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Can someone (DC?) summarize the other schools that were after Gabriel, Thomas, and VT? They seem like a higher talent level than past classes, but I can't get a good sense from searching online what schools we're competing with at this point. Years ago, BU player bios included "[Player] picked Bradley over . . ." Too bad our sports information folks don't do that anymore -- that was the most interesting part to read through. Anyway thanks in advance for any info.
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Gabriel (committed 9/14/18), Thomas (committed 9/17/18), and Tahvanainen (committed 9/29/18) all committed early to Bradley, and they didn't have many offers when they made their decisions.
Antonio Thomas was also overshadowed by playing on a Memphis East team loaded with other D1 players. The recruiting websites say his only other offer was from University of Tennessee-Martin. But I have no doubt that if he had played his senior year before committing, he would have had a lot more offers.
Stephan Gabriel was also an under-the-radar recruit. He was considered a football recruit out of high school in New Jersey. So, he went to prep school to develop his basketball game and try to attract more recruiting attention. But he decided to take the Bradley offer well before his prep school season.
He had offers from Montana, Montana State, Maine, Fairleigh Dickinson, Wagner, and a couple other East Coast schools.
Ville Tahvanainen was a virtual unknown playing at the Helsinki Basketball Academy, a small school in the capital city of Finland. But then out of nowhere, he had a breakout performance in the 18U Euro Championships A Division in August, 2018 and suddenly some D1 coaches were scheduling recruiting trips to Europe. Our coaches heard about Ville early, and invited him to visit Bradley. So Ville made the trip to Peoria on September 29, 2018, liked what he saw, and committed on the spot before any other D1 schools offered. Our coaches believed they had gotten a steal. Let's hope so.
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Great info DC. It seems like the Bradley staff has done a great job on getting these players committed early. It is crazy how much higher our talent level is now compared to Wardle's first season.Comment
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Speaking of getting players to commit early, the 2020 early signing period starts in 2 days. It runs for one week from Nov. 13-20-Originally posted by BUfan17 View Post
Darius Hannah verbally committed on Sept. 27, and Connor Linke verbally committed October 29.
So it looks like Bradley will get 2 recruits signing a National Letter of Intent some time in the week starting Wednesday, Nov. 13. Could there be another one?
Because Bradley has 3 seniors (Darrell Brown, Koch Bar, Nate Kennell), it appears to leave only 1 other available scholarship for 2020, though that could change. But, in every year under Coach Wardle, there have been additional scholarships that became available.Comment
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