BU 62-Evansville 92

[Da Coach]

Story from BradleyBraves.com-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=205372929

Box score-

https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf8/821756.pdf?ATCLID=205372929&SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=3400

warning- view at your own risk- every Evansville player who played 5 minutes or more shot 50% or better.
BU outrebounded 40-25 by the smallest, and least athletic team in the MVC.
The Evansville center was not Blake Griffin, but freshman Ryan Sawville, who received virtually no D1 interest- he scored 12 points and had 16 rebounds.
Sawvell's 16 rebounds were more than the total rebounds by Bradley's entire starting lineup combined (13).
Denver Holmes had 11 assists, and Colt Ryan had 9 assists. Bradley's entire starting lineup had a total of 8 assists.
Bradley's starting guards, DES and WL totalled 8 turnovers, twice the total for the entire Evansville starting lineup.
Evansville scored a mind-boggling 60 points in the paint.

And in the Career-high derby-
Denver Holmes scored a career-high tying 23 points, and had a career-high 11 assists.
Ryan Sawvell had a career-high 16 rebounds.
And Colt Ryan had a career-high 9 assists.

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

But SS is our best practice player.......and therefore a starter. Apparently he leaves his game in the practice gym.

At least he was trying. A lot of the players quit tonight. If they want to quit, then no problem. They can go play DIII next year.

[ancona flash]

At least he was trying. A lot of the players quit tonight. If they want to quit, then no problem. They can go play DIII next year.

You bring up two issues, #1- Some guys have quit, to which I agree is unacceptable, and #2- (and I don't think you intended this point to be made) but there are several on this roster who probably belong at the D3 level anyway.

I also think right now things are so bad that they either think they have no chance, or have busted their tails so much already this year with no positive results they think what's the point of killing themselves any longer. Not acceptable when you are receiving a free ride and playing D1 hoops.

[jasonpeoria911]

Geno better be praying that Picket & Bell with redshirt Wells brings BU to at least 500 next season or else he's in big danger of being fired after his 3rd season. I'm still not impressed with Shayok, Hodges is so far from the court to make any impact for at least 2 years if he stays and Crawford is just a good player to give some guys a rest for a few minutes. Pressure is on big time for Geno.

1 thing I saw tonight that I know Les would of benched rest of game for was when Walt went in for a layup with about 5 minutes left in the 1st half. 3 players were waiting to be subbed in, 1 for Walt. Well Walt and a defender collided on the missed layup, could of been a charge or block foul but went no call. Evansville ran the ball up the court and dunked it on a 5 on 4 as Walt just leisurely jogged up the court knowing he was goin to hit the bench. Walt barely got to half court before the Evansville dunk but the rest of the players were already up court and attempting to play defense. He should of been benched for the game for Crawford and Stewart.

Jason

[bigjimmy]

Words can't even decribe how bad this was tonight but I'm going to try. First I'm going to give some credit to Evansville. They played their asses off. Marty kept after them well into the 2nd half and when we cut it to 19 he called timeout, had a few choice words, and they went back to doin what they were doing to us the whole game. Dunks, back cuts, short jump shots, back door screens, you name it Evansville scored almost at will inside the paint. That we really offered no resistence or looked like we didn't know how to defend is inexcusable. It would be easy to complain about individual players but everyone had a hand in this one. I have to imagine that Geno had never gone through a season quite like this one. How he deals with it the rest of this month will be very interesting. Facts are facts folks. We are a bad team and when a bad team plays a bad game you get beat by 30 or more. I keep waiting for us to reach rock bottom. I'm not convinced we've reached it yet.

[BUFanatic]

Well, the best part about still going to the games through this is that (if/when) our check finally comes in, I can say to the bandwagoners and snide commentators that I was born and raised in Peoria and saw one of the worst periods in Bradley Basketball history. I still support the Braves, but I'm rooting a bit harder for Notre Dame this year (don't want to be a bandwagoner though... hmmm). Once a Brave, always a Brave, I'm hopelessly optimistically young...

[KMart]

That was by far the worst Bradley game I've went to, and possibly seen. I don't know how many dunks we gave up, but our defense just wasn't there at all tonight. No one made even an effort to give a hard foul when Evansville went up for a layup or dunk. No one boxed out. And for most of the game, it looked like no one wanted to take the shot... Evansville is a good perimeter shooting team, and they didn't even need that to win. This was just a complete embarrassment. I thought last year was a bad year, but this year definitely topped that. I think it's time to start playing the freshmen some heavy minutes to get them some experience with Geno's system in a game environment, because our upperclassmen just aren't showing up to play really besides DSE and TB and some nights JE. I think that Prosser has so much potential, but he just plays extremely soft, and it's killing us on both the offensive and defensive ends. Not to put all the blame on him at all, but I've seen him play so much better, and the past 5 games or so, he's just disappeared. With his size and strength, he should be getting a double double almost every game. I think GF really just need to focus on defense the rest of the year because the points were there tonight, just really couldn't stop them from scoring. Also, props to JC on that half court shot and playing with some energy tonight. Good to see the young guys step up when called upon. Now lets see if we can steal a win or two against ISU.

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds-

http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x1622354918/Evansville-clobbers-BU-again-92-62

Kirk Wessler-

http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x370666452/Wessler-Searching-for-some-laughs-amid-the-tears

[cpacmel]

Kirk Wessler-
http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x...amid-the-tears

Speaking of fair, after the game I asked Bradley coach Geno Ford for an explanation of his team??™s alarming habit in Missouri Valley games to come out flat, seemingly unprepared to play but more than ready to dig themselves holes the size of the Grand Canyon.
???It??™s a fair question,??? Ford said. ???I??™m not sure I have an answer for that.???

Last summer, shortly after he was hired to fix this mess, Ford told me that if the team sucked and I wrote that the team sucked, he would have no problem with that. I think it??™s time to take him up on that.
Wednesday night, Bradley sucked.

Wessler doesn't seem to be holding back on Coach Ford these days.

[Da Coach]

Maybe you weren't around the past couple years when Kirk Wessler lambasted Jim Les personally and demanded his firing. His columns were bitter, and angry and directed squarely toward the coach. KW is obviously pulling his punches with any faint criticism we see now.

Those comments that you highlighted are extraordinarily mild by comparison, despite the fact that no Jim Les team was ever embarrassed as bad or as often as this year's team has been.

And even what you refer to as not "holding back on Coach Ford" is not even directed at the coach. Both those statements are clearly directed at the team and players, not the coach. Read your own quotes.

[tornado]

I have a suggestion for the next few games - 25 cent beer -- then the attendance jumps 2000 and the 30 point losses become easier to take..

[cpacmel]

Maybe you weren't around the past couple years when Kirk Wessler lambasted Jim Les personally and demanded his firing. His columns were bitter, and angry and directed squarely toward the coach. KW is obviously pulling his punches with any faint criticism we see now.

Those comments that you highlighted are extraordinarily mild by comparison, despite the fact that no Jim Les team was ever embarrassed as bad or as often as this year's team has been.

And even what you refer to as not "holding back on Coach Ford" is not even directed at the coach. Both those statements are clearly directed at the team and players, not the coach. Read your own quotes.

Ford is in his first year, so unless Wessler lambasted Les like that in Les's first year, it's a bad comparison, IMO.

Also saying the statements are directed at the team, includes Ford. He is the coach and is in charge of them.

IMO, when the team sucked = coached sucked too.

[tornado]

where you been cpacmel??? - Wessler and his predecessor, Phil Theobald, lambasted Jim Les to an even harsher degree even before he took the job -- heck they started with their lambasting while JL was still just a candidate for the open position in 2002...then it grew worse when the field narrowed and JL ended up being selected over the PJS editors' overwhelming favorite for the position.