Most Improved

[Beninator]

Somebody outside of Peoria thinks that we have improved!

http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/

Their MVC picks include Walt and Tyshon.

Walt Lemon, Jr., Bradley - Carried a big burden for the Valley??™s most improved team.

Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/#storylink=cpy

[tornado]

so we are the Valley's "most improved team"?..then musta been a lot of teams in the Valley that didn't improve very much...

BUT -- as I have actually stated many times since way last year -- we OUGHT to be better since we returned almost everyone and they all got a year older, & more experienced, we added a decent guy & starter in TP, and got back one of our best players in Will Egolf - so we were expected to be improved....
the real issue is did we exceed the expectations??

You can say so all you want - but how come I don't feel it and I am still spending Thursday in St. Louis??
We won a game in St. Louis last year - I'd love for us to exceed that this year...


BTW - some other leagues are already naming their guys..
Horizon POY - Ray McCallum
Patriot POY - Mike Muscala

[alczervik75]

Somebody outside of Peoria thinks that we have improved!

http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/

Their MVC picks include Walt and Tyshon.

Walt Lemon, Jr., Bradley - Carried a big burden for the Valley??™s most improved team.

Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/#storylink=cpy

I think this is pretty clear. Last year we may have been the worst team in the history of the valley. This year we improved by 5 wins and were clearly competitive. We are most improved because the bar was set so low.

[Tulsa Brave]

so we are the Valley's "most improved team"?..then musta been a lot of teams in the Valley that didn't improve very much...

BUT -- as I have actually stated many times since way last year -- we OUGHT to be better since we returned almost everyone and they all got a year older, & more experienced, we added a decent guy & starter in TP, and got back one of our best players in Will Egolf - so we were expected to be improved....
the real issue is did we exceed the expectations??

You can say so all you want - but how come I don't feel it and I am still spending Thursday in St. Louis??
We won a game in St. Louis last year - I'd love for us to exceed that this year...


BTW - some other leagues are already naming their guys..
Horizon POY - Ray McCallum
Patriot POY - Mike Muscala

We won a game in St. Louis last year???? Where was I when that happened??? I recall us getting hammered by Drake, being well behind right from the start and never really feeling like we ever had a chance in that game. So who did we beat that I missed?

[saluki762]

so we are the Valley's "most improved team"?..then musta been a lot of teams in the Valley that didn't improve very much...

BUT -- as I have actually stated many times since way last year -- we OUGHT to be better since we returned almost everyone and they all got a year older, & more experienced, we added a decent guy & starter in TP, and got back one of our best players in Will Egolf - so we were expected to be improved....
the real issue is did we exceed the expectations??

You can say so all you want - but how come I don't feel it and I am still spending Thursday in St. Louis??
We won a game in St. Louis last year - I'd love for us to exceed that this year...


BTW - some other leagues are already naming their guys..
Horizon POY - Ray McCallum
Patriot POY - Mike Muscala

I don't remember Bradley winning a game last year. I was there and though I remember you guys losing. (I was drunk but not blackout or anything like that.

That said, it sure seems that Bradley and SIU are both looking up. Bradley is probably a little closer by virtue of getting rid of a terrible coach 1 year sooner than SIU.

[tornado]

year - I guess my mind wanted to blank out last year - it was the year before that we beat Drake...
but back to the issue - we were so bad last year that it was a given it would be almost impossible to be that bad again - so we were virtually guaranteed to be improved.
...and again - where we all the fans so willing to be excited about a Thursday play-in season??
Hooting and hollering about biggest improvement and "most-improved" when we still lost 8 of our last 12 and 11 of our final 17 to finish as a Thursday team..when just a few weeks ago we were talking a possible 3-4th finish..
makes me wonder how did anyone ever complain about 4th place in a bygone era??

Have we really had such lack of success in Bradley basketball that some get gaga over an improvement from 10th to 7-8-9th place tie & get tingles running down people's legs?
Maybe it shocks people but I want to finish OUT of the bottom half of the Valley - and I am not gaga over what I and several thousand other fans must obviously see as a disappointing season with a half filled arena..

[ph]

Right now is like watching an experienced, high quality painter prep a house. We're still in the prep phase.
Right now, we just see an "ugly" color mismatch of sanded surfaces, taped edges, caulk and putty. You don't fire a painter during the prep phase because you came home to an imperfect home, or get distressed. Especially when the painter has great references, and is doing the prep work by the book.

If you get past the color differences of the raw surfaces, you start to notice that intricate , crisp details now exist in classic molding after hours of meticulous scraping.

I would not want to always live in a home in prep mode, but for this season, I'm satisfied with the procss and the building blocks.

[Bravesfan]

year - I guess my mind wanted to blank out last year - it was the year before that we beat Drake...
but back to the issue - we were so bad last year that it was a given it would be almost impossible to be that bad again - so we were virtually guaranteed to be improved.
...and again - where we all the fans so willing to be excited about a Thursday play-in season??
Hooting and hollering about biggest improvement and "most-improved" when we still lost 8 of our last 12 and 11 of our final 17 to finish as a Thursday team..when just a few weeks ago we were talking a possible 3-4th finish..
makes me wonder how did anyone ever complain about 4th place in a bygone era??

Have we really had such lack of success in Bradley basketball that some get gaga over an improvement from 10th to 7-8-9th place tie & get tingles running down people's legs?
Maybe it shocks people but I want to finish OUT of the bottom half of the Valley - and I am not gaga over what I and several thousand other fans must obviously see as a disappointing season with a half filled arena..

We were so bad last year that winning 9 more games over last year only got us to 7th place. But I'm much more pleased with the increased amount of wins this year than where we finished in the Valley rankings. The reason being that if we win only 4 or 5 more games next year, we probably finish in the top 3. It all depends on how the teams are distributed on a year to year basis. Some years the Valley is very top heavy, meaning 3 or 4 great teams towards the top followed by a quick dropoff. This year the Valley was very deep from top to bottom, so it was a little harder to move up in the rankings. But we certainly did win more games which is the most important improvement. Obviously I'm not happy we could not muster up one more win to take out of Thursday night. But we certainly are a lot closer to escaping the play-in round next year than we were the last two years.

[Bravesfan]

so we are the Valley's "most improved team"?..then musta been a lot of teams in the Valley that didn't improve very much...

BUT -- as I have actually stated many times since way last year -- we OUGHT to be better since we returned almost everyone and they all got a year older, & more experienced, we added a decent guy & starter in TP, and got back one of our best players in Will Egolf - so we were expected to be improved....
the real issue is did we exceed the expectations??

You can say so all you want - but how come I don't feel it and I am still spending Thursday in St. Louis??
We won a game in St. Louis last year - I'd love for us to exceed that this year...

Yes and no. Yes we have a great core of players that DID get much better. But we don't have depth! I don't care which coach was at fault here. If we can recruit more depth in future seasons, we won't have to worry about our starters running out of gas like they did this year. I don't think that's too difficult for most people to see.

[BradleyJD]

Have we really had such lack of success in Bradley basketball that some get gaga over an improvement from 10th to 7-8-9th place tie & get tingles running down people's legs?

Yes. We sunk so low we made a coaching change. Going from 7 wins to 16 is great to me. I hope it continues.

[Braves4Life]

...we were so bad last year that it was a given it would be almost impossible to be that bad again - so we were virtually guaranteed to be improved...

Maybe it shocks people but I want to finish OUT of the bottom half of the Valley

Patience my friend. Many have called us one of the most improved teams in the country. Patience. Trust Geno Ford. He's getting us there. Just enjoy watching the progress and you'll enjoy it that much more once we're there. Most of us are hopeful that he can take us higher than 4th... Time will tell. If he doesn't get us there soon he'll be replaced. Just keep supporting Geno Ford 100% and everything will be alright. Besides, you certainly don't want to be that one guy that everyone points to as the non-believer once he turns things completely around. Do you? That's taking a heck of a chance with your pride, my friend.

[Beninator]

Just saw this on Twitter form Basketball Analyst Mark Adams.

Mark Adams @EnthusiAdams
Bradley- 6th best win improvement (+9) in the country (7-25 to 16-15) #8 NCAA 9.5 steals/game.
Collapse Reply

[Tulsa Brave]

year - I guess my mind wanted to blank out last year - it was the year before that we beat Drake...
but back to the issue - we were so bad last year that it was a given it would be almost impossible to be that bad again - so we were virtually guaranteed to be improved.
...and again - where we all the fans so willing to be excited about a Thursday play-in season??
Hooting and hollering about biggest improvement and "most-improved" when we still lost 8 of our last 12 and 11 of our final 17 to finish as a Thursday team..when just a few weeks ago we were talking a possible 3-4th finish..
makes me wonder how did anyone ever complain about 4th place in a bygone era??

Have we really had such lack of success in Bradley basketball that some get gaga over an improvement from 10th to 7-8-9th place tie & get tingles running down people's legs?
Maybe it shocks people but I want to finish OUT of the bottom half of the Valley - and I am not gaga over what I and several thousand other fans must obviously see as a disappointing season with a half filled arena..

Mrcoachdude wrote:Some people just have a hard time letting go....

[BUFanatic]

year - I guess my mind wanted to blank out last year - it was the year before that we beat Drake...
but back to the issue - we were so bad last year that it was a given it would be almost impossible to be that bad again - so we were virtually guaranteed to be improved.
...and again - where we all the fans so willing to be excited about a Thursday play-in season??
Hooting and hollering about biggest improvement and "most-improved" when we still lost 8 of our last 12 and 11 of our final 17 to finish as a Thursday team..when just a few weeks ago we were talking a possible 3-4th finish..
makes me wonder how did anyone ever complain about 4th place in a bygone era??

Have we really had such lack of success in Bradley basketball that some get gaga over an improvement from 10th to 7-8-9th place tie & get tingles running down people's legs?
Maybe it shocks people but I want to finish OUT of the bottom half of the Valley - and I am not gaga over what I and several thousand other fans must obviously see as a disappointing season with a half filled arena..

Bradley is better than 4th place. We couldn't finish above 4th place and the coach had been there 10 years, this was a major problem. I complained about 4th because we weren't competing for championships, and seemed content to own the 4/5 game. I'll take a few awful seasons with a new coach if it means that we will begin competing for championships down the road. If Geno can't get us past the 4/5 game in a few years, I'll take the same issue with him.

FTR, no one, and I mean no REAL BU fan could call this a disappointing season after what happened last year. If we have a repeat of this season next season, then yes, but we dominated at home for the most part and remained competitive when we lost. We also had only one 20+ point blowout when they were the norm last year. I would call this an improved season. Definitely not where I want to be next year, but miles better then where we were last season.

As for the "thousands" of upset fans at the half filled arena.... If you are upset that numbers are only in the thousands after a dismal season, talk to any fan of a lower team or a team with not as much support. They would KILL for thousands on their GOOD years. These are the loyal fans that care about BU and the success of the team, those that will be there through the good and the bad because they love Bradley Basketball. Complain all they want, by showing up they are showing that they are true fans, no matter how discontent they may be with the way the team is going.

LET IT GO! as mr.coachdude would say

[alczervik75]

Bradley is better than 4th place. We couldn't finish above 4th place and the coach had been there 10 years, this was a major problem. I complained about 4th because we weren't competing for championships, and seemed content to own the 4/5 game. I'll take a few awful seasons with a new coach if it means that we will begin competing for championships down the road. If Geno can't get us past the 4/5 game in a few years, I'll take the same issue with him.

FTR, no one, and I mean no REAL BU fan could call this a disappointing season after what happened last year. If we have a repeat of this season next season, then yes, but we dominated at home for the most part and remained competitive when we lost. We also had only one 20+ point blowout when they were the norm last year. I would call this an improved season. Definitely not where I want to be next year, but miles better then where we were last season.

As for the "thousands" of upset fans at the half filled arena.... If you are upset that numbers are only in the thousands after a dismal season, talk to any fan of a lower team or a team with not as much support. They would KILL for thousands on their GOOD years. These are the loyal fans that care about BU and the success of the team, those that will be there through the good and the bad because they love Bradley Basketball. Complain all they want, by showing up they are showing that they are true fans, no matter how discontent they may be with the way the team is going.

LET IT GO! as mr.coachdude would say

Very good post.

The other thing I find amusing is I know I saw it posted here this week that if we start winning and fans came back, we may have just replaced loyal fans with a younger generation of more fickle fans who need to win to stay. However, if the insinuation is that fickle fans that put conditions on their attendance is a bad thing, shouldn't be relieved to no longer have the fans whose attendance was "supposedly" conditional upon a certain coach.

Note: I have nothing against loyalty to Jim, he is a great guy and cared deeply for the University.