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Players from the past

D

daveineureka

Member
Post has nothing to do with the current team, so was out for garage sales today and one house had a picture of the team that won the 82 NIT. Brought back the memory of Pierre Cooper who never got to play because of a blood disorder. Remember Versace saying had he been part of the team that there was no doubt in his mind that the team would have been strong contenders for a Final Four spot. Kudos for BU honoring his scholarship and having him graduate even though he could not play. Last I remember he resides in Chicago and owns a business. Would be something if someday he could return to BU for perhaps a game and get recognition. Will never know if Versace's opinion would have come true.
 
Good memory, DaveinEureka. Pierre Cooper was part of the 1981-82 recruiting class that included other freshmen Voise Winters, Anthony Webster, and Eddie Harris, along with juco recruits Willie Scott, Barney Mines, and Kerry Cook. But I recall both Dick Versace and Tony Barone saying Pierre was as talented as anyone on that team, including Mitchell Anderson, David Thirdkill, Donald Reese, Scott or Mines. Unfortunately, Pierre developed life-threatening blood clots in his leg prior to the '81-'82 season, and required anticoagulant treatment that prevented him from playing on that '82 NIT team. He later tried coming off them, hoping to play in following seasons, but the clots reoccurred, and he was eventually advised not to play competitively again.

Here's an old thread we had about Pierre-
L

Thread 'Pierre Cooper question'

I have an obscure question. When I was young one of the recruits I was most excited about was Pierre Cooper. He ended up having a blood disorder and never played. I think I remember that he graduated and I was proud that Bradley honored his scholarship and he graduated. I was was just wondering if anyone knows what ever happened to Pierre?

I just saw the post on Patrick Cooper and for some reason it made me wonder about Pierre Cooper. I am getting old.

Here is an article about that team from the Basketball Museum of Illinois-

1981-82 Bradley University Men's Team - Basketball Museum of Illinois

basketballmuseumofillinois.com basketballmuseumofillinois.com
 
Pierre Cooper was one of those players that I never got to see develop to his full potential. He had so much upside. Another one was Bruce Mordini
 
Speaking of Bruce Mordini, who played for Bradley from 1983-1988, he has a son, Grant Mordini, who is 6'10" and a 2025 graduate of Lake Forest High School. He is still unsigned, as is the case with a lot of high schoolers now because of the portal and all the transferring. He might need to start at a lower level school or a prep school.
Chicago Tribune article-
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1208408314620135&id=100063529331986
Highlights-
https://twitter.com/x/status/1918791669287154065

More highlights- LINK
 
Pierre Cooper’s wife is a well known star in the Chicago broadcast media. Check it out.
LINK
 

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Da Coach said:
Speaking of Bruce Mordini, who played for Bradley from 1983-1988, he has a son, Grant Mordini, who is 6'10" and a 2025 graduate of Lake Forest High School. He is still unsigned, as is the case with a lot of high schoolers now because of the portal and all the transferring. He might need to start at a lower level school or a prep school.
Chicago Tribune article-
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1208408314620135&id=100063529331986
Highlights-
https://twitter.com/x/status/1918791669287154065

More highlights- LINK
Click to expand...
He would be an interesting development prospect, if he handles the ball like a guard and has the size of a center he could be an interesting piece once he puts weight on.
 
Although not a Bradley player from the past, Hank Mathews is the son of BU great Eddie Mathews...
Hank was just hired as the new head coach of one of the most storied basketball programs in Illinois,
Collinsville High School - - LINK

Collinsville ranks 2nd all time in Illinois with 2227 total wins
and have won the IHSA State Championship twice. - LINK
 
yoda said:
Although not a Bradley player from the past, Hank Mathews is the son of BU great Eddie Mathews...
Hank was just hired as the new head coach of one of the most storied basketball programs in Illinois,
Collinsville High School - - LINK

Collinsville ranks 2nd all time in Illinois with 2227 total wins
and have won the IHSA State Championship twice. - LINK
Click to expand...
Hank was my classmate/teammate at PND before transferring to Limestone with his dad.
Collinsville got a good one.
believe it or not he wasn't even the best basketball mind in his class....Nic Reynolds (older brother of Noah Reynolds at TCU) will be a great head coach someday as well.
 
anyone remember David Selby, played at Bradley under Coach Mo 1999-2000.
His daughter Brianna is a freshman at USC running track and just qualified for the NCAA Nationals in Eugene OR June 11-14,
one of very few college freshman to do so, running the 100m in 11.03.
Her time, 11.03 is one of the ten fastest times this year in women's NCAA, and is the 23rd fastest time in the entire world in 2025.
(and she's only a freshman - and no other college freshman in NCAA has run faster than 11.15 this season)
She has a great chance to be an Olympian in 2028.
 
fyi- live results from the NCAA National Championships Track & Field that starts later today in Oregon
LINK

In qualifiers, Brianna Selby ran 11.03 sec, and was only 0.05 sec off the fastest qualifying time run (10.98) in all qualifying rounds.
 
Da Coach said:
Some great news involving former Bradley star Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye.... He and his teammates on the Great Britian 3 on 3 National Basketball Team have qualified for the FIBA 3x3 World Cup.
In addition to the FIBA World Cup for 3x3 basketball, 3x3 basketball is now an official Olympic sport, too. Good luck DLO!- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3x3_basketball_at_the_Summer_Olympics

https://twitter.com/x/status/1926698838099694046

Team Roster- https://gb.basketball/teams/gb-3x3-men/
Click to expand...
D-Lo will always be a key guy in the Coach Wardle era - without him, not sure the road to success we've had and the program that's been built would have come as easily. His intensity and passion for the game (and for BU) was evident and contagious.

Way to GO D-LO!!!
 
yoda said:
fyi- live results from the NCAA National Championships Track & Field that starts later today in Oregon
LINK

In qualifiers, Brianna Selby ran 11.03 sec, and was only 0.05 sec off the fastest qualifying time run (10.98) in all qualifying rounds.
Click to expand...
Former Bradley Brave David Selby's daughter runs 11.01 in prelims and qualifies for the 8-runner 100m final on Saturday at 8:52pm
 
Interesting read....
This website compiled a list of roughly 100 players who averaged OVER 40 points per game in a season while they were in high school.

There are TWO great Bradley players on this list, Mitchell Anderson & Voise Winters. Many of the other players on the list
played at very small schools and dominated by taking countless shots, but their names are so obscure and many never even played
in college.

See how many out of 112 names that you are familiar with... I knew about ~20 of them
LINK
 
Last edited:
I suspect there might have been others whose names have been lost over time, especially from smaller schools in the more distant past. Even today, it can be virtually impossible to find stats from a lot of high school games, and some states' season stats like individual players' scoring averages can be incomplete or inaccurate.
 
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