Report from Trusted Choice Tournament of Champions

[romar]

Last time I saw Roth play was against Richwoods & Jamar Smith 2 years ago & he shot lights out as a Frosh. In the video highlights from the recent TTOC it looked to me like he has beefed up a little. Has he added some muscle?

[tornado]

1. I wouldn't have access to the kids age documentation. I suppose they all could have fake passports and transcripts. All I know is both of these documents are required for DCS admission. At some point you have to trust that kids are telling the truth.

Other tall players missing. One was too old. He turned 20 this coming winter. He is at a prep school on the east coast.

One Kid's english wasn't very good. He was sent to a school in Alabama with an ESL (enslish as Second Language) program.

Two were denied a student visa out of africa. It is very difficult to obtain a student visa from Africa because of the terrible financial situation. Students must prove to Imigration Services that they are financially capable of sustaining themselves in the US.

Financial costs. kids stay with Hosts families at no cost. They are responsible for their own travel to the US. Tuiton assistance is available to most of the kids but they all pay something for school.

They only travel regionally (1 long trip to the east coast) and 90% of the travel is covered by the tounrament or event they are attending.

FYI. Croatian pro league is so small time that the NCAA allows players to play "club ball" with them.

Mr. soycityhoops,
I have done a little digging and I have some facts that seem to prove that Decatur Christian is
using overage players.

First, in this story on scout, it talks about several of the Decatur Christian players, making mention of Stula and Duro Bjegovic.

http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=2&c=597447

Both are said to be juniors, and "fully eligible to play one more year under IHSA rules".
The exact quote in the scout article from Decatur Christian head coach Huss is
"He???‚¬?„?s young enough to be 2008???‚¬?? ....... but lets look at the facts.
The article claims Bjegovic IS eligible to play next year (2007-08 ) which would supposedly be his senior year.
But the facts would say otherwise.

Here is the exact IHSA rule covering age eligibilty:
Rule 3.060
"A student shall be eligible through age nineteen (19) unless the student shall become twenty (20) during a sport season,
in which event eligibility shall terminate on the first day of such season"
So he is ineligble on the very first day of his senior season.
So he cannot be a junior...he has to be rostered as a senior NOW, and this is his last year under IHSA...he is NOT eligible next year by virtue of his age.

http://www.ihsa.org/org/policy/section3.pdf

And here is one proof I can provide that Bjegovic would seem to be ineligible by virtue of his age.
This site states he was born March 1, 1988. If accurate this means Bjegovic WILL turn 20 before finishing the basketball season next year as a senior.

http://www.basketzone.com/html/joueurs/42917/joueur.html

So clearly he is NOT young enough to be class of 2008, so why does Coach Huss claim that he is?
Technically he isn't ineligible yet, but he would be if he statyed for his "supposed" senior year next year.

[tornado]

PS--here is some other interesting stuff.

Duro Bjegovic's name can also be spelled Djuro Bjegovic, so when you do a little further digging, it is found that the entire season of 2004-2005 and part of 2003-2004, Bjegovic played for the Croatian professional team Split (the same team Toni Kukoc played with).
He is even still registered in 2006 as a member of Split.
Is this allowed?
One of Creighton's players, Manny Gakou was deemed ineligible just for playing two games with a pro team in France that Udonis Haslem played on.

http://www.crobasket.com/main.asp?P=igrac&J=ENG&Slovo=S&IgracID=1097

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:AFfNoX2stGgJ:www.sportnet.hr/Stranica_v2.asp%3FS%3Dvijest%26ID%3D234699+%22djuro+bjegovic%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=13

http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=CRO&team=5915&option=Split%20II%20% 20(CRO-D2)&Cntr=CRO&logo=

http://www.adriaticbasket.com/igraci.php?id=668

Here's a box score showing Bjegovic playing in a game between two professional European teams two years ago.
(when he would have "supposedly" been a high school freshman!)

http://www.e-basket.pl/Mecz__Croatia_Split_Crvena_Zvezda__70_89__22149

(do a search on the names on both teams and see that most of the other names (Andrew Wisniewski, Dragojlovic, etc. are 25 to 27 years old!)

Regardless, there's just enough here to have too many suspicions about age and professionalism for this kid to be playing high school ball against legitimate 16, 17, and 18 year old Illinois high schoolers.

[tornado]

Another new Chicago Trib article on Decatur Christian

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-0612080235dec08,1,5086196.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

" The new basketball program has not met with universal approval. Skeptics, school officials said, include a relatively small number of parents who worry that the school's mission may have changed and that their children may not have a chance to play basketball there."

They also repeat the statement that
"non-local players must meet regular admissions requirements and eligibility rules."

But I am skeptical.
The IHSA requires all students who transfer in to a private HS to be cleared by IHSA before they play, but these kids aren't cleared, since they aren't playing as an IHSA school.