Bradley baseball 2014

[tornado]

Dallas Baptist gets the MVC's automatic bid - they travel to Ft. Worth Texas to play Sam Houston State, then the winner of TCU/Siena if they advance - but it's double elimination to see who advances out of this Regional site.

Indiana State, runnerup in the regular seaosn MVC race, gets an at-large bid and travels to Bloomington, IN to face Stanford in their first game then the winner of Indiana/Youngstown State if they win.

Evansville, the regular season champion of the MVC gets completely snubbed and are going nowhere.
Both Indiana State and Evansville went 0-2 in the MVC Conference Tourney and were eliminated right away - Illinois State, who had a nice regular season going 33-21, then making a nice run in the MVC Tourney - going 3-0 to advance to the title game where they got edged by DBU - also got snubbed.

This sorta makes the entire MVC Conference regular season race AND the Conference Tourney a little bit irrelevant since the two teams they would have selected based on their RPI formula (Indiana State & DBU) are the only two teams going to the NCAA, even though Indiana State got bounced instantly and looked bad in the MVC Tourney. The team that surprised everyone and had a really nice run in the MVC Tourney (ISU) and the league's regular season champ are going nowhere!

Their formula for RPI placed DBU and Indiana State as the MVC's two best teams.


BTW -- looking at ISU's roster - they stock up on players right out of our back yard!!
Two of their 4 best hitters are East Peoria's Joe Kelch & Brimfield's Danny Dwyer... one of their top pitchers Will Headean is from Morton...
We do not have anyone we recruited from over in the B-N area at all.
...not to mention last year's MVC Pitcher of the Year Chris Razo from IVC ...who got National All American honors...

[Da Coach]

ISU obviously has success recruiting Illinois- they have 30 players on their roster from Illinois-

http://www.goredbirds.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/ilsu-m-basebl-mtt.html

Bradley has only 17 players from Illinois, and 8 of them graduate this year.

[Peyton]

ISU obviously has success recruiting Illinois- they have 30 players on their roster from Illinois-

http://www.goredbirds.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/ilsu-m-basebl-mtt.html

Bradley has only 17 players from Illinois, and 8 of them graduate this year.

There are no teams from Illinois in the NCAA Tournament and Bradley's best player is from Minnesota, what's your point?

Kingston didn't suddenly bring in Illinois kids when he got the job, ISU has always had Illinois kids. Kingston can coach.

Heller can coach (Indiana kids when he was at ISU and now Iowa kids at Iowa).

Bradley has as much or more talent as most teams in the Valley.

The problem is obvious.

[Da Coach]

You can draw any conclusion you want, and you are welcome to state your opinion, which you hedged on.

But clearly there is plenty of Division I talent right here in Illinois. It seems odd to me that less than half our players are from Illinois. I could understand if it was because we are chasing far better talent from out of state, but our record the last 6 years does not suggest that.

[Peyton]

You can draw any conclusion you want, and you are welcome to state your opinion, which you hedged on.

But clearly there is plenty of Division I talent right here in Illinois. It seems odd to me that less than half our players are from Illinois. I could understand if it was because we are chasing far better talent from out of state, but our record the last 6 years does not suggest that.

If you want to compete for the mid-level D1 talent in Illinois you need to improve on 2 very important things.

1) Schedule - play someone. All players would love to play in the SEC or ACC. If they are not being recruited to go to those schools the next best thing would be to play against those teams. Playing Alcorn State, Northern Illinois, Dayton and D3 schools isn't luring anyone to the hilltop. Hardly a "championship experience".

2) Facilities - Dozer Field is awesome, but Bradley has no indoor practice facility. The other schools that are vying for the same players have great indoor as well as outdoor facilities.

[tornado]

...but Bradley has no indoor practice facility. The other schools that are vying for the same players have great indoor as well as outdoor facilities.

We keep hearing excuses on why Bradley sports are so bad....
we used to have a media that reported on how bad they were and held them accountable. - LINK

Sure I'd love to have top notch facilities but is it helping us in basketball?
...but....
The Peoria Chiefs have no indoor facility
the Cubs have no indoor facility
the Yankees have no indoor facility
...does ISU have any indoor facility any better than what we have available to us?
...what MVC team does have facilities any better than we have??

but if we absolutely have to have an indoor facility - there are several in our area that could be contracted...


as for other schools - the one we're discussing right here is ISU - and they do not have such a facility.
Their own AD is lamenting that they do not have an indoor facility.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/football/indoor-practice-facility-top-item-on-wish-list-for-illinois/article_e4a9b732-2636-11e3-b265-0019bb2963f4.html

Many Big Ten schools don't have such facilites... LINK (last paragraph)

Indiana State does have a such a facility but that's not what makes them good - it was the hire of a great coach in Rick Heller - that's what turned them around.
BTW - Here's the Indiana State indoor facility - look at it (LINK) it's not impressive - it's hardly anything that we couldn't find or develop in any number of buildings here in our area.
They just built it in 2011 and the year before that they were 35-19, the year before that 33-21, they were already a good team from good coaching before the indoor facility opened.
Even Wichita's indoor facility is barely bigger than the Mitchell Anderson gym!



I am sorry - the thing that has driven such a big percentage of Bradley fans away is this constant complaining, and excuse-making about why we are so bad.
We are bad in every single sport that has dumped their coach and hired a new one in the last five years!
And we are worse in all of them than we were before we had the outstanding new campus training and practice facilities!

The fans see through the excuses and that's why they've all stayed home and we see thousands fewer at recent basketball games, and why not many care any more about the other sports.........quit making excuses, and the people responsible need to get the job done.

[Peyton]

We keep hearing excuses on why Bradley sports are so bad....
we used to have a media that reported on how bad they were and held them accountable. - LINK

Sure I'd love to have top notch facilities but is it helping us in basketball?
...but....
The Peoria Chiefs have no indoor facility
the Cubs have no indoor facility
the Yankees have no indoor facility
...does ISU have any indoor facility any better than what we have available to us?
...what MVC team does have facilities any better than we have??

but if we absolutely have to have an indoor facility - there are several in our area that could be contracted...


as for other schools - the one we're discussing right here is ISU - and they do not have such a facility.
Their own AD is lamenting that they do not have an indoor facility.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/football/indoor-practice-facility-top-item-on-wish-list-for-illinois/article_e4a9b732-2636-11e3-b265-0019bb2963f4.html

Many Big Ten schools don't have such facilites... LINK (last paragraph)

Indiana State does have a such a facility but that's not what makes them good - it was the hire of a great coach in Rick Heller - that's what turned them around.
BTW - Here's the Indiana State indoor facility - look at it (LINK) it's not impressive - it's hardly anything that we couldn't find or develop in any number of buildings here in our area.
They just built it in 2011 and the year before that they were 35-19, the year before that 33-21, they were already a good team from good coaching before the indoor facility opened.
Even Wichita's indoor facility is barely bigger than the Mitchell Anderson gym!



I am sorry - the thing that has driven such a big percentage of Bradley fans away is this constant complaining, and excuse-making about why we are so bad.
We are bad in every single sport that has dumped their coach and hired a new one in the last five years!
And we are worse in all of them than we were before we had the outstanding new campus training and practice facilities!

The fans see through the excuses and that's why they've all stayed home and we see thousands fewer at recent basketball games, and why not many care any more about the other sports.........quit making excuses, and the people responsible need to get the job done.

I am not making any excuses, I am just stating facts.

I have coached kids that have gone to play in the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and have been drafted.

Kids care about facilities and who they play.

Bradley is competing against mid-major schools for Illinois baseball talent (not the Big Ten, Yankees or Cubs). If you don't have a place to work-out on campus and you don't play a competitive schedule, you will lose kids to places that do.

[tornado]

I know you are not - the excuses keep coming from the higher ups & the media...and I know recruits care about facilities...but didn't we just raise over $160 million and upgrade our facilities tremendously over the past decade? And it all started and was well underway in 2005-2008 not - just recently as a certain re-write of history seems to say.

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2010/08/bradleys-new-on-campus-arena-is.html

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2011/10/bu-fundraising-some-of-history-seems-to.html

http://www.bubraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=515906

plus....... our team plays in a tremendous stadium - a professional-caliber facility that has hitting cages under the stands and it is better than 80-90% of mid-major schools

then we have training, conditioning, and other on-campus athletic facilities that are outstanding and perhaps the best in the MVC - that recruits have seen and proclaimed were better than what they've seen in the Big Ten!!

so I guess if you dig enough for something we still don't, like a garage-sized, low ceiling aluminum building like this to throw pitches indoors....but why can't we do indoor hitting practice with the cages at the Ren-Col?

[BuB]

If you want to compete for the mid-level D1 talent in Illinois you need to improve on 2 very important things.

2) Facilities - Dozer Field is awesome, but Bradley has no indoor practice facility. The other schools that are vying for the same players have great indoor as well as outdoor facilities.

True that Bradley does not have a baseball only indoor practice facility on campus. But they do for baseball conditioning, weight training, and training room needs. In the past they regularly have practiced at the multi million dollar Avanti's Dome 15-20 minutes away in Pekin. This is far superior to most indoor facilities baseball teams in the Midwest have access to. Recruits are not dissapointed to see this kind of facility being used when weather is bad. Access is only needed half of January and February when it is too cold to get outside. Only negative I see is possible limited hours of use. Regular season games start around Feb 15th.

The Peoria Chiefs have no indoor facility
the Cubs have no indoor facility
the Yankees have no indoor facility

These pro teams obviously don't need an indoor practice facility. They practice in Florida and Arizona before the season starts. Once games begin teams play for 5 or 6 months. They only have approx 180 days to play 162 Major League games. Off days are used for rest and not team practice. If somebody needs extra practice they use the home stadium. The weather is not an issue.

but if we absolutely have to have an indoor facility - there are several in our area that could be contracted...

Right. They have used the Pekin Dome and the tunnels at Dozer Park on a regular basis in the past.

Bradley is competing against mid-major schools for Illinois baseball talent (not the Big Ten, Yankees or Cubs). If you don't have a place to work-out on campus and you don't play a competitive schedule, you will lose kids to places that do.

The Missouri Valley is consistently better and ranked higher than the Big 10 in baseball. Even true this year despite losing Creighton. On average the Valley players are better than the Big 10 players. If a kid is a mid major talent and he lives in the Midwest or North they aren't going anywhere near the top conferences which are mainly in the South or each coast. The Big 10 is not a top baseball conference. No question the schedule is weaker but it is tough for the Northern schools to schedule.

plus....... our team plays in a tremendous stadium - a professional-caliber facility that has hitting cages under the stands and it is better than 80-90% of mid-major schools

then we have training, conditioning, and other on-campus athletic facilities that are outstanding and perhaps the best in the MVC - that recruits have seen and proclaimed were better than what they've seen in the Big Ten!!



but why can't we do indoor hitting practice with the cages at the Ren-Col?

True. I am sure this is what a recruit would see on a visit. Both fantastic facilities. IMO our facilities are plenty good and not the reason for losing seasons.


If you look up inside the Ren Col you will see the hitting cages. Not sure why baseball can't use them (full or part time). Have they ever been lowered? It would be easy to protect the floor.

[tornado]

I was just reading a couple articles on Louisiana-Lafayette...
they are a school in the Sun Belt - they have FAR less resources than we do...
their athletic budget is no better than ours (their athletic funding is 15th in the Sun Belt!!! and on par with most schools that do NOT have football - although they have to fund 80 scholarships for football),
.. their endowment is smaller, their facilities are not better and they are just NOW embarking on an upgrade of facilities that we raised 60% more $$ for and already completed years ago...

And yet Louisiana-Lafayette baseball is #1 ranked in the entire nation (they are 57-7!), and their softball team has consistently knocked off power conference schools (they are 49-9), coincidentally their basketball just had a 23-win season, and their FB has had multiple fine seasons and won a bowl game each of the past THREE seasons.

all I'm saying.....we need to look into how they do it and don't offer excuses.......

[tornado]

NCAA Tournament baseball scores

Indiana State got beat by the lower seed Stanford 8-1 - Sycs face Youngstown St. next
Dallas Baptist lost to Sam Houston State 2-1
..thus far in 30 NCAA games, 12 of them have been 1-run games, 8 have been won by the lower seed - including losses by both the overall #1 and #2 teams nationally

[tornado]

Indiana State loses their 2nd game to Youngstown State, 5-2 so they are eliminated.

Dallas Baptist is currently leading by 1 run going into the bottom of the 5th inning, 7-6... but Siena has a man on 3rd.

[tornado]

Dallas Baptist - the MVC's only remaining hope in the NCAA Tourney - is now going to the top of the 10th inning..
tied 3-3

[tornado]

Dallas Baptist - the MVC's only remaining hope in the NCAA Tourney - and favored strongly in this game....
..is now going to the top of the 10th inning..
tied 8-8 after they scored in the 9th ti tie it up

[Da Coach]

The last remaining MVC school, Dallas Baptist, loses 9-8 in 10 innings and is eliminated-