Overrated/Underrated

I was just thinking about the final end result of Chris Lowery's fine, highly touted recruiting class back in 2008 - labeled the best recruiting class in Valley history, if you believe some.

Then I realized that lots of SIU recruits appear to have been overrated......and all the while, very few Bradley recruits are that overrated, most being underrated.

Let's just look at a comparison using the recent players......and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, this is not meant to be demeaning to anyone...

Bradley's recent players have almost all been underrated coming to Bradley.

Sam Maniscalco was not highly recruited nor given a lot of press anywhere outside of Chicago - and not even much in Chicago. Yet, Sammy has become one of the better players in the Missouri Valley and got votes for the Player of the Year!!

Andrew Warren is also one of the Valley's best scorers and best players, yet was barely known coming out of high school, didn't get many offers, and was a steal for Bradley.

Taylor Brown has also become one of the league's best players but was a virtual unknown in high school and as a juco freshman. In fact, if TB continues to improve as the pace he's getting better, he could be one of Jim Les' best recruiting coups!

Same can be said of Chris Roberts, Will Franklin, POB, Will Egolf, and many other Bradley players that became fine or solid Valley players but were almost unknown coming in.

Dodie is also a perfect example -- while at prep school and going to Iowa State, Dodie had a 3-Star ranking, and had plenty of hype.
Then when he went to juco and on to Bradley - that ranking dropped and his name barely got a mention!!

Here's the proof of the guru's hypocrisy --
Dodie going to Iowa State has 3 Stars
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Dodie-Dunson-34182

But Dodie going to Bradley gets ZERO STARS!!! Amazing!!
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Dodie-Dunson-72835



But let's contrast all those Bradley players who were very UNDERRATED coming to Bradley, with the really overrated guys that ended at SIU.

I like Carlton Fay, but he was pretty highly touted...and even Bradley wanted him.
And he is a good player, but in his first two years at SIU he accumulated just 399 points and 203 rebounds playing nearly FULL TIME!!!
These aren't horrible numbers, but note than Will Egolf's totals after his first two seasons at Bradley are not a whole lot different!!! And Will hasn't played NEARLY as many minutes in his two years as Carlton did.
But how about we compare Carlton Fay's first two years to Taylor Brown's...

Carlton Fay - 399 points, 203 rebounds
Taylor Brown- 489 points, 294 rebounds

whoa....what a HUGE difference.........this clearly argues that as underrated as TB was, he has had a FAR more substantial career for Bradley to this point, as CFay did in his first two years at SIU!!! How many people knew that??



Then we get to the real overrated guys....
Anthony Booker was a 4-Star recruit, rated by scout.com as the #29 best player in the NATION in Class of 2008 - only 4 slots on their list away from being a 5-STAR guy!! He was hailed as the best incoming recruit in the past 3 years in the Valley. But he's been a bit of a bust, not even starting much (except when other player dismissals and issues essentially forced it) - and now he's gone....
I'd say he might just well be the MOST overrated player the Valley has ever seen!!

Kevin Dillard....this is literally the poster boy for overrated!! We had to endure tons of press and message board posts telling us how this guy was going to dominate the Valley - how he'd lead SIU back to national prominence!
Well, if Anthony Booker isn't the most overrated guy the Valley has seen, then this guy will gladly take the award!
The departure from SIU of Kevin Dillard made me wonder how each of the past Illinois Mr. Basketball's have done...

The most recent, 2010, Jereme Richmond, hasn't even entered college, but he certainly has a bright future.

The 2009 Mr. Basketball, Brandon Paul, played a lot and was a key part of Illinois' team, starting about half the games,
and averaging 8 ppg, 3 rpg...but also his future is bright and he hasn't exactly floundered.

The going all the way back to 1995, EVERY OTHER ILLINOIS MR. BASKETBALL has either jumped right to the NBA and had a great payday or been a star in the NBA...
and all the rest, save for one, have been great college players, many All Americans.....(Rose, Scheyer, Dee Brown)..

But one guy stands out, not only for being the guy who won with the least vote totals, but also the guy who has failed to distinguish himself much at all...
After two years at SIU, he's a decent player with better than average numbers, but he has prevailed over two of THE WORST YEARS THAT SIU HAS HAD IN MEMORY!!! (13-18, 15-15)
In fact, to find a season that was worse than the 18-losses you have to go back to the early 1980's..almost 30 years ago!
These two seasons with Kevin Dillard as floor chief, have been two of the worst 4 or 5 years since SIU went D-I!!

Here are the past Illinois Mr. Basketball's all the way back to the mid 90's......


Year...Mr. Basketball... School........ Points received ...College
2010 Jereme Richmond Waukegan High School, Waukegan 455 Illinois
2009 Brandon Paul Warren Township High School, Gurnee 337 Illinois
2008 Kevin Dillard Homewood-Flossmoor High School 228 SIU
2007 Derrick Rose Simeon Career Academy, Chicago 720 Memphis
2006 Jon Scheyer Glenbrook North High School, Northbrook 1187 Duke
2005 Julian Wright Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Flossmoor 645 Kansas
2004 Shaun Livingston Peoria Central NBA 1056 (Letter of Intent: Duke)
2003 Shannon Brown Proviso East High School, Maywood 887 Michigan State
2002 Dee Brown Proviso East High School, Maywood 952 Illinois
2001 Eddy Curry Thornwood High School, South Holland NBA 1443 (LOI: DePaul)
2000 Darius Miles East St. Louis High School NBA 1264(LOI:St. Johns)
1999 Brian Cook Lincoln Community High School, Lincoln 903 Illinois
1998 Frank Williams Manual High School, Peoria 1049 Illinois
1997 Sergio McClain Manual High School, Peoria 1361 Illinois
1996 Ronnie Fields Farragut Academy, Chicago 1270 CBA (LOI: DePaul)
1995 Kevin Garnett Farragut Academy, Chicago 1443 NBA (LOI: DePaul)

so in many respects...KD was simply way overrated......but some of the voters in 2008 knew it - thus he just didn't have the vote totals of the other Mr. Basketballs.

The other recent SIU guys - Torres Roundtree, Ryan Hare, Justin Bocot, Tony Freeman, etc...have all been hyped way too much, even o the point where some like Freeman were predicted to give a run for POY and the rest were guaranteed starters who'd carry SIU and challenge for the MVC title.
Well....funny how none of that happened. So what gives?
Does anyone else note how so many SIU guys are horribly hyped then fall flat...but polar opposite - so many BU guys are unknowns with NO hype who turn out to be solid players?
Maybe it's tied in with my argument of how hard it is to get recruits interested in Bradley. Maybe it's time for the media and the future recruits to wake up and smell the roses.....

That SIU isn't on par with UCLA - and the top recruits need to stop placing Carbondale ahead of Peoria as a desirable destination........

But then, that's my purpose.....get the word out.........
Check out Peoria, consider Bradley -- that's what all the top instate and even out of state recruits need to do. And stop drooling over the hopes of playing in Carbondale - as you can see, it's the college basketball equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot!!