Iowa State's reason for backing out of game this year with Bradley

[Da Coach]

According to this article in the Des Moines Register, Iowa State backed out of the game with Bradley before they had any other game to replace it. The the opportunity to play in Hawaii came up and they grabbed it. That differs a little with what we originally heard, and leaves the question, why didn't they want to play Bradley? Could it be they feared a 3rd loss in 3 years?

Goodbye, Bradley. Hello, Hawaii.
Iowa State was to host Bradley on Nov. 23, the final game in a three-season deal between the schools.
Bradley was a late scratch, leaving Iowa State with one game to find and nothing scheduled between Nov. 16 and Nov. 29.
But a game was secured at Hawaii on Nov. 24, one of just two trips outside the state of Iowa in the non-conference portion of the schedule.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080827/SPORTS020604/808270368/-1/ENT05

[FarmerClone]

You guys really stretch things some times:
"I doubt seriously if Bradley is the team who initiated this as they suggest...."
Yet you have no proof to the contrary. Where is the link to factual evidence that ISU dropped Bradley or that we have no intent of finishing the contract at a future date?

"By the way...here is the real truth as to who Iowa State would rather schedule instead of Bradley.....
they dropped BU and added a game against Nebraska-Omaha, a D-I school!!"

UNO is not a D1 school, they are DII or DIII and that game is an EXHIBITION game, ISU is using our other exhibition against Creighton in a closed door scrimmage.

From the article:
"Bradley also will play at Iowa State next season, as will Iowa and Northern Iowa."

IF ISU was ducking Bradley, why wouldn't we just drop them and pay the buyout, if there even was one? Heck, I am sure Bradley representatives would love having gotten a two game deal with a Big 12 school that was one home game and one semi-neutral game. I could understand Bradley fans being pissed if the game was slated to be in Peoria this year, but the game was to be in Ames and is being postponed one year, big whoop?

Also per the article:
"But Bradley was a late scratch, leaving Iowa State with one game to find and nothing scheduled between Nov. 16 and Nov. 29."

Bradley was slated to be in the tourney in Alaska from November 20-23. Assuming travel time I would wager Bradley could not have played in Ames from the 18th to the 26th as the Braves likely would have needed cushion on each side. ISU has three consecutive games on the 14th, 15th and 16th and likely would not have liked to play Bradley on the 17th and apparently the 27th did not work for either school and ISU has a game on the 29th in Hilton. The scheduling just does not look like it worked for this year until the Alaska trip was canceled and by then, ISU had inked with Hawaii.

[Dallas Brave]

I don't know who did the initiating ... but I'm fairly certain Bradley would have whipped the Cyclones this year.

[TheAsianSensation]

If the Alaska tournament got in the way of having ISU on the schedule, so be it. That reasoning makes sense on all sides.

Bradley may have also been in no-man's land with wanting an extra home game. I dunno.

And as far as the SoS goes, ISU is bad and deadweight, might as well play home and get the effortless win instead of risking an ugly loss.

[Da Coach]

I heard from a fairly reliable source that it was Gregg McDermott who asked Bradley if the 3rd game in the contracted series could be moved to next year, and Bradley complied as a favor, not because of scheduling conflicts.

If anyone kows that this is not accurate, let us know.

[FarmerClone]

I have also heard this, and the facts seem to support it, as Iowa State appears to have scheduled with the idea in mind of dodging D-I schools with RPI is under 200.

Yet we signed up for a road game with Houston? ISU's home schedule sucks, I am not denying it, but the premise of this thread was ISU dropped Bradley because it was scared, leaving a hole in our schedule in November and then had to find another opponent, even though there is visibly not a time in that open spot where Bradley COULD have played ISU given the Alaska tournament. That does not seem accurate given the presented facts.

MAYBE McDermott did call and ask it to be pushed back, I have no idea, but even if he did, ISU did not CANCEL the game, we pushed it back a year and are still going to play it. Who cares which year it takes place?

[Scouter]

MAYBE McDermott did call and ask it to be pushed back, I have no idea, but even if he did, ISU did not CANCEL the game, we pushed it back a year and are still going to play it. Who cares which year it takes place?

Agreed. I don't think having this game on the schedule this year was too important to either school.

[TheAsianSensation]

At least K-State is going on the road for Cleveland St and Oregon and has 2 neutrals.

I've seen worse crimes.

[brocks]

Speaking of Iowa State, how long does McD have to turn that around? This is year 3, right? They'll likely have another lackluster season. One of his most promising young players is now at Bradley (DD). Taylor Brown verballed to BU without even seeing it over an offer from McD. That's pretty limited evidence, but it suggests something about his recruiting ability. So there's really no light at the end of the tunnel here and he's looking at entering year four starting over STILL. Thoughts?

[cpacmel]

They have played in a conference where everyone but Memphis is weak, so they are not all that challenged the past few years on their home court.

Just out of curiousity is Tulsa considered Weak?

IMO, in addition to both Memphis and Tulsa, UAB and Houston are all pretty good schools from C-USA.

[cpacmel]

And Houston nosedived last year after a decent start, and didn't go anywhere in the post-season.

They won their first 2 games in the CBI before losing to the eventual champ Tulsa by 4 points (at Tulsa) in the Semi-Finals.

When's the last time Houston won a post-season game?

Does the CBI count as a post-season game? Because if it does, the answer is LAST SEASON.

Also, their RPI's have been consistently double or up to quadruple the RPI BU has had over the Jim Les era...

Last season they finished with an RPI of 80. Bradley's was 105.

And going back here are the RPI's you speak of:

2007 Houston #83 BU #38 ---DOUBLE

2006 Houston #53 BU #33

2005 Houston #84 BU # 142

2004 Houston #187 BU #152

2003 Houston #219 BU #192

I see one Double, but no sign of a quadruple.

[Scouter]

Gold star for mel.

[ER3]

Houston was 0-4 vs. top 50 RPI teams last year, and just 2-6 vs. top 100.
They also finished the season weakly and may actually be a bit overrated, plus they barely squeaked by at home last year vs. the likes of...
#330 Texas Southern (73-66), #276 Coastal Carolina (86-79), #310 Ark-Pine Bluff (76-65), #162 Central FL (84-81), and #187 Toledo (67-56), and Rice as well.

winning games by 7, 7, 11, and 11 points are all classified as 'barely squeaking by'? Interesting.
I guess using that scale for BU's home games, they also barely squeaked by #294 FGCU 82-74, #250 Evansville 77-76, #180 Iowa State 65-56, #178 UWM 84-72, and got squeaked by #199 Wichita State losing 63-54.

[cpacmel]

you apparently didn't notice the question involved Tulsa also and Tulsa's RPI's a few years ago were 197, 247, and 203 when BU's was 152, 142, 33.
And yes, I see a couple of double and quadruples and even quintuples there.
Platinum Star for tornado.

They never quadrupled them in the same season though Tornado. A matter of fact, they only doubled them ONCE in the same season.

If that's the case while Jim Les has been at Bradley, Houston has quadrupled and doubled BU in RPI as well. (Houston with 53, 83, 84 and BU with 142, 152 and 192)

Also, what year was Tulsa's RPI 247?

Also does the CBI count for a post-season tourney?

[TheAsianSensation]

Wait a second - I don't even know what point anyone is trying to prove anymore. Heh.

Too many numbers.

At the least, we can agree Iowa St is bad. I'd say it's a boost to our schedule to have them off the books this year, but we have one too many home cupcakes ourselves and we might as well have gone on the road if it wasn't for $$$ considerations.