More impermissible benefits scandals, and some Valley news...

I saw where someone compared the current Ohio State impermissible benefits scandal to what happened at BU...whoa...this is really a stretch......
You gotta be completely blind to see any similarities......

First-- if a school is allowed to get away with with their kids getting $$ and benefiting from their status as "amateur athletes", then they DO gain an advantage since they can use that as a recruiting tool...
Clearly if a kid can make several thousand extra dollars at Ohio State that he wasn't allowed to make at Purdue, that's an extra benefit that is enticing!
So you gotta police this stuff.

Now -- here's where the comparison to the Star Trucking thing falls completely apart --
At Bradley NOBODY knew about the overpay from Star -- NOBODY!!
Even the final NCAA ruling clearly granted that Bradley had no way of knowing about it and it was unintended and inadvertent...

But just read the articles about what was going on at Ohio State...even the players themselves had been tweeting for months about selling their autographs for tattoos, and those couple Kansas State bloggers I cited had written that everyone on campus knew about the players getting free things at local stores...EVERYONE, for years!!!

So this is the MAIN difference...

--Bradley does everything they can to keep the program clean and still gets nailed for something they had NO control over and NO knowledge of.
Then NCAA calls it a MAJOR violation & hits BU HARD with sanctions!

--Places like Kansas State & Ohio State let their players violate rules endlessly until the media & bloggers call them into account, and then -- ONLY THEN -- even tho the school fails to take any action, and finally to stop the media circus and embarrassment, the NCAA steps in with a paltry penalty...calling it a minor or secondary violation and assessing penalties that are comical by comparison!!


One last thing -- lots of opinions out there that we should let the kids have the money or pay them...poor little college athletes are getting none of the $$ they generate!
BUT -- it IS and it ALWAYS HAS BEEN that college sports are defined as amateur...
and that carries special rules and definitions...kinda the same all the way back to Jim Thorpe..
The athletes are free to go play pro sports, but they CHOOSE and elect to play amateur sports and they DO sign specific agreements NOT to take $$ and break the rules. In return they get the treasured opportunity to do what only a fraction of college or high school kids only dream of...they get a free scholarship for 4 years (generally) and the chance to to play ball.....they agreed to it -- so these violations are a clear cut violation of their word and their agreement.



Hersey Hawkins' oldest son Brandon Hawkins is back in D-I...
Brandon Hawkins is now a junior at Portland State after a stint at Fresno City College, he is redshirting this season.
http://www.goviks.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=428&path=mbball



Drake running up the score & padding stats??
And the game was billed as "Dollar Day", all tickets were $1, and yet they still drew only a few more than 3000!!!
I know Drake's got some ugly losses, and maybe they were trying to make up for it..but those numbers looked too suspicious --
Chicago State is bad and they had just been blown out at Iowa State Tuesday by 50...... so I had to check on some details & stats..

Rice had a nice game but he did play a team high 33 minutes in a terribly lopsided game, and took more shots and more 3-pt attempts than anyone on Drake.

In their own story on their web site they boast about how many 3-pointers they nailed..and how this is their biggest win since they whupped up on Waldorf in 2006...

The play-by-play shows Drake had a 30+ point lead even well before the 10 minute mark -- yet still chose to play much of those final 10 minutes with starters....Van Deest, Rice, Alexander, etc..

Even in the final 5-6 minutes of the game, when the score was a lopsided 92-49...
Rice was still launching 3's...

He was finally taken out, when he hit a 3-pointer, then got a steal, and launched yet another 3-pt attempt SIX seconds into the new possession...then fouled 8 seconds later.


Evansville's Colt Ryan played 37 minutes yesterday in a blowout..and he got to the FT line 23 times..as many times as the entire Norfolk State team!


Two other games of interest...
Northern Iowa won again and beat Mountain West's New Mexico 66-60.
Ahelegbe was only 2-13 and 0-3 from 3-pt. -- 4 pts.

Indiana loses again 78-69 to Colorado...Verdell Jones had 8 pts, Matt Roth had 3 pts, Maurice Creek continues to struggle and is only a shadow of what he was before his knee injury.
Creek hasn't scored double digits since Savannah State 6 games ago, and yesterday he had no rebounds, no assists.
Fans are really starting to bash the head coach...
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=170&f=2353&t=6927380




Here's a guy trying to redefine mid-major..as if it needs a precise, scientific definition...
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/blog?name=ncbexperts&id=5938515&addata=2009_insdr_mod_ncb_xxx_xxx&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2fblog%3fname%3dncbexperts%26id%3d5938515%26addata%3d2009_insdr_mod_ncb_xxx_xxx


The recruitment of Renardo Sydney to Mississippi State is gaining them unexpected headlines...
He had already been suspended once this season for "behavior detrimental to the team" and sat out the entire year last year for NCAA issues..
This kid & his family have been trouble from the start...classic well-traveled, several high schools, and family asking for favors and money right from the start.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5953513



Now with all the really soft and easy penalties the NCAA has handed down on illegal benefits...Cam Newton getting a complete pass and the Ohio State players allowed to play...
there's a new rumble that Kentucky's Enes Kanter will also get a ruling after Christmas allowing him to play despite taking 4100,000 in payments from Euro professional teams.



Here's yet another sad part of the OJ Mayo tale -- a story that's been a mess since we first heard the kid's name...
The father of OJ Mayo is now charged with attempting to kill a police officer, but when searched, his car had marijuana and crack cocaine...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5951619&campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines



And to put an end to the silly rant that some of the top women's basketball players could maybe play with men...yeah -- right, and I can maybe get a date with Angelina Jolie...dream on...
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2009/12/women-in-nba.html



Did you see this -- people think they are soooo sick, then when they are given a placebo -- and even TOLD that the medicine they're getting is phony and has NO EFFECT...
they still get better!!!
Can their be any better proof that a LARGE majority of all the ills people whine about are totally in their heads!!
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/placebos-work-deception-study/story?id=12462093

Actually -- if the fake placebo pill doesn't help these patients...then they ought to start doing this form of therapy -- seems to make a lot of them feel better!!
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/12/22/vaginal-steaming-just-bunch-hot-air/
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/12/korean_vaginal_steam_bath.php