BU's upcoming games, and lots more, followups, vulgar chants, and Carlton Fay getting posterized!

Here's just a couple thoughts on each of Bradley next upcoming games......

Tues. Nov. 16 - NIU --
NIU's fan base for basketball is drying up....they need to get a winner soon. Unfortunately things didn't start so well this year either as NIU dropped their opener at home by 19 points to Northwestern, turning the ball over a lot.
Observers said NIU did not look good and were chaotic at times, even though they shot fairly well.
One comment from the NIU radio announcers was...
"Long year ahead, huh?..That was not fun."
http://northwestern.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=58&tid=150225748&mid=150225748&sid=901&style=2


Wed. Nov. 17 - Loyola Marymount
The Loyola Marymount Lions were supposed to be surprisingly good, even getting votes for Top 25!
But in their opener at home they lost to Morgan State!!!
they snapped back yesterday, though, but they played a hideous NAIA team, La Sierra University and won 100-62. their best player is Drew Viney (20.5 ppg), but they have a guy on their team named Ashley...a Brit named Ashley Hamilton -- he sounds like an actor!!
http://www.lmulions.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/hamilton_ashley00.html


Sat. Nov. 20 - USC in Springfield, MA
USC is trying to recover from all the scandals and player losses.
They won their opener beating the same UC-Irvine team that Illinois beat.
Final score USC 63 - UCI 49...
Everyone had trouble scoring and neither team hit double figures until nearly 10 minutes were played.
But USC is gonna be tired too, as they play again today vs. Santa Clara, then Wednesday vs. Rider, then Saturday against us.
Their scoring leader was Nikola Vucevic with 19 points & 14 rebs...
Vucevic from Montenegro is yet another guy who was docked 8 games to start the 2008-2009 season due to his play on European professional teams, and in USC's two exhibition games that season, he was of course held out of BOTH of them as he was ineligible. he did play in their intrasquad game though as that is just a practice -- and not subject to the same rules. Thus I am convinced, that even if they don't get caught, that ISU violated the NCAA rules by playing John Wilkins in their exhibition game.

Sun. Nov. 21 - TCU in Springfield, MA
At TCU -- all their fans are focused on football, and their FB team is ranked in the top four in the nation!
Thus far -- TCU basketball won an exhibition against Rogers State 70-53,
then won their first game 86-62 against Jackson State - also a future BU opponent.
Jackson State was led by one-time Top 30 recruit Jenniro Bush (14 pts), while TCU got 20 pts from Ronnie Moss. They also have two Serbs, a Croat, and two Lithuanians on their roster.
The two who were hit by the same NCAA professionalism penalty, Gacesa & Bavcevic, both sat out games and also did NOT play their exhibitions.
They also have Andre Clark from John A. Logan juco..



The topic of the BU win over Illinois last year sure seemed to come up often this past weekend when SIU played Illinois..
Demetri McCamey & Bruce Weber both dissed a bit on BU saying repeatedly that the only reason BU beat Illinois last year was because the Illini failed to take the game seriously and were not prepared.....

Here's McCamey's quote-

"Demetri McCamey- We came in prepared because this was one of those games like Bradley or Utah last year. We weren't going to overlook them knowing about coach Lowery and that he was under Weber's system. It was emotional and added something for coach so he could go out to dinner and be able to brag. "



Here's the Jucojunction Top 150 -- in past years very few of the top juco kids ever really make much of an impact....but the Shockers have a top 10 guy, and 3 of the Top 10 and 5 of the Top 20 are Illinois kids.
Michael Ochereobia is not listed since nobody who does Jucojunction knew anything about him.

Ex-ISU Redbird Jeremy Robinson is #51, ex-Saluki Ryan Hare is #140, ex-BU recruit Darius Smith is #87.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/jucojunction/basketball/recruiting/rankings/rank-2769;_ylt=An32wQgTUuaceQbgIW2JfRVrWpB4



Here's a really bad blog -- use it if you like..but it's called Brave Fan...
This writer has a bunch of errors including the very first line...
"Bradley starts their 2010-2011 season on November 16 in Peoria against Northern Illinois"

..he must just be looking at the realtimerpi site which doesn't list D-II games so he knew nothing of last Friday's regular season opener!
And...how can the guy make the mistake of listing DSE as an incoming freshman along with Prosser and Lemon??
http://bravefan.com/bradley-basketball/season-preview/2010-2011-season-preview-bradley



Champaign's Verdell Jones had a career game vs. Wright State -- 27 pts..
btw-- Matt Roth was in street clothes and did not dress after a knee injury last week -- 2nd consecutive game missed...he's really had some bad breaks...
One Hoosier fan's twitter remarked that he was walking with a limp and had an extension knee brace on...while attending a Hoosier women's basketball game..
Just more bad breaks for MR who is now in his 3rd year with a rebuilding IU team -- having played 33 games total in that span, and missing 31 games during the same span -- and scoring a total of 213 career points and hitting 57-154 on 3-pointers, 37.0% over his career -- roughly equal so far to Sam Maniscalco's career pct. and quite a bit under what Dodie Dunson and Andrew Warren have done thus far in their careers.

One tidbit -- had it not been for that one game against Ohio State when Matt was a freshman and they killed Indiana with a tight zone that gave Roth every open shot he wanted, then with that one 9-11 day, Matt's career 3-pt shooting drops to 48-143, 33%.
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/111410aaa.html



Looks like Bruce Weber and his "assistant coaches" disagree on some things...
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/illini/article_ec0e2a30-efbb-11df-be41-0017a4a78c22.html



Does anyone else think this is a bad idea...here's the setup for the eastern end of the football field in next week's game at Wrigley Field Illinois vs. Northwestern.
There is zero room beyond the end zone...this might prove to be a bad idea...
http://www.illinoisloyalty.com/i/n/wrigley-field-illinois-northwestern-football.jpg



Here's a great story -- Kentucky's AD wants the open Kansas Athletic Director position....and he cites the Kentucky programs' integrity? -- Really -- going after shady recruits and and slimy head coaches is integrity??
We all know that integrity is not really the issue -- it's knowing how to win and how to cheat and get away with it that will determone who Kansas hires!
-- although the exiting AD Lew Perkins was hauling down a salary of $4.4 million and wasn't exact the most integrity-filled person around with all the scandals he had there.... the latest of which is the ticket selling scandal that's forcing Perkins out at Kansas......$4.4 million? Lew was worth that?
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/kentuckys-barnhart-finalist-for-kansas-ad-job-29240



Then speaking of sleaze -- you have to mention Bruce Pearl...
it's being said that Tennessee has received their letter from NCAA detailing their violations. And that there will reportedly be a press conference today or soon....

BUT-- note this -- in a radio comment the AD says that they'd retain Pearl even if he's suspended for a year!
That is amazing -- even if Pearl is suspended for A YEAR by NCAA penalties, they'd keep him and let someone else be the interim guy for a year -- hard to believe!
Makes you wonder how Pearl casts such a spell on people that they love him despite his cheating, lying, and horribly unethical behavior that ranks him right there with Dave Bliss on the sleaze quotient.
http://www.volnation.com/forum/tennessee-vols-basketball/114987-hamilton-says-pearl-will-retained-even.html



Here's a picture of the dunk by Brandon Paul with Carlton Fay posterized
http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/922/1020631.jpg

here's the view from the other side...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/image.php?u=2631&dateline=1289720052



I read a whole lot about Indiana's new student chants that were quite the embarrassment to the storied tradition of IU basketball...
IU students and the band organized "you suck" chants that the band plays music for as well as other chants that end with "F--- you"...
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=170&f=2353&t=6711284

It was widely reported that they repeatedly chanted suck and "F" word and lots of people on the message boards were upset & embarrassed..
College basketball doesn't need this and least of all a prestigious program like Indiana!!
http://indiana.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=731&tid=150361346&mid=150361346&sid=942&style=2

They likened this kind of classless and embarrassing behavior to the time the Indiana fan base rushed the court last year after IU beat Minnesota in a regular season Big Ten game!



More cuts at Iowa -- academic programs now being deep-sixed...money is a growing problem over there...
http://omaha.com/article/20101114/NEWS01/711159955/942#u-of-i-cuts-six-graduate-programs



And here's an odd tale -- someone appears to have made a very bad decision...

At Nebraska (soon to be a Big Ten school) they posted private scholarship and financial info on their web site, including some embarrassing and sensitive financial and personal info off the financial forms submitted to the university by applicants and students. Many students were completely surprised and upset that their private financial info was posted openly on the web!!!
http://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_bda00296-f05f-11df-8461-001cc4c002e0.html
http://omaha.com/article/20101115/NEWS01/711159909/1009#nu-student-financial-info-posted




Here's an update on ex-BU recruit Scott Suggs who Illinois, Saint Louis, and Bradley all wanted desperately...
He would have been a starter from day 1 at Illinois or BU but he's still just a sub in his junior year at Washington....

In his first two seasons at Washington -- he's averaging only a little over 3 ppg, less than 1 rpg and 0.4 apg..
He's now a junior so you'd think he finally will be getting some PT - but...he's still a deep sub...even tho when he does get on the floor -- he plays well.....
He got only 17 minutes in Washington's blowout win over McNeese State and scored 11 pts..



Another followup...The revenge (sort-of) of Jordan Dykstra..
..who as just a middle schooler was offered and accepted scholarship from Iowa State/Greg McDermott ....while still in 8th grade
...he was supposed to grow to 7-ft....but his game never developed as McDermott thought -- so the scholarship offer was yanked.
http://www.gocyclones.com/news.php?ID=1583

"Parted ways" is code-speak for he got his scholarship offer Janked.
But he did get a chance this weekend to take it out on Iowa as his current team, South Dakota State, beat the Hawkeyes...
Jordan didn't exact star in this game but I am sure he liked the outcome...Jordan had 5 pts on 2-6 with SDSU.



Here's a followup on a kid who got a big writeup when he was an 8th grader..
They made him sound like he was the next LeBron James...
http://www.startribune.com/sports/preps/46505142.html?elr=KArksc8P:Pc:U0ckkD:aEyKUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU


Now he's headed into his sophomore year and getting just midmajor looks, including a couple Valley schools....he averaged just 8 ppg as a freshman sub on his high school team...
http://www.gopherhole.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1204



Now in our non-sports segment.......

I am resurrecting the discussion on how government spends the taxpayers' money -- and how often it just ends up going right down the toilet...

Now, Governor Pat Quinn is lobbing gobs of state funds (more than $30 million) towards East Peoria to renovate the old empty Cat site there--
so it will benefit a handful of businesses that are getting to locate there.

Remember the Peoria Next people doling millions of dollars to the Firefly battery company that went under about as fast and as predictably as a lead weight -- costing Peoria taxpayers MILLIONS -- but never getting any decent explanation as to why they did this since it benefits just a few well connected people while the vast majority of taxpayers are on the hook for the lost cash!!

In an article in the PJ Star -- it talks about how construction of bridges and roads to funnel traffic into the middle of East Peoria will lead to a new area of shopping, banking, etc..
here's some older articles about the project..
http://www.pjstar.com/business/x1870177271/Quinn-lauds-EP-2010-project-during-groundbreaking
http://www.thegovmonitor.com/world_news/united_states/illinois-invests-26-million-to-redevelop-east-peoria-brownfield-site-38526.html

I don't dispute that the motive is good -- to create jobs and help the economy...
but is that really the government's job??

BTW -- just as a little civics reminder lesson -- let's see what is the Constitution's definition of what government is for...
".. to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.."
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

I don't see "helping out certain select local businesses written into the Constitution!
Government spending like this "provides" little or nothing for most Americans, and may only "promote the general Welfare" of the very few as we have seen time and again..

The only building projects the governments of our country have EVER gotten involved in for the first 150 years of our nation's existence were the building of government buildings such as the White House, capitol, etc...

But over the past 50-75 years, now we see the government getting involved endlessly in promoting building projects like this that only help a few and only for so long (remember the debate about the taxpayer $$ trying to bail out and help out the Northwoods Mall).
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1791270280/Peorias-empty-buildings-tell-story

Ultimately the government handouts and "BENEFITS" will have to end and let the free market determine itself...or else we will end up like this...
England is getting crushed under the weight of "benefits" and government giveaways that 1/3 of the nation live off and expect in perpetuity!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8127923/Benefits-culture-is-a-national-crisis-that-must-end-says-Iain-Duncan-Smith.html