Bobby Hill

[tornado]

After saying he wasn't going to hold Bobby Hill out of any games, the Lincoln College head coach BJ McCullom now will hold Hill out of games until the issue is resolved.

"Bobby Hill, the leading scorer for the Lincoln College basketball team, will not play for the Lynx until a decision on his eligibility is reached by the

National Junior College Athletic Association, the college announced Friday.
Coach B.J. McCullum, who originally said he planned to have Hill in his lineup today, said the matter boils down to interpretation of NJCAA rules"

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/022308/SPO_BFS55EOD.075.php

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/143CC97278AA231B862573F80015DDAD?OpenDocument

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7038&highlight=hill

One other argument..........

McCallum repeatedly says Hill did nothing wrong and is a complete victim in all this....
"I truly feel for Bobby Hill as he is the victim in all this"

But let me get this straight......Patrick O'Bryant quietly accepted benefits of about $1200 that he probably knew didn't really belong to him, and was paid inadvertently to him,
and even though he paid it back, he was NOT considered innocent and just a victim, he was docked 1/4 of the entire season by being deemed ineligible.

Bobby Hill and his brother knowingly took and kept an estimate of AT LEAST $25,000 of impermissable benefits, which were paid fully intentionally and secretively to the Hills,
with the full knowledge of the guy who was the source that this was illegal and impermissable, but he still went ahead and did it and hid the facts in every way
he could and even tried to hide the trail so he'd never get caught, plus.......Bobby Hill has never made the slightest effort to pay any of it back, and even maintains
he is just an innocent victim and should NOT be penalized in any way.


If you recall...the maximum penalty the NCAA has for the receipt of impermissable benefits is 8 games....that's why POB got 8 games, but so did Kansas' Darnell Jackson who took almost $10,000 of impermissable benefits.
Even Kentucky's Randolph Morris, who turned pro, hired an agent, then came back to college, was only penalized 14 games of eligibility, so Bobby, there's hope!

[tornado]

Here is a little update on the Bobby Hill eligibility issue.
If all goes perfectly, ISU may have a ruling on Hill's eligibility by the beginning of next school year.
If all drags out a bit as is the custom in some NCAA cases, it could be longer.

If you read this statement, it already sounds like ISU is expecting an unfavorable ruling, and will then
have to "appeal" later this summer..........

"ISU’s administration has been conducting its own investigation and gathering
facts to send a report to the NCAA. ISU athletic director Sheahon Zenger
said Thursday the report has just been finished. He will read it this weekend
with hopes of sending it to the NCAA next week.

“From there, I can’t tell you how it will go,” said Zenger. “We went as fast as
we could (gathering information). It will take time. If they (the NCAA) can
get back to us by mid-summer for an appeal, and we would, we can do that
by August so we can have an answer before the school year begins. But that
would be in a perfect world.”

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/05/02/usports/doc481a119ce247b442040849.txt

My prediction.....the NCAA will indeed rule that Hill received substantial impermissable benefits, as he got lots of freebies, upwards of tens of thousands of dollars of housing and living expenses and more. These fatcs are virtually undeniable despite the silly statements by Hill's coach at Lincoln.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7038&page=2

But, I cannot imagine they will rule Hill a professional, even though for four full years Hill was essentially paid and housed like a professional player for the sole purpose of flouting and breaking the anti-transfer rules in MHSAA and helping Vashon to win state titles.
...And I believe NCAA will issue somewhat the same kind of ruling that Randolph Morris and/or Patrick O'Bryant got, that Hill will have to serve a penalty for receiving impermissible benefits.
I expect they will give Hill the exact same 8 or 9 game ineligibility based on 30% of scheduled games. They may even rule that the couple games Hill already sat out at Lincoln already count towards his penalty.
Jank (and his buddy Bill self) probably has some friends that'll help, and I would be surprised if Bobby Hill gets more than just this few games suspension.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7038

Could this issue have anything to do with why Coach McCullom is quietly exiting at Lincoln and quitting the entire profession of coaching and taking a job out of state?

[tornado]

Since other announcements are being made about recruits getting qualifying
test scores, surely we should begin hearing some news on some of the Valley's recruits
and whether they attained a qualifying score. Also I am still puzzled why some of the
high profile commits still have NOT signed a letter of intent, such as Memphis'
Tyreke Evans and Louisville's Kyle Kuric.

[tornado]

A very tough break for Bobby Hill as he returns to ISU after a year at juco.
He has a serious knee injury and looks like he will need surgery.

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/05/27/usports/doc483c7c9a19c1c784488252.txt

[tornado]

One blogger says Bobby Hill is undergoing knee surgery.

"Bobby Hill will undergo surgery on his right knee Wednesday. Hill was injured during a pickup game last month in Horton Field House's North Gym"

Also he adds a comment about the NCAA review of all the cash and property gifts and benefits Bobby Hill received for four full years while he was supposedly just an amateur high school player winning state titles.

"The junior forward, who spent last season at Lincoln College before returning to ISU, also is waiting to hear from the NCAA about any possible penalties
stemming from his high school coach putting him and his brother in an apartment in St. Louis.

You would think the NCAA would show a little compassion against two kids, then ages 13 and 14, who did as they were told by their father. If Indiana
gets off with a slap on the wrist with all the BS that Kelvin Sampson was pulling there and the Hill brothers are punished, there should be an outcry
from coast to coast. If you can figure out how the NCAA thinks, more power to you."

I agree with the sentiment that the NCAA is not consistent from case to case, but I do think kids who take cash and tens of thousands of bucks-worth of gifts just to play basketball,
and who are deeply and intimately involved in a fraudulent scheme to use ineligible players just to help Vashon win state titles, need to be deemed professionals,
and need to be docked some amateur/college eligibility. They had to know they were doing improper things and cheating just to help the coach win.
They had to know but continued to do it for four full years!! It is sort-of a mini-version of the OJ Mayo story.
They were hand picked because of their basketball talent, they were moved & put up in an apartment, given food, money, TV, and lots of other freebie benefits
in exchange for their basketball talents and the help they gave to the coach and Vashon winning those titles.
If they weren't basketball players, if they didn't have talent, and if Vashon didn't have a crack at winning, then do you think the coach would have spent that money?
Was it just a coincidence that coach Floyd Irons was fired because so much money was disappearing from his taxpayer-funded school budget?
Nobody seems to want to say the obvious, but Coach Irons was clearly stealing school funds to funnel that money to Bobby Hill illegally.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1043

I seem to recall that Bradley got hammered by the NCAA just because one recruit's parent got a trip to Peoria from a booster, and in
another separate case, the NCAA cited BU and penalized suspended players in the case where a recruit got a meal at Mt. Hawley CC.
How does this even compare to $20-30,000 is cash and gifts given?
to guys like Mayo and Hill? spin it any way you want, but if the kid is just an innocent victim, then why wasn't that rule used at BU?

[Da Coach]

Bobby Hill is undergoing knee surgery

The Pantagraph is reporting that ISU player Bobby Hill has undergone successful knee surgery. He had a repair of his Anterior Cruciate Ligament, and injury that is sometimes difficult to recover from. There is also some news about a couple other players.

http://www.pantagraph.com/blogs/main/?p=2852

[tornado]

Here's a kid at UNLV who is just having surgery for torn ACL and they are saying flatly
that he will be out for the entire 2008-2009 season

http://unlvrebels.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/061308aac.html

[cpacmel]

Hopefully Hill can comeback as strongly and as quickly as Jeremy Robinson did from his knee injury.

Robinson's injury was described here as "a severe, potentially career-ending knee injury".

Robinson had surgery on his knee in June of last year and amazingly he was able to play in October.

[tornado]

Kansas' Brandon Rush & Bill Walker also made very amazing 6-month recoveries, so it is possible.

[Fetz86]

Out for the season again:

http://www.goredbirds.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/092909aaa.html

Tough break for him, and isu. Luckily this should have no impact on their ability to rack up the non-con wins.

[tornado]

That's is just an unbelievably bad break for Bobby Hill...
as tough as it's been and as hard of a year as Will Egolf has had...just multiply by 3 or 4 and that's what Bobby has gone through.
I wish him the best and hope he recovers well.....
If there could even be a silver lining, then just maybe he can rehab himself bask and get that extra year back like Sam Singh did and work on his Masters...

[Nacho]

That's is just an unbelievably bad break for Bobby Hill...
as tough as it's been and as hard of a year as Will Egolf has had...just multiply by 3 or 4 and that's what Bobby has gone through.
I wish him the best and hope he recovers well.....
If there could even be a silver lining, then just maybe he can rehab himself bask and get that extra year back like Sam Singh did and work on his Masters...

Well said T... you can almost hear the pain in Jank's voice as you read his quote in the article talking about how bad he feels for Hill... regardless of anyone's opinion of Jank or ISU- you gotta feel for the kid, that is forsure...

[Da Coach]

Article about Bobby Hill-

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/article_2cc519ea-ad27-11de-9423-001cc4c002e0.html

Some ISU fans were counting on Hill as a starter. Now who will be the other 2 starters with seniors Eldridge, Odiakosa, and Phillips? Not much depth or experience on the ISU roster.

Here is the 2009-2010 ISU roster- no other returning players with any significant experience

http://www.goredbirds.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/ilsu-m-baskbl-mtt.html

[tornado]

the only season Bobby played at ISU, his freshman season, he was actually given the job and called on to be a defensive stopper and guard the opposing team's bigger guards.
Bobby had good quickness and lateral movement that allowed him to do so...he even STARTED 8 games as a freshman and it wasn't for his offensive abilities - it was because he helped out with his defense.

He has struggled to come back from two surgeries on one of his knees, and that would have hampered his lateral movement, but now, even with as good of a recovery as imaginable, he will likely lose a lot of his quickness and mobility...and it'll be difficult for him to approximate the kind of defense he played with two good knees.
And I mean no disrespect, but Hill has never been a prolific scorer, so I am sure they'd have been wanting mostly to get good defense from him...
I wonder if he'll finish his career at ISU, as a similar kid who had similar knee problems, Chris Cornelius, did stay at SIU but never really was able to contribute and left the team before his eligibility was used up.
Very few players make it back all the way from ACL reconstruction, but I know of only one who ever made it back and had any decent kind of career after reconstruction of BOTH ACL's, and even then, when he finished college he didn't go on to play much pro ball.

Could it be that ISU's preseason "boot camp" conditioning program needs to be rethought?

[thefish7]

That's really too bad for Bobby Hill. It's a shame to see the injuries piling up on a kid like that.