The Seat May Be Warmer, But I Don't Think It's That Warm

[SFP]

I knew there would be a huge overreaction to last night's loss. It made me dread coming here today. Am I disappointed? Absolutely. Is it over? No.


STOP the overreacting. Holy smokes, folks... there's no fire anywhere yet.

I'm not overreacting but I'm just trying to be a realist right now as BB has pointed out to me that I sip the Kool-aid a little to much. If we continue to play this way we'll be lucky not to play on Thursday in St. Louis. This team for better or worse does not have the luxury to take even a minute off. There is no room for errors. UW-M is a team we should have beaten IMHO and for some reason the first 20 minutes we made them look like a top 20 team. How many 3s did they hit during the 1st half? Who scouted them? We left them open for toooooo many 3s. These were shots that a decent YMCA player could hit. These were shots that SM must be hitting in practice.

On another note I like that SM drives inside and keeps his guy honest but that should be an exception and not the norm. He also shoots the 3 sooooo much better when he is set and in rhythm then when he is trying to create it himself.

We also need to keep him from guarding the other teams best offensive player. I'm sorry to say that Boyle was schooling him. That's not an insult to him, I'm sure Boyle has and will school a lot of players. I'm just not sure why we had him on Boyle.

[Beninator]

I think and kind of hope this is what gets an overhaul. I'm not sure what some folks on the staff bring to the table. We saw for Chuck's 2 years what a great assistant can do for a staff. I think we're missing that defensive-minded guy on the BU bench right now.

I agree with most of your posts on this thread. My only difference, albeit slight, is that I think we need to see what type of recruiting JL can do after the new facilities are completed.

[jeffsu]

I'm not overreacting but I'm just trying to be a realist right now as BB has pointed out to me that I sip the Kool-aid a little to much. If we continue to play this way we'll be lucky not to play on Thursday in St. Louis.

No issues with us voicing that we are "realizing" some limits of our team, and that we could play on Thursday. Issue only comes when we lose a game (one I agree we should have taken care of), and we begin talking about JL having to start watching himself.

[mrcoachdude]

With Warren, Egolf, now SamS playing healthy..we don't have this thread......not to metion SamM being completely healthy......

I do agree with Lefty though...seems like some basics are missing.... how many times did Versace say.....that was a bad shot or that was a good shot, but not in this situation...

UMW shot lights out..poor D? or just great shooting?

[BradleyBrave]

UMW shot lights out..poor D? or just great shooting?

We're letting bad shooting teams shoot the lights out almost nightly. I don't think teams are just having 'a good night'.

[Chico]

Ya just gotta ask yourself one thing, am I willing to walk around St.Louis Thursday wearing my Bradley stuff?

Always proud to wear my Bradley stuff.

[Da Coach]

We're letting bad shooting teams shoot the lights out almost nightly. I don't think teams are just having 'a good night'.

This is what I am wondering. Many of the three point baskets in the first half were low-percentage, 24+ foot shots by players who had poor 3-point percentages for the season, and many of them were guarded fairly well. Even the UWM fans around us were shaking their heads in amazement at which players were taking the shots and making them.
It does seem this happens almost every game, but I am not sure any defense will stop those kinds of shots.

[JC43]

Do you think part of the problem is how short we are? It is hard for a 5'11 player to make an impact on the shot of a 6'3 or taller player. Shooters have alot more confidence when the know the shot cant be blocked.

[BradleyBrave]

Do you think part of the problem is how short we are? It is hard for a 5'11 player to make an impact on the shot of a 6'3 or taller player. Shooters have alot more confidence when the know the shot cant be blocked.

Yes, this has something to do with it. The first problem is that the shots are largely uncontested. The second part is that when they are contested, they are contested by undersized guards, so essentially they are uncontested. I don't care how bad a team is, most DI teams will make a high percentage of uncontested shots. We don't contest shots. Sure, the UWM people may have been a bit surprised that the shtos were going in like they were, but I think if they watched the tape they would see how wide open a large number of the 1st half looks were.

[real fan]

I agree that in the 1st half the shots were uncontested, why was the defense so much better in the 2nd half? I also agree that a 6-2 or taller guard can take a smaller guard into the lane and shoot over him even though he is guarding him.
My lineup would be:
Maniscalco
Dunson
Wilson
Brown
Singh
McCain , Roberts, Norris and Thompson off the bench.

[BradleyBrave]

I agree that in the 1st half the shots were uncontested, why was the defense so much better in the 2nd half? I also agree that a 6-2 or taller guard can take a smaller guard into the lane and shoot over him even though he is guarding him.
My lineup would be:
Maniscalco
Dunson
Wilson
Brown
Singh
McCain , Roberts, Norris and Thompson off the bench.

Agree on everything except for maybe Sam and definitely on Singh. I think EM is a pure PG and Sam is probably more of a 6th man/combo scoring guard. I wouldn't start SS for the same reasons I wouldn't start DC - What's the point? He can spell AT and TB, but don't think he should be logging the lion's share of the minutes.

[braveatheart]

I dont think JL is on the hot seat and I dont think he should be. Keep in mind that when Bradley hired JL we knew he had almost no coaching experience. We knew that his lack of experience would cost us at times but that his other attributes more than make up for his lack of experience.

I think his lack of experience means he finds his team with little options but to play a 3/4 gaurd lineup and now he realizes that that doesn't work too well if you cant shoot.

Look what happened last year. We had DR go down and our only option at point was SM a freshman. JL realized how vunerable that made us and what did he do? He recruits EM, DD and DN who can all play or at least fill in at point. After this year I bet he recruits shooters as he sees how vunerable you are if you don't have them.

What JL lacks in coaching experience he makes up for in recruiting and salesmanship. He is assembling quite a roster for next year and I bet the new facilities dont get built without his salesmanship abilities.

He graduates kids, doesn't cheat, loves Bradley and has a great positive attitude.

Also, why have him learn these coaching lessons the hard way and take that knowlege somewhere else.

We are lucky to have JL and need to show him some loyalty. When times are good again and offers start coming in for bigger money we will all hope JL is loyal to BU. Just remember, loyalty is a two way street.

[bluedevils1]

does anyone think we were jumping the gun?

Hey, we could finish 3-15 in the conference. You never know, haha.

[BradleyBrave]

JL's seat was never remotely warm.

[ifarania]

I just commented on this theme in another post... It really is amazing the way we plow over the cliff like a bunch of lemmings or praise this team like it's a top 25 team when we go 4-0. I think when you put this kind of intensity into religion you get zealots spreading violence and oppression... Good thing we all have sports to share.