Drake @ Bradley Post Game--DU 69 BU 68

[Lakeview Brave]

Why do you have to blame anyone?
Drake hit the shot. Blame them for being in the right place at the right time.
Blame the trainer for poor abdominal training for Ruffin.

Why do we have to blame someone for getting beat by the #26th team in the nation? or the #11 team, or #12 or #16.

I guess we are either finger-pointers, or excuse makers.

You are starting to lose credability with "blame Drake". The team is setting records for losing and if you dont like the word blame how about accoutable? Someone needs to be held accoutable for the fact that we are not going to finish in the top 3 in the Valley again this year and for losing at home like this. Did you see what ISU did to Wichita tonight?

[Scouter]

Why do we have to blame someone for getting beat by the #26th team in the nation? or the #11 team, or #12 or #16.

I guess we are either finger-pointers, or excuse makers.

Because we lost the game and blame lies somewhere within. Just like there's a reason when we praise someone for helping us win.

You, sir, must be an excuse maker. ER3 (and me) are opinionated.

[LawDog4]

So a game has to come down to the final shot at the buzzer to qualify as a close game? Ummm...OK. I would label Vandy, Michigan State, and UNI on the road as being 'close games'...but there wasn't a winning shot going through the net as the buzzer went off in any of those, so I guess they were blow-outs on your scale.


Stop trying to make this point. It is pointless. No, I cannot coach a division I basketball team...but I can give my opinion on the job that a Division I coach is doing. Period. I can't strike out A-Rod, but that certianly doesn't mean that I can't have a negative opinion about the execution of a pitcher that shakes off his catcher, throws a hanging slider, and gives up a 450 foot homer to him.
This is what fans do...they root for their team and they have opinions (positive AND negative) about what they see, what the team should do differently, and where to go from here. We don't have to be a better coach than Les to want and expect to see a better performance from him.

Being picked 2nd in the Valley and coming off of consecutive 20+ win seasons, we should all expect this team to be more than just competitive without Ruffin. We are 1-5 in the Valley with 3 straight home conference losses. Moral victories and competitive losses are things that losing programs hang their hat on...We should want and expect more from this coaching staff and this team. Good teams and good programs find a way to win through adversity...this is what I expect...and this is why I am not satisfied with a close loss to a Drake team at home that came in without their 'franchise player'.

This team has not faced a winning shot finish until tonight. My point was they now have that experience and it will help them down the road. The other games were close, but not won or lost on the last possession.

I guess you just can't give A.Rod credit for being a great player in your example. IYO it was the pitcher who caused the HR.

I just don't believe that we would be in this position with a healthy Ruffin. Would NE be undefeated without Brady? and he only plays on offense.

[Lakeview Brave]

This team has not faced a winning shot finish until tonight. My point was they now have that experience and it will help them down the road. The other games were close, but not won or lost on the last possession.

I guess you just can't give A.Rod credit for being a great player in your example. IYO it was the pitcher who caused the HR.

I just don't believe that we would be in this position with a healthy Ruffin. Would NE be undefeated without Brady? and he only plays on offense.

Drake was missing thier best player and they were on the road. Wichita was missing thier starting poing guard and they were on the road. Accountability we need some!

[ghunt]

please help me recall us having a last shot for the win, or defending on the last shot this season.

Wasn't Jim Les the coach on Saturday at UNI that everyone was so happy with all of the substitutions he made? and line-up changes?

I just wish posters would quit complaining about the coaching. Do you really think you could do better?

These guys are playing hard, and you can only coach situations in practice. SM and AW have developed pretty well in this system. Give the new JC transfers just a few more games. They have shown a lot of growth and will come back strong.

As fans we are frustrated, but they are doing what they can to be competitive without Ruffin. I think most of us thought we could win tonight, and almost pulled it out. Against the league leader.

Wright State. Could some here coach better? Possibly. Could someone else, in general coach better? Yes. Can Jim coach better? Yes. Do we play to win? Yes. For better or worse, does the basketball team server as a major marketing tool and revenue source for the Univeristy? Yes, for better or worse, especially indirectly, i.e., the $ after '05-'06 poured in from alumni. Do many of us contrubute money to the University? Yes. Do we strongly desire to have the University succeed at all levels? Yes.

Given all these reasons and then some, I would say we not only have the emotional college ties to do so, but may even be obligated to make the comments that have been made this evening. Being supportive takes many forms--if I mess up I expect to hear about it, and those closest to you are often the harshest, but the best critics. The University and the proagram are close to many of us, and last I knew, this is a sports "fan" site, not a "let us sing the praises" no-matter-what site. What is being said here is nothing more than any basketball fan would expect when a traditionally sucessful program is struggling. If we didn't act this way, I'd think we either stupid or stoned

[Lakeview Brave]

Completely agree. The program would be in REAL trouble if nobody cared enough to post anything.

[ghunt]

This team has not faced a winning shot finish until tonight. My point was they now have that experience and it will help them down the road. The other games were close, but not won or lost on the last possession.

I guess you just can't give A.Rod credit for being a great player in your example. IYO it was the pitcher who caused the HR.

I just don't believe that we would be in this position with a healthy Ruffin. Would NE be undefeated without Brady? and he only plays on offense.

Yes, congratulations to Drake on winning, but the point is that we are Bradley fans, and it is generally expected that a fan wants their team to win. When there are numerous problems with how one's team plays, one points them out. To use the previous analogies, yes, good job on hitting the home run, but one the pitcher throws an 80 mile an hour BP ball down the middle after the manager leaves him in after 140 pitches, and you have some strong power pitchers in the dug out, don't you think something needs to be said?

P.S. I think anyone, like myself, who had played any significant competitive sports in their lifetime would have their dander up on this thing.

[LawDog4]

You are starting to lose credability with "blame Drake". The team is setting records for losing and if you dont like the word blame how about accoutable? Someone needs to be held accoutable for the fact that we are not going to finish in the top 3 in the Valley again this year and for losing at home like this. Did you see what ISU did to Wichita tonight?

Blame Drake was sarcasm.
Acountable is much better. I now see what you are looking for. But how would you fix it? I really don't think a bigger lineup would have been the best option tonight against Drake.

[Lakeview Brave]

Blame Drake was sarcasm.
Acountable is much better. I now see what you are looking for. But how would you fix it? I really don't think a bigger lineup would have been the best option tonight against Drake.

I am not saying that I have or know all the answers but I am not paid to have them either. I am starting to wonder where the talent on this team is? Do we have good to great players? Salley, should not be playing for a D1 team with aspirations of greatness. TW has heart fire desire but alot of basket ball skill/basketball IQ? Warren is probably the most talented player and I think he wil be very good before his career is done but are we using him the right way? Why is he always standing in the corner? JC, great shooter last year and very good shooter this year but not really a scorer. Sam, doing fantaistic for a freshman but really needs work on D. I mean even with Ruff do we have a lot of talent? I dont know

[LawDog4]

You are passionate/emotional fans.
I look forward to reading your posts after our next win.

[ghunt]

Is Law Dog4 legitmate? The account was just today and the comments were somewhere between a devil's advocate and someone who had no clue (played or coached or, well, anything) about sports. Smack me for the observation if it isn't nice, but I find those posts hard to believe.

[Scouter]

Is Law Dog4 legitmate? The account was just today and the comments were somewhere between a devil's advocate and someone who had no clue (palyed or coached or, well, anything) about sports. Smack me for the observation if it isn't nice, but I find those posts hard to believe.

No smack coming from this direction. He sounds like someone who doesn't like to debate sports or make any sort of criticism.

[BradleyBrave]

Well, that's about as heartbreaking a loss as I can remember. I guess I'll just vent my feelings on what I saw -

1.) I think that the personnel was fine. Drake had no inside game either, and playing 2 bigs would have created mismatches in their favor. Maybe more Austin or Singh, but the outcome very well may have been the same. I think people are making a bigger deal out of it than they should.

2.) Not sure why TW was inbounding the ball. Perhaps because he traveled (bad call) a few plays before? Perhaps JL wanted a ballhandler to get inbounds pass? Not sure.

3.) The game was lost when a 7 point lead with 3 and change left went down to 2 with 3 and change still left. Talk about relaxing a little too early. Wow.

4.) Drake is unimpressively very good...that's a compliment. They remind me of Butler a lot. Man for man, there are a lot of teams more talented. As a team though, they are persistent and know their roles down to a tee. A very likable team. It's been a long time coming in Des Moines.

5.) Zone would have been a terrible idea. They would have shot us out of it in a heartbeat.

6.) I didn't think the defense was that bad. Houston made some very tough shots, as did Emmenecker. Perhaps a shot-blocker in the middle may have helped, but they spread you out so much that it may not have mattered.

7.) I'm done ripping on Matt Salley. It's pointless. I'm sure he's doing the best he can. He just isn't very good. I am actually starting to feel bad for the guy, it doesn't seem like he fits in. Kind of a wayward soul. I feel like he's got more pressing life issues going on beyond basketball. I have no reason to think this, it's just an observation I get from his body language and performance.

8.) Maniscalco is awesome. Warren is turning into an all-conference player. It's very frustrating that we're getting such great efforts from these guys who have stepped it up in DR's absence, and have nothing to show for it. Makes me think we might have similar issues even if DR was around.

9.) I'd say out of our 1-6 stretch without DR, this is maybe the 2nd game where I think he would have made a major difference. Emmenecker wouldn't have been able to get in the lane the way he did with DR on him. Also, we likely would have had DR in the game instead of TW when inbounding off a dead ball, with JC inbounding to DR, SM, and AW.

10.) We can blame Les until we're blue in the face, but players have to make plays. Les didn't miss 2 free throws in the last 3 minutes (TW), he didn't throw a bounce pass to no one (AW), and he didn't tap the ball rather than secure the rebound (TW/MS). Don't get me wrong, I think he's largely responsible for this mess - they're his players, and they're not very good right now, and they are getting their @sses kicked in categories that reflect directly on the coaching staff. Yes, he did make some mistakes tonight (having TW inbound the basketball), but the fact of the matter is that we were winning with 10 seconds left, and the ball was in the air for the taking. Jim Les can't grab that rebound. Players gotta make plays.

The season was salvageable, but we needed all 3 at home. Just when you think there can't be a more backbreaking loss, we find a way. This is a lost season, there's no 2 ways about it. Nothing short of winning the MVC Tournament will make this season successful, and even then I will feel this season was a disappointment. There's zero chance of us doing anything down there if we're playing-in. That's very, very likely at this point. Are we ever going to win this league again?

FWIW....The most frustrating part is that we should have won all 3 of our league home games, Ruffin or no Ruffin.

[Dallas Brave]

Well, that's about as heartbreaking a loss as I can remember. I guess I'll just vent my feelings on what I saw -

1.) I think that the personnel was fine. Drake had no inside game either, and playing 2 bigs would have created mismatches in their favor. Maybe more Austin or Singh, but the outcome very well may have been the same. I think people are making a bigger deal out of it than they should.

BB - I would like to better understand your POV on point 1 on what these mismatches would have been? From my perspective, not playing two bigs played into DU's strengths as they are not very big, but rebound with a lot of determination. The only way, in my mind, given the slate of players we have on this roster, to counter that would be to establish a height advantage and minimize DU's second chances.

There are a lot of ways to breakdown the stats. But, for this year's squad, it seems that whatever team wins the rebounding edge tends to come out the winner.

The DU/BU game makes a good case study. Bradley clearly out-shot DU but still lost the game:
Total Field Goals
BU: 22-47 .468; DU: 25-59 . 424

3 Point Shooting
BU: 10-22 .455; DU: 9-25 .360

FTs
BU: 14-17 .824; DU: 10-13 .769

BU has a two point lead at half, shoots over 50% in the second half and still loses. Bradley lost this game on the interior and the numbers tell the story in rebound deficit, points-in-the-paint deficit, and second chance points deficit. We lost the battle of those key metrics because of the lineup that was played (or not played), not due to the failure of any player on the floor even though I would expect that SM, TW, AW, and JC were a bit gassed by the end of the game since all four played 35+ minutes. DU took 15 more shots than BU in the 2nd half. Do you think our guards were a bit tired?

[Beninator]

9.) I'd say out of our 1-6 stretch without DR, this is maybe the 2nd game where I think he would have made a major difference. Emmenecker wouldn't have been able to get in the lane the way he did with DR on him. Also, we likely would have had DR in the game instead of TW when inbounding off a dead ball, with JC inbounding to DR, SM, and AW.

FWIW....The most frustrating part is that we should have won all 3 of our league home games, Ruffin or no Ruffin.

BradleyBrave, I wasnt able to go to the game last night, but listening to the radio, I couldnt help but think that the last few minutes of the game would have been different with Ruff and SamM on the floor.

Your FWIW point is very accurate.