BU transfer- Anthony Fields- commits to Bradley

[KillerB]

I hear Wake Forest transer Anthony Fields is coming in for a visit.
He is a 6'0" PG and will be on campus Friday.
He played in 24 games this season.. averaging about 9 minutes per game.. not much in the way of stats.

This is the write-up on him from the Wake Forest website:
Lightning-quick point guard who reminds some of former Deacon Ishmael Smith ... Pushes the ball hard in transition and is able to get to the rim or find the open man ... Sets the tone defensively with constant ball pressure ... Consummate leader with a great work ethic ... Signed with the Deacons during the spring signing period ... Detroit native who played locally at Winston-Salem's Quality Education Academy ... The third Michigan native to play for the Deacons in the modern era, joining David Rasmussen (1992-93) and Kyle Visser (2004-07).

High School
A 2011 graduate of Quality Education Academy (Winston-Salem, N.C.) ... Previously attended Southeastern High School in Detroit as a sophomore before transferring to QEA prior to his junior year ... Attended Lake Orion High School in Orion Township, Mich., as a freshman ... Played under coach Isaac Pitts at QEA ... Team captain as a senior ... Led QEA to a 26-4 record and the program's third consecutive NCSAA Division I national championship as a senior in 2010-11 ... QEA defeated La Lumiere (La Porte, Ind.), 55-48, in the championship game ... The Pharaohs were ranked No. 25 in the country and No. 1 in the state of North Carolina in 2010-11 according to MaxPreps.com ... Named to the Winston-Salem Journal's All-Northwest Team ... Named the MVP of the Prime Time Shootout (W.Va.) and of the New York Big Apple Tournament in 2010-11 ... Averaged 15 points, 11 assists and two steals per game as a senior ... Led team in assists and steals as both a junior and as a senior ... QEA went 26-7, won the NCSAA Division I national title and finished the year ranked No. 4 in the state in 2009-10 ... The Pharaohs defeated Life Center Academy (Burlington, N.J.) in the championship game in 2010 ... Played under coach Mark White, who is now the head coach at Adrian College, at Southeastern ... Helped Southeastern to a district championship and was named the team's most improved player ... Earned all-conference honors at Lake Orion ... Rated as a three-star recruit by Rivals ... 2011 QEA teammates included Lekan Ajayi (Wyoming), Charles McKinney (DePaul), Dwight Meikle (Hampton) and Sir'Dominique Pointer (St. John's) ... Also played with Aaron Bowen (Georgetown) and Juvonte Reddick (VCU) as a junior at QEA ... Played AAU ball for D-One Sports ... Volunteered weekly to read to elementary school students at QEA, coordinating the outreach program for the basketball team ... 2009-10 QEA Student of the Year ... Co-valedictorian of his graduating class.

Personal
Given name is Anthony Cajuan Fields ... Son of Karen and Tony Fields ... Father was an All-American defensive back at Eastern Michigan and spent one season in the NFL with the Detroit Lions in 1987 ... Has two sisters, Jadin and Kaela ... Born Nov. 11, 1991 in Detroit ... Committed verbally to the Deacons in January of 2011 ... Chose Wake Forest over offers from Boston College, Oklahoma, Seton Hall and Wright State ... Wore No. 3 in high school ... Considering a major in business management.

[Fetz86]

Sounds like a quality player and person. Can never have enough people able to handle the ball.

[Da Coach]

Here are Anthony Fields' stats-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/109420

[PTownHawkeye]

I don't get this one.

If this is a player from Duke/Carolina/Texas/Florida/Ohio St, etc etc, I am ok with 1ppg and 1 3pointer over the course of a season...those teams are so loaded with talent that their 11th-13th men could start on many mid-majors. But we are talking about Wake Forest, possibly the worst team in any BCS conference.

Even out of high school, his only offers were Rice and Western Michigan. I just don't get it.

[RaiderOfBradley]

I don't get this one.

If this is a player from Duke/Carolina/Texas/Florida/Ohio St, etc etc, I am ok with 1ppg and 1 3pointer over the course of a season...those teams are so loaded with talent that their 11th-13th men could start on many mid-majors. But we are talking about Wake Forest, possibly the worst team in any BCS conference.

Even out of high school, his only offers were Rice and Western Michigan. I just don't get it.

Hawk, I really don't think that the UNC/Duke/OSU end-of-bench players would be looking at Bradley, to be honest. Those players would be looking at the other "big" schools where they would be able to make an impact.

Fields is actually an excellent student (was ACC Academic First Team), plays a solid game and could solve an issue with our lack of a true PG. Let's not run the man off before he's even had a chance to take a look at BU.

[BU Bill]

I can't halp but think we must have struck out on our first tier of recruits, and now we are blowing off next season to concentrate on 2013-14. Even so, the recruits we are hearing about may be just good enough to get us from 10th place to 7th, 8th, or 9th place, but I don't see us getting better than that. We lose a lot of our talent after next season, and I am not seeing anyone who even replaces that.

[tornado]

I have seen him play - he was with his high school team (Quality Education Academy) back in 2009 & 2010 when they played at the Tournament of Champions that was at Washington High School

http://sftofc.org/wherenow.aspx

The kid does have some talent regardless of his scoring stats....so if true this is probably as good as you get this late in the game.
Remember - we are less than 48 hours from the Letter of Intent signing period and kids are going to start verballing and grabbing the offers & dropping off the list..

[lake Camelot]

I don't get this one.

If this is a player from Duke/Carolina/Texas/Florida/Ohio St, etc etc, I am ok with 1ppg and 1 3pointer over the course of a season...those teams are so loaded with talent that their 11th-13th men could start on many mid-majors. But we are talking about Wake Forest, possibly the worst team in any BCS conference.

Even out of high school, his only offers were Rice and Western Michigan. I just don't get it.

I can see your point. When I saw his shooting percentage I said "oh boy, more of this." But looking at videos of him, he reminds me of Fabyon Harris. Very quick. His form on his shot looks good so I hope he can improve his shot. I actually was very impressed that he played in 24 games as a Freshman. i think that is above average at most schools.

[JBinPeoria]

I would love to see Anthony Fields in a Bradley uniform next year. He is a wonderful person, an excellent student and has amazing potential as a D1 point guard. I understand some people's reservation about his Freshman stats. However, what most people don't know is that he broke his wrist twice in the past year and was not 100 percent at all this year.

This blog by Dan Collins (the Wake Forest beat writer from the Winston Salem Journal), has some insightful information and comments about Anthony:

http://www.journalnow.net/index.php/mytakeonwake/entry/salvaging-something-from-class-of-2012/

At the worst, he will be a servicable back-up point guard. However, I do think this kid has tremendous potential in the right situation. From what I read, he seems to be a good fit for Coach Ford's offense. He has a great work ethic. I could see Anthony turning into a very special player with his speed and court vision. I would love to see this happen at Bradley. He would be an excellent late signee.

[JBinPeoria]

The other thing that I see missing from Anthony Field's stat line is that he appeared to be a pass-first point guard, which I love. The only thing is that when the rest of the team (they were terrible) cannot throw a ball in the ocean or catch a pass, you are not going to rake up a lot of assists. I think he will be a big assists guy wherever he ends up.

[lake Camelot]

Watching his video, he likes to drive and dish or score. All we are missing is some outside shooting to open up the lane. If we had a couple shooters to go with this kid it could be special. On the other hand if Lemon and this kid played together and we still were a poor outside shooting team it could be ugly trying to drive a plugged up lane won't work. I am looking down the road and assuming we will have a few plyers who can shoot to make this work.

[tornado]

We have had numerous discussions about kids who are "well traveled"...
meaning having attended multiple high schools, and/or more than one college of juco...

some, if not a disproportionately large number of the well traveled kids have reasons for their status of well traveled that kinda predict a bad outcome -- guys like Jeremy Fears, Saihou Jassey, Manual Cass, Ryan Hare, etc...

Almost all the kids we've been discussing lately from the Croatians, to the transfers, to even the juco kids - have all attended more than one HS or college -- so I hope if they pick Bradley they mean it and stick with it!

[PTownHawkeye]

I agree with many of the posts here...I don't mean to be negative. I honestly think this is the first time I've ever questioned a recruit. I'm just so dead set on finding a shooter that I tend to overlook the other intangibles.

Fields sounds like a great kid and at worst, a servicable backup pass-first PG.

[LittleBrave]

Hawk, I really don't think that the UNC/Duke/OSU end-of-bench players would be looking at Bradley, to be honest. Those players would be looking at the other "big" schools where they would be able to make an impact.

Fields is actually an excellent student (was ACC Academic First Team), plays a solid game and could solve an issue with our lack of a true PG. Let's not run the man off before he's even had a chance to take a look at BU.

So we're looking at another CW maybe.

[Garland 22]

Was CW offered a scholarship to an ACC school out of High School?

If we are lucky enough to grab this kid he will be a great player for us and looks like the type of kid you academic snobs will be proud of too.