Recruit Class

[Braves4Life]

My next year prediction

I'm always accused of being a downer, but without Fears and Williams this class is very average.

I saw David Collins play and I was like wow, a 7 footer who can't score, block shots, or rebound, 4 months later he is a brave. I was flippin shocked.

Maniscalco, Egolf, and Thompson are all nice signings, but will take time.

I have no idea why the JUCO from CA fell this far and why he wasn't rated on rivals. I'm not drinking the "he was the guy we wanted all along" Kool-Aid.

Jim Les still hasn't proved he can win consistently on the road, and last year's team had some great chemistry. With so many new players I think next year will be a bigger struggle than we think.

I think early on next year will be a struggle. This team will come in with very high expectations and may struggle prior to MVC play. If they can hold it together, stay above .500 prior to league play, and begin league play on a roll, I believe they have a legitimate chance to win a slightly down MVC.

I am usually pretty accurate on my predictions (I predicted last years team to exceed 17 wins and go to NIT while many others were hoping for .500). I expect next years team to finish 2 or 3 in conference play, WIN the MVC Tourney, and win 2 NCAA Tourney games. Take this to the bank -- Elite Eight in 2008-09!!!!!!!

I'm looking forward to "the ride" next season and seeing if I'm right again

[Garland 22]

I'm always accused of being a downer, but without Fears and Williams this class is very average.

I saw David Collins play and I was like wow, a 7 footer who can't score, block shots, or rebound, 4 months later he is a brave. I was flippin shocked.

Maniscalco, Egolf, and Thompson are all nice signings, but will take time.

I have no idea why the JUCO from CA fell this far and why he wasn't rated on rivals. I'm not drinking the "he was the guy we wanted all along" Kool-Aid.

Jim Les still hasn't proved he can win consistently on the road, and last year's team had some great chemistry. With so many new players I think next year will be a bigger struggle than we think.

Sounds like your typical gloom-and-doom Sox fan.

FWIW, Tony Bennett, Lawrence Wright, and Will Franklin didn't make any JUCO rankings, and they all did just fine, as did the Braves. They will again this year.

Good point, this site is starting to remind me of a cubbie caravan, high on optimism short on reality.

You're right, the Braves have been scraping the bottom of the barrel the past couple of seasons. Especially last year when they won more games away from home than they have in a decade. Yeah, you're right. My bad.

If this site is too pro-BU for you (a fan site being optimistic, what a concept), there's a site associated with a local paper where you'll be right at home. I suggest trying it out.

I suspect Garlands ain't no Newbie like his # of postings suggest.

Points are all well made with the "glass is half-empty" approach. I can accept them. Garlands wants to be the "I told you so" whenever things look bad next year, which is fine and acceptable as well. But, if Garlands is wrong, I suspect Garlands will be gone.

Welcome to BRADLEYFANS.com Garlands.

Certainly not trying the I told you so approach. I was a big fan of the 07 team and I think we are jumping the gun a bit with this recruiting class.

I think many people are very quick to dismiss a lot of the hard nosed intangible things that we lost last year. Zack, JJ, and Danny Adams are kids who started humbly and finished strong. So far all I've seen from this recruiting class is a lot of flashy names that seem to have "issues". Half of the players targeted are not even coming, but we are comparing it to a Versace class?

I came to this board because I live in Missouri and I don't get much BU talk down here. I was suprised to find a site light on real sports commentary.

[dogsrus]

I'm always accused of being a downer, but without Fears and Williams this class is very average.

I saw David Collins play and I was like wow, a 7 footer who can't score, block shots, or rebound, 4 months later he is a brave. I was flippin shocked.

Maniscalco, Egolf, and Thompson are all nice signings, but will take time.

I have no idea why the JUCO from CA fell this far and why he wasn't rated on rivals. I'm not drinking the "he was the guy we wanted all along" Kool-Aid.

Jim Les still hasn't proved he can win consistently on the road, and last year's team had some great chemistry. With so many new players I think next year will be a bigger struggle than we think.

Sounds like your typical gloom-and-doom Sox fan.

FWIW, Tony Bennett, Lawrence Wright, and Will Franklin didn't make any JUCO rankings, and they all did just fine, as did the Braves. They will again this year.

Good point, this site is starting to remind me of a cubbie caravan, high on optimism short on reality.

You're right, the Braves have been scraping the bottom of the barrel the past couple of seasons. Especially last year when they won more games away from home than they have in a decade. Yeah, you're right. My bad.

If this site is too pro-BU for you (a fan site being optimistic, what a concept), there's a site associated with a local paper where you'll be right at home. I suggest trying it out.

I suspect Garlands ain't no Newbie like his # of postings suggest.

Points are all well made with the "glass is half-empty" approach. I can accept them. Garlands wants to be the "I told you so" whenever things look bad next year, which is fine and acceptable as well. But, if Garlands is wrong, I suspect Garlands will be gone.

Welcome to BRADLEYFANS.com Garlands.

Certainly not trying the I told you so approach. I was a big fan of the 07 team and I think we are jumping the gun a bit with this recruiting class.

I think many people are very quick to dismiss a lot of the hard nosed intangible things that we lost last year. Zack, JJ, and Danny Adams are kids who started humbly and finished strong. So far all I've seen from this recruiting class is a lot of flashy names that seem to have "issues". Half of the players targeted are not even coming, but we are comparing it to a Versace class?

I came to this board because I live in Missouri and I don't get much BU talk down here. I was suprised to find a site light on real sports commentary.

Were you a big fan of the 07 team before the season started or after it was over....?

[it's boogie time]

There certainly are a high number of new players, but the biggest thing that gives me optimism that it can be pulled together is that BU has an experienced point guard to run the show.

[Da Coach]

Certainly not trying the I told you so approach. I was a big fan of the 07 team and I think we are jumping the gun a bit with this recruiting class.

I think many people are very quick to dismiss a lot of the hard nosed intangible things that we lost last year. Zack, JJ, and Danny Adams are kids who started humbly and finished strong. So far all I've seen from this recruiting class is a lot of flashy names that seem to have "issues". Half of the players targeted are not even coming, but we are comparing it to a Versace class?

I came to this board because I live in Missouri and I don't get much BU talk down here. I was suprised to find a site light on real sports commentary.

Garlands, you are a little too quick to criticize posters here. If you look back at the predictions for the Bradley team prior to the 2006-2007 season, there were a lot of people that you may have called "kool-aid drinkers" (certainly a lot of people on other boards did), that turned out to be amazingly accurate in their predictions and proved the doubters wrong. It was in fact the "doom and gloomers", most of whom disappeared, who were way off when they predicted a big drop off when Bradley lost great players like Boogie, Bennett, POB, and Cellus.
As I have said before, criticism has been called "the tool of the uninformed", and some have been too quick to criticize these last few teams because they thought it made them look smart, when they failed to see the overall picture of the building of a winning tradition here.
You may still turn out right about this team, but I am not going to doubt them just because they are new guys.

[TheHeemyMonster]

I'm always accused of being a downer, but without Fears and Williams this class is very average.

I saw David Collins play and I was like wow, a 7 footer who can't score, block shots, or rebound, 4 months later he is a brave. I was flippin shocked.

Maniscalco, Egolf, and Thompson are all nice signings, but will take time.

I have no idea why the JUCO from CA fell this far and why he wasn't rated on rivals. I'm not drinking the "he was the guy we wanted all along" Kool-Aid.

Jim Les still hasn't proved he can win consistently on the road, and last year's team had some great chemistry. With so many new players I think next year will be a bigger struggle than we think.

Sounds like your typical gloom-and-doom Sox fan.

FWIW, Tony Bennett, Lawrence Wright, and Will Franklin didn't make any JUCO rankings, and they all did just fine, as did the Braves. They will again this year.

Good point, this site is starting to remind me of a cubbie caravan, high on optimism short on reality.

You're right, the Braves have been scraping the bottom of the barrel the past couple of seasons. Especially last year when they won more games away from home than they have in a decade. Yeah, you're right. My bad.

If this site is too pro-BU for you (a fan site being optimistic, what a concept), there's a site associated with a local paper where you'll be right at home. I suggest trying it out.

I suspect Garlands ain't no Newbie like his # of postings suggest.

Points are all well made with the "glass is half-empty" approach. I can accept them. Garlands wants to be the "I told you so" whenever things look bad next year, which is fine and acceptable as well. But, if Garlands is wrong, I suspect Garlands will be gone.

Welcome to BRADLEYFANS.com Garlands.

Certainly not trying the I told you so approach. I was a big fan of the 07 team and I think we are jumping the gun a bit with this recruiting class.

I think many people are very quick to dismiss a lot of the hard nosed intangible things that we lost last year. Zack, JJ, and Danny Adams are kids who started humbly and finished strong. So far all I've seen from this recruiting class is a lot of flashy names that seem to have "issues". Half of the players targeted are not even coming, but we are comparing it to a Versace class?

I came to this board because I live in Missouri and I don't get much BU talk down here. I was suprised to find a site light on real sports commentary.

Zach, JJ, and danny Adams have been some of my favorite players ever to come through BU. However these are not the type of guys that I would say are tough to replace.

Zach was an athlete but that's about it. He only would score on put backs and dunks and had almost no post game. He traveled every game and was ALWAYS in foul trouble which costs us a few wins

JJ played great defense, but for the most part had no business being on the offensive end on the floor. Every team in the league would give JJ the 3 every game knowing he would never take the shot

Danny is a player who I think we may miss the most just because of his heart and dedication. He could hit the open three consistently which is where we may need a little more help next year(compared to this year)

Also what "issues" are you talking about?? DW is the ONLY guy I can think of that you might have a point, but even if he doesnt come to Bradley because of his grades I still believe we will be COMPLETELY fine.

are you also forgetting we get Ray Brown back?? Also a more experienced AW who showed some signs of greatness last year?

How about still having the best PG in the MVC in DR and the best 3-point shooter in the MVC in JC

How about having a ridiculous amount of size
centers that include heights of- 7'0, 6'10, & 6' 9
power forwards 6'9 6'7 6'7
small forwards 6'6 6'5 6'5 6'5

UNREAL!!
with a top 30 class in the nation we will not have anything to worry about

[Dubl R 1]

I'm always accused of being a downer, but without Fears and Williams this class is very average.

I saw David Collins play and I was like wow, a 7 footer who can't score, block shots, or rebound, 4 months later he is a brave. I was flippin shocked.

Maniscalco, Egolf, and Thompson are all nice signings, but will take time.

I have no idea why the JUCO from CA fell this far and why he wasn't rated on rivals. I'm not drinking the "he was the guy we wanted all along" Kool-Aid.

Jim Les still hasn't proved he can win consistently on the road, and last year's team had some great chemistry. With so many new players I think next year will be a bigger struggle than we think.

You're right, you do sound like a DOWNER.

[Chucky T's]

There certainly are a high number of new players, but the biggest thing that gives me optimism that it can be pulled together is that BU has an experienced point guard to run the show.

good point...and I will take it a step further....Give me Ruff, Crouch, Warren, Salley, Singh, and Ray Brown and I think we could finish in the top six of the conference. Add in our new recruits and it can only help. You can call me a crazy kool-aid drinker or whatever but I see this team being pretty good this year. I think BU will be in the top three in the MVC with a chance to win it all.

[SaintLouBrave22]

There certainly are a high number of new players, but the biggest thing that gives me optimism that it can be pulled together is that BU has an experienced point guard to run the show.

good point...and I will take it a step further....Give me Ruff, Crouch, Warren, Salley, Singh, and Ray Brown and I think we could finish in the top six of the conference. Add in our new recruits and it can only help. You can call me a crazy kool-aid drinker or whatever but I see this team being pretty good this year. I think BU will be in the top three in the MVC with a chance to win it all.

I agree w/ all points except I feel that the new guys will play a bigger part than thought...I could very well see 3 new guys starting (Collins, Austin, and Williams)...and yes, I did say Williams...I think he can still be a big key to our squad...I expect a fierce competition between DW, AW, and RB for that 5th starting spot...

And the size we have now...I mean who else in the conference can rival that...not even the Salukis have that...I'd like to see Falker try to take on Collins AND Austin down low...

Here's a good quote right off...

After a Rashad Austin block on Randal Falker...

Austin 3:16 said I just whipped your ***