Spring signing period

[pfcmsh]

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..)

Thanks again for your help understanding the past. It is really hard to believe. I am so glad we are rid of the past and into the Wardle Reynolds era. We are going to be competitive.

A thought I had.... I had read on here awhile back where one of us was hoping we can recruit Chicago or the burbs. I am sure we can. Coach Wardle had Kieffer Sykes and, if I am not mistaken, he was from The Windy area. Perhaps there are others. I think Coach has an eye for those freakish athletic young men than can help to turn us back to winning tradition.

[lefty]

I don't think the former staff viewed relationships with local coaches as worthless....Wardle's approach may be different and better but that doesn't mean the other staff viewed them as worthless

[bigjimmy]

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..

Today's the day. Any word yet on signings?

[pfcmsh]

Today's the day. Any word yet on signings?

Good point, bigjimmy! I am checking the board every few minutes today.

[Da Coach]

Bradley has officially received the letters of Intent from Darrell Brown, Jr. and Jayden Hodgson-
bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=825121904#post825121904

Welcome to Bradley!

[PhiAlphaBoy]

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.

I won't dispute that the Les firing may have angered his close personal friend Cisco Maniscalco, but the Wolves and other Chicago area programs weren't exactly "placing" their players at BU during the Les era. Jim was forced (or chose) to recruit nationally for many of his players in his later years. So, IMO, this argument is irrelevant and really unnecessary. Like everyone else I'm hopeful that Wardle can resurrect our sinking ship but, personally, I don't care where we get our players from as long as they can play and WIN.

[Da Coach]

I won't dispute that the Les firing may have angered his close personal friend Cisco Maniscalco, but the Wolves and other Chicago area programs weren't exactly "placing" their players at BU during the Les era. Jim was forced (or chose) to recruit nationally for many of his players in his later years. So, IMO, this argument is irrelevant and really unnecessary. Like everyone else I'm hopeful that Wardle can resurrect our sinking ship but, personally, I don't care where we get our players from as long as they can play and WIN.

JL actually recruited many Illinois Wolves players, but didn't land any until Sam Maniscalco. After Sam became a Brave, Jim Les became much closer with the Illinois Wolves guys, and scouted and recruited a number of their players. He nearly landed Evan Turner who was close to leaving Ohio State and transferring to Bradley, and he was recruiting others when he departed Bradley. He has one of their players on his roster now at UC Davis.

I am not saying that the only good recruits were from that program. There are good recruits in every AAU program. I was just answering the question. A midmajor college coach simply can't afford burn too many bridges with AAU coaches like Geno did with Mullins & Maniscalco.

[tornado]

PhiAlphaBoy...
If you had to name the 15-16 best players & double-digit scorers recruited to BU in the last 10-12 years at Bradley, they likely were...(in no particular order)

Marcellus Sommerville
Walt Lemon, Jr.
Dyricus Simms-Edwards
Daniel Ruffin
Sam Maniscalco
Andrew Warren
POB
Tony Bennett
Jeremy Crouch
Zach Andrews
Lawrence Wright
Will Franklin
Theron Wilson
Dodie Dunson
Taylor Brown
Chris Roberts

of those SIXTEEN -
EIGHT came to Bradley from Jim Les' personal connection to local coaches or were Chicago area kids - all from Illinois (Cellus, Lemon, DSE, Ruff, Sam, TB, Crouch, Bennett)
SIX more came from Jim Les' connections to JUCOS in the south or in California (Zach, Boogie, Will, CRob, TB, Theron)

ONLY two came from any other source...and even those (Warren, POB) came from nearby midwest relationships and not from "recruiting nationally"
..
so PhiAlphaBoy, I hafta disagree strongly with you...
Had it not been for the talent we got from those two local & personal sources, we would have had a lot of miserable years from 2005 thru 2011...just like we did from 2011-2015.
You can NOT ignore those local relationships with area coaches, juco coaches and instate & regional AAU programs

[PhiAlphaBoy]

You make some good points Tornado but if you compare Les' last few rosters to Geno's you'll see that Geno had significantly more players from Illinois and surrounding states. Of course, very few of them were actually any good at basketball. That's why I said I don't care where we get our players from as long as they can play ball. Hopefully, Wardle's better than the last coach at finding these players.

[tornado]

... you'll see that Geno had significantly more players from Illinois and surrounding states....

I am not sure how you can say that.
Geno was handed Dyricus, Donivine, Walt Lemon, Prosser, and Maniscalco even still had eligibility and would have stayed after Les left had he not been lied to and betrayed...

Every Illinois kid except Ka'Darryl Bell in Geno's first 3 years was a Jim Les player!


Geno did land Xzavier Taylor and then Josh Cunningham & a couple others in his later years ..but JL had more local guys and they were key kids - not failed, benchwarmers...

[Vent]

Does anybody but a few people even care about the Jim Les vs. Geno Ford era? It is time to get a life and get past it. The Ford era was a failure. The hay day of the Les era was going on 10 years ago. I've shaved several times since then.
We have a new basketball coach. It is time for us to watch the job he does and see how he does in recruiting players to rebuild this program. He is being paid a lot of money to turn it around. I hope he has success. I trust that he will.

[Da Coach]

I understand what you are saying, but it's not hard to understand that there are some people who donated a lot of money to Bradley who feel betrayed by those who for personal reasons made the changes that destroyed the program and wasted all the fans' money and good will.
Nobody is asking to go back to the past, or bring back any past coach. But there are still some who want to continue whitewashing what happened, rewriting history, or blaming the wrong people, including some in our media. So, I have no problem with the facts being presented.

[Chico]

I understand what you are saying, but it's not hard to understand that there are some people who donated a lot of money to Bradley who feel betrayed by those who for personal reasons made the changes that destroyed the program and wasted all the fans' money and good will.
Nobody is asking to go back to the past, or bring back any past coach. But there are still some who want to continue whitewashing what happened, rewriting history, or blaming the wrong people, including some in our media. So, I have no problem with the facts being presented.

+1

[Vent]

History always has and always will be rewritten. That doesn't just apply to Bradley men's basketball. It applies to wars, and just about everything else. I am just saying let's move on to the future. The people that constantly debate about the former coaches are never going to agree. It's like our congress. More harm is being done than good.

[tornado]

someone has to correct the continuous re-write of history that the PJS manufactures