Final: Missouri State 64 Bradley 56

[Bravesfan]

..agreed - I hope that kind of turnaround happens....but Molinari had a maturing group of future All Conference kids like Anthony Parker, Billy Wright (5 assists, 2 TO), Deon Jackson (14ppg), Marcus Pollard, Dwayne Funches, Aaron Zobrist, Chad Kleine...
It was a season where 8 of his top NINE players & scorers were returning & HALF the returning production was from his exceptionally strong freshman class. We Will need to replace a bunch more next year.

Very true. However, Geno's big class will come in next year, so that's why I will give him until year 4 to see if we are heading in the right direction. Same thing as Les who got most of his top recruits in here in year 3. Therefore it took him one more year to get his team to the NCAA Tournament. It all depends when most of the new coach's players are in place. That said, if we take a big step back next year, that would not be encouraging. I still expect us to finish at least .500 in the Valley next year and out of Thursday night, especially with so many good players leaving the Valley this year.

[braveatheart]

Maybe my memory is a little better than some people's-
3 years ago we had a winning record (16-15), and a 5th place MVC finish.
4 years ago we had 21 wins, and a 4th place finish in the MVC, despite playing the entire year without our top returning scorer, Andrew Warren.
And both years we had substantially more difficult schedules and much better RPI's.

True. But that was with no "fall out" from the coaching change. That was the top end of what we could expect.

This years team exceeded expectations. We only won one of the last four games but we were underdogs going into all four. Is this good enough? No, not in the long term, but it is progress.

Our lack of a true point guard really showed last night. Another big turnover night out of our guards. Geno has a true point guard coming in next year, I suspect that alone could help us win 4 or 5 more games.

If Geno fills the remaining scholarships with good players I would bet that next year Geno will have us back to Bradley's level before the "fall out". Of course that still isn't where we want to be, but it will be a good start.

[Bravesfan]

True. But that was with no "fall out" from the coaching change. That was the top end of what we could expect.

This years team exceeded expectations. We only won one of the last four games but we were underdogs going into all four. Is this good enough? No, not in the long term, but it is progress.

Our lack of a true point guard really showed last night. Another big turnover night out of our guards. Geno has a true point guard coming in next year, I suspect that alone could help us win 4 or 5 more games.

If Geno fills the remaining scholarships with good players I would bet that next year Geno will have us back to Bradley's level before the "fall out". Of course that still isn't where we want to be, but it will be a good start.

Agreed with everything except your first point. Had Warren played that year, I'm sure we would have won a few more games, and maybe would have come close to challanging for a Valley championship that year. I know it's an excuse, and maybe better depth would have overcome that injury, but still, any coach would have been hurt by his loss. That said, the Bradley powers thought the time was right for a change, and while some of us disagreed with it, there's not much we can do about that now. Geno came in and had to rebuild this team from scratch, and so far seems to be at least pointing things in the right direction. Time will tell how much further we will get with him at the helm, but things seem encouraging so far.

[Braves4Life]

The direction was different

Thank you lefty for pointing out what was obvious to most Bradleyfans.

[Da Coach]

Well, again we see the anti-JL people emerge and try to paint 2008, 2009, and 2010 as horrible, losing seasons, so they can feel better about the record numbers of losses and the record number of blowouts in these past 2 years, and the Play-In Thursdays in St. Louis.

It was stated that "how anyone could not be excited with 16 wins based on where we were 3-4 years ago", suggesting those were rock-bottom, horrible seasons. The problem is that those were winning seasons, and maybe I am different, but I prefer winning seasons. When I merely point out that fact (2009 & 2010 were actually winning seasons, one of them a 21-win season), it causes them to go ballistic, and suggest some kind of agenda. Just who has/had the agenda?

[Bravesfan]

Well, again we see the anti-JL people emerge and try to paint 2008, 2009, and 2010 as horrible, losing seasons, so they can feel better about the record numbers of losses and the record number of blowouts in these past 2 years, and the Play-In Thursdays in St. Louis.

It was stated that "how anyone could not be excited with 16 wins based on where we were 3-4 years ago", suggesting those were rock-bottom, horrible seasons. The problem is that those were winning seasons. When I merely point out that fact (2009 & 2010 were actually winning seasons, one of them a 21-win season), it causes them to go ballistic, and suggest some kind of agenda. Just who has/had the agenda?

This poster probably meant 1 or 2 years ago. Time goes by fast and sometimes people forget the exact number of years it was.

That said, I don't think anyone has an agenda here. Everyone is on the same page that we want to see better finishes by our team, and I can't recall a single post here in the last week or so saying that anyone is satisfied with a 16 win season. If Geno fails to live up to expectations within the next 2 years, I'm sure the tone of these posts will change real quick. But he inherited a team that lost players due to the coaching change and he has to rebuild almost from scratch (not saying we don't have good players, but we don't have depth). So far he seems to be doing a decent job considering we only have had about 4 or 5 consistently good players this year.

Now of course I have always agreed with you and others that if Les was still here we would probably have more depth than we do now. But he is gone, and it was a decision beyond anyone's control. Now we just have to be patient and I will give Geno the same four years that most people gave Les. He had most of his good recruits in here by year 3, but it took until year 4 for him to get us to the NCAA Tournament. And just short of a disasterous year next year, I will give Geno the same time table and hope the players he has coming in here next year will be good as well.

[Da Coach]

This poster probably meant 1 or 2 years ago...

If so, then I agree.

[Braves4Life]

Well, again we see the anti-JL people emerge and try to paint 2008, 2009, and 2010 as horrible, losing seasons...

Those seasons were certainly not horrible seasons Da Coach. I don't think anyone feels that way. However, when you add 2011 and look at the trend it was going down each year with little hope for a reversal. People just got tired... Tired of never finishing higher than 4th place over a decade.

[LittleBrave]

The teams we beat in those tournaments were not cupcakes like many of the games this yea. They were good teams, good enough to make it to those tournaments. I could make the case that those wins were a lot more impressive than beating teams with 300+ RPIs and who don't even reach double digit wins. So I think they should count.

I hope you are right, because it we aren't seeing winning seasons and challenging for NCAA bids in 2-3 years, I feel this program will have been set back more than it may ever be able to overcome. Many of those who dropped out as season ticket holders may never be coming back.

And for those who say I am negative, I picked Bradley to be 8-4 in the pre-conference part of the schedule-

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21624

And I picked us to win 6 or 7 MVC games (we finished with 7 MVC wins)-

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=270238#post270238

So I think I have been realistic, and accurate in assessing where we are. But we had a chance to be better. I am not pleased with the decline in what we saw in the last month of the season with losing 5 of our last 6 in the MVC.

I see your frustration now DC. It's legit. Losing 5 of our last 6 is not a good way to end the reg. season.

[SFP]

I see your frustration now DC. It's legit. Losing 5 of our last 6 is not a good way to end the reg. season.

The last part of the season is about depth. We had so little all year long! The starters are hitting the proverbial wall.

[lefty]

Well, again we see the anti-JL people emerge and try to paint 2008, 2009, and 2010 as horrible, losing seasons, so they can feel better about the record numbers of losses and the record number of blowouts in these past 2 years, and the Play-In Thursdays in St. Louis.

It was stated that "how anyone could not be excited with 16 wins based on where we were 3-4 years ago", suggesting those were rock-bottom, horrible seasons. The problem is that those were winning seasons, and maybe I am different, but I prefer winning seasons. When I merely point out that fact (2009 & 2010 were actually winning seasons, one of them a 21-win season), it causes them to go ballistic, and suggest some kind of agenda. Just who has/had the agenda?

Who's anti-JL? If you state a fact such as the last 3 years Jim was here we went from 21 to 16 to 12 wins that doesn't mean you are anti Jim Les...Just saying that the direction of the two were different. So I'm not ballistic...just pointing out facts..........

[Da Coach]

Who's anti-JL? If you state a fact such as the last 3 years Jim was here we went from 21 to 16 to 12 wins that doesn't mean you are anti Jim Les...Just saying that the direction of the two were different. So I'm not ballistic...just pointing out facts..........

That is not what was stated. Instead it was suggested 3 to 4 years ago were terrible. They weren't. I just was correcting that.

[lefty]

That is not what was stated. Instead it was suggested 3 to 4 years ago were terrible. They weren't. I just was correcting that.

I see......I guess I didn't see the word terrible in sportsnut's quote

[Old Coach]

That said, I don't think anyone has an agenda here.

Oh... I think there might be a couple.

[lake Camelot]

That said, I don't think anyone has an agenda here. Everyone is on the same page that we want to see better finishes by our team

Obviously