Congrats to Max and Clearing Up Some Misconceptions

I have enjoyed watching Max Bielfeldt play basketball since he was a freshman. I think I can easily say what I like best about watching him play -- his level of effort. He's not always the tallest guy out there, nor can he jump highest, or shoot with the most accuracy...but exceedingly rare was the game where Max failed to score 20 and grab 10 rebounds.
He worked as hard as anyone I have seen at the high school level, and despite some opinions he DOES have the talent to go with that effort.
In Max' freshman and sophomore seasons at Notre Dame few if any ever said he'd be playing in college. But by Max' junior year the comments about whether he'd play in college started and have never stopped. The prevailing opinion has always been that he was a low level college player. He'd never get a D-I offer or never play at D-I.
Well, Max has proved most of those claims wrong and now he's about to head to Michigan and prove the rest of them wrong.
Congratulations to Max -- I will become a Michigan fan now....



Misconceptions might be just a kind way to say mistakes...even some bad mistakes and dumb mistakes...that have been made since the firing of Bradley head coach Jim Les. In yesterday's blog entry I detailed the things that have happened..and yet there are strangely some who doubt and deny every report....but then those same people turn right around and lap up everything said by the local press as if that means it came from their own Wikipedia entry (which of course in their minds is proof positive of veracity).

Let me give just a handful of examples, but some are downright laughable.
Just yesterday the very first confirmation was made that Scott Sutton was interviewed. This confirmation was made in the form of a message board post on BradleyFans citing a source named SportsbyBrooks, and claiming that Scott Sutton had indeed interviewed and turned down an offer of $725,000.
Honestly, I don't know for 100% that this is true, but that goes for everything on message boards -- virtually NOTHING is verifiable to a 100% degree of certainty.
But then...it is just a report and it is left for the reader or fan to decide if he wants to believe it or not.

Well..as is generally the case with anything said on a message board -- a few people filter out of the woodwork - many who are new names or people who rarely post except to complain or call someone else a liar...
and the attacks began....even some rants that sounded like crazed Wisconsin union workers!!!
I have no problem with that either -- believe what you want, but then those same people turn to the Peoria Journal Star as gospel and get riled up to the nth degree if anyone dares claim the PJ Star is in error.

Well -- it just doesn't get any funnier than this...guess what shows up on the front page of today's Peoria Journal Star Sports Section?
If you wanted to design the biggest Jay-Leno-type laughs, you'd design a column where the PJ Star says exactly what the "disputed" message board post said and then the PJ Star uses SportsbyBrooks to back it up!

Ha, ha and that's precisely what has happened.
The PJ Star states...
"on Friday, a sports website, SportsbyBrooks, reported..."
then the column goes into the detail of how Scott Sutton was indeed interviewed for the Bradley position, and he turned it down..then they cite SportsbyBrooks to even say that now, since Missouri has also declined to interview or hire Sutton, that he may be interested in the BU position once again!
I won't hold my breath to see those who ranted and wailed about the use of SportsbyBrooks on the message board -- in hopes of seeing those same people stay consistent and take the local paper to task....nope --

But let's take a look at just a few more of the things that have been reported various places, even in the local press and by so-called experts that have since been undeniably refuted, and in most cases even RETRACTED...

-an entry on BradleyFans.com by one poster on 3/18 claimed that Bradley had interviewed Ray Giacoletti for the head coaching position.
Recall that Giacoletti, a Gonzaga assistant, still had team priorities as Gonzaga was still playing...and immediately after that claim was made -- it was refuted by a knowledgeable person who pointed out how silly it would be for Giacoletti to take time away from coaching his team in the NCAA to interview at BU...so as they always do -- the false-rumor spreaders even enhanced their rumor to claim that Bradley personnel travelled to Denver to interview Giacoletti.
WELL - now we have word right from Giacoletti himself - who at one time said he was interested in the job, but who is quoted this morning as saying..
"That's totally false, I have had not one conversation with anybody from Bradley."

Now watch those guy take off with the "not one conversation" comment and claim well...that's because it was two conversations or was by e mail....will it never end??

-It was also reported locally in Peoria that Taylor Brown was fully released medically..and someone went with this on the message board. But in fact, this is NOT true....he has received some positive news from doctors, but he is not yet released to play -- and this was so wrong that Bobby Parker even came on to the message board to correct this one.

-Then there was the local newspaper report that Bradley had OFFERED Max Bielfeldt which was a pretty odd report given that at the time BU supposedly offered they didn't even have a head coach. Later a report retracted that claim and tried to clear it up.

-There were a few reports that Dan Monson was interviewed...but he was NOT interviewed and he said so himself. Monson said NO to the Bradley head coaching position flatly and didn't want to even bother with an interview. There are some pretty strong reasons why Monson turned the position down so powerfully and we can get into it later -- but it's what a lot of people seem to not want to hear ---

-Then there have been conflicting and erroneous reports of what the salary will be that Bradley is offering....some reports said $250-400K, some higher, some in the $500K range, and now we are seeing reports in the $700-$725K range...
Can all these reports be true?? Or is it just possible some are just fabricated and the rest represent poorly done homework.

-then there's the report that Bradley had so many candidates that wanted the job so terribly badly that it would only be a heartbeat before we had a new coach in place at Bradley.
This wasn't supposed to take long at all. This IS a great job and barring any other complications, then for what they are offering (if it's in the $500-700K range -- then top candidates ought to be banging down the doors to get this position. Instead, candidates seem to be fleeing and turning down the position as if it required working in a leper colony! Gotta wonder why -- could a few of the reports that fit this scenario actually be true?? Could there be some problem that top coaches and candidates see that some Bradley fans either can't see or do see and are unwilling to acknowledge? And what's behind their unwillingness to acknowledge?? Is it the fear -- the spine chilling fear that they might have to agree with those who have said all along that Jim Les deserved at least another year and that those who wanted him out with a vengeance and at ANY COST may have created the very environment and situation where we are paying the cost that was not fully considered....and that it will indeed BE very hard to get a top replacement for head coach now....stuff that cannot be undone are the complicating factors!
You decide........but you sure won't know what's going on reading the local media reports given that so many have been wrong and since retracted.



Lastly here's a couple examples of what other sports writers are saying about Bradley
http://twitter.com/Tom101010/status/51637779985219584

http://www.csnchicago.com/03/21/11/Kaplan-Predictions-for-Sweet-16-games/kapman_article.html?blockID=445594&feedID=661