Good feeling before Valley season

[LittleBrave]

A feeling that's been missing the past 3 years heading into league play. It's a nice change to end the non-conf. play (except B'busters) with a 2-game winning streak, playing our best ball to this point.
The story has been the same the previous 3 seasons - getting off to a hot start, beating legit teams - then we go through a funk in mid-December, feeling deflated heading into conference play.

I am not nearly as disappointed at this point as I've been the last 3 seasons.
My only disappointment is thinking of what could have been with our 2 All-Valley players healthy this season.

In 2007-'08, we were reeling after D-Ruff's injury, entering league play after a 15-pt. loss to VCU, who we'd beaten the previous season at their place.

In 2008-'09, we entered league play trying to establish an identity, barely beating a weak SIU-Edwardville team.

Last season, we all remember the heartbreak of losing leads late, and entered league play after a dismal 20+ pt. loss to a mediocre Iowa St. team.

Great to see Coach Les beaming as the guys were walking off the court last night after a good win.

I have seen steady improvement since the very ugly loss to the Utes. I wouldn't expect a better record than 6-5 after losing TB & SM for the season.
I'm proud of the Braves dealing with circumstances and making the most of the season, knowing that a Valley Championship, NIT, etc. is a looooong shot.

FEELING GOOD heading into the Valley season, though it's going to take performances like the last 2 games to have a winning record in the Valley.

[BU RICK]

I've got a good feeling too! Better than a few weeks ago... I thought Detroit is as good as we'll face in the Valley and here's what JL said in the Dave Reynolds' article in the Journal Star...???These guys needed this game against this team,??? BU coach Jim Les said. ???It??™s as talented as any team we??™ll face in the Valley. That should give them a lot of confidence. It??™s a great Christmas present and a great feather in their cap.???

If we can have an inside game like we did last night we can be good. Just need to be consistent to the standard we set last night for ourself. Some of the players are getting more playing time than they would have with SM and TB sidelined and those players are starting to look real good. Keep the inside game improving

[LittleBrave]

I've got a good feeling too! Better than a few weeks ago... I thought Detroit is as good as we'll face in the Valley and here's what JL said in the Dave Reynolds' article in the Journal Star...???These guys needed this game against this team,??? BU coach Jim Les said. ???It??™s as talented as any team we??™ll face in the Valley. That should give them a lot of confidence. It??™s a great Christmas present and a great feather in their cap.???

If we can have an inside game like we did last night we can be good. Just need to be consistent to the standard we set last night for ourself. Some of the players are getting more playing time than they would have with SM and TB sidelined and those players are starting to look real good. Keep the inside game improving

Yes, all our guys looked pretty good last night - even WL going 1-9 looked good missing those lay-ups! He is going to be dyno-mite for us during his BU career!
I'm not sure that Detroit is as talented as any team in the Valley - I think UNI & WSU are better. They would be a Top 3 team IMO in the Valley. Big boost of confidence for us beating Detroit!

[houstontxbrave]

Look it was a nice win. ISUblue has been a very difficult place for Bradley even in the best of times then its WSU on the 1st.

Ill take the one game at a time approach with this version of Bradley Basketball. I agree this team is showing some signs of improving but the Bradley program under Les overall has also shown an inability to sustain momentum especially when it comes to early season Valley action.

If we are anywhere near contention come Feb, then well it might be time to "feel good"

[LittleBrave]

My point is - I feel better at this point of the season that I did in the previous 3 seasons. I am encouraged rather than discouraged.

We may just play awful next Wednesday, but at least we can be hopeful heading into league play.

We don't have much to lose this season anyways - just to get better as a whole and find the right chemistry so that we can build on success toward next season.
I don't expect a Valley Championship given the loss of arguably our 2 best players...of course, AW has been nothing short of AWesome.

I'd be o.k. if we finished in the Top half, played with intensity as we have the past 3 games, and we continue to get better. I'm not sure if we had a stretch of games last season where we played with intensity and focus. We have begun a stretch of doing that, which is something to feel good about. To me, guys are buying into what Coach Les preaches on tougher defense, better shot selection with good ball movement, and a team-oriented approach.

I'm excited that we may see more development in guys like JP, WL, JE, heck - even AT! DSE will get back to playing like himself, and Drew has been fun to watch aside from the Duke game. And we may surprise some Valley teams if everyone plays their role.

[AZ BU Fan]

My point is - I feel better at this point of the season that I did in the previous 3 seasons. I am encouraged rather than discouraged.

A sign of the times......

Past three seasons....discouraged because teams we hoped were great weren't

This season....encouraged because a team we didn't think could compete has a chance to finish .500 or better

Guess we just need to lower the BU expectation bar each future pre-season to get our hopes up and feel better!

LittleBrave....Why no participation in the chat room last night during the game? Everyone there had lots of fun with their witty banter and keen in game observations.

[Bravesfan]

A feeling that's been missing the past 3 years heading into league play. It's a nice change to end the non-conf. play (except B'busters) with a 2-game winning streak, playing our best ball to this point.
The story has been the same the previous 3 seasons - getting off to a hot start, beating legit teams - then we go through a funk in mid-December, feeling deflated heading into conference play.

I am not nearly as disappointed at this point as I've been the last 3 seasons.
My only disappointment is thinking of what could have been with our 2 All-Valley players healthy this season.

In 2007-'08, we were reeling after D-Ruff's injury, entering league play after a 15-pt. loss to VCU, who we'd beaten the previous season at their place.

In 2008-'09, we entered league play trying to establish an identity, barely beating a weak SIU-Edwardville team.

Last season, we all remember the heartbreak of losing leads late, and entered league play after a dismal 20+ pt. loss to a mediocre Iowa St. team.

Great to see Coach Les beaming as the guys were walking off the court last night after a good win.

I have seen steady improvement since the very ugly loss to the Utes. I wouldn't expect a better record than 6-5 after losing TB & SM for the season.
I'm proud of the Braves dealing with circumstances and making the most of the season, knowing that a Valley Championship, NIT, etc. is a looooong shot.

FEELING GOOD heading into the Valley season, though it's going to take performances like the last 2 games to have a winning record in the Valley.

All great points LittleBrave. I don't know if we have a real great shot at the NIT this year either, but I'm confident that we can do better than the 7 or 8 conference wins that many thought we would end up with after losing SM in particular.

I'm still hoping for 10 to 11 Valley wins and some sort of postseason, but the biggest thing for me is not losing games to bad teams at home, and especially losing games by not making FT's, easy layups or committing cheap turnovers. Still saw a bit of that last night with between 2 and 6 minutes remaining in the game. However, I certainly did like the way we put Detroit away the last two minutes (for a change) and hopefully we can show that same type of poise at the end of many games this year. If we do, we should have at least another decent year even if it only results in the CBI/CIT again.

[DeltaBrave03]

This is why I opted to wait until a few weeks into the valley season to hit the panic button like so many wanted to do. After the two injuries to key players, this team is finally starting to learn knew roles, what works, and find their rhythm. I still think there's plenty of talent to match up with anybody in the valley except WSU, but once the conf. season starts who knows what can happen.