Where did you honestly expect BU to be?

[brocks]

If anyone predicted 10-2, I missed it. While some of BU's opponents have turned out to be worse than expected, I'd be curious where everyone expected the team to be at this point. Here was what I expected so far:

IUPUI W
Delaware L
Vermont L
Opp 2 Bah L
Opp 3 Bah W
S&T W
GSU L
EIU W
SDSU L
UALR W
CHS W
SEMO L

Then I would have adjusted for one unexpected win (not sure where) and guessed 7-5.

10-2? No way. This was a team that we celebrated if they could even compete with a D-I team (ANY D-I team) just two years ago.

Very happy with Wardle and our Braves. Thought for SURE that SEMO would be an L -- just because we were due for a let-down game somewhere in the OOC. But that let-down game never came.

What did everyone else honestly think would be the record 12 games in?

[Da Coach]

I actually did expect Bradley to go 10-3 in their non-conference part of the schedule. However, I don't blame anyone who is skeptical, since I have not been able to find anywhere that I posted that exact prediction.

Here was a "predictions" thread, and my post is the 3rd one in the thread. I predicted 20 wins overall, because I expected Bradley to win 10 non-conference games, and 9-9 or 10-8 in the MVC, plus maybe one win in the MVC tournament.

https://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27196

[Stryker]

I didn??™t post in the prediction thread but I was thinking at least 8-9 wins in the non-conference schedule just based on how weak it is. Also i had faith in Wardle to field at least a middle of the MVC team in his 3rd year so 15-18 wins would be realistic. Just think BU only lost by 1 pt to Vermont and could be 11-1 now, and I think they have as good a chance as anyone to beat Ole Miss, especially since ISU knocked them off last week.

[pfcmsh]

Never Thought...

I never thought we would be 10-2. More like 6-6. I still think, as I once posted, that we would finish at least 4th in the Valley. I had hoped for 18-19 wins.

As far as our 10-2 so far, I fear that our SOS has been weaker than previous years. That is ok, because we are much better and it is harder to schedule because the better teams dont want to get beat by us. I trust that Coach Wardle knows exactly what he is doing with the schedule, so I am content with 10-2, knowing that our schedule has been a little weak.

Am I wrong?

[Jim]

Weak schedule?

How does this year's non conference schedule compare to the schedules of the Jim Les era? How is this measured?

[Dub]

I expected us to be a couple wins shy of where we are at. Hopefully overachieving expectations becomes a staple commodity in the Wardle era. What a great coach.

[tornado]

I expected the turnover situation to be better by now with the growing DI experience, but I have to admit, we are way better defensively than I had thought and that allows us to hang with just about anyone and keep their scores down.

I had thought maybe we would be in the upper half of the Valley but still....
as I watch a few other MVC games - even Indiana State (Brenton Scott), Drake (Reed Timmer) and Evansville (Ryan Taylor, altho he's out) all have guys that can get hot and beat you - and it seems they always do to us in the past!!

And the better teams like ISU & Loyola have a lot of athleticism that we don't quite have - so ....
I think we still have to GET BETTER - cuz we are NOT at a point yet where we can expect to just romp over anyone in the MVC -- it will still be a battle.

[YATittle]

Tornado, that was a realistic, honest and informed opinion on your part. I appreciate your basketball knowledge.

[Da Coach]

How does this year's non conference schedule compare to the schedules of the Jim Les era? How is this measured?

Bradley's non-conference SOS this year so far is 310. It will probably improve to somewhere around 280-290 after we play at Mississippi, and will continue to change a little as the year progresses.

By comparison, here are the RPI and SOS numbers for every season since 2002-03 (Jim Les' first season) gathered from several old websites. Some years I was able to find the non-conference RPI and SOS, and for other years that data seems to be disappearing from the internet. If anyone can fill in the blanks, let me know.
However, clearly we had way better Strength of Schedule numbers in nearly every one of the Jim Les years compared with the subsequent seasons. Also, it's clear that this season's non-conference SOS is an outlier. It has never been this high before.
Note that this season's overall SOS will improve greatly after the MVC conference games are included
Season....RPI..Non-Con RPI...SOS..Non-Conference SOS
2002-03..192........184..........114....67
2003-04..152........100..........156...239
2004-05..142........ 34............81...131
2005-06...33..........39............50...130
2006-07...38..........18............21....15
2007-08..105........108...........75....95
2008-09...98.........................99
2009-10..105.........................64
2010-11..229........................139
2011-12..268........................100
2012-13..179........................160
2013-14..264........................189
2014-15..280........................115
2015-16..304.......311............121...104
2016-17..219.......239............136...166
2017-18..126.......126....................310 so far

[basketball nut]

I expected the turnover situation to be better by now with the growing DI experience, but I have to admit, we are way better defensively than I had thought and that allows us to hang with just about anyone and keep their scores down.

I had thought maybe we would be in the upper half of the Valley but still....
as I watch a few other MVC games - even Indiana State (Brenton Scott), Drake (Reed Timmer) and Evansville (Ryan Taylor, altho he's out) all have guys that can get hot and beat you - and it seems they always do to us in the past!!

And the better teams like ISU & Loyola have a lot of athleticism that we don't quite have - so ....
I think we still have to GET BETTER - cuz we are NOT at a point yet where we can expect to just romp over anyone in the MVC -- it will still be a battle.

A good assessment of where the team is now. I really think we can play with anyone in the league. I'm not saying we will beat every team but as I watched the Valley so far I am thinking this might be the most wide open the Valley has been in a long time.
Can BU win all of it's home games and sneak 3-4 road wins would be nice. I could see the League champion having 4-5 losses as I think there are that many strong teams this year.