Tom “Whatever It Takes” Bradbury

[PointGuard]

Coach Bradbury responds: "Cheater? I'd call it a great use of available resources."

[PointGuard]

NCAA Selection Show:

#1 seeds: Indiana, Oregon, Memphis, UCLA

Connecticut is in a play-in game with Providence for a #12 seed

Tulane also has a play-in game against Tennessee for a #12 seed

Temple is a #9 seed in the Pittsburgh Regional and will play #8 seed Utah

Memphis is a #1 seed in the Austin Regional and will play #16 seed Jacksonville State

NCAA Tournament Play-in Games:

Connecticut—78, Providence—74 (POG: SG Bobbie Harris, 27 pts)

Tennessee—75, Tulane—71

NCAA Tournament Round 1:

Temple—80, Utah—63 (POG: SG Anthony Smith, 23 pts)

San Francisco—80, Connecticut—71 (SG Bobby Harris, 28 pts)

Game #34, #16 seed Jacksonville State (19-11): We hold the lead throughout the first half and go to the break with a 36-22 lead. We expanded our lead to 20 after 4-1/2 minutes of play in the 2nd half. We roll to a 77-58 victory. PF Angelo Craft led our scoring with 18 points. Jared Keady dropped in 13 points, and Austin hunter and John Jones both added 12. (30-4)

NCAA Tournament Round 2:

Indiana—75, Temple—69 (SF Freddie Williams scored 22 points for Temple, but C Craig Davis scored 23 and pulled down 15 rebounds for Indiana).

Game #35, #9 seed Butler (23-9): We hit two 3’s on our first two possessions and then after taking an 8-0 lead, we couldn’t buy a bucket, allowing Butler to tie us at 11-11. But then we scored 10 straight points. Butler made a couple runs but we came away with a 38-25 halftime lead, primarily due to an 11-4 turnover advantage. SF John Jones dropped in 13 points. Two minutes into the 2nd half we had a 20 point lead, but our big guys were in foul trouble. And that turned out to be our winning margin as we cruised to a 75-55 victory. We dominated the boards 37-25 and turned the ball over just 9 times compared to Butler’s 17 turnovers. SF John Jones scored 20 points, had 2 assists, pulled down 7 rebounds, and had 3 steals. SG Austin Hunter tossed in 15 points and PG Jared Keady added 12. (31-4)

NCAA Tournament Sweet 16:

Game #36, # 4 seed #23 ranked Duke (21-12): We beat Duke79-66 in the Coaches Classic at the beginning of the season but they won the ACC Tournament and have 4 players averaging in double figures. SG Austin Hunter picks ups 2 fouls in the first 3 minutes of the game. But we hit 52% of our shots in the first half to take a 42-37 lead to the locker room. We were led by our two PG’s with Jared Keady’s knocking down 12 points and Troy Cox drilling in every shot he took to score 9 points in 9 minutes of play. But 3 of our starters each had 2 fouls and a 4th starter picked up his 2nd foul 8 seconds into the 2nd half. The first part of the 2nd half was a horrible display of ugly basketball by both teams. Duke came on to take a 49-47 lead with 12-1/2 minutes to play. From there the lead flip flopped until the final 2 minutes when Duke moved ahead and led by 4 with 55 seconds remaining. We called a time out to set up a 3 for Austin Hunter. He had a contested shot but drilled the 3 to get us within a single point. Duke’s center drove the lane and was fouled with 23 seconds on the clock. He sunk both free throws. Another time out and this time we cleared out a 3 for Jared Keady who also hit his shot to tie the game with 12 seconds to go. We forced the ball into the corner where Duke had to put a desperation 3 that missed everything taking us to overtime knotted at 70-70. Halfway through the OT, we led 76-71 after Jared Keady hit a 3. We hit two more 3’s to pull ahead by 11 with a minute to go. And after a scare in the 2nd half, we drubbed the Blue Devils in OT for an 85-73 win. SG Austin Hunter came up big in the 2nd half and OT to finish with 25 points along with 7 rebounds. PG Jared Keady scored 16 and dished out 5 assists, and PG Troy Cox added 9. (32-4)

NCAA Tournament Elite 8:

Game #37, #10 seed Boston College (20-12): We outclassed BC in the first half and took a 47-33 lead to the intermission. C Jules Grant topped our scoring with 9 points. But Boston College cut our lead to 9 in the first 4 minutes of the 2nd half. We had to work but the Eagles worked harder and with 5-1/2 minutes to go our lead was down to 6 points. We held on to pull out an 82-72 victory. High point honors went to SG Austin Hunter with 16 points, but more impressively he had 9 assists, 7 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocks. PF Angelo Craft score 14, and C Jules Grant, PG Jared Keady, and C Kelvin Ross each scored 11 points. (33-4)

NCAA Tournament Final 4:

Game #38, #1 seed #5 ranked UCLA (28-7): We beat UCLA 93-78 in the Coaches Classic at the beginning of the season. Their SF Greg Wall is averaging 17.6 ppg. The game was extremely close the first 10 minutes, but then UCLA opened as much as an 8 point lead and finished the half ahead of us by a 35-28 score. We hit just 32% of our shots and were 0 for 11 from beyond the arc. SF John Jones led our scoring with 9 points. We fell behind by 13 points early in the 2nd half and midway through the half trailed 62-52. But we then put on a run that cut UCLA’s lead to 2 with 7-1/2 minutes to go. We then tied the game at 69-69 with 6:10 remaining. We then fell apart and UCLA caught fire and we went down to an 86-75 defeat. Our shooting failed us as we hit just 36% of our shots while UCLA knocked down 48% of theirs. SF John Jones was our top scorer with 20 points and he also had 2 assists, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and a block. SG Austin Hunter scored 17. C Kelvin Ross had 14 points plus 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. PF Angelo Craft added 12. But the star of the game was UCLA’s PG Ross Smiley who scored 31 points and saddled both of our PG’s (Jared Keady and Troy Cox) with 4 fouls apiece. For the 2nd straight year we lost in the semi-finals and for the 2nd straight year we lost to the national champs. (33-5)

NCAA Championship Game:

It was all Pac-12 with UCLA knocking off Oregon 69-54 to take the championship.

[PointGuard]

Awards:

SG Austin Hunter—2nd Team All-American
SG Austin Hunter—AAC Player of the Year
C Jules Grant—AAC Defensive Player of the Year
SG Austin Hunter—AAC 1st Team All-Conference
PG Jared Keady—AAC 1st Team All-Conference
C Kelvin Ross—AAC 2nd Team All-Conference
Tom Brady—AAC Coach of the Year

Season Review:

We achieved 3 of our 4 goals: winning 20+ games, winning the conference tournament, and improving school prestige. The only goal we failed to achieve was winning the national championship.

Our request for a budget increase was denied.

A number of top-flight schools approached Coach Brady to take over the reigns for their programs, but he opted to remain at Memphis since the bribes he’s given might come back to haunt him.

All 3 assistant coaches will remain on-board for next season.

Incoming Recruits:

SG Roy Field, 6-4 HS Sr, Sarasota, FL, 3.6 GPA, 1290 SAT. 27.1 ppg, 6.0 apg, 10.8 rpg, 7.4 spg, 3.6 bpg. Excellent scorer with sweet shooting from both inside and out; Strong rebounder; Outstanding ball thief and very good shot blocker; Great passer; Good athleticism; Not a leader but doesn’t cause problems; Talented player who could work harder; Top 25 at Indy Elite Camp; MVP at Memphis Hoops Summit. Ranked #5 with an overall rating of A. We’ve stashed away $10,000 for him when he arrives at campus.

PG Morris Wolfe, 6-0 HS Sr, Maynardville, TN, 2.9 GPA, 1090 SAT. 25.2 ppg, 8.4 apg, 8.0 rpg, 5.7 spg, 3.5 bpg. Excellent scorer with a good shot from outside and inside; Excellent passer; Strong rebounder; Great defensively; Excellent at stealing the ball and a good shot blocker; Tremendous work ethic; Top 5 at Indy Elite Camp. Ranked #9 with overall rating of A. No bribe was offered.

PG Isaac Wright, 6-0 HS Sr, Burbank, CA, 3.0 GPA, 1070 SAT. 24.0 ppg, 7.8 apg, 10.6 rpg. 2.9 spg, 2.1 bpg. Excellent scorer with great outside range; Excellent passer; Strong rebounder; Very good defensively; Good athleticism; Hard working kid with a tremendous work ethic; Not a leader but doesn’t cause problems; Doesn’t have many problems with injuries; Top 10 player at the Indy Elite Camp. Ranked #16 with an overall rating of A. Another $10,000 has been held aside for him when he gets here.

SF Julian Blevins, 6-7 HS Sr, Whitwell, TN, 3.4 GPA, 1110 SAT. 16.9 ppg, 3.4 apg, 5.9 rpg, 1.6 spg, 2.0 bpg. Excellent scorer who can shoot well from both outside and inside; Strong athleticism; Weak rebounder; Hard working kid; Doesn’t have many problems with injuries; Decent, but not spectacular, showing at the Indy Elite Camp; Top 5 at the Memphis Hoop Summit. Ranked #69 with an overall rating of B. No bribe was offered.

[PointGuard]

Here's a report providing information about each of the recruits Coach Bradbury has given scholarships to with their season-by-season stats. It also shows bribes that were taken by various players, thus Coach Bradbury and his staff have encrypted this to avoid it getting into the hands of the NCAA.

Below the recruit information is a summary of the Memphis Tigers record and Coach Bradbury's record.

[bloomington]

I guess Coach Bradbury proves....cheaters DO prosper!

[PointGuard]

Our incoming recruit class is rated as the 3rd best in the nation. Only Syracuse and Stanford were rated above us.

None of our returning players transferred. Yes!

We only have one scholarship to award this recruiting season. While we’re solid at all 5 positions, our depth up front is slightly less than at the perimeter. So we focus mostly on big guys. Recruiting throughout the summer goes extremely well. We quickly build strong interest in 7 of the top 10 recruits nationally and our success with those in the top 25 and top 50 is also solid. As we reach the time to offer our lone scholarship and do home visits, we have a dilemma. The number 1 and number 3 ranked recruits are pure studs, either of which we’d love to have on our team. But we also know that top 10 (and particularly top 5) recruits often declare for the draft after just spending a year in the college ranks. So do we want to go after one of the studs or do we want to go after a very strong big man who is ranked somewhere from 11 to 20 nationally and have a better chance of having him play for us for 4 years?

Looking at the recruits who rate highest on our radar:

#1 is a 6-7 PF who scores at will and totally dominates the boards. While we’re high on his list of top 10 schools, there are a couple schools ahead of us and prestige is of high importance to him, so we could be edged out by some of the more prestigious schools. We discuss offering a substantial bribe, but it’s hard to know if it will move us up or if he will be turned off by it.
#3 is a 6-8 C who is a very strong scorer but an even more imposing presence on the boards. But while he is very interested in our program, we’re not cracking his top 10. Again, what would be the effect of offering a bribe? That’s further complicated by the fact that his family is very well off, so money likely won’t have as much weight in influencing him...or will it?
#9 is a 6-8 PF who is a great scorer and while not in the class of the previous two recruits with respect to rebounding, still has top-notch rebounding skills. And we’re at the top of his list of schools in which he’s interested. Additionally his family is dirt-poor so if we were to offer a bribe it may cement the deal.
#11 is a 6-7 PF who is very similar talent-wise to the #9 recruit (above). But his interest level in Memphis, while good, isn’t totally solid yet. Again though, his family is at the bottom of the economic spectrum, so a bribe might significantly increase our standing.
#12 is a 6-8 C who is as good a scorer as #9 and #11 above and looks to be a bit better on the boards. His family is middle-class, so would a bribe positively or negatively affect his interest in us?
#13 is a 6-8 C who is slightly below the skill level of #9, #11, and #12. But he’s still a very good player. His family is lower-middle class so he might welcome a bribe.
#14 and #18 are both 6-6 PF’s and are pretty similar to #13 talent-wise. Both of their families are a little above middle class.
#19 and #20 are also 6-6 PF’s with pretty equal skills to #13, #14, and #18. But we’re almost at the top of their lists of top 10 schools and their families are just a little below middle class.

The #6 ranked recruit, a 6-8 PF, has excellent skills and he’s a great leader, but his grades are poor so we’ve ruled him out of consideration for now since he might not meet our minimum SAT scores.

While we probably can’t go wrong with any of these players, some will have a bigger impact on our program, either immediate or long-term, than others. The more we compare these guys, the more confused we get. What to do?

We decide that while a lot of the top recruits are very interested in our program, that it’s very difficult to beat out the big-time programs. So we decide to toss out a lot of bribes and see who bites and if that significantly moves us up their top 10 list to give us a chance of landing them after our home visits.

So in late August we make the following moves:

#1, PF Andrew Thomas—lower middle class family, he’s very interested in our program but we’re not in his top 10—offer a $20 campus apartment—he spurns our offer and interest in our program immediately drops to somewhat interested.

#3, C Donny Mims—family is very well-off, he’s very interested in our program but we’re not in his top 10—offer a $35K car—he finds that tempting and says it will factor into his decision. No immediate perceived change in his interest level though. But by the next week we’re #1 on his top 10 list!

#9, PF Jeremy Harris—family is very poor financially, we’re #5 in his top 10 list—offer $10K in cash—he finds that tempting and says it will factor into his decision. No immediate perceived change in his interest level though.

#11 PF Shyrone Bell—family is very poor financially, he’s very interested in our program but we’re not in his top 10--$10K cash offer, but he’s offended by the offer. His interest in our program immediately drops to somewhat interested.

#12 C Andy Hamilton—family is a little above middle class, he’s somewhat interested in our program but we’re not in his top 10—$10K cash offer--he finds that tempting and says it will factor into his decision. No immediate perceived change in his interest level though. His interest level in our program immediately improves to very interested.

#13 C Tanner Yeager—family is lower-middle-class, he’s somewhat interested in our program but we’re not in his top 10--$10K cash offer-- he finds that tempting and says it will factor into his decision. No immediate perceived change in his interest level though. His interest level in our program immediately improves to very interested.

#18 PF Bryan Kirkland—family is upper-middle-class, he’s somewhat interested in our program but we’re not in his top 10--$10K cash offer-- he finds that tempting and says it will factor into his decision. No immediate perceived change in his interest level though. His interest level in our program immediately improves to very interested.

#19 PF Maxey Nicholson—family is lower-middle-class, we’re #5 in his top 10 list—offer $10K cash-- he finds that tempting and says it will factor into his decision. No immediate perceived change in his interest level though. By the next week we’re #1 on his top 10 list!

[AARGGGHHHH!!!!! Even though we have a graduating senior (Jules Grant) who is on a scholarship, the recruiting screen now shows us with NO scholarships to offer and we can’t offer the one we scholarship that should become available after this season. ?????????? ]

[Is this some strange quirk within DDSCB? Maybe.]

But....in order to work around this quirk for purposes of this dynasty report:

Did the NCAA come down on us? No.

Steve Forester, the AD, says that he discovered that one of our players (who has since graduated) got hold of some old tests and used them to jack his GPA up to avoid ineligibility. He’s concerned that the NCAA might decide to begin an investigation to determine the extent of the problem and whether any coaches or others in the AD department were responsible. Since Steve is aware that bribes are being offered and accepted, he is also afraid that if the NCAA begins investigating this cheating incident, that they might stumble onto the bribes also. So in an attempt to forestall this, he is imposing a university penalty (loss of one scholarship this coming season) to show the NCAA that we’re penalizing ourselves for this incident, even though it was a player who did the cheating of his own accord.

So the hard work we did this season on recruiting goes down the toilet.

[PointGuard]

Two of our freshmen, PG Isaac Wright and PG Morris Wolfe, were nominated for the Norton Award.

While it’s great to have two of our players nominated, since they’re both PG’s that means that it will be tough to give both enough minutes to have much of a chance to really compete for the award. Especially when we have a 3rd freshman, Roy Field, who is a top-notch SG. We’ll see how the three freshman do, but if they all play as well as expected, maybe we can split time at the 2 guard positions between the three of them. But that means that PG Troy Cox and SG Georgiy Zolkin, both returning sophomores who probably each felt to be the heir apparent for their respective positions, are likely to be miffed. Also I wouldn’t be surprised if Roy Field isn’t disappointed not to have been a Norton Award nominee.

[PointGuard]

The ex-player who was accused of using stolen tests came in and testified to the administration that he did in fact get old tests for a course. But the professor for that course had totally restructured the curriculum and had handed the old tests out to the entire class saying that while the material covered in the tests would no longer be a part of the new curriculum, the questions on those tests covered issues that were worth the students being aware of. A subsequent discussion with the professor in question revealed that to be the case.

Since no cheating was involved, Athletic Director Steve Forester went to the university’s administration and then to the American Athletic Conference and NCAA. All agreed that his decision to take away the scholarship could and should be vacated.

Voila! We now have a scholarship to offer and it’s back to the drawing boards after losing 2 weeks of activity on the recruiting front.

[I finally realized why there was no scholarship to offer earlier. I had two recruits on my international list but wasn’t doing much with them and seldom looked at that list. But I must have mistakenly clicked on “offer scholarship” to one of them. Since I was only looking at the National recruit list and not the International recruit list, I didn’t notice that a scholarship had been offered. When the international recruit decided to go to another school, the scholarship rightfully became available again. So no game error, but operator error.]

With the scholarship back in place, we immediately make home visits to four players: #2 ranked SG Joe Asbury; #3 ranked C Donny Mims; #9 ranked PF Jeremy Harris; and #11 ranked C Andy Hamilton. We offer the scholarship to C Donny Mims.

Two days later we find out that our scholarship offer has been accepted by:

C Donny Mims, 6-8 Sr, New Milford, CT, 3.1 GPA. 23.5 ppg, 3.9 apg, 20.4 rpg, 2.2 spg, 3.1 bpg. Excellent scorer with a particularly devastating inside game, Outstanding rebounder, Great shot blocker who also gets his share of steals; Talented passer. Weak areas are ball handling and free throw shooting. While not a leader, he doesn’t cause problems. Was MVP at the Big Apple Showcase. 3rd highest ranked recruit in the nation. Overall rating: A. We stash away $35,000 for the car we offered and that he will get before he arrives on campus.

Where did the other players to whom we offered bribes eventually go?

#1 PF Andrew Thomas: Georgia Tech
#9 PF Jeremy Harris: Arizona
#11 C Andy Hamilton: Illinois
#13 C Tanner Yeager: UCLA
#15 PF Shryone Bell: Indiana
#17 PF Bryan Kirkland: Kentucky
#23 PF Maxey Nicholson: Arkansas

[PointGuard]

Starters:

PG: Morris Wolfe, 6-0 Freshman
SG: Isaac Wright, 6-0 Freshman
SF: John Jones, 6-7 Sophomore
PF: Angelo Craft, 6-8 Junior
C: Jules Grant, 6-11 Senior

Primary reserves:

SG: Roy Field, 6-4 Freshman (also expect 6-0 Sophomore Georgiy Zolkin to get minutes at SG)
C: Kelvin Ross, 6-10 Sophomore
SF: Julian Blevins, 6-7 Freshman
PG: Troy Cox, 6-0 Sophomore (but Isaac Wright will also be playing PG)
PF: Ufuk Oztorun, 6-6 Junior

[PointGuard]

Game #1 vs VCU Rams (0-0): We took the lead early and increased it throughout the first half to take a 43-24 even though 3 of our starters were in early foul trouble. Our shooting cooled in the 2nd half, but we crushed the Rams 81-50 by holding their shooting to 33%, dominating the boards 42-24, and holding an 18-9 turnover advantage. SG/PG Isaac Wright led our scoring with 18 points with PG Morris Wolfe knocking down 13 points and SF Julian Blevins adding 11. PF Angelo Craft scored 8 and grabbed 10 rebounds. (1-0)

Game #2 vs Charlotte 49ers (0-1): We simply could not get untracked in the first half and our shooting (32%) stunk. Charlotte took advantage of this to sport a 38-33 halftime lead. While our shooting didn’t improve much in the 2nd half, we tightened our defense to take a small lead midway through the 2nd half. But the game was incredibly close. We hit t a 3 just before the buzzer sounded and squeaked by with a 68-63 victory. SF John Jones topped our scoring with 16 points while C Kelvin Ross added 10. (2-0, ranked 6th in the polls with the 74th best RPI).

UCONN blitzed their way through the Preseason NIT to win the championship and is ranked 4th in the polls. It looks like they’re going to give us some serious competition, particularly due to their talented perimeter players.