Congrats to Remy Abell....and more news...

Click here to see Remy

I have learned a few additional things about new BU commit Remy Abell...
of course he's a great high school athlete and basketball player...but he's also a good student and comes from a great family.

The top writer in Kentucky who sees all the kids and all the talent, ranked Remy as 2nd best in the state, behind only Chane Behanan who is getting offers from Louisville and Calipari's Kentucky.
http://jodydemling.courier-journal.com/2010/06/class-of-2011-rankings.html

He was beginning to get a new offer every couple weeks...
UTEP offered in August.
http://jodydemling.courier-journal.com/2010/08/woods-lands-offer-from-butler.html

Here are some links from Remy's AAU site..
http://shiningstarsports.blogspot.com/2010/09/remy-abell.html
http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/?u=shiningstarsports&s=basketball&t=c
http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/default.asp?u=SHININGSTARSPORTS&t=c&s=basketball&p=profile&playerID=108529

Note in that last link his FG shooting accuracy...
Those stats show games where Remy shot 6-7, 10-13, and 11-14...
His overall shooting accuracy (for a shooting guard!) is 65%!!!
He also hits over 75% on FTs, and frequently adds double digit rebounds, and gets 2.5 assists -- pretty good for a high scoring shooting guard!
BUT -- his turnover average of little more than 1 per game is astounding -- if any of you have seen AAU basketball!

News of Remy's verbal is getting east coast coverage...since he was talked about in context of Seton Hall and a couple other big schools out there...
http://blog.northstarbball.com/2010/09/16/sampson-to-st-johns-commitment-catchup.aspx



Ex-BU recruit John Wilkins tries on his uniform, although he won't be able to wear this particulr one until December 20, the first road game after his 5 game penalty ends. That's Tony Lewis' jersey in the background...
http://www.facebook.com/PrettyBoyFrenchie#!/photo.php?pid=3353232&id=1135278445&ref=fbx_album

BTW-- be warned that if you go to the official ISU athletic web site, they now have some really obnoxious pop-up ads...



Ex-BU recruit - a guy who's lucky he got out of Tennessee when he did - Daniel West has enrolled at Rhode Island just before the deadline -- he barely got his coursework completed...in order to get his junior college associates degree.
But isn't that a bit odd? He's had three years plus summer school to get his coursework done and in order....Even John Wilkins finished juco in less than a year and a half - while West struggled to get it done in twice that span!



Here's a column on the newly renovated SIU arena...
The one thing that highlight and talk about first an foremost is the better bathroom facilities!!
They spent more just to renovate their old arena then was spent building Bradley's spectaculr new one...
http://www.thesouthern.com/lifestyles/magazine/article_e2ab9e36-c2a8-11df-8408-001cc4c002e0.html

Meanwhile another arena is gonna cost $40 million to dry out and fix up..
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100917/NEWS02/9170347/ISU-estimates-cost-of-flood-damage-to-top-40-million



Update on ex-BU recruit Chasson Randle
http://www.illinihq.com/blogs/recruiting_wrap/2010/09/16/randles_father_illini_inhome_visit_went



Cheating is rampant in college sports -- here's even more proof...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=191527#post191527


And ps -- it's Florida Atlantic, not Florida International!



Now -- I know we are a little off sports topics here with this next comment...but again there is another local Peoria story that should make all Peorian's even more suspicious of our folks who represent us.
There's more recent news about Firefly Energy, Inc.......a business that millions of dollars of both corporate money and public funds were used to get them started.
I don't know about you, but I started a small business twice and I asked for no taxpayer money. And I never took cash from any sources but most certainly never took any money from any one then failed to pay it back....

But -- After MILLIONS of $$ of the people's money (more than $6 million) was used to buy a location and start the business, help it, support it, give guarantees for it, etc.......and then the business goes belly up...leaving behind even MORE MILLIONS of dollars in unpaid debt...
Guess who is on the hook for $2.5 million???

Yup, that's right -- once again it's the taxpayers who have to shell out $2,500,000.00 to bail out this failed idea that a whole lot of taxpayers never even knew their money was being used for in the first place, and some of the ones who knew also would have never wanted it because they could have easily seen this coming.
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x860727405/Council-OKs-final-Firefly-settlement

Gary Sandberg said....
"(Firefly) was the golden child of start-ups, backed by Caterpillar and private
sources, and it didn't work. We need to understand why and what we need
to do differently in the future."

(by the way, Gary Sandberg is a Bradley fan, goes to nearly all the home games and has season tickets right near where I sit and I enjoy talking with him..)

...now, I don't claim to know everything..but...
NO -- we DON'T need to "do differently" in the future...what we need is to NOT do at all!!
Why is it the city or county's job to help certain SELECT businesses get tons of taxpayer money - such that if they fail -- nobody running the business has a single penny to lose?
In fact -- how do we know that just maybe some of the $ Millions lost aren't currently sitting in someone's pocket?? How come taxpayers are given NO accounting of where their money went other than...
"(Firefly) was the golden child of start-ups, backed by Caterpillar and private sources, and it didn't work."

It "didn't work"????? really -- that's an understatement!! It took many millions of other people's dollars, was run and managed poorly, then folded leaving even more than $2.5 million in additional debt -- and all Gary can say is oooops, it didn't work??
...and isn't it a little dishonest for Sandberg to hint that only Cat and "private sources" were at risk here -- conveniently leaving off the fact that taxpayers are also heavily in the tank.
And I kinda wonder why I seem to be the only person who even notices all the millions being taken from the people for this comedy of business flops?
Do Peorian's like getting robbed? They seem quite content just laying back and letting the corporate big wigs and politicans rob them, then hand them a bill for the service of robbing them!

Wow -- how refreshing that the PJS saw fit to print the precise words of the Peoria attorney involved in this case!!!
"David Cover, a Peoria attorney who represents Firefly International Energy,
said neither the city nor county was wise to commit to the original Firefly
project."
Not that the newspaper is doing a thing to expose the really suspicious and negligent crap that all went on when this was unfolding...
I even wrote about this last year on the BradleyFans board because I saw this coming -- but I guess people in Peoria mostly have enough dough in their pockets that they seem not to care or miss it when the city and county government snatches it and gives it to nincompoops who can't or don't know how to run businesses successfully.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15114


so -- memo to Gary Sandberg and the rest of the elected people who are spending everyone's money...
--listen to sound advice, and use the taxpayers' money for things that help the taxpayers, not shaky PRIVATE ventures in a bad economy that are HUGE and costly risks (only to us, not to the private citizens getting free backing by the taxpayer money) when they fail..

This was all a bad scam from the outset -- and you can bet that those sitting in the government positions
that did this and enabled it -- got something to line their pockets in return...this is crooked government at its finest.
Unfortunately people don't watch what their own elected officials are doing, and they vote based on who they like or who likes pet birds, or whatever!



--ps -- disclaimer -- I have no horse in this race and no hidden agenda in regards to this topic..in fact, I lost less money than most people in Central Illinois since I do not live in Peoria or Peoria County, but I do end up paying various taxes that go to their coffers.
I have only a desire to speak the truth where is seems nobody else is
and the desire to see peoples' hard earned money if it is going to be taken by the government - then it should be spent on things that benefit the people
not a very few insiders who were linked to this scam.....