Northern Iowa player leaving team

[Da Coach]

Freshman guard Stephen Jones, who is from Bethalto Civic Memorial High School in southern Illinois, is leaving Northern Iowa. He had committed early to Ball State out of high school, but was released when Ball State changed coaches last year. He then committed to Northern Iowa just before Greg McDermott left to coach Iowa State. He played quite a bit early in the season, but played very little in the latter part of Northern Iowa's season. In all, he appeared in 24 games, averaged 8 minutes a game, and 1.4 ppg.

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/jonestransfer.html

Just less than a week ago, an article in the Des Moines Register, Jones was mentioned as one of UNI's returning players that will play a role in next year's team--

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070314/SPORTS020704/703140385/1095/SPORTS0207

[tornado]

Stephen Jones was a prototypical UNI player...a good shooter and scorer in high school, and a scrappy kid.
Not sure what's going on, you really can't expect all that much playing time as a freshamn.
Even many people's preseason pick for Freshman of the Year, Jordan Eglseder, didn't get a lot of playing time.

I wonder if more is going on...
In the MVC Tourney game vs. Bradley, Jones didn't even get off the bench.
And over the final 5 games of the season he made only one brief, garbage time appearance.
In 12 appearances during the conference season, Jones scored only one point, for a scoring average of 0.1ppg.
Makes me think the coach gave him his walking papers and directed him to a D-II school.



By the way.... I found this post on the UNI message board and thought it was great....

Apparently the UNI fans are sick and tired of JJ Tauai having great games against them.

Here are a couple comments:

Question:
What does the BBall team need to do to make it to the tourney next year?

Answer:
Someone who can guard J.J. Tauai....Coleman to start going right.

Response:
Didn't JJ Tauai finally run out of eligibility??

So did Funk, I hope.

(and) Ahearn, Tatum, Young, Kyle Wilson, Tolliver, Dilligard, Will Franklin, Matt Webster, Strickland, Anslinger, Nick Porter, Chaney, and Bilyeu!
Man, what a class to graduate. Thank goodness they aren't going to be back next season!

http://www.panthernation.com/showthread.php?t=10679

This is a great compliment to JJ and to Will that the opponents are
breathing a sigh of relief when they graduate.

[tornado]

Just a couple tidbits from other Valley teams.

The Wichita Eagle seems to concede several roster chanegs are coming for the Shockers.
"WSU, depending on how the roster shakes out, is in a transition, perhaps the biggest one since Turgeon's first season in 2001.

Last week's commitment by junior college forward Brandon Sampay brings the number of possible newcomers to five, and more could be on the way. The Shockers are two scholarships over the NCAA limit of 13, which means there's not room for the 10 scholarship returners, four signees and Sampay. Somehow, those numbers will come down.

This might be the ideal time for a roster shakeup in the Valley."



Drake's Klayton Korver has had to have another knee surgery.
He was hampered in the latter half of 2004-2005, then missed all of 2005-2006 after extensive knee surgery, and really never looked at full pace in 2006-2007.
He will be a senior in 2007-2008.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070326/SPORTS020403/70326024/1003

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=773

One mention on the Redbird board suggests that Brandon Holtz may be leaving ISU and transferring.
In two years there, he has never played much, and this past year his playing even went down from his freshman year.

[DUBulldog]

Drake's Klayton Korver has had to have another knee surgery.
He was hampered in the latter half of 2004-2005, then missed all of 2005-2006 after extensive knee surgery, and really never looked at full pace in 2006-2007.
He will be a senior in 2007-2008.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070326/SPORTS020403/70326024/1003

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=773

I actually talked to Klayton at Drake's banquet last Sunday. He says it's been 3 years since the knee was "right" and that he's really looking forward to playing without pain. The injury originally occured during practice prior to his sophomore season, when he and teammate Nick Grant collided knees during a practice.

Anyway, the latest surgery was a fairly minor arthroscopic procedure (remove some loose cartilage, re-position a piece of cartilage that had actually flipped around) and Klayton anticipates no further problems. He said he'll be able to start conditioning within about 5 weeks.

[tornado]

BradleyFans wishes Klayton a speedy recovery and a good senior campaign.

[Average Joe]

Seems Wichita does have chemistry problems.
It has been mentioned on the boards a couple times.

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6904&start=20

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=5699

The Shockers shocked everyone this past season.
Many were giving Turg the coach of the year in January, then by March he was losing 5 in a row, and 14 of their last 22.
Would anyone be surprised if Ogirri was one of the ones to go?
Braeur, Thomasson, and the entire bench were unproductive.

[tornado]

Kind of a paradox that Turgeon's name is coming up as possible replacement at bigger schools, and he's having real trouble right where he's at.

[tornado]

Stephen Jones has landed at Southwest Ilinois College (SWIC) - same school Lance Stemler played for.

http://www.thetelegraph.com/onset?id=512&template=article.html

[dogsrus]

BradleyFans wishes Klayton a speedy recovery and a good senior campaign.

Yes....against everyone not named BU.