Valley exhibitions, more college basketball news, and other items..

Valley Exhibitions
UNI beat Wartburg 67-46..drawing 3660...
Kwadzo Ahelegbe led with 15 pts, and Anthony James with 10 was the only other Panther in double figures.
The game was only a 6 pts game at half, and UNI didn't open a double digit lead until the game was in the final 10-12 minutes..so playing a lot of players plenty of minutes cost in productivity...

UNI's big men, Jake Koch & Lucas O'Rear -- both started and were among the leaders in minutes player -- yet the two combined for just 10 pts, and 8 rebs against a far smaller and weaker team... so will that be a problem for them this season..

UNI's newcomers and subs did not score as well as the starters...
Chip Rank - 4 pts
Nate Buss - 1 pt
Matt Morrison - scoreless
Marc Sonnen - 2 pts
Max Martino - 2 pts
In fact the TEN players who played off the bench as subs in the game totalled
100 minutes (half the game) and only 27 pts with Anthony James getting 10 of those
http://www.unipanthers.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2010-2011/mbbexh1.html



Indiana State beat the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology "Engineers" 83-44 in front of a good crowd of 4636 - but it's possible it drew relatively well because of being part of the season ticket package..

The Sycamores were really never challenged, they opened up with a 10-0 run and never looked back..zooming to 18-2, then 29-10, then 49-20, 69-28, then from that point, when InSU has a 41 point lead...
Rose-Hulman played pretty even over the final 10 minutes or so -- outscoring the Sycs 16-14 in the final 1/4 of the game
Halftime was 37-17...and final scoring had only Dwayne Lathan was in double figures at 14 pts, and all five starters combined for 11-23 but only four assists, suggesting a lot of wide open play and shooting...
Jake Kelly was 2-3, 8 pts, 3 rebs as a starter, and it's hard to say much else, as Rose-Hulman was so weak (NCAA D-III, 7-18 last year), that Indiana State went with subs for 127 of the 200 minutes played!
http://www.gosycamores.com//pdf8/720601.pdf?SPSID=65149&SPID=7259&DB_OEM_ID=15200

Other exhibitions..
Michigan State beat Saginaw Valley State 88-44
Kansas beat Washburn 92-62 (Royce Woolridge played but since he's a freshman he can still redshirt as has been mentioned in recent reports)
Alabama beat Talladega 96-60
Syracuse beat Kutztown by the same score 96-60
Purdue beat Indianapolis 82-59
Kansas State beat Newman 83-56
Texas A&M beat St. Mary's 70-53
UNLV beat Grand Canyon 90-66
Saint Louis beat Cardinal Stritch 72-53
Villanova beat University of DC 95-58
Illini struggle to a sloppy 76-67 win over University of Southern Indiana
Oklahoma beat Northern State 75-64
Xavier beat Northern Kentucky 73-62
Minnesota beat Northeastern State 109-59
Maryland beat Florida Southern 106-58
Colorado State beat Regis 88-48
Wright State beat Central State 90-59
Western Michigan beat Spring Arbor 64-53
Eastern Washington lost their exhibition to D-II Seattle Pacific 87-82



Here's a ridiculous Valley preview column....
if you don't know better, you'd have to assume that there's only two teams in the entire Missouri Valley that actually have any players on them...only Wichita State and Missouri State are mentioned as having any capability to compete this season...
This has to be one of the most ridiculously horrible and stupid Valley previews I have ever seen!!
And I am stumped by his choice of terms when talking about UNI making it to the Sweet Sixteen
("Northern Iowa Panthers ..stunned the college basketball world and broke everyone’s brackets with their massive 69-67 upset of the No. 1 ranked Kansas..The victory was a landmark for the conference")

This is compared to Bradley reaching the exact same level of success in 2006...but getting this kind of mention...
("Southern Illinois, Bradley and Creighton experience a marginal level of tournament success in the past")

It is written by a writer I do not know but then maybe that's because he is foreign to the MVC!!
...and some of his silly comments are that he figures WSU getting 33 of 39 votes is "near unanimous", and that they are "elite" and "return so much firepower" that nobody in the Valley is gonna even challenge, although there's a minimal mention of Missouri State and 2nd best...
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/507682-wichita-state-or-missouri-state-who-will-be-missouri-valleys-bracket-buster?source=rss_teams_Wichita_State_Shockers



Xavier won their exhibition last night, but they lose 3 players!!!
Senior forward Jamel McLean suffered a facial bone fracture and will be out several weeks...
Also Brad Redford will miss the season with a torn ACL and Justin Martin was just declared ineligible...
http://www.examiner.com/xavier-musketeers-basketball-in-cincinnati/xavier-s-jamel-mclean-out-4-6-week-with-orbital-fracture

Basketball star Rick Fox was bounced off Dancing with the Stars...
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/dancing-stars-rick-fox-voted-off/story?id=12043254

And in a non-basketball sports story that is sure to interest people....Maria Sharapova, who paparazzi seem to have a little fascination with (see below pics) -- not only got engaged, but is also sporting a quarter million dollar rock on her hand!!
http://www.planetinsane.com/diamond-ring-adorns-maria-sharapova%E2%80%99s-finger/262321/
http://www.topnews.in/files/Maria-Sharapova1.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1323490/Maria-Sharapova-shows-huge-engagement-ring-day-fiance.html?ito=feeds-newsxml



Does anyone remember this kid??
Denzel Bowles??
He was all signed sealed and delivered to Wichita State a few years ago but opted out and bolted when Mark Turgeon left for Texas A&M...
after a short stay at Texas A&M...in the end he landed at James Madison and has had a stellar career...
last year averaging ...

21 ppg, 9.2 rpg, and 59.4% FG accuracy
He had high games of 37, 34, and 31 points...
and 15 rebounds (three times)..

He is now a senior at JMU, and is picked as a Colonial Athletic Assoc. preseason 1st Team pick...
and was barely beat out as preseason Player of the Year...
...and to think how close he was to being a career Missouri Valley player!!


Here's more on a couple kids at St. John's that I wrote about yesterday -- including Manual's Lawrence Alexander
http://www.wissports.net/article.asp?pageID=1&newsID=20439&sportID=1



Leave it to HBO - to do a documentary on college basketball and choose a topic that glorifies all that's bad in the sport...
druggies, thugs, cheating, and flaunting their disrespect for any and all authority...
But -- it'll probably be wildly popular...
http://www.fangsbites.com/2010/11/hbo-sports-announces-documentary-on.html


Now -- for politics -- everyone's talking politics today...
I won't talk much on the elections but some results were pretty stunning....
here's the only thing I'll say......
I don't really hate people..but if I did, this guy would be on the absolute top of my list by a million miles..
Rep. Alan Grayson...

But he got beat last night -- and beat by an enormous margin -- so I hope other hateful, vitriolic politicians take note..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/02/alan-grayson-loses-daniel-webster_n_777990.html

Now all the whiney politicians and pundits are saying that the people have made a terrible mistake because now we'll have constant gridlock!

But I don't see it that way -- the entire purpose of our government system as drawn up by the nation's founders - from the many representatives and senators that are elected from all over by different people -- to the three branches of government - executive, judicial, legislative...it's all set up intentionally to PREVENT one party or one particluar interest from gaining control of the government !!!
So -- for 234 years our government has worked just fine with this thing that call "gridlock"!!!
..where people actually have to talk and get along and work out the issues...

The only reason we had gridlock recently is because the guy in the Oval Office thought he had such a mandate and such singular power that he could ram what he wanted down the throats of every other American no matter how many of them did NOT want what he was pushing!!