Wednesday, May 11, 2016

What the Hey? What is it with ISU players?

We have seen a long pattern of arrests and serious criminal issues with Illinois State basketball players.  There have been multiple DUI's & 2am bar fight arrests since the Porter Moser era including Levi Dyer, Brandon Sampay, Tyler Brown, Quintin Brewer and many, many more.  Plus the many drug arrests - Geoffrey Allen, Bryant Allen, etc...
and even serious criminal issues like Bobby Hill's rape of an underage child. LINK

But now it seems to be escalating again -
a quick search of the arrest and court database shows well over the team's roster with pending court cases, headlined by Quintin Brewer's multiple DUI's that were elevated to FELONY-level because he recklessly went out driving drunk while he had his charges deferred from the prior DUI and had a suspended license!  He & Javaka Thompson still have alcohol cases pending.
But now even the players who leave & transfer are in the headlines for serious criminal charges.
ISU's Reggie Lynch- now in Minnesota - arrested for criminal sexual assault.

Let's make sure to note that NOT ONE SINGLE ARREST - not even for a speeding ticket or jaywalking - has occurred among the Bradley players since Brian Wardle was hired.
There were a few issues under Geno Ford- most notably the Auston Barnes assault charges and the Egolf arrest for buying drugs from a street runner, but if you go back to the Jim Les era...
you actually find almost NOTHING as well.  That flies in the face of really ignorant people who play up the arrests and fall for the bullcrap that Kirk Wessler spewed about "renegade".
The very worst that those idiots can come up with to criticize Les are a couple underage citations and one charge against Daniel Ruffin when his drunken ex-girlfriend admittedly slipped and bruised her lip while trying to force her way, uninvited, into his apartment.
There was also another he-said/she-said argument with Jabbar Battle (who has been a model citizen ever since - unlike most of the ISU guys who go on and commit repeat offenses), Eddren McCain was in he car with a girl who had marijuana, and then the one real stretch- a claim that Taylor Brown had a feud with an ICC student over a girlfriend.
Oh, and you will find that in each of those cases, all the charges were NOT pursued as the players completed their deferral perfectly and again were model citizens.
That's it - hardly a thing going way back into the 90's as Molinai's kids virtually ALL stayed clean.

But getting back to the ISU players - the additional feature is that it all gets hidden & ignored and nobody ever gets disciplined.
Levi Dyer & Sampay would have never even come to light except that their DUI's were discussed on the message boards, they never missed a single game or even an exhibition.  And fast forward to now - Quintin Brewer's multiple DUI's and felony has never been mentioned even once outside of the message boards, the media hides, it, the coaching staff hides, it and the players are never suspended even for a minute.

Their star Devaughn Akoon-Purcell was actually recruited and signed while he had felony charges being pursued against him in Florida, and he played most of the past two years after aguilty plea and while on PROBATION for the felony charges, and none of that was ever mentioned nor ever seemed relevant to anyone at ISU. But of course that kind of atmosphere and lack of discipline within their system is the reason that despite having the best players in te league, they always falter, miss the NCAA and make buffoons of themselves with early exits from the NIT or other AEIOU Tournament.

I predict more of this.....since the atmosphere hasn't changed.

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