Jim Les is NEW head coach at UC-Davis, News on Devon Hodges, and more...

UC-Davis has hired Jim Les as their new head coach. What a great opportunity and Jim gets to coach his own son Tyler who is already at UC-Davis.

Word of UCD going hard after Jim Les was coming out late yesterday and was noted in this blog, then the first mention of it anywhere on any message board or publicly was this post at 8:35AM today...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=229641#post229641

There were a few tweets overnite such as this one around midnight last night -- but he may have got it from this blog...!
http://twitter.com/#!/drink21/status/66016006857949184

Then it hit the wires....
http://twitter.com/#!/goodmanonfox/status/66130983245721600

Then a couple quick phone calls to good sources and it was confirmed and then this thread, already with nearly 1000 views, was started up on BradleyFans...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18565

Then later it was showing up elsewhere -- again mostly being copied and pasted from sources that already existed... ;)

Now it'll be interesting to see who he hies as his assistants....I have to think calls will go out to Yuba College coach Doug Cornelius, that'll help instantly with local recruiting. Then look for Kyle Vogt and other familiar names to get calls, including some midwestern or Illinois AAU people. I know Jim would like to have Eric Buescher, but EB is now doing WELL and has a really great job and probably lifetime career position with State Farm -- one of the world's largest corporations -- so he will probably stay put.


The local press now has a story about Devon Hodges visiting Bradley -- but this has been the subject of conversation for several days here and on the private site as well as the twitter...
Remember -- it was predicted three days ago he will land at BU.... ;)
Link



Here's some interesting news from SIU....as noted elsewhere they are still going hard after juco kids even though they have had a half dozen on their roster the past year or so...

With the latest signing of Monroe juco T.J. Lindsay and the transfer of Wyoming guard Desmar Jackson, SIU is, on paper, over the scholarship limit. It is obvious that at least one and probably TWO players are goners.....
Their fans think the 2 that are leaving are 2 of last year's jucos Mychael Cleveland and Troy Long. Those are the guys who were in trouble along with Gene Teague for harassing other students and shooting them with pellet guns.
There is no official announcement from SIU or Lowery yet.
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewforum.php?f=1
http://www.salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35729&sid=6ab8808e21505b77e26a2a987de40daa

From what's known about T.J. Lindsay, he seems like a lesser version of Jeff Early....who just visited Bradley and who Bradley will probably pass on....
Both Early and SIU's Lindsey play for Monroe in the Bronx...
But Lindsay only averages 7 ppg to Early's 14. They both shoot 28% from three, and BOTH shoot only 50-60% from the T line...
I just don't see how this kid helps Lowery, as he seems less developed or accomplished as the players he's replacing....seriously a 7 ppg scorer??

And here's a funny thing........
This is the official release and announcement from SIU about the signing of Lindsay from Monroe....
Note in the last paragraph, they seem to be a bit confused or don't know his name as they mistakenly refer to him as "Monroe". Apparently, after a few days, nobody has noticed the mistake -- so they must not have proofreaders!
http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/050411aaa.html

Lowery is just replacing juco backups with other juco backups in a cycle that seems never-ending -- almost as if he can't get any decent or known high school or prep recruits interested in SIU or Carbondale...


The player turnover at SIU has been tremendous -- likely NO OTHER D-I has had as many players bolting and being janked...
Link
Link

And that's almost 20 players bolting or being sent packing over the past couple years under Chris Lowery at SIU.



ISU head coach Tim Jankovich took time the past few days...to go to Charlotte, NC to work with Liberty University's head coach Dale Layer at the "2011 Charlotte Development Forum Coaches Clinic by Coach Layer".
Layer is well known in the Charlotte area as he got his start as a head coach at Queens University of Charlotte.


Some other news...

Cuonzo Martin says he doesn't expect Tennessee star Tobias Harris to remain at Tennessee.

Both MSU's Paul Lusk and SIU's Chris Lowery took time off and were at the Cardinals game last night...Link

Indiana State's Greg Lansing headlines a clinic this weekend..
Link


Illini podcast talks about Sammy and his leadership...