The players are all back on campus

Just got back from spending much of the day up at Bradley at their team camp...
and I had the opportunity to talk at length with several of the players and coaches...virtually all of the players are there - but didn't see the new guys..

First - in case he does read this...I just want to say a HUGE thanks to Coach Les for the favors he did for our "guys"...at the camp...........
Coach Les was very busy running such a huge and chaotic camp with hundreds of kids running around from building to building and playing games all day long...most teams playing between 12 and 15 games between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning!!
I know he barely had time to stop and get a drink when he was thirsty...but he took the time to greet us and knows we are BIG Braves fans...that's what makes our program pretty special.

Willie Scott is a great personality and I had a chance to talk with him...he is really glad to be back at Bradley! After Willie had to spend so much time in Mississippi with his ill mother (she is recovered and doing better, his designing business slumped a bit and as was noted, while he was attending his mom he had the chance to get involved with coaching down in Mississippi. So when his mother had sufficiently recovered, he looked to give back to the game he loved and got involved full time in coaching and landed at Malcolm X College in Chicago...then rebuilt their team quickly into a winner.
One thing Willie said was it is the Bradley fans that make the job there as assistant so enjoyable...he was really thrilled at the great reception he's gotten already.

I also spoke with assistant Jim Platt......and he related some fond memories of Peoria even as a grade school kid when he came here to play in the big Lutheran School Tournament that Christ Lutheran has every year. As has been noted, he's a long, long time friend of Jim Molinari...so we had a little bit in common to talk about..

Then I talked a bit with Dodie - he's doing great...and saw or talked with Dyricus, Jake, JP, and several other players - also Theron Wilson was there as well as Cellus....but they were busy keeping all the kids and their games going smoothly.
...but as has been my policy - even though they all has some interesting things to say and were all equally excited about this coming season...I am not going to post openly and publicly the conversations I had with the players, as someone who reads it always tries to take something, even out of context, and make some issue of it...so anyone who knows me knows how to reach me if you want to know more......
I remain confident this is the best group of returning players we've had in my recent memory....and I am looking forward to a great year.