MORE on BU's scrimmage, and some other funny stories...

The 2010-2011 college basketball season is underway -- and the intra-squad scrimmage was most fans' first chance to see this year's Bradley team. Unfortunately several minor injuries kept a few of the players inactive -- and I suspect they will be saved for when the games matter.

But check here to see a more thorough review of the Red-White scrimmage...
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2010/10/observations-from-red-white-game.html


Here's another blogger's views....
http://basketballbeerworld.blogspot.com/


And of course there's good coverage on BradleyFans.com...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16550


And good coverage on bubraves.com...
http://www.bradleybraves.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=205018058


And all the stats as provided by a very good stat crew Sunday night!
https://admin.xosn.com/pdf8/718848.pdf?SPSID=25972&SPID=1499&KEY=DKGUEKFKVUAHVEU.20101025013024&DB_ACCOUNT_TYPE=AGENT&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=3400


And even some reporting by Dave Reynolds...
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1273024036/Braves-scrubbing-away-the-rust


But -- don't look for anything at all on any other message boards, even one that ostensibly claims to be about Bradley sports...
as of this morning the only thread discussing it elsewhere had no replies and only about 30 views....but you can bet if something negative had happened it would have been a hotter topic...



Here's an interesting report on ISU basketball, and if you can believe what the reporter says, then it either documents an obvious NCAA violation...or it shows how faulty at math anyone from ISU is...

Here's the quote...
"NCAA Rules allow teams to practice prior to the formal start of the season for just two hours a week during the summer.
Jankovich said he and his coaches broke that down into five intense 40 minute-sessions to help get played prepped."
http://illinoisreporter.com/news/?p=593

Hmmm...earth to Jank or author Steve Robinson!!!!
Five sessions of 40 minutes each would be 200 minutes, way MORE than the 120 minutes that comprise two hours!
Two hours do NOT equal 200 minutes!!! And an hour is NOT 100 minutes.
BTW -- they fail to mention how the "boot camps" each of the past several years at ISU have been associated with guys' knees being torn up repeatedly and with players going out and getting drunk and getting DUI's.

BTW -- one comment Tim Jankovich says in that column is something that sounds very positive for Bradley!

Jank says...
"We’ll have our hands full, potentially, every night,” Jankovich concluded. “We’ll be plenty challenged.” He said it has been the pattern that older MVC teams have dominated the league in recent years. The biggest challenge, Jankovich said, will be to try to beat those more dominant teams. He is hoping to his troops will find a way to buck a trend that says old teams succeed while young teams struggle."

Here's just a look at who might just be the OLDER TEAMS this season...
Here's how many years of experience each MVC team has...I am only counting the number of years each Valley team's expected starting five have -- and I list both total years (incl. redshirt years) and years played ..(I will count juco years, too although BU has only one from Dodie while most other schools have way more and they really aren't as impressive in the count)
I am not expecting any freshmen to start but if they do it even moreso reduces how "old" or experienced any team is...

Bradley -------- 16 years total, 14 years playing
Creighton ------ 10 years total, 9 years playing
Drake ---------- 9 years total, 7 years playing
Evansville ----- 11 years total, 10 years playing
ISU ------------ 11 years total, 11 years playing
InSU ----------- 15 years total, 13 years playing
Missouri State - 15 years total, 13 years playing
Northern Iowa -- 15 years total, 13 years playing
SIU ------------ 10 years total, 9 years playing
Wichita State -- 11 years total, 10 years playing

..so Jank must be talking about Bradley!!



Here's an interesting list of the most efficient players in college basketball...
there's a couple Valley players and a whole lot of other familiar names on the list including a lot of other mid-major players!
http://www.onlinesportsfanatic.com/?p=3214



Ex-Saluki Jamaal Tatum is currently with a German pro team but he does a blog on this site...check it out...but he's a little behind on his blogging...
http://www.probasketballoverseas.com/?blog=143&res=team


Yet another conference is sick and tired of a few of its members pulling an Illinois State or pulling a Jank and scheduling so soft and to be laughable.
The Sun Belt isn't a strong conference, but a few of their members like Western Kentucky and FAU have been scheduling tougher and they don't like being dragged down by their conference mates.

This article points out that once before they imposed these kinds of rules and guess what??
IT WORKED...they improved almost all the way up to the Top 10 conferences...
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5724780



And for your laugh of the day, someone sent me this...
it's a guy on the ISU Redbird board claiming he's in the know about things at BU, and that Andrew Warren may not even be a starter this year for BU!
Then another guy who likes to talk as if he knows everything lines up right behind saying he believes it...
Hmm.....and I have to think these guys must have also pegged Osiris Eldridge as coming off the bench last year when he was a senior at ISU, right??
http://www.redbirdfan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=332&start=4



Everyone recall that Rivals/Yahoo has already done one MVC Preview...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16363

but now, a different Rivals writer does another MVC Preview...and it differs a little bit...

The first preview had Creighton at #2 and MSU at #3 in the order of finish...but this new guy has those two switched...
overall -- the new preview has some decent info...
http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1142984