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The reason was he was punishing Deen and Burch with time on the bench....never seen a player fall down as much as Ellis....
Deen and Burch deserved some kind of punishment but Ellis being on the floor in that time frame does not give us a great chance to win. I'm not giving up on Ellis but he's nowhere near there yet.
Tough loss which we should have won.Free throws and poor defense just killed us tonight. We better clean up a few things before Saturday or we’re looking at another loss.
Free throws combined with bad defense lost this game. We missed a lot of possible points by not making free throws.
Agree, missing the front end of one and ones 3 times, Hannah 2 times and Hickman once really hurt. I do not think it was coaches best game in who he had on the floor late in the second half when were behind and needed points. Ellis so far has shown he is not a good shooter so I felt him being out there made it harder for us to score.We gave up so many easy baskets tonight that it was obvious we needed to pack it in the lane playing zone and make them beat us from the outside.
Deen and Burch deserved some kind of punishment but Ellis being on the floor in that time frame does not give us a great chance to win. I'm not giving up on Ellis but he's nowhere near there yet.
You stay with your best players if you are losing because they have the best chance of leading you to a come back especially on the road. Ellis got way too many minutes late in the game when we needed to score. Burch and Atlason did not have good games yet they give you more of a chance on offense plus they are freshman. We made no defensive adjustments after the first half that could stop them from getting into the lane and making easy shots.
Offensively, I agree. He is fundamentally sound. Defensively, he is still very slow. I'm not sure that can be fixed, because he is just very physically slow for a D1 basketball player, it's not all just getting used to the speed of the game with him. The reason he is always in poor rebounding position is due to this. Whenever there is a screen, which if I'm an opposing team I would put him in every time, when he is stepping out the offensive player is already around him as he is still moving out. He would be better off just staying where he is in the post and not stepping out at all, and make them shoot. By the time he reacts and moves back towards the hoop it is too late and often Leons or Hannah had to try to rotate under the hoop at the last second and they could not.
Also, our three post lineup is just not ideal defensively, but I suppose that is due to lack of guard depth.
Meta is the reason why we need to play more zone, keep him close to the basket and defend against layups.
I think a nationally ranked team should be able to shoot better than 53% from the line.
You’re right, but being in a Top 36 off the wall poll does not mean you’re nationally ranked. It’s not the AP Top 25 and the RPI is a joke right now.. I think thatTop 36 graphic cost us this game. They bought in to the hype of getting some recognition and forgot that their only about 15 points from being 3-4 through 7 games. Not 6-1.
I don’t get Ellis playing down the stretch. He passed up a wide open 3, and then got that offensive foul. That really hurt. He also missed a wide open corner 3. Just don’t get what he was in there under 4 min left. I didn’t see where he gave us anything to warrant those minutes.
OMG people! We are 6-1. As that noted philosopher and that soon to be again QB for the NY Jets Aaron Rodgers once said, "RELAX." We just had a bad game tonight. It happens. Pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and move on and trust that Brian, his staff and the players will learn from this anmd hope that we won't see a repeat of this on Saturday.
OMG people! We are 6-1. As that noted philosopher and that soon to be again QB for the NY Jets Aaron Rodgers once said, "RELAX." We just had a bad game tonight. It happens. Pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and move on and trust that Brian, his staff and the players will learn from this anmd hope that we won't see a repeat of this on Saturday.
This. This. This. Thank you!
I can't believe how people are freaking out so heavily after a single loss.
I just got back after attending this in person and was sitting very close to the floor. One striking thing that nobody has really commented on that was really evident courtside - Duke is really a tiny guy. Why was he on the bench? Because the Murray State two best players had 6-8 inches on him and he couldn't keep up with their athleticism. Ellis was the only guard who was actually playing some level of defense. Coach was trying to find some combination who could actually get a stop. I can't recall the last game where we just flat out couldn't stop an opponent.
Let's also make a couple other points here that are real and are being ignored:
It's very hard to win on the road in the Valley. Teams know you well and everything you can and cannot do.
Murray State played really well. Was our defense poor? Absolutely - no argument there. But, even when we were getting stops, they threw in 4-5 rainbow shots that all went in. They also were very quick defensively and especially gave our 3-point shooters very little room to breathe. As much as this result didn't shock me, I'd also not be surprised if we beat them by double digits at home.
The freshmen looked like that was their first conference game. They were rattled often. Being right near the bench, I could hear most of the conversations. One with Atlason was basically, "you have to get in a good defensive position to guard guys. I can't have you giving up more points than you can score." Multiple times, "STOP FOULING" ... Maybe I'm a Wardle defender, but I'm just not sure what he's supposed to do when the team isn't doing what it has done in the previous games, especially defensively.
Oh, and Meta was our best player tonight. And as much as I personally like the guy and what he can do, we're going to lose a lot of games if he's our best player.
I can't believe how people are freaking out so heavily after a single loss.
I just got back after attending this in person and was sitting very close to the floor. One striking thing that nobody has really commented on that was really evident courtside - Duke is really a tiny guy. Why was he on the bench? Because the Murray State two best players had 6-8 inches on him and he couldn't keep up with their athleticism. Ellis was the only guard who was actually playing some level of defense. Coach was trying to find some combination who could actually get a stop. I can't recall the last game where we just flat out couldn't stop an opponent.
Let's also make a couple other points here that are real and are being ignored:
It's very hard to win on the road in the Valley. Teams know you well and everything you can and cannot do.
Murray State played really well. Was our defense poor? Absolutely - no argument there. But, even when we were getting stops, they threw in 4-5 rainbow shots that all went in. They also were very quick defensively and especially gave our 3-point shooters very little room to breathe. As much as this result didn't shock me, I'd also not be surprised if we beat them by double digits at home.
The freshmen looked like that was their first conference game. They were rattled often. Being right near the bench, I could hear most of the conversations. One with Atlason was basically, "you have to get in a good defensive position to guard guys. I can't have you giving up more points than you can score." Multiple times, "STOP FOULING" ... Maybe I'm a Wardle defender, but I'm just not sure what he's supposed to do when the team isn't doing what it has done in the previous games, especially defensively.
Oh, and Meta was our best player tonight. And as much as I personally like the guy and what he can do, we're going to lose a lot of games if he's our best player.
Thank you BU 2006 for your assessment of the game. Also a shout out to Big Jimmy as I agree we are not going to win every game.
Was this winnable? Of course but when you barely shot 50% on FT's and have your worse 3 pt shooting night of the season more then likely you will lose.
I say pull up your big boy shorts, learn from this, and go get them Saturday.
I think losing this game is more about the opportunity the team had to become a nationally ranked team in the future. Sure you are going to lose some games but Murray St. is not that great of a team so playing our worst game of the season came at a bad time. I also wish we could have at least gotten some decent players out of the portal that could contribute immediately.
I listened to the game last night on the radio and it was frustrating to hear about all our defensive lapses and missed offensive opportunities especially at the free throw line! After reading all these comments on FanForum, I understand how upset most of us are!!!! However, as some of you have stated, we are still 6-1 and it's not time to panic! All very good or Great teams have bad games! It's inevitable and if you just follow college Basketball, you can plainly see how Good to Great teams always get knocked off!!!! I feel very strongly we will come out Saturday against Indiana State in a MUST win game and play very well! We are very good at home and I expect a different team to show up!!! As a side note, I listened to Murray State in their post game comments and there coach and players could not have shown any greater character then in there respect for Bradley. All 3 of them said, we played a very good to great team. They know we are the reigning MVC regular season Champs and they knew we were getting national recognition! Listening to them speak so highly of coach Wardle and the Bradley Program made me feel very good!
OMG people! We are 6-1. As that noted philosopher and that soon to be again QB for the NY Jets Aaron Rodgers once said, "RELAX." We just had a bad game tonight. It happens. Pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and move on and trust that Brian, his staff and the players will learn from this and hope that we won't see a repeat of this on Saturday.
Jimmy nailed it. There's a reason we haven't had a win streak as long as the 6 games we just had since 1985-86. It's really hard to do! Every time we won another game, it was going to make the next win that much harder to get. We were bound to have a let-down and teams were starting to look us as a signature win, so Murray State was hungry to take us down and they did. Disappointing, but I know at least a few folks here were calling this a trap game (Steve).
A few points:
1. Murray State is extremely good at home perennially.
2. By most accounts, we played terribly across the board and still were close enough to win in the end. That's a good sign.
3. Didn't understand Ellis getting all the minutes in a game that was so close at the end, but I assume BW coaches for the post-season and not the individual game. If he was disciplining players by benching them or just trying to get Ellis time in pressure situations to help him grow, I tend to trust him. He's been such a good coach for us since he's been here, and our teams typically get better as the year progresses so he's got my trust.
4. Like Jimmy said, we're 6-1 against some tough competition. That's still worth celebrating.
Let's hope for an angry bounce back big time win against ISU Blue and we can get back to the positivity we've had going on up to now!
OMG people! We are 6-1. As that noted philosopher and that soon to be again QB for the NY Jets Aaron Rodgers once said, "RELAX." We just had a bad game tonight. It happens. Pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and move on and trust that Brian, his staff and the players will learn from this anmd hope that we won't see a repeat of this on Saturday.
I wouldn't consider myself freaking out, but it was a concerning loss and I think it is appropriate to be frustrated with it, as it shouldn't have happened. Also, expectations have been raised around here, and we were finally starting to get some national recognition for the first time in a long time, and now that has taken a big hit, at least until we win a bunch again for a while.
I think it is a good thing to expect us to win games we are supposed to win. That is the mark of a program raising the bar. I think that's where everyone wants to be, including Brian. I'm sure he was frustrated with a lot of things last night himself. I think that's fair and appropriate.
Now, this season is not over despite the punch taken last night, and even at-large chances are not destroyed yet. I think thinking those things would be freaking out. However, there are some flaws that were pointed out even in wins with this team that are concerning and need to be improved. I like discussing those types of things after games, both the good and the bad in wins and losses. If we all just said "oh that's fine, they'll get them next time" after every game it wouldn't be much fun to discuss and follow. I also believe this team has great potential if our guard depth doesn't take another hit, so I will probably feel frustrated every time we lose, especially in games we should win if we played to our potential.
lighten up! We didn't play good, they did, we lost. Since Wardle has been here, we have a 2-7 record in our first MVC game of the year. Our first three players coming off the bench are two freshman, and one freshman+. Give Ellis some time. I know he past up that one three, but he's not the only one who past up some easy shots. We shot 80% at the line against Vermont and last night we didn't choke at the line. We thru up all over the place. Focus, Focus, Focus...
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