News, player transfers, recruiting, NCAA violations, and other news...

Kind of a slow time -- the Bulls lost, so not much to talk about there, the AAU circuit is sort of on partial hiatus, the signing period is over .. and now that the school years are ending at colleges, we should see a few more kids being Creaned and Janked and moving on to transfer -- and that should be interesting....stay tuned....



Here's an aerial view of Joplin, Missouri this morning -- very sad and areas totally devastated...
Link



One of the only two returning players at St. John's is now leaving -- Dwayne Polee -- who obviously senses that St. John's head coach Steve Lavin has recruited over him...
Polee if you recall was recruited to and verballed to USC in 2006, way back when he was just an 8th grader and the USC head coach Tim Floyd (pre-OJ Mayo scandal-days) was aggressively pursuing 12-13 year olds...
Then Tim Floyd hired Polee's father on his coaching staff -- which I am sure is completely coincidental to the recruitment of the top qwest coast kid...
(of course as soon as Tim Floyd was ushered out at USC, then Polee, Jr. decommitted, guess what happened to Polee, Sr. - yup - he was "ushered out at USC as well).

There was a time Polee was ranked as Top 10 in his class but he never developed as predicted...
His recruitment at about the same time as Ryan Boatright's produced calls for curbing of recruiting pre-high schoolers, but obviously nobody's listening.
Link

BTW -- just for laughs -- here are the words from Oct. 18, 2006 when Polee verballed before ever playing a high school game...
"..While some will assume that Polee’s commitment may not last for the next three-plus years until he is allowed to sign a letter-of-intent to play for Tim Floyd and the Trojans, the 14-year-old and his parents are nearly certain.

``We’re excited,” said Polee’s father, Duane, who played for UNLV and Pepperdine when he was in college. “He really wanted to stay at home and USC is a good fit for him. He feels very comfortable with Tim Floyd.”
.."He’s only 14, but Dwayne knows what he wants,” said Yolanda Polee, Dwayne’s mother. “He likes the education USC has to offer and we’ve always talked to him about education and being focused.”
``Being at home and being at a school like USC, he’ll stay focused,” she added. “If he needs us, we’re right here.”
..but of course he wasn't so certain....
Link

Rumor has him landing at San Diego State...



Malcolm Hill of Belleville is a 6-5 wing who is blowing up -- lots of big schools now pursuing him including the Illini...
"He's hoping to make visits to Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio State this summer.."
Link



Top Chicago freshman Jahlil Okafor visited Arkansas over the weekend and picked up an offer -- kinda leaving a lot of Big Ten schools in the dust!
Link



You probably saw the discussion on the Iowa State assistant who committed NCAA violations...
See here -- scroll down a bit...

This all happened and the violations occurred and were known two years ago but kept secret!
It took n "open records request" and 2 full years time, but the Associated Press was able to discover something that Iowa State tried very hard to keep secret- that an assistant coach for Iowa State under Greg McDermott in 2009 was suspended for 2 games after he was found to have committed an NCAA violation.
http://amestrib.com/articles/2011/05/20/ames_tribune/sports/doc4dd6902309e11578293536.txt

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110520/SPORTS020604/110520006/1091/SPORTS02/Iowa-State-suspended-assistant-basketball-coach-2-games

Even now it seems the Iowa State people are absolutely refusing to answer questions, so none of the articles ever mentions who the player was that received improper benefits, and who the assistant coach was who violated the rules. All 3 assistant coaches who were on Greg McDermott's staff in 2009 are still on the staff of Fred Hoiberg now, so it shouldn't be too hard to ask around and find out, but the truth is being guarded like a classified government secret!

Iowa State still has not made a public statement on this issue.
"It's not our standard procedure to announce all disciplines (of staff and/or students) publicly"
“Personnel and student records have disclosure limitations"

Wow -- sounds like a Watergate scenario..nobody's talking to the press, and yet we're talking a cheating issue here at the MAJOR STATE university!!
If this had happened at Bradley (especially if it had happened under Jim Les!), the self-righteous pseudo-fans & press would be ripping Bradley apart and calling for the death penalty like they did with the hysteria that followed the DRuff and underage consumption issues.
Iowa State is far more renegade... ;)



Here's a story about money issues in the California State system -- especially as it impacts UC-Davis...
Link

Can someone please get me a hankie to cry into -- OMG -- this story says that the wasteful and irresponsible spending at state schools is going to have to be curbed!! They won't simply have the taxpayers' pockets to reach into and get endless cash to help float their sports programs...there will be budget cuts!!
They are actually going to have to be accountable and fiscally responsible and maybe even tighten their belts and raise money with their own efforts instead of grabbing it from hard working state taxpayers!

OMG -- in other words they are going to have to do what PRIVATE colleges have been doing for decades!!



Purdue releases their non-conference schedule...lots of pretty weak teams...
Northern State and Southern Indiana (exhibitions), Northern Illinois, High Point, Coppin State, Western Carolina, Eastern Michigan, and IPFW to go with Butler, Xavier, Miami, and a couple teams in Puerto Rico (including Wichita State)..
Link



The ReachUSA team that's touring China has now completed four games...
and with one game ending ni a tie and no OT played, the record thus far is 2-1-1...
Here are the scoring totals for the only MC player on the tour...

Justin Bocot - beginning to given them solid contributions...
Game 1 - 1-11, 3 pts;
Game 2 - 5-10, 10 pts;
Game 3 - 6-11, 14 pts;
Game 4 - 4-10, 9 pts;




Some people are already doing 2011-2012 preseason previews...
here's one for the Missouri Tigers and their new head coach Frank Haith...
http://www.sbrforum.com/ncaa-basketball/free-picks/missouri-tigers-2011-2012-ncaa-basketball-season-preview-a-19989/

And Pitt - Link

And Kentucky - Link

Nebraska - Link

these previews are all courtesy of a sports betting website...