First exhibition game- Bradley 85 Upper Iowa 83

[Chico]

Interesting people are more upset over tickets than how the team looked against an Upper Iowa team picked pre-season as 14th out of 16 NSIC teams.

20.00 for tickets against a team picked 14th out of 16 teams is one of the reqsons many great and loyal fans are upset.

[tornado]

OK - just one other fan's two cents...and I won't waste much time. I like to win, but....

-how could the pundits have been so terribly wrong? Of course we all knew Walt Lemon was great and he proved it but like Da Coach said - this team has been practicing since August - all we've heard from the "experts" is how improved we are, solid, deep, strong, Dave Reynolds called this one of the best 2 or 3 recruiting classes ever, difference makers, and pundits picked one of our freshmen as FOY, etc..

but we were bad - no sugar coating it - besides WL we were bad on offense and bad on defense.
Geno plainly asked us to say when we sukked and we sukked. We let a DII team hit over 50% from three.


-we used to laugh at a couple of the other Valley teams who played in small on-campus arenas, played bad opponents, and looked bad -having trouble with DII caliber opponents..
well - BU fans - looks like we are there...

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds blog about Bradley's defense-
Adjusting to a different game

http://blogs.pjstar.com/pressrow

[FortyTwo]

I wasn't at the game, but I guess I have a slightly different perspective in that I was a little concerned about blowing this team away and our newcomers and young guys getting overly confident. Personally, I don't mind some games like this in the exhibition season that get their attention and hopefully focuses them in.

Should we need that after practicing since August? No, probably not, but until the first official game, I'm fine with a ton of coachable moments assuming the guys focus a little more and work a little harder as a result.

As for the ticket situation, also very frustrated with that. I have corporate season tickets and didn't receive them in the mail until Friday and they were addressed to a person who hasn't worked for my company in 11 years, so they didn't get to me until yesterday afternoon by which time I couldn't use them. On the plus side, they actually sent me 8 extra sets so someone else is likely without there's.

[TheAsianSensation]

OK - just one other fan's two cents...and I won't waste much time. I like to win, but....

-how could the pundits have been so terribly wrong? Of course we all knew Walt Lemon was great and he proved it but like Da Coach said - this team has been practicing since August - all we've heard from the "experts" is how improved we are, solid, deep, strong, Dave Reynolds called this one of the best 2 or 3 recruiting classes ever, difference makers, and pundits picked one of our freshmen as FOY, etc..

but we were bad - no sugar coating it - besides WL we were bad on offense and bad on defense.
Geno plainly asked us to say when we sukked and we sukked. We let a DII team hit over 50% from three.


-we used to laugh at a couple of the other Valley teams who played in small on-campus arenas, played bad opponents, and looked bad -having trouble with DII caliber opponents..
well - BU fans - we are there...
as recently as 2-3 years ago there were some saying teams like Evansville, UNI, and Drake should go look for another conference to play in..
hmmm...wonder what those schools think of us now... we are 3 years and 7-8 millions of dollars spent on a changeover, a rebuild, lawsuits, buyouts, etc...and this is what we look like?

Ok a few things.

- Who laughed at other Valley teams playing preseason games in small arenas and looking bad against DII teams? Maybe you, but not most. And BU has done it for several years, not just this year. We've lost these types of preseason games before. We've been there and are still there. Not worried that we're there, either.

- What? People saying UNI should go look for another conference? What kind of silly accusation is that? (Evansville is the one people have mentioned, I'll give you that, but that's just an irresponsible sentence on your part)

- What those schools think of us will depend on what we look like on the court this season. Not from this game. Let's calm down and wait for a larger sample of results.


All that aside, your concerns are well-founded. This was a game where I would've liked to see a limited WL to see what the others could do. We may end up strong, but we'll have to build into it instead of starting out that way. But on the other hand, I'm not nearly motivated enough to lessen expectations for the season.

[Da Coach]

FTR, there were many people, including some who worked at Bradley and some who are still there, as well as a lot of fans of all the other MVC teams who strongly criticized the addition of Northern Iowa to the MVC.
I liked their addition, and almost everyone now agrees it was a good move.

[Buesch N Chips]

I think the fan base is more united than ever. We should be good, but we weren't last night. There are concerns over games at the RC. Good to see harmony.

[Buesch N Chips]

wonder if the PJS will make mention of it or just post the tickets sold count?

They did!

[wizard1]

First Exhibition Game---

t---You are 100% correct again! The game last night was awful. I don't know what game Reynolds was watching but it sure wasn't the one I saw. The team looked terrible---No offense from anyone other than WL and terrible defense both individual and team. What I saw was a team that will be close to an MVC cellar dweller and will play on Thursday in St. Louis----MVC teams will focus on WL to shut him down and I shudder to think of what could happen if he is injured!
We need something other than 6'-6 or 6'7 mid-level players who are inconsistent and don't play defense. Unfortunately, its going to be a looooong season IMO.
Wiz

[wily coyote]

t---You are 100% correct again! The game last night was awful. I don't know what game Reynolds was watching but it sure wasn't the one I saw. The team looked terrible---No offense from anyone other than WL and terrible defense both individual and team. What I saw was a team that will be close to an MVC cellar dweller and will play on Thursday in St. Louis----MVC teams will focus on WL to shut him down and I shudder to think of what could happen if he is injured!
We need something other than 6'-6 or 6'7 mid-level players who are inconsistent and don't play defense. Unfortunately, its going to be a looooong season IMO.

Wizard,I have to disagree with you and T.The sky may have been a little gray last night but it's not falling. Geno was like the rest of us in that he was not happy with the way we played but I think he's seen alot in practice that would lead him to believe we are better than what we saw.I'll bet we are much better Sat.afternoon. I like the fact we put 85 points on the board and putting that round ball through that round hole is alot harder than teaching kids to play defense. If our individual and team defense doesn't improve quickly than i"ll be worried. Not there yet.

[Toyota12]

loooong season

t---You are 100% correct again! The game last night was awful. I don't know what game Reynolds was watching but it sure wasn't the one I saw. The team looked terrible---No offense from anyone other than WL and terrible defense both individual and team. What I saw was a team that will be close to an MVC cellar dweller and will play on Thursday in St. Louis----MVC teams will focus on WL to shut him down and I shudder to think of what could happen if he is injured!
We need something other than 6'-6 or 6'7 mid-level players who are inconsistent and don't play defense. Unfortunately, its going to be a looooong season IMO.
Wiz

I like you guys who think a season is made based on a exhibition game!! I know you have probably coached a college level Div I team and are able to assess our team and come to that conclusion based on one exhibition game. CMON MAN!! I know you are probably a huge BU fan so come on give it a couple weeks and then make your assessment, It is time encourage and support the team not bashing time this early...

[TheAsianSensation]

FTR, there were many people, including some who worked at Bradley and some who are still there, as well as a lot of fans of all the other MVC teams who strongly criticized the addition of Northern Iowa to the MVC.
I liked their addition, and almost everyone now agrees it was a good move.

That's fair. If t was referring to that time period, I retract. I didn't know he was going that far back.

[amettrick]

here is the postgame recap: http://www.bradleybraves.com/viewart...clid=209293961

and for what it's worth, the on-campus game in 2006, the first public game after a sweet 16, drew 2,547. It was an exhibition game played in october against monday night football and game 5 of the world series featuring one of the local favorites. Not saying we don't want to draw bigger crowds, but repeated harping on everything that is done here is getting old.

Blast away

+1000

[Da Coach]

The game Bobby is referring to was played Nov. 1, 2006- but there were some differences that are worth pointing out-
It was played on a Sunday night, a tough day to draw a crowd (church events), yet it still drew 2,547.
It was not a part of the season ticket package (last night's game was).
It still drew 2,547 people who walked up to the box office and bought their tickets independent of their season tickets. How many such walk-up tickets were sold to last night's game? (Maybe a couple hundred? Correct me if I am wrong).
It was played in the old Fieldhouse- not a great place to attract fans by 2006, and with limited parking availability.

That year Bradley went on to average 9,728 fans per game, the highest average of any season since 2000, and even an increase of more than 500 over the Sweet 16 season! In fact, the total home attendance for that 2006-07 season was 165,376, the highest total in the 110 year history of Bradley basketball.
This year our average attendance will be around 6,000. That drop-off in fan support should concern all of us Bradley fans.

[CABUFan]

The game Bobby is referring to was played Nov. 1, 2006- but there were some differences that are worth pointing out-
It was played on a Sunday night, a tough day to draw a crowd (church events), yet it still drew 2,547.
It was not a part of the season ticket package (last night's game was).
It still drew 2,547 people who walked up to the box office and bought their tickets independent of their season tickets. How many such walk-up tickets were sold to last night's game? (Maybe a couple hundred? Correct me if I am wrong).
It was played in the old Fieldhouse- not a great place to attract fans by 2006, and with limited parking availability.

That year Bradley went on to average 9,728 fans per game, the highest average of any season since 2000, and even an increase of more than 500 over the Sweet 16 season! In fact, the total home attendance for that 2006-07 season was 165,376, the highest total in the 110 year history of Bradley basketball.
This year our average attendance will be around 6,000. That drop-off in fan support should concern all of us Bradley fans.

I think BP's point was that last night's attendance is no reason to panic, because on-campus exhibition games didn't draw well even during our most recent peak. Isn't it a little early to be predicting average attendance of 6000? Looks like we averaged 7600 last year coming off 2 horrible seasons; I'd hope that would be on its way back up this year.