Braves come back and beat NIU 66-63

[VeveJones007]

WE has to be on the court a minimum of 20 minutes a game for us to have a shot. JP looked good, but after that it's pretty meager in the post.

Bussone is truly an enigma.

He's so over the top about Maniscalco. It's really hard to listen to. I almost want to fork over the money for BU.TV so I can sync up and watch and listen to radio broadcast.

[thefish7]

Instead of Swing March, they just play the intro song until tip off. Not sure why they are not letting the band play as much this season. Perhaps a band member can chime in.

Jason

They have done this before. WHY DO THEY KEEP DOING THIS? SWING MARCH! FREE THE BAND!

Sorry.

As I mentioned, I missed the game, and ESPN3 is apparently not hooked up at this hotel. Just looking through the stats... Sounds like people's assessment are pretty fair (particularly AW-- NICE numbers!) but for DSE he also had 6 assists and no turnovers? Is that a good number? Sounds like a decent enough game to me? Looks like he missed a pile of shots though, is that why people referencing a rough game?

[theBUer]

He's so over the top about Maniscalco. It's really hard to listen to. I almost want to fork over the money for BU.TV so I can sync up and watch and listen to radio broadcast.

At least we don't have Versace and his "Phi Slamma Jamma" whenever a Brave dunked the ball. Of course, I listened to Adams try to come up with clever metaphors for the play on the court.

He did call SM a gritty, gutsy player with those 3-pointers...

[SFP]

Where are all those AW haters? Also someone out there is going to owe me a beer!

[amckillip]

He's so over the top about Maniscalco. It's really hard to listen to. I almost want to fork over the money for BU.TV so I can sync up and watch and listen to radio broadcast.

Sam M is injured, hit all the big shots, and is clearly our best and toughest player. Without him on the court we just drive, or AW pulls up for 3 with 28 seconds left on the shot clock. Why can everyone else see this (media, other coaches, et. al), but several BU fans can't?

I'm not a huge fan of the TV crew, but it's not because they're in love with a player.

[lefty]

I haven't read through the threads at all..we could have folded and didn't.

We beat a bad team at home....which is better than losing to one.

SM saved us

We got a long way to go defensively...

JP looked good to me for the most part....would be nice to get some O from him..

We are going to have to work to create turnovers becuase rebounding won't be there this year.

Keeping guys fresh will be virtually impossible....I didn't see the box score but SM and AW won't be as effective middle of season playing 37-38 minutes.

[bigdaddystuck]

As for running a little clock when we had extended the lead a little.....I see the value in it. I actually was saying that to my wife and son that was what we should be doing.
BUT we should have some set plays that accomplish running the clock and give us a better shot than what we had last night. Too many times we run something or hold the ball until 9 secs to go and then it becomes a one on one for someone and we don't get off a quality shot.

As for the tv announcers last night...Bussone was/is in love with SM. Which, in general, I don't have a problem with. However the feed was picked up by ESPN and broadcast on the internet, just didn't sound professional to me.

SM, AW, and DD are the biggest reasons we won last night. I am glad to see them, as the veterans, stepping up and taking on those leading roles.

Also felt that JL used a lot of guys with different combinations to get a better feel for how guys will play together and to give some guys rest, looking ahead to tonight and the rest of the next week. WL is a heckuva player, but is still a freshman, don't really want to see him hit the wall, especially early in the season. JP showed some signs on both ends as well.

I am not crowning us as anything yet, but I was more pleased with what I saw, than I was disappointed.

[ER3]

There was a 4 or 5 minute stretch in the second half where we hit our shots and played pretty good basketball, but it was really spotty outside of that...

It was good to see Maniscalco hit a few shots in the second half because it was pretty depressing to sit there and watch him be unable to provide anything in the first half...

DSE and Lemon really need to spend some time working on their perimeter shooting...I love their athleticism at both ends of the floor, but they are gonna need to be able to hit some 3s with some degree of consistency to keep teams honest...We lose SM, AW, and DD after this season...and that leaves us with really no one coming back that would be considered a solid 3-point threat at this point in their careers...We really will need WL, DSE, and Eastman to develop that part of their game...

AW hit some big shots in the second half...that was great to see.

Memo to Jim Les...lose the Maniscalco isolation play at the end of the shot clock. Mix it up...show some creativity...run some sort of set play...something, anything other than this tired, stagnant isolation set that we run over and over again...It was only marginally effective last year when Sammy was close to 100%...this year it makes no sense to continue to put Sam in that position to try and create something with bad wheels...

Milos? I just don't know...he looks more and more lost every time he sees the floor...I feel like he should be able to be a real asset for us with his size and his potential to be a perimeter threat offensively...but he's such a liability defensively right now and he's not hitting his shots, so it's real hard to know what to do with him...Once Jake is healthy, I don't know how much time Milos will see if he doesn't pick things up...

AT? Maybe we'll be able to get 4 or 5 minutes a game out of this guy for the next couple of years...maybe he'll block a shot here or there, but he still looks completely overmatched by the D-I game more often than not. He is a pretty one-dimensional player...shot block or bust, pretty much...he jumps at everything that moves on the defensive end trying to block shots, but he doesn't appear to have good hands and he still doesn't look to be strong enough to hold his position on either end of the floor...

Well, it was a win...that's the good news...it will be interesting to see how this team bounces back today...I'm really worried to see how Sam's body is going to respond to the back-to-back games...because it was clear that this team and this offense really struggled when he wasn't making plays...

[VeveJones007]

Sam M is injured, hit all the big shots, and is clearly our best and toughest player. Without him on the court we just drive, or AW pulls up for 3 with 28 seconds left on the shot clock. Why can everyone else see this (media, other coaches, et. al), but several BU fans can't?

I'm not a huge fan of the TV crew, but it's not because they're in love with a player.

You get an A+ for projecting. I didn't say or imply anything that you inferred.

I agree that SM is the best player on this team and I love having him. I just want the play-by-play guy to call the game rather than fall all over himself proclaiming his love for a player. It's not up to Bussone to lead the SM bandwagon. It's his job to call the game.

[LittleBrave]

Not very impressive in any area of the game. This is going to be a disappointing year again. Is it just me or is t hard to get excited about this season and team?

Though I would have preferred a wider margin in the score, this game to me was exciting for an early season game. I really thought we were going to lose, but Sammy & A-Dubb made big shots and we had a nice 5-min. run in the 2nd half. Still excited about the season, but no so sure we will win 20 before Arch Madness. Seemed like TB's loss was apparent last night. We did not relent though. Let's get another W tonight - this is BIG to get a win before the tourney this weekend, which will be challenging.

[LG281]

About the band...

...I noticed that Dr. Vroman wasn't there last night. He actually had two different stand ins. Makes me think it was kind of on short notice - hope everything is alright.

About the music...

...have a friend in marketing that says they have talked about wanting to play more recorded music. Doesn't make much sense to me. To have a band but play recorded music is kind of like dressing the basketball teams for a game but watching Jim Les and the opposing coach duke it out on an Xbox instead.

About the crowd...

...team didn't give us much to be excited about...as was already mentioned. Plus, Tuesday night is just a bad night for a game (not that wednesday is any better)...do the greeks still have chapter on Tuesdays???

About the team...

...liked what I saw on defense, seeing improvement, even the bigs had some take-aways.

Rebounding was terrible...#5 on NIU was a ton - literally, the students even chanted "donuts" at him - and #12 (sorry, don't know their names) was a fighter...both were aggressive down low and our four guards couldn't match up.

Going to need to play better tonight. Silver lining about WE sitting out the first half is that his legs should be ready to go tonight.

Good luck Braves!!!

[LittleBrave]

Also with just a few seconds left and we're inbounding...I have a suggestion...
let Dodie inbounds the ball to Sammy -- NOT the other way around!!
Geez...you know you're going to get fouled and sent to the line -- so why not get the ball into the hands of your 85% FT shooter?? Is this such a foreign concept??

I don't remember this, T. I remember with a few seconds left DD got a big rebound and got fouled. Maybe you're talking about a different situation?

[LittleBrave]

The win will look a lot sweeter if we get the job done tonight. I was impressed with NIU's toughness and I didn't think they'd be as good. They look improved from the game they played us last season in DeKalb.

Here are my takes on our guys:
SM- after his 1st 3-ball, he felt the rhythm. Good to have him back - remember he struggled with his stroke early last season too.
WL - gives us strong minutes, not intimidated, and fun to watch his energy. Poised for a freshman, but sometimes does too much to create a play.
AW - AW-some on both ends. This is how he needs to play every game.
WE - What happened to "Will is finishing plays with dunks" that I heard in practices? His presence was felt and had some key steals. Take it up strong, Big Fella'!
DSE - Definitely struggled to score, but he'll get goin'. He seemed frustrated most of the night. Hang in there DSE, and keep workin' hard!
DD - Still not impressed by Dodie. Haven't seen him play a good game yet (in about 6 games) Had some easy buckets that he's gotta' hit, and got beat a couple times defensively.
JP - Plays well for a freshman post-player. Great follow-up lay-ups after misses. Nice hustle!
AT - fumbled the ball a couple times in the paint. Thought his D was pretty solid, but needs to get more boards. Get him more minutes.
MK - Yikes!

[Dubl R 1]

Oh & someone said BU didn't feed the post until WE's shot. There were 2-3 passes into the post in the first half that were either poorly timed or too low to handle. I know AT fumbled two and at least one other was out of JP's reach. If everytime you try to put it into the post it gets fumbled away, you stop trying. Until the bigs start rewarding the passes with baskets, the game in the post will suffer. Reminds me of the Bears running the ball, think sticking to it would help keep teams from standing on the 3 point line all night defending.

Im talking about a traditional post up on the block entry pass....All 3 of those others were off penetration where the pass was fired at the feet of the big man. And one of them wasn't really a pass, it was knocked away from Lemon to the feet of Thompson..who didn't come up with it. We didn't have a single block post up entry pass until just under the 14 min mark of the second half....Egolf scored very easily when we finally did it. And one of them wasn't really a pass