Any news on Orukpe?

[BOBB]

Maybe it's sour grapes or just the devil in me, but there's a part of me that wants Orupke to show up and just be terrible. The type of guy that you put in and a 10 point lead is gone in 1:30. There's only about 5% of me that's wishing that, but I just had to get it out.

In reality it's the backup plan for my psyche after he fails to live up to all the expectations I have for him having never even seen anything but a headshot possibly posted on Arbry Butler's navy blazer/brick background picture. :evil: :innocent:

[wushock]

Badass Balla there must be something wrong with you. What kind of Shocker fan are you.

[shockdude]

Balla, Wu-shiz and RDR, I've been reading your posts for some time and really enjoy them. In thinking about your comments regarding my popping off about Koch I need to apologize.

I always hate it when someone highjacks a topic with their personal political comments and here I did just that. People tune in to learn about Orupke and I get pissy about Koch.

I stand by what I said-but I'm still sorry.

Balla, now that I've humbled myself I'll get back to those paint chips. A few more and I'll be rooting for Koch and against Orupke-just like you!

All in fun, my friend, all in fun.

[BOBB]

Balla, Wu-shiz and RDR, I've been reading your posts for some time and really enjoy them. In thinking about your comments regarding my popping off about Koch I need to apologize.

I always hate it when someone highjacks a topic with their personal political comments and here I did just that. People tune in to learn about Orupke and I get pissy about Koch.

I stand by what I said-but I'm still sorry.

Balla, now that I've humbled myself I'll get back to those paint chips. A few more and I'll be rooting for Koch and against Orupke-just like you!

All in fun, my friend, all in fun.

Fair enough. You post here enough you're bound to get somebody riled up. I do it all the time. :D

[DUShock]

. . . what can be done to expedite this process to ensure a timely arrival.

Legal bribes. (Yes, bribes to expedite processes in Nigeria are legal.)

But probably frowned on by the NCAA.

To folks who routinely work in developing areas it is simply known as "honest graft" from the Tammany Hall days of our own history, now it's simply known as "free speech within the legislative process".

[DUShock]

I can't speak to the specifics of E.O.'s situation but I fear Coach Marhall may have taken his comment at face value. Nigeria is known for volatile sectarian violence and depending upon his tribe and where he must travel it may be more precarious than simply the physical condition of the road. It is also common to have to pay a "toll" to pass.

[hamshock]

DU Shock, get out of here with your Tammany Hall references! :yahoo:

[tropicalshox]

Why make the trip if you don't have the money to pay them off?

[pinstripers]

Probably oughta consider the possibility that he will NEVER get out, not just this year. Sad.

[DUShock]

DU Shock, get out of here with your Tammany Hall references! :yahoo:

Goin' all old skool & stuff :good:

[BA2929]

Its like this guy doesn't even exist on recruiting websites. This is all I could find about him:

Native of Lagos, Nigeria...Played for Ebun Comet, an elite amateur club team in Nigeria...He had originally signed with Liberty but was released from NLI...

And it seems like Liberty had the same problems contacting him when he signed with them:

McKay said he hasn't spoken to LU's other signee, 7-foot Nigerian center Ehimen Orukpe.
"I'm not sure what's going to happen there," McKay said. "But we're preparing for whatever scenario takes place."

McKay is Liberty basketball coach Ritchie McKay

[Wuzee]

What, David King and Ryan Bradley dont count?

Ryan Bradley is averaging 8.8 pts and 4.8 boards through 4 games at Kansas Newman (provisional D2 team). David King is averaging 17.7 pts, 7.3 boards and a surprising 66.7% from 3 (6/9) in 6 games at Southwestern College (NAIA team). Bradley and King seem to have found better places to use their abilities.

With the chances of Orukpe getting here this season shrinking daily, I'm starting to look forward to next year's newcomers - especially the Fr class.

Don't any of you ever watch Discovery Channel or Animal Planet where they film people attempting to drive down "bad roads" in Africa? When "the roads are bad", you'd better have a 4WD Land Rover, a winch, a tank and 2 rescue vehicles to get from Point A to Point B. If a bridge is out or a "good" road has a washed out spot or otherwise impassable spot, the detour could be 100 miles of unpaved one-lane roads that resembele trails or motocross tracks more than they resemble a "road".

If you want to see some bad roads, take a gander at some of the mountain roads in South America. There are roads, which are barely wide enought to accommodate a single vehicle. There are no guard rails and the road bed is thousands of feet above the valley floor. In other words, if a vehicle slips off the road, it is straight down. Everytime I see some of those photos, my stomach churns.

When we're talking "bad roads" here's what we're talking about. The following is an excerpt from a rather colorful editorial from a journalist named UGOCHUKWU EJINKEONYE about the Lagos to Benin Expressway (EO lives in Benin).

———————————————

I was on Lagos-Shagamu-Benin Expressway last week and my experience was most traumatic. Even though we took off quite early, about 8.am, from Lagos, with a very sound, new vehicle, I was only able to get to my destination in the East by about 8.00pm. Yet, this was a journey that should, ordinarily, not have taken more than six-to-seven hours or even less!

The traffic hold-up, which I understand is an everyday trauma for regular users of that road, can hold somebody at a spot for several hours. Because of the very deep holes that adorn the road, big vehicles are always spoiling, being stuck or falling down on the road, thereby rendering the lane involved impassable. Motorists would now be left with the option of using the other equally bad lane. And because of the usually heavy traffic on the road, the hold-up witnessed daily on that road is an experience not even a demonized mind can wish for his worst enemy.

The reputation of this road as the blood-thirstiest slaughter-slab in the nation has since been firmly established. The accident scenes one encounters each time one uses the road are so many, that they can cause even the warmest blood to congeal. The sight is so benumbing. It is so frightening. What a shame! You return each day thanking God you were able to survive through the valley of the shadow of death!

Last week, while on that road, somebody kindly showed us a village footpath through which we avoided most of the traffic jam. We had to pay some very unruly young men (and even women) who had mounted roadblocks on those footpaths to collect tolls from the strangers who had turned their once serene village into a busy thoroughfare. The behaviour of the young men made some of the travelers to begin to entertain fears about their lives.

Indeed, if somebody had not shown us that village route, maybe, judging from the kind of traffic jam I saw, we would have been trapped there till past midnight.

The other day, some people returning to Lagos spent a whole two days on that road, because, both lanes were blocked by big trucks who had either spoilt while trying to crawl past the deep holes on the road or fallen down. Man-hours were wasted in an already prostrate economy. Lives were cut short as people developed hypertension, just because they decided to make a journey in a country somebody claims to be ruling.

These days, those who are trapped in those terrible hold-ups have become easy preys to daredevil armed robbers/rapists, who descend on them once night falls. So how long would this madness, this hell-on-earth, continue? How long will Nigerians continue to witness avoidable bloodshed on this road and several other roads? When will users of the Lagos-Shagamu-Benin Expressway stop developing High BP, Hypertension, and dying of heart failure because they were trapped in a horrible hold up all day long, punished by the implacable sun, and tormented by the fear of what may befall them once night time comes?

[RoyalShock]

:shock:

[Smooth007]

That illustrated two things to me...

1) How thankful I am for what I have and where I live and
2) the hope that Mr. Orupke can find a way to make it to America and begin his education and training for a career in the NBA.

:wsu_posters:

Smooth

[WstateU]

What, David King and Ryan Bradley dont count?

Ryan Bradley is averaging 8.8 pts and 4.8 boards through 4 games at Kansas Newman (provisional D2 team). David King is averaging 17.7 pts, 7.3 boards and a surprising 66.7% from 3 (6/9) in 6 games at Southwestern College (NAIA team). Bradley and King seem to have found better places to use their abilities.

With the chances of Orukpe getting here this season shrinking daily, I'm starting to look forward to next year's newcomers - especially the Fr class.

Don't any of you ever watch Discovery Channel or Animal Planet where they film people attempting to drive down "bad roads" in Africa? When "the roads are bad", you'd better have a 4WD Land Rover, a winch, a tank and 2 rescue vehicles to get from Point A to Point B. If a bridge is out or a "good" road has a washed out spot or otherwise impassable spot, the detour could be 100 miles of unpaved one-lane roads that resembele trails or motocross tracks more than they resemble a "road".

If you want to see some bad roads, take a gander at some of the mountain roads in South America. There are roads, which are barely wide enought to accommodate a single vehicle. There are no guard rails and the road bed is thousands of feet above the valley floor. In other words, if a vehicle slips off the road, it is straight down. Everytime I see some of those photos, my stomach churns.

When we're talking "bad roads" here's what we're talking about. The following is an excerpt from a rather colorful editorial from a journalist named UGOCHUKWU EJINKEONYE about the Lagos to Benin Expressway (EO lives in Benin).

———————————————

I was on Lagos-Shagamu-Benin Expressway last week and my experience was most traumatic. Even though we took off quite early, about 8.am, from Lagos, with a very sound, new vehicle, I was only able to get to my destination in the East by about 8.00pm. Yet, this was a journey that should, ordinarily, not have taken more than six-to-seven hours or even less!

The traffic hold-up, which I understand is an everyday trauma for regular users of that road, can hold somebody at a spot for several hours. Because of the very deep holes that adorn the road, big vehicles are always spoiling, being stuck or falling down on the road, thereby rendering the lane involved impassable. Motorists would now be left with the option of using the other equally bad lane. And because of the usually heavy traffic on the road, the hold-up witnessed daily on that road is an experience not even a demonized mind can wish for his worst enemy.

The reputation of this road as the blood-thirstiest slaughter-slab in the nation has since been firmly established. The accident scenes one encounters each time one uses the road are so many, that they can cause even the warmest blood to congeal. The sight is so benumbing. It is so frightening. What a shame! You return each day thanking God you were able to survive through the valley of the shadow of death!

Last week, while on that road, somebody kindly showed us a village footpath through which we avoided most of the traffic jam. We had to pay some very unruly young men (and even women) who had mounted roadblocks on those footpaths to collect tolls from the strangers who had turned their once serene village into a busy thoroughfare. The behaviour of the young men made some of the travelers to begin to entertain fears about their lives.

Indeed, if somebody had not shown us that village route, maybe, judging from the kind of traffic jam I saw, we would have been trapped there till past midnight.

The other day, some people returning to Lagos spent a whole two days on that road, because, both lanes were blocked by big trucks who had either spoilt while trying to crawl past the deep holes on the road or fallen down. Man-hours were wasted in an already prostrate economy. Lives were cut short as people developed hypertension, just because they decided to make a journey in a country somebody claims to be ruling.

These days, those who are trapped in those terrible hold-ups have become easy preys to daredevil armed robbers/rapists, who descend on them once night falls. So how long would this madness, this hell-on-earth, continue? How long will Nigerians continue to witness avoidable bloodshed on this road and several other roads? When will users of the Lagos-Shagamu-Benin Expressway stop developing High BP, Hypertension, and dying of heart failure because they were trapped in a horrible hold up all day long, punished by the implacable sun, and tormented by the fear of what may befall them once night time comes?

I'm almost speechless after reading that. Wow!
Hopefully God will look over him and lead him towards the gold (yellow) light.