BU recruit Ka'Darryl Bell and ...Peoria Dominates Team USA Basketball over the Years!

Point Guard Ka'Darryl Bell will be visiting Bradley this week - his visit is currently scheduled for Friday, Sept. 2.

Here are some clips about Ka'darryl from various sources who have seen him in action.

"Oak Park-River Forest's Ka'Darryl Bell plays his AAU ball with Full Package Elite. The coach of the latter is Sam Story who has this to say..

"Illinois..is starting to show interest in Ka'Darryl. In one of our games in Las Vegas last summer, I know Bruce (Weber) was there, Jerrance (Howard) was there, and I believe Jay Price was there briefly.
"I think he's starting to get more interest. Last year, his high school team had 6 or 7 seniors. So last year he went from a reserve to getting to play quite a bit. Now this year, he's the guy. I think he's still getting used to himself."

"Bell is about 5'-10" to 5'-11." If you look at him, you say that kid is really skinny. But he's actually built really well. His upper body and chest are ripped.
"He's a super quick, explosive athlete. He had quite a few dunks this summer. The first time he dunked on another team, the Iowa coaches saw it. The next day they offered him."

It appears Bell is a scoring point guard rather than a two-guard.

"He's got to work on his three point shooting, but he definitely is a point guard and not a combo. He definitely is a point guard who can get to the basket. He's super quick. He still needs to work on his handle, but he's got two really good moves. One, if he gets his hip on a kid, he can cut right to the basket. Even if a kid is in line for a blocked shot, he still doesn't get it.

"He also has a spin move and pull-up jumper that is very effective. That's definitely his best move. He can do it when he dribbles right and then spins back to his left for a pull-up, or he can go to his left and spin back right. He can do it every time, and he's been doing it all summer against really good competition."

A smaller point guard must be a good on-ball defender to attract high major interest. Story says Bell is an excellent defender.

"Ka'Darryl can play defense. He really does a good job on high ball screens. He does a nice job getting through the screen, either getting above it or beneath it. He's a good defender, great upper body strength. Super quick."

Illinois has also checked out Crete-Monee point guard Michael Orris....Story has seen both play.
.. I know they're interested in Michael Orris. I'm probably biased, but I think Ka'Darryl is a better player.

Besides Iowa, Bell has offers from Drake and Ohio, and Butler may be next.

Story enjoys coaching Full Package Elite..featuring Bell & Warren's Darius Paul"


"Class of 2012 Oak Park-River Forest star Ka'Darryl Bell of Full Package Athletics is seeing his recruiting stock skyrocket after a series of stellar July performances

Bell, a 5'10" point guard, is a jet-quick, strong and athletic floor leader who delivers with stellar penetration skills. ...and he now has a host of schools very hot on his trail including Iowa, Oregon State, Fairfield and Ohio University"


"....Bell has decent size for a point guard.... He’s quick but not out of control. .... Bell has good range and will knock down threes. When Bell gets into the lane, he can finish with a floater or a nice jump stop"


"Bell has a basketball scholarship offer from Iowa and as you might expect, it's a school he is thinking long and hard about right now.
In addition to Iowa, Bell currently holds scholarship offers from Drake and Ohio. He is receiving interest from Boston College, Florida State, Butler, and Wichita State."




Having once proved that Peoria in at the center of the universe (Link)...now I will prove it is also at the center of the basketball universe...

Nearly 1000 men have served since the 1940's as official representatives of their nation's basketball teams in international play.
We send teams of U16, U17, U18, U19, plus World University Games, Pan Am Games, Olympics, Nike Hoop Summit, and more...
But if you tried to guess which state or which city has sent the most played over the 60+ years -- then I know most people wouldn't have a clue where more Team USA players come from than anywhere else.

BUT -- the answer is Peoria.

The exact number that can be attributed to Peoria is debatable, but the fact that more come from Peoria than anywhere else is NOT.
Here is a compilation of the players who are from Peoria...
who HAVE BEEN MEMBERS OF ONE OF OUR TEAM USA BASKETBALL TEAMS FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION??

The OFFICIAL SITE of USA Basketball has an all time roster for every player that ever played on any team
from U16 all the way to the Olympics and who has represented the USA on any official team.

The fact that Peoria is so well represented is mostly because in the 1940's and 1950's most of the official teams and Olympic teams were made up of amateur players (not college players) and often from the Peoria Caterpillars...

See how many of these guys you knew played for some version of TEAM USA...


Here are the Peoria Caterpillar AAU amateur players who are listed on the all time Team USA roster...who were on various teams in the 50's & 60's
Ron Bontemps (still lives in Morton, IL)
Bert Born
Robert Boozer
Marcus Freiberger
Richard Gott
Forrest Hamilton
Bill Johnson
Allen Kelley
Frank McCabe
Kirby Minter
Don Penwell
Dan Pippin
Dick Retherford
Kendall Sheets
Ed Solomon
Joe Stratton
Howard Williams

Here are the Peoria kids who went as teens...
Shaun Livingston
Brian Randle

And here are the players from Bradley that also went - Hersey on the 1988 Olympic Team and AP on the 1996 U20 team..
Anthony Parker (1996 U20)
Hersey Hawkins

And here's one I did not recall but it is accurate -- our very own massive Mike Williams when he was playing CBA ball with the Sioux Force Skyforce, tried out and made the Pan Am roster...

Massive Mike Williams (1995 Pan Am Games)

That's 22 from just ONE city in the midwest -- Peoria has every right to be proud!!

BUT WAIT -- there's more --
I didn't even count Danny Granger (USA 2010)..
Then there are the guys who coached - Jim Molinari who served TWICE.
He coached 1997 World Univ. Games & 1991 Junior Worlds.
And ex-BU asst Mo McHone (under Stan Albeck) coached @ the Pan Am Games.
..and several Peoria guys, Warren Womble in particular coached the Cats.

http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/panamerican/mpag_affil_roster.html

http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/men_alpha_A.html

Some info on Drexel - the BracketBusters, BU-haters, Gaga, and more...

Several topics today - in addition to a little info about Bradley's upcoming opponent on Saturday December 17, 2011.
Bradley travels to Drexel in Philadelphia, PA as the return for BracketBusters in the 2009-2010 season.
Bradley won that game in Peoria on Saturday February 20, 2010. Bradley beat Drexel easily 76-60, with Chris Roberts scoring 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds (along with 5 assists, 4 steals, and 10 deflections), and Andrew Warren scoring 18, and Sam Maniscalco scoring 20. Dyricus Simms-Edwards scored 8 in his very first start for Bradley.
Drexel's starters scored only 25 points combined, and we held Drexel to 34% shooting and 25% from the arc.
That was 2 seasons ago and now we go to play there...





The Drexel Dragons, coached by James "Bruiser" Flint - a Calipari disciple from UMass, is coming off a season where they went 21-10, and 11-7 in the Colonial Athletic Conference - good enough for 5th place. They were 12-2 at home there in Philly and were 5-0 in non-conference games.
Their RPI was 74 and SOS 137. Their best quality win was at Louisville over a team with a 17 RPI.

They only lose one starter - Gerald Colds - who averaged 9.7 ppg and was a solid teamn leader, but they return their top two scorers Chris Fouch (14.9 ppg) and Samme Givens (12.2 ppg - but also a remarkable 10.1 rpg). Givens is a prolific rebounder at just 6-5 and returns as a senior. They also have two other returnees that average 7.4 rpg or more - Dartaye Ruffin, 7.4 rpg and Daryl McCoy 7.8 rpg.
Fouch is a prolific 3-pt shooter but came off the bench last year and is projected off the bench this year, also.
Freshman point guard Franz Massenat & SG Dartaye Ruffin both made the conference All Newcomer Team.

As you might guess, they outrebounded their opponents on average 40.3 to 30.9 - and they are always a tough team, consistent with their coach's personality and nickname!
They did turn the ball over a lot at 12 TO per game. they got killed by 28 points at Syracuse, but also boast a win over Final Four participant VCU.
Their worst loss was at 9-22 William & Mary.

With 21 wins and a decent fan base they were surprisingly snubbed by the NIT & others, and went nowhere

Drexel plays in front of an average of just 2040 fans in their home arena in the Daskalakis Athletic Center which holds just 2300 in downtown Philadelphia.

A few tidbits about Drexel...

-Drexel plays Rider in the ESPN 24-Hour Marathon November 15, played at 6AM a.m. for TV purposes at Rider.

-Their schedule this year is believed to be another decent one, but they do have a plethora of 250+ RPI teams on both the conference and non-conference part of their schedule - but they haven't yet released the entire slate.

-Drexel was just picked #51 in the HoopsReport preseason Top 68.
These guys have a fairly decent preview as well.
http://www.thehoopsreport.com/article.aspx?id=777



Bradley is 7-1 all time in BracketBuster matchups since the concept began in 2003-2004 - beating NIU, Tenn. tech, VCU, UWM, Loyola, Drexel, and Tenn. Martin. We have lost only at Western Kentucky in 2005.

Bradley is not so successful in the BracketBuster return games. Our record is 3-3, with wins over NIU, WKU, and UWM - but losses to Tenn. Tech, VCU, and Loyola in the 2010 return game.



This morning I ran into one of the very people who told me last spring that he wanted to see BRADLEY LOSE IN THE MVC TOURNEY because, as he said then, "if they win a few games I fear they will keep Coach Les".
I have heard this hateful attitude many times - especially on the message boards but I fail to see how anyone who has or had such an opinion could ever call themselves a Bradley fan if they were rooting for Bradley to lose!

Anyway, this morning he claimed he still held hard feelings against those who supported Coach Les because he had actually wanted JL fired sooner.

Now here's where I find this whole argument so incredibly stupid and wrong...
This is one of the very guys who bought hook, line, and sinker into the story back in April 2010 that Les was fired after an argument with Dr. Glasser and who swore that it happened even though the evidence weighs 100% against it both then and NOW.
But now he blames people who DID support Bradley and Coach Les for his misery of having to sit through last season with with a coach I guess he did not want.
BUT -- does this idiot "fan" think that somehow fan support for JL kept Coach Les from being fired even ONE minute earlier than he actually was fired?
Like some JL friends held sway over the one in charge of the firing?

Of course not -- JL was going to be our coach last year no matter what - it would have simply been too expensive otherwise and that's why the story of the buyout back in April 2010 was so ridiculous.
Anyway -- hardly a heartbeat had passed after BU's season ended in 2010-2011 when JL was fired regardless of any support for him. So I guess the support held no sway whatsoever and anyone with a tidbit of common sense sees that!

So the guy's premise that the JL fans somehow annoyed him because he'd have had his way sooner had the JL fans backed off - is so ridiculous and wrong that I really didn't have the tiniest bit of trouble showing him how wrong it was and even in his unreasonable and illogical state -- he actually realized I was right and that he was ridiculously wrong.

I am happy to move on from this firing issue and haven't even given it a thought in months -- until this misanthrope approached me this morning to drag it back out again - but I guess there's still people who falsely claim they are BU fans but who obviously only think of themselves.
These are not Bradley fans in my opinion.

Oh - and by the way -- the record of donors to Bradley and the web page that shows the level of membership for the Braves Club just happens to NOT include this guy's name or any of those who seems to continue this anti-BU diatribe. It figures -- the folks who bellyache the most and call themselves Bradley fans (you know where they congregate) simply couldn't prove it with any objective evidence - but even pointing that out to them gets them riled - case closed.



Here's some interesting news regarding Usain Bolt.
Internationally, track has gone to a ZERO-TOLERANCE rule on false starts. It used to be that you got one false start and then were eliminated with your 2nd one. But runners would take advantage of it and some races had to suffer through numerous false starts as each runner tried to get a little advantage.
So now - you're done if you false start even once!

Hardly anyone argued this rule and it's seemingly served the sport well for a couple years.

UNTIL NOW -- just as soon as the top runner in the world defaults ONCE in a major competition -- well....now we have to rethink this rule!!
Gimme a break -- talk about kissing up to the money angle of this and cowtowing to the stars in the sport.
So after numerous other runners in many competitions have been eliminated for breaking this rule -- suddenly there are calls for changing it -- just because poor little Usain "got robbed"!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/sports/30iht-arena30.html



Just one note on how know-it-alls in the government can be so wrong...
Hey -- they have every right to be wrong -- even stupid -- except that in doing so they ruin people's lives and spend endless amounts of your money.

Example: the Detroit area public schools (or you could probably substitute Chicago or even Peoria if you want).
I won't bore you - but BILLIONS of dollars have been pumped into public schools like this via gobs of wasteful programs like "No Child Left Behind"...
And there isn't the tiniest evidence that it has helped at all -- in fact there's overwhelming evidence that it has sent the quality of education in these big cities down the toilet!
Half of all Detroit public schools are failing... and the answer is that Michigan is now asking the Federal government for a 10-year waiver from NCLB because they know the feds' policies are killing them!

The head of the Federal Dept. of Education is Arne Duncan -- hired by President Obama from the top spot in charge of the Chicago Public Schools! As if the CPS was doing good and Arne deserved a raise and a promotion??
Even Arne says Detroit is "Ground Zero" to aim his policies at.

But just to show you how corrupt this guy is...here is Arne Duncan's plan on how to get a better percentage of school kids in Detroit to pass or hit the minimum standards for education:

Arne says we should lower the grade that will allow a kid to pass to the next level...
Seriously -- if half the kids score under 60 and get "F" on their testing and grades, then let's just lower the minimum to pass down to just 50 or maybe go to 40 and send those really stupid and uneducated kids along to the next level and call it a success.

If it wasn't so TOTALLY SAD...it would be funny...

http://www.freep.com/article/20110815/NEWS06/110815018/717-Michigan-schools-fall-short-No-Child-Left-Behind-goals

http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/04/arne_duncan_detroit_schools_ar.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/IFGA/arne-duncan-no-child-left-behind-school_n_875486_92223636.html


But here is the real solution -- if government and taxpayer-paid employees do such a bad job in education then why not FIRE THEM!!
Why not take the money spent in educating these kids and spend it wisely -- spend it on an education that is far better and on a system that works!

Indiana just started their school voucher system and not only IS it working -- but I guarantee you it will work and FAR better than the feds even fear!

Why are they SOOOOOO afraid of a policy or a system that gives their previously poorly educated kids a great education and a great start in life...

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/08/29/vouchers_prompt_indiana_school_exodus/

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-08-28/Ind-school-voucher-program-cheered-criticized/50169064/1?csp=34news

http://www.jconline.com/article/20110823/OPINION01/108230303/Voucher-s-critics-lose-first-round?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

In case you're interested - just a little more on how the government really doesn't give a da*n that it's you're money they are wasting --
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-08-28/Pentagon-pays-720M-in-late-fees-for-storage-containers/50168840/1

That's $720 million right down the drain simply due to federal workers' stupidity, laziness, and incompetence.



Talk about kissing up to the superstar and giving in because they're more important!!
I have read of men getting arrested and even jailed for going into women's restrooms and violating their privacy and decency....so I am left wondering why this is any different?
Just because Lady Gaga is a pop star - she can do the same and it's fun -- it's a great gig??
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/08/29/exclusive-lady-gaga-took-male-alter-ego-to-limit-by-using-male-restrooms/

I guess Gaga had thought people would be in awe of her "performance" but instead many wrote that she was "crass" and
"Gaga's shtick wore out its welcome in the first two minutes.
Gaga...degraded an otherwise enjoyable VMAs.."

Items of interest on BU's opponent - George Washington

Bradley plays their 2nd true road game at George Washington University in Washington, DC on Thursday, December 15.
It is one of only two games scheduled for a THURSDAY this season (we also play Michigan on Thursday) - and we didn't have ANY Thursday games last year - except of course the one in St. Louis on March 3 - not one that we actually scheduled nor wanted.

Here's an odd fact -- you have to go ALL THE WAY BACK to Thursday January 18, 2007 to find the last game we had that was scheduled on a THURSDAY -- and even way further back - to Thursday December 30, 1999 to find the last non-conference game that was on a Thursday.
Even then, that was a tournament game (Rainbow Classic in Honolulu) so you'd have to go even further back (Thursday November 20, 1997 - at Butler) to find the last time we actually scheduled a game with a non-conference opponent on a Thursday.
Does anyone know why Thursdays are so routinely avoided? I noticed that women's basketball also seems to avoid Thursdays but not nearly so much as men's basketball does.

I read one blogger who felt that the reason for this was kind of the same reason why high schools preferentially pick Fridays for their basketball and football games.
It is because of academics and the frequency & likelihood of tests being administered by teachers on Fridays!
.....Any games scheduled from Mondays through Thursdays would cut into the students' evening study time. However - historically teachers are more inclined to give tests and wrap up study plans on the final day of the week - Fridays - and this is especially true at the college level - so that scheduling games on Thursday nights became somewhat taboo at both the high school and college level.

If anyone else has an explanation - LMK....

Anyway -- George Washington -- finished 17-14 last year, 10-6 in the Atlantic-10 Conference, RPI 145, SOS 150. They were only 9-7 at home!! They actually had a better winning percentage in true road games than they did at home!
..ending their season with a bad loss on their own home floor to one of the LOWEST SEEDS in the A-10 Tourney - to 11-22 St. Joseph's.
They did not play in the post-season.
Home losses to Harvard & St. Bonaventure were their low points and a regular-season ending win over Dayton was their best quality win.

They shot poorly from 3-pt range - only 33.6%, and only 62.7% from the FREE THROW line! Those numbers would have placed them 8th in the Valley in 3-pt shooting and dead last by a wide margin in FT shooting as the worst Valley team was Drake at 68.5% on FT's!
They have a new head coach like BU does - Mike Lonergan who was hired from Vermont.

Their best scorer, guard Tony Taylor, returns as a senior. They also return sophomore Forward Nemanja Mikic who was the only good 3-pt shooter they had at just over 42%. They will need to rely on several sophomores and one player, guard Lasan Kromah who returns from injury redshirt year.

Here are a few other notes of interest regarding George Washington basketball...

-Their home press says this about their game with Bradley -
"while Bradley struggled last year, it ranked in the top 105 of the RPI (per collegerpi.com) in each of the previous five years"
http://www.dailypress.com/sports/teel-blog/dp-teel-time-good-bad-and-ugly-of-acc-basketball-schedule-20110824,0,2442359.story?track=rss

-They do have one other notable male basketball player - but this is really controversial and has been discussed on BradleyFans.
They have a player on the women's basketball team who is going to convert to being a MALE via surgery and hormone manipulation -- and won't be able to play on the women's team. I sincerely doubt that this player, Kye Allums would even entertain the tiniest thought of playing on the men's team.
You decide, but I think this is an interesting topic but will leave any "politically correct" conversation to you.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/sports/ncaabasketball/02gender.html
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16621

-George Washington's schedule is quote strong this year with every single one of their non-conference opponents coming off a year with RPI better than 100 -- except Bradley and Loyola.
Bradley would appear to be their weakest non-conference opponent.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/d1scourse/2011/aug/12/basketball-schedule-strength-increases-at-gw/

-a really top player, Isaiah Armwood - just left Villanova and is transferring to George Washington, but won't be eligible until next year. We'll see Armwood in Peoria next year -- he's a really good player.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/recruiting/2011/08/isaiah_armwood_talks_george_washington_pledge.html

-George Washington's best year in recent memory was the same year that Bradley had their best season - 2005-2006. They were ranked as high as #18 and got a #8 seed but lost to Duke in the NCAA Tourney......
as another "George" - George Mason - stole the spotlight that season.

Bradley Spaghetti Supper is back - on October 18

Great News! The Spaghetti Supper is back -- although it won't be at the Itoo Hall this year....
It'll be teamed with the Red-White Scrimmage at the Renaissance Arena on Tuesday October 18, 2001!
See you all there!!!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=19041

More on BU's upcoming opponents - and the ticket plan for the SEMO game at Renaissance Arena

Northeastern comes to Carver Arena on Tuesday December 6.
Simple numbers for Northeastern...
in 2010-2011, RPI was 178, SOS was 10 - they faced a lot of good teams, they were 8th in the Colonial Athletic Conference, 11-20 overall, 6-12 in their league, and their best quality win was over East Tennessee State (RPI=91).
All of this came off a decent 2009-2010 where they went 20-13.

Northeastern travels to Peoria from their home in Boston, MA.
Their head coach is Bill Coen - Link

Before they get to Peoria, on 11/19/2011 they host SIU, and also play at Boston U., at UMass, at St. John's, and at La Salle. Looks like their philosophy is to make some money selling out for guarantee games.

Their top five scorers were..
Chaisson Allen 16.7 ppg - also their best rebounder and assist guy
Joel Smith 12.2 ppg
Jonathan Lee 11.8 ppg
Ryan Pierson (from St. Louis) 7.5 ppg
and Alex Harris 6.4 ppg
...only Allen graduates...so the other are expected to return...

Their home court is Solomon Court a the Cabot Center and it seats only 2,500...
but they're used to playing in big arenas since they play so many guarantee games at bigger schools.



The news of the ticket & seating plan for the one regular season game at the on-campus Renaissance Arena has been released...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=19032

I am hearing that 99% of fans & students universally applaud the school's efforts to make this work out for everyone, but there are some grumblers who are miffed that they might just have to wait 'til students and a few Braves Club members claim tickets first...
I guess you just can't please everyone - but I strongly urge Bradley to just keep doing the best you can and there'll always be whiners who are never happy.

BU's first true road game at Wyoming December 3

Bradley travels to Wyoming on December 3 as part of the Mountain West/Missouri Valley Conference Challenge.

If Wyoming's situation is briefly described it will sound eerily familiar...
Wyoming is coming off a couple bad seasons, it's a hard place to recruit to but they had decent talent and maybe if they were all returning - they might have been very good this year.
BUT, fans grumbled and didn't want to wait, they fired their coach, hired a new guy who quickly signed a bunch of little known players who were still available late, but they had several of their best players and best incoming recruits - bolt and head elsewhere...so nobody knows what to expect this year.
Sounds familiar..........right?

Wyoming has had back-to-back 20 loss seasons and has changed coaches....
New head coach Larry Shyatt takes over a team that loses their two top players from a squad that was the worst in the MWC, 8-21 overall and 3-13 in the Mountain West, and RPI 264, SOS 112 - both are also worsts in the MWC.
But they did kinda kill Indiana State at Terre Haute last year 81-51!
They hired Shyatt through a Parker Search ...

Wyoming's best scorer Desmar Jackson (14.6 ppg) has bolted and transferred to SIU, and after sitting out a year will be a Saluki in 2012.
http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041311aad.html

Arguably their 2nd best player Amath M'Baye (12 ppg, 6 rpg) also has left Wyoming and transferred to Oklahoma.
3rd best player, wing Fernando Cruz (10 ppg) is their best returning player...and is doing well (11 ppg) for the Mexican team at the World University Games.
One other contributor also bolted and transferred to Eastern Michigan.

They also have six incoming new players, mostly high school recruits who are not expected to make much impact in Shyatt's first, hastily put-together recruiting class.
One of them is Larry Nance, Jr. - who Bradley was recruiting --

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=229960#post229960

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=229336#post229336

Backup forward Afam Muojeke - just coming off knee surgery - was re-injured in January, and his future is uncertain....with Shyatt recently saying he was unsure if Muojeke would play this year or ever....so that's a bunch of talent lost and they just don't have that much coming in.

The talent they have had the past few years they haven't done much with lately. They also have tried building their team with transfers and jucos to a large degree recently, also.
If there's any place harder to recruit players to it might just be the boonies of Wyoming! New head coach Larry Shyatt does have his work cut out for him.
They win better at home as they have not won a road game in two years.

BTW -- 60 year old Larry Shyatt is a graduate of the College of Wooster - who are one of our exhibition opponents!

But remember - the Mountain West loses two of their strongest members, BYU & Utah, so still the conference is wide open behind SDSU.

This is definitely a winnable game for BU -- as Wyoming may be worse off with their coaching change and personnel changes and have had way more fallout than BU has had.

BTW- here's their basketball message board:
http://www.wyonation.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=44025f849373d1db66577a36ba51e6b6

One thread there confirms that their "Night of Madness" - open 1st practice is 7PM on Friday, October 14.
http://www.wyonation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4814



Want to see which schools generate the most revenue? Of course football determines most of this list..but there's a few mid-majors...Bradley must have just missed this list - ;)...but Wyoming does barely make it.

The Top 100 Revenue Schools in the NCAA
1. Texas – $143.5 million; 3.7% growth from 2008-09
2. Alabama – $129.3 million; 24.4% growth
3. Ohio State – $123.2 million; 2.8% growth
4. Florida – $116.5 million; 7.6% growth
5. LSU – $109.9 million; 9.9% growth
6. Michigan – $106.6 million; 12.1% growth
7. Penn State – $106.6 million; 11.1% growth
8. Tennessee – $100.7 million; 8.9% growth
9. Oklahoma – $98.6 million; 21.1% growth
10. Wisconsin – $93.9 million; 4.5% growth
11. Auburn – $92.6 million; 6.4% growth
12. Notre Dame – $90.8 million; 12.1% growth
13. Iowa – $88.5 million; 11.3% growth
14. Georgia – $88.0 million; 8.0% growth
15. Virginia – $81.8 million; 21.9% growth
16. Stanford – $81.7 million; 9.4% growth
17. Michigan State – $80.0 million; 5.9% growth
18. South Carolina – $80.0 million; 4.9% growth
19. Kentucky – $79.7 million; 10.6% growth
20. Arkansas – $78.1 million; 22.0% growth
21. USC – $75.7 million; 5.5% decline
22. Oregon – $75.4 million; 25.1% growth
23. Florida State – $75.2 million; 1.1$ growth
24. Minnesota – $73.6 million; 4.7% growth
25. Nebraska – $73.5 million; 1.9% decline
26. Kansas – $71.8 million; 1.8% growth
27. Texas A&M – $71.8 million; 1.4% decline
28. California – $69.0 million; 5.9% decline
29. Indiana – $68.7 million; 13.5% growth
30. Duke – $68.5 million; 3.6% decline
31. North Carolina – $67.6 million; 3.6% decline
32. Oklahoma State – $65.5 million; 8.7% decline
33. Boston College – $64.5 million; 0.5% growth
34. Washington – $64.0 million; 5.7% growth
35. Louisville – $63.5 million; 9.4% growth
36. West Virginia – $62.0 million; 11.4% growth
37. UCLA – $61.8 million; 6.5% decline
38. Purdue – $61.5 million; 2.7% growth
39. UNLV – $61.2 million; 84.6% growth
40. Connecticut – $58.5 million; 0.0% growth
41. Virginia Tech – $58.1 million; 10.0% growth
42. Clemson – $57.6 million; 4.3% decline
43. Arizona State – $57.0 million; 7.1% growth
44. Arizona – $56.4 million; 8.8% growth
45. Miami (Fla) – $56.1 million; 9.5% decline
46. Missouri – $55.7 million; 3.6% decline
47. Rutgers – $55.6 million; 2.3% growth
48. Baylor – $54.1 million; 11.1% growth
49. Illinois – $53.5 million; 3.8% decline
50. TCU – $52.4 million; 12.8% growth
51. Kansas State – $52.4 million; 10.6% growth
52. Maryland – $52.0 million; 13.3% decline
53. Oregon State – $51.6 million; 2.9% growth
54. North Carolina State – $50.3 million; 8.3% growth
55. Vanderbilt – $50.0 million; 9.5% growth
56. Colorado – $49.4 million; 0.9% decline
57. Syracuse – $49.3 million; 5.2% decline
58. Pittsburgh – $49.2 million; 7.4% growth
59. Northwestern – $48.9 million; 0.7% growth
60. Texas Tech – $48.1 million; 3.1% growth
61. Georgia Tech – $47.0 million; 2.2% decline
62. Iowa State – $46.8 million; 2.3% growth
63. Mississippi – $43.9 million; 6.3% growth
64. Wake Forest – $42.2 million; 5.4% decline
65. BYU – $41.0 million; 15.1% growth
66. Washington State – $39.3 million; 2.8% growth
67. South Florida – $39.1 million; 3.5% growth
68. Mississippi State – $38.1 million; 4.4% growth
69. Cincinnati – $37.1 million; 5.9% growth
70. Memphis – $37.0 million; 10.3% growth
71. Yale – $36.5 million; 84.1% growth
72. SMU – $36.0 million; 1.8% growth
73. Central Florida – $35.7 million; 19.0% growth
74. St. John’s – $32.1 million; 8.0% growth
75. San Diego State – $32.1 million; 6.9% decline
76. Utah – $31.8 million; 0.3% growth
77. Delaware – $31.8 million; 4.6% growth
78. Houston – $31.5 million; 6.6% growth
79. Hawaii – $31.1 million; 1.9% growth
80. East Carolina – $30.8 million; 1.0% growth
81. New Mexico – $30.3 million; 5.4% decline
82. Pennsylvania – $30.4 million; 12.9% growth
83. Rice – $29.4 million; 4.0% decline
84. Georgetown – $29.4 million; 1.4% growth
85. James Madison – $29.1 million; 2.3% decline
86. Temple – $28.8 million; 7.1% growth
87. Villanova – $27.7 million; 7.9% growth
88. Wyoming – $27.0 million; 9.4% growth
89. Old Dominion – $26.7 million; 1.8% decline
90. Liberty – $26.4 million; 11.6% growth
91. Tulsa – $26.3 million; 3.1% decline
92. Fresno State – $26.0 million; 9.5% decline
93. Miami (Ohio) – $26.0 million; 5.2% growth
94. New Hampshire – $26.0 million; 3.2% growth
95. Boston University – $25.7 million; 5.8% growth
96. Boise State – $25.1 million; 21.9% growth
97. UAB – $25.1 million; 10.8% growth
98. Central Michigan – $24.5 million; 9.0% growth
99. Ohio – $23.9 million; 9.2% growth
100. Massachusetts – $23.8 million; 0.8% growth

Astounding lies being spewed by ESPN in defense of the cheating at Miami and elsewhere!!

I just watched one of the Sunday morning ESPN talking heads shows...they were discussing the Miami scandal -- and I heard a few outrageous comments that prove beyond question some of the things NCAA and the BCS schools have denied for years..

-first the whole panel openly agreed that the biggest reason the top recruits go to a place like Miami is BECAUSE they know they're going to get plenty of perks & freebies they wouldn't get elsewhere -- that every top recruit already knows this and likely so does the NCAA.
In other words the cheating clearly pays off because that's why the top players go there!
So if this is true as these ex-insiders in college sports are openly saying then why is the NCAA only NOW acting like they care - and only after the bloggers on YahooSports! expose them?

-One other insider said "the system is broke"...
Really?? You idiots are blaming this on "the system" -- why not just blame it on SEMO??
Nope the blame is on those who cheat and break the rules and on those whose job it is to catch them and
who are ignoring and looking the other way for greed's sake.
The system is NOT broke -- what's broke is the enforcement of the rules that constitute the system.

-then this asinine comment --that if the NCAA actually went after all the cheaters and really did penalize them...
the BCS Championship game would feature Harvard vs. Yale!!

First -- that's silly, there are lots of fine programs that don't cheat like these BCS guys do -- but even if the BCS title game was Harvard vs. Bradley then I say good for them -- they earned their way there legally and deserve to be in the title game!
Why is the mindset of those bozos in the media and at NCAA that it HAS TO BE the big guys like Miami or Oregon that make it to the BCS title game every year -- it has to be or else the world will come to an end!

Do they not know about the NCAA Final Four of 2011?? That two completely unexpected mid-majors made it there and
yet the ratings and the revenue generated were a near-all-time high!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/sports/ncaabasketball/05sandomir.html

The NCAA distributed $452,200,00 in revenue in 2010-2011!!!!!!! An all time record high!!!
http://rulingsports.com/2011/08/11/making-the-grade-ncaa-revenue-distribution-and-academic-excellence/

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/46f776004e0d547d9ef9fe1ad6fc8b25/2010-11+Revenue+Distribution+Plan+%28Current%29+%28Revisions%29.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=46f776004e0d547d9ef9fe1ad6fc8b25


These guys are flat out lying and are in the tank for the crooks and the cheating BCS boys --
and they are wrong on all of their assertions trying to defend the cheaters.
Everyone knows ESPN makes tons of money on these very sports they are discussing -- and now we can see the bias they exert to protect their cash-cow. But someone has to speak the truth......

Some interesting things about Nevada & news that we almost hired WMU's coach!!

Nevada is the other team we may face in the Chicago Invitational...and it's hard to know what to make of Nevada.
They have gotten more big time D-I transfers and top recruits than most mid-majors and yet -- last year they were pretty terrible.
They ended 13-19, 8-8 in the WAC and they were even worse against non-conference opponents, losing every non-conference game away from home.
At one point last year they were 4-13 then they won a few against the bottom dwellers of their conference - Louisiana Tech, San Jose State, Fresno State, and Hawaii.
Their RPI of 194 and SOS of 111 were on par with BU's and yet BU had injuries to account for their performance and still it got the coach fired.

So why did Nevada after having a 21-game season and knocked off Wichita State in the post-season in 2009-2010, and nine consecutive post-season appearances - that they fell so hard and far and ended up way under .500 in 2010-2011?

They have kids who started their careers at Indiana (Malik Story 14.5 ppg) and Duke (Olek Czyz 12.3 ppg)... and other highly touted players...
But despite the good players, they just never gelled - -and many thought they had team chemistry issues.
Almost all their scoring and productivity returns but will the be better?
Time will tell......but they really did lose - even at home - to some pretty weak teams last year.

Here's their stat page - all of their top 7 players return...
http://www.nevadawolfpack.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2010-2011/teamcume.html

Their top assistant Doug Novsek is a SIU grad and 4 year player for the Salukis.

Here's their message board -- it's a fairly active one.
http://www.wolfpackchat.com/

But here's something interesting I found on their message board...
They don't have much discussion going yet about Bradley - maybe since they think football they don't care yet about basketball..

But they do talk about this recent article on Steve Hawkins - head coach at Western Michigan.
http://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2011/08/wmu_basketball_coach_steve_haw.html

It seems a year ago when they were hiring a new head coach - Hawkins was one of the top candidates. BUT this article reveals something that maybe most did not know...
Not only did Hawkins turn down Nevada...but it says that Hawkins also got
"HEAVY INTEREST" from Bradley when Bradley was hiring!!

"Hawkins has turned down a number of suitors in recent years.

Those included several chances to return to California — San Francisco, Loyola-Marymount, Pepperdine — as well as head coaching offers from Nevada and SMU and, just this past offseason, heavy interest from Bradley and Loyola-Chicago.

Hawkins might have doubled his salary with a couple of the aforementioned offers. Bradley, for example, will pay former Kent State coach Geno Ford $700,000 per year."

OK -- how many people knew that?? Somewhere between getting snubbed by Rob Jeter, Mark Montgomery, Dan Monson, Ray Giacoletti and others, it appears we went "HEAVY" after Steve Hawkins and he turned down Bradley also! Hmmm.......
At least we ended up with the best MAC coach -- I can't imagine what we'd have heard from fans had we hired a middle of the pack MAC coach who has been above .500 in the Mid-American Conference only once in the past three years!

Updated info on BU's 1st opponent UMKC and more...

Here's an update on UMKC, one of BU's early opponents that I wrote about a few days ago.
http://www.umkckangaroos.com//pdf8/780717.pdf

UMKC has now completed their tour in Italy and won all four games by whopping margins.
You can go to their web site and see the details, but the opponents must have been pretty weak - they won the games by 40 and 50 point margins although they often shot poorly. One game they shot just 3-22 from 3-pt range.

Their better scorers were Kirk Korver (Kyle's brother), Reggie Chamberlain (the ex-Wichita player), Dustin Dibble, Thomas Staton, and Jordan Payton.



Then here's something funny I ran across....
Here's the vegetarian website claiming you can excel as an athlete even if you are a vegetarian...
http://www.thedailymeal.com/print/16566

Well -- whether you can or not isn't even in my interest to consider, but they then go on to show TEN top athletes who ARE vegetarian...and here's where I have a problem -- they play fast and loose with the truth.

Here's their list:
- Tony Gonzales, NFL Tight End
- Prince Fielder - Milwaukee Brewers
- Carl Lewis Olympic star
- Mike Tyson - they say he recently "switched to vegetarianism"
- Joe Namath - they say Joe "experimented with vegetarianism"
- Carmelo Anthony - they say he occasionally "turns vegetarian when he's on a diet"
- Hank Aaron
- Billie Jean King
- Martina Navratilova
- Desmond Howard Packers - return specialist

SERIOUS?? This is the best they can do?? Three of them they even admit aren't really vegetarians! some are fairly obscure and others are long, long retired.

If those are the best 10 athletes who they can find are vegetarians - then I think they have massively failed their point.
BUT most of these claims are totally FALSE and they even admit they are!!

SO -- I went about trying to prove if they were vegetarians - and simply found that almost all of them are NOT - this was just a lie.

There's other web references that can readily confirm the truth....

For most of them on their list, the PROOF simply does NOT exist...
the only mention anywhere on the internet that Hank Aaron was a vegetarian are on web sites promoting vegetarianism -- and NONE ever quote Hank!!

But one site debunks it entirely and says Hank was NOT a vegetarian -- and he owns several chicken restaurants!!

Likewise -- all the rest simply are NOT vegetarians but they claim they are...

In 2008 Prince Fielder said he was trying vegetarianism to help lose weight -- but he abandoned it in 2009!!!
Even the owner of the team says he is NOT a vegetarian and has been seen eating meat.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/16/prince-fielder-may-not-be-a-vegetarian/

How about Carl Lewis -- he writes and sells books so you can never really be sure about what he says but even CARL himself says he was NOT a vegetarian until 1990!!!
...but then look at all the accomplishments in his career -- all his gold medals
etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Lewis

VIRTUALLY all of them were won before 1990 and actually after 1990 it was clear his career was on the slide --

Most of the rest they even admit were just "experimenting with vegetarianism" or going to it temporarily or faddishly once in a while.

SO in summary -- this is the worst failed effort to prove that top athletes are vegetarians....
virtually NONE of the ones they cite were actually non-meat eaters when their careers were in full swing.
if this is the best they can do then they just sold me on eating meat 'til I die.

These guys are about as honest as the PETA people and their ads!

Some little known facts on BU's upcoming opponent BYU

Bradley's next game after beating Wisconsin (or even if lose...) will be either BYU or Nevada....who both obviously will both be making a much father trip to get to the Chicago Invitational. Here's a little bit on BYU that you may not have known.

BYU - of course will be without Jimmer Fredette. They will certainly have less success this coming year but they're still going to be a good team and have some talent.
BYU comes off a 32-5, Sweet Sixteen season. Big man Brandon Davies was suspended for team rules violation but he may be back. BYU will not be in the Mountain West next year but will be in the West Coast Conference in basketball & independent in football. That will pit them in basketball against St. Mary's & Gonzaga.
BYU's other backcourt senior Jackson Emery has also graduated, and he is the only other senior loss of significance.

Bradley lost at BYU 70-60 on November 13, 2009 as part of the MVC/MWC Challenge...
We couldn't buy a basket that night -- here's the box score-
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=19332&SPID=1498&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=204833423D
Charles Abouo scored 15 points


BYU also will have Matt Carlino who has bounced around from Indiana to UCbu to BYU but he won't be eligible until after 1st semester so he won't play against Bradley.

One other piece of BYU news - the #1 high school player in the nation is visiting BYU -- nice feather in their cap!
http://bayarea.sbnation.com/2011/8/19/2372866/jabari-parker-stanford-byu-utah-basketball-recruiting

The scuttlebutt on Wisconsin, West Virginia, and MORE...

None of the returning Wisconsin players have averaged more than 2 or 3 rebs per game. This will leave Wisconsin & Bo in a very unfamiliar position that he siroly has NOT experienced in recent years -- being rather shallow and inexperienced in the frontcourt!
They also return only one player (Taylor) who hit much better than 30% from 3-pt range!! BUT they still have good players....like many BCS schools, they have 4-Star kids sitting on the bench waiting their turn.

One thing notable - you don't want to put these guys on the FT line...
they shoot free throws very well - as do all Bo Ryan coached teams.
They led all of Division I last season with a team average of 81.8% - just a tiny bit short of the NCAA Division I all time season record!

Ex-BU recruit Ben Brust is now a sophomore at Wisconsin, but he had very little impact in 2010-2011. In fact you could readily say he wasted a year as he played in only 15 games,.
Wisconsin is coming off a 25-9 season, 13-5/3rd place in the Big Ten.
They lose two of their three best players (Jon Leuer & Keaton Nankivil), but they do return one of the best players in the Big Ten and in the nation as well, PG Jordan Taylor (18.1 ppg, 4.6 apg, & 4.1 rpg).
Taylor will certainly get plenty of preseason hype and All-American recognition - but they will have NO returning frontcourt player who averaged more than 4.6 ppg and none who averaged more than 2 or 3 rebs per game. This will leave Wisconsin & Bo in a very unfamiliar position that he simply has NOT experienced in recent years -- being rather shallow and inexperienced in the frontcourt!
They also return only one player (Taylor) who hit much better than 30% from 3-pt range!!

One thing notable - you don't want to put these guys on the FT line...
they shoot free throws very well - as do all Bo Ryan coached teams.
They led all of Division I last season with a team average of 81.8% - just a tiny bit short of the NCAA Division I all time season record!

Ex-BU recruit Ben Brust is now a sophomore at Wisconsin, but he had very little impact in 2010-2011. In fact you could readily say he wasted a year as he played in only 15 games.
Wisconsin is coming off a 25-9 season, 13-5/3rd place in the Big Ten.
They lose two of their three best players (Jon Leuer & Keaton Nankivil), but they do return one of the best players in the Big Ten and in the nation as well, PG Jordan Taylor (18.1 ppg, 4.6 apg, & 4.1 rpg).
Taylor will certainly get plenty of preseason hype and All-American recognition - but they will have NO returning frontcourt player who averaged more than 4.6 ppg and none who averaged more than 2 or 3 rebs per game. This will leave Wisconsin & Bo in a very unfamiliar position that he simply has NOT experienced in recent years -- being rather shallow and inexperienced in the frontcourt!
They also return only one player (Taylor) who hit much better than 30% from 3-pt range!!

One thing notable - you don't want to put these guys on the FT line...
they shoot free throws very well - as do all Bo Ryan coached teams.
They led all of Division I last season with a team average of 81.8% - just a tiny bit short of the NCAA Division I all time season record!

Ex-BU recruit Ben Brust is now a sophomore at Wisconsin, but he had very little impact in 2010-2011. In fact you could readily say he wasted a year as he played in only 15 games, averaged just 3 minutes per game, got exclusively garbage time minutes, was only 4-16 overall shooting the ball and only 2-10 from three-point range!
Once the Big Ten conference season started, Ben played a GRAND total of 6 minutes over the final 22 games!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=87668&postcount=1


Recall that Ben Brusts' brother played soccer at Bradley.
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=122739

Wisconsin has four pretty good incoming freshmen -
-Benet Academy's 6-10 Frank Kaminsky
-Cedar Rapids' 6-8 Jarrod Uthoff
-6-alala, who just made both of those hires last April - luring Shawn Eichorst & Stave Waterfield away from Wisconsin -- is also the past Chancellor of Wisconsin.
As you also probably know - Donna Shalala also served in President Clinton's Cabinet.

In other words...pretty much the entire hierarchy at Miami from the Athletic Department all the way up to the level of the Chancellor - are all folks from University of Wisconsin....and actually have FEWER players who have played in the NBA than Bradley has had!!
In fact - in the Bo Ryan era at Wisconsin (2001 - present) only ONE of his players has had much impact in the NBA (Devin Harris - career 4200 pt scorer), and only three have even played a single game in the NBA (Kirk Penney & Alando Tucker each had a "cup of coffee" BUT have played only a few minutes in the NBA - less combined than POB alone has played!)

Here's one last news item on Wisconsin...

-Wisconsin has a fairly strong tie to the breaking Miami scandal..
TWO of Wisconsin's LONG TIME, top assistant Athletic Directors just left Wisconsin to take similar top Athletic Department positions at Miami and are going to take the brunt of the blame and responsibility for their just emerging scandal.
Also the Chancellor and PRESIDENT at Miami, Donna Shalala, who just made both of those hires last April - luring Shawn Eichorst & Stave Waterfield away from Wisconsin -- is also the past Chancellor of Wisconsin.
As you also probably know - Donna Shalala also served in President Clinton's Cabinet.

In other words...pretty much the entire hierarchy at Miami from the Athletic Department all the way up to the level of the Chancellor - are all folks from University of Wisconsin....and they're all going to shoulder a lot of blame and suspicion of what they knew and what they enabled and are responsible for.
AND if you surmise that those in charge at Miami HAD to have known and condoned the massive cheating and paying of players, then you'd also have to suspect the same crap might just have been going on at Wisconsion where the Miami folks all came from!
http://host.madison.com/sports/blog/article_c03e57c4-c98e-11e0-b98d-001cc4c002e0.html

http://badgerofhonor.com/2011/08/18/wisconsins-connection-to-the-miami-scandal-the-woman-who-helped-build-wisconsin-athletics/

"Shalala has been Miami’s president since 2001,
making her the only president at the helm of the
university during the years Shapiro allegedly gave
thousands of impermissible benefits to scores of
Hurricanes players. And Shalala appeared with
Shapiro for at least one fund-raiser at a Miami
bowling alley, as evidenced by a picture Yahoo!
Sports obtained from Shapiro.
It’s not hard to believe that Donna Shalala regards
these allegations with “the utmost of seriousness.”
But it is hard to believe that she didn’t know of them
before they were allegations that sparked an NCAA
investigation."


....lastly........
Anyone recall how a PJ Star writer described the BU Athletic Department??
That is was being run by someone with
"a reputation for micromanagement" ??
Looks like the PJS' bashing of BU after JL was fired...has already started...
...and remember...NOT my comment but Kirk Wessler's....
http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x1234547511/Wessler-Middle-not-bad-place-for-BU-to-be

Wofford Terriers come to Peoria November 22

Bradley's next game after the North Dakota game is on Tuesday, November 22 against the Wofford Terriers, as our first game in the 2011 Chicago Invitational Challenge.
Likely most people in Central Illinois hear little about Wofford and so I knew little myself - except for a few players from the midwest the past couple years, and the game we played against them in 2008.

They are "Wofford College" not "Wofford University"...and they are from Spartanburg, South Carolina...and they became D-I, moving up from D-II in 1995-1996. Prior to 1988-1989 they were NAIA.
One of their most notable alumni is Jarry Richardson - owner of the NFL Carolina Panthers....which may explain why the Panthers use the campus of Wofford College for their preseason training site, just as the Bears use Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL - giving the campus and the community a whole lot of needed exposure and revenue as die hard fans will always head to preseason camps.
They are coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons...and will come into Peoria after facing Wisconsin three nights earlier, and at Georgia 11 nights earlier.

In 2008-2009 Bradley beat Wofford 56-54 in a game in Peoria that was part of the Las Vegas Invitational.
http://athletics.wofford.edu/documents/2009/11/22/WOF-BRAD_game_box.pdf?id=1313

It is a private college with ties to the United Methodist Church. Tuition is $40,580, enrollment is 1,495.

Wofford is not pronounced "woe-ford", but is instead officially to be pronounced "wah-ford".

They have actually been a good team the past couple years...
Their final RPI last year was 109 (SOS 171).
They were RPI 69 in 2009-2010.
They were arguably the best team in the Southern Conference although College of Charleston had a better RPI.

They tied for their conference at 14-4 and finished 21-13 overall last year and won going away the year before. They didn't beat a whole lot of top opponents in 2010-2011, but their best win was over George Mason.

However -- they lost to graduation their three best players Noah Dahlman (20.1 ppg), Cameron Rundles (13.9 ppg), and Jamar Diggs (12.6 ppg) - and no returnee averaged more than 6.2 ppg.
(Rundles and Dahlman BTW were both from Minnesota and were both on Bradley's recruiting radar screen.)
....who carried them to a first round loss to BYU in the NCAA Tourney last spring.
They also lose other key players Tim Johnson and Terry Martin.
One more loss, Nathan Parker, a good sophomore backup posty player from Knoxville, TN, suddenly and unexpectedly left the team - he didn't play a lot but hit well over 50% of all his shots, including his 3-pt attempts.
Parker landed at NAIA University of Pikeville (formerly Pikeville College) so he could play right away.

Here's what to possibly expect...
Wofford has been a good team of late and is well coached. But the loss of their three best senior starters will obviously drop them down a notch.
Their one remaining starter is 6-ft guard Brad Loesing, who averaged 6.2 ppg and was their assist leader. Drew Crowell will be their best returning frontcourt player at 6-9, but he has little experience.
They have a couple decent incoming freshman guards (Karl Cochran, Lucas Brown) but they will be thin in the frontcourt. Overall they have SEVEN new incoming freshmen and unlike most mid-majors, they have absolutely NO juco players.

In our last meeting with Wofford, Taylor Brown had a big game with 16 pts and 8 rebounds, and I predict he'll have another fine game with the shallow frontcourt Wofford has.

If interested - here's the link to the Wofford message board -- called Terrierfans.com..
http://www.terrierfans.com/index.php

It is actually a pretty good and well run message board and a decent amount of traffic and activity for a small school.
The basketball forum however has been very slow since July....

One last thing - an incoming freshman at Wofford makes the All-Name Team,
Indiana Faithfull. This kid should have been a Hoosier for sure!
http://athletics.wofford.edu/roster.aspx?rp_id=2630&path=mbball

Faithfull has some skills but he has never played any significant competition.
http://orangeexpress.wordpress.com/elsewhere/2011-2/indiana-faithfull/

Bradley's November 19 game vs. North Dakota

North Dakota has been in the news because they are now being forced by NCAA and other political pressure to retire their team nickname, The Fighting Sioux. Never mind that other schools (Seminoles, Fighting Illini, etc..) are facing no such similar pressure....
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2011-08-11-north-dakota-fighting-sioux-NCAA_n.htm

North Dakota was 18-15 last year and 8-4 in their Independent conference they call The Great West -- even tho they a thousand miles from the west coast.
But they are just one year removed (2009-2010) from an 8-23 season where they only beat 5 D-I teams -- all who were at the bottom of Division I.
Their schedule was pretty weak and contains several non-D-I's, so those 18 wins is misleading....Longwood, Chicago State, UTPA, Houston Baptist, Minot State, Mayville State..etc..
The only teams on their schedule that are above the 300 RPI range they got thumped by (Wisconsin 85-53, UNI 65-52, Nebraska 77-46..)
A full 16 of their 2010-2011 opponents were 300 RPI and above, and 24 of them were above 170 - the lower half of D-I.
They lose only one senior for this upcoming year, so almost all their production returns. They are still transitioning to D-I so they will not play in the post-season.

By now just about everyone knows that NBA legend Phil Jackson played for North Dakota..but they have three other players who have played in the NBA - John Haaven, Chris Fahrbach, and Jerome Beasley - meaning they have more NBA players than ISU has!
Their long history in D-II was noted as the 4th winningest program at the D-II level, but even playing D-I now, they still draw only about 1500-1700 per home game.

Bradley's 2nd game vs. SEMO

Bradley's 2nd game is vs. Southeast Missouri State on Wednesday November 16.
I may not get a chance to review all the early teams but we actually hear a lot about SEMO so this game intrigues me.

The Ohio Valley Conference is 27th in strength out of 31 conferences, and SEMO finished 8th ahead of EIU (who some have been saying for years is right on the verge of a breakout - and are going to be good- yeah ...right), and Jacksonville State.

SEMO's RPI was 306 & SOS 295...with their only decent win being over Murray State and just about any other game they were within 20 points of their opponents was a game against someone in the RPI 300 range.
SEMO lost to both SIU and UMKC...
They started the season with 10 consecutive non-conference losses, but built their record up again once they got to play their hideously weak conference schedule.

They have a couple players of note...

Their best player by far is RS senior Leon Powell...at times dominating opponents...
Powell, a one time Bradley recruit out of St. Louis Vashon HS who then went to Indian Hills CC then had to redshirt 2009-2010 with a knee injury. In 2010-2011, Leon averaged 14.1 ppg and 7.7 rpg, but had several games of 20 points or more and then this game - Link - where he scored 36 points and had 8 rebs.

Leon lead the nation (D-I) in field goal percentage - 63%
http://gosoutheast.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/051111aaa.html

Also on their roster is Zach House, a 7-foot senior center originally from Rock Falls, IL, who started his career at Evansville - redshirted there then left and went to Sauk Valley CC.
In 2010-2011 Zach still barely made an impact with just 1.8 ppg & 2.6 rpg despite playing in all 32 games, starting nine of them and averaging 12 mpg.
His FG percentage of 30.3% is quite possibly the worst in college basketball for a 7-footer who takes all his shots from within a foot of the hoop.

Marcus Brister is a RS senior who bounced from high school to high school then to Iowa State (under Greg McDermott) then was booted and landed at juco (Eastfield College)...now at SEMO going into his final year.
He averages 5 ppg but is one of their prime players at 24 mpg.

Practically the entire rest of their roster are juco players...they had 10 juco kids last year plus 3 D-I transfers.
This coming season they will have no less than NINE juco kids....

SEMO also has two highly rated (3-Star) talented freshman kids out of Memphis on their team this fall. They should definitely have one of their better years and should finish higher in the OVC than any recent year. They will surely do better than EIU -- who I have read someone repeatedly claim is going to have a breakout year..

A recent article says that SEMO is getting paid $70,000 as a guarantee payment for this game -- LINK

That article also points out that SEMO's schedule contains TWO different NAIA teams, Harris-Stowe & Hannibal-LaGrange.

Looking forward to the competition

Things are pretty slow now that the Community events are over, AAU ball is over, and the season's still a couple months away -- and thus traffic on this blog is slowed down a bit. But we'll try to get it going by talking about the upcoming games.

I will add a few bits of info on each of Bradley's 2011-2012 opponents......

The first game is on Sunday, November 13 against UMKC (University of Missouri - Kansas City). This is still 91 days away........
The UMKC Kangaroos are in the Summit League - same as Coach Molinari's WIU Leathernecks.
The Summit was a rather weak conference, finishing 21st out of 31 conferences in RPI, and last year UMKC was 9-9 (16-14 overall with one non-D-I win) and in 6th place with an RPI of 212 and SOS of 280.
Their best win - and only win over any team whose RPI was better than 183) was an 85-77 victory at home over IUPUI (RPI 115).
Their best non-conference win was against Utah Valley (RPI 249) and their best road win was at South Dakota State (RPI 183)
EIGHT of their 15 wins were against teams with RPI over 300 (340, 306, 328, 345, 342, 336, 342, 336), and as you can see, SIX wins were gimmes - against teams whose RPI was inside the TEN worst RPI's in the NATION!!
Their only game against an MVC game was a 71-52 drubbing they took at Wichita.

UMKC is currently in Italy on a foreign exhibition tour through August 20. Their first game was supposed to be yesterday but it was postponed and moved to a later date.
So they have yet to play a game in Italy but are scheduled to play four games in four different cities, Bologna, Venice, Florence, and Rome.
However -- because of their tour -- they will have had a couple dozen extra practices than Bradley will have had when they meet in November.
Also - by the time they play Bradley on 11/13, UMKC will also have already had ONE regular season game two nights earlier against D-II Northwest Missouri State - in an odd 3PM start time so they can leave Friday night and not have to practice Saturday on a travel date to Peoria for the Sunday game.

One interesting thing about UMKC is that they had always played their home games at a far larger downtown arena and then last year they made a BOLD move and moved all their home games to their MUCH smaller, on-campus arena, Swinney Recreation Center, which holds only around 1400 and YET this move was hailed unanimously as a GREAT success as it brought larger attendances and more students!!

Here's their tiny Swinney Center that only seats about 1400 packed tightly.
http://image.cdnl3.xosnetwork.com/pics/400/KZ/KZXOXQGVGNZXIDN.20081116023646.JPG


The Kangaroo roster includes six returners and their main loss from last year is Jay Couisnard - 17.9 ppg - who was a transfer from Evansville. They also lost their other two best players Spencer Johnson & Bakari Lewis.

Reggie Chamberlain - 6-0 senior shooting guard, D-I transfer who averaged 11.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg in 2010-2011. Reggie started his college career at Seward Co. CC, then went to WICHITA STATE in 2008-2009, where he played in every game except one but only averaged 12 minutes per game and only 3 ppg - scoring mostly in garbage time.

Dustin Dibble - 6-4 senior SG from Michigan, part time starter averaging only 2.7 ppg, 1.0 rpg. Dustin has a great uncle who played on the NFL Detroit Lions.

Michael Gholston - 6-0 senior guard who averaged only 2.7 ppg and 0.7 apg.

Trinity Hall - 6-7 sophomore forward, Kansas City native, who averaged 7.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg.

Bernard Kamwa - 6-8 senior forward, Cameroon native who is already 23 years old. Played at four different high schools, and two different junior colleges before verballing to Cal State-Fullerton then reneging and coming to UMKC last year. He averaged just 3.0 ppg and 4.0 rpg despite being a full time starter when he was healthy.
One more thing -- he is just a career 37% free throw shooter -- quite possibly the worst in D-I last year (16-43).

Trevor Mason - little used 5-10 senior guard - 0.7 ppg.


And three returning redshirt players:

Kirk Korver - the youngest of the four Korver brothers - missed all of last season due to a foot injury.
In his one season as a freshman in 2009-2010, he played in 30 games and averaged 4.6 ppg, shooting 38.6% on 3-pointers.
He is brother to Kyle (Creighton), Klayton (Drake), and Kaleb (Creighton) - who all played in the MVC.
His mother Laine also was a good basketball player, as she once scored 74 points in a single game in high school.

Fred Chatmon - 6-9 sophomore F/C from Cleveland, didn't play in 2010-2011 but averaged 2.5 ppg, 1.5 rpg in 2009-2010.

Nate Rogers - 6-1 redshirt sophomore who played sparingly his freshman year at DePaul in 2009-2010 (2ppg) then transferred and sat out last year at UMKC.
Nate went to St. Joseph's HS and was a teammate of Demetri McCamey & Evan Turner.

And five newcomers:
Trevor Franklin - 6-6 wing from Kansas City
Jordan Payton - 6-5 juco fwd from Gulf Coast CC
Brad Reid - 6-11 juco center originally from Australia
Thomas Staton - 6-6 juco wing from Independence CC
Estan Tyler - 6-1 guard from St. Paul, MN

Some Bradley news items

Geno threw out the first pitch at a Normal Cornbelters game -- much to the dismay of some of the ISU fans...
but one local station did have some video coverage of Geno Ford at the Community Events...

http://www.centralillinoisnewscenter.com/sports/college/Bradley-Community-Night--Pekin-127285828.html

I saw some video of Geno at the Cornbelters game - but that video is not on the TV station's web site...


They also have video coverage of sammy Maniscalco and his teammates going to Italy...
http://www.centralillinoisnewscenter.com/sports/college/Maniscalco-looks-forward-to-Italy-trip-127346718.html


Sammy bonding with his Illini teammates...
http://www.fightingillini.com/view.gal?id=99453


Bradley becomes the first school to offer a schoalrship to rising sophomore Larry Austin of Springfield. A close friend of Austin's, Payton Allen also has his only offer from Bradley.
By the way, there's a great new premium article and interview of Peyton Allen on one of the DePaul sites after Peyton's DePaul visit...I have all the details at..

http://www.twitter.com/#!/BUBravesNews

This is not a public site, so if you want to read the premium stuff you have to contact personally and get this....
Anyway - Peyton talks about his only offer ftrom Bradley and seems to be less than impressed with DePaul and their chances of winning any time soon.


Lastly -- Bradley players, you just never know -- years and years later -- people will still be talking about you...

http://twitter.com/#!/frdelrosario/status/101422047267258368

http://twitter.com/#!/matt_wulff/status/101749967173058561

http://www.bobbyjoemason.com/golf.htm

http://twitter.com/#!/nickmur/status/102091365403471872

http://cgi.ebay.com/1951-BERK-ROSS-3-11-PAUL-UNRUH-PSA-7-NM-Pop-5-SCARCE-/230635606843

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=joe+strawder&_sacat=See-All-Categories


OK - normally I don't waste my time correcting other people's extreme errors..but someone pointed out one comment to me and asked me if it was true...and of course it is NOT...

Now -- you're gonna have to hold on to something so you don't laugh right off your chair -- but seriously -- this is precisely (cut and paste) what someone on another message board just said...
"I remember when Len Bertolini was offered $200,000/year out of high school to play professionally in Italy. That was a lot of money back then but he chose BU"

Does anyone else see the silliness here?? Len Bertolini wasn't a bad high school player but nobody in the entire universe would have even offered him a penny to play professionally in Italy out of high school. Maybe after he finished college - but even then it wouldn't have been $200,000 which would have been the equivalent of nearly $1 million today!!
I know Len, and he did have professional opportunities but not for that kind of money -- and ONLY after his college career was over - but instead he chose to stay in the US and pursue a business career...which, by the way, has been quite successful.

Maybe they are thinking about Len Bertolini's father who was honored by the Illinois Assembly -- but he never was asked to play in Italy either...
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/legisnet92/hrgroups/hr/920HJ0086LV.html

Or maybe this is where the error was blown into existence..
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3986661.html

BU's Community Night in Dunlap last night

Last night Bradley held the next in their series of Community Nights at Hickory Grove Park in Dunlap.
Turnout was good - at least 100 people, maybe more as people trickled in and out.
For those who know where this fairly obscure park is, it's really the extreme east end of Dunlap, and it's even inside the Mossville/IVC school district. I was easy to get to being just a couple minutes or so north of the Knoxville-Rt. 6 interchange...and the weather was absolutely perfect.
There were coaches from numerous sports but quite honestly, I'd have to say at least 95% of the fans who were there came because they were basketball fans.
Kirk Wessler was there in his white bobblehat, half the basketball team was there (Jake, Will E., AT, TB, Donivine, Nate Wells) and all the basketball coaches (Geno, Graham, Uken, Beilein, Willie).

They had stuff for kids, playground, ice cream, popcorn, Qdoba catering, and everyone was friendly. Nice to talk with several of the posters from the message boards, and I really enjoyed meeting and talking with all the coaches.
Geno was great, talkative, easy to approach.....his kids (8th grader & HS sophomore) will both go to Dunlap schools.
Greg Graham is also getting used to hot, muggy weather, his wife is a nurse who plans to get her licensing transferred at some time so she can work, and he also has two sons...
One just graduated from high school and will attend a prep school (will tell you which one elsewhere), and his other son is also a sophomore and will attend Dunlap. Word is that Graham's high school sophomore son is a very good basketball player, and so is Geno's, so Dunlap will have a windfall of talent for the next few years.

I had the opportunity also to talk with Willie, he's really a great guy and has been traveling all over recruiting - out west, Florida, and everywhere in between.
Nate Wells is a very pleasant kid, and has gained 20 lbs since arriving in Peoria and doing the summer workouts. Like I did in college -- he is frequently taking advantage of Avanti's "All-you-can-eat-spaghetti nights"...it was $1 for all you can eat back when I was in college but I suspect the price is a bit more now, although I prefer not to partake nowadays.
Nate is fully comfortable with his decision to redshirt this year so he will not be playing - except he might play in exhibitions, which is allowed.
Donivine has definitely GROWN a couple inches since I last stood next to him...he is a legitimate 6-ft now and maybe even a bit over 6-ft even.
AT is bulking up a little - I hope that translates into banging harder and earning some PT.
Will is out for the year so with him out and Nate Wells redshirting - that leaves the team with only 11 rostered, scholarship players. So we had better hope we don't have any more injuries. Will Egolf was walking comfortably with a knee brace on.
TB was his usual pleasant self - and anxious to play more.
Jake Eastman has lost some baby fat and bulked up a bit - looks like a solid 6-5.

Rick Gaa of the Athletic Department had a lot to be proud of -- his son, a juniore at Metamora HS, just accepted a scholarship offer to play baseball at Bradley - Class of 2013. Rick's other son starts as a freshman at Bradley this fall! Congrats to Rick & Spencer.
http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x142922808/Metamora-junior-accepts-BU-baseball-offer

I guess some people asked about the Itoo spaghetti supper -- I always liked going to that, but I never heard anyone mention it at the Dunlap event - so it must have happened at the Pekin event.
Regardless - I would rather tell you about what DID happen at the Bradley event, than to fill my entire report on something that is not currently on the plans.

Geno answered one question about playing style by saying it will definitely be up tempo -- and bragged about his teams always being at the top of conference offensive stats - but also noting his style also demands (and usually succeeds in) low turnovers.

It was a good evening with Dave Snell moderating the actual "program" part - one more night left in Washington...

A few loose ends and more bad news in the papers...

Must be tough being a sports reporter during a slow time of the year...
Kirk Wessler appears to only be writing 2 or 3 blog entries and a couple columns per month...but half of all those recently have been about himself....or more accurately about his bobblehead.
He's kinda proud "some" of his bobbleheads ended up on ebay -- although actually the few that are listed on ebay are ALL by the same exact person from Manito, IL who appears to identify himself as someone most message boarders already know...
One bobblehead already reached the deadline without a single bid being placed....
And - only one of the other four has a bid and that bid has just been placed at the minimum on one of them.
I suspect he might not hit the $30 that the Marcellus Sommerville bobblehead went for on ebay back in 2006, but then the economy has tanked since then ;).



Then someone told me that a few certain folks apparently disputed some facts that I recently mentioned about a local Peoria corporation, MMCI, that just sold to an Iowa hospital management company.
I guess if people don't like what they read, they just wail and never bother to look it up -- why not just attack the messenger...?
So - against my better judgement of having to restate or prove the very point that is self-evident -- here goes...

"In conjunction with the issuance of the series 2011B bonds, Methodist plans on issuing approximately $63 million series 2011A bonds, which will be privately placed with PNC. Total outstanding debt after this issuance will be approximately $115 million with 55% fixed rate and 45% variable rate. The series 2011 plan of finance includes the current refunding of the Series 1998 bonds, paying off the operating line of credit ($48 million) and partially funding the termination of the forward starting fixed payor swap. The swap had a negative mark-to-market value of approximately $27.2 million as of April 2011."

Here's the link to the Reuters article -- easy to find, so I hafta wonder why anyone would have had trouble...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/04/markets-ratings-methodistmedicalcenter-idUSL3E7G44SN20110504

But if finding the article was difficult for some, then understanding it will be danged near impossible so let me help...

As we have seen in the news recently -- bond ratings of AAA and AA are pretty good but bond ratings of just "A" and "B" are not so solid....and not so good and investors won't want to spend to buy uncertain investments.
Iowa Health Systems has a AA rating but MMCI had just an "A" rating but was helped by their association with the Iowa corporation.

"The series 2011 plan of finance includes the current refunding of the Series 1998 bonds, paying off the operating line of credit ($48 million) and partially funding the termination of the forward starting fixed payor swap. The swap had a negative mark-to-market value of approximately $27.2 million as of April 2011."

Meaning that MMCI spent a bundle to pay off their prior bond issue in order to issue their new bonds...thus losing "$27.2 million".

Read it and weep -- there's your link...one thing worse than a liar is someone who lies to try to falsely claim an honest person is lying.



Speaking of lowered credit rating -- the current administration really has a lot to explain as now two more agencies run by our administration and that were driven into the dust by Barney Frank and friends -- have now also had their credit ratings cut --
Here's the link for those who cannot find it...
http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/08/news/economy/sp_rating_ripple_effect/


Bil Maher in the news.....
BM shows how out of touch he is with sensibility and reality -- he proposes the liberals form an organized political movement akin to the Tea Party.
Obviously he'd like his liberal ideas to have as much influence as he sees the conservative ideas gaining -- but I think he errs in naming his new proposed organization.
Maher says he's calling it the "Donner Party" named after the pioneers who went west and resorted to cannibalism when times were tough.
I think this idea of Maher's speaks for itself...
Can this guy be taken seriously by even the wackiest liberal??
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/07/bill-maher-liberal-tea-party_n_920268.html



A couple front page stories today in the Peoria news highlight how fragile life is...

First - two outstanding young people, great parents, were killed by a drunk driver. This is an all too-common story, and something needs to be done about it.
This is reminiscent of the fine, young East Peoria man killed a few months ago by a guy who was not only drunk but high on a plethora of illegal drugs....
Murderers like this deserve really strong and sensible punishment not simple slaps...
http://www.aledotimesrecord.com/news/x795263977/Two-reckless-homicide-cases-to-be-tried-in-July

Second - a single column detailing a laundry list of shooting crimes in and around Peoria over the weekend...late Saturday and early Sunday.

-Nine shots fired at someone in the car wash at 917 Main St. - just 4-5 blocks east of the Bradley campus.
The shooting victim is in the hospital with "multiple bullet wounds...in the face and the neck".

-An hour later, on North Knoxville just north of War Memorial, a man was stabbed in the chest..

- Then one that startles me - happening at the roller rink in Mossville right at the intersection of Rt. 6 and Rt. 29, a place that is often filled with kids having birthday parties -
"....shots were fired at the Peoria Palace Roller Skating Rink...multiple shots fired, multiple fallen victims and a second round of shots. A pair of juveniles were reported shot, one in the leg and the other in the arm."

http://www.pjstar.com/free/x782941165/Three-reported-shot-one-stabbed-in-Peoria-in-early-morning-incidents

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x2111993572/Peoria-couple-dead-after-three-vehicle-crash

I kinda hope someone in local law enforcement is paying attention - since the last several mob attacks and gun crimes in our area seemed to get little attention and consideration other than in a few blogs and message boards.

But now we're having this stuff every week - and drunks are killing innocent people.
We need vigorous prosecution and penalties -- not the soft stuff we're used to like this....

Example: This guy gets drunk uses drugs -- drives a stolen car and drives on a suspended license and slams into a dozen people!! It's amazing he didn't kill someone!
What sentence did he get??
After several charges were dismissed, he gets couple years in prison...

http://www.pekintimes.com/news/x1073706000/Suspected-DUI-accident-in-Morton-injures-12

http://www.mortontimesnews.com/news/x1332180680/Morton-man-apologizes-to-injured-drivers

By contrast -- here's the kind of decent justice seen just outside Peoria...

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1934472683/Galva-man-pleads-guilty-to-felony-drunken-driving
http://www.accidentin.com/article_read.php?idLink=7661192
http://www.pjstar.com/news/police/x2111991786/Galva-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-accident-that-injured-teen

I know I might be asking for more than I can expect from our justice system -- but these murderers and drunks should have their wages garnished for 20 years to come or have their cars & homes impounded and sold to pay the costs of their victims....

Like I said - life is fragile....here are just a few simple statistics...

-2.4 million people die each year in the US

-cardiovascular disease (heart disease, strokes, aneurysms, etc.) account for nearly half the deaths - and many are preventable by easy measures such as diet changes, weight loss, and cessation of smoking.

-cancers account for about 1/4 of deaths - against many cancers are preventable or avoidable (quit smoking, lifestyle changes..)

-accidents (of all kinds) account for about 125,000 of those 2.4 million deaths (5%) but those accidents often claim young healthy individuals.
Car accidents account for 40-45,000 deaths per year, and half those deaths in one way or another involve alcohol consumption or drug use.

-alcohol use and abuse also accounts for yet another 24,000 deaths per year above & beyond the accidents, in the form of acute alcohol poisoning and chronic alcoholic diseases, especially of the liver and brain.

-murders finish as about the 15th greatest cause of death but if combined with suicides (all intentional causes of death combined) then it becomes the 9th biggest cause...behind heart, cancer, stroke, lung, accidents, Alzheimer's, Diabetes, & kidney diseases.

-the areas with the strictest gun laws do NOT have lower firearms crime and death rates!
In fact - Washington, DC has one of the tightest set of gun laws there is - and yet DC leads the nation BY FAR in "Firearms Death Rate"
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-death-rate-per-100-000

-The following factors help IMPROVE life expectancy:
Not smoking, eating more vegetables, getting married, having children, practicing heterosexuality (sorry, but this is so very true), going to church (yup -- this has been proven unequivocally but you won't see many places where they will tell you this truth), and - believe it or not - displaying happiness, forgiveness, friendliness, and being worry/anxiety-free.

-The following factors reduce life expectancy:
smoking, practicing homosexuality (see the link immediately below - people will blame the messenger but being homosexual may decrease life expectancy by as much as 20 to 30 years!!), getting obese, getting into gangs, dropping out of school, failing to get proper treatment for blood pressure, diabetes, etc..., remaining unmarried, decline to wear your seat belt, and worrying or being "stressed".

http://www.slate.com/id/2098/

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:v5_qAdib4iMJ:www.jpands.org/vol10no3/lehrman.pdf+homosexuality+life+expectancy&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESguKmFNWylLOUIy9uKPPSx8S2PaFyaXsYrVW1w8-4WU1V_8P6yzPJz8bNDWazL8gpa39E8MPowMvIonlzbLDvsiSR7yjCcFVtLxq_9eY0VKFiouKQ9b1s8hd7gjjomt9oqXbhxM&sig=AHIEtbQMlfVdNOnN4NvwB5yDINtKKUP_Wg

http://longevity.about.com/od/longevityandillness/a/neurotic_worry.htm

And lastly -- for anyone who might be considering a "Living Will" or a declaration that would prohibit you from being "resuscitated" or being placed on life support...

-if your heart stops and someone performs CPR or resuscitation....then the statistics regarding how successful the efforts are depend fully on whether this happens inside or outside a hospital.
The stats for out-of-hospital resuscitations are generally only about 20-25% as good as in-hospital resuscitations (sometimes called "codes" or "blue alerts").

Per various publications....
-the overall success of restoring a decent heartbeat and vital signs with a resuscitative effort or code is about 38%....not good but consider that most people who "code" already have a whole lot of underlying illness and medical problems...but...

Since so many of those people have more trouble before they get well enough to get out of the hospital...then the "success" needs to be looked at in regards to how many people actually get well enough following a code to leave the hospital and how many are still alive and functional six months later.
Those numbers are pretty strikingly low...

Only 17% get out of the hospital, and only 10-12% are alive and functional six month later.

The success rates are better for younger patients (as might be expected) and are extremely dismal for people 80 years of age and older.....with only 3-4% recovering from a resuscitation effort and living an independent & productive life 6 months later.

This is why so many people choose on their own by age 80 to just declare in a living will that they do NOT want resuscitative effort even done -- they don't want any life support or heroic measures....
Many declare in a "Living Will" that they don't want to be "coded"...
Of course it's a personal decision that each can make on his own - but if you want to be "coded" after you turn 80 then simply know that the odds of the "code" being succesful and you living afterwards is far, far less that the code effort causing even more pain and suffering and eventually dying anyway - and the ratio of those two possibilities is about 1 to 25.