A couple more quotes......if the shoe fits..

"Well done is better than well said."

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

"Those who contribute the least complain the most."
(and as a corollary - those who complain the most have the least to offer.)

"The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found a way to serve."

"Those who have accomplished the least in life always believe they offer the best advice."

"The only people that you should try to get even with are those who have helped you."

"If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it."

But Ben Franklin has a couple of the better ones that I see in action every day...
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do."



SIU's Randall Falker signs for another year in France...
http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/article_c045aa90-9b92-11df-abdb-001cc4c002e0.html

The Illinois Wolves just completed a totally awesome summer of play....
http://twitter.com/wolves10/status/19993915054

Several D-I teams are leaving for overseas tours in the next couple weeks...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=187822#post187822

Here's the official release from the NABC honoring Dodie, Sam, and Charron..
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nabc/genrel/auto_pdf/7-27HonorsCourt.pdf

Phillip Greene

Just a little coverage on Chicago Julian's Phillip Greene, teammate last year of BU's Walt Lemon...

Greene is a fine 6-4 wing who is getting attention from many schools....
It is now being reported that Greene will leave Julian High School, and leave the Chicago Public League and Chicago-area...
and enroll at
"IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida this fall. Greene will be following former Julian head coach Loren Jackson to IMG. Jackson accepted a job at IMG last month."

Greene is starting to get some big attention but academics are holding back the offers....

In addition to BU and a few other midmajors...
Providence, Arizona State, Oregon, West Virginia, St. John’s, DePaul and UTEP
have all been following.
He says he will make his decision before school starts this fall.
DePaul has made him a priority.....
http://depaul.scout.com/2/987557.html
http://depaul.scout.com/a.z?s=430&p=8&c=1&nid=4719792

Some followup on familiar names and where is the coverage of Bradley basketball?

Here's a little followup -- not directly BU related...
but everyone surely recalls Daniel West...once pledged to BU then became ineligible and ended at Pensacola Junior College.
West averaged just 10.5 ppg, 32% FG shooting overall, and an amazingly bad 24% from 3-pt,
...and it's not that he didn't take a lot...he launched 101 3-pt attempts and made only 24..
He halso had 3 rebs, 5 asst...not exactly standout stats....
Daniel West has verbaled late to Rhode Island....sounds like it might have been his only offer.

Matt Roth was observed in an open gym and was said to be fully recovered from his fracture (foot) and shooting well.

Does anyone see this as a big conflict of interest??
The sports training academy in Florida named IMG Academy, which is where Andrew Davis went and where BU recruit Phillip Greene is said to be heading...
Is owned by IMG Worldwide, Inc...which has also just bought and acquired ISP sports...
which is a marketing firm that actively promotes and markets for PROFIT, numerous DIVISION I schools, such as Duke, Alabama, Georgia, UCLA, Syracuse...etc...

The conflict is that they are training recruits, but also directly tied financially to those schools who are trying to land those very recruits!!
So, pretty clear conflict, but I wonder if NCAA cares...
http://newyork.citybizlist.com/YourCitybizNews/detail.aspx?id=87250

Tom Crean & Indiana going head to head with Illinois State in a recruiting battle!!
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100729/SPORTS0601/7290388/IU-s-Crean-might-land-his-top-recruit-yet

Jon Scheyer getting a great off from an Italian team...
Luke Harangody (2nd Rd pick) is signing with Boston - how could so many teams miss on this guy? Reverse racism??

Ex-Bluejay Anthony Tolliver has virtually identical offers from both the T-Wolves & Golden State. He will decide soon.



We're 2.5 months from the official start of the college basketball season, and lots of things are happening in Bradley basketball -- the schedule is taking shape, the new players and returnees are busy on campus, the facilities are near done and in use already, and BU continues to recruit...
We want more! I'd love to see a regular column or an active Braves Examiner or something!! Aren't there people to give us such coverage??
I think Dave Reynolds is doing a great job but we just don't get a lot of coverage of BU basketball.

Some will say it is just the off season, but I contend something weird is going on and all (except two) of the sources for info and news about Bradley basketball have dried up and blown away!

Maybe we've been spoiled but I have heard several people recently saying that they want to know more about BU's upcoming schedule, the new players, the kids committed for 2011, other recruits, etc...

Can someone offer an explanation? Of course we know the internet message board BradleyFans.com is active. They even did a tremendous, long LIVE CHAT session with head coach Jim Les that gave a lot of people good insight!

And, as always, the Bradley message board is more active than all the message boards of the other 9 Valley teams combined...with lots of well informed fans of not just Bradley but other teams as well posting news and info that's great.
This hardly need to be stated or restated, it's just a self-evident fact. And the posts and threads are really informative discussing the Braves, the players, the schedule, the recruits, and lots of other topics relevant to BU, the Valley, and all of college basketball.

Then, this site has tried to be informative and I believe has moved to the top of the list of places to go to get news about Bradley basketball.

But -- note these facts.......

BU hoops is quite clearly the BIGGEST sports topic year-round in this region! No other sport draws as many fans - and even the PJS' efforts like dedicating an entire message board and online segment on their website proves they obviously agree. But have they lost interest??
DR has done his share and had a few columns this summer, and I really appreciate what he's covered. Topics like our schedule, the new recruits (Lemon, Davis), Sean Harris, the new facilities, etc.....nedd to be reported. I miss the fine coverage by Dave and notice that he must be on vacation and I am having withdrawal......with no Dave Reynolds column of any kind in the paper or online since July 14 (that one was on some of the local Peoria high schoolers).

Dave Reynolds' blog, "The Reynolds Rap" which has been a source for good inside BU info, hasn't had an entry since last October.
http://www2.pjstar.com/index.php/reynolds


Then there's also something really strange about the other local journalist who claims such a lifelong PASSION about Bradley and about Bradley basketball.
Anyone else notice the relative absence of anything and everything related to Kirk Wessler? I guess it'll take some inappropriate tweeting or a spat between a player and his girlfriend before we get another report.
He was once writing several columns per week, and whether you agreed with him or not, you appreciated that he had thoughts on Bradley basketball (although a lot of people did not like the constant attacks, so maybe with that part toned down, there's nothing else left??)

His last column was June 15 - a month and a half ago! And that was the only one since April 15, over 3 1/2 months ago. So just one column in nearly 4 months??
(and that one was not really about Bradley - but about the then-active subject of conference re-alignment).

Mr. Wessler was also once quite active on the PJ Star Forum. But he's MIA there, too......His last post was June 29, when he posted about the BU-Duke game. Prior to that you have to go back to mid-June. Like I said, I know that college basketball is in its off-season, but since when does the coverage of a sport completely end when the last game is played? There's tons of LeBron, NBA, NFL, and Blackhawk, Jerrance Howard coverage, Kevin Coble coverage, and even Mike Tisdale coverage, but NOTHING about anything basketball-related in Central Illinois!
So I guess I will start the speculation....just maybe this is a shift in their coverage's direction.....away from Bradley??


Then I am sure we all recall how great and informative the Bradley Braves Examiner was when Joe Book (alias electric mayhem) was writing it. But Joe's duties on that blog have been turned over to a guy that's an ISU fan, and just as predicted, the coverage of anything Bradley has gone right down the toilet!
Joe ended his duties as Braves Examiner in March, the the new guy posted a couple entries (none about basketball) in April, then one entry in June about the new assistant coaches, then a short comment about BU scheduling Duke a month ago, then NOTHING SINCE! NOTHING!! And other than those two short blurbs about the new coaches and the game vs. Duke, there hasn't been a single other basketball topic mentioned. Nothing about any player, the emerging info on schedules, tournaments, etc....(although the guy's twitter which is linked from the Braves Examiner page drools about the ISU recruits..)
Give us something if you are going to have a blog and claim to be the Bradley Braves Examiner and brag that you have "a passion to cover sports" as your job...
Note that his tweet from just 2 days ago says this...
"Besides covering Peoria area high school sports, I also write for Bradley Athletics for the Examiner."
http://twitter.com/robisu/status/19665462945

But he hasn't made a single comment on the Braves Examiner in a month, and only that one short snippet about the Duke game in nearly TWO months!


Then there's the numerous other message boards, but nothing there either....days go by without a single post, comment, or reply about Bradley basketball. And of course vt has been down for days but, what the hey -- who'd notice if you had anything intelligent to say. Nobody goes there unless they want to post juvenile attacks and flames.


So back to the prime question....where is everyone and why no BU coverage outside of BradleyFans.com and BUBravesBlogger.Blogspot.com? Can we expect a column tomorrow about the players, recruits, and schedule?.........

A couple simple quotes

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-- Winston Churchill

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
-- Mark Twain

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-- Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
-- P.J. O'Rourke

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
-- Thomas Jefferson

SIU assistant coach leaves to take assistant spot at Columbia

2nd year SIU graduate assistant coach Koby Altman...
He was in the "Graduate Assistant" spot that was at one time occupied by Tony Young....but now Koby is leaving and is taking an assistant coaching spot at Columbia University in the Ivy League, joining the new head coach there, Kyle Smith (hired in May, 2010) -- after previous head coach Joe Jones left to take the assistant coach spot at Boston College.
Koby is originally from Brooklyn, and has spent most of his life on the east coast.
Of the other two assistants there under Kyle Smith, one is also brand new, the other has been there for two years.

Here's Koby's bio page at SIU:
http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/altman_koby00.html

And as you can see, his name has been removed from the page listing the assistant coaches..
http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/silu-m-baskbl-mtt.html

One other assistant coach, Marcus Belcher had also been in the news recently, with a DUI that involved trying to outrun the cops, speeding, then leaving the scene and trying to get away. No word yet on whether SIU is going to do anything with Belcher - so I guess he's just gonna keep his job...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15718


Anyway, here's the new page at Columbia showing Koby Altman is working there now..
http://www.gocolumbialions.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&SPID=3886&SPSID=43664

and his new bio page at Columbia..
http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=43664&SPID=3886&DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=204971498&Q_SEASON=2010

Journalism - you decide...........then some stuff on basketball...

Is it any wonder more and more people get their information and news from alternative sites and NOT from the same sources that have been out there for centuries? The Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, but those writing the Constitution never envisioned that a very small group of people with views differing vastly from the mainstream would essentially take over the press and destroy much of what people had respected for centuries.

So what am I talking about? Just read for yourself...don't let me make your mind up for you. Just read a few of the following.........


Many polls have asked people what were the MOST and LEAST respected professions. I am sure you've seen these polls, there are so many of them that it's hard to imagine how they can all come out so similar with the same 2 or 3 professions always landing so far behind all the others at rock bottom. Anyway, in one such poll that I just read....journalists finished dead last just behind politicians, lawyers, and garbage collectors, although lots of people questioned why the garbage collectors deserved to be on that list. Nobody questioned why the others belonged.


Now we have proof positive...
some have pointed to Andrew Breitbart..but all he did was post a video someone else provided and let YOU make up your own mind about it...
BUT -- far worse is the fact that many self proclaimed "fair and unbiased" journalists are really extremely far left leaning journalists and the proof now exists that they have conspired to present the news in a horrifically biased fashion, and even have colluded together in an effort to destroy other news media outlets that they didn't like or felt threatened by!
They DON'T want you to have all the truth or info and they DON'T want you to make up your mind...
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/21/liberals-on-journolist-say-the-government-should-shut-down-fox/
http://www.mattlewis.org/?p=3403
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/21/journalists-reportedly-debated-government-shut-fox-news/


This morning's political cartoon in the Journal Star was quite appropriate. It pictured numerous thug-like guys surrounding the President, protecting him and preventing anyone from getting at him...
The caption coming from two observers was this...
One guy says...
"The Secret Service sure does a good job of protecting the President"
The other guy responds...
"That's not the Secret Service, those are journalists!"


Finally on this topic...just a few observations from others.........

Thomas Sowell...
"In politics, the truth is strictly optional and that also seems to be true in parts of the media."

Donald Trump...
"The New York Times is now reeling from so many huge mistakes by reporters and management that people are saying it's one of the worst newspapers in America."

Howard Fineman...ultra left-leaning contributor on Keith Olbermann's show...and editor of Newsweek, a publication that still clings to the guise of being fair and unbiased...
"..the notion of a neutral, non-partisan mainstream press was, to me at least, worth holding onto. Now it's pretty much dead, at least as the public sees things."

Mark Brunner...
"Larry King is to good journalism as Howard Stern is to good taste."

Then, of course, the major networks all announced Al Gore as the winner in Florida in 2000, causing tens of thousands of people in the Florida Panhandle, where polls were still open, to head home and not vote...They nearly succeeded in altering the outcome of the election!








OK...now on to basketball...........

-What's happening on the coaching scene in Chicago is interesting for a couple reasons. First...when Tracy Dildy was brought back to UIC, where he starred in college, he was PROMISED that he'd he in line to succeed UIC head coach Jimmy Collins when Collins retired. BUT - as the time approached, Dildy felt he was being snubbed and stepped over...
So Dildy left and took the head spot at
Chicago State...read what he says, he does NOT sound happy about the way he was treated...
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/colleges/post/_/id/616/dildy-says-leaving-uic-was-right-move

By the way...with TWO of the Illini assistants being considered, Jerrance Howard and Jay Price, and even an ex-Bradley assistant Howard Moore....how come no mention of Wayne McClain who we were all told would surely move on soon to a head coaching job if ever one in the state opened up??


-My take on Robert Goff, a kid we've talked about on BradleyFans, and a kid Bradley had targeted at one time, but now coming out of juco, the kid has several different big schools offering, including Tom Crean at Indiana. Crean has already shown a distinct lack of ability to assess big man talent, landing kids like Tijan Jobe and Bawa Muniru who were so inept at the Big Ten level that they never even saw the floor or got playing time even in garbage time!
............so how good is Robert Goff??
Goff has played just one season of junior college ball, yet all the hype makes the kid out to be the next DeMarcus Cousins......
In his only season of juco he averaged 7.9 ppg & 4.8 rpg...not exactly earth shattering figures for juco...at Cowley Co. in 2008-2009...

But he did not play this year...and the explanation is a little weak
"because he transferred"....to Hutchinson CC....but kids transfer all the time and still play...so it was probably something more, some other issue or disciplinary or academic...
Nobody has ever said why Goff didn't play this past season.

Then check this report..
http://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1106072

NOW, even though the averages from this juco showcase are easily available online, and Goff's averages were around 8 ppg, and 5 rpg...they say this...
"Likely the top big man prospect in the junior
college ranks, the Indianapolis native has really made
strides under head coach Steve Eck. Explosive off
the floor, he rises above the crowd for backboard
shaking dunks, runs the floor and contests shots
around the rim. Love the way he finishes with either
hand. Among those involved or looking to be are
Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, South
Florida, Alabama and Oregon."

So his legend is growing even though he doesn't seem to be able to score all that much or rebound!!

He might be an awesome player and might be a lot better than anyone thinks, but he did just get done playing in a junior college exposure event against a bunch of other juco kids who as yet DO NOT have D-I offers!
In other words...he played against a bunch of non-D-I kids and didn't exactly dominate.....
Keep in mind, that very, very few juco kids ever go to BCS schools and do much of anything although a whole lot of them try and spend a lot of time sitting the bench (recall Tyrone Appleton, and 27ppg Dominique Keller??)
Clearly Goff would be a better fit at a mid-major but he's hoping to pull a classic Shang Ping or Tijan Jobe and go to some big school and get humbled by kids 3 years younger than he is...

So, I guess time will tell...but the hype is deafening...

-Then, in that same vein, I checked back and saw a few names rated as 4-Star and 5-Star guys back in 2008 & 2009 and decided to do a followup.....
Anyone remember Angel Garcia...who parlayed the hype into 5-Star status...yup -- at one point he was a TOP 25 player nationally...
http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=2&cid=654965&nid=1945071&fhn=1

Then he bounced around to a couple different high schools and ended up suing the state of Indiana in order to get eligible...
Then there was even talk of the guy being a ONE-AND-DONE-TO-THE-NBA player!!
Seriously, this column hints he's only gonna stay at Memphis under Calipari for only a year then right to the NBA!
http://indiana.scout.com/2/671811.html

He went to Memphis...and now he's entering his 3rd YEAR at Memphis and to this point has scored a grand total of 81 points in 12 games.
So far, he's been a little bit less of a success than predicted...

BTW -- gotta read near the end of this story -- they say if Angel Garcia had picked Indiana, he'd have been the NEXT LANCE STEMLER!!!

Then....remember the guy Ray Penn who shot the lights out all summer in various AAU tournaments in 2008...
Many schools passed on him because he was only 5-9 but he ended up with a nice offer to Oklahoma State...
Now he's entering his sophomore year, but as a freshman he hit only 36% of his shots, and only 27% of his 3-pointers, and for a 5-9 guard, all he does is shoot!!
He launched 8 shots per game, 4.5 of which were 3-pointers...pretty prolific for a 27% shooter..
PLUS - he isn't good on defense and only gets 3 apg
Likewise........he shoulda gone mid-major........


Lastly -- for all the hype, you'd think Emmanuel Negedu was an All American...
but he's entering his 3rd year in college at New Mexico, and to date the guy has scored a grand total of 63 career points in college in 33 games played..
1.9 ppg, 1.6 rpg, and virtually no other statistical contributions - no steals, assists, etc...
YET -- the hype continues to grow....and it's the constant, daily buzz about how he's gonna help New Mexico since he was granted immediate eligibility despite transferring.

By the way....a recent blog details that there is concern about Negedu playing at New Mexico...
..remember - no place else would clear the kid...
not Tennessee
not Indiana...

but the doctors at New Mexico cleared Negedu
apparently WITHOUT EVEN SEEING THE KID OR EXAMINING HIM...
That's right, a guy who wrote a recent blog said they simply asked for his medical records, reviewed them, and pronounced the kid cleared at UNM!!
Negedu's medical records prove he has...
"hypertrophic cardiomyopathy"

So it's NOT a simple case of the kid having an electrical fluke that's quite possibly resolved by the AICD (implantable defibrillator).
The kid actually has a very serious heart condition for a 20-year old, and will NEED to be on beta blockers (medication), making it hard to expect much athletic superiority out of the kid...
they even suggested Negedu want to play despite the risks...
"...shopped around and eventually found a college that would let him play ball"...
with the same medical condition.."that killed Hank Gathers, Reggie Lewis, Kevin Duckworth"
...and that the fans will be holding their breath every time the kid's on the court....
So I hope the kid and his advisors are not making a mistake. Recall, the Reggie Lewis family had been told by TWO different cardiology expert groups that he should NEVER play basketball. But he and his family kept on shopping until they found a cardiologist who gave a more favorable recommendation. Then he went out and played, and we all, sadly, know the end result.
Again....I don't know the situation, and am only quoting those who have written on it...but some people do have worries........time will tell.


Last comment - there's a proposal to make twitter.com a pay-site...
I use it now but am not likely to if it becomes a pay site...
Follow other breaking news and items on twitter at...
www.twitter.com/xb7


Some dirty laundry being aired out at IUPUI..
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100728/LOCAL/7280304/1004/SPORTS/Emotional-abuse-at-IUPUI


Then just for fun, here are...
"The Top 10 Douchiest Coaches in College Sports"
..there are only three college basketball coaches on the list and Mike Kyzyzewski is not one of them....Mike Brey, Bob Huggins, and John Calipari are, though...
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/426201-top-10-douchiest-coaches-in-college-sports#page/1

Uh oh, Osiris Eldridge already causing a little controversy in Turkey! ...And a Mike O. sighting...

This'll probably go unnoticed by the press in the US or the Pantagraph, but I think it's interesting news.....

A couple days ago, Osiris Eldridge gave an interview, and a blogger for the Portland Trailblazers posted some of his commentsand some more were reported by the campus newspaper over at ISU, the Daily Vidette.
In the interview, Eldridge says...
"(he) has signed a contract with PINAR Karsiyaka of the Turkish Basketball League...
..Eldridge ..said the contract was for $150,000."
http://www.blazersnews.com/portland-blazers/isu-pair-talks-about-professional-prospects/

We also reported this long before anyone else in Bloomington.......
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=187437#post187437

BUT -- here's where the controversy comes in...some things I found being discussed on a Eurobasket message board said this is something that the European teams greatly discourage, even to the point of putting terms in their contracts prohibiting the players from discussing the terms and salary in their contracts, so just maybe this has already ticked someone off over in Turkey...
This morning, now the Turkish team's web site has an entry saying they dispute what Osiris is saying and that the salary he claims is not true.

The Turkish phrase
"maliyeti ile ilgili belirtilen miktarlar gerçeği yansıtmamaktadır"

..is translated...
"(the "cost" - or salary)..associated with Osiris.. the amount does not reflect reality"

In other words...since the translation is supplied out of context by the google-translate page, is that the salary amount cited by Osiris Eldridge in the interview is a lie!
http://kskbasket.net/v2/haberler/45-2010-2011/258-osiris-eldridgein-maliyeti-hakkinda.html

So - one is left to wonder why would Eldridge blab about his contract terms and salary if he's not supposed to do so, and it must be a fairly important issue when the first thing after hearing of the Eldridge interview, the Turkish team that Eldridge signs with immediate repudiates what Eldridge says and calls it a lie!
Hmmm....foreign intrigue..........


Michael Ocherobia was spotted a couple weeks ago (over the 4th of July weekend) playing for his country's National Team!
England's U23 basketball team played in an outdoor competition in Paris, France!
Michael, who does not even turn 21 until tomorrow (July 27) is a member of the U23 club, playing up a couple of years!
Unfortunately the team from England did not win the event and bowed out in a double overtime loss!

In this picture, he is the 2nd player from the right and you can just see the "ia" of his name on the back of the player's jersey...
http://www.hoopsfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Midnight-Madness-timeout-quai54.jpg

Here Michael is the big guy who is 2nd from the right - one of their tallest guys...
http://www.hoopsfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Midnight-Madness-Huddle.jpg

Here's more with a mention of Mike..this was NOT a professional event...
http://www.basketball247.co.uk/news/archives/00000604.shtml



A few more items...
Ex-Indiana State star David Moss just changed teams in Italy again...
http://www.sportando.net/eng/italy/seriea/11624/david_moss_to_return_to_teramo.html

Fired Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie almost got hired over the weekend as an assistant at Nebraska...
But -- Billy would rather wait things out and take a head coaching job when it comes along...
http://www.omaha.com/article/20100724/BIGRED02/100729826
http://www.allkyhoops.com/2010/07/internet-rumor-billy-gillispie-to.html

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino's extortion trial vs. the blonde woman who accused him of getting her pregnant then brushing her off - all gets under way this morning.
Here's a picture of Pitino's accuser all decked out to jog your memory...
http://wildcatcorner.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/thesypher.jpg

This morning she wore a hot pink skirt to court...
http://cmsimg.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=B2&Date=20100726&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=307260033&Ref=H1&MaxW=318&Border=0

I guess it's given that coaches are going to be recruiting the really young players,
so now the coaches and dads of 4th and 5th grade kids are putting together recruiting videos and posting them...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztf087F0ibY


This one still has me chuckling --
of course the government has better things to do, but since when has that ever stopped someone at the Fed from making ridiculous rulings and distorting and stepping into the most miniscule crevices of private life to alter the way people do things.
This one ranks right up there with forcing baby swings to apply a warning label saying...
"Do not fold and store away with the baby still inside the swing"...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16023

A couple recruits talk about Bradley..and more

Much of this comes from various personal sources and premium recruiting reports..

The Peoria Irish are on the road in Orlando, Florida at the 17 Super showcase..
In their 1st game Saturday, they beat Team Truth 47-44 in an 8AM game!!
Hayden Hoerdemann had 14 points, Jordan Nelson had 11, Joey Miller had 9, and Bloomington's TJ Riggs had 8.

They then went on to beat Monmouth Power 60-44 in their noon game, with Hoerdemann getting 17, Nelson 12, and Miller 12.

Today - on Sunday - they lost to Team Takeover in overtime in an 8AM game, with Nelson getting 5-8 on 3-pointers and finishing with 17. Hoerdemann 11, Miller 8, and the rest of the team as a whole shooting poorly after the long trip.
Jens Kennedy is the only player whose shooting percentage is at 50%.


The Hoop City Classic in Kansas City is where the Illinois Wolves among others are playing this weekend.
The Wolves are rolling...

Phillip Greene (2011), playing for Meanstreets, scored well and is helping their team to win. Rising sophomore Anthony Davis also plays for Meanstreets.

also in KC, Chasson Randle helped the Wolves with a 23 pt outing. Nnana Egwu is regaining form after injuries, and a kid named Jamari Traylor had this said about him...
"Will Sullivan for the Illinois Wolves can really shoot the basketball and he just finds a way to score. He showed off some athletic ability with his dunk late against Dallas Prymetyme as well."

Chasson Randle is narrowed down to just three schools, Illinois, Purdue, and Stanford, and likely will decide by end of August.


The Illinois Wolves U16 are on a tear-- they have won 18 straight games in May and have 25 straight wins since the end of May!
They play today in the Championship Game in Kansas City.
Overall records this entire spring and summers are as follows.......
The U16 Wolves 38-5 since April...Manual's Jacoby Roddy & Kiki Stokes leading the way...
U17 Wolves 38-3 after their first loss of July yesterday. (getting very little sleep since their hotel in KC also hosting a ton of teams from a girls' soccer tourney!)

The two teams are a combined 31-1 thus far in July with leader Chasson Randle and others gone much of that time playing elsewhere, even overseason in Germany!



Also --
"Traylor is just a big time physical presence that can rebound and block shots. His skills are still developing, but he makes free throws and even scored in the post a couple of times. Traylor had been rumored to be attending IMG Academy this fall, but he isn't sure if that will happen now. Dayton and UTEP have offered, while Colorado, Minnesota, West Virginia, Bradley, Indiana State and Washington State have shown interest"

Also - "Peoria Carver won their pool in the 17U division behind a solid effort from Andrew Jordan (Manual HS Class of 2011) we are told. We will catch them in bracket play today."


Anthony Davis - Meanstreets 17 - Kid put on a show on Friday, draining three pointers and scor




Cameron Biedscheid (2012) out of the St. Louis area is a kid BU was watching...
a 6-5 wing player, he's having a great summer and at first it was just Saint Louis, Butler, Detroit, Missouri State, Bradley etc...
but big schools are now starting to notice and he's starting to get interest from Illinois, Mizzou, Indiana, Kansas, and others....
I like the kid's hair........
Click here to see a picture of Cameron Biedscheid

"A couple coaches have come to see me play, like Bradley, Mizzou, Missouri State, SLU, Duquesne,” he said. “SIU-Carbondale is looking at me as well.”"
http://saintlouis.scout.com/2/951573.html
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wdnCip08x-sJ:www.semoball.com/forums/highschoolbasketball/thread/1121+%22bradley%22+and+%22cameron+biedscheid%22&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us


Iowa sharpshooter Josh Oglesby, once a prime target of Creighton and UNI, has now narrowed his list and will visit just these six schools......
“I’m going to take officials to Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Boston College and Arizona State.”
All of those schools have offered Oglesby a scholarship, but so has his childhood favorite program, Iowa, where he's already visited many times, so they are still in the mix.


Tommy Hamilton is with his AAU team in Las Vegas, and says right now that Illinois is the only school coming on hard and they are the 6-9 sophomore's favorite.

Collin Hartman, another big guy - a 6-6 wing out of Indianapolis, has also just received an ILLINOIS offer.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/illinois/basketball/recruiting/player-Collin-Hartman-104010


Robert Goff, once a prime target for BU, is now concentrating on interest from three schools........Indiana, Butler, Purdue, although Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are in there..
He was originally a high school Class of 2008, but did not play anywhere in 2008-2009 and spent the past year at Cowley Co. juco s0 if he comes out of juco now, he will have 3 years of eligibility left.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16016
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=4924

Here's Goff...
http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/942/963269.jpg


Here's a good blog on MVC scheduling.......with a Jim Les mention..
http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2010/07/25/scheduling-college-basketball/

Want to see the actual contracts of some head coaches?

Here are links to copies of the actual contracts of several D-I head coaches....
Just click on each coaches' name to view his contract (or in some cases just the income statement) but they load slowly - so be forewarned..

Illinois' Bruce Weber

UNI's Ben Jacobson

UConn's Jim Calhoun

Dayton's Brian Gregory

Duke's Mike Krzyzewski

Kansas' Bill Self

Louisville's Rick Pitino (notice sections 4.1.2, 6.1.2, and 6.1.4 morals clauses)

Maryland's Gary Williams (note clause 4.6 on acadmic performance)

Michigan State's Tom Izzo

Minnesota's Tubby Smith

Missouri's Mike Anderson

Ohio State's Thad Matta

Purdue's Matt Painter

Syracuse's Jim Boeheim

Tennessee's Bruce Pearl

Texas A&M's Mark Turgeon

BU's upcoming opponent Utah's Jim Boylen

Then finally Bradley's compensation ;)



I don't have Bob Huggins' contract listed but Huggy is in the news again......
He fell again and was in the hospital with fractured ribs.....
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5406412

Does anyone find this interesting? This is about the 10th time Bob Huggins has been in the news for weird injuries from falls that happen in his hotel rooms...

It just happened a year ago...
http://deadspin.com/5285902/bob-huggins-now-sporting-non+metaphorical-black-eyes
http://www.faniq.com/blog/Bob-Huggins-Shows-Up-To-Charity-Event-With-Two-Black-Eyes-Blog-25272

And it had just happened in a complately separate incident only a few months earlier..
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=38508

and he's had at least a dozen other incidents, confrontations, fights, and DUI arrests....but nothing at like all the arrests and incidents all his players have had over the years!
Seriously -- you just couldn't make this kind of comedy up.....these are really great real-life exploits.......but methinks Bobby Huggins is still tipping the bottle a bit.

Odd stories for that'll get you through the weekend....

This Kansas fan says he bumped into Dick Vitale at a Yankees baseball game. Then as he walked past Vitale up the aisle, he said hi and also said "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk" the Kansas Jayhawk chant...
His post then goes on to say that Dick Vitale's response was...
"FUC* OFF"!!!!
Nice, Dickie V...stay classy, what are you going to come up with for Bradley fans if the Braves beat your precious Dukies???
I love it -- I knew there had to be at least one thing Bradley fans have in common with the Jayhawks fans - we all think Dick Vitale is a dork, and we love getting under his skin.
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2481&t=6133057


Here's a discussion on the Utah message board. BU will be playing Utah this coming season as part of the MVC/MWC Challenge.
This Utah fan says he ran into Saint Louis head coach and ex-Utah coach Rick Majerus at....gasp....at a restaurant!!
Can you imagine -- Majerus at a restaurant!!!
http://www.utefans.net/message.php?id=1040495


Here's evidence that BU recruit Remy Abell has gotten a scholarship offer from BU!!
http://twitter.com/jdemling/status/18659046411


As previously noted, Chicago State University has a new head coach, Tracy Dildy...
and here's news that he has already landed his very first recruit, a pretty good kid from Calumet City TF North High School. TF North is coached by ex-Bradley Brave Tim Bankston!
http://www.gocsucougars.com//news/2010/7/20/MBB_0720104208.aspx


BU recruit Phillip Greene getting some big time attention...
http://blog.northstarbball.com/2010/07/19/peach-jam-class-of-2011-school-lists.aspx


Remember the kid who pretended to be a 16 year old basketball player in Texas even though he was already a college grad?

In case you need a reminder, here's the story...
http://www.mywesttexas.com/news/top_stories/article_a2411a43-fcd1-5a63-a2bf-34c9d1dd34b5.html

Well, the national press made a huge deal out of this, and even focused on how he lied about his age while having an "affair" with a 16 year old classmate of his, thus constituting statutory rape!!

But here's a very similar story that for some reason the press completely laid off...
It involves a 31 year old woman who is a lesbian but who posed as a high school BOY so she could have sex with a high school girl!!
I wonder how often this is happening....maybe some of your good friends back in high school weren't really boys!!!
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20100707/NEWS010701/307070011/Warren-County-woman-allegedly-posed-as-teenage-boy-to-have-sex-with-girl


Here's another oddball story involving legal issues.........
It seems a bunch of white kids, football players, are ticked off because they thought they were pretty good, but got dropped off the recruiting list of a local college and instead the college signed Black athletes!
Again, this is getting virtually NO COVERAGE but it does involve RACIAL DISCRIMINATION which is currently a pretty hot topic all over the networks!
The kids think the predominately BLACK college discriminates because they preferentially offer college football scholarships to Black kids over white kids, and that this contitutes racial discrimination!
(And for some of you bozos, even though these kids are from Georgia, they are football players, not basketball players. So you can't use them as proof that there are gobs of kids coming out of Georgia in the past five years that are better than Taylor Brown.)
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-07-14/story/four-whites-file-descrimination-suit-against-predominantly-black

I occasionally check out the blog of Dave Reynolds of the PJ Star...he posts under the blog name
"The Reynolds Rap"
Can anyone explain what has happened?? He seems to have forgotten all about his blog...and nothing has been posted in almost a YEAR!!
http://blogs.pjstar.com/reynolds/


Here's an oddity...
Eurobasket/NCAA says Bradley has a player named Mike Granger currently on the roster..
http://www.usbasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=USA&Team=856&Page=1

What the heck is this all about?? It might just be a complete error, but I found something else funny...
One of the very few internet sites that talks about a basketball player named Mike Granger from Bradley is this one...
There appears that there is someone named Mike Granger who claims to be from Bradley....playing in this summer pro-am league...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LyayaCP0Wq8J:www.kyproam.com/rosters/+%22mike+granger%22+and+%22bradley%22&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

BTW-- SIU's Jermaine Dearman is also playing in this Kentuckiana pro-am league, and so are a few players from Missouri Western where Mike Suggs used to play after he left Bradley...and we all know Mike Suggs was a relative of Danny Granger...

So --- I know it is a really long shot theory...but.......
Could Mike Suggs have just changed his name to Mike Granger (for whatever reason) and now he starts to show up on a couple internet sites??
Hmmm.....time will tell..........


Lastly -- seems a certain popular basketball player declined to show up in Bloomington, IL (McLean Co.) for his court date and a summons was issued for him, and now he has a new date for his ordinance violation.....

TB tries his hand a producing a movie...pretty good job!!

You can see all the players -- JP looks buff, and AT does look quite a bit bulkier - just check the action about 55-60 seconds in to this video.
Davis also looks solid, maybe an inch taller than AT.
And you can see the new facilities as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqtMQAR_es8&feature=youtu.be



By the way -- here's a bunch of other odd and various stories for the weekend......
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2010/07/odd-stories-for-thatll-get-you-through.html

News......just click on the text below for more info

A mystery is solved...the well known Bylaw Blog is written by an ex-Hoosier and compliance expert...John Infante
http://www.bylawblog.com/2010/07/it-was-fun-while-it-lasted/


Chris Colvin to juco?



Springfield High School's Isiah Hale to juco near Chicago, but note where else he was considering....ahem...Yuba...


Ex-Illini Rich McBride enters the coaching profession.


Here's a serious misplacement of priorities...after SIU's Nick Evans was arrested recently the Southern Indiana people are all worried about how this is going to affect their team next year! On top of that Evans is also behind on completing classes, and he even redshirted a whole year!


Memphis head coach Josh Pastner commits NCAA violation - illegal contact?

Tubby Smith says so --


Ex-Seton Hall head coach arrested for and pleads not guilty of shoplifting.



UIC's Jimmy Collins gives some explanation for his sudden retirement.


NCAA Division I basketball will gain TWO new members (Scottie Pippen's alma mater Central Arkansas and Cal State-Bakersfield) for 2010-2011, but will also LOSE two members (Centenary & New Orleans) who are reclassifying to D-III.


Father of ex-NBA'er Shawn Bradley falls from roof and dies.


Bulls' Derrick Rose says he's loyal to the Bulls forever!


Iowa State's Leron Dendy lands at Middle Tennessee.


One of eight survivors of the tragic 1970 Wichita State University plane crash has passed away from cancer.



A couple more ex-Brave followups..

Jermaine Brown

Duane Broussard

Rob Dye

James Gillingham

Deon Jackson

Jim Molinari

Howard Moore




Lastly...just a few new names connected to Bradley...
Toddrick Gotcher
Jamarlas Demas
Shai Fields

Just my thoughts on all the big pay raises at University of Illinois

Wow you'd think U of I is rolling in dough...
I saw this article this morning...
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/university-illinois/2010-07-21/new-ui-presidents-executive-assistant-will-earn-195000.html

U of I is tossing out tremendous salaries for some of their top people...some are already labelling this irresponsible!
The University Prez' new "secretary" (actually "executive assistant") is getting $195,000!!!

Yup -- that's not a typo -- $195,000 as a STARTING salary on the first day of her new job!!
In fact, one of the reasons Lisa Troyer left her job at UConn and came to Illinois was because the state of Connecticut was going broke and she feared they would not make good on her salary.
Now the very hiring of this woman is going to literally cause the same problem here!!
http://www.dailycampus.com/2.7440/uconn-professors-face-pay-cuts-to-keep-jobs-1.1050603

BUT-- guess who her old boss in Copnnecticut was....it was new University of Illinois President Michael Hogan!!!
He has brought his helping hand from UConn, Lisa Troyer, into the U of I system and worked a tremendous salary increase for her...
Hmmm......
Here's Lisa Troyer

This is a raise of almost $90,000 over what the same position paid last year!!
That's right, on the very first day on the job at Illinois she's making almost double what the previous "executive assistant" was making...what gives???


Now Jerrance Howard's salary is climbing to $210,000 in this new deal, and the women's basketball coach Jolette Law (whose teams have gone 49-51 - .490 in her three seasons at Illinois) is going to be hauling in $310,000 through 2014!!!!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15996

AMAZING!! $310,000 as her base pay plus TV money -- this is more than 95% of all D-I coaches get - men and women!!
And it's not like she's won an NCAA title of anything...she has a career record that's sub-.500,
and she's finished under .500 and in the bottom half of the Big Ten Conference ALL THREE YEARS SHE"S BEEN THERE.
For those who use the term "mediocre"...then this is the true measure of "mediocre".
She's sub-.500 overall, never even finished in the top half of the Big Ten, and has gone nowhere!

Ordinarily I wouldn't care a hoot, but since I pay taxes in the state of Illinois and since I know full well they use taxpayer money to run their athletic departments, then this is partly MY MONEY begin tossed out for such horrible performance!!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15677
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15815
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11994

These are all enormous raises in view of this...
U of I is making severe budget cuts everywhere else -- and forcing many employees to take UNPAID FURLOUGHS!!
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/university.illinois.furloughs.2.1406025.html
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/2457008,CST-NWS-uofi02.articlehttp://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=42984http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/paper-trail/2010/01/05/furloughs-freezes-hit-university-of-illinois

Is anyone out there listening?? The schools and the taxpayers are going broke, and yet we're paying assistant coaches $200K, mediocre women's basketball coaches $300K, and ordinary helpers in the university President's office $200K as a starter salary!
Like I said...I don't care who pays what outside of the fact that some of this is ripping off the hard working folks of Illinois....
I wonder how many people down in Springfield are U of I grads or have some season tickets?? I'll bet the women's coach at EIU isn't making this much - in fact nobody at EIU, probably not even the university president down there is making this much...
And yet, EIU's women's basketball team went 16-2 in their conference, and went to the post-season!!

Makes you wonder how a private school can compete at all! I think Bradley's doing pretty danged well given the current sleaze in the college sports environment and all the taxpayer money that's wasted and funneled to help bolster up those state universities.
And to think there are people who believe the private schools have an advantage....

Many public schools are having to raise tuition to cover skyrocketing costs and enrollments are declining...
but guess what, at the very same time, many conservative PRIVATE schools have their enrollment skyrocketing, despite the fact that these private schools are extremely expensive!!!
http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2010/07/12/daily21.html



****Based on a comment that came in that the U of I funds all their athletics by private sources...which I thought I debunked with the above links...
I will reiterate the proof.....

Of course that is the claim of the U of I people, but it is patently false and self-serving...they only hope you take them at their word so you don't actually look it up...
..read the links provided and you will see that they do use taxpayer funds...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15677
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ncaa-finances.htm
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15815
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11994

Using the USA today database, and searching for the U of I, you see their Athletic Dept. still uses ..
-$17.7 million in ticket sales, but much of that is generated through the hard work of state-paid employees..
-$3 million in student fees (basically a component of the tuition charged to ALL students whether they ever attend a ball game or could care less about the Athletic Dept.)
-$18.3 million in donor contributions, but a bunch of that could be and would be used and very welcome in other university depts. if it weren't hogged by the athletic dept.
-$1.6 million in "Direct Institutional Support" - ahem could this be any clearer?? The main operating funds of the university are being used by the athletic dept.
-and about $30 million more generated via various sources that are again done by state-employed university personnel, etc..
-Then consider who had to pay for and maintain those extremely expensive buildings and athletic fields that the teams use, and practice on and that all those people live and work in every day -- they sure didn't build all that with private funds!!!

So you can cook it any way you want, and you won't get anyone at U of I to be open and honest about it...but the truth is that they DO operate with and depend on taxpayer funds.


Just a few final comments...
In the fall of 2009, when the U of I decided to upgrade and spend millions to renovate Assembly Hall...they awarded contracts to out-of-state building firms (adding to Illinois' unemployment), much to the objection of workers IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS who could have done the job as well but were NOT awarded the contract.
http://www.dailyillini.com/node/33245/

Some Braves followups and more...

Here's a pleasant followup on ex-Brave and fan favorite Mitchell JJ Anderson...
JJ suffered a stroke two years ago, and spent over a year recovering and rehabbing...but is now back at work as Director of Pro Personnel for the Memphis Grizzlies, working under GM Tony Barone.
In fact, with the recent draft and sorting out all the players available on the free agent market, JJ has been quite busy, including acting as an assistant coach for the Grizzlies' summer league team in Vegas that Dinma Odiakosa played on.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2010-07-02-4009640725_x.htm
http://3sob.com/archives/56-july-2010/1109-summer-league-game-3-preview

JJ can be seen sitting on the Memphis bench in some of this video from the summer league.
Here, just 13 seconds into the video, stop the action and JJ is on the bench holding a clipboard.
http://www.nba.com/summerleague/games/20100712/MEMATL/gameinfo.html

and this is a better view...just stop the action right at about a minute into this video - and it'll show a great view of Mitchell Anderson...
http://www.nba.com/summerleague/games/20100715/DLSMEM/gameinfo.html

he's also on the bench in these videos...
http://www.nba.com/summerleague/games/20100713/MILMEM/gameinfo.html
http://www.nba.com/summerleague/games/20100715/DLSMEM/gameinfo.html
http://www.nba.com/summerleague/games/20100716/MEMMIN/gameinfo.html
http://www.nba.com/summerleague/games/20100718/SASMEM/gameinfo.html


Marcus Pollard got a short mention in the news recently...
His old high school basketball coach has a prized recruit on the team this year and the kid just verballed to Georgia...
"Greenville High basketball coach Richard Carter ranks (Kentavious) Caldwell as the “probably the best” he’s ever had in 40 years of coaching high school basketball at several schools.
While at Alabama’s Valley High, Carter’s basketball pupils included ...
Marcus Pollard (NFL Pro Bowl tight end who played 15 seasons, including 2009 with the Atlanta Falcons)"
http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-high-school-sports/2010/07/18/basketball-one-of-nations-top-shooting-guards-commits-to-uga/?cxntfid=blogs_georgia_high_school_sports


Zach Andrews' Spanish team, Huesca, won their league title, and Zach - who is the most exciting player on their team - has his own web page on the Huesca site, showing all the highlights, videos, and dunks!!
http://www.cbphuesca.net/ShowZack.php


Michael Ochereobia turns 21 years old on July 27, 2010, and his NCAA "clock" starts ticking....he will have 5 years to complete four years of eligibility.
Did you know this is a new rule?? It used to be that your clock started ticking when you enrolled full time at a D-I school or juco. You could always (al still can) get a waiver for military service or missions, but otherwise, if you delay entry into college, then at your 21st birthday the clock starts ticking anyway.


Another team has released their schedule and it shows who one of Wichita State's opponents is going to be.
The Shockers will host University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) on Monday, November 29.
https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf8/705800.pdf


Wisconsin yesterday picked up the verbal from 6-8 center Jarrod Uthoff. He has some outside game but he has played center in high school.
http://www.jhsmensbasketball.com/0910varsity/

This is right on the heels of landing the verbal from Illinois Wolves center Frank Kaminsky - from Benet HS, a very similar player...
Bo Ryan sure does like these tall guys who all play alike and even look a little alike!
http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedia/px182_4487_9.jpg_20100302_22_33_42_154-312-470.imageContent


BU recruiting target Phillip Greene got some serious attention at the Peach Jam...he'll end up at West Virginia, but if they don't want him, BU can get him.


Nice article on Nnana Egwu - and some mention of the Wolves.
http://illinois.scout.com/2/984945.html


The Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce just got married.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20402898,00.html

His new wife is a well known, Atlanta interior designer, Julie Landrum.
I wonder if she's friends with Taylor Brown's mom who is also a very well known Atlanta businesswoman...
http://www.chloetaylorbrown.com/


Adam Morrison - one of the greatest college basketball players a few years ago is unfortunately being reduced to a bit of a joke any more...but he's already made over $17 million in his four years in the NBA - so don't feel too sorry for him!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f11JJKEskKw


Nice to see that the NCAA is finally looking into all the sleaze associated with middle men and agents corrupting college sports..
at South Carolina--
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/07/south-carolina-tight-end-weslye-saunders-under-investigation-by-ncaa/1

and at Florida-
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/07/eye-opener-will-florida-football-be-the-next-usc/1

...but these are two big BCS schools, so expect any investigation to go slow, like the USC one did - taking 5 years...and expect a whitewash with very little coming of it...



Unfortunately there still is racism in some places - I guess we will never rid the world of all bigots, and I applaud that both sides can see it and call it out...

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/naacp-appalled-by-black-usda-officials-racial-discrimination/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/19/media-exec-compares-black-tea-partiers-jewish-concentration-camp-guards/
http://chattahbox.com/images/2010/01/teaparty_robertson_spelling_racist_problem.jpg


And in the midst of an endless barrage of news on Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and Lindsay Lohan, you can count on us to remain free of all that useless stuff. We'll keep bringing the important stuff.

Like this...
golfer Miguel Jiminez finds his ball way too close to a wall to get a good shot toward the green....so he hits the ball backwards, directly into the wall...
and the ball rebounds OFF the wall and onto the green!
Nice shot........
http://deadspin.com/5591025/miguel-ngel-jimenez-wins-the-british-open-trick-shot-competition

Busting more myths 2.0

Time for another non-sports blog.....

After watching a few shows on TV over the weekend, I feel compelled to add back a little sense to the world. So what makes me an expert?? Nothing in particular, but I didn't fall for the hoax with the balloon boy - I knew from the instant it was first reported that there couldn't be a boy on that balloon and that the whole thing was just a scam. I also have a natural degree of skepticism - something that it actually good in a scientists, yet we see scientists all the time who already believe the stuff they purport to be studying objectively. Yeah -- that's really great science....but the airwaves are full of it.

Myth #1 - that Alvin Greene should not be allowed to run for the Senate in South Carolina, since there was some sort of aberration that led to him winning the election.
.....Well, this guy who nobody knew, yet they voted for him anyway, IS the legitimate winner of the Democratic primary. (He got 59% of the votes against a legitimate candidate that actually ran a campaign!!)
They accuse the guy of fraud or rigging the election, but seriously - the guy isn't even smart enough to run his own campaign or set up a web site. If he was going to orchestrate a fraud, isn't that the first thing he'd do???
...after all some people fall for anything they see on the internet.

Anyway, the guy won because of the stupidity of tens of thousands of voters who simply vote for someone whose name sounds right.
If there was any fraud at all in this election, it was the inept fraud of the guy running against Greene who thought he had fairly judged the intelligence of the voters.
Lastly - if anyone thinks Alvin Greene is too stupid to be an effective senator, then consider this...he probably is. He thinks he won the election because of how well he campaigned or because the voters thought he was the best candidate!
But he can't be stupider that this lady who currently serves as a US Representative.
Sheila Jackson actually thinks the US had landed on Mars, and that Neil Armstrong left an American Flag there. She also has some pretty exotic but incorrect ideas about Viet Nam.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/the_wild_and_wacky_world_of_re.html

Thebn there's this total dope, who thinks if we send too many troops to Guam, that the island will capsize. This is not a joke, the guy is really that stupid...
http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2010/04/01/your-morning-jolt-hank-johnson-and-a-capsizing-guam/?cxntfid=blogs_political_insider_jim_galloway



Myth #2 -- I saw yet another in an endless documentary claiming that Bigfoot is a real, yet to be discovered species of primate.
OK-- I hardly know where to start on this one...
First, if a species of animal is spotted in every state of the US, in every Canadian province, and even on some small islands off the coast of Washington State and Canada...then are you really that naive to believe we still have never caught one or even found one dead somewhere - given all the highways where people hit and kill every other species of animal?
Also, don't forget all that technology, all those automated trail cameras and videos that have still never shown convincing evidence of even ONE.

How about the "Patterson film", right???
This one really has to involve some naivete....
The single best piece of evidence of Bigfoot, that all the proponents keep hanging their hats on is the Patterson film.
It is a grand total of about 20 seconds of film shot in 1967 on a hand held 8mm camera.
It purports to be filming a creature from a distance of at least 20 to 30 yards..showing what appears to just about any objective viewer to be a man in a monkey suit.
Just do a little reading on this and you'll see that the main guy, Patterson, already had a fascination with Bigfoot so it was no fluke that this was a set up, but also there were clear efforts by both men to cash in on the film and even lawsuits followed.
Suffice to say that NO primate besides man walks with arms swinging smoothly at his side in opposition to leg movement. All other primates use their arms like a tightrope walker or drag their knuckles if walking on their two hind feet.
BUT -- if you say it's because Bigfoot is a new species, then why does it look exactly like a store-bought gorilla suit?
Anyway...if this is the best evidence they can come up with, then this piece of film is far, far less convincing than the baloon boy story...so you have to want to believe awful hard not to see how foolish you are buying into this scam.
Anyway...after more than 40 years....we now have overwhelming evidence that all of this Bigfoot stuff is a hoax...all you have to do is open your eyes and read it.
this is really one of the easiest and most preposterous ideas to debunk...since no real convincing evidence exists that coulod hold up to any decent scrutiny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson-Gimlin_film



Myth #3 - which brings up the natural next argument -- that flying saucers and UFO's are really beings from another world visiting earth.
One of the strongest arguments we hear is that there's an endless number of other suns and planets out there - so it would be ignorant to to think there aren't lots of other worlds "out there" with life and even with intelligent life.

Well, I can use that argument, too....because if there's an almost endless numbers of possible advanced civilizations, then at least one of them would have come here and MADE THEMSELVES KNOWN!! Why are they all so mysterious...hiding...but then doing such a bad job of hiding that they leave silly little traces of their existence. But they always leave ONLY as much evidence of their existence as needed to be doubtful...just a grainy film or snapshot....or some bent wheat stalks, etc..

Seriously -- why would they travel all the way here and NOT take some of the earth's great natural resources?? Isn't it known that earth is pretty unique...we know of NO OTHER planet like it...
It is clearly the only known planet with lots of water, and with all the known heavy elements in abundance right on the surface.
The most intelligent among us, like Stephen Hawking, knows this full well....that if there were aliens and if they did come here, that it would NOT be good for us, because they'd undoubtedly take what they wanted.

Plus you have to admit that people on earth do some really, really funny things if you are an observer from outer space...
we kill each other sometimes randomly, we kill our own babies, we harm and kill our own "loved ones", we put damaging drugs and other hideous substances into ourselves, we spend our resources cutting holes in our bodies, tatooing ourselves, and making body parts bigger, we do just about anything to avoid actually getting along...so why wouldn't aliens want to come do some studies on what gives here on earth...
They'd want to get some interviews and find out what this behavior is all about.
This self-destructive behavior is precisely what has caused our own leaders to waste the vast majority of our own resources trying to combat problems here, leaving no money left for us to ever explore outer space..
we probably never will get back into space...despite now being more than 40 years more advanced than when we went to the moon.

Even if we ignore all the obvious proof that aliens have not come to earth - like the vast distances they'd have had to travel, the time it would have taken, the enormous hazards of long space travel that will ultimately prevent us - no matter how advanced we ever get - from traveling even beyond our own moon, then there are still many other proofs.
The large majority of the films and pictures have already been proven hoaxes. If you were shopping for a rare baseball card to complete your collection, and the guy who runs the card shop you're shopping in admits that 90-95% of all the cards in the shop are proven fakes...then let me ask you this...
Would you buy the card you wanted even for a decent price?? Nope, you'd assume the likelihood is way too high that it's a fake given that so many others are.

BTW -- The top scientists who argue FOR the reality of aliens and spacemen who have come here are these guys...

-Erich von Däniken
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken

-Stanton Friedman (this is the guy you see all over the Discovery Channel and History Channel)
http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/stanton-friedman-a-scientist-searches-for-the-truth-of-ufos/19503350
http://www.jasonblevins.com/stan.jpg

-and even Carl Sagan...
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/carl_sagan.jpg

..and others too..but what's the single thing they all have in common besides they are proponents of aliens visiting earth??

YUP -- you guessed, I am sure....
it's that each and every one of those guys who are the biggest and strongest proponets of the UFO/alien theories make a killing off it...
They sold books, did TV shows, and literally became millionaires hyping this stuff....so they are about as genuine, objective, unbiased, and believable as the rock band Kiss in all their stage makeup...if you wanna believe that's exactly how those rock star look all the time for real in public!!

I guess I get a real kick out of some of these people.....they promote the wildest, most insane, unbelievable, and incredulous things and claim they are devoted believers....
yet they turn on anyone else who believes a man once walked on water and performed miracles and claim that's evidence of being so gullible and unobjective!!

So everyone, I guess, is free to believe as they want......unless you believe this wild idea....that there IS actually freedom of religion in this nation...
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/illinois-professor-fired-for-giving-catholic-teaching-on-homosexuality/

...or if have the audacity to believe that a baby is a special creation of God and should not be killed...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/785378/posts

Some summer league thoughts....

Summer leagues are fun but most people know they are not reflective of how those players will play against real D-I competition and defenses. But watching what some people say in response to some scoring numbers in those summer leagues is a bit funny.
It is widely known there's no defenses played at all, end-to-end passes for wide open layups and completely undefended 3-pointers being launched by 250 lb centers are commonplace...and scores like 108-101 and 105-87 are commonplace as well.
In fact, the shooting percentages overall are in the 50-60% range meaning guys are being given nothing BUT wide open shots...can this actually be beneficial or helpful or maybe this could even hurt the players' development since they never actually face defense and probably develop bad habits.
Even in the girls' Prime Time League we see stats like every team in the league shooting 50% overall as an average!!!

So - how valid are the scoring numbers in the summer leagues?
We always have a few threads on message boards talking about how some kid torched the nets for 30 in a summer league game..
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=184865#post184865
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=186848#post186848

And actually, I like Rayvonte Rice, and I think he might actually be someone who can score like that in the real season....but......

Let's look at some of the numbers and you be the judge........

The last couple weeks' that the Prime Time League (in Iowa) has their stats available...here's what we see......
http://primetimeleague.com/7-11ptlstats.htm

--guys you've never heard of like Blake Bonar of Wartburg was 4-4 from 3-pt range
--Alou Keita - who never did squat at Drake had 30 pts, 15 rebs
--complete unknowns like Andre Murphy, Darryl Moore, Chip rank all hit for 20+
--half of the teams routinely hit 40-50% of their 3-pointers...one team was 15-29 (52%), and this happens every week.
--the 3 point shooting pct for the entire league was 63-154 (41%)
Last week it was 68-163 (42%)!!! One team hit 19-35!
--Anthony James had 36 pts, 8 rebs (he's a 1.6 ppg deep sub at UNI..
--one kid who's never even played at UNI, Matt Morrison had a game of 34 pts, 9 reb, 6 asst, and the same night chip Rank had 29 pts, 11 rebs!

--In the Capital City League (also in Iowa) Anthony Booker is routinely having games like 21 pts, 13 rebs, and Iowa State walk on Babu Palo (yes, that's no typo) went for 24 pts, 8 rebs...

and so on....
but we have discussions of past years, too......
and players who have hit for 20 and 30 ppg regularly in those summer leagues, then often go on to completely obscure collegiate careers...
I recall players like Atila Santos, Jon Godfread, and Drew Lundberg having nights at those summer leagues that had 'em talking like we did after the TCS exhibition game vs. St Ambrose where he scored 36. At least now, 3 years later, we've learned our lesson on that one, but those in Iowa are still buzzing and drooling over their summer league games like Nathan Buss hitting 6-12 from 3-pt range.
Seriously -- does anyone really believe that UNI's Ben Jacobson will want his new, freshman 6-8, 220 lb center jacking up 3's??
Doubt it........so enjoy the summer league numbers....and congrats to Rayvonte Rice for a 30 point nite...I will be anxious to see how many 30 point games he has in Valley play.


And here's a thread that is interesting and kinda made me laugh....FWIW ---
It's from the Iowa State message board...
now recall, Iowa State is devastated by players who have left and reneged on their verbals...
All their best players are gone, Craig Brackins left early and was drafted, etc...
PLUS, the only real talent they have coming in are players like Chris Babb and Anthnoy Booker who are transfers and will not even be able to play until next year in 2011.
So--- given all that, one of Iowa State's ONLY returning, experienced players in Diante Garrett...and yet this guy who starts the thread makes the argument Garrett should redshirt. It is interesting but I think the kid will want to play this year.
http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/mens-basketball/96102-dg-red-shirting.html

Garrett, if he stays healthy, is all but guaranteed at least 35 minutes per game this year because of shortage of other manpower...so I can't imagine he'd want to redshirt - then come back the following year when they still really don't have much of a shot with so many new players.
Plus, I also cannot imagine the coach wanting to redshirt perhaps his best player...


Some few miserable posters on the Saint Louis Billikens board were bitching about SLU setting up a game, like Bradley, where they will travel to play Duke...
so one poster does a poll to see who it is that doesn't want to play Duke, and those bold enough to cast a vote went 100% (30 out of 30) in favor!
http://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19341


Here's an article on ex-Richwoods' Billy Cole and how he doesn't want to give up playing time to Jereme Richmond...
http://www.herald-review.com/sports/article_2816ce92-8fd6-11df-97a9-001cc4c002e0.html

The story's nice and heartwarming, but get used to the idea, Bill, because I suspect Jereme & Meyers are gonna take almost all your playing time.

Some obscure but interesting news items

I'm sure you saw where another player from the Canarias Basketball Academy had signed with an American Division I school--
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15974

..but actually it isn't ONE more player -- it's TWO more Canarias Basketball Academy players!!

--Aaron Geramipoor, a Brit playing in the Canaries signed with Seton Hall -- he'll be playing with another CBA kid, Patrick Auda, who had signed a month ago..
http://www.shupirates.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=52789&SPID=5500&DB_OEM_ID=12600&ATCLID=204967933

--the second kid this week who signed to play D-I is Danny James, who just signed with Monmouth after considering several mid-majors...
http://www.hoopsfix.com/2010/07/daniel-james-commits-to-monmouth/
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sohT0UD4YskJ:www.europeanprospects.com/information-database/ncaa-recruiting-europe-based-played/+%22danny+James%22+and+%22monmouth%22&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

That brings the number to 25 - the total of Canarias Basketball Academy players who have signed with D-I's over just the last two years....and eight who have signed within just the past few months!!!
EVERY ONE has had absolutely NO trouble clearing the NCAA and getting eligibility, except, of course, the one kid going to Bradley...
somehow his academics at CBA are being stalled by NCAA.
I know what I believe on this topic...you make up your own mind whether there appears to be overwhelming evidence that some schools are clearly treated differently when trying to get action from the NCAA...and time, and time, and time again it is clear Bradley is treated differently.

I suppose you recall how hard NCAA slammed BU when a few bucks of inadvertent overpay were voluntarily revealed by Bradley - yet Kansas (who lied and did their best to hide facts) at the same time had TENS of thousands of dollars of willful cash gifts given to Darnell Jackson and JR Giddens, yet Kansas got a substantially lesser penalty even though the institution was still on probation from violations earlier in the decade.


Illinois" and Peoria Notre Dame's Brian Randle signs with a new team in Israel...after helping his last team to their championship.
http://www.sportando.net/eng/europe/israel/11036/hapoel_migdal_adds_brian_randle_and_moshe_mizrahi.html

Here are some recruiting articles and a little about the Central Shootout which is being held at Woodruff this year since Woodruff is air conditioned and Central, ahem, is not...
Central, Manual, Notre Dame, and several other good teams are there...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=186910#post186910

Osiris Eldridge and Dinma Odiakosa are both on NBA summer teams....OE with Portland and Dinma with Memphis..
BUT -- neither is getting to play much at all..
In the three games since Eldridge has joined Portland, he has not played even one second....
So-- you gotta wonder why they'd fly him all the way there to Las Vegas just to sit the bench, then announce he's signing with some horribly obscure team in the boondocks of Turkey!
Dinma is only getting a few minutes a game, but less & less as time goes on and it is clear he is not likely to stay on an NBA roster and/or to play at this level.
He really cannot score, but he even seems to have trouble grabbing more than a rebound or two.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=186900#post186900


Very few teams nationally have released their schedules...pretty much only the lower midmajors like Lipscomb, etc..
I guess that's because most decent midmajors are still trying to get games, because nobody wants to play them...
it is a coordinated plan for the big boys to keep the better mid-majors from getting NCAA bids...because if the top teams just decline to play them, then they'll never have much of a resume and the NCAA selection committee can always use that bogus "eye test" to prove they don't deserve a bid...
Bradley has figured a way out by at least trying to work on facing the top teams even if you have to go on the road to do it!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15777


An Indiana Hoosier in the news ...but not in a good way -- he's a Bobby Knight "disciple"..
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/13645805


A daughter of UK player hits the news also....
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/kss_driver-charged-with-dui-after-crashing-through-kohl-s-police-suspect-drugs-may-have-been-a-factor-1045532.html


Speaking of arrests, drugs, alcohol, DUI's...
How come Tennessee seems only NOW to actually be serious about all the same problems they have been having there? Or does this story really only cover the football program...they really don't mention Bruce and the basketball players and all their drug related arrests..
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5380858


Rumor beginning to swirl that NCAA is looking into some possible inappropriate gifts given to players at Kansas State....more later on this subject...


Mizzou revises their recruiting strategy -- seems they really only want to go for junior college transfers...
time will tell if it pays off..but they have a long, long way to go before they steal away the title of "Juco U" from Illinois State, SIU, and Creighton!!
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/jul/14/mu-keeps-an-eye-on-jucos-despite-decline/


Did you see where the city of Indianapolis is gonna pay more than $30 million to the Pacers just to stay in Indianapolis??
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15964

But...with talk of an NBA lockout, if the 2010-2011 season does not materialize, then the Pacers owe $10 million back to the city just for that one season.
http://www.theindychannel.com/sports/24275193/detail.html
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/jul/14/vols-dooley-vows-to-change-culture-of-program/


BTW -- here's how the Pacers are looking at fattening their wallets...
they're talking of selling or dumping their talent...
Now the talk is Danny Granger to the Hornets??
http://www.hornets247.com/blog/2010/07/15/danny-granger-to-new-orleans-an-intriguing-possibility

The Pacers were also talking to the Nets about Granger
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/playerbreakingnews.asp?sport=NBA&id=1137&line=137040&spln=1

Their new top draft pick is an almost identical player to Danny Granger...
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2010-06-25-3198097519_x.htm


Did you read where Patrick O'Bryant went head to head against DeMarcus Cousins in the Summer League...
POB didn't fare too well, but other defenders have done worse...so I think POB did OK.
Anyway - the biggest news was that POB was playing Cousins well and tough in one stretch and DeMarcus Cousins (never known for his mellow temper) turned and jawed into POB's face and picked up a technical!


Here's a new, long article on Chasson Randle....
Bradley was one of the kid's favorites early on, but he's really blown up...
sounds like he's leaning towards Illinois...
http://illinois.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1103125

Here are a few clips...
"Four star hoops recruit Chasson Randle is back with the Illinois Wolves this week after playing in Germany with the USA U17 team in their Gold Medal performance at the FIBA games last week.
"It was a great being with the USA team again and winning the gold medal," Randle said. "It was an amazing experience for me and my family."

Last year, Randle won the Gold with this group down in Argentina...
Randle is now back with his Illinois Wolves team, and started off the tournament with a bang, scoring the game tying basket and scoring 21 points in a game on Wednesday despite some travel weary legs.
Randle now wants to begin to focus on his recruitment ...trimming his list down and naming a final group of schools.
... "Purdue and the Illini and Stanford..."
Randle said that he wants to have a decision before the high school season starts so that he can sign in November."