PGs- McCain and Maniscalco

[Da Coach]

Sammy Maniscalco played a tremendous game last night.
Here is his stat line-
A game-leading 23 points, 3 threes (half of BU's total), 3 assists, and only 1 turnover in 50 minutes of play, despite good defense by Drake's small guard corps.

But I also want to acknowledge Eddren McCain's game. The numbers aren't quite as impressive, but for a freshman, I still am impressed.-
43 minutes played, 7 points, 6 assists, and only 2 turnovers, despite his incredible quickness. But it was his 3-pointer late in the game that showed how clutch he can be.

Bradley is fortunate to have 2 very good point guards, and the future looks good with both of them returning the next couple years.

[BradleyBrave]

Fantastic effort by both point guards. Just fantastic. Last night was an instant classic!

[georgethedog]

OK. Coach you gave them their props and I do agree on much of what you stated. However, you neglected to reflect on their defense. Their defense against the 3 in the first half was nothing short of horrible. Many times they left guys wide open, and a few times just gave a cursory wave at the shooter. Check the game film if you can and you will see more than one occassion where McCain put forth little effort to get to his guy. When a three would go down I would look over at Les and he was visibly upset by their lack of effort to get to their man. I bet if you asked him he would agree. I would even be willing to bet McCain and Sam M. would also agree. However, I would say they did a MUCH better job in the second half and especially the last 10 minutes and the OT, but it was hard to watch the first 30 minutes of defense on the 3 point shooters. I really don't relish the idea of watching teams shoot over us for the next few years, so I hope that Coach can help both of them improve on that part of their game. The bad part is when either guy gets up in the shooter's shirt many times the guy goes around them for a layup. Maybe that's why they don't guard so close? Could be? In any event, defense needs more improvement and consistency.

I like that you called them both PG's. That is how I look at them. Sam M. is too small to play the 2 guard position. I would like to see them sharing the PG time in the future while others play the two. I don't like them on the floor at the same time unless we need ball-handling at the end of the game. When they play together BU is playing too small to effectively guard other teams shooters. This year it has been a necessity for them to play at the same time. I hope that with the return of AW that next year will be different. Maybe then BU can finish higher than 4th. (I think we win both UNI games with AW guarding one of their shooters as just an example of what I am rambling about).

[SFP]

GTG I bet you will have your wish next year to have AW playing the 2 a bit especially if CR really steps up and can steal minutes from the starters. Who are you going to sit when you bring in CR? He probably will not be playing the 4 as some of the posters have suggested, so not TB. So then it will be either SM or EM depending on our needs because AW will be our best player hands down.

I maybe wrong and JL will play CR at the 4 but with TB and hopefully JP and MK developing quickly it will not be a thought.

[Da Coach]

I was going to compliment their defense, too, but I knew that would bring out the police.

Most of the Drake three pointers were because of unusually good shooting by Drake, and the high picks that our big men didn't handle well that freed up their shooters. I didn't think it was because of bad defense by the guards.

[newBUfan]

mccain also was

mccain had 7 BOARDS

[georgethedog]

I was going to compliment their defense, too, but I knew that would bring out the police.

I'm here to protect and serve!

[Da Coach]

People have said we should have beaten Drake easily, and not struggled with a 2 overtime game Sat.

But this is a decent Drake team. I would not be surprised to see them upset someone this weekend.
They have 2 players who were picked as preseason All MVC players, nobody else had more than 1, and Bradley did not have anyone on that Preseason All-MVC team (Theron Wilson and Andrew Warren were honorable mention picks).
And recall that they were picked 4th, well ahead of Bradley (5th) in the preseason MVC poll, and that was before Bradley lost 3 starters, and their best player to injury.

http://www.mvc-sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=36371&SPID=2901&DB_OEM_ID=7600&ATCLID=1609767

[Braveman]

when it mattered, in OVERTIME, BU held Drake to 1-5 on 3-pointers, and guess what hurt Drake severely in the end...
foul trouble guarding our guys...plus the FT'd we got including the ones when they fouled us shooting 3-pointers!!
Josh Young fouled out and 3 other guys had 4 fouls...

You can say what you want about our guys guarding the 3's, but we won, we held them when it mattered, and we didn't put them on the line and we didn't foul out.

I would suggest that if we give Drake credit for making great shots early, that we can't dismiss the fact that they were due to cool off and I don't think BU's defense was that much better. Remember that jump shots require the legs- and I would submit Drake missed more late due to tired legs and teh law of averages as opposed to just BU defense...

[OrangeandBlack74]

I would suggest that if we give Drake credit for making great shots early, that we can't dismiss the fact that they were due to cool off and I don't think BU's defense was that much better. Remember that jump shots require the legs- and I would submit Drake missed more late due to tired legs and the law of averages as opposed to just BU defense...

I would have to agree about the tired legs...and made that exact comment to my gf during the 2 OT's. Young's missed FT's were an obvious indication.

I also thought BU had some tired legs late...Sam's last few 3's were flat. But in his defense, if I'd have played all 50 minutes of the game, I'd have been gassed too!

[pfunk880]

Heck, if I played 5 minutes, I'd be gassed.

[georgethedog]

Heck, if I played 5 minutes, I'd be gassed.

I'd be gassed just checking in and then running from the scorer's table to the floor.

[pfunk880]

I'd be gassed just checking in and then running from the scorer's table to the floor.

[SFP]

SM playing 50 minutes this late in the season is a testament to his conditioning. I'm glad he has a week to rest up before we play SIU. We will need his scoring if we have a shot at making it to Sunday. We will also need someone else to step up and take some shots besides SM. If SM has to play 40 minutes on Friday and Saturday I'll bet that he'd be gassed for Sunday. I'd love to see EM take some more shots and DN in the game a bit more on Friday at least. Our best hope is that we start off strong and get a big lead so we can go to our bench early and often. I hope we see 5-8 minutes of DN and 10 minutes of TB and our guys not in foul trouble.

Also I know our coaches will preach one game at a time butI wonder if they consider even in the slightest the need to stay fresh for the whole weekend. What is the use of getting to Sunday if our starters and scorers are dead tired?

[Bradleyguy10]

WHAT?!?

The point is to get to sunday and that's all you need. What is the point of getting to sunday if our starters are dead tired...no no no...you get to sunday before you worry about sunday. Anything can happen on any given day. If our starters are tired...so what...the team we'll be playing also played 2 games and maybe aren't as conditioned as ours are. Get to sunday anyway you can and then you worry about who to play to win that game.

Would you rather lose on Friday because we used our non-starters too much in an effort to save some leg for "sunday"....I WOULD NOT and frankly I'd be ticked at the coaching staff if they came out and said that's why they didn't have the starters in.