Recruiting article

[Da Coach]

So...

1) Was it acceptable to you to have never finished higher than 4th in the MVC with only one NCAA appearance in 10 years? Some would call that mediocrity.

2) Would you even categorize a person as a "fan" who forfeits his season tickets when "their" team is going through a down time? Unless it's for financial reasons I sure wouldn't... Unless you want to categorize them as a fair weather fan. I know you and tornado would certainly not pull your support of the team you are a fan of... Once a fan always a fan IMO. Why is it OK for other "fans" to quit?

1) I disagree- I would not call a winning record and a top half MVC finish year after year for 5 straight years, and a Sweet 16 run "mediocre", especially considering all the serious injuries to key players that we saw. If some fans want to hang the responsibility for the lousy 2010-2011 season on Jim Les, that is their prerogative. But IMO, common sense dictates otherwise. Some fans believe the team stood a better chance of turning things around without a total overhaul of the program, and a massive financial outlay in the form of the enormous buyout, and the increased payout for the new staff. That is money donated and raised by a lot of those fans, so I think they have a right to an opinion about how things went down.

2) Fans who work hard to earn the money that they spend on tickets, or donate through their goodwill are free to decide whatever they want. There were a few who pulled their support when they wanted JL fired, and I predict we'll see a whole lot more doing the same now. You are free to call them whatever you want. But IMO, it's silly to expect fans to continue their support at the same levels if they don't like what they are seeing and disagree with what has happened.

[lake Camelot]

agree but we are where we are so...
I will make a prediction.....
This weekend (or shortly thereafter) a juco kid will respond to an offer and decide to go to Bradley and we will hear about it possibly as soon as next week....

I hope you are right. I am not connected to any sources for recruiting. I haven't heard any names of JUCO guys we are after. Except Karrington Ward. I am almost certain it would not be him. I was kind of hoping to get a big player from JUCO this year along with a HS big to build the front line.

[JMM28]

You never have to many point guards.

Yes you can, especially if they are 5'9" point guards. Unless you are the coach of Illinois Wesleyan...

BU fan 9 is not the only fan and season ticket holder who has this opinion. I have talked to a lot of long time fans who are concerned about the direction the basketball program has taken. As I have posted before, even several friends of mine who have been dedicated fans and season ticket holders for decades (including some who post regularly here) are choosing not to renew their tickets this year. I think it is a combination of factors, but one factor is just not seeing enough additions or improvements to this year's team to generate the usual excitement needed for fans. We all know what the deficiencies were last year that were the most obvious (shooting, interior defense, and point guard play). Despite the time and available scholarships, I think fans just don't see much improvement in those areas to give them optimism about this season. I am not blaming the current coach, and most fans aren't, but he is now the one who has to get things going in the right direction. Recall, I made a number of predictions when the coaching change was made, and every one of them has happened just as was predicted so far (see the early fallout discussions).

And for those who say it takes 3, 4 or more years, or that it takes establishing a winning tradition before a new coach can hope to recruit impact players, just look back at the extraordinary quality of players recruited as early as the 2nd year by past coaches. Coach Molinari and Coach Les had probably their best recruiting classes in their 2nd year (actually their first full recruiting year). We will need some positive happenings like that to get the fan support building again.

Could you get me a list of those seats being given up? I am in a position where I am going to purchase season tickets this year for the first time. I would love to scoop up some great seats that are being given up so I can hang onto them for the foreseeable future. I prefer lower bowl.

[Old Coach]

Yes you can, especially if they are 5'9" point guards. Unless you are the coach of Illinois Wesleyan...






Could you get me a list of those seats being given up? I am in a position where I am going to purchase season tickets this year for the first time. I would love to scoop up some great seats that are being given up so I can hang onto them for the foreseeable future. I prefer lower bowl.

[Da Coach]

Sorry, you'll have to do that work for yourself.

[Old Coach]

I'll put you in touch with Rob Bogardis JMM.

[JMM28]

And for those who say it takes 3, 4 or more years, or that it takes establishing a winning tradition before a new coach can hope to recruit impact players, just look back at the extraordinary quality of players recruited as early as the 2nd year by past coaches. Coach Molinari and Coach Les had probably their best recruiting classes in their 2nd year (actually their first full recruiting year). We will need some positive happenings like that to get the fan support building again.

Well... Jim Molinari finished his first season at 7-23 (last in MVC), his 2nd season at 11-16. (7th MVC). His 3rd season was 23-8, also Anthony Parker's freshman year and Marcus Pollard's senior year. That year he finished 2nd in the MVC.

The equivalent of Parker's class will be the guys signing in November and April of this year, and Fields/Grier if you want to count them. Obviously recruiting another AP is a once in a decade find, but who knows.

So if Geno can win a few more games this coming year, which I expect, he will be right on par with Mo.

[cpacmel]

BTW - we need a shooter and scorer - I ran across this - kid right in our back yard
http://bolingbrook.patch.com/article...ring-at-morton

I didn't know Bradley's backyard went all the way up to Cicero?

That's a good sized yard!!!!

[cpacmel]

You never have to many point guards.

Yes you can, especially if they are 5'9" point guards. Unless you are the coach of Illinois Wesleyan...

If your talking about ISU's newest recruit, Paris Lee, he is 5'11. Not that it matters.

[tornado]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2012/07/and_some_final_summer_jam_left.html

wow - sounds like this guy thinks Alec Peters' stock just dropped - maybe everyone else will back off and he'll land at BU?

[Old Coach]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2012/07/and_some_final_summer_jam_left.html

wow - sounds like this guy thinks Alec Peters' stock just dropped - maybe everyone else will back off and he'll land at BU?

Why would Geno offer on the kid after his stock has dropped? He has made it a habit of being in early on any local kids that he was interested in. I just don't think Peters fits in Bradley's system, or he'd already have an offer by now.

[tornado]

..
-So then why does the article contain comments that appear to hurt us in our pursuit of AJ Riley?
Right after glowing praise for Taphorn and naming Nate as a "top priority", there's this line about Riley that basically says we don't need him...

"Regarding Riley, based on the abilities of Bell and Fields, the Braves may not
have room now for the Manual point guard. But there still might be an
opening for a sharpshooting guard on the BU roster."

The local kids like AJ read this, and see that Bradley doesn't really need him?
We have at least four scholarships to fill and maybe there'll be more.
Do we want to turn away and discourage perhaps the best point guard prospect in the state of Illinois?
the problems teams might have when they don't have enough depth at point guard?

I believe AJ Riley should be our co-TOP PRIORITY!

OK - so I am going to bring this article back up...

http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x1903092472/Reynolds-It-s-open-season-for-recruiting

This article was from July 12, and it was all about recruiting by Dave Reynolds - and I questioned some of his words at the time wondering if his comments might send signals to AJ Riley...and maybe it doesn't help recruiting to have such negative comments in articles...

well, in light of what AJ Riley just said in this article - LINK
I guess he bought what was being said about him ...you decide...

[lefty]

If you are recruiting for one point guard in a given year and you have 4 on the list...you take the one who verbals....rarely would keep recruiting the others...you move on to the other spots
Maybe if Riley had verballed to BU earlier we wouldn't have gone after Fields?...You wouldn't want BU to say they are all excited about a recruit but internally have backed off and send mixed messages to a recruit.

[tornado]

maybe - but I have to believe MOST college coaches would NOT want the local press just casually speculating and saying we got no room for a certain recruit - no matter WHO that recruit is.
I would have to believe and do believe it hurts our recruiting way more than any comment on a message board, although I have seen proof that even message board comments can have an impact.

BTW -- of all the players DR has talked about in that recruiting article (Taphorn, Cohn, Riley, Ward, McAuliffe ..) and the others the past month or so...just about every single one of them are now gone, committed elsewhere, or moving past or beyond BU....
...so I noted this morning there's new names listed.....are we now moving on to page 2, 3 or 4 of our target list??

[lefty]

If BU wants to sign one PG and they get one signed then the others on their list probably fall off somewhat.
So the guys we are targeting now may not be down the line necessarily....although I got a feeling BU was holding on to Taphorns spot until his decision...then moving down that list.

I would hate to have to recruit....it's got to be one of the toughest things to do....way too many variables......

I didn't think Dave said anything really negative....."they may not have room" isn't really negative.

Don't you think offers go on and off the table depending on who else signs?