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Final score- UIC 93 Bradley 70

Seems that every 6th game or so we get humbled and take a punch on the chin outta nowhere.
I'm with y'all - that was hard to watch and the energy was awful. So much to criticize on both ends and on every guy, but I just want to forget what I just saw.

On to UNI - time to dominate the rest of the way
 
Very poor effort last night. It was hard to watch , but it's only one game. This team is a good team but not a championship team right now. Wardle has built a very good program but his in game coaching is very poor. He is an in game panicker. Massive unnecessary substitutions. He never lets his players get in the flow of the game with all the crazy substitutions. Basketball is a game of momentum and flow but he kills it with all the substitutions. I've never seen anything like it. When a player makes a mistake out he comes. Sometimes you have to let them settle down and trust them as a coach. Jerking them in and out only causes frustration and confusion. When a players scores 2 times in a row you don't yank him out you get him the damn ball a third and 4th time. This has to change or the program will never elevate to next level. If I was a potential recruit and saw that would be a major red flag to me.
 
Bballjunkie said:
Very poor effort last night. It was hard to watch , but it's only one game. This team is a good team but not a championship team right now. Wardle has built a very good program but his in game coaching is very poor. He is an in game panicker. Massive unnecessary substitutions. He never lets his players get in the flow of the game with all the crazy substitutions. Basketball is a game of momentum and flow but he kills it with all the substitutions. I've never seen anything like it. When a player makes a mistake out he comes. Sometimes you have to let them settle down and trust them as a coach. Jerking them in and out only causes frustration and confusion. When a players scores 2 times in a row you don't yank him out you get him the damn ball a third and 4th time. This has to change or the program will never elevate to next level. If I was a potential recruit and saw that would be a major red flag to me.
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We're 18-4. We beat ISU Blue in double OT, Valpo in OT, and came back to win against UIC at their place on the last shot of the game and BW doesn't make good in-game decisions? My goodness, the way some folks turn on BW after a loss is really mind boggling to me. I guess we'd be undefeated if he were up to your standards?
 
bradleyfan124 said:
Here are some positives from that catastrophe. We are still in first place. Good to see Burch back.Good to see Almar getting back
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Good points on Almar and Burch! Unfortunately, we aren't in first place as Drake bumps us out of the spot, but when we go beat them at their place, we'll take it back. ;)
 
Bballjunkie said:
Very poor effort last night. It was hard to watch , but it's only one game. This team is a good team but not a championship team right now. Wardle has built a very good program but his in game coaching is very poor. He is an in game panicker. Massive unnecessary substitutions. He never lets his players get in the flow of the game with all the crazy substitutions. Basketball is a game of momentum and flow but he kills it with all the substitutions. I've never seen anything like it. When a player makes a mistake out he comes. Sometimes you have to let them settle down and trust them as a coach. Jerking them in and out only causes frustration and confusion. When a players scores 2 times in a row you don't yank him out you get him the damn ball a third and 4th time. This has to change or the program will never elevate to next level. If I was a potential recruit and saw that would be a major red flag to me.
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Hit the nail on the head with this one. Wardle is a great coach, let’s not forget that but there’s a lot of fans I hear from outside this board and it’s almost verbatim to this post.
Example on the substitutions- we come out of a timeout, Meta entered the game. Within one down and back, Meta is right back out. Almar hits 2 threes- here he comes out of the game…Why?! We gotta be the only team that makes substitutions this fast- like stated above, there is no flow!
Why is our offense so flat? We have no movement on the weak side and if you watch the players they only know of one option on the motion offense. They force silly passes over and over again while the defense is picking these lazy passes either on the hand off/ pass in general.
Jaquan needs more minutes, the kid has a nose for the basket. Strong takes to the basket and if he misses he’s right in there for the rebound. I see why his nickname is “Bully”. While Johnson was sitting the bench for a stretch in the 2nd half, he shoulda been out there. Same thing with Meta- almar played a good amount of the second half- Meta sat the bench and while Almar was out there, we didn’t even run plays to get him open- he made both his 3s in transition. We certainly don’t have him out there for defense/ rebounds.

15 turnovers- 11 in the first half… on top of the substitution debacle, we can’t even even take care of the ball.

Terrible Substitutions- Turnovers- Flat offense = Loss
 
Seriously. If you haven't seen this crazy substitutions for the last several years you are blind to be a fan or don't know basketball. We have triple the subs other teams do. I'm not ripping on coach wardle. I'm stating the obvious. It's hard to watch. We are 18-4 yes but we could easily be 14-8 or so. That's a credit to the structure and fundamentals of the the program that he has built and a credit to the players . The facts are the facts. Nobody wants them to succeed more than me.
 
Tommy said:
Good points on Almar and Burch! Unfortunately, we aren't in first place as Drake bumps us out of the spot, but when we go beat them at their place, we'll take it back. ;)
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And this is a good time for Burch and Almar to be getting back on track. We are going to need them down the stretch
 
bradleyfan124 said:
And this is a good time for Burch and Almar to be getting back on track. We are going to need them down the stretch
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Absolutely! The only silver lining to last night was Burch playing again and looking good, and Almar knocking down a couple 3's.
You NEVER see Burch slacking and hustles on both ends 100%. Only guy with good energy last night from BU.

Good for the future to keep these sophs, and we do need their contributions down the stretch and into Arch Madness!
 
Can someone explain why Almar was placed inside instead of out around the perimeter? I saw him inside several times where he was banging his way toward the basket for a layup.
 
Our guards simply aren’t good enough. Duke is a liability on defense. Burch brings athleticism and not much more. Jaquan was awful last night. Zek is inconsistent. Let’s hope we don’t see UIC in STL because we aren’t beating them. Who is the “go to” guy?
 
BU freak said:
Our guards simply aren’t good enough. Duke is a liability on defense. Burch brings athleticism and not much more. Jaquan was awful last night. Zek is inconsistent. Let’s hope we don’t see UIC in STL because we aren’t beating them. Who is the “go to” guy?
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You guys really need to get off the ledge after one loss, seriously. Do you want to go through the Auburn roster and nitpick the flaw on every player they have? I've seen them play enough I could do it.

You can just as easily go:

Duke literally won us two games with clutch shots and is the engine of our entire team. When he's hot, he's literally unguardable from range
Zek is our most talented offensive player and can both easily score in and out and has Jordan-esque fadeaway that is deadly
Jaquan is a freshman in a difficult league and has a tenacious defensive presence has him the top 5 in the league for steals; add to the fact that for being a smaller guard he can still almost always find his way to the basket and make tough shots within the trees
Burch has dealt with an injury and a sickness which has derailed much of his season but finds a way to contribute on both ends every game he's played
Dillon, similar to Duke, can have a streakiness that makes him valuable from 3 as well as a sneaky ability to get to the basket when guys overplay him

As I said earlier, I'm angrier about this loss because of the effort but let's not just go crazy and start making it seem like this team just stinks.
 
I wish also for Bradley to learn from this fiasco and get our mojo back. Am sure Wardle is after them hard today for their performance last night. I once remember Versace saying that coaching is fun when you coach strategy. Not fun when you have to coach effort. With our veteran team, figured we would not be in this position at this point in the season. Wardle and staff need to get them back on track and hopefully peak going into St. Louis. Let's start another streak starting Sunday. Have lost two home games now, so must now win where we are not expected to
In Northern Iowa, Drake, and ISU Red. Tall order but hope we can get it done
:mad:
 
Tommy said:
We're 18-4. We beat ISU Blue in double OT, Valpo in OT, and came back to win against UIC at their place on the last shot of the game and BW doesn't make good in-game decisions? My goodness, the way some folks turn on BW after a loss is really mind boggling to me. I guess we'd be undefeated if he were up to your standards?
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Your own point shows how close we could be to 3 more losses, ISUR was close as well. BW's substitution patterns and frequency have always been questionable. I also think he needs to have an offensive package he can go to in order to get the guys moving. We tend to get very stagnant on offense. Now that being said I think that BW is a good coach, and a great fit for our program. I do think he is handicapped at times by having our best pgs being so short, and I think ZM and DH struggle to keep their motors running high at times.
 
BUBraves2006 said:
You guys really need to get off the ledge after one loss, seriously. Do you want to go through the Auburn roster and nitpick the flaw on every player they have? I've seen them play enough I could do it.

You can just as easily go:

As I said earlier, I'm angrier about this loss because of the effort but let's not just go crazy and start making it seem like this team just stinks.
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Good post.
 
egib52 said:
Your own point shows how close we could be to 3 more losses, ISUR was close as well. BW's substitution patterns and frequency have always been questionable. I also think he needs to have an offensive package he can go to in order to get the guys moving. We tend to get very stagnant on offense. Now that being said I think that BW is a good coach, and a great fit for our program. I do think he is handicapped at times by having our best pgs being so short, and I think ZM and DH struggle to keep their motors running high at times.
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Do you know what close to a loss is? A win.

I agree with everything you said. I do believe BW tends to lay off of the heavy substitution pattern come tournament time. Not sure if I just don't notice it or if that's a fact. What are your thoughts?
 
Tommy said:
Do you know what close to a loss is? A win.

I agree with everything you said. I do believe BW tends to lay off of the heavy substitution pattern come tournament time. Not sure if I just don't notice it or if that's a fact. What are your thoughts?
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I have never noticed he changes. Now that being said any good coach believes "you dance with the one that brought you". So I wouldn't want a coach drastically changing strategy during the tournament. Most coaches if they tighten up rotations do it in conference play.
 
BRAVE82 said:
We beat them last year 74-47. They bring in a new coach and all new players. We have a solid nucleus returning. We play like crap at their place and still win. How does this happen? And how does Drake start from scratch with a new coach and players and start the season 18-2?
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I agree about this 100%. We have now lost 2 games at home where we were favored to win to teams with new coaches and teams completely rebuilt. We came out strong but as soon as things started to unravel most of our players seemed to quit playing hard, quit guarding and pretty much quit moving on offense which is why we were not able to get good shots. Our point guard needs to stop dribbling the ball so much and wasting a lot of time. The 3 previous games that we won before last night we had a lot more motion on offense and more screens set to get us better shots. We also actually put effort into guarding people. There is no excuse for a veteran team to look this bad on game night because they need to realize that just showing up does not get you wins.
 
tomahawk chop said:
I agree about this 100%. We have now lost 2 games at home where we were favored to win to teams with new coaches and teams completely rebuilt. We came out strong but as soon as things started to unravel most of our players seemed to quit playing hard, quit guarding and pretty much quit moving on offense which is why we were not able to get good shots. Our point guard needs to stop dribbling the ball so much and wasting a lot of time. The 3 previous games that we won before last night we had a lot more motion on offense and more screens set to get us better shots. We also actually put effort into guarding people. There is no excuse for a veteran team to look this bad on game night because they need to realize that just showing up does not get you wins.
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Teams are starting to blitz Duke on the high screen play so he can’t shoot that straightaway 3 ball and he doesn’t get the ball out of his hands fast enough. There are other playmakers on the team that he can depend on. That’s why Wardle likes Duke and Bully together. Bully can run point - he’s a pass first kid- which should open Duke for shots. It works most of the time - but those are the bad teams. IDK, I haven’t looked back at past games but I’ve watched every one of them. The plan is to control Duke and pound the offensive glass. If Wardle can clean those up our chances are still the best of anyone.
 
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