2010 BU Commitment- Andrew Davis

[shaunguth]

A credit to JL and his staff on their recruiting, as even on a veteran team, we only have potentially 1 more open spot to fill for the following year. The only need on the following year's team I see with over a year to go still is a shooter, but other than that I see no glaring needs these next 2 years! JL has done a terrific job shaping the team for both the present and the future. Excellent recruiting IMO.

I agree......as we already have two verbals for 2011. How many Valley teams can say that? I guess other coaching staffs must be taking the year off or maybe wasting their time.

[Braves4Life]

I think great things lie on the horizon for our Bradley Braves!

[jeffsu]

Amazing how one player, who none of us had heard of before today, went from turning this "abismal, awful, waste, failure of a recruiting year" to it being considered incredible and how all other Valley coaches must be sleeping.

I love this board


(And while I'm normally incredibly sarcastic, I'm being serious. I love that we're so enthusiastic and passionate that things can swing that quickly!)

[SFP]

(And while I'm normally incredibly sarcastic, I'm being serious. I love that we're so enthusiastic and passionate that things can swing that quickly!)

Is this how I can rationalize my GF's feelings about me.

[shaunguth]

Amazing how one player, who none of us had heard of before today, went from turning this "abismal, awful, waste, failure of a recruiting year" to it being considered incredible and how all other Valley coaches must be sleeping.

I love this board


(And while I'm normally incredibly sarcastic, I'm being serious. I love that we're so enthusiastic and passionate that things can swing that quickly!)

For the record, I was being sarcastic when I said "I guess other coaching staffs must be taking the year off or maybe wasting their time". I just think it's somewhat humorous that people were saying that very same thing about our coaching staff and I believe they were not being sarcastic. Just thought I'd point out that we have two verbals for 2011 and was wondering how many other Valley teams can say the same. I know.....we're not supposed to care about other teams.....at least not when it seems to put Bradley in a better light.

However, I do know what you mean about the way things can turn in an instant from a player we'd never heard of before today!

[Braves4Life]

Is this how I can rationalize my GF's feelings about me.

[jeffsu]

For the record, I was being sarcastic when I said "I guess other coaching staffs must be taking the year off or maybe wasting their time". I just think it's somewhat humorous that people were saying that very same thing about our coaching staff and I believe they were not being sarcastic. Just thought I'd point out that we have two verbals for 2011 and was wondering how many other Valley teams can say the same. I know.....we're not supposed to care about other teams.....at least not when it seems to put Bradley in a better light.

I know But it seemed to sum up the general gist of our mood swinging on this board lately!

[BradleyBrave]

For the record, I was being sarcastic when I said "I guess other coaching staffs must be taking the year off or maybe wasting their time". I just think it's somewhat humorous that people were saying that very same thing about our coaching staff and I believe they were not being sarcastic. Just thought I'd point out that we have two verbals for 2011 and was wondering how many other Valley teams can say the same. I know.....we're not supposed to care about other teams.....at least not when it seems to put Bradley in a better light.

However, I do know what you mean about the way things can turn in an instant from a player we'd never heard of before today!

For the record I said it was a waste of time if we ended up empty on the big man front. We didn't, so it wasn't.

[Da Coach]

Providence signed another big man from IMG Academy on Wednesday who's numbers were similar to Andrew davis there. An article on Scout.com had some quotes from the IMG coach about their players and program which may be relevant to Andrew Davis.

Here is the article, but it requires a subscription-

http://providence.scout.com/2/971176.html

Here is what it says about the kid Providence signed, 6-9 230 pound Alexandre Gavrilovic-

After visiting the campus on Monday, Alexandre Gavrilovic committed to the Friars and signed his letter of intent on Wednesday.

"Alexandre will be a strong addition to our program," Davis said. "He has a combination of size, skill and intelligence. Alexandre can hit jump shots as well as mix it up on the boards.”

A strong 6’9 1/2, 230 pound forward/center from Strasbourg, France, Gavrilovic had been in the United States at IMG Academy since September, when he decided to take a prep year. During the season, IMG played 67 games, including contests against strong junior college teams in Florida and some of the best prep competition in the country.

“We play almost a pro season,” IMG coach Dan Barto told ScoutFriars.com. “That’s why our kids don’t have a problem with the physicality of the college game. We’ve had 55 players earn D1 scholarships over the past nine years and a number of our players are going that route this year.”

“Scoring and rebounding numbers really have no meaning for us. We don’t keep track. I told Pat Skerry (who was lead recruiter on Gavrilovic), if Alex had played on a traditional high school team, he’d have averaged 22 and 15, but we have 22 players, we sometimes split our squads and sometimes he only played half a game, so its not really fair to talk about numbers,” said Barto.

“Alex is a block-to-block face-up four man who can play the center spot defensively,” Barto continued. “He can score, he can block the ball and he’ll get to the free throw line. He’s a smart, disciplined, crafty player. He’s actually better over his right shoulder with his left hand. He loves the low right block, back to the basket, going to his left. His ability to step out to three point range and shoot will help Providence.”

Like any European, Gavrilovic needs to improve in some areas. “He’s a young 18, turned 18 during the season,” said Barto. “He has a lot of room to grow athletically and add strength. He won’t be dunking on everyone but he will score. He has trouble with quick finishes and guarding smaller players and needs to improve on the defensive boards. But he never played AAU ball, was never ranked anywhere, and he’s hungry. He had no distractions this season and could focus on just becoming a better player because we didn’t worry about recruiting until March.”

“Some of the schools that came after him were Oregon State, Wake Forest, Central Florida, Colorado, James Madison and Iona, but I really like coach Davis and Skerry. They’re genuine and not hustlers. We almost sent John Riek to Providence last year and we pushed for him to go there but it didn’t work out,” Barto said.

Gavrilovic, who grew up in Strasbourg, France and has a Serbian father, will play for the French Under-20 National Team this summer and won’t arrive at Providence until August, but the young frontcourt prospect will add needed height and bulk to the Friars frontcourt and his addition was welcome news on an otherwise difficult day for Friar fans.

[tornado]

Amazing how one player, who none of us had heard of before today, went from turning this "abismal, awful, waste, failure of a recruiting year" to it being considered incredible and how all other Valley coaches must be sleeping.

I love this board ...

so you mean all that angst, and moaning and whining was for naught???
....what a waste of a lot of good misery!!

[lake Camelot]

Sounds like IMG Academy and Canarias Basketball Academy would be two great programs to build a relationship with.

[BradleyBrave]

Providence signed another big man from IMG Academy on Wednesday who's numbers were similar to Andrew davis there. An article on Scout.com had some quotes from the IMG coach about their players and program which may be relevant to Andrew Davis.

Here is the article, but it requires a subscription-

http://providence.scout.com/2/971176.html

Here is what it says about the kid Providence signed, 6-9 230 pound Alexandre Gavrilovic-

After visiting the campus on Monday, Alexandre Gavrilovic committed to the Friars and signed his letter of intent on Wednesday.

"Alexandre will be a strong addition to our program," Davis said. "He has a combination of size, skill and intelligence. Alexandre can hit jump shots as well as mix it up on the boards.???

A strong 6??™9 1/2, 230 pound forward/center from Strasbourg, France, Gavrilovic had been in the United States at IMG Academy since September, when he decided to take a prep year. During the season, IMG played 67 games, including contests against strong junior college teams in Florida and some of the best prep competition in the country.

???We play almost a pro season,??? IMG coach Dan Barto told ScoutFriars.com. ???That??™s why our kids don??™t have a problem with the physicality of the college game. We??™ve had 55 players earn D1 scholarships over the past nine years and a number of our players are going that route this year.???

???Scoring and rebounding numbers really have no meaning for us. We don??™t keep track. I told Pat Skerry (who was lead recruiter on Gavrilovic), if Alex had played on a traditional high school team, he??™d have averaged 22 and 15, but we have 22 players, we sometimes split our squads and sometimes he only played half a game, so its not really fair to talk about numbers,??? said Barto.

???Alex is a block-to-block face-up four man who can play the center spot defensively,??? Barto continued. ???He can score, he can block the ball and he??™ll get to the free throw line. He??™s a smart, disciplined, crafty player. He??™s actually better over his right shoulder with his left hand. He loves the low right block, back to the basket, going to his left. His ability to step out to three point range and shoot will help Providence.???

Like any European, Gavrilovic needs to improve in some areas. ???He??™s a young 18, turned 18 during the season,??? said Barto. ???He has a lot of room to grow athletically and add strength. He won??™t be dunking on everyone but he will score. He has trouble with quick finishes and guarding smaller players and needs to improve on the defensive boards. But he never played AAU ball, was never ranked anywhere, and he??™s hungry. He had no distractions this season and could focus on just becoming a better player because we didn??™t worry about recruiting until March.???

???Some of the schools that came after him were Oregon State, Wake Forest, Central Florida, Colorado, James Madison and Iona, but I really like coach Davis and Skerry. They??™re genuine and not hustlers. We almost sent John Riek to Providence last year and we pushed for him to go there but it didn??™t work out,??? Barto said.

Gavrilovic, who grew up in Strasbourg, France and has a Serbian father, will play for the French Under-20 National Team this summer and won??™t arrive at Providence until August, but the young frontcourt prospect will add needed height and bulk to the Friars frontcourt and his addition was welcome news on an otherwise difficult day for Friar fans.

I think this is encouraging and relevant. I do think competition matters. That's why I think JP can be a contributor, as he did fare well against AAU competition, but also why I think there might be a bigger learning curve with him as he played mostly against smaller Class A players while at Eureka. For a kid like Davis, who it sounds like played against some pretty good competition, the learning curve may not be as large. I'm glad he signed an LOI and I look forward to seeing Andrew on campus.

[BradleyBrave]

Do you have any indication Platt was involved with this signing?

I think this article (which was posted elsewhere) answers this question.

http://www.bradleyhoops.com/homepage/x1560870400/BU-signs-6-10-recruit

“Coach Platt is the connection,” said Davis’ father, Dan Davis, a former Division I basketball player at Oklahoma City and now an attorney. “He had recruited Andrew to West Point. We started to get an uncomfortable feeling with Army when Coach Platt left. We talked to Coach Platt (in the interim) and he said Andrew needed to see the process through.”

It sounds like exactly how recruiting is supposed to work - the assistants identify the talent, and the head coach seals the deal. I have a real good feeling about this signing. For this late in the game, I think it's about as good as you can hope to do. We've had great success with late signings like this - Lawrence Wright, Will Franklin, Theron Wilson, Taylor Brown all immediately come to mind.

[Scotty D.]

Thought I would add this here too, some highlight film of the kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba8sUhjyr_o

[Da Coach]

Thanks!
I think he looks prettty good, especially for a kid we picked up this late in the recruiting cycle. He runs well, has size, and dunks with authority.
I have heard good things about him and I am sure he'll be a solid player for Bradley.