Final: Drake 81 Bradley 66

[LittleBrave]

For sure we will stay on this course. There is no way another change will be made in these next 2-3 years. And I don't think anyone is saying that. I think many fans just expected much better by now.

Not according to everything I was reading at the beginning of the season.
I think many fans expected a much better ending to the season because for the most part, we had a successful season through mid-February and exceeded expectations in the eyes of most BU fans and in the eyes of fans from other Valley schools.

I have to admit though, that I never expected the kind of struggles we witnessed last year, and if you told me right after Geno was hired that we'd be in the Thursday play-in game in the 2nd year under Geno, I would have though you were nuts. I probably would have expected 8th place last year and 5th place this year.

[alczervik75]

2 years and some people are still trying to blame the previous coach. Unbelievable. How many more years are some people going to try to stretch that lame excuse out?
This team has 40% of the MVC All Defensive team, yet we gave up over 80 points to a crappy Drake team.
We have All MVC players and would have had others (Remy Abell, Tyler Brown, Corey Hawkins) and some pretend the cupboard was bare. We were embarrassed yesterday by a lousy team. Please stop trying to blame people who have been gone 2 years.

The point is it is a period of transition. This isn't fully Geno's team yet, and it's not fully what Les would have had. We would have a few better players, and likely wouldn't have Walt, Pickett, Fields or Grier that will be the nucleus of what I believe should be a good team next year.

The first class wasn't really his, he gets credit/blame for Shayok and Crawford, but it's much different trying to fill a scholarship at that point of the year. This years team and staff doesn't deserve to be judged completely by Bradley standards, because it's not fully Geno's team. Geno made the decision last year with recruiting to sacrifice the ceiling for this years team by going the transfer route. Next year, we see the wisdom, or lack thereof, in that move. Next year it's much closer, and if we don't either have a top half finish, or flashes of amazing promise from 3 - 4 younger guys, it's open season and tough questions need to be asked.

Having said that, Geno was a good recruiter and coach at KSU, is well connected, and has executed a plan with the roster. I believe it will work, but we all will be in a reasonable place to judge next spring.

[Rusty 54]

Geno won 1 NIT game in 2010, and 2 NIT games in 2011. He won the MAC coach of the year in 2010 and 2011, and the MAC regular season championship in 2010 and 2011.

Saying all he has won is EIEIO games is both false and insulting.

[alczervik75]

My recollection is multiple 20+ win seasons and a Sweet 16. And we didn't have to play 340+ SOS to accomplish it. What will pie in the sky people like you say when we are still playing Thursdays in 1 and 2 more years?

I will say I'm thankful we have the budget to try again to hire the right man to be the future of Bradley basketball.

[tornado]

Geno is a good man & a good coach - he's just in a very tough position to compete in a league full of very good teams all of whom have coaches who have had a big head start

[LittleBrave]

I think you can skip past the details and just wrap up all the recent posts, along with recent posts of all "trending" threads into this...

There are 3 kinds of people in this world and their posts can be translated as:

"I love Coach Les and have been bitter since."

"I liked Coach Les and also like Geno."

"I hated Coach Les and love Geno or anybody else who could have replaced him."

[alczervik75]

I have accepted the firing (though I was against it). I actually liked the Geno hiring. he was 2 for 2 winning regular season conference championships, and that is the best way to get an NCAA bid. This year we ended up finishing exactly where I expected (8 or 9 ), which I am OK with personally. My concern is that I expect a decline in performance next year, which I am NOT ok with. Maybe we get some new players that will change my mind, but right now that is my concern. We lose 3 starters and I don't know how we're going to replace them. I guess I'll ask most people on here - Do you expect improvement next year? And if so who will be those who step up to contribute more than Jake, Will and DSE?

I really hope my worries are unjustified, and I actually really like some of the transfer rumors (even if we're a couple years away from reaping the rewards), but I don't see how we are competing for championships in years 3-4 right now.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised next year. I respect all kids that play for the Braves, but I think you will find the pieces coming back will make for a good team next year. Our two most productive players are back, one moves to his natural position as a combo guard, and Prosser is still a 5th year senior who can score in the post. Geno knew his coaching future was tied up, in large part, by the two transfers, and I think they pan out. This offense needs a shooter to work, and Grier is that.

[Da Coach]

I am the kind who wants Bradley to win. I am not happy about losing, especially to trams we should beat. I don't subscribe to the excuse that it's someone else's fault or that playing a poor schedule or losing is a necessary part of some rebuilding plan. I think there are a lot of fans who think this way. Many of them were the ones masquerading as empty seats this season.

[Rusty 54]

I have accepted the firing (though I was against it). I actually liked the Geno hiring. he was 2 for 2 winning regular season conference championships, and that is the best way to get an NCAA bid. This year we ended up finishing exactly where I expected (8 or 9 ), which I am OK with personally. My concern is that I expect a decline in performance next year, which I am NOT ok with. Maybe we get some new players that will change my mind, but right now that is my concern. We lose 3 starters and I don't know how we're going to replace them. I guess I'll ask most people on here - Do you expect improvement next year? And if so who will be those who step up to contribute more than Jake, Will and DSE?

I really hope my worries are unjustified, and I actually really like some of the transfer rumors (even if we're a couple years away from reaping the rewards), but I don't see how we are competing for championships in years 3-4 right now.

I expect to be better next year. DSE will be a big loss.

We bring in Fields, a pure point guard that was recruited to the ACC, that will help us tremendously against the press. We bring in Grier, a pure shooter. Geno does need to hit the recruiting trail for bigs, no doubt. I am excited about Tucker as well, but he is a freshamn so he may take longer.

Will and Jake did not play consistantly at the level we needed to to win in the Valley. We have a proven winner as a coach, a great fan base, top-notch facilities, and immediate playing time. We can get a center and a SF that will add more than Will and Jake.

We lost 6 of our last 8 becasue we ran out of gas, had trouble rebounding, and stopped defending when our offense wasn't working. Once Geno gets big guys, wepons on offense, and depth we will be a dangerous team.

[wily coyote]

Give any team that many wide open 3's and you are in trouble.

Not if it's us shooting the 3's.

[tornado]

we got beat badly by the team most likely to fire their coach the instant their season is done...

[Chico]

The POTUS has done it for FOUR years with G. Dub. Maybe we have two more years of this before we are done with the blame game?? I HOPE NOT.

+1

[OrangeandBlack74]

By fan 9 is a supporter of the team. Just not a fan of losing and Thursday humiliation. Lots of fans have become disenchanted. This was by far the smallest contingent of Bradley fans I have ever seen down here in St. Louis, and most were very unhappy about last night. We are losing a lot of solid fan support and donations. We need to right the ship. We can't make excuses about 3 or 4 more years.

If he's a supporter of the team, he sure has a funny way of showing it. I have yet to see a positive post from him. He's constantly ripping on Geno and the administration, which I thought was against the Board Rules here. Guess I must have missed the latest revision.

I'm not happy about losing and playing on Thursday...but I am not disenchanted. I think this program is headed in the right direction under Geno's leadership, despite what you and the other naysayers would have us believe.

And quit bemoaning the fact that players like Abell, Brown and Hawkins are not here playing for BU. The only one who had signed an LOI with BU was Abell, and there were plenty of rumors that he was looking for way out of it. Brown and Hawkins were never coming to BU. We should just trust you to say that they were? Really???

I fully expect Geno to recruit players better than we had, and to continue to make progress toward the ultimate goal of competing for and winning MVC championships!

[tornado]

O&B -
1st - message boards are places where a lot of people gripe & are negative - I don't see him personally insulting anyone here - if you don't share his opinion - then express your own

2nd - I went back & reviewed a few of your old posts and there have been times you have posted negatively enough over a span of time that someone might have concluded the same about you

..and if bufan 9 is so negative how come he says he agrees with one of your better friends..

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=225265&postcount=19

[wily coyote]

i'm not sure why this is so hard. If we don't recruit better players than we lose than we won't be any better. Plain and simple. Why is it going to be difficult to replace our 4 SRs? Where did we finish with them? Hate to be harsh but just stating the facts. If we are worried about how we're gonna replace them than we really have a problem. Not saying we have the pieces in place to contend yet but we didn't lose anybody to give us the ability to contend either unless I'm missing something. Tell me if I am. Must admit we have alot of work to do but I'm confident Geno will get it done. Go Braves.