ISU lands more recruits - guards, oversigning, Remy, Yuba, Sammy, and a laffer...

I talked to a couple friends who are ISU fans and here's their take on ISU basketball....

First - on paper - ISU clearly had enough talent last year and still should have enough talent this year to be expected to finish way better than 9-10th place.
So what gives? How come they did so poorly when they had a contender for the preseason Player of the Year in Carmichael, solid clutch scorers such as Austin Hill, and new guys who competed for starting positions such as Ekey, Wilkins...and still were arguably the worst team in the league from start to finish...?

Well -- some think it is coaching, some think it is lack of leadership, and one reigning opinion is that the talent is being wasted because the kids all have poor work ethic.

Second -- Jank has said repeatedly both during the season and since, that he's going to ask someone to step up and be a player or they're gonna be gone....
In that vein -- he had so many different starting lineups last season and yet none seemed to produce consistently.

Here are some of the rumors I hear...
Jank has oversigned -- so someone currently on the roster is going to be gone soon....and the rumor is that they're going to be axed as soon as classes are over in a couple weeks.

Jank recently said this about the oversigning situation...
When asked about the over-recruiting --
"Jankovich had “no comment” when asked how the scholarship situation would be resolved. However, he confirmed it would be settled in the next month. This is the last week of classes in the spring semester at ISU before final examinations next week."
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_4c9451ce-6f53-11e0-8349-001cc4c03286.html

And on top of that it appears Jankovich may still be recruiting - meaning more than one current player could be gone.

Of the new players coming in -- they're all guards - many are very similar players - and now they have so many guards that it kinda leads you to figure who might be going to get axed -- or janked it you would...
It's gotta be a guard or someone who despite being 6-9 was billed as a guard and playing as a guard.

And the final question is why -- what are the issues -- and you can read between the lines of some of the knowledgable posters (if that isn't an oxymoron) on the ISU board....
that the kids goofed off way too much, had poor work ethic, and played video games when they should have been practicing.
One quote cites Jank saying the kids were slacking off...
"sitting around and playing video games"...

Some of the candidates for getting the axe, based on what happened during the past season, are as follows...Blue, Clark, Smith, Upshaw, Wilkins...but definitely not in that order of probability.

BTW -- the newest signee sounds like he's an academic risk....missing two of the last four seasons due to academics......
"Clark started his career at Cecil College in the 2008-09 season, averaging 7.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists. He then redshirted the next season for academic reasons, according to Brooks.
Clark sat out his senior season at Surrattsville High School in Clinton, Md., because of the county’s no failing grades rule, according to a story in the Gaithersburg (Md.) Gazette."

Regardless of what happens -- this is a pivotal year for Tim Jankovich. If he has another poor year his stock will plummet to rock bottom and everyone will say he only won because he had Porter Moser's players.
Personally I think they will be OK this year -- should be middle of the Valley and not bottom.



Speaking of oversigned...
Remy Abell got an offer from Indiana and Tom Crean -- even though they are way multiply oversigned for a couple years to come!

Remy's high school teammate Kameron Woods confirms the offer in his tweet..
http://twitter.com/#!/Kwoods30/status/62659747245076481

IU people seem to think he'll commit soon....but I still think he looks hard at Butler....
Hoosiers also wanted James Farr who committed to Xavier yesterday!


One of Yuba's top two players, 6-7 fwd Julian Scott signs with Southern Utah...
http://is.gd/U0QLss

The other one of Yuba's top players, Julian Welch signed with Minnesota & Tubby Smith
http://is.gd/MXxk2D



Hey -- Sammy gets great news upon arrival at University of Illinois!
he's going to be able to go along this August on the Illini's preseason exhibition tour...
to the nation of Sammy's heritage...ITALY!!!

Here's the news release from March 29 -- about the time Sammy was finalizing his transfer plans -- so wonder how much this trip to Italy was part of his decision??? ;)
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-03-29/sports/ct-spt-0330-illinois-basketball--20110329_1_illini-plan-jereme-richmond-bruce-weber



Lastly -- I saw yet one more post on another board again touting some obscure, small, east coast, low-mid-major assistant coach as a "great hire for Bradley"..
Seriously -- what's with this idiotic lust for unknown assistants from the Binghamtons of the world??? Tell me what benefit we're ever gonna get there???
Did we not just see a failed one-year experiment forced upon our basketball program of bringing in an obscure east coast assistant (as nice of a guy as he is...) then letting him recruit and land a player who never even saw the court?
When will the insanity end? Let's just get a good guy in place as head coach (done) and let him make these decisions.