• 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.

I don't think any of us thought...

LittleBrave

LittleBrave

Well-known member
We'd have a losing record almost halfway through the Valley schedule and hoping to get a #6 seed for Arch Madness if all falls into place for the remaining league games.

We saw how good that East and Nolan were through the first 10 games or so, but somehow they are playing very badly. Actually East has been solid up until the last couple games. He has the potential to be an all-MVC guard by his senior year.

Have we just not been able to practice any in January?
I hate to be in this funky-rotten mood, but I, along with most of you, were very hopeful about this season being as good - if not better - than last after the 9-4 start.

We had such great depth and were finally playing together - almost too many options.
Now Mast and Childs are really the only 2 guys playing decent.

I haven't been into this season as much as in past ones due to the strangeness of Covid, but this is downright depressing and wondering what we can still make of this season.

For the 1st time in over 2 years (after we started 0-4 in Valley play in 2019), I didn't even bother watching yesterday's game and glad I didn't.

I'm very disappointed in our coaching staff above all right now. I know it's not all on them, but that's who's ultimately in charge of our successes/failures.

uggggghhh - we move on - carry on - we BRAVE on
 
I'm with you, LB. Very depressing when we put so much care and time into this team. We still have a ton of talent, and honestly, the skid started when Boya went down, so who knows what happens when he comes back. Having him in the middle allows Childs and Mast to play the forward spots where they belong, and helps add depth back to the team. Losing McAdoo, though not seemingly a huge hit, still took away depth and another option.

I just remember the 5 game skid we had in 2019. Once that team figured things out, they just started to roll. Maybe that happens here. Let's hope.
 
I am hoping with a days rest today (hopefully) and a few days of practice, some of the issues we have been experiencing can be worked out. I truly believe we all will see a team this weekend that is focused and ready to play.
 
Time to start a 8-game win streak this weekend with a couple wins over SIU. That will include the final 2 games of the regular season at home against Drake, who will be 25-0 by that time.
That will make Bradley 17-10 overall, and 11-7 heading into the MVC Tournament, which, of course, they will sweep through for the ThreePeat! :cool:

LDTZMJLLFDCTZZW_20131113154016.jpg
 
Da Coach said:
Time to start a 8-game win streak this weekend with a couple wins over SIU. That will include the final 2 games of the regular season at home against Drake, who will be 25-0 by that time.
That will make Bradley 17-10 overall, and 11-7 heading into the MVC Tournament, which, of course, they will sweep through for the ThreePeat! :cool:

LDTZMJLLFDCTZZW_20131113154016.jpg
Click to expand...

haha, let's do it!
 
What is the situation with East? He went from being a starter to not even getting into the game on Sunday. I didn’t hear anything about an injury or a suspension. His name was not even mentioned during Sunday’s game. Did anyone hear anything?
 
My take was East was being punished for a whole game. ;-) Dave Eminian just reported that Boya out for weekend but the " Good news " is McAdoo is back and available to play this weekend.:-o
 
So what's wrong with the Braves?

First let me start out by saying I am not expert.
This is just my opinion based on watching the games on TV.
There were high expectations for this team from many people, myself included. The Braves returned a lot of very nice players with some well thought of recruits coming in.
But the bottom has fallen out and if things do not change I could see us ending up in Thursday night.

From what I see there are 2 glaring problems.
1-No consistent secondary scoring
2-Guard play

I just looked over the scoring from the last 6 games:
Nolan 1-0-20-17-2-9
East dnp-2-13-5-12-7
Mast 17-12-0-5-4-8
Tahvanainen 10-17-2-5-12-3
Henry 0-14-10-dnp-dnp

Yes various guys stepped up and had some games. But there needs to be somebody consistently to help Childs put the ball through the hoop. But it appears there is only one guy you have to worrry about game after game. I am encouraged by Mast who I am a big fan of. I thought Ville was the guy but he has had a sophomore slump. And of course an injury took Henry out of the mix some.

So even more concerning to me is the guard play.
The Valley is a guard driven league. Every team in the Valley seems to have at least one dynamic guard. Based on recent play I am not sure the Braves can say that. Both Nolan and East have shown flashes but are hugely inconsistent with bad shots, bad passes, bad defense and bad fouls.
Thomas dribbles, but I am not sure he knows what to do with the ball and he is definitely not a shooter.
Mcadoo has not been on the court enough to comment on.
I have a friend who watches every Valley game he can and he currently rates our guards as the worst. You can argue the point but right now the results are telling.
I hope the coaches and players can find some answers.
Our lone recruit signed for next year is another combo guard, but I don't want to give up on this year yet.
 
Big Mike said:
My take was East was being punished for a whole game. ;-) Dave Eminian just reported that Boya out for weekend but the " Good news " is McAdoo is back and available to play this weekend.:-o
Click to expand...

I'm ecstatic to hear this. McAdoo seems to be a streaky shooter that can get in a rhythm on 3's. Could be wrong about that, but either way, it'll be nice to have another option at guard if we're not getting any performance out of that position, which has been a problem, for, oh, I don't know, about 6 games!
 
Tommy said:
I'm ecstatic to hear this. McAdoo seems to be a streaky shooter that can get in a rhythm on 3's. Could be wrong about that, but either way, it'll be nice to have another option at guard if we're not getting any performance out of that position, which has been a problem, for, oh, I don't know, about 6 games!
Click to expand...

Agreed!

Might stir up the competition too among guards - fight for more P.T. could be a good thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top