Next game: BU at Northern Illinois

[Da Coach]

Pregame article from the Northern Star newspaper-
http://www.northernstar.info/article/9414/

It reports that Xavier Silas was cleared to practice yesterday. However, Silas will only take part in the non-contact portion of practices, meaning any chance of him playing tonight against Bradley is doubtful at best.


And a different article from this morning saying that Xavier Silas definitely will not play tonight against Bradley.-
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2009/12/01/05906357/index.xml

 

[tornado]

BU will be ready regardless...but the DeKalb paper is now reporting
that Xavier Silas will not play tonight...

"Silas a no-go tonight against Bradley"
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2009/12/01/05906357/index.xml

wonder....if Silas does end up playing, then will the DeKalb paper rip into the coach for lying?


Hey- I have a question.....help me out here...

For the past two years, NIU's go to guy, and a kid who got All Conference attention was
Darion Anderson...
As a freshman the kid averaged 12.2 ppg and over 5 rebs
then as a soph - 17 ppg and 5.5 rebs!!
He is perhaps the best returning player in the entire conference...

BUT-- there's something funny going on...his stats are kinda puzzling...and he's barely even mentioned in any of the articles on NIU...

Most of the press talks about Silas and Kowal, yet Anderson is still starting and grabs 9.6 rebs per game!!
but his shooting numbers are off a bit..
so far in 5 games, he's only 18-49 (36.7%) and 3-13 from 3pt (23%), 11.8 ppg.
I would still consider Anderson as maybe their most potentially dangerous player.


NIU also has this guy...who they claim is a 24 year old senior...who had the best scoring nite of his career last year against SIU.

but I remain a skeptic and suspect that like a lot of the foreign players (along the line of Mac Koshwal), his age is "exaggerated"....



NIU attendance has averaged only 1,208 at home thus far this season...but I suspect several hundred BU fans will boost their attendance tonight.

 

[it's boogie time]

It seemed a little optimistic that a player would return less than three weeks after breaking a bone in his shooting hand (however, I'm not a doctor).

It's looks like the line has moved to 5.5.

I drove to the Bradley game at DeKalb in 2004 and bought tickets at the door about an hour before tipoff and got front row seats under the basket. I believe it was the second year of the Convocation Center and BU had more fans there.

 

[tornado]

Silas' fracture is described as a "second metacarpal fracture"..
but it fully depends on where in the 2nd metacarpal the fracture is.

A fracture in mid-shaft like this would be fairly unstable for 4-5 weeks and there'd be no chance of playing in the interval...it might even need a cast or surgery.

BUT a small fracture near the end of the bone would be more of an annoyance and a pain issue and it is possible such a smaller fracture might not need a cast and the player could return as soon as the pain subsides.

 

[PTownHawkeye]

According to ESPN's Simulator (my new favorite toy on the internet) after 10,000 simulations, Bradley won 71% of the by time by an average score of 72-65. Drew shall lead us in scoring with 15, TB will score 11 and pull down 8 boards, and SS will have a season high 3 points.

 

[Bravesfan]

According to ESPN's Simulator (my new favorite toy on the internet) after 10,000 simulations, Bradley won 71% of the by time by an average score of 72-65. Drew shall lead us in scoring with 15, TB will score 11 and pull down 8 boards, and SS will have a season high 3 points.

The NIU coach thought Bradley was the better of the two Valley teams they played (the other being UNI). The commentators on the postgame show agreed even though they acknowledged that UNI was the preseason favorite. Should be a great race to the top of the Valley this year!

 

[mrcoachdude]

Whoever those guys were on 31...they mentioned BU getting pegged at #6 in the Valley....said something like...they believe the voters missed the boat....

 

[tornado]

those two NIU broadcasters were pretty hard to listen to...
they made gaffes like claiming Eddren was born in Laplace, Louisiana (he's from Houston), that Dodie broke bones in his hand (it was the two bones in the forearm, and mistaking Taylor Brown's last name and calling him "Taylor" all nite, as well as butchering Maniscalco about 10 different ways.
Oddly he got Knezevic right...and his many descriptions of NIU's Jake Anderson as some kind of superstar got old...especially when Jake was missing so many ill-advised shots, never passed, and turned the ball over more than everyone else on their team combined.
It is a simple continuation of the prophecy spoken years ago that all the ex-Boys to Men kids will never blossom and will never be good team players..