BU recruiting

This is just a general commentary on Bradley recruiting....
as I have followed Bradley basketball recruiting longer and more intently than some people.

Some just don't care about recruits until they get on campus & enrolled. There have been times I begin a conversation with another Bradley fan and mention a name of a recruit and get a puzzled look in return - then a comment like..
"I don't have time nor do I care who are all the kids Bradley's looking at."

But - I have followed recruiting since the Versace era and find it interesting. I do go and watch some off-season events and view a few of the recruits personally, I subscribe to a few sites where writers actually go and see the kids, comment on them, rank them, and even talk with them and post interviews..
I have never claimed to be an expert - just an interested party willing to share observaitons.
So I have some background with which to compare, and there's definitely something different going on now that I have never seen before.

Throughout all the time I have followed Bradley basketball - we've had various people writing in the local paper on Bradley topics - Kenny Jones, Dick Lien, Phil Theobald, rarely Bill Liesse, sometimes Greg Stewart, Dave Reynolds, Kirk Wessler, and others.
In general they all do a fairly good job almost all of the time - although I have made a point that some reports are clearly biased at times with an agenda to embarrass BU or the past coaching staff, and I have also noted that in the past there were often LONG, LONG stretches, especially in the off-season where we got absolutely ZERO coverage....

Maybe they think there's no reason to talk about Bradley basketball between March and October - but for decades that's how it was. That's a large part of why we now have the message boards, since lots of the more intense Bradley fans want to talk about, read about, and learn about what's going on in the off-season...
including recruiting topics. The BradleyFans recruiting forum is VERY active - because of that interest - more active in and of itself than the main basketball board at more other Valley sites.

Anyway -- MANY people have suddenly noted a significant departure from the way reporting has always been done.
Starting last summer and continuing now - we are getting lots of little snippets and reports in the off season. And for the FISRT time ever - the local writers are actually doing not just comments about - but coverage of Bradley's recruiting....in the off-season.

Now - most head coaches keep any and all recruiting info pretty close to the vest and secret and DON'T want any writeups of what they're doing, who they're recruiting, and where they go...
In fact - confidentiality in recruiting is one of the foremost facts of college basketball.
BUT - in stark contrast to the way it's always been - what we're getting now is more openness and recruiting.

I will leave it to others to debate whether that's good or bad..........I really don't care - although I do read the reports, even though virtually everything in the press is something that is, or long ago was obtainable elsewhere - especially if you follow recruiting closely or are subscribed to other recuiting sites.

Some of this new-found info in the standard media is actually quite dated (Bradley still strong onto Fabyon Harris) and some downright INACCURATE (John Wilkins verballing to Iowa State, and the older - Manual Cass verballing to Bradley..)...but....some is actually in the realm of a bit odd - maybe even controversial.

Everyone knows people are entitled to personal opinions, speculation, and even a bit of marginal accuracy on message boards - but in the newspaper don't you think we should just stick with what's fair, accurate, and proven??

Then there's comments about recruits like this...

"he didn't distinguish himself"
"looked fatigued"
"likely not going to stand out unless he's a freakish athlete. Mislav isn't that.."
"took very few shots ...was tentative..."

Then the responses others post on message boards -
"he won't be a Brave - no way, no how.."
and then one poster throws this into the debate - that the kid can't sign until April 11...
..so his failure to verbal is, what, a really good sign??

Well - I guess it is as it is.......if talk of recruiting is being done openly in the media - then people seem to want to debate if that's good or not...
Again - I will let the readers decide...........but certainly the local press
STATING uncomplimentary comments about the kid after being given the invitation to view them - can't possibly HELP Bradley recruit and land the kid!
If anyone thinks it does help to have a newspaper criticize the kid by saying he shot poorly or was disinterested or fatigued, or didn't "particularly distinguish himself" then let me know this helps Bradley in any conceivable way!

I can only assume that Geno Ford wants the kid ...that's a no-brainer - and I sure wouldn't do anything in the press to ruin that possibility.
But then I guess everyone's entitled to their opinions....

Geno Ford is now pretty much into the LATE quarter of his 2nd recruiting cycle....
He's about the close his 2012 recruiting class after landing a 5-man 2011 recruiting class.
Time will tell - but one way or another people will some day be looking back and asking if Geno got what he set out to get -- did he land a "difference-maker".
I wouldn't want some reckless comments publicly to hamper that recruiting effort.

As noted elsewhere....Within the first TWO recruiting cycles under Jim Les - the recruits included top players like Marcellus Sommerville, Daniel Ruffin, Patrick O'Bryant, Zach Andrews, Lawrence Wright, Danny Adams, Tony Bennett, JJ Tauai, etc...

Thus far the names on Geno's list for the first two cycles are Donivine Stewart (already gone), Devon Hodges (already gone), Nate Wells (hasn't played yet), Jalen Crawford (some solid outings), Shayok Shayok (shows promise), Ka'Darryl Bell, Tyshon Pickett, and then maybe Brzoja, Buovac, and the few other names being bandied about...with big time losses like Remy Abell, Sean Harris, Tyler Brown, Max Bielfeldt, and others...

Again - time will tell - but are we going to get 'er done in this recruiting cycle??
Do we have a "difference maker" yet?



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