BU 48 - MSU 51 Final

[amckillip]

Good effort. We did a lot of good things tonight. JP was a ton. And, yes, he is STILL listed as a junior on the scoreboard during starting lineups. Bush league.

He is a junior... Yes he red-shirted, but that actually doesn't change his standing. In sports people have adopted the term redshirt-class but it is by no means incorrect to call Jordan a junior.

[Beninator]

Close, but no cigar.

A shame that they could not get this one done tonight. Some horrible calls down the stretch. If not for the time left, I think Geno would have gotten a T on that last charge call.

+1 Worst officiating of the year!!!

What was Jake thinking jacking up that three so early in the clock?...he hadn't made a shot all night.

We had ran some decent plays in the game that we scored on but....we didn't close it out well at all

Not sure what Jake was thinking but that decided the game.

Overall I thought that we executed very well tonight. I heard Geno state in the post game show that he wanted to play a more uptempo game tonight, but I have to disagree. We play better as a team with half court sets. I also just about fell out of my chair tonight when we utilized baseline screens on TWO CONSECUTIVE POSSESSIONS! We even ran a curl pattern a few possessions later.

[Buesch N Chips]

He is a junior... Yes he red-shirted, but that actually doesn't change his standing. In sports people have adopted the term redshirt-class but it is by no means incorrect to call Jordan a junior.

I understand that, but do you REALLY think they actually mean to call him a junior, or are you just being argumentative? He's listed as a redshirt soph on the website roster. I would think consistency would be the best policy, and most people don't care what his academic standing is nearly as much as his athletic eligibility standing.

[Bravesfan]

Well I must say that I am proud of the effort our team displayed tonight. I really do think we are very close to becoming a good home team again, especially against the bottom two-thirds or so of the Valley. Unfortunately we were one missed shot and one or two fewer turnovers away from winning this game, and two many forced shots and sloppy turnovers did us in again.

I do give a lot of credit to Missouri St. for disrupting our offense with their zone, as there weren't too many unconstested shot opportunities for us. And as elluded too several times, there were some questionable calls, though even with the homer MSU announcers calling the game on the ESPN3.com feed, I could see that a few of those offensive fouls were deservedly called against us as we on more than a few occasions were a little out of control going to the hoop. Regardless though whether those calls were correct or not, I don't think the refs decided the game as we again made some stupid uncontested turnovers at bad times, and just had some bad luck as some good looking three point shots just did not go down. But with our limited margin of error, any off night hampers us as we just don't make enough shots.

So again, all things considered, despite our two games against WSU and our last game at EU, we do seem to be more patient on the offensive end than we were earlier in the season, and we seem to be slowly getting better. And again that was due to a great effort on our part. And while this loss is frustrating and definitely tough to swallow, I'm hoping we will be rewarded with a few more wins in the not too distant future.

[bigjimmy]

The first half I thought we ran our offense fairly well and had some open shots that didn't go in. I thought we even did a better job of it in the 2nd half but again just didn't hit some open shots. We couldn't hit the broad side of the barn tonight even if we were spotted the broad side. Just ugly. We will not get back into the upper half of the Valley if we don't start getting some shooters. I thought JP played his best game of the year but for him to have an impact it's got to be on a more consistent basis. Certainly some questionable calls down the stretch but it seems good teams get those calls. Our defensive effort was outstanding all night. We keep that part of our game going and start making some shots the wins will come.

[Bravesfan]

The first half I thought we ran our offense fairly well and had some open shots that didn't go in. I thought we even did a better job of it in the 2nd half but again just didn't hit some open shots. We couldn't hit the broad side of the barn tonight even if we were spotted the broad side. Just ugly. We will not get back into the upper half of the Valley if we don't start getting some shooters. I thought JP played his best game of the year but for him to have an impact it's got to be on a more consistent basis. Certainly some questionable calls down the stretch but it seems good teams get those calls. Our defensive effort was outstanding all night. We keep that part of our game going and start making some shots the wins will come.

Yes, good points. The problem is that we have mediocre shooters who sometimes have good nights. And when the stars align, you get games like we had against Northeastern and UNI, just based on the law of averages that even bad teams will win once in awhile (heck, even Chicago St. has won two in a row after an 0-17 start!). I'm sure everyone has heard the saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day. I'm not saying that our team's wins were flukes, and that they are that bad. I'm just using that to illustrate that even poor shooting teams will have a few games a year where every player happens to have a hot shooting night at the same time.

The point here though is that we need more pure shooters to increase the number of those games where everyone is in sync with their shooting to much more than half a dozen times a year. This is where Geno's recruiting will be put to the test. But if you go by his recent resume at Kent St., I think Bradley will eventually become a player in the Valley race again, and here's hoping the wait won't be too long.

[Da Coach]

PJ Star story-

http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x1771270115/Live-blog-Bradley-vs-Missouri-State

[Big Mike]

Nice game by JP...very good to see, hope it stays! The D' looked good tonight with less open looks and bunnies, 13 TO's is also good enough to win but the shots just didn't fall...this kind of effort should get the Braves a couple of W's!

[lefty]

Nice game by JP...very good to see, hope it stays! The D' looked good tonight with less open looks and bunnies, 13 TO's is also good enough to win but the shots just didn't fall...this kind of effort should get the Braves a couple of W's!

The sad part of those turnovers was half were pretty much unforced...it seemed like there 20 travel calls alone....the poor shooting and turnovers is what made our offense look ugly in stretches ....

'It was kind of like when we did things right we looked really good.....when we didn't we looked equally bad...if that makes sense.

certainly some questionable calls...we did get the benefit on JP's 3 point play in the paint....I didn't think he was in the act of shooting at all.

[Beninator]

'It was kind of like when we did things right we looked really good.....when we didn't we looked equally bad...if that makes sense.

I think that a lot of that has to do with shot selection. We put ourselves in situations where we have multiple players who force a shot rather than try to pass to an open player.

[tornado]

And if we needed any more proof that the local media are now wearing the ROSE COLORED GLASSES...
note the two stories this morning by DR & KW..
You would have thought we'd played the best game all year! -- glowing with compliments....hardly anything realistic or on target for most who watched this game...
Comments like...
"Braves proving they’re capable"
"If you didn’t know Bradley was the last-place team in the Missouri Valley, you would not have guessed by watching this game."
"Boy, he was good tonight..More good stuff about the Braves.."
"Doing those things well in the future might allow Bradley to climb out of the MVC cellar."
"..excellent for most of the game.."

Seriously - did they not see all the totally unforced turnovers?
And all the hurried, ill-advised and forced shots...
..and despite good shooting by JP - our team still shot 37% from the floor and 19% from 3-pt...
This was actually one of our worst games -- we can't even beat a team on our own court that was way off and scoring only 50 pts...
I am still optimistic we can put it together - I believe we have the talent -- and now pretty much the opnly games that matter are in St. Louis.



And in the final 3 possessions in the game's last minute or two -- all we came away with were TWO LONG and hurried 3-pointers that came early in the shot-clock then one forced drive that resulted in the charge!
I sure was hoping that we could have gotten something better --
I watched the game again later and Frank Bussone - who sat right next to the Bradly bench said that the fall-away long 3-pointer by Jake was a set and designed play -- reallY?
If so why in crunch time when we HAVE TO SCORE is a guy who is scoreless, 0-2 already from 3-pt and hitting only 25% on the season from 3-pt - taking a LONG one on the fly and falling off away from the hoop?
The odds of that shot going in must be in the 10% range - we really needed something better and also on the next play when TB took one - we have the entire shot clock available on those two possessions!


I guess I wasn't the only one who saw it that way...

What was Jake thinking jacking up that three so early

The sad part of those turnovers was half were pretty much unforced...

we need a PG

.. he is STILL listed as a junior ...

it really isn't an error but it's confusing - because he is in his 3rd year and a junior academically


Lastly - KW seems to be hinting we can soon move out of 10th place in the MVC--
"...Bradley proved itself capable of competing with a good Valley team.

..Doing those things well in the future might allow Bradley to climb out of the MVC cellar."

really - is this the same guy who wrote last spring that we had hit ROCK BOTTOM and couldn't get any worse??
Remember "Plenty about BU is unacceptable" and all the rips blaming JL for every bad play?
Multiple comments about how crowds are dwindling and the empty seats...

[spoon]

And if we needed any more proof that the local media are now wearing the ROSE COLORED GLASSES...

Yeah! Screw the PJStar and their positivity! Why can't they be more negative!

[Braveman]

[QUOTE=tornado;248676]
Lastly - KW seems to be hinting we can soon move out of 10th place in the MVC--
"...Bradley proved itself capable of competing with a good Valley team.

..Doing those things well in the future might allow Bradley to climb out of the MVC cellar."

really - is this the same guy who wrote last spring that we had hit ROCK BOTTOM and couldn't get any worse??

Had BU won, they would have been tied for 9th.... and despite all your protests, the PJStar is not going to go back and rewrite last year's stories...
JL is gone- and regardless of how the media treated him- the PJS seems to be doing what you asked for- they aren't as negative...
Now they are wearing rose colored glasses?

[BradleyJD]

BU played hard the entire game last night, and had a chance to win at the end. Hard to do much more than that.

You get no FT's at home? You get called for charges repeatedly? A tough one all the way around.

I think Wessler made some very good points...

BU did defend very well. They did not let the problems on O hurt their effort on D. We rebounded extremely well, too.

We also limited ourselves to only 13 turnovers.

Obviously we still struggled knocking down shots.

All in all, a good sign of this team's fight.

[BradleyJD]

really - is this the same guy who wrote last spring that we had hit ROCK BOTTOM and couldn't get any worse??

BTW -- I also remember his comment...about how Dr. Cross always sat intensely at courtside taking "copious notes" and scrutinizing JL's every move...
So has something changed??

Things are looking up. This team is fighting hard. We have a new coach and hope for good things to come.

What has changed? The coach has. I think BU has many great days ahead.