Darrell Brown commits to Bradley!

[tornado]

2016 point guard commit!!

This is the kid who was at the game last night...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26041

Darrell says so himself on his personal site-

Seems like a really articulate, mature young man!! - The text of what he says is...

"First, I would like to thank God, my family, coaches, and teammates
for allowing me to play the game and live the lifestyle I LOVE!
Without all of you, I would not be in the position I'm in today.
Also, I would like to thank all of the coaches that took interest and offered me.
It has been a long and thoughtful decision, but I have decided to further
my education and basketball career for the next four years
at Bradley University.

Build the brand.
Braves.
MissouriValleyConference"


This will really give us depth at point guard!!
DLO, Ronnie Suggs and Joel will have experience plus Jayden Hodgson & Darrell Brown can start learning the ropes.
If anyone leaves or gets hurt then the circumstances won't dictate we go to an emergency backup plan as we have kinda done the past five seasons that we failed to build depth at PG.

[Da Coach]

I saw him and his parents at the game last night. They seemed really impressed with the crowd and the game.

Welcome to Bradley Darrell!

[tornado]

... they were really impressed with the crowd and the game....

score another one for the fine Bradley fans!!

btw-- his averages
......... 23.0 PPG, 6.1 APG & 3.0 SPG

[Da Coach]

Here is a new video of Darrell Brown, Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvFFJ5awzs

From what I have read, he plays on a high school team with a couple other D1 caliber guards. Darrell is actually a pass-first point guard, which is what our coaches really like about him, but he is a very good shooter, and can score when needed. He is #5 in that video, making an array of long shots.

[tornado]

here's something interesting--
Darrell tweeted yesterday at 3pm that he was going to commit Sunday at 1pm...and he hadn't even finished his visit nor seen the game last night...
I have a hard time imagining that he would have had Bradley at the top of his list before ever seeing the campus, finishing his visit or seeing the game...
I would interpret this to mean likely he was leaning strongly to going elsewhere and was swayed so much by last night that he committed to Bradley today when he was thinking elsewhere yesterday!

[cpacmel]

Doesn't this put Bradley one scholarship over the limit?

Someone being Wardled out?

[tornado]

It might appear that way - or maybe someone is planning to leave or planning willingly to give up his scholarship as seems to always be the explanation at Creighton, Wichita, or ISU


one of Darrell's high school classmates & good friends at Germantown HS, Jacob Ivey, just verballed and signed to play next year at Eastern Illinois..
so I also gotta think that helped Darrel feel more comfortable coming to Illinois to play

[lefty]

Doesn't this put Bradley one scholarship over the limit?

Someone being Wardled out?

Pretty sure at least 2 will be gone.......

[Da Coach]

The Bradley scholarship grid has been updated. I think it's correct.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/announcement.php?f=9

[Big Mike]

Wow...that was fast! Welcome to the hilltop Darrell!

[Classof77]

Welcome, Darrell! You're going to be part of something special.

[tornado]

wow - talk about interest in Bradley basketball skyrocketing...
even on a Super Bowl Sunday afternoon - traffic is peaking at a couple hundred to find out about our newest Bradley Brave!!!

I checked a few other message boards - and even the busiest - the Shocker board - only had 9 people on, and the ISU & SIU boards had
only 1 or two - but the deadest board of all was....well, you know.....they had only a single YahooBot

and I see practically everything we talk about or mention here get discussed elsewhere on another message board or on people's twitters.
Literally within minutes after news is posted here, it's cut and pasted or tweeted about...people must have BradleyFans loaded on their browser continually!


There's a guy who ruins MemphisHoopers.com - he has more..

[Da Coach]

I think there will be more to come...

[tornado]

The Bradley scholarship grid has been updated. I think it's correct.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/announcement.php?f=9

thanks - BEST Scholarship Grid I have seen - puts those even on the professional pay sites to shame

just for reference...here are the scholarship players who have eligibility remaining plus those potentially coming in

1- Donte Thomas 9.0ppg
2- Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye 8.6 ppg
3- Luuk van Bree 8.6 ppg
4- Ronnie Suggs 8.3 ppg
5- Antoine Pittman 7.7 ppg
6- Callum Barker 5.4 ppg
7- Scottie James 3.7 ppg
8- Davante Cooper 1.6 ppg
9- Joel Okafor 1.3 ppg
10- Alex Foster - redshirting
11- Koch Bar - signed for Fall 2016
12- Nate Kennell - signed for Fall of 2016
13- Jayden Hodgson - committed for Fall of 2016
14- Darrell Brown, Jr. - committed for Fall of 2016

[tornado]

Dave Reynolds has a good column about the newest commit Darrell Brown..

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20160207/SPORTS/160209502

(caution, gobs of pop-ups and questionnaires that pop up before you can access article - even if you are a subscriber)


apparently this one was influenced by our assistant Jimmie Foster's connections...
and the fans can be proud as they obviously created the very atmosphere that appealed to Darrell & his family!!
I have to think he knew that some of his other offers would be as a back-up or deep sub for a few years and some were with the requirement to redshirt...
I think he has a great chance to start here from day-1