Final: Augustana 58 Bradley 56

[AFrey]

FWIW, Bradley lost to D3 UW-Platteville in an exhibition in 2008.

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArt...ATCLID=1621587

That said, this is still an ugly loss, even though Augie is a good D3 team.

[kds]

Geno makes Stan Albeck look good!

Agree +10000000

[molar50]

Another observation about last night: maybe it was the frequent substitutions of the line-up by Geno, but it appeared as if there is no leader of this team. It did not take a basketball expert to realize that Hill was the leader of his team and the offense ran through his direction. It is sad how far we have fallen. I did not like Molanari's offense, but I always thought his teams played good defense and worked hard for loose balls. At least they tried and played hard.

[TheAsianSensation]

I think it's pretty clear the substitution pattern was because this was an exhibition. We won't treat the rotation like that in the regular season.

Our frontcourt needs to be better. Now to be fair, Cunningham is a Top 100 prospect...but IS a freshman. Freshmen usually don't come in and light the world on fire right away. Willing to be patient on him and Thomas.

Shaw/Taylor is another story. That wasn't good.

Guard play seemed decent. Frankly, to respond to an earlier comment, I think if Lemon were here it would actually hurt us more. We would force him to play PG, again, and we would get the same results as last year.

Also remember: Sutherland's going to be back. He's our most important player, more than Barnes or Cunningham or Shaw. I think he'll fix some of the problems.

And finally, it's an exhibition. Doesn't count in the record. Yes, it's a horrible result. But there's a chance to completely erase it from memory. At least it wasn't a regular season game and Eureka

[Da Coach]

Another observation about last night: maybe it was the frequent substitutions of the line-up by Geno, but it appeared as if there is no leader of this team. It did not take a basketball expert to realize that Hill was the leader of his team and the offense ran through his direction. It is sad how far we have fallen. I did not like Molanari's offense, but I always thought his teams played good defense and worked hard for loose balls. At least they tried and played hard.

I agree with you, though I do not think last night's embrrassment was because of lack of a leader. Plus, weren't we told of the great leadership qualities of Mike Shaw?.
Bradley had 7 assists, a rather paltry number, but I do not recall one single pass that lead to an easy basket by Bradley. There were many such plays by Augustana. That may be something that a true point guard will help, but I do not believe it will be enough.

Can someone explain what the offensive philosophy was last night?
I watched carefully, and we seemed to do completely different things every time down the court. Often, we'd see someone launch a bad shot without even making a single pass. Other times, we'd see a bunch of passing, but nobody setting good screens, and nobody making cuts to get open.
And nobody would dispute that Bradley has bigger, quicker athletes, with longer wingspans, and able to jump higher, yet why were we completely unable to use all those physical advantages to defend better? I saw a lot of confusion on defense, and a lot of standing around.

[tornado]

just go read the message boards of the other MVC teams - we are the laughingstock of the Valley

[midstateknowitall]

I don't know what everyone is so up in arms about. Is it disappointing BU loss to Augie, sure it is... But lets look at some things:

CCIW is the BIG10 of D3 Basketball (Augie, IWU, North Central, Wheaton) are always Ranked in the Top 25 of D3. This year Augie is Preseason #3 with tons of players returning from last years squad. They understand their roles, know what to expect from each other, know how and where to get shots in their offense, and are pretty comfortable running a lot of their offensive and defensive stuff.

BU on the other hand has a ton of new players, new roles, new schemes, etc. There is a learning curve that has to happen for things to fall into place. This team will continue to grow as the season moves along.

Augie had everything to gain and nothing to lose last night, BU had nothing to gain and everything lose. 100% of Augie's players know Bradley, I would be shocked if more than 2 players on BU know anything about Augustana before knowing they were having a preseason game against them.

Both teams are still 0-0 in the WIN-LOSS Records . I think this can actually help BU, in the sense now the staff really has their attention and focus can be more focused on attention to details & playing like a team.

Bradley lost by 2. Augie better team at this point, BU has better individual talent. Individual talent doesn't beat good teams. Im not worried about anything with this team yet. They are so new to each other this win didn't shock me. Give Augie credit they are F'n Good! Middle of the season for both teams I don't think the outcome would be the same!

Just my 2 cents (and I got 4 former players on Augie's Roster)

[Chico]

Geno makes Stan Albeck look good!

Albeck had a lot of talent to work with where Geno doesn't

[tornado]

I disagree, Chico -- GF has had four years to bring in talent and has TOP 100 players -
plus he had numerous (TB, Walt, Dyricus, TP..) kids that had gotten all-conference mention
But even if you want too use the lack of talent argument - at this point there's no excuse - he's been here long enough - WHY does he have a lack of talent? - instead of bringing in single digit juco scorers and kids who were run out of other programs because they couldn't play

[BUSongwriter]

A little perspective . . .

How upset would I be if another of my beloved sports teams, the STL Cardinals, lost a final spring training exhibition game against their Triple A affiliate, starting a relief pitcher and with Yadi Molina on the bench. Not very.

Still . . .

Not to see a single dunk from our tall, deep, athletic front court . . . a single fast-break point from our superior athletes . . . a single point from our prized recruit. . .

Knowing the fan base was starved for a good showing, even though this was an exhibition, I'd say last night was enough to fog over anyone's rose-colored glasses, including mine.

[tornado]

interesting how a loss to a non-DI prompts calls to fire the coach all the way up to 2011, then suddenly it's no big deal..

but if your beloved Stl Cards had spent zillions but were fielding an entire team of players that hit .180 while the management was blaming Whitey Herzog then we'd have a bit more of a comparison...

[Da Coach]

I don't know what everyone is so up in arms about. Is it disappointing BU loss to Augie, sure it is... But lets look at some things:

CCIW is the BIG10 of D3 Basketball (Augie, IWU, North Central, Wheaton) are always Ranked in the Top 25 of D3. This year Augie is Preseason #3 with tons of players returning from last years squad. They understand their roles, know what to expect from each other, know how and where to get shots in their offense, and are pretty comfortable running a lot of their offensive and defensive stuff.

BU on the other hand has a ton of new players, new roles, new schemes, etc. There is a learning curve that has to happen for things to fall into place. This team will continue to grow as the season moves along.

Augie had everything to gain and nothing to lose last night, BU had nothing to gain and everything lose. 100% of Augie's players know Bradley, I would be shocked if more than 2 players on BU know anything about Augustana before knowing they were having a preseason game against them.

Both teams are still 0-0 in the WIN-LOSS Records . I think this can actually help BU, in the sense now the staff really has their attention and focus can be more focused on attention to details & playing like a team.

Bradley lost by 2. Augie better team at this point, BU has better individual talent. Individual talent doesn't beat good teams. Im not worried about anything with this team yet. They are so new to each other this win didn't shock me. Give Augie credit they are F'n Good! Middle of the season for both teams I don't think the outcome would be the same!

Just my 2 cents (and I got 4 former players on Augie's Roster)

That is all nice to hear, and we know it was just an exhibitionm, but realistically, Bradley should have won the game by 20 points. Bradley played about as poorly as possible, unacceptable for year 4, and that is what has the fans who watched it concerned.

[tornado]

I won't give the links but there's a couple threads from when we lost to a non-DI back in fall of 2010 that are so funny...
doom & gloom and demands to fire the coach right now so in a few years we'd be lots better - how'd that turn out?

[TheAsianSensation]

interesting how a loss to a non-DI prompts calls to fire the coach all the way up to 2011, then suddenly it's no big deal..

I actually disagree...this really does feel like a turning point with some fans, all types of fans.

Besides, I thought all the thousands of people no longer attending games would think this is a big deal - just that the response isn't outrage but indifference.

[Dub]

You're never as good or as bad as you think you are.