Expect announcement of commitments soon

[bradleyfan124]

https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports/college/basketball/bradley-hoops/2024/05/14/bradley-basketball-adds-walk-on-from-morton-high-school-fills-roster-2024-25/73686909007/

“Morton guard Gus Rugaard is joining the Braves as a preferred walk-on. Former walk-on guard Cade Hardtke also will return to the Braves as a scholarship player, while forward Goanar Biliew will return as a scholarship player for his fifth season.”

Linke, Biliew, and Hardtke can’t all be on scholarship, that’d be 14 guys right?

I will trust the coaches on this. They must think alot of Gus Rugaard to offer him a spot on the team. They must see something in him they like

[Tommy]

I’d trust the coach on this one,

… I seem to recall the PJS writers drooled over the recruiting class that contained Chris Blake, Stefan Zecevic & Shayok Shayok - - “light years better” than Dyricus, Remy Abell, Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Taylor Brown & Walt Lemon

Another great point, Yoda, and heck, you don't even need to go back that far. Look at last year to see how some of our new scholarship players ended up.

I think relationships and trust are important parts of building a successful 'anything' and rewarding hard working players (even if just practice players) is a net positive in my mind. It shows incoming players that attitude and effort will be rewarded and that is something that matters to me, so consider me a fan.

Lastly, to emphasize my point - in this day and age of rooting for a uniform (use to be a pro problem, but thanks to the transfer portal it's now a college problem, as well), I am ecstatic to see kids that have been with us for years rewarded for their efforts. They are like family and may not have been huge difference makers on game days, but they were there every day in practice making sure our starters were ready and that's worth it's weight in gold to me. Easy to say, eh, kid showed great effort with a good attitude, but the ability just isn't there so see ya later sucker. Much harder to do what BW does and frankly, that's the right choice in my mind.

[LittleBrave]

Lastly, to emphasize my point - in this day and age of rooting for a uniform (use to be a pro problem, but thanks to the transfer portal it's now a college problem, as well), I am ecstatic to see kids that have been with us for years rewarded for their efforts. They are like family and may not have been huge difference makers on game days, but they were there every day in practice making sure our starters were ready and that's worth it's weight in gold to me.

I feel the same Tommy. Imagine the parents of these kids who have been welcomed by the program since they joined and have this great opportunity, and even more - to be rewarded for their commitment and hard work when they rarely play.

It's not always about W-L record, though we do emphasize that, and of course, want to win badly!
Connor expressed several times that they play for EVERYONE who wears the uniform - not just those on the court, and everyone has value on the Bradley roster, and make contributions that fans do not see outside of the games.

I LOVE seeing Hardke, Hennessy, Linke, Billew on the sideline cheering harder than anyone on the bench.

[LongTimeFan]

Didn't Biliew go into the portal? Wardle is supposed to be big on loyalty and not willing to take anyone back the same year. I know Zek is back but he had already been in another school.

Personally, I would have preferred a decent freshman or sophomore on the bench cheering on the team.

[BUfan14]

I’d trust the coach on this one,

… I seem to recall the PJS writers drooled over the recruiting class that contained Chris Blake, Stefan Zecevic & Shayok Shayok - - “light years better” than Dyricus, Remy Abell, Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Taylor Brown & Walt Lemon

Trust them on what? Hardtke and Biliew are known quantities (4th and 5th year seniors) at this point not new recruits. Do we really think those two will be able to improve so much they’ll be difference makers in the court? This seems to be a move solely about having guys who won’t rock the boat at the end of the bench, I can’t imagine even the coaches are counting on them as players. What happens if we need them to play though is the problem with it.

[BUfan14]

Has anyone been able to confirm what’s going on with Linke? We have no scholarships left to give, so it seems it’s either walk-on or nothing? I really hope he’s coming back to give us at least a serviceable backup big man.

[tomahawk chop]

Trust them on what? Hardtke and Biliew are known quantities (4th and 5th year seniors) at this point not new recruits. Do we really think those two will be able to improve so much they’ll be difference makers in the court? This seems to be a move solely about having guys who won’t rock the boat at the end of the bench, I can’t imagine even the coaches are counting on them as players. What happens if we need them to play though is the problem with it.

It is a problem when you bring back guys just because they are good (cheerleaders) teammates.

[Da Coach]

Didn't Biliew go into the portal? Wardle is supposed to be big on loyalty and not willing to take anyone back the same year. I know Zek is back but he had already been in another school....

Yes, there were several sources that reported Goanar Biliew entered the transfer portal. - https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports/...l/73126115007/

Coach Wardle did say publicly a year ago that if a player enters the transfer portal, he would not be allowed to return. However, he seems to have changed that policy. I think that is reasonable, unless there is an issue with how he fits with the team and coaches. On the contrary, Wardle had a lot of positive things to say about Cade Hardtke and Goanar Biliew.

Dave Eminian had this in his latest article - https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports/...5/73686909007/
So has Biliew. He entered the NCAA transfer portal this spring, but wanted to return to BU and use his fifth year on the Hilltop. The 6-foot-8 forward has appeared in 17 games over his first two seasons, and is an immensely popular teammate.
"They are great people, great teammates, bring a lot of value to our culture," Wardle said. "Cade is a very good, vocal leader. Goanar, everyone on the team loves him. He has a huge heart, a tremendous guy who's gotten better every day.
"I value a lot of intangible things. Both these guys have a lot of those and they really help us, are important to us."

[egib52]

After a season in which we heard rumors of players not buying in or fitting into the culture, why is everyone upset about players 12 and 13 being culture guys? The rotation is usually 7-9 guys. Freshman that can play at the D1 level aren't coming to sit at the end of the bench and cheerlead. Transfers with talent aren't coming here to not make much NIL and sit at the end of the bench.

Even Calipari is talking about limiting the roster to 8 or 9.

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/amid-portal-era-calipari-hints-limiting-ark-roster/story?id=110091053

[LittleBrave]

Has anyone been able to confirm what’s going on with Linke? We have no scholarships left to give, so it seems it’s either walk-on or nothing? I really hope he’s coming back to give us at least a serviceable backup big man.

Yes, Connor is returning to BU! Not sure if he will fill a scholarship, but assume so. He is a nice option to have in case of injury or foul trouble with our other bigs.

[LittleBrave]

It is a problem when you bring back guys just because they are good (cheerleaders) teammates.

But they are more than that - they help the other guys who play get better in practice, support the regulars during games, etc.
We have enough talent this season to not worry about getting a last dude who may or may not be able to play. Bradley has a roster that ANY Valley team would kill for next season. A few guys are going to have a hard enough time to get minutes, like our 2 freshmen. Atlason and Burch likely will play about the same minutes as last season, and they should be improved. If our 3 transfers don't pan out (which I highly doubt) then I will take all this back. I am just much more hopeful than last summer, and to be honest, those transfers who are no longer were ??? (for me anyhow) from the start.

[houstonbrave]

I don’t see this as a this year issue. I had hoped we would fill those scholarships with HS recruits who we could work with and develop for the following years.

[BUfan14]

After a season in which we heard rumors of players not buying in or fitting into the culture, why is everyone upset about players 12 and 13 being culture guys? The rotation is usually 7-9 guys. Freshman that can play at the D1 level aren't coming to sit at the end of the bench and cheerlead. Transfers with talent aren't coming here to not make much NIL and sit at the end of the bench.

Even Calipari is talking about limiting the roster to 8 or 9.

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/amid-p...y?id=110091053

It’s not exactly about spots 12-13. It’s about always getting the best possible players. By the way, I’m sure spots 9-13 love Calipari basically saying they’re no good haha.

There are so many talented players left that could push the guys in the top 8 or 9. Are Atlason, Davis, and Burch so good they cannot be pushed for spots 6-8? Or how about Linke/Meta/Johnson (whichever is in spot 9)?

Are we so sure Dillon will be a D1 star that he can be in penned in? Thomas too? Etc, Etc. Is this roster really more talented than the pretty good but flawed and depth lacking roster last year? If not, keep trying to make it better. As we saw last year it only takes one injury to derail a season when Hickman was out (fortunately only a few weeks). What if we have multiple injuries or guys don’t work out like we hoped?

Meta has a long way to go if he ever gets there. Linke is a nice backup big, but isn’t a starter. Biliew didn’t play at all last year. Hardtke was a walk-on severely limited in what he can do on the court. That’s three of the scholarships right there (Linke has to be a walk-on). So now we’re down to 10 guys right off the bat. Johnson and van der Knaap might have a huge adjustment period as freshmen, especially coming from the leagues they did. Now we’re down to 8 reliable guys already at the start. That’s leaves us zero margin for error. That was the same problem we had last year and it cost us at times, why voluntarily do that again when Biliew had graduated and moved on? We fulfilled our commitment to him and gifted Hardtke a scholarship for a semester last year due to guys leaving. It’s not like we would have been yanking the scholarships. Are we really that afraid to ruin the culture that we just don’t try to get the best talent?

And if every team is really only rostering 8 talented players as Calipari suggests, there should be plenty of talented guys looking for a roster spots and to compete. Plus talent pushes other younger talent to get better, example: Hannah facing Mast in practice daily. As upper class men who have kind of shown their talent ceiling, I don’t have a ton of hope Meta or Linke are pushing Hannah/Thomas in the same way even if they play with effort.

Remember last year when people thought we were 11 deep and how quickly that evaporated? This year we’re starting 8-9 deep voluntarily. Instead of recruiting for spot 13, why not look at it as we are recruiting 1 of 13 spots, rotation spots to be earned?

[BUfan14]

Yes, Connor is returning to BU! Not sure if he will fill a scholarship, but assume so. He is a nice option to have in case of injury or foul trouble with our other bigs.

Ya, as I mentioned, he would have to be a walk-on at this point as all 13 scholarships are filled. I’m glad he’s back though. Hopefully he never has to be a starter, but I trust him more as a backup big than Meta or Biliew right now.

[egib52]

It’s not exactly about spots 12-13. It’s about always getting the best possible players. By the way, I’m sure spots 9-13 love Calipari basically saying they’re no good haha.

There are so many talented players left that could push the guys in the top 8 or 9. Are Atlason, Davis, and Burch so good they cannot be pushed for spots 6-8? Or how about Linke/Meta/Johnson (whichever is in spot 9)?

Are we so sure Dillon will be a D1 star that he can be in penned in? Thomas too? Etc, Etc. Is this roster really more talented than the pretty good but flawed and depth lacking roster last year? If not, keep trying to make it better. As we saw last year it only takes one injury to derail a season when Hickman was out (fortunately only a few weeks). What if we have multiple injuries or guys don’t work out like we hoped?

Meta has a long way to go if he ever gets there. Linke is a nice backup big, but isn’t a starter. Biliew didn’t play at all last year. Hardtke was a walk-on severely limited in what he can do on the court. That’s three of the scholarships right there (Linke has to be a walk-on). So now we’re down to 10 guys right off the bat. Johnson and van der Knaap might have a huge adjustment period as freshmen, especially coming from the leagues they did. Now we’re down to 8 reliable guys already at the start. That’s leaves us zero margin for error. That was the same problem we had last year and it cost us at times, why voluntarily do that again when Biliew had graduated and moved on? We fulfilled our commitment to him and gifted Hardtke a scholarship for a semester last year due to guys leaving. It’s not like we would have been yanking the scholarships. Are we really that afraid to ruin the culture that we just don’t try to get the best talent?

And if every team is really only rostering 8 talented players as Calipari suggests, there should be plenty of talented guys looking for a roster spots and to compete. Plus talent pushes other younger talent to get better, example: Hannah facing Mast in practice daily. As upper class men who have kind of shown their talent ceiling, I don’t have a ton of hope Meta or Linke are pushing Hannah/Thomas in the same way even if they play with effort.

Remember last year when people thought we were 11 deep and how quickly that evaporated? This year we’re starting 8-9 deep voluntarily.

This is assuming that Wardle didn't try to sell more talented players on coming here. Unless you are privy to something I don't know of course. There are so many things that go into recruiting now. What if the players talked to Wardle and said how much playing time is available, and he said they could compete for time. There have been rumors that kids are asking for guarantees in playing time. What if kids are asking for more money then HOTB has available? I think we would all love 13 all conference players, but after having some rumored discontentment last year, maybe Wardle wants to avoid those hurdles.