WE Must Recruit

[wizard1]

In almost 60 years of watching Bradley Basketball and working closely with past coaches, I have learned that there is one overiding ingredient to Bradley Basketball success and that all other issues pale into insignificance without it.

That essential ingredient is the recruiting of outstanding players--- not just good players, but outstanding ones. Without this, Bradley is doomed to year after year of frustrating mediocrity.

Think about it!---Paul Unruh, Melchiorre, Carney, Barney Cable, Shellie McMillon, Joe Allen, L.C. Bowen, Chet Walker, Steve Kuberski, Mitchell Anderson, Roger Phegley, Voice Winters, Willie Scott, Donald Reese, Massive Mike, Anthony Parker, Hersey Hawkins, Jim Les, Marcellus Sommerville, Patrick O'Bryant. These are the kind of players we must have!

We must evaluate recruits very carefully. No more "Projects" or second rate all staters or all conference people. No recruiting disappointments that waste scholarships.

I know that recruiting these kind of players is very difficult. It always has been but we were able to do it in spite of the difficulty. Somehow, we must find a way to do this again.

With great recruiting, Bradley suceeds and without it, we are a mediocre mid-major at best for years to come. In the final analysis, nothing else much matters except this.

[lake Camelot]

Completely correct. So far I would have to give Geno's staff an incomplete.I think we have a couple players sitting out who are nice additions. I think Pickett was a nice addition, and Bell shows promise as a role player.

We definately need more. especially an inside player. I have a feeling we will be successful from the players we are in on. I think our staff can increase our talent. But we aren't quite there yet.

I am very encoraged by the way our players played with a purpose this year. I am excited to see what we can build.

[alczervik75]

In almost 60 years of watching Bradley Basketball and working closely with past coaches, I have learned that there is one overiding ingredient to Bradley Basketball success and that all other issues pale into insignificance without it.

That essential ingredient is the recruiting of outstanding players--- not just good players, but outstanding ones. Without this, Bradley is doomed to year after year of frustrating mediocrity.

Think about it!---Paul Unruh, Melchiorre, Carney, Barney Cable, Shellie McMillon, Joe Allen, L.C. Bowen, Chet Walker, Steve Kuberski, Mitchell Anderson, Roger Phegley, Voice Winters, Willie Scott, Donald Reese, Massive Mike, Anthony Parker, Hersey Hawkins, Jim Les, Marcellus Sommerville, Patrick O'Bryant. These are the kind of players we must have!

We must evaluate recruits very carefully. No more "Projects" or second rate all staters or all conference people. No recruiting disappointments that waste scholarships.

I know that recruiting these kind of players is very difficult. It always has been but we were able to do it in spite of the difficulty. Somehow, we must find a way to do this again.

With great recruiting, Bradley suceeds and without it, we are a mediocre mid-major at best for years to come. In the final analysis, nothing else much matters except this.

Problem solved!

The reality is, for the modern guys you list, it's with the benefit of hindsight. Patrick O'Bryant was a project. He wasn't in anyone's top 300 list and wasn't even a 2 star recruit on the major websites. I believer one of the evaluators commented during our run that he evaluates over 1,000 kids in every class, and O'Bryant wasn't on his radar. Sommerville was a solid 100 - 300 recruit, but also one we couldn't win after high school. Hopefully will pick up another transfer like this soon. Parker was our best recruit since Hersey, but those types are very hard to get here straight out of High School.

Even the "golden" mid majors like Gonzaga, Butler, Creighton rarely get the top 100 type kids and have to find their niche (like Gonzaga with international guys). I am confident that Geno Ford eats, drinks, sleeps player evaluation and recruiting. Hopefully, he evaluates well and construct a team that can play great together.

[molar50]

I was told that Hersey Hawkins was the center of his high school team and was overlooked by all the major colleges. Versace saw that talent and he became successful at Bradley as a guard. It is hard to find these diamonds in the rough. However, we should be able to out recruit SIU, Evansville, Northern Iowa, Indiana State, and even Illinois State. We have better facilities, more fans (even with this fallout this season), better history, and good academic programs. I expect our coach to out recruit most of the Valley schools.

[Old Coach]

I was told that Hersey Hawkins was the center of his high school team and was overlooked by all the major colleges. Versace saw that talent and he became successful at Bradley as a guard. It is hard to find these diamonds in the rough. However, we should be able to out recruit SIU, Evansville, Northern Iowa, Indiana State, and even Illinois State. We have better facilities, more fans (even with this fallout this season), better history, and good academic programs. I expect our coach to out recruit most of the Valley schools.

Guys like Hersey don't fall through the cracks the way that they used to because of AAU basketball.

[mvcfan]

When your program I down for several years it gets harder to recruit. I think Geno is doing a nice job of slowly building the level of talent.

[alczervik75]

I was told that Hersey Hawkins was the center of his high school team and was overlooked by all the major colleges. Versace saw that talent and he became successful at Bradley as a guard. It is hard to find these diamonds in the rough. However, we should be able to out recruit SIU, Evansville, Northern Iowa, Indiana State, and even Illinois State. We have better facilities, more fans (even with this fallout this season), better history, and good academic programs. I expect our coach to out recruit most of the Valley schools.

This is correct. We have better facilities and fan/financial support than most of the Valley. We are compensating a coach above the Valley, and that coach needs to be better than his peers at evaluating, recruiting and developing talent to win.

Here, you need to evaluate talent earlier and sell them before they get too big. It's a tough gig, but we have a coach that has made strides, imo.

[tornado]

say all you want & plead all you want but how does any of it affect our recruiting??

I have heard the precise same comment from every coach going back to Versace and from every AD - that recruiting is the hardest part of the entire process....and a lot of it at the mid-major level is luck - like needle in a haystack or good fortune like finding a hidden gem...

I think only the coach, staff, and those in charge can do a thing about recruiting and they are also the only ones who have a good knowledge of what's going on ..we as fans really aren't even allowed to talk to the recruits - so how can we affect the recruiting in any way??
I guess we can discuss recruiting as we always have but then we have to trust the staff to get it done - if they don't then we all suffer the consequences...

[wily coyote]

One problem we have regarding recruits has been said on other posts but needs to be brought up again. The lack of a P.E. major continues to be a big problem especially with JC kids. That is why we never were able to see DeArron Williams play in a BU uni. I would like to see that major returned to BU and I think we would see better overall talent.IMO

[Da Coach]

One problem we have regarding recruits has been said on other posts but needs to be brought up again. The lack of a P.E. major continues to be a big problem especially with JC kids. That is way we never were able to see DeArron Williams play in a BU uni. I would like to see that major returned to BU and I think we would see better overall talent.IMO

This may be true, but there were significant other problems with Williams.
But Bradley has not had a PE major for many years. Does anyone know when it was dropped? I seem to recall we haven't had a PE major for 15-20 years, yet we have been successful recruiting a lot of All-MVC caliber talent in that time. It only hurts when recruiting transfers from jucos and other 4-year schools who have some of their credits in PE curriculums. These are usually complimentary or role players, and not the players a program like Bradley needs to build around.

[Rick LeHew]

In almost 60 years of watching Bradley Basketball and working closely with past coaches, I have learned that there is one overiding ingredient to Bradley Basketball success and that all other issues pale into insignificance without it.

That essential ingredient is the recruiting of outstanding players--- not just good players, but outstanding ones. Without this, Bradley is doomed to year after year of frustrating mediocrity.

Think about it!---Paul Unruh, Melchiorre, Carney, Barney Cable, Shellie McMillon, Joe Allen, L.C. Bowen, Chet Walker, Steve Kuberski, Mitchell Anderson, Roger Phegley, Voice Winters, Willie Scott, Donald Reese, Massive Mike, Anthony Parker, Hersey Hawkins, Jim Les, Marcellus Sommerville, Patrick O'Bryant. These are the kind of players we must have!

We must evaluate recruits very carefully. No more "Projects" or second rate all staters or all conference people. No recruiting disappointments that waste scholarships.

I know that recruiting these kind of players is very difficult. It always has been but we were able to do it in spite of the difficulty. Somehow, we must find a way to do this again.

With great recruiting, Bradley suceeds and without it, we are a mediocre mid-major at best for years to come. In the final analysis, nothing else much matters except this.

Wizard - You are correct, and it's so easy to type ....... but 3 things that are important:

1. We are in Peoria, IL. CBS and ESPN are not broadcasting many games from here (And don't say we start winning, they will come!!)
2. We do not have the 'payroll' the SEC (and others) have to recruit.
3. Many players you named above were not highly recruited back then (And the ones that were have some great stories how they were recruited). As somebody posted, tough to "Fall thru the cracks" in this day. Remember - the top 25 schools don't recruit.... They pick who they want. We have NO chance among the big boys to get the "Blue Chips."

You know I love Peoria (grew up here and stayed here), but many great basketball players have no idea where Bradley is located (Outside Illinois)!! I wish we could get some great players back in Peoria, but we all know that is becoming tougher and tougher.

GO BRAVES

[tornado]

Rick - as always you have your finger on the pulse of the facts and what's reasonable....
like you, I have chosen to make Peoria my home and I love it here...
but almost precisely two years ago we had a thread saying we HAD TO, MUST, was IMPERATIVE that we make a change and completely overhaul the program...and in that same context - some predicted it would only take a couple years to turn the entire thing around!

Well -we have made the change - and in that thread and a couple that were running at the same time - several fans touted Peoria as a WORLD CLASS town, everything going for it, lots of world-class reasons people would come - and they slammed the program for not landing talent because Peoria was "such a draw" that surely the only thing keeping the blue chippers from coming here was the staff we had running the program...etc..

Nice to see some common sense that I agree with - this IS an extremely tough place to recruit to -- many kids in Chicago - just a couple hours away have never been to Peoria, don't know where it is on a map, and don't know that Bradley is located in Peoria...
I have said that many times - and yet there's still some who having spent their entire lives here - think the place is a great draw...
Sadly I wish it were but it is not - and we need to work like crazy to get the talent coming here...it is and will NOT be easy...

[lefty]

Rick - as always you have your finger on the pulse of the facts and what's reasonable....
like you, I have chosen to make Peoria my home and I love it here...
but almost precisely two years ago we had a thread saying we HAD TO, MUST, was IMPERATIVE that we make a change and completely overhaul the program...and in that same context - some predicted it would only take a couple years to turn the entire thing around!

Well -we have made the change - and in that thread and a couple that were running at the same time - several fans touted Peoria as a WORLD CLASS town, everything going for it, lots of world-class reasons people would come - and they slammed the program for not landing talent because Peoria was "such a draw" that surely the only thing keeping the blue chippers from coming here was the staff we had running the program...etc..

Nice to see some common sense that I agree with - this IS an extremely tough place to recruit to -- many kids in Chicago - just a couple hours away have never been to Peoria, don't know where it is on a map, and don't know that Bradley is located in Peoria...
I have said that many times - and yet there's still some who having spent their entire lives here - think the place is a great draw...
Sadly I wish it were but it is not - and we need to work like crazy to get the talent coming here...it is and will NOT be easy...

Good grief T....Rick didn't say anything like you just posted.....you are exaggerating there.....

I agree with Rick's post though.....

[bradleyfan124]

Recruiting is not an exact science. I believe it is very tough even going back to the Dick Versace era. But we have to keep trying. I dont like hearing we dont have a chance with some of the better kids so why try. We have to keep trying until they tell you No. Kids go to college for different reasons. You never know we might pick up a kid who is not influenced by the allure of a bigger school. Maybe he likes what Bradley has to offer. So keep trying coaches. Also I think the coaches are knowledgeable of recruiting situations more than we as fans so I will give them the benefit of the doubt and let them do what they are best at. They know what is at stake. They want it just as bad as we do

[saluki762]

Mid major recruiting is about finding the best players for your system, not the best talent. Look at what Weber did at SIU, what Majerus did at SLU. Even Gonzaga has only had 1 top 25 class in the last 10 years and they are #1 this week.

You have to recruit the right kids and get them to buy in.