Midwest Mean Green

It's a public school in Chicago, a magnet school.

I haven't lived in Texas in a long time, so I'm curious how much basketball talent there is in the state, and in DFW in particular. You get used to seeing Chicago-area players (and to a lesser extent players from other major Midwest markets) on rosters all over college hoops. But I always felt like UNT ought to be able to find enough Texas talent to have a few second- or third-tier in-state kids in its rotation every year. Do those players not exist at a deep enough level for that to be true? Granted, high school recruiting means a less in the portal/NIL world.

Bradley's a different world -- no football, basketball is the top dog (and Illinois is hoops country every bit as much as Indiana is), and they play in a really nice, city-owned arena. Granted, it's nowhere near the campus, but Bradley gets good support in town because it's such a basketball region. Wardle's also from the Chicago area, so maybe that's a factor -- he's not far from home. And, as someone else pointed out, he took over a disaster and has built it up (he also weirdly went to war a few years ago with the local paper over very little and in the process ticked off Bradley's most well-known alum, Charley Steiner, the former ESPN anchor and current Dodgers PBP guy). Wardle's a Horizon League Product, which makes me wonder if this guy's worth a look. He's had a solid 3 years at a program that was in bad, bad shape and has done a good job of recruiting Milwaukee-Chicago, which isn't always an easy place to work. https://mkepanthers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/bart-lundy/6851