Some followups...and more news...

A couple recent articles on Marcellus Sommerville...
In an article on Southwestern Illinois College -- there's discussion on some top talent signed there, including Willie Kirksey -- who BU has followed...
but also a mention of Cellus...
"Kirksey is the latest in a high-profile group of players signed just before school was to begin. Other late signees were former Bradley University standout Marcellus Sommerville and former NJCAA national player of the Year in Devron Bostick."
http://www.bnd.com/2010/09/01/1383656/harrington-lands-big-time-prospect.html

In a French article..Cellus current team just landed one of the top young international kids..
http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/iledefrance/paris-levallois-se-regle-sans-ses-mondialistes-02-09-2010-1051474.php



BU's Rick Malnati is frontrunner for the open head coaching job at Evanston HS after Bobby Locke resigned to take the Chicago Brooks job.



Ex-BU commit Daniel West finally lands somewhere...
as most know, he had a scholarship offer to BU, then had academic issues and wouldn't qualify -- but took a chance and went to Tennessee - then his scholarship there was yanked out from under him when the issues arose again (plus some additional turmoil there under Bruce Pearl)...so he was sent packing. He landed at juco in Florida but reportedly still had serious academic problems...
When he finished up at Pensacola Junior College, he had precious few offers or recruiting interest...but a couple desperate schools pulled some strings and offered...but Daniel still had to take a bunch more summer courses to meet admission requirements...

Now he's finished a couple summer courses and finally Rhode Island appears to have found a way to qualify the credits he had at juco (he does have an associates degree but tons of un-transferable credits)...and will play in the A-10 with the Rhode Island Rams..
He still has 3 years to play but no redshirt year...
Of course, the headlines read -- "West Goes East"
http://jucojunction.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1121531



Osiris Eldridge's preseason games have begun...He played in one exhibition game vs. touring Drexel...Osiris' team beat Drexel 75-67

In a preseason pro 3-way round robin set of games -- Osiris scored 12 in the title game to help his team win in this preseason tune up -- a low scoring game 75-54...the game was described as very rough with at least one player going to the hospital for elbow surgery...
The other game had no stats but was 90-74 win.
http://www.ajansspor.com/basketbol/tbl/h/20100906/andre_smith_ameliyat_olacak.html

http://www.kskbasket.net/en/team-roster/osiris-eldridge.html
http://www.drexeldragons.com/sports/2010/8/18/MBB_0818104026.aspx?id=755

Osiris had 16 pts in the 90-74 win..
http://www.kskmania.com/karsiyakamiz-90-trabzonspor-74/

Osiris is now wearing #4... -- here are some pics

He is right on the blocks when his teammate gets injured. Andre Smith was their leading scorer and had to have surgery on his elbow. The player who causes the injury intentionally hooks Smith's elbow and tanks violently to hyper-extend it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mru8SGJnKkY

he's just to the right of the center of this picture
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/pamukkale_turnuvasi/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_222222.jpg

he's got the ball between the circles..
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/pamukkale_turnuvasi/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_555555.jpg

at far left
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/pamukkale_turnuvasi/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_666666.jpg


he's a blur on a 3pt attempt
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/pamukkale_turnuvasi/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_777777.jpg

playing vs. Drexel in exhibition
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_pict02273.jpg
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_pict02323.jpg

right in the center
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_10-11.png
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_2010-2011.png

http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/pamukkale_turnuvasi/p.ksk-bornovabld/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_dnzl3-1.jpg
http://kskbasket.net/v2/images/phocagallery/pamukkale_turnuvasi/p.ksk-bornovabld/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_dnzl3-3.jpg



The Illini have added a player...Kevin Berardini, a walk on from Chicago who played a year at Loyola Marymount.
With the departure of Jeff Jordan, Richard Semrau, and Stan Simpson, and an open scholarship not yet filled, Illinois had only 11 scholarship players and now a total of just 12 total on the roster.



Ex-Saint Louis Billiken Justin Jordan, who was booted in a housecleaning a year ago by Rick Majerus, then transferred to Ball State. But, alas, he's flunking there and has been booted from Ball State also. Hey Jank -- Kellen Thornton's scholarship is open...
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100903/SPORTS2002/9030312/Transfer-Justin-Jordan-dismissed-from-Ball-State-basketball-team



Looks like Wichita State still needs 2 or maybe 3 games to complete their schedule...and they are even strongly considering getting D-II or D-III opponents rather than go on the road for a guarantee game!
http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2010/09/03/getting-closer-on-wsus-schedule/



Then just as I discussed class among fans in the last blog entry -- of course, as I expected, an ISU fan left a few comments (that have been deleted) showing exactly why I feel the way I do. Case closed.



I ran across a possible reason why Dave Reynolds hasn't made an entry in his blog in a year...
Could it be that there's an issue with the title, "Reynolds Rap"???
I have found that there are numerous such blogs with similar and even precisely the same title..
http://blogs.pjstar.com/reynolds/

Here's just a small sampling of the many blogs with the same or similar names..
there must be 100!!
http://www.multichannel.com/blog/Reynolds_Rap/index.php
http://rrap.blogspot.com/
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/item_oHDPhXEgwP4EuuMmeKTUCJ;jsessionid=D266E1ECC8A6E3699F1C4BB50D9B4962
http://brianreynolds.blogspot.com/

Of the other basketball related blogs locally..

KW's never covers any Bradley basketball topics - and the only time he even remotely references BU athletics is when he disses on the size and seating capacity of the new arena or poo-poos the idea of hosting games there.
The Press Row blog has only a couple BU basketball mentions, and...
..they also have a "Preps Plus" blog, and this is actually the MOST active blog they have and it's got several contributors...although it has little to do with Bradley..but it might be their best blog.
http://blogs.pjstar.com/prepsplus/

Note the few recent entries (by Greg Stewart) about the car accident involving several of the Manual athletes...interesting......

The accident hurt a few of the Manual kids...
the first report was this one in the "Preps Plus" blog...
http://blogs.pjstar.com/prepsplus/2010/08/31/tragedy-averted-at-manual/

It says the Manual kids were coming back home - all in the same car -- from a roller skating rink, and had a rollover accident...(after 3AM)!!
Then 3 days later he gives an update...
http://blogs.pjstar.com/prepsplus/2010/09/02/details-on-manual-accident/

and says...
"no serious injuries for five Manual athletes who
were involved in an auto accident Aug. 29.

The ISP responded to an emergency call at 3:13 a.m.
last Saturday for a single-vehicle accident which
occured on Illinois Route 29 near Sink City Road.
Manual senior Brandon Watson and four others were
returning to Peoria from Chillicothe when the rear,
passenger-side tire on Watson’s vehicle blew out.
According to the report, the 2002 Ford Explorer rolled
over and ended up in the ditch on the left side of the
road..."

But I am puzzled....I actually have numerous questions, but probably there's no way to get the answers....but why doesn't the reporter ask or find answers to these quesitons?

--first where is "Sink City Road"??
There is no such thing anywhere in all the universe.....I dare you, just google it and try to find such an entity.
I even checked a map and there is no such road anywhere....along Rt. 29 or between Chillicothe and Manual.

But I think I know what this might be.....
they were at a roller rink, and there is a roller rink near the Cat plant by Chilli that kids hang out all the time, and maybe this is actually supposed to be some road that has to do with the Rink (not "Sink")?"

Anyway --since Stokes and Roddy are going to be juniors, surely they are only 16 or 17 max -- and isn't there a law saying a kid can't drive with more than one other under-18 un-related passenger...least of all at 3AM....but then, maybe parents follow different rules nowadays...

And, as usual, all these things always happen at 2AM or 3AM!! No roller rink stays open 'til 3AM, they generally close at 10PM or 11PM..
so there's a whole lot of hours left unaccounted for....
I don't expect we'd see a big discussion about this but...
..had this been Daniel Ruffin or Taylor Brown -- you'd have to expect ten different local reporters and sports editors sure would be asking those questions!!!

One more report...
Class of 2012 Jacoby Roddy and Kiki Stokes took an unofficial visit to Eastern Michigan over the weekend according to Ill. Wolves coach Mike Mullins.
Stokes will also visit Southern Illinois this coming weekend.