Florida Gators basketball in-home visit key to Bradley

One of the Florida Gators basketball team’s top targets in the class of 2016 is forward Tony Bradley Jr. (6-10, 235, Bartow, FL High) and, according to his father, Florida Gators basketball coach Mike White, and his staff are hard after him.

“They are recruiting him real hard, it’s just a matter of sitting down with them and talking to them,” Bradley Sr. said of Florida. “We have scheduled a visit for them to come in-home with us at the end of September. I’m not sure of the exact date but it’s towards the end of the month. A lot of other schools have also set dates to come down and visit us.”

Bradley, who is nationally ranked player, will have a busy schedule in September and his father says that it will be an important stretch for both parties.

“North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Alabama, Connecticut, Kansas, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Stanford and Auburn are the schools that I can think of that are coming in,” Bradley Sr. said. “Each school is getting their own day to come in-home with us and sit down and talk with us so that they can explain their system and tell us how Tony can fit into their system.”

One thing that Florida Gators basketball coach Mike White is doing is taking Bradley’s recruitment into his own hands and he’s sending an important message to the Bradley’s.

“We’ve been talking to Coach White mostly, it means a good bit to talk to the head coach himself,” Bradley Sr. said. “He just says that he really wants him and really needs him at Florida. He says that he’s first on their board and that they are going to try and recruit him first.”

White was behind the eight ball in Bradley’s recruitment because of his late arrival to Gainesville but he can make up a lot of ground during the in-home visit in September.

“They are doing a good job of building that relationship, like you know they came in later in the process but they are building that relationship,” Bradley Sr. said. “We basically just are waiting to get them down here and hear them out on their system and go from there. The in-home visit is a big one.”

One thing that Florida does have going in its advantage is that Bradley has been on campus several times and it’s a place where he’s comfortable.

“We feel very comfortable with Florida and the campus but with Coach White being new we don’t know what kind of system he will run,” Bradley Sr. said. “The in-home visit and being able to watch his system play out this year will be very important.”

The Bradley’s have really done their homework on the recruiting process and they have set out plan for how they will handle the process going forward.

“We have three steps process right now, step one is to get all of the coaches to come down and we are going to sit down and talk to them,” Bradley Sr. said. “We are going to ask them questions about how they plan to use Tony and then step two is to go visit the schools that we feel comfortable with. After we get through the next four visits then the third step is to commit. Right now the plan is to commit before the season starts.”

The Florida Gators basketball team would like to show if its new system to Bradley before he commits and his father says that there is still a chance for that.

“The plan of committing early could change and if we don’t feel comfortable doing it at that time then we will change it,” Bradley Sr. said. “We have that option and we just may do that. We could wait until after the season plays out to do a decision.”

INSIDERS TAKE: To say that next month’s in-home visit is big would be an understatement. Bradley is very interested in the Gators but they have a lot of questions for White and his staff.

 

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.