JL the recruiter

[dogsrus]

I have ALWAYS said he gets WAY to much credit for his recruiting. I see NO better players on our team then most any other MVC team. And thats not just this year.To me he is an average recruiter and an average to below average coach.

Thats a recipe for disaster.

I realize some will disagree and claim he is a good recruiter and IF thats the case then its REALLY a shot at his coaching.

We are spiralling downhill......

We have ONE recruit for next year that couldn't even crack the lineup over AT....who doesn't even play anymore.

Ouch......

[Da Coach]

Missouri state has a bunch of very athletic kids who can play. Only Fuehrmeyer is a senior, and they won't miss him much. They will be very good next year.
I agree we need to upgrade our point guard skills, and we need better inside play.

[SaintLouBrave22]

Missouri state has a bunch of very athletic kids who can play. Only Fuehrmeyer is a senior, and they won't miss him much. They will be very good next year.
I agree we need to upgrade our point guard skills, and we need better inside play.

We need to start with a philosophy change and system change.


It's extremely hard to stay competitive with 4 smaller players and a bigger player on the floor...3-4 of which are usually placed out of position...

Specifically right now, Egolf, Brown, and Roberts.

[real fan]

I think most of us agree that you cannot compete against very good teams with 2 forwards (Brown Egolf) and 3 guards, basketball is a big mans sport and we do not have a good true center and have not had one since O"bryant , it is hard to tell how good a recruiter Jim is because a lot of our guys are being forced to play out of position, the 2 things we are lacking the most is center and point guard , Maniscalco has played much better offensively but still loses his man on defense, your point guard needs to be a great defender and be able to pressure the opposing teams point guard in order to disrupt their offense, our cannot do that.

[AZ BU Fan]

I have ALWAYS said he gets WAY to much credit for his recruiting. I see NO better players on our team then most any other MVC team. And thats not just this year.To me he is an average recruiter and an average to below average coach.......

We'll really find out next year when the team will be heavily laden with experienced players, and will have DD back.

Without more credible inside threat, teams can smother our perimeter players and shut down our slashers from going to the hoop.

We still don't appear to have guards/wing players who have enough quickness/speed/ability to create and/or make their own jump shots.

Re JP redshirt, my guess is JL felt he'd get more from WE and AT, and now doesn't want to give up a RS year for JP.

I am still surprised JE wasn't left on RS since DSE injury was apparently not real serious and JL doesn't seem to have a problem playing RP. I am also surprised MK wasn't red shirted as well as he may have benefited from extra development.

I'd really like to know how things went during the BU-De Paul "scrimmage"...

[Braves4Life]

Wouldn't it be interesting to see if Warren can handle the point? I'd love to have a PG that size.

[BradleyBrave]

We'll see how well I do at this, but I am going to try and stop piling on JL so much. As with any program, the coach gets too much credit when they win, and too much blame when they lose. But, the fact of the matter is the buck starts and stops with them. Ultimately, they are the ones responsible for the program win or lose. Whether it's the talent on the floor, the scheme they're running, or how they're being coaches, the product on the floor speaks for itself.

[BradleyBrave]

We'll really find out next year when the team will be heavily laden with experienced players, and will have DD back.

Umm...we have a roster full of experienced players, at least the ones logging major minutes. Our freshman play complimentary roles at best. That's what makes the product we're seeing all the more unacceptable.

[Braves4Life]

We'll see how well I do at this, but I am going to try and stop piling on JL so much.

Is that a New Year's resolution BB? We'll see how well you do with this if we keep losing and playing like today.

[Bravesfan]

We'll see how well I do at this, but I am going to try and stop piling on JL so much. As with any program, the coach gets too much credit when they win, and too much blame when they lose. But, the fact of the matter is the buck starts and stops with them. Ultimately, they are the ones responsible for the program win or lose. Whether it's the talent on the floor, the scheme they're running, or how they're being coaches, the product on the floor speaks for itself.

Great points! You can't always fault the coach if they have a bad season. Even a Tom Izzo might have a bad season one of these years! But at the very least the coach needs to keep the team together through difficult periods.

I'm not going to pin this bad season on Les just yet, at least not until the end of the season when we can make an objective evaluation of where we are at. But I do know one thing. I saw a team that quit on him today, at least on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe it was just out of frustration of a very bad game and they will at least come out with some pride at UNI on Tuesday night. But at least for today, this team's performance was very disturbing.

We'll eventually know if this is a result of bad recruting, bad coaching, some of both or maybe just a team comprised of players that are not mentally tough. But that's what I saw today. I'm not saying there wasn't a lot of effort by the players, but it still was a very lame performance without a lot of heart and toughness from a team standpoint.

[BradleyBrave]

Is that a New Year's resolution BB? We'll see how well you do with this if we keep losing and playing like today.

Eh...we're too far into 2010 for it to be a resolution. Maybe I am just running out of things to pile on with. I think everyone knows by now that in 7 years we haven't contended for a league title, finished in the top 3 of the MVC, and that he has a losing record in league play. I think everyone knows this '20 wins' thing is a fraud. I think everyone knows we stink at defense and rebounding, and that we have the least experienced staff top to bottom in the league. I think most people think we have some talent that doesn't appear to get maximized. I dunno, we have 13 league games left plus a BracketBuster and a league tournament, so it will probably be hard to keep from going back to my 'broken record' matra, but I am going to try. I like Jim Les and really wanted this to work, but I think it has run its course.

[Bravesfan]

Eh...we're too far into 2010 for it to be a resolution. Maybe I am just running out of things to pile on with. I think everyone knows by now that in 7 years we haven't contended for a league title, finished in the top 3 of the MVC, and that he has a losing record in league play. I think everyone knows this '20 wins' thing is a fraud. I think everyone knows we stink at defense and rebounding, and that we have the least experienced staff top to bottom in the league. I think most people think we have some talent that doesn't appear to get maximized. I dunno, we have 13 league games left plus a BracketBuster and a league tournament, so it will probably be hard to keep from going back to my 'broken record' matra, but I am going to try. I like Jim Les and really wanted this to work, but I think it has run its course.

Well after just seeing that SIU lost a home game to Drake tonight, I still have some hope we can steal a couple of more road wins and finish the season with at least some respectibility (ie: 9-9 or somewhere in that area). We'll take it one game at a time. Well, after the UNI game of course!

[BradleyBrave]

Well after just seeing that SIU lost a home game to Drake tonight, I still have some hope we can steal a couple of more road wins and finish the season with at least some respectibility (ie: 9-9 or somewhere in that area). We'll take it one game at a time. Well, after the UNI game of course!

At this point (7 years in, 10-8 last year), 9-9 isn't respectable. It's a major disappointment and a step back. 9-9 usually has you playing in or on the cusp of playing in. If it was the first time in the regime I can give it a pass, but it might be the 3rd time in 8 years.

[AZ BU Fan]

After watching Dallas school Philly in the NFL tonight, I guess even good teams can have a really really bad game (or games if you include Philly's stinker last week vs Dallas....)

If history plays out, BU will most likely end up +/- 0.500 in the MVC this season, good for 6th place (who atually believes those pre season polls anyway?).

If we are really lucky, BU could steal a first round win in the MVC tournament playing the #3 seed and find another new post season tournament to play in.

Meanwhile we can look forward to next year and one more try for the JL program (either they succeed or BU will try someone else as coach ).

It's a win-win situation, unless BU promotes one of their asst coaches

[Buesch N Chips]

Part of JL's recruiting philosophy seems to be to recruit freak athletes who are very raw, and hope they can learn to play basketball. It worked with Zach Andrews, Chris Roberts is doing OK, Saihou Jassey did not. Taylor Brown has made tremendous strides, but it is clear he is not buying in.