Another thursday in the Lou?

[DeltaBrave03]

hard to please?? Ha....as I have said many times - I root for BU to win every game - all losses are disappointing...
and I have believed and I have said since last season that I thought we had the talent to compete with at least half the Valley and do way, way better than the bottom of the league..
now we're really just a loss or so away from being one of the two bottom teams in the Valley...improved??? ..maybe, but apparently some are tickled pink just going from 10th to 8-9th!

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Let me put it this way....

If I were setting out on a tough one-hour journey but midway there you forced me to take a detour...
The detour was long, difficult, filled with bad news, and seemingly almost all downhill...and it took THREE more hours just to get back on the original road and only a few meters beyond where I began the detour...

Then you said to me - why aren't you happy - aren't you improved from where you were an an hour ago - you're making progress and you're nearing your destination.??
My answer is of course I am finally glad I am getting to my goal, but had I not been forced to take such a historically bad detour I believe I'd have been closer to my goal three hours ago!

What if I told you it was either take that detour or you were going to walk into a pit full of snakes? Would you still rather continue down the same path leading to you demise, or take a 3 hour detour with the hope of still reaching the promise land?

[DeltaBrave03]

we are certainly not going to agree on "vastly"...
there's a real possibility we're looking at going from 10th to 9th or 10th to 8th...
EVERYONE expected a minimum of that much improvement...

you can get giddy if you want about that being "vastly" improved...but I'd reserve the term "vastly improved" for when we are competing for some spot in the upper half of the Valley or even for a title...

In an interview our AD gave to the PJS 3 years ago (2/05/10) he spoke of guiding Bradley within a few years to
"competing on a regular basis for the championship.."

Then ironically one poster mocked him with a post that said...
"It's good that MC didn't say...
"I envision consistent 4th or 5th place conference finishes with a chance to compete in the NIT .."
so far the detour hasn't gotten us any closer to our goal...

4th would look pretty good right now as would an NIT bid

Maybe we would be competing for championships if we hadn't only recruited one productive player in each of our previous 5 recruiting classes prior to this years class...

[tornado]

What if I told you it was either take that detour or you were going to walk into a pit full of snakes? ..

I guess I would look at the facts and the source before I believe anything I am told ..don't you or do you just believe anything someone tells you?

[LittleBrave]

Let's not forget that many people on this board were not concerned about Wins and Losses, but about being more competitive and playing better at home. We have absolutely done that!

You just can't measure improvement based on our final seed in the MVC. It's not an accurate measure. Last season, it came down to the final game to determine who would play on Thursday or who would be the #3 seed. Indy St. was one shot away from an 8-seed or a 3-seed.

Let's give Geno and these guys credit. In the talk of "improvement", we're only comparing this year to last year. Nothing needs to be brought up 2-3 seasons ago in connection to this!!!
It just doesn't belong!

[LittleBrave]

Then ironically one poster mocked him with a post that said...
"It's good that MC didn't say...
"I envision consistent 4th or 5th place conference finishes with a chance to compete in the NIT .."
so far the detour hasn't gotten us any closer to our goal...

4th would look pretty good right now as would an NIT bid

Sorry, but you just set yourself up for this:

That's about how far that JL would ever take us if he had stayed, as his track record of 9 seasons didn't speak any differently. I'm glad you're giddy with finishing 4th every year, with some Thursday nights thrown in.

And if Coach Ford does the same after a few seasons, then the same treatment and criticism will be given to him too.

[tornado]

one more time -- as I have said it before - we are improved - I expected us to be improved in a season we brought back almost everyone, plus a returning 6th year guy and had plenty of open scholarships to add whatever else we needed...

..hey there were even people giddy about SIU's "improvement" WHEN THEY'RE IN 10TH PLACE HAVING ONE OF THEIR WORST YEARS EVER IN THEIR HISTORY.
- read this - I guess I just don't see THAT MUCH IMPROVEMENT when they've dropped into 10th place with on of the worst seasons they've ever had! - LINK
(note they brag about this - "During the actual season, the Dawgs have been without major incident under Coach Hinson, a very good mark on Hinson's record in the first season." when they've had two players arrested for multiple violations and [url=http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21844[/url]one kicked off the team for insubordination - while a second guy, coincidentally one of their best players was almost kicked off but reinstated! - So I guess you can be giddy about little improvements...)

but if our improvement leads to a Thursday spot - then "playing better at home" still leads me to wanting to compete for championships as was promised..
Seems some are pretty selective about whose promises we are going hold to...and whose we will excuse even if they never happen...

[JMM28]

hard to please?? Ha....as I have said many times - I root for BU to win every game - all losses are disappointing...
and I have believed and I have said since last season that I thought we had the talent to compete with at least half the Valley and do way, way better than the bottom of the league..
now we're really just a loss or so away from being one of the two bottom teams in the Valley...improved??? ..maybe, but apparently some are tickled pink just going from 10th to 8-9th!

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=269480&postcount=77

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=271379&postcount=5

Let me put it this way....

If I were setting out on a tough one-hour journey but midway there you forced me to take a detour...
The detour was long, difficult, filled with bad news, and seemingly almost all downhill...and it took THREE more hours just to get back on the original road and only a few meters beyond where I began the detour...

Then you said to me - why aren't you happy - aren't you improved from where you were an an hour ago - you're making progress and you're nearing your destination.??
My answer is of course I am finally glad I am getting to my goal, but had I not been forced to take such a historically bad detour I believe I'd have been closer to my goal three hours ago!

You've done it! You've made me a believer. I am with you. BU needs Jim Les back ASAP.

Is Eric Buescher available to be associate head coach again? I think he is! Maybe we could hire the Maniscalcos to be assistants as well. That way when one quit, we'd have another one to back him up. Hopefully we can get Sam out of that lucrative foreign contract he is playing under right now. But who to fill that pesky revolving door 3rd spot? Maybe that could be someone forced on poor Jim so he would have a built in excuse for any mediocre seasons.

Oh for the days of sunshine, lollipops, and Jim Les as head coach of Bradley.

[LittleBrave]

What if I told you it was either take that detour or you were going to walk into a pit full of snakes? Would you still rather continue down the same path leading to you demise, or take a 3 hour detour with the hope of still reaching the promise land?

AMEN! Hallelujah! Tell it like it is, brother!

[LittleBrave]

hard to please?? Ha....as I have said many times - I root for BU to win every game - all losses are disappointing...

and I have believed and I have said since last season that I thought we had the talent to compete with at least half the Valley and do way, way better than the bottom of the league..

This was YOUR expectation, T. Obviously other BU fans had lower expectations, as we witnessed how the talent (at the time) was severely lacking from the start of the season, as we started AT and a walk-on in many games.

I doubt if 95% of the fans believed as much as you did.

So what happened all those years when you "believed" we could finish in the Top 3, and it never happened. Or is it that you didn't "believe" or have the kind of standards back then as you do now?

Another hijacked thread.

[DeltaBrave03]

I guess I would look at the facts and the source before I believe anything I am told ..don't you or do you just believe anything someone tells you?

Yes and I saw consistent mediocrity for 9 years sans a two game stretch in March of 2006.

[Tulsa Brave]

Bradley's final Pomeroy ranking last season...272
Bradley's Pomeroy ranking this season as of now...155

I call that vastly improved regardless of what definition of vastly you are using.

SIU is improved as well...230 last season to 188 as of now.

And the one that will blow some here away...the MVC this season is much improved over last season as well....6927 vs. .6370. .6927 last season would have placed us 6th as a conference...it's 9th this season because the MWC and Pac-12 have stepped way up, and the A-10 is just holding on to a narrow lead over us.

[cpacmel]

Bradley's RPI is 100 spots higher this year than last year.

[tornado]

RPI unfortunately does not factor into where you're seeded in the MVC Tourney
SOS and W-L do...

[Mikovio]

Well we had 2 MVC wins last year and this year we have 7 with the potential for 9 and a 5th place finish (with some help). We'll see how it goes. Tonight is a must win to stay out of the play in round.

I think we've gone from bad to mediocre. Whether that's "vast" or not I don't know, but an upward trend is better than the alternative. I really like the improvement of Lemon and DSE, and I like Pickett. I think Egolf is playing his best ball this year but it's difficult to tell how much credit the coaching staff gets given all of his past injury problems. I'm disappointed with the progress of Prosser and Ford's initial class (SS and Crawford). I'm fine if those guys don't pan out from the first class because they were late spring signees when most recruits had commitments, but I do expect to see progression there.

It's still only the second year, but if you would have told me we would lose our only all-MVC player (Taylor Brown) and added a JUCO forward, a true frosh point guard, and Egolf, and won 5, maybe 7 more MVC games, I wouldn't have believed you.