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.