Lots of interesting basketball tidbits for a slow day.....

Nathan Taphorn will make another visit to Illinois this weekend - confirmed by several sources...
http://twitter.com/#!/ILLINI_INSIDER/status/84285037872291840
http://twitter.com/#!/CollegiateHoops/status/84284131223150592



Some good players like Jacob Pullen, Demetri McCamey, Jereme Richmond, Kalin Lucas, Scotty Hopson -- went undrafted along with Andrew Warren -- now they can be free agents......



In the FIBA Americas U16 Tournament - Canada lost to Puerto Rico but Shayok Shayok's brother Marial Shayok was again the stud for Canada scoring 17 pts and grabbing 6 rebs.



Remember Duane Broussard -- intimately involved in the tampering with Danny Granger in 2003 and Granger's transfer to New Mexico. He has since been and remained a low-level assistant -- actually not even an assistant but the Director of Basketball Operations (DBO) at New Mexico under Steve Alford.
But now there's a report that at least he did have one recent new job offer...and is now doing a little bit better....

New head coach at lowly Fresno State, Rodney Terry, offered Duane Broussard a low level assistant spot on the Fresno State staff. It might have actually been a higher level on the staff than being DBO anywhere, but hey -- it's still Fresno State. However -- the job actually had the word "coach" attached to it instead of "DBO"...so Broussard was gonna take it -- as was reported by Jeff Goodman (then of FoxSports). - LINK

But -- after mulling it over - it was still pretty obvious that being the bottom rung on the ladder at New Mexico as DBO was probably still a better thing that even being head coach at bottom feeder Fresno State (anyone ever been to Fresno would know what I mean), so Broussard ended up turning the offer down and making a liar out of nationally respected Jeff Goodman....

Anyway -- about that same time, one of the New Mexico assistants left, as well-connected, ex-AAU kingpin and part-time movie actor Wyking Jones was hired away to be an assistant at Louisville. So, in the end Duane moves one little notch uip the ladder and now takes the next assistant spot at New Mexico and everyone else moves up a notch.
http://fresnobeehive.com/sportsbuzz/2011/04/broussard_accepts_job_as_unm_a.html#storylink=misearch


One more thing about Duane Broussard -- his actions in getting Danny Granger to bolt from Bradley and land at New Mexico -- set in action a series of terrible occurrences that resulted in head coach Ritchie McKay finally getting canned in 2007. After a flash of success with Danny Granger as a senior -- making McKay's only NCAA appearance with Granger -- here are just a few things that happened causing some New Mexico fans to nickname the events following the stealing of Bradley's best player as the "curse of Danny Granger"..

-when New Mexico did finally get to the NCAA tournament, they were not only one-and-done, their only game was a massive embarrassment of record proportions. They played Villanova in their only NCAA game and got pummelled so badly that fans walked out en masse at halftime!!! The Lobos managed only 11 points in the first half trailing 34-11 even though Villanova played one of their worst games ever -- shooting only 28% for the game and turning the ball over 20 times and yet New Mexico never threatened afterwards - allowing 'Nova to cruise to victory.

-a tremendous series of bad injuries, player departures, arrests, bar fights, dope crimes, transfers in and out, ineligibilities, horrible ISU-like softie schedules, and even player suicides followed - as well as worsening team play and sub-.500 records caused attendance at their famed "Pit" to drop by thousands to all time lows!!! Peolpe began clammoring for Ritchie to be fired less than just 2 seasons after they were celebrating their NCAA appearance.

-finally when things got so bad by 2007, rumors of McKay getting fired caused several of New Mexico's recruits to back out of their commitments -- and two of them went on to incredible careers elsewhere.... Mickey McConnell was the Player of the Year in the West Coast Conference in 2011 and the star for St. Mary's during their NCAA runs. Ty Abbott went on to a tremendous career at Arizona State and unanimous 1st Team All Conference status in the Pac-10.
Reggie Huffman also bolted from UNM and went to UAB...

I think it can safely be said that the minute, temporary success McKay had with Granger couldn't come close to offsetting the downside of tragic and disastrous events that followed - and the loss of the ALL CONFERENCE caliber players they would have had, culminating in him getting canned and never being successful again as a head coach!
Karma........

BTW -- in 2007 one of the TWO top finalists for the New Mexico job before it went to Steve Alford, was SIU's Chris Lowery -- so think back and remember how hot of a commodity Lowery was -- and how far he's fallen as well....



Wichita State has a guy coming in this year who will at least be honorable mention for the All Name team...
http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2011/06/23/the-new-and-correct-pronunciation-for-shocker-freshman/



Kent State released their non-conference schedule...and it's safe to say they didn't try to schedule Bradley -- at least not 'til after the lawsuit is settled...
it's actually a really CRAPPY schedule...
A guarantee game at West Virginia is the only thing close to a highlight, but regular season games against teams such as Alcorn State, Texas-Arlington, Arkansas State, a home game against some school they call "Louisiana" (no explanation of who this is but it's a home game and the fact the aren't bragging about it strongly says it is not LSU -- and since they played Louisiana-Monroe last year, that's who it likely is), and even D-II Shawnee State are some pretty bad "lowlights" in this non-conference slate.
http://www.kentstatesports.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/releases/20110621qz283l



Speaking of Kent State this guy who writes a legal blog says Kent State is likely to win their lawsuit against the ex-coach and Bradley --
http://ctsportslaw.com/2011/06/23/kent-state-sues-former-basketball-coach-bradley-university-over-departure/



Hilltopics has a couple articles on Geno Ford and the new players--
http://www.bradley.edu/about/publications/hilltopics/2011summer/ford/
http://www.bradley.edu/about/publications/hilltopics/2011summer/extras/ford/



Can someone give an explanation of this odd tweet by a guy quoting ISU head coach Tim Jankovich??
http://twitter.com/#!/lcm1986/status/83748199176736768



IBCA All Star games are this weekend...
Boys Games...June 25th 2011 at the Shirk Center
1A /2A North Vs. 1A/2A South at 5 pm
3A /4A North Vs. 3A/4A South at 7 pm



With all the hype over a decade about the NBA chances of Mac Koshwal .. in the end he signed with a 2nd tier pro team in the Canary Islands, played a handful of games, averaged only 7 pts, often going scoreless....did manage to grab 4.5 rebounds per game but hit only 44% of his free throws, and was cut before the season ended.
There are several Spanish language articles that can be found regarding the situation, but I don't wish to quote them since they are not very complimentary...



A couple players BU fans were interested in Corey Hawkins and Markus Crider -- have still not announced their transfer destinations....



LA Laker Ron Artest is legally changing his name to METTA WORLD PEACE...
Nobody really quite knows why -- or what the "Metta" part of this silly name means - although it's got some speculating.
I will not be one of the ones speculating as I never really care what mindless things people do in this regards - more power to him..
or should I say "Peace to him"...http://rapfix.mtv.com/2011/06/24/rapping-ron-artest-changing-his-name-to-metta-world-peace/