We Need Shooters Bad!

[DeanMartin]

We have the best 2 shooters in the state of Illinois. Nate Kennell can't get here fast enough, and AJ Youngman is right in our backyard at Manual. He really impressed me at Richwoods. Very polished skills & much better than I expected on defense. If we could some how convince him to stay home in Peoria and help turn us around, we would have a lethal combination from behind the arc. Does anyone know if AJ has a favorite school yet? How well does Kennell know Youngman, anybody know?

[Da Coach]

I agree. I think A.J. would fit great at Bradley. Has anyone heard if Bradley is still recruiting him?

[Vent]

We need scholarships in order to get shooters. As it stands right now, we are out of scholarships.

[lightsout]

We need scholarships in order to get shooters. As it stands right now, we are out of scholarships.

I would be shocked if at least two scholarships didn't open up at the end of the season. It's just the nature of college basketball today .

[Chico]

I would be shocked if at least two scholarships didn't open up at the end of the season. It's just the nature of college basketball today .

Especially with this many Freshmen on the roster.

[Vent]

I also think there will be scholarships open up. Maybe even three or four. I believe as the season progresses, some of those players will see their minutes reduced and others may get home sick.

[tornado]

I see where Kirk Wessler has entered this argument about needing SHOOTERS with this statement

Bradley has not had a pure shooter since Andrew Warren, who was recruited and signed 10 years ago. Nate Kennell appears likely to break that streak, but he's only one guy. Several more are needed. Maybe Luuk van Bree and Antoine Pittman become good, consistent shooters; they have good strokes. We'll see. But look around at the "mid-major" programs who have had consistent success in the 21st century. With very few exceptions, a common thread is that half or more of the roster shoots well.
The "blame" -- to stick with the theme of the thread -- is shared. Les did not sign any shooters in his last five classes. Geno signed none in his four. While the jury is out on Wardle, data through 12 games indicates his first class yielded none and there's only one probable so far in the second.

So he immediately points the blame at Jim Les ....contending this its a problem dating to 2005. LOL!

A few of the facts as I see them - you decide...

#1- KW seems to stumble onto the fact that recruiting shooters is important.
The simplest of searches on this board will show, as we have done in this thread, we have had dozens of fans/posters who have been saying that exact same thing for the past 4-5 years....so Kirk is a little late to the party...

BTW- we have just come off the WORST 4 year stretch of shooting that any Bradley fan could recall. We have been the worst in 3-pt shooting over these last 4 years and none of our players other than possibly a couple of the Jim Les holdovers could help us a bit with their 3-pt shooting.
So the question needs to be asked...why does he only now bring this topic up? Where's he been the last four years with this argument?
Gimme a break - he never said a thing for four years while Geno filled the roster with horrible shooters and guys who couldn't even make layups or FT's and all the time Kirk was calling them "difference makers", "go to guys", and "deeper & more talented"!


#2- "Les did not sign any shooters in his last five classes."
Well, I beg to differ...
Jim Les' last five "CLASSES" that were signed to come to Bradley included:

-2007-08 - Andrew Warren (career 40.2% shooter- as good as anyone else in the Valley in that era), Will Egolf (the best 3-pt shooting big man we've had in a couple decades at 36% his senior year), Sam Maniscalco (3 separate seasons of 35% or better - career 34% shooter), Theron Wilson (hit 41.2% from the arc his junior year and 51.4% in conference play in 2007-08- good enough for BEST in ENTIRE MVC - LINK
-2008-09 - Dodie Dunson was a 38% 3-pt shooter on his career (better career 3-pt pct than UNI's Ali Farokhmanesh), Chris Roberts hit 36% on his career
-2009-10 - DSE wasn't great but he & Walt Lemon were the top two 3-pt shooters by far in Geno's first couple years
-2010-11 - Walt wasn't great but his 35% in Geno's 1st couple seasons was all Geno had!
-2011-12 - hey, I know this class never played for Jim, but Nate Well's three's save a couple wins for Geno and don't forget we had Remy Abell signed who shot OVER 40% his first THREE seasons in DI and will end his career at around 40% and also had a 48.5% season while at IU playing against far tougher defenses than anyone Geno recruited ever saw.

OK - so who has Geno recruited that compares?
I say 9 of the TOP 10 3-pt shooters recruited in the past 10 seasons were all Jim Les recruits, NOT Geno's- you decide

[Buesch N Chips]

You had me until you said Nate Wells.

[tornado]

You had me until you said Nate Wells.

maybe, but two thoughts...

-not Nate Wells' fault that he had to sit the bench for 4 years when he was better than the guys we had on the floor

-the ONLY TWO WINS we had last year after January 24th....seriously - the only two wins in the whole 2nd half of the MVC season (Nate had two 3's to win the game at Evansville and he went 5-10 with 6 rebs to win the Tourney game vs Drake) were only because Nate shot better than anyone else we had out there

[PhiAlphaBoy]

I see where Kirk Wessler has entered this argument about needing SHOOTERS

-2007-08 - Andrew Warren (career 40.2% shooter- as good as anyone else in the Valley in that era), Will Egolf (the best 3-pt shooting big man we've had in a couple decades at 36% his senior year), Sam Maniscalco (3 separate seasons of 35% or better - career 34% shooter), Theron Wilson (hit 41.2% from the arc his junior year and 51.4% in conference play in 2007-08- good enough for BEST in ENTIRE MVC - LINK
-2008-09 - Dodie Dunson was a 38% 3-pt shooter on his career (better career 3-pt pct than UNI's Ali Farokhmanesh), Chris Roberts hit 36% on his career
-2009-10 - DSE wasn't great but he & Walt Lemon were the top two 3-pt shooters by far in Geno's first couple years
-2010-11 - Walt wasn't great but his 35% in Geno's 1st couple seasons was all Geno had!
-2011-12 - hey, I know this class never played for Jim, but Nate Well's three's save a couple wins for Geno and don't forget we had Remy Abell signed who shot OVER 40% his first THREE seasons in DI and will end his career at around 40% and also had a 48.5% season while at IU playing against far tougher defenses than anyone Geno recruited ever saw.

OK - so who has Geno recruited that compares?
I say 9 of the TOP 10 3-pt shooters recruited in the past 10 seasons were all Jim Les recruits, NOT Geno's- you decide

Wessler may have mis-counted the number of classes but his point regarding Bradley's long drought of recruiting pure 3-point shooters was pretty accurate. Outside of Warren and Wilson every class after that was void of any pure outside shooters. No one since those two struck fear into the heart of the opponent, or gave Bradley teammates and fans confidence in consistency.

[tornado]

OK, then let me make my point one other way...our 3-pt shooting was just as good as anyone else's in the MVC right up 'til the Geno Ford era.

All the way from 2005 thru 2012 we always were either among the leaders in the MVC in 3-pt shooting or we had players at the top of the leaderboard.
But after GF took over we never did again and consistently had the worst 3-pt shooting team in the MVC year after year.

If you want to fall for Kirk's spin and effort to point all the blame at Jim Les, then you are free to do so but what he's doing is exactly what he has repeatedly done since Geno took over - he's trying to re-write history and claim all the losing, all the poor recruiting, all the empty arenas, all the loss in donations, all the loss of fans, etc...
all were Jim Les' fault and that absolutely none of it can be blamed on Geno Ford. He's about as strangely obsessed with shoring up Geno's legacy by denying the facts and trying to misstate and rewrite history as can be.
You're free to believe his rewrite of the facts but I reserve the right to refute his BS and post the truth & the facts.

One more thing- after JL left here & went to UC-Davis, they instantly became not just one of the best 3-pt shooting teams in their conference, but in the NATION every year he's been there.

[lefty]

I guess I don't see where he put's all the blame on Les.....

[PhiAlphaBoy]

I guess I don't see where he put's all the blame on Les.....

I agree. I actually think he placed most of the blame on Geno Ford, and only on Les' last few recruiting classes. I thought that was an accurate depiction of the facts. And I'm glad Les has had good shooting teams at Davis since that's critical to his success with the offense he runs. If his recruiting of shooters dries up again at Davis he may see a similar downward trend that we all experienced at Bradley over his last few seasons.

[Vent]

We also need more guys that can see the whole floor while dribbling and pass the ball better. We also need players that create more assists than turnovers. It is a requirement to be competitive at the Division I level.

[lefty]

We also need more guys that can see the whole floor while dribbling and pass the ball better. We also need players that create more assists than turnovers. It is a requirement to be competitive at the Division I level.

I think some of the assist/turnover situation will work out when you have better shooters.......teams can sag since we don't shoot well which clogs up the lane and we seem to try and still penetrate when we shouldn't......