Bradley Basketball caps off the Semester with another big JUCO signing

 The final blog post of my Bradley academic career will dive back into Bradley Braves Basketball and the massive recruiting news that is buzzing around campus. At around 3:30pm yesterday on May 4th it was announced that Bradley would be signing its 5th new comer for the upcoming 2021-2022 season in the form of Malevy Leons from Ijmuiden, Netherlands. The 6-9 Sophomore Forward played his last two seasons of college ball at Mineral Area College, where he led the Cardinals to a perfect 20-0 regular season record before they captured the Region 16 and Midwest District Championships. Leons then led the Cardinals to their first-ever victory at the NJCAA Tournament, where he earned All-Tournament Team Honors as the Cardinals advanced to the Elite 8. In 25 games this past season Leons averaged 18.7PPG, 9.5 RPG, 3.1 APG, and 2.0 BPG. He also shot a very efficient 56.4% from the field and on nearly 4 three-pointers attempted a game the big fella shot 29% from deep. In his two years at Mineral Area the team went a combined 54-3, the most wins in a two year span in program history, and Leons scored a total of 886 points and pulled down 449 rebounds. 

Malevy Leons also played at the International level with the Netherlands at the FIBA U20 European Championships in 2018 and 2019, finding a lot of success in 2019 where in 8 games he put up 10 points and 6 rebounds a game. Head Coach Brian Wardle had this to say about the newest Bradley signee, "Malevy checks off a huge box for us and is a great fit for our program. He is a great young man who makes everyone around him better." Leons is a huge get for Bradley, he was one of the top Junior College and International prospects and chose the Braves over the likes of Mizzou, Marquette, and others. Just from watching a little bit of his tape at Mineral Area, he is very smooth handling the ball and is comfortable attacking the basket off the dribble. His ability to also score from anywhere on the floor and his great passing instincts remind me a lot of another international prospect in the Braves program, Rienk Mast. With the two of them on the floor together Bradley should be able to really spread the floor and create a lot of matchup problems, especially since both of them are good enough shooters from beyond the arc. Malevy Leons joins an already impressive Bradley recruiting class that includes Terry Roberts, Connor Hickman, Mikey Howell, and Maxime Ekono and all 5 players should get the opportunity to make big impacts right away. 

Comments

  1. Eric GrayMay 5, 2021 at 8:25 PM

    I'm happy we were able to snag Leons, I hope he can bring us back to our recent championships and get us back into the tourney. I was surprised when I heard this news, and I can't wait to follow along with the team next fall.

    ReplyDelete

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