BU commit- 2016- Jerome Merritt

[tornado]

Jerome Merritt, athletic 6-5 wing from Florida - who we just offered last week - will be visiting Bradley this weekend

Hopefully we get another LOI ...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26238

[tornado]

will we hear of a verbal?? There are some pretty glowing reports of Merritt's play at one recent event and at his workouts

[Da Coach]

I can confirm that Jerome Merritt arrived on the Bradley campus tonight for his official visit.

[tornado]

BU commit- 2016- Jerome Merritt

and we got pictures..

[tornado]

will we hear of a verbal??...

not only a verbal but he signed his Letter of Intent!

https://twitter.com/OCSHoops/status/722209176475340800?lang=en

[Da Coach]

Jerome Merritt signing his NLI for Bradley

https://twitter.com/EvanDaniels/status/722198164476977154

Welcome to Bradley!

[Da Coach]

A few other tweets-

https://twitter.com/BayAreaHoopsFL/status/722200060973432832

https://twitter.com/VerbalCommits/status/722198899813851136

https://twitter.com/HSSportsFL/status/722206199421280256

His nickname is Jerome "The Drone" Merritt-

https://twitter.com/TheFLRecruiter/status/722205881715167232

[Da Coach]

Updated scholarship grid:

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=825122029#post825122029

[Da Coach]

For those who might have missed-

http://www.hoopseen.com/news/general/201601/berkeley-prep-national-hoopfest-tyson-ward-jerome-merritt-boost-stock

http://bayareahoops.com/archives/5701

http://bayareahoops.com/archives/4825

http://www.tampabay.com/hometeam/blog/hometeam-hot-shots-jerome-merritt-male-winner-nov-29-dec-5/21786/

Brief video from Jan., 2016-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxr1EH-h0U

Video of Jerome Merritt from Aug., 2015-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhrARRhEblw

Video from Feb., 2015-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBUwkGXBzhk

Video from Aug., 2014-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap7ZBty3sdk

[Big Mike]

Wow...that was quick......good news! But

[LongTimeFan]

We have to trust the coaching staff's opinions. However, everything we read earlier seemed to point to JC players for the last two scholarships. The emphasis was on getting help for next year. This would seem to mean it was not possible to get two quality JC players to come to a five-win school. Most of the time those want to go to a school more likely to get in post-season tournaments.

Hope I am missing something here like someone who can really help Bradley get more wins in the next two seasons.

[Da Coach]

I think that is the key for us fans- we have to have faith in the coaches' judgement. In the limited videos we can see, Merritt reminds me a little of what we saw in Donte Thomas when he was in high school. We don't have accurate stats to go by, but from the videos, it looks like Merritt doesn't take many perimeter shots, and he appears to get most of his points at the basket.
He played with 4 other high-major D1 talents on his team this past season, 3 of whom were seniors, and all of them were rated higher than Merritt was going into the 2015-16 season. But according to articles I can find about their games, Merritt was frequently the leading scorer in their games. So I believe he has potential, and he is very athletic. And if there was one major deficiency Bradley had last year that really hurt them, it was their lack of athleticism.

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/cOve2eCtWkWXzePMRsNL7A/maxpreps-2015-16-high-school-basketball-early-contenders,-presented-by-dicks-sporting-goods-and-under-armour--oldsmar-christian.htm

[Vent]

Do you know the other schools we were competing with to get him?

[Da Coach]

He had offers from UNC-Greensboro and Florida International, and interest from Ohio, Bowling Green, New Orleans, Alcorn State, Illinois State, Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville, and Louisiana Tech.

[pfcmsh]

Faith

I think that is the key for us fans- we have to have faith in the coaches' judgement. In the limited videos we can see, Merritt reminds me a little of what we saw in Donte Thomas when he was in high school. We don't have accurate stats to go by, but from the videos, it looks like Merritt doesn't take many perimeter shots, and he appears to get most of his points at the basket.
He played with 4 other high-major D1 talents on his team this past season, 3 of whom were seniors, and all of them were rated higher than Merritt was going into the 2015-16 season. But according to articles I can find about their games, Merritt was frequently the leading scorer in their games. So I believe he has potential, and he is very athletic. And if there was one major deficiency Bradley had last year that really hurt them, it was their lack of athleticism.
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/cOve2eC...-christian.htm

I have faith. Coach Wardle knows what he is doing. He has an eye for freakish athletes. Kieffer Sykes (UWGB) seems like one of those guys to me and he was not the only one on UWGB under Coach Wardle. Donte sure looks athletic out there, as he is being utilized better. I agree with Da Coach, it seems like last year we were short on athleticism and speed. It is going to get better. In my opinion, we lacked those athletic players under the previous coach. Look where most of the players we had under the previous coach landed after they left Bradley. Prior to Coach Wardle, we simply were loaded with mediocre players year after year. Donte Thomas and Josh Cunningham might have been the best athletes we had. Walt Lemon, a good athlete, I believe was not landed by Coach Ford. We will be better in 2016/17 because we have players returning that have a lot of experience. We have added talent. It is going to get better. Look at how the young braves improved as last season progressed. You could see it. I like the idea of freshman recruiting and building the team. I would rather have a shorter Jerome Merritt, who is a great athlete, than a team full of big guys that can??™t score or move and really might have been short of D1 talent. We added some scorers in Hodgsen, Kennel and Brown. Things are looking up for us!! How were we all feeling at the end of Coach Ford's last season compared to now?