Spring signing period

[tornado]

The spring signing period for National Letter of Intent begins Wednesday, April 13 and continues through Wednesday May 18, 2016.


So, Bradley definitely expects two LOI's - Jayden Hodgson & Darrell Brown -

-but between now & April 13, I suspect we will hear a couple other things...
We may hear about any player who is not planning to be at Bradley next year, and we may hear about one or more additional commits to Bradley for fall of 2016.

[Vent]

With Wardle being from Hoffman Estates, and playing at Marquette, I'd hope we'd be able to start getting some quality players from the Chicago suburbs. Even though we were fortunate to get some pretty good foreign players, that are good kids in this past season's freshman class, there has to be some good players and good kids in the Chicago suburbs. This isn't a criticism of our foreign players. Last year he didn't have much time to recruit. Now that he's got a year of recruiting under his belt and is very well respected in the Chicago area, let's see if he is able to get some kids from Illinois and the Chicago area.

[tornado]

it won't be simple and easy to mend the recruiting relationships and connections that were damaged the past few years...

[Vent]

If Wardle has the contacts and respect, he apparently has in the Chicago area, it won't be a difficult as you may think. The city of Chicago maybe, but not the suburbs. There is a lot of mid major talent in the suburbs. Once again there will not be a team from Illinois going to the NCAA. This is a golden opportunity to get some Illinois players and make BU the best program in the state.

[tornado]

the next 5-10 weeks will be a flurry of activity for a lot of schools that have open scholarships..
Plus, there are gonna be schools that make moves to open up scholarships - Bradley being one of them...
...we already see this "frenzy" as some talented kids are getting new offers almost every day...and dozens of coaches are showing up at juco tourney games & high school games.

There are some pretty good web sites to track the activity - specifically as it impacts Bradley & the MVC - but I kinda think we have one of the best sites right here at BradleyFans...

I am growing more & more bummed at how poor and how outdated the recruiting info is on the major recruiting sites that used to be so good - Rivals.com and scout.com ...
Both seem to ONLY focus on the big schools on the coasts and the 4 & 5-Star recruits only.

For example - note the Rivals list of 2016 recruits for Bradley - they do not even mention any of the recent guys we have offered - guys like Culver - and don't even know about the commit we got a month ago - Darrell Brown.
On top of that they still list Loren Christian Jackson who verballed to Long Beach last fall - and other kids we haven't been involved with for a year.
scout.com still says we are pursuing Brandon Johnson who committed to WMU long, long ago...and we haven't been interested in since Geno left.
scout.com even has several laughable mistakes like listing Ra Kpedi as a 2018 Bradley recruit (he's Class of 2017) and no mention whatsoever of Nate Kennell, Jayden Hodgson, or Darrel Brown - one of the top players in the state of Tennessee.
ESPN at least knows who Darrell Brown is but they spend 90% of their energy writing about where the 5-Star guys go...it's all they care about.
Not sure anyone who cares about mid-majors would even waste their time on that site, let alone pay for the premium content.

[tornado]

Just a little more than 3 weeks away....
we should get TWO signed letters of Intent for sure (Jayden Hodgson, Darrel Brown, Jr.)
but I would hope we get at least 2 or three more (possibilities: McSwain, KBW and maybe a shooter)

[tornado]

Signing period is one week away...

[Vent]

With a year under his belt in recruiting, I'm hoping to have player or two sign that will be step in starters and provide immediate help.

[tornado]

now just four days away...who will land the first surprise??

Here's the list and the guys in red are the ones expected to sign... (unless the plan to walk on)

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=825121718#post825121718

[tornado]

We are less than a day away from the signing period for Letter of Intent
...we should definitely get signed Letters of Intent from Darrell Brown, Jr. and Jayden Hodgson...

of all the names mentioned - it seems that many are now far lesser possibilities..

Merritt, Culver, Rhodes, and a few others are still names we might hear..

[pfcmsh]

How Did This Happen?

it won't be simple and easy to mend the recruiting relationships and connections that were damaged the past few years...

Can anyone shed some light as to why and how Bradley's recruiting relations and connections got damaged in the past few years prior to Coach Wardle and Dr Reynolds arriving?

[Da Coach]

I can't list all the reasons, but here are a couple-
The firing of Jim Les, and how he was treated by the administration (refusing to settle his payment issue for over a year) enraged people at the AAU program that has historically produced the most D1 players among all AAU programs in Illinois- the Illinois Wolves. The betrayal that Carl and Sam Manicalco experienced made it harder for us to get any of the quality D1 players that came from the Wolves, since Carl, along with Mike Mullins, were the key guys running the program.
Also, the previous coaches did not feel it was important to connect to any of the local coaches, and avoided recruiting Chicago until the hiring of Ronald Coleman, but then it might have been too late to mend the recruiting connections there. The Coleman hiring, though it might have helped with one AAU program, further drove a wedge between Bradley and most of the other programs.
Recruiting is tough enough, but especially so when you start alienating important people who can help you.

[LongTimeFan]

The important question is can the fences be mended and how long will it take?

[pfcmsh]

Good Thing Changes Were Made

I can't list all the reasons, but here are a couple-
The firing of Jim Les, and how he was treated by the administration (refusing to settle his payment issue for over a year) enraged people at the AAU program that has historically produced the most D1 players among all AAU programs in Illinois- the Illinois Wolves. The betrayal that Carl and Sam Manicalco experienced made it harder for us to get any of the quality D1 players that came from the Wolves, since Carl, along with Mike Mullins, were the key guys running the program.
Also, the previous coaches did not feel it was important to connect to any of the local coaches, and avoided recruiting Chicago until the hiring of Ronald Coleman, but then it might have been too late to mend the recruiting connections there. The Coleman hiring, though it might have helped with one AAU program, further drove a wedge between Bradley and most of the other programs.
Recruiting is tough enough, but especially so when you start alienating important people who can help you.

It sure is a good thing that changes began. No telling how low we would have sunk with that kind of thing going on. My opinion is that Bradley used to have good connections and relationships in the Windy City. Hundreds of great Chicago area student athletes have helped us for the longest time to be competitive. It is hardly fathomable that anyone would destroy that.

Thank you for the insights into the past.

[tornado]

Can anyone shed some light as to why and how Bradley's recruiting relations and connections got damaged in the past few years ...

Here is what I have observed and it's back up by several links to other references - so check it out...

Remember the several comments we saw from Illinois HS coaches last summer - that they appreciated seeing our staff in their gyms and making stops to watch players?
Often there was an accompanying comment that they HAD NOT SEEN anyone from Bradley in their gym in over four years -
Well, those comments alone tell you something HUGE - that our former staff viewed those relationships are worthless and made zero effort to build any recruiting relationships with 90% of the programs & coaches in Illinois. Now we not only recruit Illinois and have re-established many relationships, but also Wisconsin, Indiana, and recently Memphis...

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=825115332&postcount=5

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=825115335&postcount=6

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20151003/SPORTS/151009769/12701/SPORTS?rssfeed=true&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

From last October:
"nobody from Bradley has set foot in this gym in years. In fact nobody ever even called us"

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=825115686&postcount=11

And we're even establishing similar relationships in INDIANA!

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=825115132&postcount=14

our staff chose over the previous four years to develop close relations with the Mac Irvin Fire...
even hiring one of their guys as our assistant and paying him about twice what other assistants make in hopes he would land us lots of Chicago talent...
We did get Jermaine Morgan, Xzavier Taylor, Josh Cunningham - but certain AAU programs have become intense rivals in and around Chicago - and if you align with one then there can be a sense of alienation with others. Cunningham showed promise but nobody else helped and we didn't get any other Chicago kids.
Note, that once we became connected with the Fire, we never got much of a sniff from any other Illinois kid -
in fact, after that, we couldn't land anyone from anywhere - remember we had zero kids signed or pledged in the class of 2015, and even in the whole year before that all we were able to land were a few obscure juco kids, some with off-court issues, academic shortcomings, & uncertain eligibility (Blake, Amerson..)