unfortunately the lure of the big time has taken another potential recruit away from us. bradley committed to uconn tonight per adam zagoria...too bad. guess he will join jonathan mandelove as former would be rams wearing a huskie uniform. hope he does more than take up space on the bench like mandelove did !
michael bradley to UConn :(
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Mistachill
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Well, I'll say this, my Rams Ego is less bruised by him picking UConn over us versus Drake.
Good luck to him!
Good luck to him!
unfortunately we weren' t even in the running at the end...came down to uconn and drake..
from adam zagoria:
UConn coach Jim Calhoun has found his latest big man.
Michael Bradley, a 6-foot-10 center out of Chattanooga (Tenn.) Tyner Academy, chose the Huskies Tuesday night over Drake.
“He committed to UConn an hour ago,†Tyner coach Gerald Harris said Tuesday night.
The other option?
“It was Drake. It came down to Drake,†he said.
Bradley has only been playing ball for four years and averaged 8 points last season.
“A lot of people see his upside more than anything else,†Harris said. “What people see in him is what kind of what player he’s going to be. He’s a coachable kid, a real hard worker. He’s only been play basketball for about four years.â€
Calhoun has churned out a series of talented big men, from Emeka Okafor to Hasheem Thabeet. Now Bradley could be next.
“He’s got a lot of upside,†Harris said. “The kid runs the floor and has a lot of energy. He’s 6-9 and shoots the ball so that’s basically that. Jim Calhoun is going to take it upon himself to bring out all the other things.â€
from adam zagoria:
UConn coach Jim Calhoun has found his latest big man.
Michael Bradley, a 6-foot-10 center out of Chattanooga (Tenn.) Tyner Academy, chose the Huskies Tuesday night over Drake.
“He committed to UConn an hour ago,†Tyner coach Gerald Harris said Tuesday night.
The other option?
“It was Drake. It came down to Drake,†he said.
Bradley has only been playing ball for four years and averaged 8 points last season.
“A lot of people see his upside more than anything else,†Harris said. “What people see in him is what kind of what player he’s going to be. He’s a coachable kid, a real hard worker. He’s only been play basketball for about four years.â€
Calhoun has churned out a series of talented big men, from Emeka Okafor to Hasheem Thabeet. Now Bradley could be next.
“He’s got a lot of upside,†Harris said. “The kid runs the floor and has a lot of energy. He’s 6-9 and shoots the ball so that’s basically that. Jim Calhoun is going to take it upon himself to bring out all the other things.â€
RAMification
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Give Drake credit - they hung in there until the very end. At the end of the day Bradley stated he just wanted to play at the highest level.
What these guys often don't understand is you can be on a team at the highest level, playing might be another matter!
What these guys often don't understand is you can be on a team at the highest level, playing might be another matter!
Mistachill
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There are two ways to play at the highest level: join a team already there or help TAKE a team to the highest level. But I'm not mad at him. I'm also glad he made his decision. Maybe now the dominos will begin to fall with players we're involved with.
VCU Finance 2008
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Who knows if his career turns out the same way Mandelove's has at UConn we might get a chance to recruit him again. A lot of what made him such a highly rated recruit is his potential. At UConn he will have to live up to that potential quickly.
I'm not ashamed to admit I'm pretty bummed about this ... not necessarily that Bradley picked UConn -- they are a perennial top-10 team that plays in one of the top conferences in the nation -- but the fact that our staff obviously put a ton of time and effort into recruiting him, and we weren't even in his final 2.
If we wind up losing Basabe and Lulane because we were putting them on the back burner while we waited and saved a scholarship for Bradley, I'm gonna have a hard time seeing how the pursuit of Bradley was anything more than a total waste of time.
If we wind up losing Basabe and Lulane because we were putting them on the back burner while we waited and saved a scholarship for Bradley, I'm gonna have a hard time seeing how the pursuit of Bradley was anything more than a total waste of time.
AG_fan said:
Depends on what the deciding factor was leading to VCU being eliminated....If we sincerely had a chance I don't feel like it was a waste of time or money. This kind of thing happens to everybody. The staff must have felt like they had a chance in order for them to put the time and money in that they did. Now if the whole advisor thing was true then yes it was a waste of money.
VCU Finance 2008
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You don't know that Basabe and Lulane were on the back burner though. They might have all been getting equal time. As fans we never really know the whole story behind any recruit. This spring we didn't even have a coach, so getting on him this late and being in his final 4 is an accomplishment, but in the end unless he suits up in a VCU jersey it doesn't matter if we were in the top 2, top 4, or he never even heard of us.AG_fan said:
Mistachill
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AG - its not as if the guy told us to get lost two months ago and we continued going after him. Apparently we were seriously in the mix until very recently. What was the staff suppose to do?
I don't believe the staff put all of its eggs in the Bradley basket. Based on what we've seen so far I think the staff is a little sharper than that.
I don't believe the staff put all of its eggs in the Bradley basket. Based on what we've seen so far I think the staff is a little sharper than that.
AG_fan said:
vcu_dan said:
SUPPOSIDLY an academic advisor at VCU told Bradley he wouldn't be able to play basketball and VCU and go through the Pharmacy program at the same time due to the demands of each. Some have said its true...some have said its false..but his interest in VCU did drop around the same time as the news.
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Good luck to him. I hope he doesn't get lost in the shuffle up there. That's the risk a lot of players with "potential" face at big time programs. You can be easily overshadowed and over recruited by a nationally praised recruit who's got all the tools and skills to contribute right away.
Lets be real...imagine if Larry went to UCONN and had to play behind a player like Okafur. He would of never stepped foot on the court and given an opportunity to play and mature as a player while showcasing his talents. He wouldn't be a wooden award candidate, a highly touted possible 1st rounder, or anything else.
That being said, the pieces will fall where they will. We'll be alright and get someone who really wants to be here and can contribute greatly to this program. It will happen sooner or later. Preferably sooner.
Lets be real...imagine if Larry went to UCONN and had to play behind a player like Okafur. He would of never stepped foot on the court and given an opportunity to play and mature as a player while showcasing his talents. He wouldn't be a wooden award candidate, a highly touted possible 1st rounder, or anything else.
That being said, the pieces will fall where they will. We'll be alright and get someone who really wants to be here and can contribute greatly to this program. It will happen sooner or later. Preferably sooner.