“The number one thing is retaining our guys. I hope, even without playing time, they had a great experience, and they learned and grew. Because if you’ve seen our program, you’re going to get better, and your role is going to get bigger if you put the work in. We’ll probably have player meetings here soon, and go over the year, and think about how we keep our group coming back, especially our young guys, and see if we can do that and try to form the best team.”
That’s what head coach Brian Wardle said following Bradley’s loss to Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
His hopes of retention got put to bed, and quickly.
A few days after a blowout loss to Dayton that would officially end the Braves’ season, the program saw a mass exodus as freshman guard Montana Wheeler, sophomores Jaquan Johnson and Kai Yu, and junior guard Demarion Burch left in the transfer portal.
Their departures, along with the loss of seniors Alex Huibregtse, Ahmet Jonovic, Corey Thomas and Aj Smith, leave Bradley’s roster starved of depth, experience and size.
Below, Co-Editor-In-Chief Latif Love and Sports Editor Ethan Diamond list the Braves’ five biggest needs this offseason.
1. Experience
Graduation and the transfer portal have gutted the Braves’ roster. They not only lose talent but also experience, with nearly 14,000 combined collegiate minutes leaving the roster.
Forward Timoty van der Knaap is currently the most experienced player on a roster with 13 combined starts and fewer than 1000 combined minutes. If the Braves want a real chance at winning in the MVC next year, they need to bring in players with multiple seasons of Division I experience who can execute down the stretch and teach underclassmen how to win.
2. Interior Size
After Yu’s departure to the transfer portal, the current roster features one player, redshirt freshman Gustavo Guimaraes, who is 6 feet 9 or taller, and he registered zero minutes last season. Fortunately, the Braves have good size at the forward spot with van der Knaap, Noah Williams, and Ben Thornbrue all standing at 6 feet 8, and wings Dietrich Richardson, Matthew Zobrist, and Race Kowalczyk ranging from 6’5-6’7. Though they have good positional size, they lack a true anchor and will likely need to bring at least two bigs with experience to man the middle of the defense.
3. Ball handling
With Johnson and Wheeler entering the transfer portal, the Braves have lost their biggest strength from this past season: their guard play. Wheeler and Johnson were two of the best guards in the country at handling the ball without turning it over, and they were the main reason Bradley ranked in the 93rd percentile in turnover percentage. They’ll need steady guards to fill those shoes.
Perhaps they can lure Wheeler back to Peoria, as the opportunity to start at point guard is there. Wheeler showcased his excellent work with the ball in his hand at times last year, and it would be huge for Bradley to retain him. If he ends up departing, though, the Braves will need to add an experienced ball handler via the portal to have a shot at winning the MVC next year.
4. Shooting
All seven of the Braves’ top three-point shooters from last season have left, whether that be to graduation (Huibregtse, Smith, Thomas) or to the portal (Johnson, Wheeler, Burch, Yu). There’s no doubt Bradley will target three-point shooters, as that’s been their identity across the past few seasons.
Expect Coach Wardle to target an experienced sharpshooter to start at the two next season, as he did with Huibregtse this year, along with the additions of Kowalaczyk and Williams, who are both capable three-point shooters.
5. Perimeter Defense
The Braves struggled mightily at times to defend the perimeter. They routinely conceded drives against teams with speed and shooting, which led to a number of poor defensive performances throughout the season.
And that was before losing their two best perimeter defenders, Johnson, MVC defensive player of the year and Smith, who was tasked with guarding the opposing team’s best wing. The Braves still have van der Knaap, who is a strong wing defender, but don’t currently roster a player who has shown the ability to stifle guards.
