Bite the Bullet

[dogsrus]

I know I am in the minority here, but.....just don't see how we are as horrible as everyone is saying. That does not mean I am happy with the results.

OK...lets say the TEAM isn't as horrible as some might think...what about the ENTIRE experience.

Have you EVER seen so much apathy, disinterest and Shhhhhhhhhh....lack of noise NOT to mention the empty seats.

They could have done the ole...upper bowl please move down to the lower bowl deal.

In fact I hope they do that for the 5000 that show up Sunday for the Nationally telivised game.

[theBUer]

You are insane if you think 'sense of pity' will keep a coach around. Give me a break. If 'sense of pity' had anything to do with anything, coaches would never get replaced.

I don't feel any pity for the guy. This guy had an insane amount of expectation placed on him by the fan base, and now he pretty much has a ragtag team that thus far is 6 games in the hole in Valley play.

Administration is just going to throw him a bone, whether you or I think it is a boneheaded move is moot. They make the decisions, and they will live with the consequences.

There's also the convenient excuse of a major fundraising drive. Faculty and students who covet that new convergence center might balk at a buyout...

[BradleyBrave]

I don't feel any pity for the guy. This guy had an insane amount of expectation placed on him by the fan base, and now he pretty much has a ragtag team that thus far is 6 games in the hole in Valley play.

Administration is just going to throw him a bone, whether you or I think it is a boneheaded move is moot. They make the decisions, and they will live with the consequences.

There's also the convenient excuse of a major fundraising drive. Faculty who covet that new convergence center might balk at a buyout...

Faculty have nothing to do with a buyout. It's the president and trustees (AD will have little to do with the decision either). They're taking a loss one way or the other - Whether it's from empty seats at Carver and lost revenues from canceled season tickets, or from buying out the last year or two of the deal. There will be no 'bone throwing' because of pity or fear.

[ph]

The main factor in favor of JL is we lost TB due to a new administrative policy. If this were a typical injury I'd have no sympathy for JL

Although the policy is not common, if it were implemented a few years ago, we don't lose TB this season. I think this places the AD in an odd place. First: we expect you to compete for championships. The a few months later: we've now changed our minds and decided that our athletes lives are now more important than winning so we're implementing a new policy. Now they are supposed to come back and say, we changed our minds again and winning really mattered? Who wants to work under that confusion?

[dogsrus]

How are you 'convinced'? I was certain we would have won most of our non-con games, but we had one of the worst non-con schedules in recent memory. MVC is a different story. Do you think at full strength we're better than WSU, MSU, or CU? I say no way.

Just my gut feeling.....we really haven't been blownout save WSU. Sam makes the team better and Brown AND Sam makes us deeper and gives us 3 scoring options vs one. Teams couldn't focus on AW and it would make him even MORE a threat.

Full strength we compete with those 3....we beat 2 of 3 at home and steal one on the road. I thinks its WSU then CU,BU and MSU fighting for 2,3 and 4th. Again just MY thoughts from what I have seen.

As decent as DD has been he is no pg......Sam makes the snake move. The head got cut off and the body is not the same.

Again, with all that said, I'm as tired as the next guy as waiting for "what if."

[SaintLouBrave22]

Why is it everyone constantly brings up Sammy like he is the biggest loss?!

Taylor is the biggest loss...we have a billion guards, maybe not that can do everything Sam can, BUT we don't have another Taylor...that's been magnified completely, and the fact that Les didn't recruit anyone as his backup plan or someone that could take over the point effectively like Sammy did when Ruff was hurt is one of the bigger reasons that he should be canned!

Along with that, I don't see this blind optimism that we would be so much better even with those two players at full strength...

Remember, we still have no inside game in this scenario and it still takes minutes away from others because Les would still screw up the rotation...

We couldn't beat SIU at home with a better team last year and I don't see us beating Indiana State on the road or beat UNI...

So at best we may be 2-4 and I'm not even sure that happens because that would say we beat Drake on the road.

[TheAsianSensation]

Why is it everyone constantly brings up Sammy like he is the biggest loss?!

I think there's a leadership void on the team now that Sammy would be filling right now. Not saying Taylor can't be a leader either, but Sammy is a more natural leader.

And I can distinctly point to the first 4 games of the season, all wins by just a couple of points, and can directly point to big plays Sammy made down the stretch to win those games.

We might not be better than 2-4 or 3-3 at full strength in the Valley, fine, but that's still a big deal and significantly better than 0-6.

[ph]

In terms of long range planning, JL did the right thing. If you look back a few years ago, our long range plan for this years team, the potential players for the 4 position were WE, TB, MK, SH and JW.

As time progressed, TB rose to option A, WE was delegated to 5, and the others literally or figuratively did not show up this year. So plans B C and D fell out, the A was taken at the last minute. I think part of the M.O. Recruitment would of helped move WE to a backup 4 but that fell through, too. So in the end, plans were OK, but final execution stumbled...

[TheAsianSensation]

I think JL is untouchable. If they haven't made a change by now, why would they after this season?

I think he will be back next season.

Because I think there's a difference between stalling out at 18-15 (9-9) and bottoming out at 8-20 (2-16). I think there was a false sense of security about having a "floor" to the program, not having the team slip below .500 in several years now. Now that the floor has given way, it brings about new territory for the program under Les that will force reevaluation (whether that reevaluation includes termination is to be seen).

[real fan]

I know I am in the minority here, but.....just don't see how we are as horrible as everyone is saying. That does not mean I am happy with the results.

We just set a BU record for losing 6 in a row in the conference, how bad does it need to get.

[ph]

How many in a row did we loose with JC out in 06-07?

[LittleBrave]

How are you 'convinced'? I was certain we would have won most of our non-con games, but we had one of the worst non-con schedules in recent memory. MVC is a different story. Do you think at full strength we're better than WSU, MSU, or CU? I say no way.

Double No way!
We likely lose our 1st 2 (@ Indy St. , vs. Wichita) with SM & TB, and even if we won the last 4, that means we'd still be 4th or 5th best in the Valley.
Even if we were sitting at 2-4 this season (which looks great now!), that is VERY bad in this league this year!

Shame on us for all the excuses about lack of talent when an Evansville team finds themselves in a similar predicament, but somehow they manage to be ahead of us in the league. They are a notch above us right now unless we beat them in Evansville.

[Da Coach]

We just set a BU record for losing 6 in a row in the conference, how bad does it need to get.

This is just one more of the inaccurate statements I've seen here in the last couple days. The Bradley record is not 6 in a row. Bradley lost 8 in a row in the 2003-2004 season, and there have been other years with longer losing streaks than 6.

http://www.bradleybraves.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=19332&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&KEY=&Q_SEASON=2003

[bigdaddystuck]

Just my gut feeling.....we really haven't been blownout save WSU. Sam makes the team better and Brown AND Sam makes us deeper and gives us 3 scoring options vs one. Teams couldn't focus on AW and it would make him even MORE a threat.

Full strength we compete with those 3....we beat 2 of 3 at home and steal one on the road. I thinks its WSU then CU,BU and MSU fighting for 2,3 and 4th. Again just MY thoughts from what I have seen.

As decent as DD has been he is no pg......Sam makes the snake move. The head got cut off and the body is not the same.

Again, with all that said, I'm as tired as the next guy as waiting for "what if."

This is pretty much what I have been thinking and sharing with JD and others. We have been competitive, save a few games. With SM and TB playing we would be a much better team and deeper.

Right now we are playing guys who were not expected to play as an important role this year. BU is not some big named school who recruits a bench full of all-americans out of high school. There was a time last night that we had Lemon (fr), Prosser (fr), Eastman (so), DSE (so) in the game at the sametime! I don't think that too many BCS schools would want to put that kind of lineup in!!!

When TB went down my expectations for this team was that we could still play around .500 ball. When SM went down...my expectations were that we were going to struggle and that I didn't know how we were going to score, with only AW left to take the whole load. My win percentage dropped to below .500.

In truth, I see a team that goes out to compete every game. Through the defense they give themselves a shot to win the game, almost every night.

Now that is not saying I am happy with the season. I want us to win and I am frustrated with the results we have had so far. I just guess I am looking at it differently than others. I am not only focusing on the wins and losses.

[BradleyJD]

This is just one more of the inaccurate statements I've seen here in the last couple days. The Bradley record is not 6 in a row. Bradley lost 8 in a row in the 2003-2004 season, and there have been other years with longer losing streaks than 6.
http://www.bradleybraves.com/SportSe...&Q_SEASON=2003

Is it bad that we are reduced to saying we are bad, but not historically bad yet?????

8 straight losses...now THERE is a goal to shoot for