All MVC team

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds reveals some of his picks-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150226/SPORTS/150229370/12701/SPORTS

[tornado]

Dave Reynolds' picks for All-MVC - LINK

1st Team - Seth Tuttle (Player of the Year), Tekele Cotton, Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker, Egidijus Mockevicius

2nd Team - DJ Balentine, Devonte Brown, Daishon Knight, Anthony Beane and Deon Mitchell

Newcomer of the Year - DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell

Freshman of the Year - Brenton Scott, Indiana State (he cannot vote for any Bradley players)

Coach of the Year - Either Gregg Marshall or Ben Jacobson depending on the outcome of this weekend's game between their teams.
Personally, I would pick Jacobson since his team is much better than many thought, while the Shockers are not as dominant as many predicted.


Here's the Missouri State beat writer's ballot for All-Valley
His 1st Team is exactly the same as Dave Reynolds'
His 2nd team differs in that he substitutes UNI's Wes Washpun instead of Mitchell.
Oddly, he has Tramique Sutherland on the All-Newcomer Team but not Josh Cunningham.
He then picks Indiana State's Brenton Scott on both the All-Newcomer & All-Frosh and as Freshman of the Year over Josh! (but then when you finish in last place your players simply don't get the fair recognition)
Then he picks Jacobson as Coach of the Year and also makes this comment...
"Braves haven't won west of Mississippi River since peach basket era"

http://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/college/msu/2015/02/24/valley-insider-time-fill-awards-ballot/23953639/

The Wichita beat writer even concedes that Tuttle is the favorite for Player of the Year - LINK


Here's a national writer that even touts Tuttle as a NATIONAL Player of the year candidate!

http://bloguin.com/thestudentsection/basketball/5-under-the-radar-national-player-of-the-year-candidates.html

and this guy touts him as a 1st Team ALL AMERICAN!

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/02/23/hoop-thoughts-selection-sunday-ncaa-tournament

Personally I would give the Freshman of the Year to Josh Cunningham and here's why..no knock on Scott - he had a FINE freshman season!!

But -
We've certainly had freshmen in our league who averaged 9-12 points per game or better (POB, McDermott, Colt Ryan, Beane, Balentine), but can you name the last time the MVC had a freshman average 8.4 rebounds per game in league play?
(btw- the Sycamores were 2-7 in games in which Scott was their leading scorer! Does that say anything?)
POB didn't...I think you have to go all the way back to 1983 & Benoit Benjamin (9 rpg as a frosh)!

[tornado]

Northern Iowa writer releases his ballot

http://wcfcourier.com/sports/blogs/coach_carson/the-courier-s-all-mvc-ballot/article_d48db328-c043-11e4-b1fd-33214dae4035.html

not a lot of mention of Bradley and he ranks Josh Cunningham fourth best freshman - which pretty much kills any chance Josh has of being Freshman of the Year

[Chico]

Northern Iowa writer releases his ballot

http://wcfcourier.com/sports/blogs/coach_carson/the-courier-s-all-mvc-ballot/article_d48db328-c043-11e4-b1fd-33214dae4035.html

not a lot of mention of Bradley and he ranks Josh Cunningham fourth best freshman - which pretty much kills any chance Josh has of being Freshman of the Year

If Josh is going to be the super star some people think he will be he will have to take more than 4 shots in 33 minutes like he did yesterday.

[tornado]

and his shot selection troubles a lot of people -
here we have severe difficulty scoring points and putting more than 50 on the board in a 40 minute game...
...and Josh takes more than 1/4 of all his shots from beyond the arc where he hits only 19%!
He hits 53% from inside the arc!
Get on the blocks!!!

[tornado]

Indiana State guy posts his ballot plus more...

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/down-in-the-valley-bradley-road-edition/article_66e4c4b8-bfeb-11e4-b99a-130e98bec217.html

btw - he also talks quite a bit about the Bradley situation...he refers to the situation as...
"long term rot"...and the potential to go from bad to worse in the way we are going about picking the new people...
and I certainly disagree when the guy tries to bolster up Geno's track record by blaming it on "relying on middling Jim Les-recruited players in his early years." - when those were the only players Geno's had in four year who could score and could put fans in the seats...

and points out Indiana State had a disaster back a few years ago when their LAME DUCK administration selected a head coach...

[Da Coach]

Talk about being woefully uninformed, and lacking basketball sense.

I feel for Geno Ford, I really do. I don't think he's had much luck recruiting-wise, and I think he waited too long to put his stamp on the program, relying on middling Jim Les-recruited players in his early years.

I think he can coach. ISU has had all kinds of trouble against his switching defenses. His offense is sound ... he just doesn't have players to execute it. That's on him for bringing in sub-standard players, but it doesn't mean he can't coach.

This is year 4 of Geno Ford, and Todd Golden gets the trophy for the most lame and ridiculous attempt to still blame Jim Les for this trainwreck.

Hasn't he noticed that Bradley has had All-MVC players every year until they were all gone, and now when Geno has all his own players we don't have anyone close to an All MVC player?

Hasn't he noticed that now that Jim Les' players are all gone, Bradley is worse than ever, and cannot beat even some of the worst MVC teams, even at home. How in the heck is Jim Les to blame for this?

And to say:
"he can coach. ISU (Indiana State) has had all kinds of trouble against his switching defenses. His offense is sound ... he just doesn't have players to execute it. That's on him for bringing in sub-standard players, but it doesn't mean he can't coach"
That shows just how mindlessly stupid his reasoning is. He must get his information from Kirk Wessler, because nobody else who actually has watched Bradley these last 4 season would say that. Where is there any evidence that "his offense is sound"? Bradley has been the worst offensive team every year for 4 years,
And the "switching defenses" he claims gave them trouble, was just put into Bradley's defensive arsenal for the Evansville game near then end of this 4th season, not in an attempt to win, but to keep scores low so Bradley doesn't lose by as much.
If he is such a good coach, why did it take over 120 games to come up with the idea of changing something? And why not change the pathetic offense?

[tornado]

If he is such a good coach, why did it take over 120 games to come up with the idea of changing something?

it took four years and 120 games to figure out the 7 footer at the end of the bench is better than the other guys he's recruited

[lefty]

it took four years and 120 games to figure out the 7 footer at the end of the bench is better than the other guys he's recruited

and yet we lost every game since Evansville??¦??¦.

[tornado]

bingo -
but the only win in that stretch was clearly due to Nate and he's won Dave & Chad's Player of the Game a couple other times -
and he's played better in those 7 games since (7 pts/3 rebs) than any of our other big man options - most of whom now sit the bench permanently (Morgan and Shaw have all but disappeared)
..so if we lose no matter who Geno puts on the floor - and often play better when Geno's first choices or starters are out, injured, or in jail....
..and when the guys who have been permanently benched for 3.5 years suddenly get 25 minutes of playing time...
then isn't it just time to stop blaming who he puts on the floor and begin to question the one putting them on the floor and running the show - just sayin'?

[tornado]

...Todd Golden gets the trophy for the most lame and ridiculous attempt to still blame Jim Les for this trainwreck...

I am beginning to see a pattern here...
we've seen gobs of excuses given locally and by our media... injuries, shots won't fall, it all started back .... (fill in your own date- 2011, 2006, even 1996)

... but there have been comments posted here from our admin & from our Board that tout success that nobody else can see & now the comments by Greg Lansing, and then the excuses for losing at record pace offered by the Sycamores beat writer...

Why are all the apologists for this horrible coaching flooding out of the woodworks with their excuses?
NOBODY denies that Geno is a nice guy - why do they all have to rebut what NOBODY is saying - they all have to prop up Geno as a great guy and a great coach but none of these people sensibly or adequately address the main question - then why have we lost so badly the past couple years?
You simply cannot blame something or someone from 1996, 2006 or 2011...
especially when almost every player Geno inherited were his BEST players, his starters, his top scorers, and many were All Conference.

It has to be because they see the obvious, that Geno might be gone - and that they've spent 4 years hyping Geno as the anti-Les - the SOLUTION to Bradley's woes -
They are obviously trying like crazy to hide their own bad judgement that we'd be so much better right away.

[Da Coach]

Geno has even run off many of his own players at a rate unseen before, just to try to upgrade with over-the-top, hyped replacement recruits and transfers who we were told were "difference makers", "impact players", "stellar recruits", and even as recently as a little more than a year ago we were told they were "winners", with "more skill and versatility", and other aspects "of the game that has been missing here for too long."

Could Kirk and Dave have been more wrong?