It will be 20 and 12 years since...time to step up?

[ghunt]

Not to be calling the season short at this point, but there are things that we need to start to consider, as well as the administration. The last time we won the conference tournament was 1988 and the last regular season title was 1996. Those are primary goals that need to be achieved, and it has been way too long (and that is an understatement of massive proportions) for our program. We had traditionally been the power in the conference, but now I hear excuses and rationales for Creighton ("the Omaha market" and alumni base--these make me laugh) and SIU (state university and alumni base). But let us face it, we are in the longest drought since the Joe Stowell years (we love you coach, but let's face it, your stint, coincidentally mostly during the 1970s, was the basketball version of the Jimmy Carter years), when we as a program were left behind during the development of the modern college game.

The years of NITs and one title and NCAA appearance under Molinari were enough to string us along. The NCAA tournament success of 2 years ago was great, but it may be effectively turning into a one-off experience of sorts. Yes, we may have made the NIT last year, with a total of two years of consecutive post-season play, but I would say that so far that this indicated that the program as a whole has turned positive, but not successful. Granted, dozens of other schools would be envious of this, but Bradley is not and should not fall prey to such thinking. I think we may have. I have heard first hand from prominent alumni and even faculty and staff I won't name, especially during the 2005-2006 campaign, that they would prefer the NIT over the NCAA because we could stay at home and maybe win one or two (I hope they felt like dumb-a**** after that season).

The standard for this school was set from the 1930s to the 1960s, and it was resurrected in the 1980s. We should not settle for mediocity, period. Two years ago was considered the pivotal season for Jimmy as a coach, but I believe this season is pivotal for Bradley as a program. This season is huge, and the players need to know it, and the coaching staff need to know it. In all honesty, I think it was just not optimism on this board, but a straightforward, realistic expectation at the start of this season that this team, this program, should win the regular season and/or conference title(s). We should have not only expected, but also demanded no less.

I am afraid the Ruffin injury may wind up being used as more of an excuse than a justification. We were not firing on all cylinders as a team before he was hobled. 10 and 2 for now should have been the expectation, but it was not met. I am hapy for the conference that Creighton and SIU went from decades of mediocrity in the middle of the pack with occasional success to now being excellent programs. It just is that I wish I could say that they had joined us at that level instead of the roles being reversed. I am also quite leary that this season will fall short and be an NIT year, and that next season will be no better with recruits that do not develop. If that winds up being that case, irregardless of reasons and rationales, we will have risen not to the program we once were or should be, but we will have made no more progress than from a horrible under .500 program to one that just gets by enough to placate the fan-base, alumni, and admiinstration into thinking they have an acceptable one. Acceptable is not enough--sustained success and trophies are the standards lest we forget. I hope the guys prove this post to be nothing more than a post of presumptious pessimissm. The time is now, the heart of the season is just now beginning--guys, team, show that you have the heart, show that you have the talent, show that you are champions.

 

[Buddy Lee]

It starts at the top with commitments from the university, the administration, the coaching staff and down to the players. Performance and results usually mirror expectations. If expectations and goals are set in order to achieve acceptable results, the results will undoubtedy be mediocre. We've shown flashes of brilliance in games and then appeared to be playing for the first time with each other in the same game.

A strong showing in conference play and either winning the regular season or tourny or both is the proper expectation for this squad.

 

[ph]

I believe that Conference championships and NCAA runs are the goals that drive all of the program's long-run decisions, and are the programs yearly goals.

During the S16 run, we heard about the sign above the team or coaches office
20
Ring
NCAA

meaning 20+wins, Conference championship ring, NCAA tourney.

The program is currently hampered by poor facilities, and the university is raising and spending a large amount of $$$ to improve that. No amount of legal slick recruiting talk or magical coaching ability can erase that facility issue. You might be able to point to previous administrations/coaches for the facility issue today, but the current staff is doing well.

I may be odd, but I'd rather have S16+ runs with no ring, then conference championships and one-and-dones. Both would be much better.

 

[Beninator]

I believe that Conference championships and NCAA runs are the goals that drive all of the program's long-run decisions, and are the programs yearly goals.

During the S16 run, we heard about the sign above the team or coaches office
20
Ring
NCAA

meaning 20+wins, Conference championship ring, NCAA tourney.

The program is currently hampered by poor facilities, and the university is raising and spending a large amount of $$$ to improve that. No amount of legal slick recruiting talk or magical coaching ability can erase that facility issue. You might be able to point to previous administrations/coaches for the facility issue today, but the current staff is doing well.

I may be odd, but I'd rather have S16+ runs with no ring, then conference championships and one-and-dones. Both would be much better.

Well said PH... You saved me a lot of typing.

 

[Da Coach]

I have never heard anyone associated with this coaching staff make excuses. And from everything I have ever heard from them, they have the same expectations and goals that you listed.

Again, not to be an apologist, but if anyone thinks it is easy competing against bigger state schools with far more money, you are delusional. The number of midmajor, private schools who, like Bradley have 1 revenue-producing sport and don't benefit from BCS-type conference TV contracts, and who have had consistent success in Division I and in postseason can be counted on one hand.

 

[tornado]

2001-2002 (before JL) 9-20 RPI 235
2002-2003 12-18 RPI 192
2003-2004 15-16 RPI 152
2004-2005 13-15 RPI 142
2005-2006 22-11 NCAA RPI 33
2006-2007 22-13 NIT RPI 38
2007-2008 7-5 and one of the higher RPI's in the Valley- RPI 69

I think we have come a long, long way, we are recruiting better, we have tougher schedules, and the entire Valley has gotten tougher in the past 2-3 years.

To me talking about how long it's been since we won the Valley is like hearing from the back seat....
"are we ever going to get there, how much longer is it gonna be?"

I think we've come a long way with decent prospects ahead of us.
Would I like to do better, win more Valley titles, make the NCAA?
...of course, but what do you propose we do differently?
Clean house and start with new coaches? I think that's now unreasonable.
It is not wrong to ask or to want more success, but tell us what you propose??
I think we have the right people for the job.

 

[ghunt]

I have never heard anyone associated with this coaching staff make excuses. And from everything I have ever heard from them, they have the same expectations and goals that you listed.

Again, not to be an apologist, but if anyone thinks it is easy competing against bigger state schools with far more money, you are delusional. The number of midmajor, private schools who, like Bradley have 1 revenue-producing sport and don't benefit from BCS-type conference TV contracts, and who have had consistent success in Division I can be counted on one hand, and still have fingers left over.

The responses seemed pretty defensive--I thought the original post was accurate and well-balanced. And, it didn't imply Jimmy should go, but it did intend to depict his level of performance as undeniably not "there" yet. I consider myself a BU booster, but we have to also realize not everything is always great about the University or the basketball program. I hope you don't think my post was delusional ;-) I thought it was dang dead-on And, I do respect the coaches, but wishes and hopes are one thing, performance and delivering consistent success are another. Just to reemphasize, though, and to be specific, a combination of four or five or so regular season and/or tournament conference titles while averaging 18 to 20 wins a season and getting a win or two in the NCAA every now and then over the course of a decade is not in the realm of smoking any funny stuff. We did it most of that (swapping out NCAA performance with better regular season performance) in the 80's (albeit I'll concede that it may have been assisted by everyone's favorite canidate, now non-canidate for congress cheating). And Creighton, which is where I think we could strive to be, is not, by any stretch, a powerhouse of resources.

And, if I may, it's great that the soccer program is picking things up, but another formerly respected/sucessful sport at Bradley has been essentially moribund for decades now, and that is baseball. And, do not even get me started on the women's program that has not even tasted what it even means to be mediocre. But if I may digress more. And if we do want to get into the "size" issue of Bradley, I have thought for years, and especially now so with the construction of an ever-growing campus, that the Univeristy has been limiting itself with the model of "small" faculty to student ratios and the nice, cozy, private college culture with prep overtones. This has been selling short, in many regards, what the insitution could be, and we could still carry that same markting aspect. No, we as a University are not going to be at the same level as even the premiere Non-BCS schools in terms of overall quality (not just sports), but we can still get ourselves to the tier just below.

Also, a 5k to 6k student body is not what we should be in the 21st century. The infastructure can support more. Maybe not quite the housing, but there are numerouse ways to get that up-to-speed in short order. Also, we have had trouble retaining and attracting some faculty, who may have came, through the years, because the graduate programs just aren't at a higher-caliber. These can easily be upgraded a little more with greater private and public partnerships. Doing these things and developing not just one, but three to four or so quality sporting programs would truly help elevate the University, as well had bring in and develop a better and reasonably achievable resource base.

Yes, we do not have the resources that a large state school or BCS school does--that is very obvious. However, the goals that were listed for success for the basketball program are achievable and realistic. We have done it before, and comaparable schools are doing it now.

 

[Da Coach]

Sorry, ghunt, I certainly did not mean to imply that.

I know you are aware of the obstacles that a school like Bradley faces. That's why so many coaches are tempted to bend the rules a little to get an advantage.

 

[ghunt]

Sorry, ghunt, I certainly did not mean to imply that.

I know you are aware of the obstacles that a school like Bradley faces. That's why so many coaches are tempted to bend the rules a little to get an advantage.

Thanks, I know. Bottom-line--I grew up hearing stories of our glory years, and got to experience the great years (minus that last 2) of the '80s. (Is it just me, or was that '88-'89 team one of the most underachieving ever?), and I got to experience a mini-revival when I attended in the early to mid-'90s. I am sure many others here are coming from a similar backgrounds and experiences with regards to their becomming Bradley fans. We have known reasonable success. I would absolutely say my life would be fulfilled if we ever made it to Final Four and I would promptly die with a smile on my face at the conclusion of such a season ;-) I did try in my original post to end it with a "go get'em", but let me just repeat, "Go BU."

 

[BUBraves2006]

Ghunt, I like your feelings about the basketball program. "Respectable" isn't good enough and I think they really are striving for more.

As for the campus though, I respectfully disagree. Having recently been a student, one of the things I most appreciated about Bradley was those great student-teacher ratios and campus size. One of the BIGGEST reasons many people attend Bradley is that it has many of the things a bigger school has (Div. I sports, respected faculty, pretty good educational buildings) but still doesn't have a ridiculous sized campus with way too many students. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I appreciated the fact it didn't take me 25 minutes to walk from one part of campus to another.

Spruce things up here and there ... but don't destroy the fabric of what makes Bradley such a special place! (At least, it's a big reason why it's so special to me!)

 

[ph]

I'll also agree that I think a larger student base would be against the academic quality / mission of BU.

Look at Duke, you do not need a huge student base to be good in one or 2 sports...

 

[ghunt]

Ghunt, I like your feelings about the basketball program. "Respectable" isn't good enough and I think they really are striving for more.

As for the campus though, I respectfully disagree. Having recently been a student, one of the things I most appreciated about Bradley was those great student-teacher ratios and campus size. One of the BIGGEST reasons many people attend Bradley is that it has many of the things a bigger school has (Div. I sports, respected faculty, pretty good educational buildings) but still doesn't have a ridiculous sized campus with way too many students. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I appreciated the fact it didn't take me 25 minutes to walk from one part of campus to another.

Spruce things up here and there ... but don't destroy the fabric of what makes Bradley such a special place! (At least, it's a big reason why it's so special to me!)

Thanks for the feedback. I had my own experiences 15 or so years ago, and can only go on second-hand information like yours now. The size is what I loved about the school when I was there, too. I started out at U of I and lived in a residence called Florida Avenue Residence Hall--FAR, for short. That just about encapsulates the experience. Heck, at BU, I literally walked across the street of a morning for some classes.

However, I recall many a class getting cancelled at the last minute due to not enough students, and those were not obscure or "soap-box" seminars. I also had more than one class with only eight to a dozen students. Obviously, that was incredibly benficial to the students, but doubling or trippling that would not be a back breaker becuase the type of student at Bradley, (even if the student body was increased to about 10k or so, over time) for the most part, would not be the type to get lost in the crowd like some highschooler at a big school or some freshman at major university. I think we could probably handle moderatley larger class-sizes, etc., but not over-night. I would think that the University could strategically plan to double its enrollment (not necessarily its footprint), and given the surrounding blight, I would think that the City could be supportive, and it could be packaged to the remaining few West Bluff traditionalists as a way to stabilize some of the remaining areas. I've heard some "funky" neighborhood names lately for some pockets on the Bluff--does anyone call it the West Bluff anymore? Or have non-native trasplants and/or third and fourth generation dwellers decided to call their streets by "hipper" nicknames ;-)

Anyhow, it would be good to hear stuff like this from current students and faculty on the board, but I think we (at leat me) have pretty much digressed away from the topic of basketball. Getter better Daniel-go Braves.

P.S., I didn't mean to slam Coach Stowell earlier if it appeared that way. He is a good coach and person. The MVC of the 1970s was dominated by Memphis and Louisville as they became powers and left the conference--with a brief domination by the Bird Sycamores at the end. And, in those days there were fewer invitations to the post season. Also, the campus and the University as a whole did not exaclty grow with the times either (I guess another '70s reference would be stagnation, but that may be too strong in this case). It just is that decade none-the-less indeed contained several years of downtimes for the basketball program.

 

[ph]

Based on my experience, and stated by BU in their annual reports, enrollment at BU has been really strong the last 10+ years. (That's a national trend as a higher % of highschool students enter college, now). Up to 6 years ago, I remember more of having to enroll ASAP or petition to get into a full class, more than ever getting a class cancelled...

Bradley is certainly starting to generate more athletic buzz among the students in the last few years. I remember reading about students finally getting it (the excitement about national D1 basketball) when Bradley made their S16 run. Athletics was not the reason they choose BU, but students finally started taking pride in them...

I think BU needs to do whatever they can to prepare for a MVCt run and get it going again!

 

[Fetz86]

Yeah, having classes canceled is not a problem anymore, its getting into them that is the problem. Wait-listed for two classes that I did not get into, I had to find another class that I dont really even want to take just to get to full-time student hours.

 

[Chico]

Ghunt, have to agree with you. Coach Stowell is a great guy, but IMO if he would have stayed we might have been on the bottom of the MVC for years. Dick Versace turned the program around but the powers to be didn't have the guts to back him and keep him here.

 

[Murph]

Great post Hunt, it's very surprising that BU hasn't had any conference success in that long of time.

 

[Double D]

Good post hunt. It is good to be "evaluative" that means we care alot about the sucesss of BU Hoops. Just be informed and fair, and I think you assessment was that.

Hey all we really want at BU is what they have at Creighton and SIU. If you make it to the dance 4 or 5 out of 6 years your chances go WAY up to experience what we did in 2006. Winning reg OR tourney titles will obviously do that for you.

The fans reacted the way we did because we were SCREAMING...

"THIS IS WHAT WE WANT!!!"

 

[squirrel]

People forget that Joe Stowell's assistant coaches had other duties aside from their assistant basketball coaching responsibilities and they were not full-time assistants meaning many of the administrative details he had to handle with little to no help. . .

During the 1970's college basketball was just emerging as big business since regular TV broadcasting was generally new, and Bradley did not allocate the appropriate resources to be competitive until it was too late to save his tenure.

And I think it was the lack of dedication to those resources that made Bradley the odd institution out during conference re-alignment in the 1980's, even though by the 3rd year or so of Versace's tenure it was adequate.

At any rate, I can appreciate where we are at as a program, and certainly JL gets some credit for that. But if you look at the years 2006 and 2007, you really see Chuck Buescher's imprint on the team.

But I continue to be extremely horrified at the continued poor rebounding and I see no development of the interior players this year. . .and I am left asking if we hired the right assistant coaches in the offseason?

 

[randy]

I have never heard anyone associated with this coaching staff make excuses. And from everything I have ever heard from them, they have the same expectations and goals that you listed.

Again, not to be an apologist, but if anyone thinks it is easy competing against bigger state schools with far more money, you are delusional. The number of midmajor, private schools who, like Bradley have 1 revenue-producing sport and don't benefit from BCS-type conference TV contracts, and who have had consistent success in Division I and in postseason can be counted on one hand.

We all share the same expectations. Success against the bcs is certainly attainable on a regular basis for mvc teams as Creighton and siu have shown. Looking at the current top 25 rpi teams is encouraging for Bradley-type schools too: St. Mary's, Dayton, Rhode Island, Butler, Drake (!), Winthrop, and Providence are all in the top 25 rpi.

 

[BU ICEMAN]

The program is currently hampered by poor facilities, and the university is raising and spending a large amount of $$$ to improve that. No amount of legal slick recruiting talk or magical coaching ability can erase that facility issue. You might be able to point to previous administrations/coaches for the facility issue today, but the current staff is doing well.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the rims are still 10', the balls are round, the lines on the practice courts are all accurate, and the weights are the correct poundage, right?

Don't get me wrong, facilities are an important component in any organization, but I see that as a convenient excuse for lack of basketball execution, which comes down to coaching. We did it before without the facilities, why can't it be done again? I also think the staff is doing well for its tenure, but is facing their toughest test this year because they are really having to coach and teach this group of guys. So far, this year's results aren't looking so good. To be honest, I think Big Bish meant more to this team (and especially the staff) than we ever might've thought......