Postgame: BU 67 Drake 59

[Out of Balance]

Chitown I agree completely. I saw Nick Evans (SIU) play in high school and sticks was much better then him. That doesn't seem to be the case now. WE just don't seem to develope kids as fast for reasons I don't understand. When Nick passes someone up than maybe it is a wasted scolie. I hope not I have not given up on Sticks yet.

wily. I never give up on anyone But Stick is a project that may NEVER get completed This is his 3rd year at BU, no injuries and just very little improvement. If he is not playing this year, what will next year being with JP off RS. He reminds me of another player who all of us kept waiting to arrive but did not while starting and logging a lot of playing time last year. If Sticks could be counted on this year, maybe we would see him playing at the 5 (with SS) and MAYBE seeing WE getting some time at the 4 with TB at the 3. This could help in many ways besides rebounds. But I will say this, SS needs to get his game/ butt going here WE's 28 mins. on that knee may be pushing it this early in the season

[BradleyBrave]

I am with those who think critiquing the minute allocation last night is silly. We only had 4 games in the last month, and were coming off of a 9 day layoff. We needed a win in the worst way. We did what we had to do to get it. JL didn't make many mistakes last night, including minute allocation. If we are going to criticize when it's deserved, we also need to give credit where credit is due.

[chitown fanatic]

Chitown I agree completely. I saw Nick Evans (SIU) play in high school and sticks was much better then him. That doesn't seem to be the case now. WE just don't seem to develope kids as fast for reasons I don't understand. When Nick passes someone up than maybe it is a wasted scolie. I hope not I have not given up on Sticks yet.

Neither have I, but it appears Les has. And I'm not saying that Sticks will be any good...he just can't be worse than what we're getting from Singh. It's not possible at the D1 Level. There are many intramural athletes who would have better stats at this point. I really don't like slamming him like that, but c'mon man...show me something...anything to deserve the PT he's getting right now. I cringe whenever the ball goes to him and that's sad because I thought last year he was a valuable contributor. I just don't know what's happened.

[houstontxbrave]

Neither have I, but it appears Les has. And I'm not saying that Sticks will be any good...he just can't be worse than what we're getting from Singh. It's not possible at the D1 Level. There are many intramural athletes who would have better stats at this point. I really don't like slamming him like that, but c'mon man...show me something...anything to deserve the PT he's getting right now. I cringe whenever the ball goes to him and that's sad because I thought last year he was a valuable contributor. I just don't know what's happened.

No idea what the deal with Singh is either, he is getting PT I guess because that is who JL trusts at this point. But in the games he is tenative like a raw freshman, he has zero jumping ability and that is a huge issue when he is around the rim.

Last year he fought hard on both ends of the court, got some decent positioning and was not bad when making passing decisions.

Today Id really rather not see him on the floor, Id rather go with more athletic players. I think he cares but maybe his body just can not handle basketball at this level anymore.

[SFP]

Today Id really rather not see him on the floor, Id rather go with more athletic players. I think he cares but maybe his body just can not handle basketball at this level anymore.

That is exactly what I have been thinking. He looks tentative like he is avoiding any body contact at all and what we need from a back-up 5 is someone willing to throw their weight around and rebound.

I'm not sure who talked about our rebounding being better then Drake last night but Drake's front court is horribly soft and if we did not compete with them on the boards I'd have to say we would be fighting not to finish in the lower 1/2 of the Valley. I still find this part of our game the scariest part of our team. There was one sequence where DU had 3 offensive rebound before they scored. We also made a huge deal on the chat when TB had 1 offensive rebound! Our rebounding looked decent last night I hate to say because Drake's rebounding maybe even worse. If we want to do well this is an area that this team needs to improve dramatically.

[thefish7]

I watched at Drake, and I thought the freshman kid they had playing the post-- #45 wasn't playing soft at all. He was kind of pushing WE around a bit. SS has been very frustrating to me this season as he's not playing as well as he did last season. He can't jump, he's too slow for the help defense requirements of our defensive set, and I can't remember the last time he made a shot. The one thing he did last night was play a pretty tough low post defense on Drake's #45... Tougher than Will managed until halfway through the 2nd half.

I frankly think that SS, as much as I want to like him, offers us a lot less on the floor than AT does in almost any situation. So, I have to think that AT is not seeing the floor because of his effort in practice, which is really a shame. I think he could win the minutes if he was willing to lay it out there. Regarding WE, I see some of his offensive moves with a bit of hesitation in them, and chalk that up to the mental affect of an injury like the one he had. He played very well in the latter part of the second half last night, and I expect to see him continue to improve game to game as he gets confident that his knee will not fail him.

[AZ BU Fan]

Tornado, on one hand you stated in another post NW wouldn't win many games in the Big 10 if they have to play their starters as many minutes as they did vs ILLI. Then you say no problem for 4 of the 5 BU starters to each play 34+ minutes vs Drake. Was your NW post just sarcasm?

Your 'JL can't win either way with fans' argument, really brings tears to my eyes. Its a tough job and coaches will always get second guessed.

My post was about BU bench players ability to contribute, not JL's decision to play/not play hot hands..(although it didn't look like all the BU starters were playing all that well for over half of the Drake game)

If BU subs aren't good enough to contribute more vs Drake, with BU having to leave 4 starters in for 34+ minutes each in order to win late against a poor Drake team, then I get concerned if these same subs will give BU much help vs UNI, MSU, ISU, SIU, or WSU...If the starting 5 don't have good games, or, get into foul trouble, BU will need a lot more from the bench than JL thought they could give him vs Drake.


That's all I am saying..

[dogsrus]

WHY do those that wish to critique JL need to stop? I'm sure JL doesn't read the board and really could care less about what we say...good OR bad.

There is one surefire way of stopping the criticism and have nothing but all warm and fuzzy comments.....WIN.

[tornado]

where did anyone say they need to stop....although it does seem counterproductive ..

and I think NW will be hurt by such a short bench, especially in the rough Big Ten...but then BU might be hurt too by being down a couple scholarship players.
The difference is that NW chose to play with a shotr bench but BU has little choice.

In BU's case...we don't have much choice because we are down 2 to injury and were down two additional to redshirts, ....but Northwestern still has 14 guys available and dressed 12 scholarship guys...

http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/nw-m-baskbl-mtt.html

[Out of Balance]

where did anyone say they need to stop....although it does seem counterproductive ..

Counterproductive Please try to explain

[Chico]

(plus numerous other posts critiquing the minutes given to SS, AT, EM, SM, etc...)

but this is an example how Coach Les simply cannot win!!

When he was using more players on the bench....people right here on this board ripped him for NOT leaving TB in when hot, for yanking AW right after a couple nice makes, and for not giving Milos 25 minutes when he drains a couple 3's...
People were saying "stop making so many substitutions and leave the guys in there when they're hitting"!!!


Then last night, the main guys...Sam M, Warren, TB, Will were all having nice games offensively and from the FT line, and Chris Roberts was doing a great defensive job...
So Coach Les decides to leave those guys in and let them play - almost as if he's trying to do precisely what would make the folks on BradleyFans HAPPY --
but nooooooooo...now come the criticisms that we didn't get enough from the bench and that he went way too many minutes with the starters!!


Does anyone else see what I see?? The guy simply can't win for losing!
Someone will certainly rip Coach Les no matter what he does....so he might as well ignore any and all criticism and get on with it!

I agree with most of what you say T. I've always been one to say leave the guys on the floor who are getting the job done, no mater who the opponent is. That's why earlier in the season I posted that I would like to see the Braves blow an opponent out for once. We won that game, so I don't consider that criticism. Saw way too much of the substitutions in the 70's, so I guess that's why I don't like to see taking guys out who are getting the job done. Still behind Jim 100%

[tornado]

Counterproductive Please try to explain

"I like the Braves"...no, on second thought "I don't like them and I want to see Coach Les do something different", no on second thought, "I am a big BU fan and I like them", no on second thought "they need to change completely"...etc...

[shaunguth]

WHY do those that wish to critique JL need to stop? I'm sure JL doesn't read the board and really could care less about what we say...good OR bad.

There is one surefire way of stopping the criticism and have nothing but all warm and fuzzy comments.....WIN.

I don't know.....I thought we just won a road game to open the Valley season for the first time in a good number of years. People will always have something to criticize in this game!