With Dodie

[Da Coach]

Yes! Love DD but we'll never know and our real deficiencies have been with the lack of a big.

The home losses to Western Carolina, Loyola, SIU, and the road losses at Northern Iowa, Wichita State, and Indiana State were not due to a lack of a center. Those are the games I believe Bradley could have won with another quality, athletic guard like Dodie to defend the guards on the other teams, and provide scoring.

Yes, I would like to have a 5 like Lawson, and that would have been what we needed to beat Creighton and Illinois State. But just having DD would have helped us battle for 2nd place.

[BradleyBrave]

Regardless of what people's opinion are on the matter, I am very glad Dodie will be back next year. Intangibles aside, big guards like him are hard to find. Dodie's injury was definitely one of my 2-3 angriest moments this season, and there have been several!

[braveatheart]

I think we really missed DD this year. IMO, losing big leads in the second half of games came from playing our starters too many minutes. DD would have solved all of that. Our three starting guards and TB really picked up all his minutes.

As I have stated before, if you are expected to play intense defense on every possesion and play hard on offense, you will run out of steam by the end of the game. If the guy you are up against is more rested, you have a serious disadvantage.

Of course JE lost his redshirt as a result of this too. I am sure I will catch flack for this but, I think JE plays more like a forward than a guard anyway. I think Jake has earned the job as TB's backup.

[houstontxbrave]

I have no idea if DD would have given us any more wins. But I do know he would have helped bigtime on the defensive end guarding shooters.

Our two biggest issues this season have been defending the 3 and rebounding. He would have been a huge asset on the defensive end.

Another part of our game that is bigtime missing is leadership. DD would have provided a lot of leadership in those 5 games we blew double digit leads.

Other things he brought were very good shooting but also he was not afraid to put the ball on the court and go to the rim. He would have simply made everyone on the court better. I think we could not have chosen another player more important to have lost all season.

But with the minutes DD would have taken we would not have seen the growth of DSE and certainly would not have seen any of Eastman. Both's expericence will prove to be incredibly valuable in the next 3 years.

[houstontxbrave]

The home losses to Western Carolina, Loyola, SIU, and the road losses at Northern Iowa, Wichita State, and Indiana State were not due to a lack of a center. Those are the games I believe Bradley could have won with another quality, athletic guard like Dodie to defend the guards on the other teams, and provide scoring.

Yes, I would like to have a 5 like Lawson, and that would have been what we needed to beat Creighton and Illinois State. But just having DD would have helped us battle for 2nd place.

Western Carolina out boarded by 2
Loyola out boarded by 14
SIU even
@UNI we out boarded them by 7
@WSU out boarded by 5
@ISU blue we out boarded them by 8

6 board difference.

This season we have been out boarded by a total of 56.

We have been out boarded on the offensive glass by 69.

We actually have out boarded our opponents by 13 on the defensive boards.

That is an extra 2.38 possessions a game we give up.

A big like Lawson would have not only helped in the above 6 games but would have helped bigtime in the other 23 games.

[SFP]

The home losses to Western Carolina, Loyola, SIU, and the road losses at Northern Iowa, Wichita State, and Indiana State were not due to a lack of a center. Those are the games I believe Bradley could have won with another quality, athletic guard like Dodie to defend the guards on the other teams, and provide scoring.

Yes, I would like to have a 5 like Lawson, and that would have been what we needed to beat Creighton and Illinois State. But just having DD would have helped us battle for 2nd place.

I see where you are coming from but a true big would have kept our guys fresher and the ability to pound the ball inside. It would change our team's focus and open up our shooters. On the defensive side I'm not even going to comment. Regardless of DD or not we should never have lost against the Loyola or SIU game. I guess what I'm saying is with DD back next year we should be better even though we are losing CR but how much better without a true big is very questionable. I love the way DD plays with a ton of heart, hustle and the no I in team mentality. Those are some qualities that this team could have used his experience and perhaps pulled off a few more wins.

[houstontxbrave]

I see where you are coming from but a true big would have kept our guys fresher and the ability to pound the ball inside. It would change our team's focus and open up our shooters. On the defensive side I'm not even going to comment. Regardless of DD or not we should never have lost against the Loyola or SIU game. I guess what I'm saying is with DD back next year we should be better even though we are losing CR but how much better without a true big is very questionable. I love the way DD plays with a ton of heart, hustle and the no I in team mentality. Those are some qualities that this team could have used his experience and perhaps pulled off a few more wins.

A big to play the 5 instead of WE, would have kept WE from having so many foul issues. Also he could play the 4 and be facing up which he looks more comfortable at, would have let Brown play more 3 and a lot less 4 and Warren, DD, SM all could interchange at the 1/2. A 5 who is capable of playing that position is sorely needed at Bradley and has been for now 4 years.

[real fan]

No doubt Dodie could have helped us win a few more games but it still would not have helped the lack of a center that can defend, rebound and score against UNI,WSU, ISU and Creighton which have good centers that are much bigger and better then Will or Sam, look at the stats of these teams that have finished in front of us and it all comes down to the 5 position.