Audio: Bradley discussion and interview with Kirk Wessler

[MVCfans]

I was asked to co-host Bluejay Banter as they continue their pre-season look around the Missouri Valley Conference. We have a general discussion about Bradley (around 22:00 mark) and speak with Kirk Wessler (33:00).

link: http://www.mvcfans.com/wp/2012/07/23...luejay-banter/

[Da Coach]

Thanks for the information. But to save Bradley fans time, the Bradley discussion does not actually begin until the 25:20 point. The moderator Tim Krueger thinks Bradley will be significantly better this year, but MVC Chris is a little skeptical that Bradley can improve after losing their best player from last year's team that lost 21 of their last 23 games.
The Kirk Wessler interview starts at about 32:50 and runs to about the 46:20 mark. No surprise, Kirk thinks Coach Ford is doing a good job building the program, and the record losses were simply the result of fallout and insufficient talent. He thinks Bradley could finish as high as 7th this year.

[Braves4Life]

FWIW, I happen to agree with Wessler. Of course, I also think he's simply stating the obvious.

[Da Coach]

FWIW, I happen to agree with Wessler. Of course, I also think he's simply stating the obvious.

But he also sounds dismissive of anyone who does not agree with him that such a miserable period is necessary in order to rebuild Bradley into a winner. There are innumerable examples of teams that have rebuilt (even midmajors) without descending to all time lows in wins, and massive losses in attendance and revenues.
KW also seems to take it as a given that the long term rewards will be worth the fallout and setbacks. That is far from a given, and is yet to be proven.

[Braves4Life]

KW also seems to take it as a given that the long term rewards will be worth the fallout and setbacks. That is far from a given, and is yet to be proven.

That is true Da Coach. That IS his opinion... and he could be wrong. However, I think KW believes that if Geno can bring BU a conference championship and a team that consistently places top 3 in the MVC... and a team that consistently makes a trip to a top tier tournaments like the NIT and NCAA... and fields an exciting team with an exciting brand of ball that can win consistently on its own home court... that the fan excitement (followed by attendance) will return to all-time high levels. I agree with that assessment and am hopeful that Geno can get the job done. Bradley Basketball is the only game in town... Build it and they will come!

[tornado]

last year's team had three players who got either preseason or post-season All-Conference mention and accolades (Dyricus in the preseason & TB & Walt were both honored with post-season mention)..which is about as many as most MVC teams.
To suddenly imply we had no talent and never did and had a massive rebuilding project, defies the facts here....Dave Reynolds did not pick us last in the preseason and there were some comments that we had the talent to play and compete and then build from there......
...but I guess everyone is entitled to their opinions....

[LittleBrave]

last year's team had three players who got either preseason or post-season All-Conference mention and accolades (Dyricus in the preseason & TB & Walt were both honored with post-season mention)..which is about as many as most MVC teams.
To suddenly imply we had no talent and never did and had a massive rebuilding project, defies the facts here....Dave Reynolds did not pick us last in the preseason and there were some comments that we had the talent to play and compete and then build from there......
...but I guess everyone is entitled to their opinions....

We had those 2 guys play decent last year, but not even consistent as some other teams' starting 5 guys. Take those 2 away and the talent level relative to the MVC is very scarce. After seeing JP last year, he is overrated and just lacks skill and quickness relative to the league. And DSE played poorly last year except for a couple blowout games and o.k. 3-point shooting. Who else played MVC-caliber ball last year?

Anyways, I think a lot of it is mental (as Geno has eluded to before), and the guys need to get tougher mentally and gain confidence somehow to overcome their lack of talent, because I'm sorry, but we are just not as talented as the Top half of the Valley at this point.

[tornado]

.... After seeing JP last year, he is overrated and just lacks skill and quickness relative to the league. ...

Wait a minute - let's actually LOOK at some facts....here's my response....
Jordan Prosser, in a year when the Missouri Valley had some VERY strong rebounders (Carmichael, McDermott, Stutz, Seck, Echenique, Weems) JP finished RIGHT behind those guys and well inside the Top 10 rebounders in the MVC.

I don't recall anyone ever saying Zach Andrews had no talent or didn't belong in the MVC - and indeed Zach has even spent some time on an NBA roster!!
And yet...here are the numbers comparing Jordan Prosser's sophomore season with Zach Andrews' junior season...

-Prosser - 8 ppg (248 pts total), 6.5 rpg (209 rebounds total), 62.4% FT, and only 2.0 fouls per game with zero foulouts

-Andrews- 5.3 ppg (171 pts total), 4.8 rpg (154 rebounds total), 40.7% FT, 2.2 fouls per game (as a junior)
Even his senior season - Zach's numbers (11 ppg, 7 rpg, but led the nation with 133 fouls and fouled out 10 times) were by no means much better -

-Matt Salley's numbers as a junior were 7.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg and as a senior 6.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg with 9 foulouts
-David Collins - junior year 3.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg - senior year 4.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg -
..both of these guys were considered adequate at the least and hard-workers & overachievers by many

So why are people so incredibly harsh on JP - give the kid some time - I think he's coming along..
he's only finished his sophomore season and had way better numbers than Zach did as a junior, while roughly equaling Zach's numbers as senior season and certainly equaling or surpassing Salley & Collins.
You have to go back to POB to find a BU center whose numbers are any significantly better than JP's and I'd sure love to have another POB - so if you know where one is just lying around waiting for a call - e mail Geno!

[LittleBrave]

So why are people so incredibly harsh on JP - give the kid some time - I think he's coming along..

I'm not really looking at numbers here.
I just watched JP get beat again and again on defense, and didn't seem to have a very good b-ball IQ.

On the offensive end, so much of it was losing confidence through the MVC season. He would go 3-4 games where he seemed invisible on the offensive end. He didn't follow through on his chip shots, nor did he look to score much.

Yes, I'm being harsh on him based on what I saw the majority of the season, but am willing to give him some time, and true that he played well in clusters of games. Maybe I just had high expectations after the first few games of the season when he played well. I guess when the losses start piling up and because many times we didn't play like a team,
you are more apt to be critical of individual performances.

[tornado]

I hear you and I also was bothered by his tendency at times to play matador defense..but I believe that was the way he was coached to play so as NOT to pick up fouls - as we had next to zero depth in post players

and I agree with Da Coach's comments in another thread that lead me to believe it won't be a whole lot different this year.
The weakest points on the team we had last year that finished with the most losses in BU's history were...

-interior defense (endless easy layups and wide open dunks by our opponents - we made no-name players look like Dwight Howard)
-lack of team play - even the media guys repeatedly noted & remarked on our selfish, one-on-one play that hurt the team. Surely this is a coachable issue that can be corrected.
-outside shooting (our 3-pt shooting was atrocious, the only thing that kept our pct from being in the 20's was a 5-7 performance off the bench by WL in the final week)
-PG play with good passes that lead to assists (our opponents had 49% MORE assists than we did! 49% more - unbelievable!!)
-and someone to step up and either be the go-to guy or the team leader

I hope those issues have been addressed by our off-season additions but I just am not convinced yet.

[Braves4Life]

So why are people so incredibly harsh on JP - give the kid some time - I think he's coming along..

While I'm not sure I agree with your Zach Andrews comparison (since he was on a much stronger and deeper team) I agree that most are being unduly harsh on Prosser. He has been asked to do more than he is capable of doing (physically and athletically) on a very weak team. I like the fact that he was only a sophomore and I'm hopeful that Geno can get the right pieces in place for Prosser to truly benefit by the time he graduates. In a perfect world (and on a team like Wichita or Creighton) Prosser would be coming off the bench as a key reserve and would not have to be matched up against the other team's #1 center (who is usually bigger, stronger, and quicker than JP). I'd love to see a guy like Prosser go from worst to first (or at least Top 3 ) before he leaves BU.

[abesimpson]

Wait a minute - let's actually LOOK at some facts....here's my response....
Jordan Prosser, in a year when the Missouri Valley had some VERY strong rebounders (Carmichael, McDermott, Stutz, Seck, Echenique, Weems) JP finished RIGHT behind those guys and well inside the Top 10 rebounders in the MVC.

I don't recall anyone ever saying Zach Andrews had no talent or didn't belong in the MVC - and indeed Zach has even spent some time on an NBA roster!!
And yet...here are the numbers comparing Jordan Prosser's sophomore season with Zach Andrews' junior season...

-Prosser - 8 ppg (248 pts total), 6.5 rpg (209 rebounds total), 62.4% FT, and only 2.0 fouls per game with zero foulouts

-Andrews- 5.3 ppg (171 pts total), 4.8 rpg (154 rebounds total), 40.7% FT, 2.2 fouls per game (as a junior)
Even his senior season - Zach's numbers (11 ppg, 7 rpg, but led the nation with 133 fouls and fouled out 10 times) were by no means much better -

-Matt Salley's numbers as a junior were 7.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg and as a senior 6.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg with 9 foulouts
-David Collins - junior year 3.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg - senior year 4.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg -
..both of these guys were considered adequate at the least and hard-workers & overachievers by many

So why are people so incredibly harsh on JP - give the kid some time - I think he's coming along..
he's only finished his sophomore season and had way better numbers than Zach did as a junior, while roughly equaling Zach's numbers as senior season and certainly equaling or surpassing Salley & Collins.
You have to go back to POB to find a BU center whose numbers are any significantly better than JP's and I'd sure love to have another POB - so if you know where one is just lying around waiting for a call - e mail Geno!

I hope Prosser gets better too, but it isn't a fair comparison with Zach. Look at the minutes played, Prosser with 863 last season to Zach's 517 his junior season. Going by the min, Zach had .33 points/min and .29 reb/min. while Prosser had .29 points/min and .24 reb/min. And Zach had 23 blocks and 23 steals, compared to 5 blocks and 13 steals for Prosser. Also, Zach wasn't a starter as a junior, so it's almost comparing apples to oranges.

As a senior, Zach would have had better numbers if it wasn't for the 4-guard, 3-point attack offense that Les installed that year. Again different coach's systems, not a great comparison.

Zach was an athletic freak for us who had a very high ceiling and has gotten better since leaving BU. Prosser isn't the same athletically, but hopefully he can benefit from the experience. How good would have Zach been as a senior if he would have been at BU as a freshman or even red-shirted?

As for Salley and Collins, I'd certainly hope Prosser is better a sophomore. Those 2 were not in the top half of the MVC talent pool compared to other big men. They worked hard because they had to. I liked both of them, but they just weren't that good.

[Old Coach]

last year's team had three players who got either preseason or post-season All-Conference mention and accolades (Dyricus in the preseason & TB & Walt were both honored with post-season mention)..which is about as many as most MVC teams.
To suddenly imply we had no talent and never did and had a massive rebuilding project, defies the facts here....Dave Reynolds did not pick us last in the preseason and there were some comments that we had the talent to play and compete and then build from there......
...but I guess everyone is entitled to their opinions....

So we had enough talent to not finish in last place, but we did anyway. What do you feel was the primary cause?

[real fan]

This years team will be better because we only lost 2 players and neither one of them played up to their potential and they were not team players, hoping that this group plays more like a team which should translate into more wins, think they have a chance to pass a few teams in the standings and hopefully fight for 6th.