Rebuilding?

[Chico]

Dave Reynolds wrote in today's PJS that Geno's first rebuilding year was 2011-12. What would he call the years since?

 

[tornado]

but Dave's partner Kirk Wessler wrote that we still need several more years of rebuilding so I guess it's still going on...

Let me say one more thing....

at any point - if someone says..
"OK, it's failing and I am willing to stop doing this same thing and try something else"
or
"I understand fans are unhappy, so we will work even harder to find a solution or a better way..."

then I am willing to be sympathetic to that...
I would be willing to wait and be even more patient if I knew the people in charge
SAW THE PROBLEM AND WERE INTERESTED IN FIXING IT


BUT - that is not the case and never has been...
Dr. Glasser, Dr. Cross, and Geno must have all gone to the same seminar on what they are trained to say because they all keep saying the exact same thing and they NEVER admit there's problems...

They keep telling us how good it really is, how the fans are ignorant or uneducated, how if there is a problem it is only a short-term one, an injury or a little thing that will be fixed soon if we just keep plodding forward.

None of them have ever been the least bit willing to acknowledge there is a problem we are going in the wrong direction, and that we sukk and are getting worse the more we keep doing things this way.

None of our leaders will ever admit they are failing, the ship is sinking, and the fans disappearing.
They are too busy patting themselves on the back for the great job they are doing, giving themselves ungodly huge raises and extensions despite lack of results, and these recent articles with all of them touting their great achievements are classic proof that they never will see the problems.

 

[AZ BU Fan]

Obviously

Obviously

Dave Reynolds wrote in today's PJS that Geno's first rebuilding year was 2011-12. What would he call the years since?

De-Building?

During last couple years of his reign, GF has lamented his players lack of: buy in, leadership, effort, execution...

Is this true, or, did he over rate the skills/personality of the players he recruited?

Has the atmosphere at BU been so polluted since JL departure/GF hire players packed it in waiting for shoes to drop...

GF not able to improve/mold lots of new/different players?

...

 

[Chico]

Think he overrated their talent. Nothing is polluted. No matter who the coach is 20+loss seasons will drive the fans away, while 20+ win seasons will keep the 10,000 coming back. What are you doing on the computer this time of day, I know the courses are open. I'd be playing Arizona Golf Resort on Fridays if I was able to come back out there.

 

[AZ BU Fan]

Think he overrated their talent. Nothing is polluted. No matter who the coach is 20+loss seasons will drive the fans away, while 20+ win seasons will keep the 10,000 coming back. What are you doing on the computer this time of day, I know the courses are open. I'd be playing Arizona Golf Resort on Fridays if I was able to come back out there.

Back in Midwest this week to help get mom/dad in Des Moines into assisted living (pushback!) and see son in Des Moines, then, see other son in Chicago. Sitting is Starbucks in Chicago loop waiting for son to finish work so we can out to dinner/have night on the town!

 

[Da Coach]

Don't get into trouble up there in the 312, AZ.
Where are you going out to dinner?

I agree that talent was overrated, but then, IMO, a bigger mistake was not seeing it sooner, refusing to believe they were wrong about many things, and correcting the downslide, or getting assistants who were better at evaluation and recruiting.
But, this is just my opinion, I think this staff kept trying to make it work by having players play out-of-position, and run an offense that the players were not suited for, instead of adjusting the coaching to fit the talent.

 

[AZ BU Fan]

Don't get into trouble up there in the 312, AZ.
Where are you going out to dinner?

Depends, as always, on who's buying!

He wants to surprise me! Will report back later.

Too cold to get into any serious trouble. My privates are way
up in my stomach.;-);-);-)

 

[Chico]

Depends, as always, on who's buying!

He wants to surprise me! Will report back later.

Too cold to get into any serious trouble. My privates are way
up in my stomach.;-);-);-)

Gotta go to Gibson's

 

[wily coyote]

Don't get into trouble up there in the 312, AZ.
Where are you going out to dinner?

I agree that talent was overrated, but then, IMO, a bigger mistake was not seeing it sooner, refusing to believe they were wrong about many things, and correcting the downslide, or getting assistants who were better at evaluation and recruiting.
But, this is just my opinion, I think this staff kept trying to make it work by having players play out-of-position, and run an offense that the players were not suited for, instead of adjusting the coaching to fit the talent.

I pretty much agree with your post but how do you adjust coaching to fit talent that can't throw a ball in the ocean standing in a boat. What can they do to change that?

 

[Da Coach]

I pretty much agree with your post but how do you adjust coaching to fit talent that can't throw a ball in the ocean standing in a boat. What can they do to change that?

Simple- better passing, better motion and cutting, creating better, higher percentage shots. And most of all, stop taking so many low-percentage shots we can't make!

Here is an amazing stat that you haven't seen the PJ Star point out-
Bradley is the worst 3-point shooting team in the MVC (31.6%), yet they have attempted an amazing 503 three pointers on the season! That is 18 three point attempts per game, more than any other MVC team except Indiana State and Wichita State.
Question- If Bradley is the worst 3-point shooting team, why do they take so many of them? If nearly every other MVC team seems capable of getting better, higher percentage shots, why can't Bradley? I propose it has something to do with coaching.

In fact, here is an interesting comparison-
Bradley has attempted almost 200 more three pointers on the season than Evansville (503 vs 318 )! Not surprisingly, Evansville has the highest overall shooting percentage in the MVC at 48.9%. In fact, Evansville is the 9th best team in shooting percentage in all of Division I.
On the other hand, Bradley is shooting a woefully bad 38.0% overall, which is 344th in D1. Clearly, Evansville's coach has them taking higher percentage shots, while Bradley's offense seems to be in love with the 3-pointer, despite the fact they are the worst at shooting them.
503 of Bradley's 1422 shots on the season have been 3-pointers (35.4% of Bradley's shots)! Yet Bradley has the worst 3-point shooting percentage! Is there something wrong with that picture?


But obviously, the better long-term solution is to recruit players who can shoot better. That is on the coaching staff. We've had 5 recruiting classes under this coach so far with no hope in sight that this problem is being addressed, so there are simply no acceptable excuses for being one of the worst shooting teams in the entire country year after year.

 

[wily coyote]

Simple- better passing, better motion and cutting, creating better, higher percentage shots. And most of all, stop taking so many low-percentage shots we can't make!

Here is an amazing stat that you haven't seen the PJ Star point out-
Bradley is the worst 3-point shooting team in the MVC (31.6%), yet they have attempted an amazing 503 three pointers on the season! That is 18 three point attempts per game, more than any other MVC team except Indiana State and Wichita State.
Question- If Bradley is the worst 3-point shooting team, why do they take so many of them? If nearly every other MVC team seems capable of getting better, higher percentage shots, why can't Bradley? I propose it has something to do with coaching.

In fact, here is an interesting comparison-
Bradley has attempted almost 200 more three pointers on the season than Evansville (503 vs 318 )! Not surprisingly, Evansville has the highest overall shooting percentage in the MVC at 48.9%. In fact, Evansville is the 9th best team in shooting percentage in all of Division I.
On the other hand, Bradley is shooting a woefully bad 38.0% overall, which is 344th in D1. Clearly, Evansville's coach has them taking higher percentage shots, while Bradley's offense seems to be in love with the 3-pointer, despite the fact they are the worst at shooting them.
503 of Bradley's 1422 shots on the season have been 3-pointers (35.4% of Bradley's shots)! Yet Bradley has the worst 3-point shooting percentage! Is there something wrong with that picture?


But obviously, the better long-term solution is to recruit players who can shoot better. That is on the coaching staff. We've had 5 recruiting classes under this coach, so there are simply no acceptable excuses for being one of the worst shooting teams in the entire country year after year.

Your 1st sentence will not get the job done because we don't have the talent to do it. It's that simple. The answer we are all looking for is your long term solution.

 

[Da Coach]

So if you were the coach, and you had the league's worst 3-point shooting team, you's have them launching threes for 35%+ of their shots? I doubt it.

A good coach maximizes the talents of his players, not maximize their weaknesses.

 

[ollienanyes]

If I remember correctly, we lost to a D-3 team in preseason. While one can comb the annals to find examples of good teams that did that early in the season or in pre-season, most of the time losing to a D-3 team at home means that you aren't very good.

Seriously: GF's best team was his second; it went downhill big time from there. Even last year, Lemon had to play almost the whole game for BU to eek out a win against a D-2 team.

 

[LongTimeFan]

This team has not shown a consistent ability to make even layups. I don't get to see a lot lot of games but listening to the announcers is an education in itself.

 

[Da Coach]

I would simply ask: If Mike Krzyzewski ever found himself with a team that shot as poorly as Bradley, does anyone think he would just throw his hands in the air, give up, and constantly go on his radio show and blame the players?
Of course not. He would adjust his coaching, change his offense, and find a way to maximize the talents of his players, and overcome their deficiencies.
I don't expect our staff to become Coach K, but there are always adjustments a coach can make. We saw that changes were made defensively against Evansville (the diamond and 1 defense) that helped Bradley win, but we have not seen any significant changes made to the offense. We just keep seeing 20%-30% shooters chucking up threes.

 

[bigjimmy]

All I know is that it's been the S.O.S. the last 4 years and nothing changes. Too many missed point blank shots, too many reach in fouls, too many unforced turnovers, too many wild thrown up shots as the shot clock is about to expire, too many bricks from both the 2 point and 3 point lines, too many easy baskets and wide open 3's from the other team. TOO MANY! Now before you think I'm throwing the players under the bus like Geno there is 1 simple fact. Players play, coaches coach. Geno and his staff were the ones who brought all of these players in the last 4 years because they thought they were talented enough and could play in his system. You expect the players to progress and they just haven't. That's on the coaches. You'd expect for their to be adjustments during the game but Geno stays true to his sorry system. For a guy who is top 5 all time in scoring in Ohio high school basketball when has he ever recruited a shooter. The players still have to play but if what they are doing isn't working than the coaches need to either coach them up or bring in players who can play. Geno has simply done neither and his time is up. Madame soon to be former President needs to get out of the way and let the BOT hire the AD and then the BOT needs to let the AD hire the coach.

 

[wily coyote]

So if you were the coach, and you had the league's worst 3-point shooting team, you's have them launching threes for 35%+ of their shots? I doubt it.

A good coach maximizes the talents of his players, not maximize their weaknesses.

Don't have the stats but I bet we have missed more 2 footers and layups than 3's. There is no correct answer as to what sets or plays should be run to solve this lack of talent. I'm not saying we should jack up 3's I'm just saying as bad as we shoot from anywhere on the floor it doesn't matter what Geno tries to run. If Geno is back or a new coach comes in they have a h=ll of a lot of work to do.

 

[Da Coach]

It is always interesting to read past perspectives about Bradley and compare them to where we actually are now.
Here is a column by Kirk Wessler from the beginning of the 2013-14 season (just last season)-
Not superhuman, but looking good
http://www.pjstar.com/article/201311...1/10964/SPORTS

First, Auston Barnes is compared as a "reasonable facsimilie" to Andrew Wiggins of Kansas (now playing in the NBA). It was suggested Barnes would be an intimidating inside presence at Bradley, and that Bradley had "potential depth this program hasn't seen in a while".
We know how that turned out

Kirk also exclaimed, "I remain convinced Bradley is getting better."
As we now know, he could not have been more wrong. Bradley finished a disappointing 12-25 last season, significantly worse than the previous season, and they have really gone downhill from there

There were a number of other comments that were more than a bit overly optimistic, but this one stood out-

"...a game that was in doubt until the final minute. Some fans might be disturbed by that against Jacksonville State....The Gamecocks, however, are a decent team."

Wrong- Jacksonville State was one of the worst teams in Division I last year. They finished last season 10-21 with an RPI of 320!

Then there were these comments-
That brings us to the giant banner hanging from Section 9 of the upper bowl in Carver: "Geno's Fallout Shelter."
There has been an unfortunate cyberwar between defenders of former BU coach Jim Les and others who either advocated, or have at least come to accept, his March 2011 firing. Some of the defenders continue to predict long-term "fallout" for the Bradley program as a result of the decision to fire Les and hire Ford. The banner was a show of support for Ford and where the Braves are headed.
Frankly, that looks to be upward.
After back-to-back last-place MVC finishes, the first under Les and the second under Ford, the Braves tied for seventh last season. A return to the solid middle this season is likely, and a top-four finish is possible. Considering that BU has not finished above fourth since 2001, that would be considered significant progress.

Wow, really? A "top-four finish"?
We now we can say with certainty that those who accurately predicted all this fallout were right, and Kirk and the fallout-deniers were completely wrong.
I can understand why some fans who don't follow things very closely or who grossly over-rated the coaching and talent could be so wrong, but it's hard to understand how someone who follows basketball for a living could have been so wrong.

 

[Tulsa Brave]

Simple- better passing, better motion and cutting, creating better, higher percentage shots. And most of all, stop taking so many low-percentage shots we can't make!

Here is an amazing stat that you haven't seen the PJ Star point out-
Bradley is the worst 3-point shooting team in the MVC (31.6%), yet they have attempted an amazing 503 three pointers on the season! That is 18 three point attempts per game, more than any other MVC team except Indiana State and Wichita State.
Question- If Bradley is the worst 3-point shooting team, why do they take so many of them?

The answer is simple...it's better than the alternative. Here's an even more telling stat. we're only better than 80 D-1 teams in 3-point percentage, but we're only better than 7 D-1 teams (out of 351) in 2-point percentage, at 40.5%. So we take a lot of 3's because it's better than the alternative. 31.6% from 3 gets us more points overall than 40.2% from 2.

 

[tornado]

we never throw bounce passes - we keep throwing them chest high right into the passing lanes, and quick teams like ISU just tip, deflect, or steal them easily.

A simple bounce pass is far harder to steal cuz the defenders don't already have their hands right there at floor level.