Something to ponder

Major decisions up at Bradley don't just get done on a whim...and pretty much all decisions of any significant impact must be approved by Bradley's Board of Trustees.
Just do some digging and see who comprise that group...one is the father of a recent basketball player who played four years under Coach Jim Les.

The NEW Board of Trustees is headed (Chaired) by Mike McCord -- an amazingly great -- long time Bradley basketball supporter who is quite knowledgable in what's going on.
One recent past member of the Board who still carries a lot of influence around here was Coach Jim Les' BEST MAN at his wedding and the Godfather of his children and his lifelong best friend.
http://www.bradley.edu/pubs/UC2007-08pdfs/BOT.pdf

These are all very wise people, most are outstanding businessmen and women, and good judges of the right thing to do -- not prone to snap decisions or bad judgements.
I personally feel this group has served us very, very well.....from the founding of the University over 100 years ago through the era of Bradley Basketball, right up to now.......
I trust they will continue to lead Bradley as the GREAT institute that it is and the strong power among small, private Universities and great basketball schools with outstanding tradition.

I am also grateful for all the fine people over the years who have supported and donated to Bradley. Without all those great folks we'd probably still be playing in the Fieldhouse -- not to downplay how much I loved the Fieldhouse!!
Thanks to the strong and capable staff and leaders we have there, as well. They know how much the fans of Bradley love their team and players.

Go Braves -- make some real noise in the Missouri Valley Tournament!
We'll be there to support you!

Extreme Hypocrisy

I am sure we have all heard about the poor unionized government workers in Wisconsin...and how they have it so bad when they already have wages & benefits that are between 30% and 70% BETTER than comparable workers in similar jobs in the "private sector" who are not working for the government...
Add to that we all know what it's like to ask or expect any government worker to go an inch out of their way or stay a minute past clocking out time.....none ever will -- they mostly hate their jobs, liking only the pay and benefits...
Anyone ever had a pleasant experience talking to someone at the State department of revenue, drivers license bureau, etc...??? That's what I mean!

Nope -- it's not as if the states' unionized workers have laid down a track record of fine performance, yet they demand endless rights to benefits out of proportion to whet everyone else is getting.

BUT -- in step spokespeople at the Federal level...big name politicians such as senators, and even the President...who decry what the State of Wisconsin is doing and claim they HAVE to stand up for the workers' rights!!


BUT -- here's the hypocrisy...did you know that FEDERAL WORKERS do NOT have the rights to collective bargaining!!
http://www.620wtmj.com/shows/charliesykes/116808208.html

So if out President says he stands by the unions in Wisconsin HE IS AN EXTREME HYPOCRITE....because he isn't standing behind the workers under him in the Federal government.

Also - in a one sided ploy by the President to curtail the wages and rights of his own Federal workers....the President froze their wages without them being able to bargain for or against that move collectively!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101129/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_pay_freeze

So believe as you wish - but this whole thing is riddled with hypocrisy.
If I want to earn more I either work harder or more hours...
but some feel that the proper way to earn more is whine louder, go on strike, or "bargain" (or "threaten") to get better benefits!! I say nope -- you have made your own bed, now lie in it...you have created this bad economy with your laziness and now you are reaping the backlash!

BU's final home game vs. Drake, and more..

Just one correction form this morning's article that said Andrew Warren broke his ankle...

He did not break his ankle as stated here...
http://www.bradleyhoops.com/news/x1705414277/It-s-about-more-than-just-the-floor

Nice to see good coverage -- but regarding this comment from that article...
"That was the case as well with Warren, the Indianapolis native who sat out the 2008-09 season with a fractured ankle."

No -- Dave Reynolds got it wrong this time, but he has had it right previously.....
"Andrew Warren’s X-ray result Friday from the broken bone in his foot looked great...."
http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x2025181281/For-Bradley-basketball-different-is-good

Kirk Wessler also got it correct with this statement...just a couple months ago..
"Andrew is pain-free in his right foot, which was broken in September.
Former BU star Anthony Parker broke the same bone, the fifth metatarsal of his right foot"
http://www2.pjstar.com/index.php/wessler/article/go_easy_on_the_stripes_this_holiday/



Here's a story that's interesting but true....
..and it shows how incredibly irrational and misplaced some of the anti-JL sentiment is...
here's a comment I have heard a "Bradley fan" say on TWO DIFFERENT OCCASIONS this past week...
BOTH are season ticket holders and one is a fairly frequent person on the message boards...

I am 100% serious -- this was spoken in all sincerity and was not a joke...
it went something like this...
"now the worst thing that could possibly happen is that Bradley might win a
few games in St. Louis and then they'll decide to let Coach Les keep his job"


again -- I am absolutely 100% serious that this was said by two different fans who are season ticket holders...
so do you see the insanity here -- these people's intense disaffection for Jim Les is actually overriding any sense of affection for the team they claim is their own team....they are now quite openly rooting against their own team because they have allowed their true colors to show...
they are anti-JL first and pro-BU comes well behind that....

so... I offer that if someone has that kind of sentiment -- then they are NOT a fan of Bradley -- they might be something else -- they might be a fan of some good feeling they get when their home town team wins, or they might be a fan of some satisfaction when their team does well, but they are NOT Bradley fans..






Nothing like kicking a guy when he's down -- but here I go....

You know -- I don't deal with the press much but I have on occasions...and guess what's the very first question any and all reporters ask before they ever talk to you...

They ask your name and how to spell it...

They want to get it right...

So can someone explain to me why this insane a**hole that rules the people of Libya cannot decide on what his name is and how to spell it??

And don't give me any line about different languages, because we don't see this problem with many other people not even the Chinese...
and at least the jerk can be aware that he looks like a stupe when his name is different in every single account...

Qaddafi
Qadaffi
Qaddiffi
Gaddafi
Gadaffi
Kaddafi
Kadhafi
Khaddafi
Khadaffi
al-Ghadafi
etc.
etc.

and even
Muammar
Moammar
etc...

Can the guy just let us in on what's his name -- this is funnier than a sketch by Abbott and Costello...

But one thing even funnier are the late night jokes about the guy now...
he is not only a murderer and a loser, but he's the BUTT of so many jokes that his legacy now and for centuries to come will that of a bozo, ignoramus, egotistical hothead despot who was hated not only by his own people but by the people of every single nation on earth.

"he dresses like Lady Gaga.."

"I don't know who's loonier, Ghaddafi or Charlie Sheen.."

"Gaddafi's speech was carried by Comedy Central Network.."

This guy should go on tour with a stand-up routine...he'd probably get to host his own game show, too....
"Are You Smarter than a Libyan Dictator....who isn't even as smart as a 1st grader?"

Unhappiness brewing at Kentucky, IU Creaning more players off their roster?, and more..

OK -- just as predicted -- here it comes -- the Kentucky fan base is already fed up with John Calipari -- it didn't take long -- just one short part of one season where UK isn't doing as well and a $4 million coach should do...

They're not exactly saying they want the guy fired, but they're pretty displeased...
"I'm starting to question if he can coach"
"If any team doesn't play hard enough, I always blame the coach."
"But you get paid 4 million plus a year to get players to play as hard as you want."
"DeAndre Liggins is not a great decision maker."
"...I see you yelling all the time, I would try a very quiet conversation with the team."
"This team hasn't improved the way it should have, and that's on you.
... even the best coaches have seasons that didn't work out."
http://www.truebluefan.com/news/open-letter-to-coach-cal/



An insider blog at Indiana says this today...
that he's heard some good inside recruiting info and knows that Tom Crean is set to sign at least one for sure but probably TWO more players this spring....
BUT -- here's the twist....Indiana has no more scholarships for next year and none even for the year beyond...
and they may even be one scholarship oversigned for 2011 if what they claim they are going to do comes true-- and that is to keep Guy Marc Michel on scholarship even tho he has completed eligibility!

Anyway -- here's the report from the insider blog...

"Continue to hear that scholarships will open up early after the season. More people think a couple grants will surface, although the most constant thing you hear is "one for sure." If two schollies do get vacated then the Hoosiers can add a spring 2011 signee and add another 2012 commit ....And even then I wouldn't be surprised to see Indiana pursue a sixth 2012 addition..."

So it'll be interesting to see who gets Creaned from their roster at the end of this season...but numerous people on their premium boards have already concluded on goner is MR...
"IU all ready has to not give Matt Roth his 5th year to make room for current commits"
http://indiana.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=731&mid=155618459&sid=942&tid=155612656&style=1

"Roth is graduating from IU this summer after his actual junior year so obviously it's been pretty well speculated by everyone for the last year that he isn't going to be around"
http://indiana.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=731&mid=155619154&sid=942&tid=155612656&style=1



Speaking of Indiana - ex-Indiana Hoosier Pat Knight who succeeded his dad as head coach of Texas Tech is probably also gone after the season. Wednesday's loss to Colorado was said to have drawn 8000, their lowest Big 12 home crowd this year BY FAR - with all their other crowds being 9000+...
but that didn't take into account the no-shows which numbered in the thousands...and an accurate count of the crowd put it at really only a couple thousand!
Texas Tech is 12-15 and only 4-9 in the Big 12, leaving ONLY rebuilding Iowa State beneath them in the Big 12 race.
One hot rumor has Pat Knight getting fired ASAP after the season ends and Texas Tech going hard after Billy Gillispie!
One student run group has the backing of several big time Texas Tech boosters that have pooled their money and are pushing for Tech to hire Billy!
But some don't want Billy -- for obvious reasons - and this ought to get interesting...
but there sure isn't much booster and $$ backing to retain Knight.
http://www.dailytoreador.com/sports/article_d7da7192-4095-11e0-b8f8-00127992bc8b.html

BTW -- after that loss -- some of the Texas Tech players ripped into the fans...not a good idea...
http://lubbockonline.com/sports-red-raiders-mens-basketball/2011-02-25/losing-it-roberson-calls-out-awful-fans-says-sparse



Story out of Tennessee is that even though they will get hammered for cheating, lying, and then continuing to support and back a head coach that unabashedly cheats and lies -- even to NCAA investigators....
even so....apparently Tennessee still doesn't want to fire Bruce Pearl since they have never been able to beat Kentucky until he came along.
In other words...JUST LIKE the Kelvin Sampson situation -- they know he's crooked, they know they're likely to get nailed because of his cheating, but he brings in blue chippers, wins games, and even knocks off ranked opponents.....
Geez.......is there anyone who believes in decency and not just winning a few more games???
These guys are sick and as long as they stick with Pearl, they'll be like Indiana in a few years....and I won't feel the least bit sorry for them or their fans.....



University of California basketball just hit with NCAA sanctions -- cheating with the excessive and illegal phone calls.......will it never end??
All they get is probation -- what else -- they're a BCS school...you didn't think they'd actually get a serious penalty??
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6159315



And if you ever had even one reason more to tune OUT CNN, here it is.....their evening show "Parker/Spitzer" has fired Kathleen Parker after just 4 months (and it's rumored they'll have to pay her another 2-3 years under the contract!!) and will go with Elliott Spitzer by himself!!!
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/02/report-parker-dropped-from-cnns-parker-spitzer-show/1

I mean, this guy Spitzer is a known frequenter of whores, a liar, and even the liberal New Yorkers think he's trash, and yet they fire the conservative, soft spoken Parker!!
Geez...do the jerks at CNN realize how incredibly stupid they look....
they've gone from #1 in cable news to not just #2...but quickly plummeting all the way past #3, #4, and #5 even though there aren't five 24-hour news channels!!

GO Braves, Bradley's final home game of 2010-2011 - and MORE..

Saturday night, 7PM ...Bradley faces Drake -- Braves fans should turn out and cheer Dodie and Andrew for their special contributions.....

In some sense, the game is meaningless -- it won't change the seeding for the MVC Tournament -- thus Bradley could rest some players if needed and could try some different options out...
and they could just give Andrew and Dodie free reign to do what they want and fill it up....and I hope they do somewhat...
We will then have plenty of time off to be ready for Drake again next Thursday.
Drake is used to Thursdays, Bradley has NOT been as of late...

Anyway -- I'd love to see Andrew go for 40 and Dodie for 20...


Last night vs. UCLA, Arizona State's Corey Hawkins got one of his longest stints of playing time and logged 15 minutes, going 2-4 and scoring 5 pts, 1 reb, 1 asst, 2 steals.
Brandon Dunson barely played and was scoreless in 3 minutes.
Arizona State falls to 2-13 in the Pac-10 -- how long before the Arizona State fans start calling for Herb Sendek's head??
Remember -- he had a nationally ranked recruiting class two years in a row...and was picked by many to be good this year -- Top 40 -- and the preseason CHN rankings had them as better than every team in the Missouri Valley -- even better than Wichita State that some thought was Top 25!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=195949#post195949


TB tries sushi and does not like it...
http://plixi.com/p/79768487



Northwestern -- picked by many to be an NCAA team this year -- has basically even seen their NIT bubble burst with several recent losses...
last night was an embarrassing 66-52 loss to Penn State...
John Shurna, who has been struggling with ankle injuries, was only 2-10 with 10 points...
his scoring average which was once 23 ppg has fallen to 17 ppg (only 12.7 ppg in Big Ten play), and his 3-pt shooting which was at 65% has dropped to 48% (under 40% in Big Ten play).


Osiris Eldridge's Turkish just team went to Slovenia for international competition in their Eurocup Challenge and lost...


In an obscure game last nite between Tennessee State and Southeast Missouri State...a couple interesting notes...

SEMO has some good players, one guy having a great year is Leon Powell -- who was heavily recruited by BU but went the juco route...
Powell had 14 last night but has pretty consistently been putting up 16 pts, 8 rebs...
SEMO also has a couple other D-I transfers Marcus Brister, Zach House...so you 'd think they'd be better than a 9-20 team..

Anyway -- Tennessee State beat SEMO 57-52, and the other guy BU was looking at a couple years ago -- Robert Covington had 10 pts/6 rebs...


In league dominated by Butler the past several years, a guy named Norris Cole is on track to be Player of the Year -- winning his 5th Player of the week award..


Does anyone recall Ray Penn -- he zoomed from out of nowhere a couple summers ago, the same year Prosser was a senior -- and he did so well, scoring 40 points per game at big time AAU events, that he lands a ton of big time scholarship offers and got more press over such a short time than just about any recruit I have ever seen.
He ended up choosing Oklahoma State expecting to be their starting PG from day one...
http://oklahomastate.scout.com/2/794836.html

Well, just how did Ray Penn turn out at Oklahoma State...?
As a freshman -- he started and played a ton -- so much so it lead to a stress fracture that cost him the final 14 games of the season.
but he did pretty good, 8ppg, 3 apg...
but teams have learned his weaknesses and how to guard him and his production is steadily dropping...

Now he's kinda dropped off the charts lately -- averaging only 6 ppg, 2 apg, and now SUSPENDED, AND on the verge of being booted off the team
http://tahlequahdailypress.com/sports/x1709532364/OSU-suspends-Penn-indefinitely


He is basically the Oklahoma State equivalent of Eddren McCain...and just maybe he aimed too high!

Just a few examples of bad moves and coaching changes

Let's look at a few simple examples of schools that have fired their coaches and then tried to rebuild and let's see if they are comparable to Bradley's setting.
In fact, I really can't find too many that don't fit one of these three categoris...two of which are NOT really relevant to Bradley...but read on...


First -- most BCS schools, certainly the ones at the upper end of the spectrum, have a recruiting prowess and are deep enough that a few player defections don't matter as much, and then the new coach, say at schools like Indiana or Minnesota -- still have sufficient recruiting prowess because it's a BCS school -- to quickly land 4-Star talent that can at least them competitive right away. So these situations are NOT very close to Bradley's.
Never the less...the examples I gave of Indiana, Minnesota, and even Iowa, DePaul, Colorado, USC, and others....despite bringing in talented kids, still have serious problems with player-issues and jealousy over playing time -- and often have big-time player defections (Devoe Joseph leaving Minnesota, Jake Kelly out of Iowa, etc.)
AND....they still can't win much!!!!
Even with all the differences, you'd be hard pressed to find even ONE BCS school that fired their coach for poor performance and within a couple years are back on top...
I might concede that Mizzou and Kentucky are examples, but note the amount it cost them -- salaries in the $2.5- 3.5 million range and that's out of the question for Bradley.


Then we have places like Wichita where they appear to have rebuilt quickly but it isn't the same situaiton at all -- since Turgeon wasn't fired for poor performance...he left when Wichita was well stocked.
So -- the performance the past few years isn't all Gregg Marshall's doing, plus they have yet to get back to the NCAA or win a post season game there...so you still can't say they are a good example of a success with their new coach yet.


So that brings us to the mid-majors who fire their coach and bring in a new guy.

Just last year everyone was pointing to Illinois State saying look how well it worked for them! Those people are keeping their mouths shut about Illinois State this year...wonder why..
Because once the better players from Moser are gone, there's just not enough talent there to win. And I don't see it changing soon -- so if Jank is in the basement another year or two -- then ISU may well be the PRECISE example of what I am talking about...going from BAD to WORSE with only a couple NIT losses to show for it.
BUT -- BU wouldn't have an Osiris Eldridge to even giove them that.
Pretty much the exact same happened at Drake, Evansville, and Indiana State...with only modest success using the predecessor's players, the dropping back down to mediocrity! those teams' fans are also back to grumbling and wanting to fire the new guy now!!!!!

I could also point to places like these...

Loyola -- fired a great coach Larry Farmer and brought in Jim Whitesell...and lots of people said "look how great Whitesell is doing" when he had ONE single 20-win season when he had all of Farmer's players as seniors. Since then he's done terribly -- way worse than BU - despite having the world's best recruiting hot spot in your back yard! "Hot Seat" is spoken often here....

UIC -- fired Jimmy Collins -- and had to get someone else...
Lots of nice things said about Howard Moore, and I know it's early but we can look.....but has he done anything yet?
The Horizon is weak this year and ripe for picking yet UIC can't beat anyone in the league!!
They will end up worse than in any year under Collins, only 7 wins, and only rarely getting more than 52-54 points...and they lose all their best talent (Robo Kreps, Paul Carter..) this year and nobody to replace them.
Much to the dismay of poor Al B, they are going to be really bad for plenty of years to come....wait and see. Again, the most fertile recruiting area in the world right out side their door, and here are the only incoming recruits that can boast...
Marc Brown, an unknown kid from Texas! They also are in the lead for a couple really total unknowns who are 5th and 6th best players on a couple of the Chicago Public schools.

Also in the Horizon...Detroit....these guys canned a coach who had given them SEVEN 18+ win seasons...and then muddled through two more guys and finally hired Ray McCallum....
Detroit went 7-23 the first two years without Watson & under McCallum - their two worst years in a quarter of a century...but fans were willing to wait since McCallum had some big time talent coming in including his own 5-Star rated son!
Suddenly McCallum gets a ton of big name transfers and even the one 5-STAR recruit!
Detroit actually has more talent on their roster than a lot of BCS schools with one 5-Star blue chipper and three 4-Star kids and several top 3-Stars...but guess how they're doing??
You guessed it -- terrible -- and people are grumbling that McCallum must really be a BAD coach if he has the kind of talent Villanova or Michigan State gets and he still can't beat anybody!!
They are currently under .500 but that's buoyed by the fact that a few of their wins are over the really bad Horizon teams below them like UIC & Loyola!


So that brings me to the final example I will give...
Toledo has a fairly proud tradition...they are a bit like Bradley -- a decent school in a mid-sized city but a hard place to recruit to and often losing out to other nearby schools.

Recently under Stan Joplin they had winning seasons in 9 of 10 years and 6 of them were 18+ wins, three were 20+ wins!
But Joplin slipped from 19-13 to 11-19 in 2007-2008 and so they canned him with fan unrest and went looking for a better coach.

Toledo got their guy -- a very highly regarded guy that everyone thought would instantly put Toledo back on the map -- Gene Cross....who spent many years as a top BCS assistant (Notre Dame, DePaul...).
Well, all Cross did even with fairly talented squads was go 7-25, then 4-28 their TWO worst seasons in all of their 100-year history!!!
This was absolutely laughable...but some saw it coming....go read what some said on BradleyFans...

so -- then the ever intelligent and knowledgable fans clammored to dump Cross right away -- after JUST TWO YEARS -- and get someone else -- not even giving Cross the benefit of two full years to get his own players!

So -- again -- just as some of their young talent was ready to break out -- they ditched Cross (who many others on the BradleyFans message board said was a great hire and was absolutely certain to win and do well) - and they hired Tod Kowalczyk -- a proven winner at the mid-major level with consecutive 22-win seasons at Green Bay!
BUT -- just one year -- seriously -- ONE stinking year into the Tod Kowalczyk era at Toledo -- the Toledo fans are ready to bail...read on...
Is this the definition of fickle and impatient or what!!
Kowalczyk ran off their best returning player and runnerup ni the Freshman of the Year in the MAC, Jake Barnett. (who almost landed at Bradley but went to Saint Louis)
And Kowalczyk's roster is still not that bad -- having several good kids that Bradley was also recruiting...Malcolm Griffin, Delino Dear, etc..

But guess what...they are so absolutely horrible they are probably wishing they could go back to last year!
They are currently 1-12 in the conference, and have 3 additional wins, one of which is over a D-III -- so they really only have 3 D-I wins total!!
And it must be even MORE painful for the Toledo fans watching Kowalczyk coach this team as they play slow, keep scores low, miss an endless number of shots, plagued with turnovers in TK's system, and don't often even get their own offensive totals out of the 40's!!
They have seven games where they scored under 50...
and SIXTEEN of their games (all losses) they failed to even break 58!!

Toledo does have a message board, and guess what's being said...
...not much about basketball since nobody wants to talk about it that much -- they're ready to discuss football...
BUT -- several say fire the guy now and get someone else -- this is embarrassing!

Two last thoughts....Kowalczyk just gave an interview after losing to Ball State and said something the press really hammered him for....insulting and alienating his own players who are playing hard but getting beat...

Here's what he said...
"On last night's WSPD Radio Coaches Show, Coach K ...(after the loss to Ball State) said, "we'll see you next year when we actually have some live bullets"."
He later apologized after realizing he just basically called all his current players worthless...and thinks he's gonna have some "live bullets" next year when he really doesn't have that much coming in.
All four of his incoming recruits are obscure kids, ZERO-Stars and NOT at all highly rated. Almost everyone who reported on this calls this whole thing really embarrassing.

One last note....last night many Toledo Rocket fans simply gave up and went on to next fall's football season as Toledo got beaten so badly and so embarrassingly by Western Michigan that the early score must have prompted people to wonder if it was a mistake...
Toledo fell behind 43-5 just before the end of the first half -- and Western Michigan cruised the rest of the way playing pretty much just walk ons and the water boy and still demolished Toledo!
Even in the worst of the Albeck or early Molinari era -- Bradley never got beaten SO BADLY by anyone -- let alone a weak opponent.
Western Michigan's bench outscored Toledo's entire TEAM in the 1st half 22-16.


If you want to read even more -- Da Coach has a little more concise survey of how bad of a move the toledo people made trying to please their fan base...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=216789#post216789

So, no telling where Bradley would be if JL gets fired and someone else is brought in...but there are plenty of examples of schools similar to Bradley who do NO BETTER and in many cases even FAR, FAR worse...and very, very few cases of them doing better in anything less than 3-5 years.
So why do we have people on message boards saying they are sure we'll be better right away?? Are they blind to the facts??
I am open to anyone who wants to give me other examples....I have asked but nobody ever seems to come forward....
I have challenged anyone to name a Valley coach who was fired then replaced, and whose team then got any sustained improvement or ever won an NCAA game!
I have issued this challenge several times and people scoff at it but nobody answers...because since the early 1990's -- it so happens that Jim Les is the only such coach that turned around the program when he took over from Mo, had 20-win seasons, and won games in the NCAA Tourney....
There are no other examples..............so if Coach Les is not here, get ready for really bad.....Sammy-gone, TB likely gone, all the seniors that can transfer as grad students-gone, all the incoming talent will ask out of their LOI's, Dyricus' and Walt's phones will be ringing off the hook....all I can say is get ready, and please don't blame me...

So you want rumors...

Well...here's a few I have heard but am unwilling to put on message boards...

--AT Bradley -- there's rumors of several players leaving but I can assure none will if Jim Les stays on as head coach. If Les is not here next fall, then I can assure you at least 5 will be gone.

--AT ISU -- there are rumors of players in trouble and players unhappy...
Kenyon Smith has worked his tail off to finally get to D-I...he sat out his freshman year when he was deemed ineligible after a scandal at Simeon where several players had their grades fraudulently altered and some had their standard tests taken by ringers (Derrick Rose did this and cost Memphis all their wins). Now Kenyon is only playing walk-on level minutes, and is not happy at all. He still has two years left of eligibility but he has no redshirt year so he's in a pickle.
John Wilkins has gone from starter playing 30+ minutes to sub that's barely getting a thing done. I hear various rumors that he's unhappy but others say he is happy at Illinois State and with the departure of Austin Hill & Tony Lewis, a bunch of playing time will open up and JW will likely stay and see if he can get a bunch of that playing time as ISU may have little else to do for shooting guard/small forward.
I also hear Zeke Upshaw is a bit unhappy with the miniscule 3-5 minutes per game he's getting -- given nobody else can score.

-AT Drake -- here's the big rumor in the Valley -- and it was even discussed yesterday on one of the radio talk shows...
Now there are threads on THREE different Valley message boards debating this possibility.
Rice got very little recruiting attention out of high school as most people though that he was unskilled as a shooter and ball handler and was too small to play forward...so he only got a few mid-major offers. BUT -- now apparently several bigger schools have taken notice, especially one quite nearby Drake, that has taken in gobs of other D-I transfers and whose TOP 3 scorers are similar shooting guards - two are seniors and ones a junior...and they will need someone to fill the shoes.
Rice may listen to a few of these other appealing offers as ISU's Marcus Arnold once did.

-AT Creighton -- several players are not happy -- of their ten top players in production and playing time -- six return next year and THREE of them have vaulted right past the others in playing and ALL three of those are thee McDermott recruits...
Just as Lawson dropped well behind Echenique and Little Mac in playing time, Manighat has also zoomed past Josh Jones and Ethan Wragge in playing time.
Just as senior Casey Harriman hung it up early -- there's rumors other Bluejays will too.

-AT SIU -- rumors of a lot of unhappiness among the players...there's already a rumor going on that their one-time best and most valuable player, Gene Teague -- many peoples' pick for the preseason All Conference Team...has already grown way too unhappy and quit the team.
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17841

There's also lots more unrest after several of their players have had arrests and suspensions again this year -- just as they have had the past few years.
Lowery may be out but it's still not a given as he has such a huge salary that must be bought out to do it.
SIU is the league champion for how many players have had serious legal issues and arrests and for how many have bolted the team and gone elsewhere.
None the less...SIU seems to be ready should U of I jettison any of their players such as Joe Bertrand or Tyler Griffey......they seem to be battling ISU as Transfer U.


There's more, but I'll save it for later........



Here's a little discussion on honoring all the best Valley seniors who are playing their final games tonight and tomorrow....
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17844

BU vs. ISU, and lots more basketball news...

Go Braves -- have a great night Tuesday vs. the Redbirds!!


Scott Phillips is a long time expert on recruiting and college basketball.....
many of you know him from his contributions to the Chicago Sun Times...
but he did post this comment via his twitter -- I am surprised he didn't take a little more heat for this, although it's just his opinion.
http://twitter.com/thebballreport/status/39137629391945728


I really hate to beat a dead horse, but did you see the box score from the ISU-Western Michigan game?
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102190640

Wow -- ISU sure does have trouble scoring....but watch them hit everything Tuesday vs. Bradley!! Ha, ha....

Specifically, John Wilkins has hit the wall or something's happening.
He has lost his starting spot and just isn't doing much of anything...
Here is his game log-
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/97879

This now makes 6 bad games in a row and 10 out his last 12 for JW.
Yesterday they really needed him to score and rebound but he scored just 2 baskets, and had 1 rebound. He also had 0 assists, 0 steals, and 0 blocks again. It was his 4th game in a row without an assist, 5th out of his last 6 games, and 10th out of his last 12 games without a single assist. And they bill him as being a guard?
Who are they kidding...this is what I have said was one of the bargaining points that Jank used to land him...that he'd be promoted as a guard!

A 6-9 guy who says he's a guard but doesn't score and gets no assists, and a 6-9 guy who never gets a rebound??
It is almost impossible for a 6'9" guy to play and not get more rebounds than this!
Could it be the coaching?
Something is going on......maybe something between JW and Jank. He even seems like he's playing disinterested, maybe disgruntled.....
any bets that he might not even be there next year??


In two games over the weekend in the D-League for Patrick O'Bryant, he had 9 pts/11 rebounds, and 8 pts/3 reb....his Reno Bighorns have won 7 straight, and POB is averaging 9.3 ppg, 6 rpg


In weekend action in Europe...

-David Collins had a great game for his Cyprus team, 13 pts, and 14 rebounds...
http://www.eurobasket.com/boxScores/Cyprus/2011/0220_353_351.asp

-Cellus has 17 pts in his Paris team's win

-Lawrence Wright had another great game, 22 pts, 9 reb...for his Finnish team

-and as usual, Zach Andrews remains the hottest player in his Japanese league with another great game...15 pts, 11 rebs. They have gone from well under .500 to 3rd place at 16-15 in the past few weeks.


Jimmer Fredette of BYU leads all of D-I in scoring at 27.2 ppg, 3 ppg more than his closest rivals.
Here's a discussion on whether Jimmer will be successful in the NBA...many think he will not.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/611549-jimmer-fredette-why-nations-leading-scorer-will-find-nba-success?source=rss_teams_Brigham_Young_Cougars


Hey -- here's help for Bradley's RPI -- Utah beat New Mexico! ;)
http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/022011aaa.html


Another Kansas player in trouble -- Tyshawn Taylor suspended...
http://gary-parrish.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/27596658


Maryland is hanging Greivis Vasquez' jersey in the rafters of their home arena this week.
I know he's a good player...but seriously....only a year after he leaves school honor the guy like he led the Terps to the Final Four (which of course he did not, they were actually quite disappointing during Vasquez' years)


Congrats to Morehead State's Kenneth Faried who just passed Tim Duncan with the most rebounds in NCAA D-I in the past 40 years...and he got the record vs. Indiana State...
1,576 in his career.
http://beyondthearc.nbcsports.com/2011/02/19/faried-surpasses-duncan-but-gilmores-record-is-out-of-reach/


Indiana has to beat Purdue to stay out of the Big Ten cellar...
Big Ten POW is Purdue's E'Twuan Moore, and NOW is Michigan's Tim Hardaway, Jr.


More on the mess that is the ICC baseball program...
http://blogs.pjstar.com/wessler/2011/02/20/icc-baseball-lost-focus-of-schools-core-mission/
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17730

Hoaxes abound

So if virtually all the evidence for UFO's can be proven to be a hoax, then why do some still cling to the few bots of evidence that are not yet disproven and swear this stuff is solid evidence for UFO's...

Couple cases in point...
just a couple weeks ago -- a big and elaborate crop circle was suddenly seen in rice paddies in Indonesia....
at first there were claims it was "real" and proof of alien activity...but as always, the real facts came to light later....
it turns out it was created as a hoax by humans, but that still doesn't deter people from flocking there and making money for the people whose land it sits on.
Duh....so there isn't a reason someone would fake such a thing?? How about lots of money and notoriety?? Ever think of that as a real reason people would fake these things.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110125/ap_on_fe_st/as_odd_indonesia_crop_circle

as always -- though, there are STILL people clinging to their claims that it is an authentic piece of evidence for aliens -- unwilling to admit they've been duped again.


Then just the last couple weeks dozens of claims of UFO's over the holy sites in Israel...and people claiming they were real and that since lots of different people filmed and recorded the UFO's they HAD TO BE REAL!!!
Absolutely had to be REAL, is what some said....literally laying their reputations on the line claiming this was the real thing!!

But nope...they were faked and they totally fooled gobs of people and gullible predetermined UFO believers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110210/sc_space/hoaxintheholylandjerusalemufoaprovenfake


And so on and on -- just like the ridiculous claims of Bigfoot and Nessie....spurred on by everyone's desire for the classic 15 minutes of fame...

I believe all credible examples have been disproven or shown hoaxes..yet we still have proponents.......but it's hardly worth the effort to disprove these hoaxes any more.

Some people who call themselves fans should be ashamed of themselves...

I guess I could write this about any team because just about anywhere, there are people who brag about how good of a fan they are then they go to games and boo their own players and get onto message boards and demean, rip, and criticize the very players they claim to be fans of.
I have always been completely baffled by this phenomenon....Here in Peoria, really great Bradley basketball players such as JJ Tauai, Marcello Robinson, POB, and believe it or not...even Sammy Maniscalco, Jeremy Crouch, and Andrew Warren have been the targets of really inappropriate and immature critical comments by some jerks masquerading as fans...and sometimes even boos - people who then claim the Constitutional right to boo whoever they want as if this is all about them.

But this is going on other places as well - other teams' fans are treating their own players similarly...
I read the message boards of the other Valley teams, and I have seen it on most of those other boards -- disgruntled fans who think they're being cheated out of what they pay for tickets and even some who don't even bother to go to games or support the team in any way -- but who feel emboldened to post their criticisms.....

They tear into any kid who is doing poorly -- like maybe that's gonna help. but time and again we see proof that those kids do see and do feel insulted by such comments.....

Some evidence is present in a recent interview with ISU's Justin Clark and on their board, that he's been affected by booing and insulting comments by supposed Redbird fans.
Justin Clark is not shooting well and hasn't been really since he got to ISU. But, then, neither is anyone else on a team that is really hurting for anyone to hit the basket -- so just maybe Justin can still help the team.

And we've seen the same happening at SIU where they even boo Chris Lowery, and at other Valley schools.

I just wanted to call out those cowards who boo like they think they can do better or like they deserve better. Sadly -- it even shows up once in a while at a high school game, but I still will call them out when jerks behave this way.



Recall all the 20 or so kids from the Canarias Basketball Academy who have made it to D-I programs...
Well ...very few are playing or producing....not a good sign for the Euro kids.
In fact, I have detailed elsewhere how so many of all the imported kids....
...such as Iowa State's Lucca Staiger, DePaul's Mario Stula, Beas Hamga -- all the other 15-20 Decatur Christian & BTMA kids, Frank Wiseler, Christian Standhardinger, Gal Mekel, Mantas Griskenas, Shang Ping, Vince Polakovic, Jermain Raffington, and I could go on and on...they've all fallen flat.
In fact, it is actually hard to find a Euro import kid who does much at all....but the few who do exist keep coaches offering rides to them...
But the odds of finding a diamond in the rough among import kids is maybe 1 in 100...
We've been fortunate -- we've had a couple good import kids like Jerome Robinson, James Gillingham, and of course Marcel De Souza....Dinma turned out OK for ISU -- but most seem to never develop......



Wichita State's at-large chances may have gone up in smoke last night after a home loss to VCU in the BracketBusters.
Many fans are even questioning coach Gregg Marshall's decisions late in the game that hurt the Shockers.
BTW -- Wichita's Graham Hatch -- who missed last night's game, may be out a few games with a bone bruise. He has 25 starts this season and hits 39% of his 3-pointers.
Also -- the one guy who carried the Shockers early, David Kyles, has slumped of late...scoring just NINE points over the past four games and going scoreless in two of them!



And for you Billy Packer fans -- here's evidence why we really don't miss him...
TWO years after being booted from any and all NCAA basketball coverage, someone still has enough time on their hands to go ask Billy's opinion on college basketball...
and guess what -- he takes a high and mighty, holier than thou approach and says this...
" ..he doesn't approve of the way CBS and Turner Sports plan to handle NCAA tournament coverage going forward.""

and on the college game in general...
"The game has regressed incredibly in the last 10 years, at all levels and the coaches know it," Packer said. "It's a different world and to do a good job you'd have to buy into it. That's why I couldn't do it anymore."

I guess the only thing that has not regressed is Billy packer's ability to say anything intelligent -- since it already was as non-existent as possible to begin with -- it really cannot get any worse...

Recruiting frenzy begins right about....now...

Coaches might see their seasons slipping away and want to go for someone to fill a need next year. Coaches might have players defecting, leaving, being booted, or flunking out and find an open scholarship, new players might just suddenly arise on the recruiting scene as they leave & look to transfer...kids can blow up, and almost always, teams are looking for that diamond in the rough like a blossoming BIG MAN...

Regardless, we see lots of evidence of coaches getting more desperation and going more and more after kids who just recently had few if any offers...

Max Bielfeldt is one example - -he played his cards right and did not commit to Valpo or Central Michigan. Now he's got the big time offers rolling in as guys like Bruce Weber realize he just doesn't have anyone with experience to replace big man Mike Tisdale.
this is the time of year that even some of the most obscure big men like Tijan jobe, Bawa Muniru, etc...get big time offers....


The consider the example of an ex-Bradley recruit, Abdel Nader...
he was getting recruited mostly by mid-majors then jumped and committed when Steve Alford gave him an offer from New Mexico.
BUT -- Abdel Nader possibly thought he could do better - so he didn't sign with New Mexico...
Anyway -- he's not even doing all that well this year as a senior in high school...but he decided to play an extra year at prep school next year - so that makes him more desirable and guess what......
Now Nader has picked up offers from Marquette, DePaul, and Oklahoma State with interest coming in from Michigan State, Baylor, Xavier, and others.


But this is the time of year that even big men who average single digits start getting offers...

Washington offers and lands a juco kid named Kevin Davis from Tacoma CC, who is averaging just 8.8 ppg & 7.3 rpg.

Indiana -- always desperate for a big...is going after 6-8 Demario Hines at Trinity Valley CC....(also was at John A. Logan last year) who averages just 12 ppg...

Utah State just landed a guy so obscure that nobody even had him listed as a recruit.
Igor Premasunac a Croatian center, averages 9 ppg, 5 rpg for Lon Morris CC...
Shang Ping's numbers would have dwarfed this guy's!!

Watch for more of the obscure guys going late to schools desperate to fill those empty scholarships....sadly so many of these guys jump at the ride never realizing that they aren't likely to play at these schools.
Example -- as desperate as DePaul is for talent -- guys like Mario Stula, Devin Hill, and Krys Faber are still siting the bench!

Did you see the comments by the AD at University of Illinois?

Despite winning last night against Michigan...they don't look good and they've got some real problems that have cost the Illini their spot in the rankings, and now they've fallen to the 2nd tier of Big Ten teams...and may be left out come NCAA Selection Sunday.
There are a lot of opinions ranging from Demetri McCamey under-performing, to bad shooting, to relying on too many young players...

BUT -- here's what the U of I Athletic Director said in an interview........
This is from John Supinie's column that is carried in several papers including the PJ Star.
http://is.gd/0kjOKz

Illinois AD Ron Guenther says this...about forcing basketball head coach Bruce Weber to make changes on his staff...
"Guenther wouldn’t force staff changes on Weber, he said, but the topic could come up during the yearly evaluation at the end of the season.
“You can’t be loyal to a fault,” Guenther said. “If he thought you there has to be a staff change to make this click, I believe Bruce would do it.”

so, in effect, he says they won't make any changes now but at the end of the year they will re-evaluate and might make changes.
He is clearly saying that even though there are good people on the staff and they are now loyal to those people...if at the year's-end evaluation they believe something needs to be done to improve things, then someone will get canned and someone else will get hired.

Then Guenther goes on to discuss recruiting failures....and even names some guys like Sherron Collins & Julian Wright that they failed to land...as if to cite specific examples of big-time recruiting blunders that were made by someone on the staff.

then...
"...Guenther acknowledged the disappointment"


OK -- you can only read ONE thing into this....that BOTH Guenther and Weber are unhappy about not landing that KEY player that would get them back to the Final Four...and that quite possibly some big time changes on the staff are going to be made to unload those responsible for the recruiting disappointments!

So just who are they talking about??

Let's see....clearly he's not talking about firing Bruce Weber -- that's clear from the context that it would be Guenther AND Weber who would clean house and fire someone currently on the staff -- but it would NOT be Weber.
Here are the rest of the coaches...
http://is.gd/TC2OFP

And it sure wouldn't be any of the lower level assistants who aren't involved at all in recruiting, that's for sure.......
So they sure aren't talking about the low-level, non-coaching, non-recruiting positions like Sean Harrington (Director of Basketball Operations), Gary Nottingham (assistant to the head coach), and Chester Frazier (video coordinator).

And in many respects, one guy on the staff has gotten accolades and big time raises and bonuses for how well he's been recruiting....
And all that's been Jerrance Howard......so you know he isn't talking about Jerrance Howard, who has been credited with landing all the top talent they have gotten the last couple years.

So that only leaves Jay Price, and Wayne McClain.
Those are the only TWO assistants this story can possibly be talking about!
BUT -- Jay Price does way, way more than recruiting....
He has been at Illinois as long as Bruce Weber, and has connections with Weber going back TWO decades at Purdue (under Gene Keady). He was Weber's first choice as an assistant coach, and is credited as the smartest coaching mind on the bench. He is responsible for much of the game plans, and practice coaching.
Recall -- he coached that team that went to Europe this past summer (that included Dyricus), so we know he has real head coaching ability. He has even gotten mentioned as a possible head coach for some positions that have opened up the last couple years. And really -- he is not involved much in recruiting, which is the area Guenther is referring to with his statement. So personally, I do not think Guenther is referring to Jay Price under any circumstances.
On top of all that Price and Weber are close friends.
http://is.gd/KRDS63

So there's only one remaining possibility -- that this comment is a shot across the bow of Wayne McClain!
McClain has actually been at Illinois the longest, since he was there under Bill Self for 2 years before Weber got there. I think there is little doubt that Guenther was referring to McClain when he referred to "You can't be loyal to a fault".
What I suspect he meant is that Bruce Weber has been loyal to McClain for all these years, just because of what he did for Illinois a decade ago (sent his son and a couple other players to Illinois). WM hasn't done anything for Illinois lately, so why should they remain loyal to him forever? And I don't think anyone would ever confuse Weber and McClain as "friends". If you ever watch a game, you'll notice that McClain never interacts with Weber or Price, or anyone else on the bench, except the players. He usually even sits at the far end of the bench with the players, and never sits near Weber.
There is no doubt that the players like Wayne McClain ..but it is clear that despite his previous reputation for getting the in-state players to Illinois...he hasn't done much at all the help the Illini in the recruiting area for years.
Jerrance Howard is getting all the instate kids now.

Illinois loses their point guard and all their big players except Leonard...who clearly needs a little more time to develop. Just how good is Illinois going to be with nobody to fill those spots at PG and in the paint -- except a bunch of untested freshmen...
You just can't play five shooting guards -- so there's going to be more said about the Illini recruiting shortfalls as time goes on.

Bradley loses to UNI as the Panthers shoot well from the arc...

No denying, Bradley has lost a lot of games we should have won...but I am convinced the Braves still have the talent to win some games in St. Louis.
Last night was an unfortunate mix of UNI being very hot from outside and Bradley not adjusting to cover those guys better. Seriously -- not a whole lot of those shots were wide open shots, all were guarded, even though when they're making them -- you obviously have no other choice but to guard better.

But -- let me propose a theoretical argument........

Let's say I am a demanding Creighton fan and I use the same kind of demanding argument that demanding Bradley fans use...

Here's what I might say........

"Hey -- wait a minute....how come Creighton is doing so bad! Didn't we start the season getting rid of the dead weight. And didn't we have the preseason Valley Player of the Year coming back for his senior season? And add to that -- we have the best freshman, a solid group of experienced players, the best incoming transfer who was picked to be the Newcomer of the Year? And we have a tradition of being the Valley team with the most top 1 or 2 finishes this past decade, and we've gone to the post-season the most....?

Then how come Creighton is mired in the middle of the pack, battling Evansville for 5th & 6th -- with little or no hope of any post-season chances, and RPI of about 150 and a SOS of worse than 150?"

Don't you see, any year in the Valley -- if I wanted to mull and grumble -- it hardly matters which team I support -- I guess I could find something to gripe about.
Even UNI lost a bunch in a row and has played themselves out of all but maybe a high-seeded NIT bid...

So it comes as no surprise, that even though Bradley has had more injuries and player losses than any other Valley team -- some people are still unhappy....
but many of them are the ones who were unhappy in 2002 and wanted change then and got what they wanted.
They wanted to fire JL back in 2006 and 2007 also -- I can clearly identify many of those currently unhappy as the same ones who wanted to go a different direction in Feb. of 2006 -- just before BU turned it around and ended in the Sweet Sixteen.

So it's the same old stuff........and I expect they may get what they want again if they whine loud and long enough...they'll get what they want again and still be griping in a few years.
Go look at the ISU fans -- same thing....they griped loud enough to get rid of Porter Moser -- then were giddy a few years when Jank won with all of Porter's players but they weren't too happy with the scheduling and being bounced repeatedly in the 1st round of the NIT's...now they are just as discontent as the Bradley fans....less than three years into getting their wish, now they want to bail and start over as well.

Doesn't surprise me...people are fickle....in fact as I was watching the Mississippi State - Kentucky game last night in the Club room at halftime -- I heard a fan of Kentucky's grumbling....
SERIOUSLY !!! We're talking University of freaking Kentucky here...the guy was saying he was already getting a little ticked of this whole scene...
I asked what scene was he talking about since his school paid the most money ever spent to get the most sought after recruiter and coach there has ever been...and they have landed more 5-Star, BLUE CHIPPERS and McDonald's All Americans that have ever been landed anywhere by anyone in such a short span...plus they get endless press, publicity, and hype & TV exposure....so what was this Kentucky fan griping about??

He said that the very best teams like Duke this year, or Wichita State in the Valley are made up of NOT JUST great young kids and top freshmen...they also have some of their best players stay FOUR years and get the experience and confidence needed to win the big games.

Yup that's right...he was already unhappy with the John Calipari way of bringing NBA caliber talent that stays only one year, gives them a good team but NOT a great team and he's quite sure it is going to happen again this year....
(at this point Mississippi State was rallying and looked to be possibly going to upset Kentucky, although UK ended up holding on and winning).

So I am convinced it doesn't matter -- people are going to gripe when you lose but they even gripe when you win....
No team -- and certainly not Bradley could ever land enough NBA caliber kids or win enough to ever expect to keep the gripes and the misery off the message boards.
So I am consigned to expecting it and just won't bother to read it any more.

Bradley has great kids, some tremendous talent set to return from injury/illness next year, and some great young talent coming in. I am hopeful we can get to see that talent this time around as we never got to see the NBA caliber talent the prior coach brought in because that coach got run out by the whiners who now even seem to regret that Mo was run out. Paradox....


Check out this example of same....just a few short weeks ago Northwestern fans were looking at quite possibly the very beast season of basketball they have ever had...they were hoping for not just their first ever NCAA bid but also a very, very good year....then.....an injury to John Shurna has turned everything around...
Now -- as fickle as fans anywhere else....the Northwestern fans seem to want Carmody out!! Can you believe it...from the pinnacle to the pits in a few short weeks. Fans are about as sensible as teeny bopper girls!
http://is.gd/nSqSqd



Tyler Les hit his only 3-pointer last night for UC-Davis raising his 3-pt shooting pct. this season to 48%.
Even though he hasn't played enough to qualify -- this is better than the guy who is leading the Big West Conference...so Tyler would be the conference leader!
Too bad Tyler is with BU -- I know he would be if our head coach was in full control of the program -- but if choices are being made for him, then I think it's a little asinine to blame the head coach for everything that is going wrong.
Recall......he was forced to alter his staff and his recruiting.

One bozo on one of the message boards said something to the effect that..
"anyone who'd offer a scholarship to Anthony Davis...couldn't be trust to do any decent recruiting"...

So...you bozos think that was Coach Les' idea?? What rock have you been under for the past year.....did you not know it was someone else that required a new assistant be brought in and land the player the bozo was upset about...?
I get a little amused at people who don't even know half the facts attacking the wrong people....but then I have grown accustomed to it..



High school ref gets suspended by state association after he ejects a coach from a game he reffed, then posted about it on his Facebook!
http://is.gd/9Mwfbb


Want to see the funniest story about a team shooting 3-pointers???
It happened in Iowa not far from where Bradley recruit Nate Wells plays...
West Burlington High School attempted 103 THREE POINT SHOTS last night in ONE game!!!
Here's the bad news....they didn't hit very many -- they hit only EIGHT of 103!
Thus they got hammered by undefeated Danville 109-25!!
http://is.gd/NhwDA1

Lots of stuff from around the Valley!

I know Bradley has gotten plenty of negative writeups from our local press...and lots about players not being on the same page or not buying in...etc...
BUT -- Bradley probably is NO LONGER having these problems but other teams in the Valley clearly are....
There have been rumbles of discontent among players at Indiana State, Drake, Evansville, and Creighton. But the places it is so glaringly evident is at SIU and ISU.

Here's a thread over on the ISU board talking about those issues...
http://is.gd/meTAGi

The poster claims he has solid proof and good sources and says...
Zeke Upshaw stated on his Facebook page ....
"there are some knuckleheads on this team that need to be gone."

the poster then goes on to say-
"Now I am hearing from some very credible sources that some of our players don't get along very well with others on the team. I have picked up on a few cues during on court exchanges between some of our players that would seem to support this.

Lastly, I heard from another credible source that there was a fight in practice this week between some players. Not always necessarily a bad thing, but could hint at some disfunction on this team team.

Obviously, we aren't good enough to play thru these types of distractions. I almost hope this is true. Gives me some hope that any turds can get flushed out of the program..

If I were not absolutely sure about my source, I wouldn't have posted. I consider this fact, not rumor."

I have other sources that confirm the bickering among players, the jealousy and that one player who does not get along with others is indeed the one BU thought they had committed. So go figure....make what you want of it...
But it isn't hard to read between the lines and the guy who is labeled as a "turd that needs to be flushed, and needs to be flushed right now" is easy to figure out...

I have also gotten independent evidence that ISU's Athletic Dept. even has someone who posts regularly and tries to sway the tone and discourage any criticism and who surveys the message boards for any offenders to the "don't say anything negative rules" if they want to keep their season tickets!


There's discussion among SIU fans about whether Justin Bocot should be back next year...
as you know he was ineligible his first year at SIU but COULD get the extra year back -- except now it appears some fans don't even want that...and they also want their head coach gone in the worst way...
Literally half the threads on their message boards center on getting rid of Lowery.



One other ISU note...
Ken Pomeroy currently rates ISU's non-conference schedule at 343 out of 345...only SMU and Georgia State have worse non-conference SOS...and they are JUST barely worse....
and this is the 3rd year in a row ISU has been right at the absolute bottom ..so if BU ties with ISU in the standings...unless ISU wins on head-to-head, then BU is going to win the tiebreaker.



Remember the PRESEASON 2010-11 MVC All-Conference Team ??

Here it is.....as was voted back in October...
Kwadzo Ahelegbe, UNI, G, 6-2, 213, Sr., Oakdale (Minn.) Tartan High
Kenny Lawson Jr., Creighton, C, 6-9, 250, Sr., Oceanside (Calif.) Vista High
Sam Maniscalco, Bradley, G, 6-0, 175, Sr., Chicago (Ill.) St. Patrick High
Toure' Murry, Wichita State, G, 6-5, 197, Jr., Houston (Texas) Klein Forest High
Kyle Weems, Missouri State, F, 6-6, 232, Jr., Topeka (Kan.) Highland Park High
 Honorable Mention: Taylor Brown, Bradley; J.T. Durley, Wichita State; Adam Leonard, Missouri State; Colt Ryan, Evansville; Seth VanDeest, Drake; Andrew Warren, Bradley.

Preseason Player of the Year -- Kenny Lawson Jr., Creighton

Let's see how well they did picking the players....

Obviously they did not foresee Sam Maniscalco and Taylor Brown sitting out, but oddly, nobody who votes for those preseason spots had much of a clue how good Andrew Warren is!!
He just made the Honorable Mention - likely based on the votes from the Peoria contingent!

Their Player of the Year, Lawson is just mediocre this year and not getting the chance to play under the new coach.
Lawson's 9 pts, 5.8 rebs won't win any awards this year.

Of the other three on the 1st team -- Ahelegbe, Murry, Weems -- only Weems is a lock to be 1st Team after the season.

-Murry is doing well but is perhaps only the 3rd most valuable player on his own team, and his averages of 10 ppg, 5 rpg don't place him anywhere in the TOP 10 in the Valley.

-Ahelegbe would have been a lock to be considered if UNI was at the top of the league, but if UNI finishes down around 5th, then Kwadzo may get left off in favor of others...

Of those on the Honorable Mention list -- only Durley and Warren are currently deserving...

Leonard isn't even the 3rd or 4th best player on his team...

Ryan was averaging 16 ppg against the weak non-conference part of Evansville, now he's dropped to only 13 ppg in the critical Valley Conference part of the schedule.
Plus the Aces seem to play better when Ryan has a bad game!!

Van Deest isn't in the top ten of any stat category and since conference play has started is averging only about 7 pts & 4 rebs per game!

Here's my 1st Team right now...

-Andrew Warren
-Kyle Weems
-Doug McDermott
-JT Durley
-Kwadzo Ahelegbe
...with Andrew Warren the PLAYER OF THE YEAR!!



I get a laugh out of a thread over on the Indiana Hoosier's message board about the "Wheels falling off at Illinois"..

Hmmm...the wheels have been totally off for three years at Indiana and there's not much help on the horizon for a couple more years to come!



And here's a nice story....
with all that's bad going on in sports -- here's a good story...
http://is.gd/wNtekh








Howard Moore and UIC just landed a commitment from a Class of 2012 kid named Gabriel Snyder.
The reason this might be significant is because UIC is really heavily recruiting Max Bielfeldt and might be the leader among schools who have offered Max!

But Howard Moore is not off to a very good start at UIC....
..they are in last place in the Horizon League.-

Moore just got a new commitment from a 2012 kid named Gabriel Snider of Chicago Whitney Young. Whitney Young is loaded with talent, but Gabriel Snider has never been mentioned as one of their D1 prospects....so he's kinda been overlooked so far...

There is almost nothing available anywhere on recruiting sites about this Gabriel...
Many had said that Howard Moore, with his Big Ten background, would be a great coach and recruiter. His coaching ability is questionable so far -- as he really has some pretty good talent at UIC this year and cannot beat anyone.
he has seniors, All Conference caliber kids like Robo Kreps & Big Ten transfer Paul Carter..
and yet they can't get out of last place is a weak conference.
The other kids they have landed thus far are also all pretty unknown.......
Last fall he got LOI's from 3 other CPL players for 2011-
which included Simeon's 6-6 Ahman Fells, Curie point guard Greg Travis and Morgan Park shooter Jerome Brown. None of these 3 kids was on anyone else's radar.
Then he got a commitment from some unknown kid in Texas-another guard-Marc Brown
...and now Gabriel Snider. It is yet to be seen how all these under-the-radar recruits pan out. He might be getting them before they blow up, but since singing the four last fall -- none are having notable seasons and may actually have dropped due to their current performances.

The bad news for Howard Moore, though...he has 6 seniors who will be gone after this year, including most of his scoring (Robo Kreps and Paul Carter), and much of his size (Paul Carter, Brad Birton, and KC Robbins). And yet the kids he is recruiting are all small kids who are not great shooters....so if he can't win in a weak Horizon Conference this year -- then some are wondering how he's going to do it next year.

At least if Bielfeldt goes there he would probably get lots of playing time!

Followup on a couple kids BU was recruiting, and Hollywood lifestyle exposed...

Darius Smith out of Chicago -- went to UConn, then left after his freshman year and is now playing his sophomore year at College of Southern Idaho.
he's agood point guard but not a big scorer. He is being followed now by several D-I schools, but it looks like Bradley is no longer in the picture.
CSI is currently 22-3 and Darius is their starting PG. He has solid offers from Iowa, Detroit, UIC, and several others but he is being followed closely by Tubby Smith of Minnesota -- who is pretty desperate for a point guard after his top three options for this season are injured or gone.
Darius Smith averages 5.5 assists per game and an Assist to Turnover ration of 2:1.
He also scores 8.7 ppg but doesn't look to shoot that much and is not really a 3-pt threat.
He averages almost 80% from the FT line.


Minnesota is also looking hard at another kid Bradley was following...Chris Colvin.
Colvin left Iowa State and is now at Palm Beach State College in Florida.
Colvin's numbers are...16.0 ppg, 4 rpg, 7.1 assists per game and 2 steals.
His team is 21-2, and Colvin's shooting pct. is 48% and 46% from the 3-pt arc.
Colvin is getting strong interest from West Virginia, Iowa, California, Clemson, Arizona State, Minesota and Butler - who is recruiting Chris the hardest.
He also has other lesser offers.


Speaking of point guards......
Ex-Bradley Brave Eddren McCain has now enrolled at and become eligible at Paul Quinn College
http://www.pqc.edu/future/studentlife/paul-quinn-athletics.htm

They are a strong NAIA school - and are currently 15-8, and 10-5 in the Red River Athletic Conference, in 4th place..
In 23 games Eddren is averaging 9.74 ppg, and just 29.9% on 3-pointers, but rebounding well at 5.13 rpg,
and leading the conference with 7.74 assists per game and 2.52 steals per game

Eddren's assists leads all of NAIA and he's also top 10 in all of NAIA in steals and assists to turnovers.

In fact, Eddren's 7.74 assists would lead ALL of organized college basketball.....the current leader in D-I is Ohio's DJ CVooper at 7.5 assists per game!

Ex-BU recruit Diante Watkins at Robert Morris (Chicago) is also among the overall NAIA leaders with 6.18 assists per game and 19.1 ppg



Lastly -- if you ever have a daughter who says ...
"I want to grow up and be a beautiful and glamorous movie star!!"
...then save the link to this blog, because I want to show you just how happy of a life the most glamorous movie stars have!

Here's just one person's rankings of who were the TOP TEN most glamorous movie stars and what ever became of them....
if the next generation of "stars" such as Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears is any indication, then I guess this sad trend of ruined lives is going to continue...

#1 - Marilyn Monroe was miserably unhappy in life, married and divorced three times, but many, many affairs, became drug addicted, perpetually under treatment for psychoses, and killed herself at age 36...with lawsuits going on for years over her estate.

#2 - Elizabeth Taylor born into a wealthy famliy but was fairly unhappy much of her life, ran through multiple marriages (eight) and divorces, and was a drug addict and alcoholic and her physical health was all but totally destroyed by the time she was in her 60's.

#3 - Jane Mansfield, although glamorous and beautiful, never enjoyed the success most thought she would. Once in the limelight her personality turned bitter and hateful and nobody wanted to work with her. Married and divorced three times, she also had numerous "affairs" (adulterous encounters) and died in a horrible car crash in the middle of the night after partying -- her two kids surviving in the back seat and seeing their mother decapitated. Lawsuits over her estate followed for years.

#4 - Brigitte Bardot - married at 18 and famous within that same time span...she went on to five unhappy marriages and divorces, plus endless unhappy "affairs".
Her life was also marred with disputes, alcoholism, drugs, and several suicide attempts.

#5 - Judy Garland may be the saddest of them all since she really had talent in addition to her good looks. She could sing and act and was very intelligent.
She also went through multiple marriages, divorces, and "affairs"...never finding any peace or happiness. She was heavy into alcohol and drugs and abusive relationships with men. Her health deteriorated mostly because of the drugs, alcohol, and cirrhosis and by the time she was in her mid-40's she looked like a 75 year old hag... Sadly, she killed herself with an overdose of barbiturates in her bathtub at age 47.

#6 - Catherine Deneuve - also born into a wealthy famliy and had everything. She was pronounced the most beautiful woman in the world by many, and had multiple acting opportunities. Unfortunately she was not a good actress and her film career died out but she continued modeling. She's likewise been married and divorced and multiple "affairs" and has had illegitimate children. She's dabbled in political activism but in interviews has revealed she has never had a single happy or satisfying personal relationship.

#7 - Jane Russell zoomed into Hollywood stardom helped by her affair with Howard Hughes. She had a fairly successful career as a "bombshell" but was always overshadowed by Marilyn Monroe - to whom she was often compared unfavorably.
Married three times with numerous affairs..but was never able to have children. Strangely and surprisingly -- after a life that had her headed for destruction, she became a strong Christian believer in the 1960's and virtually disappeared from public life.....she is still alive at nearly 90 years of age and says her only real happiness in life was as a mother of her adopted children and in her Christian life after she left public life.

#8 - Greta Garbo - Swedish actress, despite tremendous fame she shunned publicity and was fairly shy. She was known for the line "I vant to be alone...". She had numerous unhappy "affairs" but never married, never had a satisfying relationship, and never had children. She was known for her moodiness and her desire to remain secluded most of her life, she had few friends, was often ill during much of her final years, and never appeared happy. When she died, she left her considerable fortune to a neice who barely knew her.

#9 - Jean Harlow was the absolute classic "blond bombshell" who was the toast of Hollywood because of her stunning beauty.
She was married and divorced THREE times before she was 23, and had many affairs, and was into drugs and alcohol, dying at age 26 after being ill for months.

#10 - Rita Hayworth -- like most Hollywood stars, despite being beautiful was never happy -- had five marriages & divorces and many unhappy "affairs".
She was repeated ill - usually due to drugs and alcohol and died at 68 after years of deteriorating health.
Family said this about her last 20 to 30 years of life..
"..She'd fly into a rage. I can't tell you. I thought it was alcoholism-alcoholic dementia. ... She wasn't diagnosed as having Alzheimer's until 1980. There were two decades of hell before that."

There are others, too....but before you send your daughter off to Hollywood for a great life...just check the track record of those who have gone before.......
it is with great sadness that one views this list of beautiful and talented young women who were used and abused but also shared in the horribly bad decisions that ruined their lifes rapidly and in most cases ended their lives way too early. In the end it is really quite difficult to find a single example of a beautiful and glamorous Hollywood personality who actually claims to have found satisfaction or happiness at any time in life. Go figure -- could they be missing something -- maybe the something that one of them actually did find?
Hard to imagine why anyone would want this lifestyle.....

A surprising development at ISU - so you think they don't read what's being posted on message boards?

Someone just brought this to my attention...

That apparently a long time, devoted ISU fan, also a local Bloomington business owner who supports ISU athletics & advertises at Redbird Arena, posted some things on their message board that the administration of ISU must have objected to.
The guy is a relatively long time poster as well -- so it's hard by reading his posts what anyone might be bothered by, but for the most part the guy never says anything objectionable at all!......

...and it appears that maybe he said something to the effect that he thought they were going in the wrong direction. Apparently there was nothing angry or hostile, and his very words were to the effect of..."frustration", "disappointed"...and nothing bad at all...

And yet, apparently the guy, even though he posts under a screen name, was ferreted out by someone representing the ISU administration -- who learned the identity of the guy, then enlisted someone else to call the guy on the phone, and told him to shut the heck up and stay quiet and stay off the boards!
They even, apparently, removed the ads from Redbird Arena for the guy's local business!!! Apparently they just don't like the guy any more based only on his message board posts!!!

This is kinda of astounding in my view.....this is the Illinois State administration or Athletic Department using some sort of public pressure and direct phone calls to silence a guy who is posting on the message boards -- even though it is obvious he is not posting much of anything that is even objectionable.
Sounds a little like someone with their "feathers ruffled" (the poster's own words) up at ISU acting the bully and trying to snuff out someone's very civil & freely held opinion.

The fan then posts back that he would love for anyone in the Athletic Dept. to contact him directly instead of through some intermediary, but the tone sounds strangely like he doesn't expect anyone to do so...

Here are some of the remarks made about this odd interaction between ISU and this long time fan/supporter...

"..It was just brought to my attention that my comments on this forum regarding my relationship with Redbird Athletics have upset a number of people affiliated with Redbird Athletics. ...I cannot hide my frustration with the state of my relationship with Redbird Athletics. ... I am disappointed to have been informed of Redbird Athletics' disapproval via a third party ..
I fear this open letter will not be to the liking of those who were upset by my previous posts..."

Here's the link, but I half wonder if this will get axed and be gone soon...
http://www.redbirdfan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1009


I mainly cite this to show how amazingly fair and tolerant our guys are at Bradley -- even though some of the Bradley people are fully aware of the things said on the message boards, they have NEVER intervened to try to silence critics.
Looks like ISU takes a different approach ..and I guess the message being sent is that if the Redbird Athletic Department knows who you are, then you'd better not say anything objectionable on the message boards or they might come after you!!
Pretty amazing....I'd like to hear more.....

Some BU players followups and more..

Ex-BU player Jeremy Fears has found a new team in Slovakia and they are letting him have free reign to show off his offensive skills...

BC Previdza in Slovakia's top professional league is currently only 10-17, and tied for 8th place in a ten-team league, so Jeremy's offense alone is not exactly helping all that much...

But -- Fears is averaging 23 ppg in his 11 games with the club, and hitting 59% of his FG's although only 29% on 3-pointers.
In that 11-game stretch since Fears signed, Previdza is 7-4.
Jeremy also averages 3.8 rpg, 4.9 assists, 2.8 steals, and 3.4 TO



Tyler Les had 10 points last night in his team's (UC-Davis) loss to Long Beach State.
Long Beach's Tristan Wilson, an ex-BU recruit from Yuba College, was held scoreless.



Osiris Eldridge' pro numbers have taken quite a tumble recently -- and I can't find any explanation for why he's doing so poorly...
In the Turkish League, his averages have dropped to 9 ppg, 1 assist per game, 3 reb per game.
He is now only the 8th highest scorer per game on his team (in ppg)!
OE's 15 pts last Saturday night was his FIRST double digit game since December 4! In his previous seven games Osiris was averaging only 4 ppg.



North Dakota is one of those schools that for some odd reason always get a pass from NCAA regarding their team name...the North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
They are new to D-I so maybe they get a pass but they are also very bad -- losing last night to perennial 330+ RPI team New Jersey Institute of Technology, 65-49.



DePaul 7-footer Kene Obi finally quit the Blue Demons early this season and now lands at a small Canadian school...and has finally been deemed eligible and played his first game.
http://is.gd/epioTW


Obi is a classic example of how badly recruiting experts can be wrong..and how really bad Jerry Wainwright's judgment of talent was...

"Chad Ford of ESPN Insider raved about his upside three years ago .."

Others could readily see how much of a project he was.
The 7-2 center from South Kent Prep School was rated as one of the better prep school big men in 2007 and committed to DePaul -- but he was then, already 23 years old -- and is now 27!!!
He redshirted his first year, but never developed enough to even get a few minutes of playing time -- even in blowouts!
Simon Fraser is now an NCAA D-II school, so it'll be interesting to see if he can even play at this level.



Here's a story about Wichita State's top incoming recruit for next fall...a juco kid named Carl Hall.
He is a 6'8" power forward from Northwest Florida CC-
http://is.gd/q1yobP

He is the #4 ranked juco player in the country- on preseason rankings..
He started junior college at a different school but he had some kind of heart problem his freshman season at Middle Georgia College, and redshirted that whole first year. Then he changed schools -- not clear why -- and now he is a sophomore at Northwest Florida and was dominating games early and putting up great numbers, averaging 18 ppg and almost 10 rpg-

But a couple weeks ago he "collapsed" during a game, and has been out ever since.
Here is the thread from the Shocker recruiting board. They chronicle his games and progress for many pages, but here on page 11 of the thread, 2nd post from the bottom, they report his collapse-
http://is.gd/TbqB4d

and an article from Florida newspaper-
http://is.gd/VlPN8B

There are few details, and they don't initially seem very concerned in that early article.
But after initially saying it was nothing major and that he would return to playing, they kept him out of their next game.

They report that they will be running more tests and "resting" (? because of a flare up of his heart problem).
The next article on Jan. 28 says he will not be playing for the forseeable future...

But then just a couple days later on Feb. 1st, he was cleared to play again. He came off the bench and played well for Northwest Florida CC-
All of this is puzzling -- and it's never really been said what condition he has and the dangers.....



How many people know NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley - also ex-New Jersey Senator and one time presidential hopeful...was from Missouri...
he played his high school basketball in tiny Crystal City, Mo. (pop. 4500) - right on the Mississippi River, about 50 miles south of St. Louis -- across the river from Waterloo, IL.
http://is.gd/n4rFrw

He was just inducted into the St. Louis Hall of Fame
http://is.gd/Jad4Wp



A couple coaches who were thought to be untouchable just a few months back are now sitting on very hot seats...

Jim Calhoun of UConn (6-5 in Big East and in 5-way tie for 7-11th place), first has a bunch of NCAA charges and investigations -- although oddly, every time the NCAA has said it would release its findings, they have gone back into hibernation and given Calhoun even more time to earn his $2.5 million..
(recall -- these violations happened in 2006, now FIVE years back!!)

BUT now even some of the local papers are calling for Calhoun to give it up and go away...after losing several recent games they should have won.....

BTW -- in the Big East, Syracuse & Louisville are also struggling, but anyone who thinks the selection Committee will leave them out is silly.


Then we come to Bruce Pearl....(5-4 in SEC)
What can we say -- he has taken a team many thought had Top 10 talent, he's broken all kinds of NCAA rules, cheated and lied about it, and now has Tennessee so far down on the bubble that even Vols fans are conceding they might miss the NCAA (although never count out the generosity of the NCAA selection Committee towards BCS schools!)
Even a lot of die-hard Tennessee people want to see Pearl fired and get someone respectable in there.

News on Bradley, the rest of the Valley, and also the rest of the entire universe!!

Bradley plays at Missouri State tonight -- GO Braves!!!! We need a big win!!



Three games were played in the Valley last night showing how balanced the teams in the MVC have all become...

First -- Missouri State has lost 2 of their last three and BU faces them tonight in Springfield, MO...so I am hopeful we'll come home with our third MVC victory.

But -- co-Valley leader Wichita State lost last night at HOME to SIU!
David Kyles was 1-8 from the floor, and Wichita shot only 20% from 3-pt range as a team compared to the 46% they shot against us!
Carlton Fay had a nice game with 21 pts.
Bocot played 3 minutes and was scoreless, Diamond Taylor started and played 35 minutes and was scoreless, and the trio of Cleveland, Teague, and Long all missed with suspensions.

UNI lost their 2nd in a row at Evansville, 70-62.
UNI shot poorly but then so did Evansville's Colt Ryan who had only 9 pts.
Evansville's subs came through with 39 points!

Drake beat Creighton with the trio of Creighton big men, McDermott, Lawson, & Echenique, combining for only 22 points, a dozen points below what they've been averaging.
Creighton was also olny 4-22 from 3-pt range.


So with just four games left in the Valley season, six teams are within four games of the lead in the conference!
One of them is Evansville -- and this has to be the first time since the 90's that the Aces still have a shot at winning the Valley this late in the season.
the last time Evansville was in position to win more than 8 games and finish at or above .500 was in 2000-2001 when they finished 6th in the MVC at 9-9, and the last time they had a better than .500 record was when they won the Valley regular season race in 1998-1999 going 13-5 buit losing the Valley Tournament to Creighton.
Three Valley teams went to the NCAA Tournament that season, with Evansville losing a first round game to Kansas but Missouri State - the 3nd place finisher in the Valley - beating both Wisconsin & Tennessee to make it to the Sweet Sixteen (Steve Alford).


If Bradley wins out, the Braves could conceivably finish as high as 5th in the Valley standings, but all the teams ahead of Bradley would have to lose a bunch, and both Indiana State and Creighton would have lose all their remaining conference games (they do not play each other any more so it's still a possibility).


In the Valley scoring race....
With at least 6 games remaining for all MVC teams (4-5 regular season conference games, plus the BracketBuster, plus at least one game in the MVC Tournament)...Andrew Warren is close to a LOCK to win the MVC scoring title.

Even if AW doesn't even play again...the nearest guy to him in the race for scoring leader, Kyle Weems, is 69 points behind and then Colt Ryan is 109 points behind in the race....so yes, they could catch up if Andrew played BUT went scoreless the rest of the way....something that's just not going to happen.
If Andrew didn't play, then his average would stay at 19.3 ppg, and those other guys would have to score between 24 and 33 points every game the rest of the way to catch Andrew -- something that would be next to impossible.

Here's a surprise....the guy that's 2nd in scoring in conference games only is Carlton Fay -- not Weems or Ryan.
Ryan surprisingly is having a fairly BAD conference season averaging only 12.9 ppg, almost 4.5 ppg less than what he scored in the non-conference part of the season!
I guess it means Valley schools have now seen enough tape on Colt and know how to defend him better,.
Oddly it may actually be making Evansville a better team to have other guys get involved in the offense, as Evansville is 8-6 in Valley play despite the far smaller contributions from their leader, Ryan.


Dave Reynolds said this in his column this morning...
"Braves briefs: The 90-day deconditioning period for
Taylor Brown’s heart is up this week. Les said the
impending medical testing scheduled to determine
Brown’s heart condition hasn’t yet been finalized."

I don't know all the facts and of course the testing isn't "done" since it involves even monitoring TB's heart as he begins workouts and conditioning even after he's cleared to do so.....so testing will go on for several more weeks....

BUT -- anyone who was at the October 15 event, Hoopla on the Hilltop, saw Taylor walking thru the layup drills and not participating in anything, the dunk contest nor any drills of any kind. It was obvious his "de-conditioning" period was already fully in effect.
And even by the time the official announcement came on 11/12/10, it was already well known that Taylor had been "shut down" several weeks already, he had been held out of exhibitions, had been seen by doctors, had even been for a consultation at Mayo Clinic, and that the de-conditioning period was already well in effect.
That means his "3 months" might have been done a few weeks ago!



Niles Notre Dame's Quinton Chievous now getting Big Ten attention and recruiting...
ESPN lists Penn State, Iowa, and Nebraska...

Even after Creighton had a terrible loss at Drake, and their fans are in a hysterical meltdown, the Omaha World-Herald has 8 new articles about the team and the game, not including blogs and box scores, etc.
http://omaha.com/section/bluejays

And amazingly, none of them are negative, none attack the coach or players, or call for a coaching change. I wish we could have such good coverage.

From the Omaha World Herald-
http://omaha.com/section/BLUEJAYS01

There are also several blog entires about the Creighton team that are actually more complete and detailed than most fans would even care to read. They are great. This is in addition to all the regular coverage (8 different articles today) by their beat writer Steve Pivovar.



One Creighton fan has a somewhat negative opinion on one of the Bradleyhoops.com pieces by Dave Reynolds -- posted on their board...
http://is.gd/M20iLv


Here's a Shocker fan who repeatedly makes the argument that not only is their Ben smith in the middle of the discussion for Newcomer of the Year -- but that he should win it outright as he is the best newcomer in the Valley since "the early 90's"
This is so funny................

Ben Smith has had a couple nice games but here's the guy's stats...
6.9 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.3 apg ..plays more minutes than Garrett Stutz

I guess the guy just has no concept of how good of a season Doug McDermott, Mamadou Seck or others are having, or even as bad as Walt Lemon is doing - his stats are better than this guy...
http://is.gd/3isILB

Did you see where Jimmer Fredette is NOT going on his Mormon Mission..
http://is.gd/6gQDws


Lots of MVC coaching rumors popping up...summarized here...
http://is.gd/mZYR6n



I just wanted to give some props to the girls teams from both Midwest Central and Peoria Christian....
They are playing for the IVC Regional Title Thursday....

This is a very tough (2A) Regional with IVC, Eureka, and Fieldcrest who have been perennially great teams, and who were expected to better the teams seeded below them...
and yet PCS knocked off Fieldcrest who they've had a tough time beating in past seasons, and Midwest Central pulled off TWO consecutive upsets on consecutive nights, Monday beating IVC and then last night knocked off TOP seeded Eureka -- who many were saying could be a state-caliber team this season.

Midwest Central, if they win, are the hosts of the Sectional and will then play on their home court with a chance to head to state...
PCS is looking for their 1st Regional title win after falling a couple years ago to IVC in the Regional Championship.



Tennessee got hammered last night on ESPN by Kentucky -- Tennessee's head coach Bruce Pearl used injuries and poor play as the excuse.

ACC Last place Wake Forest seems to have found the scapegoat for all their problems..
http://is.gd/Qiq84x



Purdue beat Indiana and one of the broadcasters was Dan Dakich -- who called the game from a Hoosier cheerleader standpoint. It got kinda sickening after a while...
Indiana's Jordan Hulls is at times a tough player and helps keep IU in most games, but here are a few interesting comments about him from the Purdue players..
In an audio interview on the Purdue Rivals site, Boilermaker Kelsey Barlow says this about the Hoosiers' Hull...
"..Hulls isn't mentally tough and is a little kid that thinks he's hard."

At least Purdue fans didn't rush the court after their won over Indiana like the Hoosier fans would have done...

Perhaps the biggest story and mystery about this Purdue/Indiana game was that all time Indiana great Kent Benson was sitting in the exclusive seats right behind the PURDUE bench wearing a Purdue jacket...this really stumps and enrages Hoosier fans!!
http://is.gd/6JCaQ6
http://is.gd/0TxSRh

What I don't get is all this drooling that some people, message board posters, and announcers are doing over Indiana and the job Tom Crean is doing...
remember - he has an entire roster of 3-Star and 4-Star players, he's had top recruiting classes, Indiana has always enjoyed tremendous fans support & crowds and home court advantage, and STILL they have only won THREE conference games (all at home) and may not do any better by the end of the season....
Hey, they won FOUR conference games last year and were supposed to be BETTER this year -- and the BIG TEN has proven itself to be far weaker than anyone expected...so is THREE conference wins by Tom Crean really evidence of doing anything??


One of the recruits Crean locked in on early for 2011..
was Austin Etherington....
probably at the time he locked in on Etherington - he thought that might be the best he can do...
But in the meantime he's now landing 5-star kids like Cody Zeller, Ferrell, Perea...
and even tho Etherington was long ago rated as high as 4-star -- everyone in the US now knows this kid is mid-major caliber at best...
Rivals has rightfully dropped the kid back to 3-Star
http://is.gd/UnU3tx

But-- read about how over the weekend, his team, Hamilton Heights, played an obscure opponent Maconaquah...and Etherington struggled mightily...
missing all 10 of his 3-pointers...and his team lost 73-67...and now has a 2-game losing streak...
"Austin Etherington (Hamilton Heights): Hamilton
Heights fell to Maconaquah, 73-66, on Feb. 4. No
official stats were reported, but did receive a report
that Etherington shot just 3-of-15 from the field.
(Update: Finished with 15 points according to
commenter LDIU.)"

"..missed all 10 of his three-pointers in 73-67 loss
at Maconaquah on Friday night."

Etherington gets only 15-16 points a game -- kind of amazingly low for a BCS/Big Ten caliber SHOOTING GUARD recruit on a team playing fairly weak and small school opponents!!
Hamilton Heights is 4A in Indiana and they lost to Tipton (2A) last week --
http://is.gd/rOJtV5

There's even a report that Etherington is a troublemaker and starts fights on his OWN TEAM!!! Good luck TC - more of Devan Dumes and Jamarcus Ellis!
http://is.gd/bT6N69

....and almost everyone who has seen Etherington think he's at best a redshirt candidate...
http://is.gd/YfT91b

There's already a little sentiment that Crean ought to find a way to Jank Etherington and use the scholarship to bring in another big man -- as the combination of Pritchard/Elston/Bawa/Jobe/Michel simply haven't gotten it done and surely they don't think Cody Zeller is going to help that much immediately -- as neither of his brothers (Luke at Notre Dame & Tyler at UNC) did a danged thing their first couple years.


Meanwhile -- I think a lot of people missed on Justin Gant...out of Terre Haute, Indiana. He's been regularly putting up games like 25 points - 15 rebs
His team just lost to powerful Warren Central 61-58 and Davis had 22, Walter Offutt had 15 but Gant had 25 on 9-11..


Ex-BU recruit Leon Powell continues to put up big numbers for SEMO-
http://is.gd/3GwqDv


Nice story on John Shurna
http://is.gd/3FXvWP


Here's something I bet nobody knew...
Illinois' Bill Cole ranks #1 nationally in offensive rating..
...you have to scroll down a bit to "All Players"...on the Pomeroy rankings of individual player performance stats.....
#1 Bill Cole Illinois 6-9 215 Sr 141.6 (11.7)



Lastly -- after yesterday's blog entry on the center of the universe...a well known, well published physics professor pointed out to me that I had actually not even mentioned the single STRONGEST argument that places earth right at the exact center of the universe!

He rightfully noted that if you check "quantized red shift" and see that there's yet another well known fact among scientists, astronomers, and physicists that argue strongly against the generally held theories of how the universe began and how it currently exists...
http://is.gd/xBxgtZ
http://is.gd/TiPz0z

In fact, unless you adopt a creation mindset -- there is currently NO WAY to reconcile the quantization of the red shift...that everything is moving uniformly away from us -- everything.....thus the "red shift" which is related to the velocity that things are moving away from us....is precisely the same for all object at the same distance..
this cannot be explained by any concept other than that we are sitting right in the middle of everything -- or that it was simply created that way!!!!
http://is.gd/GQTH7b

Yet even scientists who scoff a the idea of creation or at the idea of us being at the center of the universe...all have to agree that is what it looks like...
that there are concentric shells of matter and light that center on US -- as if we are in the exact center of the entire universe...even though this writer immediately scoffs at that prospect as "impossible"
http://is.gd/S7NVth