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A quite day on the message board..
- Thread starter KillerB
- Start date
Bradleyguy10
New member
Quiet means silent. Quite is something else
John Wilkins....oh wait.
I don't know whos out there but I see us banking the 3rd scholie. Hope thats not a bad sign that we couldn't get a committ.
NOT to beat a dead horse but I think losing JW to ISU really put us behind the 8ball.
I'm not a believer that we quit recruiting him months ago......now he's gone and we have nobody to fill that slot.
Braves4Life
New member
Why do you say that dogs? I don't think he would have filled any glaring holes or weaknesses on our team next year. In fact, he would probably be hard pressed to even start. BU has SO many good returning guards and forwards that I think we are MUCH better off by signing The Ocho Monster instead.
A freshman transfer in is about the same thing as banking a scholarship. As far as it goes I'd be happy to take a freshman just because it would keep us balanced at about three schollies coming open each year. If we "bank" it, then next year we'll need four recruits. I think our team is in pretty fine shape, so I don't feel particularly strongly either which way.
How was that for a decisive and firm post?
How was that for a decisive and firm post?
John Wilkins....oh wait.
I don't know whos out there but I see us banking the 3rd scholie. Hope thats not a bad sign that we couldn't get a committ.
NOT to beat a dead horse but I think losing JW to ISU really put us behind the 8ball.
I'm not a believer that we quit recruiting him months ago......now he's gone and we have nobody to fill that slot.
Because if we had dropped off JW and a while back that would mean JL did something right (or at least cut his losses by recruiting someone else). And we know by now that cant fathomably be within the realm of possibility.
From a recruting standpoint.....when you spend so much time after one guy...supposedly lock him up you tend to stop recruiting his position. Then he bolts.....its tough to make up that ground.
Also....we could have had Ocho AND JW........
C'mon...this dance of denial is too much...
18 months ago this guy (John Wilkins) had 50 schools offering him...he had NBA ability...his ceiling was higher than anyone we'd recruited in many years...and on and on...
Now he blows us off and signs with ISU and suddenly...'he wouldn't have filled any holes or glaring weaknesses next year'...and 'we are MUCH better off by signing Michael Ocherobia'...???
I don't follow that line of thought. We have an open scholarship left...we were 16-15 last year with "SO many good guards and forwards"...so I'm pretty sure we can stand to add as much talent as we can possibly get our hands on right now...John Wilkins would have been a great get for us...period. We lost the recruiting battle...and it really hurts that we lost the battle to a conference rival....but I'm not going to spin this into "well, we were never really all that high on Wilkins...he doesn't really fit a need for us...no big loss...". That is silly.
Braves4Life
New member
How do you know Les did not pull that offer to Wilkins ER? Maybe Les knew or saw something from Wilkins that he did not like. We all are speculating that the decision was Wilkins'. It may have been the other way around....... And after all of the schools he visited and flirted with in the end there was only one firm offer -- ISU. Look at the recruiting pages on Wilkins -- they only list ONE offer. I don't rule out the fact that just maybe Les realized his signing was more trouble than it was worth.
While I don't think JL was recruiting him up until the final moments, I believe that was because Les was smart enough to see the writing on the wall, not because he didn't want him. And many recruiting sites only list one school for mid-majors... So, while I agree with you JL wasn't hotly pursuing JW as of late, I'm not sure I agree with some of the ideas you're using to justify we didn't want him.
Maybe the offer was pulled...but I have a hard time buying that...just sounds like nothing more than a sad attempt at damage control here...
We chased his transcripts around the world last year...we stayed with him through that whole mess...through the JUCO legal mess...we were told over and over again about the reports from his workouts...his rare ability...his NBA potential...his solid commitment to BU...etc., etc., etc.
He's never played in a game since then, never had a chance to be exposed as being "less than advertised" from a skills perspective...and now he visits a few other schools and we're going to turn around and simply pull the scholarship offer?...with no tangible plan B waiting to sign? Why? It doesn't make sense to me...
I'd be willing to at least partially buy the 'speculation' that maybe we did pull the offer long before he was visiting ISU, Houston, etc. if someone can give me a theory as to why that would make any logical sense whatsoever...(without dredging up any desperate nonsensical stories about his girlfriend...).
Talent...NBA upside...skilled big man...With an open scholarship it sure seems like we'd be willing to follow that guy to the end of the earth to try and get a committment from him...
The two of you represent the absolute extremes of reason. Until the end of the season, we had two open scholarships, we got two commits. I really don't think JL could forsee that EM, his starting PG going into the season would leave... I also don't think it's as simple as only one side acted, why can it not be both, JL saw Wilkins wasn't firm and decided it wasn't worth the risk. This isn't a hypothetical turn based game-theory problem guys, both sides can see what the other is doing... It was probably a little bit of both.
Braves4Life
New member
I'm NOT floating any ideas as to why JL did not want Wilkins. I'm simply offering up an alternative that we do not know. Everyone (myself included) has pinned this on Wilkins and this being his decision. As I said, it is quite possible that after he visited Les and BU one last time that something caused JL to "let Wilkins go"; he supposedly verballed to Iowa St. soon after his visit to BU. Maybe Wilkins placed "conditions", or maybe it became apparent to Les that he was being used, or maybe Les thought Wilkins would not be eligible at either BU or through the NCAA. All I'm saying is we don't know what happened. I trust JL knew what he was doing and I hope that The Ocho Monster is a BEAST; what he potentially offers is more of our missing link than what Wilkins could have brought.
Braves4Life
New member
The point about EM is an excellent one to make. People shoot down the MO was more important theory by saying that we had two more open scholarships. Actually that wasn't true a month ago, so maybe we did drop out because a post was more important. The EM thing wasn't predictable.
It could also be very well JL was tired of the ride, saw it wasn't realistic anymore and moved on. He didn't necessarily have to pull the offer, but maybe he just stopped recruiting him heavily. WL and MO were ready to commit to Bradley, and so JL took the sure bet perhaps.
Some fans, both BU and ISU are saying Bradley fans are just saying MO was a bigger need just because we are angry. I would argue, if you don't think a post was our biggest need I don't know what Bradley games you were watching last year. ISU fans should know that best of all the way they killed us on the glass last year that was by far our biggest need. We needed a post more than a wing, I think that is obvious.
Either way, I think both teams did well in this deal however it happened, it will be an interesting couple games this year as always, and I am ready to move on.
We had a poll about what we the fans would be happy with in this recruiting class and a real big with Lemon was at the top of the list by far. To say anything else is just talk. Yes we all wanted John Wilkens the player we think he is but a true big was more essential to next season being successful.
wily coyote
Active member
There is a reason and its been put on this board several times and gotten removed. I'm not going to give them (MOds) a chance to do it again but I don't believe we were recruiting him at the end because of situations that have happened eariler. Kudos to JL for his recruitment of JW and its time to move on.