Some Valley news items for Wednesday...

Former Valley commit Josh Tabb, who was booted at Tennessee, has had a busy week. He had been shopping around for a program that would take him after all his baggage and troubles that included numerous disciplinary suspensions and drug test violations...
and he was about the transfer and enroll at SEMO figuring the NCAA would allow him the eligibility to do so...but if he were forced to sit out another entire year due to the transfer -- then his clock would expire and he'd run out of eligiilty. So wherever he goes, he'd have to be deemed eligible right away.

But alas, the NCAA ruled and would NOT allow Tabb immediate D-I eligibility...
so he had to get enrolled instantly elsewhere in order to be eligible this season anywhere, so he has surfaced at Northern Kentucky University, a D-II school near Cincinnati.
Another funny part of the story -- as soon as SEMO learned they couldn't give a scholarship to Tabb, the SEMO head coach immediately gave the available scholarship to his own son, a previous walk-on who hadn't played a minute yet.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100831/SPT01/308310093/1088/SPT/NKU-adds-another-Division-I-transfer
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1660598.html

In the end Tabb lands at Northern Kentucky -- again blowing away those claims that he really wanted to leave Tennessee to be closer to home and to ailing family members...
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/67007212.html



Nice story and picture of Dyricus Simms-Edwards and his work visiting a seriously ill Washington HS basketball player at the hospital to cheer him up.
Nice job DSE!! We are proud of you.....can't give a link, but it's on the front page of the sports section! Coach Les makes reference to it...
http://twitter.com/CoachJimLes/status/22671611050



Interesting discussion on how bad ISU's schedule is again this year...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16245

and the term used by this poster is "pathetic"...
but pathetic kinda implies sad because of unfortunate circumstances, kinda like a sick puppy is pitiful and pathetic...

But ISU deserves no pity...none...they are scheduling like this BY DESIGN -- as if the only motivation is for Coach Jank to get to 900 wins fatser than Bobby Knight.
ISU has scheduled like this for years....
Three years and running that they're the only Valley school that doesn't meet a single BCS school...four years and running that their schedule is the worst and most embarrassing in the Valley...

Nope -- this isn't pitiful or pathetic...it's just horrid and embarrassing -- serving their own purpose to rack up wins at the expense of the rest of the Valley ---
Their cupcake schedule was the main reason Wichita State failed to get consideration of an at-large bid last year and the main reason the Valley isn't getting more than one bid any longer, and the main reason the League wants to institute rules to penalize teams with really bad non-conference schedules..
ISU and Coach Jank -- you should be ashamed...but then I don't need to say this, your own fan base it saying it ten times louder than I ever could......



One more nail in the coffin about the "Private School Multiplier" argument...did it work??
Did making the private schools play up a class against bigger stronger schools "level the playing field" in Illinois??
Well -- you decide...but I knew it wouldn't make any difference....it would only make different public schools mad when they lose to the better private schools in various sports that the private schools simply do better!!

Here's the proof.......
"According to research...30.7 percent of first- or second-place state finishers in the multiplier era are from private schools. In the five years that preceded the multiplier, the percentage was 25.5"
http://blogs.pjstar.com/prepsplus/2010/08/31/private-school-state-titles-multiply/

In other words..the multiplier did NOT in any way do a single thing to reduce the private schools' chances of getting to the title games or winning the titles in various sports.
The multiplier is a failure as most intelligent people knew all along. It is based on the premise that the reason private schools win is because they are cheating or recruiting. Of course that argument is loony and in reality the private schools in large part simply commit to doing a better job and don't have the state's bureaucracy......but in the vein of all stupid bureauocratic efforts and logic...just wait & see that the public schools' response and IHSA's response to this data will be..."well if it didn't work, then we have to do it more and harder..impose a BIGGER multiplier!!" In fact the writer of this article says exactly that...let's do even MORE of what clearly DID NOT WORK!!

Now who was it that said...
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."



Northwestern University wins their first game on their Italian tour...
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=404643



Here's a repeat of a couple comments I made earlier -- just for clarification. I am not an official spokesman nor top expert on BU's new facility -- but I have seen it and been in it several times and have these thoughts......

Every year we have numerous games that fall when the students are GONE and the crowds are small....so what is the difference if we play those games at the Civic Center or on campus?
If there's going to be a small, quiet, and disinterested crowd -- then move the game to where it suddenly becomes a LOUD, energetic, and upbeat home crowd??

Some of those games @ Carver we only draw 8000, but those are tickets sold (as part of the season package) and anyone with eyes can see that maybe 2000-3000 at some games are empty seats...meaning we really only put about 5000 butts in seats and Bradley loses money by the time the fee paid to the city of Peoria for the use of the huge Civic Center.
I trust our folks at BU to find the best solution -- they've been doing it since 1903 and I have been enjoying BU basketball for over 40 years.

Simple business decision.....I believe it boils down to this simple choice...

A) a game at the Civic Center where announced attendance is 8000,
but the real number is way less and BU loses $25,000 after fees are paid...
in the process disappointing a bunch of students and even a few fans
who could far more easily attend the games on campus...

B) the exact same game moved to the new on-campus arena where we
pack the place with 4500 excited fans, but generate a profit for the university
of close to $100,000..in the process disappointing maybe a dozen fans who
are ticked that we moved the game to the campus..
There'll always be a few who poo-poo whatever move you make, but if you can gain
$100K instead of losing $25K, I think this choice is a no-brainer.

For those who are already grumbling even before anything is even set in stone....just because you are season ticket holders doesn't mean every single choice the University makes will center on you...
but if you'd calm down and take a good look at what ALL season ticket holders at Bradley already DO get and what they WILL get...you'd see this......

That what we're talking here involves quite possibly only 1 or 2 games/exhibitions per year moved to the on-campus arena...or maybe a couple more if we do the CBI, or whatever..

Some of the arguments makes it sound like the nasty BU people are taking everything off your plate and leaving only crumbs...
What I contend is that they are simply moving the crumbs off your plate and leaving everything else for you to enjoy -- PLUS if you want the crumbs too, just come on over and get them...



And FWIW -- just a simple timetable of events....now that Al Biancalana is back in the news....

4/28/05 - Al B resigns and leaves Bradley - it was no secret that he and Jim Les did not always see eye to eye, nor did Al B see eye to eye with anyone else on the staff in 2005, all of whom were brought in or hired long after he was hired by Jim Molinari. But he left of his own accord and has never spoken to the reasons he left, other than when he was hired at York, he said he left because he had wanted to be a head coach again.
Now that he's quitting his head coaching job to take another assistant coaching job, then you can decide on how honest his answer was.
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=130728&SPID=1498&SPSID=25965

6/02/05 - Chuck Buescher is hired to fill the opening on the coaching staff to the praise of virtually everyone
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=19329&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=121913

6/28/05 - NCAA calls BU, notifies them of impending investigation, and sets up a trip to campus by NCAA field investigators to review some "problems" and wanting to check some facts regarding certain anonymous allegations made by individuals about irregularities at BU.

7/28/05 - NCAA finds nothing whatsoever to substantiate any of the anonymous allegations but does stumble on volunteered information of inadvertent overpay in summer of 2005 pay records for two Bradley players. No booster or anyone with any connection to Bradley was directly responsible for the overpays, and even the NCAA finds the overpays to be "inadvertent".

9/28/05 - NCAA after digging much of the rest of the summer, notifies BU of plans to assess penalties, BU given a chance to respond but NCAA won't consider anything else and proceeds to levy penalties that were quite surprising and severe given how minor and trivial some of the charges were such as a coach ONE TIME telling a player "good work", during a summer period when "coaching" was not allowed.

10/28/05 - Bradley holds open exhibition Red-White, then 5 days later exhibition game vs. (then D-II) SIUE with POB playing.

11/19/05 - BU opens regular season with POB & WF unable to play due to NCAA sanctions - the NCAA making a specific point of hammering BU extra for letting POB play in the exhibitions......the rest is well known....
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=19329&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=214167
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=19329&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=217156
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=19329&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=217362



Personally, and the facts uphold me on this, I have undying love, affection, and respect for any and every Bradley head coach and assistant coach that has ever set foot on the Hilltop......
I have followed and even stayed in contact with almost all of the ones I have known or met....guys like Versace, Barone, Molinari, Barber, etc.....
The exception are the few who have done disservice to Bradley after they left like Duane Broussard, Ritchie McKay - who chose to serve themselves rather than be honest or fair...

But some things just don't add up...and I have heard and observed other evidence as well..........but will let each individual decide for himself.

The NCAA does not reveal who were those that called them with "anonymous" charges that Bradley was cheating...but as you might guess, the folks at BU insisted that NCAA owed them some kind of explanation of what's going on and why are they digging at BU?? But none of that info was ever made public leaving one to wonder what exactly happened...
Why was BU being penalized for things that happened between March of 2005 and July of 2005??

This is all old news now and BU ended up doing pretty well in the grand scheme of things in 2005-2006, finishing in the Sweet Sixteen, so in some sense it's all water over the dam...but.....it's interesting....


Last thought...never trust the dog to watch over your lunch...