Final score: UW-Milwaukee 73 Bradley 67

[Buesch N Chips]

DC,I also like the 2 guards we've signed and if WL doesn't figure out this is a team game soon ,not sure how much we'll miss him. Very talented player but not much help when he tries to do it all. Think Shaw will be more than a capable TP replacement. What we need is for several players to find new homes where they can play and bring in some big Alex Peters type shooters. If there in the corn fields so be it. Always worked for CU and UNI

Those first couple of games might have been the worst thing for Walt.

[tornado]

....... This team has some serious talent issues ....

FWIW - talent is only part of the equation...

-Wichita & Creighton each had only one player on the 10-man 1st & 2nd All-Conf Teams, five other teams had as many and one had twice as many.
In fact - check it out - the teams that do best in the MVC are NOT at all always the ones with the most All-Conference talent or NBA-caliber talent.

One year, a team nearly ran the table and won the Valley - with a collection of absolute no-names that everyone picked 10th in the preseason & none of whom ended up successfully playing pro ball at any level after college.
Teams like VCU, Butler, and others win regularly with talent that other schools pass on.

[Chico]

FWIW - talent is only part of the equation...

-Wichita & Creighton each had only one player on the 10-man 1st & 2nd All-Conf Teams, five other teams had as many and one had twice as many.
In fact - check it out - the teams that do best in the MVC are NOT at all always the ones with the most All-Conference talent or NBA-caliber talent.

One year, a team nearly ran the table and won the Valley - with a collection of absolute no-names that everyone picked 10th in the preseason & none of whom ended up successfully playing pro ball at any level after college.
Teams like VCU, Butler, and others win regularly with talent that other schools pass on.

I always thought that's what won for Dick Versace. He got talent other teams passed on.

[tornado]

talent, teamwork, chemistry, strategy, effort, coaching, prepearation, game plan, mindset and then even some more intangibles like fan support & players' pride...
we have guys hanging their heads, rolling their eyes, and looking discouraged & defeated - Geno thinks so and made a few references to this publicly,
.... and it is what Geno meant by lacking toughness...

[Buesch N Chips]

talent, teamwork, chemistry, strategy, effort, coaching, prepearation, game plan, mindset and then even some more intangibles like fan support & players' pride...

Well I'm not ready to say we are lacking in every positive attribute. Geno is a good coach with a solid staff. I will say that I am disappointed that with the Summer trip and earlier practice schedule that we have played as poorly as we have. We need a solid effort on Tuesday.

[tornado]

I agree - we still have time to turn it around - the next few games are crucial - we have to win!!

BTW - Almost every other Valley school either cleaned house or hired a new coach within the past couple years...

-Missouri State started over with Paul Lusk in 2011 - they are 7-1!
-Hard to believe but Drake is starting from scratch just THIS YEAR - they are 6-2! (with losses only to ranked or highly rated teams)
-ISU just cleaned house and started from scratch - and just beat a ranked team!
-Even Indiana State (6-2) and Evansville(6-3) seem to be strong despite their losses in personnel the past few years (Colt Ryan, Dwayne Lathan, Carl Richard, Mahurin, Cox)


Speaking of Mahurin - he is now at Indiana Wesleyan and has helped them to a 9-2 start!

He's averaging 17 ppg, 9 rpg ... IWU's women's team won the National Championship last year, and the men finished ranked #7.

[Buesch N Chips]

I agree - we still have time to turn it around - the next few games are crucial - we have to win!!

BTW - Almost every other Valley school either cleaned house or hired a new coach within the past couple years...

-Missouri State started over with Paul Lusk in 2011 - they are 7-1!
-Hard to believe but Drake is starting from scratch just THIS YEAR - they are 6-2! (with losses only to ranked or highly rated teams)
-ISU just cleaned house and started from scratch - and just beat a ranked team!
-Even Indiana State (6-2) and Evansville(6-3) seem to be strong despite their losses in personnel the past few years (Colt Ryan, Dwayne Lathan, Carl Richard, Mahurin, Cox)


Speaking of Mahurin - he is now at Indiana Wesleyan and has helped them to a 9-2 start!

He's averaging 17 ppg, 9 rpg ... IWU's women's team won the National Championship last year, and the men finished ranked #7.

Missouri state's SOS is worse than ours, if that is possible. If we had their schedule and were 7-1, would you be lauding our record or lamenting our schedule? We have our problems, let's see if we can get them fixed.

[tornado]

.. We have our problems, let's see if we can get them fixed.

I know we have problems - when have we not had problems that fans want to talk about?

But let me say one thing about our fan base - despite that it is shrinking - we still have a tremendous bunch of loyal BU fans...
they rabidly show up at events dressed in red, patiently waiting for a good season - and there's still a lot of them...

But I think they have been underappreciated - as I have said before - I think far more efforts are made to appeal to and satisfy the squeaky wheels. - the ones who always want changes to their liking..

Almost every time Bradley has cleaned house and started over since the 1970's - we actually had a nucleus of good young players coming in but those fans didn't buy it - they smelled blood once the media jumped into the fray and they wanted the overhaul.

BUT - Most of the truly loyal, lifetime fans will support whoever the coach and players are.

Jim DeRose had back to back mediocre seasons of 6-11 and 6-12 just a couple years ago in 2008-09 & 2009-10, and a couple years before was 8-8 - that's a 4-year tally of 36-37 - but thankfully he was not run out by a small group of grumbling fans, backed by a hostile media.

I am anxious to see what we can do with the players Geno has coming in next year - and this year I am hoping for a bit of improvement as the Valley is almost wide open except the top couple spots..
The fans are very patient but they want to see something positive soon - thus the new trend of the mass of empty seats and shrinking home attendances that did not happen the last several coaching overhauls.

[Da Coach]

Missouri state's SOS is worse than ours, if that is possible. If we had their schedule and were 7-1, would you be lauding our record or lamenting our schedule? We have our problems, let's see if we can get them fixed.

I am not sure where you saw that, but Missouri State's SOS is not worse than ours. It is significantly better, and will improve when they meet ORU and Louisville in their next 2 games. Bradley's SOS, though it has improved, is still lower than any other MVC team except Loyola.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_mvc_Men.html

Missouri State's schedule with RPIs-

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_301_Men.html

Bradley's schedule with RPIs-

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_294_Men.html

[tornado]

yeah - there are some services that have BU's and Missouri State's RPI's about the same but since they've played DII's - they actually escape a penalty for that...
our SOS is said to be worse than any other MVC team except newbie MVC member Loyola whose schedule may have been locked in to a degree from past contracts..

[Buesch N Chips]

My source was cbssports

[Buesch N Chips]

CBS also lists Indiana state and SIU worse than us on SOS.

[Bradleyfan1]

Our journey isnt as bad as some round here wanna make it.

To bad we lost to a cupcake AT RC.

[Da Coach]

Our journey isnt as bad as some round here wanna make it.

To bad we lost to a cupcake AT RC.

I think everyone here wants to see us be successful and compete for championships, which is what was promised. We'll all be happy when it happens, but will we have many fans left? Not many teams have lost as large a portion of their fan base as we have in the last couple years due to what has happened and all the fallout.

[tornado]

the fans are hungry for wins - and wins over solid teams - they are turning on each other