol report, Porter was not wearing a seat belt when his car overturned at a sharp curve on a highway in Christian County, about 5 miles south of Rogersville. He was thrown from the vehicle.
The accident happened at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Porter was taken to a Springfield hospital and underwent surgery on his hip.
MSU coach Cuonzo Martin told the News-Leader that it's "a true blessing that it was nothing more than his hip. There weren’t any broken arms, wrists, knee or any head injuries."
Martin said that Porter "has a long road of recovery ahead of him, but all things considered the doctors indicated he was very fortunate. I'm just thankful that he's going to be OK."

The 4-6 month timetable would mean he is unlikely to be back and able to play basketball until perhaps Christmas or so.


Also at Missouri State, freshman Jerome Jones is leaving and transferring elsewhere, likely due to playing time issues.
Jones came pretty highly touted and many people had buzzed about his athletic ability and some of his dunks.
In fact, after a 65 point scoring performance there were people saying this kid would have the ability to be a starter from the outset at MSU
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8623
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10793
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20100609/BLOGS0701/100609027/Jones-won-t-return-to-basketball-Bears


Also at Missouri State - the NCAA's new academic data shows some pretty poor numbers at MSU...they are being penalized with the loss of ONE basketball scholarship and 2.83 football scholarships.
http://web1.ncaa.org/maps/aprRelease.jsp

In general, most D-I schools made improvements but some were punished.
http://ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/media+and+events/press+room/news+release+archive/2010/academic+reform/20100609+apr+release

When all sports are looked at, Bradley is clearly superior in the Missouri Valley!
Bradley's numbers are best overall, and among the top 3 in basketball and a number of different teams scoring a perfect 1000....while on the major upswing in all sports -- something that simply cannot be said elsewhere as explained here...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15793


Ex-Drake star and ex-MVC Player of the Year, Adam Emmenecker has retired after a couple years of pro basketball and will enter the business world...he was pretty banged up..
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100601/SPORTS05/6020352/Keeler-For-ex-Drake-star-Emmenecker-real-world-is-waiting&theme=KEELER

Here's Adam Emmenecker's blog...He's a Blackhawks fan!!!!!!!!!!
http://adamemmenecker.wordpress.com/


Jake Kelly left Iowa and transferred to Indiana State - stumping for immediate eligibility and getting it from NCAA. But he had a horribly unproductive year last year - taking a little while to adjust to what is maybe tougher defense in the MVC???
Then after struggling and not putting up all that impressive numbers - given that some had Jake as a 1st Team All Conference, and virtually everyone and their mother had him as Newcomer of the Year, while some said he'd be the Player of the Year!!

Then he hurt his knee and missed the rest of the season but played 12 games so he's not eligible for a redshirt - so in effect he wasted one of the only two years he had left!

NOW -- there's talk that his knee rehab is going very slow and that he might well (and even WILL per some sources) redshirt this entire coming year 2010-2011!!!
That means he isn't going to play until fall of 2011 if he can recover by then....
Hmmm...things clearly did NOT play out as most had thought or as Jake had planned.


Here's a funny post on the ISU message board -- I got a laugh out of it...
One guy posts a picture of a broken backboard and asks who did this??
http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac80/45otseoj/30108_1351225899272_1190100371_3106.jpg

The one of the very first responses is...
"Dinma practicing free throws?"....LOL!!


Osiris Eldridge due in court again Monday - probably alcohol related...
http://www.mcleancountyil.gov/circuitclerk/PA_App_Date.asp?case_person_id=1147223


Still not confirmed by ORU, but it is being reported that SIU's Anthony Booker will transfer to Oral Roberts.

Chasson Randle now getting interest from UCLA!!
http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=496780


FIRST World Cup match is complete and South Africa stuns Mexico -- almost beating them...
Mexico scores at 79 minutes to salvage a 1-1 tie.
Mexico is the 17th ranked team in the world per FIFA, while South Africa is ranked #83!!!
(USA is #14)
http://www.fifa.com/live/competitions/worldcup/matchday=1/day=1/match=300061454/index.html
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html


Here's another laugh...a guy on the Saint Louis Billikens board
(a team that's a bad fit in their present conference but who wants to go to the MVC & the teams in the MVC really don't want them)...
and the guy is poking fun at Missouri because they are a team that's a bad fit in their present conference but who wants to go to another conference & the teams in that other conference really don't want them.....
So it's kinda like the pot calling the kettle black...



Lastly - touching on the Southern Cal penalties....everyone is saying they are severe...
but USC is down anyway and likely wouldn't have gotten to a major bowl this coming year anyway - they sure didn't last year when they went to something called the Emerald Bowl after a lousy season.
But these guys have cheated so blatantly for years - and the "investigation" (also known as whitewash) took more than 5 years and didn't bother to note those USC players driving around in luxury cars that don't belong to them and never made a tiny mention of the cash, gifts, and cheating that surrounded OJ Mayo - thus USC basketball is totally off the hook. What gives with that?? The evidence of cheating there is so overwhelming it's laughable!

As I said, watch USC get lawyers and appeal...then NCAA will back down like they did in the Oklahoma case and cut the penalties way, way back - thus in the end USC will get away with miniscule penalties. (also - only football was penalized - nothing applies to the basketball program or any other sport!)
If you recall they hit Oklahoma with hard penalties, then later reversed almost everything kinda quietly...
Georgia also got lots of their penalties overturned on appeal!
http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1244794575133970.xml&coll=2

Also - recall that many of these USC violations came while they were still on probation from their 2001 infractions....and yet the main penalty is just MORE probation! This is laughable -- that if you get caught cheating while on probation you get more probation - when you just proved it didn't work!!!
In the NCAA's release on their response they used the word "serious" almost endlessly - but let the entire basketball program totally off the hook.

NCAA's response on why no TV ban --
"It was not imposed here because we felt we fairly treated the penalties that were deserved by other means."

Report that USC's AD Mike Garrett is gone soon...
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/delusional-usc-ad-gone-at-end-of-the-summer-28510

Just more proof, as if anyone needed any - that ANY woman who has a child with a man like this is CRAZY!!
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1562529.php/Dennis-Rodman-allegedly-owes-more-than-300-000-in-child-support

Bruce Pearl priming himself to enter politics when he's done coaching??
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/96144929.html

And is there anyone out there with a brain who'd let your 16-year old daughter try to sail around the world totally on her own and unaccompanied??
These parents are very lucky but not smart...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hho9HeUIufE-e94A4h33vE8jokfw