New starting line-up

[mrcoachdude]

point -Sam M
2 guard - TCS
Center - Collins
SF - Crouch
pf - Austin

4 out of 5 newbies.......I want three shooters on the floor

Not to slight Salley or SamS or AW...they would get some good PT

[Dallas Brave]

Whatever. I feel duped after watching this team now for 13 games. For anyone to say this current team is more talented than the Sweet 16 team is utterly laughable....and insulting. Hence, my feeling of being duped.

When I combine this comment with the debate on if JL is a liar, I must say that Bradley has some of the most innocent and tractable fans in college sports.

[squirrel]

Squirrel,
These stats that you use to support Singh as a starter are a bit skewed (imo)as Singh has accounted this year for only 86 minutes out of a total of 2,625 possible minutes. 3% of all possible minutes.
Furthermore the rebound efficiencey percentages you site for Singh sound fine, but Singh only has 8 offensive rebounds and 16 defensive rebounds for the year. (24 total rebounds) I would bet that Singh's statistics would decrease if he were to start. All this being said, Singh is a role player who has worked very hard over the off season and certainly deserves more pt.

I realize this thread is a thread about him starting. I don't necessarily believe he should start, but he definitely warrants more PT.

My data comes from Pomeroy: This is where my information is coming from: http://www.kenpom.com/sr.php?team=Bradley

This is what the rankings mean: http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/web...ividual_stats/

You are right, since these are possessions based numbers, obviously they will go down with an increase in PT, but he certainly can't do worse than some who are playing, and I think he will continue to put up respectable numbers.

His turnovers are a concern, but so it is for everyone else on the team.

And some clarification on the rebounding numbers--it's actually a measure of available rebounds in possessions that they are involved, which actually magnifies his impact.

But we also must remember JL has never emphasized rebounding, and our opponents constantly attack that weakness.

[squirrel]

He plays the least percentage of the minutes because he has the least amount of talent. He can't, jump, he can't shoot and he is slow. He sets multiple moving screens ans gets tired too quick. Just an honest assessment.

Can't shoot? 50%+ career, 62% this year. . .

75-85% FT shooter

I agree on the screens, turnovers, etc.

But while he may be slow, he is actually agile and presents matchup problems for non-athletic bigs (which the Valley is full of) because he makes up for his deficit in speed with constant motion. That leads to some of those issues. But I'd take it over what we're getting at this point.

You make it sound as though he stole your girlfriend.

[BradleyBrave]

Can't shoot? 50%+ career, 62% this year. . .

75-85% FT shooter

I agree on the screens, turnovers, etc.

But while he may be slow, he is actually agile and presents matchup problems for non-athletic bigs (which the Valley is full of) because he makes up for his deficit in speed with constant motion. That leads to some of those issues. But I'd take it over what we're getting at this point.

You make it sound as though he stole your girlfriend.

Numbers that say one thing, but someone who sees it the other way for some unknown reason. Kinda like someone I know and Greg Maddux...

[squirrel]

Numbers that say one thing, but someone who sees it the other way for some unknown reason. Kinda like someone I know and Greg Maddux...

Well, if you must know. . .he stole my candy bar at the airport once.

[Murph]

This team was generally overhyped by this board. . .that's why its not wise to believe anything until the team starts playing games.

Maybe so but it's much better than reading the ISU fan moderated other board.

[BradleyBrave]

Well, if you must know. . .he stole my candy bar at the airport once.

TWIX!!!!!

[Lakeview Brave]

Give us a break, t...
All of us 'non-insiders' were sitting at home/work all summer with absolutely ZERO first-hand access to the super-secret BU practices that were going on, and had no way to make our own objective assessments of all of these newcomers...but yet we were supposed to somehow be "smart" and "think for ourselves" and draw our own conclusions about how this team and these new players were going to be? How exactly were we supposed to do that?

"We"...(the alleged uninformed, lemming faction on this message board...as you have so kindly labeled us...) were told by Les that this was the most talented team he's ever had here...we were told by Snell over and over again how Matt Salley was dominating in practices...how it was staggering how much talent this team had...it was a special team, an NCAA team...blah blah blah...The Valley coaches picked us 2nd in the preseason poll...Van Coleman and a handful of other people that get paid to evaluate talent told us this was a quality group of new recruits...We were told over and over again by the special 'connected' posters on this board...(who did have the luxury of having access to watch this team practice) how Matt Salley was a dominating force in practice...how Egolf was the best outside shooter we had...how he was a Dirk Nowitzki clone...how David Collins was P O'B...TCS was WF with much more athleticism...how we were 11 deep...how Les was going to have problems getting minutes for all of these uber-talented players...and so on and so on...

And yet, you are going to tell "us" that it is our fault for having high expectations for this year's team? That we should instead have all 'thought for ourselves' and assumed that Les, Snell, the Valley coaches, Van Coleman, and all of those that had direct access to see these players practice were selling us a red kool aid laced bill of goods?

Whatever. I feel duped after watching this team now for 13 games. For anyone to say this current team is more talented than the Sweet 16 team is utterly laughable....and insulting. Hence, my feeling of being duped.

Great Post

[tornado]

I don't place "fault" but then I don't blame someone else for the conclusions I draw.
I think this team does have a lot of talent, and just a couple weeks ago lots of people were saying so, now
it's all doom and gloom as if we never had any decent talent in the first place.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5854

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5968

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5979

Now tell me you are going to blame me for all the opinions in these threads??

[ER3]

I don't place "fault" but then I don't blame someone else for the conclusions I draw.
I think this team does have a lot of talent, and just a couple weeks ago lots of people were saying so, now
it's all doom and gloom as if we never had any decent talent in the first place.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5854

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5968

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5979

Now tell me you are going to blame me for all the opinions in these threads??

T...
Just to clarify...I am not blaming you, personally, for the overwhelming amount of hype that surrounded this team...
The point of my original, longwinded post was that the high expectations that I had for this team were mainly brought about because of all of the statements/predictions made by Les, Snell, the Valley coaches, a handful of independent recruiting experts, and dozens of college basketball websites and magazines....
My expectations of this team were NOT based on observations that you or any other posters that had access to any of the team's workouts passed along. Sure, those observations did serve to support the glowing reviews that Snell, Les, Van Coleman, the Valley coaches, etc. had already given us on this team and its group of newcomers, but "the message board hype" wasn't the primary thing I was basing my high hopes on.
If somebody's brother that knows a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy that cuts Jim Les's hair comes on a message board and says that he heard that Les said that TCS is going to be a lottery pick, Egolf will start this year and average 20 pts. and 15 boards, and Matt Salley worked out with (and dominated) Tim Duncan all offseason and is now 7'1" and has 6% body fat...well, that is the kind of message board hype that you take with a grain of salt until you see it for yourself. But with so many independent talent evaluators, college hoops sources, etc. picking us 2nd in the Valley, with a nationally-ranked recruiting class, the most talent we have ever had here, etc., etc., etc....I don't see how we could have or should have dismissed that as "typical message board hype" and thought for ourselves...
And I'm not calling Les a liar about making his infamous "most talented BU team he has had" statement...I'm just concerned...because that is NOT the type of statement you want to go around making as a coach in the preseason...It sort of backs you into a corner...because if this team doesn't make the tournament and doesn't finish in the top half of the Valley, then you have to wonder whether: A) This team was not all that talented, and he has somehow lost his ability to judge talent, and completely misread the talent level of this team; or B) this team IS the most talented team he has ever had at BU, but he and his staff did a lousy job of teaching and coaching that talent.
Just seems like a "lose-lose" statement for him to make, IMO...I don't doubt that he did/does think all of these newcomers were/are ultra-talented, so I'm sure that it is frustrating to this coaching staff that they have not been able to get much production from 2/3 of them to this point in the season...
Hopefully that can change as we go forward...

[real fan]

So who is to blame for the way that we are playing now, the coaching staff , the players, or the media for picking this team to finish 2nd and making references about how good these incoming players would be?

[ER3]

Ummm...I would suppose the coaching staff and the players would be the ones that would have to be held accountable for the way this team has been playing.
For whatever that is worth...Getting to the bottom of who is actually at fault for this mess is secondary in my mind...I am disappointed, and I just want this team to start playing good basketball...

[BUBraves2006]

Back to the topic ... I was out of town for the weekend and I heard the score of the game Saturday. As expected, it's like the burning of Rome here...

17 Valley games left ...

I also just finished watching the game on the BUBraves.TV archive and agreed, that was pretty nasty.

5 starters?
We only have two guys who deserve to start right now: Maniscalco and Wilson. They played with a lot of guts in an otherwise horrible game.

Warren needs to be benched because of how invisible he has been at times. That will send a message.

Crouch hasn't been a leader in Daniel's absence, that deserves losing your starting spot as well.

Similar to 2006, Les needs to declare the starting lineup up for grabs for the remaining 3 spots. Lets see who wants it in practice.

One thing I'm not buying into is the Rashad Austin lovefest on here. Are we really that desperate that we want a guy starting who bricked his only shot, had a terrible turnover (moving screen 30 feet from the hoop) and got beat bad on defense by Coleman? He did make a nice assist to Wilson and a couple good boards. But, he hasn't shown me enough in hustle yet to warrant a starting spot.

Where was Sam Singh Saturday?

My lineup is, after considering how bad almost every player has been at times:

G: Sam Maniscalco
G: Jeremy Crouch
F: Theron Wilson (Let him play the weave, he can dribble and shoot enough)
F: Sam Singh (Unless he's hurt, he should have played Saturday)
F: Matt Salley (Seven boards and 2-3 from the floor is adequate ... it's better than Austin, so far - That said, Austin's minutes DO need to go up)

The offense needs to be reworked ... the weave simply isn't working too well. Use it on occasion but we need some new sets. When teams aren't playing zone, let's see Austin/Singh work down low a bit. They surely have to be able to do something??

[shaunguth]

I think tonight would be an ideal situation for JL to completely shake up the starting lineup the way he should have done a couple weeks ago. No pressure from the home crowd, not expected to win this game, and it NEEDS to be done!

I would love to see the following lineup at the start of the game and see what they can do.

Maniscalco
Crouch
Wilson
Austin
Collins