Recruiting Question

[Braves4Life]

OK - then how long would you wait before admitting that a school is a bit behind in getting the recruits they want?
All I ask is that you commit to when you expect some news....Sept., Oct., Dec., spring??

Does it really matter right now? Like tcq said no one can really know whether the recruits we get are any good for 1-3 years. We WILL get recruits, no doubt about that. This is a VERY important recruiting class for Geno Ford. I'm quite sure he knows that if it is a failure he will likely be fired sooner rather than later. No doubt he is being very selective up front on who he is trying to get. Like all experienced coaches ( he IS experienced after all) I'm quite sure he has back up recruits that he knows he can get. I applaud his patience. That's why HE'S da coach!

[tcq]

OK - then how long would you wait before admitting that a school is a bit behind in getting the recruits they want?
All I ask is that you commit to when you expect some news....Sept., Oct., Dec., spring??

I don't mind answering questions.

To the first one---regarding this years 2013-14 class--I will say June 15, 2013. If Bradley doesn't have 3 of its 4 recruits filled at that point then I think questions would need to be asked. I say 3 or 4 because I know this staff is open to taking quality D1 transfers. I would be surprised if BU did that again next year.

I look for two HS recruits and two JUCO recruits. A lot of JUCO kids wait until the spring so I don't expect Bradley to have all four scholarships filled this fall. I would be marginally surprised if Bradley went past the fall signing period with more than 2 open scholarships.

If Bradley gets two commitments this fall and has two for the spring I am absolutely fine with that.

To the second one--when do I expect "news"? We get news all the time. When do I expect a commitment? I think Bradley will sign two kids this fall. So, by mid November I guess.

I would be more surprised if Bradley had four kids commit this fall than two.

Don't you agree tornado that its about the quality of the player BU gets, not when they get them? And we usually don't know how good a recruit is at this level until about midway through their sophomore year for HS kids and midway through their junior year for JUCOs. Agreed?

[AZ BU Fan]

Always fun to speculate, debate, and, worry in the off season with no information coming out yet about future players.

Either GF will be a big flop or a big success....

Hopefully he is extremely stealthy in his recruiting!!

Any history from GF's previous head coaching job about
lining up early signees/verbal committments for his teams?

As we have unfortunately seen before at BU, early verbals
sometimes don't mean a thing for BU recruiting....

TBD at the end of 2013-14 season.

[real fan]

Always fun to speculate, debate, and, worry in the off season with no information coming out yet about future players.

Either GF will be a big flop or a big success....

Hopefully he is extremely stealthy in his recruiting!!

Any history from GF's previous head coaching job about
lining up early signees/verbal committments for his teams?

As we have unfortunately seen before at BU, early verbals
sometimes don't mean a thing for BU recruiting....

TBD at the end of 2013-14 season.

The staff appears to have gotten 2 very good players in Fields and Grier, hoping they can get 4 more good ones this next signing period, would like a 6-9 center, 6-8 power forward, 6-6 wing player and a 6-4 shooting guard.

[tornado]

...
Don't you agree tornado that its about the quality of the player BU gets, not when they get them? And we usually don't know how good a recruit is at this level until about midway through their sophomore year for HS kids and midway through their junior year for JUCOs. Agreed?

this is funny ... ...because getting the quality of players you want means getting them to campus and getting verbals from the players you ARE targeting - not the ones left over in spring that default into your lap.

sure quality matters but do you think the quality of the recruits available in June of 2013 will be the same as now or last month?
It's like kids choosing up teams for a ball game and one says "go ahead, you take the first 10 picks, then I'll choose"...
you gotta know who's getting the best quality.

I have said for years that Bradley is a tough place to recruit to and yet there have always been those who say that's not true - I think we are seeing that effect teamed with the general awareness by recruits and their advisors of what's gone on and to "f-o"

[tcq]

If there were evidence out there that kids who sign in the fall are better players than the ones signed in the spring then I would be worried. But I don't think there is. Look at Bradley.

Last year Bradley's two best players were Taylor Brown and Walt Lemon. Both spring signees and Taylor Brown came really late in the game. Walt is easily this teams best player now. The two transfers who are sitting out (Fields and Grier) came in the spring and are two of top 6 or 7 players on the roster easy.

Just look at the freshman class from last season. One spring signee didn't work out (Devon Hodges). However, the other two, Shayok and Crawford, were far greater contributors than the guys who signed in the fall (Stewart and Wells).

Theron Wilson was an all MVC type player. He signed late. Same for Will Franklin. Phillip Gilbert, etc.

This is why I am not worried. I see no evidence that the sooner you get verbals, the better those players are. The facts just don't support this.

Regarding your last sentence--I have no idea what you mean there.

[tornado]

I am sure this'll spark debate but here's an interesting web site that keeps track of everyone's offers and commits....

http://verbalcommits.com/schools/bradley

Make what you want of it but here's what they list although we know they miss some ..for 2013 (they are missing mostly on juco kids)

Bradley - 0 commits, 4 current offers
Creighton- 3 commits (we know they have four) and 15 current offers
Drake -- commits 0 (), offers 17
Evansville- commits 1, offers 2
Il State - commits 2 (but one is an error, Beane), offers 6
IN State - commits 1, offers 1
MSU -- commits 1, offers 9
UNI -- commits 5, additional offers 3
SIU -- commits 0, offers 5 (not really comparable as Barry has just gotten started after moving in from out of state)
WSU -- commits 1 (but we know they have TWO, Holland & Watson), offers 10

[tcq]

Being off by "some" would be an understatement.

Bradley has offered a lot more than 4 guys this fall.

[Old Coach]

Being off by "some" would be an understatement.

Bradley has offered a lot more than 4 guys this fall.

I read it as there are currently 4 players holding offers from Bradley who are 1. still available 2. Geno still wants.

[real fan]

Most important thing in recruiting is you get players that fit your system, does not matter when you get them.

[tcq]

I read it as there are currently 4 players holding offers from Bradley who are 1. still available 2. Geno still wants.

I think even if those were the criteria it would still be off

[tornado]

Most important thing in recruiting is you get players that fit your system, does not matter when you get them.

sounds nice but this is 100% untrue - because even if you get players that fit your system precisely but they go 1-26, then you are STILL going to have to go out and get someone else....

the MOST important thing is to get players capable of winning games in whatever system they can or will play...

Coaches at Duke or UNC can kinda have their pick and get who they want - but everyone else on down - and this has even been said by coaches themselves - they have to sometimes get the BEST available players and do what they can with them, but (as I have said for years, and finally fewer doubters now) Bradley simply does NOT have the recruiting prowess to expect blue chippers, and our "system", sad to say, isn't so incredibly good that anyone who fits it is gonna win....

[lefty]

sounds nice but this is 100% untrue - because even if you get players that fit your system precisely but they go 1-26, then you are STILL going to have to go out and get someone else....

the MOST important thing is to get players capable of winning games in whatever system they can or will play...

Coaches at Duke or UNC can kinda have their pick and get who they want - but everyone else on down - and this has even been said by coaches themselves - they have to sometimes get the BEST available players and do what they can with them, but (as I have said for years, and finally fewer doubters now) Bradley simply does NOT have the recruiting prowess to expect blue chippers, and our "system", sad to say, isn't so incredibly good that anyone who fits it is gonna win....

Why is it 100% untrue? I can see an argument for players fitting a system...but it doesn't matter when you get players

[JMM28]

people who know far more than someone on a message board who tells me they know more than I do

sounds nice but this is 100% untrue - because even if you get players that fit your system precisely but they go 1-26, then you are STILL going to have to go out and get someone else....

the MOST important thing is to get players capable of winning games in whatever system they can or will play...

- and this has even been said by coaches themselves -.

You have to recruit players who fit what style you want to play. It seems that Geno wants to have an uptempo offense. One would assume he would have no use recruiting a slow footed guy who doesn't fit that style. See Donivine Stewart.

[tornado]

Yup - still disagree - because sooner or later every coach will agree that he needs better, more talented players if he still keeps losing and can't win -- systems are fine when they win but every coach with a losing system will dump his system if that's what it takes to get better players...

... if you don't care about winning and a 7-26 season is OK by you..then you can stick with your system...
but if you care about winning all we've seen from everyone and all everyone has said on this and other boards since February is we need to get better players - geez - we've heard it a gazillion times...
...so after 6 months of everyone saying a million times that we need to get better players - yet we're whiffing on getting them and it's not happening
- now we change the tune AND SAY ACTUALLY what we need is players who better fit the system...a bit more vague and difficult to refute...

I see some people changing their goals based on how badly we miss on reaching those goals...rather than admit we missed the goals

Do the search yourself and see but ten different threads since the end of the season talk about Bradley getting better players, but only one - this one that only now appears when we've missed on several top targets
- mentions getting players that fit the system better ...interesting... are goals changing??