It was clear to everyone who followed NKU’s recruiting efforts in the months of March and April that the team was hyper aware of their Point Guard need. They have a good batch of guards coming in the 2023 class, however they are all true freshmen and unlikely to run the entire offense from the perspective of a “floor general”. Under Darrin Horn, The Norse don’t usually boast a PG that’s going to lead the team in scoring, but they like PGs who play good defense and control the pace and flow of the game. An NKU PG must make good decisions, keeping turnovers down and assists up, while also being unafraid to rise to the occasion and knock down open 3s and free throws down the stretch. These attributes are critical to the Norse, which is why last year they hit the portal so hard looking for a Grad. Senior PG. They found salvation in Xavier Rhodes, who averaged 7 points, 3.6 assists, (nearly) 2.0 assist to turnover ratio, 2 steals, and shooting percentages of 41/34/56 per game. Obviously these stats were not going to land “X” on any “all Horizon League” teams, but the production was exactly what the Norse will need this next year. The Norse notably pursued Rasheed Bello rather hard, ultimately losing out in a 1v1 (somehow??) to Purdue-Fort Waye. The assumption is that they immediately shifted their focus to Bradley, pursuing him just as hard as any other player they were talking to. On Tuesday, April 18th, they landed their PG.
Bradley is going to come in and provide an immediate spark to a team that had 40 minutes per game available to a player JUST LIKE HIM. A graduate senior, Bradley will be able to come in and provide leadership and work ethic to a team that doesn’t necessarily need that, but you can never have too many of those guys around. In 31 games, Bradley did not foul out in a single one of them. You can count on his availability. The Norse also get a player who shot incredibly well from the field and the free throw line last year. His his 47/37/86% shooting will directly carry over to the DI level, as one has to think most of his shots will be good, open looks and free throw shooting theoretically carries over at every level.
He also takes care of the ball. His +3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio last year is exactly what the Norse will be looking forward to capitalizing on. We have scorers aplenty, we just needed someone to get them the ball. But what does this mean? How can you make an assessment of a DII player and guess how their numbers will translate to the DI level? I think one easy way is to look at how Xavier Rhodes performed in his last DII year and put it side by side with Michael Bradley in his last DII year. We know what Xavier’s numbers translated to at the DI level so, with the obvious caveat that these are two different PLAYERS, we can at least establish a baseline for our expectations. Here’s that comparison:
I think 9/10 Norse fans would take a Xavier Rhodes back if given the chance. While I would caution everyone not to have Rhodes-like expectations since these two players are different, I think what I would say is that there is a lot of subjectivity to how a player’s production can translate to the “next level”. Just because a player landed at a DII school out of high school certainly does not mean they are “unworthy” of DI competition, many times it just means they were slept on out of high school.
STATUS:
COMMITTED AS OF APRIL 18, 2023.
HIGHLIGHT VIDEOS
https://twitter.com/RickBroering/status/1648476184764911618?s=20
SOCIAL MEDIA
https://twitter.com/m1chaelbradley
SOURCES:
https://hurstathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/michael-bradley/13786
https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d2/current/individual/473
https://verbalcommits.com/players/michael-bradley