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A BRAVE finish - Have we Lost Hope??

LittleBrave

LittleBrave

Well-known member
I know we're all discouraged, especially after the Drake game and UNI games. This is NOT where you want to be in the last 2 weeks of Feb. as Arch Madness is close.

Wardle's teams usually peak around this time and I think we're no better than we were before our 10-game winning streak. NOT a good feeling as a fan.

The body language of this last game gave me the impression that winning any games in the reg. season is not a big deal as long as we finish in the Top 4.

I believe it's a mental challenge for this team in the 1st half and that's on the coaches IMO.
Drake and UNI were absolutely on fire in the 1st half, but you can't make excuses as to why we built huge deficits in 3 of the last 4 games.

Here is my HOPE for this team for the rest of the season:

1) Win 3 of 4 remaining games, including our 2 home games, with no double-digit deficits in the 1st half. This is HUGE.
2) Return to the championship game of Arch Madness. Of course we want to win it all, but the way we're playing, we'd be lucky to win 1 game in St. Lou. Get there and see what happens!!!
3) Get an NIT invite - win a game (At this point, we need to win 4 more total to even be considered)​
 
Another thought - We have 3 seniors on this team that need to rise up - they should be playing like these final few games are the last hoorah and they're not, though Hannah I believe has kept the intensity.
 
I'm less optimistic. I think with the departures from last year and two of the players that came over in the transfer portal not working out was a hard thing to overcome. This team is not as good as it really looked at times this year. The beginning of the year was very good, and the conference streak, but I think ultimately the team is what their record says it is. They have the potential to be great, but can't often put it all together. BU could easily lose 2 more games before the end of conference season. We will see.

But you aren't wrong, outside of getting a top 4 seed, there really isn't much incentive to win games if the at-large chances are 0%. Kinda makes some games meaningless really.
 
Plenty of time left to get things right before Arch Madness. Assuming BU can get a win on Friday, who would you rather see on Saturday: ISUb or Drake?
 
MidMajorFan11 said:
Plenty of time left to get things right before Arch Madness. Assuming BU can get a win on Friday, who would you rather see on Saturday: ISUb or Drake?
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ISUb. Drake's combo of DeVries and Brodie is really, really good. DeVries is going to get his points, but we don't seem to have an answer to Brodie. On the other hand, I think we can beat ISUb one out of three times.
 
Agree with both of your comments. We will be lucky to go 2-2 to close things out. . Isu is playing their best basketball right now and siu is a tough team just like their coach. Missouri St can be good or very bad. Winning at Drake will be very tough. During both winning streaks we out rebounded teams and we played very good team defense for long stretches of the game which is coach wardles calling card but we are only playing good defense in brief stretches and we then lose our intensity. We were beat on the boards at uni badly. If these 2 things don't change it could be an ugly ending. I hope it changes but I'm not holding my breath. We have the talent but the mental is overwhelming the physical right now.
 
Even if we get a top 4 seed we are going to have a dog fight in the quarterfinals which I'm worried will take a lot out of bu for the semis.
 
Bballjunkie said:
Even if we get a top 4 seed we are going to have a dog fight in the quarterfinals which I'm worried will take a lot out of bu for the semis.
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Agreed. The hypothetical assumes a Friday win, which will unbdoubtedly be tough; however, ISUb has limited depth, and Drake's bench isn't much deeper.
 
Agree, but Drake has devries to carry them. That is huge. I think isub is shot . They were celebrating victories against us and Drake like they won something. Can't do that from a mental aspect. When you let down hard to get your edge back.
 
I would rather play ISUb Sunday, their depth as bad as anyone's if not the worst, get them when they are as tired as possible.
 
We need to finish 3-1 which means tomorrow is a must win. The Tour. will be tough and your first round game will not be easy so our bench will need to step up and contribute on both ends. This is why I think it was important for both freshman and Thomas to get minutes in these games. Hoping coach can be more calm in directing the team in these games.
 
Listened to Wardle's postgame comments and it sounded like the bench is not consistently into the games and maybe the practices. It seems like this board is going back to the recruiting. let's hope it goes better this year.
 
3 scholarship guards on the roster for a potential 3 days straight in STL is not a winning combo. The league has figured out how to play physical with our guards. Love this team but we just don’t have the horses right now. Wardle needs to fill those last 3 scholarships with difference makers.
 
BU freak said:
3 scholarship guards on the roster for a potential 3 days straight in STL is not a winning combo. The league has figured out how to play physical with our guards. Love this team but we just don’t have the horses right now. Wardle needs to fill those last 3 scholarships with difference makers.
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Couldn't agree more. UNI was mauling the guards the other night. Defenders literally had a hand on the ball handler at all possible times it felt like. Refs just let the hand checking go.
 
Dub said:
I have not lost hope for a brave finish to answer your question. Not at all.
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I haven't lost hope either Dub, but I wish I could feel good about our chances and the way we're playing in late Feb. It starts tonight to right the ship.
 
tomahawk chop said:
We need to finish 3-1 which means tomorrow is a must win. The Tour. will be tough and your first round game will not be easy so our bench will need to step up and contribute on both ends. This is why I think it was important for both freshman and Thomas to get minutes in these games. Hoping coach can be more calm in directing the team in these games.
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Just FYI, Matt Hackman on twitter shows that if we get 2 more wins, we get the bye.

image.png​
 
Fetz86 said:
I would rather play ISUb Sunday, their depth as bad as anyone's if not the worst, get them when they are as tired as possible.
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Let's not forget our own coaches decided to play only 5 guys vs UNI. If anybody should be concerned about depth, it should be us. Or at least concerned about the coaches decisions. "This game is too big for them" Like really?
 
BUFAN1 said:
Let's not forget our own coaches decided to play only 5 guys vs UNI. If anybody should be concerned about depth, it should be us. Or at least concerned about the coaches decisions. "This game is too big for them" Like really?
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It is a bad time for our coach not trusting some of his players after this many games.We pretty much only have 7 players that are capable of scoring 10 or more points so not playing two of them does not help our chances of winning. Hoping this all gets straightened out tonight because we badly need a win.
 
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