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Bradley 81 UIC 72

Re: Let not your heart be troubled

Re: Let not your heart be troubled

Braves4Life said:
Mike Radigan said:
If the scoreboard was correct, Crouch had 29, Zach 26, and Will 16 which accounts for 71 of our 81 points. Good for those guys, but a little troublesome for me.
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Most good college teams have the majority of their scoring focused around three or four players. Just look at last year's team. If these three can keep it up we'll be awsome when Ruff get's back in the mix! :D :wink:
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Understand, but 3 players getting 88% of the points...
 
A very entertaining game to watch and kudos to the staff and team for winning a game where being short on numbers and foul trouble didn't keep them from winning. A lot of guts displayed by the players in my opnion when I thought some were playing very tired and against actually a quicker team.

A few concerns:
BU had way to many fouls and it affected how they could play. I think it was because some of the slower players were not quick enough to stay in front of their man. This also led to some easy baskets by UIC. I think that the coaching staff will not be happy with the defense in some cases.

BU's only real weaknesses is the 4 spot. That position has nobody who can solidly contribute right now.


The lack of numbers and foul trouble really wore the team out in my opinion. From my seats (5th row of upper bowl) many players looked gasses at a few points in the 2nd half. BU was forced to play zone because of foul trouble and being tired against a quicker team. I am afraid that on the road this could have ended in loss because the team was tired.

Rebounding will be a concern if somebody can't pick it up in the 4 spot to help Zach.

From my seat it looked like 1 player from BU and 1 player from UIC were getting into some trash talking. At 1 point in the 2nd half they both started to elbow and shoulder each other, the UIC player beat the BU player for a basket and trash talked him down the floor. The BU player brought the ball up the floor and took it straight to the lane and turned it over. I think the UIC player got into his head. Les seemed to talk to the BU plaer the next 3 times down the floor in not a very happy manner. The BU player finished a good game, congrats to him.

Positives:

3-0 nuff said, and could have lost when they got tired, but they sucked it up a finished.

JC played very well offensively and made some smart plays. Nailed some crucial 3s when I thought his legs would be tired.

Zach just continues to amaze me at how he has improved. I told a freind after the game at Sully's that I thought there was a chance that Zach could play in the NBA someday. He laughed at me, and said that there are not many 6' 9" centers in the NBA. I told him that Zach has made amazing progress and that he must be an extremely hard worker. He has athleticism, quickness, can run the floor, his offense is getting better, he can rebound, set screens and roll, and plays defense. I told him that if Zach continues to work as hard as he apparently is and keeps improving, he just might find his way to an NBA job. He said his offense wasn't good enough and he was too short to play center. I said that he is not at these guys level but with enough hard work and improvement he could maybe be another Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman. I know people will laugh, but I think he has a chance to at least make the NBA and I hope he does!!!!!!!

The coaching staff did another good job tonight.
 
BU was quick enough to stay in fron of UIC guards. BU overplayed defensively.

BU was lethargic on closing passing lanes at times.

BU was wore down.

POG is WF IMO. Will Franklin played the game of his life. He doesn't get the props based on the boxscore but he did! And he was worn out badly. (Ruff was missed but WF was THE MAN!)

I don't know anything about the 'trash-talk'. I must have been too far away from the floor. :roll:

Zach has OFFENSE! He was hidden in OB's presence. His hard work is showing. FT's are a problem and he knows about it ... and unlike a player shrugging his shoulders and moving on, Zach WILL correct it and get better throughout the season.

Coach Les is really becoming a great coach. He may get a little too excited and kick something when mad, but his ability to make decisions for this team in the flow of play is amazing. They listen and execute so well. Easy proof is the play drawn up out of a T/O and ZA gets a dunk from the rafters. I recall a play where Coach Les called out at WF for taking a bad shot, then after 'D', calling a play for WF and he sunk the shot. Then stunning to see JLes stall a fastbreak as his team approached him.... he stalled JC in front of him though WF has the ball across court, then calls a play, and "whalla" JC gets an open 3 ball on the opposite side of the court.

I like these guys! 8)
 
MacabreMob said:
BU was quick enough to stay in fron of UIC guards. BU overplayed defensively.

BU was lethargic on closing passing lanes at times.

BU was wore down.

POG is WF IMO. Will Franklin played the game of his life. He doesn't get the props based on the boxscore but he did! And he was worn out badly. (Ruff was missed but WF was THE MAN!)

I don't know anything about the 'trash-talk'. I must have been too far away from the floor. :roll:

Zach has OFFENSE! He was hidden in OB's presence. His hard work is showing. FT's are a problem and he knows about it ... and unlike a player shrugging his shoulders and moving on, Zach WILL correct it and get better throughout the season.

Coach Les is really becoming a great coach. He may get a little too excited and kick something when mad, but his ability to make decisions for this team in the flow of play is amazing. They listen and execute so well. Easy proof is the play drawn up out of a T/O and ZA gets a dunk from the rafters. I recall a play where Coach Les called out at WF for taking a bad shot, then after 'D', calling a play for WF and he sunk the shot. Then stunning to see JLes stall a fastbreak as his team approached him.... he stalled JC in front of him though WF has the ball across court, then calls a play, and "whalla" JC gets an open 3 ball on the opposite side of the court.

I like these guys! 8)
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Hope SIU can compete with these guys.... :roll:
 
Bradley is getting some very good shots coming out of timeouts. This is an area that has greatly improved for the Braves over the Les era.

What was up with the "Marcus Liberty" sign in the first half? Did they have him confused with Deon Thomas from back in the day?
 
I think so. Or at least maybe there was some suggestion of improprieties with Liberty's recruitment and the students were "harassing" Jimmy Collins about it.
 
After watching the game again all I could think about was how fortunate we are to have Will. If you remember we almost did not give him a ride. Could you imagine last years or this years team without Will? What a great player and leader on the floor.
 
it's boogie time said:
Bradley is getting some very good shots coming out of timeouts. This is an area that has greatly improved for the Braves over the Les era.
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In the SIUE game the bad guys ran a play out of the timeout for a monster dunk. I'm not sure, but I think we ran the same play Sunday. Regardless it was with the same result. Always willing to learn if that was the case.

BuBraves55 said:
it was a good game but and i was pretty surprised how many people came for a 2:00 sunday game- anyone have the attendance?
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8860.
 
JC, WF, and ZA all had great games today. I'm not too concerned about the lack of scoring from the other positions for 1 game, especially when Ruff was out.

ZA should dominate teams like this because he's so much more athletic then their big men. I think he's going to have a lot more trouble scoring in the Valley though, because the valley has some big athletic guys that can match up with him better. He'll still probably get 10-15 points a game, but I don't think we'll see any 25 point performances in the Valley.

I was impressed with Bradley today. To win fairly easily without Ruff was a good sign. Let's get him healthy, and I think we'll make a run to the upper half of the Valley.
 
Has anyony noticed that the questions about Jims ability to coach have went away? I think the entire coaching staff has done a great job this year considering we have some depth issues and size issues. Its early but you have to be impresses with the teams preperation.
 
mexicobufan said:
Has anyony noticed that the questions about Jims ability to coach have went away? I think the entire coaching staff has done a great job this year considering we have some depth issues and size issues. Its early but you have to be impresses with the teams preperation.
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It's amazing what winning can do. :)
 
mexicobufan said:
Has anyony noticed that the questions about Jims ability to coach have went away?
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and

MacabreMob said:
Coach Les is really becoming a great coach....

...I like these guys! 8)
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Jim is a good coach, and as he learns more about various opponents and other coaches, he is beginning to show he can outsmart them.

But coaching is way, way more than just figuring out how to play each game and making the in-game adjustments.
It also involves all the tremendous work off the main stage with recruiting and working individually to develop each player.
Don't tell me that Jim Les can't develop individual players, since four from last year's team are playing professionally, and nearly a dozen who have played under Jim Les are still playing pro ball all over the world, and Jim's only been there four years.

Listen to a couple of the comments from Jeremy Crouch about Coach Jim Les.

"Coach Les has worked hard with me, giving me three or four go-to moves," Crouch said. "He's absolutely great at that."



This is the first time since 1998-99 that Bradley has started the season 3-0.
If BU wins Tuesday, then it will be the first time since 1985-86 that Bradley has started 4-0.
Just another mark for Jim Les to fulfill his promise of getting Bradley back to the glory days when he was there!
 
Where have all the Bradley bashers gone?
Into deep hiding I suspect.
I know the opposition hasn't been strong, but we are playing without our best player and looking good.
Even Kirk Wessler's column seems to be saying that JL is a good coach, and those who actually watch the game sees the adjustments he makes, like going zone, running out of bounds plays, switching to four guards. Even when Jim is hampered by a real shjortage of healthy players he still has more cards to play then the opposition.
Prediction: by the end of another year or so, Jim will be lauded as one of the best coaches in the Valley and maybe in the midwest.
 
Ahem..
The other finalist for the coaching job that Jim Les occupies, is coming under increasing heat at Illinois for not helping to land any significant in-state player. Some think a shake-up is due.
 
Da Coach said:
I think so. Or at least maybe there was some suggestion of improprieties with Liberty's recruitment and the students were "harassing" Jimmy Collins about it.
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That is why, we spent pretty much the whole game riding Jimmy. We didn't have them confused, just didn't have enough posters for all the names. According to an usher I talked to on the way out, there was a UIC fan (presumably Jimmy Collins' wife) who was in tears 'cause we were harassing him so much.
 
Marcus Liberty was dumb as a brick, but there weren't any recruiting violation that I can remember. He went through the bridge program and had to sit out his freshmen year due to being a non-qualifier. As the head recruiter, Liberty was a feather in Jimmy Collins' hat since he was the #1 ranked high schooler.
 
BUBraves06 said:
According to an usher I talked to on the way out, there was a UIC fan (presumably Jimmy Collins' wife) who was in tears 'cause we were harassing him so much.
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I thought the "harassing was not in bad taste.
And if Jimmy or his wife thought that was bad, then it is a good thing he didn't get the job at Illinois or another Big 10 school, because the harassing there is much worse and relentless.
 
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