Bradley basketball nursing injuries...2 out of 3 ain't bad

[ER3]

talk about getting started even before the 1st exhibition -- you are the leading edge in the...
"Bradley should be better and I don't wanna hear excuses" crowd...
..I can see it now -- you're actually hoping for a couple serious injuries so you can drag out your displeasure about how BU did and claim you can't use excuses..

Yeah, that's it...you've got it all figured out...I want our players to suffer serious injuries and lose 20 games...give me a break.

***P.S. - the above statement was 100% sarcasm...Let the record show that I do not want BU players to get hurt, nor do I want BU to lose games this year...
I just want to clear that up in case someone tries to use the "these are YOUR own words.." trick to completely misrepresent the tone and meaning of what I have posted above...

[tornado]

concerned fans are hoping for the best for Sammy and your take on it is clear -- these are YOUR own words..

Love it...The excuse-wagon is already warming up in the driveway and we haven't even played our first exhibition game...

[Buesch N Chips]

talk about getting started even before the 1st exhibition -- you are the leading edge in the...
"Bradley should be better and I don't wanna hear excuses" crowd...
..I can see it now -- you're actually hoping for a couple serious injuries so you can drag out your displeasure about how BU did and claim you can't use excuses..

Nah, there's no one here who wants injuries. People are just frustrated. But if and when we do contend for the title, I will be watching for the "Why did this take 9 years?" post to bring everyone down. THAT would be a Negative Nellie.

[BradleyJD]

I understand what you are saying, and I agree that if Sam is limited we still should compete, but if there are people who say that injuries won't make us worse...

Of course, BU would feel an impact. I also believe they would still be a competitive team.

You cannot allow yourself to be negative thinkers when dealing with hardships. It never helps.

[Buesch N Chips]

Of course, BU would feel an impact. I also believe they would still be a competitive team.

You cannot allow yourself to be negative thinkers when dealing with hardships. It never helps.

I agree, but we are not the ones dealing with it, the coaching staff is. We are analyzing it.

[ER3]

I understand what you are saying, and I agree that if Sam is limited we still should compete, but if there are people who say that injuries won't make us worse...

Injuries have been incredibly frustrating to deal with the past few years, but we cannot just start ignoring them. That's lazy. Without knowing anything about the situation, I predict Sam will be just as healthy as he was last year.

Injuries are inevitable...every team has them...If Maniscalco were to miss a significant period of time, of course it would affect the team...We would need significant efforts from guys like DSE, Dunson, and Lemon to fill his shoes...

I just find it strange that we haven't even had our first public exhibition game yet, no one has said that Sam is going to miss any time, and yet we're already hearing the preemptive excuses from the usual suspects here...

I thought that this was the time of year where only optimism was allowed? Here's to hoping that Sam will be as effective as he was last year, and we can finally get over the 4/5 hump in conference play!!!

[ER3]

concerned fans are hoping for the best for Sammy and your take on it is clear -- these are YOUR own words..

Hilarious...I guess I'll have clarify my original statement for you, since you've clearly twisted the actual meaning of my post to fit your agenda...

When I said:
"Love it...The excuse-wagon is already warming up in the driveway and we haven't even played our first exhibition game..."

You clearly took the "Love it" to mean that I love the fact that Sam is nursing an injury of some sort...Umm, no, that is absurd...
The "love it" is referencing the fact that it makes me laugh that excuses are already being formulated to explain away "many losses" that may come this year if Sam misses time...We're not even going to wait to find out if Sam is actually going to miss time or to see if BU iis going to lose "many games"...let's get those potential excuses out there early and often...

[bu fan 9]

I was hoping sammy would be 100% so we would finally have a point guard. After watching McCain for 2 years it just about killed me.

[dogsrus]

Heres hoping for a healthy Sam...PERIOD. We ALL want that. (ER I KNOW you do also)

I stated earlier that we can't keep using the injury excuse to explain mediocre results almost every year. That didn't sit well with a few posters.....

What I meant is while injuries certainly can effect a teams performance they can't be used as a reason to keep a coach that doesn't win.

Relax..I'm NOT promoting firing anyone....just saying eventually almost any coach has to win/produce injuries or not.

I do believe THIS team is built to sustain an injury at the pg position....the bigs not so much IF at all. Think I'd rather lose SM for the year then WE for example.....NOT a knock on SM just that our depth in the frontcourt is not nearly as great...certainly not as proven.

Again, with that said, lets hope SM gives us all the minutes he can and remains healthy all year long...and long afterwards.

[Beninator]

That's like asking the 86-87ish team to win games without JL. I'm nto saying SM is as good, but the supporting cast isn't nearly as good either. You can take out your undoubted leader, senior captain, and best clutch player, not to mention point guard, and expect to be as good. If DSE starts for SM you have pretty much no depth at guard. I like JE, but let's see what he does, then you have a freshman, and walk-ons... not a great situation. It would probably lead to more 3 'big' lineups, but without SM that's not nearly as good, he'd by far our best ball distributor.

Without SM, I think this team would be extremely lucky to get 4th.

This is yet another reason for us to go BIG THIS YEAR! The larger lineup allows us to have some depth at the PG position!

[dogsrus]

Love it...The excuse-wagon is already warming up in the driveway and we haven't even played our first exhibition game...
If only, if only, we coulda-woulda-shoulda been a contender...

I understand what you are getting at ER but the fact is we WOULD most likely not be as good without SM in the lineup......with that said see my previous post.

Thats where I agree with you...injuries or not ANY coach eventually has to produce to keep his job IMO. Question is do the BU admins. take into account injuries or will they say "we need to win regardless."

What is an individuals defenition of producing. Is .500 producing...is 5th, 4th, 3rd in the Valley producing....is EIEIO producing or is it NIT enough........

I just get the feeling people will accept 16-14, 15-15 and EIEIO as long as they can trot out the injury or facilities excuse......which is FINE if thats their threshold.

A few years...ok, but for me injuries or not you have to show results sooner or later.

[real fan]

No doubt S.M. will be missed if he cannot play but we are more prepared now then ever to sub in another pg. that will perform well enough until Sam gets healthy, we probably sacrifice offense but get better defense in this trade off, only time will tell but it is too early to panic .

[AZ BU Fan]

BU will miss SM if he can't provide quality minutes vs tougher teams BU faces.

I would hope BU has players waiting in the wings to pick up the minutes SM can't provide at PG and perform well. If not, then next year will also be a disaster since BU will not have any acceptable PG on their roster for next year either.

I believe BU will compete for the top of the MVC without SM having to play significant minutes in every game.

If some think there isn't anyone on the current roster who can push SM at PG, its on the coach. If there is any position on the court JL should be able to recruit, it is PG....

[amckillip]

BU will miss SM if he can't provide quality minutes vs tougher teams BU faces.

I would hope BU has players waiting in the wings to pick up the minutes SM can't provide at PG and perform well. If not, then next year will also be a disaster since BU will not have any acceptable PG on their roster for next year either.

I believe BU will compete for the top of the MVC without SM having to play significant minutes in every game.

If some think there isn't anyone on the current roster who can push SM at PG, its on the coach. If there is any position on the court JL should be able to recruit, it is PG....

Sam is our best player, plain and simple. If you take the best player off of any team, it almost negates a top 2-3 finish. A year under SM is exactly what DSE needs to gain experience running the point, at which point he'll have enough experience to really be a force. If you take Derrick Rose off the Bulls, are they still a 'title contender'?

[Buesch N Chips]

Sam is our best player, plain and simple. If you take the best player off of any team, it almost negates a top 2-3 finish. A year under SM is exactly what DSE needs to gain experience running the point, at which point he'll have enough experience to really be a force. If you take Derrick Rose off the Bulls, are they still a 'title contender'?

Oh boy. You said a lot there. It depends on how good he is compared to how good his replacement is. I don't think we know enough at this time. I'm not a huge Bulls guy buy I think that Rose's replacement is a greater step down in talent to him than Sam's replacement.