Basketball practice begins this Friday, October 2

[tornado]

Once again - Dave Reynolds - who has witnessed practices every year....
..after four years of hyping up, overrating, and ranting about the exceptional players Geno brought in even before seeing some of them...
..now he once again has a totally different, extremely conservative approach & declines to say anything good about any of them and says it's just too early to tell..

https://twitter.com/DaveReynolds2/status/650145533886091264

OK - so be it - not sure why the total metamorphosis, but I have also talked to other people who have seen practices and am hearing a lot of good things none-the-less

[brocks]

Once again - Dave Reynolds - who has witnessed practices every year....
..after four years of hyping up, overrating, and ranting about the exceptional players Geno brought in even before seeing some of them...
..now he once again has a totally different, extremely conservative approach & declines to say anything good about any of them and says it's just too early to tell..

https://twitter.com/DaveReynolds2/status/650145533886091264

OK - so be it - not sure why the total metamorphosis, but I have also talked to other people who have seen practices and am hearing a lot of good things none-the-less

Anxious to hear more. Please let us know what you're hearing.

[lefty]

Once again - Dave Reynolds - who has witnessed practices every year....
..after four years of hyping up, overrating, and ranting about the exceptional players Geno brought in even before seeing some of them...
..now he once again has a totally different, extremely conservative approach & declines to say anything good about any of them and says it's just too early to tell..

https://twitter.com/DaveReynolds2/status/650145533886091264

OK - so be it - not sure why the total metamorphosis, but I have also talked to other people who have seen practices and am hearing a lot of good things none-the-less

which way do you prefer DR reports?

[Da Coach]

I think most readers would prefer consistency and objectivity. You don't recall the excessive and over-the-top praise of many of the borderline D1 recruits of the last 3-4 years (Crawford, Shayok, Hodges, Fields, Grier, Swopshire, Zecevic, Blake, Morgan, etc?)?

Do you think the current crop of freshmen are not in the same league as the "stellar recruiting classes" and the "impact players" of these past few years? Other than a single article about Luuk van Bree, a lot of fans wouldn't even know we have 8 other new freshmen if they didn't read this message board.

[tornado]

Anxious to hear more. Please let us know what you're hearing.

A) they can hit layups - something our big guys had problems with the last four years

B) we have just as much size, just as many big guys and just as much depth & talent in the frontcourt as we did when he wrote his articles claiming Geno's front court had more depth than any team since Donald Reese. LINK, LINK, LINK

C) we have a few guys who can reliably hit from the arc...
Over the last FOUR years we have been the WORST 3-pt shooting team in the league, and our TOP "go-to" 3-point shooters have been 28-29% guys
and yet several players the past few years have been spun & hyped as excellent shooters

- I think it is pretty obvious that there's a difference in their reporting...
suddenly it's too early to tell, there's no way to know how good these guys are, etc...
But that's 100% different from the way they analyzed and hyped the players for the past four years.
They're free to write what they want but so are readers free to point out the differences.

which way do you prefer DR reports?

just call it like it is...
I always do - and when I have called out Dave Reynolds' and KW's predictions, and assessments, and spin and hype the last four years - guess who was 100% right and who was 100% wrong. They have been 100% wrong on every article, every column, every projection, they've been labelling Geno's players & teams with all kinds of superlatives (like talent, depth, difference-makers, go-to guys, most-improved, team-leaders, high motor, etc., etc..) as if we are only one recruiting break away from the Sweet Sixteen - when we all know - just as I have said & projected - that we've suffered thru the worst four years in the 112 year history of Bradley basketball...and the minions of fans clearly agree and are thankful we've cleaned house.
Just call it like it is....

[ihatetea]

I think most readers would prefer consistency and objectivity. You don't recall the excessive and over-the-top praise of many of the borderline D1 recruits of the last 3-4 years (Crawford, Shayok, Hodges, Fields, Grier, Swopshire, Zecevic, Blake, Morgan, etc?)?

Do you think the current crop of freshmen are not in the same league as the "stellar recruiting classes" and the "impact players" of these past few years? Other than a single article about Luuk van Bree, a lot of fans wouldn't even know we have 8 other new freshmen if they didn't read this message board.

My theory on the polar opposite coverage is twofold:
Firstly, Dave was just repeating what he was told and the previous regime spent a lot of time hyping and selling their recruits. This new group isn't so quick to pat themselves on the back.
Second, being so unequivocally wrong about almost every single one of those players has to be humbling.

The combination of not being pitched to and being wrong has resulted in Dave taking a much more cautious, prudent approach and waiting until he gets a chance to watch them play against D1 teams.

Just my theory. Of course he could have just loved Geno and hates Wardle, I don't know Dave so anything is possible I suppose.

[Buesch N Chips]

Firstly, Dave was just repeating what he was told and the previous regime spent a lot of time hyping and selling their recruits. This new group isn't so quick to pat themselves on the back.

I think this is probably very true.

[Da Coach]

I think maybe this is true, but he has tweeted about being at Bradley practices and watching the new players. Wouldn't you think the readers might like to know more specific information about the new players? Maybe he has been told not to report about that or maybe they are saving it for their Hoops section if they do that again.

[tornado]

it took them four years to even begin seeing what even the casual fans saw right away about Geno & his teams...half the fans were already long gone before our media even sensed there was a problem - they were still telling us how great the team was, how they're battling for the top of the MVC - "light years" better...
Now it's gonna take them four more years to see what the fans see now - that things are dramatically different from the top on down, that the players are quality 4-year players and the whole atmosphere and culture is different - better.

The first thing anyone notices about a Brian Wardle practice is that ALL the players are THERE, READY, and engaged - BEFORE practice begins.
They don't wander in one at a time 5, 10, and even 15 minutes after practice has begun and start lacing up their sneakers...
And they don't goof off, test the coach's patience, act like immature grade school kids.
Practice now looks like it should, it's been reported by just about everyone except the media - who won't say much good for a while.

I don't expect the coverage to change, it's been like this since the Versace era - they pick who they like & who they begrudge - and they make their biases openly obvious.
I have never asked them to be cheerleaders for BU - just fair - and yet they had a 100% metamorphosis & were Geno/MC/JG's biggest cheerleaders and still are (as per the recent sly attempt that we exposed them on of claiming that KK phased out the popular Itoo event when the facts so clearly proved that false and they were asked by KK to retract it) ...and they completely missed the biggest Bradley story since the point shaving when they chose to not even look into the reasons that even the AD & President were shown the door.
Now it's suddenly gone back to pre-2011, another metamorphosis...

[Chibearsfan10125]

While it's good to hear that the players are there and engaged before practice, what good does it do to report that? That is how practices should be at the D1 level. The fact that they weren't like that under Geno is not a good thing and doesn't speak well to Geno as a disciplinarian, but writing about what the previous regime did wrong does not change anything. In my mind, there is no reason to report those things at this point. Geno is gone, and Wardle is in. No reason to spend more time writing about previous mistakes that the school has moved on from.

[Biff]

I would prefer to see the focus be placed on the upcoming season and the new coaches and players (most of whom the media has never reported much about). But I think it is important for fans to know about these things from the past few years, and how they contributed to the worst 4 years of basketball at Bradley in my lifetime and almost destroyed the program. The media people who covered the team saw all this absence of discipline, players repeatedly late for practice, inconsistent rules that applied differently to different players, holding team busses while they waited for late players, and coaches looking the other way when players violated rules. But for some reason they never reported it, and still refuse to report it, even now that the gestapo-like administration is gone. What are they afraid of? I am glad to see that someone is not afraid to report about this.

[tornado]

it is what it is and I don't lose sleep over it - but I think it's an interesting topic what get's covered and what does not...
Remember - over the past year or so the entire University underwent UNPRECEDENTED, dramatic, controversial, and massive changes....
and it all kinda happened totally out of the blue while the PJS was reporting everything going hunky dory and even some 'fans' ranting & raving about JG being the best University President in the history of the galaxy...and yet many here knew the huge news stories, the "sorta secret" proceedings & committee reports and various shocking moves, departures, and firings and the emergency Board of Trustee meetings and emergency actions & firings ( as well as Board President resignations) that were happening & gonna happen. It's their right if they wanna totally ignore what was the biggest story in Peoria in the past decade or two but Bradley alums and fans wanted to hear the facts - ...but it sure angered some in the media who went bananas even demanding the facts (later proven 100% accurate) be taken off the board!
The local print media wanted like crazy to DENY any of this turmoil was happening and even silence anyone who spoke of it!!!
(reminds me of how they angrily went after the JL supporters in 2002 quite personally with attacks and charges of racism cuz their guy did NOT get hired.)

BRADLEY held an open forum to discuss the problems at the University openly and NOT ONE of our standard media even bothered to attend!!!
Only the Scout covered it yet it turned into a controversial and argumentative encounter then they cancelled the rest of the "open forums".
Again - only the Scout and BradleyFans ever mentioned this. - LINK

in a way the media has fostered and even forced the creation of the message boards, blogs, etc......people clearly want the news & the reports but they want an alternate option.
The media complain all the time that the things said in blogs & on message boards are unfair, biased, rumors, or falsehoods - but as we have seen many times, those claims also describe the print & online media just as clearly - so why are they so afraid of the public expressing the exact same right they do - the right to express an opinion.
And if you wanna see bias and laughably inaccurate stories then go back and read all those articles about how Geno was recruiting far better, tremendously talented scorers and deep, deep frontcourt full of All-MVC caliber studs, stat-sheet-fillers, dead-eye shooters, difference-makers, and go-to guys....
Some of those reports on the talent Geno was landing are enough to disqualify any of those writers from ever claiming to know jack about basketball.
I mighta missed on my projections of one or two kids but you hafta go back 8-10 years...those guys missed horribly on every one of Geno's 25-30 recruits - most of whom never stuck around more than a year and were sent packing to replace them with another desperate recruiting effort.
Even Geno admitted literally half his players were recruiting misses (Bell recruited as a PG, Zecevic as a 3-pt shooter, Fields as a starting PG, Blake as a 2-year starter at low post, Morgan as a scorer, Tucker, Amerson, Hodges, etc...) - yet the press praised them as great gets!

[lefty]

I don't know about your sleeping habits T....but you guys seem to obsess about DR and KW's coverage of BU basketball......I don't get why it's so important you

[ACBL]

There are times when their Bradley coverage looks like a screen shot of this msg board from 48 hrs earlier

[tornado]

...DR and KW's coverage of BU basketball........

guess that oughta make 'em happy since it's their job to "stir the pot" and if nobody noticed their coverage, wouldn't that be far worse?

But when the threads about what they think, what they say, and even what they might do stall out at 700 pages,
or if I start taking pictures of them at Bradley games so that I can post them on twitter to express my pathological obsession like obviously some pervs do,
then get back to me on that "obsession/compulsion" claim