Bradley Scholarship Grid

[Da Coach]

Updated Bradley Braves Scholarship Grid as of July 13, 2026
*indicates medical redshirt

 

[BUBraves 33]

This may have been addressed somewhere already, but what are the rules on redshirt eligibility? When Meta came over midseason did that automatically use up a year? He played sparingly in 6 games and got here in December/January. Seems like it shouldn't count. I think it may be because he played in those 6 games after a certain deadline. In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have done that.

 

[Da Coach]

If a player plays in any game, he uses up that year's eligibility, unless he applies for a medical waiver and it's granted.
Even for a medical waiver, there are stipulations. The team must provide documentation of a season-ending injury, the player must have appeared in fewer than 30% of the team's scheduled games (usually 9 or 10), and he cannot have played in any game past the halfway point of the schedule.
If a player fails to meet all those requirements, the school can appeal and ask for a waiver. And the NCAA seems to have been a little more generous in granting waivers the last few years.

 

[yoda]

FWIW- Starting to get "late" in the spring recruiting period. The number of quality spring recruiting targets seems to drop off after April....
as a lot of the top guys have already found a place for next fall.

Below is a listing of the spring Bradley basketball commits in the Wardle era who committed AFTER May 1 for the following fall...

Of the 24, 7 were in Wardle's very first couple months and the pickings were slim back then (no "transfer portal"), so
we never expected much of that recruiting class. Luuk and Scottie turned out to be solid players (Scottie only after he left),
and the rest... meh...not so...

Eight more were walk-ons with minimal production & two haven't played yet (but both appear promising!)
So of the remaining 7 scholarship commits since 2015 - 10 spring recruiting cycles - who committed beyond May 1 who have played,
only Malevy Leons, Zek Montgomery, and Ja'Shon Henry stuck around for more than a year and were productive players.
I guess that's a "batting average" for late commits after May 1 of just 3-for-24... 4 if you count Luuk, and three of those were international guys.
I'm not saying any of this means we can't still land another quality guy, but it gets a lot harder for our staff to find one.
But, here's hoping our staff gets it done anyway!

2025- 5/07/2025 Jackson Seastrunk, 5/15/2025 Gustavo Guimaraes, 8/3/2025 Handy Toussaint III
2024- 5/14/2024 Gus Rugaard
2023- none
2022- 5/6/22 Goanar Bilyew, 5/12/22 Sulaiman Agiste
2021- 5/4/21 Malevy Leons, 6/12/21 Zek Montgomery, 6/23/21 Sam Hennessy, 6/23/21 Cade Hardtke
2020- 8/14/20 Thomas Hall
2019- 5/01/2019 Terry Nolan, Jr., 5/03/2019 Kevin McAdoo, 5/08/2019 Sean Houpt, 6/19/2019 Riley Burger
2018- 6/2/2018 Ja'Shon Henry, 6/6/2018 David Calloway (never joined the team)
2017- none
2016- none
2015- 5/1/2015 Peter Hanley, 5/4/2015 Davante Cooper, 5/11/2015 Alex Foster, 5/12/2015 Luuk van Bree, 5/17/2015 Scottie James, ,
............6/13/ 2015 Callum Barker, 10/18/2015 De'Angelo McBride

 

[Bernbaby]

Here's hoping that Dimitrije Pavlovic will be another Luuk!!

 

[tomahawk chop]

Who will start at center in this group? Xander, Gustavo or somebody else?
My guess on the other starters are Williams, Grill, Dietrich and Payton. There are a lot of possibilities as to minutes on this team. It appears to be the most depth ever for a Wardle coached team. The staff needs to figure out how to put all these pieces together in order for it to be a successful season.

 

[yoda]

Josh Ibukunoluwa at 6-10 and 230lb may have the size and most experience among our guys to start at center, but I would expect
Gustavo Guimaraes to be in the mix. Thornbrue & Noah Williams both often played as the biggest guy on the court
for their juco teams, but I can't really see either playing center. Likewise Alarie who is listed some places as a small forward.
And beyond Dietrich, I am not sure of who else would start... the juco guys and transfers would have the advantage of age & experience.

 

[Bradleybravedubai]

If i had to guess, the starting lineup would be

Josh- C
Xander- PF
Timo- SF
Trevon- SG
Dietrich- PG

But we will see!

 

[Da Coach]

In the Video interview from today's MVC Media Day (posted here), Coach Wardle did not specifically list his starting 5. But he did say that Dietrich Richardson will be his point guard and Trevon Payton will start at the 2-guard. Plus he implied that Timo Van der Knapp will be his "3" (said he could be All-MVC this year), and he praised Ben Thornbrue as the "4", and Josh Ibukunoluwa at the "5", without naming them as starters. So at this early point, just a week into official practices, I'd guess those 5 are the likely starters.
But he also mentioned Xander Alarie, Noah Williams, and Kyle Grill as guys he likes, who can score inside and outside and who are ready to "take the next step". And he said Jackson Seastrunk, as a 6'5" guard, has "had dominant days scoring the ball" in practices.

 

[tomahawk chop]

In the Video interview from today's MVC Media Day (posted here), Coach Wardle did not specifically list his starting 5. But he did say that Dietrich Richardson will be his point guard and Trevon Payton will start at the 2-guard. Plus he implied that Timo Van der Knapp will be his "3" (said he could be All-MVC this year), and he praised Ben Thornbrue as the "4", and Josh Ibukunoluwa at the "5", without naming them as starters. So at this early point, just a week into official practices, I'd guess those 5 are the likely starters.
But he also mentioned Xander Alarie, Noah Williams, and Kyle Grill as guys he likes, who can score inside and outside and who are ready to "take the next step". And he said Jackson Seastrunk, as a 6'5" guard, has "had dominant days scoring the ball" in practices.

There definitely are a lot of possibilities .