Final. 74-72 Loyola

[wily coyote]

Wily, this is a biased and slanted version of what happened. The recruiting may not have been as great as we liked, but injuries played a big part as well. CB retired because he didn't like the traveling and promised his wife he'd quit after 2 years. And it had nothing at all to do with "saving his son's job". Eric was already an assistant coach before CB ever got here, and was a valuable part of the staff and a good coach. In reality, the program went downhill fast and far after EB was fired by the President (not by the head coach), then 2 new assistants were hired by the administration (again, not by the coach). Some of Bradley's best players during the JL era were recruited by EB- Marcellus Sommerville, Daniel Ruffin, Tony Bennett, Jeremy Crouch, Andrew Warren, and others. Where are the equivalent recruits by this current staff?
And the revisionists would like to pretend JL had absolutely nothing to do with the successes of 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, in which we won 102 games and never finished in the lower half of a far better MVC. That is ridiculous, and I think you know that.
This program would be far better off if the administration had not bullied their way into all the changes made in 2010 and 2011, which resulted in the perennial Thursday night laughingstock of a team we have turned into. Thousands of fans now realize this and are disappearing faster than at any time in Bradley history. So believe whatever you want, but most of the JL-haters now are starting to agree. This intervention from above has damaged or destroyed every program at BU that has been meddled with. What successes can you or anyone point to in these last 5 years? People who were fed up with the 20+ win, 4th and 5th place finishes in a much better MVC, now seem to be happy with being a bottom dwelling team still relying on players from the JL era.
Maybe those who wanted all this can be gleeful at how awful we have become. Who is happy with mediocrity now? Heck, mediocrity would be a vast improvement.

DC have to disagree with you on a few points. Yes I'm aware EB was on staff when CB came aboard and yes Mrs. B. did not want CB to get back into coaching. But the truth is the wolves were already howling for Jim's job prior to the sweet sixteen run. Even that year people were howling. If we don't make that run and BU gets rid of Jim EB loses his job so in essence and a lot of peoples opinion CB was the driving force that turned 06 into something very special and saved EB's job.
Yes our recruiting was a little better after the 06 season but not good enough to get us any better than 4th place. Was it better than what were seeing today? Yes it was and I don't know where you think we are happy being a bottom dweller. I do think there are a few that are happy with what's happened this year. Kind of like I told you so.

[LongTimeFan]

I think I would have to agree that the Sweet Sixteen run saved Les' job.

[Da Coach]

DC have to disagree with you on a few points. Yes I'm aware EB was on staff when CB came aboard and yes Mrs. B. did not want CB to get back into coaching. But the truth is the wolves were already howling for Jim's job prior to the sweet sixteen run. Even that year people were howling. If we don't make that run and BU gets rid of Jim EB loses his job so in essence and a lot of peoples opinion CB was the driving force that turned 06 into something very special and saved EB's job.
Yes our recruiting was a little better after the 06 season but not good enough to get us any better than 4th place. Was it better than what were seeing today? Yes it was and I don't know where you think we are happy being a bottom dweller. I do think there are a few that are happy with what's happened this year. Kind of like I told you so.

As you said, there were a lot of people calling for Jim Les' job after year 3, and even halfway into year 4 (the Sweet 16 year). Some fans who could see the team was headed for something good wanted to see him stay, but were lambasted by the JL-critics as "happy with mediocrity", and "rose colored glasses", and even blamed for the losing because they supported the coach. Surely you remember that, since those exact terms were used a thousand times as a putdown suggesting only those JL-critics were smart enough to see the truth. By the way, nearly all those critics eventually had to admit how wrong they were after the Sweet 16.

My comment about "who is happy with mediocrity now?" was not directed at you. It was referring to the fact that we are worse off now than we were back then, yet the same critics who liked to rip and blame other fans for being "happy with mediocrity", are now quite different. Unlike in 2005 & 2006, they are silent, and insist we give things more time. So I was just applying their own definition- that it means they must be "happy with mediocrity". The problem that really reveals their bias, ignorance, and hypocrisy is that we are much worse off now, and we sure aren't headed for a Sweet 16 any time soon.

[peoriaspitfire]

All this talk of Bradley sucking, really sucks. At this point I don't care how it goes down. I just want a winner NOW!

[Prexy IX]

Jim Les would have returned in 2007 with or without a Sweet 16 run.

[Da Coach]

Pregame article and Tournament Central from BradleyBraves.com-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=209427155

[mvcfan]

Playing on Thursday sucks no matter who your team is. The chance of losing on Thursday and knowing your weekend is over before it gets started sucks. However I like where Bradley sits. Win against Loyola and you have a good shot against InST. Bradley matches up well having Lemon on Odum. Having watched InSt play the last couple games they do not look impressive. Against UNI they got good shooting from Arop and Odum and that was about it. Odum is a streaky shooter and as long as the refs don't let him fall into defenders to create contact Lemon can wrap him up. Also they lack an inside game which lets be honest so does Bradley. To me get to Friday and I like your chances.

[peoriaspitfire]

Playing on Thursday sucks no matter who your team is. The chance of losing on Thursday and knowing your weekend is over before it gets started sucks. However I like where Bradley sits. Win against Loyola and you have a good shot against InST. Bradley matches up well having Lemon on Odum. Having watched InSt play the last couple games they do not look impressive. Against UNI they got good shooting from Arop and Odum and that was about it. Odum is a streaky shooter and as long as the refs don't let him fall into defenders to create contact Lemon can wrap him up. Also they lack an inside game which lets be honest so does Bradley. To me get to Friday and I like your chances.

In theory, the draw sets up well for BU. However recent the track record of this coaching staff for winning on the road is just beneath pathetic. All that said, I??™ll still be rooting for 10 wins straight for BU and/or 9 straight for the MVC/Shockers.

[Da Coach]

Here is one online gambling site that lists the BU-Loyola game as a "Pick 'em"-

http://sportschatplace.com/college-basketball-picks/2014/03/06/bradley-braves-vs-loyola-of-chicago-ramblers-3/6/14-mvc-tournament-first-round

I am not sure why Bradley shouldn't be favored much more- they won both games (9 points and 17 points), and have a better record, better RPI, etc.

Other sites list Bradley as a 1 or 2 point favorite, which still shows a bit of disrespect for Bradley.

http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-basketball/teams/team-page.cfm/team/bradley

[Da Coach]

PJ Star MVC Tournament info-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140305/SPORTS/140309453/10963/SPORTS

Looks like ComcastSportsnet will have the game on cable channel 101, 102, and 285 since the Blackhawks are on the standard Comcast channels 56, 522, and 922
FoxSports will have the game on Comcast cable channel 520, 524, and 533, since the Blues will be on their standard channels of 57, 519, and 959.
It is also on Mediacom Illinois 22, DirecTV 680, Dish Network 442

ESPN3 will also have video streaming except where blackouts apply.

[bigjimmy]

It's possible that the gambling sites have watched Bradley play this season. As long as we don't let Doyle go off we should be fine in this game. We might even see some contributions from X and Pross. The fact that we're in this game doesn't make it a guarantee. No need to comment on the next game yet. I hope I get a chance to.

[Da Coach]

We also need to watch for the unexpected player coming on and putting up a career game. That seems to happen to Bradley sometimes. My concern is someone like guard Joe Crisman. He is their top three point shooter at 40%, and Bradley tends to give up a lot of open three point shots. Crisman has had 2 of his best games in Loyola's last 2 games, scoring 14 against MSU a week ago and 20 points against Evansville last Saturday.

[Big Mike]

Dtv 666

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds pregame article-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140305/SPORTS/140309447/10963/SPORTS

Thursday game summary-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140305/SPORTS/140309453/10963/SPORTS

[tornado]

From the other article that is not in the BradleyHoops section...
"Bradley's Carver Arena attendance average this season was 6,984,
setting a record for a BU low in the building's 32-year history."

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140305/SPORTS/140309445/11130/SPORTS