Tom “Whatever It Takes” Bradbury

[PointGuard]

Game #33 vs Brigham Young: The first half was back-and-forth as evidenced by the halftime score of 37-37. We opened an 11 point lead in the 2nd half but then had to hang on for a tight 71-67 win. Antonio Greer was our top scorer with 16 points, Dalron Jones had 15 points, 9 rebound, and 5 assists, Rob Ferguson scored 11 and pulled down 10 rebounds. (25-8) In the Sweet Sixteen we will be matched against #2 seed and 7th ranked Kentucky.

Houston-90, Marquette-74 (Houston scored 67 points in the 1st half) Houston’s next opponent with #3 seed and 13th ranked Oregon.

[PointGuard]

Game #34 vs Kentucky: Interestingly we started the season with a win over Louisville, now we get a chance to knock off Kentucky. We out-played the Wildcats in the first half, but not by much and held a 45-42 lead at the half. The game was tight throughout the 2nd half. After 9 lead changes and 5 ties, we dropped a heart-breaker, 77-76. Antonio Greer had 18 points, Dalron Jones scored 17 with 9 rebounds and 6 assists, Rob Ferguson had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, Mark Byams scored 10 and pulled down 7 boards, and Howie Tyler scored 9 points. A valiant effort that came up the slimmest of differences short.

Oregon-70, Houston-52

[bloomington]

good idea for this dynasty...wonder IF you will get caught and if u do...when?

[PointGuard]

good idea for this dynasty...wonder IF you will get caught and if u do...when?

Tom doesn't mind living on the edge. Is he the consummate cheater or is he just another coach waiting to be taken down?

[PointGuard]

CBI Tournament: Mercer-64, South Dakota State-57

NIT Tournament: Arizona State-56, Buffalo-55

NCAA Tournament: UCLA-100, Virginia-68

[PointGuard]

1st Team All-Conference: Dalron Jones

1st Team All-Conference: Mark Byams

[PointGuard]

PG Valder Greene, 6-0 HS Sr, Dawsonville, GA, 3.2 GPA (1040 SAT). 24.9 ppg, 11.1 apg, 8.0 rpg, 7.1 spg, 4.7 bpg. Outstanding scorer, passer, rebounder, shot blocker, stealing, outside shooter. Excellent ball handler and defender and strong athleticism. Hard worker who, while not a leader, doesn’t cause problems. Top 5 player at East Coast Jam Camp. Ranked 8th best in nation with Overall Rating of A. (And yes, we surreptitiously transferred the $10,000 to a clandestine bank account that Valder can access.)

C Joey Brown, 6-8 HS Sr, New Martinsville, WV, 2.8 GPS (1030 SAT). 21.3 ppg, 6.8 apg, 14.3 rpg, 5.5 spg, 2.6 bpg. Outstanding scorer, passer, rebounder, defender, and stealing. Strong athleticism. Top 10 player at Indy Elite Camp. Tremendous work ethic. Ranked 10th best in nation with Overall Rating of A.

[PointGuard]

Last season we met all 5 goals (sign 4 star recruit, win 20+ games, win conference tournament, get to Sweet Sixteen, improve school prestige) this past season. Our goals for this year aren’t much different.

My 2nd assistant moved on to greener pastures, but I hired a replacement at the 2nd Assistant position who has excellent Player Development skills. His name is Evan Jackson. I also extended the contracts of Ray Schau, my 1st Assistant (recruiting) and Kelvin Chadwick, my 3rd Assistant (scouting). A little costly, but I think we can afford it.

We still have $128,100 left for recruiting (and “whatever it takes”) this season. We will have 3 seniors graduating. Ray and I get together and decide that since it was so easy last year, we might as well go after the top dawgs with any and all ammunition we can fire at them. Hell, a bribe doesn’t cost us anything until the guy accepts our scholarship.

The list of the Top Recruiting Classes for last season comes out and we had the 4th best. Only Duke, Arizona and Wake Forest topped us. I think that if we’d had a 3rd scholarship to offer, we would have moved up a notch or two.

Looking over the team this year, we should be stronger than last year with the addition of freshman PG Valder Geene and freshman center Joey Brown. We’re weakest at SF, but we’ve got a couple big guards who can step in at the 3.

We blow $10K on the National Report and $5K on the Southeast Report. The basic reports are fine with me. No need wasting money on the gold reports...we may need the bucks for “other things”. We decide to go to the Indy Elite Camp...might as well check out the studs.

Reviewing the transfer pool, there are a couple very good transfer players who from Georgia Tech and Missouri who are sniffing us out plus there’s guy from Michigan we probably would have a chance at since we played the Wolverines last season. But we don’t have any vacant scholarships and I don’t really want to cut anybody plus I think we can get better with high school recruits this year than the available transfer players.

We have a bunch of players on our roster with GPA’s in the low 2’s, including last season’s ineligible player, Johnnie Campbell (now up to 2.2 GPA). My assistants think we should hire some tutors for some of these guys. But hey, they guys are big boys and should be able to take care of themselves, so no tutoring. I tell my assistants they just need to find out who the profs for our players are and let them know where their bread is buttered.

[PointGuard]

Recruiting Violations and Probations

The NCAA has not investigated our program.

One team was placed on probation though: Georgia Tech (no post-season tourneys for 2 years and no scholarships for 3 years).

Recruiting

We have 3 scholarships to offer this year.

A lot of Tennessee high schoolers are showing interest in us this season since we made it to the Sweet Sixteen last year. But most aren’t high enough rated for me to want. We put two of the better ones on our list, but even they probably won’t make the cut.

We add about 5 from the Southeast region...again not enough good players down here this year.

Looking over the international players, there’s a good PG, but hey, I got a superstar PG so decide to pass.

So we next look at the national crop. The #1 player in the nation already is showing interest in us, but he’s got a 2.1 GPA, so taking him would be a big risk since he likely won’t meet even our SAT minimums. We put him the list, though, and will get a little more information about him. We add most everyone in the top 25. Seems as though our academic standards (or lack thereof) attract a lot of the guys with GPA’s in the very low 2’s.

Since Dalron Jones will be graduating this year, I’d like to pick up a top-flight SG to replace him. Alternatively, Antonio Greer could take over his spot next season, but even though he’s a natural SG, Antonio is a bit smaller (at 6-0) than I’d like at the 2. I definitely want at least one talented big man, and maybe even two. But we probably should try to nail down a stellar SF with our 3rd scholarship.

Our ultimate goal is to fill all 3 of our scholarship with Top 10 recruits, but that may be more than we can do in our 2nd year. But they say, money talks.

Ray slips me the wrong list and I end up making some calls the first week of recruiting to a few guys outside the top 10. I ream Ray out, but hell, we have so many lists, that it’s easy to make a mistake. A couple of the top 10’s I get ahold of turn out to be from extremely wealthy families and I swear under my breath when I find that out from them.

After developing some interest, we were ready to put out our bait. So at the end of July and in early August, I made bribe offers to 13 players:

Name, ranking, relative family wealth--bribe--palyer's response and interest level (school they eventually chose)

Rowher,1, moderately poor--20K apt--No
Anderson,2, very poor -20K apt-No (Kentucky)
Mociler, 3, very poor-20K apt-tempting/factor in decision---interest immediately from + to +++. (NC)
Dudley, 4, fairly poor,-20K apt--tempting/factor in decision--interest immediately from + to +++ (Kansas)
Thurman, 11, very poor-no interest, 10K cash-No
Manion,5, very wealthy, $10k cash,--No--went from + to - (Michigan St)
Robins,6,Fairly poor, $10K cash--tempting/factor in decision-interest immediately from + to +++ (UCLA)
Owens, 7, Pretty wealthy, $10K cash--Tempting/factor in decision, interest immediately from + to +++ (UCLA)
Alexander, 9, middle class, $5K hang with celebrity, tempting/factor in decision, immediately from + to ++ (Oklahoma)
Crispin, 10, lower middle class, $5K hang with school celebrity--tempting/factor in decision, immediately from + to ++ (Virginia)
Banks, 12, very poor, $5K hang with school celeb--No, Immediately form + to - (North Carolina)
Johnson,13, very wealthy, $5K, hang with school celeb-tempting/factor in decision, Immediately from + to ++ (Oregon)
Mickens, 14, fairly poor, $5k Hang with school celeb-no--immediately from + to - (Kentucky)

With each potential acceptance of a bribe by a player, that amount of $$ is deducted from budget...only to be reimbursed if that player doesn't sign with you...so we began running low in $$.

C Ruben Rowher, has been #1 or #2 ranked throughout recruiting. He is fantastic on the court (26 ppg, 16 rpg and a player with an excellent shot from both the inside and outside, a great passer, a dominant rebounder and defender and he has a tremendous work ethic. But...his GPA is 2.1 and it’s unlikely he will meet even our SAT minimums, so reluctantly we withhold an offer, even though we’re on the top of his list of school at which he’d like to play. Instead we make offers at the end of August to:

#3 SG Anderson—PT,--he chooses Kentucky
#5 C Dudley—he chooses Kansas
#9 C Alexander—he chooses Oklahoma

After they go elsewhere we make offers to:

#1 PG Mociler—PT,--he chooses NC
#8 PF Crispin—SP, CP—he chooses Virginia

When we lose out on those recruits, our sites come back to Ruben Rowher. Everyone has shied away from him because of his low GPA. Finally we decide to take a flyer and make an offer, realizing he very well not qualify academically. And he accepts in early October. And this guy wouldn't even accept our generous bribe!!! If he squeaks by with his SAT’s, it’s a coup. If not, it’s back to the drawing boards.

After a number of the players to whom we made bribes go elsewhere, that money is freed up so we make a second round of bribes to:

Williams, 44, poor, $5K school celeb—No (Georgia)
Younger, 31, fairly poor, $10K cash—tempting/bribe will factor into decision (Connecticut)
Boone, 24, very poor, $10K—tempting/bribe will factor into decision (Arizona)

We then continue to offer scholarships and are continually rebuffed:

#31 PG Younger—PT—he chooses Connecticut
#44, SF Williams—Loc,---he chooses Georgia
#33, PG Camara—PT—he chooses Kansas
Int'l#46, Muge—SP—he chooses Arkansas
#24, C Boone—SP, Fac—he chooses Ariz
#61, PG Sankes—Loc—he chooses Ariz St.
#66, PG Forman—Loc—he chooses Depaul

What the hell? Do these guys not like money, is there no way to "persuade" them to give the finger to the elite schools, or are we just being outbribed by the elites?

Our recruiting efforts and our bribe offers have gone for naught. We were playing with the big boys and got our a$$e$ kicked. After the home visit period, we tuck our tails between our legs, add players to our watch list and decide to build interest through the winter and offer our two remaining scholarships in the spring. At least we will have a lot of bucks to throw around in the spring.

Top 10 Recruits—who got them

1. North Carolina
2. Memphis
3. Kentucky
4. UCLA
5. Oklahoma
6. Michigan State
7. Kansas
8. UCLA
9. Duke
10. Virginia

[PointGuard]

Norton Award:

3 players nominated for the Norton Award: SG Dalron Jones, C Joey Brown, and C Rob Ferguson

Starters at the beginning of season 2:

PG Valder Greene, 6-0 FR (3.5/4.5 stars) [High school senior last year]

SG Dalron Jones, 6-5 SR (4.5/4.5 stars) [20.2 ppg last year]

SF Johnnie Campbell, 6-5 JR (3.0/3.0 stars) [8.1 ppg last year]

PF Rob Ferguson, 6-8 SR (4.0/4.5 stars) [5.9 ppg last year]

C Joey Brown, 6-8 FR (4.5/4.5 stars) [High school senior last year]