Valley Recruits

[Da Coach]

...I know we only have one scholarship available for next year at this time. However, transferring has become a factor in college rosters.

If I understand all these one-time new NCAA rules, Bradley could have 3 scholarships available for the 2022 recruiting class.
Ja'Shon Henry, Ari Boya, and Mikie Howell are all seniors or grad students on scholarship, whose scholarships will be available.
If Henry and Boya graduate and leave, clearly their scholarships would become available to re-use.

The question is, if Ja'Shon or Ari decide to stay and take advantage of the "bonus year", will the NCAA count their scholarships against the usual maximum of 13?

[yoda]

As I understand all these one-time new NCAA rules, Bradley could have 3 scholarships available for the 2022 recruiting class.
Ja'Shon Henry, Ari Boya, and Mikie Howell are all seniors or grad students on scholarship, whose scholarships will be available.
If Henry and Boya graduate and leave, clearly their scholarships would become available to re-use.

The question is, if Ja'Shon or Ari decide to stay and take advantage of the "bonus year", will the NCAA count their scholarships against the usual maximum of 13?

not sure this is the case, NCAA ruling that the additional year not counting against scholarship limits applied only to seniors last year (2020-21)

"Seniors will be permitted to return next year and not count against a sport's roster or scholarship limits. Underclassmen will get access to a waiver they can use to extend their careers, but beyond the 2021-22 academic year, those athletes will count against scholarship and roster limits."
https://www.king5.com/article/news/h...0-a6db9200af2e

"Members (of the NCAA Committee) also adjusted financial aid rules to allow teams to carry more members on scholarship to account for incoming recruits and student-athletes who had been in their last year of eligibility (meaning those who were seniors in 2020-21) who decide to stay."
https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources...acted-covid-19

[Da Coach]

As I said above, Howell's scholarship will definitely open. And Henry and Boya are seniors, so their scholarship will definitely open if they graduate and leave, as scholarships always have. That makes 3 scholarships that appear to be open for 2022.
The question is what happens if Henry or Boya decide to take advantage of the NCAA's offer of the extra "bonus year".

Well, we will eventually find out. The NCAA has done a really poor job of clarifying all this. The NCAA release that you quoted DOES NOT SPECIFICALLY STATE THAT IT APPLIES ONLY TO 2020-21. The part where you inserted "(meaning those who were seniors in 2020-21)" into the NCAA quotation is not part of the NCAA statement and was added by you. The NCAA's statement could be interpreted to be referring to any senior in their last season of eligibility who has been granted the extra year, now or in future seasons.
You may be right, but then it seems that would cause a lot of confusion, since D1 coaches would not have any way to know how many scholarships they will have available for this recruiting year, since most seniors aren't going to make the decision to return for their "bonus year" until the end of the season.

[yoda]

the NCAA statement is pretty clear.
The writeup in the Washington Post says
"beyond the 2021-22 academic year, those athletes will count against scholarship and roster limits"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...0ca_story.html

it only makes sense, why would NCAA continue that rule all the way thru 2025 or possibly even 2026 is a kid redshirts.

[Da Coach]

Indiana State lands a 2022 recruit, Robbie Avila, from Oak Forest HS. He was a Bradley recruit at one time.
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...699#post499699

2022 MVC commitments so far-
Drake- Will Lovings-Watts, Sardaar Calhoun
Evansville- Logan McIntire
Illinois State- Takai Simpkins, Tajuan Simpkins
Indiana State- Robbie Avila
Loyola- Treyvon Lewis, Jayden Dawson, Jalen Quinn
Missouri State- Jonathan Dunn, Jalen Hampton, N.J. Benson
SIU- Cade Hornecker
UNI- Trey Campbell
Valparaiso- Maximus Nelson

[Da Coach]

[QUOTE=Da Coach;n499700]Indiana State lands a 2022 recruit, Robbie Avila, from Oak Forest HS. He was a Bradley recruit at one time.
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...699#post499699

2022 MVC commitments so far-
Drake- Will Lovings-Watts, Sardaar Calhoun
Evansville- Logan McIntire
Indiana State- Robbie Avila
Loyola- Treyvon Lewis, Jayden Dawson, Jalen Quinn
Missouri State- Jonathan Dunn, Jalen Hampton, N.J. Benson
SIU- Cade Hornecker
UNI- Trey Campbell
Valparaiso- Maximus Nelson



Drake has 8 seniors, including four 5th year seniors, and up to now they only had 1 commitment for the class of 2022. But last night they added a transfer, Sardaar Calhoun, a 6'6" shooting guard who is transferring from Texas Tech.
He has had a slightly convoluted past. He graduated from Blue Ridge HS in Tappahannock, Virginia in 2018, and spent 2 seasons at Missouri West Plains Community College. Then he committed to Florida State, and played the 2020-21 season there. He played in 25 games off the bench for Florida State, and averaged 5.3 ppg. But he left the team and transferred to Texas Tech, where he was granted immediate eligibility. He played in just 8 games at Texas Tech this season (2021-22), averaged 8 minutes per game, and 3.5 ppg before quitting the team 2 weeks ago in mid-season and entering the Transfer Portal a second time.
https://www.kcbd.com/2022/01/11/calh...tball-program/

So he has already quit on 2 other Division I schools (Florida State & Texas Tech), and now will transfer to Drake. Because of the NCAA Covid ruling, he will have 1 season of eligibility if he stays at Drake.

[DUBulldog]

Drake has 8 seniors, including four 5th year seniors, and up to now they only had 1 commitment for the class of 2022. But last night they added a transfer, Sardaar Calhoun, a 6'6" shooting guard who is transferring from Texas Tech.

The extra season given to all players due to COVID has made recruiting somewhat different this year. If all 4 of Drake's true seniors (Penn, Wilkins, Sturtz, Brodie) come back and there are no transfers, then Drake has no available scholarships. They're at 15 this year due to the one year exception to the 13 scholarship limit. They'll lose the 4 "super-seniors" bringing them back to 11. The two signees, Lovings-Watts and Calhoun bring the Bulldogs to the max of 13.

[Da Coach]

A lot of coaches have to do some calculating and guessing with their scholarships this year, and for another couple years with the NCAA Covid-extra year rule.
Bradley Coach Wardle has 2 seniors who are eligible to return (Henry & Boya), so there is only 1 scholarship that is 100% sure to be available (Howell's).
However, it's possible one or both of the seniors might opt not to return, or there might be other non-seniors who opt to enter the transfer portal. Those variables, which the coaches have to try to plan for, will determine how many scholarships can be given out. That uncertainty is probably the main reason we haven't gotten any commitments yet.

[LongTimeFan]

I would think playing time for the sophomore class and older would be an indication of possible transfers. However, the fans can never read the coach's or players' minds.

[Da Coach]

I would think playing time for the sophomore class and older would be an indication of possible transfers. However, the fans can never read the coach's or players' minds.

You are right, playing time is historically one of the better predictors of which players might want to transfer. But in the last couple years, it has become less so.
In the last few years, players seem to transfer for lots of other reasons- coaching changes, wanting to play for a better team, better chance at playing in the NCAA tournament, wanting to play closer to home, just didn't get along with the coach, and more. And especially last season with the new NCAA rule allowing immediate eligibility.
Example: After last season, 5 of Bradley's top 8 players in minutes played entered the Transfer Portal and left Bradley. Three were regular starters, and two were part-time starters. Those 5 transfers averaged between 19.4 mpg and 31.1 mpg.

Last year's NCAA transfer rule change triggered an avalanche of transfers. The Transfer portal ballooned from about 1000 transfers in 2020 to 1730 in 2021.

[LongTimeFan]

Due to the Missouri issue, several were not returning to Bradley for this year for reasons best not to bring up again. Another guard was recruited over. East transferring did hurt.

[Da Coach]

Illinois State received 2 verbal commitments tonight-
Takai Simpkins- a 6'3" guard from Liberty Heights Athletic Institute, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tajuan Simpkins- a 6'4" guard from Liberty Heights Athletic Institute, in Charlotte, North Carolina

They are twin brothers, and Illinois State was the only Division I offer they received. They visited the ISU campus this week, and gave a verbal commitment last night. They wanted to play together at the same D1 school.
https://pantagraph.com/sports/colleg...d827a0449.html
https://phenomhoopreport.com/commitm...illinois-state

These 2 commitments guarantees that one or more current players will be leaving ISU before their eligibility is elapsed. There is only one senior on their roster, juco transfer Josiah Strong. However, he is one of their top scorers, and has another year of eligibility due to the NCAA rule from last season, so it would seem that Dan Muller would want him to stay another year at ISU. So expect some roster changes at the end of the season. Also, Muller himself could be gone as ISU is headed for a 4th straight Thursday night game in St. Louis.

Updated list of 2022 & 2023 MVC commitments:

2022 MVC commitments so far-
Drake- Will Lovings-Watts, Sardaar Calhoun
Evansville- Logan McIntire
Illinois State- Takai Simpkins, Tajuan Simpkins
Indiana State- Robbie Avila, Jayson Kent
Loyola- Treyvon Lewis, Jayden Dawson, Jalen Quinn
Missouri State- Jonathan Dunn, Jalen Hampton, N.J. Benson
SIU- Cade Hornecker
UNI- Trey Campbell
Valparaiso- Maximus Nelson

[Da Coach]

Updated list of 2022 & 2023 MVC commitments:

2022 MVC commitments so far-
Belmont- Ja'Kobi Gillespie, Kyler Vanderjagt, Keith Robbins, Cade Tyson
Bradley- James "Pop" Weathers
Drake- Will Lovings-Watts, Sardaar Calhoun
Evansville- Logan McIntire
Illinois State- Takai Simpkins, Tajuan Simpkins
Indiana State- Robbie Avila, Jayson Kent
Missouri State- Jonathan Dunn, Jalen Hampton, N.J. Benson, Bryan Trimble, Jr.
Murray State- Braxton Stacker, Justin Morgan, Jaxon Edwards, Corneilous Williams (decommitted 3/29/22)
SIU- Cade Hornecker
UIC- Jalen Jackson, Cameron Fens
UNI- Trey Campbell
Valparaiso- Maximus Nelson, Nick Edwards

2023-

[Da Coach]

Valparaiso gets a commitment from a guard who is transferring from Division II Glenville State-
Nick Edwards- 6'1" senior guard who only played in 11 games this season at D2 Glenville State (West Virginia). He averaged 17.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, and 8 assists per game. He is originally from Atlanta, GA.

https://verbalcommits.com/players/nick-edwards

https://gscpioneers.com/sports/mens-...k-edwards/2922

He is listed as a senior on the Glenville State roster having spent a couple years at a juco (Palm Beach State in Florida), and the last 2 years at Glenville State. So it appears he would have one year of eligibility left due to the Covid year.

Those numbers might be a little inflated by the style of play at Glenville State. They play an extremely high tempo, run and gun style of offense and average scoring 88 points per game, and yielding 89 points per game on defense. As a team, they attempted 1950 shot attempts and 954 three point attempts this season in 28 games. That's an average of 70 FG attempts per game and 34 3-point attempts per game! Both of those numbers are more than any Division I team attempted in 2021-22.

[Da Coach]

Missouri State lands a player off the transfer portal- Bryan Trimble, Jr., a 6'2" shooting guard who played the last 2 seasons at Akron. He is originally from Kansas City, MO and spent his first 2 seasons at St. John's, where he played very little. He transferring to Akron, where he played these last 2 years and was a starter. He averaged 12.0 ppg as a junior, and 10.4 ppg this season as a senior, and averaged less than 1 assist per gamer every year he has played. He has 1 season of eligibility left for his Covid year.
Stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...yan-trimble-jr


2022 MVC commitments so far-
Belmont- Ja'Kobi Gillespie, Kyler Vanderjagt, Keith Robbins, Cade Tyson, Keishawn Davidson
Bradley- James "Pop" Weathers
Drake- Will Lovings-Watts, Sardaar Calhoun
Evansville- Logan McIntire
Illinois State- Takai Simpkins, Tajuan Simpkins
Indiana State- Robbie Avila, Jayson Kent, Courvoisier McCauley
Missouri State- Jonathan Dunn, Jalen Hampton, N.J. Benson, Bryan Trimble, Jr.
Murray State- Braxton Stacker, Justin Morgan, Jaxon Edwards, Corneilous Williams (decommitted 3/29/22)
SIU- Cade Hornecker
UIC- Jalen Jackson, Cameron Fens, Steven Clay
UNI- Trey Campbell
Valparaiso- Maximus Nelson, Nick Edwards

2023-