Postgame thread-- SIU 77 BU 64

[Da Coach]

Not much to say. Same old song. Bradley was within striking distance with 6 minutes to go. But they had dug too deep a hole.

Bradley played a very good 2nd half, but the 1st half was awful. When will we ever play 2 good halves?

[Da Coach]

Box score--

http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2007-2008/siu15.html

[houstontxbrave]

Not much to say. Same old song. Bradley was within striking distance with 6 minutes to go. But they had dug too deep a hole.

Bradley played a very good 2nd half, but the 1st half was awful. When will we ever play 2 good halves?

Very glad to see you get to drive home tonight

Other then that another lost evening for the Braves. Your right its been forever maybe since Iowa that we have played 2 halfs of decent basketball.

Off to a winable game v UNI on Saturday.

[ph]

Bradley played a very good 2nd half, but the 1st half was awful. When will we ever play 2 good halves?

Whenever TCS begins to play well or Ruff comes back.
I remember one point, we were on a roll, closing the gap, then TCS came in. I instantly thought there it goes
I guess he had to. Otherwise we would of been too exhausted at the end.

Glad to hear some positive contributions from RA. Seemed the longer he was in, the better he played.

Once again, if we had JC's 19 points from the last game, we win?

[Big Mike]

I thought the zone worked pretty good in the 2nd half! 1st half way to many unforced t/o's! Too many soft passes.........good minutes for RA in the 2nd half! AW played well hitting all of his f/t's......SM is playing much older than a freshman! He still seems to be the only player IMO with a fire to compete and never give up! Is it just me or is he the only kid on the Braves sqaud right now with a killer instinct? Most of the team is playing really passive IMO...this will not keep you in many game! And as far as next year I hope we can land another guard...a point guard who can dribble will under pressure! This is a glaring weakness IMO....SM and a healthy DR are the only 2 players on this team whi can handle the ball under pressure! AW can take someone off the dribble.....TW,JC and TCS seem to lose the ball off their own foot or just lose control under any sort of pressure....this team will need help with SM returning......Eddrin McCain should be able to handle it next season....but in my book get another kid who can handle the rock under fire....it would really help! I also liked the fact we went big for a while with MS and RA in the fgame together with SS and DC also getting some time! I'm not too upset about losing tonight @siu......we never seem to win thewre even when we play very good!

[Da Coach]

Sam was getting tired at times, and it lead to some of his mistakes. We need to find a way to get him some rest. He can't play 37-40 minutes a game and be effective the entire time.

[Beninator]

I wasnt able to see this game on television so I had to rely on the WMBD radio broadcast. It seems as if we were able to drive to the basket more in the second half. If so, this is something we can build on for Saturday's game to diversify our offense. I think that JL's use of the bench and players seemed about right for this game. RA seemed to have some moments tonight.

[BradleyBrave]

We can be negative and go on and on about not putting 2 halves together, playing awful defense, yadda...yadda...yadda. I've done it, and quite frankly I am tired of it. I have dwelled on our 2 home losses, thinking how our season would still be more than salvageable if we were 2-2 right now instead of 0-4, and on and on and on.

I guess I look at it like this - Ruff or no Ruff, I had us at 2-2 at this point in the MVC schedule. We're 0-4, so we're 2 games behind where I thought we would be. Somehow, some way, we need to get those 2 games back. Saturday is a great opportunity. 1-4 might not seem like much, but with the log jam that is the middle of the MVC, we're still within striking distance of 6th. We have 3 home games in a row, and d@mn it, maybe just maybe we can get healthy record-wise in that stretch.

Personally, I would view this MVC season as a tremendous success if we could somehow claw our way out of Thursday. That's my goal for this team right now.

[Da Coach]

Disclaimer- I am not trying to blame the referees for this loss....

But, tonight I saw several more of the most unbelieveable MVC offensive foul calls. Bradley doesn't seem to try to take advantage of the trend that MVC officials have of calling an offensive foul every time a defender flops on his butt. SIU players were beaten several times by Bradley guys trying to get to the basket, and they threw their bodies in the direction of the BU player and flopped backward. A couple were called correctly as blocks, but several were called as offensive fouls when they weren't even close.

Lowery obviously coaches his kids to play that way, where they make no attempt to play defense, but rather try to put on an act and fool the refs. It works quite often. Carlton Fay is already quite a good actor, and spent a large portion of his time in the game in a supine position.

I have said for years that the MVC needs to clean this circus up. It's the only league where I have seen so many ridiculous offensive calls that aren't even close.

[peoriaspitfire]

Box score--
http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-...008/siu15.html

Nice detail in this box score.

I like the play of SM and AW. They are getting better everyday so that bodes well for the future. I liked seeing RA get meaningful minutes. He played 12 minutes and got only one board but I thought he had the big body to put some weight on Faulker down low. Maybe the next time these teams play he gets more minutes and can affect his game more. I wondered why BU didn't play more zone in the first half but I was glad they had the patience to stay with it in the second half. Maybe instead of focusing on recruiting players we can recruit someone from the Michigan State staff to help teach us rebounding.

[MacabreMob]

RA sealed the 'help defense' a couple times that allowed AW get to the hole (fouled - and make FT's).

[peoriaspitfire]

RA sealed the 'help defense' a couple times that allowed AW get to the hole (fouled - and make FT's).

Agreed. I saw some good things from RA and like SM it appeared he has some toughness we are missing. AW is so smooth??Ślike some have said before, he reminds me of AP back in the day.

[peoriakid]

we're missing 3 things...

The way I see it, we're only missing 3 things.

Talent, Coaching, and Fundamentals. Thats all!

Other than that, we're really pretty good. We have nice uniforms, shoes look nice and clean. The cheerleaders are pretty hot and seem to do a good job, the band is in tune. The scoreboard is lookin good, the little sweat mopper-upper kids are quick and reliable, everything is in place except for those three things.

Seriously though, I think we all are realizing that while there is talent to be found in this new group of kids, its not as much as we thought over the summer. Wilson is the bright spot so far, also SM has definately got skills and quickness, but is still way too inexperienced, he is at least a year, maybe two, from being a solid guard in the MVC. ALso, I dont think you can blame everything on Ruffin's injury. If he would of stayed healthy, we might be 2-2 in conference, maybe 1-3.

Coaching? I still believe in Les, and wouldnt want anyone else leading the team, but I have questioned his decisions during games more this year than I have before.

Fundamentals?????? That, to me, is the biggest problem. If we lose a game because the other team had better players, or we played well but were out-coached, I can live with that. But when we continually miss freethrows, and our bigs miss many easy layups, and our opponents score dozens of offensive rebound putback points because we dont block out, that kills me.

Ok, I feel a little better now, had to vent to someone. Wife is tired of hearing about it.

Ryan

[real fan]

I think Crouch needs his min. cut down as he would be more effective with
30 min. as his shooting has been off because it looks as tough he has tired legs ; I thought Austin did a good job and deserves to play more ; how about cutting some of Wilsons and Salleys min. and getting Egolf at least 6 min. a game as I still believe he has the potential to help us with our lack of rebounding. I think if they can play at N.Iowa like they did in the 2nd half tonight they could win that game.

[Bravesfan]

Not much to say. Same old song. Bradley was within striking distance with 6 minutes to go. But they had dug too deep a hole.

Bradley played a very good 2nd half, but the 1st half was awful. When will we ever play 2 good halves?

Well, you almost had a long hike home! But thankfully SIU fell just short of 80.

Anyway, I saw some of the game on tv. I saw plenty of perimeter passing and weave offense, but not a lot of players in the post. Again as I asked you about a week or two ago, I'm just wondering if we should not be trying to get our bigs into the post more often, or if Les's offense is based on the fact that we have no players that can handle the inside game. I'd appreciate your thoughts Coach. I guess I'm just frustrated that we don't try to at least shake up the offensive plan a little more often.

OTOH, we did have two high scoring games previously, but no effort on rebounding. I'm sure a few more offensive rebounds would have led to more scoring chances, and fewer points for SIU. But tonight, a little more inside game would have helped.