Let's make a successful season from last night's effort as a baseline

[BUBalum05]

My thoughts on how to make the remainder of the MVC conference season a success for BU. Also, hopefully a thread that doesn't lead to 'Fire JL and restart the program'.

We're at 2-4; could be worse, could be better. 7 home games and 5 road games left (ignore ESPN BB, just MVC). After a good effort last night, let's say we put that foot forward for the rest of the year and go for these goals to salvage the season. Keep in mind, I don't think last night was an exceptional effort, but it was a good baseline to go forward. I'm also not predicting who we beat, just how the conference season could wrap up.

Best case scenario, <.0001% probability:
Win 12 straight, finish 1st in MVC, win the MVCT, win the NCAA, erect 30' JL statue out front the new fieldhouse. Hey, a man can dream.

2nd Best case scenario, <.1% probability:
Win 12 straight, finish 2nd in conference behind UNI since I don't think they lose 4. Obviously, we would have to keep improving on everything to make this happen, and also a little luck. Watch out MVC tourney and NCAA.

Very Successful/overly optimistic, 10% probabilty:
Win all 7 home games, 3-2 on the road in the MVC. Improvement on last night's effort. We need to keep defense at a high level, eliminate all the silly turnovers, shots start falling, and get consistent play from everyone. Finish 12-6, likely anywhere from a 2nd to 4th place finish. Would be dangerous in the MVCT and shooting for NIT at least.

Successful, 60% probability:
Go 5-2 at home 3-2 road. Keep the good effort up, but we see inconsistent individual play continue. Finish 10-8, likely 4th to 6th. Above .500 from the hole we dug makes things look much better to build on. Not playing on Thursday in MVCT. Watch out CIT or CBI.

Disappointing, 24.8999% probability (with last night's effort):
Go 4-3 at home, 2-3 road. Keep playing hard but the shots don't fall, turnovers continue, and some other bad luck. Finish 8-10, likely 6th to 8th.

Anything less than the effort from last night for the rest of the season constitutes a failure on the team's part and the coaching staff, but we won't go there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the team come out strong at home vs MoSt. Let's make this season a success and last night's loss the turning point of '09-'10. Who is going to stop us?

[SaintLouBrave22]

My thoughts on how to make the remainder of the MVC conference season a success for BU. Also, hopefully a thread that doesn't lead to 'Fire JL and restart the program'.

We're at 2-4; could be worse, could be better. 7 home games and 5 road games left (ignore ESPN BB, just MVC). After a good effort last night, let's say we put that foot forward for the rest of the year and go for these goals to salvage the season. Keep in mind, I don't think last night was an exceptional effort, but it was a good baseline to go forward. I'm also not predicting who we beat, just how the conference season could wrap up.

Best case scenario, <.0001% probability:
Win 12 straight, finish 1st in MVC, win the MVCT, win the NCAA, erect 30' JL statue out front the new fieldhouse. Hey, a man can dream.

2nd Best case scenario, <.1% probability:
Win 12 straight, finish 2nd in conference behind UNI since I don't think they lose 4. Obviously, we would have to keep improving on everything to make this happen, and also a little luck. Watch out MVC tourney and NCAA.

Very Successful/overly optimistic, 10% probabilty:
Win all 7 home games, 3-2 on the road in the MVC. Improvement on last night's effort. We need to keep defense at a high level, eliminate all the silly turnovers, shots start falling, and get consistent play from everyone. Finish 12-6, likely anywhere from a 2nd to 4th place finish. Would be dangerous in the MVCT and shooting for NIT at least.

Successful, 60% probability:
Go 5-2 at home 3-2 road. Keep the good effort up, but we see inconsistent individual play continue. Finish 10-8, likely 4th to 6th. Above .500 from the hole we dug makes things look much better to build on. Not playing on Thursday in MVCT. Watch out CIT or CBI.

Disappointing, 24.8999% probability (with last night's effort):
Go 4-3 at home, 2-3 road. Keep playing hard but the shots don't fall, turnovers continue, and some other bad luck. Finish 8-10, likely 6th to 8th.

Anything less than the effort from last night for the rest of the season constitutes a failure on the team's part and the coaching staff, but we won't go there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the team come out strong at home vs MoSt. Let's make this season a success and last night's loss the turning point of '09-'10. Who is going to stop us?

I'm just confused as to how you have a 6-6 finish to the season at only a 25% probability when we are currently 2-4...that doesn't make much sense...

At this point, we have a much better shot at playing on Thursday than not...at least at a 40% chance IMO.

[BUBalum05]

I'm just confused as to how you have a 6-6 finish to the season at only a 25% probability when we are currently 2-4...that doesn't make much sense...

At this point, we have a much better shot at playing on Thursday than not...at least at a 40% chance IMO.

This is all based on our level of play staying the same as what we showed on the road last night at UNI. If we play that hard for the rest of the season, things will improve. Therefore, I see only a 25% chance of the season not improving with that effort. If that effort falls, then sure, we could end up 10th in the Valley. I'm just trying to put some good vibes out on the board which has been frankly more depressing than BU's play up to this point.

[Braves4Life]

At times this team has looked like a top 2-3 MVC team and others an 8-9 team. last night I thought we played the whole game like a top 3 team. If this continues we will not be playing-in on Thursday.

[thefish7]

Im a glass half full guy in most things, so I'm in bualum! Had a lot of fun watching the team fight for something. I hope they'll get it together for a run. Let's go bu

[BradleyJD]

Speaking of putting things together and making a run late in the season. Why has BU never really done this and made a big run in the Valley tourney. Now that is something I would like to see.

[LittleBrave]

I totally agree that continued efforts like last night's will likely put BU at 10-8 in the Valley. It seems like a stretch at this point, but all these tough conference games have let us know clearly what it takes to win. The key is returning to play well at home for a full game. If Bradley wins Saturday, then I say they finish 10-8. A loss would be devastating though.

[thefish7]

Speaking of putting things together and making a run late in the season. Why has BU never really done this and made a big run in the Valley tourney. Now that is something I would like to see.

We did it in 06 and kind of in 07.

[real fan]

We have played the toughest part of our Valley season with road games at UNI and Wichita St. over as those 2 teams are the no.1 and no. 2 teams , keep improving and playing defense and we will win a lot of games to finish out the season at 10-8 which should be good for 4th or 5th. I hope our best basketball is in front of us.
C.Buescher said something interesting last night about our players;
T.Brown is really playing in his 1st season as far as experience
A.Warren is coming back from not playing for a full season
W.Egolf is also playing in his 1st season as far as experience
C.Roberts is in only his 2nd season of D-1
S.Maniscalco is once again healthy and playing better because of it
DSE is playing in his 1st season and just came back from injury
These are not excuses to lose but more like reasons why we are or have not been consistent .
Something that I was not really thinking about until last night so hopefully we are getting closer to a much improved product and the game against MO.St. on saturday could go a long way toward building on this improvement.

[BradleyJD]

We did it in 06 and kind of in 07.

I meant like winning the tourney. You always see teams that struggled during the year, but make that big run in a conference tourney and win it.

We haven't won a Valley tourney title since I was in junior high.

[amckillip]

I meant like winning the tourney. You always see teams that struggled during the year, but make that big run in a conference tourney and win it.

We haven't won a Valley tourney title since I was in junior high.

I agree. I'd really like to see us make a run in the tourney. I feel like with the talent this team has it's doable, and at this point 3 (hopefully not 4) games is about the extent to which we've played at a high level.

[thefish7]

I meant like winning the tourney. You always see teams that struggled during the year, but make that big run in a conference tourney and win it.

We haven't won a Valley tourney title since I was in junior high.

Ah, okay. I'm with you. At this point an at large takes a 15 game win streak and a great showing in the mvc final and even such a performance may not give you the at large. I think even if we're turning the corner that's a very tall order. A more realistic avenue is to keep getting better and hit our stride in StL, win 3 and dance.

[LittleBrave]

I'd like to see this team gain confidence - I see a little more each game. It's tough to have confidence with lack of experience and lack of success. As the confidence builds, they should be able to close out games better.
At times, CR seems tentative, resulting in turnovers. As a senior, he needs to show the other guys that he is confident handling the ball and making plays.
He is a BIG part to our success - like to see him rewarded with his hard work. He showed signs last season and in Brazil of exploding.

[bradleybasketball]

Im a glass half full guy in most things, so I'm in bualum! Had a lot of fun watching the team fight for something. I hope they'll get it together for a run. Let's go bu

I will second that go BU, I look forward to finishing the season strong!!

[braveatheart]

I think if we can play with the effort shown last night we have a shot at going 6-1 at home and 2-3 on the road for the rest of the conference season. That leaves us 10-8 in the MVC.

If (and it is a big if) we can do that, I would call it a huge success.