Having watched Bradshaw closely for a year at Ohio State, we are just fine not having him join the roster. The last physical 7 footer I've ever seen.
I remember people saying our team was "too good" to be interested in a tOSU tall guy named Austin Parks. He turned around and scored 13 points in 18 minutes against us for Toledo. The next game had a double-double against us.
People were ecstatic about getting Jalen Breath...but we're "too good" for a guy that was the top ranked center in the nation in high school. And no, Cornish has nothing to do with this. And no, Wiz was NOT a five star recruit out of high school, so no need to play the Cornish-Wiz card.
I hope having Kuany as the starting center next season works out. It might happen.
(we need to pick an NBA all-star to compare him to... I nominate Pascal Siakam as the "compare favorably to" since he is a 4x NBA all-star and horrifically overestimating the talent level of our guys being a time-honored tradition on here).
I don’t fully agree with multiple things here, so walking through each of them:
“We don’t have a starting center”
Without intel, it seems like the plan is to start Makitan and Simmons as the two players in the frontcourt. I’m not here to argue about whether Bradshaw would have been a better player, but it seems like they have made significant investments in those two being the frontcourt. Makitan is going to be somewhat of a wildcard, but he was just the MVP of an adult league as a 19-year-old. That league he was voted MVP of also happens to be where Sincere Carry (2022 MAC POY) played this season. The league is far from the best in Europe, but there are real players that he was voted to be better than.
Also, if Simmons and Makitan are starters (both of whom aren’t shooters), you can’t throw a 3rd non-shooting center into that mix and expect to have a functional offense. Generally, I think this is part of why we haven’t seen a true center land with the Bobcats yet this offseason. 7-footers come at a premium, most have choices, and the fact that our starting frontcourt is likely solidified creates two issues. Issue 1 is that we likely don’t have budget left to go get an Aaron Bradshaw or even a Tamiel Green (assuming he’s continuing to shop around). Issue 2 is that guys like Bradshaw and Green are going to go to a place where they are guaranteed to start if that option is available.
Aaron Bradshaw
To start out, Bradshaw is no Wiz, and he’s had some solid production throughout three years of college. By year, his EM metrics were 4.14 (Kentucky 2023/24), 2.81 (Ohio State 2024/25), and 2.83 (Memphis 2025/26). His EvanMiya transfer portal projection sits at 3.31, which would have made him the highest-rated transfer portal player in the MAC. The issue with faulting the staff here is that they have to move very quickly and make decisions in the portal, or else they will loseout and have to resort to scraps. What I think may have happened is Bradshaw was out looking for a major payday, MAC schools saw that and said maybe we can’t afford him and filled their rosters where players were more attainable. Bradshaw ends up not getting the payday he wanted, a lot of schools have their starters set, and he ends up falling to a Tennessee State. If there was a world where Bradshaw is a starting 5 in Athens and Makitan stays in Europe, I would have been fine with it, but I don’t fault the coaching staff. Ultimately, there is likely a reason why he fell to a Tennessee State.
Breath vs. Parks
Jalen Breath was a higher-rated transfer prospect than Austin Parks last year. Parks clearly ended up being the better player, but 1. he didn’t light the world on fire in the MAC and 2. Jalen Breath regressed significantly. Breath had a three-year sample size of being a solid defensive anchor for UNCG, and for whatever reason it didn’t translate and he regressed. You still can’t ignore his prior production and metrics that projected him to be a better portal grab than Parks, who never really got on the floor at Ohio State. All you can do is go with the information you have at the time, and in this case, that changed in hindsight.
Wiznitzer High School Ratings:
247 composite: 0.928 - 3 star (154 National)
Rivals Industry: 0.909 - 3 star (133 National)
I believe the 4-star rating came from the old ESPN platform that I don’t even think is used anymore, but there was a confirmed 4-star rating according to his bio at Louisville and some old articles. I’m not defending the guy as a player, but he is still an example of why high school accolades don’t automatically translate to college success when transferring down. These types of players can be really volatile, and we’ve been on the losing end of it a few times with him and Cornish. There have also been cases like Freitag at Buffalo this year where it ends up being a huge success. Going for these types of players is a high-risk, high-reward move that requires large $$$ and you can’t assume it automatically translates to success.
Last Edited: 5/8/2026 1:03:54 PM by QuantCat