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What To Do With All This Depth?

BRAVE82

BRAVE82

New member
The Braves are ridiculously deep, not one stretch on the roster next year. How is Brian Wardle gonna keep everybody happy? Seven new faces on the court along with some great returnees. A nice problem to have.
 
I can't remember when Bradley had the kind of depth they'll have next season. There will be more quality guards, wings, and big men that we've seen in many years.
 
Maybe we will press aggressively. You need lots of depth for that. It wouldn’t match what coach has done so far, but he’s not really had the option before.
 
Assuming you will have to deal with some type of injury, this is great depth to have. Really excited for this upcoming season!
 
I like the depth of this upcoming team. However, there is a lot of unknown with so many players coming in. We are losing some crucial experience from NK and DB at the guard position. Also, solid minute from Bar at center.

GUARD - HUGE if East can play immediately, I believe that will change the depth at the guard position. Kingsby is a solid option and Ville is going to be replacement for NK. have heard positive news on Nolan being a game changer but McAdoo are still unknown in my opinion.

Forward - Childs is going to be a POY candidate. Hannah has huge upside. Mast is an unknown but I am feeling confident with how Ville has turned out. Kent seems raw but plenty of upside.

Center - Boya is a solid defense center but lacks as a scoring option. Linke seems to be raw but a solid pickup.

I believe 1 or 2 of the freshman will redshirt - Linke or Kent if I had to guess.
 
That's a pretty good summary. I agree with your assessment, except I don't expect a redshirt. Coach Wardle does not like to use the freshman redshirt option, unless it is for a medical reason like this past season with Rienk Mast. But, even then they waited as long as possible and rehabbed Rienk in an attempt to avoid him redshirting.
In Wardle's 5 seasons here, he's only used the freshman redshirt one time- for Jerome Merritt (2016-17 season), and that was because he had 10 new players the season before that, and the depth of guards gave him the luxury of redshirting a player like Merritt, who was such a raw talent that he needed the redshirt year. Merritt then left and attended a junior college in Florida, never did improve his skills much, and never played at a Division I level.
There have been several other recruits who would have probably benefited from a redshirt like Joel Okafor, Callum Barker, Davante Cooper, Ryan Stipanovich, Jayden Hodgson, Armon Brummitt, Ari Boya, and maybe others. But our coaches are just not big on that idea. Other coaches like Ben Jacobson do it virtually every year with a couple of their incoming freshmen recruits. Jayson Kent (plus Darius Hannah & Connor Linke) would benefit from some time to get stronger and improve, but unlike Merritt, they are all pretty skilled kids and could help Bradley with their shooting and size. So barring an injury, I would expect them to play.
 
What a problem to have - too much depth. At times last year we thought we had too much depth, but a series of injuries reduced the roster to a size that could have resulted in BU having to put fewer than a full team on the floor had a couple of players fouled out. I am impressed by the quality of the new recruits. Hopefully, next year will be another giant step forward. Now, it’s time for all the long time season ticket holders who dropped their season tickets to come back and support the Braves. This could be a special season.
 
To much depth isn't really a thing. There are always injuries, off court issues, or a player just not working out for the team/environment etc. Also, there are still a lot of questions as to who can really step up to the next level next year. Obviously we know Eli will be a POY contender and should be 1st team all MVC etc. Ville will hopefully be starting as a SG and improving, although a lot of players tend to have 2nd yr slumps. Henry will contribute well but needs to work on his shooting to be more effective and get more minutes when he is not spotting for Eli.

BU lost a lot of scoring now that Brown and Kennell are gone. Hopefully some of the newer guys can really step up and get to the next level.
 
Stryker said:
To much depth isn't really a thing. There are always injuries, off court issues, or a player just not working out for the team/environment etc. Also, there are still a lot of questions as to who can really step up to the next level next year. Obviously we know Eli will be a POY contender and should be 1st team all MVC etc. Ville will hopefully be starting as a SG and improving, although a lot of players tend to have 2nd yr slumps. Henry will contribute well but needs to work on his shooting to be more effective and get more minutes when he is not spotting for Eli.

BU lost a lot of scoring now that Brown and Kennell are gone. Hopefully some of the newer guys can really step up and get to the next level.
Click to expand...

I agree. In regards to Ja'Shon Henry, here are a couple things that should make all Bradley fans appreciate him, and appreciate our coaches' recruiting...

Ja'Shon visited Bradley and committed on June 2, 2018-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...-ja-shon-henry (scroll down to post #13)
This is an extremely late date to land a D1 caliber player. The only player I can recall that Bradley ever landed later than June 2, was Taylor Brown who committed July 12, 2008. But his was an extremely atypical recruiting story. He had dropped out of junior college, went home and trained with his father (an ex-NBA player), and was discovered at a juco exposure event in July, 2008 that was intended mainly for kids in the next year's class.
It is pretty rare when a recruit this late becomes a significant contributor, but Ja'Shon did that as a freshman, and elevated his game as a sophomore.

Here are Ja'Shon's stats-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...5/jashon-henry

Most notable is that his shooting percentage has been over 50% both seasons at Bradley. He was the only regular player to shoot over 50% this past season (51.4%), and nearly 15% of his shot attempts were three pointers. He made 32.3% on threes, which isn't bad. HIs 9.5 ppg scoring average is 2nd highest only to Elijah Childs among the returning players next season.
He also shot 52.9% last season, which was the top FG% on the 2018-19 team despite being a freshman and not starting a single game.
He also upped his Free Throw shooting from 52.8% as a freshman to 75.0% as a sophomore. Among qualifying players, he is the top FT% shooter returning next season! (Ville shot 84.6%, though he only attempted 26 FTs in 33 games)
And Ja'Shon's 6.0 rebounds per game is the 2nd highest among the BU players returning next season.
He ranks 5th among all qualifying MVC players who return next season in rebounds (note Elijah Childs did not play in enough games to qualify)
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...ype/2/group/18

Ja'Shon had very little recruiting interest other than Bradley. There have to be a lot of coaches who wish they had checked him out-
http://verbalcommits.com/players/ja-shon-henry

Ja'Shon is already a fan favorite, and the team-leader in dunks. If he improves only a fraction as much as he did between his freshman and sophomore seasons, Ja'Shon should become an All-MVC caliber player.
 
Da Coach said:
I agree. In regards to Ja'Shon Henry, here are a couple things that should make all Bradley fans appreciate him, and appreciate our coaches' recruiting...

Ja'Shon is already a fan favorite, and the team-leader in dunks. If he improves only a fraction as much as he did between his freshman and sophomore seasons, Ja'Shon should become an All-MVC caliber player.
Click to expand...

Don't forget, I spoke to his mother and best friend at the MVC tournament this year and they stated that Ja'Shon was all set to go to Loyola, but they didn't get back to him quick enough! What a lucky twist for BU!
 
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Great article, Coach. Thanks for posting.

He is a classy kid for sure. I'm very glad he landed with us!
 
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