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I must say - once Jim Les was fired... your cup has always been half full.
WOW!! I predicted before the Michigan game we would be 1-9 for the next ten games. BU just screwed that up.... 0 & 10 now.
---and I thought that we had a chance to win 2 games in that stretch
Bradley 72 - Illini 68 Final
???It??™s awful hard,??™??™ said Illini freshman guard D.J. Richardson, the former Central High School guard who played prep school ball a few miles from here and fought back tears outside the locker room. ???It??™s a hometown thing. It??™s bragging rights.??™
Stowell's last season we were 14-14
The only season Dion Thurman played (1988-89) we were 13-14
And I assume you meant the first half of the 2005-2006 Sweet 16 year, since the last time we were in the Elite 8 was 1954. But even that year we were 9-7 and then won our next 4 and and 11 of our next 13 and finished 22-11.
And Mo's season was bad, but his team was nearly devoid of talent, and I don't think we are nearly that bad now. He still was about to finish tied for 9th.
Coach Stowell's last season was 14-14, but with all 5 starters returning. One of the most disappointing seasons in all my 60 some years as a Braves fan.
Coach Stowell's last season was 14-14, but with all 5 starters returning. One of the most disappointing seasons in all my 60 some years as a Braves fan.
Stowell was a fine coach, but he had a coaching mentality straight out of Hoosiers- just give me 5 guys and I'll coach them up. Unfortunately he never felt it was very important to recruit better talent and athleticism, while the rest of college basketball, and especially the MVC were doing just that.
I've been so disgruntled with what I've seen over and over again this season and I was thinking about how to exactly express my feelings in a post. Instead of the thousand word epic I was going to write, here are the cliff notes:
Nope. But it would be nice if someone accepted some responsibility for what shapes up as possible the worst season of Bradley basketball in my lifetime.
Well Jim Les is too busy in California to step up in front of us here. [/obvious joke]
Kidding aside, boy, this is bad. I mean of course Geno deserves to get his time to get this program to the top but he's gotta win a couple of these types of games along the way.
If someone wants to have a similar type of rage to what we felt last year, that's fair. But I'm not sure it's fair to be much more outraged this year than last year, if we're comparing rages based on the program status in the past couple of years.
Well again, sorry to be redundant, but there were obvious factors outside the control of the coaches last year that were a substantial part of why we had such a poor season. Overall, when judged on the team's performances when the team was healthy, there was significant more success than failure. Some people predicted this huge backward step and the fallout that comes with a coaching change, so it should not surprise anyone. It just means Geno now has a bigger hole to dig out from.
I heard a few "Why are they all standing there" comments on our offense from the fans sitting around me tonight. LOL
Attendance seems to be down about an average of 1,000 tickets sold these 1st 2 conference games, which just happened to be the 1st 2 conference home games last season also. Down 1,300 against Wichita State and 700 against SIU tonight. It will continue to tank as the season wears on, i'm betting it tanks down to 6,000 to 6,500 by season end.
I wonder what exactly they are working on in practice? The defense is non-existant at the best. SIU has scored above 75 in 4 of the last 5 games against Clemson, Xavier, IL State and us, so obviously SIU is getting better. 57% is still horrible to give up to any team.
The Offense? I'm curious if this is another reason why Sam left. Maybe Geno told him that he wasn't going to try to install much set plays this season and try to get by on slashing and creating your own shot? Sam knows he can't do that with his bad ankles and would prefer to get the plays going to someone else. This is also probably why D. Stewart barely sees the floor because he is more of a pass first guard than a get to the hoop and score as fast as possible type player.
Geno might be able to please me if he acknowledges this is a lost season and starts to play some of the new guys more like Hodges and Stewart. We have nothing to lose and it will only make them stronger unless they already have their minds made up on transferring next season and we don't know it yet.
Well again, sorry to be redundant, but there were obvious factors outside the control of the coaches last year that were a substantial part of why we had such a poor season. Overall, when judged on the team's performances when the team was healthy, there was significant more success than failure. Some people predicted this huge backward step and the fallout that comes with a coaching change, so it should not surprise anyone. It just means Geno now has a bigger hole to dig out from.
The negative fallout and a tough season doesn't surprise many of us, it's the utter lack of competitiveness that does.
Attendance seems to be down about an average of 1,000 tickets sold these 1st 2 conference games, which just happened to be the 1st 2 conference home games last season also. Down 1,300 against Wichita State and 700 against SIU tonight. It will continue to tank as the season wears on, i'm betting it tanks down to 6,000 to 6,500 by season end.
On the plus side, ticket sales were down 14.6% after the first MVC game and now they're only down 11.5% after two MVC games.
We need 9,500 tickets sold for Saturday's game in order to match last season's first three conference games.
???People say, ???Forget last year', but I want our guys to remember that one, because that will not happen again. We will be much better.??? Geno Ford, 9/22/12
Well again, sorry to be redundant, but there were obvious factors outside the control of the coaches last year that were a substantial part of why we had such a poor season. Overall, when judged on the team's performances when the team was healthy, there was significant more success than failure. Some people predicted this huge backward step and the fallout that comes with a coaching change, so it should not surprise anyone. It just means Geno now has a bigger hole to dig out from.
One thing that I would like to see corrected is that last night, Walt picked up his dribble numerous times on the side of the court probably 35 feet away from the basket. This was in an area where he could easily be double teamed and our players seemed a little slow to recognize this to get into a position for Walt to pass the ball to them.
Bradley 72 - Illini 68 Final
???It??™s awful hard,??™??™ said Illini freshman guard D.J. Richardson, the former Central High School guard who played prep school ball a few miles from here and fought back tears outside the locker room. ???It??™s a hometown thing. It??™s bragging rights.??™
Stowell was a fine coach, but he had a coaching mentality straight out of Hoosiers- just give me 5 guys and I'll coach them up. Unfortunately he never felt it was very important to recruit better talent and athleticism, while the rest of college basketball, and especially the MVC were doing just that.
Just saw this post. Perhaps the main reason Stowell did not recruit as much talent especially toward the end of his tenure as coach at Bradley is that BU did not allocate the funds to the program. When Versace took over, Bradley allocated much more money and had a renewed commitment to the program.
Bradley 72 - Illini 68 Final
???It??™s awful hard,??™??™ said Illini freshman guard D.J. Richardson, the former Central High School guard who played prep school ball a few miles from here and fought back tears outside the locker room. ???It??™s a hometown thing. It??™s bragging rights.??™
Yes. Will is hurt, and we have a new regime. You can either ignore both of those sets of factors and hold both coaches responsible for their seasons, or you can accept both sets of factors and let both seasons pass. The concept of doing both, one for each coach, is hypocritical, and we have that from both sides.
Ultimately though, the coach will usually take the most blame.
This season was always going to be difficult. You had the coaching change, players quit, and new offensive and defensive concepts.
Anytime you get a new coach, with new ideas, and a roster with none of your own players you will run into difficulty. Especially, in the Valley with deep, more experienced teams.
I don't blame anyone specifically for this season. It is a combination of things.
I also never expected much this season. Maybe I was in the minority there, but I expected BU to struggle mightily. I thought we would finish last. I thought we would get our tails kicked. But I also thought the guys would work hard, and they are.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
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