BU women's basketball

[Da Coach]

The Bradley women hosted 4-7 Northern Iowa tonight in the MVC opener for both teams.
UNI beat the Braves easily- 70-51.
Bradley drops to 1-11, and 0-1 in the MVC.
They play Drake in the Ren-Col Sunday, their 8th straight home game.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?SPID=1499&DB_OEM_ID=3400&a=1&vislive=mvc&id=70293

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25972&SPID=1499&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209832596&DB_OEM_ID=3400

Bradley's RPI dropped to an embarrassing 341 out of 349 Division I teams.

http://warrennolan.com/basketballw/2015/rpi

We are waiting for the Bradley AD or Board Chairman to announce that this is still a successful season because the 1-11 record is still better than Illinois State's 0-11 record, and still a little better than the BU Volleyball team's 2-26 record.

Also, The PJ Star will have a little tougher time making excuses for this embarrassment, since the team had all players available, and no players out with injuries.

[Vent]

The Bradley women hosted 4-7 Northern Iowa tonight in the MVC opener for both teams.
UNI beat the Braves easily- 70-51.
Bradley drops to 1-11, and 0-1 in the MVC.
They play Drake in the Ren-Col Sunday, their 8th straight home game.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?SPID=1499&DB_OEM_ID=3400&a=1&vislive=mvc&id=70293

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25972&SPID=1499&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209832596&DB_OEM_ID=3400

Bradley's RPI dropped to an embarrassing 341 out of 349 Division I teams.

http://warrennolan.com/basketballw/2015/rpi

We are waiting for the Bradley AD or Board Chairman to announce that this is still a successful season because the 1-11 record is still better than Illinois State's 0-11 record, and still a little better than the BU Volleyball team's 2-26 record.

Also, The PJ Star will have a little tougher time making excuses for this embarrassment, since the team had all players available, and no players out with injuries.

An RPI of 341 out of 349 is unacceptable. The Board of Trustees probably don't know what the RPI is, but surely they know what 1-11 is. That had to be fun to watch.

[tornado]

But the current Board are, to a very large extent, the very people who have engineered this mess and hired all the people and current coaches, authorized the buyouts and the new hires, etc...

They are the very people whose choices and whose reputations they are trying to defend...the very ones embellishing and exaggerating how great Bradley is doing...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=301553#post301553

They cannot be relied upon to admit they have failed miserably in these horrible moves that have resulted in such epic fallout.

We are basically asking them to identify themselves as the problem and get rid of themselves - and it's not likely to happen...

[Chico]

But the women's program never was a money maker. Not their fault. Just the way it is unless you are a women's college powerhouse. The men's program on the other hand is the big loser in all this.

[Da Coach]

But the women's program never was a money maker. Not their fault. Just the way it is unless you are a women's college powerhouse. The men's program on the other hand is the big loser in all this.

But Chico, Michael Cross' promise was that he expects all teams to compete for championships every year. And it is the Mission Statement of Bradley Athletics to "Provide every student-athlete the opportunity for both a distinctive education and a championship experience."

There is simply no reason schools like UNI, Drake, and Evansville should be battling at the top of the MVC, while Bradley is at or near the bottom every year.

I think most Bradley fans and supporters would be happy even if the women's team wasn't a perennial winner, as long as they aren't the perennial embarrassment that they have become. Unfortunately, the same could be said for baseball, volleyball, men's basketball, and other BU sports. BU has become a school of losers, not the championship experience Dr. Cross promised all athletes.

[bradleyfan124]

But the current Board are, to a very large extent, the very people who have engineered this mess and hired all the people and current coaches, authorized the buyouts and the new hires, etc...

They are the very people whose choices and whose reputations they are trying to defend...the very ones embellishing and exaggerating how great Bradley is doing...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=301553#post301553

They cannot be relied upon to admit they have failed miserably in these horrible moves that have resulted in such epic fallout.

We are basically asking them to identify themselves as the problem and get rid of themselves - and it's not likely to happen...

What you are saying is disheartening. Before we had some hope because the Board was being kept in the dark. Now you are saying they were part of the problem. So what is the answer to turning this around. If the Board will not do it then who? The Athletics..the whole university is going to go down the drain. Very discouraging!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Vent]

But the current Board are, to a very large extent, the very people who have engineered this mess and hired all the people and current coaches, authorized the buyouts and the new hires, etc...

They are the very people whose choices and whose reputations they are trying to defend...the very ones embellishing and exaggerating how great Bradley is doing...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=301553#post301553

They cannot be relied upon to admit they have failed miserably in these horrible moves that have resulted in such epic fallout.

We are basically asking them to identify themselves as the problem and get rid of themselves - and it's not likely to happen...

Bingo!!!! You've hit the nail on the head. BU, their alumni and fans are stuck with this ordeal until Glasser resigns and the Trustees get lucky with their next hire as President. People use to say "to get the university's attention, hit them in the wallet",.....well that doesn't work anymore because the people on the Board of Trustees will simply change the budget and expectations of the university. Money controls the world and when money gets in the hands of the wrong people, bad things happen. This board only has to answer to itself.

[Chico]

I know that Da Coach. Guess what I'm saying is Men's basketball is, and always has been, the sport that kept the other teams competitive because it was always such a money maker. This admin has ruined all Bradley sports. They must not have known, or cared, the passion most of us had for Bradley basketball.

[patrick_o'brian]

They aren't very good right now, but they they are young. Only 1 Senior on the team. They have a TON of young talent and will be good probably as soon as next year. Brooks is very passionate and demands max effort! I think Shronda Butts would have helped this team a lot. Her dismissal really impacted this team.

[Da Coach]

Yes, the team is young. Part of the reason for that involves decisions by those running the program to dismiss the best player, recruit transfers the first couple years to try for a quick fix, then to start over on a complete rebuild in year 3.

Recall that Coach Brooks took over a winning team, not a bottom dweller. This is year 3, and things have gotten significantly worse each year (18 wins in 2011-12, 14 wins in 2012-13, 8 wins in 2013-14, and 1 win so far in 2014-15). How many more years before we see a legitimate competitive team?

Coach Brooks took over a team that already had a lot of young players coming off a winning season. In fact, Paula Buscher left a program that had 2 winning seasons in her last 3 years, the first time that had been accomplished in decades.

As we have seen with Geno, just recruiting a bunch of new players does not always translate into becoming a good team that can compete in the MVC. The women's team continues to have many of the same problems they have had for the past couple years- poor ball handling and passing (20.4 turnovers per game- by far the worst in the MVC), poor shooting (25% from three), and the worst defense in the league (yielding 75.4 ppg- by far the worst in the MVC).

BTW, the MVC is not a very strong conference in women's basketball, so there is simply no excuse to languish at or near the bottom year after year, IMO.
The MVC is currently the 14th ranked conference in RPI. Last season, the MVC ranked 19th!
Currently, Bradley is 1-11 with the hardest part of the schedule yet to come, and an RPI of 339th out of 349 teams.

I don't mean to pile on, and although I can make a pretty strong argument that a coaching change was not needed, I would like nothing more than to see Coach Brooks succeed. I have been a financial supporter of the women's program, and I have attended women's games regularly in the past, and even traveled on road trips as far away as Charleston, SC, to support them. But just with like the men's team, after years of support that have helped provide state-of-the-art facilities and everything else a program needs to succeed, we'd like to see some positive results, not just more promises and hope.

[patrick_o'brian]

DC, all your points are valid except the "I don't think a coaching change was needed". Paula left for SIUE on her own accord.

[Da Coach]

DC, all your points are valid except the "I don't think a coaching change was needed". Paula left for SIUE on her own accord.

Yes, technically. But she had 1 year left on her contract at the end of the 2011-12 season, and at that point, she was informed by Bradley that she would not receive another contract after her final year ended, and that Bradley would seek another coach to replace her.
She was encouraged to seek another job elsewhere (coaches would not normally be allowed under the terms of their contracts to seek other jobs unless allowed).
Anyone who knows college basketball, knows this is an impossible situation for a coach, and almost no college AD or President would ever put their head coach in such a difficult situation. The only reasonable thing for Paula to do was to try to land another job while she was coming off the winning season of 2011-12, which she did.
So even though she technically "left on her own accord", she was essentially terminated by the Bradley administration. I guess the BU administration just doesn't like any coach actually producing winning seasons.

[Chico]

Don't think much of this Administration, but they aren't the first one to fire a winning coach. Remember 32-3.

[Da Coach]

Don't think much of this Administration, but they aren't the first one to fire a winning coach. Remember 32-3.

Sure do. But in terms of overall record, Joe Stowell, Dick Versace, Stan Albeck, Jim Molinari, and Jim Les all had winning records at Bradley, and all were fired.

There has only been 1 coach since 1920 who had a losing record for his time at Bradley, and that was Bob Vanatta (22-32, .400, in 2 seasons).
In fact, only 3 coaches in all of Bradley history have losing records (Harold Olsen 1918-1919, Bill Allen 1920, and Bob Vanatta 1954-1956), and none of them stayed more than 2 seasons.

[Chico]

Sure do. But in terms of overall record, Joe Stowell, Dick Versace, Stan Albeck, Jim Molinari, and Jim Les all had winning records at Bradley, and all were fired.

There has only been 1 coach since 1920 who had a losing record for his time at Bradley, and that was Bob Vanatta (22-32, .400, in 2 seasons).
In fact, only 3 coaches in all of Bradley history have losing records (Harold Olsen 1918-1919, Bill Allen 1920, and Bob Vanatta 1954-1956), and none of them stayed more than 2 seasons.

Might have had winning records, but 1 of them played weak non-conference home schedules, but was below .500 in MVC competition. Another one was just lucky Versace's recruits stayed on to play for Bradley.