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Final score- Chattanooga 67 Bradley 65

Congratulations Bradley!!!! You had a great season. I am looking forward to the recruiting in the off season and I think next year will be better. It was a disappointing loss but over all this season you did better than most teams.
 
To say Wardle was out coached here is ridiculous. The Braves had a great game plan and went up 16 points. Went in at 8 at half. now if we’re down 16 at the half. That’s on the coach.

2nd half collapses are on players. They get too comfortable and before they realize it, the game is out of reach. The UTC guards outplayed everyone in the second half. Our guards went under screens against those two allowing open 3’s. Left them open in the corner on BLOBs. They just didn’t play smart basketball and let it slip away. Got beat on back door cuts non stop.

It was tough to watch them self destruct. But I love every single one of them and I am so thankful for the great season they gave us. Thank you Braves!
 
patrick_o'brian said:
To say Wardle was out coached here is ridiculous. The Braves had a great game plan and went up 16 points. Went in at 8 at half. now if we’re down 16 at the half. That’s on the coach.

2nd half collapses are on players. They get too comfortable and before they realize it, the game is out of reach. The UTC guards outplayed everyone in the second half. Our guards went under screens against those two allowing open 3’s. Left them open in the corner on BLOBs. They just didn’t play smart basketball and let it slip away. Got beat on back door cuts non stop.

It was tough to watch them self destruct. But I love every single one of them and I am so thankful for the great season they gave us. Thank you Braves!
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Very well said POB. I looked at the team stats at half time and told my wife I don't understand how we were even leading other then we shot 60% first half. They had more OR, steals, less turnovers, more points off turnovers. The list can go on and on. We just flat out got beat by a team that wanted to win.
Congratulations to this team as it was one of the best teams we had the privilege of watching in the last 25 years. A lot of players that we will remember for years to come.
 
I remember a time when BU fans thought we hit a coach's ceiling. We ran coach Mo off. Wardle has created what we all want: a program that contends every single year. I, for one, hope he doesn't leave and do not think there's somebody a whole lot better out there.
 
Gave up too many wide open back-door cuts for easy layups,
too many offensive rebounds, and too many lazy, soft stealable passes
 
yoda said:
Gave up too many wide open back-door cuts for easy layups,
too many offensive rebounds, and too many lazy, soft stealable passes
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Also, too many bounce passes to our 7'1" center. Throw it UP where nobody else can get it. I don't think Meta caught a bounce pass all year!
 
patrick_o'brian said:
To say Wardle was out coached here is ridiculous. The Braves had a great game plan and went up 16 points. Went in at 8 at half. now if we’re down 16 at the half. That’s on the coach.

2nd half collapses are on players. They get too comfortable and before they realize it, the game is out of reach. The UTC guards outplayed everyone in the second half. Our guards went under screens against those two allowing open 3’s. Left them open in the corner on BLOBs. They just didn’t play smart basketball and let it slip away. Got beat on back door cuts non stop.

It was tough to watch them self destruct. But I love every single one of them and I am so thankful for the great season they gave us. Thank you Braves!
Click to expand...

Not ridiculous. Let me clarify, when I say outcoached I mean coaching a team overall, not just a particular game. When a team constantly makes the same mistakes game in and game out that is coaching. Passing is one example--there are more. There are, and have been all year, issues with weak passes getting picked off and poor passing decisions. Each game we witness several passes at the feet of tall players that normally end in a turnover, and that is just one example. I don't see well coached teams doing this. Yesterday's game is an example of one team taking care of the ball making good sharp passes while the other team makes careless passes, and some that make very little logical sense. Coaching.

Interestingly, in your own words you make the case for poor in game coaching... letting the team get too comfortable, leaving good 3 point shooters wide open in the corners, getting beat on back cuts non-stop, and just not playing smart basketball. Those are all coaching issues. I'm not saying and never said Wardle is a bad coach. No, he's a decent coach that seems to have some deficiencies and limitations that a real good coach in a program for 10 years should not.
 
Georgethedog said:
Interestingly, in your own words you make the case for poor in game coaching... letting the team get too comfortable, leaving good 3 point shooters wide open in the corners, getting beat on back cuts non-stop, and just not playing smart basketball. Those are all coaching issues. I'm not saying and never said Wardle is a bad coach. No, he's a decent coach that seems to have some deficiencies and limitations that a real good coach in a program for 10 years should not.
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As much as I support Coach Wardle and would HATE to see him go anywhere else, I see your point.
I think we've done pretty well at adjusting when other teams get hot from outside (aside from the UIC game at home) and last night.
I can't remember the last game where we didn't foul a 3-point shooter, and most times it's pretty blatant.
Meta also gets called 1 or 2 times each game with an illegal screen, and Hannah every other game. You'd think those would become minimal as the season progresses. Not taking shots at the coaching staff, but we can be critical as fans while loving our team. ;)

Not sure what happened last night, but the 2nd half wasn't indicative of how we've played this season for a full 2nd half, and I think Hannah's absence affected our continuity and maybe toughness. We had a few guys who aren't used to being in the game for so long (Burch, Timo, and Meta) and you could see them struggle in the 2nd half when we normally are able to maintain a lead.

The one thing about this season's team that was kind of baffling is that we rarely did put together 2 solid halves of basketball, as mentioned by many on here, yet we won a TON of games!
I'm hoping next season we are more consistent, but we have some freshmen who will make their share of mistakes. The turnovers HAVE to get better, as that burned us in the last 2 losses. The rebounding this season was good at times but not the usual outrebounding the other team more times than not.

If we can tighten up turnovers and not allowing so many offensive rebounds in close games, we should do well next season. Sigh - it's hard to let go of the season, but we have a lot to look forward to, ladies n gents!!!
 
Georgethedog said:
Not ridiculous. Let me clarify, when I say outcoached I mean coaching a team overall, not just a particular game. When a team constantly makes the same mistakes game in and game out that is coaching. Passing is one example--there are more. There are, and have been all year, issues with weak passes getting picked off and poor passing decisions. Each game we witness several passes at the feet of tall players that normally end in a turnover, and that is just one example. I don't see well coached teams doing this. Yesterday's game is an example of one team taking care of the ball making good sharp passes while the other team makes careless passes, and some that make very little logical sense. Coaching.

Interestingly, in your own words you make the case for poor in game coaching... letting the team get too comfortable, leaving good 3 point shooters wide open in the corners, getting beat on back cuts non-stop, and just not playing smart basketball. Those are all coaching issues. I'm not saying and never said Wardle is a bad coach. No, he's a decent coach that seems to have some deficiencies and limitations that a real good coach in a program for 10 years should not.
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We won 28 games. How many would we have won with a great coach?
 
Credit to UTC for staying with it and staying after it. Not sure I've seen many teams who are in a constant state of motion on offense and for a half we did a fantastic job of playing defense. But we let up just enough to allow UTC some open shots that they took advantage of. Offensively we made too many bad passing decisions that really bogged down our movement. Yet we did have some chances in the last 4-5:00 but missed some wide open 3's. They unfortunately made their last 2. It's always sad when a great season comes to an end but what a joy it was to watch. Thanks to the guys who played their last game and made great contributions to the program. You will always be a Brave. To the guys coming back keep working to improve this summer and be ready to roll this fall. To the new guys coming in know what's expected of you and understand when you don't get after it in practice or make a mistake in the game that your coach is trying to make you better. November can't get here soon enough.
 
bigjimmy said:
Credit to UTC for staying with it and staying after it. Not sure I've seen many teams who are in a constant state of motion on offense and for a half we did a fantastic job of playing defense. But we let up just enough to allow UTC some open shots that they took advantage of. Offensively we made too many bad passing decisions that really bogged down our movement. Yet we did have some chances in the last 4-5:00 but missed some wide open 3's. They unfortunately made their last 2. It's always sad when a great season comes to an end but what a joy it was to watch. Thanks to the guys who played their last game and made great contributions to the program. You will always be a Brave. To the guys coming back keep working to improve this summer and be ready to roll this fall. To the new guys coming in know what's expected of you and understand when you don't get after it in practice or make a mistake in the game that your coach is trying to make you better. November can't get here soon enough.
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I think we would have won if had Darius had been healthy. Wardle would have played him down low in the second half to either score or get fouled. As it was Meta nor Cory couldn't do that. Also think about this 4 out of our top 9 players were Freshmen and Sophomores. And that group beat a good George Mason team and only lost to UTC by 2 in the last few seconds. We can look forward to carrying that over to next year
 
bradleyfan124 said:
I think we would have won if had Darius had been healthy. Wardle would have played him down low in the second half to either score or get fouled. As it was Meta nor Cory couldn't do that. Also think about this 4 out of our top 9 players were Freshmen and Sophomores. And that group beat a good George Mason team and only lost to UTC by 2 in the last few seconds. We can look forward to carrying that over to next year
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No doubt about it. Hannah is worth quite a bit more than 2 points! I don't think that game is even close if Hannah plays. Double that if had Zek, as well.
 
With a little time to think back about that game, I would offer a point that I don't believe was considered too much yet. Throw out all of the good things we did in the first half and their inevitable run to get it close. Within the last four minutes of the game, we had three possessions where the game was tied (or within a point or two) and we had our clutch go-to guys (Davis, Duke) miss three open threes. Throughout the entire season, those two guys hit clutch three after three. Honestly, they probably hit them at higher rate than you might reasonably expect. If they don't hit those throughout the season, we probably lose 3-5 more games.

So, while I'm sort of blaming them for not "finishing", I also don't know if it's totally reasonable to just expect that every time. But, we wouldn't be talking about missing players, coaching decisions or much else if they would have just hit those open looks.
 
No doubt Bradley wins this game with a healthy Hannah. We had depth at the guard spot but were thin in the front court. Hope coach can bring in some interior players that can rebound and play with their back to the basket.
 
Tommy said:
We won 28 games. How many would we have won with a great coach?
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Let's see, they were 28-9. Well, every team has a bad game or two not due to the coach, so I would say 33-3 with an NCAA birth and loss in the second round to a #1 seed (playing one few game overall). Or, let's say they still went NIT because Drake squeaked out the MVC tourney and the NCAA no longer likes mid-majors, I would say 34-3 and still playing in NIT.

Wardle has been at BU for 10 years... and how many wins in the NCAA?
 
Final thought... guys like Wardle go up the mid-major ladder like he has to have that great season to jump to a power conference job. I would not think he is any different. While he's had some decent success recently, he hasn't had that breakout season that propels him to one of those jobs. That and the relatively decent success has kept him at Bradley. Not a bad coach that needs to be fired, but not a great enough one to get promoted. Now, I was on this board many years ago and then left for several years, so maybe I missed where he has been offered those kinds of jobs and has turned them down because he's planted his family here. If that's the case I have immense respect for him! Finally, I don't want him fired, but I do hope he can learn and grow. Maybe he needs the kind of assistant that past coaches at Bradley have had... i.e. Tony Barrone and Chuck Buescher?

​
 
Georgethedog said:
Final thought... guys like Wardle go up the mid-major ladder like he has to have that great season to jump to a power conference job. I would not think he is any different. While he's had some decent success recently, he hasn't had that breakout season that propels him to one of those jobs. That and the relatively decent success has kept him at Bradley. Not a bad coach that needs to be fired, but not a great enough one to get promoted. Now, I was on this board many years ago and then left for several years, so maybe I missed where he has been offered those kinds of jobs and has turned them down because he's planted his family here. If that's the case I have immense respect for him! Finally, I don't want him fired, but I do hope he can learn and grow. Maybe he needs the kind of assistant that past coaches at Bradley have had... i.e. Tony Barrone and Chuck Buescher?

​
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Would be great if he brought in an offensive guru.
 
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