Its Over---Now What?

[BUFanatic]

I'll say what I've been saying, Bradley, no matter what happens no matter how awful you are, You'll Never Walk alone. Now i fully hope to hear that belted out at the Michigan upset next year

Good riddance to this year, we'll be back soon enough!

[CubbieBear]

Oh, in regards to the title of this thread, now what?

FLUSH and FORGET I am doing my best to just flush this season (and last year's too) down...but I have flushed several times and it still keeps floating back I hate floaters!

[tornado]

...He got the chance by getting a scholarship.....

wow - this sure flies in the face of all the times we have seen kids ousted when there's a coaching chageover - and also seen the kids get ripped when they want out to go elsewhere during a coaching change...

In DS's case, he kept his word, was courted by Geno who lobbied for Donivine to stay true to his commitment,
Donivine felt as if he was wanted here and also wanted to be here, he's never complained, done everything asked of his, even gotten compliments publicly from Geno, and yet...

even in the 30-40 point blowuts he never got more than a minute or two of playing time...
in his limited playing time, he played well, had the fewest turnovers of anyone on the team
and the fewest turnovers per minute - a pretty remarkable feat given he was the ballhandler during those minutes with nothing but deep-sub teammates on the court with him during those minutes...

And in the ONLY three games where DS got double digit mintutes...-- two were exhibitions vs. Wooster & Parkside & the other was the regular season game vs. UMKC -

In those three outings Donivine was solid...
he played 24, 18, and 10 minutes
and had 12 pts on 5-7 shooting, 10 assists and only one turnover - with that turnover more likely fairly should have been given to the slippery handed recipient who flubbed it.

Those are some pretty decent numbers - so you are entitled to your opinion but....

I definitely do not feel Donivine Stewart got a fair shake this past season.
He was never given a chance to play...

[Boiler]

Not to be a jerk but what dos the fact that DS is a good kid have to do with anything? There are good kids who play basketball all over America. Should they all get D1 scholarships?

You say DS deserves the chance to see if he could play at this level. He got the chance by getting a scholarship. He jad hundreds of opportunities every day in practice to earn playing time. He isnt owed anything more than that.

If DS werent from the area we wouldnt be having this discussion.

+1

This notion that Donivine "didn't get a chance to prove himself" is silly.

Everyone wishes that Stewart would have been great, everyone wishes that he would have earned playing time, everyone wishes that he would have taken advantage of that playing time and become a contributor.

He did none of those things...pretty simple.

[Boiler]

And in the ONLY three games where DS got double digit mintutes...-- two were exhibitions vs. Wooster & Parkside & the other was the regular season game vs. UMKC -

In those three outings Donivine was solid...
he played 24, 18, and 10 minutes
and had 12 pts on 5-7 shooting, 10 assists and only one turnover - with that turnover more likely fairly should have been given to the slippery handed recipient who flubbed it.

If we played against D-II and D-III athletes all year long, I would imagine that he would have gotten more opportunities and had some success...but that's not the case.

I definitely do not feel Donivine Stewart got a fair shake this past season.
He was never given a chance to play...

If he would have been good enough in practice to earn playing time, he would have played. He wasn't, so he didn't. I guess I don't understand why people want/need to fabricate some conspiracy theory around this.

[tornado]

nothing fabricated - no conspiracy theory - just mostly facts then the opinion he didn't get a fair chance to demonstrate what he can do...

why the need to tremendously exaggerate and make up stuff about what was said in order to try to present your point of view?

[Boiler]

nothing fabricated - no conspiracy theory - just mostly facts then the opinion he didn't get a fair chance to demonstrate what he can do...

why the need to tremendously exaggerate and make up stuff about what was said in order to try to present your point of view?

saying that Donivine "didn't get a fair shake"..."didn't get an opportunity to prove himself" is a tremendous exaggeration on your part....and it is simply not true.

[tornado]

I don't think so - have you ever seen him play?
if not, then how could be so 100% sure DS would not have helped?

I certainly feel this is one example of "how could he have done any worse??"

In fact - most BU observers will concede and agree that Bradley was in the middle of numerous 30-pt blowouts, then a few lineup changes were made
(ahem - kind of exactly what some people thought would help)
and then those players who were NOT playing actually helped and Bradley became a stronger and better team down the stretch.
So IMO, it suggests that some of the bench players did deserve more of a chance.

[Boiler]

I don't think so - have you ever seen him play?
if not, then how could be so 100% sure DS would not have helped?

I certainly feel this is one example of "how could he have done any worse??"

In fact - most BU observers will concede and agree that Bradley was in the middle of numerous 30-pt blowouts, then a few lineup changes were made
(ahem - kind of exactly what some people thought would help)
and then those players who were NOT playing actually helped and Bradley became a stronger and better team down the stretch.
So IMO, it suggests that some of the bench players did deserve more of a chance.

If he were good enough to play, he would have played. End of story.

Whether I have seen him play or you have seen him play is absolutely meaningless. We both have, but so what?

Geno and his staff have watched him play for hundreds and hundreds of hours in practice this year...He has shown in those hundreds of hours of scrimmages, drills, etc., that he isn't ready to play, isn't good enough to play, whatever the case may be. Bottom line, he didn't earn playing time...enough said. I'll just go ahead and trust this assessment to a staff of D-I basketball coaches over some random fan's opinion on an internet message board.

[Beninator]

If he were good enough to play, he would have played. End of story.

Whether I have seen him play or you have seen him play is absolutely meaningless. We both have, but so what?

Geno and his staff have watched him play for hundreds and hundreds of hours in practice this year...He has shown in those hundreds of hours of scrimmages, drills, etc., that he isn't ready to play, isn't good enough to play, whatever the case may be. Bottom line, he didn't earn playing time...enough said. I'll just go ahead and trust this assessment to a staff of D-I basketball coaches over some random fan's opinion on an internet message board.

And our division 1 coach lost 25 games this year by running out the same old same old lineups game after game after game...smh
DS should have at least had some playing time during the regular season.

[lake Camelot]

I was surprised that Donovine didn't play some this year. I would have thought he would get some time. That being said, I have been told on this site for years that the coach knows best. He watches practice every day. I know we have very little experience on whether Geno does a good job of selecting who plays. I have to trust that there was something about Donovine's play that didn't look good to coach Ford.(Maybe Defense?)

Anyway I think saying he didn't get a Fair chance is not correct. He didn't get any in game play, but he did get a chance to show the coach his game in practice.

[Boiler]

DS should have at least had some playing time during the regular season.

Why?

[tornado]

people 2nd guess and criticized a gazillion moves that were made by every coach we've had since message boards ...
now when someone dares say DS maybe should have had a bit more opportunity in a season where we lost virtually every game we played since Christmas - ..now you establish this NEW code that we must follow???

"This notion that Donivine "didn't get a chance to prove himself" is silly.
If he would have been good enough in practice to earn playing time, he would have played. He wasn't, so he didn't.
If he were good enough to play, he would have played.
End of story."

So this isn't even a topic that's debatable in your eyes??
I am not expecting others to change or follow my opinion - I just think it's fair to point out some alternate opinions.

Heck - I have coached plenty at many levels from 3-4th grade to high school kids and I know judging playing time is a difficult and no-win job - always subject to second-guessing by everyone else...and I also know everyone else thinks they can do it different or better.
So if it's a given that people are entitled to their opinions on this topic throughout all of history - then why not now?

[Beninator]

Why?

My first response would be why not? This was a lost season and toward the end of the year, we wasted an opportunity to give people on our bench some experience. If by chance some of these guys come back next year, then we again have people on the bench with little to no division 1 playing experience. It might have even made practices more competitive if they realized there was a chance to get some PT other then the usual 7 or so players. I see this done in other areas of sports and it mystifies me why a coach would not at least try to develop their bench during a poor season. Maybe that would involve a long term perspective that coaches are not willing to accept? Numerous times this year, I could tell when our team hit the wall in the second half and was completely gassed. After 20 losses in a season what exactly does a first year coach have to lose? I have been a very harsh critic of Coach Ford, but one thing I wanted to see this year was for him to experiment with lineups etc this season. Something that I didn't see happen very often.

[Boiler]

people 2nd guess and criticized a gazillion moves that were made by every coach we've had since message boards ...
now when someone dares say DS maybe should have had a bit more opportunity in a season where we lost virtually every game we played since Christmas - ..now you establish this NEW code that we must follow???

"This notion that Donivine "didn't get a chance to prove himself" is silly.
If he would have been good enough in practice to earn playing time, he would have played. He wasn't, so he didn't.
If he were good enough to play, he would have played.
End of story."

So this isn't even a topic that's debatable in your eyes??
I am not expecting others to change or follow my opinion - I just think it's fair to point out some alternate opinions.

Heck - I have coached plenty at many levels from 3-4th grade to high school kids and I know judging playing time is a difficult and no-win job - always subject to second-guessing by everyone else...and I also know everyone else thinks they can do it different or better.
So if it's a given that people are entitled to their opinions on this topic throughout all of history - then why not now?

Feel free to do whatever you want. You can hold whatever opinion you want, you can express it in any way you see fit.

Doesn't change the the reality of the situation here. The coaching staff has to play the kids that they feel give them the best chance to be successful. If they felt DS was equipped to help the team in some way, he would have played. He wasn't, so he didn't.

If you feel the staff is wrong in the way they handled the distribution of playing time, go ahead and express that. The facts aren't on your side here, but that certainly doesn't mean you aren't allowed to hold an opinion contrary to them.