Next season

[Majik45]

Just announced today, Bradley Freshman Armon Brummett from Decatur is transferring to a local Community College to play basketball with his twin brother. His brother went to Northern Illinois last year on a football scholarship, but decided to try basketball instead. Brummett played sparingly for Bradley, playing about 5 minutes a game in 24 games. He was very athletic and able to hold his own as a defensive stopper, but was very limited on the offensive end (5-29 from field and 0-16 from 3 on the year).

This transfer leaves Bradley with 2 open scholarships to give for next year still.

[freddycat68]

This actually impacts the season after next, but Bradley has landed George Washington's top underclassman (and a member of the A-10 all-defensive team) as a transfer after GWU's coach was fired. He'll sit out next season. 6-3 point guard. Two years left. 11 ppg, 35% 3fg as a soph.

[Mikovio]

ESPN ranked him the #33 sit out transfer.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... 20-2020-21

33. Terry Nolan, 6-2, 180 pounds, SG, Soph., George Washington
He averaged 10.6 points and 4.6 rebounds as a sophomore, and he has generated interest from all levels. TCU, Murray State, Coppin State and others are involved.

Canceled a visit to TCU and had interest from Nebraska and Wazzu.

[freddycat68]

BU recruiting is done for the moment. Last scholly goes to Kevin McAdoo, transfer from Eastern Michigan. So BU swapped out Brummett and Hodgson for the guy who would have been the starting PG for GWU and the guy who would have been the staring PG for EMU. Seems like a talent upgrade. These two need to sit out a year, but there's some depth now in Bradley's future backcourt. It's been interesting watching Wardle balance the classes out after starting his first 2 years with massive freshman classes. He's done a nice job getting it balanced without bringing in attitude problems. At any rate, BU is looking deeper and more talented after Wardle's latest haul. The fun has just begun in Peoria.

[BEARZ77]

BU recruiting is done for the moment. Last scholly goes to Kevin McAdoo, transfer from Eastern Michigan. So BU swapped out Brummett and Hodgson for the guy who would have been the starting PG for GWU and the guy who would have been the staring PG for EMU. Seems like a talent upgrade. These two need to sit out a year, but there's some depth now in Bradley's future backcourt. It's been interesting watching Wardle balance the classes out after starting his first 2 years with massive freshman classes. He's done a nice job getting it balanced without bringing in attitude problems. At any rate, BU is looking deeper and more talented after Wardle's latest haul. The fun has just begun in Peoria.

While Nolan and McAdoo are nice pickups , they don't help this year. It doesn't appear to me that Bradley kept pace with some of the other contenders in adding immediate help for 2019-20. Their freshman class is not as well regarded as 3-4 other teams in the hunt, and while the LSU /juco transfer will help, I just think a team that was tied for 5th needed to do more to help immediately. Don't get me wrong, I think Bradley will be in the race; if Bola is ready to contribute then I like their 4-5 men rotation on the blocks, but they could have used an athletic wing and a shooting guard with size besides just freshmen. It just seems to me the top 2 teams, Loyola and Drake while losing key pieces, added better freshmen and more immediate help via transfers. MSU has a lot of incoming talent both transfer wise and freshmen, but right now it's too early to tell about Ford overall, but the roster is stacked. UNI like Bradley seems to have needed to do more as a 5th place team to leap frog 3-4 other teams. Those 5 should all be in the hunt though; hard to say about anyone else yet as several teams have talent and some intriguing additions, but more holes than those five mentioned.
JMO.

[freddycat68]

Well that's what I'd expect an MSU fan to say. (I would love to have your WVU guy, to be sure.) As we all know, paper recruiting is paper recruiting. Were that not so, Valley teams wouldn't present such nightmarish challenges to "P5" schools every year in the NCAA. That said, BU coaches are high on Mast and Gabriel, and the talent level has been upgraded by all accounts. I realize that the same applies at other MVC schools, which is good for the conference. We won't fully understand the impact until January/February. Frankly, when I look at BU/DU/MSU/UNI/LU, I strain to see how the Valley remains a one-bid league for long. That's some serious basketball right there.

[BEARZ77]

I like the sit 1 get 2 approach with Nolan and McAdoo, similar to what MSU has this year as Tyrik Dixon and Josh Hall both sat last year and now we have a pair of proven D-1 players with a year practicing in our system for 2 more years. That's a great approach for teams like ours, better than getting an unproven juco for two years who doesn't get that year of practice with you. I just thought with the way Bradley closed last year and with a legitimate shot at challenging for a title, they would have gone after some experienced immediate help. Even the LSU transfer is more just like a normal juco w/o any real D-1 experience. They may be fine with the returnees and freshmen, and yeah recruiting is all paper for now, but I think they could have used a player or two who projected immediate impact help like a grad transfer would have been.

[Mikovio]

Funny thing is I don't think you ever saw a Bradley team that was 5th best in the Valley. You saw an 0-5 cellar dweller Bradley team in January and-- after a lineup shakeup-- a 9-2 contender in February/March. They just averaged out to 5th. The shame of it is the coaching staff didn't figure things out earlier. Thankfully it wasn't too late.

Anyway next year we'll have 5 guards (Brown, Kennell, Kingsby, Ville, Thomas), 5 bigs (Childs, Henry, Bar, Boya, Mast) and a guy who can play both (Gabriel). I like it. A lot of versatility there. I don't think you need 13 eligible players and if that's what you've got, you'll get some disgruntled attitudes and transfers out because no team's rotation is going that deep.

[tribecalledquest]

Funny thing is I don't think you ever saw a Bradley team that was 5th best in the Valley. You saw an 0-5 cellar dweller Bradley team in January and-- after a lineup shakeup-- a 9-2 contender in February/March. They just averaged out to 5th. The shame of it is the coaching staff didn't figure things out earlier. Thankfully it wasn't too late.

Anyway next year we'll have 5 guards (Brown, Kennell, Kingsby, Ville, Thomas), 5 bigs (Childs, Henry, Bar, Boya, Mast) and a guy who can play both (Gabriel). I like it. A lot of versatility there. I don't think you need 13 eligible players and if that's what you've got, you'll get some disgruntled attitudes and transfers out because no team's rotation is going that deep.

Bradley fans really are putting a lot of hope in Stephan Gabriel being a major contributor as a freshman. Tough thing to bank on.

Right now my top three preseason would be: MSU, Loyola and then Bradley.

[BEARZ77]

I'm not one of those who is picking the Bears at this point; too early in the Ford era to really see them as ready to win a championship. Could they, of course, but like I said I'm not picking them as yet. I'd probably go with Loyola , possibly Drake , then either Bradley or MSU and then UNI. To me Drake was the best coached team in the league last year and just had unfortunate injury issues. If Devries can duplicate what he did last year and they stay healthy, then they should be in the race . Loyola has culture, experience, and solid incoming talent , so hard to see them not among the top 1-3. For me Bradley/MSU/UNI is a toss up right now . The two ISU's could challenge if certain things break for them, but we say that every year about Indiana St, and who can really know what you'll get with the Red Birds.

I think it will be a tight race again, but hopefully a couple teams can break away and be more like 15-3/14-4 than the muddled mess we had last year.