Why is everyone...

[dogsrus]

....jumping ship?

Yeah that was ugly but our head has been severed. Its going to take a few games to establish a new identity. Its probably going to get worse before it gets better but we have to hang tough.

I don't want to sit here tossing out excuses but this team has been developed with Ruffin running the show....now he's gone. Did we not expect them to miss a beat?

We are asking the team to stay strong and fight through it but as fans it seems like many are just giving up.

Who knows....some guys could step up making us stronger down the road.

Don't give up....all is not lost.

[Murph]

This from Valley Talk, I could never put it in words like this guy did.

http://valleytalk.net/showthread.php?t=5972&page=2

Terrible, embarrassing performance by the Braves. UNI played poorly as well but, in the end, got the much needed road W in the league. Congrats to the Panthers and Coach Jacobsen.

Easily one of the worst home performances by Bradley in a long, long, long time. BU needs to quit obsessing, worrying, talking about Daniel Ruffin. Bradley wasn't playing all that well with Ruffin-and its only magnified with him out.

Jim Les chose to recruit a bunch of junior college guys. When you do that, you should be somewhat OK when a veteran starter gets hurt. But the players he brought in haven't produced--and a lot of BU fans, coaches, etc. put stock in that. Theron Wilson has been the only JUCO guy worth a darn.

BU should be good enough to beat an average UNI team at home, even without Daniel Ruffin. Again, good win for UNI but it isn't an elite team in the league. Sam Maniscalco played pretty well--15 points. Made big shots.

Warren and Crouch were a combined 6-26 overall--awful. Bradley went 6-29 from 3pt land--awful. The offense is predictable and Jim Les hasn't made a change to that in two years--good teams know what BU will do before they do it.

God Bless Crouch but hes a complimentary guy--not a go-to guy. Heck, he was looking to Maniscalco to take the tough shots late. I do feel confident Sam M. will be a good player in the league. Andrew Warren has been a disappointment. He's soft and a bad shooter. He is 18-59 (31%) from three-point land--not good. Bradley has no options in that third perimeter scoring role--Cole Scott has been a bust.

At some point Jim Les needs to held accountable. It doesn't help that his coaching staff is awful. Unless something drastic changes, this will be another sub .500 year for him in the league. No one feels sorry for you nor do you get a pass when a good player gets hurt. It didn't protect Royce Waltman when Moss got hurt, and no one gave Jim Molinari a pass in 96-97 when Anthony Parker broke his foot (and Ruffin isn't as good a player as those two guys).

I don't feel confident in Les' abilities as a coach to correct things. He needs to prove that he can. He now has a heck of a task in front of him--especially since next year doesn't look great either.

[Da Coach]

I don't disagree with anything except I would put a healthy Daniel Ruffin ahead of David Moss. InSU was never that good when he was healthy. He was a nice player, but not great, and he didn't make the players around him better. I think we'll see how good Ruffin is by his absence.

[jasonpeoria911]

Has anyone else noticed the lack of intensity from Les the last few games? At the beginning of the year he was really fired up, getting in guys faces but now he just shakes his head and converses with players from time to time. He doesn't even get fired up to the refs anymore. Several questionable calls today and Les just had a nice calm talk with the refs. Is Les realizing that it's not worth it with this group or am I imagining things?

Jason

[Lakeview Brave]

....jumping ship?

Yeah that was ugly but our head has been severed. Its going to take a few games to establish a new identity. Its probably going to get worse before it gets better but we have to hang tough.

I don't want to sit here tossing out excuses but this team has been developed with Ruffin running the show....now he's gone. Did we not expect them to miss a beat?

We are asking the team to stay strong and fight through it but as fans it seems like many are just giving up.

Who knows....some guys could step up making us stronger down the road.

Don't give up....all is not lost.

We werent very good with Ruff.

[jasonpeoria911]

Should note that Ruffin looked pretty good up and walking around at the game today. Not bad for someone that just had surgery. I would think cutting thru the abdomen muscles would have you in bed for at least a day or 2. Maybe the wait for Ruff won't be as long.

Jason

[Dallas Brave]

While today was frustrating, based on the second half I'm thinking that the team (sans DR) will look a lot better in the next game. I'm especially encouraged that we got to see RA contribute and hopefully we'll see a lot more of him. When you only get to play the last 90 seconds of a game, it's hard to not play wildly trying to make a positive impression in the little time available. I think RA played 10 minutes today but during minutes that counted. SM can handle point during DR's absence which is also good news. There is enough talent on this team that the coaching staff should be able to adjust and stay competitive in the Valley.

[dogsrus]

Has anyone else noticed the lack of intensity from Les the last few games? At the beginning of the year he was really fired up, getting in guys faces but now he just shakes his head and converses with players from time to time. He doesn't even get fired up to the refs anymore. Several questionable calls today and Les just had a nice calm talk with the refs. Is Les realizing that it's not worth it with this group or am I imagining things?

Jason

I would offer you are imagining things....JL was QUITE upset on several occasions with the refs AND his team.

[TheHeemyMonster]

We werent very good with Ruff.

we are a top 3 valley team with ruffin and still had hopes of a tourney bid with a top valley finish

without ruf we are no better than a thursday team until we find someone to hit a 3 point shot

[MacabreMob]

Has anyone else noticed the lack of intensity from Les the last few games? At the beginning of the year he was really fired up, getting in guys faces but now he just shakes his head and converses with players from time to time. He doesn't even get fired up to the refs anymore. Several questionable calls today and Les just had a nice calm talk with the refs. Is Les realizing that it's not worth it with this group or am I imagining things?

Jason

I would offer you are imagining things....JL was QUITE upset on several occasions with the refs AND his team.

Yea - JL was pretty vocal. I think one time he was beginning to close in on being close to a T. Heard him yelling at Jerry a lot. He was yelling at missed calls in his opinion a lot.

He may not have been "up in the players" faces as much.... (and I didn't watch during time-outs) but on the flip side... he sounded VERY supportive and gave positive/encouraging comments to players coming out of the game on substitutions as they went by him.

[dogsrus]

We were not a top 25 team WITH Ruf but we had some potential and I'd call us a top 100 team. We have played some good teams very close and really haven't been blown out once with a healthy DR.

We needed to stay healthy and improve as the season went to have a chance at post season play. Our small margin for error took a HUGE hit with Ruf going down.

Lets face it we could NOT have played any worse that first half....had we continued that in the 2nd half it would have been very disheartening. They showed a bit more energy and resolve which was somewhat encouraging.

[Chico]

Wasn't at the game, but was wondering what went wrong. Besides DR being out, was it the player introductions that made us play so bad again, or was it the crowd, or both?

[Beninator]

Wasn't at the game, but was wondering what went wrong. Besides DR being out, was it the player introductions that made us play so bad again, or was it the crowd, or both?

I wasnt able to make the game either.. Guess we were both deprived of standing up the entire game!

[SFP]

We need to hope that we do not have to play the play in game, we get a healthy DR and can get our act together between now and March to win the Tourney. There is no way we get an at large bid. We do not have an assasin on this team. When a JUCO guy and a Freshman lead your team with guts it tells me it will be a long season.

I have to say next year does not look that bad. SM and TW will lead the team, AW and DC will have another year to MATURE.

[TheGreatOne]

Wasn't at the game, but was wondering what went wrong. Besides DR being out, was it the player introductions that made us play so bad again, or was it the crowd, or both?

Well Chico, that one made me laugh.

I think Bradley has some serious problems to deal with. I have been a BU fan for 30+ years, and today was easily the worst half of basketball I can ever recall.

Bradley Basketball scoring nine points in a half was just shocking to me. I had several friends into town, over the holidays, for this game and I was really embarrassed to bring them to this contest.

Bradley basketball is about heart, energy, teamwork, and mental toughness. Not one of those things were on display today.

I cannot even begin to imagine what this team will be like on the road.