Kudos to a couple of ISU fans....plus a lot more basketball items...

If there's one thing I respect, it's fans of a team (any team - even the ones I don't root for) who are loyal, dedicated, who stick by their team in thick and thin, and who actually GIVE BACK...and help their team. Not just monetarily, although that's a pretty important part...
but with the support of their time and energies of running the fan site in the internet.

I am taking this time to give kudos and congratulations to a couple of ISU Redbird fans who have done a bunch for their team in this regard.
Over a decade ago, the guy known as "Birdfan" started up their fan site which included info and a message board. He has run that site until now as "Redbirdfan.com".
It is a well run site, and -- short of the kind of everpresent, inane stuff every message board encounters -- I believe it's a good site, well run, and definitely a plus for the fan base. The chance to converse with other fans, talk pre and post game talk, stoke the fires in the off season, and learn about the latest team news and recruiting info all help the team and school.
Anyone who says that the players and the coaches or AD never look at the message boards is 100% wrong. Yes they do...and they want and appreciate the fan support that's evident on the boards.

Birdfan's hanging it up and is ending his site. He is no longer going to run the fan site and message board.
Here's Brian's (Birdfan's) retirement STATEMENT...
http://www.redbirdfan.com/msgforum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13958

Sadly, Birdfan cites that one of his reasons for burning out and wanting to quit are the...
"issues", the "grumblers", and "SH*T"..
It is unfortunate, because that is true on most all message boards...


But, the ISU board will continue on at a different IP address....under different direction and supervision....
It will located at....Redbirdfan.net.......
and it will be run by "isuquinndog"...although quinnie definitely has some catching up to do since his first question posed on the new board is this one...
http://www.redbirdfan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20


So....now you know...it isn't always easy being one of the TOP fans of your team...especially if you want to run web sites that supports your team. So Birdfan deserved a lot of thanks, not just from his own cohorts and other ISU fans, but from the rest of us.
Mid-major teams don't generally get the help and backing of Rivals to run the sites, and except for a few, it does take time to run it well and keep the annoying and ever-pervasive negative element from ruining it all for everyone else.


I recall when Danny Granger went to New Mexico, I used to go over and check on the New Mexico message board. Their main board (Rivals/New Mexico known as "Loboland.com") was incredibly active and one of the top sites anywhere, and had been for a long time. Schools with big football and basketball programs can often have numbers like 1000-2000 people online simultaneously, and this Rivals New Mexico site was one of them.....
But very gradually, with the turmoil that repeatedly happened at New Mexico, then the grumbling about Ritchie McKay, then his firing...all the best fans simply left the site because nobody stopped the bitchers and moaners from squatting all over every single thread on every forum.

So - what's left?? Go check for yourself...
a once outstanding, extremely active message board is a total wasteland....empty...
I literally watched (and checked in to the board) over a span of just a year or so at the end of the McKay era when the board simply died as a result of a few BAD posters with an agenda and a few self-aggrandizing idiots whose every post was so negative that nobody could stand to even go there any more (sound familiar, because it's also happening somewhere that's a lot closer than New Mexico).
Once the board was so obviously DOA, then those who killed it felt the desperation to try to revive it by posting even more and more just so they could convince themselves that the board was still active and that maybe someone would care.
But alas - nobody cared because nobody who actually loved or followed their team would ever want to venture into that cesspool of negativity.

Like I said...check this site out....
http://newmexico.rivals.com/forum.asp?fid=180
as I went there just now to check it and get the link, I was the ONLY person online the....the only one....

That's the MAIN basketball message board at New Mexico Rivals....
Only one post in the past two weeks, and only 3 threads this month...and LESS THAN a dozen since the end of the basketball season....FOUR MONTHS!!!
It's even funnier than that -- as the only thread in four months with has more than one response is the thread about the falling apart of the Big 12, and the whole thread (actually, just the meager 8 responses to the lead post) are almost all by fans of other teams anyway!

Suffice to say it was totally ruined and is dead as an end result of poor quality posters being allowed to run rampant and ruin it for everyone else...and as long as there's another board, an alternative, then all the GOOD fans went elsewhere. Sound familiar?? it should.




Some real college basketball items......

Nice comment by Will Egolf:
http://twitter.com/willFREEMAN21/status/20045883050



A premium column relates that a couple of the Peoria Irish players have been landing some offers...
-Lincoln's Jordan Nelson..
"offers from Quincy and Hillsdale, with interest from Illinois State, Western Michigan, Eastern Kentucky, Bradley, Hartford , Wisconsin Green Bay and Eastern Illinois"

-Hayden Hoerdemann..
"offers from Western Michigan, Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Wright State and Florida Gulf Coast and interest from Loyola, Wisconsin Green Bay, Illinois, Northwestern, and Harvard"



-Pitt just went on a summer exhibition tour to Ireland.
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=187822#post187822

In their first game they whalloped their Irish amateur opponent 99-54, although they only led by 11 at half, and won with their depth in the 2nd half..
One thing I found about this game was that Pitt's three, new incoming freshman were NOT eligible, since the new NCAA rules allow for incoming players to be eligible for preseason exhibition games only if their games are played on or after August 1st of the summer they are enrolling.
Thus, since the first game on this Irish tour was played on July 31, those three players (J.J. Moore, Aron Nwankwo and Cameron Wright) did not play BUT will be fully eligible to play in today's game (August 1st) and thereafter.



I will place this next bit in the file titled: "How come they couldn't see this coming?"
Does anyone recall CJ Giles? he's the top recruit from a few years ago that was arrested and suspended so many times at Kansas that even Bill Self reached the limit when he was jailed for beating up his 3rd or 4th girlfried, so Self sent the guy packing. He transferred to Oregon State where they were so desperate for talent that they overlooked that Giles kept getting arrested, until finally he got booted there, too.
He tried to make it in the NBA, but in the end wasn't good enough or nobody there was dumb enough to take another chance with the guy.
Now he's in the Phillipino pro basketball league, and guess what........
he didn't last long....he's been booted again....
sent packing for his behavior (fights, booze, drugs, etc..) - despite the fact that he's probably the most talent player in the nation!
well, all I can think of to say to the Phillipine team is....
"you should have definitely known better!"
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=524130
http://firequinito.com/archives/235-The-character-assassination-of-CJ-Giles-by-the-lackey-Rick-Olivares.html




Then in my rare political rant....I will offer the reason only about 9% of Americans say they hold any respect at all for the US Congress and the people who serve (mostly themselves) there.
Yet another congress-person (congresswoman) is joining the list of unscrupulous, greedy, crooks who are being investigated with ethics trials...
http://www.aolnews.com/politics/article/ethics-panel-to-charge-california-rep-maxine-waters/19575959?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fpolitics%2Farticle%2Fethics-panel-to-charge-california-rep-maxine-waters%2F19575959

This time it's Maxine Waters, known mostly as a bitter woman who spends 99% of her time at the mike in Congress, scolding everyone else for their opinions and behavior.
It doesn't take a genius when you read about her, to realize she's sitting on the very House committee and panel that serves to make her husband and her own family quite wealthy with her unethical actions.
Maxine routinely gets re-elected with 80-95% of the relatively poor, ethnic minority people in her district voting for her...but then we all have seen how supposedly well informed people can vote jerks like Blago, Scott Cohen, Al Greene, and other nincompoops into office because they use their vote so incredibly stupidly (although that is their Constitutional right).
(BTW -- Waters is a St. Louis Vashon grad!!)

BTW -- try something fun....
google the terms "stupid" and "Maxine Waters" and see what you get....you get more hits and references than if you google "Rod Blagojevich" and "stupid", or "Rod Blagojevich" and "crook"!!
Maxine is one of the reasons we have the mess in the banking industry that we have.
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/blog/financial-decoder/is-maxine-waters-really-as-dumb-as-she-seems/1331/
http://jacksonville.com/interact/blog/pontevedraman/2009-02-15/maxine_waters_stupid_is_as_stupid_does_apology_to_forrest_gum
http://briansimpson.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/maxine-waters-is-an-idiot/

Some of Maxine Waters' well known and truly stupid opinions and statements are...
-that the US government grows, harvests, processes, distributes, and sells crack cocaine to poor and Black people in inner cities and slums just to ruin their lives and keep them from advancing themselves. In fact, Waters made such a big deal out of this claim that's as patently ridiculous and bogus as the Obama was born in Kenya or crop circle claims, back in the 90's - that just to shut her up the Clinton administration actually investigated the claim as if it had merit, only to prove it totally false.
-she also favors nationalizing the oil industry.
-she has frequently asked the taxpayers for money to fund things in her district that she wants to name after herself.
-she attempted to use her power to shut down newspapers and TV stations that are critical of her.
-then her famous quote after the enormous Los Angeles riots in 1992..arguing that the unlawful rioters had every right to kill people and destroy things...even comparing them to the founding fathers of our country who rebelled against tyranny and gave us a free country.

"I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion."