Tweet
Wow...I would have to agree with other about revising my appraisal of SIU. I had said that their lack of guard play would be their weakness that would allow us to out perform them this year and gain the regular season title and maybe even the tourney, however, I didn't know it would be that huge of an achille's heel. Also, I would have thought Falker would step up and be huge for his senior year, and Mullins and Shaw would step up to compensate for the the absence of Tatum and Young. None of those three have done that.
Another hindsight observation is the style of play SIU has, espeically under the direction of Lowery. In reading the many write-ups and interview on him down here, his coaching style and his system is somewhat reminiscent of Molinari. The emphasis on hard-core half-court defense and very intense practices seems familiar. It is as though, like Jim Molinari, the offensive side of things gets neglected--both in terms of practice and in terms of personnel (recruitment and/or who plays). I have actually been amazed throught the years that SIU has been as so successful, and concistently so, and so long, by basically playing knock-down drag-out ball that is bascially designed to be low scoring, low possession, keep the game close, and win ugly. It was a style of play we Bradley fans, (as a whole) came to grow tired of under Molinari.
What I sort of drad, now, though, is that given the essential home-cout advantage SIU has in St. Louis, is that they will have a mediocre records going into the tourney, but they suck it up, get momentum, and win the thing and throw things off for BU and Crieghton. On the other hand, that may be what the conference will need in order to get more bids if BU and Creighton dominate from here on out and look to be at large locks at the end. However, if BU and Creighton stumble some and/or slog through the rest of a competitieve season and one of us needs the tourney win, but SIU steals it, we could get in trouble.
Sometimes being a BU and MVC fan can be so much fun--so close but never quite there
George Mason proved it could be done, but it would be nice though if we could see a Valley team there in the near future.
Another hindsight observation is the style of play SIU has, espeically under the direction of Lowery. In reading the many write-ups and interview on him down here, his coaching style and his system is somewhat reminiscent of Molinari. The emphasis on hard-core half-court defense and very intense practices seems familiar. It is as though, like Jim Molinari, the offensive side of things gets neglected--both in terms of practice and in terms of personnel (recruitment and/or who plays). I have actually been amazed throught the years that SIU has been as so successful, and concistently so, and so long, by basically playing knock-down drag-out ball that is bascially designed to be low scoring, low possession, keep the game close, and win ugly. It was a style of play we Bradley fans, (as a whole) came to grow tired of under Molinari.
What I sort of drad, now, though, is that given the essential home-cout advantage SIU has in St. Louis, is that they will have a mediocre records going into the tourney, but they suck it up, get momentum, and win the thing and throw things off for BU and Crieghton. On the other hand, that may be what the conference will need in order to get more bids if BU and Creighton dominate from here on out and look to be at large locks at the end. However, if BU and Creighton stumble some and/or slog through the rest of a competitieve season and one of us needs the tourney win, but SIU steals it, we could get in trouble.
Sometimes being a BU and MVC fan can be so much fun--so close but never quite there
George Mason proved it could be done, but it would be nice though if we could see a Valley team there in the near future.
Comment