Final: Bradley 55 Loyola 38

[Toyota12]

Quote

Did you read what it said? He said we had a chance to sweep SIU and we didn't do it! I think Geno is competitive as the day is long but he is also a realist. IMO He wasn't making excuses he was pointing out the obvious. They played a D2 school we didn't and he hoped that would not effect the tie breaker. All we had to do was beat them the 2 times we did not so now it doesn't mean anything. I hope you also realize you are talking about a man who is under a lot of pressure to keep a good job and feed his family. I would think if you in that position you would feel the pressure and over analyze a little bit

[AZ BU Fan]

55 - 38?

Was the game suspended at half? Break out the peach baskets and one hand set shots!
Was it 1920's throwback night?

Whatever it takes BU..
Close out with a winning streak!

[tornado]

makes you remember all those promises 3 years ago of uptempo offense, and high octane/fast pace...
whatever happened to those promises?

[bula-bloom]

Did you read what it said? He said we had a chance to sweep SIU and we didn't do it! I think Geno is competitive as the day is long but he is also a realist. IMO He wasn't making excuses he was pointing out the obvious. They played a D2 school we didn't and he hoped that would not effect the tie breaker. All we had to do was beat them the 2 times we did not so now it doesn't mean anything. I hope you also realize you are talking about a man who is under a lot of pressure to keep a good job and feed his family. I would think if you in that position you would feel the pressure and over analyze a little bit

Toyota12, yes I did read what he said. I guess I'm suggesting he might have been a little optimistic planning to sweep all 7-10 place teams this year given that we have only 2 or 3 road mvc wins in 3 years with Geno. I realize at least one of them was Southern (Loyola this year and I'm not sure if Southern another year). If you don't sweep all those teams, with our SOS, we are playing on Thursday (btw, I do attend the MVC tourney in St. Louis every year - it's an extra hotel night for me ). He knows that SOS is a important tiebreaker and scheduling better will be good in the long run for a team (maybe not for your immediate record).

As far as "realizing he's a man trying to keep a good job and feed his family", As I said before, I'm sure Geno is a good guy and good family man. But in this business, you take the good and the bad -- the good is several $100K per year (and a chance to make millions per year), some prestige, some publicity, some perks, and the bad are people like me 2nd guessing, job security that can last 3-4 years at a minimum (not too many get fired in the first few years of tenure), travel, maybe moving frequently, not seeing family much during season, and having to check your ego when you do lose a job. But.....there's no secrets about this job and the pluses compensate for the minuses. I think Geno will be able to feed his family. I'm not talking about the person that cleans the arena after games.

My point is really have we seen improvement over the last 3 years or have we seen the same? We are all judged in our jobs on results -- not whether we are nice guys, men with families, or can crack a joke once in a while.

[AZ BU Fan]

makes you remember all those promises 3 years ago of uptempo offense, and high octane/fast pace...
whatever happened to those promises?

Apparently went the way of lots of championships.... and the best big men we have ever seen recruited in Peoria....

What happened, is it must still be difficult to get top kids to come to BU, who can execute uptempo offense and high octane/fast pace, regardless of coach.

The lack of a dominating big center also makes uptempo/high octane/fast pace difficult. Need to clear the boards and let guards release up the floor. Hard to do with post double teams, and, no sure rebounding in the center.

GF has two more years to get it going, and, I still think he will.

If not, I'm sure the gargoyle will be turned loose on him...

[AZ BU Fan]

Toyota12, yes I did read what he said. I guess I'm suggesting he might have been a little optimistic planning to sweep all 7-10 place teams this year given that we have only 2 or 3 road mvc wins in 3 years with Geno. I realize at least one of them was Southern (Loyola this year and I'm not sure if Southern another year). If you don't sweep all those teams, with our SOS, we are playing on Thursday (btw, I do attend the MVC tourney in St. Louis every year - it's an extra hotel night for me ). He knows that SOS is a important tiebreaker and scheduling better will be good in the long run for a team (maybe not for your immediate record).

As far as "realizing he's a man trying to keep a good job and feed his family", As I said before, I'm sure Geno is a good guy and good family man. But in this business, you take the good and the bad -- the good is several $100K per year (and a chance to make millions per year), some prestige, some publicity, some perks, and the bad are people like me 2nd guessing, job security that can last 3-4 years at a minimum (not too many get fired in the first few years of tenure), travel, maybe moving frequently, not seeing family much during season, and having to check your ego when you do lose a job. But.....there's no secrets about this job and the pluses compensate for the minuses. I think Geno will be able to feed his family. I'm not talking about the person that cleans the arena after games.

My point is really have we seen improvement over the last 3 years or have we seen the same? We are all judged in our jobs on results -- not whether we are nice guys, men with families, or can crack a joke once in a while.

Last Coach:
Year 1 .. 12-18 .. 8-10 in MVC
Year 2 .. 15-16 .. 7-11 in MVC
Year 3 .. 13-15 .. 6-12 in MVC
Year 8 .. 16-15 .. 9-9 in MVC
Year 9 .. 12-20 .. 5-15 in MVC

Current Coach
Year 1 .. 7-25 ... 2-16 in MVC
Year 2 . 18-17 .. 7-11 in MVC
Year 3 . 12-16 .. 7-9 in MVC ..... (chance to finish 14-18 and 8-10 in MVC)

BU stayed the course with the last coach and it paid off.

I am assuming BU will again stay the course with the current coach and hopefully it will pay off as well.

[Da Coach]

There were many different dynamics in play between then and now.
Comparing records doesn't tell the whole story. This staff has not had significant injury issues like those that affected the staff back then. But then we can't use injuries as an excuse.

Some of the other differences: The attendance in 2002-2005 was consistently over 9,000, revenues and donations were skyrocketing toward all-time highs, and recruiting was stocking the team for a Sweet 16 run, despite having maybe the worst facilities in the league. Plus the coach's salary was among the lowest in the league at under $200K. And the MVC was a far tougher league with no 250-300 RPI teams.
In 2005 there was only 1 team with an RPI over 200 (ISU was 233), and in 2006, the worst MVC team had an RPI of 139!
There are many more differences, but they have all been pointed out before. Suffice to say that the program is becoming a laughingstock and is falling into irrelevance. That was never the case earlier this decade, nor at any time in the last 75 years of Bradley basketball.

But the current staff will no doubt get a couple more years, and maybe it will all turn around like it did before, and like we were promised.

[AZ BU Fan]

There were many different dynamics in play between then and now.
Comparing records doesn't tell the whole story. This staff has not had significant injury issues like those that affected the staff back then. But then we can't use injuries as an excuse.

Some of the other differences: The attendance in 2002-2005 was consistently over 9,000, revenues and donations were skyrocketing toward all-time highs, and recruiting was stocking the team for a Sweet 16 run, despite having maybe the worst facilities in the league. Plus the coach's salary was among the lowest in the league at under $200K. And the MVC was a far tougher league with no 250-300 RPI teams.
In 2005 there was only 1 team with an RPI over 200 (ISU was 233), and in 2006, the worst MVC team had an RPI of 139!
There are many more differences, but they have all been pointed out before. Suffice to say that the program is becoming a laughingstock and is falling into irrelevance. That was never the case earlier this decade, nor at any time in the last 75 years of Bradley basketball.

But the current staff will no doubt get a couple more years, and maybe it will all turn around like it did before, and like we were promised.

Sorry to tell you this DC, but, BU has been a laughingstock in the MVC for some time, well before GF. Didn't MVC beat writers call JL Mr Thursday night? The sideline foot stomp, referee baiting, and resulting technical fouls were also a point of conversation around the league.

My foggy recollection is compliments from other MVC Schools or Coaches or visiting media were few and far between for JL other than 2004-5.... Am I missing something?

I'll give JL credit for attendance, what a salesman... Local hero returning to BU to win championships... But then again, as you say, there are many more differences since then that affect attendance....

Recall, I was a huge JL fan for about 6/7 of his 9 years, then, ran out of koolaid in 7, 8, and 9. Teams can lose players to injuries, but, can still play hard and smart, and prepared. I was probably as fair and balanced as any in the crowd who wanted to try change.

[Da Coach]

Sorry to tell you this DC, but, BU has been a laughingstock in the MVC for some time, well before GF. Didn't MVC beat writers call JL Mr Thursday night?

Maybe I am a bit surly from missing one of my 5 picks this week. Darn Evansville, you let me down.
But again AZ, you are revising history a little. First, there was never anyone in the media or elsewhere that called Jim Les Mr. Thursday Night. That would not have made any sense, since back then, the play-in games were played on Friday nights, not Thursdays. The championship game was played on Mondays so it could be televised by CBS.
But the term "Mr. Friday Night" did get coined, but not by anyone in the media. Jim Les played on Friday in the Play-In games only twice in his first 8 seasons (year 2 [2004] and year 3 [2005]). It was some jerk from Illinois State that went around the Savvis Center in 2005 (it did not become the Scottrade Center until 2006) and posted homemade "Mr. Friday Night" posters in all the Savvis Center men's bathrooms. So that is where the term came from, jealous ISU fans, and not from anyone in the media or elsewhere. It is possible that may have gotten reported by Peoria journalists or other media, but none of our beat writers called Coach Les "Mr. Thursday night" or "Mr. Friday night".
Ironically, Jim Les only played on Friday night twice (7th seed in 2004 and 8th seed in 2005) in that early part of the decade. He never finished as low as 9th or 10th back then, while Illinois State finished with the 9th seed in 2003, the 10th seed in 2004, and the 10th seed again in 2006, while Bradley went on to play in the Sweet 16, the 7th seed in 2007. That was 4 times in a 5 year span that ISU played in the Play-In game, and the only year they missed the Play-In, was when they barely missed and finished the 6th seed in 2005! So just who really turned out to be Mr. Friday night?

[AE Braves Fan]

Last Coach:
Year 1 .. 12-18 .. 8-10 in MVC
Year 2 .. 15-16 .. 7-11 in MVC
Year 3 .. 13-15 .. 6-12 in MVC
Year 8 .. 16-15 .. 9-9 in MVC
Year 9 .. 12-20 .. 5-15 in MVC

Current Coach
Year 1 .. 7-25 ... 2-16 in MVC
Year 2 . 18-17 .. 7-11 in MVC
Year 3 . 12-16 .. 7-9 in MVC ..... (chance to finish 14-18 and 8-10 in MVC)

Year 3 of current coach would be 10-18, 5-11 if Creighton was in the league. The most fair comparison is RPI.

[Chico]

You had a good idea BUalum05.

[tornado]

Sorry to tell you this DC, but, BU has been a laughingstock in the MVC for some time....

but when BU was NOT a laughingstock - back in 2006, 2007 after our Sweet Sixteen run - if the University's admin had thrown even a little support behind the coaching staff and the team - who knows where we'd be...maybe as successful as the soccer program - certainly not at the bottom of the MVC and the butt of jokes....
Instead - it is NO secret the admin did NOT place any support behind the program - they tried everything to torpedo the program's success, forcing assistant coaches and successful administrators out, denying certain recruits from coming in, then spending multiple millions to clean house and rebuild with promises of being immediately better.....ultimately leading us to where we are now heading into our FOURTH consecutive Thursday night.

[bradleyfan124]

but when BU was NOT a laughingstock - back in 2006, 2007 after our Sweet Sixteen run - if the University's admin had thrown even a little support behind the coaching staff and the team - who knows where we'd be...maybe as successful as the soccer program - certainly not at the bottom of the MVC and the butt of jokes....
Instead - it is NO secret the admin did NOT place any support behind the program - they tried everything to torpedo the program's success, forcing assistant coaches and successful administrators out, denying certain recruits from coming in, then spending multiple millions to clean house and rebuild with promises of being immediately better.....ultimately leading us to where we are now heading into our FOURTH consecutive Thursday night.

I agree with T here. At one time Bradley was very well respected. Good teams..Good coaches..always going to NIT. now since then it has gone down hill..I blame the Administration for that. They have dismantled the program from within..That is why I have said something has to change and it has to change from the top down. The Board of Trustees needs to get involved along with the Bradley Boosters. There is no reason why Bradley cant be more competitive if only they would allow it to be

[Big Mike]

Year 3 of current coach would be 10-18, 5-11 if Creighton was in the league. The most fair comparison is RPI.

That is a good point that most seem to,overlook!