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College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

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College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

Tip Cup

Hey.........the 30th installment of the Briggs & Al's Run is coming up on Saturday morning in downtown Milwaukee and there's still time to contribute to the Marquette Fans' charity drive for this most worthy of causes, named for our own Al.

Thanks to the leadership of MU_Hilltopper and the mighty generous wallet of Sir Lawrence, we've nearly equaled last year's total of $1,500.00 dollars raised.

It sure would be nice to meet or beat that number -- and we're oh-so-close.

We've gotten the big donors out of the way. We've got a few thousand readers, and we are holding out the tip cup.

There aren't any ads here, we toil for your entertainment like a smelly guy on a street corner playing a harmonica. Throw us a fiver for the effort. It's for Al and Children's Hospital.

If you are interested, please click on this link. Thanks again for your consideration.

For more information on the Briggs & Al's Run & Walk for Children's Hospital, please click here.

MU after another Chicago-area guard...more recruiting updates

We all know that Tom Crean is focused on landing Iman Shumpert for the class of 2008. The 6-4 combo guard from Oak Park/River Forest is expected to decide between MU, UNC and Georgia Tech in the coming months. Here's a Yahoo news bit on Shumpert's final three.

In addition to Shumpert, MU offered 6-4 SG Verdell Jones, Jr of Champaign. And now we learn that MU was one of the early majors to note the apparently under-appreciated talents of Dion Dixon from Chicago Crane. Per MidstateHoops (who predict that MU will land Shumpert), the 6-3 Dixon is sporting offers from MU, Colorado, Akron and Toledo.

Here's the full report.

MARQUETTE IN THE MIX FOR KENYI
Crean also continues to recruit Max Kenyi, a 6-5 WF/SG from Gonzaga prep in the Washington, DC area. Kenyi, who like fellow MU target Frank Ben-Eze is also considering MU along with Harvard of all places, should make unofficial visits to a handful of schools soon to accelerate the process.

Here is the full report from i95ballerz.

ADIOS QUINTRELL, HELLO PARIS
Meanwhile, the Quintrell Thomas ship has sailed (MU is not in his final four) but MU remains involved in 6-6 junior Paris Bennett of St. Patrick's in Elizabeth, NJ. Here's Zags Blog.

Iman Shumpert Update

How good is Iman Shumpert?

According to Taylor Bell of the Chicago Sun-Times - - - he's exceptional. And the 6-4 combo guard from suburban Chicago lists MU as one of his top 5, and it looks like MU will get a visit from the rising junior. Here's the update from the Sun-Times.

Wait, there's more.

The Peoria Journal Star profiles the state of Illinois' fastest rising junior as well - - and the raves are consistent with the Taylor Bell report:

"He's been phenomenal all spring,'' said Dave Telep, national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. "He's a big, legitimate combo guard who I think may have a long-term future as a point guard. He's shot the ball well and has a tremendous basketball IQ.

"He's a case study in being a late bloomer. He's hitting his stride now. Some kids hit their strides early on. He couldn't be hitting it at a better time. There's no looking back now.''

According to the PJS, Shumpert has already visited Illinois, the Peoples' Republic of Madison, Bradley, ND and Northwestern unofficially. Looks like he will try to visit MU, Georgai Tech and Clemson unofficially as well -- then pare his list to five programs by Labor Day.

While it appears that Shumpert's recruiting will take time, he listed Tom Crean as a coach he has a comfortable relationship with.

Warrior plates for FIBs?

Digressing from Dominic James Mania ..

Courtesy of the guys at MUScoop.com .. from the Illinois bureau:

By DANA HEUPEL

STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

The Illinois Senate approved a bill Wednesday to allow private universities in contiguous states with more than 10,000 alumni in Illinois to request the plates.

Money from the specialty plates would go for scholarships for Illinois students who attend those universities. .. "I'd like to hear from the president of DePaul or Loyola what they think about having Marquette license plates running around the streets of Chicagoland," he said.

That might be the only good thing about living in Illinois!

You can get a UW license plate in Wisconsin, maybe the WI Legislature should get on the stick, and give us some MU plates.

Dominic James bounces back

Dominic James turned things around a bit last night at the NBA pre-draft camp. His performance was an improvement over Wednesday's effort, but in the eyes of draftexpress it's still not enough to warrant staying in the draft:

Although he certainly played a lot better than yesterday, Dominic James’ second day performance definitely left a lot to be desired for a player who seems to be adamant about keeping his name in the draft. He overdribbled badly on numerous possessions, driving into brick walls with his head down and showing an inability to read defenses and react based off what was thrown at him.......At this point, there is a legit possibility that James doesn’t even get drafted.

Hoopsworld.com begs to differ - -naming James as one of the ten players from the Orlando pre-draft camp who will be selected in the upcoming draft:

He's an amazing athlete, the best at the point guard position in Orlando. In fact, he told me on Wednesday his vertical leap has been measured at over 40 inches on more than one occasion. He's not 100% NBA ready right now, but he's the type of athlete who draws the attention of scouts. Remember how the stock of Gulliermo Diaz -- draft by the Clippers in 2006-- rose last season because of his athleticism? Expect the same thing to happen with James.

CSTV spends time evaluating draft options for James and Ramon Sessions against the backdrop of a weak PG class in the draft:

(James is) using this camp as a barometer to see if he's better off heading to the pros now.

"Most definitely, just from the feedback I'm gonna be getting back from my coaches and the people I have within my circle," James said. "They're talking to the decision makers in the league and just getting a report back from things I need to get better at. It's a win-win situation for me. I feel like if I go back to college, I'm gonna be a lot better player. And most definitely if I make it to the NBA, it'll be a dream come true."

Here's a thread from MarquetteHoops that chronicled DJs' performance in the late game on Thursday.