Kudos Coach Wardle & staff - GREAT recruiting class!

[tornado]

hint of things to come??

Coach Wardle came in here and with only about a month to fill an unbelievable number of slots...
he sat down with staff - decided who they were going to target...
made a list of 9 or 10 top targets- then went out and landed all the kids he wanted.

GREAT job...it may not get the attention it deserves, but most fans know this was an unprecedented and historic job of landing the best talent available in an impossibly short time.....especially considering we had a total of ZERO commitments in the 12 months previously and he got no advantage of having kids that were already being recruited or were leaning toward Bradley.

hope this continues into 2016, 2017 & beyond -- thanks Coach!

[Old Coach]

I think just landing this many bodies was an impressive feat. Whether or not more than a couple of them are a big part of the future is obviously yet to be determined. The class of 2017 is where it's at with Wardle and the potential to build the solid foundation of a long-term, winning program.

[tornado]

I agree - of course none of them have scored a point yet...

but here's where I think this recruiting class pay instant dividends...

They will see that earning playing time is no automatic - and that they will have to work like he** and beat out other talented guys - so there's big-time motivation to succeed...

[Old Coach]

No disagreement here. The bottom of this class will have to be washed out just to open up 3 or 4 spots for the 2017 group. So, the top 5 spots in this class will be highly competitive.

[tornado]

By position
(and the names given for position are just the common & familiar names, and I realize we sometimes use "combo-guard", "stretch forward", and sometimes play with 3 or even 4 guards at once)

Point guard: Joel Okafor and then maybe Ka'Darryl Bell & Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye

Shooting guard: Warren Jones, Ronnie Suggs, Antoine Pittman, Jackson Kane

Small forward: Donte Thomas, Scottie James, (Alex Foster)

Power forward: Mike Shaw, Luuk van Bree, Davante Cooper, Pete Hanley

Center: Callum Barker (maybe one or more of the PF's can also play center)


So what I see here is a need to land another POINT guard right away for 2016 - since we have little backup at the true point position.
In most years guards considerably outnumber frontcourt players on Bradley's roster - but we have a bunch of big guys so that if several develop, we can concentrate on guards for Class of 2016 recruiting.
I'd also like to see a great 3-point shooter or two on the roster (Nate Kennell)

[Old Coach]

By position
(and the names given for position are just the common & familiar names, and I realize we sometimes use "combo-guard", "stretch forward", and sometimes play with 3 or even 4 guards at once)

Point guard: Joel Okafor and then maybe Ka'Darryl Bell & Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye

Shooting guard: Warren Jones, Ronnie Suggs, Antoine Pittman, Jackson Kane

Small forward: Donte Thomas, Scottie James, (Alex Foster)

Power forward: Mike Shaw, Luuk van Bree, Davante Cooper, Pete Hanley

Center: Callum Barker (maybe one or more of the PF's can also play center)


So what I see here is a need to land another POINT guard right away for 2016 - since we have little backup at the true point position.
In most years guards considerably outnumber frontcourt players on Bradley's roster - but we have a bunch of big guys so that if several develop, we can concentrate on guards for Class of 2016 recruiting.
I'd also like to see a great 3-point shooter or two on the roster (Nate Kennell)

I think we'll see a lot of 3 guard play out of the Braves this year (Okafor, Bell, Jones). Mike Shaw is going to have to play the 5, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Donte Thomas play a stretch 4 role.

[wizard1]

Kudos Coach Wardle & Staff....

What an absolutely terrific job of recruiting what I believe is going to develop into a great Bradley team given a year or two to mature. Congrats to Coach Wardle & staff.
Wiz

[tornado]

talked with someone who's watched Alex Foster this summer - and he's doing very well - and I think he can surprise people - in high school he always played the low post because he was good at it, was the biggest kid on his team and he continued to do so at Texas Tech -
and he still makes a high pct of the shots he takes...
but his natural position may be more like an Austin Barnes and given the opportunity he has the athleticism to be a big wing player who can help both offensively & defensively.
Hopefully we can see him in an intrasquad scrimmage this fall but then we won't see him again as he has to sit out this year after transferring.

I also heard there's been a "palpable buzz" (to use an already overused phrase from the recruiting circuit) among those who have seen our players working out and scrimmaging...and a bit of a buzz on the recruiting trail about the caliber of our first two 2016 commits - Bar & Kennell -
we have a great group that will pleasantly surprise people.

[Old Coach]

I think Foster is going to be a very nice player at Bradley.

[Da Coach]

I hope so, and I hear Coach Wardle is high on him. But I am not as optimistic as you are...

[tornado]

he can't do any worse - Tubby Smith doesn't exactly have a legacy of developing big men

[ihatetea]

I hope so, and I hear Coach Wardle is high on him. But I am not as optimistic as you are...

I have similar reservations. You always hope that something will click for him that hadn't clicked before. But like tornado likes to mention about many of Geno's bad recruits, players who didn't have good stats at their last place don't usually start accumulating large stat totals simply by being at Bradley. I hope he proves me wrong, but I am not expecting to be wowed by him.

[tornado]

now that they have played very well on a national stage, we can expect our two 2016 recruits, Koch Bar & Nate Kennell, to get a few contacts from the big boys who have open scholarships...I think they remain solid with Bradley.

[tornado]

Bradley commit Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye tweets that he will be arriving at Bradley "next week"..
this is good because a couple minor injuries have kept a couple players from practicing & scrimmaging so they've had to go 4 on 4 instead of 5 on 5 when scrimmaging (without coaches present)

this dispels one uninformed rumor I had seen, that DLO was not coming...