Among the many joys of cheering on your team in a NCAA tourney game is watching the second game and discovering unknown players from an underdog school rise to the occasion provided by the big stage. Belmont jr. guard Craig Bradshaw stole the spotlight away from wonderful Malcolm Brogdon by hustling all over the court and draining threes from downtown Charlotte. What a likeable player! The 6'2" sparkplug scored 25 and pulled down a whopping 9 boards while making 5 of 9 treys.
Watching him spurred me to look up Bradshaw's 2012 h.s. prospect profile on all the different evaluation sites to see how popular a recruit he had been. Didn't surprise me that he was either a 2 or low 3-star and little-recruited, being offered only by Wofford, Middle Tenn, and Western Kentucky. He suffered a severe knee injury in his AAU season before his senior year at little Christ Presbyterian in Nashville. I'm pretty sure he was pointed out to me by Justin Young and ESPN's Mike Laplante back in spring of 2011 at a tourney his Tenn Travelers were playing in when I asked them which prospects were being recruited by the high academic schools.
I was knocked out by the spooky accuracy of Bradshaw's ESPN profile description that included:
"Underrated athlete with a motor that makes coaches salivate .... Bradshaw is a relentless hustler on the defensive side, diving for everything and using his hops to snatch rebounds and converting easy buckets over unsuspecting defenders. He has good handles ... good vision, shows massive leadership qualities and is a flat out winner.
Needs to continue to work on his shooting form... the kid is a tireless worker who will not be satisfied until he becomes a solid and respected shooter.
Bottom line: He has committed to Belmont and this is the kid who ESPN will talk about as one of those guys who makes his name in the NCAA tournament helping lead the Bruins to an upset in the opening rounds."
Dan, do you know if that was Mike LaPlante who wrote that profile? That is a great piece of recruiting writing and evaluation. If it was LaPlante, it is the third or fourth time this year I've researched an overlooked prospect who is performing well in college and I find that the ESPN evaluator correctly pegged the prospect as being undervalued. My recollection is that LaPlante was ESPN's Southern evaluator back then.
LaPlante is a friendly guy with great eye for talent who was head coach at Jacksonville St. college in Alabama and an assistant at Auburn before that. He has always been willing to talk with an amateur gym rat like me who wants info on prospects. He was an expert in Alabama prospects back in 2011 and touted me on William Lee early on and KT Harrell who is now at Auburn as being pursued by UGA and worthy of early offers.
Dan, do you know who LaPlante is writing for now? If you come across him this spring, please tell him that somebody noticed he was frequently right with his predictions on the less well-known prospects.
What other writers do you think are especially trustworthy when it comes to discovering overlooked Southern cagers?
.
This post was edited on 3/22 4:02 AM by gacard
Watching him spurred me to look up Bradshaw's 2012 h.s. prospect profile on all the different evaluation sites to see how popular a recruit he had been. Didn't surprise me that he was either a 2 or low 3-star and little-recruited, being offered only by Wofford, Middle Tenn, and Western Kentucky. He suffered a severe knee injury in his AAU season before his senior year at little Christ Presbyterian in Nashville. I'm pretty sure he was pointed out to me by Justin Young and ESPN's Mike Laplante back in spring of 2011 at a tourney his Tenn Travelers were playing in when I asked them which prospects were being recruited by the high academic schools.
I was knocked out by the spooky accuracy of Bradshaw's ESPN profile description that included:
"Underrated athlete with a motor that makes coaches salivate .... Bradshaw is a relentless hustler on the defensive side, diving for everything and using his hops to snatch rebounds and converting easy buckets over unsuspecting defenders. He has good handles ... good vision, shows massive leadership qualities and is a flat out winner.
Needs to continue to work on his shooting form... the kid is a tireless worker who will not be satisfied until he becomes a solid and respected shooter.
Bottom line: He has committed to Belmont and this is the kid who ESPN will talk about as one of those guys who makes his name in the NCAA tournament helping lead the Bruins to an upset in the opening rounds."
Dan, do you know if that was Mike LaPlante who wrote that profile? That is a great piece of recruiting writing and evaluation. If it was LaPlante, it is the third or fourth time this year I've researched an overlooked prospect who is performing well in college and I find that the ESPN evaluator correctly pegged the prospect as being undervalued. My recollection is that LaPlante was ESPN's Southern evaluator back then.
LaPlante is a friendly guy with great eye for talent who was head coach at Jacksonville St. college in Alabama and an assistant at Auburn before that. He has always been willing to talk with an amateur gym rat like me who wants info on prospects. He was an expert in Alabama prospects back in 2011 and touted me on William Lee early on and KT Harrell who is now at Auburn as being pursued by UGA and worthy of early offers.
Dan, do you know who LaPlante is writing for now? If you come across him this spring, please tell him that somebody noticed he was frequently right with his predictions on the less well-known prospects.
What other writers do you think are especially trustworthy when it comes to discovering overlooked Southern cagers?
.
This post was edited on 3/22 4:02 AM by gacard
