SIU-E's Donivine Stewart

[Da Coach]

More bad news for those who insisted Donivine Stewart was not a Division 1 player-

Donivine scored 24 points last night on 8-9 from the field, and 3-4 from three, plus he had 8 assists to lead SIUE to a 84-78 win over Tennessee-Martin-

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400503209

The win gave SIUE a record of 6-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference and moved them into sole possession of 2nd place in the OVC West Division.
Donivine Stewart is now leading SIUE with an average of 12.0 points per game (more than anyone on Bradley except Walt), and 4.5 assists per game (more than any Bradley player has had since Daniel Ruffin), and he is shooting 37% from three (better than any Bradley regular). Congratulations to Donivine, who is just a sophomore in eligibility. He just keeps getting better.

[bradleyfan124]

It is starting to bother me that we pass on kids that do well when they go to other schools then we take kids that dont so didly-squat when they get here

[Da Coach]

I think this happens at a lot of schools, but it has really hurt Bradley's rebuilding the last couple years because we still lack an effective ball-handling true point guard or efficient perimeter shooters.

[Samd2]

losing ds was huge !!! he has and always has had the one thing we need so badly, natural leadership skills.

[lefty]

Nobody knows if he would have done well at BU??¦..it's all conjecture

[bu fan 9]

That's why this staff can't recruit they can't judge talent.

[lefty]

That's why this staff can't recruit they can't judge talent.

whatever

[bu fan 9]

They have brought one good player to the hilltop in 3 years.

[wily coyote]

Not convinced DS would have made it at BU. Comparing what he's doing at SIUE to maybe what he could have done at BU is impossible. He had a great HS career and we'll never know how that would have translated at BU but one thing I'm pretty sure of ,if we let him go for Fields, we made a huge mistake.

[Da Coach]

While I agree that every coach should be able to bring in his own players, and convince others to transfer if they do not fit his style, I do agree that Donivine is a good D1 player and will be even better before his career is finished. He has had a tremendous season for SIUE, and is the key to their improvement in the OVC. If Coach Forrester can bring in some better players with him, his numbers will even get better.
Too bad he wasted a year before he got a chance to play. He has over 300 points already this season, with a number of games left. By comparison, Walt Lemon is the only Bradley player over 300 points, and after Tyson and Walt are gone, Bradley won't return any players that are likely to even have 300 points for their Bradley career!

[bravetime33]

While I agree that every coach should be able to bring in his own players, and convince others to transfer if they do not fit his style, I do agree that Donivine is a good D1 player and will be even better before his career is finished. He has had a tremendous season for SIUE, and is the key to their improvement in the OVC. If Coach Forrester can bring in some better players with him, his numbers will even get better.
Too bad he wasted a year before he got a chance to play. He has over 300 points already this season, with a number of games left. By comparison, Walt Lemon is the only Bradley player over 300 points, and after Tyson and Walt are gone, Bradley won't return any players that are likely to even have 300 points for their Bradley career!

Grier should get it he has over 270 so far with Barnes having outside shot (both first year players)
Walt's l first year 198 points

[LongTimeFan]

I would have to think Ford has brought in more than one good player. I think Pickett has been a good player for Bradley and I think Taylor has the ability to be very good at Bradley.

The jury is still out on Barnes and Grier. I think a true point guard could help those players. Hopefully, we will have that point guard next year. I would agree that the lack of a true point guard has really hurt Bradley the last two years.

Stewart's possible success at Bradley will remain an unknown. The two schools play at different levels.

Let's just be happy that he is achieving success now. I wish him the best.

[wily coyote]

I an so happy for DS's success, but as one poster pointed out they play at different levels. What matters is the success he's having. He truly is a great kid and I wish him all the success he gets. The jury is still out as to whether we made a mistake cutting him for Fields. Don't know the figures on Fields this year but DS may have had more points in one game 2 years ago than Fields has had all year. Have a feeling he may be gone before we got to know him.

[tornado]

Players come & go in every program - I am not going to worry about that - except a lot of Bradley fans - myself included - like to follow all our ex-players - it's just what we do - we post things about Donivine, DSE, Cellus, Jimmy Gavin, Jalen, even Hersey & his kids, etc....
Just cuz we talk about how Donivine's doing it shouldn't be interpreted as an anti-Bradley thing. There were a lot of people who said Donivine would never succeed anywhere and that he was NOT a D-I player.
I think before he's even played a half a season elsewhere we are seeing that opinion was moronic.

Donivine Stewart is the conference Newcomer of the Week - just announced

https://twitter.com/OVCSports/status/432946211797356545

[BuB]

The reason DS is getting playing time and having some success is that he is playing at the right level of D1 basketball. In reality, the 349 Division 1 basketball can be divided up into about 4 divisions. The perennial Top 20-25 programs that consistently get the 4-5 star players. Another 20-30 teams that play in the top power conferences or teams like a Butler, Gonzaga, or Wichita St that have a breakout season or two. They also can pick off a few of the top recruits every year.

The roughly remaining 300 teams can be cut in half if you wish. My point is that the overwhelming majority of the players on teams in the bottom 50 of D1, which is where SIUE is, would be walk-ons, deep reserves, role subs, or mistake recruits at the higher divisions within D1. These 50 teams are full of players with Stewart's skill level and so is The Ohio Valley Conference. DS skills are limited. I think he knew that after coming to Bradley and so did Geno. If Geno recruits guards that are comparable to Donivine then we are in trouble.

SIUE has been an fully certified D1 program for about a year and a half. They are NOT a good team. It serves no purpose to compare Stewart's current stats to a current Bradley player. We are not missing out by not having him. DS wanted minutes and SIUE had a need. Its a good fit for him at that level of D1. People also said Max Bielfeldt was not a D1 player. Do his stats at Michigan prove that or did he pick a D1 program he is not good enough to play at? He is in the same boat Stewart was in only Max has chosen to stay at Michigan when he could get much more playing time at a lower level D1 program.