Lots of miscellaneous news and items...

Bradley bound Ka'Darryl Bell again lead his team to victory in their Regional game -
Ka'Darryl's OPRF Huskies won their Regional semi last night 60-51 and now advance to the Regional Final against Morton (Cicero) - the guys involved in the brawl..
The stories say Ka'Darryl was a stud!
http://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles/02-29-2012/OPRF_boys_basketball_holds_off_LT,_advances_to_regional_championship

Ka'Darryl's coach states the player that the opponents "have been keying-in on" is Ka'Darryl Bell....he is they best player.
http://media1.oakpark.com/Images/2/2/10403/2/2/2_2_10403_2_2_350x700.jpg

Also-
-Their team has been practically unbeatable when Bell plays, but were little better than a .500 team when he was out with injury
-Comcast and long time prep basketball expert Taylor Bell raves over Bell and calls him a "superstar" and one of the two best players in their conference- http://www.google.com/search?q=%22superstar+athletes%2C+ka%27darryl+bell%22&hl=en&safe=strict&tbo=1&gbv=2&tbs=qdr%3Am&prmd=ivns&ei=-IlPT8yeNIiCtgfI04WjDQ&sa=N&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=11172l21079l0l21985l25l24l2l0l0l6l281l2673l5.11.3l19l0&oq=%22superstar+athletes%2C+ka%27darryl+bell%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=

http://www.csnchicago.com/preps/news/Bell-Levin-lead-Oak-Parks-revival-?blockID=647450

-Ka'Darryl was honored with an invitation to the 2012 Chicago United Hoops Classic All Star Game -
http://twitter.com/#!/chihoopsclassic/status/175006121306759168

AND - contrary to some uninformed opinions - Ka'Darryl is the ONLY player on his team with a legitimate D-I offer.
Some reports say Gabe Levin had some interest but he is NOT going D-I, he'll be going to prep school.
He'd have been redshirting and even admits it - he'd have to get his body ready for D-I, and it's NOT there yet.
http://www.csnchicago.com/preps/news/Bell-Levin-lead-Oak-Parks-revival-?blockID=647450

BTW -- the Charitable Foundation that is putting on this All Star Classic is the

Norm Van Lier Scholarship Fund
Chicago United Hoops Classic LLC

honoring ex-Chicago Bulls star Norn Van Lier...and his wife, Sue Render Van Lier is a Bloomington HS grad!
http://classreport.org/main/selectprofilemain.asp?dname=/usa/mn/bloomington/bhs/&clid=945846&cl=1965&hs=BHS&clr1=forestgreen&clr2=forestgreen&clr3=lightgrey&stcnt=915&item=1154065
http://www.chiunitedhoopsclassic.com



UC-Davis' Tyler Les LEADS THE ENTIRE NATION in one stat....

- "Three-point FG point %" - the measures the portion of a player's total points that come from three-point shots.
Tyler Les is #1 in the nation at 81.42%.



Coach Mo and WIU won again last night.
They go to 16-13 with a home win over UNO in front of 2276 fans - and end the regular season with their best record in 15 years!
They have the #4 seed in their conference tournament.

A quote from Mo...
"That's what you want Western Illinois basketball to look like, that's always been my dream in a sense of playing tough defensively, rebounding the basketball, get good shots and then sharing the basketball. The other thing is just having our students here to enjoy it. Peers love to perform in front of their peers. They were so thrilled by that."

Also - Coach Molinari and one of Mo's best players - Ceola Clark - have gotten some encouraging news...

Clark appears to have a good chance of getting a Sam Singh-like 6th year.
Ceola Clark missed ALL of his first year at WIU in 2007-2008 with injury, then
he also lost all but 6 games last year - and both seasons should qualify for medical waivers and he fits the criteria as a good student to get that 6th year..
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/sports/x1481616814/WIUs-Tyler-takes-his-final-shots-at-Western-Hall
http://www.goleathernecks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=49949&SPID=4947&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=12000&ATCLID=1283682&Q_SEASON=2011
http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/BKC-Ceola-020912

When the time arrives, Billy Molinari should also be eligible to get the 6th year...
Billy has already missed THREE seasons and even if he gets the 6th year he'll end up with only 3 seasons of playing...

I personally believe Mo should be COY in the Summit - he has done an incredible job with a barebones roster hit by injuries and losses and finished among the top four in the league.

WIU was picked DEAD LAST by some and in every preseason poll either 9th or 10th in the preseason polls...

All of the three team that currently sit ahead of WIU in today's standings (ORU, SDSU, and Oakland) all were picked 1-2-3 in the preseason.

So just how good of a coaching job does it take for a guy to lead his team to exactly where everyone unanimously expected them to be...

BUT -- it takes a HECK of a job to take the team picked LAST, then lost 3 key players unexpectedly to injury and ineligibility - and yet finish 4th SIX spots higher than expected - and higher than ANYONE even imagined.
http://www.thesummitleague.org/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3900&ATCLID=205314393



It was noted previously that ISU reserve Trey Blue had left the team and wouldn't play in St. Louis...
but now it is being reported that backup center Jordan Threloff will miss the games in St. Louis..
He fractured his right thumb in practice Tuesday...
Now if Jackie Carmichael gets some foul trouble they could be in a difficult situation.
http://www.goredbirds.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/030112aaa.html
http://www.pantagraph.com/blogs/redbirds/isu-basketball-threloff-injury-will-hurt-at-mvc-tourney/article_d5166022-63b9-11e1-9acb-001871e3ce6c.html



Sammy Maniscalco is a very valuable part of the Illini but he's having to play through pain..
http://www.illinihq.com/sports/illini-sports/mens-basketball/2012-02-29/maniscalco-its-about-pride.html



Nice Andrew Warren article and picture...
http://www.nbl.com.au/taipans1/news/article/2012/march/its-up-to-us-says-warren/

Andrew is averaging 14 ppg, 40.4% FG shooting, and 36.3% from 3-pt, 3.3 rpg, 1.2 apg...and 113 made FG and team leading 61 made 3-pointers

http://www.nbl.com.au/uploads/pics/drew_3.JPG



Patrick O'Bryant played one final game for his team in Greece.
He is done playing now for Kavala and led them to a win - with a nice 12 pt, 6 reb performance, with a block & a steal.
Kavala is in 6th place in a 13 team league but only 4 games out of 3rd...
Patrick is among the top 2 or 3 in almost every stat category...
he's Top-10 in the entire LEAGUE in rebounds and is #1 in the whole league in blocks.

Patrick is leaving to play for a new team closer to home in Puerto Rico.

BUT -- here's the really interesting part of this story -- almost every decent player in the entire Greek League has quit their team and is leaving the country...
Five of the league's top 10 scorers are leaving, as are many of the top rebounders and leaders in other categories...
http://www.eurobasket.com/Greece/basketball.asp?NewsID=261871

The basic problem is the Greek economic crisis and the fact that many of the Greek teams are having trouble making payroll and the future looks even worse...
The Greek League playoffs have historically been plagued with low attendances and financial losses not to mention fans rioting -
so the playoffs have been scaled back to just the top two teams so all the other teams' players are packing up and leaving.
As teams elsewhere in the world are looking to bolster their lineups for playoff runs, now appears to be the time for the best players in Greece to get the heck out...
http://www.mlbb.gr/feed-items/greek-cup-final-be-played-again-almost-empty-elliniko



News on Ex-Brave Lawrence Wright - It appears Boogie was robbed...........

Thanks to some last minute voting - Lawrence Wright did finish 19th in the online voting (the results of which have now been removed from the web site)
and then those fan-voting results were given to the head coaches in the Canadian League to select the All Star teams
...BUT they were not obligated to pick the players who got the most votes....they just promised to be guided by those results...


But the emphasis all along was to try to get as many Canadian players into the all Star Game as possible so Boogie was at a disadvantage ..
Thus three players from Boogie's team got selected ahead of him...
even though Boogies stats are better than any of them!

The three players selected from the Rainmen are...
Taliek Brown
Joey Haywood
Tyrone Levett

Here are the Halifax Rainmen stats...Boogie's numbers are superior yet he was left out of the All Star Game!

Wright, Lawrence 16.12 ppg, 5.18 rpg 2.15 apg, .463 FG%, .39 3pt%
(Boogie's 16.12 ppg is tops on the Rainmen & 13th in the entire league, his FG% is 16th in the league, and he's also Top 25 in both rebs & blocks)

Haywood, Joey... 13.61 ppg, 2.27 rpg 1.79 apg, .531 FG%, .36 3pt%
Levett, Tyrone.... 13.20 ppg, 5.97 rpg 1.40 apg, .422 FG%, .36 3pt%
Brown, Taliek...... 12.91 ppg, 3.09 rpg 2.97 apg, .489 FG%, .20 3pt%



NIU finally wins one - on senior night - with ex-BU recruit Tyler Storm getting his first career START and having a nice game!
They beat Toledo 64-61.



If Illinois or Northwestern fire their respective coaches, will any of their players or their recruits be seeking to go elsewhere??
Remember - kids like DJ Richardson, Drew Crawford, and many other of those kids had Bradley on their radars.



UCLA sure had one mess..
This story is self-explanatory
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/magazine/02/28/ucla/index.html

However - contrary to claims I have seen that "no rules were ever broken"...
I disagree........

"There were nights out with current and former NBA players, television stars and models.
One evening the partying started at the Beverly Hills mansion of a wealthy UCLA fan.
The Bruins were then chauffeured in a Rolls-Royce to a West Hollywood club, where several players
were ushered past a long line of people and given VIP treatment at a table in the back."

Say what??? Party buses, freebies, special privileges, VIP treatment, ladies provided, underage boozing, DRUGS, etc.....plus - read on - intentionally inflicting injuries on other players -- like this stuff isn't against the rules??

Yet the article says that head coach Ben Howland knew all about all of this and failed to ever issue any discipline and by his actions even promoted this stuff...

if the word "renegade" ever applied anywhere....



Every once in a while some obscure rule makes the headlines....
remember this one ? when Chicago North Lawndale wore uniforms that had one little piece of trim that was a violation of rules and it cost them a shot at the state title...
http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=927371

Well - here are some other little known and obscure rules....feel free to add others you may know about, but I have seen many times where the failure to know about some obscure rule cost kids who violated them..


-In women's college basketball there is no 10-second backcourt violation...
so if they want to stall they can stay in the backcourt and play keep away for the full 30 seconds making a full court press way less effective.
http://www.dailyiowan.com/2010/02/19/Sports/15721.html


-In the pregame warmups a player dunks and a ref calls a technical. (remember, a technical also counts as a personal foul)
Does that player START the game with one foul on his tally? Let's say he dunks three times before the ref can alert him that he's been called for a violation. Then does the player start the game with 3 technical fouls, thus be ejected?

Answer - quite simply any and ALL dunking in pregame is a technical ON THE BENCH...it does count on the team total of personals so the team starts with one foul but no individual player.
After being warned if another player also dunks, the ref has the option of calling a 2nd technical and ejecting the head coach.


-basketball players are called "cagers" because at one time there was an attempt to change the game by installing a cage around the court to prevent all the out of bounds plays.
At one time there were deemed excessive delays when balls went flying out of bounds, into the stands, or down stairwells, and there were also fan injuries when players and balls went flying.
http://hooptactics.com/Content/Pictures/Picture.ashx?PicId=135871

http://www.blackfives.com/blog_pics/vintage_cage.jpg

My own father told me about the "cage playing days" but sensible rules to control and settle out of bounds situations made the cages impractical.
One thing that led to chaos and ushered in the cages was at that time the rules awarded the out of bounds to the player who retreived it first. Thus there were all out brawls up in the stands, and down the stairwells with players fighting for the loose out-of-bounds balls. This obscure old rule also has since been changed.


-also back in that era - after every made basket, the ball was brought back to the center circle and re-tipped - kinda like how they do a new face-off in hockey after each goal...but the ball was not necessarily tossed up high - just tossed in between the two centers....
This made having a strong, powerful guy playing center quite a premium so instead of using tall lanky guys as centers, they usually went for guys who looked like this...powerful & muscular who could dive in and get the ball like a rugby scrum.
http://www.hickoksports.com/images/krause_moose.jpg


-what is the penalty if a guy guarding the inbounder reaches across the end line?
Answer - it is a delay of game warning. If it happens again it is a technical on the bench.

BUT - what if the defender reaches across the end line while defending the inbounds and touches the ball or the player?
That violation is different and results in an automatic technical without any warning.


- The "air dribble"...
This is one I'll bet 95% or more people will not only say they've never heard of but even dispute it...

BUT -- definitely there was a time around 1915-1920 when air dribbling was allowed. Similar to dribbling by bouncing the ball off the floor - there was a time when it was legal to bat the ball in the air as well - and allowed a player to move as long as he was NOT carrying the ball. Air dribbling has been disallowed and removed from rule books for at least 75 years.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Air_Dribbling
http://forum.officiating.com/basketball/248-whats-air-dribble.html


-BUT - here's a similar play...
let's say a player ends his dribble then shoots, but the shot hits NOTHING - not the rim nor backboard or any other player..
BUT the shooter runs and catches the shot as it is coming down out of the air and starts to dribble again.
Is this "travelling"?

I suspect at least 80-90% will say yes, it is traveling - but it is NOT.
As long as in the ref's judgement, it was not an intentional self-pass, and it was a legit shot, then player control ends, and when he goes and gets the ball -
even if he catches it out of the air - it is a legal situation.
Even some refs call this one wrong...
It is rule # 4.43...


-One last situation - see if anyone can get this...

IS THERE EVER A TIME in basketball where the referee, by rules, will blow his whistle and STOP PLAY after a made basket - even if there is NO FOUL, NO GOALTENDING, NO timeout, and no violation of any kind??

Answer - yes, there is...if a player scores into his own basket (scores into the wrong goal), the correct action by rules is for the referees to blow the whistle, stop play,
be sure to award 2 pts to the proper team, and then award an inbounds play to the team that just shot the ball (not the team that was awarded the 2 pts) since it counts as a basket for the other team.


As a corollary to this situation - let's say a player shoots a 25 foot shot into the wrong basket - does if result in 3-points for the other team??
NOPE -- just two -- you cannot score a 3-pointer unless it goes into your own basket!
http://forum.officiating.com/basketball/31744-3-pointer-wrong-basket.html


ODDLY - the rule is quite different in the NBA - as any intent to shoot into the wrong basket is illegal and nullified.
http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/robinsons-wrong-basket-swish-would-not-have-counted/



If a long shot from the opposite end bounces into the hoop - it is still just a 2-pointer as the definition of a shot ends when it strikes the floor...

BTW -- here's an odd one someone PM'ed to me..

In a game between VMI and George Mason in 2009 -- a really hard and somewhat intentional collision occurred between a dribbler and a defender...
The refs called differing fouls and then huddled and finally settled on a DOUBLE FOUL...
calling BOTH a charging call on the dribbler AND and blocking call on the defender on the exact same play...
They then went to the alternating possession to determine which team got to inbounds the ball.

I guess the refs have the prerogative of making such a call - but they probably erred in not calling it one way or the other.


One other odd rule situation happened in 1982 when the LA Lakers' Norm Nixon was shooting one free throw in the final 3 seconds of a game that they were down 2....SO....he did something for which no rule was in the books...
He faked his free throw, drawing BOTH teams into the lane. Then the rule for a double lane violation was a jump ball,
but with Kareem Abdul Jabbar jumping at the FT circle right next to his own basket, the Lakers got the tip and hit the basket - ultimately winning the game in OT.
The basketball commissioner (Larry O'Brien) CHANGED the ruling later to declare the final 3 seconds had to be replayed because Nixon really cannot be allowed to benefit from such a move, plus since the FT was actually never taken, the players on the lane should be repositioned and a new rule was inserted in the books that if a player fakes a FT, it's a violation and he loses his turn at the line.
The actual outcome then went into the books as the final 3 seconds were replayed 4 months later and the Spurs winning 117-114.


Originally Dr. James Naismith had just 13 rules for this game and here they are..
http://www.usabasketball.com/rules/naismith_original_rules.html