Maniscalco getting slammed by ESPN announcers

[spoon]

Sammy gets the Big Ten Sportsmanship award for Illinois

http://www.illinihq.com/sports/illini-sports/mens-basketball/2012-03-05/paul-named-third-team-all-big-ten.html

[Stardust6702]

+1

[LittleBrave]

Let's face it - Sammy would be getting ripped no matter how he was doing this year.

If he had a solid season, as he did his Junior year, people would be hatin' on him for leaving Bradley.
If he had a season like he's had, they'd be sayin' "I told you so! You shouldn't have left Sammy. You get what you deserve." And we're hearing that now.

I'm indifferent - who knows what Sammy is thinking now? Maybe in hind-sight he would have chosen to stay at BU. But since the Braves have done so poorly, he probably has no regrets.

Anyways - just hoping he ends his basketball career on a good note - has just a couple more games probably.

[spoon]

Just remember how many great leads and even a few great players we got from ABIII's Texas & juco connections (Will Franklin, Chris Roberts, Theron Wilson, Anthony Thompson, Eddren..)
It's unfortunate that we now have lost that strong Texas connection...look how many Texas & southwestern kids Creighton & Wichita are loading up on...

I liked what Brooks brought to the table and I thought he was a good recruiter and had a strong and positive personality, and I also agree that I'd like to see a pipeline re-open to the south... but this is kind of misleading.

Alvin Brooks III can be given credit for recruiting and sealing the deal on Chris Roberts and Eddren McCain. One worked out, one didn't.

Brooks was hired on 5/10/07. So it's misguided to give him credit for Theron Wilson (committed 4/5/07), Anthony Thompson (9/26/06), and Will Franklin (5/7/05). Don't forget that Tyrone Cole-Scott (4/11/07) was another recruit from Texas/The South that committed within the 2 years prior of Brooks being here. So technically in the two years prior to ABIII being here, we had 4 commits from down South, and in the two years of him working here we had 2. That being said, there are a lot of good recruits down there that we should eventually be looking at, and we'll see what type of pipelines open up during Geno's tenure and what, if any, coaching turnover there will be this offseason that may broaden our recruiting range.

[tornado]

my point was that with all the talent in Texas - we still need & would benefit from someone with his type of connections...
the two top teams in our league have made a killing landing kids from ABIII's neighborhood...

[Hello Newman]

my point was that with all the talent in Texas - we still need & would benefit from someone with his type of connections...
the two top teams in our league have made a killing landing kids from ABIII's neighborhood...

If you take advantage of getting kids in your own neighborhood, i.e. Rayvonte Rice, Johnny Moran, etc. then you shouldn't need to expand to Texas to get good players.

[Boiler]

my point was that with all the talent in Texas - we still need & would benefit from someone with his type of connections...
the two top teams in our league have made a killing landing kids from ABIII's neighborhood...

Alvin Brooks was also "credited" with us getting Milos Knezevic and Darian Norris, through his Las Vegas connections.

So, during Alvin Brooks's years here recruiting the south and west, he brought us: Chris Roberts, Eddren McCain, Milos Knezevic, and Darian Norris.

So, is it really "unfortunate" that we lost Alvin Brooks III and all of his "strong connections"? Sure wouldn't be easy to make a case supporting that notion.

[Boiler]

If you take advantage of getting kids in your own neighborhood, i.e. Rayvonte Rice, Johnny Moran, etc. then you shouldn't need to expand to Texas to get good players.

You got that right!

[tornado]

but then, couldn't the exact same thing be said about Drake and UNI as to how and why they let those great Iowa kids get out of state to places like Creighton, ISU, Wisconsin, or UNC - so they have to expand and get the kids from Illinois??
All D-I coaches will tell you that you have to go wherever you have to go to get the best you can get.

[Bradleyguy10]

If you take advantage of getting kids in your own neighborhood, i.e. Rayvonte Rice, Johnny Moran, etc. then you shouldn't need to expand to Texas to get good players.

I think it's a bit naive to imply that it is Bradley's fault for not getting talent from the area. To some Bradley has no appeal because it is too close to home, there are kids who want to go to a college a little further from home because they want to be away, see a different part of the country, or whatever it may be. The ones that have high D1 basketball talent have an even better opportunity than the normal person just choosing colleges because they could truly go almost anywhere and it will be the same price - $0.00. Then there is the obvious reason that Bradley is a midmajor and the higher talent would likely want to go higher.

Those reasons are very difficult to recruit against...

[tornado]

Bradley DOES have a few nice recruiting advantages...great academics, new facilities, and a REALLY great, loyal fan base.

BUT there are MANY other advantages a school might have in recruiting that Bradley simply does not have..........
being BCS, being the premier state school, being a state school, being in a large metropolitan area, having a nice new campus, having GREAT student support, having football, getting on TV a lot, having favorable press locally, getting good coverage in the nearest MAJOR media markets, etc...

Some of those other "advantages" might never happen at Bradley and winning will overcome some of them -- but I think it will ALWAYS be true - at least in the lifetimes of most all of us..
that recruiting to a small, private mid-major school in Peoria IS and ALWAYS be difficult and will always require TOP NOTCHED effort and a little bit of luck.

[Bradleyguy10]

Bradley DOES have a few nice recruiting advantages...great academics, new facilities, and a REALLY great, loyal fan base.

BUT there are MANY other advantages a school might have in recruiting that Bradley simply does not have..........
being BCS, being the premier state school, being a state school, being in a large metropolitan area, having a nice new campus, having GREAT student support, having football, getting on TV a lot, having favorable press locally, getting good coverage in the nearest MAJOR media markets, etc...

Some of those other "advantages" might never happen at Bradley and winning will overcome some of them -- but I think it will ALWAYS be true - at least in the lifetimes of most all of us..
that recruiting to a small, private mid-major school in Peoria IS and ALWAYS be difficult and will always require TOP NOTCHED effort and a little bit of luck.

Agreed, and I wouldn't expect any coach at BU to get 100% of the D1 recruits coming out of the peoria area...the need to broaden horizons and venture into other geographical areas is a necessity no doubt.

[Hello Newman]

Bradley DOES have a few nice recruiting advantages...great academics, new facilities, and a REALLY great, loyal fan base.

BUT there are MANY other advantages a school might have in recruiting that Bradley simply does not have..........
being BCS, being the premier state school, being a state school, being in a large metropolitan area, having a nice new campus, having GREAT student support, having football, getting on TV a lot, having favorable press locally, getting good coverage in the nearest MAJOR media markets, etc...

Some of those other "advantages" might never happen at Bradley and winning will overcome some of them -- but I think it will ALWAYS be true - at least in the lifetimes of most all of us..
that recruiting to a small, private mid-major school in Peoria IS and ALWAYS be difficult and will always require TOP NOTCHED effort and a little bit of luck.

Let's be clear. I am not, and have not, talked about kids from the state or local kids that went to BCS schools. No Bradley coach has ever gotten those kids consistently, nor do I expect them to. Kids generally go to the highest level they are recruited. I would never expect BU to get a kid that is offered by Michigan or Iowa, etc. Same for Drake or UNI and Iowa kids.

I also don't expect BU to get every single local kid. There are a lot of good players out there and a school only has so many scholarships. If a kid goes to Drake and plays well---that's fine---as long as Bradley has just as good of players and doing well.

But to see local and state kids go to other MVC schools and excel when Bradley is finishing last then, yeah, then it becomes an issue.

For example--I didn't care that Jeremy Stanton went to Evansville--Bradley had good guards from the state during that time.

[Hello Newman]

Agreed, and I wouldn't expect any coach at BU to get 100% of the D1 recruits coming out of the peoria area...the need to broaden horizons and venture into other geographical areas is a necessity no doubt.

Bguy... no one ever said this. As mentioned, when your school is getting beat by fellow MVC schools and other mid-majors with kids in your recruiting neighborhood then it becomes an issue.

I never expect BU to beat any BCS school that offers a kid.

[tornado]

Let's be clear. I am not, and have not, talked about kids from the state or local kids that went to BCS schools. No Bradley coach has ever gotten those kids consistently, nor do I expect them to. Kids generally go to the highest level they are recruited. I would never expect BU to get a kid that is offered by Michigan or Iowa, etc. Same for Drake or UNI and Iowa kids.

I also don't expect BU to get every single local kid. There are a lot of good players out there and a school only has so many scholarships. If a kid goes to Drake and plays well---that's fine---as long as Bradley has just as good of players and doing well.

But to see local and state kids go to other MVC schools and excel when Bradley is finishing last then, yeah, then it becomes an issue.

For example--I didn't care that Jeremy Stanton went to Evansville--Bradley had good guards from the state during that time.

hey - it would be great to start getting the Manual kids to Bradley - maybe we need to hire one of the Manual coaches??