The buzz later in the afternoon of course was the Billy Donovan-Orlando Magic deal and it was funny because Marquette coach Tom Crean walked right next to me before the night session of the predraft games and looked relaxed and cool. But he is probably going to be the Gators' No. 1 choice to replace Donovan.
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 appears to be the player that made the biggest mistake playing here. His stock is plummeting and it could have a lingering effect on next year as well, should he return to Marquette. James decided to enter the draft when it appeared coach Tom Crean might be leaving for greener pastures. After it became apparent that wasn't happening, James decided to continue to "explore his draft options". Big mistake. James first game in the camp he went scoreless on 0-3 shooting with 0 assists. Even worse than the terrible game, his inability to run a team has been exposed."Wait, there's more. Here's the day two assessment from DraftExpress:
"...going up against players like Aaron Brooks, James looked very non-descript as an athlete, and almost tentative in the way he approached the game.This account of last night's game from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer seems to validate James' ineffectiveness against Aaron Brooks, who is a second-round pick at best.
James rarely looked to score in this one, but his lack of size was apparent whenever he did. Given his shooting struggles and continuing tendency to waste precious of the shot clock by hanging onto the ball, these just aren’t good signs coming from a prospect that was thought of as a potential lottery pick at the beginning of the season."
James has shown good quickness and driving ability, and has done a solid job trying to get teammates involved. But playing in the same backcourt with Cook in Wednesday night's final game, James went scoreless as he missed three shots from the field and he failed to record an assist.
"This is an important step for me as far as the camp goes," said James, who averaged 14.9 points and 4.9 assists as a sophomore. "I really wanna come out here and perform well just so they can see I can run a team in a different manner than what I did in college because it's different personnel and it's a different style game when you get into the NBA."
It wasn't a style many players grasped Wednesday night."
The chatter amongst NBA folks is that James wants to stay in the draft; and according to him, it may not require a first-round guarantee to make it happen. James said he would strongly consider something akin to what former Texas guard Daniel Gibson received last season, which was an assurance from Cleveland that he would not slip past its pick in the second round, and then a guaranteed two-year deal once he was selected in that spot. "I'm just looking for a guarantee, that's all," said James.Is it just me, or does it seem that DJ desperately wants to close the book on his college career? Of course, DJ doesn't want to become the next Chris "The Polka King" Thomas either. Regardless, good luck this week in Orlando, DJ.
Dominic James, PG, Marquette
James was left off the roster until the last minute despite the fact that many NBA scouts had him ranked as a late first-rounder for much of the year.
He hit a horrific shooting slump in the second half of the season and watched his stock drop. But he's got the speed, strength and explosiveness to be a NBA player. He'll need to show more floor leadership and the ability to knock down jumpers here if he wants to get back into the first round.
By Ford's best guesstimate, 42 of his top 60 potential draft picks are not participating in this week's pre-draft camp...."that would leave only 18 draft spots for the 62 players here."
IMHO, things are breaking right for Dominic James at this camp. He was called in late - so you'd expect him to be hungrier than most. In addition, as Ford points out the talent level at the camp is sub-par which should provide James with an opportunty to shine against PG prospects like Taurean Green, Mustafa Shakur, and Jared Jordan - - - none of whom figure to be able to keep up with DJ' freakish athleticism, if not overall game.
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."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.''
An "unofficial" list was released yesterday of the 60 NBA hopefuls that were invited to the Orlando Pre-Draft camp.Marquette sophomore guard Dominic James is an alternate for the Orlando pre-draft camp next week but that's not forcing him to withdraw from the NBA draft -- yet.
Marquette coach Tom Crean said that James has at least four workouts with NBA teams from June 6-18. Crean said he advised James that if he were going to test the draft process, then he had to maximize every day.
There is still a chance that James could be added to the Orlando camp roster, considering there are usually a number of players who are pulled by their representation as the week gets closer.
HOUSTON -- Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was fired Friday, less than two weeks after Houston made yet another first-round playoff exit.
Jeff Van Gundy was ultimately done in by his inability to get the Rockets to be more than a first-round playoff team. Rockets owner, Les Alexander also added "The guy wouldn't play that Novak kid. I'm not paying him $600 g's a year to carry Ming's bags. I'm paying Novak to shoot the rock for 3. After Van Gundy screwed Steve out of some PT in front of his family in Milwaukee, I knew I had to fire him."
The Rockets went 52-30 this season but lost to Utah in seven games, raising the possibility Van Gundy was going to resign or be dismissed.
Crean values the committee as an independent, objective source of information. He used it in 2003 to get feedback on behalf of Dwyane Wade, who was taken fifth by Miami after his junior season. So far, however, the committee is less positive regarding James' status.............."In the case of Dominic it wasn't like he got great news that made it a no-brainer, but we've heard enough other things to be able to say there's an opportunity and an option. Now he has to do as much as he possibly can with it."
"I'm going to constantly be in the gym," he said. "Last year I came in with a chip on my shoulder. I got a lot of praise and kind of lost that chip. I've got that chip back."I guess there might have been truth to the buzz on the message boards (largely from gr8one/Murff, who was ripped for this assertion throughout the season) that James had at least one eye on the NBA for most of his sophomore campaign.