Its time to move up.....

[BradleyBrave]

I have said this in several posts - Next year is not a 'get close' year. No way. With a healthy AW, this was the 'get close' year. Without him, we still finished 4th all by ourselves. We lose an all-conference player, but we also gain one (Warren). Next year MUST be an NCAA year, as should 2010-2011. After next year we lose Dodie, Roberts, and Singh. Next year, we have depth, we have experience, and we have talent. The whole league should be 'up', and we need to be among the leaders. It's year 8. It's time. No excuses. Facilities will be there. Talent will be there. Time to put up or shut up - Players and coaches alike.

[Braves4Life]

I have said this in several posts - Next year is not a 'get close' year. No way. With a healthy AW, this was the 'get close' year. Without him, we still finished 4th all by ourselves. We lose an all-conference player, but we also gain one (Warren). Next year MUST be an NCAA year, as should 2010-2011. After next year we lose Dodie, Roberts, and Singh. Next year, we have depth, we have experience, and we have talent. The whole league should be 'up', and we need to be among the leaders. It's year 8. It's time. No excuses. Facilities will be there. Talent will be there. Time to put up or shut up - Players and coaches alike.

I agree with you BradleyBrave. Next year is a BIG year for BU. We must AT LEAST get to the NIT, and be in the NCAA Tournament by Maniscalco & Warren's senior year.

If not, I'm afraid it may be time for _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

[BradleyBrave]

I agree with you BradleyBrave. Next year is a BIG year for BU. We must AT LEAST get to the NIT, and be in the NCAA Tournament by Maniscalco & Warren's senior year.

If not, I'm afraid it may be time for _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

I don't want to say that the NIT would be a failure...but I think it would be. I want a conference title, which USUALLY guarantees an NCAA. I think the MVC will be much better than the 9th rated conference next year, so a conference title should mean an at-large. It should also mean that the 2nd and maybe even 3rd place teams should have a shot at an at-large as well. It will be year 4 since the Sweet 16. One NCAA every four years needs to be the minimum standard of excellence for a program of our caliber.

[Braves4Life]

It will be year 4 since the Sweet 16. One NCAA every four years needs to be the minimum standard of excellence for a program of our caliber.

Great point!

[ClarkBR]

10 ppg? That's a bit of a stretch. Anyway, its water under the bridge. Will is one of my favorite Braves. He has three years of eligibility to prove he can become a good player. I hope he does.

I haven't seen enough yet to make any predictions. If others feel they can? Great. But not having Will Egolf this year hardly cost us games. Warren? Yes. Egolf? No.

I am a huge WE fan.. ..Anyone that was at the East Tenn St game.. can not disagree that WE was playing with a new found confidence, beyond even his performance in florida, which improved with each game. He was making a huge impact in the teams effectiveness on both ends, and doing it with control. Watching him you could tell he realized it too. I didnt see someone that was going to take a huge step back. Like is all to familiar. I dont think it is an exaggeration at all of his contribution, had he not gone down...

[shaunguth]

can we please stop blowing the whistle and prohibiting others' opinions?
I think the kid can play...........and he's still a sophomore.

Will was the player I was most looking forward to seeing in his recruiting class. I can't wait to see him getting the minutes he deserves!

[leebiddlecome]

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but many people who are close to the team believe Will alone would have made a difference in 2 or 3 games with his abilities. He will be the starting center next year and will be a big upgrade over what we have had the last couple years.

And Warren's shooting abilities are a good as anyone in the league. He would easily have made the difference in 6-8 games that Bradley lost just because teams could defend us with our sub-average outside shooting.
I don't think the estimate of 7 to 8 more wins is unrealistic.

Obviously you believe Bradley would have won those games. But it is impossible to go back, in hindsight, look at games, plug in one player and say, well if we had that player we would have won that game. Its literally impossible to do that with any objectivity. With Warren the game would have played at totally different from the beginning.

Had Warren played his 30-32 minutes then Dodie Dunson doesnt play as much, Chris Roberts doesnt play as much, other guys dont play as much. Let's not downplay the contributions those guys made. They helped Bradley win a few games on their own accord. So, now you have to take out the games they won because, well, they wouldn't be playing.

Other teams would have obviously had a totally different game plan with Andrew Warren in the lineup. They would have defended differently.

Bottom line, Bradley would have been a totally different team, with different roles. Bradley doesn't play in a vacuum. Other teams would have done things differently with Warren out there.

Would Bradley probably have been better with Warren? Yeah. But it wasn't like BU was hurting at the 2/3 position. That was actually the deepest position on the roster.

Just adding 8 wins to the schedule in hindsight seems to be a very nearsighted way to do it. Everything would be totally different.

[leebiddlecome]

can we please stop blowing the whistle and prohibiting others' opinions?
I think the kid can play...........and he's still a sophomore.

When did I prohibit anyone's opinions? You think he can play? Great. Do I think he can play? I don't know, I haven't seen it.

Some love to go on hype and hyperbole, some others like to go based on fact and evidence. Just differences I suppose.

[leebiddlecome]

I don't want to say that the NIT would be a failure...but I think it would be. I want a conference title, which USUALLY guarantees an NCAA. I think the MVC will be much better than the 9th rated conference next year, so a conference title should mean an at-large. It should also mean that the 2nd and maybe even 3rd place teams should have a shot at an at-large as well. It will be year 4 since the Sweet 16. One NCAA every four years needs to be the minimum standard of excellence for a program of our caliber.

I think we can all agree to this. Injury or not, the program has trended the wrong direction since the Sweet 16 run. It would be tough to dispute this.

Bradley will probably be picked about 4th again next year in the preseason poll. There is no other reason for anyone (anyone who is objective) to pick BU any higher really.

It all starts with competing and defeating your peers. For Bradley that is fellow MVC members. Things have to get better there and I think Jim Les would agree.

[BuAlum03]

What Lee is saying is that you may add warren's 16 or 18 or 22 points a game, maybe 5 boards, 1.5 steals, 3 assists (just guessing at #s here). But you have to subtract the contributions of whoever's minutes he took. the net gain would not be that simple. (keep in mind also, that he would have been the focal point of defenses, so simply pointing to last year's #s and saying they would have improved is dubious logic)

He also raises a good point, in that it changes other facets of the game for BU and for Bu's opponents.

I am not going to say we would have won X number of games if we had AW, although i think most would agree that we would have won some games we lost.

What I will argue is that if we had AW, we would have seen SM's #s improve, as he would not have been who defenses key'd on. SM gets more open looks, defenses are spread out more. TW gets more lanes. Even DC might have had less turnovers, as that's one less defender to step in and swat at the ball.

As for WE, i think he would have helped, and probably more so as the year went on. We can speculate, but we don't know for a fact what could have been. Next year we will find out more.

[SFP]

BuAlum03 Exactly! There is a bit of speculation on all of our predictions in what ifs!

[leebiddlecome]

What Lee is saying is that you may add warren's 16 or 18 or 22 points a game, maybe 5 boards, 1.5 steals, 3 assists (just guessing at #s here). But you have to subtract the contributions of whoever's minutes he took. the net gain would not be that simple. (keep in mind also, that he would have been the focal point of defenses, so simply pointing to last year's #s and saying they would have improved is dubious logic)

He also raises a good point, in that it changes other facets of the game for BU and for Bu's opponents.

I am not going to say we would have won X number of games if we had AW, although i think most would agree that we would have won some games we lost.

What I will argue is that if we had AW, we would have seen SM's #s improve, as he would not have been who defenses key'd on. SM gets more open looks, defenses are spread out more. TW gets more lanes. Even DC might have had less turnovers, as that's one less defender to step in and swat at the ball.

As for WE, i think he would have helped, and probably more so as the year went on. We can speculate, but we don't know for a fact what could have been. Next year we will find out more.

Thanks BUAlum. You summed up my points much better than I did.

[Braves4Life]

Bradley will probably be picked about 4th again next year in the preseason poll. There is no other reason for anyone (anyone who is objective) to pick BU any higher really.

I agree lee:

1) UNI
2) CU
3) ISU
4) BU

And if BU surprises like they did this year (exceeding everyone's expectations after losing 4 starters from the previous year - Warren, Ruffin, Salley, & Crouch) then I think we stand a pretty darned good chance to win the whole d@mn thing!

[BuAlum03]

I think UNI will be a consensus #1. I don't think it will be clear-cut for #2. Creighton probably gets it, but they do lose a lot. POY and their very good PG.

ISU may get #3, but I think we might sneak in there. they lose champ and sampay. champ was fantastic, imo their best player. Sampay was very solid off the bench (wish we had gotten him).

I think WSU and SIU will both be very good next year.

Regardless of where people are picked to start the season, I care more about where we finish it, and I think BU has a legit chance to finish with the regular season and/or tourney title.