Kirk Wessler column 3/7

[wily coyote]

Without being redundant, yes, I don't believe anyone with much knowledge of college basketball would say, as Kirk does, the entire blame lies with the players and lack of leadership.
See here-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showt...085#post293085

I hear what your saying. I realize we also have coaching and recruiting to blame but bottom line is the players have to perform and I'm not so sure they didn't. Just not a whole lot of talent on that squad. Who's fault is that? Definitely the coaching staff, past and present. As far as leadership goes ,how can that be argued? Geno himself alludes to the lack of leadership and it was painful to watch so much ME ball. I don't care how good one player is. It takes five people performing as a unit to win and we saw none of that this year. Can we blame the coaching staff for that not happening? Yes we can and that's one of the things that was so disappointing about this season. I do think Kirk was very direct in placing blame on the staff when he said Geno was given a 5 yr . contract and the clock is ticking. IMO some people want to blame Kirk for the past and no matter what he prints , it won't satisfy everyone.

[panther12thman]

Wessler is such a joke that it now leans toward to absurd. He is so anti-JL and pro-Geno and Glasser that it is sickening. He never once mentioned or hinted that maybe the wrong choice was made in the hiring of this head coach and staff. Nor did he mention or hint of why there was so little interest in the job. He is a poor excuse for a writer and does more to turn people off about BU than anyone I know. He needs to go.

[wily coyote]

so you think Loyola won because they have better talent??
..Drake has better talent? We had TWO GUYS that the MVC thought worthy of giving PRESEASON All Conference recognition (10 players given recognized)
Nobody had more!
We had talent - I guess I am missing the argument that we had no talent...everyone except our media saw it, but unlike other teams, our talent did not get "coached up".

T where did you ever see me post that I thought Loyola or Drake had more talent? I've never said anything like that but I will say we had more people than LU or DU that had a big problem with playing a team concept. It is impossible to compete at any level when a team game is not played as a team concept and that was our number one problem. Who's fault was that? That has to rest on the staff for letting them play as such and the guilty players. IMO . One thing I think we can all agree on is if things don't change dramatically, change will occur again and most of us do not want to see that happen.

[AE Braves Fan]

Wessler is such a joke that it now leans toward to absurd. He is so anti-JL and pro-Geno and Glasser that it is sickening. He never once mentioned or hinted that maybe the wrong choice was made in the hiring of this head coach and staff. Nor did he mention or hint of why there was so little interest in the job. He is a poor excuse for a writer and does more to turn people off about BU than anyone I know. He needs to go.

This ^

[lefty]

Wessler is such a joke that it now leans toward to absurd. He is so anti-JL and pro-Geno and Glasser that it is sickening. He never once mentioned or hinted that maybe the wrong choice was made in the hiring of this head coach and staff. Nor did he mention or hint of why there was so little interest in the job. He is a poor excuse for a writer and does more to turn people off about BU than anyone I know. He needs to go.

what a joke of a post

[wily coyote]

Wessler is such a joke that it now leans toward to absurd. He is so anti-JL and pro-Geno and Glasser that it is sickening. He never once mentioned or hinted that maybe the wrong choice was made in the hiring of this head coach and staff. Nor did he mention or hint of why there was so little interest in the job. He is a poor excuse for a writer and does more to turn people off about BU than anyone I know. He needs to go.

Makes no sense? Did you USE to work for KW at the Star?

[AZ BU Fan]

If GF didn't have a track record of success, I guess I could agree its the coaching and coaching alone for BU backing up this year. Isn't this the same GF who had success in the LH of last year?

My disappointment is the struggle BU has had for some time in bringing in enough talent, both current and former coach. If you have players who can't shoot jump shots, free throws, or lay ups, I don't care who the coach is. Old sports proverb: You can have the best coach, fans, best facilities/ stadium, but if you don't have the horses, its not going to matter.
I can't tell you how many times I heard JL say how frustrated he was his players didn't execute his offense, didn't hang their hat on defense, watch his players weave themselves in into the ground then hurl jump shots up... JL brought in horrible players in his first years on the job, lost REALLY GOOD players he didn't recruit, sat down one of the best BU players in the past 20 years, then lost him, backed up in year 3 of his run, then picked up a transfer, a judo no one else wanted all that badly, and a miracle unrecruited big man, and presto...miracle year. That BU couldn't capitalize on that huge year and get better/recruit better to move up in the MVC has been a historical disappointment for me. 20 wins due to eieio tourneys with a bunch of home games (and no eieio titles) without a top 3 MVC finish is not much of a great run.

It happens to coaches other than GF, in fact, UCD has struggled mightily under a great coach in year 3, but can wait till next year again with injuries. Deja vu all over again...

GF will live/die on recruiting players this coming year & in his last contract year like his predecessor did over his last four years on the job.

A coach never wants to be the one who replaces a legend, if only because of a two game miracle in the NCAA's. I suspect the only way to placate the 'fire JG and GF' crowd over the insane action of replacing a legend is to replace GF with anyone else.

Of course an alternative would be for GF to get a face lift to change his looks:

[AE Braves Fan]

Again, the sweet 16 wasn't a miracle - just a really good college basketball team.

And they would have repeated that success once or even twice if POB had returned.

[Bradleyfan1]

POB is as much to blame for the fall out as anyone!

[Buesch N Chips]

One other thing that I forgot about that's reflective of both players and coaches...at the wsu game, I saw Bradley take about 20-30 dunks in warmups...what does that do for them and Why would a coach put up with it? Players like to do it but at this level, dunking is neither a warmup or intimidating...maybe in high school.

I've haven't seen another quality program do that.

How is a layup more of a warmup than a dunk?

[Chico]

How is a layup more of a warmup than a dunk?

IMO, dunking is like showing off. This team had nothing to show off.

[tornado]

How is a layup more of a warmup than a dunk?

you get better when you practice the shots that you'd take in a game - drives some coaches crazy to see kids practicing their 30 footers & dunks

[lefty]

If GF didn't have a track record of success, I guess I could agree its the coaching and coaching alone for BU backing up this year. Isn't this the same GF who had success in the LH of last year?

My disappointment is the struggle BU has had for some time in bringing in enough talent, both current and former coach. If you have players who can't shoot jump shots, free throws, or lay ups, I don't care who the coach is. Old sports proverb: You can have the best coach, fans, best facilities/ stadium, but if you don't have the horses, its not going to matter.
I can't tell you how many times I heard JL say how frustrated he was his players didn't execute his offense, didn't hang their hat on defense, watch his players weave themselves in into the ground then hurl jump shots up... JL brought in horrible players in his first years on the job, lost REALLY GOOD players he didn't recruit, sat down one of the best BU players in the past 20 years, then lost him, backed up in year 3 of his run, then picked up a transfer, a judo no one else wanted all that badly, and a miracle unrecruited big man, and presto...miracle year. That BU couldn't capitalize on that huge year and get better/recruit better to move up in the MVC has been a historical disappointment for me. 20 wins due to eieio tourneys with a bunch of home games (and no eieio titles) without a top 3 MVC finish is not much of a great run.

It happens to coaches other than GF, in fact, UCD has struggled mightily under a great coach in year 3, but can wait till next year again with injuries. Deja vu all over again...

GF will live/die on recruiting players this coming year & in his last contract year like his predecessor did over his last four years on the job.

A coach never wants to be the one who replaces a legend, if only because of a two game miracle in the NCAA's. I suspect the only way to placate the 'fire JG and GF' crowd over the insane action of replacing a legend is to replace GF with anyone else.

Of course an alternative would be for GF to get a face lift to change his looks:

Great points??¦..at the end of the day winning games is on the coach??¦recruiting,development of players,game strategy,etc??¦??¦it's all part of coaching

[tornado]

I am all for being positive - but we've heard nothing BUT positive for 3 years - build-up, hype, spin - whatever...time now to be realistic.
Had we had this kind of positive press back in 2004-2011 we'd have had sellouts every single night.

We were told as soon as March 2011 we'd be better right away, the AD assured us 2011-12 would be better (it was one of the worst years ever) , then we were told how improved we were for the whole next 1-2 years, then last summer the spin-machine went into high gear talking about how we were vastly improved, far more athletic & deeper at every position - had solved our shooting woes...
and then with all the extra summer work, practices, summer exhibition games, etc. - we were told all this was creating a GREAT team chemistry, bonding, great work ethic, DEEP, DEEP team, players were hyped as ready to start right now then ended up virtually never even playing!..... lots of talk of toughness, and on and on...
All this time - the coach got the credit and was heaped on with glowing praise in the press....but much of this was wrong - and now we see it....

Now for the first time over the past few weeks -we have just now begun to read & hear the first hints of negativity - it's been a long time coming because most fans - certainly the 3000-4000 who are no longer coming to games - saw this happening years ago...
..but the criticism - as soft as it is now appearing - is mostly in the context of blaming the players for lack of toughness, chemistry issues, selfishness, poor play, bad shooting & bad shot selection, etc...

Unfortunately it is way too late to get those thousands of fans back very easily - they have seen for 2-3 years what the media is just now hinting might be hiding under the surface....
Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice (or dozens of times) shame on me. We are not just 1 or 2 players away....who ya fooling?

[Buesch N Chips]

you get better when you practice the shots that you'd take in a game - drives some coaches crazy to see kids practicing their 30 footers & dunks

I guess so. I wish they would make dunking legal. Lew Alcindor would be great at it. He's going to make a heck of a pro.