Jalen, Shayok, and lots more...

Yup -- spotters were right on ... as it has been confirmed and is even in Dave Reynold's blog this morning that both Jalen Crawford and Shayok Shayok were visting on Bradley's campus this weekend...

Here is the recruiting info on Shayok if you didn't already know about him -- out of Chicago, ex-teammate at Julian HS of Walt Lemon, but at IMG in Bradenton, FL.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18471

Here's even more on Shayok...
http://blog.imgacademies.com/2011/02/25/five-minutes-getting-to-know-shayok-shayok/

And of course the info on Jalen Crawford is here--
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2011/04/recruit-visiting-bradley-and-more.html

and here..
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18456

I am told they both met with and played ball with some of the other players and generally had a great time.


A couple things that seems apparent are that Geno is picking right up on recruiting using the recruiting files already amassed by Jim Les and his staff. Shayok has been on Bradley's radar for months and Jalen actually got his offer almost a month ago...as confirmed by his mom's own tweet...
http://twitter.com/#!/sportsmomsinc/status/49418557729157120

Bradley just isn't likely to ever be easily able to land the blue chippers being a small school in Peoria, but it is nice that Geno sees talent and recognizes it along with the heart and hustle it takes to play at this level. He has recruited fine players at Kent State, and I am confident he'll continue that trend here. Recruiting at a mid-major isn't just seeing the obvious talent that everyone else sees -- since those kids that impress everyone are going to get so many other offers it'll be hard for us to land them. Nope -- you need to be able to spot the great kids that get few offers...the kids like Sammy, Andrew Warren, DSE, POB, DRuff, Remy, etc.....
I am still hopeful of some very good news on this front soon.


If BU can land Crawford it will continue a tradition of NBA connections...
Jalen's two brothers, Joe & Jordan, have both played in the NBA.
BU currently has one player whose dad played in the NBA, one whose dad is an NBA coach, an ex-head coach who was an NBA player, another player whose high school claims as an alum the Bulls' Carlos Boozer, FOUR ex-players from Bradley currently in the NBA or D-League (Chris Roberts, Patrick O'Bryant, Danny Granger, and Anthony Parker), and even one recent player whose dad coached NBA players..
..not to mention that JC and AW got some looks & tryouts from the NBA.


As far as BU naming another assistant, Greg Graham who was mentioned is also waiting to see who gets the UC-Davis head coaching job where he interviewed -- but then Jim Les interviewed there also. Obviously if Graham gets that job he won't be coming to Bradley -- and in the meantime Geno has to keep interviewing and has probably put the final selection on hold to see what happens "elsewhere".


Bad news on the recruiting front is that a couple different sources say Remy Abell is seeking his release and may not be at Bradley. This would be a tremendous loss and perhaps the biggest and most damaging piece of fallout since the news that Sammy was leaving. Remy is widely recognized to have high major talent and is being pursued like Shelvin Mack was....in fact, Butler is said to be really hard after Remy just in case Mack goes pro.

One other thing -- it was rumbled that maybe Chris Evans -- top juco SF who was verballed to Kent State - might change his verbal and come to BU. But he has now signed his Letter of Intent to Kent State and is off the board.


Bradley baseball has yet to be able to sustain their really good start now that the conference season has started...
Yesterday the Braves lost a doubleheader to ISU 4-1, and 12-2 - and BU falls to 19-14 overall and only 1-4 in the MVC, after a nice start of 14-6.
ISU - whose head coach is Mark Kingston - the guy who almost became the BU head coach and who was BU's top candidate until the final hire was made, runs their record to 23-10 and 3-2 in the MVC. Ouch......


Here's a really great comment from the mother of Josh Selby - Kansas freshman who is leaving and going to the NBA.
This is from Josh's mother who is talking about Bill Self and Kansas -- yes the same Kansas team that repeatedly gets thumped out of the NCAA by the Bradley's and UNI's of college basketball...
Here's the quote and you gotta love the candor...and her defense of her son...
"If a coach doesn’t win games he’s supposed to does that mean that he can’t coach? It saddens me that people forget that he (Josh) was KU’s seconds leading scorer before his injury and now all of a sudden he can’t play or is overrated..."
http://theshiver.com/2011/04/selby-not-returning-to-kansas/



Did you see this -- how really stupid the people in the Postal Service are??
They put out a stamp with a picture of the Statue of Liberty, then only after the stamp is already out there in wide circulation, it is discovered that the picture isn't of the Statue of Liberty at all.
It is actually a picture of a Las Vegas casino....you know, the one with the mock Statue of Liberty in front!
You'd think the post office people would just admit their really stupid mistake and get on with it, but no....
They compound their incredible ignorance with an official statement that this whole fiasco isn't their fault, and anyway -- they like the picture so much that they would have chosen it even had they known it was NOT the actual Statue of Liberty!!
You gotta wonder how these people ever get the mail to anyone with people at the top of tha chain of command like this!!
http://www.americanbankingnews.com/2011/04/15/wrong-statue-of-liberty-graces-new-stamp/


Fact- no sources of Bradley basketball info are so repeatedly copied and pasted as BradleyFans & the Braves Blogger....ongoing proof that others follow the leaders.....

...and 0800: 88-4