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Connor Hickman enters portal

Confirmed. Connor is entering the portal and intends to transfer. We wish him the best. Once a Brave, always a Brave.
He will get power conference offers.

Fourth year in a row that Bradley has lost their leading scorer with eligibility remaining (Childs, Roberts, Mast, and now Hickman).
 
I hate it but if players do not wish to stay then find ones that want to be here , whole different way of recruiting in this day and age. Good luck to him and will be interesting to see where he lands.Money must be the no.1 issue.
 
Very unfortunate, (was a good player in the valley). Will he be a contributor on a big ten team who knows. We know he isn’t a great ball handler which translates to a catch and shot guy next level. Wish him well but I hope Bradley makes the tournament and he sees what he missed with his guys. The portal hot girl shows interest in you and you dump your girlfriend for her. Then you have regrets about a year or two later.
 
This one hurts. I thought he and Wardle had a close relationship. I hope he finds success, but Maniscalco never had the same success after leaving.
 
There goes Bradley's Chance to remain stable and unaffected by the portal! If Deen and Hannah leave, it's really back to the drawing Board because you need some veteran presence! The question remains, can Bradley get some senior experience from the portal? Even just for 1 year, that could contribute mightly!!!! I know Coach Wardle wants long term players, but in this day and age, we have to consider 1 year players if you want to compete for a Championship! It appears now that whoever is the most successful in the portal next year, may have the edge to get to the Dance! At this moment, it appears the Valley race could be wide open!!!!
 
egib52 said:
This one hurts. I thought he and Wardle had a close relationship. I hope he finds success, but Maniscalco never had the same success after leaving.
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Agree, to me Maniscalco is a pretty close comparison to the player that Hickman is. Sam averaged about 13 pts a game at BU and Hickman 14. Neither great ball handlers, but very solid players in the Valley. Sam went to the BIG 10, his minutes went down, and his production was cut in half, and IL finished 9th in their conference that year. Not exactly what I would call a good move, but now you can get paid, and for some players, that is what they want unfortunately.

Thanks for your time at BU Connor, really wished you had stayed.
 
Stryker said:
Agree, to me Maniscalco is a pretty close comparison to the player that Hickman is. Sam averaged about 13 pts a game at BU and Hickman 14. Neither great ball handlers, but very solid players in the Valley. Sam went to the BIG 10, his minutes went down, and his production was cut in half, and IL finished 9th in their conference that year. Not exactly what I would call a good move, but now you can get paid, and for some players, that is what they want unfortunately.

Thanks for your time at BU Connor, really wished you had stayed.
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I think Connor has a better chance of success than Maniscalco. Their statistics may have been similar but Hickman was a good player on a good Bradley team. Maniscalco was a good player on a bad Bradley team.
 
Buxcies07 said:
I think Connor has a better chance of success than Maniscalco. Their statistics may have been similar but Hickman was a good player on a good Bradley team. Maniscalco was a good player on a bad Bradley team.
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What? Sam was a key part of the 07' team as a freshman and contributed quite a bit on a team that won an NIT game. BU also won 20+ games when he was a sophmore and then started tailing off his junior year finishing .500 in the MVC. I wouldn't call the teams he was on bad necessarily.
 
The NCAA is hellbent on ruining mid-major basketball. Look at this years tournament so far. Tons of blowouts and not many upsets. The more they let the NIL and portal go unchecked the gap between the P5 and mid majors will continue to widen. It’s pathetic but not surprising after hearing Tom Izzo and the SEC Commissioner trash mid majors.
 
BU freak said:
The NCAA is hellbent on ruining mid-major basketball. Look at this years tournament so far. Tons of blowouts and not many upsets. The more they let the NIL and portal go unchecked the gap between the P5 and mid majors will continue to widen. It’s pathetic but not surprising after hearing Tom Izzo and the SEC Commissioner trash mid majors.
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Absolutely. Last year was the exception because mid-majors had a lot of older players on their rosters that were hold overs from the extra COVID eligibility. That impact dropped significantly this year and basically the entire S16 is chalk. It will only get worse going forward unless there are changes made.
 
Dub said:
This stuff makes me question how much I want to even be involved anymore.
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Yeah, I agree. It's so disheartening. I honestly think we are witnessing the beginning of the end of college basketball. There is such a growing disconnect between the game and the educational part of the school. I'd bet that the number of basketball and football players actually graduating is dropping and will continue to drop to the point that the game and books will essentially be decoupled. I'm thinking we'll eventually move to the European model with club and semipro only. No schools or any sort of academic requirements. I'm not so sure I'll still want to follow, at least not in the same way.
 
Dub said:
This stuff makes me question how much I want to even be involved anymore.
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I have had these thoughts at times as well, but I'll offer a little advice on what I've done. The reality is that nobody can force you to be a fan of any team, regardless of your background with them. If it feels too painful, sure, move on some.

But, there is always the chance that we might get some amazing new players that you could have never have anticipated. Not every guy can go play for a big school and there are LOTS of good basketball players out there. What if we signed someone from junior college that is even 80% of the player Malevy was? It won't hurt so much then. While he had a lot of accolades coming out of JC, did you expect he would become a Bradley legend, multiple DPOY award winner? Unlikely.

My attitude is whoever wants to be here is who I can throw all my support to going forward. I personally have difficulty rooting for anyone who leaves unless they got their BU degree, but that's just me. But, I don't put too much stock in it because I'm focused, kind of like what Coach Wardle said after Cincy, on the people who actually want to be here.
 
Are we sure he wasn't nudged into the portal? I liked him and wish he were to stay, however there were a handful of very costly mistakes made by Hickman at inopportune times during the season. Late turnovers and an inability to finish at the rim, and a constant inability to hit the "big shot". I believe this staff will be able to replace him. Hopefully we do keep Hannah, as if he keeps improving at the rate he has been, next year could be a spectacle watching him and Duke. So long as we don't have a total fallout, I think the Braves will be picked 1st next year in the Valley.
 
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