SIU in town...and other news from around the Valley

SIU in town for tonight's game against Bradley - will Justin Bocot play?
After he was held out and suspended during his questioning & investigation for a sexual assault - he was reinstated after missing FOUR whole games. Bocot then returned amid little mention nor fanfare and played a lot in the Kansas State game and the games against Clemson, Xavier, and Evansville...and shot A LOT but shot poorly (a combined 12-36)
In those four games he apparently must have not shown reason to continue to play him, because when SIU beat ISU last weekend, Bocot did not play at all!
There are some reports that the case has been completed and there are no plans to file charges - so he might be in the clear but he's still not playing....we might be hearing more on this soon...

The Braves absolutely have to get a win tonight!


Nice story on Jim Les and the job he's getting done at UC-Davis...
http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggies/ucd-mens-hoops-squad-works-to-find-its-stride/

and of course Coach Molinari is getting the job done at WIU - who won again last night bringing their overall record to 7-5 and they are 2-2 in conference.
Both those win totals equal their number for ALL of last year!

So - if both Jim Les and Jim Molinari are getting praises for how they're getting things done, and if not ONE single player on either one of their rosters would have ever played or even been recruited to the Valley nor at BU - then surely we're gonna be next with the roster we have that contains kids who got pre-season All Conference mention and who are fine scorers....right?
There's just no way with the players we have that we should be losing to low majors - so expect to see a turnaround.

A few interesting news items around the Valley and elsewhere...

-Wichita killed us then returns home and loses to Creighton -
Then the Wichita fans, on their message board, are blaming their crowd for the home loss to Creighton - saying the home fans sat on their butts while their team had an 8-point halftime lead, and did not support the team in the 2nd half...allowing Creighton to outscore the Shockers 37-22 to win the game.
I have heard of blaming the refs, and the ever popular trend among pseudo-BU fans of blaming the players and coaches, and even recently blaming the coach that was fired LAST YEAR...and I have even been told that MY support for the coach of last year even means that I am to blame (if you can figure out the sheer stupidity of that one) but now we're seeing more and more of this trend of blaming the fans!

-Missouri State is off to a 2-0 start and they beat Creighton in Omaha - causing some of the national pundits to suddenly change their useless & ever evolving "bracketology" - now placing Missouri State in as an at-large team!
Joe Lunardi has MSU as a 13-seed - but as if early-season "bracketology" even needs any debunking - it'll change tomorrow, anyway...
It's a feather in the Bears' cap but it's as meaningless as anyone's opinion at this point of who's gonna be in next year's World Series.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

BTW -- Missouri State's Caleb Patterson will sit out tonight when Illinois State visits Missouri State due to some symptoms from a concussion.

-Northern Iowa appears to be planning on two players, Chris Olivier & Matt Bohannon redshirting..they have not played a minute yet - and one guy who did play some minutes earlier - freshman Marvin Singleton - has disappeared and not played at all lately - but can no longer redshirt.

-Yet another one of SIU's ex-players has gone on and is getting headlines somewhere else..
http://is.gd/mVH8BU

-Drake fans had some fairly high expectations - but now after a couple straight losses - some fans are already talking about next year...!