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Random Thoughts

B

Big Lance

New member
Just a few meandering thoughts about the Massacre on 74 I just endured:

1. That was pretty ugly, but at least they seemed to try, unlike my impression of the Evansville game Wednesday night, so that was a small plus.

2. That was the best I've been treated while attending a game at ISU, and I've been there probably 15 times at least. Maybe they were just showing mercy on us poor suckers that had the guts to show up.

3. ISU clearly, I mean hands down, blows BU to pieces when it comes to game-night atmosphere. Not trying to be disloyal, and I don't care for the Birds at all, but those jokers really do it up right when it comes to the intros, starting lineups, music selections. And I got to say it, the student section was fantastic. Kudos to you guys. I've said it for years: Redbird Arena is BY FAR a better place to watch a game. Just my opinion.

4. It's time to chuck the gameplan that seems to be in place for every single game. Maybe I'm just delusional, but weren't we told that Geno liked to press some? Well what in the world is there to lose? May as well go straight up Loyola Marymount from the early 1990s at this point. I know I know, we will get blown out. Oh wait how is that any different than what is happening now???? The difference would be that I wouldn't have to give a mock cheer when we finally hit the 20 point mark sometime into the 2nd half...In my world I'd rather see a 140-110 loss than a 90-60 loss or a 78-48 or whatever

5. Please please please let us see what Jalen Crawford can do if he gets 20 minutes or more a game. NEWSFLASH: Only one player has proven to be an offensive threat...we need offense REAL bad...and what is it going to hurt to let Milos, who from all accounts IS a very good shooter, play? What's going to happen? The defense will suffer? Don't make me laugh...

6. Noodles and Co. is delicious. That helped ease the sting of the beatdown

7. Finally a Big Lance shoutout to BUFanatic-just so happened to be sitting right next to him and his posse. Cool guy, funny, and a big, and positive, Bradley fan even in the face of a trainwreck of adversity. Hope you made it back to school safe big dog! Pleasure to have met you:lol:
 
Big Lance said:
3. ISU clearly, I mean hands down, blows BU to pieces when it comes to game-night atmosphere. Not trying to be disloyal, and I don't care for the Birds at all, but those jokers really do it up right when it comes to the intros, starting lineups, music selections. And I got to say it, the student section was fantastic. Kudos to you guys. I've said it for years: Redbird Arena is BY FAR a better place to watch a game. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...


Folks, it's not just ISU who does game management better than Bradley, it is just about every school. We have the absolute worst, most boring games, with no excitement, no energy. Just loud, and awful piped-in music. Do our people think we want to hear over-amplified crappy music for a hour leading up to the game? Maybe it's time to clean house again, and get people in here who know what they're doing.
 
Big Lance said:
Just a few meandering thoughts about the Massacre on 74 I just endured:

1. That was pretty ugly, but at least they seemed to try, unlike my impression of the Evansville game Wednesday night, so that was a small plus.

2. That was the best I've been treated while attending a game at ISU, and I've been there probably 15 times at least. Maybe they were just showing mercy on us poor suckers that had the guts to show up.

3. ISU clearly, I mean hands down, blows BU to pieces when it comes to game-night atmosphere. Not trying to be disloyal, and I don't care for the Birds at all, but those jokers really do it up right when it comes to the intros, starting lineups, music selections. And I got to say it, the student section was fantastic. Kudos to you guys. I've said it for years: Redbird Arena is BY FAR a better place to watch a game. Just my opinion.

4. It's time to chuck the gameplan that seems to be in place for every single game. Maybe I'm just delusional, but weren't we told that Geno liked to press some? Well what in the world is there to lose? May as well go straight up Loyola Marymount from the early 1990s at this point. I know I know, we will get blown out. Oh wait how is that any different than what is happening now???? The difference would be that I wouldn't have to give a mock cheer when we finally hit the 20 point mark sometime into the 2nd half...In my world I'd rather see a 140-110 loss than a 90-60 loss or a 78-48 or whatever

5. Please please please let us see what Jalen Crawford can do if he gets 20 minutes or more a game. NEWSFLASH: Only one player has proven to be an offensive threat...we need offense REAL bad...and what is it going to hurt to let Milos, who from all accounts IS a very good shooter, play? What's going to happen? The defense will suffer? Don't make me laugh...

6. Noodles and Co. is delicious. That helped ease the sting of the beatdown

7. Finally a Big Lance shoutout to BUFanatic-just so happened to be sitting right next to him and his posse. Cool guy, funny, and a big, and positive, Bradley fan even in the face of a trainwreck of adversity. Hope you made it back to school safe big dog! Pleasure to have met you:lol:
Click to expand...

Noodles and Potbelly are the only things B/N has over Peoria.
 
Big Lance said:
7. Finally a Big Lance shoutout to BUFanatic-just so happened to be sitting right next to him and his posse. Cool guy, funny, and a big, and positive, Bradley fan even in the face of a trainwreck of adversity. Hope you made it back to school safe big dog! Pleasure to have met you:lol:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the shout out! My family has been going to that game for six years now, wasn't going to miss it because I was going to some HORIZON LEAGUE school haha. Great to sit next to you and your posse. You did Noodles too? That's been our haunt for about five of the six years! Just about back now, one more train. Good to meet you to.

Hopefully next year we'll be hot and the section will fill up, but hey who can tell? I've got to go back to listening to the games in my little cell of a dorm room, best wishes and respect to those who still plan on going to BU games this year!

It's true about the atmosphere, the video was miles better, and the students were really good (unlike the first year I went, those who went in '06 will remember the disgrace). Bradley has GOT to work on that.

And finally.... GO BRAVES! YNWA! (Anyone want to join me in following Notre Dame for the rest of the year? ;) )
 
Cellus said:
Folks, it's not just ISU who does game management better than Bradley, it is just about every school. We have the absolute worst, most boring games, with no excitement, no energy.
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I would mostly agree with this. For a guy in his early 30s I've been to a ton of road games. Here are the road games that I've attended that had better game management and/or overall atmosphere than Carver Arena: Wichita State (best ever, even more intimidating than Duke), Duke (2nd best), and in no particular order, Illinois, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Missouri State. (And may I add the home game in the Coliseum. That was actually much more fun than a normal home game) Here are places that are/were on par with the Carver experience that I've seen: Indiana State, Northern Iowa. Less fans, but about the same type of experience. The only places that I've been that I'd give BU an edge is Loyola, Western Illinois, Drake when they were atrocious, and Butler 15 years ago when they probably drew about 800 people for games. There isn't a strong student section; the reasons for this can be debated. We all know that having a winning team helps. Also having many more enrolled students in your school helps too. But-here's a novel concept-having FUN at a game, win or lose, doesn't hurt. And I know, I know, we have to keep the big money happy. It's what drives the program. I won't deny that. But if you think a loud, fun, intimidating atmosphere doesn't help, then I invite you to go to a game at Wichita or at Duke, and just see how the crowd can turn a snowball of momentum into an avalanche. (and for the record, BU obviously got destroyed at Duke, but they also got completely massacred at Wichita for my one trip there. And the crowd was fantastic...it made for an awesome and entertaining experience even in defeat)
 
Did all those places have the exciting cactus race and all the other goofy promotions when their fans wanted to be up and cheering? Did they have all the useless PA announcements? Doubt it.
 
Big Lance I'd have to believe you would have fun just about anywhere with beer and co-eds. :razz:
 
Chico said:
Did all those places have the exciting cactus race and all the other goofy promotions when their fans wanted to be up and cheering? Did they have all the useless PA announcements? Doubt it.
Click to expand...

FWIW, Creighton had a lot of in-game promotions.
 
Cellus said:
Folks, it's not just ISU who does game management better than Bradley, it is just about every school. We have the absolute worst, most boring games, with no excitement, no energy. Just loud, and awful piped-in music. Do our people think we want to hear over-amplified crappy music for a hour leading up to the game? Maybe it's time to clean house again, and get people in here who know what they're doing.
Click to expand...

I agree our fans can be very passive at times at Carver Arena. And they tend to be passive, waiting for the team to make something happen instead of being more proactive and trying to spur the team on when they are losing (though down 20 or worse is usually a lost cause anyway). That said, the crowd does get into games when they win as happened against UNI. And credit to the Carver Arena staff for spurring the crowd on during the game with their "make noise" signs rather than during a t-shirt toss at a timeout! Also credit to the Bradley cheerleaders and the Red Sea for doing what they can to get the crowd going. Even down 30 points they were still trying to get something going.

The simple fact is if Bradley starts playing better, the crowd will get into it. I've heard many opposing team's announcers and others this year saying that Carver Arena is one of the loudest places to play in the Valley. And I believe because I experienced it during the time I went to school in the early years of Coach Mo's run. But the crowd also needs a reason to be into the game. And being down 30 points at halftime is NOT one of them. That needs to change before the crowd can even think of giving their energy to this team. We need to be more competitive first, and then the crowd can put the team over the top.
 
Big Lance said:
3. ISU clearly, I mean hands down, blows BU to pieces when it comes to game-night atmosphere...
Click to expand...

can't believe you go to one ISU game and pick their biggest rivalry game - the only game they care about winning all year - then come up with a comparison that's totally lame.

Outside of the BU game at Redbird Arena - all their other games are downright snorers...with barely more than 2000-2500 fans and even half the primo mid-court-lower bowl seats occupied...

By contrast - even the snow game last year with only 1200 people had more noise, more action, and more louds cheering than 95% of ISU games.
If you still choose to believe ISU has a better atmosphere in their arena than BU even in a BU-down year - then feel free, but 99% of honest people who have been both places disagree with you.
 
tornado said:
can't believe you go to one ISU game and pick their biggest rivalry game - the only game they care about winning all year - then come up with a comparison that's totally lame.

Outside of the BU game at Redbird Arena - all their other games are downright snorers...with barely more than 2000-2500 fans and even half the primo mid-court-lower bowl seats occupied...

By contrast - even the snow game last year with only 1200 people had more noise, more action, and more louds cheering than 95% of ISU games.
If you still choose to believe ISU has a better atmosphere in their arena than BU even in a BU-down year - then feel free, but 99% of honest people who have been both places disagree with you.
Click to expand...

How would you know what the atmosphere is at Redbird Arena this year?

How many games have you been?

Reality check- the box score (attendance) doesn't tell the entire picture. Especially when it comes to ATMOSPHERE!

I will take 5K of a loud crowd over 10K of people sitting on their hands any day of the week.
 
This year will be the 1st time I will get to go to the ISU-BU rivalry at Carver arena since the mid 80's! I wasn't really into the games too much back then.
Too bad they finally decided to have the game on a weekend when I could go, but I'm just praying we don't get trounced on.
Was totally psyched about the opportunity before the season began.
Let's see how much the crowd gets into it this year.
Hopefully we still have some fight left in us.

I will agree with Geno that these kids don't let up no matter how ugly the score gets.
I will say that Geno's attitude toward this team all season has been stellar and not throwing any player under the bus when it would be easy to do. He's continued to stay positive, believing in the kids. Yeah, I know he's making a good chunk of money, but he could be doing it in the wrong way. Just my 2 cents.

Not sure if it's the right word, but "impressive" how we still hustled even down 40 the other night like we were down by 10. Just felt bad for the guys.
 
how would you know that -- which game in recent memory have you had 10K at to ever make such a comparison??
(you did attend one BU-ISU game where there were over 10K but it wasn't in RA - LINK)
I dare say over the 40 years I have been going to college basketball games, I have taken in quite a few more than you have and have plenty in BOTH arenas - even Horton to compare to
 
tornado said:
how would you know that -- which game in recent memory have you had 10K at to ever make such a comparison??
(you did attend one BU-ISU game where there were over 10K but it wasn't in RA - LINK)
I dare say over the 40 years I have been going to college basketball games, I have taken in quite a few more than you have and have plenty in BOTH arenas - even Horton to compare to
Click to expand...

That's fine and dandy Tornado.

But unless you have been to a game at Redbird Arena this season, you really don't know what's gone on their this season.
 
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