Kirk Wessler blames the players.....again

[tornado]

10,000 who think they are coaches....

[tornado]

Once upon a time, injuries were not an excuse.

And we have just one single injury to one player in Geno's 4th season, which has caused one player to miss a whopping 2 games. ..

Yeah - Geno has been quite fortunate as far as injuries are concerned - he even benefited tremendously from a couple holdover JL players/starters/team leaders (Taylor Brown, Will Egolf) who were only available to him because they were lost for full seasons to the former coach but fully healthy for GF

[BU Bill]

How does a single injury to Sutherland that causes him to miss just 2 games against lowly opponents become the focal point for the apologists? Are they blind? Missing Sutherland wasn't the reason we used up our time outs and didn't have any left to call a play at the end of the Augustana game-that was poor coaching. Missing Sutherland is not the reason why this team looks chaotic and purposeless on the floor- that is coaching. Missing Sutherland has nothing to do with players missing free throws, playing matador defense, clanking layups, making bad passes, and generally seeming unprepared to play.
Unless Sutherland is Derrick Rose or Chris Paul, getting him back is not going to make a difference. The problem is that now that all the good players have graduated, this team is a bad team, with bad players, and bad coaching....a lethal combination.

[tornado]

...
Time will tell

but Bravetime - I know you are a very knowlegable guy on basketball -
so explain to me....

how is it that the vast majority of fans - including the several thousands no longer coming, those now writing to the PJS, and posting on message boards, and those I talk to every day - clearly see the deep, troubling problems this program has with personnel, revolving door, poor play, bad losses, serious financial problems, etc...
and yet there are still a few who defend all the moves that got us to this low point in BU basketball history - who keep trying to shout down those who are alarmed, who keep saying we need more, and more, and more time - who keep looking into the past to find facts like Geno's MAC coaching award or who keep making alibis for our woes...

What is it going to take? Even people who said that if we don't turn it around by year three or year four are re-manufacturing more excuses to justify their egos having cheered these program-destroying moves all along...

So what is it going to take? You think we still have a chance to finish at the top, go to the post-season?

[BU Bill]

Time has already told me all I need to know. I have bailed out before the ship sinks, and it looks like I'm not the only one from the attendance figures thousands below where they were just 3 years ago.
This program is worse than it has ever been, and it is not getting better.It is getting even worse. Home losses to bad teams to go 0-2 for the first time in nearly 60 years! Do the excuse-makers think it's just a mirage? None of the excuses Kirk, Dave, Geno, or the excuse-makers on the message boards make any sense to anyone who has actually watched the level of talent and the play of this team. We wouldn't be able to compete in the Summit League, or even the CCIW, let alone the MVC. I guess it just takes longer for some to figure it out.

[Buesch N Chips]

Time has already told me all I need to know. I have bailed out before the ship sinks, and it looks like I'm not the only one from the attendance figures thousands below where they were just 3 years ago.
This program is worse than it has ever been, and it is not getting better.It is getting even worse. Home losses to bad teams to go 0-2 for the first time in nearly 60 years! Do the excuse-makers think it's just a mirage? None of the excuses Kirk, Dave, Geno, or the excuse-makers on the message boards make any sense to anyone who has actually watched the level of talent and the play of this team. We wouldn't be able to compete in the Summit League, or even the CCIW, let alone the MVC. I guess it just takes longer for some to figure it out.

I don't see a whole lot of people going out of their way to defend anything. Everyone pretty much feels the same, although there are different levels.

[tornado]

I don't see a whole lot of people going out of their way to defend anything. ....

Buesch - there've been tons of excuses, trying to blame it all on Les or even as far back as those who hired in 2002, and apologists claiming we are STILL better off now than where we were...I see it every day - here, in print, TOB, - I'll give you links if you can't find it...

These same people who do NOT see (or more accurately they do see but they deny) how bad the program is and how far we've fallen are amazingly the very same people who whined about doom & gloom for 9 continuous years even when we were winning 20 games and knocking off the league's top teams....even on the road.

But if people still choose to believe we are up and not down then I won't try any longer to convince you - but a biased mindset doesn't erase all the terrible blowout losses, the humiliating home defeats to no-name opponents, the tremendous & possibly permanent loss of revenue and long time fans & donors, and the likelihood we are going to stay at the bottom of the MVC for a long time to come - possibly even as long as the f/o deniers keep saying we're light years BETTER THAN WE WERE.
The numbers don't lie - and even the always upbeat Dr. Cross is pretty much all out of superlatives and optimism - sitting courtside with his face buried in his hands.

[Buesch N Chips]

Yes, I know all of that stuff. I am talking about people making excuses and defending Geno in the last week or so. He's a man without a country, T. I'm probably one of his biggest defenders right now, saying wait until everyone is back before lowering the boom.

As I said in another thread, the fanbase is currently pretty unified.

[bravetime33]

but Bravetime - I know you are a very knowlegable guy on basketball -
so explain to me....

how is it that the vast majority of fans - including the several thousands no longer coming, those now writing to the PJS, and posting on message boards, and those I talk to every day - clearly see the deep, troubling problems this program has with personnel, revolving door, poor play, bad losses, serious financial problems, etc...
and yet there are still a few who defend all the moves that got us to this low point in BU basketball history - who keep trying to shout down those who are alarmed, who keep saying we need more, and more, and more time - who keep looking into the past to find facts like Geno's MAC coaching award or who keep making alibis for our woes...




What is it going to take? Even people who said that if we don't turn it around by year three or year four are re-manufacturing more excuses to justify their egos having cheered these program-destroying moves all along...

So what is it going to take? You think we still have a chance to finish at the top, go to the post-season?

What is the top? we have not finished in the top since 2000 and a championship since 1985.. post season probably not this year
I feel the decline started with Ken K leaving because he could not take the prez micro management and progressed to where we are at by improper leadership
I remember watching Chet Walker with my dad at the field house and to see the regression we have saddens me big time
What is it going take? I don't know I dont how to run a basketball program I don't know how to hire coaches and evaluate their progress but I do know how important this program is to our community
I want this program to succeed beyond belief I feel some one has to evaluated based on performance of success and the impact it has on people lives, including the trustees
Let's start at the top and not have the ego to say I am right you are wrong we should have done this or should have done that
We need a leader who does not micro manage ,gets out of peoples way , and has the university's best interest at heart
I am a glass half full guy and am willing to give this a shot as we have come this far down the ladder already , and if progress is not made, and hopefully this is the bottom then it would make sense to me to rebuild starting at the very top

[bravetime33]

but Bravetime - I know you are a very knowlegable guy on basketball -
so explain to me....

how is it that the vast majority of fans - including the several thousands no longer coming, those now writing to the PJS, and posting on message boards, and those I talk to every day - clearly syee the deep, troubling problems this program has with personnel, revolving door, poor play, bad losses, serious financial problems, etc...
and yet there are still a few who defend all the moves that got us to this low point in BU basketball history - who keep trying to shout down those who are alarmed, who keep saying we need more, and more, and more time - who keep looking into the past to find facts like Geno's MAC coaching award or who keep making alibis
What is it going to take? Even people who said that if we don't turn it around by year three or year four are re-manufacturing more excuses to justify their egos having cheered these program-destroying moves all along...

So what is it going to take? You think we su
till have a chance to finish at the top, go to the post-season?

Correction last championship 1995 not 1985

[Da Coach]

What is the top? we have not finished in the top since 2000 and a championship since 1995.. post season probably not this year
....

Your excuses are illogical, so I am sorry to those who have seen all these examples before, but I must reiterate them once again.

I do not think there are many fans who are willing to accept your excuses. First, nobody can deny that the years 2005-2010 were far better than anything we have seen these last 3 years. So to attempt to justify the worst 3 seasons Bradley has endured under any previous coach (these last 3 seasons) by implying that Bradley was always bad, is simply untrue.

In the 4-year stretch between the 2005-06 season and the 2008-09 season, Bradley won 86 games- no other team in the MVC won more than 82, except Creighton! And, only 3 other MVC had a higher average finish in the MVC standings than Bradley.

Bradley has now become a laughingstock among Division I schools, but that has just been accomplished in these last 3 years.
In the first 3 years of Geno's regime, Bradley has been blown out by 20 points or more 14 times! Including 8 times by 30 or more points, and multiple times these 20+point blowouts, and even multiple 30 point blowouts have happened on our home court!
In the entire 9-year tenure of Jim Les, there were only 11 losses by 20 points, and only once (at Duke with Maniscalco and Brown out) was it ever by 30 points, and never was Bradley blown out on their home court.

And of course, Bradley, in Jim Les' 4th season won 22 games, including convincing wins in the NCAA over Kansas and Pitt, and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the most successful NCAA run in over 50 years. You keep forgetting to mention that in your assessment of how bad Bradley was before Geno got here. This is Geno's 4th year, with "all his own players". Are we to expect a championship this season? or an NCAA team?

But even if we accepted your logic that it's OK to be woefully bad, because "the last championship was 1995" (actually is was 1996), does that still justify all the promises by our AD and administration that we would be better, and win championships, and the $800,000/yr (twice what the last coach earned) for a coach who had never gotten an NCAA bid in his life, losing 64 games in 3+ seasons, losing more games (62 losses) in his first 3 seasons- more than any coach in Bradley's history!, losing 3 straight years in the Thursday play-in games, something no other team in MVC history has ever done!, losing the first 2 home games this year for the first time since 1955 (to low level midmajors), dropping from 9,000 season tickets to now about 4,000 or 4,500, after setting records under Jim Les for fundraising and donations that helped build the new state-of-the art facilities, we have now seen those donations and revenues plummet to the point that Bradley is facing a financial crisis never before seen! And there are still more negatives that the last 3 years have brought, but I'll stop here.

I think you would be pretty lonely among the Bradley fans who believe we are better off now than before the change.

[tornado]

Bravetime - but we were way more than half way there with the top in sight and donations/revenue at all time highs...good things were happening and about to happen even more...

Then for some reason - those in charge chose to chuck it all, spend ten million on a crazed and irresponsible spending spree, yet slide back to the bottom and start from scratch ....with little hope even on the current horizon....while vastly overpaying for the poor performance we've gotten...
You sound like you're quite satisfied where BU is right now - I am not, I want better, way, way better...
and I believe we can get way better but not with the pilots we have right now, and a growing number of fans are agreeing with me...

[bravetime33]

Your excuses are illogical, so I am sorry to those who have seen all these examples before, but I must reiterate them once again.

I do not think there are many fans who are willing to accept your excuses. First, nobody can deny that the years 2005-2010 were far better than anything we have seen these last 3 years. So to attempt to justify the worst 3 seasons Bradley has endured under any previous coach (these last 3 seasons) by implying that Bradley was always bad, is simply untrue.

In the 4-year stretch between the 2005-06 season and the 2008-09 season, Bradley won 86 games- no other team in the MVC won more than 82, except Creighton! And, only 3 other MVC had a higher average finish in the MVC standings than Bradley.

Bradley has now become a laughingstock among Division I schools, but that has just been accomplished in these last 3 years.
In the first 3 years of Geno's regime, Bradley has been blown out by 20 points or more 14 times! Including 8 times by 30 or more points, and multiple times these 20+point blowouts, and even multiple 30 point blowouts have happened on our home court!
In the entire 9-year tenure of Jim Les, there were only 11 losses by 20 points, and only once (at Duke with Maniscalco and Brown out) was it ever by 30 points, and never was Bradley blown out on their home court.

And of course, Bradley, in Jim Les' 4th season won 22 games, including convincing wins in the NCAA over Kansas and Pitt, and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the most successful NCAA run in over 50 years. You keep forgetting to mention that in your assessment of how bad Bradley was before Geno got here. This is Geno's 4th year, with "all his own players". Are we to expect a championship this season? or an NCAA team?

But even if we accepted your logic that it's OK to be woefully bad, because "the last championship was 1995" (actually is was 1996), does that still justify all the promises by our AD and administration that we would be better, and win championships, and the $800,000/yr (twice what the last coach earned) for a coach who had never gotten an NCAA bid in his life, losing 64 games in 3+ seasons, losing more games (62 losses) in his first 3 seasons- more than any coach in Bradley's history!, losing 3 straight years in the Thursday play-in games, something no other team in MVC history has ever done!, losing the first 2 home games this year for the first time since 1955 (to low level midmajors), dropping from 9,000 season tickets to now about 4,000 or 4,500, after setting records under Jim Les for fundraising and donations that helped build the new state-of-the art facilities, we have now seen those donations and revenues plummet to the point that Bradley is facing a financial crisis never before seen! And there are still more negatives that the last 3 years have brought, but I'll stop here.

I think you would be pretty lonely among the Bradley fans who believe we are better off now than before the change.

Obviously you do did not read my post entirely where I said it bothers me to see where the program lies today
You attacked my post by picking out what you wanted
I felt a change was warranted and can show those numbers of mediocrity etc but am not going to go there because you believe what you want to and I respect that but before you throw out your rampage on my post please read it entirely

[tornado]

bravetime - again- do you support the status quo?
with what we know it is likely a decision for no buyouts or new hires will be made for quite a while so we may have to accept that

[Da Coach]

I am no different from 99% of fans. I just want to see winning and a successful team. Winning against good competition = success. In these last 3 years we have seen the level of competition (scheduling) reach rock bottom, and we have seen the team lose record numbers of games despite the weaker competition. Whatever the reasons, that is not acceptable to me and to most fans, and thus the financial support and attendance have suffered more than at any time in Bradley's history.
You keep bringing up Jim Les, and try to justify all this losing by saying things were bad before. But they were not. The past is irrelevant. Lofty promises were made and not in any way fulfilled. You want to stay on the same course and believe things will get better. What basis do you have to think the same people who brought us here will make things all better? When is enough, enough? I was right when I said changing coaches 3 1/2 years ago would lead to terrible fallout, and I was right when I said that it would take years to for this program to get back to where we were. I believe I am right again now in saying we need to start over.