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Win 20 or lose 20?

In another thread, I optimistically predicted 20 wins. However, it would not take much for things to change drastically, and result in a 20-loss season.


How is that for covering both possibilities?
 
Buesch N Chips said:
20 wins is more than optimism. I don't know if there is a word for it.
Click to expand...

B&C, look at our schedule... Bradley should easily win 8 or 9 of them. The 7 home games are gimmes. Of the 6 road/neutral games, 1 or 2 of those seem like they could be possible wins. Then if Bradley just goes 9-9 in the MVC, that brings them to 17 or 18 wins. If they can finally win a game in the tournament and go 1-1, they could end up 19-14, or 18-15. If they ended the season with a winning record, I'll bet we buy our way into the CIT again, and that could easily add another 1 or 2 wins.
We finished with 18 wins in 2013, with a weak team, no shooters, no point guard, and poor rebounding and inside play. And the MVC was much tougher then (Creighton instead of Loyola). If Loyola had been in the MVC one year earlier, it would have been 20 wins.
 
Da Coach said:
B&C, look at our schedule... Bradley should easily win 8 or 9 of them. The 7 home games are gimmes. Of the 6 road/neutral games, 1 or 2 of those seem like they could be possible wins. Then if Bradley just goes 9-9 in the MVC, that brings them to 17 or 18 wins. If they can finally win a game in the tournament and go 1-1, they could end up 19-14, or 18-15. If they ended the season with a winning record, I'll bet we buy our way into the CIT again, and that could easily add another 1 or 2 wins.
We finished with 18 wins in 2013, with a weak team, no shooters, no point guard, and poor rebounding and inside play. And the MVC was much tougher then (Creighton instead of Loyola). If Loyola had been in the MVC one year earlier, it would have been 20 wins.
Click to expand...

You take our team, which lost its two top scorers, and the 7 home games, three against teams who ended the year with higher RPIs than ours, and you call them gimmies? How so? Then you say 1 or 2 road games are winnable? Maybe, but can we really expect that sight unseen? 9-9 in the MVC sounds like a pipe dream when I look at the roster.

We might be very good, but how can anyone actually EXPECT us to be good? Our entire roster is unknowns and potential. And potential, in my neck of the woods, is just city for "Ain't worth a crap yet"
 
You are right, that the team is totally unproven with too many new players. And I agree we won't be very good.
But which of these home non-conference games won't likely we win?-
Texas Arlington
Robert Morris
North Carolina A&T
Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Central Michigan
Eureka
UIC

And if we can't go 9-9 in a profoundly weakened MVC in year four of this grand experiment, then the fallout was waaay worse than I or anyone ever imagined. :roll:
 
Buesch N Chips said:
Our entire roster is unknowns and potential. And potential, in my neck of the woods, is just city for "Ain't worth a crap yet"
Click to expand...
I kinda agree...
look at the Valley as a whole -

two years ago the MVC had a record number of returning starters - and they were, as a conference, a bit stronger than usual...
then last year we had only 22 returning starters - a near-record low - and of course the MVC was weaker last year than just about any season since the 90's
I think the number of returnees is a driving force that helps determine the season...

In addition - the preseason polls have been remarkably accurate - not precise but consistently accurate...
When was the last time BRADLEY - or for that matter - any team was picked at the bottom but instead surprised people and had a GOOD season.

I know it happened once in 2007-2008 when Drake surprised people and went 28-5, but they still had no post-season success.
But we're already seeing that every preseason prediction and pundit has Bradley in the 7th-10th range this season - that's no guarantee they are right
and I certainly hope we do way better than that but - again, when was the last time Bradley finished WELL above where they were picked?

If we finish at the bottom of the Valley again then it'll be interesting given how many people have said for 3+ years that once GF has his own players and has rebuilt, then we should be competing for championships. But I am prepared for more of the same and a snow job by the PR people saying they need 5 more years to rebuild.
 
tornado said:
I kinda agree...
look at the Valley as a whole -

two years ago the MVC had a record number of returning starters - and they were, as a conference, a bit stronger than usual...
then last year we had only 22 returning starters - a near-record low - and of course the MVC was weaker last year than just about any season since the 90's
I think the number of returnees is a driving force that helps determine the season...

In addition - the preseason polls have been remarkably accurate - not precise but consistently accurate...
When was the last time BRADLEY - or for that matter - any team was picked at the bottom but instead surprised people and had a GOOD season.

I know it happened once in 2007-2008 when Drake surprised people and went 28-5, but they still had no post-season success.
But we're already seeing that every preseason prediction and pundit has Bradley in the 7th-10th range this season - that's no guarantee they are right
and I certainly hope we do way better than that but - again, when was the last time Bradley finished WELL above where they were picked?

If we finish at the bottom of the Valley again then it'll be interesting given how many people have said for 3+ years that once GF has his own players and has rebuilt, then we should be competing for championships. But I am prepared for more of the same and a snow job by the PR people saying they need 5 more years to rebuild.
Click to expand...

I didn't see where he said 5 more years to rebuild??¦??¦.
 
lefty - go read the "Rebuild" thread that another board has...
one guy says it took 15 years to sink to where we are and implies it's take that long to rebuild...
while others said last year that when GF finally has all his own players he deserves to be able to coach them 'til they leave - thus 5 more
In contrast, in that same thread are people saying things like...
" ... The rebuild arc should be much higher at this point. The Geno Ford
experiment has been a failure and the future does not look much better."

one guy even thinks we need to get to year 6 or 7 before it's fair to judge GF - and it wasn't what they term "a complete rebuild" as
all the relevant players stayed, were very good, and many were All-MVC caliber -
 
tornado said:
lefty - go read the "Rebuild" thread that another board has...
one guy says it took 15 years to sink to where we are and implies it's take that long to rebuild...
while others said last year that when GF finally has all his own players he deserves to be able to coach them 'til they leave - thus 5 more
In contrast, in that same thread are people saying things like...
" ... The rebuild arc should be much higher at this point. The Geno Ford
experiment has been a failure and the future does not look much better."

one guy even thinks we need to get to year 6 or 7 before it's fair to judge GF - and it wasn't what they term "a complete rebuild" as
all the relevant players stayed, were very good, and many were All-MVC caliber -
Click to expand...



All kinds of people say all kinds of things...that I understand. I just didn't read where KW said it was going to take 5 more years to rebuild
 
lefty said:
All kinds of people say all kinds of things...that I understand. I just didn't read where KW said it was going to take 5 more years to rebuild
Click to expand...


For those who don't know what's being referred to- Kirk Wessler wrote a column about last year's team about halfway through last season, on January 8, 2014, when Bradley had just lost a home game they probably should have won to fall to 6-10. In it, he admitted that he "did not expect, at the midpoint of season No. 3 in coach Geno Ford’s rebuild of the BU program, to be looking for glimmers of hope that better days might be ahead."

But then he listed several excuses, heaped virtually all the blame on the players ("Lack of leadership among the players", "chaos", "not enough instinctive basketball savvy", "everyone except Lemon lacks the confidence to step up and try to make a play", "not enough more talent", "not as much savvy", "not a single difference-maker", and "there are other problems") and seemed to implore fans to be patient and that the success he expected we'd see by year 3 was not going to happen any time soon , "But it’s going to take longer than expected."
"It’s going to take a while."

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140108/SPORTS/140109246/10963/SPORTS
 
Kirk was the head cheerleader for 3 years telling us all how MUCH better we already were - in his own words...
"light years better"...
then suddenly he scolds fans for expecting too much too soon and says it is still going to take a long time to rebuild - somewhat excusing the past three really bad seasons that he, himself, told us were going to be a LOT better than what we had previously..

come on lefty -- Kirk is changing his tune to hide his own bad predictions and wants everyone to be patient for several more years
how do you interpret "any time soon"?
 
tornado said:
Kirk was the head cheerleader for 3 years telling us all how MUCH better we already were - in his own words...
"light years better"...
then suddenly he scolds fans for expecting too much too soon and says it is still going to take a long time to rebuild - somewhat excusing the past three really bad seasons that he, himself, told us were going to be a LOT better than what we had previously..

come on lefty -- Kirk is changing his tune to hide his own bad predictions and wants everyone to be patient for several more years
how do you interpret "any time soon"?
Click to expand...



yeah...he said it's going to take longer than expected....I just didn't see where he said 5 more years....so I don't know what he means by longer..


Now how does this relate to the thread title again?;-)
 
Da Coach said:
You are right, that the team is totally unproven with too many new players. And I agree we won't be very good.
But which of these home non-conference games won't likely we win?-
Texas Arlington
Robert Morris
North Carolina A&T
Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Central Michigan
Eureka
UIC
Click to expand...

Without knowing anything about anything, I'll say Corpus, Arlington, and Morris.
 
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