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.