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Commitment from Corey Thomas

Per Dave’s article, it sounds like Wardle wants another freshman with our last scholarship. If that’s the case, we really didn’t use the portal much. Right now we’ve added 2 freshmen, a D-2 transfer (technically could call this a portal add, but not typically what I think of with the transfer portal), and a JuCo transfer. Our only real portal addition was Zek, a guy who had been here before and decided to come back. I just find it interesting that while other schools are recruiting players mostly from other D-1 programs, Wardle is still mostly focusing on freshmen and Junior College kids, and seems to be having success with it.
 
I like it. Malevy was JUCO. Davis was D2. We’ve had more success going after lower level guys than Big East transfers. Not that I would foreclose anything.
 
BraveSince09 said:
Per Dave’s article, it sounds like Wardle wants another freshman with our last scholarship. If that’s the case, we really didn’t use the portal much. Right now we’ve added 2 freshmen, a D-2 transfer (technically could call this a portal add, but not typically what I think of with the transfer portal), and a JuCo transfer. Our only real portal addition was Zek, a guy who had been here before and decided to come back. I just find it interesting that while other schools are recruiting players mostly from other D-1 programs, Wardle is still mostly focusing on freshmen and Junior College kids, and seems to be having success with it.
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I think as a mid major it is solid strategy in this current age of the transfer portal and NIL.

We aren't going to compete for some of the top D1 transfers, we just lack the NIL capability that many of those who transfer are looking for.

With all the focus on D1 transfers there is a ton of high school, Juco and D2 talent going under the radar. Give some of these guys a chance and recruit those who actually want to be here, not just for the highest NIL deal.
 
BUfan17 said:
I think as a mid major it is solid strategy in this current age of the transfer portal and NIL.

We aren't going to compete for some of the top D1 transfers, we just lack the NIL capability that many of those who transfer are looking for.

With all the focus on D1 transfers there is a ton of high school, Juco and D2 talent going under the radar. Give some of these guys a chance and recruit those who actually want to be here, not just for the highest NIL deal.
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I totally agree.
 
I generally agree. I could also see leaving one open for a late find. There are just too many kids in the portal and from high school thinking they are going power 5 and there just are not that many seats. When the music stops there have to be some good kids without a seat. When you look at the portal every kid seems to say I’ve been contacted by 17 schools. The other side of that is every school contacts 20 kids for the 4 spots they have open. This used to play out for a high school kid over a year while everything happens in a month now for the portal and late signing high school kids.
 
BUfan17 said:
....
With all the focus on D1 transfers there is a ton of high school, Juco and D2 talent going under the radar. Give some of these guys a chance and recruit those who actually want to be here, not just for the highest NIL deal.
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This has worked well for many mid-majors. Several recent Bradley players were high-school and juco recruits who developed into terrific D1 players, including Darrel Brown, Elijah Childs, Ja'Shon Henry, Rienk Mast, Malevy Leons, Terry Roberts, Zek Montgomery, Darius Hannah, Connor Hickman, and others.
The problem now with that strategy is that after they develop into quality players, many of those players get lured away into the portal with the NIL money at the bigger schools. It means that schools like Bradley can still get good players and become good teams, but those teams usually never reach the full potential of how good they can become because they keep losing their best players.
 
Da Coach said:
This has worked well for many mid-majors. Several recent Bradley players were high-school and juco recruits who developed into terrific D1 players, including Darrel Brown, Elijah Childs, Ja'Shon Henry, Rienk Mast, Malevy Leons, Terry Roberts, Zek Montgomery, Darius Hannah, Connor Hickman, and others.
The problem now with that strategy is that after they develop into quality players, many of those players get lured away into the portal with the NIL money at the bigger schools. It means that schools like Bradley can still get good players and become good teams, but those teams usually never reach the full potential of how good they can become because they keep losing their best players.
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Yeah, if P5 schools are throwing $250k at players like Avila, we will never see a guy like Childs grow and mature into a senior at BU ever again. Makes me realize what Malevy must have passed on in order to stay (though I am aware that international players have restrictions that American players don't). Malevy will always be one of my favorite all-time Braves for sticking around, not to mention being one of the best players we've ever had.
 
Here is an inside look at one of Coach Wardle's recruiting methods, thanks to Jim Mattson of WEEK - https://twitter.com/hoijim/status/1779862925538103589

Coach Wardle and the other BU coaches took Corey Thomas and his juco coach Donny Jackson to watch his daughters' soccer match this past weekend.

GLNX3hWXwAAYHly
 
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