Boys to Men

[tornado]

Now we've had a bit more time to review how all the players from Boys to Men and Decatur Christian are doing....I have updated a few comments on the various players...........
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Since the school is going to close and likely their web site will shut down, I wanted to initiate a discussion on the board so in the future we can reflect back and see how the players from this fine prep school turned out.

The kids who graduated in 2006 are all but lost to my memory, but at least four of them can still be tracked. Feel free to let me know who else you remember....

Xavier Crawford never did get academically qualified and went to Yuba. Hopefully he will still turn out to help BU, but unfortunately with the need to go the juco route, he'll only be available to BU for 2 years.

Craig Brackins left BTMA in 2006 and went to another prep school. Pretty fortunate since he probably would NOT have gained eligibility
unless he did his final year elsewhere at prep school.
He is a top player, but got injured this past year and didn't play much. He still has a chance to be a fine college player, and did perform well against BU when he played here in the Iowa State game, but so far he's averaging 12pts, 7.7 rebs in 30 mpg!

Thijin Moses is at DePaul but his freshman year certainly showed he was overrated...now he isn't even on the roster..and is likely redshirting his soph. year!!

Michael Glover graduated from BTMA in 2006 and went to Seton Hall, but wasn't academically eligible and had to go find another prep school for 2006-2007 (American Christian in Philly), and is now set to be at Seton Hall this fall.
Seton Hall is bad and just needed overtime to beat Robert Morris, so if Glover was any good, they'd use him, right?
Well....he is listed on the roster, but he didn't get a single minute of playing time in either of their first two games, even though he's already going on 21 years old as a freshman....does this sound like maybe he's a bit overrated?

http://www.shupirates.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=52792&SPID=5500&DB_OEM_ID=12600&ATCLID=925705&Q_SEASON=2007

Then of the players who are listed as seniors or "post grad" students in 2007, here are the names:

The seniors..........
Anthony Edwards 6'4" Sr Guard Chatsworth, CA (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)
Djibril Coulibaly 6'9" Jr Forward Jamaica, NY (actually was a senior and is going to Manhattan) -- still not playing D-I ball anywhere, definitely didn't qualify at Manhattan
.................http://hsillinois.scout.com/a.z?s=22...=1&nid=2875412
Jamel Jackson 6'3" Sr Guard Brooklyn, NY (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)
Leon Freeman 6'3" Sr. Guard Belleville, MI (going to juco)
Kordero Anderson 6'2" Sr Guard Chicago, IL (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)
Nyal "Mac" Koshwal 6'9" Sr Forward Chicago, IL (going to DePaul) -- so far Mac hasn't played up to the hype, as
........he has played in 2 D-I games, DePaul is 1-1, and Mac has a TEAM LEADING 50 MINUTES PLAYED, but is 6th in scoring at 5.5ppg
........but is rebounding well.
Raymond Sims (sometimes listed as "Simms") 5'9" Sr Guard Philadelphia, PA (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)
Spencer Adams 6'6" Sr Forward Champaign, IL (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)
Timothy Kiewel 6'9" Sr Forward/Center Parma, OH (Kiewel is now at Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher, AZ.
The Eastern Arizona Gila Monsters are a Division I junior college and Kiewel is playing his freshman juco season there,
with hopes of going to a 4-year school for his remaining 3 years of college eligibility.)

The post grad kids...........
Alvin Abreu 6'2" PG Guard Lynn, MA -- A FRESHMAN AT NEW HAMPSHIRE, PLAYING WELL, AVG 12PPG.
Clarence Holloway 7'1" PG Center Chicago, IL (going to Louisville) -- but after 6 years of high school including one at Boys to Men, he is still unable to gain clearance from the NCAA Clearinghouse and will sit out 2007-2008.
--- now sadly, Clay is recuping from heart surgery.
David Sanchez 6'9" PG Forward Toa Alta, PR (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)
Devin Miller 6'3" PG Guard Chicago, IL (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)
Elijah Dildy 5'9" PG Guard Chicago, IL
...........here's more on Elijah Dildy...http://websportschicago.com/id406.htm
Maurese Jackson 6'6" PG Forward Chicago, IL (I have not heard if he is playing college ball)

Then the kids that were listed as still being juniors.......
Jelani Poston 6'6" Jr Forward Chicago, IL (going to Cincinnati Harmony Prep)
............Poston has verballed to UIC...http://www.suntimes.com/560552,CST-S...p17.highschool
Jeremiah "Miah" Kelly 6'0" Jr Guard Chicago, IL (American Christian Academy Prep School in Philly)
............Kelly has verballed to DePaul --- so far Kelly has played pretty well for American Christian Prep...
Timmothy Baines 6'6" Jr Forward Zion, IL (unknown)
Turhon Cora Jr 6'4" Jr Guard Chicago, IL (unknown) had transferred to BTMA from Rich Central
Tyrone Justin Howard 6'3" Jr Guard Chicago, IL (unknown)

Clay Johnson ....(no info)

Michael Tuitt was listed on the 2005-2006 BTMA roster but I have tracked down a little info.
...he played little at BTMA, then transferred to American Christian School in Aston, Pa.
...he then got an offer from Morehead State but never qualified...http://hsnewyork.scout.com/2/610510.html
...nobody seems to know where he is now.

Also...Angel Garcia was at BTMA for a week or so in the fall, but is now going to be a senior at East Chicago.
Manual Cass was also there for a few days then went to prep school out east and is going to UTEP next year.
Marcus Relphorde also spent a few weeks there, then went to another prep school and is now committed to St. Louis.

The rest of the 2005-2006 roster shows these guys.........
Darion Anderson, Jesse Childs, Gerald January, Maurese Jackson, Aaron Jackson, and Shawn Hilliard were all seniors in 2006 and have not been heard from since.

I found one report that Darion Anderson was set to go to NIU in 2006-2007, but he isn't on the roster, and I cannot find where he is.

So....out of these 35 different players who spent at least SOME time at Boys to Men, and at least a dozen or so are already out of high school, so....let's see how many have an impact at the D-I level.
So far we are 0-for-35 but we'll visit this topic again.......

[tornado]

That last post was the BTMA kids, here is the Decatur Christian list
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Later, I will do a followup on the Decatur Christian kids, and since the web site will likey soon remove the roster, I will stash that info here for later reference:

The roster per the website as of 6/14/07
Joel Johnson 5'10 155 13 G 11
Ty Nurse 6'0 170 G 10
..................Ty Nurse has gone back to Canada and enrolled at Canada Basketball's National Elite Development Academy (Hamilton, Ont) for the 2007-08 academic year. .........http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...e-703a6239c9d1
Justin Snyder 5'7 150 G 12
John Taylor 5'8 155 G 12
Ivan Gombovic 6'6 195 G 12 -- now at Winchendon School (MA) -- also may be deemed a pro like Staiger
Johan Mpondo 6'9 215 44 F 12 (Cameroon) -- *** This guy was said to have signed with Rhode Island. Here is the link:

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=67447&sport=2

but it is easy to show he is NOT on the roster at Rhode Island and transferred to prep school ( Massanutten in Virginia)

Beas Hamga 7'0 225 F/C 11 -- Ineligible for 2007-2008 season at UNLV
Austin Woods 5'10 180 F 11

and these names were from other articles, naming the players on the team...
Ozren Bjerogovic, 6-6 12 --** Now unlike the spelling from the Decatur web site, it appears this guy spells his name "Ozren Bjelogrlic" and he has appeared on the roster of Liberty University, playing as a freshman, even though now he is easier to track, now that we know the real spelling of his name, and he is all over the internet, playing pro ball in Europe, and he is already 21 years old.

http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm?PID=10869&newsID=1848&TeamID=

-------------------Ozren is now at Libetry, and after one exhibition and 5 regular games, he has NOT yet logged even one minute of court time. Looks like Ozren will also fit the prediction quite well, overhyped while at Decatur Christian and totally unproductive even at the low end of the D-I scale.

Duro Bjegovic, 6-8 12 -- now at Missouri State-West Plains (David Collins' juco) --he
also may get nailed with the pro-rule like Staiger when he tries to go D-I-- he is playing at juco and after 5 games at UM-WP is averaging 5ppg, good for 8th best on the team, and 2.8 rpg top go with 35% shooting pct.

But here are some other names that once were on the roster

Lucca Staiger 6'5" G 12-- presently ineligible at Iowa State and may end up losing a whole year of eligibility.
Jeliso Palacio 5'11 165 G 11
Brad Clark 5'10 180 G 12
Mike Behrens 6'6 225 G/F 12
Birama Konate 6'10 225 F 11
Chris Nandoe 6'11 235 F 11
Nikola Gacesa 6'10 240 F/C 12 -- is on the roster at Florida International
This year, has played in only one game, logged 19 minutes but didn't make a shot and had 0 pts, 0 rebounds,
pretty paltry production for 19 minutes!! (last year averaged 4ppg, 2rpg in 15.5 mpg)

http://www.fiusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=49082&SPID=4764&DB_OEM_ID=11700&ATCLID=651285&Q_SEASON=2007

Alioune Diallo 7'1 240 C 10 (Senegal)
Darrington Hobson 6'7" 180 F 12 -- ineligible at D-I now at juco in Utah...however, at College of Eastern Utah,
Hobson's team is 2-3 and Hobson appears to have only played in one game so far.

Mario Stula -- maybe ineligible per the same rule that nailed Staiger-- but either way, he hasn't logged a minute yet for DePaul, as he's both injured
AND he has not yet been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse.....so is this another wasted scholarship??

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3993

http://www.a-hope.org/Current%20Students.htm

One more name "Birama Konate" is said to be playing for DCS - but apparently never did.

http://www.africabasket.com/MLI/MLI.asp?NewsNo=20

Then a few more names off their website roster:
Michael Grady, Melvin Tate, Malcom Walker, Bronson Dotson, Demeatrio Wade,
Zac Conrad, Matt Flint, Zack Stortzum, John Reimer.

Here is a thread updating where they are now

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5414

BUT---- lastly....in this story that was published when Decatur Christian closed down, their coach said this:
"They will or have placed each senior in a D-I program"
and
"Beas Hamga and Ty Nurse are the only underclassmen in the program"

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/05/05/sports/h_r_preps/boys_basketball/1023238.txt

This does not seem to be true.
Snyder, Taylor, Gombovic, Bjegovic & Bjegovic, Clark, Behrens, tesla....are all seniors who are NOT playing D-I ball anywhere.
Did they just boot those guys off the team so they could say all the rest made it to D-I?
The only D-I guys are Stula (DePaul), Staiger (Iowa State), Hamga (UNLV), Hobson (New Mexico).

Then what about the eight guys who are listed as underclassmen....what happened to them, and why is he now only saying they have just two (one of whom is Hamga who is going to college).
Again...they conveniently boot these guys into non-existence so they don't have to explain the failure to help them.

A later article seems to refute Huss' claims and reveals several of their players are NOT even qualified, some are NOT going to college, and others are still left hanging.
By the way, Mpondo never did sign with Rhode Island and may not qualify.

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/05/08/sports/h_r_preps/boys_basketball/1023255.txt

also for the record....an interesting prediction:

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=51254#51254

[DemonsRule]

Alvin Abreu is playing for New Hampshire as a freshman. He is averaging double figures.

[tornado]

I have a little followup on Darrington Hobson, the well travelled player from Decatur Christian who failed to gain entry to New Mexico and who is now at College of Eastern Utah.

The team is 5-5, but Hobson missed the first few games for the same reason he has trouble with the NCAA, that his numerous transcripts from the 5 different high schools he has attended had to be reviewed before he could be eligible.

In the games Darrington Hobson has played for College of Eastern Utah, they are 2-4, as Hobson has now played in 6 junior college games,
and since he is a highly touted 4-STAR recruit, he should be dominating.....

Here are his stats:
6 games
12.67ppg
61% on FT's
46.9% on FG's
27.8% (5-18 ) on 3-pointers
7.8rpg
1.8 assists
0.17 steals/gm

[tornado]

Wow all these rulings on the kids from Decatur Christian that they cannot play due to participating on pro teams, has really hurt the probably of any of them from contributing soon.

We were tracking 62 different players whose names were at one time associated with Boys to Men or Decatur Christian.
Many ended up never playing even though on the rosters, and many who did play, have ended up never gaining eligibility to play beyond high school.
Of the few remaining who still might have an impact at college, now we'll have to wait a year since several such as Hamga, Staiger, Bjelogrlic, Stula, and Bjegovic won't be playing soon.

Mac Koshwal is doing OK at DePaul. He hasn't helped them win much as they are 3-7 and one of the worst teams in the Big East, but Mac is averaging 11ppg, 8rpg, although he's a 22 year old freshman.

A few other followups.....
Leon Freeman is doing another prep school year (a 6th year of high school) at Michigan Eldon Academy
Timothy Kiewel is at Eastern Arizona College (juco) but only averaging 1ppg
Clarence Holloway after 6 years of prep, is now out due to illness but still not cleared to play at Louisville.
Alvin Abreu is at New Hampshire
Jelani Poston is at Cincinnati Harmony Prep
Jeremiah Kelly is at Philadelphia American Chrstian Prep
Manual Cass and Marcus Relphorde are freshman at UTEP and SLU and averaging respectively, 5ppg/1.6rpg and 6mpg/2ppg, but even thought they were on the BTMA roster, neither played there.
Bjelogrlic was never cleared to play at Liberty, and Hobson never made it either and is averaging 12ppg/7rpg at College of Eastern Utah.
Gacesa, who didn't play at BTMA, but was one of their 7-footers, is averaging 3.7ppg/2.3rpg at Florida International.

So the jury is still out, but of the 62 names we've been tracking, only a few are even still in the running to ever play D-I ball, and only Koshwal is having even a minor tremor on the Richter scale of success. I know it is still early, but some of the kids have already been out of those prep schools almost 1.5 seasons, so we should see more impact by now than the Maybe-1-for 62 that we are presently seeing.

[tornado]

Most of the Decatur kids have been deemed ineligible (Hobson, Hamga, Staiger, Stula) and thus far, Mac Koshwal is just about the only guy out of the dozens of over-hyped, potential stars, who is doing any good, and it seems the whole thing at BTMA was just a phoney prep school for the purpose of getting Mac to the NBA.
Mac is good, but his scoring is limited and he isn't doing much to keep DePaul above .500, and will probably jump to the NBA if he has the chance.
(Craig Brackins is doing well, but to his benefit, he only spent one year at BTMA and went to prep school after that)

So I reopen the question of how many of these kids actually benefitted from these prep schools?
Go back to the first post in this thread at top....I have updated it to show where all the players are if they can be found.
A few are languishing on the bench at D-I's, a few have been dismissed (Thijin Moses), a couple are at jucos, but the vast majority are deemed ineligible to play or are gone with no trace of where they went.
Remember, the coaches of the BTMA and Decatur Christian expected their entire rosters would be successful at D-I.

[Decatur]

Being from Decatur, I'm actually a little more familiar with the situation at Decatur Christian, and I kind of take offense to you passing such judgment on the school and the program as a whole based on a limited understanding of what actually went on there.


First of all I want to point out that the roster you guys keep referring to is both extremely dated, and extremely sloppy. It looks like it was put together in about 10 minutes on a random Wednesday in June prior to the start of their season. There are 7 foreign kids listed on that roster who never enrolled at DCS, and never played a game with them.

Also some of you are getting confused by the players that were already at DCS prior to Huss getting there and bringing in all the foreign players. None of those players had much (if any) college basketball potential. When Huss said that all of his players would play division 1 ball, he meant those 9 (although some of them have had some setbacks).

Also a lot of you are hinting that DCS might have been some sort of a basketball factory in which the players weren't forced to study at all. That couldn't be further from the truth. I personally saw Beas and Lucca doing multiple hours of homework each night. In fact both have said that their transitions to college classes were made a lot easier by how hard they had to work at DCS to earn their grades. Several players at DCS spent significant time ineligible due to grades. I think all the players were trying hard, but going to a difficult school is tough when you consider English is not the primary language of a lot of these kids and they are studying American History for the first time and senior level English classes.

So I'll go player by player, and explain their situations:

Lucca Staiger - No Academic problems whatsoever. Lucca was a part of the starting lineup at Iowa State prior to the NCAA randomly deciding to enforce rules about foreign players playing on the same team with players receiving compensation. There's a ton of information about this all over the internet, and there is also a decent thread on this website with a lot of information about him here. FreeLucca.com is another website that shows how upset the Iowa State fans are about his situation. It is complete BS, but Lucca will bounce back, and he will likely be a starter this time next year.

Beas Hamga - Beas' qualification problems were the result of him attempting to graduate a year earlier than expected, and making that decision a little late (during the spring of his junior year). Beas passed his ACT in his third language, but the NCAA is worried about whether or not his classes his final year in Cameroon were actually high school level classes. They claim those classes were at the 8th grade level. I claim not to care, because he's clearly shown he has both the intelligence and knowledge to perform in the classroom at the college level by getting the needed score on his college entrance exam. Reports from Vegas say he's the best overall player on his likely NCAA bound team, but the NCAA has decided he needs to redshirt for a year to make sure he's ready to handle the load in college. Another BS decision. I think Beas will be drafted at some point and play in the NBA. He's a force defensively, and Kruger has him working his butt of shooting tons of jump hooks with both hands each day. He will definitely be a success story by this time next year.

Mario Stula - No academic problems whatsoever. People that watched DePaul practices seemed to think Mario would get major playing time as a freshman, but he separated his shoulder prior to their first game, and now it appears he'll be forced to miss a year and 8 games prior to the NCAA's anti-foreign rules. Rules in which they decided to make the penalty 5 times as severe (from 20% of one year to one full year) without spreading the word. Another BS NCAA decision, but Mario would have likely missed the entire year anyway. The only bad thing in this situation is that Mario now has to lose a year of eligibility when he was planning on using a medical redshirt.

Darrington Hobson - I think someone else did a better job of talking about Darrington in a thread I already linked to here: In that thread, SoyCityHoops said:

"(Darrington) is the poster child for all that is wrong with “prep school” basketball. He actually meets all the criteria to be an NCAA qualifier. Unfortunately, he received many of his credits from 2 separate schools that are no longer in existence (Gulf Shores Academy & Calvary Baptist Christian School). The NCAA red flagged his case and he was not able to provide the documentation on the classes from those schools to prove his case. He is now enrolled at Eastern Utah Community College. He hopes to enroll at New Mexico midyear 2008."

Since then several things have changed with Darrington. Just recently it seems that Darrington has finally admitted to himself that he is going to have to stick it out at CEU for 2 years. In his last two games he has scored 37 points, and 46 points, and I just heard from a junior college scout that he very well might be the best junior college freshman in the entire country. If he can keep his head on straight, I think Darrington has a decent chance to be an NBA player. He only played 3 or 4 games with DCS last year for a number reasons (mainly a high ankle sprain), but he was easily the best overall player on the team when he actually played. He is just a ridiculously good basketball player.


Duro Bjegovic and Ivan Gombovic were both Croatian and lived together. I don't think either of them learned English as well as they should have, and they talked to each other, and the other two Croatians on the team in their native language a little more than they probably should have. Duro was hurt for the majority of the year with a shattered thumb, and Ivan spent a semi-large portion of the year ineligible because of his poor English. I think Duro was offered a scholarship to Iowa over the summer, but he never qualified, and he ended up enrolling in Juco in Missouri. His numbers surprise me because he's actually a very good scorer. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a story behind it, but I'm not close to Duro or Ivan, and know less about them than the rest of the kids.

Ozren Bjelogrlic - You guys keep acting like Ozzy's name was spelled wrong purposely. It is just hard to spell. That whole roster looks like it was thrown together in like 10 minutes prior to most of the players actually getting to Decatur. Someone claims he's 21, but I don't see that anywhere. In fact, I think he turned 19 in October. It just seems to me as if the records of a kid who's played so much basketball in a country like Croatia would exist fairly far back... too far back for him to lie about his age. Perhaps in the case of an African player in a developing country it might be possible, but I don't think so in Croatia. Either way, it was always obvious Ozzy was on the border of being either a D-1 or D-2 player. He was asked to redshirt at Liberty, and he will transfer after he finishes his academic freshman year because he's unhappy at Liberty (a radical christian school with extremely strict rules that won't allow him to kiss girls or see rated R movies). If you'll remember, Liberty University is the former home of Jerry Falwell and his radical televangelist church.

Johann Mpondo - Johann didn't look like a D-1 player all year. He's another kid from Cameroon who is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. He had no problems getting eligible, but he kind of struggled on the basketball floor for DCS. But during the spring and summer of 2007, he played some very good AAU games, and got some D-1 notice from teams like New Orleans, Nevada, and Rhode Island. I'm not sure exactly what happened at Rhode Island, but that didn't work out for him, and he's spending a year at a post-grad prep school. He's really athletic and tall, and he's got a TON of potential, but basketball is just pretty new to him. I think he will be playing D-1 ball somewhere next year.

Ty Nurse - Ty was a sophomore, and he decided it was best for him to go back to Canada when Decatur Christian decided against bringing in new talent. He will probably play D-1 basketball in a couple of years.


So yeah, it looks bad when you group them all together, but the DCS kids were not put in a basketball factory, and it actually was a good thing for most of them. They were all put in an opportunity to succeed. The basketball program didn't stay there for a number of reasons mainly because the administrators and decision makers at the school weren't 100% behind making the program successful. Some of the people there didn't really like the attention, and didn't like the influence of the outsiders on their children. I suppose you'll have that when you have an extremely religious school. They weren't expecting this program to come in and stir everything up, and I'm guessing there were mixed feelings about it leaving.

Of the 9 players, 4 of them will be playing D-1 basketball next year (Lucca, Mario, Beas, Johann), 3 of them will be in junior college because of eligibilty issues (2 for struggling with English as a second language in Duro and Ivan, and Darrington Hobson with his blacklisted prep schools from his past), 1 will transfer to Juco because he's unhappy (Ozren), and 1 is still in high school. I'm not exactly sure how many kids lives' you're giving DCS credit for ruining, but you can go ahead and put that number back to 0.

I hope that clears some things up.

[squeaky]

Thanks for the information. But count me as a skeptic. It is just too obvious that many of these foreign prep school kids are older than they say they are, and they come from countries where birth records can't be verified.

Here is Mario Stula of DePaul. Tell me he is just a teenager fresh out of high school--


What about this kid, John Riek, does he look like a high-schooler?--


And how about Festus Ezeli? This kid can't be less than 30.--


And Mac Koshwal, how long has he been around?

[Decatur]

Mario will turn 20 this spring.

To be honest with you, I don't know how an average 19 year old 6'7" Croatian looks. Seems to me as if people from Croatia just have a lot of facial hair, and look generally older faster.

[tornado]

Decatur....thanks for the info and I trust your "sources"....but what you have posted doesn't signifcantly alter the overall premise.
Here was my premise.....that a lot of the kids from the local "prep" schools (BTMA, DCS) were years older than their counterparts, had played on teams that were deemed "pro" and that they'd have trouble qualifying at the D-I level.
Those are the things I said 1.5 to 2 whole years ago, and time have proven those statements correct.
Whether their ages are accurate or not will likely never be resolved here.....but see my last paragraph below, and you'll see what I mean about the skepticism.
After the cases in America of kids like Danny Almonte, Mac Koshwal, etc.....it is clear why some tend to be skeptical, since those are cases of kids coming into the US and intentionally lying and deceiving about their ages and birth dates. The kids from the US have no way to disguise their ages, it is frankly impossible, since the birth records are for the most part impeccable.
When Mac Koshwal was claiming to be a 14 year old freshman at Chicago Julian HS, and playing against other kids that are 14, he was in reality nearly 3 years older than that.
Funny how it took other schools complaining to the Chicago Public League, before they finally checked into the kid's background and found that he had indeed falsified his records and hid certain facts.
Earlier in this thread and others, I have pointed out that some of the European players have their names spelled differently in different sources, and even have differing birth dates, and recall that even the NCAA's official guide states some credentials from certain countries are notoriously inaccurate and false.

Here, read this post that quotes the NCAA's own guidelines for kids from Cameroon....and it is the same for certain other countries as well........

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=42869&highlight=cameroon#post42869

"Cameroon
NOTICE: A serious problem of falsification and alteration of records exists in Cameroon. Identification of such forgery is difficult and can be discovered only by using great caution in records evaluation"

BUT........every name on that list of players came from some news release or from the web sites of the schools themselves....I sure didn't make any of the names up.
If there's inaccuracy (and I never denied that some of those kids never played at those schools) then the inaccuracy was due to the schools themselves.
That list of players was NOT put together in 10 minutes, more like a couple hours of searching hundreds of older links and sources for those names.
But the point was to follow up on all those players who were linked to the prep schools, and even if you disagree with some of the facts, the overall conclusion is the same, that so precious few of those players have yet to play D-I ball, and even fewer are having an impact.

But either way....every source I can find says Mario Stula was born in 1987, thus making him 21 some time this year.

http://www.usbasket.com/player.asp?Cntry=USA&PlayerID=55085

http://www.basketpedya.com/Acc002InfJug.php?idjug=54986&idioma=3

http://217.13.116.51/finalfour/noticia.jsp?temporada=E02&jornada=20&id=457

so even your own statement that he'll be 20 this year is in conflict with every single source I can find.
and here.......see if you can explain this....
---according to IHSA rules, if you turn 20 before the end of the playing season in the sport you're competing, then by IHSA rules, you are ineligible.
Surely you know that rule, right?
Well, since Stula turned 20 before the end of the official-IHSA-defined end of the basketball season last March, then by IHSA standards, he'd have been ineligible.
BUT....quotes coming from DCS, claimed otherwise....
"These kids are all within normal high school age limits" (quote from DCS coach)

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2006/11/10/sports/local_sports/1019055.txt

and I cited even one other quote elsewhere that claimed he might even be eligible for yet another year of high school!

[Decatur]

You're right. Mario will turn 21 this Spring. I was wrong about that, and I apoligize... But wasn't his play allowed when DCS forfeited their eligibilty in the IHSA state tournament. I realize you have the quote from the coach, but that still doesn't change the legality of the whole thing as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps he actually thought Mario was going to turn 20 this Spring (or at least he thought that at the time of the quote). When you have 7 foreign kids on a team with 5 Europeans spending their first year in America, communication is difficult.


And I know you claimed there would be huge problems with this 2 years ago (even though the DCS project wasn't even in existance at that time), but you had no clue the NCAA would increase the penalty for these foreign kids playing on semi-pro teams (the only way for them to be discovered) where 1 or 2 players (not them) are compensated. If not for that rule, Lucca would be playing, Mario would be redshirting with a seperated shoulder, and Ozzy would be playing if he didn't hate the conditions at Liberty. Also Johann is not playing in college, but that had nothing to do with his eligibilty. These things happen with kids that are right on the bubble as far as being a division 1 prospect.

All 9 of the players brought in to play for DCS are still on track to get a college education and play basketball in America. That was their ultimate goal (although I think Beas and Darrington have NBA asperations). While you claim your major point was that a lot of these kids won't be eligible (something your prediction basically lucked into with the NCAA enforcing these rules), I think your major point has been that these programs are bad in general and bad for the kids. Well, DCS has all 9 of the kids on track to do exactly what they came there for, in spite of the trouble they got themselves into before they got to DCS. DCS also got a lot out of it because they made a good amount of money from the home games. The city of Decatur got to watch 2 great teams in DCS, and Eisenhower (Lewis Jackson/Jeremey Robinson) play including a fantastic head-to-head overtime sold out matchup. There was a buzz in the city of Decatur, especially since Maroa Forsythe (5 minutes outside of Decatur) won the 1A state championship that year.

You're grouping 2 schools together that were really nothing alike. DCS had/has high academic standards. The elite basketball program left because basically because a lot of the people there thought it was a distraction to their religion, and the overall well-being of their kids. Fair enough... But it certainly wasn't a failure to anyone involved, and I think DCS as a school is doing a lot better financially, and their enrollment is up.

[tornado]

You are absolutely right about imposing the penalty on kids whose actions fully took place before the rule was in effect.
The official legal term there is "ex post facto"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law

I am not a legal person, but very few such rules or laws ever get passed, since they are inherently unfair to those who committed their acts or made their choices well before such acts and choices were outlawed.

According to the link above, ex post facto laws are not permissible under the US Constitution (Article 1, section 9 and 10), and although the NCAA is a private organization and although this ruling isn't the same as law, it is just possible a lawsuit that goes to the federal level might just get a favorable ruling from a good judge with a constitutional background. Of course how many college students really want to take the NCAA to the Supreme Court?

In the end, the NCAA is a little like the IRS. Most of the time they let little things get by, but once in a while they make a huge deal out of something that is a pretty small violation, and when they do, they seem to have an unlimited desire for punishment.


.....and maybe I was a bit unfair to count the DCS kids in the same boat as the BTMA, but to an outside observer, there were similarities.

[Decatur]

That's understandable. No one who actually knew anything about them corrected you.

Ex post facto is exactly the term I was looking for.



Anyway, I had the opportunity to play against Ruffin, and Summerville (and Livingston for that matter) in high school, and I was pulling for Bradley when those guys were around. I like when Valley teams do well, and I hope you guys can get 2 or 3 into the tournament this year somehow. A friend of mine got to go to the NCAA tournament 3 straight years in a row on a Valley team, and I think it is just a really cool basketball conference.

[tornado]

Your Eisenhower kids are playing pretty well!
Way back when Lewis Jackson was in maybe 7th grade, I had the opportunity to take a summer team down to the AYB games at Millikin and our kids played against some of those kids (although of course JRob was still in Mississippi)
They were good then and they are really good now.
I am sure we'll be seeing them in a few weeks here in Peoria!

[Decatur]

I really think Illinois made a big mistake in not going after Lewis Jackson harder. He's going to be a major thorn in their side for 4 years. He's just ridiculous. If you haven't seen him play lately and Eisenhower makes the state tournament, you have got to get to one of their games. He puts on a show.