Some info on Misouri State - plus it's gotta be global warming, right?

How about a preseason look at Missouri State basketball....
They still have Kyle Weems but they almost didn't as he entertained thoughts of transferring.

But for a guy who is and deserves the Valley Player of the Year - he is still a bit inconsistent and he won't have much to team with him this season also - something I am sure most Missouri State fans are reluctant to see.

Here's a few examples of MSU's late season faltering...

Down the stretch run when Missouri State had the chance to literally put away Wichita State and run away with the Valley - they lose at Evansville by double digits (77-65) although this wasn't all Weems' fault but he did fail to get his teammates involved as he had no assists, and the rest of his team were just 15-36 and 5-19 from 3-pt.

Then a BracketBuster loss at Valpo that would have possibly had them in line for an AT LARGE BID from the NCAA - and Valpo comes away with a pretty easy 80-67 win, leading by 10-15 most of the last 25 minutes.
Weems going 7-21 (1-8 from downtown) really hurt them.

But the single worst stunner was in St. Louis - where Missouri State handed off a win to undermatched Indiana State with Kyle Weems pretty much taking the day and the entire MVC Conference Championship Tournament off.
Only 3 made baskets in 36 minutes might show how teams are going to beat them this year -- just guard Weems and the rest of the team simply can't help much.
Weems' shooting percentage over the final half dozen games was just over 31% showing he wore down carrying too much of the load, and it won't get easier this year.

In fact - in all of those THREE games I just cited, the entire bench combined for only 30 pts and 16 rebounds -- that just 10 pts & 5 rebs a game from what's left for Weems to team with this year because the rest of all the starters are all gone!

In the MVC Tourney loss the bench contributed a mere 5 pts & 4 rebs.....a scary sign of what the future is going to be like for Weems when he has to play this season without any talent on the floor except himself.

But right after the MVC Tourney loss then their coach, Cuonzo Martin bolts to become Bruce Pearl's replacement at Tennessee and the Bears dip back into the Purdue assistant pool to land Paul Lusk.

This year's roster has a lot of new names...and senior Will Creekmore was denied a special NCAA 6th year waiver for an extra year of college ball - as it should have been since the ONLY year he lost was due to transfer - not injury.

The addition of DePaul transfer Mike Bizoukas isn't likely to help a lot. Returnee Nathan Scheer (soph) is a good shooter but he won't be enough by himself...although maybe one of the newcomers (jucos Anthony Downing, Corbin Thomas, & Jarmar Gulley, and a handful of freshmen) will help a bit. They also have returning Caleb Patterson, who along with Isiah Rhine provide a tiny bit of frontcourt experience.
New head coach Paul Lusk with have a tough task.

One starter is certain - Kyle Weems and at least two others Scheer & Caleb Patterson return with a fair amount of experience from last year. But guessing the other two starters is tough. Bizoukas transferred from DePaul as a grad student (like Sam Maniscalco did so he's eligible immediately) so he's somewhat experienced but he didn't play much at DePaul and averaged just 2 ppg.
My guess is that Biz will start at PG and then the other SG might be Keith Pickens who returns from an injury...or maybe one of the juco kids could earn time in the starting lineup.
They are holding tryouts for walk-ons - so you never know...
http://www.missouristatebears.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/091311aab.html

They should struggle early on against one of the Valley's best non-conference slates, until they figure out who their best players are to go with Weems.
They do host Oklahoma State and Tulsa early on, and they go to New Mexico & Nevada, and also play in a tough Las Vegas Tourney where they'll face West Virginia and St. Mary's...


Here's one interesting tidbit -- Missouri State is doing something this year that D-I schools NEVER get to do...
They are playing THREE open, public pre-season exhibition games.
Ordinarily teams are limited to TWO such games but Missouri State has received special permission to play an additional exhibition against D-II Missouri Southern IN Joplin, Missouri to help benefit those who were hurt by the tornado's devastation.
http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=474417

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/26283066/30168642





All this heat -- surely this has been the hottest year on record -- in fact prepare yourself because I am sure that's what everyone in the media is gonna say!
If you ask anyone in the entire state if this has been a warmer than usual year for Illinois, I am sure 99% will say yes and 95% will say they are 100% sure it has been.

BUT -- what do the actual FACTS say???
Here are the precise facts from numerous temperature stations in every county in Illinois - thousands of precise data points..(not the crap that the feds make up or hand pick to prove what they want)

It comes from this data bank...
http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/watch.htm#

Which tabulates data in Illinois from 117 different data recording and reporting sites. This data is precise and cannot be faked - Here are those 117 different sites throughout the state:
http://www.isws.illinois.edu/data/climatedb/


But let's look at the one figure they call "Departure from the Mean" which is the one indicator whether this year has been hotter than normal (or average).

Here we see proof that last winter we were way cooler than usual
http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/seasons/djf.tdev.png

Then in spring - again much cooler than "normal" throughout Illinois
http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/seasons/mam.tdev.png

Summer - yup it was hotter than usual..we all know that...
http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/seasons/jja.tdev.png

September thus far, however, is back to being VERY cool..as was the last part of August
http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/mtd/month.tdev.png

And if we just look at the temp departure last 30 days is -1 to -2 degrees (BELOW historical average) nearly statewide
http://mrcc.sws.uiuc.edu/state_climatologists/illinois/tmeandev-30days.png

So WHAT does the overall picture for Illinois in 2011 show???
....the temperature departure for the State of Illinois over the entire year of 2011.......is............
........ZERO...
http://mrcc.sws.uiuc.edu/state_climatologists/illinois/tempytd2.png

It has NOT been the hottest year ever, and it hasn't even been a "hot year" -- it has been precisely at the average or mean temperature here in Illinois if you actually look at the real and not imagined data!!!

So just as I predicted - even though everyone thinks it is hotter than usual this year - they are WRONG.
It was hotter than usual this summer but the cooler temps statewide the entire rest of the year cause the average temperature departure for virtually the ENTIRE State of Illinois to be ZERO.

So this is a classic example of someone using a short term factor to assume a long term trend when the real long term trend is that 7 of the 9 months we have had so far in Illinois in 2011 have actually been COOLER than usual and the long term trend therefore is NOT warming!

So how about other midwestern states? What you find is pretty amazing...
Iowa - for example - has had a relatively cool year - and even over the last 3 months, their temperature averages have been right on the averages with an average temperature departure of ZERO despite seemingly everyone saying it's record hot!
http://mrcc.isws.illinois.edu/state_climatologists/iowa/tmeandev-90days.png

Other midwest states are the same -- mostly right around the norm - despite the hot summer since the entire rest of 2011 was pretty cool.

So you cannot prove global warming with any data from the midwest - regardless of what you hear now or what you will hear from alarmists down the road.
Sure there were some hot spots in certain places like Texas - which we heard endlessly about on news reports, but there were other spots like Minnesota (which we never seemed to hear about) where the entire first 6 months of 2011 had almost all parts of Minnesota at 3-6 degrees below average over that entire span!
http://mrcc.isws.illinois.edu/cliwatch/seasons/mam.tdev.pnghttp://mrcc.isws.illinois.edu/cliwatch/seasons/djf.tdev.png


BTW -- for those who might still think we have been having drought - the facts also prove that totally wrong...precip. departure - is above norm all over the state, AND way ABOVE for the Southern half of Illinois.
http://mrcc.sws.uiuc.edu/state_climatologists/illinois/prcpytd2.png

So I don't really care what people believe but they should check real facts, that's all. I guess I learned long ago that almost everyone in government and in media has a bias and has an agenda. So if your information or your beliefs come from such a biased and limited source then just beware of how wrong you might be.

BUT - here I have presented pure data -- facts from literally hundreds of separate and independent sites that are used and relied on for accuracy by all the Illinois farmers and other people. If you want to claim all this data is wrong - then feel free but you are making a total fool of yourself if that's what you believe.