Final score: Nevada 91 Bradley 69

[Vent]

Our half court offense was nothing but half court dribbling with one on one sets. Our half court defense was the some of the worst defense I
I've seen in parts of 6 decades I've been watching Bradley basketball. This is not acceptable for the amount of money we are paying and the quality of non conference teams we are playing at home this year. Nevada is a very good basketball team and would finish in the top 3 of the MVC. But there is no way they should come to our home court and destroy us. We had no answers. I don't remember seeing one offensive play last night, when one of our ball handlers passed the ball, made a cut to the basket, and got it back for a shot. We were lost at both ends of the floor. Getting beat physically is one thing. We got beat physically, fundamentally and mentally.

[pfcmsh]

Great Question

One more thought, then I will put last night's downer behind...
Going into the game, Bradley was shooting 36.8% from three. That is a far better 3-point shooting percentage than Bradley has had at any time in the last 6 seasons. We were 28.0% last year, 30.1% in 2014-15, 32.2% in 2013-14, 31.9% in 2012-13, 30.0% in 2011-12, 33.4% in 2010-11. In fact, it was better than any season since 2007-08.

So especially since Nevada's size, athleticism, and game plan made it almost impossible to get inside baskets in the half court offense, why didn't we adjust and try to get our better shooters more outside shots? Bradley was 4-9 on three pointers in the second half, when Nevada was extending their lead from 20 points to 30 points! I know that coaches don't think you can win games just by shooting threes, but when your team is already down 20, and they are pulling away and scoring at will, why not adjust and try something different that seemed to be working in the 2nd half?
It looked like we were conceding that the game was already lost.

You raised great points here. That is why you are da coach . We had no chance close to the basket, so 3's were our only chance to stay close. I feel as all of you do about this game. Bad.

You mentioned our 3 point shooting better than many years. Other things are better too. A Coach Ford team would have quit, period. We'd have lost by 40. Last night we stayed with them in the 2nd half. I'm not making excuses for them. We start so poorly most of the time. Are we trying too hard or not hard enough? Maybe we thought it was going to be easy? He put in 5 replacements when he saw the effort wasn't there early in the 1st half. He must have gotten through to them at the half in the locker room because he finally got them to play in the 2nd half. Nevada might have been cruising on the big lead. We need the same effort from the opening tip! We rarely score many points until we are well into any first half against any team. I think the cold starts are our problem.

Nevada is a very good team with better, bigger athletes that play better as a team than we do. Look at the assists. I expect them to do really well now after seeing them. I didn't expect us to win, but I expected us to be within 10. Poor first half.

[tornado]

...

Clearly, I am not the only fan that is getting tired of the poor play and the losing. The attendance tonight was a pathetic 5,384 for a quality opponent...

I love the guys we have in charge..... and what we have is a 1000% upgrade over the corrupt and incompetent group we have before..

but people are not going to wait forever...
the crowds are gonna shrink more unless we clean up the mistakes. We have talent now but we keep making horrid mistakes and keep running the same stuff over and over when it is not working.

I know we're not getting blown out by 40 or scoring in the 30's like we were when Glasser/Cross/Geno ran the ship, but junior-high-level mistakes have got to stop!

[pfcmsh]

Ronnie also had 4 rebounds (including a team-leading 2 offensive rebounds) to go along with his 7 points and no turnovers in just 6 minutes of playing time. I agree that he should get more playing time. Maybe we should try Ronnie along with a different starting lineup to avoid the abysmal starts we have every game?

It is notable that the top rebounders tonight were all guards (DLO with 7, McGlaston with 6, Suggs with 4), and the big men were terrible on the boards- Bar with 2, van Bree with 1, Thomas with 2, Barker with 1, and Foster with 0. That was mostly to the credit of Nevada's athletic players, but I also saw a lot of missed block-outs, poor positioning, and too hasty retreating after our shots.

I like the idea of Suggs starting. Kennel has a nice short shot in the lane. If we cant be successful against big, athletic teams inside, then start Suggs, Brown, JoJo, Thomas and Bar. Not a big line up, but stronger at shooting and going to the basket. Bring in Kennel and Pitt and keep going to the basket. Let's get the opposing team in foul trouble for a change.

[Dubl R 1]

I agree that they were much bigger than us as a whole, but I think we are underestimating Koch Bar a little but offensively. He can do some things if we get him the ball. He was 3-4 last night, and his miss was on an ill advised 15 foot corner shot... which in a couple years I think he will be making. 3-4 against an NBA prospect is pretty good... who knows, if we can get him the ball down there 15 times and he makes 10 shots... that's a pretty good game.

We had multiple times they got caught in switches and Drew(their pt. guard) is left guarding Bar, and our guards do not find him to exploit it. I mean maybe drew gets a couple fouls, and has to sit, now Darrel brown can get going... idk.

We play as if we have no center at all on the floor offensively... especially this game. We can't just discount inside play because we think they might be better. Koch had 7pts on 3-4 shooting, 2 rebs in. 18 min. He needs to play 30 min and should, imo, average 8-10 shot attempts per game.

[molar50]

I love the guys we have in charge..... and what we have is a 1000% upgrade over the corrupt and incompetent group we have before..

but people are not going to wait forever...
the crowds are gonna shrink more unless we clean up the mistakes. We have talent now but we keep making horrid mistakes and keep running the same stuff over and over when it is not working.

I know we're not getting blown out by 40 or scoring in the 30's like we were when Glasser/Cross/Geno ran the ship, but junior-high-level mistakes have got to stop!

I'm not sure we have the talent right now. Last year's freshmen were players available, but not recruited by any other programs. I think Wardle is doing the best he can with the cards he was dealt with and this turn around is a three to four year project. I know Versace went from last in the MVC to first, but that was an exception. This is like a big ship that was sailing in the wrong direction for years and turning the ship around was last year's goal. We are at least on course, but it is going to take better players to return this program to our fans expectations. Don't give up on this team and I believe much better days are coming.

[pfcmsh]

Still Looking Up

I'm not sure we have the talent right now. Last year's freshmen were players available, but not recruited by any other programs. I think Wardle is doing the best he can with the cards he was dealt with and this turn around is a three to four year project. I know Versace went from last in the MVC to first, but that was an exception. This is like a big ship that was sailing in the wrong direction for years and turning the ship around was last year's goal. We are at least on course, but it is going to take better players to return this program to our fans expectations. Don't give up on this team and I believe much better days are coming.

I agree with you 100%. I am frustrated too, but in spite of getting hammered by Nevada, I join all of you in standing by the new regime. It takes a few years to turn the battleship, even though we want it to happen faster.

[lefty]

I agree that they were much bigger than us as a whole, but I think we are underestimating Koch Bar a little but offensively. He can do some things if we get him the ball. He was 3-4 last night, and his miss was on an ill advised 15 foot corner shot... which in a couple years I think he will be making. 3-4 against an NBA prospect is pretty good... who knows, if we can get him the ball down there 15 times and he makes 10 shots... that's a pretty good game.

We had multiple times they got caught in switches and Drew(their pt. guard) is left guarding Bar, and our guards do not find him to exploit it. I mean maybe drew gets a couple fouls, and has to sit, now Darrel brown can get going... idk.

We play as if we have no center at all on the floor offensively... especially this game. We can't just discount inside play because we think they might be better. Koch had 7pts on 3-4 shooting, 2 rebs in. 18 min. He needs to play 30 min and should, imo, average 8-10 shot attempts per game.

I don't remember how he got his points last night but he seemed overmatched I thought by Nevada bigs. He only had 2 rebounds and I think 2 fouls in the first half which limited playing time....

JoJo and Brown were the killers last night shooting 2-15........as well as Luuk with his foul trouble. I doubt we win many games with those 3 guys not playing well

[wizard1]

Good/Bad Habits...

Lefty...I appreciate your comments, but I have to question if we are working on the things in my previous post in practice because I do not see any of them in games. You do not instill these good habits by yelling at players during games.
You instill them by intense teaching in practice and running hard scrimmages in practice until they become ingrained habits and appear naturally in games.
Quick passes and ball movement instead of endless dribbling around the perimeter, no soft passes or cross court passes, ferocious -tough-physical play inside, create and set up openings for 3 point shooters, tough man- defense with help and arms up, go to the basket hard on lay-ups and "crip" shots, play hard with a fearless attitude.
We also have issues with our talent levels. We must recruit much better players if we are going to successfully build the BB program.
Wiz

[lefty]

Lefty...I appreciate your comments, but I have to question if we are working on the things in my previous post in practice because I do not see any of them in games. You do not instill these good habits by yelling at players during games.
You instill them by intense teaching in practice and running hard scrimmages in practice until they become ingrained habits and appear naturally in games.
Quick passes and ball movement instead of endless dribbling around the perimeter, no soft passes or cross court passes, ferocious -tough-physical play inside, create and set up openings for 3 point shooters, tough man- defense with help and arms up, go to the basket hard on lay-ups and "crip" shots, play hard with a fearless attitude.
We also have issues with our talent levels. We must recruit much better players if we are going to successfully build the BB program.
Wiz

I really think they do work on it Wiz....but they are practicing on each other too, not teams like Nevada. My point was he's yelling because they do work on them but not executing which ultimately is on the coach too..

Your last line is probably more the issue than anything

[Da Coach]

I'm not sure we have the talent right now. Last year's freshmen were players available, but not recruited by any other programs. I think Wardle is doing the best he can with the cards he was dealt with and this turn around is a three to four year project. I know Versace went from last in the MVC to first, but that was an exception. This is like a big ship that was sailing in the wrong direction for years and turning the ship around was last year's goal. We are at least on course, but it is going to take better players to return this program to our fans expectations. Don't give up on this team and I believe much better days are coming.

One more thought, and maybe some won't agree. I know Coach Wardle was dead set against recruiting juco talent as he felt that was "going for the quick fix", and instead wanted to build almost exclusively with 4 year recruits. But that 4-year recruit philosophy can backfire easily if the recruits you get are not able to adjust to D1, or as we saw last spring, many of the freshmen left and we essentially had to start over again..
However, as we can see with a bunch of juco kids in the MVC, sometimes rebuilding can be augmented successfully with occasional juco talent. Jojo is a juco and is one of our best couple players (if not the best), though he's not a typical juco transfer.
Right now, 10 of the top 24 scorers in the MVC are juco transfers and 10 of the top 20 rebounders are juco transfers who are all contributing greatly to teams who were "rebuilding". In almost every case of where teams bring in multiple jucos, those teams outperform their expectations. Juco kids usually look to go to schools where they will play right away, since they only have 2 years, so I believe Bradley could have gotten any of those kids or comparable kids, and filled some gaps and made this team better.
And the final argument for jucos is that it might help prevent a team from going multiple years as a bottom-dweller like Bradley has been, waiting for the young talent to develop. That can greatly damage the attendance and fan following, as well as cause donations to dry up. For what it's worth, I believe we'd all be watching a much better quality of basketball if we had gone this way, and watching games wouldn't be so painful and frustrating. We'd better hope the long-term results with the freshmen developing works out, but we can't afford to keep having the kind of turnover we had the last couple years.

[Dubl R 1]

I don't remember how he got his points last night but he seemed overmatched I thought by Nevada bigs. He only had 2 rebounds and I think 2 fouls in the first half which limited playing time....

JoJo and Brown were the killers last night shooting 2-15........as well as Luuk with his foul trouble. I doubt we win many games with those 3 guys not playing well

1st half... caught a ball in the paint off a switch for a 2 handed dunk

2nd half... missed step back 15 jumper from right corner
Dump down pass he caught, pump faked, made an and 1 left handed
Layup. Made the free throw.
Off pick and roll, caught the ball, made move in traffic for up and
Under layup

I agree he was overmatched a bit... but man our guards were way overmatched, as your reply points out. 3-4 from our big man on super limited touches. I'd rather he get some chances than an overmatched jo jo shooting 15 shots. The problem was we dug such a hole that we pressed and felt we didn't have time to establish anything down low. We eventually at some point will have to work inside out to have some success, like at Eastern the other night.

[Vent]

Good college basketball teams have at least 3 players that are 6-4 to 6-8 that can catch and shoot from the perimeter and also drive to the basket. We don't have any that can do it consistently. Until we do, we can talk about how good of kids we have, how the coaches are doing it the right way and whatever other clich?©s. The bottom line is the game has changed and you must be to shoot the ball better than ever to win. We can't. It's always, I saw them in practice or they shot well the other night. It apparently much more difficult to recruit good basketball players to Bradley than we thought.

[carter]

Substitutions

Does anyone have thoughts on how often we have seen substitutions?I know it's nice to have a bench but it seems to me we need 5 starters for continuity.I think Coach is changing up way to much.

[Dub]

Wow guys.

Let me ask you this:
1. Does anyone think we WILL NOT have more wins this year than last (5 total).
2. Does anyone believe we WILL NOT have more wins the following year than we will this season?

You all know this is an incremental process. We took a major hit and the road to recovery has been started down.

People are just so tired of losing that they have lost patience... but have faith. Is it fair to expect that we would have a 1 or 2 season miraculous return to MVC dominance?

Enjoy the process and quit looking for instant gratification.