Midconfans News 7/27/2006

Eagles make voyage to India--The Tulsa World

Midconfans News 7/26/2006

Rinehart Leaves To Take Head Position--SOUTHERN UTAH THUNDERBIRDS

Midconfans News 7/25/2006

Haanpaa Leads Finland to 3rd Place Finish at U20 European Championships--www.valpo.edu

Midconfans News 7/22/2006

Golden Eagles add two--The Tulsa World

CASSIDY NAMED ASSISTANT WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH--IUPUI JAGUAR ATHLETICS

Kangaroos Garner Accolades In The Classroom--UMKC Kangaroos

Oakland Names Saddi Washington to Men’s Basketball Staff--OUGrizzlies.com

Valpo Women’s Hoops Ranks Fourth in Division I in Team GPA; Eighth Straight Year in Top-25--www.valpo.edu

Kulaga and Comans Contribute at European Championships--www.valpo.edu

Midconfans News 7/21/2006

SUU women play Pac-10, Big 12 foes in 06-07 season--The Spectrum

Men's Basketball Adds Pair of Division I Transfers--Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles

SOUTHERN UTAH ANNOUNCES 2006-07 SCHEDULE--SOUTHERN UTAH THUNDERBIRDS

Midconfans News 7/20/2006

Kulaga, Comans complete successful overseas campaigns--The NWI Times

Women’s Basketball among Nations Best in Academics--OUGrizzlies.com

Oakland Names Saddi Washington to Men’s Basketball Staff--OUGrizzlies.com

Midconfans News 7/17/2006

UMKC Announces 2006-07 Men's Basketball Schedule--UMKC Kangaroos

Midconfans News 7/13/2006

--The Indy Star

MEN’S BASKETBALL: VU’s Miles suspended for cell scam--The Post-Tribune

July 14, 2006

By Tom Wyatt / Post-Tribune staff writer

VALPARAISO — The way Valparaiso police figure it, Jimmie Miles simply got mixed up with the wrong people.

Nevertheless, the senior guard for the Valparaiso University men’s basketball team has been charged with misdemeanor theft for his role in a cell phone scam.

Miles was formally arrested Tuesday after a police investigation revealed him to be a delivery person in a scam masterminded by Jason Smith of Chicago Heights, Ill.

Miles, 22, of Country Club Hills, Ill., has been suspended indefinitely from the Crusaders and will meet with coach Homer Drew when Drew returns from a recruiting trip.

“I’ve been really proud of Jimmie for being helpful to police and working very closely with them in the investigation and trying to correct this,” Drew said.

Valparaiso police Detective Lt. Tom Horn said a warrant has been issued for Smith’s arrest.

Smith, Horn said, headed up a scam in which Sprint Nextel customers’ account numbers were obtained, allowing suspects to fraudulently order batches of cell phones and have them sent to various locations.

Those cell phones, high-end types and camera phones, then are sold on the street for about half the price of what they’re sold for in stores, Horn said. Users can remove their SIM cards from their existing phones and plug them into the new, stolen phones.

In May, Horn was acting on a tip and waiting outside the Best Western hotel on U.S. 30 for a suspect to come and pick up a package of cell phones. That suspect turned out to be Miles.

Horn stopped and questioned Miles, who admitted he was there to pick up the package, Horn said.

Horn said Miles had picked a package of cell phones on one other occasion and delivered it to Smith in Chicago Heights. Horn said he didn’t believe Miles had been paid for the work, but was supposedly promised gas money, in the range of $100.

“He was very cooperative,” Horn said of Miles. “He was able to assist me in making identification of Smith and figuring how this thing worked. He had what you would call a low-key role in the scam.”

Drew wouldn’t take a guess at whether Miles would be with the team once the season starts.

The 6-foot-2 Miles played in 19 games last season, starting 11. He was hampered by injury and illness, averaging 4.9 points.

“We’ve really enjoyed working with him both on the floor and off the floor,” Drew said of Miles.

Contact Tom Wyatt at 477-6017 or twyatt@post-trib.com

Allegations against Miles leaves VU guarded--The NWI Times

Midconfans News 7/13/2006

IPFW looks like a lock to join Mid-Con--The Oakland Press

OU’s Piggott is top Mid-Con scholar-athlete--The Oakland Press

LOCAL BRIEFS
FROM STAFF REPORTS


Oakland University senior Nicole Piggott was selected as a Mid-Continent Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year on Wednesday.
A forward on the women’s basketball team, Piggott is OU’s first female and third overall athlete selected for the top award.
IUPUI’s Justin Wegner was the male award winner.
It is the top individual honor given by the league and is voted on by the conference faculty athletic representatives.
Piggott helped lead OU to a conference title with 5.6 rebounds and 12.8 points per game while maintaining a 3.94 grade point average as a laboratory sciences major.
The three-time letterwinner has made the dean’s list at OU every semester and has twice been named Mid-Con Academic All-Conference.
Piggott has also been active in the OU student-athlete advisory committee, along with volunteering at St. Joseph Hospital, the United Way’s Thanksgiving Drive and the Oakland County Older Persons Commission.
Piggott joins past Oakland Mid-Con Scholar-Athlete of the Year winners Ryan Rzepka (2005, 2003) and Myke Thom (2000).

Jimmie Miles accused of picking up friend's order of fraudulently obtained cell phones--The NWI Times

Piggott Claims Mid-Con’s Top Award--OUGrizzlies.com

Midconfans News 7/11/2006

IUPUI women add guard--The Indy Star

MENS BASKETBALL:'Local guy’ returns to VU--The Post-Tribune

July 12, 2006

By Mark Lazerus / Post-Tribune staff writer

The day he was announced as the new assistant coach at one alma mater, Jason Hawkins spent the evening playing ball at his other one.

The newest member of the Valparaiso University coaching staff was at Bishop Noll High School on Tuesday evening, just getting in some open-gym time with area high schoolers.

“I’m a local guy through and through,” Hawkins said. “The region’s been good to me.”

The Crusaders hope the region will continue to be good to their newest assistant coach. Valparaiso is always mining Northwest Indiana for talent, and head coach Homer Drew hopes having Hawkins — a 2000 Bishop Noll grad, a 2003 VU grad and the head coach at Calumet College the last two seasons — can help the Crusaders bring in some local standouts.

“I think he’ll help tremendously,” Drew said. “There are a lot of good players in Northwest Indiana, and with his background, he brings good experience in and knowledge all the way through the Chicago area and throughout Indiana.”

Hawkins and Luke Gore —

last year’s director of basketball operations — fill the gaps left by Ivan Vujic (graduate assistant at DePaul) and Matt Bowen (head coach at Bemidji State).

Hawkins was a walk-on guard for the Crusaders in 2000, and saw playing time in each of his last three seasons at VU. He spent a year as a graduate assistant and director of basketball operations for Drew before taking the top job at Calumet College, where he led the Crimson Wave to a 30-34 record.

Now he’s ready to get back into the upper echelon of college basketball.

“I had the opportunity to be a head coach at the college level, and I’m incredibly grateful for that,” Hawkins said. “My goals are to one day be a head coach at the Division I level. Coach Drew’s giving me another opportunity to get back to the D-I level. I’m really excited.”

Drew and Hawkins spent plenty of time on the phone the last two years. And Hawkins wasn’t the only one fishing for help.

“We picked each other’s brains,” Drew said. “No matter what age or how long you’ve been around, you can always learn something new.”

Said Hawkins: “Anytime I had any problems, I could ask Coach Drew. And for him to even ask my opinion sometimes, that makes me feel great — like, wow, I can shed a little light.”

Hawkins, who has a masters in secondary education from VU, has one main goal as he returns to his alma mater — to help restore the program’s winning ways.

“We won a conference championship, either regular season or tournament, every year I was in college,” he said. “We want to get back to that tradition that Coach Drew started.”

Hawkins back home again--The NWI Times

IUPUI WOMEN’S BASKETBALL INKS SECOND JUNIOR COLLEGE TRANSFER--IUPUI JAGUAR ATHLETICS

Jason Hawkins Joins Valpo Coaching Staff--www.valpo.edu

Midconfans News 7/10/2006

Hawkins in line for VU job--The NWI Times

Thomas Finalizes 2006-07 Class with Addition of Diakite--Western Illinois Athletics

Midconfans News 7/9/2006

Where do we fit?--The Spectrum

Midconfans News 7/7/2006

Mid-Con to consider IPFW--The Indy Star

Mid-Continent reps to visit possible replacement schools--The NWI Times

Bruce takes over IUSB program--The NWI Times

Midconfans News 7/6/2006

Campus notes--deseretnews.com

Southern Utah

BASKETBALL: Southern Utah University has signed Swaney Cooper, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound forward from Highland (Ill.) Community College, to a national letter of intent, SUU head men's coach Bill Evans announced.
Cooper averaged 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game for the Cougars, who finished the season ranked No. 4 in the nation (NJCAA Division I) after compiling a perfect 12-0 mark in Region IV play and a 34-2 overall record. Cooper was the team's third-leading rebounder and the sixth-rated shooter in the region after connecting on 110-of-183 shots, a success rate of .601.
"We're excited to sign Swaney," Evans said. "He is strong, fast and explosive; he's a good athlete who will help our team. He was a good player on a very good team last year; he's a winner and he knows how to help teams will basketball games."

Kangaroos To Face A Pair of Former National Champions In 2006-07--UMKC Kangaroos

Midconfans News 7/5/2006

2006 UMKC Girls Basketball Camps Completed--UMKC Kangaroos

Midconfans News 7/4/2006

Basketball: Hummel down to IU, Purdue--The Post-Tribune

July 4, 2006

By Mike Hutton / Post-Tribune staff writer

Rob Hummel is going to play basketball in the state of Indiana.

It just won’t be at Valparaiso University.

Hummel, a 6-8 forward from Valparaiso High School, was one of the main targets for the Crusaders, along with his teammate Scott Martin. Hummel averaged 12.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game this year for the Vikings.

Hummel informed VU on Monday that he had narrowed his choices to Purdue and Indiana.

He said making phone calls to the schools that didn’t make the final cut was difficult. In all, he had offers from at least 12 schools, according to rivals.com.

“It was depressing,” he said.

Hummel said that he isn’t favoring either school at this time. He likes the direction that Indiana is heading with new coach Kelvin Sampson and he said the fact that Sampson can’t call or visit him this year because of sanctions that the NCAA imposed on him for making too many phone calls to recruits won’t affect his decision.

“They’re going to have a new facility there and it could be exciting,” he said.

He said the final decision will come down to “whatever I feel is right.”

He expects to make a decision in the next two weeks.

SUU signs Cooper to NLI--The Spectrum

T-Birds Ink Cooper To NLI--SOUTHERN UTAH THUNDERBIRDS

Midconfans News 7/2/2006

VU's Bowen named head coach at Bemidji State--The NWI Times

Midconfans News 6/30/2006

NCAA Tournaments to Remain at 65, 64 Teams--MICentralSports.com

Western wins league baseball tourney bid--The Macomb Journal

Basketball committee turns down expansion proposals--The NWI Times

NCAA: Expansion rejected--The Tulsa World

Hemingway Signs On To Play At UMKC--UMKC Kangaroos

Midconfans News 6/29/2006

Many potential happy returns for Ruley--The NWI Times

Mid-Con expansion nears--The Spectrum

The Mid-Continent Conference unveils its 25th Anniversary logo--www.mid-con.com

Midconfans News 6/28/2006

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Frye starts his 'orientation’--The Post-Tribune

June 28, 2006

By Mark Lazerus / Post-Tribune staff writer

VALPARAISO — It didn’t take long for Keaton Frye to realize he wasn’t in Kansas, er, Iowa anymore.

In fact, it took him about two minutes of open gym time with his new Valparaiso teammates to figure it out.

“It’s a whole different level, especially coming from Iowa,” the incoming 6-3 freshman guard said. “There’s not a whole lot of quick guards in that state. The first couple of weeks was tough. Anybody here will tell you I couldn’t even make a layup. I’d put it up really low on the rim because the guards are so quick. Then you got Moussa (Mbaye) blocking your shot into the bleachers.”

A month later, Frye looked like he belonged, cutting hard to the basket for a layup and draining a short jumper a few possessions later Tuesday during the Crusaders’ final open gym of the early session — essentially a series of pickup games with teammates, recent graduates of VU and other schools, and a few high school standouts at the Athletics-Recreation Center.

“I’ve improved immensely from the beginning,” Frye said. “My shot, my quickness, I’m a little bigger, I’ve gained some weight — it’s been a great thing.”

Senior-to-be guard Jimmie Miles remembers going through the same thing as an incoming freshman.

“It’s a whole different ballgame coming from high school to college,” Miles said.

“In high school, you’re the man. In college, everybody has the same talent as you, if not better. It’s tough. But you keep working at it and you get used to it, and you get better.”

That’s the point of these unsupervised summer sessions, of course. And Miles, one of the veteran leaders who must fill the void left by the graduation of Valparaiso’s starting five, likes what he sees so far.

Of Valparaiso’s four newcomers, only Frye and 7-1 center Calum MacLeod participated in the open gyms. Swingman Paul Guede and 6-8 forward Samuel Haanpaa will join in for next week’s session.

“We look pretty good right now,” Miles said. “It’s just summer ball, not organized ball, but just by how they’re playing now, we’re going to have a good team. We’ve got Calum on the block, which is going to be a big help for us. (Sophomore-to-be Urule Igbavboa, a 6-8 forward) has been playing real good lately and working hard. And Keaton’s been getting much better; he’s stayed in the gym every night working on his shot. When the rest of the freshmen come in and we get our whole team together, we’re going to be all right.”

MacLeod is a newcomer, but he’s no freshman. The New Zealander played two seasons at Gonzaga before spending last season at a junior college. He has two years of eligibility left and isn’t planning on wasting any time.

“I hope I can come in and give them a whole bunch of good, solid minutes,” he said. “I think that’s what they’re looking for. I’m ready to play right away.”

While on-court improvement is an obvious goal of the summer scrimmages, it’s also critical for giving new players a chance to find their niche with the team, on and off the court.

Frye already feels right at home.

“I knew we’d get along, but nothing like this,” he said. “The team’s great. All the guys have really taken me under their wing and showed me the ins and outs of college.”

That includes scintillating stuff such as daily wake-up calls for summer classes, and team trips to Wal-Mart for groceries.

“Everything’s a team thing,” Frye said. “It’s a great atmosphere to be in.”

Contact Mark Lazerus at 648-3140 or mlazerus@post-trib.com

Diebler in Action--The NWI Times

2006 Mid-Con Presidents Council Meeting concludes in Chicago--www.mid-con.com

Flaska Adds Bonham and Zusperreguy to 2006-07 Gents Basketball Roster--GoCentenary.Com

UMKC Camp Season Hits Full Swing--UMKC Kangaroos