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Bradley commit for the 2020-21 season- Thomas Hall

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Former Metamora star forward Thomas Hall graduated high school in 2019 and spent last season (2019-20) at the Air Force Prep Academy. It is a prep academy on the campus of the Air Force Academy, and their students usually matriculate to the AF Academy. But Thomas has left and will enroll at Bradley and play for the Braves in the 2020-21 season. Bradley does not have any open scholarships, so we assume he will be a non-scholarship player for this coming year.
Welcome Thomas Hall to Bradley!!

Hall is a skilled 6'9" forward, who also played quarterback for the Metamora football team. He had an unfortunate serious knee injury his senior year while playing in the state football playoffs and the injury cost him most of his senior season on the basketball team. Despite his senior year injury and limited playing time, he had D1 offers from NJIT, Stetson, High Point, and Little Rock, but decided to attend the Air Force Prep Academy.
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com...de/1879461886/
http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/thomas-hall

Bradley was involved in recruiting Hall at Metamora-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...000#post466000
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...073#post466073

He was All-State in 5A football-
https://www.metamoraherald.com/2018/...lly-named.html
 
This tweet from Thomas Hall confirms his commitment to Bradley-
https://twitter.com/Hall_Thomas14/st...81007625404421

EfV_0HVWsAAdkcz
EfV_0HXWAAEbNVO
 
Starting to be a legacy of Bradley guards from my alma mater, Metamora.
Zobrist, Adams, Kennel, Hall, ?, ?....
 
Hall is not really a guard. He is nearly 6'9", and plays a wing forward position. I saw him play for Metamora his junior year when he helped lead a talented team to the Supersectional against Marian Catholic HS. They should have advanced to the 4-team Class 3A state finals, but a couple of horrible blown calls by the officials gave the game to Marian Catholic. He is a talented player who was quite thin in high school. But with some muscle and with the talent he has, he could help Bradley.

Btw, here is the story of how Metamora was cheated out of a place in the state playoffs in Carver Arena in March, 2018. Hall's clear 3-pointer was mistakenly ruled a 2-pointer because the official was confused by the 2 different 3-point lines. Hall's toe was on the college 3-point line, which was more than a foot behind the high school 3-point line and should have been a three. That would have given Metamora a 1-point lead with seconds left. The Redbirds had 3 fouls to give, so very likely with the lead and only a few seconds left, they would have been able to prevent Marian Catholic from winning the game with their buzzer beater.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHhATaQtLY4
https://www.pjstar.com/sports/201803...t-in-3a-supers
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...302#post459302
 
Article from Journal Star. It mentions "Bradley has had success tapping Metamora for talent in the past."
But then only names Nate Kennell (2016-2020) and Aaron Zobrist (1993-1997). Why no mention of Danny Adams (2002-2007)? Danny was a key part of Jim Les' 2005-06 22-win Sweet 16 team, as well as the 22-win 2006-07 NIT team when he shot 41.5% on threes for that season.

Trivia: Bradley has had one other player from Metamora in their 117 year history. Anyone know who it was?
 
Yes, lifelong Metamora resident Bobby Garber was a fan favorite in his day. He played for Bradley from 1945-1949 and appeared in 111 games and scored 509 points. He was a small player who was an outstanding dribbler, which came in handy in those days when there was no shot clock. He played on some good teams of the late 1940's and was a teammate of Joe Stowell's for several years. Unfortunately, Bobby passed away about a year ago-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...ero#post487836
 
Da Coach said:
Article from Journal Star. It mentions "Bradley has had success tapping Metamora for talent in the past."
But then only names Nate Kennell (2016-2020) and Aaron Zobrist (1993-1997). Why no mention of Danny Adams (2002-2007)? Danny was a key part of Jim Les' 2005-06 22-win Sweet 16 team, as well as the 22-win 2006-07 NIT team when he shot 41.5% on threes for that season.

Trivia: Bradley has had one other player from Metamora in their 117 year history. Anyone know who it was?
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Yeah that’s crap. DA deserves more respect than to be forgotten by the pjs. I see Danny at a lot of games to this day.
 
Any info his knee condition and whether he worked on his body while sitting out last year?

If he gets a waiver, would he have 4 years eligibility left? I realize he may not want to play basketball for 4 more years as a walk-on.
 
He's been working out and is in good shape. I have family that knows his family, so I hope to learn more about him and how the knee is doing.
 
Update on Thomas Hall:
First, to clarify what has been reported in the Peoria Journal Star, didn't attend Air Force Academy last season. He attended and played on the Air Force Preparatory Academy team. It is a prep academy that is part of the Air Force Academy.-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...aratory_School

The article in the PJ Star is incorrect. He was never enrolled in the Air Force Academy.
His knee injury is 100% healed. He competed for the AF Prep Academy team in 2019-20, but info about their games and stats are nearly impossible to find.
The Prep team does not compete against Division I opponents like the AF Academy team does, but they play against junior colleges, and junior varsity teams.
Here is a video of a game between the Air Force Academy Prep team and Casper College (a junior college in Wyoming). Thomas Hall is #25 in the white uniform. He starts and plays most of the game-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8CA...ature=youtu.be

Thomas Hall and his family say he has 4 years of eligibility left.
And since Bradley does not have any open scholarships currently that we know of, we assume he will join the team as a non-scholarship player for 2020-21.
On his twitter page, Thomas says he will be a class of 2024 graduate at Bradley-
https://twitter.com/hall_thomas14
 
Dub said:
Yeah that’s crap. DA deserves more respect than to be forgotten by the pjs. I see Danny at a lot of games to this day.
Click to expand...

Absolutely!

And I recall the 2007 NIT game vs Providence, late in the game and in the overtime, as soon as Bradley scored or had to go on the defensive.... DA bodied up and distracted their biggest player all the way down the court. I swear I think it not only mentally messed with the player but physically wore him down a little. I could be wrong, and maybe I am not remembering it correctly.... but I think Bradley mighta played a 1-3-1 with DA on the post? Risky - but it worked.

And I recall Jim Les had the players finally pick apart and step in on their 2-3 zone in OT and make quick short jumpers that opened up the game.
 
It's crazy to me how under Wardle every move just makes our roster stronger than the previous one. Now we've even got scholarship caliber players as walk-ons! This team is stacked, so I sure hope we have a season!
 
MacabreMob said:
Absolutely!

And I recall the 2007 NIT game vs Providence, late in the game and in the overtime, as soon as Bradley scored or had to go on the defensive.... DA bodied up and distracted their biggest player all the way down the court. I swear I think it not only mentally messed with the player but physically wore him down a little. I could be wrong, and maybe I am not remembering it correctly.... but I think Bradley mighta played a 1-3-1 with DA on the post? Risky - but it worked.

And I recall Jim Les had the players finally pick apart and step in on their 2-3 zone in OT and make quick short jumpers that opened up the game.
Click to expand...

Hey, pjs got the article fixed up and DA is re-remembered! Now all seems a little more “right” with the world.
 
Tommy said:
It's crazy to me how under Wardle every move just makes our roster stronger than the previous one. Now we've even got scholarship caliber players as walk-ons! This team is stacked, so I sure hope we have a season!
Click to expand...

We definitely are loaded in talent at all positions but I don’t want to sound negative but I have some doubts this season will be played with fans in the seats...It was such a disappointment after enjoying such a great weekend in St. Louis and watching our team sweep through the tournament and not getting an opportunity to play in the big dance. I really felt we were peaking at the right time and possibly could have pulled off a couple of victories in the tournament. I definitely agree with you Tommy in that this coaching staff has improved the talent every year! Let’s all hope we get back to some sort of normal soon because I for one am so tired of it.....
 
Bradley3342 said:
We definitely are loaded in talent at all positions but I don’t want to sound negative but I have some doubts this season will be played with fans in the seats...It was such a disappointment after enjoying such a great weekend in St. Louis and watching our team sweep through the tournament and not getting an opportunity to play in the big dance. I really felt we were peaking at the right time and possibly could have pulled off a couple of victories in the tournament. I definitely agree with you Tommy in that this coaching staff has improved the talent every year! Let’s all hope we get back to some sort of normal soon because I for one am so tired of it.....
Click to expand...

Dead on, buddy. I have those concerns, too. This Coronavirus panic has gotten completely out of control and if they take away my one hobby, I'm not going to be a happy camper!
 
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