Hersey Hawkins, Joe Allen, Mitchell Anderson, Willie Scott, Donald Reese, etc......... Our best teams had Chicago players, when do we start recruiting Chicago again rather than building up frequent flier miles and taking a vacation to Phoenix to study a three guard offense that really didn't work out. Chicago should always be on the top of the list, ask Dick Versace or Joe Stowell
JMO
Sorry, but it is a mistake to say that Bradley has "failed to...recruit Chicago". Nothing is further from the truth.
Bradley has spent enormous resources, and untold amounts of time recruiting some very good Chicago athletes. Darius Smith is one of the latest examples, but there have been many more. If anyone wants more examples, check our recruiting board, or PM me and I will give many more examples.
However, recruiting the better Chicago players is a totally different game than it was when Joe Stowell and Dick Versace coached. Now, a college coach has to deal with several layers of "handlers", AAU coaches, and family "friends, as well as with the Chicago Public League high school coaches. For many reasons which we have gone into here before, these people just aren't willing to let Bradley into the game in Chicago, unless certain requirements are met. And Bradley recruits ethically and honestly, which precludes them from many of those top high school prospects. Again, I won't go into details here, but if anyone here doesn't understand what I am talking about, PM me and I'll give more details.
By the way, it is not just Bradley that doesn't get many Chicago kids. Most of the solid midmajor programs in the midwest don't even bother to make an effort to recruit Chicago Public League players, and the few that do have learned how to play their game. Even the Chicago schools get surprisingly few CPL kids. Check the rosters of Loyola, UIC, Northwestern, and Chicago State.
By the way- does anyone think Bradley should be able to out-recruit schools like UConn, which is where Darius Smith commmitted? Should Bradley be able to outrecruit Illinois, Big Ten, and Big 12 schools for the top Chicago prospects? That's not realistic.
For those critical of Bradley's recruiting in Chicago- Can anyone name any Public League players that Bradley could have gotten, who did go to another midmajor and that turned into outstanding players?
There are not many.
I think the players Bradley gets are as talented as any CPL kids that Bradley could have gotten anyway. And they come with a whole lot less baggage.
Outside of Osiris Eldridge, who Bradley almost got, the Chicago kids that ISU and other midmajors get are 2nd tier kids, and not the kind of "star" players that critics think Bradley should be getting out of Chicago every year. I think BU does a great job recruiting, and does spend an appropriate amount of time, effort, and money recruiting Chicago, but the emphasis on getting Chicago kids is way overblown.
And realize this factor, too-- Maybe if Bradley concentrates more on Chicago kids, we wouldn't have gotten Andrew Warren, Eddren McCain, or John Wilkins to come to Bradley.
One final example- Bradley recruited a couple of talented kids, Kevin Johnson and Tim Flowers from Simeon a couple years ago. They spurned Bradley, ended up at Wi$consin-Milwaukee, then flunked out. They both went to junior college, but Kevin Johnson dropped out of juco, robbed a store, and is now in jail, and Flowers has underachieved so poorly, he is now at Chicago State (I think), and will probably never amount to much and I predict he'll never finish college. There are also now allegations about phony SAT scores, and altered grades at Simeon to allow them to get eligible in the first place. If Bradley had landed either of these guys, the same critics who think we don't get enough Chicago kids would be attacking Jim Les for bringing in kids like this with questionable character and academics.
I, for one, am glad our coaches are careful and discerning when it comes to the Chicago recruiting.
