A Sea Of Red

http://www.kansas.com/250/story/256216.html

Every morning, and quite a few times throughout the day, Dominic Okon checks his e-mail and hopes.

Maybe this will be the day he gets word from Ehimen Orukpe. Maybe the process of getting Orukpe out of Nigeria and into a Wichita State basketball uniform can start.

So far, Okon is still waiting.

"It's very frustrating," Okon said. "He's very frustrated, sometimes to the point of tears."

Okon is WSU's director of basketball operations, a native of Nigeria and the main link to Orukpe, a 7-foot center. He first signed with Liberty University, where Okon was an assistant coach before joining the staff at WSU.

Orukpe and WSU are waiting on results from his exit exam, administered by the West Africa Examinations Council, that will allow him to leave Nigeria and enroll at WSU.

man, I really thought he was gonna change our program around. What ever happened to Benjamin Eaze?

OK, now we know why he hasn't played yet for WSU.

Getting Nigerian players through the certification process and the NCAA clearinghouse is a nightmare. Worse than most international players because basically the entire country is a cesspool of corruption and it's really hard to know what is real and what is fake as far as education. This was why RD (and now GM) hired Okun, but even with his connections, local knowledge and experience in working the system it appears it is still a challenge.

We had a player (Sam Bami?) Who came to LU and attended classes for an entire year (got pretty good grades from what I heard). He was never cleared to play here, and ended up at Dayton.

I was wondering. I looked a few times at their roster to see if he was there. Thanks for the post!

But when he gets there it will be well worth the hassles. I know RD thought that he was clearly a better prospect than Aluma and Julius. A combination of length and athleticism. Great move by GM to hire our cast offs.

checkmate wrote:But when he gets there it will be well worth the hassles. I know RD thought that he was clearly a better prospect than Aluma and Julius. A combination of length and athleticism. Great move by GM to hire our cast offs.

And RD is an authority how? Where is he coaching now?

Sorry, the devil made me do it!!

checkmate wrote:But when he gets there it will be well worth the hassles.

And when I lose weight, I'll look better.

The thing is, I don't see either one happening this semester.

olldflame wrote:
We had a player (Sam Bami?) Who came to LU and attended classes for an entire year (got pretty good grades from what I heard). He was never cleared to play here, and ended up at Dayton.

Steven Bami

olldflame wrote:
We had a player (Sam Bami?) Who came to LU and attended classes for an entire year (got pretty good grades from what I heard). He was never cleared to play here, and ended up at Dayton.

Steven Bami

Double Double Post Post.

Yeah and Flameshaw your something special. We will see where he ends up once he makes sure his family is taken care of.

checkmate wrote:Yeah and Flameshaw your something special.

Ooooooo! Grammatically Incorrect Burn!

per usual El Sorcho and the cronies to the rescue. I didn't start the pile on crap and it is ridiculous. the man got shafted period.

checkmate wrote:per usual El Sorcho and the cronies to the rescue. I didn't start the pile on crap and it is ridiculous. the man got shafted period.

you're right.....Okon should have remained here so Okrupe could play for McKay....sucks for him

checkmate wrote:per usual El Sorcho and the cronies to the rescue.

Scorcho. There's a C after the S. You seem to have trouble with grammar and spelling.

You know why I give you a hard time. If you participated in a positive way on this board, or contributed anything beyond the dead horse you like to beat, I would stop.

Sorry but it wasn't my post beating the horse.

checkmate you are RiDiculous

LU won RD got what he deserved, now you should get over it.

how has nobody used this? it's code should be :randydunton

I thought this was the RD emoticon:

jmdickens wrote:checkmate you are RiDiculous

LU won RD got what he deserved, now you should get over it.

You of all people have no room to talk.....i mean seriously.

Rocketfan wrote:
You of all people have no room to talk.....i mean seriously.

Easy big fella

jmdickens wrote:

Rocketfan wrote:
You of all people have no room to talk.....i mean seriously.

Easy big fella

That was easy.

all you had to do was ask

jmdickens wrote:

checkmate wrote:per usual El Sorcho and the cronies to the rescue. I didn't start the pile on crap and it is ridiculous. the man got shafted period.

you're right.....Okon should have remained here so Okrupe could play for McKay....sucks for him

Unless I'm mistaken Okun was interviewed by McKay, who chose to go in a different direction. Let's face it; Richie had a pretty good idea who he wanted on his staff when he was hired. If getting Orukpe here had been a high priority, I guess he could have retained Dominic instead of promoting Jason Eaker, but I believe he is happy with the decision he made there.