Who is next?

[daveineureka]

Of all the players in the portal, is BU any closer to recruiting the players we need for next year. Specifically the 5 position. Has been a good spring so far, but to take Bradley to that next level we need that impact center to take over after Meta graduates next year. Bradley will have a good team next year but need to finish strong on the recruiting to be a better than a good team. Maybe we will hear some positive news in the days ahead.

[LittleBrave]

Wondering if there is anyone left in the portal - a big - who is NOT a senior who could be better than Meta. Hope so, but we have had a hard time finding impact big men. The game is changing - Centers in an offensive scheme don’t operate like they did 20 yrs ago. Also, coaches temd to think “Who can I get for THIS YEAR’S Team?” instead of looking 1-2 yrs down the road.

We definitely need another big to help Meta and CT down low. The guy we got from JMU should help with rebounding and scoring some in the post.

[LittleBrave]

I think if we made no more acquisitions, our team should compete for the MVC title again, depending on how quickly our freshmen catch on.
Nice depth for sure, and good size for guards and wings!
Wol, Timo, AJ, DR, MZ, Burch (shortest of group at 6’4”)

Time will tell if the make-up of the team is better than last season, which will be tough. A few months ago, it seemed that to finish Top 4 in the league THIS COMING season would be a realistic goal, but with our portal additions and return of Meta and Burch, we are going to be strong again and maybe even preseason fave?

[yoda]

as is the case most years- nobody in the Valley has what would appear to be a dominating big man.
I think Bradley's combo of Meta, Corey Thomas, plus Wol could be as good as anyone else's.
Of all the big men noted to have signed with Valley teams, many (if not most) are transfers that played very little elsewhere and have
very minimal stats at their former schools. Yes, I know any of them could have a breakout year, but here is a list of the big men recruits I can find so far:


ISU- Nick Allen, 6-11 freshman
UIC- Emiliano Barrantes, 6-9 freshman
SIU- Daniel Pauliukonis , 6-9 freshman
Valpo- Carter Hopoi, 6-9 freshman
Murray State- Mason Miller, 6-9 transfer (Creighton)- 1ppg, 1.6 rpg
Murray State- Fred King, 6-9 transfer (Creighton) - 2.7ppg, 1.3 rpg
Drake- Griffin Goodbary, 6-10 freshman
Evansville- AJ Casey, 1.7ppg, 1.7 rpg -transfer SLU
Valpo- Owen Dease, 6-8, 9.8ppg, 4.2ppg transfer from Texas A&S-Corpus Christi
Murray State- JJ Traynor, 6-9 transfer (DePaul) 5.6ppg, 3.3rpg
Murray State- Brock Vice, 6-10 transfer (North Texas), 1.2ppg, 0.6rpg
Shon Tupuola- a 6'9" transfer from NAIA, 14.5ppg, 12rpg
UIC- Abdul Momoh, 6-7 transfer (Central Connecticut) 8.6ppg, 6.1rpg
Drake- Isaiah Car, 7-0 transfer (Denver) 6ppg, 4rpg
Valpo- Kobe Walker, 6-9, freshman
Murray State- Dylan Anderson, 7-0 transfer (Boise State), 3.5ppg, 1.7rpg
UIC- Ante Beljan, 6-8 transfer (Little Rock) 10ppg, 4.5rpg
UNI- Ismael Diouf, 6-9 transfer (NC State), 2.2ppg, 1.4rpg
Mayar Wol- 6-8 transfer (EKU), 9ppg, 5rpg
...and I will mention Chase Walker at ISU is the only notable big man returning who made All Conference

That's it, I may have missed someone, but as you can see- Murray State & UIC win the volume contest - sheer numbers in landing frontcourt guys
but extremely few are experienced at the DI level and are significant scorers/rebounders/decent production for quality teams.
The only guy with impressive numbers- Tupuola, comes from NAIA.

[PhiAlphaBoy]

I think the average high school big man will be overlooked by P5 & P6 schools since they usually need 2-3 years to develop. This presents a perfect opportunity for mid-majors to recruit a 5 with potential, where you can hope to develop them and hold onto them for at least 2-3 years. I would expect we'll look to add someone like this along with another experienced guard to provide leadership (and insurance) for our freshmen and sophomore guards.

[tomahawk chop]

I still think we have 3 needs, center, wing that can shoot and a point guard. We have 3 great freshman coming in and they should be good yet they have zero experience at this level. To me in order to win championships you need players that have proven they can play at this level.

[daveineureka]

All valid points, not against bringing in a high school big at the 5 position that shows strong work ethic and will do what it takes to get better. If that is the case he can play minutes behind Meta and Thomas and step into their role the following year. Anyone hear if they are still in contact with Stefan Civic. Maybe he can be that center for the future.

[daveineureka]

My error on the spelling. Meant to say Stefan Cicic.

[KillerB]

I have been thinking for a couple of weeks we could see 2 more bigs added. One from HS to develop and a transfer or Juco to add minutes to the current mix.

[bradleyfan124]

I thought Cooper Koch would have filled the role for Bradley

[Landof10thcoaches]

Copper isn’t anything but a shooter, he isn’t strong enough to play down low. Not a great rebounder either. Think dr and Zob are going to be way better.

[tomahawk chop]

We have 4 scholarships left, a freshman big would not be bad to go along with 3 more transfers.

[tomahawk chop]

3 openings left, would like a few shooters. Wonder if Gus gets the last one.

[yoda]

Bradley, for many reasons, may opt out of the NCAA’s agreement to allow up to 15 scholarships for basketball.
The NCAA agreement is complex (read about it HERE ) — and then would stay at 13.

for example, if Bradley opts in, they may be required to share in the burden of the $2.8 Billion settlement payout to current & former players

also, then rosters would allow up to 34 baseball scholarships (instead of 11.7) and 28 scholarships in soccer (instead of 14) - all of which would be very costly for BU

and there’d be a strict limit on roster size so some, esp walk-ons would get cut and many sports at BU rely on walk-ons

time will tell- but BU may find it harder to compete if we opt out but the rest of the MVC opts in and, for example, gets 28 soccer scholarships or 34 scholarship baseball players.
It will be hard for BU to fund all those - and even way moreso for schools like Valpo, UIC, or Belmont.

The Ivy League has already completely opted out - LINK


Last note-
all of this is still not settled as a judge just threw yet another roadblock into implementing the plan, and the various plaintiff conferences that are suing NCAA, now kinda have to go back to the drawing board- LINK