2016 top target

[tornado]

A couple of solid late commits...

Justin Thomas - Indianapolis Pike point guard first mentioned here over 3 months ago - LINK--> also here- LINK LINK- probably backed off now that we have a commit from PG Darrell Brown

Justin Thomas commits to NIU

Jovan Mooring is named National juco (NJCAA DII) Player of the Year in addition to his National Finals MVP
The kid can score - he'd sure help someone right away...

Jovan Mooring commits to UNLV

[tornado]

Derrick Walker - moved to Sunrise Prep, still mentions Bradley offer- still unsigned and getting very few offers & playing AAU against 15, 16 & 17-yr olds - a bad sign
Montrell Dixson - still strangely no offers - and still playing AAU - generally that means recruiters know something...
.....

you knew this was coming....

Former Bradley recruit Derrick Walker never got the offers he was hoping for so....

so he's just gonna stay in high school an extra year and re-classify as Class of 2017 like his Sunrise teammate Bryan Trimble

https://twitter.com/PrepForce1/status/735205337712594944

[tornado]

Former Bradley recruit Derrick Walker ...

Derrick Walker was once a Bradley recruit and had been offered last summer..but chose an extra year of prep school at Sunrise

I doubt our offer was still solid but who knows...
anyway, Walker announces he has narrowed to six schools and Bradley is not one of them..
UIC, Ball State. Akron, ORU, SMU, Wichita State

[tornado]

Among all the dozens of names that have been mentioned as 2016 recruiting targets....we not only landed seven of them (Griffith, Brown, Bar, Merritt, McGlaston, Kennell, Hodgson) but most of the others have committed elsewhere...

HOWEVER...there's a few who had still been unaccounted for....including one who visited Bradley and was present at a game last season.


Here's a couple I cannot find where they've landed...

Daniel Soetan - visited on November 13, 2015 - LINK
He was originally Class of 2015, and was already doing a year of post-grad prep school at Quakerdale - but there is no report whether he's landed at a juco or 4-year school yet.

Johnnie Vassar - well traveled and once very highly touted, was hailed as one of the top point guard prospects in the nation, got BCS-caliber offers and was at, then left Northwestern where he was on basketball scholarship - but no word where he might currently be.
Even the Northwestern insiders are don't know - LINK


Lastly - one other recruit that was rated quite highly was Canadian native & friend of Tramique & Florida prep school classmate of Koch Bar -
Richardson Maitre- and up until this morning he was still hanging out there doing AAU and exposure events even though he was Class of 2016 and reneged on his former DI verbals...
He reportedly has an offer from Bradley but that may not still be in effect....

BUT - now he's just signed to play at Indian Hills Community College - one of the juco powerhouses in Ottumwa, IA.

[tornado]

Daniel Soetan - visited on November 13, 2015 - LINK
He was originally Class of 2015, and was already doing a year of post-grad prep school at Quakerdale - but there is no report whether he's landed at a juco or 4-year school yet.....

There is a report that Daniel Soetan is still considering and has trimmed his list to just Chicago State & UMKC
The problem with that is that Chicago State appears to have 13 players either already under scholarship or LOI, and UMKC appears to have already 14 - thus someone would have to leave for a scholarship to open - and although it happens all the time & two would have to leave at UMKC, it is getting late.
Both schools' fall semester classes begin on Aug. 22 (11 days) so better decide quick!

[Da Coach]

This may have been posted somewhere already, but here is another name from the past....2016 juco big man recruit 6-9 Marlon Jones of South Plains College. Jones actually visited a Bradley Red-White scrimmage game way back in October, 2012 along with a bunch of other Mac Irvin players from Chicago in what Dave Reynolds termed "A Defining Moment" for the Bradley basketball program.

http://blogs.pjstar.com/pressrow/2012/10/13/a-defining-moment-for-bradley-program/

Dave called the visits by that "entourage" of "elite" Chicago recruits "unprecedented", and that "The end result can only be a positive one for the Bradley men's basketball program" and he said "Remember this day, Bradley fans. It may take some time. But it may well be a moment that ushers in a return to glory for the Braves."

Well, it was not a "positive" end result, and it did not lead to glory, but to total and unprecedented devastation of the Bradley basketball program, something Bradley fans would much rather not "remember". Bradley only landed one of those Mac Irvin players (Josh Cunningham), but it was not nearly enough to overcome the other recruiting failures and poor coaching that lead to 86 losses in 4 years, a whopping 19 more losses than in any 4 year stretch under any previous coach.

But Marlon Jones, who was a junior at Chicago Orr, and was a 2014 recruit, apparently never considered Bradley. He reportedly had offers from some big-time programs, but ended up committing to Loyola.

http://www.loyolaramblers.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/082614aaa.html

But he was well short of qualifying for Division I in 2014, and ended up going to South Plains CC. As a freshman he averaged 7.6 ppg and 4.6 rpg, and as a sophomore he averaged 10.8 ppg and 5.5 rpg. But despite those decent juco numbers, he had few offers. He ended up committing this summer to New Mexico State.

[tornado]

ISU and others also targeted Jones as he was a big kid and pretty well developed with potential early on..
but two big factors intervened - he did not continue to develop as hoped, and his academics fell short of getting DI out of high school.
The fact that he's choosing New Mexico State hints that academics are still a real issue....as they seem to take a lot of kids who cannot get in anywhere else - one of whom our former staff was recruiting then dropped off due to academics.

[Da Coach]

2016 recruit Alonzo Chatman, who was one time rumored to be on Bradley's recruiting radar, was a 6'7" forward from Chicago Morgan Park HS.
He just committed to Morehead State.

http://www.msueagles.com/news/2016/8/11/mens-basketball-inks-alonzo-chatman.aspx

It's very unusual for a recruit to commit this late in the recruiting cycle. Registration and enrollment for the fall semester at Morehead State has already closed, and classes began today.

[tornado]

2016 recruit Alonzo Chatman....

Alonzo Chatman got a SCHOLARSHIP OFFER from Bradley at the very beginning of his freshman year at Morgan Park
EVEN BEFORE he had ever played a single minute of basketball in a single high school game....
that's how high Geno was on him - and I really can't recall any Bradley coach ever offering any kid even before he had played in high school.
Of course that offer dried up after Geno left, and apparently so did all his other interest as time wore on.

Chatman was one of that group of Chicago kids who many got offered and many attended the preseason games as an entourage - and Dave Reynolds was so high on all of them - calling them "a DEFINING MOMENT" and "unprecedented"... and predicting that "The end result can only be a positive one for the Bradley men's basketball program"...."Remember this day, Bradley fans. It may take some time. But it may well be a moment that ushers in a return to glory for the Braves."

In the end - after four years of high school - Chatman's stock plummetted and even by the end of the school year he didn't have any offers-
He did not play varsity as a freshman, averaged 7 ppg as sophomore and 8 ppg as a junior, 9 pts as a senior. But he still didn't get any offers - obviously recruiters saw the same issues as Xzavier Taylor had - lack of scoring, mobility, foul issues, etc...


One other of that Morgan Park group who were coached by BU assistant Ronald "Chin" Coleman was Lamont Walker - a kid who was
highly touted and reportedly pursued by Bradley..
but he reneged on his verbal to UMKC hoping to get better offers...
then when that didn't pan out he headed to John A. Logan junior college but quicky quit the squad there and
landed at another juco, Utah State-Eastern (where Kendahl Amerson played)- but after playing just a couple games there (one of which he put up 32 pts & 15 rebs, and several others where he was over 20 pts and had 8 rebs/4 steals) he was booted from the squad and there hasn't been the tiniest mention of him since anywhere...so go figure...
Soooo many of that talented group that were supposedly such a defining moment for Bradley -have flamed out or had almost no impact..

[tornado]

There is a report that Daniel Soetan is still considering and has trimmed his list to just Chicago State & UMKC...

former Bradley recruit Daniel Soetan is going the juco route.
He will be at Three Rivers Community College in Missouri.

[tornado]

Former UW-Green Bay player Daeshon Francis just verbally committed to Stephen F. Austin.
https://verbalcommits.com/players/daeshon-francis

former Brian Wardle player (at Green Bay) and former BU recruit Daeshon Francis - was reported to have verballed to Stephen F. Austin, then he signed his LOI to SFA coming out of Midland juco.
Maybe Coach Wardle knew something and backed off.......

http://www.sfajacks.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041316aaa.html

http://www.mrt.com/sports/college/college-baseball/article/JC-BASKETBALL-MC-s-Wright-Francis-sign-with-D1-7406223.php

and as of the beginning of summer, Francis was still listed as a 2016 player for SFA, but...then suddenly in May, SFA landed another kid (Isaiah Traylor) despite not apparently having another ride.
After that no further mention of Francis at Stephen F. Austin and the roster doesn't have him - LINK

Coach Wardle was recruiting Daeshon Francis....but likely he knew Francis did not have the academics to qualify....
now he's at DII Texas-Permian Basin


Thankfully we do not have another example of the coach using a scholarship to bring in a kid who can't help because he can't get eligible (Amerson, Blake...)

[tornado]

Jerelle DeBerry - former Wardle commit when at Green Bay - commits to Kent State...

Jerrell DeBerry - a 26 ppg player in high school that Brian Wardle recruited and got committed at Green Bay...
then changed and went to juco then Kent State - now he's transferring to Utah State

http://verbalcommits.com/players/jerrelle-deberry

http://archive.jsonline.com/sports/preps/destinys-deberry-commits-to-play-hoops-at-uwgreen-bay-7c9vltd-207812561.html

He's kinda becoming pretty well travelled - six different schools that he's been committed to since his senior year in high school 3 years ago...
..two different high schools, then Green Bay, then juco, Kent State, now Utah State

[Da Coach]

Jerrell DeBerry - a player Brian Wardle recruited and get committed at Green Bay...
then changed and went to Kent State - now he's transferring to Utah State
http://verbalcommits.com/players/jerrelle-deberry

Too bad he didn't transfer to Stony Brook or UC Davis. He could have hit the trifecta of playing where former or current Bradley coaches have coached.

[tornado]

Here's a few current stats on the guys we recruited for 2016 that we didn't land or who went elsewhere...(ps- very few would have helped us at all, proving our staff did a pretty good job)

-Daniel Soetan - went to Three Rivers juco - 6.0 ppg, 23.5% on 3-pt shooting, 1.4 assists/gm
-Hunter Rhodes - went to UNI - 3.3 ppg, 0.8 apg,
-Zion Morgan - went to UNLV - plays little, 2 ppg, 1 rpg, 0.8 apg
-Nick Robinson - went to St. Joe's- starts, 5 ppg, 4 rpg, 25.8% on 3-point shooting
-Derrick Walker - decided to stay an extra year at prep school - still uncommitted
-Justin Thomas - went to NIU, started more than half their games, 4.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1-12 on 3-pointers
-Richardson Maitre - at Indian Hills juco - 8.4 ppg, 3.8 apg
-Charles Tucker - at Sacred Heart, 6.6 ppg, 4.4 assists, 26.5% on 3-pointers
-Ben Coupet, Jr. - also at UNLV, but way down on playing time - mostly garbage minutes, barely sees the court, 1.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 0-9 from 3-pt this one stumps me more than any, as Ben Coupet, Jr. was a 5-Star recruit at one time - Top 10 nationally!
-Rodney Culver - to Ohio - occas starts 3 ppg, 1.9 rpg
-Kavell Bigby-Williams - at Oregon, deep sub, 3 ppg, 3 rpg
-Freddie McSwain - at Indiana, deep sub, 2 ppg, 2 rpg
-Marquell Fraser - at VCU - barely sees the court, only appears in 1/2 their games, averages less than 1 ppg, was pegged as their defensive stopper but has just one steal and 3 rebs all year
-Rian Holland - at Mercer - starts and aveages 17.5 ppg..not sure he was ever a BU recruit
-Daeshon Francis - went to SFA but got booted now playing DII but scoring 19 ppg, 7.4 rpg, hitting 59% - woulda prob helped had he been eligible at DI, but obviously our coach was, again, one step ahead.
-Montrell Dixson - apparently did not qualify, went to prep school
-Micah Bradford - at Valpo- 3 ppg 24.4% on 3-pt shooting
-Chris Palombizio - at Oakland, 2 ppg, 1 rpg
-Loren Jackson - at Long Beach Statem 5 ppg, 1 rpg, 1.5 apg, 30% on 3-pt shooting
-Carson Williams - at Northern KY - has started every game, 11 ppg, 6 rpg

[LongTimeFan]

t, respectfully, whether the staff did or does a good job looking and recruiting talent depends on Bradley's record. That is how all coaching staffs get judged.