Final score: Bradley 83 Chicago State 48

[tornado]

BTW - not much mention of the halftime ceremony & the honoring of Joe Stowell...
That was one of the most memorable things they've done in a long time...I loved it...
was great to see Steve Kuberski, LC Bowen, Al Smith, Mark Dohner, and the 40-50 players that were there to honor Joe.

BTW- one quote from Joe Stowell from the Friday luncheon...

"He also expressed his thanks for Bradley extending this kindness,
helping smooth over the hard feelings he experienced in recent years
for a series of slights from the school.

"They replaced three people - the president, the AD and the basketball coach -
and I think they're on the right track," he said."

a picture from the game with a lot of the ex-players who played under Joe Stowell - there were many more players that were out on the floor at halftime...

for those younger fans - I will try to identify who is in the picture behind the players...

from L to R Chuck Westendorf, Steve Kuberski, assistant Troy Pierce, assistant Mike Bargen, assistant Drew Adams, Sam Simmons, LC Bowen, Chuck Buescher, Joe Stowell, Al Smith, ?, Steve Doty, assistant Jimmie Foster, assistant Ryan Sharbaugh, Brian Wardle.

[Bradleyfan1]

I am glad that we won this game, of course, but I wonder what it means. Our 2nd half play was especially good. I mean no disrespect to Chicago State and I know that on a given night, any team can beat another, I just wonder if we played good because Chicago State isn't a good team or they didn't play well.

I hope to see a few responses so I can understand if we improved or not?

We are improved from last year.

Free Throws still unacceptable other than Brown and Kennell.

Fingers crossed Child's can rebound ! I think this is our biggest weakness.

I'm gonna hold my breath untill Friday night and see what kinda defensive effort we can put together. Shooting 50% would help too. If we hold a team in the 40s and 50s , I like our chances.

[Da Coach]

The faster tempo has really improved the shot quality, and thus the shooting percentages. But it has also hurt us defensively a little so far. As I have said before, at least the problems we have been seeing this season I think are correctable problems- poor defense inside already appears better, turnovers were way down last night, and FT's.

[Vent]

a picture from the game with a lot of the ex-players who played under Joe Stowell - there were many more players that were out on the floor at halftime...

for those younger fans - I will try to identify who is in the picture behind the players...

from L to R Chuck Westendorf, Steve Kuberski, assistant Troy Pierce, assistant Mike Bargen, assistant Drew Adams, Sam Simmons, LC Bowen, Chuck Buescher, Joe Stowell, Al Smith, ?, Steve Doty, assistant Jimmie Foster, assistant Ryan Sharbaugh, Brian Wardle.

The person wearing red, between Smith and Doty is Don Hogeboom.

[bigjimmy]

First the bad: Rebounding was not good. Need to do a lot better job in attacking the boards. A better team would have taken advantage. We need to not reach as much as we do on defense so as to stay out of foul trouble. And it might have been announced as 4,943 but it looked like no more than 3,000 showed up. That needs to change and hopefully as we keep getting better so will the attendance.

Now the good: 5th win of the year matches what we did all of last year. I'd say that's progress. I really liked the fact that we really took it to Chicago State in the 2nd half and put the game away. We haven't done that very much over the last few years. I really liked how aggressive we were in shooting the ball. Obviously making shots help but you have a better chance of being a better shooter by taking a more aggressive approach. Keep doing that and we'll be having more free chicken and french fries after home games.

[pfcmsh]

LOL Free chicken

[Jim]

Encouraged by our improvement

I am glad that we won this game, of course, but I wonder what it means. Our 2nd half play was especially good. I mean no disrespect to Chicago State and I know that on a given night, any team can beat another, I just wonder if we played good because Chicago State isn't a good team or they didn't play well.

I hope to see a few responses so I can understand if we improved or not?

Granted Chicago State would not be able to win against the best MVC teams, but I am encouraged by our team's improvement. I was impressed by the team's defensive effort. Pittman did a great job on their leading scorer! I was also encouraged by our team's improved free throw shooting. If I am not mistaken I thought we shot around 80% from the line.

I do hope Alex, JoJo and Ronnie can earn more minutes. I really enjoy watching them when they get to play.

[tornado]

I guess kids have a right to worry about their minutes..and I am not trying to be hard on Ronnie...
but consider this...

Ronnie Suggs has played 1,047 minutes of Division I basketball so far and he's only a few games into his sophomore season.
That is MORE minutes than Luuk van Bree has played, more minutes than Antoine Pittman has played and more minutes than Donte Thomas has played the past two seasons.

In fact - it is MORE minutes than any other current sophomore in the entire MVC has played except one....and quite possibly one of the highest totals of any sophomore (10-games into his soph season) in memory.
Where the heck could he have possibly gone anywhere in DI and gotten that much playing time???

You gotta be kidding me if he's unhappy with his playing time...
Playing time is not like Rewards-Points or some Constitutional right - playing time has to be earned.
None of us sees practice but if players think they ought to play more, then work as hard as you can, talk with the coach and then decide - if you still aren't happy then consider transfer..

THREE of our players transferred at the end of last year, and thus far nothing about their performance suggests they deserved more playing time here.
One isn't playing this year, the other two are putting up truly paltry numbers at a FAR lower level than DI
(Joel Okafor is averaging 2 pt, 2 reb, 2 asst and barely getting playing time at NAIA and Davante Cooper is averaging 5 ppg/7rpg with numbers dropping steadily at juco)

The years before several players transferred and almost all of them either flopped at far lower levels or several didn't even make it and got booted and transferred again - and then again!. Transferring is not always the answer.

take for example Buddy Hield - College Player of the Year who barely played as a freshman - and many others - who just worked harder and waited their turn.

[Da Coach]

So you are saying he is not seeing significantly less playing time now by lumping in last year's minutes and averaging over both seasons? There is a slight flaw in that logic. Last year he averaged 30.2 minutes per game, and this year he is averaging 9.4 minutes per game, and in the last 4 games that has dropped to just 4.5 minutes per game. That is not only a drop in minutes, but undeniably a massive drop in playing time. And most of the minutes he is getting now are "garbage" minutes, and not even meaningful minutes.

So if one of the key players, and 3rd leading scorer was worth all that playing time last season, then why is he playing less minutes this season than every scholarship player except Alex Foster, including 4 freshmen? It is not as if we have a bunch of new guys emerging this season who are putting up phenomenal numbers, helping this team win games they shouldn't win, and clearly superior players more deserving of playing time, IMO.

In the end, it is a coach's decision, but if a coach is trying to get players to leave, then just be honest with the kids.
If a coach is trying to force a player to leave, it does not look good for a program. We've already seen way too much turnover in the last 4-5 years that only hurts the rebuilding process.

[tornado]

If a coach is trying to force a player to leave.....

I don't think that's what is happening, and I think it's irresponsible speculation to say so - you even made that exact same point so why say it again?


I don't see where I said his playing time hasn't dropped...I just said he has already benefited from plenty of available playing time, and I have a feeling there's a SURE way to get more playing time here for a team that has had some serious scoring droughts.
It's pretty obvious that all our losses have been when we simply couldn't find anyone who would/could score and we fell way behind - so it's obvious to me and others that Brian Wardle is searching for the solution to that problem.

If any player wants to go elsewhere for more playing time then just be sure to look at SIU's Bola Olaniyan or Northwestern's Kale Abrahamson or any number of past Bradley guys who went elsewhere, saw even more bench time than they had expected and flamed out or didn't play...

[Da Coach]

You need to read my post again. I never said nor even suggested that Coach Wardle was trying to force anyone to leave. I clearly was talking in a general sense.
In fact, if you read this board, you have to know that I have defended the moves that have been made so far with players leaving.

But when a program continues to have a lot of turnover year after year, that is what people see.

[Vent]

Don't we need to have two players leave so we can meet the two new scholarships we that have already by given for next year. I believe we will be two over the maximum amount allowed by the NCAA. I still believe Suggs is one of our better players. Something must be going on or he is awfully sick. Nothing against our foreign players, they seem like nice young men, but are there no players in the states that want to come to Bradley?

[Da Coach]

He is not sick.

[Braves2006]

He is not sick.

DC, are you dropping that perhaps you have some "inside info"?

[Big Mike]

He is not sick.

Agree....if your sick you would not enter a game with 3 minutes left!