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!