PEORIA — The Bradley Braves went from the postseason Wednesday to the ever-more treacherous jungle that is the transfer portal and NIL season.
“Portal season, NIL season. It’s just today’s day and age,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. “You got to think about it. You got to talk about it. You got to embrace it, see the elephant in the room every day.
“These guys have been thinking about it, talking about it. They have agents, they have parents. It’s just … pro basketball. And you gotta deal with it.”
Is BU star guard Jaquan Johnson going to be lured away by an offer he can’t refuse from a Power 5 team?
Did BU freshman guard Montana Wheeler hire a professional sports agency because he wants to go in the portal, or is he merely trying to determine his worth so he can negotiate with the Peoria-based Home of the Brave NIL collective?
How many roster spots will the Braves have available, and will they be able to get what they need through the portal as well?
Wardle and his staff were confronted by all of this, even before the season ended Wednesday, really.
“We’re gonna have a huge offseason, and it’s gonna be, you know, we’ll see who comes back, and who we bring back, who’s gonna be on this roster moving forward,” said Wardle, after Bradley’s 80-66 loss to Dayton in the opening round of the NIT. “Because we got to get a lot more focused and a lot tougher, especially the young guys who are possibly returning, if we’re going to do anything next year.”
Bradley was the second-youngest team in the Missouri Valley Conference this year, based on underclassmen on the roster. They had nine. Valparaiso had 10.
Wardle turned in what was perhaps his best coaching job yet at Bradley, taking that group and winning 21 games – a fourth straight season with at least 20 wins – and leading a team that improved as the season progressed and finished second in the Valley.
They lose four seniors for sure, three of them bigs.
Wardle says he’ll meet with players – standard procedure for every team after every season – and the program will figure out what it will do.
“I think that what we have to figure out, too, is who is going to completely commit to Bradley basketball, and the work ethic, and the time, and the effort it takes to be very good at this level,” Wardle said.
The NCAA transfer portal
The NCAA basketball transfer portal for 2026 does not open until April 7, the day after the NCAA Tournament championship game.
In 2024, it opened the day after Selection Sunday and stayed open for 45 days. In 2025, it opened on the Monday after the first weekend of the tournament, and stayed open for 30 days.
The 2026 version will be the shortest window yet. It closes on April 21, just a 14-day run. After that, only players whose team has undergone a coaching change can enter the portal.
But some high-value players are already saying their goodbyes on social media, announcing their intentions to enter the portal when it opens.
NCAA rules prohibit teams from contacting players or their agents before they are officially in the portal, which can’t happen until April 7.
What is Bradley’s biggest roster need?
So, at this early juncture, what does Wardle see as the No. 1 priority for the team to pursue in its roster for 2026-27?
“Oh, experience,” he said. “Some older bodies. We gotta get bigger and longer. You got to try to stay as old as you can to win. Look at what Alex (Huibregtse) did today (19 points against Dayton in the NIT game). He was a senior locked in, ready to play this game.
“We’ll do it. We have a great product to sell. We have a great program and fan base and we are always competing for championships.
“We have to make sure we put the right team together. It’s not about recruiting talent, it’s about recruiting a team, and you’ve got to have the right team. And then you have to really have guys committed to putting the work in.”
The old days were just a handful of years ago
The NCAA transfer portal and NIL money and a pay-for-play landscape is the new reality in college basketball.
Wardle has said for a couple years now that this new era forces coaches to re-recruit their own players every season in hopes they’ll stay.
As mentioned above, it’s a real jungle.
“I’m a development coach,” said Wardle, who did a masterful job of developing nine underclassmen on his roster this season. “I love relationships. I love seeing guys grow and get better. I hope I can get a few guys in the locker room to grow with me. But it’s just different times, and you gotta adapt, you gotta adjust and make the most of it.
“We’ll meet and see what’s best for the program and meet with the players and go from there.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: ‘Elephant in the room’: Bradley basketball coach talks about biggest roster needs
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
