BU Beats UW-Parkside 87-77

[Canton BU fan]

After watching the game last night I felt pretty good, not great, but after reading some of these comments I wonder if I should bother to show up for any more games. I guess I just didn't know what I was watching.

[bu fan 9]

I know its only been one game but last nites game reminded me of the Albeck years and I don't like that style of play.

[tornado]

what you saw - was what I saw -- a pretty good hustling effort and a bunch of guys adjusting to a style of play and an offensive scheme they have never played before!
We shot OVER 52%, and outhustled, outrebounded, and outplayed the opponent - who BTW -- didn't play all that badly - hitting a lot of bailout threes, and nailing close to 100% of their FTs - something I know our defense wasn't responsible for and that they won't be doing all season.

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

After watching the game last night I felt pretty good, not great, but after reading some of these comments I wonder if I should bother to show up for any more games. I guess I just didn't know what I was watching.

After reading some of these comments, I wonder if I should just stop reading message boards!

I just want to see improvement from this team, and I saw a lot of positives last night.

[Braves4Life]

-first - this quote is a tiny bit disingenuous...because in the 16-team GLVC - they play in TWO different divisions, and the voting for the East & the West Divisions is done completely separately...

So yes, they were picked last in the East (8th out of 8 teams) but no voting was taken of all 16 teams together - so we really don't know if they would have been last given the SEPARATE polls for the two divisions.

-second - It is possible this team could be better than a last place team in their conference - only time will tell...... I kinda recall Drake being picked last in the MVC in 2007-08..




OK - I'll bite --

-people clammored for more offense - we got it

-people said we gotta win the exhibitions - losing to a D-II team is intolerable - and WE WON, and won by double digits and were really never truly threatened

-people said we need to rebound better and win the rebounding battle - WE DID and we won the rebounding battle easily

-people said we need to shoot better, and we shot an amazing 53% from the field!!

-people said we need to take better care of the ball - well we had 15 TO but much of that total was because the coach used the EXHIBITION GAME as a tool to try out a new option at PG - and it paid dividends in showing the coach what maybe he needed to see!
BUT -- only two players had more than a two turnovers....for the most part when we had starters on the floor with Donivine at PG - we had almost NO turnovers.

I guess folks can choose to be bummed out or hate what they saw - but I think we'll be OK...

This is just a GREAT post tornado! Sometimes I wonder if people really know what they want. smh

[Canton BU fan]

This is just a GREAT post tornado! Sometimes I wonder if people really know what they want. smh

I have to wonder if the reason is some people are still mad about the coaching change

[buschsquirrel2011]

This is just a GREAT post tornado! Sometimes I wonder if people really know what they want. smh

I have to wonder if the reason is some people are still mad about the coaching change

I would certainly hope not but who knows. I don't think its a newsflash but Geno Ford is now the coach and will be for the foreseeable future. Settle in. It ain't changing and it ain't going back to what it was 2, 8, or 12 years ago.

[ManMythLegend]

My impressions (and let me note I was not very impressed at the Red/White scrimmage, but it's always hard to tell when you're playing yourself):

I thought Taylor looked great last night and I think he is in for a great season as long as we can have a couple of other offensive threats to keep him from being doubled constantly.

Stewart really surprised me for his first game. He handled the ball very well and made good decisions. Is he always going to shoot 100% from the floor? NO! BUT, I think he is going to turn out to be a very good player for BU.

Jake was typical Jake. Crashing the boards, playing bigger than he is, and doing all of the little things that help teams be better. The big plus here is that he helped on the offensive end, which I feel we will need throughout the season to compete.

Walt struggled handling the ball. It just looks like at this point, he is too fast for his own good. We will wait to see how he continues to develop, but overall he had a decent showing.

DSE struggled tonight and seemed to be cramping up a lot. You could tell that he was NOT happy about the way he was playing. I'm not overly worried about him though, he's showed what he can do and I believe he will be just fine this season .

Prosser looked a little timid yesterday in the first half, but looked better in the second half. Maybe he's still a little worried about that knee? I don't know, but we know he can be a good player and I expect him to be this year (we can't afford to not have him be productive).

Shayok Shayok looked a little unpolished, but the ability and size is certainly there. For a bigger guy, he can handle the rock pretty well. I think he's going to have a good career for BU.

Milos, Crawford, and Hodges didn't see enough floor time to give a good evaluation. I'd love to see Milos become that perimeter threat that we would all love to have. The other two...we will wait and see.

Nate is definitely a big boy and can alter shots. If he is going to be utilized this year, he needs to work on staying out of foul trouble positioning himself better on defense and setting up for the rebounds. One thing is for sure, you cannot teach his size!

Overall, not a terrible game. I thought we should've blown them out but our defense was lacking in the 1st half (and quite a bit of the 2nd half). One other thing to note is that Parkside shot the ball at a 50% clip in the first half and were perfect on their free throws. We sent them to the line way too much otherwise we would've had a more padded lead at the break.

Excited for the next game, the rest of the season and the future for BU. I think we have a lot to build on here. GO BRAVES!

[Toyota12]

Refund

I am sure with your negative attitude they would MORE than happy to refund your tickets!! The team does not need an attitude like yours on the HILLTOP!!

Well just call me a negative Nellie, but what I saw tonight was nothing short of a cr@pfest! Going into this, I wasn't expecting miracles, but I was certainly expecting more than was shown tonight! I wanted to see this team at least display a purpose on the floor and show signs that they knew where they belonged on the floor! This team had no clue on the offensive and defensive side of the ball for very long stretches of the game. Defense was terrible.... Rebounding slightly better.

Someone...anyone explain to me why Walt should be our PG! I would love to hear the reasoning!!!

Walt should be our 2 guard, with DSE at the point for now. If we make that adjustment, Walt will have a big year for us!

If there was any doubt about whether or not to redshirt Nate Wells, the answer from tonight is a resounding YES to a redshirt. Nate and the program will be better off for redshirting.

Can someone explain to me why we put DSE back into the game after the injury scare late in the second half? If this were a regular season game, I could understand this. Even if DSE was cramping up, why risk injuring DSE by him making an awkward move in an EXHIBITION GAME! SMH!!!!!!

Nice game from TB and DS. I am not ready to anoint DS as the starting PG, but it was nice to see Stewart distribute the ball tonight and I like his outside shot.

Jake was his usual scrappy self. I would love to see him make some threes!

Geno, I have been incredibly neutral about your hiring. From what I have seen from your first game as a Bradley coach, I want a refund on my ticket!

[Braves4Life]

I am sure with your negative attitude they would MORE than happy to refund your tickets!! The team does not need an attitude like yours on the HILLTOP!!

Beninator's a good guy Toyota. I think he just had a bad day. By the end of the season he'll be singing the right tune..... Book it!

[srw]

Well just call me a negative Nellie, but what I saw tonight was nothing short of a cr@pfest! Going into this, I wasn't expecting miracles, but I was certainly expecting more than was shown tonight! I wanted to see this team at least display a purpose on the floor and show signs that they knew where they belonged on the floor! This team had no clue on the offensive and defensive side of the ball for very long stretches of the game. Defense was terrible.... Rebounding slightly better.

Someone...anyone explain to me why Walt should be our PG! I would love to hear the reasoning!!!

Walt should be our 2 guard, with DSE at the point for now. If we make that adjustment, Walt will have a big year for us!

If there was any doubt about whether or not to redshirt Nate Wells, the answer from tonight is a resounding YES to a redshirt. Nate and the program will be better off for redshirting.

Can someone explain to me why we put DSE back into the game after the injury scare late in the second half? If this were a regular season game, I could understand this. Even if DSE was cramping up, why risk injuring DSE by him making an awkward move in an EXHIBITION GAME! SMH!!!!!!

Nice game from TB and DS. I am not ready to anoint DS as the starting PG, but it was nice to see Stewart distribute the ball tonight and I like his outside shot.

Jake was his usual scrappy self. I would love to see him make some threes!

Geno, I have been incredibly neutral about your hiring. From what I have seen from your first game as a Bradley coach, I want a refund on my ticket!

ummm how can someone be "incredibly neutral"

Players win games....we don't have enough of em right now. But we will.

DS is better than I expected but he lacks footspeed and its clear thats something that Geno wants.

Nate Wells is going to be ok. Lets not change paths and lets reshirt him. Big guy in year 5 is better than big guy in year 1.

Milos....goodness who made the decision to recuit him.

[LittleBrave]

The Bradley site now has links for the press conference, and for the video recap/highlight package of the game-
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArt...DB_OEM_ID=3400

Man, they looked great! (of course that happens when you just watch hightlights!)
WL's stroke is pretty sweet - I'm not sure why everyone questions his stroke.
Would like to see DS log 20 min. per game at PG - he will learn more and more with each experience - why not??

Looking at the box score, if we make 8 more FT's we win pretty handily.
Look for a little crisper performance next Tuesday. A win - albeit an exhibition win, is good for the team.

Great to see TB back to form...and getting better!

[Braves4Life]

Nate Wells is going to be ok. Lets not change paths and lets reshirt him. Big guy in year 5 is better than big guy in year 1.

Yes! I remember seeing the difference in WSU's Stutz from one year to the next. Stutz started out scrawny and weak..... Now, he's a huge beast. I hope Nate fills out and develops the same.

[OrangeandBlack74]

LIGHTEN UP! IT WAS A FREAKING EXHIBITION GAME!!! We did not prepare for them at all, film-wise. Did you listen to the post-game show?? Geno said they worked on their stuff and didn't even look at film of Parkside. My goodness, it was the first game for a team picked to finish last. To crucify Ford for not having them ready to play is BS.

+1

[Beninator]

I am sure with your negative attitude they would MORE than happy to refund your tickets!! The team does not need an attitude like yours on the HILLTOP!!

A lot of people here are painting a picture that is way too rosy for what happened last night. I am just keeping it real!

Beninator's a good guy Toyota. I think he just had a bad day. By the end of the season he'll be singing the right tune..... Book it!

I hope so Braves4life. I am not asking much from the team this year. I will be very happy if we are close to a .500 team and will gladly sing the praises if and when I see improvement.