Emarion Ellis commits to BU

[ManMythLegend]

I am going against alot of you guys. I think it is great some many players are interchangeable between positions. I am going to add I think Jonovic will be playing more of a major role than what alot of you think. For the short period of time here he has done very well in the offense. And with several more months of drills and workouts he will get better. I think he needs work on defense but hopefully that will get better also over the summer

I'm with you, I do expect a nice improvement from Jonovic over the off-season and think he will play a solid 10-15 minutes per game as a sophomore.

[BUfan14]

Wardle stated multiple times that he didn't really have a choice but to run Hickman at point a lot this past season, and Hickman is a better fit for the spot. Hickman did a lot right and was a very smart player so that helped as he filled in for the point, but I don't think he is a natural point. I would expect Deen and a newcomer to share the point next season, possibly with Hickman spelling it based on match ups, but Hickman will primarily be at the 2 spot.

Ya I agree with you. If I had to guess:
1- Deen
2- Hickman
3- Ellis
4- Leons
5- Hannah

Just makes the most sense when factoring in positional experience, size, and shooting ability.

Cleary Biliew and Linke are 12/13. Atlason I would have to put at 11 right now based on position depth and him being a freshman adjusting to a new style of game. I hope I'm wrong there, because we could use his shooting badly. I can imagine playing 10 to start the year as we often seem to. One of Jonovic/Thomas will probably grab the back up 4/5 spot throughout the year (Hannah would probably slide the 4 when they are in with him, in essence making them backup 4s too) and the other fall off somewhat for this year, and I imagine one of Pettigrew/Burch/Davis will fall off as the year goes and two of them grab a firm hold on the backup 1-3 spots, giving us our 8 man rotation we usually end up with. If none of those guards end up falling off and/or we need a three man rotation at the big spot due to foul trouble, then maybe we play 9 consistently by the end. But it is usually 8-9 in the rotation by February. That's assuming no injuries too.

[Tommy]

Ya I agree with you. If I had to guess:
1- Deen
2- Hickman
3- Ellis
4- Leons
5- Hannah

Just makes the most sense when factoring in positional experience, size, and shooting ability.

Cleary Biliew and Linke are 12/13. Atlason I would have to put at 11 right now based on position depth and him being a freshman adjusting to a new style of game. I hope I'm wrong there, because we could use his shooting badly. I can imagine playing 10 to start the year as we often seem to. One of Jonovic/Thomas will probably grab the back up 4/5 spot throughout the year (Hannah would probably slide the 4 when they are in with him, in essence making them backup 4s too) and the other fall off somewhat for this year, and I imagine one of Pettigrew/Burch/Davis will fall off as the year goes and two of them grab a firm hold on the backup 1-3 spots, giving us our 8 man rotation we usually end up with. If none of those guards end up falling off and/or we need a three man rotation at the big spot due to foul trouble, then maybe we play 9 consistently by the end. But it is usually 8-9 in the rotation by February. That's assuming no injuries too.

I agree with your assessment BU14, and I don't think anyone puts in as much time thinking about the BU roster as you do with the exception being Coach, so always enjoy reading your thoughts.

BW is pretty big on loyalty and it's rare to see a starter for one season not be the starter in the next, so I'd be very surprised to not see Deen in the starting lineup. It is probable that his minutes go down if the options at guard are better this year which it appears to be the case, but you never know until they play the games!

[BUfan14]

I agree with your assessment BU14, and I don't think anyone puts in as much time thinking about the BU roster as you do with the exception being Coach, so always enjoy reading your thoughts.

BW is pretty big on loyalty and it's rare to see a starter for one season not be the starter in the next, so I'd be very surprised to not see Deen in the starting lineup. It is probable that his minutes go down if the options at guard are better this year which it appears to be the case, but you never know until they play the games!

Haha thanks! DC always does a great job and has actual info. Mine are more outsider fan observations, so I’m glad they sound somewhat in the ballpark of well thought out. I certainly have fun discussing my thoughts and seeing what others think on Bradley basketball.

[PhiAlphaBoy]

BW is pretty big on loyalty and it's rare to see a starter for one season not be the starter in the next, so I'd be very surprised to not see Deen in the starting lineup. It is probable that his minutes go down if the options at guard are better this year which it appears to be the case, but you never know until they play the games!

I wouldn't be so certain about that Tommy. Didn't Henry go from being a starter to one of the league's best 6th men? I could see Wardle doing the same with Deen. Also, based on Wardle's ESPN Radio interview he seemed pretty high on Atlason. I know he'll be just a freshman but he may be the guy who establishes himself as our best outside shooting threat. Wardle specifically praised his outside shooting and that fact that he was a legit 6'9 who played with and against men who were pros. Regardless, it should be one helluva exciting season!

[Tommy]

I wouldn't be so certain about that Tommy. Didn't Henry go from being a starter to one of the league's best 6th men? I could see Wardle doing the same with Deen. Also, based on Wardle's ESPN Radio interview he seemed pretty high on Atlason. I know he'll be just a freshman but he may be the guy who establishes himself as our best outside shooting threat. Wardle specifically praised his outside shooting and that fact that he was a legit 6'9 who played with and against men who were pros. Regardless, it should be one helluva exciting season!

Was Henry a starter? I guess I’m getting old and my memory isn’t so good as I don’t remember that. Either way, BW seems to her high character guys, so if moving to 6th man does happen, I’d guess it’ll go fine.

[BUfan14]

I wouldn't be so certain about that Tommy. Didn't Henry go from being a starter to one of the league's best 6th men? I could see Wardle doing the same with Deen. Also, based on Wardle's ESPN Radio interview he seemed pretty high on Atlason. I know he'll be just a freshman but he may be the guy who establishes himself as our best outside shooting threat. Wardle specifically praised his outside shooting and that fact that he was a legit 6'9 who played with and against men who were pros. Regardless, it should be one helluva exciting season!

That is good to hear, because Atlason is the biggest wild card to me. I really hope he’s the shooter I believe we need. He didn’t look very quick to me in the highlight videos I watched, so I wasn’t sure if that would take some work before he played.

I would love a sixth man instant offense Deen, but he is the only true point we have unfortunately. I know Brian mentioned several guys as being able to handle the point in stretches, but I wonder who he thinks can be a true point guard. Point and center will be fascinating to see how Brian approaches it.

[PhiAlphaBoy]

I know Brian mentioned several guys as being able to handle the point in stretches, but I wonder who he thinks can be a true point guard. Point and center will be fascinating to see how Brian approaches it.

Wardle specifically mentioned Pettigrew as a point guard during his ESPN interview. It sounded to me as if he's hoping and expecting Pettigrew to be "that guy".

[bradleyfan124]

When was this ESPN interview? Where can we find the inteview if we wanted to listen to it again?

[yoda]

Jim Mattson interviewed him at 3:30pm on his radio show yesterday

https://espnpeoria.com/shows/jim-mattson-show/

The past broadcasts are posted here but they haven't posted Friday's. I suspect
it will be up there by Monday or Tuesday.

https://espnpeoria.com/jim-ondemand/

[bradleyfan124]

Jim Mattson interviewed him at 3:30pm on his radio show yesterday

https://espnpeoria.com/shows/jim-mattson-show/

The past broadcasts are posted here but they haven't posted Friday's. I suspect
it will be up there by Monday or Tuesday.
https://espnpeoria.com/jim-ondemand/

Thank you very much. I appreciate this

[yoda]

Thank you very much. I appreciate this

You are very welcome 124
In the interview Coach Wardle seems very open about expressing his displeasure in how recruiting
has changed in the portal era. He had previously said recruiting had changed "from relational to
transactional." He expanded carefully on that by describing how recruits (paraphrasing here...you can
catch his actual words when the interview gets posted) want to know up front how much NIL money
is available and how much they're going to get and how bigger schools outbid Bradley.

[basketball nut]

I think all of us are pretty much on the same page in assessing this team.
Lots of interchangeable parts on this team.
The dark horse might be Atlason. I could see him learning as a backup to Leons. Comes in and a quick basket and gives Leon's a break.
My next choice for a dark horse candidate would be Janovic. Liked the way he played against Wisconsin. Showed some promise. Bringing him in at semester looks like a very smart move as he has had time to learn the system.
One thing I like about how coach runs his rotation is he seems to make sure he has fire power coming off the bench which might be more important then who starts.

[bradleyfan124]

I think all of us are pretty much on the same page in assessing this team.
Lots of interchangeable parts on this team.
The dark horse might be Atlason. I could see him learning as a backup to Leons. Comes in and a quick basket and gives Leon's a break.
My next choice for a dark horse candidate would be Janovic. Liked the way he played against Wisconsin. Showed some promise. Bringing him in at semester looks like a very smart move as he has had time to learn the system.
One thing I like about how coach runs his rotation is he seems to make sure he has fire power coming off the bench which might be more important then who starts.

I like Atlason also. It's not a bad thing for him to come in and spell the starters for a while. Gives him experience without putting pressure on him he has to be the big star right. I also like the way Jonovic played in the Wisconsin game. He put on a big time move and laid it off the board. I had heard Rienk had a hard time guarding him in practice. And he will get better. However I do think he needs work on defense but again that will get better. I also agree Wardle likes to have a deep bench. He often said he wears teams out toward the end of the game by throwing quality players on the floor with every rotation. Most teams are not as deep. Right now I see 11 players that could play, some at multiple positions. A nice problem to have

[Stryker]

I like Atlason also. It's not a bad thing for him to come in and spell the starters for a while. Gives him experience without putting pressure on him he has to be the big star right. I also like the way Jonovic played in the Wisconsin game. He put on a big time move and laid it off the board. I had heard Rienk had a hard time guarding him in practice. And he will get better. However I do think he needs work on defense but again that will get better. I also agree Wardle likes to have a deep bench. He often said he wears teams out toward the end of the game by throwing quality players on the floor with every rotation. Most teams are not as deep. Right now I see 11 players that could play, some at multiple positions. A nice problem to have

Bradley definitely utilized fresh legs to get wins in the MVC this past season. It was apparent in several games I thought. We brought in solid bench players and kept the starters legs in good shape, and it resulted in strong runs in the 2nd half of several games this past year.

I also liked what I saw of Jonovic. I think his area of improvement will be defense and staying out of foul trouble. He is more athletic than I realized though, and he got up and down the floor pretty quickly. I think he has some good potential and could develop really well. All ifs, but the building blocks seem to be there.