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Bite the Bullet

Why is it everyone constantly brings up Sammy like he is the biggest loss?!

Taylor is the biggest loss...we have a billion guards, maybe not that can do everything Sam can, BUT we don't have another Taylor...that's been magnified completely, and the fact that Les didn't recruit anyone as his backup plan or someone that could take over the point effectively like Sammy did when Ruff was hurt is one of the bigger reasons that he should be canned!

Along with that, I don't see this blind optimism that we would be so much better even with those two players at full strength...

Remember, we still have no inside game in this scenario and it still takes minutes away from others because Les would still screw up the rotation...

We couldn't beat SIU at home with a better team last year and I don't see us beating Indiana State on the road or beat UNI...

So at best we may be 2-4 and I'm not even sure that happens because that would say we beat Drake on the road.
 
SaintLouBrave22 said:
Why is it everyone constantly brings up Sammy like he is the biggest loss?!
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I think there's a leadership void on the team now that Sammy would be filling right now. Not saying Taylor can't be a leader either, but Sammy is a more natural leader.

And I can distinctly point to the first 4 games of the season, all wins by just a couple of points, and can directly point to big plays Sammy made down the stretch to win those games.

We might not be better than 2-4 or 3-3 at full strength in the Valley, fine, but that's still a big deal and significantly better than 0-6.
 
In terms of long range planning, JL did the right thing. If you look back a few years ago, our long range plan for this years team, the potential players for the 4 position were WE, TB, MK, SH and JW.

As time progressed, TB rose to option A, WE was delegated to 5, and the others literally or figuratively did not show up this year. So plans B C and D fell out, the A was taken at the last minute. I think part of the M.O. Recruitment would of helped move WE to a backup 4 but that fell through, too. So in the end, plans were OK, but final execution stumbled...
 
BradleyJD said:
I think JL is untouchable. If they haven't made a change by now, why would they after this season?

I think he will be back next season.
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Because I think there's a difference between stalling out at 18-15 (9-9) and bottoming out at 8-20 (2-16). I think there was a false sense of security about having a "floor" to the program, not having the team slip below .500 in several years now. Now that the floor has given way, it brings about new territory for the program under Les that will force reevaluation (whether that reevaluation includes termination is to be seen).
 
BradleyBrave said:
How are you 'convinced'? I was certain we would have won most of our non-con games, but we had one of the worst non-con schedules in recent memory. MVC is a different story. Do you think at full strength we're better than WSU, MSU, or CU? I say no way.
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Double No way!
We likely lose our 1st 2 (@ Indy St. , vs. Wichita) with SM & TB, and even if we won the last 4, that means we'd still be 4th or 5th best in the Valley.
Even if we were sitting at 2-4 this season (which looks great now!), that is VERY bad in this league this year!

Shame on us for all the excuses about lack of talent when an Evansville team finds themselves in a similar predicament, but somehow they manage to be ahead of us in the league. They are a notch above us right now unless we beat them in Evansville.
 
dogsrus said:
Just my gut feeling.....we really haven't been blownout save WSU. Sam makes the team better and Brown AND Sam makes us deeper and gives us 3 scoring options vs one. Teams couldn't focus on AW and it would make him even MORE a threat.

Full strength we compete with those 3....we beat 2 of 3 at home and steal one on the road. I thinks its WSU then CU,BU and MSU fighting for 2,3 and 4th. Again just MY thoughts from what I have seen.

As decent as DD has been he is no pg......Sam makes the snake move. The head got cut off and the body is not the same.

Again, with all that said, I'm as tired as the next guy as waiting for "what if."
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This is pretty much what I have been thinking and sharing with JD and others. We have been competitive, save a few games. With SM and TB playing we would be a much better team and deeper.

Right now we are playing guys who were not expected to play as an important role this year. BU is not some big named school who recruits a bench full of all-americans out of high school. There was a time last night that we had Lemon (fr), Prosser (fr), Eastman (so), DSE (so) in the game at the sametime! I don't think that too many BCS schools would want to put that kind of lineup in!!!

When TB went down my expectations for this team was that we could still play around .500 ball. When SM went down...my expectations were that we were going to struggle and that I didn't know how we were going to score, with only AW left to take the whole load. My win percentage dropped to below .500.

In truth, I see a team that goes out to compete every game. Through the defense they give themselves a shot to win the game, almost every night.

Now that is not saying I am happy with the season. I want us to win and I am frustrated with the results we have had so far. I just guess I am looking at it differently than others. I am not only focusing on the wins and losses.
 
Da Coach said:
This is just one more of the inaccurate statements I've seen here in the last couple days. The Bradley record is not 6 in a row. Bradley lost 8 in a row in the 2003-2004 season, and there have been other years with longer losing streaks than 6.
http://www.bradleybraves.com/SportS...2&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&KEY=&Q_SEASON=2003
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Is it bad that we are reduced to saying we are bad, but not historically bad yet?????

8 straight losses...now THERE is a goal to shoot for :cry:
 
BradleyBrave said:
It will all depend on finances IMO. The lost revenue by declining attendance and lost season ticket revenue may offset or even exceed what a buyout would cost. If you're going to lose the money, you might as well lose it while turning around the program. If he returns the arena will be even more dead than it was last night.
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And its going to get worse.....

I am hopeful Jim will realize its time to go and neogiate a buyout.

If he continues to stay he is either not very smart, or doesnt care about this university
 
BradleyBrave said:
How are you 'convinced'? I was certain we would have won most of our non-con games, but we had one of the worst non-con schedules in recent memory. MVC is a different story. Do you think at full strength we're better than WSU, MSU, or CU? I say no way.
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Another good point...What this has shown me is that BU was as normal, a 4th or 5th place team
 
bigdaddystuck said:
In truth, I see a team that goes out to compete every game. Through the defense they give themselves a shot to win the game, almost every night.

Now that is not saying I am happy with the season. I want us to win and I am frustrated with the results we have had so far. I just guess I am looking at it differently than others. I am not only focusing on the wins and losses.
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Maybe many of us are focusing on the BLOWN wins this season. Granted there were more last season, but we should have won at least 1 by now.
If we lost by 10+ every game, we know we stink, but we've been in games, but have managed to do something to blow it.

We could have won at Drake, but, um, I don't remember what the foul happened.
We could have won at UNI had we come out with an attitude that we could actually beat the Panthers.
We could have won last night if we shot better than 50% free throws on our home court and if JE didn't play out of position & get outmanned down low by bigger bigs - didn't lose necessarily because AW was having an off-night.

I am pleased that we are playing harder than we did last season, and the defense IS better than I've seen the past 2 seasons. We play hard about 75% of the time compared to about 60% last year - this is subjective, of course.
 
LittleBrave said:
Maybe many of us are focusing on the BLOWN wins this season. Granted there were more last season, but we should have won at least 1 by now.
If we lost by 10+ every game, we know we stink, but we've been in games, but have managed to do something to blow it.

We could have won at Drake, but, um, I don't remember what the foul happened.
We could have won at UNI had we come out with an attitude that we could actually beat the Panthers.
We could have won last night if we shot better than 50% free throws on our home court and if JE didn't play out of position & get outmanned down low by bigger bigs - not necessarily because AW was having an off-night.
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All good points and I agree with them.
 
bigdaddystuck said:
Right now we are playing guys who were not expected to play as an important role this year. BU is not some big named school who recruits a bench full of all-americans out of high school. There was a time last night that we had Lemon (fr), Prosser (fr), Eastman (so), DSE (so) in the game at the sametime! I don't think that too many BCS schools would want to put that kind of lineup in!!!

When TB went down my expectations for this team was that we could still play around .500 ball. When SM went down...my expectations were that we were going to struggle and that I didn't know how we were going to score, with only AW left to take the whole load. My win percentage dropped to below .500.

In truth, I see a team that goes out to compete every game. Through the defense they give themselves a shot to win the game, almost every night.

Now that is not saying I am happy with the season. I want us to win and I am frustrated with the results we have had so far. I just guess I am looking at it differently than others. I am not only focusing on the wins and losses.
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+1
 
srw said:
And its going to get worse.....

I am hopeful Jim will realize its time to go and neogiate a buyout.

If he continues to stay he is either not very smart, or doesnt care about this university
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Question anything you want about JL's coaching, but IMO, don't question how he cares about Bradley University.
 
People are entitled to their opinions, but if Sammy and TB are healthy, we are not even having this conversation. There is no coach in America who would just give up and walk away voluntarily when he knows he will get all his players back healthy (plus a solid recruiting class) next season.
 
srw said:
And its going to get worse.....

I am hopeful Jim will realize its time to go and neogiate a buyout.

If he continues to stay he is either not very smart, or doesnt care about this university
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I have to disagree with that.......first he's a smart guy. Period. Second....he's NOT a quitter. I think for a guy like that quitting would be the EASY way out. He only knows hard work and MORE often then not hard work has worked for him.

I would offer he wants to turn this around as much and even MORE than any one of us wants it to be turned around.

And you can forget the not caring about the University....with all due respect thats just silly.
 
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