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Lucas O'Rear out for the rest of the season

I wouldn't let anyone tell me what excuse I couldn't or couldn't use for not winning......if a person wants to use injuries...facilities....Peoria.....the PJ Star......Wessler......"not his players".....whatever its up to the individual fan.

Personally, for me, there are MANY reasons why a team/coach doesn't win but sooner or later I want my team to win and whatever the reason, it really doesn't matter, as the results are all that counts.
 
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If that is a statement directed toward BU and Jim Les, let me just point out that it is not as if Bradley has been a perennial losing program as some suggest.
This year will be the first year in the last 6 seasons that Bradley will not have a winning season. And I think it is fair to consider that if the 2 key players for Bradley had not had season-ending medical issues, that this year would have likely been a winning season as well.
 
Da Coach said:
Northern Iowa center Lucas O'Rear suffered a season-ending fracture of his ankle near the end of last night's win over Illinois State-
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/ar...-Lucas-O-Rear-to-miss-rest-of-season?watchdog

This really hurts UNI's chances in the MVC and for a postseason bid. Tough luck for O'Rear.

But then again, we can't use injuries here as an excuse for a team's performance.
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While I have never been a fan of University of Indiana, Didn't they beat a top 25 team yesterday with 3 of their starters injured. I believe that a team will lose more games without key starters but, 11 in a row?
 
afan said:
While I have never been a fan of University of Indiana, Didn't they beat a top 25 team yesterday with 3 of their starters injured. I believe that a team will lose more games without key starters but, 11 in a row?
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And 11 in a row against an MVC that's in a down year, relatively speaking.
 
afan said:
While I have never been a fan of University of Indiana, Didn't they beat a top 25 team yesterday with 3 of their starters injured. I believe that a team will lose more games without key starters but, 11 in a row?
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While I'll admit it does seem a bit counter-intuitive, it's Indiana University or IU.

And yes, they did win yesterday against a top 25 team without their top scorer and another starter. I'd say they were without two starters, since they've rotated the lineup a bit.
 
Verdell Jones III was back last night, so no...only Watford and Creek were out.

(A little different than losing a senior/captain/fourth-year floor general/second best 3-point shooter AND your best inside-outside threat/best rebounder/best creator/Valley player-of-the-year candidate from an otherwise youthful team.
 
srw said:
Agreed.

They will have to get it together, or play in a tournament they probably don't want to play in.
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They're very NIT-worthy right now, and IMO after MSU's loss at Evansville, are #2 in the MVC pecking order right now. Every game Indiana and New Mexico wins makes UNI look that much better. Plus, if you had to pick a key player on that team to lose, it would be O'Rear. Had they lost Ahelegbe, Koch, Moran, or James, they'd be in much worse shape. They can overcome losing O'Rear.

BTW - UNI's 2nd leading scorer, Anthony James, is a 6 foot sophomore guard out of St. Louis, averaging 12.1 ppg in their methodical system, and shooting nearly 40% from 3 this season. Did we ever take a look at him, or was he one of those guys that UNI had an unfair recruiting advantage over us for since they have little recruiting competition in the northern part of Iowa?
 
Da Coach said:
If that is a statement directed toward BU and Jim Les, let me just point out that it is not as if Bradley has been a perennial losing program as some suggest.
This year will be the first year in the last 6 seasons that Bradley will not have a winning season. And I think it is fair to consider that if the 2 key players for Bradley had not had season-ending medical issues, that this year would have likely been a winning season as well.
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Its not really directed at any team in particular....my point is we all have different thresholds as to what defines a winning program.

Personally I don't see BU as a winning OR a losing program under Les....I see it as the majority of fans do...average.

For those of us that see it as average or below average the "excuses"/"reasons" that float around to explain the results don't matter much anymore.

I was the one that originally said "you can't you the injury excuse"...but I didn't say as a reason for losing. OBVIOUSLY injuries hurt any program that has them....but after awhile the reasons don't matter if you feel your team has not got the job done.

After 9 years of what we see average results and a myriad of reasons WHY we have been mostly average the ONLY thing that matters anymore is the results.
 
Dont forget the Berlin Wall that also prevents us from landing key Minnesota recruits. Surely, you cant think that Peoria can compete with all the amenities Cedar Falls and Des Moines have to offer, do you?:roll:
 
chitown fanatic said:
Dont forget the Berlin Wall that also prevents us from landing key Minnesota recruits. Surely, you cant think that Peoria can compete with all the amenities Cedar Falls and Des Moines have to offer, do you?:roll:
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How did we get POB and Ray Brown? A miracle I guess that they didn't end up at UNI.
 
BradleyBrave said:
BTW - UNI's 2nd leading scorer, Anthony James, is a 6 foot sophomore guard out of St. Louis, averaging 12.1 ppg in their methodical system, and shooting nearly 40% from 3 this season. Did we ever take a look at him, or was he one of those guys that UNI had an unfair recruiting advantage over us for since they have little recruiting competition in the northern part of Iowa?
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Yes, I happen to know that Bradley was one of only a couple D1 schools that ever looked at James. I think UNI was his only D1 offer, and that included a deal to redshirt his first year like Jacobson likes to do. But BU liked him in HS.
James was a 60% shooter from 3-point as a junior, and 58% as a senior. But he was a rather scrawny 6' shooting guard, and thus had very little interest.
I can only imagine what many fans here would have said if we signed a 6' skinny SG.
 
Da Coach said:
Yes, I happen to know that Bradley was one of only a couple D1 schools that ever looked at James. I think UNI was his only D1 offer, and that included a deal to redshirt his first year like Jacobson likes to do. But BU liked him in HS.
James was a 60% shooter from 3-point as a junior, and 58% as a senior. But he was a rather scrawny 6' shooting guard, and thus had very little interest.
I can only imagine what many fans here would have said if we signed a 6' skinny SG.
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If the kid could play, who cares. We have guys on our roster that can't play. He's a redshirt sophomore, so that means we chose Edge McCain and Darian Norris over this kid. This kid is better than both of them. All the more evidence on how missing on both of those guys is hurting this program tremendously.

After further review of the schedule, UNI is done. WSU has some tough games left too. IMO, the league is MSU's to lose. I could them running the table, or at least setting up a title game league finale with WSU in Springfield.
 
"This really hurts UNI's chances in the MVC and for a postseason bid. Tough luck for O'Rear.

But then again, we can't use injuries here as an excuse for a team's performance"


trouble maker :)
 
afan said:
While I have never been a fan of University of Indiana, Didn't they beat a top 25 team yesterday with 3 of their starters injured. I believe that a team will lose more games without key starters but, 11 in a row?
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they beat team that wasn't going to be ranked for long...but Indiana was missing TWO starters, but guess what...
Minnesota was also missing two of their starting players.

As for Lucas -- it is indeed a tough break -- he is one of my favorite non-Brave valley players -- as are most of the Illinois kids who go on to play in D-I
 
Sorry to remind people that BU was only picked to finish 5th this year in the MVC, even with 3 Preseason All MVC players on the roster. This is either ****ing for the coaching staff, or, an indication of how little the people who cover this sport feel about the ability of the other 11 players on BU's roster to compete in the MVC.

If BU had been picked to finish say, 2nd or 3rd in the MVC, I could accept the loss of two all MVC players for not finishing in the top 5. Picked to finish 5th in the MVC with all players available, it now makes sense that BU is 1-11 so far without their top two players.

One other nugget to consider, how can BU who still has an all MVC player on their roster, not beat other lower half teams in the MVC this season, with three other 4 yr players still on their roster?

If BU would have been at the top of the MVC with both SM and TB back, they should be able to beat #'s 6, 7, 8 and 9 without them.

So far BU is 1-4 agains these teams this year, with 3 games left against them. How BU finishes against SIU, DU and ISU R will tell us if BU would have had any chance to finish at the top of the Conference with SM and TB...

PS For those who continue to call BU a "young team", BU has four 4 yr players AW, DD, WE, and AT with four 2 yr players and one true freshman..Not what I would call real young, as they start three 4 yr players, one soph and one frosh. I would not call that "excuse worthy" young.
 
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