Jerome Merritt visiting Bradley this weekend

[tornado]

Jerome Merritt, athletic 6-5 wing from Florida - who we just offered last week - will be visiting Bradley this weekend

Hopefully we get another LOI ...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26238

[Da Coach]

Jerome Merritt is scheduled to visit starting Sunday (4/17).

[tornado]

will we hear of a verbal?? There are some pretty glowing reports of Merritt's play at one recent event and at his workouts

[Da Coach]

I can confirm that Jerome Merritt arrived on the Bradley campus tonight for his official visit.

[tornado]

will we hear of a verbal??...

not only a verbal but he signed his Letter of Intent!

https://twitter.com/OCSHoops/status/722209176475340800?lang=en

[Da Coach]

Jerome Merritt signing his NLI for Bradley

https://twitter.com/EvanDaniels/status/722198164476977154

Welcome to Bradley!

[Big Mike]

Wow...that was quick......good news! But

[LongTimeFan]

We have to trust the coaching staff's opinions. However, everything we read earlier seemed to point to JC players for the last two scholarships. The emphasis was on getting help for next year. This would seem to mean it was not possible to get two quality JC players to come to a five-win school. Most of the time those want to go to a school more likely to get in post-season tournaments.

Hope I am missing something here like someone who can really help Bradley get more wins in the next two seasons.

[Da Coach]

I think that is the key for us fans- we have to have faith in the coaches' judgement. In the limited videos we can see, Merritt reminds me a little of what we saw in Donte Thomas when he was in high school. We don't have accurate stats to go by, but from the videos, it looks like Merritt doesn't take many perimeter shots, and he appears to get most of his points at the basket.
He played with 4 other high-major D1 talents on his team this past season, 3 of whom were seniors, and all of them were rated higher than Merritt was going into the 2015-16 season. But according to articles I can find about their games, Merritt was frequently the leading scorer in their games. So I believe he has potential, and he is very athletic. And if there was one major deficiency Bradley had last year that really hurt them, it was their lack of athleticism.

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/cOve2eCtWkWXzePMRsNL7A/maxpreps-2015-16-high-school-basketball-early-contenders,-presented-by-dicks-sporting-goods-and-under-armour--oldsmar-christian.htm

[Vent]

Do you know the other schools we were competing with to get him?

[Da Coach]

He had offers from UNC-Greensboro and Florida International, and interest from Ohio, Bowling Green, New Orleans, Alcorn State, Illinois State, Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville, and Louisiana Tech.

[Vent]

Other than Illinois State, there wasn't much competition.

[tornado]

we have seen it every spring - the competition heats up as teams get deeper into the signing period with open scholarships..
If you wait (as in Freddie McSwain) then you lose them - we got him to sign now..

[PhiAlphaBoy]

If you wait (as in Freddie McSwain) then you lose them - we got him to sign now..

Exactly! We had too many cases with our last two coaches where they went fishing for the big fish and came up empty. Hence, why our program is currently in the toilet. Lesson: When the sale is closed CLOSE IT!

[Vent]

we have seen it every spring - the competition heats up as teams get deeper into the signing period with open scholarships..
If you wait (as in Freddie McSwain) then you lose them - we got him to sign now..

Hopefully he turns out to be a good player. I'm sure Wardle is a better judge of talent than I am. But, other than Illinois State and maybe Bowling Green, the schools we competed against are not schools that command much of a walk up sale for game day tickets.