Wessler

[Murph]

Those problems are simple to define:
Bad defense.
Bad rebounding.
No inside game.
No dependable go-to guy -- on either end of the court.


It was appalling to watch. Wichita State arrived in Peoria shooting less than 40 percent for the season and lit up the Braves at a 64.3 clip. It wasn't like the Shockers were in some kind of unconscious zone. The only zone they were in was wide open, close to the basket and painted red. They drove for layups on their first three possessions of the second half. By the time the game was over, they had made 19 of their 27 field goals from inside the paint.

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/010608/KIR_BFDJ5Q7U.077.php

[bu fan 9]

The only thing I want to know is why Sam S played so much.

[Murph]

The only thing I want to know is why Sam S played so much.

He must be very good in practice.

[bu fan 9]

I have been saying this for weeks now but this team reminds me of a Steve Merfeld coached Evansville team.

[Big Mike]

How can you say that? Steve's team had some inside presence!

[real fan]

Sam Singh 21 minutes 9 points 4 rebounds
Matt Salley 25 minutes 4 points 3 rebounds 1 technical foul for slamming the ball down which is inexcusable for a senior to do as he lost it.

Singh was the only player that I can recall that dove on the floor for a loose ball and if some of the other players would play as hard as he does we would probably see better results.

The last comment I have to make about Wesslers article is I rarely agree with him on a lot of things but he is 100% right about this one and I would like to add that we have played 15 games now so if Austin,Egolf,Cole-Scott, and Collins are not ready to play at this level yet then the coaching staff is at fault for either not getting them ready by now or recruiting bad players, I can understand Egolf is a freshman and has 3 more years but the others are Jr. college players who only have 1 more season which doesn"t make next season look good either.

[bu fan 9]

Because they never played defense he only played 6 or 7 players.His teams always made a lot of dumb mistakes and always found a way to lose and never got any better as the year went on.

[tornado]

I am not sure if anyone has an answer...

Egolf is talented but not ready to be a team leader.

Cole-Scott was heavily pursued by several schools, including most of the MVC, and BU beat out some pretty stiff opposition to get him. Recall he made 192 3-pointers (from the same distance we shoot from now) in his past two years at juco, and yet he is 5-30 from 3-pt range.
Go figure....I don't have an aswer.

Sam Maniscalco could end up being the Freshman of the Year in the Valley, so you can't say we recruited bad across the board!

Theron is playing solid and leads the team in rebounding.

Collins simply needs to fire up and play with passion, as we have all seen that he does have talent. Some juco kids can help their teams win playing half-hearted, as the vast majority of the opponents are never going to play D-I, but at this level, everyone IS a D-I player, so he needs to step it up.

Rashad...ditto

Lastly....the whole Valley is screwy this year.
Creighton, SIU, MSU, and BU were picked by everyone to be the top 4 teams in the league.
They are, respectively, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, and 0-3, while Indiana State is 3-0 and Drake is undefeated with a TEN GAME winning streak!!

[real fan]

My point is who"s fault is it that after 15 games these players are not ready? Also there is not 1 real good team in the conference that I can say that will win any games in the NCAA tour. this season so we are losing to mediocre teams at best,

[Braves4Life]

My point is who"s fault is it that after 15 games these players are not ready? Also there is not 1 real good team in the conference that I can say that will win any games in the NCAA tour. this season so we are losing to mediocre teams at best,

How many "Mid-Major" programs would have a successful year if they lost three potential starters (D. Williams, R. Brown, J. Fears) before the year even begins??????????????????

I would venture to say that most "Majors" would have a down year after a fiasco like this. Sometimes when you change your philosophy in sales and abandon the "small sale" and go hunting for the "elephants" your gonna get shut out or burned. Unfortunately, I think we may have fallen into that trap by hunting so many elephants and ending up with a big pile of elephant dung

I would not be surprised if BU goes back to recruiting more of the typical "mid-major' player - a "back-to-the-basics" philosophy if you will - and try to add one or two "blue-chippers" every few years. Sometimes the best looking girl isn't always the one you want to marry

[squirrel]

This team is a train wreck right now.

Sure some of it is the players, but the players ultimately are the responsibility of the coaching staff.

[xplayer5]

i havnet seen a game yet...what i with the 7 footer collins..why doesnt he get alot of time..and sam? my jr was ruff only b/c mo and i didnt see eye to eye..but sam is a Jr now he should know the system and what is going on..what is happening to the team? we are getting killed on the boards..we have all these bigs and the high jumper from the artic...

[Murph]

This team is a train wreck right now.

[ER3]

How many "Mid-Major" programs would have a successful year if they lost three potential starters (D. Williams, R. Brown, J. Fears) before the year even begins??????????????????

I would venture to say that most "Majors" would have a down year after a fiasco like this.

B4L...
You need to stop bringing up losing DeAaron Williams, Jeremy Fears, and Ray Brown as some sort of excuse for why this team has struggled.

Those three guys were long, long gone by the time that the Valley coaches picked us to be 2nd in the conference...and they were long, long gone when Les proclaimed this his most talented group ever. So those three guys were never part of the equation when everyone was propping this BU team up as an NCAA tournament team in the preseason...

[Beninator]

The last comment I have to make about Wesslers article is I rarely agree with him on a lot of things but he is 100% right about this one

I slammed Wessler's hit piece last week but todays article is dead on accurate. But again, many posters on this board have been saying the same things that KW wrote in todays article weeks ago.