Bradley8792
Active member
I understand going to places like UNI, ISU etc are going to be a tough game and we are probably going to lose, but it’s frustrating when we don’t even compete. Seemed like nothing good tonight.
-
Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.
Final score: Northern Iowa 61 Bradley 49
- Thread starter Da Coach
- Start date
And here is one other stat that confounds me. Bradley has the tallest team in the league, yet we see this issue in almost every game.
Can anyone explain the inability to make layups? Are the players coached to shoot fall-away layups, or shoot without even jumping?
Can anyone explain the inability to make layups? Are the players coached to shoot fall-away layups, or shoot without even jumping?
bigjimmy
Well-known member
Another unacceptable effort tonight. Can't remember a team making just 5 2 point FG's in a game. Pathetic. 15 made FG's and 16 turnovers. Unreal. Our defense forced just 9 turnovers and had only 4 steals and allowed 30 points in the paint. Yeesh. The only stat we led in was blocked shots, 5-2, but even that we allowed them to convert 3 of those blocks into points. Oy. I think I'm running out of adjectives to describe this game. I know Brian is disciplining Burch for not playing defense but really could he have done worse than anyone else who played? And at least he would have contributed on offense, he's been pretty good at that, because after all if you score more points you usually win the game. May be a good thing that the next game is on Monday as they won't be able to brood on this very long. It's just been really hard to understand how we can be both really good and really bad. Going to need to be really really good to beat Belmont.
disappointed by the loss, but UNI is tough on there homecourt. Can we beat Belmont on our home court? We have not beaten any top tier teams yet! The other 4 we are with for a bye in the top 5 standings, we haven't won! I'm worried about Belmont! They are peaking. We will have to be at our best Monday to win! Maybe a MUST win!
BUBraves2006
Well-known member
This is truly an incredible stat. I was doing some digging and was finding nothing for BU. So, going way wider than I can do on my own, I asked and according to ChatGPT:
"Making only 5 two-point baskets in a Division I game — especially in the modern shot-clock era (post-1985) — is exceptionally rare. Even historically low scoring games usually feature more balanced two-point scoring. I was unable to find a documented instance in the last 20-plus years where a DI team finished a game with fewer than 6 two-point makes."
I went back as far as I could for BU and the least I saw was eight.
"Making only 5 two-point baskets in a Division I game — especially in the modern shot-clock era (post-1985) — is exceptionally rare. Even historically low scoring games usually feature more balanced two-point scoring. I was unable to find a documented instance in the last 20-plus years where a DI team finished a game with fewer than 6 two-point makes."
I went back as far as I could for BU and the least I saw was eight.
tomahawk chop
Well-known member
Our coach is old school stubborn. He goes back to the old days where there was no shot clock and you needed to play man defense especially if you were losing. There are so many valley teams that are not good at shooting 3 pointers which is why I stated before some of these games we need to play more zone against them. When you are too set in your ways you do not give your team a better chance at winning.
tomahawk chop
Well-known member
We gave up 62 points on the road so the problem tonight was not defense. Setting only high ball screens does not help our offense at all since Meta rolls off of them and if he gets the ball misses way too many short shots. It is easy to defend off of that because they just need to switch and stay on are shooter. We make it easy for teams to scout us since our inside players struggle to make layups and our outside ones are easy to defend. We look good against bad teams but the ones that have decent coaches and a little more talent beat us fairly easily.
LittleBrave
Well-known member
Not gonna dwell on this one...didn't think we'd pull this out anyhow. Jacobsen was gonna have his guys ready after we'd beaten them like 4 straight times. I DO expect us to turn it up Monday and play much better, as Wardle's teams tend to do after a bad showing on the road.
I have to believe it was hard to get up for a Friday night game in early Feb on the road. It was definitely the one game I have not gotten up for to watch so far in the Valley schedule, but I try to never miss a game.
Guys - If I were ever to excuse this team for a bad performance it would be tonight due to the horrible scheduling of a game the freaking Friday b4 the Superbowl and also the day after it!
Like seriously???
I'm sure we'll be locked in on Monday!
I have to believe it was hard to get up for a Friday night game in early Feb on the road. It was definitely the one game I have not gotten up for to watch so far in the Valley schedule, but I try to never miss a game.
Guys - If I were ever to excuse this team for a bad performance it would be tonight due to the horrible scheduling of a game the freaking Friday b4 the Superbowl and also the day after it!
Like seriously???
I'm sure we'll be locked in on Monday!
Last edited:
LittleBrave
Well-known member
This team sure has a way of surprising us with how they play almost every game. I am not confident we are good enough to beat Belmont or Murray St even at home, but it just wouldn't surprise me if they did. Seems every game is a head-scratcher whether it's a good scratch or a bad one. 
Jonovic plays at 2 speeds- slow and stop. He has a way of making Connor Linke look as graceful as Olajuwon. Is Wardle really not playing Burch or Richardson or Zobrist this year because of defense or physical toughness? I can't believe that he keeps rolling out Jonovic, TVK, Thomas and Yu every night expecting a different result. So Wardle is being the "if you don't play defense, you won't play" guy but he's fine with watching the worst rebounding group of 6'8" to 7'1" bigs fail every night. I guess I thought that rebounding was a pretty big part of playing defense as well as moving away from the ball for help side and defending pick and roll, and closing out, etc. I am very disappointed that we have not seen more of the 3 aforementioned guys and that Wardle and the other 6 guys with clipboards have not created some offensive sets to play to individual's strengths. For example, I would love to see a guy like Burch have opportunities to attack the rim against man defenses. With his athletic ability, he should be getting 2 dunks a game. I can't think of many times where he gets lops or gets some easy ones off back cuts, etc. The Wardle and sons offensive sets and creativity and ability to create something to play to individual's strengths is definitely lacking. Maybe it's time for the coaches to look in the mirror.
CalCriddle
New member
Good thing UNI didn’t have to play the Friday before SuperBowl and the Monday after…oh wait…Wardle’s stubbornness in not playing Burch certainly hurt us tonight…but the biggest hole on this team is the absolute inability to work the portal…
LittleBrave
Well-known member
Strange that Burch was the hands down #1 hustle guy on the team the last 2 seasons. (Quanny was #2 in that cat. last season) They left it ALL on the floor on both ends. O-Show is a different guy this year if u guys haven't noticed. Something is up.
Even in the summer camp in front of hundreds of kids Coach Wardle told Demarion - I need you to play defense too!
Last edited:
Those are the four most productive guys we have over 6-7...
In fact, they are the only frontcourt guys we have who have played this year....who else is he gonna "roll out"??
who do you expect Coach to put on the floor? I know they're inconsistent but each has had very good games...
TVK, Thomas & Yu combine for under 3 years of DI experience and Jonovic definitely makes a difference - in
not allowing guys to dribble in or back down right to the basket for easy layups - something that we used to get killed by.
with 6 games left, we're in 3rd place, within striking distance if our guys can put it together....
Complain if you want, but I'd rather be here than where we were with Geno & JKG....
btw- check the other MVC teams' message boards.... of the 11 MVC teams, there's bit**ing and moaning on 9 or 10 of them....
Several - most notably ISU, have busy threads about firing their coach and who to hire next!
And even the teams at the top, Murray State, ISU, UNI, Drake, and also SIU, InSU...all have way too many disgruntled fans...
I get it, but seems counterproductive. I guess that's the way sports are nowadays... but I think BW is working as hard
as he can to get this team ready for St. Louis. None of the next 6 games matter as much as those 3 (or 4) down there.
So you recruit a guy who is a constant threat on offense, presumably knowing his shortcomings on defense. WHY???
Perhaps because you assume you can coach him!!!
But when it’s obvious you CANT, you bench him, despite the fact you continue to field a team full of defensive liabilities. Then you bemoan LACK of offense while guy with skills on offense is relegated to hardwood.
And you continue to go to the bank with highest salary of entire BU??
DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!
Perhaps because you assume you can coach him!!!
But when it’s obvious you CANT, you bench him, despite the fact you continue to field a team full of defensive liabilities. Then you bemoan LACK of offense while guy with skills on offense is relegated to hardwood.
And you continue to go to the bank with highest salary of entire BU??
DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!
tomahawk chop
Well-known member
We struggled offensively last night because one of our 3 best offensive players sat the bench. I agree defense is important but Belmont is winning because their coach recruits players that can actually shoot the ball. Belmont just out scores teams and when you score the most points in a game you win 100% of the time.
We have inside players that miss more shots from 3ft and in that I can ever recall in all the time I have watched us play. We need better players period and that is on the coach because he recruited these guys.
We have inside players that miss more shots from 3ft and in that I can ever recall in all the time I have watched us play. We need better players period and that is on the coach because he recruited these guys.
PhiAlphaBoy
Active member
Unless there's more to the story than poor defense by Burch, Wardle is just being a stubborn jack@ss and throwing away the season. One of the assistants needs to intervene and talk some reason into Wardle, because he's just letting his stubborn pride get in the way of what's right for this team this year. This year may be the worst player management and player development season of Wardle's Bradley career.
tomahawk chop
Well-known member
Agree, I was at the Belmont game and Burch scored I think 35 points and because he got beat back door on a play he was pulled out and at that time we were 8 points behind. Montana was also on the bench too and I commented how are best 2 offensive players tonight are sitting now so we have 0 chance of coming back now. I guarantee that Burch"s guy did not score over 20 that night.
BradleyBiz
Member
Outside of the ISUred game, I don’t think Meta should get more than 15 min of PT per game going forward. I don’t think he brings enough offensively to warrant 25-30 min per game. And he’s just too error prone with psssing and ball handling. Just my opinion.
Bballjunkie
Member
Could someone in the know explain the Burch situation. He has been a good citizen and player for almost 3 years. Now he is on the bench.. is this discipline issue or injury