Dave Reynolds recruiting column

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds has a column in the PJ Star today that has some recruiting information-
http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140307/SPORTS/140309169/11130/SPORTS

Geno left for Texas right after Bradley's Thursday night loss. He said he was recruiting "junior college players with focuses on wings, a big guy and a combination guard".
A couple more quotes from Geno-
“We’re in on the right guys, we’ve just gotta get to the finish line,” Ford said. “We’ve got to get it done. I know what’s at stake, but I’m not in panic mode. We’re not miles from where we need to be.
“But it’s central we don’t miss on these recruits. There’s certainly pressure for us to get these next couple spots correct. But I definitely feel like we’re close.”

He gave Dave a few names of junior college players he is recruiting:

Roderick Lawrence, a 6'4", 185 pound guard from South Plains College who’s currently averaging 12.8 points and 6.0 rebounds. He shoots 33.5% from three. These stats (from the NJCAA website) differ slightly from those printed in Dave's column.
Here is more information-
www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=23707
http://www.spctexans.com/roster/11/1/1124.php
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Roderick-Lawrence-144091

Kendahl Amerson, a 6'3", 205 pound guard from College of Eastern Utah (now renamed University of Southern Utah-Eastern, or USU-E). He is originally from Detroit and is averaging 17.5 ppg. He spent his freshman season at South Plains College in Texas, before transferring to Eastern Utah, where he was a teammate with Roderick Lawrence and also Jamaal Samuel, who is now at Illinois State. He is a high scoring shooting guard who averages 17.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg, and he shoots 39.5% from three.
http://usueasternathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=121&path=mbball
http://www.spctexans.com/roster/11/1/1007.php

Jaleni Neely, a 6' point guard (closer to 5'10") also at College of Eastern Utah averaging 14.2 ppg. Coach Ford recruited Jelani Neely out of high school as a 2012 recruit from Chicago Simeon HS. We dropped off him when he tore his ACL in the July before his senior year. We then signed Ka'Darryl Bell as our point guard. He is currently averaging 14.2 ppg and 4.3 apg, and is shooting 36.8% from three.
Here was a thread about Jelani Neely from our recruiting board-
www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18492
http://usueasternathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=119&path=mbball
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Jaleni-Neely-144530

Dinjiyl Walker, a 6'2" sophomore guard at Iowa Western averaging 16.0 ppg ppg and 3.9 rpg, and he shoots 39.5% from three. He is originally from Vaughan, Ontario.
http://athletics.iwcc.edu/sports/player.asp?sport=basketball_m&int=1778
http://rivals.yahoo.com/basketballrecruiting/basketball/recruiting/player-Dinjiyl-Walker-150039

 

[tornado]

I highly commend Geno & staff's effort - hit the recruiting trail and get it done....
what's worrisome is whether a bunch of late-spring leftovers who have not been signed, guys who are 12-17 ppg scorers who shoot under 40% can fill the basic needs that have already been clearly delineated...POINT GUARD, OUTSIDE SHOOTER, and POST PLAYER?
These guys - like so many others we would label recruiting misses - seem to get a lot of their points on driving/slashing - something that only rarely translates from the juco level (where defenders are not D-I opponents) to the MVC level where you face D-I defenses & Mockevicius and Lynch stuff those shots right back in your face.

I know it's not easy - but I want a big, strong 6-10 guy with an attitude and very wide butt, who has been told all his life that he won't succeed, then develop him into a Jackie Carmichael or Eric Coleman.
The kid on the team Tramique played (Western Texas College) seems to fit the bill - we sure can't do any worse than we've been doing - give him a chance...

 

[bu fan 9]

Geno could have WSU talent and still not win. He has proved he knows nothing about X's and O's. The last 4.8 seconds of the last game proved that.

 

[bravetime33]

Geno could have WSU talent and still not win. He has proved he knows nothing about X's and O's. The last 4.8 seconds of the last game proved that.

Is that why he won Consecutive coach of the year awards in his previous conference?
We will see how it goes with a legit point guard and all his players on board

 

[Da Coach]

Is that why he won Consecutive coach of the year awards in his previous conference?
We will see how it goes with a legit point guard and all his players on board

I love Geno, and want him to succeed, and his record at Kent State is impressive. But that is all water over the dam. We can't keep citing his Kent State success, which did not include a single NCAA game, as justification for losing here.
Bradley fans are tired of losing and getting beat by worse teams filled with players that we wouldn't even recruit. We are tired of seeing teams like SIU, Missouri State, and Illinois State, who were terrible teams last year, zoom past Bradley and become winning teams, leaving Bradley behind to play on Thursdays in St. Louis.

Geno had a chance to show his coaching abilities Thursday against a woefully bad Loyola team. How do you explain what happened? And how did Barry Hinson, Paul Lusk, and others turn their teams around and have their teams playing so well? Why can't Bradley? Now we have to replace a higher percentage of our offense than any other team.

 

[bu fan 9]

Maybe Geno had good asst. coaches at kent state? His asst coaches are bad here and they all should be fired too. But they are his hires and he must go down with the ship.

 

[tornado]

the articles this morning cite how we've LOST all the great gains we had made last year....


but did we...?

first - we won only 16 games (16-16) in the regular season last year - not exactly a whirlwind season- and it was against an extremely weak schedule unlike most previous years.
Plus the "empty cupboard" had matured into a great group of upperclassmen (DSE, Will, Jake, Walt..) but they're all gone now

then we replaced them with a mix of freshmen who either hadn't even played in a year or two, juco kids who could not score, and transfers from programs where they couldn't find playing time there. This was bad recruiting. Almost 100% "misses".
So please don't blame the kids for what it clearly not their fault.

Anyway - with the swap of Creighton for Loyola - we still came close to those 16-wins that we had in 2012-13 - so we really didn't lose much at all - we were largely the same team minus the guys who were leftover.

So once & for all - I wish the guys in the newspaper would stop blaming the players left behind in 2011 - and place the blame clearly on where it belongs - the lack of any effective players recruited in the past 3 years to replace the ones left in the cupboard or run off by the new staff.

 

[lefty]

there is plenty to blame all over....players,staff, etc.....I just don't blame sportswriters

I think they have talked recruiting misses plenty...

I'm not sure why everyone is so sensitive and stretches to try and tie anything mentioned that could possibly be associated with the JL era....

We should be past that now

 

[tornado]

we're as bad as we've ever been in my 45 years of closely following Bradley basketball...and we still see excuses, candy-coating, and throwing the players under the bus...
..if they wanna blame WL, Jr. or me or the weather - then they are acting like children and only hurting themselves...
what's it gonna take to get the job done right by the right people?

 

[Da Coach]

This is an opinion board, and all opinions are welcome, so why do some opinions evoke such chastising from others? And it's not a stretch to say that Kirk seems to have gone overboard with today's column ripping the players (it seems that even you agreed), especially Tyshon and Walt, for their lack of leadership, and the team for the lack of talent.
However, the coaches have 100% control over who is on their roster, yet Kirk does not hold anyone else accountable except the players themselves. Kirk acts like somehow, our coaches were forced to take on the entire roster we had this year, and that, at least in this column, none of the results are from recruiting mistakes, game prep, game plans, coaching, or anything else. Lefty, even you know that is pure hogwash.

 

[bradleyfan124]

I love Geno, and want him to succeed, and his record at Kent State is impressive. But that is all water over the dam. We can't keep citing his Kent State success, which did not include a single NCAA game, as justification for losing here.
Bradley fans are tired of losing and getting beat by worse teams filled with players that we wouldn't even recruit. We are tired of seeing teams like SIU, Missouri State, and Illinois State, who were terrible teams last year, zoom past Bradley and become winning teams, leaving Bradley behind to play on Thursdays in St. Louis.

Geno had a chance to show his coaching abilities Thursday against a woefully bad Loyola team. How do you explain what happened? And how did Barry Hinson, Paul Lusk, and others turn their teams around and have their teams playing so well? Why can't Bradley? Now we have to replace a higher percentage of our offense than any other team.

Amen!!!!!

 

[lefty]

The way it seems is that some here want to make sure there is no blame to previous coach or the players recruited by that coach...

I think there is plenty of blame but right now it all really falls on Geno...just like it fell on JL...that's the way it should be. I really don't care about KW's or DR's view...like I've said I read their columns and move on. Some columns are better than others IMO....I don't see the purpose of KW's last column but the one before was pretty good I thought.....tomorrow I won't care about either column...

Geno needs to make huge strides next year IMO.....if I had to put a number on it I would say 20 wins.....where underclassman are contributing significantly so the future would look good too in order to get an extension...
otherwise we look elsewhere IMO.

 

[bigjimmy]

I spent all day at the games in St. Louis Friday grousing about the game and the state of the program. I talked to many others who did the same thing as well. Bradley should not be a 3 straight play in game one and done program. Yet here we are. Geno seems to be a nice, personable guy who has been around the game his whole life. It's hard to fathom that he has missed on as many recruits as he has. In watching the other games it seems that everyone has at least one or more guys who can shoot. Why don't we? The 4 teams that won all are in constant motion on offense. Why don't we? The 4 teams that won all play hard for 40 minutes and don't hang their heads when something goes wrong or blame each other. Why don't we? I think there's plenty of blame to go around. The coaches have to put the players in the right positions to succeed and the players have to execute. Since the 2006 Sweet Sixteen season we've seen Wichita build off of that success to be a final four team and 32-0 this season. There's no reason why we couldn't have done the same thing. Since Madame President came on board in 2007 I'm wondering if our coaches have been given the freedom to pursue that success and unless Tramique, Thomas, Shaw and whoever else we bring in are better than what we had it will just be a 4th straight play in game one and done again next season.

 

[lefty]

I spent all day at the games in St. Louis Friday grousing about the game and the state of the program. I talked to many others who did the same thing as well. Bradley should not be a 3 straight play in game one and done program. Yet here we are. Geno seems to be a nice, personable guy who has been around the game his whole life. It's hard to fathom that he has missed on as many recruits as he has. In watching the other games it seems that everyone has at least one or more guys who can shoot. Why don't we? The 4 teams that won all are in constant motion on offense. Why don't we? The 4 teams that won all play hard for 40 minutes and don't hang their heads when something goes wrong or blame each other. Why don't we? I think there's plenty of blame to go around. The coaches have to put the players in the right positions to succeed and the players have to execute. Since the 2006 Sweet Sixteen season we've seen Wichita build off of that success to be a final four team and 32-0 this season. There's no reason why we couldn't have done the same thing. Since Madame President came on board in 2007 I'm wondering if our coaches have been given the freedom to pursue that success and unless Tramique, Thomas, Shaw and whoever else we bring in are better than what we had it will just be a 4th straight play in game one and done again next season.

Good post Jimmy

 

[wily coyote]

I spent all day at the games in St. Louis Friday grousing about the game and the state of the program. I talked to many others who did the same thing as well. Bradley should not be a 3 straight play in game one and done program. Yet here we are. Geno seems to be a nice, personable guy who has been around the game his whole life. It's hard to fathom that he has missed on as many recruits as he has. In watching the other games it seems that everyone has at least one or more guys who can shoot. Why don't we? The 4 teams that won all are in constant motion on offense. Why don't we? The 4 teams that won all play hard for 40 minutes and don't hang their heads when something goes wrong or blame each other. Why don't we? I think there's plenty of blame to go around. The coaches have to put the players in the right positions to succeed and the players have to execute. Since the 2006 Sweet Sixteen season we've seen Wichita build off of that success to be a final four team and 32-0 this season. There's no reason why we couldn't have done the same thing. Since Madame President came on board in 2007 I'm wondering if our coaches have been given the freedom to pursue that success and unless Tramique, Thomas, Shaw and whoever else we bring in are better than what we had it will just be a 4th straight play in game one and done again next season.

Don't see anything here to debate. +1

 

[Da Coach]

The way it seems is that some here want to make sure there is no blame to previous coach or the players recruited by that coach...

Wow. Really? We have seen endless blaming of the previous coach and the leftover players. How many times has the phrase "cupboard was bare" been used, and merciless rips of Will, Jake, Jordan, Walt, Dyricus and others as "lacking talent", "lacking leadership", not Division I, selfish, losers, and on and on.
Even today's Kirk Wessler column is 100% about blaming these players, though Kirk also does seem to throw Tyshon Pickett and the other GF recruits under the bus along with Walt.

Who is responsible for the roster? The recruiting? The coaching? Cultivating team leaders? Maybe in year one the excuses can fly, but we are about to enter year 4, and these same excuses are laughable now.
I can't find or even think of many examples where the leftover players on a team under a new coach continue to be the leading scorers and producers for 3 full years as new players come and go, without someone recruited by the new coach stepping up more than we have seen so far. Next year they will have to, because there are no more Jim Les players to blame.

It is ridiculous to only blame the players, IMO.
I can't wait to see what the excuse-makers say next year.

 

[lefty]

Wow. Really? We have seen endless blaming of the previous coach and the leftover players. How many times has the phrase "cupboard was bare" been used, and merciless rips of Will, Jake, Jordan, Walt, Dyricus and others as "lacking talent", "lacking leadership", not Division I, selfish, losers, and on and on.
Even today's Kirk Wessler column is 100% about blaming these players, though Kirk also does seem to throw Tyshon Pickett and the other GF recruits under the bus along with Walt.

Who is responsible for the roster? The recruiting? The coaching? Cultivating team leaders? Maybe in year one the excuses can fly, but we are about to enter year 4, and these same excuses are laughable now.
I can't find or even think of many examples where the leftover players on a team under a new coach continue to be the leading scorers and producers for 3 full years as new players come and go, without someone recruited by the new coach stepping up more than we have seen so far. Next year they will have to, because there are no more Jim Les players to blame.

It is ridiculous to only blame the players, IMO.
I can't wait to see what the excuse-makers say next year.

This is funny to me.....you are already convinced that there will be excuses for next year. Why put yourself through the aggravation by reading the Star? You will continue to read whatever you want between the lines. Do you just like blasting away at KW and DR?

I guess I'm not sure what you want DC......my point is some here blast away at anyone if they think there is a hint of reference to JL or the players he recruited as any kind of issue.....

He blasted Geno the day before and the players today...like I said before it's on Geno to get the program winning....if he doesn't then someone else will take his place.

 

[wily coyote]

Wow. Really? We have seen endless blaming of the previous coach and the leftover players. How many times has the phrase "cupboard was bare" been used, and merciless rips of Will, Jake, Jordan, Walt, Dyricus and others as "lacking talent", "lacking leadership", not Division I, selfish, losers, and on and on.
Even today's Kirk Wessler column is 100% about blaming these players, though Kirk also does seem to throw Tyshon Pickett and the other GF recruits under the bus along with Walt.

Who is responsible for the roster? The recruiting? The coaching? Cultivating team leaders? Maybe in year one the excuses can fly, but we are about to enter year 4, and these same excuses are laughable now.
I can't find or even think of many examples where the leftover players on a team under a new coach continue to be the leading scorers and producers for 3 full years as new players come and go, without someone recruited by the new coach stepping up more than we have seen so far. Next year they will have to, because there are no more Jim Les players to blame.

It is ridiculous to only blame the players, IMO.
I can't wait to see what the excuse-makers say next year.

DC how can we not blame the 5 kids you mentioned in your first paragraph. After all they may be better than what we put out on the floor this year but they never got us out of Thur. night either. So I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time bragging them up.
It is becoming apparent that Jim and Geno's recruiting failures are running pretty much equal. We know how that worked out for Jim and I'm sure Geno is aware his ice is thinning.
I think Lefty put it best. There is a lot of blame to go around but if you've enjoyed watching what we put out on the floor the last 5 years than I don't think anything or anyone will change anyone's mind.

 

[Da Coach]

DC how can we not blame the 5 kids you mentioned in your first paragraph. After all they may be better than what we put out on the floor this year but they never got us out of Thur. night either. So I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time bragging them up.
It is becoming apparent that Jim and Geno's recruiting failures are running pretty much equal. We know how that worked out for Jim and I'm sure Geno is aware his ice is thinning.
I think Lefty put it best. There is a lot of blame to go around but if you've enjoyed watching what we put out on the floor the last 5 years than I don't think anything or anyone will change anyone's mind.

Wily, I am neither bragging them up nor defending them. Notice the quote in my post. I was merely questioning lefty's statement that "some here want to make sure there is no blame to previous coach or the players recruited by that coach..."

On the contrary, those player have been blamed endlessly and an unreasonable amount of the blame continues to go toward the players. I have never felt the need, like some do, to find scapegoats on the team to blame. What kind of fan does that?
When will those in charge ever come under the same standards and take a smidgen of responsibility? (apologies to BO)
I want to see a winning team as much as anyone, but do you think that is the direction we are headed?

 

[Da Coach]

I guess I'm not sure what you want DC......my point is some here blast away at anyone if they think there is a hint of reference to JL or the players he recruited as any kind of issue.....

It's simple. It's the same thing all Bradley fans want- a winning team. Something we had, and now don't have. And this is not about Jim Les any more. Even Kirk seems to finally be getting that, even though his memory is a bit deficient judging by his complete omission of Sammy as our recent point guard. I am not the one who keeps bringing JL into the current situation.
Do you feel good about the direction we are headed?