PJ Star's take on UMKC disaster - 'A Step Backward'

[BradleyBrave]

Some items of note -

I honestly didn't have 'em ready to play,' Les said.

The Braves are 1-2, the same mark they posted after Les' first three games as coach. That team began 2-7 on the way to a 12-18 overall record.

The Kangaroos, shooting just 34 percent as a team coming into this game, seemed able to score at will more often than not, often on penetration to the basket. 'We gave a team that was averaging 59 points 73 and let 'em shoot 56 percent from the field,' Les said.

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x596317330/Bradley-loses-73-61

http://www.pjstar.com/archive/x596317654/Bradley-report-card

And a nice recap by Kirk Wessler

http://www2.pjstar.com/index.php?/wessler/comments/bradley_vs._umkc/

[MacabreMob]

Thanks BB.

I prefer not to click on PJStar links, but I wanted to comment. I missed the game but heard part of the pre-game with Dan Di-O... and heard the comments about how UMKC is shooting so bad as a team so far this year... and honest to Gee-od I thought of how teams seem to light us up and have their best day.

Is it because they have their best day? Every team - every time they happen to be playing Bradley? As if this was the biggest game on their schedule?

Or is it because of our defense!

[BradleyBrave]

Thanks BB.

I prefer not to click on PJStar links, but I wanted to comment. I missed the game but heard part of the pre-game with Dan Di-O... and heard the comments about how UMKC is shooting so bad as a team so far this year... and honest to Gee-od I thought of how teams seem to light us up and have their best day.

Is it because they have their best day? Every team - every time they happen to be playing Bradley? As if this was the biggest game on their schedule?

Or is it because of our defense!

Dave Reynolds' take is always a good, honest assessment. I'm glad Jim didn't make any excuses. He usually doesn't, but I am glad he didn't. However I really, really get peeved when I hear the 'I didn't have 'em ready' bit. It goes back to things I talked about in another post - control what you can control. BU can't control injuries, but it can control preparation and execution. If BU isn't going to control the things it can control, we're never going to go anywhere. Not being ready to play is absolutely unacceptable. There are no excuses for that.

[MacabreMob]

Not being ready to play is absolutely unacceptable. There are no excuses for that.

That does tick me off.

Coach is to blame for that and he takes responsibility for it.

But cheeze-n-rice .... as a Div1 athlete, where is the personal repsonsibility? Where's the drive/desire to be game ready?

Dang it. Missed opportunity for these young men.

But hope they don't look back and instead FOCUS on the games ahead.

[SaintLouBrave22]

Dave Reynolds' take is always a good, honest assessment. I'm glad Jim didn't make any excuses. He usually doesn't, but I am glad he didn't. However I really, really get peeved when I hear the 'I didn't have 'em ready' bit. It goes back to things I talked about in another post - control what you can control. BU can't control injuries, but it can control preparation and execution. If BU isn't going to control the things it can control, we're never going to go anywhere. Not being ready to play is absolutely unacceptable. There are no excuses for that.

True, but that is almost inaccurate as well because HE can control playing a player who hasn't practiced in over a week...

He can control making sure there are no distractions and that HIS players are ready for a game they've known about and should've been prepared for...lets see, for at least a week!

There is no excuse to make...things need to be changed both with the players AND with the coaches...

As I stated, all spots should be up for grabs and may the five guys that fight like Matt Salley come out on top...I honestly would be just as happy to hear about fighting between players at this point...at least then I'd know they care.

Scrap the little man offense, scrap the awful chase and watch defense, and get back to work and lets find SOMETHING that tailors to OUR team and OUR strengths, not what we think could exploit another team....because if we can find our strengths, thats more times greater than finding the other teams weakness.

[BradleyBrave]

True, but that is almost inaccurate as well because HE can control playing a player who hasn't practiced in over a week...

He can control making sure there are no distractions and that HIS players are ready for a game they've known about and should've been prepared for...lets see, for at least a week!

There is no excuse to make...things need to be changed both with the players AND with the coaches...

As I stated, all spots should be up for grabs and may the five guys that fight like Matt Salley come out on top...I honestly would be just as happy to hear about fighting between players at this point...at least then I'd know they care.

Scrap the little man offense, scrap the awful chase and watch defense, and get back to work and lets find SOMETHING that tailors to OUR team and OUR strengths, not what we think could exploit another team....because if we can find our strengths, thats more times greater than finding the other teams weakness.

Fine with me. Last time we did that, we won 11 of 12 and made a Sweet 16. I'd probably want to wait until we're entirely healthy, but it can't be any worse, that's for sure.

[PGAProBU86]

I agree that "not being ready to play" is totally unacceptable, especially when all I have been reading (from out of town) is credits to this team's "work ethic" and "eagerness to learn". What in the world have we been doing for the last week???.....AW or no AW!

I appreciate the fact that JL took responsibility for this performance and hope that we can turn things around quickly. I won't kick this team to the curb after 3 games.

Two questions come to mind that I am interested in others thoughts on:

Three seasons ago we went to the Sweet 16 with a fairly big lineup. We played a half court style of play (but pushed it at times) and pretty solid defense. Seemed to work pretty well. The next season we switched to a 3 and sometimes 4 gaurd lineup, out of necessity, due to graduation and POB leaving for the NBA. It seems that JL has fallen in love with this style of the running the weave and chucking up 3's that he picked up from the Phoenix Suns and I have even heard him quoted as "this style has worked SO well for us we have decided to recruit to it."

Question 1: What makes this style that has gotten us an NIT and CBI berth the last 2 years (and 2 fast break points tonight not to mention horrid shooting from 3 pt land) that much more successful than the style that got us to the Sweet 16...and have we really recruited to it? (We have NO shooters!)

And

Question 2: Does anyone else think that the injury to AW is more serious than what we are being led to believe?

Others thoughts?

[SFP]

AW's foot is a typical foot injury compounded by cold wet Peoria winter and it should not be feeling great. He should be ready for conference play and at this point that is what we should be gunning for. We need a shooter with the last scholie period.

JL is taking the brunt of the heat but regardless of how this year goes I'm still giving him another year before I jump off his bandwagon. I'd be OK with if AW has to red-shirt this year and we start play our young bigs to prepare them for the next 2 years. Who cares what our record is this year then if next year we are extremely prepared.

Then we could have AW come back as strong as ever and change our team's chemistry and bring on JW as an other offensive weapon and come March we could turn things around where no one will want to play us.

In other words there are so many variables guys. Let's hang tough and stand behind our guys until. I'm still hoping and I still have that bandwagon warming up albeit giving it a tune up. So like GW Bush said. "You are either with us or against us."

[thefish7]

To be clear, I don't think the AW injury was more severe than we've been led to believe. The team has been forthright on this one. They thought he was ready, he reaggrivated it in a scrimmage and hasn't seen the floor since.

Regarding the system and the recruiting, I agree with you and the rest of the posters in this thread. Good for JL taking the blame and it's early but it may be time to throw it all out and start over, a la our Sweet 16 run.

[Da Coach]

AW's injury is getting better, but it will be another week or 2 from what I hear.

The other injury issue-- Sam M. gutted the game out tonight, and played hard despite a lot of pain in his foot. It has continued to affect his play and his lateral movement, but nobody, especially Sam, will mention it or use it as an excuse.

[Disturbed]

Fine with me. Last time we did that, we won 11 of 12 and made a Sweet 16. I'd probably want to wait until we're entirely healthy, but it can't be any worse, that's for sure.

There is no Summerville, O'Bryant, Franklin, Ruffin, Boogie, Ruff or even Tuaui (?) on this team, not to mention Crouch who couldn't crack the lineup at that point. AW is a nice player but hurt, and Theron comes and goes. Beyond that I'm not real sure what's here. This team couldn't win 11 of 12 even if they were all against Ill-Chicago.

[BUFAN]

There is no Summerville, O'Bryant, Franklin, Ruffin, Boogie, Ruff or even Tuaui (?) on this team, not to mention Crouch who couldn't crack the lineup at that point. AW is a nice player but hurt, and Theron comes and goes. Beyond that I'm not real sure what's here. This team couldn't win 11 of 12 even if they were all against Ill-Chicago.

Don't bet on beatging UIC again and again, they will improve game to game. We seem to have peaked...

[georgethedog]

I agree that "not being ready to play" is totally unacceptable, especially when all I have been reading (from out of town) is credits to this team's "work ethic" and "eagerness to learn". What in the world have we been doing for the last week???.....AW or no AW!

I appreciate the fact that JL took responsibility for this performance and hope that we can turn things around quickly. I won't kick this team to the curb after 3 games.

Two questions come to mind that I am interested in others thoughts on:

Three seasons ago we went to the Sweet 16 with a fairly big lineup. We played a half court style of play (but pushed it at times) and pretty solid defense. Seemed to work pretty well. The next season we switched to a 3 and sometimes 4 gaurd lineup, out of necessity, due to graduation and POB leaving for the NBA. It seems that JL has fallen in love with this style of the running the weave and chucking up 3's that he picked up from the Phoenix Suns and I have even heard him quoted as "this style has worked SO well for us we have decided to recruit to it."

Question 1: What makes this style that has gotten us an NIT and CBI berth the last 2 years (and 2 fast break points tonight not to mention horrid shooting from 3 pt land) that much more successful than the style that got us to the Sweet 16...and have we really recruited to it? (We have NO shooters!)

And

Question 2: Does anyone else think that the injury to AW is more serious than what we are being led to believe?

Others thoughts?

Great comments. I have always wondered why Les thinks the "little" lineup has been so good. We got to the NIT and CBI with it, so let' recruit to that style! As if those two meaningless tournements are some kind of high bar to set our sights at!!! Why recruit to a style that got the team to the NIT and CBI? The Sweet 16 team had size, why not recruit to that? I have said it from day one when Coach Les arrived that we will be a 3 guard team until he leaves and we may not see a MVC crown because of it. Well, Les has been here how long and I am right so far? Nobody can disput that. Any MVC titles using a small lineup? Any great NCAA runs with a small lineup? And don't anybody give me that garbage about 21 wins 3 years in a row. Without the bogus CBI last year BU would not have had 21 wins.

UMKC was a small team from a small insignificant conference. We should be able to outsize and out muscle a team like that. That game was a disgrace. On a side issue, I REALLY think Les misses Coach Buesher (don't have the time to look up the right spelling) much more than anyone is willing to admit. UMKC... UW-Platteville... I would not be surprised if BU goes 0-3 in this tourney. What would make me believe that they will win a game? All the team can do is run fast and jump high. That makes for a couple highlights per game--big deal. A made 10 foot jumper counts the same as a high flying dunk.

I could go on and on, but I am sure my post is borderline anyway and probably ready to get deleted, but I have one more thing to add. Why is WE all at once a CENTER??? Why can't we play WE and Collins/Sam S. at the same time? Is he that bad? Are all the bigs Les has recruited that bad or has he failed to develop them into players that can at least contribute 10-15 minutes of decent time? I am soooo frustrated. For you Cool-aide drinkers out there, I have a question: if Jim Les had never played for Bradley and was not one of the past "darlings" of BU's basketball hertitage, would you not be asking for his head right now? And for you moderators out there, try to resist the urge to delete this post!

[shaunguth]

Are all the bigs Les has recruited that bad or has he failed to develop them into players that can at least contribute 10-15 minutes of decent time? I am soooo frustrated.

Excellent point! I've been trying to figure out the answer to that question myself.

[bu fan 9]

We will not win many games until we make a open jump shot. It pretty simple if you can't shot you don't win many games.