Lots of interesting Valley News

There's a lot to talk about in the Valley, some good and some bad...First, the good!

Bradley returns to campus for a home game tonight. Although Bradley has played numerous preseason exhibition games on campus in recent years, this is the first regular season game since Bradley beat Illinois Wesleyan in the old Fieldhouse on December 1, 1993, an 81-63 win in front of 5205 fans.The last game against a D-I opponent on campus was March 18, 1982 which was a 3rd round game in the NIT.Bradley won this game over Tulane 77-61 on their way to the NIT TITLE a week later in New York.>>

The last time Bradley played a regular season game against a D-I opponent on campus was February 27, 1982 - the final regular season game of the 1981-82 season, a tremendous game that I recall well - but a heartbreaking OVERTIME loss to #8 ranked Tulsa 82-79 that hurt BU's chances of an NCAA at large bid...but set up a memorable run to the NIT Championship.>>

This will be an exciting game against decent opponent tonight, SEMO - who have some fine players. However -- I am puzzled why we have to pay them so much to come and play us in Peoria. This is a team that would have probably come for a dime just to "play up" against Valley opponent.$70,000 sounds like a lot of money - http://www.semissourian.com/story/1784881.html--

But Bradley also has some very fine players....with Taylor Brown, Dyricus Simms-Edwards, Jordan Prosser, and even a couple freshman excelling and standing out thus far. It's beginning to look like just maybe the players we had already in the fold at BU were not so bad as some whined about. It's becoming pretty obvious that it was just the injuries that hurt BU.--

AND TONIGHT -- we need a great crowd - but thus far crowds have been down -- obviously a part of the fallout from last spring that doubters simply don't want to see.


More good -- the Valley still is getting some pretty good press - some saying we're going to get multiple NCAA bids...and I certainly hope so....as long as the negatives coming out of the Valley don't hit the national newswires....http://is.gd/LuGjVt

The Evansville win vs. Butler and Drake win vs. Iowa State helped a bunch but we need some more BIG wins -- GO Aces tonight against the Hoosiers!

More good - for BU fans - after 5 games BU recruit Tyshon Pickett is hitting 65% of his field goal attempts, hauling down 10 rebounds per game, getting 2.2 blocks.

In the MVC stats - Jordan Prosser leads in rebounds and is 3rd in the NATION, while two of the top four scorers in the Valley are BU players (TB &DSE).


Now the bad - First - a mention of the passing of Bradley basketball legend Bob Carney -- a truly great player but also a great man and incredibly well loved by everyone who knew him - he has already been missed, as I have the pleasure of sitting two rows in front of his season tickets and have enjoyed many chats with Bob & his wife - and have already missed seeing them. RIP.


And the really bad Valley basketball news........I don't think I can recall a team in the Valley in any recent decade that is as bad as SIU looks right now.They lost on their home court to a bad, transitioning D-II team - a team that went the next night to another D-II school and got blown out.
BUT SIU lost looking really bad .....Then last night they not only lost to Saint Louis -- they embarrassed themselves and the Valley. They were never even close - they trailed by 20 early and the final score would have been a 25+ point margin had Rick Majerus not flooded the floor with deep subs.
And SIU simply doesn't play the kind of ball that's going to win games. Everyone just dribbles and shoots - no passing - totally selfish play. They had ONLY one assist in the entire game - how is that possible?

That may just be some kind of all time MVC or NCAA record - and if not it is only one away from the record!!!


BUT -- you haven't heard the worst -- as bad as SIU is - they do have two legitimate D-I players in Bocot & Seck - but both are seniors and will be gone next year. How are they ever going to find anyone they can schedule and beat next year?

Since the Rich Herrin era - SIU has had only 3 losing seasons and all three have now occurred under Lowery's watch and the spectre of several more loom large!
AND yet - the usual crowd who dissed on Jim Les used to praise Chris Lowery endlessly - even our local press did as if they'd have traded what we had in a heartbeat to get CLo! Can you imagine -- Lowery never even had injuries that might have accounted for his team's dismal performances. There's really nobody the SIU fans can blame except Lowery and whoever gave him a 7 year extension at 3/4 mil!

Then we have the two ISU players arrested for assaulting an apparent downtown bar patron at 2AM last Sunday morning..Now I don't want to get into a terribly big argument but this comes on top of numerous other alcohol issues and arrests, DUI's, robberies, player dismissals for arrests, even child rapes at - among the basketball players at ISU recently -- they even had a stretch with Levi Dyer & Brandon Sampay of TWO DUI's concurrently that Jank said he'd penalize strictly yet none of those guys ever missed a single game or even a practice as has been thoroughly documented.I agree BU players have had some issues - but all have FAR more minor and almost trivial in comparison.

Although I saw all this coming years ago - with the behavior and the poor scheduling, poor recruiting, and terrible performances - that ISU and SIU have clearly defined themselves as the BOTTOM of the Missouri Valley. Their fans have tried like crazy to fire slurs and insults at BU and the Bradley players and even the Bradley fans - but the facts clearly define otherwise. Where some fans were saying the Valley should dump Evansville a couple years ago - I think now we need, unfortunately to look at SIU & ISU...they're both scheduling and playing worse than D-II's and their criminal and arrest record is hard for the rest of the nation to miss. I guess I'd feel sorry for their good and loyal fans - but there don't seem to be very many. Thankfully most fan bases are more upbeat even when their teams falter or suffer through injury.


Here's a laughable bonehead comment by our President -- but here's the odd thing...If George Bush, Gerald Ford, Dan Quayle, or even Michelle Bachman had made this comment, it would have been on the front pages of newspapers and on Saturday Night Live for YEARS!!!And yet HERE is OUR President - who was BORN (supposedly) in Hawaii -- and he doesn't even know that Hawaii is part of AMERICA!!!He says Hawaii is part of ASIA!!!Is this profoundly stupid or what??
http://is.gd/IudeJV


Just as predicted - the Wall Street movement people are suddenly realizing how stupid their demands are -- that they want money handed to them and taken away from people who worked to earn it.Al a big blow to their cause - yesterday the New York Supreme Court ruled that they cannot "occupy" the public park - that it is illegal for them to claim as their own the property of the state!So most have packed up and gone - leaving behind their filth, waste, drug paraphernalia, condoms, and rubbish...and now there's only about a dozen of them left.BUT - never underestimate the wackiness of anarchists and lazy people who want others' money! They'll be back or they'll simply start taking over houses in your town!
http://is.gd/pvjUHs