Dave Reynolds' preseason MVC picks

[Da Coach]

Dave picks Bradley #3-

http://www2.pjstar.com/index.php/reynolds/article/despite_woeful_record_i_still_get_to_guess

Dave's Preseason All-MVC team is:
Osiris Eldridge of Illinois State
Kwadzo Ahelegbe of UNI
Adam Koch of UNI
P??™Allen Stinnett of Creighton
Tony Freeman of SIU

[tornado]

The Creighton beat guys show their picks...

http://creighton.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=999435

Perrault has Creighton #1, and notes that Champ "Uguchi's" absence will hurt ISU, and he doesn't think a whole lot of BU as they have the Braves #7,
and he describes BU's style of play in kinda weird terms...

"Bradley will play a slow down style that is different than most in the Valley.
They will need a front court player to emerge but Jim Les always seems to
bite a few of the lead dogs every season."

Coach Les bites a few dogs?? I think I know what he means about biting a few of the dogs, but slow down style??
BU's offense rated 4th in conference play last year, and should be there again this year...

The other guy also has BU 7th.

[thefish7]

"Slow down style?" This guy talking about the wrong Bradley coach?

[chitown fanatic]

The Creighton beat guys show their picks...

http://creighton.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=999435

Perrault has Creighton #1, and notes that Champ "Uguchi's" absence will hurt ISU, and he doesn't think a whole lot of BU as they have the Braves #7,
and he describes BU's style of play in kinda weird terms...

"Bradley will play a slow down style that is different than most in the Valley.
They will need a front court player to emerge but Jim Les always seems to
bite a few of the lead dogs every season."

Coach Les bites a few dogs?? Is there anyone out there that can translate this jibberish??

The other guy also has BU 7th.

He means that in recent years a middle of the pack BU team has, on occasion, risen up and beaten the top teams in the conference(i.e ISU, UNI,etc) Everything else he wrote is pretty clear. We need a big man to emerge if we're going to do much, in his opinion. 7th seems pretty ridiculous though, in my opinion, big man or not.

[ph]

"Slow down style?" This guy talking about the wrong Bradley coach?

I agree that the description seems weird..

...although we have played a lot of pass / hold the ball until <10sec are on the shot clock before we try to force a drive and shot. We are not a consistant "chuck a shot up within the first 5 seconds" (like Grinnell?)team. We will try to push the ball and get a quick score, otherwise we keep trying to break down the defense, and that trying can take time.

[tornado]

again -- I come back to the same question I have posed several times for these guys, and I haven't seen an answer yet...

If the sole reason BU keeps getting graded DOWN to 6th & 7th place is BU's lack of returning experience in the post, then why in the heck are they so giddy about Wichita State, Indiana State, SIU, and even Creighton themselves.

I think simple common sense sees that none of those other teams has much more than we have in the paint. Certainly InSU and Wichita are very similar in that sense to BU....guard heavy but lose most of their frontcourt and post experience.

[BuAlum03]

does it really matter that much if BU is picked 7th, 10th, or 1st? who cares? I hope they use any low picks as a motivating tool. I don't really feel insulted, though. I think we'll be much better than 7th, but we'll find out for sure come March.

I just don't see the reasoning behind ripping apart people's opinions. Let them underestimate Bradley. Their opinions won't change the final standings.

[thefish7]

I agree that the description seems weird..

...although we have played a lot of pass / hold the ball until <10sec are on the shot clock before we try to force a drive and shot. We are not a consistant "chuck a shot up within the first 5 seconds" (like Grinnell?)team. We will try to push the ball and get a quick score, otherwise we keep trying to break down the defense, and that trying can take time.

Yeah... But I don't think of us "holding" the ball until <10 seconds. That's how I remember the Molinari teams-- actively exhausting the clock. Les's teams always seem to look to score as soon as they get a reasonable (or sometimes unreasonable, hehe) look. When they are deliberate, I think it has to do with them not getting a look or matchup they want to exploit as opposed to actually designing a slow-down sort of game.

[tornado]

nobody's ripping, but when their opinions are downright silly, like saying...
"Bradley will play a slow down style that is different than most in the Valley"

then we just point it out.....

BU averaged 83 ppg in 5 games in the preseason...and there was nothing "slow down style" about what was observed....either in Brazil or in the past few seasons...
BU shot more and scored more than their opponents last year, something 6 out of 10 Valley teams did NOT do.

[Bradleyguy10]

No I think we did do that a lot last season. We would dribble dribble dribble and do nothing until <10 seconds on the shot clock and then someone would try to drive and score or pass and score. It happened over 50% of the possessions it felt like. Maddening.

[squirrelgotdead]

As for tempo, the Creighton writer may have a point, but it's important to note everything is relative. Bradley was 3rd in the MVC in terms of tempo last year.

Last year

Top 3 MVC Tempo (Avg # poss per game)

Nat'lRnk Team Tempo

84 Creighton 68.4
121 Evansville 67.5
216 Bradley 65.4

So 3rd place is good, yes, but the national ranks indicate and reflect how big a difference there is between places 1-3. To Creighton, everyone else is substantially slower.

But only two MVC programs near the top 100, and no one else above 200 nationally.

I'm not an advocate for slow-down or uptempo. . .just play what works best for you.

Last year, Bradley was 18-8 when they had under 70 possessions. With 70 or more, they were only 3-7. They were 8-0 in contests where they kept it in their prime range of 64-69.

[ph]

Yeah... But I don't think of us "holding" the ball until <10 seconds. That's how I remember the Molinari teams-- actively exhausting the clock. Les's teams always seem to look to score as soon as they get a reasonable (or sometimes unreasonable, hehe) look. When they are deliberate, I think it has to do with them not getting a look or matchup they want to exploit as opposed to actually designing a slow-down sort of game.

I agree, we never seemed to use the offense as our defense (ala SIU), I do believe we are constantly looking for a great scoring opportunity, wether that happens at 10 seconds or 30 seconds does not matter. but to a casual observer we do have many long possessions.

Now, why a Creighton writer (did we not just have a "3 bubbl" OT game 2 years ago vs Creighton) would think that way, I'm not sure.

One of the biggest knocks against JL is that fact that for the past 4 years, we "only" finished 4th or 5th in the MVC. Now, if you were a betting person, based on that track record, why in the world would you pick us lower than 5th? Of all the dumb MVC picks you could make, picking BU lower than 5th has to be about the worst..

[SFP]

This Creighton beat writer is as good as the other PJS beat writer. So in respect to that I'll just ignore him. To say we have a slow down style that is strange. I guess he watched us, when we ran that weave! SIU is the team with the slow up style on O if there is one.

Dave Reynolds again wrote a quality piece! When he gives his opinion he qualifies it!

[tornado]

speaking of DR, he is the only one of the Valley writers who has actually SEEN this year's Braves, and did anyone notice where he picked BU.
He picked BU 3rd...and I doubt koolaid is playing a part in that, as DR has never been accused of favoring the Braves over reality...
Other who have "seen" BU have also stated they are going to be better than predicted...while all those who have not seen BU are picking them 6th & 7th...
so time will tell.........nothing said in the preseason will matter to the team that wins the Valley...

[Da Coach]

But Dave hasn't seen any of the other teams, so he is at a similar disadvantage to all the other writers.