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Recruiting???

W

wizard1

New member
Our total recruiting philosophy, strategy, & program must change or we will never rebuild the BU program back to what it once was. Here's what we must do, IMO:
1. Completely revamp and upgrade our evaluations of prospective players.
2. Look for recruits who are hard nosed, tough, can shoot, and whenever possible, are athletic.
3. Don't be afraid to go after 3 and 4 star kids and compete with BCS programs for them.
4. Start recruiting JC players to seed into our roster.
5. Look for players who can score. No more 12 to 15 ppg high school kids. The best Freshmen we recruited this year were scorers...D. Brown and N. Kennel.
Wizard
 
Not sure he's doing all that bad of a job given he's only 19 games into his 2nd season and had the emptiest cupboard DI has ever seen

-who'd be playing center if we didn't go after Bar?

-who is the most athletic kid on the team who has led us in scoring & rebounding multiple times, and who is our 2nd leading scorer, averaging 10 ppg in MVC play, 3rd on the team in rebs, 3rd best 3-pt shooter and fewest turnovers among starters (hint he's a juco kid who only averaged 5 ppg the last season he played)

-we did dip into the obscure Euro kids and got a couple of All Freshman players who have led us in scoring multiple times and one PG who is the only one we have whose A/T Ration is under 1.0
 
Despite the excuses, Bradley is still the only team in the MVC that does not have a player who played juco ball on their roster these last 2 seasons, while every other team has had multiple jucos starting or producing, some at the highest level in the MVC.
Nobody would care if we were a winning program or were landing All MVC talent, or if the talent we have landed had shown progressive improvement. But none of those are the case.
Bradley has only 2 players averaging more than 6.8 ppg, and only 1 player ranked in the top 25 MVC scorers.
We do not have a single player ranked in the top 30 in shooting percentage!

But from talking to a number of long time donors and season ticket holders, the most disheartening thing is how often we keep getting blown out and embarrassed by opponents, many of whom are mediocre at best. It pains our loyal and generous fans to see what has happened to the program they have supported and love.

Here is an objective example of what I mean:
Defining a "blowout loss" as a game we trailed by 20 or more points late in the 2nd half, from my count, we had 14 such blowout losses last season, and already have had 8 more this year. That's 22 blowout losses in the last 1 1/2 seasons. That is already more than Geno Ford, who had awful teams, had in 4 seasons, and exactly twice as many as Jim Les teams had in 9 full seasons!

Yes, maybe in some ways we are a bit better this season compared with last, but the embarrassing beatdowns continue and it's driving fans and donors away and I have heard it is a concern to the administration and the Board of Trustees..
 
Da Coach said:
Despite the excuses, Bradley is still the only team in the MVC that does not have a player who played juco ball on their roster these last 2 seasons, while every other team has had multiple jucos starting or producing, some at the highest level in the MVC.
Nobody would care if we were a winning program or were landing All MVC talent, or if the talent we have landed had shown progressive improvement. But none of those are the case.
Bradley has only 2 players averaging more than 6.8 ppg, and only 1 player ranked in the top 25 MVC scorers.
We do not have a single player ranked in the top 30 in shooting percentage!

But from talking to a number of long time donors and season ticket holders, the most disheartening thing is how often we keep getting blown out and embarrassed by opponents, many of whom are mediocre at best. It pains our loyal and generous fans to see what has happened to the program they have supported and love.

Here is an objective example of what I mean:
Defining a "blowout loss" as a game we trailed by 20 or more points late in the 2nd half, from my count, we had 14 such blowout losses last season, and already have had 8 more this year. That's 22 blowout losses in the last 1 1/2 seasons. That is already more than Geno Ford, who had awful teams, had in 4 seasons, and exactly twice as many as Jim Les teams had in 9 full seasons!

Yes, maybe in some ways we are a bit better this season compared with last, but the embarrassing beatdowns continue and it's driving fans and donors away and I have heard it is a concern to the administration and the Board of Trustees..
Click to expand...

Everything you said here is true, but there is nothing we can do but trust Chris & Brian with how they are trying to rebuild the program.
For my self I think they have a good plan in place and we have to let it play out.
If it doesn't work out I think we all know where Bradley basketball will end up.
 
Da Coach said:
We do not have a single player ranked in the top 30 in shooting percentage!.....
Click to expand...
the MVC stats only list a certain "Top 12" in shooting pct. per their criteria..
but note that Nate Kennell is shooting .493, Koch Bar is shooting .570, Jojo is shooting .478, and Alex Foster is shooting .737
...
and in MVC play our team shooting pct is the best it's been in nearly a decade (as noted elsewhere) and way, way better than any team in the past five years...
so I wouldn't pick that stat to get all bent out of shape about...

FIELD GOAL PCT Cl GP FG FGA Pct
1. Jackson, Aundre-LUC JR 18 107 149 .718
2. Fayne,Phil-ILS SO 18 68 119 .571
3. Ingram, Donte-LUC JR 15 74 133 .556
4. Willis, Darral-WSU JR 19 84 151 .556
5. Bol,Thik-SIU JR 19 77 140 .550
6. Johnson,Alize-MSU JR 18 90 172 .523
7. Clemons, Everett-INS SR 18 63 121 .521
8. O'Brien,Sean-SIU SR 19 94 186 .505
9. Morris, Shaquille-WSU JR 17 51 101 .505
10. Doyle, Milton-LUC SR 18 102 206 .495
11. Rousseau III,Ronnie-MSU JR 14 58 120 .483
12. McDuffie, Markis-WSU SO 19 76 158 .481
 
Here is the list of MVC FG %- and among qualified players (minimum 75% of team's games, and minimum 5 attempts per game), the top Bradley player in FG% is 31st-
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...t/scoring-per-game/sort/fieldGoalPct/group/18

001.png
 
Again, to clarify, I am not saying we should drop everything else, and go focus on recruiting just jucos. But it does not make sense to me, considering the great success jucos have had in Bradley's past, and have had (and are now having) in the MVC in general, to ignore that whole segment of potential recruits. Especially when we all agree we need better talent to compete.
 
From when Wardle was hired it was made pretty clear what vision he had for this program. 4 year players were the preferred method. He has tried to recruit JC players from what I've read on this board but for whatever reason they went elsewhere. Unless you have more guys leaving there just isn't anything to discuss here.
 
bigjimmy said:
From when Wardle was hired it was made pretty clear what vision he had for this program. 4 year players were the preferred method. He has tried to recruit JC players from what I've read on this board but for whatever reason they went elsewhere. Unless you have more guys leaving there just isn't anything to discuss here.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately bigjimmy, there are people discussing the current situation of the program. The PJ Star isn't the only place getting angry letters from fans and donors. Our AD and the Board of Trustees are hearing it, and they are concerned. Nobody is suggesting coaching changes, but if we don't give our fans something more to look forward to than an undermanned, overmatched team destined for it's 7th losing season in a row, we are going to lose a lot more fans next year.
 
Da Coach I've heard the same talk but unless you know something different, and even if you do I know you can't discuss that on this forum, the only new players you'll have next season are the 2 incoming freshman. That's why I said there's nothing to talk about when it comes to adding any Juco players for next season unless we get some more open spots. Every year that Wardle was head coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay he's had JC recruits on the team so he has recruited them in the past. No reason to think if another spot becomes available that he won't do it again. I think people are upset when we see guys not only not get better but in most cases get worse. I know Wardle has said that we just need to keep working harder in practice but whatever we're working on just isn't translating into games. Evan most of the games we've won I've found myself sitting there and wonder how we did it. No question we play hard but our basketball IQ is questionable. Our defensive strategy of always helping out inside, especially against teams who shoot the 3, is very questionable. I'm trying really hard to "Trust the process" but playing as bad as we did against Loyola and Indiana State, especially after our wins against Evansville and Northern Iowa, is making it really tough to keep believing.
 
Anyone going to be graduating this year?

Anyone going to be graduating this year?

Are any of the players on track to graduate before the next basketball season?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we don't have scholarships available for the two scholarships committed , for next year's two incoming freshmen. If this is correct, two players need to leave, just to open up scholarships for these guys. Assuming this is correct, what you have is what you've got for next season, unless additional players leave, to open up additional scholarships.
 
I think the solutions to the personnel numbers are gonna happen...
in 1-2 years people will be looking back and saying...
"glad we didn't get too worked up about the rebuilding, and gave the guys a chance.."
 
wizard said:
Our total recruiting philosophy, strategy, & program must change or we will never rebuild the BU program back to what it once was. Here's what we must do, IMO:
1. Completely revamp and upgrade our evaluations of prospective players.
2. Look for recruits who are hard nosed, tough, can shoot, and whenever possible, are athletic.
3. Don't be afraid to go after 3 and 4 star kids and compete with BCS programs for them.
4. Start recruiting JC players to seed into our roster.
5. Look for players who can score. No more 12 to 15 ppg high school kids. The best Freshmen we recruited this year were scorers...D. Brown and N. Kennel.
Wizard
Click to expand...

There are 350 other programs doing this.
 
Jim said:
Are any of the players on track to graduate before the next basketball season?
Click to expand...

Though I do not know with certainty, Foster is the only one who would seem to be on track to graduate this spring. He spent 2 years at Texas Tech and now 2 at Bradley. However, he has another year of eligibility left after this year.
Jojo is the only other player in his 4th year, but he just graduated juco last spring, so I doubt he would be in the same position to graduate this year.
 
I think if you look at the NJCAA stats site, you'll agree that this might be one of the weaker years for juco recruiting...

I know stats don't always tell the whole story but there are very few - no more than a dozen kids playing at a high enough level with scoring averages over 20 ppg and decent shooting pct.
I don't know who we ought to be going after -

Heck - we saw how Washington State was impressed enough to go hard after Davante Cooper - and yet Cooper is starting & playing full time but only averaging just 4.7 ppg/6.7 rpg and he's been shut out completely scoreless several times recently.
http://www.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2016-17/div1/boxscores/20170111_excs.xml
http://www.etfinalscore.com/ET-TJC/269245/tjc-women-men-pick-up-road-wins
 
Whether you agree with JC players or not. One thing is a fact. Continued games like this or going to greatly affect attendance and probably donations. Once more year with games like this would probably do it.

Many games of 20 point blowouts, with many turnovers, and seeming lack of intensity is not going to keep interests up among facts. Some here may argue about the number of 20 point blowouts, but it is the mercy of teams that keeps it from being more than are on the scoreboard now.
 
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