Creighton 82 - Bradley 71

[georgethedog]

All I have to say is officials, free throws, and 3 point shooting. I think they are all self explanitory.

AND DEFENSE, OR LACK OF...

[georgethedog]

It seemed like there was something wrong with Ruffin.

I agree. Was it their defense?

[georgethedog]

Re: Creighton 82 - Bradley 71

I think we saw tonight that there is a good bit of difference in the talent level between Bradley and the Valley elites. .....

You think so?

I--last night's game was won at the FT line and a whole lot of those calls that sent the Jays to the line were pretty questionable.

Why did they get to the line? Easy answer... our defense sucked and let them get into position where we fouled them. They went around us all night like we had taken too much cough syrup.

[georgethedog]

Re: Creighton 82 - Bradley 71

Bradley had better passing

Totally disagree with this statement. Bradley looked terrible passing the ball last night, and a lot of it had to do with the CU defense.

Sometimes you just have to give props to the other team. They flat out beat our butts last night.

JJ Tauai passed poorly, and had 4 turnovers on passes right out of bounds. The rest of the turnovers (only 7 of 'em) were largely BAD calls like the travel on Ruff when he was actually hacked on a 3-pt attempt, and the carrying the ball on Will that was just a fabricated call.
I think other than that, I really didn't see a bad pass. We hit the open guy and virtually every one of the 30 3-pointers we took was because of good passing.
We just didn't hit enough of them.
I actually thought Creighton had lots more passes tipped, deflected, and stolen, but they got a whole lot of help frmo the refs, and they hit their shots better than we did.

My goodness Tornado, which game did you watch? Take off those "rose-colored" glasses for a minute. Most of our threes (especially in the 1st half) were bad forced shots and out of rythm. Did you tape the game? Look again.

[Average Joe]

It seemed like there was something wrong with Ruffin.

Why are so many on the message boards saying Ruffin was bad?
He was unfairly called for at least 3 fouls that he didn't commit, yet played pretty good defense.
He easily broke Creighton's pressure and press and even though a couple of his running buddies, Will and DA weren't hitting, he still had 4 assists (I am pretty sure he had more but I didn't count during thew game) and 3 turnovers, one of which was that horrible travel call when he actually should have been at the line.
He also scored a team high 17, was 4-8 from three, and would have had 20 if given those 3 free throws he got robbed of by the same guy who called most of the hilarious stuff.
His assist on the lob to Zach was awesome.

[BTID]

After Zach hit the first 2 free throws, I thought "wow, our worst foul shooter drained 2 to start the game--maybe we'll be OK tonight". A 17-1 Creighton run later, and I knew it would be harder than difficult to pull this one out! Every chance Bradley had to get back in the game and get the crowd revved up went for naught--missed shots, turnovers, no rebounds of consequence, and the fact that CU seemed to hit every big shot they needed to stanch the comeback. Credit to the Jays--they got off to the best possible start in a hostile environment and were able to maintain that early advantage throughout the night. I thought our defense was OK at times, but lacking on most occasions. It seems the Braves have quick hands on D, but not so much can be said about their feet on D. An aberration or a trend? Looking at our scores, it seems like we employ a "defense optional" strategy in hopes that our shooting will be enough to sustain us. However, it's tough to make hay from the foul line when you take a lot of shots 20 feet away from the bucket. Right now, SIU, Creighton, and Missouri State look like NCAA teams to me. Everyone else in the Valley will have to hope for a "Miracle on the Mississippi" moment in St. Louis to get into the Big Dance. Question--what's up with Andrew Warren? He hasn't been getting much playing time lately. Has he fallen so badly down the depth chart, or is he academically ineligible or something?

[shaunguth]

I just can't seem to get one stretch of the game out of my mind. It came with about 14 minutes left in the game and I believe Creighton turned the ball over FOUR consecutive times down the floor. Bradley converted those four turnovers into just ONE point. The frustrating part of this is the fact that we easily could've cut their lead down to at least 8 points when it was 17 a couple minutes earlier. A bad pass from Crouch down low, a couple of missed layups, and a foul that gave us one free throw from Zach. Looking at the boxscore. Combine this stretch of not taking advantage of turnovers with Franklin's 21.7% from the field and the huge disparity at the foul line......and you end up with a loss that could've been a big win for a team trying not to play on Thursday in St. Louis.

[Bravesfan]

Re: Creighton 82 - Bradley 71

I think we saw tonight that there is a good bit of difference in the talent level between Bradley and the Valley elites. .....

You think so?

I assume you mean SIU and Creighton as the two Valley elites.
Last night was only one game, but here is my response:

--We have beaten SIU in the only meeting we've had this season between the two teams. I really can't see this as supporting the argument that they are elite and we are not.

--In the game at Creighton, we had every chance to win right down to the final minute, but shot poorly as teams often do on the road.
Playing in front of the largest crowd in the history of the state of Nebraska, our guys nearly pulled off an upset on the road, and although Nate Funk had a good game, I see no evidence that the talent difference had a whole lot to do with the outcome.

--last night's game was won at the FT line and a whole lot of those calls that sent the Jays to the line were pretty questionable.
Bradley outscored Creighton last night from the floor 62-51
Bradley outscored Creighton from 3-point range 30-21
Bradley had better passing, more assists, and better bench scoring.
Creighton's best bench player, Josh Dotzler, was all but invisible, while BU's best bench player, Jeremy Crouch was 4-5 from 3-pt range. Will Franklin had a bad game, but he's been one of the 2 or 3 best players in the league to this point.
Despite that, Creighton raced out to a big lead, it was the fouls and FTs that helped CU win, as they got 21 more attempts at the line and were able to outscore BU 31-9 at the FT line.
When you win a game by 11 but outscore the opponent by 22 at the line, it isn't too hard to see the biggest reason Creighton won.

By the way, Creighton loses Funk, Porter, and Tolliver next year, and will not as likely be the Valley's top team in 2007-2008.

Well, those are good reasons to keep up the hope for an NCAA tournament bid! Still would have liked to see at least a closer game at home though.

Just to clarify, I'm about as positive toward the team as one can get. I've seen some new board members ripping the team in recent days, which I think is totally uncalled for, considering what this team lost. But despite my NIT discussion on an earlier post, I still believe we are a good team that has a good shot at the NCAA Tournament considering the teams we play the remainder of the season. All I was saying is that the NIT would not be a bad consolation prize either.

So we'll see how we do from here on out. A win at SIU and/or Evansville (assuming we beat ISU this weekend, which would not be good if we don't) would get us back in the at-large discussion. Interesting to see that Andy Glockner from ESPN seems to think that 10-8 might be good enough for an at-large bid. We'll see how things play out. It should be interesting!

[Da Coach]

After Zach hit the first 2 free throws, I thought "wow, our worst foul shooter drained 2 to start the game--maybe we'll be OK tonight". A 17-1 Creighton run later, and I knew it would be harder than difficult to pull this one out! Every chance Bradley had to get back in the game and get the crowd revved up went for naught--missed shots, turnovers, no rebounds of consequence, and the fact that CU seemed to hit every big shot they needed to stanch the comeback. Credit to the Jays--they got off to the best possible start in a hostile environment and were able to maintain that early advantage throughout the night. I thought our defense was OK at times, but lacking on most occasions. It seems the Braves have quick hands on D, but not so much can be said about their feet on D. An aberration or a trend? Looking at our scores, it seems like we employ a "defense optional" strategy in hopes that our shooting will be enough to sustain us. However, it's tough to make hay from the foul line when you take a lot of shots 20 feet away from the bucket. Right now, SIU, Creighton, and Missouri State look like NCAA teams to me. Everyone else in the Valley will have to hope for a "Miracle on the Mississippi" moment in St. Louis to get into the Big Dance. Question--what's up with Andrew Warren? He hasn't been getting much playing time lately. Has he fallen so badly down the depth chart, or is he academically ineligible or something?

I agree with everything you said.
And Andrew is fine. There is no injury or academic issue. With Crouch back, the coaches just have gone with a more senior, junior rotation and AW's minutes have suffered. I think they played quite well when Andrew was getting more minutes, and he was key in helping Bradley win a couple games. He is a big part of Bradley's future, and I am sure he'll get more playing time.

[Dubl R 1]

Some random thoughts on last night's game:

1. I was dissappointed in our energy for about the first 8 minutes of the game. To have an opportunity to take down a first place team in your own building, and to start the game like we did was dissappointing. To not shoot well is one thing, I can understand, everybody has off nights, especially when you depend on perimeter shooting, but we had no intensity defensively, and were not "locked in" at all on offense, especially with our passing and cutting the first 8-10 minutes of the game.

2. Ruffin. First of all, let me say I love Ruff, I think he is a great player, wouldn't trade him for the world. That being said, he was not good last night, not at all. I know Tornado is gonna throw some stats at me that suggest his game wasn't that bad, and I agree, his numbers were ok, but they all came too late and
basically had no impact on the game. Ruffin makes our team work with his ball control, and his defense, and getting other players involved, all of which was MIA in the first half. To me, He just didn't look himself all night, he was a step slow on defense and cutting, just wasn't Ruff as usual, maybe there was a reason for this, Flu? maybe, tired?, I dont know.

3. Our refs are getting to the point of utter embarrassment for our league. The one ref, who I have not seen before, was a absolutely terrible. He made 3-4 critical calls in the guts of the game from the furthest point of any of the refs on the floor, ie. the foul when Ruff was called for traveling on the 3, and a foul that was actually called on Creighton during a loose ball situation by the endline under BU's basket. He was nearly at half-court, on the opposite side of the court, when the other two officials, who were right on top of the play didn't blow the whistle. Countless ticky-tack fouls 30 feet from the bucket, all while Tolliver beats the hell out of people in the paint. If our bigs played like Tolliver, they would get whistled for illegal screens everytime down the floor.

4. As good a job as our coaching staff has done this year and last year, I thought even they were a little off last night. I didn't like the fact that we were down by 14-18 pts, and we fall back into a zone. At one point we cut the lead to 11, fell back in a zone which Creighton promptly exposed for 5 points in 2 possesions. With as flat as we were playing, I think we should have been pressing them nonstop, if for nothing else than to try and spark something. We would come down and allow Funk and or Porter or Miles to stand with the ball by their bench and run 20-25 seconds of unpressured time off the clock all second half until about 3 minute mark, when we finally got up into the ball handler. Also, not much clock for AW and none at all for Singh, especially odd that Sam gave us some good minutes at Creighton when we were really struggling. I mean, at least they should be worth a look when everyone else was struggling.


5. The Attendance was also dissappointing. I know its cold and on TV, but I expected more for a visiting 1st place team.

Well now that I have worked out all my frustrations with this post, lets right the ship Saturday at isu.(no caps for isu rule.)
I apologize for the length, nothing better to do, and some of this had to be said. PEACE.

[georgethedog]

[quote="Average Joe"]

It seemed like there was something wrong with Ruffin.

Why are so many on the message boards saying Ruffin was bad?

Because he was bad. Simple as that. The worst thing is he got beat constantly on defense.

[real fan]

D.Ruffin has played so well that for him he had a bad game last night; also very dissappointed with the attendance as we were playing creighton who has been one of the top teams in the conference for several years and we don"t even get 10,000 fans; where were the students as this game was more important then Ill. State , we are losing because of poor defense as we are giving up way too many points ; last night we kept doubling up down low which left a shooter wide open for a 3 point shot and it killed us at the start ; I hate to say it but this team plays a better zone defense then a man to man.

[Long-Hair's Lunatics]

I think Ruffin will be fine. Even though they got all the calls and the refs were terrible, we didn't play all that bad. If WF could make more than 1-9 from 3, and Tauai, Ruffin, and Will dont try to make bad shots and dont turn the ball over 11 times, we should have been able to beat Creighton.

[amckillip]

I hate to say it but this team plays a better zone defense then a man to man.

I completely agree here, I really feel like zone should be our main defense, however I understand why Les went with man, good shooters and smart basketball players(i.e. funk on both accounts) can find the seam or break in a zone and get wide open shots, I am not saying he didn't find them last night, but I understand JL's logic.

[Scouter]

It seemed like there was something wrong with Ruffin.

Why are so many on the message boards saying Ruffin was bad?
He was unfairly called for at least 3 fouls that he didn't commit, yet played pretty good defense.
He easily broke Creighton's pressure and press and even though a couple of his running buddies, Will and DA weren't hitting, he still had 4 assists (I am pretty sure he had more but I didn't count during thew game) and 3 turnovers, one of which was that horrible travel call when he actually should have been at the line.
He also scored a team high 17, was 4-8 from three, and would have had 20 if given those 3 free throws he got robbed of by the same guy who called most of the hilarious stuff.
His assist on the lob to Zach was awesome.

Yes, Ruff scored a team-high 17.
Yes, he was 4-8 from three.
Yes, he got jobbed on the travelling call.

But 11 of his points came with less than four minutes to go when the game was all but decided. And the first half was the worst I've seen him play all season (0-6 FG, 0-3 3s, 0-1 FT, 3 fouls, 2 assists, 2 TOs).
I'm not sure what the deal was last night, but BU obviously can't afford for him to play like he did for the first 36 minutes last night.