Chaos at ISU - lack of discipline, criminal behavior..

Wow - one of the ISU basketball team arrested and charged with selling drugs, manufacture & possession...etc...court date TODAY!!!
(are they rushing him to court so he won't miss practice??)

These are FELONY charges  -and not just possession but conspiracy, manufacture, delivery - peddling drugs...
what is going on over there???

Their discipline has historically been amazingly soft - so will it be any different now?
Lots & lots of players have had serious run-in with the law and not even been disciplined.

At least they suspended Geoffrey Allen .. let's see how long he is suspended...
Surely they had to know about him - they went out and recruited the kid to transfer & come to ISU - then lobbied to get the kid immediate eligibility even tho they would be just as good without him.
He should never be allowed to return to either the team or to the school if he's selling drugs.....just what kind of program would allow that?

Some history -
When they had a DUI & underage drinking under Jank (Sampay) they didn't make any move at all until they were outted on the message boards then they suspended the guy overnight then reinstated him the next morning....and he never served a minute or a game of penalty..
Pretty much the same story with Levi Dyer....only when it got brought up on a message board did the press ask Jank and he admitted it had happened but hadn't disciplined the player.

Last year when they had a couple guys arrested after going out drinking all night then beating up an innocent bystander on the street & charged with assault & battery - the players served a single days' suspension in a meaningless, early-season game against hapless SIUE then were immediately reinstated.

I won't even bring up all the players who have court dated for ordinance violations, driving without licenses, and ignoring and missing other court dates and neglecting their fines...
Four different players have court dates within the next couple weeks for these issues - FOUR!!  That's 1/3 of the team in just one given month!!!
And people there seem to spend all their worries on a Bradley player using a crude tweet or girlfriend spat.

More Attendance Woes - Going to Get worse

I know some don't want to hear about it or pretend it's not happening...so sorry to bring up the attendance issue again...but I have a bad feeling about the two weekday games next week...

Be prepared - now we are reaching the games that historically have a dropoff due to weather, holiday events, people being out of town for Christmas, students gone, band will be fill-ins, and last-but-not-least really, really crappy opponents.
We have Georgia Southern & Mississippi Valley State coming in next week - teams whose names aren't going to cause a rush to the box office....
if the crowds we're seeing now of only 6000 (with 1500-2000 empty seats) are disappointing and start causing finger-pointing, then we'd better get ready for even more finger pointing.

Several other threads suggest reasons for the near record low attendances...
I have read some people who blame the fans and say they've sorta gotten old and don't care..or blame the students....or the younger fans for not appreciating tradition or being fickle...
both of these are ridiculous...it's like any other business trying to increase sales coming out openly and blaming their customers....that sure isn't going to work and make them more appealing!

Then, of course we had the multiple columns in which the press has tried to lay all the blame on people who haven't even been here in 2, 3, and 4 years.
KW's column repeatedly went back to as far as 2007 and tried to claim it was the losses, the scheduling, the personalities, the players, the "issues", etc...
Really?? 

But it is so incredibly easy to blow that argument away because the attendance, the big crowds, the sellouts & 10K+ crowds didn't really all disappear until the past two years!
And how can the highest ranked team in all of history come in to our house and NOT be a sellout???  Close maybe, but still obviously several hundred shy of a sellout.  We used to sell out for DePaul!!
Just a couple years ago - crowds of 11,597 showed up for Michigan State & ISU and there were no empty seats & no-shows!!
Now we're even seeing a NEW benchmark we had also never seen before - on nights that BOTH BU & ISU both play at home, they are outdrawing us!!!  Is anyone noticing all this or are they too busy looking to blame KK or JL?

These mid-December non-conference games are a decent measure by which we can compare the past few years.
Of course back in 2005, 2006, 2007 we were drawing 8,000, 9,000, and even 10,000 for relatively obscure opponents in even some no name non-con games!
In 2008 we drew over 11,000 but that was for VCU - a little better known opponent but it was still well before VCU was a Final Four team.
In 2009 - even really obscure opponents that people generally stay home in droves for such as SEMO & SIUE drew well over 9,000 just the week before Christmas (remember - we're getting just over 6,000 announced but way fewer in reality).

As recently as 2009-2010 we were still drawing 9,000-10,000 for games right this time of year with competition from seasonal events all around town and for opponents as obscure as Western Carolina...

EIU, Jackson State, and Utah just two years ago drew crowds of well over 7000 up to 9000.
But now we see the biggest single-year dropoff in attendances...this year we're seeing consistently over 1000 less at these early season games........ 6300 to 6600 and next week is sure isn't going to get any better.

The problem is getting serious and the fingers are being pointed in the wrong direction.  Our kids, especially the seniors deserve to have the big crowds, the sellouts......we need to make it happen.....

Attendance woes II

Last Tuesday both Bradley & ISU played home games and ISU outdrew Bradley in attendance 

considerably...........

......... and this may be the very first time ever that has happened...BU's attendance numbers 

are getting noticably smaller and perhaps because the very people who wanted all the changes 

we have seen - simply don't want the blame - they are keeping silent about the empty arena!

Which all the more says that it is foolish to take Bradley's awesome fans and longtime local

fan-interest for granted...

some of these crowds, as I have said, are perhaps the smallest Bradley home crowds since 

we played in the armory....so why isn't that getting a bit more attention and why isn't there 

a little bit more effort to halt the skids???

Is this not a classic example of THE FANS ARE SPEAKING and nobody's listening...
One more time - if a ship is steering right for the rocks and is about wreck then why are people

either ignoring it or blaming the guy who was one of the crew members two years ago?

Perhaps when the home crowds drop under 3200 then someone besides me will wake up 

and take notice.....oops, may be too late.......I guess it already happened....

BU attendance woes

It didn't get much mention in the press but the PAID ATTENDANCE of 6313 at the GWU game represents the smallest paid attendance at regularly scheduled Bradley home game (not the NIT games - not the alternate-arena Ren-Col games) and the worst ever at the Civic Center...for a long, long time......
... a really long time!
Even the snow game had a substantially better "paid attendance"..

We are dangerously close to slipping under 6000 (although with no-shows we're already way under 5000!) in paid attendance and thus we'll be seeing ISU-like numbers for home crowds soon!!!

Once we're under 6000 we're in totally uncharted territory - never seen in the downtown Carver Arena...

The 6313 is not only the lowest this year - but way lower even than any home crowd at Carver last year - BY FAR - with no crowd last year even under 7000.
In JL's last year we really only had one crowd (of over 7,200) that was substantially even under 8,000!

...and people blamed JL for the low attendance back when it was 7,000 - 8,000!!!
You can't blame the captain from two years ago who isn't piloting the ship any longer - when you have a shipwreck NOW!!!!

The 6313 may even be smaller than most of the crowds ever at the Fieldhouse but I don't know all those figures...
does anyone know??
It could well be one of the smallest paid crowd for D-I game at Bradley in 50 or 60 years - maybe going back to the Armory!
Even the games in the lowest of the Albeck era still are generally all upper 6000 to 7000's...

BUT does this surprise anyone - it seems to surprise some but not me - as some have been predicting this exact thing for nearly TWO YEARS!

I guess what I am surprised by is...
that this fact is NOT more disconcerting to many - it sure is to me -- I am at every game.....where's everyone else...
especially those who are such uninformed critics who called for the changes we have seen the past couple years -- this is what they've asked for and yet now they're all MIA....

I am doing all I can and bring 6 or so to every Bradley game - even buying extra tickets to bring extras to the Michigan game - all the while some of those most DUMBFOUNDED - and without explanation for the tiny crowds are those pseudo-fans and endless whiners on a lesser frequented message board who are uninformed and who call everyone they don't agree with "morons".

Just a little more info about the Mooseheart HS situation that the media isn't mentioning

An Illinois high school named Mooseheart is being accused of recruiting players and yet almost all the press coverage is about the mean old other school that is objecting to Mooseheart's use of illegally recruited players because they are dirt poor and come from Africa. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/batavia/ct-met-mooseheart-red-ramblers--1204-20121204,0,5091694.story ................................................................................................. -first this is NOT about race nor Africa nor any other issue other than whether the school, Mooseheart, follows the rules that THEY agreed to follow when they became members of IHSA.. it's really kinda shameful that their defense is to allege racism rather than stand up for what hey have done and be honest. ................................................................................................. -Mooseheart also drags up irrelevant arguments about a cross country student, about the timing of the claims, and arguments about how the information on their students was obtained. They seem to NEVER ONCE deny that the info IS TRUE and that they specifically used athletic abilities to determine which African kids to "recruit" and bring to the school. They claim the info was obtained under false pretenses... but the only false pretenses here are coming from Mooseheart - who never reveal the facts willingly - and now they are mad that someone found out the facts by tricking them into thinking they were giving the facts for a survey. ................................................................................................. -since when is Hinckley Mooseheart's "archrival" and why does Mooseheart make that claim as if it thus nullifies Hinckley's desire to see fairness and expect Mooseheart use LEGAL and qualified student-athletes. the schools are 20 miles apart - about as far apart as Notre Dame & Lowpoint-Washburn, and they only compete in a few sports ...... ................................................................................................. -so what if Hinckley was partly involved in requesting that IHSA check into the recruited athletes...after all IHSA has NEVER instituted such an investigation on their own and they AL:WAYS enlist the action of member schools to help identify this kind of abuse of the rules. Virtually every investigation IHSA ever pursues to check on use of ineligible kids is at the request of another school - generally some other competing school. ................................................................................................. -and why shouldn't IHSA use evidence such as quotes and facts THAT APPEAR IN NEWSPAPERS? Isn't that how they found out that the head coach of Hales had been illegally recruiting kids from other schools - because he actually said so in an interview? ................................................................................................. -is it not quite interesting that the very person cited and quoted as funnelling those kids to Mooseheart and arranging for their tuition to be paid - is also the exact same person that a totally separate athletic organization, NCAA, also found had illegally paid money in behalf of, covered expenses, then funneled top prospects to University of Indiana, Mark Adams? I am sure Mooseheart WOULD HAVE NEVER USED Mark Adams as a reference and character witness except that this document was from March of 2012 - before the NCAA caught Adams acting illegally as an agent to funnel talent to IU. ........................................................................................ -lastly - whether the story about bringing Sudanese kids to America tugs at your heartstrings or now - you have to seriously wonder why every Sudanese kid they seem to bring here JUST HAPPENS to be 6-7 or even 7-feet and play basketball! If they were just randomly bringing over Sudanese kids unrelated to their athletic ability then using Mark Adams or the fact that all the kids are enormously tall make a mockery out of that claim. ................................................................................................. Independent of all the tear-jerking stories here - the IHSA found strong evidence to prove that Mooseheart... "acted "for athletic purposes" and "was seeking out athletes, and basketball players in particular"

BradleyFans has all the latest on BU, recruits, and discussion on games and how the season is going

Get ready - the season is starting and there's really only one place to find all the best info on Bradley basketball........but it sure is funny how some love to criticize........................................................................................... I understand why this might bug some, because there are those people who have invested time, energy, money, and personal effort to provide an outstanding FREE site with all the news that's news on Bradley basketball. But those people shouldn't let it bother you them that a few people want to gripe and whine about what they can find FREELY here from the people who contribute............................................................................................................................. BradleyFans has been since it's inception eight years ago and still IS one of the very best college team sites and fan boards - but on top of that - the expertise and knowledge of the people here are 2nd to none... BUT - then - that's so incredibly evident and doesn't need to even be stated and everyone else knows it - thus the difference in viewers, contributors, and traffic routinely is a 100 to 1 ratio and higher!!........................................................................................................................................ Routinely, news about Bradley - and even major news about other Valley teams - is posted in detail well before anyone else has it anywhere......................................................................................................... First - - even a simpleton ought to easily be able to determine that everything known about Bradley & Michael Tucker has been posted on BradleyFans long before it was even sniffed out anywhere else - and even then - they simply copy and cut and paste from BradleyFans onto some other site. There hasn't been a single even irrelevant piece of Bradley basketball news broken on the other sites in at least five years - so they are obviously quite jealous........................................................................................................... Second - but that's also true with every single news story that's even remotely news about Bradley basketball - with the rare exception that Dave Reynolds does occasionally also have some good stuff...but also he gets a lot of his stuff here. News about Sammy or Dodie signing and playing overseas, (even the news on Sammy & Russia was here two weeks ago when I talked to him at the Red-White scrimmage), news about all the other BU players and their exploits & accomplishments, news about all the current players, and the latest news on recruits, who's visiting, and who BU is following - it's all here before it's anywhere else............................................................................................................... Then lastly - the very people who keep trying lamely to put BradleyFans down have a strange way of showing their affection for the site but logging on incessantly and checking out everything (their IP addresses can be seen & are easily known to mods), they use up massive amounts of bandwidth - more than all other users combined in their efforts to find something said by someone that they can pick an argument over, and then get this - they keep thinking up new strange screen names and finding new hidden e mail addresses so that they can keep coming back and re-registering over, and over, and over, and over, and over agin and again, etc...and logging on again and again in complete contrast to their claims that they wouldn't come here................................................................................................................ If they really don't like the site then they appear as some of the most laughable hypocrites since they spend and obsesses their lives away reading and trying to get onto BradleyFans!

More stupidity revealed as people try to act "politically correct"

I'm sure everyone recalls Oscar Pistorius - the guy who ran the 200m on blades in the Olympics with folks championing the idea that it was totally fair that he used those blades because he had no legs....and that this is the social equivalent of being fair......................................... Well - Pistorius never came close to winning or medalling at the Olympics...and now he is competing in the Paralympics in London........ BUT -- after Pistorius lost the 200m to another guy wearing almost identical blades in the London Paralympics...he accused the other guy of... cheating because he had an unfair advantage - the other guy had better blades! http://www.kmbz.com/-Blade-Runner-Oscar-Pistorius-Loses-Race-and-Says-/14142572 ........................................... http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Paralympics+2012+Oscar+Pistorius+cries+foul+after+200m+loss+Alan+Oliveira/7181555/story.html ........................................... "After losing..Pistorius told British broadcaster .."We are not running in a fair race here." Pistorius insisted that there was an issue with large prosthetics lengthening his Brazilian competitor's stride. ...I do believe there is an issue here." ....Oliveira, 20, caught Pistorius in the final 20 meters of the final race last night, marking the first time Pistorius didn't win a 200 meter run. "He's never run a 21 second-race and I don't think he's a 21-second athlete,'' Pistorius had said. "I don't know how you can come back, watching the replay, from eight meters behind on the 100 to win. It's absolutely ridiculous." ............................................... So....Pistorius is complaining because the other guy with NO LEGS used the blades to nab a clear advantage that helped him run faster? I find these comments interesting and hypocritical because Pistorius is saying that the blades do have the capability of giving the user a significant advantage and an advantage big enough to help a guy win. Here's a picture of the two guys and their blades....... http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02327/Alan-Oliveira_2327648b.jpg ........................................................ Next time some guy will show up wearing 6-ft blades! But I think this shows that anyone using any mechanical or unnatural equipment might be unfair because it could give an advantage. If the guy can't even win his own race against people just like him using blades, then he has no right to complain if he & his blades get banned from a race where the other competitors aren't using blades. What a whiner - but then I guess karma is a ***** - as all those who claimed Pistorius was gaining no advantage by using the blades - will now have to eat their words if indeed they see that even Pistorius himself is claiming the other guy gained a distinct advantage by using his blades!!!! BTW -- notice all the other guys in the race who have one normal leg and who use a blade on their other leg................ clearly the one legged guys are are tremendously slower than the guys with TWO blades - thus even more proof that the blades are a HUGE advantage. I wonder if in the name of "PC" we'd let some paralyzed guy do the high jump with a huge helium balloon attached so that he cleared a 25 ft. bar?? .................................................................................................................... Here is my ranking of the Top 10 All Time Bozo Sports Stunts - in the name of political correctness....................................................................... Hon. Mention - because it wasn't really a "stunt" was the televised PBS documentary when the Women's Dream Team Olympic basketball team warmed up before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics by scrimmaging a rag-tag, pieced together scout team of guys off a military base near Atlanta... but they got pounded and beaten so badly that one starter got hurt and was unable to compete in the Olympics - a couple others were carried off the floor but not hurt badly, and there was an uproar that caused the documentary producers to remove that part of the film and never show it again! One other Honorable Mention - Bobby Knight doing that stupid, scripted, rehearsed, "Knight Court" show on ESPN to get a walk on player who was inconsequential to his team but it gave Knight the chance to display his arrogance and selfishness nationally. TOP 10 10. Nancy Liebermann playing on the Washington Generals against the Globetrotters ......................................... also.........Nancy Libermann competing on the old TV show "American Gladiators" and getting knocked out of the competition right away. ......................................... 9. Michelle Wie trying to compete on the men's tour - she came in dead last and didn't make the cut virtually every time - kind of embarrassing since her "handlers" had said she would compete with the top men! ......................................... 8. The NBA Pacers drafting Ann Meyers then actually signing her to a token $50K contract and giving her a tryout - just to cut her as if it was ever serious ......................................... 7. UConn arranging for the hobbled Nykesha Sales to score a point is a rigged & orchestrated set-up play in a real Big East game - that even took the actions of the other players to pull off the stunt - just to get Nykesha's name in the record book. ........... http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/25/sports/college-basketball-sales-is-given-free-shot-and-sinks-it-for-record.html ......................................... 6. Male to female sex change golfer Mianne Bagger playing on the Women's PGA Tour and becoming a total flop. She was never any good anyway but the LPGA removed the phrase "female at birth" from their bylaws! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mianne_Bagger ......................................... 5. The Coors Light Colorado Silver Bullets - team of all femaile BASEBALL players - trying a tour where they played male baseball teams and getting rocked even by 13 and 14 year old amateur players! ......................................... 4. Katie Hnida playing college football .then whining after she fails miserably at it and filing a lawsuit saying she was discriminated and harassed. ......................................... 3. Letting the Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius actually compete in the Olympics as if he didn't gain an advantage from those blades. ......................................... 2. Letting sex change Richard Rasskind/Renee Richards compete as a woman in tennis. As a male she wouldn't have even been able to win a 50-year-old bracket in a Pekin, IL city tournament...but as a "woman" after a sex change she was abvle to compete with the top women pros in the world. Hmmm...how much does that tell you about the difference in level ofplay between the top men & top women. But not as much as the next one tells you...... ......................................... 1. Billie Jean King acting like she actually accomplished something significant by beating a washed up old man who didn't rank anywhere in the Top 1,000,000 male tennis players. Is it really any kind of accomplishment at all that the top woman player in the world can beat a guy who wouldn't rank in the top 1,000,000 men and who was Medicare age? The efforts of those to push their PC agenda will always keep us in stitches.

A Duane Broussard Mention then ignorance defined...

A Duane Broussard mention - he helped New Mexico land this unrated 2013 kid who is currently attending the same school that produced Rashad Austin. .............................. http://www.abqjournal.com/sports/2012/08/20/forward-commits-to-lobo-mens-basketball.html ...................................................................................................... And here's one of the funniest bits I have seen in a while - a Major Leaguer - Melky Cabrera - who just got caught cheating with drugs in his system - tries to "outsmart" everyone by having one of his lackies create a phony website so he can then claim he used a legal supplement that was tainted unknowingly by the illegal substance - and he he could use the website as proof, even though the product he was claiming to have bought was phony and everything about the web site was fake. .............................................. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-19/sports/chi-report-details-cabreras-fake-website-plot-20120819_1_fake-website-report-details-ban ......................... The only problem tho...is that in this day & age it is incredibly easy for anyone to check and trace IP addresses and know exactly where, when, and in many cases exactly who is behind those web sites. The guy has shown just what a buffoon he is and how naive he is thinking he was so web-savvy. .........................................................................................

Even more incredibly ignorant comments about recruiting

I challenged one poster on a message board with this question: .............................. "OK - then how long would you wait before admitting that a school is a bit behind in getting the recruits they want? All I ask is that you commit to when you expect some news....Sept., Oct., Dec., spring??...." The guy actually responded with these precise words........................................... "I don't mind answering questions. To the first one---regarding this years 2013-14 class--I will say June 15, 2013".................... OK - seriously - the guy says we shouldn't get the least bit worried even if Bradley keeps striking out and missing on kids all the way 'til June 15, 2013 then finally lands someone... Well...here's why that's is so stupendously ignorant - and even the recent comments in the press by Geno Ford say so as he admits he wants to get a couple - 2 or maybe 3 - this FALL! So let's look at this once again... So you say that it wouldn't bother you at all if you held ALL four open scholarships - all the way 'til mid-June, 2013?? Keep in mind - there's going to be an incredibly active fall signing period from November 14 - thru - Nov. 21 -- and lots of schools will fill their scholarships - freeing up other waiting recruits to now look elsewhere... Then you still won't mind if we get NO action in April or May when the entire month-long SPRING signing period sits... (April 17, 2013 - May 15, 2013)... Every available kid who can play in fall of 2013 will be looking to sign and lock into a scholarship by the end of that signing period -- ALL OF THEM.................... the only ones left over will be those who are really obscure or marginal in qualifications and then the Towsons, Md-Eastern Shores,Northern Colorados, Georgia State's, and ....FIU's will be left to fight over them... And then - a FULL month beyond that on June 15, 2013 - you still think there'd be anyone left with D-I capability?? I am kinda stunned by that philosophy and would be extremely shocked if BU would ever want to wait that long to get a nibble - by then we'd be a laughingstock on the recruiting trail if we still had a boatload of scholarships and nobody even calling... ................Nope - we're going to land someone this fall -- it would be a frank admission of failure if we don't - so we'll get someone. That's why even Geno -who's generally pretty laid back - says it's time to panic if we don't land at least 2 or 3 by Halloween!! It may not be a guy who was originally on page 1 or page 2 -- but it's be someone and he'll have some D-I characteristics....so time will tell........

All of a sudden - it's unheard of to talk about recruiting ...

Odd how nobody's allowed to have the tiniest bit of concern, question, or anxiety about recruiting... I seem to recall this exact same stuff every single fall and nobody went "ballistic" in past years except the ones whining about BU doing poorly in recruiting................................. in 2011- lots of people were worried that we got late start and didn't sign anyone who was very highly rated. But that was blamed on the prior coach because you could hardly blame the new guy if he'd only had 6-7 months leg time................................................ in 2010 - plenty of people wondered if Sean Harris would even sign his LOI or if he did whether he'd make it here or be any good anyway.. and lots of anxiety centered on whether we'd fill all the open scholarships or have another John Wilkins situation http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16592 ...then there was the usual anxiety and fretting because we didn't land anyone considered a "difference maker".............................................. in 2009 (fall) - it was obvious we had lost Wilkins, and we were closely losing other good recruits - [url]http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9913[/url] ...plus we lost DJO to Marquette.... ...there were posts that went on and on with people threatening to jump off the ledges!!..................................................................................... fall of 2008 - Bradley was getting ripped for too many juco kids anxiety galore and people freaking out!! - http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x518440851/Reynolds-Too-many-jucos-for-Bradley ....................... fall of 2007 - you don't remember this year?? This was when all our local writers were ripping into BU for how badly they had recruiting given the boost we should have had from the Sweet Sixteen - and instead Bradley stuck themselves with "Seven D-I Virgins" -- KW carried this line of bitc*ing on for the better part of a couple years!......................................... fall of 2006 - this was the year everyone just about jumped ship because we lost POB and didn't get anyone to replace him, Cellus, or the rest! ...maybe nobody else remembers all the whining and gnashing of teeth but I sure do...

Good patterns for "rebuilding"

In the midst of ISU and every other Valley team stocking up on 2013 verbals - I thought I'd change the subject................................................................... Iowa fans were abandoning their team in droves a couple years ago... Iowa had their worst season in 2009-2010 - since the early 70's - and when Lickliter was jettisoned - almost everyone with any talent either left or decommited...so Fran McCafferty had a rebuilding job that everyone said would be impossible to be above .500 for years............................................................................... Well- McCaffery's first year was promising - more wins that the year before but in year two he was already above .500 and advancing in the Big Ten Tourney beating Illinois and winning in the post-season....fans even more optimistic now that he's landed some pretty good players. And there's an optimism there now that hasn't been there in a while http://www.dailyiowan.com/2012/07/18/Opinions/29136.html ................................................................................................. Iowa State completed the rebuild in even more impressive fashion - with Fred Hoiberg- who had never had coaching experience - and who was harshly criticized as the new head coach because of his lack of D-I experience - taking the program from complete mediocrity under McDermott with a revolving door and nearly 20 player-departures for major issues - to more wins than McDermott ever had there in his FIRST season then 23 wins last year and a great season and NCAA run. Again - everyone said at best-case scenario he was gonna take many years but he did it nicely - and almost right from the start. Every fan hopes for this kind of turnaround - is it so wrong for a fan to want to see his team win? Nope - Bradley fans are no different - this is all they want - the fans who want to see wins are NOT the enemy they are the lifeblood of the entire program. it is the fans who actually wanted to sabotage their program for their own selfish purpose of getting rid of someone they personally didn't like that have hurt our program. I can't wait to get there -- Halloween............. ................................ btw -- I get a good belly laugh out of one guy on a message board claiming that he felt he was every bit as important as a fan of Bradley basketball as anyone else... Well...keep on thinking - nobody's stopping you, but wake up to reality - that the core group of a few dozen fans who give in the range of TENS of thousands of $$ yearly to BU vastly trump any concern they'd have for one guy who lives hundreds of miles out of state that never donates a penny to BU but instead spends his time on message boards criticizing. Everyone is entitled to voice their opinion - although they are not entitled to barge into others' private homes and say whatever they want. BUT there are some fans who are more knowlegable and more generous that BU would like to keep around. They just need to avoid mistakes that have been made in the past in the name of moving forward -but in the process upsetting long time supporters...time will tell.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee sinking to new lows...

UW-M has decided to stop playing their home games in the nice, big downtown arena - since their team hasn't drawn well and they can't come anywhere close to filling it. so they are moving all their home games back to their tiny, antiquated on-campus arena, the Klotsche Center. This facility on-campus holds only 3200 even when packed to the gills - although there are people who doubt they'll even fill that! A lot of season ticket holders are not happy with this scaling back.. Here's a Daily Kos article that's really a gas - it's probably satire but Kos wants everyone to take their entries as accurate and reliable so it's odd that this is on a site that does not typically do satire. Here's a few things they say...... "An embarrassed University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Athletic Director Andy Geiger announced the men’s basketball program will stumble back to the Klotsche Center, the school’s on-campus gymnasium, effective immediately. “I am not going to spin this,” Geiger told the media after the June 26 announcement. “We are not big-time. As we watch attendance and accompanying revenue continue to wane, we have no business in an arena with a capacity over 10,000. Do you know how cavernous the MECCA looks with a thousand people?” “We had to get a damn waiver from the Horizon League to play games on our practice court,” current Head Coach Rob Jeter scoffed... Geiger later admitted the team hopes to reunite with Pearl, but has had trouble arranging official negotiations with the out-of-work coach. “I actually visited his house in Knoxville last week,” Geiger said. “His teenage daughter Leah answered the door and she wasn’t very helpful. Said she wasn’t sure where he was. Leah had a black eye and, with lips quivering, she mumbled something about Daddy drinking again.” But University Chancellor Michael Lovell remains optimistic about Coach Pearl, and the basketball program. Lovell believes that so long as they can convince Pearl to “come home to Milwaukee,” the Panthers future is bright. "Give [Pearl] plenty of money, and license to break every rule he needs to, in order to return us to the Sweet Sixteen," Lovell said. "Then we give local Miller Brewing Company a call, build a world-class, $100 million Miller Arena on campus. Next stop, Big Ten [Conference]." http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/11/1108656/-Panthers-Slinking-Home ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------so how is this relevant to Central Illinois?? First - BU's attendance is shrinking tremendously - are we next?? Second - UWM mirrors BU - no FB - and owns an on-campus arena which although small would save $$ and that seems to interest some. Don't say you weren't warned.............

Sorry - I strongly disagree with some - this current recession was caused by 3 main factors that are above and beyond all other factors. --------------------------------------- #1 We were attacked by terrorists requiring a very expensive, long range plan to retaliate and protect ourselves. We have never had a single significant attack since, so the response was extremely successful although costly. Our economy would have easily survived this factor had it not been for the next two that followed close behind. ------------------------------------------------- BTW - This 9-11 attack happened in the early days of the George Bush administration but was a result of bin Laden planning and working for years to pull it off. Blame who you want but Bill Clinton and the largely Democratic congress had EIGHT whole years that they knew bin Laden was after us and they did nothing! -------------------------------------------- #2 - The Democratically controlled banking committees in BOTH houses (Barney Frank & Chris Dodd) changed all the banking regulations to not only allow easy access to risky mortgages but also allowed banks and financial houses to pull strings and teeter us close to financial disaster. All it took was for enough irresponsible people to fall for the line handed them and enter into those risky loans, then default. This is nobody's fault but their own - they sought and signed willing for those loans then failed and defaulted. Blame who you want but it doesn't take a genius to see who caused the banking and mortgage crisis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3 Lastly - after one useful and successful "bail out" - then the current President decided to throw more GOOD money down the drain and again, it doesn't take a genius to know if you give away and waste all your money you will have a severe financial crisis - which we do. Almost 6 TRILLION more dollars in NEW debt in just the past 3 years - almost as much as all 43 presidents before him combined ran up! So again - tell me just who is responsible for the financial problems we have? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BUT even despite this we are a nation that is GREATLY blessed...and most people who work do well for themselves and are abundantly satisfied with what they have in this FREE NATION! and even those who don't or can't work have access to many forms of assistance. How can you deny that even the poor in this nation own cars, cell phones, color TV's, and virtually everyone has food and a place to live. In fact - strangely a large percentage of those claiming to be poor have enough expendable income for cigarettes, liquor, drugs, and other things that prove they are not so much destitute but instead irresponsible. ---------------------------- Those pointing fingers constantly and looking for someone to blame for their dissatisfaction - the rich, the working class, politicians, Wall Street, talk radio hosts, Tea Partiers - are largely looking for a scapegoat to lay the blame on for their own outcome or laziness. There is a GREAT difference between those who are unable to work or who have nobody to help them or support them - and those who are unwilling to work or waste the help given to them.

08:00 Sunday - we've known for a few days that a spot is going to open up out west for an assistant coach... http://wap.myfoxhouston.com/w/main/story/65864559/ ............. UCD's Gus Argenal is leaving to take a spot at Rice....he will be replaced by an interesting hire who is also an ex-BU assistant..... Argenal worked as an assistant in Texas for a few years - http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/argenal_gus00.html ............ So...while some guys can't even get a D-II job - all the past BU guys have landed on their feet just fine.

Yawn....

That's all I hear from people when I try to talk Bradley basketball -- just a yawn -- people are definitely losing interest. Just a few years ago we debated whether interest was at all time high's!!! Now - we are at serious risk of interest plummeting to new lows... We already saw attendances dropping to levels not seen since the end of the Albeck era and beginning of the Molinari era, 20 years ago... And we have gobs of articles, as the press has begun to look like a PR firm for Bradley basketball -- and yet interest is STILL not improving. Let me say that my interest never dies and I think facts bear that out. I might not be the #1 Bradley fan but I am definitely mistaken for him some times as everyone who knows me knows I have intense interest in BU basketball 24/7/52 weeks per year - and I take no offseason. I meet 20-30 people per day who know me to be a HUGE year-round Bradley fan and who used to want to talk BU basketball all the time - but this year I just don't see that. There's just NO talk. I am doing my best to get people interested - but bad seasons, bad losses, turmoil, infighting between fans, the perception that prior players or coaches were not treated well, and apparently NO events or plans for this summer to keep the fans interested - have all combined to drop the interest. The funniest part of it all is that when I run into a fan who was one of those who wanted all the stuff that did happen - the changeover, the new hires, etc. - he now is one of those who has lost the most interest. In other words - he got what he wanted, was happy initially with the events, but now he realized he shot himself in the foot, doesn't like what he sees now, and has lost interest, knowing it's likely to be another bad year in 2012-2013. (Unfortunately I define that guy as a bad fan - fair weather fan - or a fan who only cares about himself.) Anyway - people who used to talk all the time about BU basketball -- don't -- and even if the subject comes up the conversation is more like -- ohhhh...I am not sure how they're gonna be this year... Then check out the local newspaper's heavily subsidized and promoted web site for Bradley basketball discussion. It's never been very busy, but now it's an absolute graveyard. There's basically only one post since Tuesday (3 days ago) and it isn't about Bradley in any way, shape, or form...it's about an ISU recruit. In fact even the other threads for the past week are about the women's basketball coach, Butler changing conferences, and other non-BU-basketball topics. You have to go back practically a week to find any interest in any Bradley basketball topic....and even at that - there's just a few cut-and-pasted topics that were stolen without giving credit from "somewhere else". BUT - the biggest indicator of ZERO interest other than just the core of GOOD BU basketball fans who are often seen discussing things on BradleyFans.com - is that you can scroll any time day or night -- even in the middle of the busiest day -- to the bottom of their page at the newspaper web site, and this is what you see.... "Who is online Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guests" Well - of course the "one guest" is YOU, if you're looking at this page - so other than you looking at the page there isn't anyone else anywhere in all the universe looking at it or at any page on their entire forum! ZERO traffic = zero interest.... This is not a good sign -- no buzz or fan-talk, seemingly just NO off-season interest --- This time last year, despite the turmoil, people were buzzing, they were showing up for off-season events, and MEET-THE-TEAM get togethers. But - I have not heard one thing yet if any are planned this summer. Be forewarned -- attendance and interest might just look like it's going to be down this season.....and I see one guy who once mocked that idea still has an embarrassing signature.....one that says he doesn't believe there will be any long term dropoff in interest after the coaching change... Hmmm......nice try.....

Statistics do not lie but people do

I ran into a guy yesterday that has taught statistics and knows statistics inside and out. And I posed to him a question on how to use statistics when sorting out if left handed athletes have any advantage over right handed ones. If you recall - there were people who saw the obvious statistics showing that extremely FEW left handed shooters at any level of basketball appear among the top ranked shooters in shooting percentage. And we're only talking about outside shooting - not layups - so we obviously are only using the shooting percentages from beyond the arc. BUT it's pretty dishonest to claim that it's within reasonable statistical probability for ZERO left handed shoopters to be inside the TOP best long range shooters...that HAS TO BE due to some factor that determines outcome. We all know that left handed pitchers, left handed hitters, and even left handed tennis players have long been known to have a little special advantage which accounts for why there's actually a statistically noticable preponderance of them rather than an absence of them. Yet we still have doubters...so I asked this statistics expert how to use the data and here's what he said... If the sample size is large enough then the very best of each (lefties and righties) - the very, very best should still be a comparable group to use. So he argued to pick the very TOP five right handed shooters, and the very top five best lefties - or use 10 or 20 but that we can't go too far or we dip into the less than elite among one of the groups... So I used the top five - here's what we come up with over the course of their entire multi-year careers... I know there will still be doubters, but I am only using what the expert says .. try doing the same with batting averages or other things and see that it works... Top 5 righty shooters: 44.14% Top 5 lefty shooters: 37.84% not even close - not even legitimate to argue and not even worthy of any further debate... there can be NO denial that the best righty shooters are clearly more accurate than the best lefty shooters. As to why - each is entitled to his own opinions but I believe there are legitimate thoughts out there.... BUT it's just downright stooooopid any longer for anyone to argue that such a CLEAR and obvious and undeniable statistical difference DOES exist... If left handed shooters were as accurate or more accurate then plenty of them would populate the tops of the lists - but it simply is NOT the case... Even the few who are in the TOP 100 are not enough to make the argument because there are SO few of them -- way, way fewer than would be expected by random statistical factors. Remember - there's NOTHING that stops a lefty from growing up and playing basketball - but there are obstacles to lefty golfers, tennis players, and even to some lefty baseball players because early in their careers the equipment and the training may not be there for the lefties - and yet they STILL succeed!

College coach rats on his own team

Here's a story about an Idaho State head basketball coach who was not retained and was mad about it... http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/19249396/ncaa-investigating-the-powerhouse-that-is-idaho-state But - as always there's a whole lot more to the story -- The head coach at Idaho State, while he was IN THE POSITION of head coach, was fully aware of illegal booster activity with friends and supporters of the Idaho State program trying to lure players with money... He knew of this activity yet kept completely silent while he was leading the team - then just as soon as he's let go - he fires off a letter to the NCAA ratting on his former employer and turns them in for the illegal activity... The story includes supposedly eyewitness accounts of recruits being paid off with cash as a bribe... BUT did you know this is not the first time such an occurrence is known to have happened..... Gotta wonder - was there a disgruntled coach who was booted off the BU coaching staff in 2005 just weeks before someone "anonymously" contacted the NCAA and ratted on Bradley causing the NCAA to unprecedentedly send TWO field investigators to scour Bradley without even notifying BU that an investigation was going to take place? If indeed that happened then we might finally begin to know who was responsible for Bradley getting investigated - and recall -- the allegations regarded illegal off-season contact - something the NCAA spent countless hours trying to dig and prove but were completely unable to do so - so they settled for digging for other trivial crap like summer pay records and finally found something they could use. Some people's hero could be a rat, you decide...

So what happened....

I thought the know-it-alls and experts certified that Wayne McClain was a far better head coach than what BU ended up with back in 2002, and that he'd be a head coach somewhere soon...we were guaranteed that by the experts... Well, soon passed a long time ago and Wayne fell further and further down the pines at Illinois landing even behind the newer hires like Jerrance Howard,and not evenbeing the lead recruiter for the Peoria area. Now we hear the same line that we were told to buy back in 2003 that Wayne was offered a Big 12 job - but he turned it down. He did what?? Remember - when he turned down the Big 12 job in 2003 he wasn't even sure he'd be keeping his job at Illinois because the coaches were changing - and now he doesn't even have a job, and yet we are told to believe that he was offered a position at a BCS school and he even had to think about it - let along turned it down. Actually - I don't really even care much what the facts are or where he works - but I have to LOL at the press and message board comments saying he's getting these offers but he's turning them down. Am I the only one who has a few doubts about the veracity of these reports? Come on - yeah -- and I was just offered a spot as the chief sports editor at the Peoria Journal Star but I turned that one down, also. But I still might take the other offer I have to be the Chicago Bulls' top assistant - I still have to think about it because it might interfere with my plan to wash my hair this fall. Now -- does anyone see how silly the media reports are now?? OK - and don't get me started on the reports that a dozen different BCS schools are lining up and throwing scholarship offers at Nic Moore.....I just don't see the least bit of evidence - maybe the BCS people are smarter than the media people...and maybe they remember Marcus Arnold and Andrew Bock.... Is there any doubt why Gatehouse stock is under a nickle a share, and BANKRUPTCY is not only predicted but ..."Looming"... http://www.universalhub.com/2012/gatehouse-continues-hover-near-bankruptcy-local-un

Delusional? ..or just plain ignorant?

The inherent problem with being delusional or ignorant is that those who manifest the most extreme examples simply cannot see how delusional or ignorant they are. Some things they express are laughably ignorant and keep us in stitches for years to come, and other things are so absurd that it makes you wonder if they need help. Examples abound but here are just a few of the funniest... Delusional: I think the ICC starting five could easily beat the Bradley starting five. Reality: Not one single player from the ICC team that was the topic of that stupidity, went on to even the tiniest success at the Division I level. And yet the BU starters led their team to unprecedented success and the Sweet Sixteen. Delusional: If we just get rid of him, then we will immediately be better. Reality: We got rid of him and immediately had the worst year we ever had. Delusional: If they move games to campus it will be a horrible failure and I will boycott. Reality: It was a tremendous success, will repeat again this year and every year, and who cares? Delusional: We got rid of all the problems - now we're going to see success and huge increase in fan interest and attendance. Reality: Nope, as unfortunately everything is not roses, attendance was at 20 year lows, and the fallout was 100 fold worse than most with delusions could see. Delusional: Those guys are ignorant over there and the website is failing. Reality: Traffic ratio is easily 50 to 1, the site is busier by far than theirs even generating ad-rev, and "those guys" are quite successful & happy. Delusional: There's no reason we'd ever want to be at their site, it's better "here". Reality: They read and boast about taking screen shots of every page "there", whine endlessly about not being able to get to the site, and spend countless hours trying hide their identity and use fake logins to get back on (that is, when they are not in the slammer and can get to a computer). Then they copy, cut and paste every single thing since every significant topic breaks first "there". Delusional: We are smarter. Reality: Those claiming to be "we" have spent 7 years of unending efforts trying to hack into their site, and have failed miserably, and still have time getting a job that HS dropouts couldn't get. Delusional: We can prove they're wrong - I recall something said in 2006 that didn't come precisely true. Reality: Claims there of everything from contract buyouts to player issues to who is doing what are not only ludicrous but readily proven wrong. There's even one guy who keeps trying to make the point that all the programs are doing way better and are better off now than 5 years ago when BU was coming off a Sweet Sixteen year, and breaking attendance and revenue records that have since become a distant memory.

Info on BU's recruits and more on idiot behavior among athletes

FWIW here's some news on a few of the recruits Bradley is following.......... Mislav Brzoja ..played with his team at the Nike Spring Showdown .................................................... > > "The NIKE Spring Showdown ... at Merrilville, Indiana Best Tournament Performers Mislav Brzoja 6’5” SG Trader’s Point 2012 had a great weekend in all phases of the game. He moves very well without the ball which leads to him getting a lot of easy baskets. He also plays the passing lanes and anticipates well on the defensive end. Brzoja is also a good outside shooter and shot it well this weekend. The weakness to his game is his lateral quickness, but he didn’t look as slow this weekend as I previously thought." > > Tymell Murphy ..this is from the Rutgers scout.com premium site..inaccessible to most... "Recruiting.. On the Hardwood JuCo swingman Tymell Murphy officially visited Rutgers last week, but did not receive a scholarship offer from coach Mike Rice." "JuCo Tymell Murphy did not earn an offer from Rutgers on his official visit. I don't expect him to receive one. -- ...in open scrimmages could not seem to score against the defense." mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=183&f=2834&t=8926559 http://rutgers.scout.com/2/1179891.html Akkem Springs - signs LOI to Northern Illinois http://www.huskiewire.com/articles/2012/04/21/43959410/index.xml This comment on twitter says Akeem Springs signed with the "Salukis" but also mentions another SIU signing "Travon Baker" - and he also signed with NIU not SIU. https://twitter.com/#!/bryangn/status/193988973436219393 http://www.niuhuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041212aaa.html Milton Doyle - still shopping around - no word yet - This new ranking has Doyle at #22 in Illinois' fairly weak Class of 2012...but then they also have Aaron Simpson at #17 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&gbv=2&tbs=qdr%3Ad&q=cache:m96oRomq4XMJ:http://ballinnetwork.com/index/index.php?option=com_php&Itemid=448&st=IL&y=2012+%22milton+doyle%22&ct=clnk omari Grier - visited BU last weekend - I think we'd have heard by now if there was any good news... ESPN is reporting that Wichita assistant Greg Heiar is in the running for the Southern Miss job vacated by Larry Eustachy. The article also mentions that Tim Jankovich was in Minneapolis this past weekend at a big AAU event that Jim Molinari was also at. No official word if or when Jank's taking the spot at SMU. Bobo Drummond getting interest from Wright State among others but apparently little interest from the big boys as had been predicted by some... Rayvonte Rice's mom has been quoted saying that his decision is between Xavier and U of I. https://twitter.com/#!/JDenhart23/status/194185570585550848 Trey Kellum from Peoria Central verbals to Florida A&M https://twitter.com/#!/KRscout/status/194427931840360451 Several Illinois Wolves and others played very well in the Merrillville AAU event http://illinois.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1358129&PT=4&PR=2 Here's a few clips from that article... "Demetri McCamey's little brother Glynn Watson hit a baseline three-pointer with 3 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Illinois Wolves 66-65 over Meanstreets at the Spring Showdown in Merrillville (Ind.) on Sunday. Watson's shot capped off the matchup between two marquee 15U clubs in one of the top games at the event. Watson, who will be a sophomore this fall at Westchester (Ill.) St. Joseph, is one of four outstanding guards on the Illinois Wolves 15U team. Wolves' director Mike Mullins feels it is among the best collection of backcourt talent that his program has had. Jordan Ash, who also plays at St. Joe's, is probably the most touted of the quartet. ...Ash .. considered top 5 talents in their class in Illinois. Jordan Ash, guard (6-foot-1), Westchester (Ill.) St. Joseph / Illinois Wolves It would be hard to find a sophomore guard who is more physically and mentally mature than Ash at his. He was consistently good the entire weekend in Merrillville. Ash is the emotionally leader of a loaded 15U Wolves squad, and he gets it done inside and out. His strength allows him to get position in the paint and finish, and he is tough on the glass for a player of his size. A left-hander, Ash can get his mid-range shot at will. Ash attacks, but doesn't force things if they aren't there - a trait of many Wolves guards over the years. His three point shot is a work in progress, but it is noticeably better than when we saw him last summer. Ash can score at three levels when the outside jumper is going down. He was also the best passer among the 2015 guards that we saw this weekend, especially in transition. Prentiss Nixon, guard (6-foot-1), Bolingbrook (Ill.) A smooth and natural scorer, Nixon went off in the game against Meanstreets, hitting threes and attacking the rim in transition. Along with 2014 wing Peyton Allen, Nixon was the best pure shooter that we saw at this event. The Wolves guards are interchangeable - Nixon can play point, but he is a more natural wing. Like Allen, Nixon is great coming off of screens. But something that separates Nixon is the ability to get his own shot. He can break down opponents off the dribble or stop and pop. Nixon also defends well on the ball - he forced a five second call on a key possession late in the Meanstreets game. More notes from the Spring Showdown * Illini head coach John Groce and assistant Jamall Walker were on hand for most of the day. * 2014 wing Peyton Allen shot the ball consistently well this weekend and looks in excellent physical condition this spring. * Darius Austin, Allen's teammate on the SW Illinois Jets 16U club, is adept at getting to the basket. The jury is still out on Austin due to an inconsistent shooting stroke, but he is very aggressive attacking the rim. * Normal (Ill.) U-High forward Keita Bates-Diop was hot and cold this weekend, but he came up with a big 24-point performance vs. Speice Indy Heat Sunday afternoon." A few more minor notes..... @prepbullseye tweets... "No IL player enhanced stock in Minneapolis this weekend more than Kendall Pollard. Is a top 2013 recruiting priority for Toledo & Bradley." Kendall Pollard also figures to receive a scholarship offer soon from Bradley. AHC Willie Scott watched him endlessly this weekend." Alec Peters from Washington got an offer from Valpo..and ... Nate Taphorn is now very likely out of reach for any mid-major... - he's now got a Northwestern offer even before his junior year is over IN THE NEWS IS MORE IDIOTIC VIOLENT BEHAVIOR BY RON ARTEST... Despite the guy calling himself "Metta World Peace" (what a mockery of anything to do with peace) - .. this guy displays the most criminally violent and thuggish personality of anyone I have ever seen play this game or really any athletic endeavor - even ice hockey! Here's Ron Artest's latest hit on a completely innocent and unsuspecting James Harden in last night's game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkvepCon4tg I call on the NBA to give Artest a lifetime ban - this is far, far from his first or even his 10th incident - someof which are already legendary.. This crap is exactly why even kids in junior high are acting the same way because they think it's cool, tough, and gets very little penalty. I saw the ESPN talking heads hinted they thought he'd just get 1 or 2 games, maybe three...and I cringed when I heard that...... Look at Marian Hossa of the Blackhawks that we are discussing on the General Sports board - he was hit so violently that he's gonna miss not just the playoffs, but his career might just be over because of that hit... Likewise with Harden - it is convceivable that if he has a concussion he could miss a month or more... Anyone recall Cardinals' catcher Jason LaRue whose career was destroyed and ended when he was viciously kicked in the head by Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto?? In other words - LaRue gets a lifetime penalty from the injury but remember what Cueto got?? Seven games suspension - which because he's a pitcher actually means he misses JUST TWO GAMES, maybe even JUST ONE! http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100919&content_id=14843488¬ebook_id=14843490&vkey=notebook_stl&c_id=stl http://www.foxsportsmidwest.com/08/12/10/Rains-Cuetos-suspension-is-a-joke/landing.html?blockID=289060 I know the voice of just one fan is meaningless to these greedy people but I have been consistent over the course of my entire life that this type of INTENTIONAL violence - especially when completely unrelated to the game - needs to be penalized in the severest way! In the same contaxt... ... a new study shows why pro sports teams seem to NOT care about the severe character issues and arrest histories - they go right ahead and pursue or draft those guys anyway!! In other words ..character doesn't matter - the lust for talent and the hope that it'll pay off with wins and more income are all that matters. http://news.yahoo.com/column-undecided-draft-scan-rap-sheet-235703929--spt.html "But a provocative new study suggests an almost surefire way for any GM to maximize the value of his pick: Choose a player who's already had a run-in with the law. "So if you're on the fence about a player and worried about his criminal record," said Stephen Wu, an economics professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., "the data says take a chance." That sounds strange, but makes sense ..." This study and the response by the NFL teams is exactly why we have such character issues so prevalent in sports.. Lastly - remember when the media and ISU fans really had a field day because one BU player tweeted from class? Even though Osiris Eldridge has also tweeted some groos stuff from his classes, even a video of another female student..the ISU fans still took the opportunity no matter how minor to criticize behavior by BU players. Well, I think we can now put that debate fully to rest... As time has gone on a few ISU players' tweets, especially Osiris Eldridge's have gotten more and more hideous and gross - but his latest kinda tops them all. Here it is - but because of the possibility he may delete it I have reproduced it in a censored form below... https://twitter.com/#!/Osiris_Eldridge/status/194291628096225280 "Tell a white girl u wanna dabble in her pu**y, she gon explode from joy... u won't even be able to hit" LMAO" Keep up the classy stuff...BTW OE has reportedly been dismissed from his NBDL team - despite his talent - he's kind of nearing the "bust" stage... he was also booted from his teams in Turkey & France - with the French team kicking him out before he even played a game!

More and more corruption in District 150 - sad...

If you are not familiar with the constant infighting and corruption going on in Peoria's District 150 school system - start with this...
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-ridiculous-acts-and-corruption-in.html

BUT -- now it goes beyond turmoil....and I can't see how in the world anyone would want their kids in this corrupt school district...

Now Dist 150 is holding closed, secret hearings late into the night just to run many of their better, and more highly honored people out of there..
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x513711997/District-150-hearings-continue

The PJS reports on all this but completely fails to tell what's really going on as they seem to kiss ass because one of their writers is a koolaid-big-fan of Grenita Lathan - Dist. 150 superintendant.

BUT -- they should pursue a few obvious quesitons that many have...
Why are the few little minds that are destroying this once-proud school district - pursuing their own petty little personal agendas while the whole damned system is falling apart?

Simply do the tiniest research and find that the very people Lathan is obsessively trying to throw out of there are the MOST successful, widely respected and well liked principles District 150 has ever had.
AWARD winning leaders and teachers who have dedicated their lives and are well loved by everyone but the jealous Lathan who hates the accolades they get and who fears they may get attention she thinks she deserves!
The parents absolutely love these principles & teachers and want to keep them - so..
why is Lathan doing this and why won't she talk about it or allow open hearings as everyone is requesting??
What is she hiding?? Her personal agendas and vendettas to wipe all the local people out of there so she can bring in her friends and cronies from North Carolina?
Just read the many stories of how many of her buddies she keeps bringing into Peoria from North Carolina and paying them ridiculous salaries and fees when outstanding local people are far more qualified and deserving!!!

http://www.1470wmbd.com/About-a-Dozen-Speak-Out-About-Principal-Moves-Othe/12526646

http://peoriastory.typepad.com/peoriastory/2011/09/to-peoria-district-150-school-board-youre-wasting-money.html

You decide..

Here's an example of how badly people want out of this corrupt district....
These people are literally suing at their own significant expense to get the HE** out of District 150!!!!
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x668518878/Property-owners-want-to-leave-D150-for-Dunlap-school-district


One last thing -- Grenita Lathan came from the Guilford County School system (Greensboro, NC) which was NOT doing well then - and continued to deteriorate for years after Lathan left..failing minimal NATIONAL STANDARDS in all but 29 of their 117 schools!!!! -
http://schoolcenter.gcsnc.com/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=307454

...only now beginning to improve under the NEW leadership since Lathan is gone...

http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/12/25/article/guilford_county_schools_rise_in_rankings_study_finds

http://sandhills.news14.com/content/school_news/654847/district-responds-as-nearly-half-of-guilford-county-schools-designated-title-i

http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-c-2011-04-21-208074.112113-Why-Not-Just-Close-Our-Failing-Schools.html

This includes the findings after Lathan left that the school district needed $882 million in infrastructure work that she ignored while she was taking GSA-like trips and looking for a better job..
http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article/195305/327/American-Jobs-Act-Could-Bring-675M-To-Guilford-County-Schools

A look back 5 years - trouble at Binghamton - beware of impermissible contact with recruits

Not that I would ever expect this to happen at Bradley or want it to happen - but let's take a little look back at how one really bizarre accident can so horribly ruin a guy's life...

First - a link to the top pro league in the Czech Republic and one of their two best teams - BK Prostejov...
The best player on this team is Jamar Smith - ex-Illini - averaging 14.3 ppg and 39.7% on 3-pointers.
http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=Czech%20Republic&Team=5730&Page=3

Other American players in this same league include other ex-Illini Marcus Arnold and Dominique Keller.
And maybe Jamar is very happy but I know he has a couple kids back here in the states, so I have to wonder if he'd prefer playing here...

BUT as we all recall, Jamar's life and those lives of a few others, especially Brian Carlwell were altered dramatically and permanently in an instant when a very bad choice to drive in a snowstorm while drunk led to a serious accident.

The accident took place just a little over 5 years ago in Feb. of 2007.
In time we would see that his playing career was all but over - and he was basically never heard from again.
Jamar was every bit as good of a player as Blake Ahearn (who has played for NBA teams), and as good of a shooter as many players who are currently in the NBA.
Just about any chance Jamar had of playing in the NBA evaporated that night and he's kind of played in obscurity ever since.

This isn't to pick on Jamar - I wish him well and hope some day he does make it back to "The League"...but I hope every young college athlete and even non-athlete student learns from this example - and does not make the same really bad and even illegal choices. Take life seriously - it can be ever so great and yet it can also be a nightmare at times.



In coaching news........
Wow - big shakeup at Binghamton -- head coach Mark Macon - coming off a 2-29 season (includes a 26-game losing streak) where some people had Binghamton as the worst team in D-I, he just fired two of his assistants and is looking for new ones.
Ron Brown and Julius Smith have been cut loose...

Consider this - Mark Macon took over at Binghamton after Kevin Broadus led the team to the 2009 America East Conference championship ...
he had good players but admittedly there were issues, but Macon was the assistant there at the time all the "issues" arose so he sure wasn't completely separate from those issues...

Since 2009 he has literally run that program straight into the ground - dropping instantly to well under .500,
then an 8-23 season, now just 2-29 beating only Vermont & UM-Baltimore Cty, yet at the end of last season he got
a contract extension and the school now finds themselves unable to fire him because they cannot afford it -
so like BU did to JL, and like SIU did to Lowery, and like DePaul did to Wainwright, they have cut his assistants out from under him...
BTW - in each of those three other cases, the following year - immediately after the season ended the head coach was also axed.

But - I still recall posters here who repeatedly hyped Mark Macon as someone Bradley should hire.
God knows why a coach who has never been able to win, who has had multiple of his own players caught with drugs and other issues and booted, and who can't recruit enough talent to even win more than TWO games against the kind of crappy schedule that Binghamton plays.....
JUST why in the hey would anyone who has Bradley's best interests in mind want that guy hired here at BU as an assistant or even as a waterboy?
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=175737#post175737



BTW - there are still a few other D-I transfer kids that have yet to commit - Bobo Drummond, Jarrod Uthoff, and Rayvonte Rice among them - who have yet to declare or land anywhere.....

BUT -- anyone affiliated with Bradley, or who is a Bradley booster or fan, or who is or has worked for Bradley SHOULD NOT contact these guys or any recruits....NEVER -- not even via social media or posting something by twitter or Facebook to them.
This is a clear violation and risks the NCAA looking into it.
I can't believe there are fans who are such big time wannabe's that they risk their own school's future just to sniff a few jocks!
http://michiganhockey.net/2011/07/14/recruiting-contact-through-social-media-know-the-rules/#.T47zL1Lhfzw
http://leatherhelmetblog.com/2012-articles/march/uga-booster-twitter-violations.html
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-07-12/sports/os-florida-ncaa-violation-facebook-0720100712_1_facebook-recruit-ole-miss


BTW -- Bradley lists those fans who ARE their BIGGEST fans on a site they label...
"The Honor Roll of Donors". Many if not most of these people who give plenty - do so out of their hearts and do NOT ask for publicity. But the list is, to me, remarkable NOT in who is on there but who is NOT on there.
Some people have argued who are the bigger and better fans and some of those who are the loudest voices in that debate, who lay claim to being the biggest and most loyal fans for decades and decades - their names are absolutely nowhere to be found. Literally they have never given even a penny to BU.
Others give only their maintainence...the bare minimum...

With attendance AND giving down in a poor economy - Bradley needs the financial support of their fans and donors more than ever. Consider walking the walk....not just talking the talk......
and be careful if googling the names of some - especially if there are small children in the room...

La Lumiere's Matej Buovac

Here's a bit of news on one of the Croatian kids Bradley was recruiting - I find it odd that as much as BU has been involved - that the kid either doesn't mention Bradley or the writer of the national recruiting site article fails to include that in the story as I have often seen before.........

Here are clips........

"Croatian shooter takes visits
Matej Buovac

A solid class of 2012 prospect still left on the board has already made one visit and is in the process of making another.

Schools continue to look to fill out their 2012 classes, and some late visits are being made. One prospect who has been on a pair of trips is La Porte (Ind.) La Lumiere forward Matej Buovac.

At 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds with the ability to shoot the basketball, Buovac had a solid year for the La Lumiere Lakers and head coach Alan Huss. The pick and pop forward had some big games against quality competition, and now his recruitment is starting to take shape.

“He is on a visit to Tulane right now,” said Huss. “They have offered him and he is very interested in seeing the campus and what they have to offer.”

Along with the Green Wave, offers are also on the table from UAB and New Mexico State. Already Buovac has made an official visit to see New Mexico State and he came away impressed with what he said.

According to Huss however, Buovac is not going to make a rash decision after a visit.

“Matej plans on playing in the open period with the CAPS All-Stars,” said Huss. “They play in Merrillville this weekend and in Indianapolis next weekend.”

After he has a chance to play for the coaches in April and evaluates his options a decision is expected from Buovac."

www.scout.com

Popular ideas are not always wise or intelligent...

Here are a couple ironies....regarding globally impactful books that changed many lives and altered the way a HUGE majority of people think and act.......pretty much ALL for the worse...
Just maybe we ALL would have been far better off had none of these books been written....but it's a lesson for those who wish to jump on the latest bandwagon of thought and who see themselves and pioneers in thinking.


**The guy who wrote the best-seller and culture-changing book "I'm OK, You're OK", was Dr. Thomas Harris, in the liberal 1960's.
This book and Dr. Harris changed society - as the book basically convinced people and educators to proclaim that everything you do is "OK" - that even when you fail - we ought not tell you that you failed - we should still pat you on the back and say that you didn't really fail and that you are OK...
In general - education of an entire generation followed many of this book's themes.

Even behavior in kids that has always been defined as BAD was suddenly considered "OK" but an entire generation of teachers, school administrators, psychologists, and the like who bought into Dr. Harris' trendy yet stupid propositions.

Thus much of an entire generation or two were raised thinking their really bad behavior and bad choices were just fine - go ahead and keep making them...
By the time he died in 1995, Dr. Harris was able to see how horribly bad his advice was and how hurtful it was to a self-centered and self-indulgent generation of people who blindly followed or who were led to follow his teachings...

Guess what -- we now have the "Me-Generation" and Gen-X people who want everything handed to them and cannot survive even the tiniest discouragement or failure...and the entirety of society is filled with every imaginable life-destroying sin that people simply call life-style choices - despite the ruined lives, suicides, broken marriages, and especially the far, far worse problem with troubled kids.
Everyone sees the end results - a selfish society, lazy people, plenty of folks always wanting a handout or choosing to be dependent on the government - wanting everything for free - even an easy college education..etc..
So - thanks Dr. Harris - it would have been nice had you denounced the folly of your opinions before you died, instead of greedily choosing to double down on them even when you saw their failure - so your family could continue to profit from your book's sales.



Then we had the society-altering 1970's book by Jim Fixx "The Complete Book of Running" ...that changed everything and started the running craze, with the promise that within a generation or two everyone would be way, way healthier!!

Well..again, that bombed out and sadly Jim Fixx didn't even live long enough to even see the beginning of the failures he proposed.
Jim Fixx dropped dead of a heart attack just after age 50 - pretty much the garden variety of hardening of the arteries that his running recommendations were supposed to delay or prevent claimed him.
And now 40 years later, even though some people enjoy running and some benefit from it...many have gained absolutely NO BENEFIT, have wasted enormous amounts of time, and we now have an entire generation of very young people looking for joint replacements because all that running wore out their knees and hips.
Most knowledgeable experts now say that the degree of running Fixx promoted is almost always bad and harmful for any extended length of time.
Oh well - just another faulty fad that I am thankful I never bought into.



Lastly I'll mention a book I read in the 1970's when it became a phenomenon and was required reading in many schools and psychology classes.... and thankfully I immediately saw the life-destroying guidelines the guy was promoting.
The book is "Pulling Your Own Strings" by Wayne Dyer. In this book he searches out just about every single impediment he sees to living a Utopian life...
Even little things like having to take out the garbage, saying thank you, being polite and friendly, or even just clean and not what we call a slob or a bum...

Every tiny factor in life that might cause discomfort or minuscule inconvenience, every personal interaction where someone else expects something from you, and every life situation where you might find yourself feeling some obligation to help someone else or do something for someone else...was explored...then he told you the right way to deal with every one of these situations and his advice was always just to be as completely selfish as possible and just do what YOU WANTED - which was generally the laziest and most obnoxious choice.
In other words - PULL YOUR OWN STRINGS - don't let others pull your strings - don't ever let someone else determine the actions you take - just live the way YOU WANT!

Dyer proceeds to tell the reader the proper response in every life situation is to simply do what YOU want to give yourself the quickest and most selfish end result.
If you are at a wedding and are tired - then leave and go home to take a nap.
If you are invited to dinner and feel like snoozing after the meal - just depart to some hidden location and nap.
If you wish to burp, fart, or scratch somewhere - then do it and damned be anyone else who might find your actions rude or troubling...
Just always elevate yourself to the position of most important organism or thing in the universe and act accordingly.

In other words -- live your life only for yourself and for your own pleasures and satisfaction, and ignore politeness, etiquette, and decent behavior.
Any rules, religion, codes of ethics, or even any behavior deemed proper, friendly, or polite were to be ignored and just do whatever you wanted!
Wow - this guy had to be the biggest ego there ever existed! And if he followed his own plan he must have had zero friends - but his book did sell and become a fad and sadly it probably made some readers into real jerks.

I don't think a whole lot of people took Dyer's advice - but Dyer did stick around a couple decades promoting his really stupid, selfish ideas - pretty much discrediting himself in the eyes of most intelligent people as an idiot and a loony sociopath who nobody really cared to hear.
His books now sell on Amazon for as little as one cent...and in a perverted way of drifting even further towards kookie opinions, Dyer is now promoting absolutely ridiculous and schizophrenic spiritual ideas that have cost him pretty much any further chance of ever being taken seriously.
But if one thing can be learned - you can always make money if you promote even the stupidest and preposterous ideas. Buyer beware!



THEN --- Here's sort of a joke but in reality it IS the way some people think and they don't even see the absolute silliness of their thinking...

Here's how it goes...

**One message board poster says something like this...
"Being completely BLIND seems to reduce one's ability to play golf at the top level and be able to hit the ball into the hole"
...This, of course, is such an obvious TRUE statement that only some maniac would actually dare refute it, but....

**Then a 2nd message board poster who apparently stalks the boards for just about anything he can find to argue says this...
"NO - you are dead wrong because I searched like hell and found one single example a few years ago of a BLIND GOLFER who made a hole in one...
Here's the proof..."
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500183_162-3193608.html

**Then the original poster replies --
"so what -- you can always find some scarce exception but if it is so rare for a blind guy to get a hole-in-one that you have to do a Google search and find one obscure example from years ago - while every town and every city has people getting holes-in-one every single day - who CAN SEE...then I think your response is actually powerful confirmation that my original statement is solidly CORRECT!"

**Then the arguer doubles down on his ignorant logic by saying...
"I just did a thorough mathematical trileptal tangential meta-analysis using delta-Q-wave-formulations via the Hochstetler degradation curve...
and I found that a BLIND GUY does have a 201,025 times harder chance to get a hole-in-one than a sighted guy -- but that's not outside the realm of everyday possibilities - in fact, in my opinion it is actually "quite probable", and undoubtedly happens every single day somewhere if you include the entire infinite universe!"

...OK -- I'll conclude with that - but you see the typical pattern of argument like this every day on message boards -- people claiming that a 1 in 200 probability is a reasonable chance that it's going to happen in each and every argument...but so it is....it makes discussions on message boards interesting to say the least....

Some recruiting update....and more global warming talk...

Just a little recruiting update...

Here's the names we've been seeing and discussing...
who are yet to decide and still in play, although none are known to be leaning to BU...

Derek Cooke..Cloud County ...6.1 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 55% from the field, and 42% on FT

Anthony Fields..transfer from Wake...1 ppg, 0.5 rpg, 1-11 on 3-pt - also looking at Stanford & a "variety of interest from programs in the CAA, the Valley, the Big 12, and the Pac-12"
http://www.nbebasketball.com/w3/2012-0410/transfer-update-pg-anthony-fields/

Derrick Barden..Odessa College .. 19.7 ppg, 12 rpg, 37% on 3-pt, 69% FT

Tymell Murphy.. South Plains.. 9.9 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 57% FG, 71% FT - Rhode Island getting involved and Tymell is visiting there & Rutgers

Matt Stainbrook .. transfer from WMU ..his coach says "Lots of programs" are calling and showing interest -
https://twitter.com/#!/CoachAnsberry/status/189866534485770240

Davon Hayes .. Arkansas State decommit -
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20548


Derek Cooke -
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20832


Mislav Brzoja .. Traders Point -
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20255

Matej Buovac .. La Lumiere -
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20236

Akeem Springs . decommit from Mississippi Valley State

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=256184#post256184


Anthony Fields is visiting Friday - a guard, transferring from Wake Forest who would not be available until fall of 2013 -
check if you want the comments about him on the Wake Forest message boards - they are not very kind and many Wake fans have quite negative opinions and are happy to see him go.

Here are some stories...
http://www.bloggersodear.com/2012/3/26/2903959/amidst-transfers-jeff-bzdelik-and-wake-forest-is-struggling-to
http://www.bloggersodear.com/2012/3/23/2896978/wake-forest-basketball-anthony-fields-transfers


Here's some clips from stories out of Texas...
mentioning Tymell Murphy..they talk of the signing at Ole Miss of ex-Bradley recruit Marshall Henderson.
Henderson's signing makes THREE players from the South Plains juco team already signed, and they then say...
"Henderson is the third (South Plains) Texan to sign this year, joining Greg Gainey (UT-Arlington) and Stanton Kidd (North Carolina Central) who signed during the early signing period. The Texans are expected to announce additional signings in the coming weeks as sophomores Tymell Murphy, Deshaunt Walker, and Derrell Edwards are still in the process of making a decision."

and..
"sophomore .. forward Tymell Murphy(is) .. still considering offers."

http://klvtsports.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/texan-sharpshooter-inks-nli-with-ole-miss-rebels/
http://lubbockonline.com/sports/2012-04-12/local-sports-briefly


Here's a listing of the scholarship offers as noted by one good recruiting site - for Mislav Brzoja..
Marquette, Providence, Northwestern, Utah, Vanderbilt, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Bradley.


A few unsigned high school seniors that BU is looking at - specifically Akeem Springs - are mentioned in this article about an upcoming All Star game...
http://newssun.suntimes.com/sports/11832839-419/senior-stars-to-play-in-all-star-games-friday.html


Other recruits whose names have not been mentioned in a while, Fabyon Harris (Texas A&M), Marshall Henderson (Mississippi), Markus Crider, Nick Wiggins (Wichita State), Coty Clarke are either signing or clearly no longer involved with BU.


Ex-BU recruit Michael Ochereobia signs with Jim Molinari and WIU.
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/sports/x876163049/WIU-basketball-adds-JUCO-transfer-Ocherobia

Of course the PJS and the other Gatehouse papers got his name wrong again...
Poor guy -- but it's OCHEREOBIA not OCHEROBIA, and the WIU release makes that quite obvious.
http://www.goleathernecks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=49946&SPID=4947&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205411841&DB_OEM_ID=12000


Jim Les signs a couple good players at UC-Davis to go with several strong signees from last fall, and still has some spots to fill to get stronger...
Word is that Corey Hawkins who is sitting out this year is a ton and the best player in practice and is going to start right away.
He's getting it done there........
http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041112aab.html?source=rss_teams_California_Davis_Aggies


One decent PG prospect, Mike LaTulip was going to walk on at Illinois next fall for Bruce Weber - but now he's got other thoughts -- he may be asking for a scholarship now to increase the sense of security that he would be wanted or ever have a chance of playing for the new staff.


More proof that AAU coaches get $$ from colleges to steer their best players -- and it opens up that talk of how Kentucky got Anthony Davis after the Sun Times reported there were plenty of people who knew he and his family were asking for $200K and got it from a UK booster.


Sounds now like Rick Majerus is saying "no" to SMU and staying at Saint Louis. But why would he even consider jumping from SLU to SMU -- since Saint Louis is a better team, at a non-football school, in a stronger conference, and a more storied history??
Majerus is either trying to get a raise and extension by "looking" elsewhere, or he really doesn't like something at SLU.


No word yet on what's going to happen to all the Illinois assistants who were under Bruce Weber ...Jay Price, Jerrance Howard, Gary Nottingham, Wayne McClain...
These guys have been spurned and re-spurned!!
First - when Weber was hired - the new AD elevated Jerrance Howard to the position of Interim Head Coach - jumping right over the other three guys who were far more experienced, and who had been there considerably longer!!

Then when the new head coach, John Groce, was hired - he was urged by EVERYONE to retain some of the previous staff - especially Jerrance Howard who gets all the credit as the real recruiter on the staff.
BUT - Groce sent them all packing and hired none of them!! Spurned again!
Then when Weber was hired at Kansas State, surely he'd grab all those guys he left behind at Illinois who were cut loose, right??
BUT -- as of this morning, Weber hasn't hired even one of them.
He apparently talked a little about possibly hiring Jerrance, and Price's name was also mentioned in this article - but the others are apparently still in limbo...
This will be interesting.........
http://cjonline.com/sports/2012-04-11/weber-hopes-complete-ksu-staff-week


Here's a new ranking of the high school kids, Class of 2012 in Indiana and it includes the La Lumiere kids...
Three La Lumiere kids make the Top 25 but Bobo Drummond and Matej Buovac did not and neither did Mislav Brzoja and Alex Olah (Northwestern University commit) from Traders Point HS.
So just how accurate can this list be - if the guys down around #20-25 are really obscure low-major guys (IUPUI, Detroit, Youngstown State, Ball State, etc..)?
http://blogs.courier-journal.com/jodydemling/2012/04/12/rankings-indiana-boys-class-of-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JodyDemling-RecruitingBlog+%28Jody+Demling+-+Recruiting+blog%29



It's been warmer than usual - which is all it takes for people to go wild talking about global warming, but consider just a few facts...

First - note where the info comes from - it's government data - mostly from NASA & NOAA - which are both arms of the same agency....and they have an agenda and they have been wrong plenty of times before - really, really blatantly wrong - especially when acting out their agenda.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Multi_Agency_Satellite_Begins_Climate_and_Weather_Studies_999.html
http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nasa-wrong-again-space-weather-storm-fizzles?xg_source=activity

They were really way wrong when they rushed to the silly press conference claiming they had discovered a new form of life that had come from an alien source...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1335050/NASA-arsenic-Alien-biology-clue-scientists-discover-mysterious-bacteria.html

And they are have been cited to have the global-warming-agenda by several reputable experts and other sources...
http://junkscience.com/2012/04/12/nasa-rejects-claim-it-endorses-global-warming/


-Then they use known inaccurate data...which they selectively and intentionally choose to use to support their agenda...
http://www.oaoa.com/opinion/temperature-31890-stations-heat.html

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/050183-2009-05-13-89-of-us-measurement-stations-report-inaccurate-temperature.htm


-Then they manipulate the data even further and fight like crazy to hide and suppress any of the truth that would debunk them...remember the leaked e mails showing how hard the pro-warming guys laughed about falsifying and hiding the data??
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/23/global-warming-leaked-email-climate-scientists


BUT -- if you still think it's way too hot so there must be global warming - then just listen to the warming people themselves who say this current stretch of warm cannot be blamed on global warming!!

Even in talking about the really warm March - despite some saying it IS global warming ..other experts say it is NOT....here's what they say...

"..Temperatures in the lower 48 states were .. higher than average for the first three months of the year..

Meteorologists say an unusual confluence of several weather patterns, including La Nina, was the direct cause of the warm start to 2012.
....events cannot be blamed on global warming, Crouch said
...It is important to note that this unusual winter heat is mostly a North America phenomenon.
Much of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere has been cold, said NOAA meteorologist Martin Hoerling."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCL0PDmQyfe_QAo2qqi0nmJFmJVw?docId=88bd006640e04e8a9af0e2f2d418450c

..it doesn't take any time at all to show that much of the rest of the world is having a cooler March than usual...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/6714321/March-sunnier-but-cooler-than-usual

so this is just a regional trend and not proof of any worldwide trend - and even if it were - the frequency of bad reporting shines a light on how the data is manipulated to prove what people have already chosen to believe and want to prove...

...and this story from CNN with an honest admission of their deceit...
"Short-term weather patterns such as the one that affected the United States are poor indicators of global climate trends..
Parts of the world, most notably Eastern Europe, experienced below-average to extreme cold temperatures this winter.."
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-09/us/us_weather-record-warm-march_1_warmest-severe-weather-outbreak-severe-thunderstorms-and-tornadoes?_s=PM:US