Braves lose 73-68

[Bravesfan]

Exactly......Illinois, along with any other team that loses to our pathetic Braves, better be looking for a new coach real quick!

Boy, regarding our wins over Illinois and Missouri St., all I can say is this:

You gotta LOVE parity in college basketball!

[Bravesfan]

Crowd was okay in the second half I thought. First half was quiet, but I think everyone was shellshocked by the 1/13 start or whatever it was.

Oh, it sounded like they were standing a few times, especially in the last ten minutes. Too bad we couldn't actually score a couple of baskets late or the roof would have come off the house!

[thefish7]

Oh, it sounded like they were standing a few times, especially in the last ten minutes. Too bad we couldn't actually score a couple of baskets late or the roof would have come off the house!

Yeah we were up every time the Braves tied or came within 1. One of those 3's dropping and the place goes crazy.

[Future Walk-On]

It is not a factual reality that Bradley is a program with no direction that is always underachieving. That is an opinion. I believe four straight 21 win seasons no matter how they are gotten with some post season success is a good start on slowly building a program. Funny I just posted an Outside the Lines story about teams fans expecting too much too fast. I think we are trending towards more success, but that is an opinion not factual reality but nor is your opinion. And I'm sure Les is trying to make adjustments. Also anyone can be positive at anytime for the future. I don't like where we are at, but I have hope for the future. Some people's stress levels here must be so high with the constant negativity.

HAHAHA too much too fast? 8 years? is that too fast? we are making strides?

A correct example team to profile with these characteristics is Illinois. they are struggling....but they have brought in a stud class....to be followed by an amazing class next year. I have hope for the future with Illinois...Bradley isn't doing anything and nothing appears to be coming soon.


1. We need a 5. Lawson had alot of fun tonight. If WE was playing the four it would be so fun.

2. Why not call a timeout on either of our final possessions??? I can't see why not calling a timeout is the best option....someone please explain. I bet it is because Jim Les and his staff have no idea what kind of play they could draw up because they don't have the knowledge.

3. I have a problem with Les. I just want a new face.

[BradleyBrave]

BU scored 1 point in the final 3:56 at home.

[Bravesfan]

Yeah-- At the half, I thought we had it. Weathered the storm, weathered the awful shooting start, Creighton couldn't keep shooting like that over two halves... etc etc etc. Just couldn't quite turn the corner.

PS- Before someone nitpicks, there is always something wrong with a home loss, but this wasn't an awful home loss like the others, it was the kind you can expect once a season... But as TAS put it, we don't get the benefit of that doubt this season because of the bad home losses.

Absolutely. This is a home loss we can live with in most years. But probably not this year since we have to make up for the earlier losses. This now makes Saturday's game at ISU red of the utmost importance. I don't think our season is over yet as far as a top 3 run is concerned, but we must absolutely sweep the Redbirds to have a shot. And I don't think ISU red is all that great of a team. But they can win at home, so that will still make this a challange. Let's just see if we can concentrate on this one game only and see where it takes us.

[BradleyBrave]

Absolutely. This is a home loss we can live with in most years.

Clearly. We've lived with home losses to Creighton 6 of JL's 8 years. JL seems to be livin' just fine by losing this game every year!

[BUBrave28]

How many times can a team have their best game of the year against us? At some point you have to see that there is a reason behind it! I could dig up old threads, but I've seen that comment after at least half of our losses (which all happen to games we should have won). It's almost a backhanded criticism, if that's not an oxymoron. We had been defending the 3 well up to this point this year. I think people remember how bad we were against it in past years and lump it in with this team. A few of their guys had a quick release on the 3 and we couldn't recover in time in that zone, period.

For a team that came in scoring well in the paint, we played good D against them down low. HUGE kudos to Sam Singh. He played as about of good as defense as he can and fought for rebounds just about everytime! ATTTABOY! I really wish he would have knocked down those FT's or the jumper from there as that usually where he is high %. Egolf also played good D and TB had some boards in the middle of a crowd of Blue Jays.

It's no excuse, and I know why people are sick of hearing it BUT those refs really were just plain awful. Sometimes the calls went for us, some against. Either way, terrible--terrible--terrrible. Never seen some of the calls that were made tonight. Not to mention they got probably 7 or 8 out of bounds calls WRONG (both ways, over half VERY obvious). It makes me furious when refs call that touch foul on a drive when we had a good look then turn a blind eye to the obvious hacks on a layup. Regardless, gotta overcome the stripes.

A couple of guys didn't look great, but whatever. Both AW and CR played decent D and rebounded well. If DSE knocks down that open 3 instead of clanking it off the far iron, his path to the basket is that much more open. He missed, and defenders slacked off him the rest of the night.

Dana is a great coach. You can tell how in-control he really is. I think that P being out helped him keep control all night. You could see the rest of those kids looking to him in lots of situations.

After all that we were in a position to still win this game with 2 minutes left.
What were we doing chucking up 3's down 3 with 1:30 left?? I turned to my friend and said take the easy two take the easy two. We launch like we were the team that made 12 3's tonight. Maybe if we did shoot well it doesn't bother me much, but we weren't so it does. That turns the game around completely. It makes Creighton's next possession a MUST stop or else it's a foul and FT contest. We get the stop, somehow, then chuck up another 3!!! WHY????? If we take the easy 2 in either situation we are in control of the clock and the game. Don't force yourself into a corner if you don't have to!!! Extend the game and give us a better chance.

Before that we have AW all by himself, don't see him soon enough and still get the pass to him. He starts to slow it down then forces a pass. Why not slow it down? What are you trying to force there? If you slow down a run the offense, different game and the last minute thirty are changed.

Not to mention on a MUST STOP on defense to have a chance to tie, 98% of the crowd is SILENT. You could hear DV and Bussone stumbling all over each other 30 rows down and a cheerleader choke on her gum. It was that quiet. If there was any time to go nuts, that was it. If I was a BlueJay I would be real happy I didn't come play for a crowd like that.

Had a chance to reel one in at home to maybe make up for one of the multiple blown games earlier. Didn't/couldn't do it. Frustrating as all hell. AT ISU red becomes a much bigger game now. And...dare I say we HAVE to steal one at Qwest??? Maybe we can pull an @SIU once-in-a-decade win. Probably not.

The students no longer care about this team. Only a few remain from the years of the Sweet 16. If we can't get students out for Creighton on a WEDNESDAY, when will they come? ISU? Great. See you in another year, kids.

That's my 77 cents. See you in Bloomington on Saturday where I will be biting my tongue all afternoon hoping we pull one out so I can let loose!!!

[BUfan14]

HAHAHA too much too fast? 8 years? is that too fast? we are making strides?

A correct example team to profile with these characteristics is Illinois. they are struggling....but they have brought in a stud class....to be followed by an amazing class next year. I have hope for the future with Illinois...Bradley isn't doing anything and nothing appears to be coming soon.


1. We need a 5. Lawson had alot of fun tonight. If WE was playing the four it would be so fun.

2. Why not call a timeout on either of our final possessions??? I can't see why not calling a timeout is the best option....someone please explain. I bet it is because Jim Les and his staff have no idea what kind of play they could draw up because they don't have the knowledge.

3. I have a problem with Les. I just want a new face.

First of all JL is widley known for great out of time out plays. Second we have a stud recruit that is coming, of course nobody believes he is coming. And if you can't believe in the talent we have next year, I don't know what else you want in terms of something to believe in.....go ahead and root for the Illini if you like them so much

[Future Walk-On]

see you in Bloomington....we will get rolled by 10+ book it.

[Bravesfan]

BU scored 1 point in the final 3:56 at home.

Yeah, as I just stated on another thread, that has to stop immediately! I just don't get why this team has that "deer in headlights" look late in so many games, especially at home. They can get past it for the win a few times, but more often than not they panic due to two or three players always thinking they need to take over the game. That philosophy doesn't work with most teams. Unless we have a stud pro propect that has proven time and again that he is the person to give the ball to at the end of a tight game, we need to play as a team and set up a good final shot.

To get into these constant end of game scoring droughts does not say a lot for our team even if the effort is there. It's time some if not all of our players learn to relax a bit at the end of games. They have playing long enough now and they should be able to know by now how to set up a good final shot.

I know some here will bring up the coaching and some will say it's only the players fault. You know what? I don't care! I just want to see what this team is made of during these last nine games and hope we finish strong. We have shown in recent weeks we can do this. But now we have to be able to finish strong against good teams consistently. We turned the corner once against the teams we should beat. But now we have to turn that second corner and do it against the better teams in our conference. If we can do this, then we can also call ourselves one of the better teams in the Valley and maybe make some noise in the Valley Tournament.

[shaunguth]

see you in Bloomington....we will get rolled by 10+ book it.

Just curious, will we return the favor by 10+ when they come here? Maybe it's that isu is looking SOOOO much better than us right now? Seems to me they were one of the last undefeated teams in the country when they came here last year and I don't think they are as good this year.

[Braves4Life]

see you in Bloomington....we will get rolled by 10+ book it.

You really think so FWO? ISU has been playing bad and we have been on a mild roll. I'd be very surprised if we lose by 10+. I'll "bet" I'll be taking BU and the points.

[Bravesfan]

Clearly. We've lived with home losses to Creighton 6 of JL's 8 years. JL seems to be livin' just fine by losing this game every year!

I meant losing one close conference game at home per year. I didn't specify Creighton specifically.

[shaunguth]

I know some here will bring up the coaching and some will say it's only the players fault. You know what? I don't care! I just want to see what this team is made of during these last nine games and hope we finish strong. We have shown in recent weeks we can do this. But now we have to be able to finish strong against good teams consistently. We turned the corner once against the teams we should beat. But now we have to turn that second corner and do it against the better teams in our conference. If we can do this, then we can also call ourselves one of the better teams in the Valley and maybe make some noise in the Valley Tournament.

Agree on the first part. I'm not sure how you can blame either the coaches or the players independently of each other. I guess it is the coaches' fault for playing a freshman who committed a turnover and two fouls in just five minutes, but then how deep are we?

I don't think we can recover and catch UNI or WSU at this point. Again, how good is Creighton after only beating our terrible team by only five points? We don't really know yet, only that they're better than us. According to a lot of people that's not much of an accomplishment, so this is a two-horse race and the remaining eight teams are just not very good.