As a St. Patrick graduate, Maniscalco has had to endure many a tough practice under long-time Shamrocks' coach Mike Bailey, and that has him ready for college.

"It hasn't been too different, especially coming from St. Pat's," Maniscalco said. "They have a great program and coach Bailey runs it well. I think he runs a college-like program. The practices are very structured and detailed. That prepares you for the next level and it prepares you mentally and physically."

While Maniscalco hasn't been subjected to practices with the Bradley coaches, he's down at the Peoria school taking summer classes and participating in an open gym and working on agility with his future teammates.

While the training may be similar, there will be plenty of differences when Maniscalco takes the court for his first game, which just happens to be Nov. 10 at UIC.

"We had good crowds but obviously we didn't have the 10,000 fans that will be out there," Maniscalco said. "It probably wont hit me until I head out there for my first game."

There's also one slightly larger difference about college basketball.

"I can tell already that it's a completely different game," said the 6-foot tall guard. "We have two 7-footers on the team and that just completely changes the game. It will take some time to adjust but that's why I'm up here two months early."

Bradley is somewhat unique in the fact that they like to have two point guards on the court. That's good news for Maniscalco who, not so coincidentally, happens to be a point guard.

"I really like the style they play and they start two point guards," Maniscalco said. "Daniel Ruffin is coming back and the other point guard left. I can be anywhere to backing Ruffin up to starting."

While he'd love to get plenty of playing time, the main concern is making the most out of every opportunity he gets.

"I'm just going to work as hard as I can," Maniscalco said. "I want to do as much as I can in the minutes I get. I just want to do whatever I can to help the team be successful. I'll do whatever it takes."

The team goal will be getting Bradley back to national acclaim. In 2006, the Braves played the role of Cinderella to perfection by reaching the Sweet 16.

"We want to win the Missouri Valley and reach 20 wins," Maniscalco said. "And we want to make and advance in the NCAA Tournament."

In order to have a better chance at success, both personally and as a team, Maniscalco has been spending a ton of time trying to get better at the point guard spot.

"I've been working with (Jeff Pagliocca of Evolution Athletics Incorporated)," Maniscalco said. "He teaches me all kinds of ball-handling drills. They're things you can't really do but it makes you a better ball-handler."

Maniscalco has also gotten a little advice from his old man, Carl Maniscalco, who just happened to be a guard for the Bradley Braves during the 1979-1980 season and helped the Braves to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 25 years. The elder Maniscalco scored 9.2 points and had 5.1 assists per game

"He taught me all about respect at a young age," Sam Maniscalco said. "He's been my coach since I started playing basketball. So he's giving me advice but he's also letting me go. He's just shared his experiences when he was down there."

It's been a fun journey so far for Sam Maniscalco, especially since opening a lot of people's eyes as a super sophomore at St. Pat's.

"I never really thought about (playing college) too much until my sophomore year in high school," he said. "That's when people started recruiting me. People started telling me I have a good shot at playing college basketball and I set my sights on getting where I am now."