Geno's getting it done, Bradley fans show their passion, maybe a Chat soon, and lots more...

I just spoke with a friend who has the right connections and I can assure you new head coach Geno Ford has hit the ground in Peoria running...although this week he's been working his butt off trying to get some recruiting done and fill at least one spot that is likely to be open.....I am still anticipating some very good news on this front shortly....and there may yet be some bad news, but I hope not.

Geno is making plans and is meeting virtually every available day in Peoria with boosters, donors, and friends of the program, as well as doing the player workouts and getting some recruiting in as well. One thing that impresses the new head coach is the passion and the size of the Bradley fan base. Kent State has good fans but they all but disappear in the off season...and even for good rivalry games they draw only a couple thousand.
Geno knows that Bradley basketball is still the HOT topic even in what is otherwise the off-season elsewhere. Coach Ford is coming to find out that the Bradley fans
don't see Bradley basketball as a seasonal thing, they are passionate all year round. News coverage, fan interest, message board activity...all are amazingly active. Let me give you some examples....

Back when the season was actually in full swing, and even on game days for Bradley basketball -- there still sometimes was not even an article in the local newspaper. And other than game reports, we went weeks without any decent coverage of various happenings. But now there's something almost every day covering Bradley basketball. So if Geno has accomplished anything yet -- it appears he is the new sweetheart of those who cover Bradley basketball.

In the past when a new Bradley basketball coach was hired, we saw hit pieces, references to his lack of experience, stories about who should have been hired,
and lots of negatives.....those negatives somewhat continued right up until recently, but now we have a few more positives. I hope it lasts it's nice to finally see a little positive coverage.

Also the BradleyFans message board is having one of the busiest months of April.....usually a slow month after the playing season is done. All you need
to do is see the front page to realize there's well over 100 people online - some hours as many as 150 - all day long starting as early as 6AM!! And here's a newsflash....the views and page hits are at all time high as lots of people are viewing and apparently reading every post! BradleyFans passed the 5 million hits-per-month pace a year ago and has never looked back....that's what surprises the heck out of me! Some months they hit 8 mil hits per month - so it is no surprise that they went to adding some space ads because at that rate it really pays off!

When the PJ Star was spinning their decision to charge for page views, they revealed that their traffic is on the order of about 50-60 million page views or hits per year. That was for the entire PJ Star.com web site, the message boards, the news items, sports, obits, opinions, ads, etc......
Wow -- that means a BradleyFans message board that doesn't promote itself or get anyone else to promote it gets more traffic than the ENTIRE PJ Star web site -- the entire freakin site!!!

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1302184582/JS-website-launches-paid-format-today

Of course, after they start charging then their number of page hits is going to take a hit -- as people are not going to pay for material they can easily get for free elsewhere, including the local message boards. One other thing of note is the incredible difference in activity between BradleyFans and all the other similar message boards. (although there really is nothing similar with the info, breaking news stories, and content of substantial interest that BF's has)

The ratio of how active they are is almost always 10:1 over any other remotely similar board....check for yourself...just now I checked myself and the ratio was 113:11...yup more than 10-to-1 when compared to the only other central Illinois basketball board...but then even 80% of their traffic is just people talking about what is on BradleyFans.....even Dancing with the Stars doesn't get talked about the next day as much as what's said in this blog and on BradleyFans gets rehashed for days to come on other boards.
And also compare to the ISU fan board (they had 12 online but only one registered user).


All this proves Bradley basketball is alive and well despite all the negativity that has prevailed for months...the whines about declining attendance, the personal attacks on the players and coaches, and even other fans, and the lack of positive coverage by the media. Let's all get behind Geno - I know I am...and plan to get to know him...when I meet him again...and there are a couple of events coming up soon....

AND -- There is another potential BU event coming up soon -- hopefully another chat with either Dr. Cross or the new head coach! Can't wait.....stay tuned....



Since we were on the issue of racism in some recent blog entries......what's with the free pass some get on slurs...??
There was relatively little public outcry about the slur Kobe Bryant used although I applaud the NBA for at least giving Kobe & the Lakers a token fine for it...

You'd think the GLBT community would be outraged -- but oddly most were not -- just token comments and this...
They have invited Kobe to a gay basketball game....they love the guy!!

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/basketball/kobe-bryant-invited-to-gay-and-lesbian-basketball-league/story-e6frfgbf-1226039465431

In a similar vein -- Kareem Abdul Jabbar was giving a talk about how racism kept some of the very best players out of basketball for many years...
when he was hit with a question about the UConn women's basketball winning streak and how it passed the UCLA streak of 88 consecutive games.

Jabbar gave a simple and reasonable answer..
"I don't think the two [records] are equal. That's why they have women's sports"

and he's 100% right -- if the women want their records to be equal to the men's records, then let them compete head to head vs. men in the men's sports and see if they can beat 88 consecutive men's teams...
Even the women would scoff at this...knowing washed up 66 year old hags like Bobby Riggs - who wasn't even among the top 1,000,000 men's tennis players in the world, once baited the top two women tennis players into matches and beat one while giving the other a tough match!

But this is also why high school records are kept separate from college records and why senior citizen times in the local marathon are reported separate from the rest of the times....it is because the two levels of competition ARE different...
only an absolute ignoramus would argue otherwise...

Yet, there are women's sports apologists took offense to Jabbar's comments...
read what they said...

http://www.hofstrachronicle.com/news/abdul-jabbar-excites-and-offends-audience-1.2168673

Speaking of the issues of race and discrimination and basketball...
Here's a real gem -- the "Jews vs. Catholics basketball game" -- should be a real battle!!! Of course everyone realizes it is just for fun -- but watch -- someone will make a race issue out of it...

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/jews-vs.-catholics-basketball-game-seeks-to-bring-back-lapsed-believers/

IPFW coach Dane Fife went for interviews for the head coach spot at Eastern Michigan, and for the assistant spot at Purdue & Michigan State...and made it known widely --
...the guy knows how to play the press but he didn't get any of the jobs..


Purdue learned a lesson that the Coca Cola people learned when they tried to jam "New Coke" down everyone's throat....
they developed a new mascot, it was widely ridiculed and people hated it ..and now the new one has been dumped and they're going back to the old on....

http://illinihq.com/news/misc/2011/04/14/welcome_back_purdue_pete

Both Coach Kirk Whiteman & Kiel Turpin of Lincoln College have received national honors...

http://www.lincolncourier.com/sports/college/x1274023657/Lynxs-Turpin-Whiteman-earn-postseason-honors

More on the Kansas ticket scandal

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/665909-kansas-jayhawks-ticket-scandal-is-nothing-new-in-college-basketball-today

Funny how almost nobody ever connects the dots and gives any of the blame to the AD, Lew Perkins -- they sure would in some places...
Lew Perkins does seem to bear some guilt as he was in charge while this stuff was going on right under his nose.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/apr/14/former-ku-athletics-ticket-official-charlette-blub/?breaking

More on Kansas -- Bill Self is losing almost all of his team and will kinda start from scratch next year....freshman Josh Selby is leaving for the draft,
...but even Bill Self hints that Josh Selby is a D-League prospect right now....


Memphis signs Stan Simpson - time will tell how badly the Illini missed on this guy...

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/sports/tigers/memphis-basketball-announces-signing-of-stan-simpson-mfo-20110414

http://blogs.commercialappeal.com/the_memphis_edge/2011/04/juco-center-stan-simpson-signs-with-memphis-today.html