Bradley Situation

[Danzz]

From all accounts by people who saw him over the summer Bradley was a better player than Wolf. Last season people said Bradley looked good when they observed him practicing. Wolf never looked good. Can anyone explain why Bradley was given the red shirt last season and not Wolf?[/q
Just a guess but I have a feeling that Bradley may have been eligible for more financial aid. It probably doesn't have all that much to do with skill level and I know the rules are different for foreign players. Wolf may not have been eligible for any financial aid other than his athletic scholly.
Bradley is now my favoriteUconn player.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

From all accounts by people who saw him over the summer Bradley was a better player than Wolf. Last season people said Bradley looked good when they observed him practicing. Wolf never looked good. Can anyone explain why Bradley was given the red shirt last season and not Wolf?

Calhoun has said several times that he regrets not redshirting Gavin Edwards and having him for one more year and he didn't want to make the same mistake with Bradley. I think they like his upside more than Wolf's and think he'll be the better player four years from now.

 

[iaxuleewnt2UCT]

i believe it depends again if he redshirts. kids (IIRC) are allowed 2 redshirt seasons and have 6 years to use their 4 years eligibility, but they only get 5 years paid. if my math is correct, if he plays each season the next 4 years, he'd still have to pay for one more year. his best bet IMHO would be to redshirt one more year...

Eric is correct. If I were Bradley.. I would redshirt this season again... pay his own way.... and then next year... he would have a scholarship and it would be year one of his eligibility. Thus he would have four years of scholarships... junior, senior, masters 1, masters2.
It would make the most sense. He would have to sit out though... practice with the team and that is about it.

 

[iaxuleewnt2UCT]

Why is this a pick on Wolf thread again. The poor kid barely played last year and you all act like you know so much about him. Hopefully he got back into shape over the summer it was well publicized that he had put on some weight and needed to take it off... but I remember seeing video of Wolf when he was playing in Germany... and for a 7 footer... he looked pretty impressive to me. He does not and will not have the ball handling skills of a Kemba or Lamb.... but when in shape.. I think he could be a good Thabeet type with a little more depth away from the basket. Hell I saw him knock in a couple of threes from his Germany playing days. But he needs to be given a chance.

 

[Scot-e]

We will use and need Bradley this year. We need a 7' big body to give AD and AO a breather on the pine. From what I have heard he is going to be the man for the job along with TO and moving RS over to the four at times. He seems like a good kid and I hope he gets to contribute this year- he will be a fan favorite for the fact he helped us get our hometown hero on the court this year.

I have heard nothing positive about Wolf. I always hope for the best and certainly hope in this case he has done something to improve - but if all things stay the same it he does not appear to be a diamond in the rough- just rough and that may not change this year. I just hope Wolf has kept his grades up so we do not get punked if he decides he wants to go somewhere for more PT at some point. You never know- by his junior/senior year he may be a capable back up.

 

[ctchamps]

JC and UConn will get a lot of heat over Bradley giving up a scholarship to let a better player get accepted to UConn. No one will look at the original situation and come to a conclusion that JC brought Bradley in to give him the scholarship in the first place and five years of academic scholarships instead of four. I was never putting Wolf down. But comparing Wolf with Bradley, Wolf was the more likely candidate to sit a year, not Bradley, especially if you take into account what all the jaded people state, that JC is about winning. So again why does he bench a better player for the season over a lesser player, particularly in a season in which there were question marks about the 4, 5 and a year he was forced to play Roscoe at the 4? Even if he could not get a redshirt for Wolf, which I doubt, why did a coach who is supposedly all about winning, as the detractors now write with regards to AD and Bradley, keep Bradley on the bench when he could have helped last years team. Sure the final results demonstrated Bradley wasn't needed, but that slide at the end of the regular season said otherwise.

We can come to conclusions when it comes to thinking the worse things about JC. So why is it so hard to think that maybe he isn't just about winning, that he possesses the dimension of caring and compassion alongside winning. IMO his rough exterior is a facade. It has been discussed over and over how much he does for the community outside of basketball. I don't think it is a stretch to consider he does some things with the team that isn't always about winning. Unless Bradley is horrific, in which case I'll understand the redshirt was about ability, I believe that JC made part of his decision to redshirt Bradley to help him get five years of free tuition and not four. And that was a sacrifice a coach made last season for one of his players.