2018 & Beyond recruiting targets

[Da Coach]

Getting back to the main topic of this thread- Recruiting...

I have an exclusive Bradleyfans.com scoop. Bradley coaches are actively recruiting one of the top juco recruits in the country- Jordan Brangers of South Plains CC (Texas).

Ranked #1 in this juco ranking-

https://247sports.com/Season/2018-Basketball/CompositeRecruitRankings?InstitutionGroup=JuniorCollege

And ranked #2 in this juco ranking-

http://www.jucorecruiting.com/2018top100rankings

He averaged 15.5 ppg at South Plains in 2017-18 and shot 38.5% from three. He is a very strong and athletic shooting guard with NBA range.

http://njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2017-18/div1/players/jordanbrangerswk81

Last season at South Plains, he averaged 20.9 ppg and shot 46.2% from three, and was a junior college All American as a freshman.

http://njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2016-17/div1/players/jordanbrangerseh81

He had committed to Colorado State last fall, but was released after they removed head coach Larry Eustachy.

https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/csu/mens-basketball/2018/02/08/top-basketball-commit-jordan-brangers-says-he-wont-join-csu/321199002/

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/02/08/colorado-state-rams-basketball-jordan-brangers-eustachy/

Video-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaYk5WHPXzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=BO98KLkcV_A

[ihatetea]

I am surprised to hear we are pursuing a juco guard. Makes me wonder if we are going to lose a guard to transfer. However, he is a good player and we need good players.

Edit: watched some highlight videos of his. This is a young man with a TON of confidence. Would be an excellent addition to the team. Doesn’t fit our single biggest need imo but talent plays and he’d find minutes in bunches. I just hope he’s commitment isn’t to fill a starters transfer.

[Da Coach]

...I just hope he’s commitment isn’t to fill a starters transfer.

Just to clarify...Bradley has just started recruiting this kid. He has not committed anywhere at this time.

[ihatetea]

Just to clarify...Bradley has just started recruiting this kid. He has not committed anywhere at this time.

Suppose I should have said potential commitment. Sorry

[egib52]

Getting back to the main topic of this thread- Recruiting...

I have an exclusive Bradleyfans.com scoop. Bradley coaches are actively recruiting one of the top juco recruits in the country- Jordan Brangers of South Plains CC (Texas).

Ranked #1 in this juco ranking-

https://247sports.com/Season/2018-Basketball/CompositeRecruitRankings?InstitutionGroup=JuniorCollege

And ranked #2 in this juco ranking-

http://www.jucorecruiting.com/2018top100rankings

He averaged 15.5 ppg at South Plains in 2017-18 and shot 38.5% from three. He is a very strong and athletic shooting guard with NBA range.

http://njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2017-18/div1/players/jordanbrangerswk81

He had committed to Colorado State last fall, but was released after they removed head coach Larry Eustachy.

https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/csu/mens-basketball/2018/02/08/top-basketball-commit-jordan-brangers-says-he-wont-join-csu/321199002/

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/02/08/colorado-state-rams-basketball-jordan-brangers-eustachy/

Video-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaYk5WHPXzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=BO98KLkcV_A

From what i have read, this kid might be carrying a lot of baggage. Has committed to Texas Tech, Western Kentucky and CSU.

[Da Coach]

He committed to Texas Tech a year ago after a terrific season and after being named a Junior College All American in his first season at juco. But then he left citing "family reasons" (documented to be a sick grandmother) and wanting to play closer to his home in Kentucky. However, it is possible that academic issues may also have been a factor.

http://www.lubbockonline.com/news/sports-red-raiders/sports/2017-04-05/jordan-brangers-not-attend-texas-tech-citing-family-reason

Then he was accepted at Western Kentucky last summer, close to his home in Radcliff, Kentucky. And a couple months after enrolling for last summer's clases, WKU pulled the rug out from under him and determined he did not fully qualify. So he was forced to return to South Plains for another year. To me, this seems to be more of an issue with WKU not doing their job correctly and not being honest with the kid

http://www.bgdailynews.com/sports/wku/guard-brangers-no-longer-with-wku-after-not-meeting-ncaa/article_98c45b2a-d697-5888-bb17-42c3bad1d341.html

Then he committed to Colorado State last fall, and then the turmoil began there with them removing Larry Eustachy, so with that uncertainty, he decommitted.

https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/csu/mens-basketball/2018/02/08/top-basketball-commit-jordan-brangers-says-he-wont-join-csu/321199002/

It seems more like he has been the victim of some bad luck, being jerked around by WKU, and then being a victim of the turmoil at Colorado State. I can't find any evidence he is a bad kid.
I have heard from someone close to him that he is on track to graduate in May, and be fully eligible. His past problems were never related to behavior or disciplinary issues, and if our coaches feel he is the kind of kid Bradley needs, and if Bradley accepts him, I am all for it.


By the way, South Plains takes on Ranger College in their first game of the Regional NJCAA playoffs at 3 PM today-

http://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20180307/south-plains-men-try-to-rev-up-at-regional-tournament

[tornado]

I am surprised to hear we are pursuing a juco guard.....

one of our losses (Jojo McGlaston) was a similar but slightly taller player - a very athletic wing player that we were counting on to score reliably and help break those nasty scoring droughts we seem to have too many of.
Unfortunately we never got that out of Jojo but perhaps Brangers fits the bill.

Brangers is actually a much better outside shooter which might force defenses further out and help our inside game and our ability to drive the lane.

If we can land him, he might be battle tested and ready for playing immediately and contributing.

-- Brangers' inability to get eligible at WKU in 2017 had to do with some of his 1st year juco classes not transferring -
but ..now he has returned to juco for 2017-18, completed all necessary courses and will get his Associates Degree- so he should be just fine.
(while enrolled for summer classes at WKU, he did go on their Costa Rica exhibition tour- he averaged 15.7 in 3 games and was 12-28 (43%) from 3-pt )
He would have been headed to Colorado State with no problem except with Eustachy's firing, he now wants to reopen his options.
According to some reports, because he played in those exhibition games for WKU, he may have only one year remaining of DI eligibility,
but that could work to Bradley's advantage as Boya may not make it in 2018 and the one-year-only might limit the other offers he gets.

BTW-
South Plains takes on Ranger College (22- at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of the NJCAA Region V Tournament

[ihatetea]

one of our losses (Jojo McGlaston) was a similar but slightly taller player - a very athletic wing player that we were counting on to score reliably and help break those nasty scoring droughts we seem to have too many of.
Unfortunately we never got that out of Jojo but perhaps Brangers fits the bill.

Brangers is actually a much better outside shooter which might force defenses further out and help our inside game and our ability to drive the lane.

If we can land him, he might be battle tested and ready for playing immediately and contributing.


BTW-
South Plains takes on Ranger College (22- at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of the NJCAA Region V Tournament

Armon Brummett is supposed to be a similar player to Jojo. Getting two guys to play the role of one departing player doesn’t make too much sense. When one wing and a forward leave the program and you replace them with a wing and a guard, it reasonably makes you wonder if there is a guard that might be leaving that we aren’t currently aware of.

It’s not like we have more inside players than outside and can afford to have a class entirely focused on outside guys.

Edit: for dc’s sake I should mention none of this matters if he isn’t a commit ;-p

[Da Coach]

Brangers is a big time scorer with unlimited range. He is not like Brummett nor like anyone we currently have. I don't know if we have a chance with him, but any time you can get a player like him that can elevate a program all by himself, you've got to go for it.
We lost the game to Loyola when we stalled out and didn't score for the last 5 minutes of the game. I think that would have been different with a clutch scorer like Brangers.
Plus, it is not so easy to just go get another inside player like Donte Thomas, especially this late in the recruiting cycle. I am sure our coaches are still trying to land a big wing or inside guy.

[ihatetea]

Brangers is a big time scorer with unlimited range. He is not like Brummett nor like anyone we currently have. I don't know if we have a chance with him, but any time you can get a player like him that can elevate a program all by himself, you've got to go for it.
We lost the game to Loyola when we stalled out and didn't score for the last 5 minutes of the game. I think that would have been different with a clutch scorer like Brangers.
Plus, it is not so easy to just go get another inside player like Donte Thomas, especially this late in the recruiting cycle. I am sure our coaches are still trying to land a big wing or inside guy.

This is all true. Our biggest weakness last year was finding another guy who could consistently score. Someone who could create and make shots.

We only have 2 bigs currently slated to be on the team next year who were consistently in the rotation. The main point of my posts were merely playing devils advocate: what does interest in a combo guard mean at this point in the year, with the roster we are aware of having moving forward? If LVB can stay out of the doghouse, stipo can beef up a bit and comfortably handle bigger players, and cal can improve the shortcomings that have kept him at the end of the bench this year then there aren’t any un-broadcasted motives. That’s a lot of ifs. So I’m just stating the logical alternative.

[Da Coach]

I think we will see another roster spot open up (a big man), and all you have to do is look at the stats and see who played the fewest minutes. Every year we have lost players early, and they were always the guys at the low end of the list of minutes played. I am confident we will land at least one more big man.

[tornado]

Brangers is said to be an outstanding ballhandler * - something we can use a little backup with..
..it is also known that Brangers spent one other year at a small college in KY but did not play - http://www.lubbockonline.com/sports-...n-south-plains
He left HS in 2013, got his GED and enrolled there in fall of 2014, thus his "clock" has only one year of eligibility left.

[ihatetea]

My initial post said I hope we aren??™t pursuing him because a starter is gonna transfer. To be perfectly transparent, I was referring to Darell Brown. The theory is that if Penny Hardaway takes the not-yet-open Memphis job, there could be a strong urge for DB to go home to play for a Memphis basketball legend who was the name sake of DB??™s AAU team. (Idk if Penny coached or sponsored the team but I assume he was involved with it)

I don??™t want to see him leave. Brangers would fill a big need, imo our second biggest hole after replacing the production in the front court from Donte??™s graduation. If no one transfers a commitment from Brangers would block our ability to address need number one. Taking every factor into consideration it comes back to me saying I hope DB doesn??™t transfer and that our interest in Brangers isn??™t a sign DB is considering it.

I acknowledge what you are saying DC. I just wanted to share my thoughts and theories on this forum that I??™ve always seen as a place for BU fans to share thoughts and theories. I can honestly say that I don??™t want any of the players currently on the team to transfer unlike most of the years past. I like them and reapect the ones who came to a bottom feeder program and stuck around to help build it back into a potential contender. I want LVB and Barker to graduate as Braves.

[Da Coach]

Penny Hardaway did coach the Team Penny AAU team. This season he is in his first year as head coach at Memphis East HS, so he is not as involved but he is still involved with the AAU team. And he has supposedly already said he would separate himself from the AAU program, and stop supporting it if he were to get a college coaching job.
Penny Hardaway is also friends with Darrell Brown's family and is Darrell's Godfather. But despite their closeness to Hardaway, I do not think DB will bolt to go play at Memphis if Penny gets the job. But who knows.

[tornado]

Re: Jordan Brangers...
South Plains takes on Ranger College (22- at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of the NJCAA Region V Tournament

South Plains beats Ranger College 89-75

Jordan Brangers was very good - 18 pts/5 rebs/2 asst...4-11 from 3pt,
South Plains advances and plays Friday at 1pm vs. McLennan (who advanced over Clarendon, shooting 50 attempts from the FT line (31-50))

http://njcaaregion5.com/information/2018_men-s_BBAll_bracket_updated.pdf

https://portal.stretchinternet.com/regionv/

if you want to watch today's game here's a link to an archived stream of it - Brangers is #23 in white

https://portal.stretchinternet.com/regionv/portal.htm?eventId=433518&streamType=video