Props to Sammy, Drew, & Dodie, and some other basketball news items...

Just want to take a little more time to say good bye and thank you to three great Bradley players who are leaving and will be very severely missed many times over....

Sammy Maniscalco -- was and is my favorite Bradley basketball player -- wish you well and Illini fans will appreciate what we will be missing.
And God bless to Carl & Coyla.....I have enjoyed our many conversations and I am in your corner 100% and will be cheering for you guys as long as Sammy plays basketball anywhere in the world...
If Jimmer can do it Sammy can too!!

Andrew Warren -- what great memories and what a pleasant kid and fun teammate to be around. Go get 'em at the next level -- and I hope you get a few NBA looks!!

Dodie Dunson -- Again -- can't say enough about what a fine personality and great attitude...I have enjoyed watching you play for your 2+ seasons at BU.
I am sure you don't recall this -- but way, way back when you were in like 5th grade -- my kids' summer basketball teams once in a while met up with your guys' teams over in Bloomington.
I really don't recall much more than the fact that I can still find your name and Justion's in some of our old scorebooks...and that your teams always beat ours.
God bless and have a great career...and I am sure I will see you occasionally since I sometimes work there, too!


The current Letter of Intent signing period ends tomorrow at midnight...
look for Bradley to NOT sign anyone else..but there may yet be a surprise....there's still a lot of great options and players out there.......


Today is the lottery determination of the draft order for the 2011 NBA Draft.
All non-playoff teams (the bottom 14 teams this past season who did not make the playoffs) have ping pong balls in the the lottery but the lower teams of course have way more--- with the odds of the worst NBA team (The Timberwolves) getting the 1st pick somewhere around 25%, and the Cavaliers around 20%.
Toronto (15.6%), Washington (11.9%) and Sacramento (7.6%) have the 3rd, 4th, and 5th best chances...


Kyle Vogt is now named as newly hired assistant to Jim Les at UC-Davis...Congrats Kyle...


BTW -- I find it totally ironic that just two months ago -- all the talk from coast to coast about who was the best and HOTTEST coaching commodity -- bound to be getting interviews everywhere, big time offers, etc...
was Rob Jeter.....he was clearly gonna be the NEXT midmajor guy to get hired ......yeah...right...

In the end, Jeter is still mired at UW-M..scouring the jucos for recruits, and wondering where their home arena is gonna be....
Something happened -- somehow after he got interviewed at each place he went -- then he dropped off the radar screen....

All the while Jim Les was pursued vigorously and hired by practically the very first school that found themselves with a head coaching opening after JL was fired...
I know UC-D isn't the same as UW-M -- but outside of Wisconsin, let me tell you, not a whole lot of people would know there's any difference...

As proof - note these three recent articles that describes Rob Jeter as...
".....Wisconsin-Green Bay's Rob Jeter" !!!!

They don't even know where the guy coaches!! It's as laughable as ESPN placing Peoria on a map of Indiana!!

http://www.news10.net/news/article/136641/362/Gary-Williams-stunning-retirement-leaves-Maryland-ACC-in-fluxhttp://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cbask/news/news.aspx?id=4400779http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uRGS1phmookJ:www.latimes.com/sports/sns-tsn-aen-trexler-column-20110506,0,6711243.story+%22Gary+Williams'+stunning+retirement+leaves+Maryland,+ACC+in+flux%22+and+%22la+times%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com


Florida Gulf Coast lands an Iowa State transfer -- 6-9 Eric Mcknight..
http://www.fgcuathletics.com/news/default/143/4291/


Chicago State University lands a big recruiting class -- seven new players -- including ex- Illinois State player Jeremy Robinson -- who was oft-troubled and under-productive at ISU.
http://www.gocsucougars.com/news/2011/5/17/MBB_0517110606.aspx
South Florida boots one of their top players, Ohio State transfer PG Anthony Crater...former 4-Star prep player from Michigan.
http://www2.tbo.com/sports/usf-bulls/2011/may/16/3/south-florida-basketball-team-dismisses-crater-ar-207886/


Finally the humor for the day -- at the expense of our President...
Barack Obama claims to be a basketball fan and expert...this is proof he's a little less expert than a lot of common fans...
In a speech yesterday he made reference to the legendary, great Kentucky coach as.....
ADOLPH RUFF.........instead of Adolph RUPP....
http://www.nationofblue.com/barack-obama-mentions-adolph-ruff-speech-uconn-7291/


BTW -- for those who have found the private Facebook -- I am no longer using that as it gets too cluttered with everyone else's posts on the wall....so I wanted just a simple way to post private info -- thus the new private twitter.....PM me to get on....