Wardle to Iowa?

[tomahawk chop]

Those guys want to play here so they probably stay if a decent replacement came in to coach. I think Wardle stays.

 

[BUfan14]

Yeah, that looks like Hickman’s fate. But they probably will get an at-large bid into MM so there’s that.

I'm not so sure Cincinnati even looks like at at-large team anymore. They are 12-8 and 2-7 in conference (14th place). 0-6 in Quad 1 with a net of 48. Lunardi had them as the 7th team out before their latest loss. I'm not even sure how they are that close with those stats, but point stands that they have trended down for a while now.

 

[BUfan14]

Drake was good and the main reason why was because DeVries star player was his son, take him off the roster and they would have been a 4th or 5th place team.

I've seen this opinion before, but I'm not sure I agree. Yes, losing your best scorer would hurt and they wouldn't have been as good, but I still think they would've been contenders either way. If he didn't have his son he would have found another pretty good, albeit probably not as good, player too. They had many really good players the last half a dozen years, and many double digit scorers. DeVries was a great Valley scorer, but he wasn't great at much else to me, and it's not like even his shooting percentages were even off the charts last year. They had a good TEAM, not just one player. Also, this year they have a new coach and neither DeVries, yet they still took out NET 37 Vanderbilt and are first in conference yet again, and beat us on the road convincingly.

Finally, they were 26-5 (15-3) the year before Tucker got there and went to the tournament. Two years before that they were first in the Valley 24-10 (12-6) in Darian DeVries first year. So to downplay their success because the coach's son happened to be a really good scorer for three of those 6 (7 if you count this year) years is not completely fair to me. My point still stands either way. Trade out their coach's son advantage for our top paid coach and top NIL money. We should be able to achieve that level of consistent and next level success in my opinion.

 

[BUfan14]

I think this is a good recruiting tool to get the Deen's and Hannah's of mid major basketball to stay.
Ask the many Hickman type players how much they enjoy getting 5- 10 minutes a game

Ya in theory, but how many players have enough self-awareness and self-control to understand who they are and their limits as players? A kid like Christian Davis seems like he understands his role and strengths. Most players believe they will be the ones that have success, plus get paid more, so in their mind, why not leave? You have to be confident to be a good D1 basketball player, so it is difficult to find 18-22 year old kids who have the exact right amount of earned confidence. And there are plenty of examples of success too (Rienk Mast as one from Bradley).

I do wonder with the transfer portal era and the big boys hitting that harder, why we don't take more advantage of finding under-recruited freshmen. Other than Johnson, the last few years have been very light on high level high school talent. Burch and Atlason had some success freshman year, but have certainly taken a step back so far, and van der Knaap seems awfully raw so far.

 

[[email protected]]

Have to agree with some of the posts on this subject. If Wardle does leave someday, as they say the grass is not always greener on the other side. Just ask Zeke about this. Sure Wardle can chase the money other schools will throw at him but will the money make him happier with what he has built here. Do not get me wrong every coach has their flaws and he is no different. Maybe he is happy here with what he is being paid and happy with the community support. As for the NIL money that Bradley has which is supposed to be tops in the Valley, let's hope that translates into keep getting quality players to come. :lol:

 

[JMM28]

For some context on the "Hickman wasn't good enough to play at Cincinnati" stuff - he broke a bone in his foot in December. Seeing as its his senior year, he tried playing through it for a couple months. Playing basketball isn't easy with a broken bone in your foot. Jump shots don't work as well. He shut it down finally, doubt he plays the rest of this year.

Unfortunately for him, Cincinnati is trending towards more of a 'coach getting fired' result than a NCAA tournament appearance.

 

[yoda]

For some context on the "Hickman wasn't good enough to play at Cincinnati" stuff - he broke a bone in his foot in December. Seeing as its his senior year, he tried playing through it for a couple months. Playing basketball isn't easy with a broken bone in your foot. Jump shots don't work as well. He shut it down finally, doubt he plays the rest of this year.

Unfortunately for him, Cincinnati is trending towards more of a 'coach getting fired' result than a NCAA tournament appearance.

That scenario doesn't make full sense. Yes, I know that Connor has battled foot & ankle problems most of his college career.
BUT - if he suddenly developed a new, acute injury, a "broken bone in his foot", back in December when he had still played
few enough games that a medical redshirt would have been available, then why would he force his way thru 3 more games,
playing only 8-10 minutes and being completely non-productive (zero stat line...)...
so that now he's into the territory where he's played TOO many games (13) and played beyond the midpoint of the season -
both factors that likely will deny him the availability of the medical redshirt?

 

[elmerb]

After the last two games I would not be too concern that Wardle is going to Iowa, unless there is an opening at St Ambrose.