Wessler rips the Braves

[bu fan 9]

I think will be around 6th to 9th place in the MVC for a while. And we will win around 15 to 17 games because Geno will keep playing a lot of cupcakes in the non conf.

[SFP]

I'll say this again. I'm happy about the way GF can coach but if by year 3 we do not see market improvement in the record and team I'll be very disappointed. I'm not talking MVC champions but I want to see that capability. Any thing less, well is less, then what we had. The next two recruits will be critical to those goals.

[Mikovio]

I'm excited to see what this team can do with a true point guard finally in Fields, a guy who played at Wake Forest and we beat Stanford for.

You can't overstate the importance of having a good point guard on the floor. We don't even have one this season, which makes our results all the more remarkable. Lemon is much improved over last year but he's still playing out of position. Next year, he'll move to the 2 and will hopefully take these skills he's learned with him, making him an even more complete player.

When projecting for next year, that's a big, often overlooked, factor. My only serious concern is the 5 spot. Geno still has a couple rides to give so I'll wait and see if he can pull a rabbit out of his hat this spring but it will be disappointing if we don't have anybody dependable down low to complement what could be a very good backcourt. I don't want to see Prosser logging more than 10-15 minutes/game.

If we find a good big in the spring, I expect 20+ wins and to challenge for the title. Without one we'll be middle of the pack.

[shaunguth]

NOT ONE assist went from a guard to a "big" for a basket until almost 27 minutes had passed...why if we struggle from the outside - do we bail on any attempts to get the ball in thepost and keep trying more and more outside game??
Didn't someone once say if you keep trying the same things over and over and they keep failing....this is why we can never put two good halves together!
...indeed the ONLY two assists that Bradley had in the entire first half plus the first 7 minutes of the 2nd half...were by WILL EGOLF (2) and Jake (1)..and not one single assist was recorded by any guard on our roster until only 13 minutes were left in the game!

Our bigs (Egolf, Pickett, Prosser, Shayok) were 5/18 from the field. Don't they have to complete the play by actually making the basket for an assist to even be possible? Our bigs were not good Sunday afternoon.

[shaunguth]

...obviously I take exception to saying Prosser can't score...

Well, something is happening and it's not good.

Last nine conference games (half the conference season):

151 minutes played

23 points

8 of 22 from the field (36%)

These are not the numbers I expect from a 4th-year center.

I realize you have a connection with JP, but come on.....you have to see this!

[shaunguth]

But if we are going to take that next step up, we need lot's of shooters and fast! .

And bigs!

[Future Walk-On]

hey shaunguth

+1 we are echoing eachother

[tornado]

I am at every game cheering long & loud for BU - but we are and will remain undermanned for a while and I see little light at the end of the tunnel...

In the decade before - we only had a handful of 30-point blowout losses or halves of basketball where a team outscored us by 15 or more...those are the demoralizing games...and we didn't have many....we even hung with teams like Duke, Michigan State, & Florida for a while...

You know how many we've had in the past less than two seasons??
Six games where we've been blown out by 30 or more, and a full FIFTEEN different games where we've fallen behind by 15, 20, and even as much as 26 points in a single half of basketball.

Again - I hope like heck we have "difference makers" on the horizon - and I am prepared to keep rooting hard even if we struggle because that's what GOOD fans do...but I am not as giddy about our progress as some (but a waning few) are...

[shaunguth]

With a win, we are just 2 games out of 1st place in mid-February. Chew on that!

Yes.....but don't forget we would also be just 2 games out of 9th place had we won the game.

[shaunguth]

or year 3 or 4...

Shouldn't we be getting back to the Sweet 16 by year 4 or 5?

[shaunguth]

If you know of one that can step in and do better than the guys we have, and if you know for a fact that the guy is willing and anxious to come to Bradley - then e mail his name right here...
gford@bradley.edu
juken@bradley.edu

I sure hope they exist....because next year we have Pickett, Shayok, Wells, and possibly Prosser.

[shaunguth]

We can contend next year with two juco big guys that can contribute. With one juco big, and without significant improvement from JP or SS, we could play on Thursday again. That's how big of a deal I think this recruiting class is.

Thanks for the info FWO. Good stuff there.

There is nothing so far that Geno has done that suggests that he needs my help with his job. He gets it. He is building a foundation for our program that will lead us back to success.

I agree.....this recruiting class is very important for the next couple seasons and beyond....

[Future Walk-On]

Shouldn't we be getting back to the Sweet 16 by year 4 or 5?

yeah... because next year (3rd year) we should regress

[tornado]

I sure hope they exist....because next year we have Pickett, Shayok, Wells, and possibly Prosser.

I think a 5th year Prosser plus a 3rd year Shayok & Wells will go fine with TP...
I doubt there's many talented juco big men waiting for offers right now...and of the remaining 2013 recruits out there, they're all rated way higher than we can expect to sign - and the reason they're still unsigned is because they're waiting for the check in the mail - LOL

But we've seen big-man envy on this board for years - fans constantly wondering why we can't land the quality of big men other schools get....there's been people wondering why we didn't land a Ryan Sawvell, or Jeremy Robinson, or Jordan Threloff, when actually as we look back - we have most all of our big men playing well still in the pros and proving they weren't so bad after all (POB, Zach Andrews, David Collins, Cellus..)

BTW - next year the three best low post big men in the Valley will be gone - Carmichael, Echenique, Hall..
even Doug McDermott - who plays a wing more & more may be gone in the draft...
..and as I argued elsewhere nobody else has stats much better than what we have coming back...
About this time last year there was discussion here about how fans were envious of Evansville's Ryan Sawvell
& that he was way better than what we had ...but obviously those beliefs were a little premature worry...
Sawvell has precisely THREE total points scored in the last NINE games combined, and a grand total
of eleven total points in their THIRTEEN total MVC games...for an MVC average of 0.8 ppg...about what Nate Wells is scoring in far, far less playing time.

[wily coyote]

those expectations sound eerily similar to these which said when Geno was hired that we would surely be better right off the bat because we couldn't possibly get any worse....we did

Your right we did but your missing the point. Age makes little difference. The quality of the product we've had to put on the floor plus the mistakes on the bench are the reasons we are where we are. Not saying Geno may have brought in a mistake or two but I'm still giving him the benefit of doubt until he can get his own recruits in here and Jim's have graduated. I've said this b4 and I'll say it again. "We will get better or changes will be made". Simple as that