Final score: Loyola 54 Bradley 43

[Da Coach]

Offense has been a problem all season. A few games we shot decent, but for the most part it's been bad all season, including free throws. If you can't shoot free throws you can't shoot while being guarded.

For the record, prior to last night's game Bradley's free throw percentage overall was 68.0%, 8th best in the MVC. But they have been shooting much better in conference games. They had been fairly good at 73.4%, 5th in the league in conference games.

[AZ BU Fan]

Don't Want History Repeating Itself

In the infamous words of Geno, "My biggest regret is not bringing in better shooters"



Perhaps BU could put up a large fake backdrop of Carver Arena on a wall behind one basket at their practice facility for FT practice?

[Da Coach]

I think we get the point.

But in fairness, though they were a lousy 6-16 from the free throw line last night, in the previous 12 MVC games, Bradley shot free throws :
21-32
17-21
12-15
8-9
10-15
18-27
16-22
9-9
7-11
14-22
18-22
7-9

That is a total of 157-214, which, as I posted a couple posts earlier, is 73.4% on free throws. That is actually pretty good. The top free throw shooting team in all of Division I, shoots 78.1%-

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/150

And if Bradley had shot their MVC average of 73.4% all year, they would be in the top 50 teams in D1!
Last night was just a bad shooting night all around.

[wily coyote]

What can I say, if you were in the Arena last night and didn't go home sick you weren't watching very closely. That was about as pathetic as any game the last 5 years. What makes it worse was I thought we were showing signs of some improvement. Fooled me, shame on me. I have been close to the game for 45 years and can't remember a HS game where the players could only shoot 37% from the free throw line. My wife even said, "for crying out loud they are free shots and nobody is guarding them." Wise beyond her years but she has seen more games in her life than most. Still like what I see from several players but we still have a long why to go.

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

What can I say, if you were in the Arena last night and didn't go home sick you weren't watching very closely. That was about as pathetic as any game the last 5 years. What makes it worse was I thought we were showing signs of some improvement. Fooled me, shame on me. I have been close to the game for 45 years and can't remember a HS game where the players could only shoot 37% from the free throw line. My wife even said, "for crying out loud they are free shots and nobody is guarding them." Wise beyond her years but she has seen more games in her life than most. Still like what I see from several players but we still have a long why to go.

I thought the same thing. It was one of the worst basketball games I've watched in my life, and I also thought they were getting better. I hope Wardle can improve them quickly, or he's going to age like a President.

The best part of the game was getting free precooked wings as long as you dine in and buy a drink. What a bad night.

[Just Inbouce]

Lets not get bent out of shape. This is what we will see from this young team. I think for the remainder of this year there will be on and off nights, without a lot of W's. Enjoy the good play and let the bad go. Next year is a different ball game. Or should I say, I hope so

[wizard1]

Final Score: Loyola 54-Bradley 43

We absolutely must, must, must bring the ball down the floor FAST. We also need to fast break whenever we can. We pass far too much looking for an open shot. We need to stop thinking about turnovers so much and start thinking about shooting. Also, our perimeter shooting technique is slow. We need to work on quick releases.
Wiz

[tornado]

...the players could only shoot 37% from the free throw line. My wife even said, "for crying out loud they are free shots and nobody is guarding them."...

I realize if a kid is a good FT shooter you don;'t want to mess with his technique...
but there's a certain FT technique that I have seen taught - and it can help a lot of kids - but our guys seem to just step up & launch as if it is the ball's job to find the way to the hoop.
Have these kids spend a day at that Westy-Doty shooting camp, or invite Aaron Zobrist over to a practice

[Vent]

Personally, I don't think being 5th in the league in free throw percentage (out of 10 league teams) is fairly good. I think it is average. Similar to having a .500 record. I would suspect Coach Wardle thinks the same way.

[Vent]

We absolutely must, must, must bring the ball down the floor FAST. We also need to fast break whenever we can. We pass far too much looking for an open shot. We need to stop thinking about turnovers so much and start thinking about shooting. Also, our perimeter shooting technique is slow. We need to work on quick releases.
Wiz

I think we only need to push the ball down the floor on fast breaks. Otherwise the people in the end zones will need hard hats. That is the reason Wardle has slowed it down. I do believe there is way too much dribbling in our half court offense and our half court passing is very predictable. I would like to see us rotate the ball quickly (catch and pass)from side to side and see how well some of our guys can "catch and shoot" the ball. If you gotta think about your shot, it's usually not going to go in.

We don't have a pure shooter on the team and only DLO, Suggs and Van Brees can consistently create shots.

[AZ BU Fan]

I think we get the point.

Couldn't find a smaller brick image on the internet!

:-)