Embarrassing Bradley stat

[tornado]

sorry if it's beating a dead horse - but many fans have been saying for 3 years that we need mainly to improve in THREE AREAS..same three areas as last year and 2012 and 2011...
and we keep coming to games and seeing no imprivement and little chance of such anywhere on the horizon..

post play
point guard play
shooting

we have the most woeful stats BY FAR in the MVC regarding post play...
our starting "5" and allegedly best post player averages 3.5 ppg & 3.1 rpg and fouls a lot.
Those production numbers are half of what even the weaker teams in the Valley have and the teams ahead of us have guys whose numbers are way better.
Despite the accolades, the game to game production of XT is still inconsistent - 4 and 5 pts & 3 or 4 rebounds a game form your staerting center is worrisome and now that he's played almost 30 games (23 regular season and 6 preseason) should we not see at least SOME consistent improvement? His best game was 3 months ago vs. Chicago State, 11pt & 6 rebs - and he has not exceeded either 11 pts or 6 rebs ever since - and most games not close.

we are not only last in the MVC in assists, we are last by a wide margin and we are also last by an enormous margin in Assist to Turnover margin..

Then shooting - hardly need to say much - we are at or near the bottom in every scoring and shooting stat.

again - I know this is even more beating the dead horse...but as woeful as our offense is - our top two scorers, our best inside scorer and one of our best outside scorer and our top assist guy are done in one more month -
does anyone see why a lot of fans have concerns?
Yes I know, I have lost my rose-colored glasses - but hard to ignore the obvious ..

[lefty]

I just want to see Bradley winning games again, beating good opponents, not cupcakes, playing in the NCAA tournament, and not being embarrassed by other programs that have no right being better than Bradley. I believe all Bradley fans just want to see a winning program being built.

We can point to esoteric numbers from Jim Les' first 3 years that seems to make some feel better about our losing now (though I won't allow posters to fudge the numbers). But my point was that in Jim Les' first 3 seasons we may not have had as much success as fans wanted, but most tuned-in fans could see the program was accumulating significant talent and clearly building toward something special that had not happened at Bradley in over 50 years.

Fast forward to the present- Fans could accept the record number of losses and unprecedented blowouts, if we could see the same kind of successful team-building. Recall that Kirk Wessler told us that Geno Ford would avoid "rustling up a quick fix" by staying away from junior college and transfer players, and "establish a core that can win, and then win again". Note in that column, Kirk praised the first recruiting class of Devon Hodges, Jalen Crawford, and Shayok Shayok as possibly high-major recruits because "Xavier, Wisconsin and Texas Tech also recruited them".

Do you see that same kind of team-building happening as we saw 9-10 years ago? Do you see a Top 40 RPI, NCAA team here next year? Our current RPI (RPI 240) is worse than it was at any time during the Jim Les era.
Most fans don't see it happening, and that is the #1 reason they have bailed out in record numbers. There is a lot of failure and blame to go around, and most fans don't care about the blame game, they just want to see the problems corrected, and get back to winning.
But even Kirk doesn't believe that will happen soon, because he wrote an entire column trying to prepare us fans for years of more rebuilding. I think there is still a chance to turn things around quicker than Kirk thinks. Its happened before, even in as short as 1 season (see 1979-->1980).
Now we are looking at more "rebuilding" but unlike the rebuilding that Kirk envisioned, we seem to be getting even more turnover of Geno's own recruits, and looking at more junior college recruits (remember this column: Too Many Jucos for Bradley?), and more transfers. I wish I was wrong, but I have been right about everything else that I predicted and which has happened these last 3 years. Sorry that makes some people even angrier that, in addition to us fans suffering through all this losing, that I also happened to be right all along.

I'm not angry....but I like how you aren't defending Les

[Da Coach]

I'm not angry....but I like how you aren't defending Les

I never meant to suggest you were one who was angry, but it's silly to deny that some are.
And so correcting erroneous statements about his record now qualifies as "defending Jim Les"?
Nope, He's gone and I am fine with that. Recall that Dr. Cross said that his final season did not play into the decision at all, so his firing was said to be due to his inability to progress the program beyond 4th place from 2002-2010, despite averaging 20+ wins over the last 5 seasons of that span, and an NCAA tournament run. However, everyone even remotely connected to the Bradley program knows the real reason had nothing to do with all that, but was instead based entirely on personal factors between JL and a certain administrator. If anyone does not know what I am referring to, feel free to PM me for details.

I am happy for him. He is back where he and his entire family prefer to live, he is doing what he loves to do, he is paid by UCD and Bradley combined- more than he was making here, he is happy and his future is much more secure. So I won't bring him up again, unless as usually happens, someone posts false information or detracts from what was actually accomplished. It's the fans and the BU sports programs that have suffered.

The change was made to "take Bradley to the next level". To get Bradley beyond where it was. To "compete for championships" every season. Those promises were made many times. So far it has been a failure. Some fans warned that this might happen and that it could take years to even get back to where we were. Others believed that any change was good, and that anyone could coach and recruit better than what we had.
So far, one group was right, and the other was wrong.

[bradleyfan124]

I never meant to suggest you were one who was angry, but it's silly to deny that some are.
And so correcting erroneous statements about his record now qualifies as "defending Jim Les"?
Nope, He's gone and I am fine with that. Recall that Dr. Cross said that his final season did not play into the decision at all, so his firing was said to be due to his inability to progress the program beyond 4th place from 2002-2010, despite averaging 20+ wins over the last 5 seasons of that span, and an NCAA tournament run. However, everyone even remotely connected to the Bradley program knows the real reason had nothing to do with all that, but was instead based entirely on personal factors between JL and a certain administrator. If anyone does not know what I am referring to, feel free to PM me for details.

I am happy for him. He is back where he and his entire family prefer to live, he is doing what he loves to do, he is paid by UCD and Bradley combined- more than he was making here, he is happy and his future is much more secure. So I won't bring him up again, unless as usually happens, someone posts false information or detracts from what was actually accomplished. It's the fans and the BU sports programs that have suffered.

The change was made to "take Bradley to the next level". To get Bradley beyond where it was. To "compete for championships" every season. Those promises were made many times. So far it has been a failure. Some fans warned that this might happen and that it could take years to even get back to where we were. Others believed that any change was good, and that anyone could coach and recruit better than what we had.
So far, one group was right, and the other was wrong.

Certain Administrator? Who, pray tell, are you talking about? Who would make such a decision based on subjective reasons rather than objective reasons. Who would do such a dastardly deed? Might it be the same person who selected the baseball coach based on subjective reasons rather than the objective reasons that a Committee used? Might this be the same person who just extended the contract of said baseball coach even thou after 5 years he is still picked last in the Missouri Valley. Tell me it aint so Shoeless Joe! Of all the gin joints and Colleges in all the towns in all the world, she walks into ours. Play it again Sam!!!!

[cpacmel]

Our current RPI (RPI 240) is worse than it was at any time during the Jim Les era.

DaCoach just as you called out others for not being factual correct, I think you know the above comment is not correct either.

[molar50]

I am not an accountant and do not know the specifics of Geno's contract, but could that number be smaller because some of his compensation is deferred?

To my knowledge, deferred compensation is listed in the 990 form. The total compensation adds salary, benefits, perks for cars, housing, and country clubs, and deferred compensation. It is not unusual to have deferred compensation, because after one retires, they may be in a lower tax bracket. We will know more about Geno's compensation when the 990 form for 2013 is filed. Beside Guidestar.com, any person has a right to go to Bradley and ask for a copy of the most recent 990 form. All non profits are required by law to provide that information upon request. You would be enlightened by how well some non profit organizations pay certain employees.

[tornado]

DaCoach just as you called out others for not being factual correct, I think you know the above comment is not correct either.

cpac - he is right -- the RPI of course fluctuates and may have momentarily dropped lower at some point but no year in the JL era did we finish with an RPI any lower than 227.
In fact if the RPI stays at 240 it will mean 2 of the worst 4 RPI's BU has ever had have come in the past 3 seasons, and 3 of the worst nine have all happened in the past 3 seasons

[Da Coach]

Our current RPI (RPI 240) is worse than it was at any time during the Jim Les era.

DaCoach just as you called out others for not being factual correct, I think you know the above comment is not correct either.

Here is what I said yesterday that you took issue with:
Our current RPI (RPI 240) is worse than it was at any time during the Jim Les era.

That was researched, and is 100% factually correct.
If you are going to say I am not correct, then show the proof.

Here are all of Bradley's RPI's over the last 35 years. On this site, the RPI is in the 3rd column from the right-

http://www.bbstate.com/teams/BRAD/history

Geno Ford era-
Year........RPI
2013-14 242
2012-13 191
2011-12 266

Jim Les era-
Year........RPI
2010-11 227
2009-10 101
2008-09 103
2007-08 107
2006-07 38
2005-06 39
2004-05 142
2003-04 166
2002-03 199

As can clearly be seen, Bradley's current RPI, which has now dropped to 242, is significantly worse than any of the RPI's during Jim Les' time at Bradley 2002-03 through 2010-11).
So I have provided absolute proof that my statement was correct. Where is your proof? Unless you can show where I was wrong, I think you owe me an apology.

[cpacmel]

In the 2010-2011 season, Bradley's RPI was greater than 240 several times

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2011/schedule/Bradley

Week 5 of the season it was 284

Week 9 of the season it was 241

Week 10 of the season it was 248

Week 11 of the season it was 253

Week 12 of the season it was 257

Week 13 of the season it was 274

Week 14 of the season it was 249

Week 17 of the season it was 243

Our current RPI (RPI 240) is worse than it was at any time during the Jim Les era.

The above is my proof.

[Da Coach]

Oh, I see what you are doing. You are cherry picking and parsing selected points during that 2010-11 season, when we all knew the team was handicapped by the loss of 2 All-MVC starters. I am sure if you are going to do that, we could probably cherry pick other points early in some seasons where the RPI was high, but I apologize if the way it was worded caused confusion for you, even though I am certain you knew exactly what was meant.
I guess I should never be surprised when somebody goes to extraordinary extremes to try to prove that something I said was not quite accurate. But, as you surely know, and as everyone else knows, I was referring to the information posted above, which is still factually correct and I stand by it- that the current RPI (242), as well as the RPI in Geno's first full season (266) are both significantly worse than the RPI in any season under Jim Les.
And that is despite the fact it cannot be blamed on injuries, as the 2010-11 season clearly was.

[BuAlum03]

1 - Cpacmel is right. There were times under the previous coach's tenure, where our RPI was lower.

Per DC's own words: "Our current RPI (RPI 240) is worse than it was at any time during the Jim Les era."

If he had said, "...is worse than it was at the end of the season during the Jim Les era," then sure. He'd be right. But he compares mid-season RPI to end-season RPI. DC you may end up being right; but we won't know until the season is over, will we?

As for cherry picking, I see your claim of cherry picking and raise you a healthy dose of excuse-making.

No apologies necessary for clearing up this confusion. Just happy to help.

2 - It saddens me greatly that an ISU fan is on a board dedicated to bradley fans, and is the one defending our current coach and team. How far has this board fallen?

[bu fan 9]

What is the average attendance under both coaches?

[Da Coach]

You can take whatever side you want, and believe whatever you want. And maybe you are happy with where Bradley is as we near the end of year 3.
As I said, everyone, including cpacmel knew what was meant and the facts are there for all to see. Maybe you guys might want to check my punctuation too and see if that somehow disqualifies the facts I posted.

Here are the facts you want to ignore:
Bradley has an RPI of 242. For this point, near the end of season 3, that is terrible and unacceptable to most Bradley fans. That is worse than any full-season RPI since the 2001-2002 season.
We are battling to stay out of a 3rd straight Thursday night play-in game since the coaching change- no coach in Bradley history has ever played 3 straight years in a play-in game.
By the end of this season, Bradley will have averaged 20+ losses over the last 3 years. No coach in the 111 year history of Bradley has ever averaged 20 or more losses over any 3 year period.
I could list many more "firsts", but then you'd probably then have to spend too much time parsing out the statements to try to find some flaw in them that is irrelevant to the point.


And I have no doubt that an ISU fan is quite happy to see the Bradley program where it is, and would like to see it stay that way.

[Chico]

No need defending yourself Coach. Most knew what you meant. Most of us are BU fans no matter who the coach is and wish Geno and the Braves the best.

[Biff]

Way to go Da Coach! Way to stir the pot. I can't believe some are trying to pick things apart with irrelevant stuff. Nothing they say can negate the point that Bradley is way worse now than promised.

As you've shown, it is sad to see how far this program has fallen.
Loyola's RPI is like 280, but we are listed as underdogs there tomorrow. I can't believe there are any fans who are happy with that.

Thanks to Da Coach for all the great information he provides us. I wouldn't skip a day without checking in here. This is a great place!