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Recruiting Illinois????

M

midstateknowitall

New member
I would just like to know everyone's opinion on this matter. With Bradley being such a guard dominated team I am really in awe that they do not recruit Illinois better or more than they have shown. Illinois is arguably the best basketball state in the country, yet Bradley wants to pull all these juco and guards from all over the country.


Daniel Ruffin- (Peoria) Plus, older buescher helped get him
Jeremy Crouch- (Pekin)
Dodie Dunson- (Bloomington) 3rd school (High Character Kid tho)
Jordan Prosser- (Eureka) not sure if he is Valley (we will see)
Dyricus Simms Edwards- (Peoria/Washington) heard bradley was lone offer at the end
Sammie Maniscalco-(Chicago) Great Player, Dad went to Bradley


All these players are with in 40 mins of Peoria or have a huge tie to the Program. Nothing wrong with that however how come we haven't pulled outside this area or recieved a committment from a player that isn't close or have a tie to the university.

I like Edrien McCain (alot) but why pull Norris in the same class. Both 6'1 or shorter G's. This state (Illinois) is absolutely loaded with them. I just think it is a shame that we don't recruit this state better.

Every year there are players from this state that are extremely talented that 1 go to other valley schools or go to schools on a lower level than Bradley.

James Kinney (Champaign Centennial)- Ohio University
Rayvonte Rice (Champaign Centennial)- Drake
Karl Madison (Springfield Lanphier)- Drake
Mike McCall (Chicago Foreman)- St. Louis
Dwayne Evans (Nequa Valley)- St. Louis
Kevin Dillard (Homewood Flossmor & Mr. Basketball of Illinois)- SIU
Ryan Hare (Chicago Marshall)- SIU
Carlton Fay (Putnam County)- SIU

Those are just some of the players that come to my mind....

Would just like to knwo others thoughts on this matter!!!:biggrin:
 
Those kids you listed are all nice players, but none are major difference-makers for a program like Bradley. I don't see that any one of those players you say Bradley "missed" on are better than the kids they did land.
And furthermore, Bradley did recruit Fay, Rice, Kinney, McCall, Evans, Hare, and Madison, and they all either decided to go elsewhere, or Bradley felt they could do better with other recruits.

Many people have said the same thing that they think Bradley should recruit more local kids, yet I have never heard anyone name a player Bradley could have gotten that would have made them better than they were, or who would have really made a difference.

And finally- I think you answered your own question somewhat- Bradley has recruited many of the best local players for the past 7 years. Under Jim Les, Bradley has had more local players on the roster every year than Jim Molinari had at any time during his 11 years, or Stan Albeck had during his 5 years. Even Dick Versace recruited very few local players.
This is the first year Bradley has ever recruited and landed an Area POY, and they have 2 of them (DSE and JP)!
Does anyone expect Bradley to have an entire roster of local kids?
 
I think BU has done a decent job recruiting in Central Illinois since Jim Les came on board. The rest of the state is questionable. But, in the grand scheme of things I don't really care where the kids come from as long as we win. I think most fans probably feel the same way.
 
I think this opinion woud have been more accepted a year ago with the high number of jucos on the roster and the newcomers hailing from Louisiana, Las Vegas and Atlanta. However, since the most recent class is all freshmen and includes two local players, it loses something.

It'll be interesting to see which direction the upcoming recruits come from.
 
I know bradley has done a solid job recruiting the Greater Peoria Area.. But lets not make it a stretch and say they have recruited Central Illinois really well.

Jordan Prosser (POY): He should be, he is a 6'7 skilled, bulky big man playing a 1A/2A schedule all year long.

Dyricus Edwards (POY): Coach Brown at Washington develop Dyricus into the player he is. The system he runs at Washington is made to make players succeed. Same as Coach Alexander's system down at Lincoln High School. Dyricus is a harder worker and a solid basketball player.(Great Kid)

The Mid Illini is a solid confrence but Dyricus was the best athlete in that Confrence (Arguable: Demarius Sumrell, LIMESTONE). However, no one could really match up with him in that confrence and he did what he should and dominated games. He is a talented athlete that really worked to become a good basketball player. However, Im curious to see if he will play the 1 or the 2 at Bradley.

I guess I just feel like we have missed on a ton of players in this state. I believe someone stated I don't care where we get the kids from as long as we are winning. Guess what, we haven't been to a meaningful post season game since the sweet 16 year.
 
Let's also remember there is a difference between recruiting and landing. BU was interested in many Illinois kids, but lost out to other schools- many from so-called power conferences..

ISU has less than half of their roster from Illinois and they are a state school which also has players from Kansas, Wash. DC, Minnesota and overseas...

DePaul has only 6 from Illinois- and additional players from California, Conneticut, Indiana and Ohio

SIU has 8 kids from Illinois- but hardly any game changer types- and also features kids from Indiana, New Jersey, Kansas and Wisconsin...
 
Braveman said:
Let's also remember there is a difference between recruiting and landing. BU was interested in many Illinois kids, but lost out to other schools- many from so-called power conferences..

ISU has less than half of their roster from Illinois and they are a state school which also has players from Kansas, Wash. DC, Minnesota and overseas...

DePaul has only 6 from Illinois- and additional players from California, Conneticut, Indiana and Ohio

SIU has 8 kids from Illinois- but hardly any game changer types- and also features kids from Indiana, New Jersey, Kansas and Wisconsin...
Click to expand...

I do believe Dillard for SIU was Mr. Basketball in Illinois as well as the Freshman of the year in the valley not sure how that isnt a game changer type of player
 
I like some of the rest of you would like to land more chicago players but some of the problems you run into up there is whether or not his grades are good enough to get him into Bradley as you cannot control that part of the game.
 
midstateknowitall said:
I guess I just feel like we have missed on a ton of players in this state. I believe someone stated I don't care where we get the kids from as long as we are winning. Guess what, we haven't been to a meaningful post season game since the sweet 16 year.
Click to expand...

Name some.
And would any of them have made Bradley an NCAA team the last 3 seasons?
 
wow-- don't know where to start....

..after we went nearly a decade under Coach Mo without really a single player of note from inside the state of Illinois, then along comes Jim Les, whose roster has consistently had NUMEROUS Illinois kids...
and this year, the roster even includes a Chicago Kid plus the TWO reigning Central IL Players of the Year...


and so at this point when I'd expect to see a post hailing how WELL Coach Les has done getting Illinois kids, there is instead a post lambasting him because we..
"do not recruit Illinois better"
and
"haven't pulled outside this area or recieved a committment from a player that isn't close or have a tie to the university..."

Bradley currently has FOUR kids who were recruited as scholarship players who are from Illinois high schools (Dunson, Maniscalco, Prosser, Dyricus) - two have had substantial impacts

ISU has four kids who were recruited as scholarship players who are from Illinois high schools (Eldridge, Terry Johnson, Jeremy Robinson, Zeke Upshaw) - only one has had any impact

SIU has five (Bocot, Dillard, Fay, Evans, Hare), but only four have played much..and they have a couple walk ons and a transfer, too
(--however, when all is said and done, only one or two of those might end up having much of a POSITIVE impact)

U of I has seven such kids...but this is the VERY first year they are even in the running, as four (Paul, DJ, Simpson, Bertrand) have yet to play, and one more (Cole) hasn't done anything. Only two (Tisdale, McCamey) have had impacts..


so in the whole scheme of things, it appears Bradley is doing as well as any other of the top D-I schools in the state
 
Yeah, can't understand original post... Bradley's involved in almost every Illinois kid who comes along. We don't land as many as we want, but the effort to recruit Illinois is definitely there-- and I'd point out with reasonable success (Prosser and DSE this season alone).
 
tornado said:
ISU has four kids who were recruited as scholarship players who are from Illinois high schools (Eldridge, Terry Johnson, Jeremy Robinson, Zeke Upshaw) - only one has had any impact
Click to expand...

2 of the 4 haven't even started their freshmen year.

Kind of hard to make an impact, don't ya think? :wink:

But as BB said above, as long as a guy can play, who cares where he comes from? I know, I don't.
 
Yes, but the point is still a valid point- we are looking for anyone to give us an example of an Illinois kid who Bradley missed on (and who one could reasonably expect Bradley to get) who is better that the kids they got. Eldridge might be the only such example.
 
midstateknowitall Do you really believe what you posted? I think you are just trying to stir the pot and were somewhat successful. JL does recruit instate and nationally. What decent program does not? I for one do not care where they come from and they should be casting a net as wide as their budget and time allows them.
 
I understand where most of you are coming from. And I am not trying to say that we need and Illinois dominated roster. I just don't think we recruit this state very well.

Illinois (Power Confrence: They will get our states best and other states best)

SIU (Pulls more from Chicago than Bradley does plus has a nice in, in St. louis)

IL State (Give Jank some time he will have that program going here soon)


With Bradley being in a Power Confrence (for a Mid Major) I think its a shame we haven't landed a big named Recruit from Illinois that really has impacted the program.

SIU (MULLINS & DILLARD)
ISU (OSIRUS)

I might be greedy: I just expect more ...
 
Da Coach said:
Yes, but the point is still a valid point- we are looking for anyone to give us an example of an Illinois kid who Bradley missed on (and who one could reasonably expect Bradley to get) who is better that the kids they got. Eldridge might be the only such example.
Click to expand...

Iman Shumpert might fall into this category. BU was close to getting him...but could we have reasonably expected BU to land him? Not sure on that point.
 
O&B, every program misses on lots of kids they'd love to have....
so sure BU missed on Shumpert, Roth, Shaun Livingston, Lewis Jackson, Rcardo Johnson, etc..

but for the sake of argument...I will state it again....

it is next to impossible to get a kid from outside the area to have any interest in coming to Peoria, IL.
Bradley is and always will be quite a tough area to recruit to....
Schools like Creighton, Wichita, even Drake have far larger metropolitan areas..
Other schools, state schools, bigger schools, schools in cities with slightly better images, and histories all have advantages...

it's hard to recruit here but we ARE getting it done!!
 
Midstate - you yourself said that Illinois is one of the best, if not the best, basketball states in the country.

I agree.

Isn't it safe to assume that college coaches from all over the country agree as well?

So, if Illinois is the hotbed that it is...and everyone is recruiting it...I think its pretty great that we've come away with the quality players that we have - same for the other non-BCS schools in-state.

Everybody is after a peice of the Illinois Basketball talent pie...not just the in-state schools.

Congrats Coach Les.
 
Valid Point from Tornado on his last comment...


However, are we getting it done??

Success is measured by Wins and Post Season Play.

2005-06 22-11 .667 11- 7 .611 NCAA Tournament (2-1)

2006-07 22-13 .629 10- 8 .556 NIT (1-1)

2007-08 21-17 .553 9- 9 .500 CBI (4-2) Runner-Up
(Record without CBI ... 17-15)

2008-09 21-15 .583 10-8 .556 Collegeinsider.com(3-1) Runner-Up
(Record without Collegeinsider.com ... 18-14)

CBI and Collegeinsider.com Tounaments are an absolute JOKE of a tournament. Cool in the sense that at least its some type of post season play and we get to go to more home games. But what does it prove if you win it that you should of been the last team selected to the NIT???


LG281...

I agree that alot of schools across the country come in and take kids out of the state. I just have the feeling that we should and could do alot better. Just my opinoin
 
I'll agree that the last 2 seasons were disapointing.
I also believe that a reasonable fan should accept last year as a rebuilding year. (Even Wesler of the pjs did)

The most fustrating thing about the last 2 years has been overall lack of production from a highly rated recruiting class (nationally top 25 by some). We have received nice producion from Sam M and Theron, but nothing statistically from our more highly rated bigs, AT and WE, marginal production from DC and TCS and RA disappeared..

I have every reason to believe this year's team will be significantly better than the past 2 and this current "hand wringing" will seem silly.

I also think that once the new facilities are available, a few more recruits will choose Bradley. I think it took a special type of gym-rat/history major to play at BU. One willing to play the summer in a non-air conditioned Field House because they still understood how cool it's history was.
 
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