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Final score: Bradley 95 Belmont 84

carter said:
Totally agree and if Burch is actually off the team my opinion of Wardle will change.You can't play favorites.
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I'm a Wardle fan. Is he perfect? No. But do I think he's done and continues to do a good job with the program? Yes. Look at how many players stick around on the team - Duke, Darius, Christian, Malevy, Ja'Shon, etc, or look at Darrell Brown returning as a coach. If he's such a terrible coach to play for, how does he get these guys to return? Yes, there are a few guys that turn out either don't mesh with him or the way the team plays (Almar, Ville, Jayson Kent), but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule. In addition, these are quality young men - I don't hear of any incidents with them, unlike previous players, and frankly that, to me, is very important. I think that if we take a realistic view of what this program is capable of, Wardle has done a good job of making it happen, and I hope that he stays and continues doing what he's doing.
 
molar50 said:
The reason Meta was benched by Wardle is that he was a "fouling machine", getting his first two fouls early and getting his third foul after getting back in again. He is a great free throw shooter and usually can get one or two baskets on a pick and roll from a guard, but he is a poor rebounder and mishandles the ball too often. Sometimes I believe he "overthinks" his options instead of just going to the basket. Our team plays better with him on the bench.
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Meta needs to just watch film of Shwarnoski. If he could learn to use his body like that for pins, and just hanging out in the dunker's spot he would be a lot better. However, I do this his frying pan hands are limiting for him.
 
BU is Bradley is always a better team when number 14 is on the bench. I don’t know why he was ever recruited. He’s not a division one basketball player and he never will be.
 
Will said:
BU is Bradley is always a better team when number 14 is on the bench. I don’t know why he was ever recruited. He’s not a division one basketball player and he never will be.
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I think quite a few D-1 programs would like a guy like Meta. I just don't think he fits well with the Braves' style of play...and we usually recruit athtletic Bigs. Hannah, Childs, & Ja'Shon were perfect fits for this program under Wardle...so is Kai Yu IMO...if Coach can keep his cool and let him work thru the growing pains.
 
Will said:
BU is Bradley is always a better team when number 14 is on the bench. I don’t know why he was ever recruited. He’s not a division one basketball player and he never will be.
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Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but lots of them are wrong -
I am glad you're not advising our staff. You remind me of the guy a couple weeks ago that said the exact same thing
about Alex Huibregtse -- then a week later he was the MVC Player of the Week- LOL, can you imagine where we'd be without Alex?
 
Just re watched the game. Some final thoughts and a hot take:
Hot take: Dietrich Richardson is going to be the Larry Bird player of the year in his junior season. This was his best showing imo. Just give him time to get a bigger body and he'll be every bit as good as Malevy and Zek or better. Don't forget he's 18 playing against 22/23 year olds. He shows flashes of athleticism, defense, rebounding, handling, and slashing. He knows what's going on and where the play is going before it gets there. He's a gem that Wardle got before the stock was up.
Thoughts:
Kai is already good enough to play 20 mins a game, just has to work on his defensive switches and screen hedges.
I liked 90 percent of our offensive sets against Belmont, which I normally like about 50 percent in other games. Somebody told the guys that the iverson screen only works when the off-ball players MOVE.
We crashed the offensive boards with a much stronger effort than normal. Let's see that every game.
Belmont has some good out of timeout plays. Case in point an immediate 3 point bucket on the 1st play of 2nd half. Something to game plan for if we catch them again.
Timo and Corey are so close to being Wardle staple defense+rebounding guys. Timo can get there with some more time and Corey can make up for it with his attitude effort and body language which struggles sometimes.
Idk what to do about Meta. We need him desperately in games against ISU and Murray. He can be such a good 20 minute player. He just has to WANT TO BE THERE. I'd try pissing him off if I was Wardle honestly. Get him angry.
This year we can't out-talent anybody unfortunately. So we will live and die by the 3. We just have to hope they get their shots up and depth perception dialed in pregame on Friday in STL
 
tomahawk chop said:
We will certainly miss Burch and the 25 points he scored against them in Nashville. Not playing him lowers the teams chance at winning this and every other game. I for one does not think it is because the way he plays on defense is the reason he is not playing him.
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Have you met and spoken to "O"? If yes, you know. He's not a team player and not a BW player. I'm surprised it's taken this long. Believe me, it's far better in the long run to be without Burch.
 
Underclassman:
Timo
Bully
Tana
Yu
Richardson
Zo

This is a scary good underclassman team.

Two more years of Tana and Bully in the backcourt!

And, two are already signed for next season. I just hope we can keep Bully and tana, maybe even Timo will get some looks.
 
Coach Joe said:
Have you met and spoken to "O"? If yes, you know. He's not a team player and not a BW player. I'm surprised it's taken this long. Believe me, it's far better in the long run to be without Burch.
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I have a few times and he's ONLY talked about the team and not about himself. He is one of the most respectful guys I've met from Bradley.
IMO he was also the most mature of all the players I met during the summer. O-Show was the most willing (along with Montana, Kai, Meta, and of course, DUKE) to spend time on the side with my son, who went to the camp (in Jaquan's group of 10 kids). ALL the players were kind and tended to their task of running drills, but a few, like Burch, went the extra mile from my perspective.

Granted this was only a few encounters, but the guy impressed me a ton.
 
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Coach Joe said:
Have you met and spoken to "O"? If yes, you know. He's not a team player and not a BW player. I'm surprised it's taken this long. Believe me, it's far better in the long run to be without Burch.
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Just curious - when have you spoken with Burch in person? How did it go to give you that impression?
 
Coach Joe said:
Underclassman:
Timo
Bully
Tana
Yu
Richardson
Zo

This is a scary good underclassman team.

Two more years of Tana and Bully in the backcourt!

And, two are already signed for next season. I just hope we can keep Bully and tana, maybe even Timo will get some looks.
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easy buddy....I wil be surprised if even 3 of those are returning. What is this "signed" for next seasn you speak of?
 
LittleBrave said:
Just curious - when have you spoken with Burch in person? How did it go to give you that impression?
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Let's just say he was younger, out of season. Maybe he's grown and has started to learn but, BW has given him plenty of time to get with his system and at this point BW and the staff have determined that there are better opportunities with others on the team. The proof is in the game.
 
Just for the record, despite going scoreless in limited minutes at Drake, Demarion Burch is still averaging double digits (10.2 ppg), the third highest scorer on the team. He was the Player of the Game 3 times this season. The first was a team-high 21 points to lead Bradley to their win over Liberty earlier in the season. That was a huge win. Liberty is 20-3 now, and leads the CUSA with a 12-0 record.
And Burch followed that up with a 23 point game in the close win over Washington State and another POG award.
And he had a career high 25 points in the Jan. 1st game at Belmont that helped keep Bradley in the game, though they eventually lost 88-78.

The only point I am suggesting is that there are a lot of others on the team who have not shown the ability that Demarion has, to be capable of carrying this team. He clearly has the skills to be an impact player in the MVC. I would like to see him back on the court contributing.
 
Da Coach said:
Just for the record, despite going scoreless in limited minutes at Drake, Demarion Burch is still averaging double digits (10.2 ppg), the third highest scorer on the team. He was the Player of the Game 3 times this season. The first was a team-high 21 points to lead Bradley to their win over Liberty earlier in the season. That was a huge win. Liberty is 20-3 now, and leads the CUSA with a 12-0 record.
And Burch followed that up with a 23 point game in the close win over Washington State and another POG award.
And he had a career high 25 points in the Jan. 1st game at Belmont that helped keep Bradley in the game, though they eventually lost 88-78.

The only point I am suggesting is that there are a lot of others on the team who have not shown the ability that Demarion has, to be capable of carrying this team. He clearly has the skills to be an impact player in the MVC. I would like to see him back on the court contributing.
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Thanks for showing why Burch is one of the best players on this team.I hate to see a player that has been here for 3 seasons thrown under the bus because of rumors and speculation.
 
Don't understand the hate for Burch. Guy has never done anything negative on the court or off that I'm aware of and he doesn't seem to have a big ego. Besides that, he has one of the greatest dunks in BU history on his belt! amiright?
 
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