Wardle to Iowa?

[BUfan14]

We have a good team in the Valley, this team is not built to win games in the Big Tour. as witnessed by our losses to Wash.St. and Santa Clara. Anybody that thinks this is a great team is blinded by their loyalty to the team. We have a lot of flaws on this team which is why we are able to have players of this caliber on this roster. Hickman has proven that he is not good enough to start at Cincy but was a star on this team. I like our players but with NIL money being paid out by the P-5 schools it is virtually impossible to out recruit those teams. This is why winning the reg. season championship is more important to me because if you do get in the big Tour. it will be almost impossible to win a game.The team that made it to the Sweet 16 was head and shoulders better then this years team.

As I said in my last post, Drake has done this stuff, and so I see no reason we can’t too. Difficult? Yes, but clearly not impossible. Even this year, in a new program, Drake beat a good Vandy team (37 in the country)! When’s the last time we beat anyone ranked that high in non-conference? Maybe Utah State last year, but even that wasn’t quad 1. I can’t think of too many.

The bar for me is essentially to be what Drake has been the last half a dozen years. And again, with the most NIL money and highest paid coach in the conference, what stops us from doing what they have?

[Hawk84]

As an Iowa grad, here's my two cents: I'd LOVE to have Brian Wardle as the Hawkeyes coach, but since I'm a bigger BU fan than Hawk fan I hope he stays at Bradley. I've always liked McCaffery at Iowa - they're fun to watch, score a lot of points, and Fran fights for his players. But they play absolutely zero defense and have done so for years. He's never gotten past the first round of the NCAA Tournament despite have NBA-caliber players, which is due to their near zero emphasis on defending. That would change under Wardle. He demands defensive effort (the UIC game being an anomaly). I also believe he can recruit to that level. He'd be an excellent coach in the Big Ten. My hunch is he's waiting for the Marquette job to open up someday.

As to how good this BU team is - they're damn good. And Wardle should get a ton of credit for keeping guys like Duke Deen and Darius Hannah in the program. In this new NIL age it's remarkable they've had such roster continuity. That's a credit to Wardle and his staff. There have been some posts I've seen that lament the fact BU hasn't hit the portal harder, but that's a crapshoot. If you can recruit good players, coach them up, and keep them, that's still a recipe for long term success. And he really develops guys. Has anyone ever seen a player improve as much over the years as Hannah? That's of course hard work on his part, but also due to coaching. Clearly, BU, like all mid-majors, is going to have to use the portal in the future, but if he can continue to retain good players every year I like our chances to win the Valley in future years.

As to Drake - yes that's a clear example of a team that was completely rebuilt with instant success. Keep in mind, though, that the core of their best players (4 guys) just came with the coach from his last school. The real test will be once those guys move on can they sustain the success. They also win games by limiting the number of possessions. I question whether kids want to play that style and will be curious to see how they fare in recruiting going forward. Having said that, they're clearly very well coached, I just question their long term sustainability. I'd bet on Wardle & crew long term.

[Afreck2430]

For whatever it's worth Wardle's name has been brought up by the basketball burner Trilly Donavon as someone who could be jumping after this year. He generally has pretty reliable information. No one will know until the end of the year and I would not be surprised if he is pursued for bigger jobs.

[tomahawk chop]

As I said in my last post, Drake has done this stuff, and so I see no reason we can’t too. Difficult? Yes, but clearly not impossible. Even this year, in a new program, Drake beat a good Vandy team (37 in the country)! When’s the last time we beat anyone ranked that high in non-conference? Maybe Utah State last year, but even that wasn’t quad 1. I can’t think of too many.

The bar for me is essentially to be what Drake has been the last half a dozen years. And again, with the most NIL money and highest paid coach in the conference, what stops us from doing what they have?

Drake was good and the main reason why was because DeVries star player was his son, take him off the roster and they would have been a 4th or 5th place team.

[tomahawk chop]

As an Iowa grad, here's my two cents: I'd LOVE to have Brian Wardle as the Hawkeyes coach, but since I'm a bigger BU fan than Hawk fan I hope he stays at Bradley. I've always liked McCaffery at Iowa - they're fun to watch, score a lot of points, and Fran fights for his players. But they play absolutely zero defense and have done so for years. He's never gotten past the first round of the NCAA Tournament despite have NBA-caliber players, which is due to their near zero emphasis on defending. That would change under Wardle. He demands defensive effort (the UIC game being an anomaly). I also believe he can recruit to that level. He'd be an excellent coach in the Big Ten. My hunch is he's waiting for the Marquette job to open up someday.

As to how good this BU team is - they're damn good. And Wardle should get a ton of credit for keeping guys like Duke Deen and Darius Hannah in the program. In this new NIL age it's remarkable they've had such roster continuity. That's a credit to Wardle and his staff. There have been some posts I've seen that lament the fact BU hasn't hit the portal harder, but that's a crapshoot. If you can recruit good players, coach them up, and keep them, that's still a recipe for long term success. And he really develops guys. Has anyone ever seen a player improve as much over the years as Hannah? That's of course hard work on his part, but also due to coaching. Clearly, BU, like all mid-majors, is going to have to use the portal in the future, but if he can continue to retain good players every year I like our chances to win the Valley in future years.

As to Drake - yes that's a clear example of a team that was completely rebuilt with instant success. Keep in mind, though, that the core of their best players (4 guys) just came with the coach from his last school. The real test will be once those guys move on can they sustain the success. They also win games by limiting the number of possessions. I question whether kids want to play that style and will be curious to see how they fare in recruiting going forward. Having said that, they're clearly very well coached, I just question their long term sustainability. I'd bet on Wardle & crew long term.

Yes this team is good but not damn good. We could easily have 3 to 4 more losses in the conference. I like our players but these guys made the right decision to stay here because had they went to a higher program they would not be starters. I realize some could have gotten more money by leaving but would they be happier playing a lot less minutes.Do you really want to play your final season of college basketball coming off the bench and being a role player?

[BengalFan14]

Yeah, that looks like Hickman’s fate. But they probably will get an at-large bid into MM so there’s that.

[tomahawk chop]

Yeah, that looks like Hickman’s fate. But they probably will get an at-large bid into MM so there’s that.

Would you rather play or just be a bench player on an NCAA team that has 0 chance of winning the Tour. Most people that are use to starting have trouble as far as not getting as many minutes in the games. The NIL factor has ruined the sport period.

[Stryker]

Would you rather play or just be a bench player on an NCAA team that has 0 chance of winning the Tour. Most people that are use to starting have trouble as far as not getting as many minutes in the games. The NIL factor has ruined the sport period.

It's been that way forever though. I remember Mid-major kids transferring to power programs to ride the bench 20 years ago. It doesn't make that much sense to us fans, but apparently it always has for these kids to some degree.

[basketball nut]

Do you really want to play your final season of college basketball coming off the bench and being a role player?

I think this is a good recruiting tool to get the Deen's and Hannah's of mid major basketball to stay.
Ask the many Hickman type players how much they enjoy getting 5- 10 minutes a game

[Dubl R 1]

Would you rather play or just be a bench player on an NCAA team that has 0 chance of winning the Tour. Most people that are use to starting have trouble as far as not getting as many minutes in the games. The NIL factor has ruined the sport period.

I don't get that either.

What used to bother me more years ago, was the amount of talent from the area that would leave and go their own way....as opposed to staying in Peoria, all going to Bradley and making Bradley a serious player on the national level. I'm talking the talent from the area in from about 1990 thru 2005....could you imagine the team Bradley could have had with kids only from the Peoria area??

I'm loving the fact we got Richardson and Zobrist coming....would've taken Stowers as well...imagine If Sommerville stayed......this is what scares me the most if Wardle leaves.....he's finally kind of won over the area a bit...would we lose not only our 2 local recruits, as well as the potential for more area recruits, have to start all over again?

[tomahawk chop]

Those guys want to play here so they probably stay if a decent replacement came in to coach. I think Wardle stays.

[BUfan14]

Yeah, that looks like Hickman’s fate. But they probably will get an at-large bid into MM so there’s that.

I'm not so sure Cincinnati even looks like at at-large team anymore. They are 12-8 and 2-7 in conference (14th place). 0-6 in Quad 1 with a net of 48. Lunardi had them as the 7th team out before their latest loss. I'm not even sure how they are that close with those stats, but point stands that they have trended down for a while now.

[BUfan14]

Drake was good and the main reason why was because DeVries star player was his son, take him off the roster and they would have been a 4th or 5th place team.

I've seen this opinion before, but I'm not sure I agree. Yes, losing your best scorer would hurt and they wouldn't have been as good, but I still think they would've been contenders either way. If he didn't have his son he would have found another pretty good, albeit probably not as good, player too. They had many really good players the last half a dozen years, and many double digit scorers. DeVries was a great Valley scorer, but he wasn't great at much else to me, and it's not like even his shooting percentages were even off the charts last year. They had a good TEAM, not just one player. Also, this year they have a new coach and neither DeVries, yet they still took out NET 37 Vanderbilt and are first in conference yet again, and beat us on the road convincingly.

Finally, they were 26-5 (15-3) the year before Tucker got there and went to the tournament. Two years before that they were first in the Valley 24-10 (12-6) in Darian DeVries first year. So to downplay their success because the coach's son happened to be a really good scorer for three of those 6 (7 if you count this year) years is not completely fair to me. My point still stands either way. Trade out their coach's son advantage for our top paid coach and top NIL money. We should be able to achieve that level of consistent and next level success in my opinion.

[BUfan14]

I think this is a good recruiting tool to get the Deen's and Hannah's of mid major basketball to stay.
Ask the many Hickman type players how much they enjoy getting 5- 10 minutes a game

Ya in theory, but how many players have enough self-awareness and self-control to understand who they are and their limits as players? A kid like Christian Davis seems like he understands his role and strengths. Most players believe they will be the ones that have success, plus get paid more, so in their mind, why not leave? You have to be confident to be a good D1 basketball player, so it is difficult to find 18-22 year old kids who have the exact right amount of earned confidence. And there are plenty of examples of success too (Rienk Mast as one from Bradley).

I do wonder with the transfer portal era and the big boys hitting that harder, why we don't take more advantage of finding under-recruited freshmen. Other than Johnson, the last few years have been very light on high level high school talent. Burch and Atlason had some success freshman year, but have certainly taken a step back so far, and van der Knaap seems awfully raw so far.

[daveineureka]

Have to agree with some of the posts on this subject. If Wardle does leave someday, as they say the grass is not always greener on the other side. Just ask Zeke about this. Sure Wardle can chase the money other schools will throw at him but will the money make him happier with what he has built here. Do not get me wrong every coach has their flaws and he is no different. Maybe he is happy here with what he is being paid and happy with the community support. As for the NIL money that Bradley has which is supposed to be tops in the Valley, let's hope that translates into keep getting quality players to come.