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67 Bradley - 75 WCU postgame

Western Carolina played well...they made free throws at a much better clip than they have thus far this year...
But we did not defend the perimeter well...way too many uncontested or lightly contested threes. Just par for the course during the JL era...overplay...chase the ball...late rotations on defense...and wide open 3 after wide open 3 will result...

Brown looked great in the first half and it looked like W. Carolina found a way to take him out of the game for the last 15 minutes of the game...
Warren and Roberts were unable to provide anything from the perimeter for us...difficult to win a game when those two go 1-8 and 3-12...or whatever they were...
Missing free throws at that clip is inexcusable...
Well, we weren't going to be an at-large team anyway...so at least now we know we certainly won't be...so we just have to go out and find a way to get much better and have some success in the Valley season...
 
Da Coach said:
OK, I expect a lot of criticism. But my take is that Bradley played fairly well, but WCU played better on the road than any team I've seen in Carver for a couple years. They made big shot after big shot, and they made all their free throws in the 2nd half. They even had every loose ball bouncing right into their hands. This was a team that had shot just 42% from the field, and 33% from three for the year.
This was a good team that will win a lot of games. Let's hope the BU team can learn from this game, and get better. I never felt this team was an at-large caliber team, so now this game removes all doubt.
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Why does it seem like every team that comes into Peoria makes"big shot after big shot" or "gets hot at the end" or shoots 25% better than their average on free-throws?


I will give WCU some credit....they had some good players....made some tuff shots...But BU needs to learn to put teams away. Especially AT HOME.
 
WCU was more confident than most Valley teams that come into Carver. They scored points in a hurry. Very good team. All of that being said, we should have won. Shots didn't fall, FTs missed, inconsistent hustle, bad combination.
 
Da Coach said:
OK, I expect a lot of criticism. But my take is that Bradley played fairly well, but WCU played better on the road than any team I've seen in Carver for a couple years. They made big shot after big shot, and they made all their free throws in the 2nd half. They even had every loose ball bouncing right into their hands. This was a team that had shot just 42% from the field, and 33% from three for the year.
This was a good team that will win a lot of games. Let's hope the BU team can learn from this game, and get better. I never felt this team was an at-large caliber team, so now this game removes all doubt.
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If Bradley really did play "fairly well" we would have not lost this game.

I believe I heard a stat after the game that AW and CR combined for a 4-20 game.... BAD.... add SM in the mix and that percentage doesnt go up by much.

We gave up 9 point leads twice, and once midway through the 2nd half. Not calling timeouts again hurt us.... maybe it was merfs job to tell JL when to call a freakin timeout...

As much as I hate to say this, Sam Singh needed to play tonight. WE and AT were getting pushed around all night. They got balls knocked out of there hands all night as well. AT made a few baskets by being at the right placed at the right time but didnt create anything for himself.

this isnt a horrible loss but completely takes away from the illinios win in my mind...
 
TheHeemyMonster said:
If Bradley really did play "fairly well" we would have not lost this game.

maybe it was merfs job to tell JL when to call a freakin timeout...

QUOTE]


NO...it was Merfs job to stare the refs down after a particulary bad foul call against BU during a timeout. Tonite JL did that for about 45 seconds of a 60 second TO after what he thought was a bad call. What cracked me up is the ref went to the other end of the court and would'nt give JL the time of day.

Way to use that time effectively and set up a play.....
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Confident, making everything, didn't expect much, whatever. Don't lie to yourself. Confident or not it's our home floor and that's supposed to mean something (which obviously it doesn't anymore), we should make sure they don't make everything (instead of just being casual about switching or closing out), and our only losses had been to a consensus MWC favorite at home, and an NCAA-bound Oklahoma St team on a neutral court. If you don't expect to win home games then I don't know what the standard of success is around BU basketball anymore.
 
Bad loss period. You have to beat teams like this at home. We lost at every phase. They played better ball. They made their shots and fts. We got outcoached in the last ten minutes. The refs chose to even it up a bit late in the game. I thought the crowd was very lame. I'm usually louder than that. Students were superweak. The announcer probably had an off night. My point here is that the catamounts came in here and kicked our butts and they deserved to win. May they mop the floor and finish 29-1.

Things to remember. The catamounts are now, I think, 8-1. This may or may not be a bad loss by the end if the season. As a result of wcu's record our rpi almost certainly went up tonight. We still have a chance at a decent at large profile but as TAS Has said we have no margin for error. I recall a similar loss (albeit on the road) during the sweet 16 year. Not sure how it'll turn out. I decided to drink another beer or two and my brother and I burned our tickets in effigy. It was probably stupid but I feel better. Can't change this now and I didn't expect to lose this game after a win against NIU at their place. But let's stick it to loyola and Iowa st and win 15 in the valley. And just to make sure let's win the tourney too.
 
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My comments on why we lost;
Did not set enough screens to get the ball to Taylor Brown, he was on fire and would have score close to 30 points tonight.
Poor substitution patterns once again as Jim broke our run again when we had a 10 point lead in the 2nd half.
Obviously poor freethrow shooting.
Left the 3 point shooters wide open again.
S.Maniscalco is struggling to run the point guard position and is losing his man on defense, think he is better coming off the bench.
The 5 players that deserve to start based on their contributions are:
DSE pg ( doing everything and more on the floor)
Aw sg
CR wg
TB f
WE c ( did not play well tonight but is our best option)
Not taking away anything from W.Carolina but no excuse to lose at home to them, now we must win our next 3 games with 2 of them being on the road .
 
The team that played better tonight won the game. plain and simple. We did not take advantage of their mistakes...FREETHROWS... and the D was not consistent. I am not in melt down mode...will not make ultimatums, but we need to play better for longer stretches and have to get better on D.
 
How many times in the last 5 mins, when we were in the 4 guard mode with TB, did we get out rebounded and they got second chances. All this with 6'11, two 6'9 and a 6'8 sitting and watching:? No wonder SM is gone. we didn't need him:-P
 
thefish7 said:
Bad loss period. You have to beat teams like this at home. We lost at every phase. They played better ball. They made their shots and fts. We got outcoached in the last ten minutes. The refs chose to even it up a bit late in the game. I thought the crowd was very lame. I'm usually louder than that. Students were superweak. The announcer probably had an off night. My point here is that the catamounts came in here and kicked our butts and they deserved to win. May they mop the floor and finish 29-1.

Things to remember. The catamounts are now, I think, 8-1. This may or may not be a bad loss by the end if the season. As a result of wcu's record our rpi almost certainly went up tonight. We still have a chance at a decent at large profile but as TAS Has said we have no margin for error. I recall a similar loss (albeit on the road) during the sweet 16 year. Not sure how it'll turn out. I decided to drink another beer or two and my brother and I burned our tickets in effigy. It was probably stupid but I feel better. Can't change this now and I didn't expect to lose this game after a win against NIU at their place. But let's stick it to loyola and Iowa st and win 15 in the valley. And just to make sure let's win the tourney too.
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Hard for the crowd not to be lame when the band stands and waits for the announcer to finish his every time out speel, or some one who can't throw a basketball 10 feet tries to make a 20 footer, etc. Our announcer never has an off night. He did a great job tonight yelling out "2 minutes", just as Sam was putting up a 3 pointer. It's good Sam has good concentration and buried it.
 
Chico said:
He did a great job tonight yelling out "2 minutes", just as Sam was putting up a 3 pointer. It's good Sam has good concentration and buried it.
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Not really the announcer's fault that Sam took a shot at the 2 minute mark... What was the excuse for the much better look that AW missed about a minute later?
 
My thoughts:
Not a very well coached basketball game.
JL is a good coach.
I think we going to miss Merf, I think he did alot more than we all observed. He's been to the NCAA before so that helps. I know EB works hard, but i think its time we go in a different direction with him not being Associate Head Coach. I think losing this game will help us in the long run. The last 2 games we played good but this is a wake up call. EM played better tonight might not have scored alot but was better defensively. This team we played would be in the Top 3 of the valley. They def. look alot like UNI but quicker

Starting line up should be: WE, TB, DSE, AW, CR : this is the best defensive line up i think we have.

I'm not putting this year to sleep I believe we will learn from this and be better come valley time.
 
Well our 1/3rd of our season is over for at large wise. Gonna have to dominate in the 2nd part of the season in the Valley.

After every loss, I continuously hear Les say that it wasn't because of the poor FT shooting. It was because of poor offense execution or poor D. Well for once, I want him to own up and take responsibility for his player's poor FREE THROW SHOOTING. The numbers don't lie. Will rarely win a game when you miss 10+ FT's, no matter how good the D is.

A good majority of fans bash Mccain, but at least he was 2 for 2 on FT's tonight, everyone else missed at least 1 FT.

Below is a summary of our 3 losses...

@ BYU, lost by 10 points
Roberts = 5-7 FG
Warren= 4-13
9 missed Free Throws
Brown suspended

@ Vegas against OK. State, lost by 11 points
Roberts = 0-4
Warren = 1-8
10 missed Free Throws

Home vs Western Carolina, lost by 8 points
Roberts = 1-8
Warren = 3-12
14 missed Free Throws

Need to stay sharp on the FT's and get Roberts/Warren back on track before Valley season starts.

Jason
 
BU_EMT128 said:
Not really the announcer's fault that Sam took a shot at the 2 minute mark... What was the excuse for the much better look that AW missed about a minute later?
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Sam had to take the wide open 3, which I thought I said he buried and it got us within 4 I believe.
 
Some other things to consider in tonight's loss

Some other things to consider in tonight's loss

Every time out benefited the opposing team and I do not believe this began tonight. This evening, it simply manifested a rather glorious loss. A time out is called. Who called it is no matter. Maybe Bradley was or is enjoying or making a drive. Maybe not. Both teams exit the floor for the small break while the civic center, the band and the cheerleaders do their best at individually and/or collectively completely taking the crowd out of the game. This does not say or mean to imply the band does not know how to play or the cheerleaders do not know how to cheer. No. If either is left any time whatsoever courtesy the ad nauseum announcements for every sort of non-game related event or action going on elsewhere in the arena or world by Paul Herzog, we as fans are entreated to some rock song rendition or rapid fire cheer no one can keep up or cheer with in spite of age or awareness. Oh wow! Tom and Jane Smith got better seats than they paid for originally. This helps the home team in what way? Then there is the race of three icons for every body in the arena to get better food. Okay. Right. This time the crowd benefits. And this helps the men's basketball team go on to win? Some one in the audience is chosen to beat the clock in some kind of all alone half court game. Again, this helps the Bradley Braves how? Need I mention all of the rest of non-help time out shenanigans to make my point? Please. Even the balloon is advertising some business and not championing the Bradley Braves. Oh, but it every now and again drops coupons not worth much more than the paper they were printed on to those catching them after dropped..... ..... ..... All together now: This helps the home team how???
 
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