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Self’s team will include a pair of his
own players: senior Sean Harrington and sophomore Roger Powell.
Harrington helped lead the Illini to a share of their
second-straight Big Ten championship last season, starting 14 games,
averaging 6.4 points per contest and tying for second on the team
with 87 assists. The 6-3 guard was a 2002 Academic All-Big Ten
choice and ranked 10th in the league in 3-point accuracy, hitting
39.7 percent of his long-range attempts (56-141). Powell played in
27 games as a freshman, averaging 2.9 points off the bench.
The roster also includes guard Tom
Coverdale from 2002 Final Four participant Indiana. The 6-2 senior
guided the Hoosiers to the national championship game last season
after IU claimed a share of its first Big Ten title since 1993.
Coverdale, a second team All-Big Ten selection, ranked second on the
squad with a career-best 11.9 points per game and also rated among
the top 10 in the conference in assists (third, 4.81 apg) and steals
(seventh, 1.54 spg).
In addition to Harrington and Coverdale,
Self will rotate a pair of other guards: Michigan State’s Chris Hill
and Minnesota’s Ben Johnson. Hill was the Spartans’ second-leading
scorer with 11.5 points per game last year, despite starting only 12
games. He ranked among the top three Big Ten freshmen in points and
assists per contest. Johnson sat out last season after transferring
from Northwestern to the Gophers. The Minneapolis native started
every game in two years with the Wildcats and averaged 11.1 points
per contest.
The team for the foreign tour includes
five student-athletes who play the forward position, as Powell will
be joined by Michigan’s Bernard Robinson Jr., Northwestern’s Winston
Blake, Penn State’s Jason McDougald and Wisconsin’s Dave Mader.
Robinson Jr., a 6-6 junior, ranked second on the Wolverines, with
12.3 points per game as a sophomore, and shared team MVP honors as a
freshman. Blake, a 6-5 senior, topped the Wildcats at 13.6 points
per contest as a junior while ranking third in the Big Ten with 2.38
3-pointers per game. The 6-9 McDougald enters his sophomore year
with the Nittany Lions after playing in 23 games as a freshman. At
6-11, Mader can play both forward and center and started all 32
games for UW last year, as the Badgers earned a share of their first
Big Ten crown since 1947.
Self will also have three centers to
choose from: Iowa’s Jared Reiner, Ohio State’s Velimir Radinovic and
Purdue’s Ivan Kartelo. The 6-11 Reiner started 18 games for the
Hawkeyes last season. Radinovic, the only 7-footer on the roster,
opened 28 games at center last season as the Buckeyes shared the Big
Ten title and won the conference tournament. The 6-11 Kartelo sat
out last season after transferring from Notre Dame.
"I’m very excited to take this group to
Europe," Self said. "This team has a good balance of inside and
outside players, and there’s also a good mix between some of the
more experienced players and some of the promising young players in
our league. This trip will give us a first-hand look at some of the
finest talent the Big Ten has to offer."
 [to top of second column in this
article]
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Tour roster
(School, player, position, year, height, weight, hometown, high
school)
Illinois, Sean Harrington, G, senior,
6-3, 185, Bartlett, Elgin
Illinois, Roger Powell, F, sophomore,
6-6, 215, Joliet, Joliet
Indiana, Tom Coverdale, G, senior, 6-2,
200, Noblesville, Noblesville
Iowa, Jared Reiner, C, junior, 6-11,
255, Tripp, S.D., Tripp-Delmont
Michigan, Bernard Robinson Jr., F,
junior, 6-6, 208, Washington, D.C., New Hampton Prep
MSU, Chris Hill, G, sophomore, 6-3,
185, Indianapolis, Ind., Lawrence North
Minnesota, Ben Johnson, G, junior, 6-3,
180, Minneapolis, Minn., DeLaSalle
NU, Winston Blake, F, senior, 6-5, 200,
Plano, Texas, Plano
OSU, Velimir Radinovic, C, junior, 7-0,
230, Toronto, Ontario, T.A. Blakelock
PSU, Jason McDougald, F, sophomore,
6-9, 200, Lewisville, N.C., Reynolds
Purdue, Ivan Kartelo, C, senior, 6-11,
247, Split, Croatia, Winchendon Academy
Wisconsin, Dave Mader, F/C, junior,
6-11, 240, Appleton, Wis., East
Tour schedule
(Date,
opponent/event, site)
Aug. 8 — Depart for Germany
Aug. 9 — No game
Aug. 10 — Rheinenergy Basketball Club,
Cologne, Germany
Aug. 11 — Telecom Basketball Club,
Bonn, Germany
Aug. 12 — Depart for Belgium
Aug. 13 — Leige Basketball Club, Leige,
Belgium
Aug. 14 — No game
Aug. 15 — Spirou Charleroi Basketball
Club, Charleroi, Belgium
Aug. 16 — Depart for the Netherlands
Aug. 17 — Ricoh Astronauts Basketball
Club, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Aug. 18 —
Depart for United States
[News
release]
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The 18s team of Missy
Aper, Samantha Conrady, Mindy Crawford, Ali Hower, Kari McFadden,
Michelle McFadden, Brooklyn Robbins and Christina Xamis finished in
third place in the silver division. They competed in the oldest age
division even though they had at least four athletes who could have
dropped two or three age divisions.
In Saturday
competition, they
defeated USA Michigan 20-25, 25-22, 15-11. They then lost to Sports
Performance Mizuno 25-22, 14-25, 11-15 and were defeated by the
eventual gold division champions, the Dunes from Indiana, 14-25,
15-25. After placing third in the first day of pool play, they were
automatically put into the silver division and set up their place
for brackets on Sunday. They dropped the first match to Lava from
Michigan 27-25, 17-25, 6-15 and then defeated Java of Michigan
25-18, 25-23 and Miva Gold 25-23, 17-25, 15-13. They went on to
bracket play on Monday and defeated Blaze 25-18, 25-12, defeated USA
Michigan 25-13, 25-22 and lost to Eastern Hills of Ohio 21-25,
15-25. They placed 23rd overall and third in the silver division.
The girls were
coached by Kim Conrady.
[to top of second column in this
article]
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The 16s team of
Maria Benitez, Melanie Boyer, Robin Conklen, Megan Farmer, Julie
Fults, Katie Green, Megan Hoffert, Emily Mills and Ashleigh Yarcho
finished 14th in the silver division. Again, this team had more
than five players playing up one to two divisions. They defeated
Rolling Thunder 25-21, 25-18 and lost to Java of Michigan 18-25,
25-21,10-15 in bracket play. They were defeated by Rockford 21-25,
17-25, Cincy of Ohio 13-25, 14-25 and USA Michigan 12-25, 16-25.
The second day, to set up for bracket play, they lost to Side Out
25-19, 18-25, 12-15, Kirkwood Crush of Missouri (eventual silver
champion) 9-25, 20-25 and Illini Elite 25-22, 22-25, 8-15. They
finished 34th overall.
The 16s were coached
by Danielle Peifer.
The athletes were busy fund-raising for
several months to attend the tournament and had a terrific
volleyball experience. It was a great experience for all — on and
off the court.
[News release]
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How many managers
have the Cubs had in the last 20 years?
Has any
professional sports franchise in any sport had this much turnover?
Good luck to Bruce
Kimm!
The Cards may be in
first place and have certainly had to deal with lots of adversity.
But have you ever seen a first-place team tank as many games as this
team has?
In the last week,
three come to mind. The way they lost that last game to the Reds
just stinks to high heaven!
The White Sox
continue to be up and down. But are you surprised? With that
pitching staff it may be impossible to contend with the Twinkies.
Speaking of pitching,
I don’t think I‘ll ever get used to the pitching philosophy of the
modern era. You know… the starter goes six innings, the setup man
goes two, and the closer pitches the ninth.
What if the starter
is mowing them down? What if your closer is tired and run down? What
if your setup man is baffling the heck out of your opponents?
Take Saturday’s
Cards-Dodgers game for instance. Williams pitched great until he
felt some tightness. In comes Veres and he simply shuts the Dodgers
down… 12 in a row, I think, but nobody but me was counting! Izzy has
really been struggling of late, so maybe a couple of extra days
added to the All-Star break could really help him? No. Tony brings
him in and the Cardinals lose.
I know there are more
important things in the world to worry about. I know that baseball
is only a game. But I just don’t understand why when you have a guy
in a groove, totally baffling the other team…why on earth you would
ever want to take him out of the game? Why not let him start the
ninth? If he gets in trouble, then can’t you go to your closer at
that point? I just don’t get it.
I know 162 games is a
long season, but I also know when you let some slip away they can
always come back to haunt. I just wish someone in Major League
Baseball would acknowledge that!
Can you believe that Bud Selig and
Major League Baseball are trying to block them from getting Cliff
Floyd? If they really want to help Montreal, how ’bout getting some
stiffs in the seats?
How is Albert Pujols not an All-Star?
How is Jim Edmunds
not an All-Star?
What about Jim Thome?
Is every shortstop in
the American League an All-Star?
If there is a minimum
number of players taken from each team, why isn’t there a maximum?
Where would the Cubs
and Cardinals be in the standings if it weren’t for the Brewers?
Why all the buzz
about drug and steroid testing? Yes, I know we have First Amendment
rights. But I also know that people that are clean have nothing to
fear. Come on out to the LDN, and I promise you that I’ll be first
to be tested! Sometimes the things that we fight for are amazing.
[to top of second column in
this article]
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You don’t think the
ball is juiced? How do you explain the 62 homers that were hit one
day last week? I do think that it makes for a more entertaining
game. But it is a little weird seeing guys like Placido Polanco, who
has five round-trippers, hit balls out of the park. Anyway the great
pitchers seem to get guys out anytime, anyplace, anywhere!
We have not received
many summer sports reports. Thank you to the baseball, softball and
swimming people who continue to submit reports. Any golf stories out
there?
My son thinks that
golf is just off-season training for hockey!
He doesn’t know that
my worm-burning performances are not the way the game is
supposed to be played!
U.S. Women’s Open was
pretty entertaining. There is a big gap between the haves and the
have-nots. I was hoping that Laura Diaz and Jill McGill would stay
atop the leader board, but they folded under the pressure. Heck, I
can fold even without the pressure! Juli Inkster had the tournament
in hand while I was writing this. Let’s put it like this… it was her
major to lose. Not bad for a mother of two!
Wow! Is the Lincoln Elks golf course in
beautiful playing condition or what? I think I would enjoy it even
more if I knew how to play golf!
Tennis is not my strong suit (so I
usually rely on former Lincoln great Joe Totten), but it looked to
me like Lleyton Hewitt just dominated the field.
Speaking of domination. Are any
women dominating their sport like Serena and Venus Williams are in
tennis? I attended the U.S. Open a couple of years ago, and I
remarked to Joe then that as athletic as these two ladies are that
they might have a long run. Wish my stock leanings turned out as
well!
Volleyball camps are in full swing. Can
you believe that volleyball, soccer, college and pro football, and a
host of other sports are just a few weeks away?
That’s why sports are so wonderful (and
so aggravating to my wife). There’s never a letup. When one finishes
another starts. Don’t you just love it?
Finally, thanks to EVERYONE who
protects our great country in the armed forces. Also, thanks to
anyone who has ever served. I wanted to enlist but felt I could best
serve my country in the Lord’s army. To anyone who has shed blood, a
special thanks to you. The loss of Ted Williams over the weekend
reminded me of what a great ballplayer he was. He may have been an
even better man. He flew as a wingman in both World War II and in
Korea. My dad also served two stints in Korea as well and took a
Purple Heart for the team as well. Hopefully with the events of the
last year, we are no longer taking our freedoms lightly. Thanks
again to everyone who helps protect our way of life!
Hopefully
there are cooler days in our immediate future. With that in mind,
have a super week, everybody, and always be a good sport!
[Jeff
Mayfield]
[July 1 Mutterings: "Dog
days already here"] |
