Change...

[wizard1]

DaCoach..... I agree 100% with you that something is obviously wrong with the Bradley program and major changes are needed or we will not recover.
FIRST OF ALL: Our coaches are simply not getting anything done to change what is happening. Recruiting stinks. All we seem to get are 12 PPG high school boys who do not have MVC talent. Our coaches do not seem to understand the level of talent and the kind of players needed to be competitive. Their evaluations of players are flawed. We do not recruit good JC players and we do not compete for the best 3 and 4 star players.
SECONDLY: Our offense also stinks. All we seem to do is dribble endlessly around the perimeter until the shot clock runs out or we turn the ball over. We do not pass the ball quickly and crisply around the perimeter to create openings for shooters. We cannot get the ball inside and we try to drive against good defenses which now doesn't work very well since MVC teams have the "book" on us. We do not free up openings for shooters and never run turnouts along the base line to find open shooters.
THIRDLY: Our players are not improving at all. We don't seem to be able to teach/and coach in ways that help players get better. As a result, our players make the same mistakes over and over and they obviously lack confidence.
I think it is time for Chris R. to do some heavy evaluation of what is wrong and start looking at adjustments and changes that are obviously needed.
Wizard

[Vent]

in my opinion...Wardle has made some poor talent evaluations. It looks like he is recruiting to compete in the Horizon instead of the MVC. Why would you give a player like Foster a scholarship and not play him? Poor evaluation or something else? You shouldn't just give scholarships just to give them away. Instead of giving 8 scholarships last year, he should haves saved some for this year and used more walk-ons instead. As for the offense, he tried to speed it up and his personnel can't play it. He has zero room for projects or mistakes in recruiting. Wichita and ISU-red are in a league by themselves. The rest of the league is down. Getting murdered by ISU isn't so bad. If we start losing to SIU, NIU, Drake and etc the problems will snow ball.

[tornado]

guys- let's be real...
in 2015- he got whoever was left un-recruited and still put 2 guys on the All Freshman list..
Then in 2016, with only a year's time for contact & recruitment - he still brought in 3-4 guys as freshmen & newcomers who might make the All-MVC Freshmen or Newcomers..

Let's not panic & throw the baby out with the bath water

[Chico]

Don't know of too many coaches who could turn around a program in such bad shape as fast as some posters think it should be.

[Vent]

I'm not throwing the baby out with the bath water. As for contacts and recruits, he had to have contacts from his time at Green Bay.

[basketball nut]

guys- let's be real...
in 2015- he got whoever was left un-recruited and still put 2 guys on the All Freshman list..
Then in 2016, with only a year's time for contact & recruitment - he still brought in 3-4 guys as freshmen & newcomers who might make the All-MVC Freshmen or Newcomers..

Let's not panic & throw the baby out with the bath water

Fully agree T. This team is still very young and I understand that some on here don't want to hear that anymore. It just took ISU-red 5 years to get to this point and DM didn't have to start over from the bottom.
Yes we got beat by 20 points last night but yet stayed right w/ them in the second half. This team is improving every game but when you are playing a team w/ leadership that ISU has we are still a year or two away. I never figured we were going to compete this year but I still beleive we have a chance of not playing on Thursday night and that would be a 5 year improvement all by itself.

[BRADLEY FAN 49]

in my opinion...Wardle has made some poor talent evaluations. It looks like he is recruiting to compete in the Horizon instead of the MVC. Why would you give a player like Foster a scholarship and not play him? Poor evaluation or something else? You shouldn't just give scholarships just to give them away. Instead of giving 8 scholarships last year, he should haves saved some for this year and used more walk-ons instead. As for the offense, he tried to speed it up and his personnel can't play it. He has zero room for projects or mistakes in recruiting. Wichita and ISU-red are in a league by themselves. The rest of the league is down. Getting murdered by ISU isn't so bad. If we start losing to SIU, NIU, Drake and etc the problems will snow ball.

I trust coach Wardle & B.U.'s A.D. to get the job done.
The other option is to hire a group from Bradley Fans to coach I don't think I like that option.
I know I sure wouldn't be able to do the job.

[wizard1]

Change

I am not advocating the firing of Wardle. What I am advocating is that Chris R. sit down with him and review what is happening, why it is happening, our recruiting philosophy and strategy, evaluations by our coaches of prospects, why we see no improvement in our players, our offense and how we can change it for the better, and set some specific goals with timetables.
What I am saying is that the program is in trouble and we must make major changes if we have any chance to build our program.
Wizard

[lefty]

I am not advocating the firing of Wardle. What I am advocating is that Chris R. sit down with him and review what is happening, why it is happening, our recruiting philosophy and strategy, evaluations by our coaches of prospects, why we see no improvement in our players, our offense and how we can change it for the better, and set some specific goals with timetables.
What I am saying is that the program is in trouble and we must make major changes if we have any chance to build our program.
Wizard

I certainly don't know for Wiz but I'm guessing Wardle and Reynolds have had plenty of talks........we have been bad for so long now that it's easy to be impatient but Wardle chose to really clean house and start over......rarely does a coach choose to do that. You may as well write off year one recruits...any that contribute by year 3(if still here) would be a plus. Geno started with a lot more than did...you have to give Wardle that to really see if he can get us competitive....

[bradleyfan124]

I can understand everyone's frustration but it is a young team. They will grow and as they do Wardle will see where he needs to tweak and improve. I give coaches 4 years to get some quality improvement. Chris Reynolds knows what he is doing. Trust in both of them

[Da Coach]

The problem is that there will be hundreds of season ticket people who will not renew because of how far this program has fallen and the horrible quality of basketball that they are paying really good money to watch. Those people need more to give them reassurance than constantly being told that "rebuilding takes time", and "we want to do things the right way" and "we need to give it time".

[tornado]

...Chris R. sit down with him and review what is happening, why it is happening, our recruiting philosophy and strategy...

I know for a fact that this is happening and happening on a regular, ongoing basis...

[Braves2006]

Don't know of too many coaches who could turn around a program in such bad shape as fast as some posters think it should be.

This... is all that needs to be said at this point. +1.

[BRADLEY FAN 49]

I've heard from a pretty reliable source that this is not Brian by himself this is how Chris and Brian together wants to try and fix this mess.

[PhiAlphaBoy]

guys- let's be real...
in 2015- he got whoever was left un-recruited and still put 2 guys on the All Freshman list..
Then in 2016, with only a year's time for contact & recruitment - he still brought in 3-4 guys as freshmen & newcomers who might make the All-MVC Freshmen or Newcomers..

Let's not panic & throw the baby out with the bath water

TOTALLY AGREE TORNADO! For the life of me I can't see why more people can't understand this. Wardle has only had one full recruiting cycle and threw together a ragtag bunch of global players at the last minute versus fielding a bunch of tryout walk-ons his first year. This year's freshmen recruits are a definite upgrade from last year's class and the team has definitely shown improvement over last year. GIVE WARDLE TIME FOLKS!