Bradley 72- Pitt 66

[BU fan]

Box score

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200603190465

Other scores

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/scoreboard?d=2006-03-19&c=ncaa&refresh=0

[BU fan]

Bradley report-

http://www.bubraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=249443

Some other articles worth reading--
CBS Sportsline articles--

http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/mayhem/regions/west

http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/gamecenter/recap/NCAAB_20060319_BRAD@PITT

Bradley players go into stands "for the right reasons"-

http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9321057

SI-

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/ncaa/specials/ncaa_tourney/2006/03/19/bradley.pittsburgh.ap/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2006/03/19/gallery.ncaa4/index.1.exclude.html

ESPN--

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/index

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney06/columns/story?id=2375795

Fox Sports--

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/5424926

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/5419360

[Da Coach]

Some more love from the PJ Star guys. A great Job done all weekend by the Peoria Journal Star
--

http://pjstar.com/stories/032006/BRA_B9A15F74.W02.shtml

http://pjstar.com/stories/032006/BRA_B9A1HOLQ.W02.shtml

http://pjstar.com/stories/032006/BRA_B9A229S9.W02.shtml

http://pjstar.com/stories/032006/BRA_B9A28S7I.W02.shtml

http://pjstar.com/stories/032006/KIR_B9A2111V.W02.shtml

There are also a bunch more great articles in the front section, but those links don't seem to be working. There is tremendous coverage of the game, the team, and the fan reception back in Peoria last night.

[Da Coach]

Another great article on SI-

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/ncaa/specials/ncaa_tourney/2006/03/19/bradley.pittsburgh.ap/index.html

[Da Coach]

I had the opportunity to talk with people from Pitt and several other teams at the Auburn Hills regional. For Friday's game (Kansas) I was seated among the Pitt crowd, and talked with people from several other teams during the weekend. Even met some Bradley grads from the Detroit area.

I heard nothing but the most complimentary things all weekend about Bradley, it's players, and the coaches.
Other than the most frequent question, "Where is Bradley?", one of the most consistent things heard were people from teams representing the "power conferences" asking "how did your coach recruit that kind of talent to Bradley?"
Also heard these quotes-
"Bradley has great kids"
"Bradley is a very well coached team"
"I've never seen a team play this good defense"
"That #20 (Daniel Ruffin) is the quickest point guard I've ever seen"
"Where'd you find that #13 kid?" (POB)
"Sommerville is a man among boys"
"We've got nobody who can guard your guys like #22 (Boogie), #15 (Cellus), and #13 (POB)".
"Bradley has some incredible athletes"
"How'd Bradley lose 10 games" (that was the one I heard the most!) - my answer- "the MVC is a very tough league!"

The Pitt people were especially impressed with the defense Bradley played. They have never seen a team stay with their guards all game like Bradley's did.

Several fans from Pitt were so impressed with the Bradley team they wondered how long Bradley could keep Jim Les.

[Majik45]

Great article on Tony Bennet:

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/sports/special_packages/marchmania/columnists/14139093.htm

[romar]

Great article on Tony Bennet:

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/spo...s/14139093.htm

This is what college sports is all about - excellent read.

Collectively, as individuals and as a unit, these young men make me proud to be a BU fan. From what I've seen as an outsider looking in, each of them are good people first.

[Aargh]

Huge grats from a WSU fan.

Keep up the good work.

[#300]

Let me add my congrats from a casual BU fan but love to see the kids be rewarded for hard work.
Bizarre how I was poster #300 when I signed up Feb 23
(I note one poster must have been deleted, so I am now #299)
Now less than a month later, Bradleyfans has 413 posters signed up!
Go BU and thanks!

[Big Mike]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/ncaatournament/story/9C31E858C59029E28625713700221FFE?OpenDocument

[Da Coach]

I just read that article and it is great. In it I note this paragraph--

"I've been marked as a failure all my life," Bennett said. "It just feels good
to actually have some success at doing something. My high school coach told me
I was making a huge mistake by coming to Bradley. Now look at me. It's huge for me.
It's more than basketball right now."

What is that about? I keep hearing rumors that the Chicago coaches still hold a grudge
about issues concerning Bradley's selection of Jim Les for coach over the other finalist
who was a former Illinois high school coach, and a minority.

I keep hearing that they will not allow their players to go to Bradley, and that has a lot
to do with the fact Bradley has not gotten any of the top talent in Chicago under Jim Les.

But for his coach, Chris Head, to try to talk Tony out of Bradley is ridiculous.
He wasn't a starter at Westinghouse, even as a senior. And he came to Bradley from
Pratt County Junior College in Kansas, 2 years removed from Chicago and Westinghouse.
This is unbelieveably absurd that his coach can't recognize what is good for his kids.
Would Tony have been better off at Chicago State or UIC?

Here are a couple other lines from this story. I hope Chris Head reads this----
Who wouldn't want to be a Bradley Brave right now? Who wouldn't want to be a proud alum,
high-fiving fellow alums at halftime, picking his old buddies out of the crowd?

"I'm a project kid," Tony Bennett continued. "I wasn't supposed to make it far.
For me to get this success with my team . . . there is only a handful of people that
actually thought I'd make it this far. They're sitting at home and they're crying for me, too."

Bennett went to two high schools, then Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kan.,
before landing at Bradley. Asked to name the best thing about Bradley, his reply was simple:
"Its degree."

What did this victory mean? Bradley guard Daniel Ruffin summed it up:
"Twenty, 30 years from now, we might meet up sometime, and we'll talk about this."
It will mark Tony Bennett as a success all his life

[tornado]

Coach--
these are the same Chicago AAU and high school "gurus" who steered guys like Leon Smith to the NBA, and Justin Ceresoli to Seton Hall, and DeAndre Thomas to Mizzou....and I could name a whole lot more that turned out to be terrible for the kids.

I hope the talented kids in Chicago start listening to intelligent advisers who have the kids' best interest in mind.
All too often we see stories about how the "gurus" steer the kids for their own financial advantage and greed.
The recent story about the scheduling scandal (that hit Iowa State and others) is just one more example of how the kids don't seem to matter, only the "gurus" making money.

I wish some big, national reporter would pick up the story about Tony Bennett and run with it and expose the machine that has so much affect on those Chi-town kids' lives.
I will take a Tony Bennett over a Carl Krauser any day, or a JJ Tauai over a Brandon Rush!!
Thank Heaven we don't have a coach who will sell the soul of our school for some talent or just for some of the guru's consideration.

[Fetz86]

well i dont think West's coach Kerkman steered Cerasoli towards Seton Hall. Kerkman has his players best interest in mind I believe, he is a great coach and a real classy guy.