The Season Thus Far - Weighing In

[Missouri Brave]

I've read a lot of things written since the EIU loss and, since I don't post here too often and generally see very few Bradley games being on the East Coast, I thought I'd weigh in from afar. Again, I rarely have the benefit of seeing these guys face-to-face so take these observations for what they're worth.

First, if you would've told me before the start of the season that Taylor Brown would not be available, I would've been pleased with a 4-2 start. Though losing to EIU is obviously quite the stunner, having two losses at this point in the year is not, at least to me (and I'm far from a clairvoyant). In fact, I see a number of positives and negatives:

SIGNIFICANT POSITIVES:
1. Our ability to win close games.
2. Andrew Warren's return as a scorer. And leading the team in rebounding as well.
3. The excitement Walt Lemon brings to the table.
4. Our rebounding improvement the past two games.
5. The resilience and togetherness the team has displayed with Taylor out.
6. Prosser. The kid will be 1st team all MVC his last two years at BU.

SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVES
1. Sammy's turnovers. Like a loyal coach, JL is covering for him with the injury stuff. Eight turnovers is a lot.
2. Our outside shooting. This is where we need Milos and Jake, right? Tough to run a four-guard offense without great shooters.
3. Lack of post scoring.
4. Lack of consistency, on both sides of the ball.

What will be most interesting, of course, is to see is how the Braves react to this latest defeat. We now have the Quincy and EIU contests to show us what can happen if we don't bring play as hard and as smart as we can every night. To the point above, I would guess that the message Coach Les emphasized after EIU is the same thing he stressed after Quincy. Let's see if the troops take it more seriously this time. It will likely determine the season.

Let's also remember that it is an adjustment playing without Taylor, too. If we can go 3-2 over the rest of the preseason, I'll be happy, but 2-3 is probably more realistic. By that time, I think we'll have more of a rhythm and will be ready for the MVC. And yes, I am a glass is half full type of guy.

Best case: team gels, shooting and defense are consistent and we make a run in the MVC. More likely: we play pretty good ball, the seniors step up and lead and nab an NIT berth.

That's it from me, folks. Again, take it for what it's worth. Have a great holiday season and God bless all of you.

[Da Coach]

Good assesment.
The issue with Sammy's turnovers is clearly because he is not 100% healthy. I don't see how he will be able to recover if he has to play 35 minutes a game.

[real fan]

Good assesment.
The issue with Sammy's turnovers is clearly because he is not 100% healthy. I don't see how he will be able to recover if he has to play 35 minutes a game.

One of the reasons we should not be playing him so many minutes especially with all these games in a short time frame.

[Chico]

Good assesment.
The issue with Sammy's turnovers is clearly because he is not 100% healthy. I don't see how he will be able to recover if he has to play 35 minutes a game.

IMO, Sammy could have been given the night off against EIU giving him an extra week to rest his ankles after so many games in such a short period of time and the Braves still should have beaten EIU.

[Bravesfan]

I've read a lot of things written since the EIU loss and, since I don't post here too often and generally see very few Bradley games being on the East Coast, I thought I'd weigh in from afar. Again, I rarely have the benefit of seeing these guys face-to-face so take these observations for what they're worth.

First, if you would've told me before the start of the season that Taylor Brown would not be available, I would've been pleased with a 4-2 start. Though losing to EIU is obviously quite the stunner, having two losses at this point in the year is not, at least to me (and I'm far from a clairvoyant). In fact, I see a number of positives and negatives:

SIGNIFICANT POSITIVES:
1. Our ability to win close games.
2. Andrew Warren's return as a scorer. And leading the team in rebounding as well.
3. The excitement Walt Lemon brings to the table.
4. Our rebounding improvement the past two games.
5. The resilience and togetherness the team has displayed with Taylor out.
6. Prosser. The kid will be 1st team all MVC his last two years at BU.

SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVES
1. Sammy's turnovers. Like a loyal coach, JL is covering for him with the injury stuff. Eight turnovers is a lot.
2. Our outside shooting. This is where we need Milos and Jake, right? Tough to run a four-guard offense without great shooters.
3. Lack of post scoring.
4. Lack of consistency, on both sides of the ball.

What will be most interesting, of course, is to see is how the Braves react to this latest defeat. We now have the Quincy and EIU contests to show us what can happen if we don't bring play as hard and as smart as we can every night. To the point above, I would guess that the message Coach Les emphasized after EIU is the same thing he stressed after Quincy. Let's see if the troops take it more seriously this time. It will likely determine the season.

Let's also remember that it is an adjustment playing without Taylor, too. If we can go 3-2 over the rest of the preseason, I'll be happy, but 2-3 is probably more realistic. By that time, I think we'll have more of a rhythm and will be ready for the MVC. And yes, I am a glass is half full type of guy.

Best case: team gels, shooting and defense are consistent and we make a run in the MVC. More likely: we play pretty good ball, the seniors step up and lead and nab an NIT berth.

That's it from me, folks. Again, take it for what it's worth. Have a great holiday season and God bless all of you.

Great post MB! I was as upset as anyone on her after the EIU loss, and still have not fully gotten over this loss yet either. I think that was a must win game if we have shot of at least an NIT run since those non-conference games count just as much towards the season win/loss total. And I being a huge Les defender on here even thought this was not one of his best coaching efforts, something even he alluded to following the game. But I have since come to realize that we can still salvage this season, but it has to start on the road at W. Carolina, not an easy task.

A win at W. Carolina can somehat make up for the EIU loss. I say somewhat for two reasons. First I had this game tagged as a loss anyway since WCU is a pretty darn good team, especailly at their place. Second, you can't fully make up for losing to a mediocre team at home like EIU, but you can even up the predicted record with a win at WCU. So this is a big game in terms of how our team will respond after the EIU loss. That it happened just before the holiday and longer layoff will probably allow everyone involved some time for a little soul searching.

As far as your prediction MB, well first I was hoping for at minimum an 8-3 non-conference record heading into the Valley season. But now I am hoping to at least see some signs that this team can play well on the road and prove to me that they can win games against better teams, enough so that they get to maybe 11 or so Valley wins to put them into NIT contention. A 6-5 non-con record will only be good enough for an NIT birth if they finish 3rd in the Valley with at least 12 wins. That's why I felt 8 or 9 non-con wins was imperative to give ourselves a much better shot at at least an NIT birth. So, I'm hoping that outside of losing at Duke they may be able to run the table during the non-con portion of their schedule. Of course that would mean beating the aforementioned WCU at their place, AND beating a very dangerous Detroit team at home, a team predicted to at least challange Butler for the Horizon championship. If BU wins those two games while not losing anymore games they should be winning, THEN I will feel a lot better with this team going into the Valley portion of their season. But they put themselves way behind the 8-ball with this EIU loss, and that's why felt so disgusted after that game.

Your goal of seeing BU go 3-2 the rest of the way would give them a 7-4 record with decent wins over LMU and USC. Not bad, but could have been a touch better. But right now 7-4 might sound pretty darn good! Hopefully 7 non-con wins along with 11 Valley wins would get them into NIT contention, but even that would probably only be good enough for the NIT bubble. That's why the Bracketbuster and St. Louis would be important too.

Like I said, good assessment of the state of the team Missouri Brave. You have a great holiday season too!

[Out of Balance]

IMO, Sammy could have been given the night off against EIU giving him an extra week to rest his ankles after so many games in such a short period of time and the Braves still should have beaten EIU.

+10 You are 100% correct, Chico Would of been a great opportunity to start JP and turn over the point DSE or DD

[amckillip]

+10 You are 100% correct, Chico Would of been a great opportunity to start JP and turn over the point DSE or DD

Agreed. It's easy to say this in hindsight though. If we would have won by 2 I'm not sure we'd be so quick to say this.

[AZ BU Fan]

Hold your thoughts "half-full" folks....

While past performance is no guarantee of future results, it will be interesting to see if/why this BU team can turn itself around/on, when in similar circumstances in the past couple of years it hasn't been able to.

BU's supporting cast of characters needs to step up...No team can have the kind of success most BU fans hope for if the whole program depends on one player, which now can't play this year, resulting in another key player to wear himself into the ground playing too many minutes.

Will check back with you after the preseason, and, again after the MVC.