Next game: Loyola at Bradley, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 7:05 pm

[Bravesfan]

I hate to bring this up again, but there were some very knowlegeable posters here and on other boards who thought Jim Whitesell was a great up-and-coming coach who was on track for tremendous success at Loyola. Some even said Bradley should dump Jim Les after his first 3 seasons and hire Whitesell.
Whitesell did have some limited success his first 3 years with all the players he inherited from the previous coach Larry Farmer, especially 3-time 1st team All-Horizon player Blake Schilb. Still, they never came close to playing in postseason.
But these past 2 seasons, with his own players, Loyola has been bad. Last year, they did not even have a winning record at home. They have yet to play in a postseason tournament under Whitesell, though he seems to still have good support among the administration and fans. Their home attendance this season is only 1,771, which is down from last season's average of 2,270.

Loyola record under Coach Jim Whitesell-
2004-2005 13-17, 8-8 (6th seed in Horizon League)- RPI 219
2005-2006 19-11, 8-8 (4th seed in the Horizon)- RPI 138
2006-2007 21-11, 10-6 (4th seed in Horizon)- RPI 101
2007-2008 12-19, 6-12 (8th seed in Horizon)- RPI 222
2008-2009 14-18, 6-12 (8th seed in Horizon)- RPI 214

Despite his record, this is a team we should not take lightly. I think we win pretty easily tonight, but they will play hard and we can't come out with half an effort, which we usually don't.

Also, Whitesell would have been in the postseason in 2007 had the CIT been around that year. Maybe the previous year as well. I think he will do better this year, but again I think Bradley is the better team by far right now.

[AZ BU Fan]

I think we win pretty easily tonight ... but again I think Bradley is the better team by far right now.

So much for the pretty easy win tonight and making predictions BU is by far better than any teams they play...