Just Back From the Game

[Southside]

A few random thoughts:

-Good showing by BU fans. Very loud. The whole 2nd level nearest the benches was BU fans.
-Did the NCAA send out a memo about cracking down on carries and illegal screens. There were more carries called tonight then in a Jr. High game.
-That loose ball foul on Crouch near the end of the game, looked like a bad call.
-UIC shot lights out. They made a big shot every time they needed one.
-On the ball defense was good, help side defense was terrible. A step slow every time. I have a feeling there will be a lot of help side drills next practice.
-It seemed like BU was a little surprised with UIC's athleticism and speed.
-Trying too hard to speed up the offense. I know they are trying to go up tempo, but they were way ahead of themselves on offense. Not smooth. Trying to hard to shoot quickly, need more patience.
-Up tempo basketball starts with defense.
-Need to convert more "easy" points off of turnovers. What did BU have tonight 6 or 8 fast break points?
-I think this team just needs time to gel. There is obviously talent.
-Defense needs to be much, much, much better.
-I'd like to see more full court zone press. I think BU has the length and quickness.

[real fan]

Another thought; Austin was the only scholarship player to not get in tonight; I thought he was suppose to be one of our top recruits so is he that far out of shape or does he not work hard enough in practice?

[InMnBob1]

Slow Surprisingly Slow

I went to the game and was shocked at how slow we were compared to UIC. We were a step behind on every drive and one ball fake moved us out of position.

Sam M--too slow. JC--too slow. DR was beat up last night and looked the slowest in comparision to the guy from UIC who scored 35

Sam S big improvement and will be able to contribute. Good foot work, hands and touch around the basket.

Salley--same as last year but looks a little more comfortable.

The rest -- sure there's probably some talent but we have a long way to go.

Othe than the refs and their #1 guard who killed us our biggest problem was the inability to hit the big shot. There were several turning points in the game yesterday where we had an open 3 and missed the shot....two of them were by Sam M.

So we will miss Will F's ability to hit the key 3's and JJ's ability to lockup their leading scorer. If someone (other than JC) becomes a 3 threat and someone can step up from a defense position we should be okay. If not, a long season.

[BU ICEMAN]

I had to come in town for a friend's dad's funeral, so my buddy convinced me to extend the trip so I could stay in town for the game. After seeing that game, I wish I would've stuck to my original plan of pop in, pop out for the funeral.

Where the heck do I start?

First of all, for the love of everything Holy, let's not blame this one on the refs. Yes, they were absolutely abysmal, especially the silver haired guy, then the young guy must've felt left out because he started getting involved. The young guy's call on Crouch that Southside alluded to, has to be the worst call I've ever seen, no B.S. Crouch dove for the loose ball, got to the ball, got dove ON, then the whistle blew. How the guy on the bottom who dove to the ball without any pushing or grabbing, then got to the ball first, then got dove ON, gets whistled for the foul absolutely blew me away. There were so many whistles, it totally destroyed any flow the game should've had. I'll give them one thing, the inadvertant whistle on the over-and-back that really wasn't an over-and-back was resolved properly, although there was a screwup in the initial blowing of the whistle perhaps because the silver haired guy should've never blown the whistle on the o-and-b in the first place. Getting back to the original point, they stunk for both teams, UIC got hit harder with the carries than we did, we never should have put ourselves in a position in which they could affect the game.

Speaking of blew me away, everybody on the BU squad better take their shoes and throw them away because there must be cement or lead or something else in them that caused us to be a step slow on every defensive possession. I never thought I'd see Ruffin get blown away like he was last night, Ruffin got beat off the dribble and played on the side or behind Mayo the whole night. I don't care about anything else he did, to allow him to put up 30-odd points ruins his whole night. Offensively, he better learn to have an escape route planned when he starts driving, because he gets himself stuck down low and has to miracle his way out of the mess. Lots of nifty passes for sure, but he puts himself in way too many bad situations.

Staying with the defense, can somebody explain to me why our Centers are playing 35 feet away from the basket? UIC did not have the personnel that required our bigs to get out that far. Our middle was so open you could've driven the Peoria Charter bus through it, and UIC did! With everybody getting beat off the dribble, this was a terrible combination.

Offensively, we need to learn how to find other ways to score when the shots aren't falling. Not hitting the open shots really, really hurt us. Granted a lot of the shots were good shots, open shots, but it was just a bad night from behind the arc, especially Ruffin. Sam Singh came out of nowhere scoring wise, but had a couple of bad screens (which might've been phantom calls) and some bad decisions under the basket: not going up with 2 hands for a rebound, not going up hard after he did grab a rebound, and putting the ball on the floor after a rebound. I must say though, his awesome fake-out drive from the right elbow was one of the most bizarre plays I've seen. I've never seen slow-motion in a live event, but that was it!

The players shouldn't shoulder all of the blame. Some of the coaching decisions certainly lead to questions. I think it's safe to say we should've went to the 1-3-1 a lot earlier than we did, especially when it was apparent early that everybody was getting beat off the dribble. I also wonder why Salley saw so many minutes in the 2nd half at the expense of Collins and Theron Wilson. Salley got some boards but was a hole on the floor otherwise. After Collins' play in the first half, I think he earned himself a lot, lot more minutes than he got in the 2nd half. I said at the time Singh should've came out at the 8:00 timeout in the 2nd half for Collins, then you could see how gassed he was when he finally came out 3 1/2 mins later. Perhaps Coach Les got caught up in loyalty to the guys he's known or comfortability with them instead of getting them outta there. A very average game by Maniscalco, he got a lot of minutes that perhaps Cole-Scott should have gotten? I think his status as a legacy might just possibly be factoring in perhaps? Whether it's right or wrong, it's the way the world works, believe me I know. That being said, Cole-Scott didn't do much to earn any more from his brief appearances. Ruffin playing all 40 minutes took some of his minutes as well. I think the substitution patterns and PT will change drastically in our next game. Certainly a lot to work on in the office and tape room as well as the practice court.

Soooo, for next game there's a lot to work on.....not good after the first game of the season. Let's hope that UIC turns out to be another pre-season 8th place team that vaults itself into the dance, it'll be the only way to salvage anything out of this loss.

[bugregshu]

I don't think I can say anything about the game that hasn't already been said. I would just like to point out a few of the problems I had with the refs.

-The JC call obviously. He got pounced on while on the ground and got called for the foul.

-There was a loose ball heading towards the sidelines, and Josh Mayo was chasing it down. I had a different point of view than most of the other Bradley fans there, as I was on the other side of the pavilion, but before the ball went out of bounds, Mayo clearly picked it up and dropped it before going out. The ball went to UIC.

-The carrying calls were ridiculous. Our section started doing the wave using carrying call signals.

-For both teams, the refs called moving picks, when the player clearly had their feet planted and body stabilized.

-I remember seeing Theron Wilson get called for a phantom foul, and arguing with the ref, and Sam Singh got called for a foul on the shot, when he had his back turned to the shooter.

-I don't know how common it is to have a call reversed in college basketball, but I was very upset when they called a foul on UIC, and then gave Bradley the ball out of bounds, but before blowing the whistle, the refs met in the middle for a minute, and then gave the ball to UIC.

I'm not blaming the game on the refs. While they didn't help us at all, we were for the most part outplayed. UIC had great coverage on Ruffin and Crouch, and they played a step quicker than we did.

Finally, I have a question. Were the refs Horizon League referees? If so, what are our chances of seeing these guys again?

[BU ICEMAN]

-I don't know how common it is to have a call reversed in college basketball, but I was very upset when they called a foul on UIC, and then gave Bradley the ball out of bounds, but before blowing the whistle, the refs met in the middle for a minute, and then gave the ball to UIC.

I think the play you're referencing was the over-and-back call that really wasn't an over-and-back call because the silver haired ref forgot that you can catch the ball anywhere on the inbounds or that it's the ball, not the man on the o-and-b calls. They correctly went to the Arrow on the inadvertant whistle, which gave the ball back to UIC. Barf.

[wily coyote]

I think the play you're referencing was the over-and-back call that really wasn't an over-and-back call because the silver haired ref forgot that you can catch the ball anywhere on the inbounds or that it's the ball, not the man on the o-and-b calls. They correctly went to the Arrow on the inadvertant whistle, which gave the ball back to UIC. Barf.

Iceman, your close but not totally correct.The correct interpation of the call is as follows. A player may jump from his front court and land in his back court on a throw -in from anywhere on the floor. Hence they did not go to the arrow , they just corrected the call and made it right. I agree withyou though the silver haired guy struggled all night.

[SaintLouBrave22]

Alright guys...


Let me clear this up real quick since I was at the game and had a perfect look...

The player from UIC inbounded the ball and it was caught by another UIC guy Vandermeer who had both feet positioned on the floor in the front court

He then a second later moved his left foot back into the backcourt after having full position in the frontcourt

Yes that is an over and back and it doesn't take some moron running from the under UIC's basket to reverse the call to change my mind...it just shows how much more of an ******************** he is than I originally gave him credit for!

This one particular ref might as well have been in Jimmy Collins' pocket because every single time he blew the whistle it was against BU

From the charges being called blocks to the no fouls w/ Crouch shooting a 3 and then Theron being poked in the eye...

Mayo dribbling the ball and losing it right out of bounds in front of him to the checking the video monitors for asinine reasons when you're on the other side of the court and have no reason to...

JC being called for a foul when a guy jumps over him to get a ball and trips...sorry, thats not a foul!

Oh...and the charge on Theron at the end which was another reversal from the original block call from another official...

This guy was basically a #1 A-hole towards Bradley and protected "his own" all night long and anyone who was there could say the same.

We thought Valley officials were bad....but at least they are bad on both sides of the floor...


Makes you wonder if he knows former NBA ref Tim Donaghy...


Stuff like that makes you wonder about gambling