Staying positive

[Bradleyfan1]

Last night was a huge setback for me, the matchups were in our favor, Pross had a improved game, The refs were definitley noticed in the first half more than the 2nd, I would have liked to see us at some point put a full court press with more than one defender in the front court on for a series of trips, after the T on them and colt scores the next two baskets and had that look in his eye, you have to call timeout and re focus on stopping him face guard, double team, make him give it up, I can not understand what I witnessed last night, ball pressure really frustrated us, but give them credit right they have tough guards, too much standing without the ball for us, anyway moving forward after Saturday we will have played everyone once cept the dirty birds, now we get to see a little more of what we have coach wise, I think the worst is behind us we Win going away Saturday as TB has a huge bounce back game and owns and frustrates weems, walt and dse, show that they are a back court to be reckoned with come st louis, we go down and win in carbondale still the game in peoria i think was the best game of the yr for siu, well im excited for the trip to omaha just to see what happens! But we get 2 of the next 3 and we have somthing real to build on, still a long way to go and plenty time to get this right, i say we will and Go Braves!

 

[lefty]

Didn't the last positive thread get deleted?

 

[Da Coach]

I think most fans are still positive. Just the fact that 7000-8000 people keep showing up at home, knowing what they are likely to see, show Bradley has one of the most positive and supportive fan bases in America. I'll keep going to the games, and I plan to go to the remaining road games, too. But it is hard not to notice there are problems with this team, and it doesn't all stem from the easy and shallow excuse of inferior talent. Even the coaches don't believe that. They have told me and stated it publically that we have to talent to win now. We just need to see more of the effort, teamwork, and defense we saw in the second half last Saturday against UNI. It was lacking for all 40 minutes last night.

Cliche warning: only 1 team came to play last night.

 

[SFP]

Besides the T on WL he showed me that he wants to win. CW is also a player that plays hard regardless of the score. I was looking for the players that continued to go after it even when everyone else knew it was done.

I also believe if JP had a complimentary big his numbers would be completely different. I have no idea why we did not go inside last night as much as possible. I bet you the game in Peoria we'll see a bit more passing to the bigs in the post and TB being told to stay in the post.

 

[Da Coach]

I agree. Evansville is perhaps the smallest interior team we'll face in the MVC. It should have been a chance to involve Jordan much more, and exploit their duo of skinny 6-8 freshmen centers Sawvell and Cesnulevicius. Yet it was the other way around- we made those two skinny kids look like Tyler Hansbrough.

 

[Dub]

I understand the down year. I can't stand being humiliated by Evansville, or a similar team. To me it was highly embarrassing and I'm finding myself having to pull back a little as it seems the fans care more than the team. This is not Bradley basketball.

 

[BradleyJD]

I think most fans are still positive. Just the fact that 7000-8000 people keep showing up at home, knowing what they are likely to see, show Bradley has one of the most positive and supportive fan bases in America.

But it is hard not to notice there are problems with this team, and it doesn't all stem from the easy and shallow excuse of inferior talent. Even the coaches don't believe that.

They have told me and stated it publically that we have to talent to win now.

Cliche warning: only 1 team came to play last night.

I agree with everything here.

BU does have great fans.

There are a ton of problems with this team. It's not all talent at all.

I did not see or hear the game, but reading the articles and boxscores tells me that BU was not there last night.

All that said, this still goes back to putting in a new system. You can have all the parts you "need" to win games. If the parts don't fit exactly right, you will have problems. That is what I see night in and night out. Sometimes everything lines up and you get a W. Most of the time, we look like spare parts that are going in 10 different directions.

I go back to the preseason. The HOOPS section came out and talked about every player on the team. When talking about Donivine this is what it said....."Stewart lacks all the attributes Ford loves in his guards - speed, quickness, athleticism."

To me, that is not a shot at DS; it's stating a fact. It also talked about his qualities and assets. A player can be good and have talent. That doesn't mean he fits what you want to do.

Right now you have a new coach, with a new system, and a bunch of parts that weren't built to run it perfectly.

This will take time.

 

[Chico]

Maybe it's a fact, I don't know I've never seen the kid play, but IMO it was something that should not have been in print. Bet it made DS feel wanted. I still say this team, this season, isn't going anyplace so let him and Milos have some playing time.

 

[BradleyJD]

Maybe it's a fact, I don't know I've never seen the kid play, but IMO it was something that should not have been in print. Bet it made DS feel wanted. I still say this team, this season, isn't going anyplace so let him and Milos have some playing time.

To be fair, this was the entire quote: "Stewart lacks all the attributes Ford loves in his guards - speed, quickness, athleticism. But he owns intangibles in spades. He knows the game, provides leadership and heady play, is a great passer, is unselfish yet can score when needed. Defense is still a foreign concept to him. He must improve it to see major minutes."

That was the PJStar's take on DS. Not the coaching staff.

I don't totally disagree that the bench should/could see more PT

 

[Biff]

OK, I am going to say what a lot of us long time Bradley fans are now wondering-
For all the promises and all the attention our administration has focused on improving the athletic programs, and for all the millions spent and all the innumerable coaching changes and changes everywhere else from office people to key support people on up to the highest levels of administration in the AD, can anyone name one single Bradley athletic program that is significantly improved? And how much damage does this trainwreck that's been created have on fundraising, which incidentallly until last year was at record high levels.

 

[basketball nut]

OK, I am going to say what a lot of us long time Bradley fans are now wondering-
And how much damage does this trainwreck that's been created have on fundraising, which incidentallly until last year was at record high levels.[/quote]

Good question and one we might not know the answer to for a year or two.
I asked basicaly this same question last year to people that wanted to get rid of JL as that was his strong suit. (maybe that is why JG didn't like him because he got the credit for fund raising and not her)

 

[Bravesfan]

OK, I am going to say what a lot of us long time Bradley fans are now wondering-
And how much damage does this trainwreck that's been created have on fundraising, which incidentallly until last year was at record high levels.[/quote]

Good question and one we might not know the answer to for a year or two.
I asked basicaly this same question last year to people that wanted to get rid of JL as that was his strong suit. (maybe that is why JG didn't like him because he got the credit for fund raising and not her)

I don't think there will be that much of an effect. I think most fans, like us will wait until Geno's third season or so before they make a fair assessment of his hiring. If we continue to wallow near the bottom of the Valley for three or four years, then you may see a pretty big decrease in fundraising, even though Bradley athletics is still worth contributing too.

 

[BradleyJD]

I don't think there will be that much of an effect. I think most fans, like us will wait until Geno's third season or so before they make a fair assessment of his hiring. If we continue to wallow near the bottom of the Valley for three or four years, then you may see a pretty big decrease in fundraising, even though Bradley athletics is still worth contributing too.

Agreed....I still don't know how this season is a trainwreck.

I do not know one person who thought Geno was going to make a turnaround in 1 year. None.

We have less talent then last season, and we were last place then.

In years 3, 4, 5 if we are sitting at the bottom, then I would say it's bad.

 

[Chico]

To be fair, this was the entire quote: "Stewart lacks all the attributes Ford loves in his guards - speed, quickness, athleticism. But he owns intangibles in spades. He knows the game, provides leadership and heady play, is a great passer, is unselfish yet can score when needed. Defense is still a foreign concept to him. He must improve it to see major minutes."

That was the PJStar's take on DS. Not the coaching staff.

I don't totally disagree that the bench should/could see more PT

Thanks for entire quote. Now if the media would put the entire quote out there when it comes to politics. Makes a difference.

 

[peoriaspitfire]

...
I guess, for me, it would be more of a case when the players aren't hustling or following the game plan that they would go to the bench until they decide to play according to what the coaching staff wants-whether that be the 5 minutes or the remainder of the game and even more then that. This, for me, isn't anything new and I did it on more then one occasion. Nothing bothers me more then seeing a player get by w/ going through the motions and not really playing the way the coaching staff wants and have no repurcussions for it.

I agree and I have noticed that Geno has had a much shorter leash lately. Unfortunately, we just aren??™t seeing enough of a response from the players. For the sake of Bradley basketball, let??™s just play some defense. I don??™t care if that??™s all we work on in practice, but I would certainly be working nonstop on defense until our players can guard in their sleep. I think all of the switching we do on defense might be causing some of our issues, along with our lack of physical presence in the middle. I actually think Bradley has the players for this type of switching defense to work, but it??™s just not yet being executed well enough.

 

[Bravesfan]

I agree and I have noticed that Geno has had a much shorter leash lately. Unfortunately, we just aren’t seeing enough of a response from the players. For the sake of Bradley basketball, let’s just play some defense. I don’t care if that’s all we work on in practice, but I would certainly be working nonstop on defense until our players can guard in their sleep. I think all of the switching we do on defense might be causing some of our issues, along with our lack of physical presence in the middle. I actually think Bradley has the players for this type of switching defense to work, but it’s just not yet being executed well enough.

I agree. Any players who won't respond to the changes that Geno is making will probably not be the ones who will ultimately lead Bradley to better times in the future. Coaches can yell, plead, practice, beg and rehash the same plays and drills in practice, but if the players don't respond, they don't respond. And those are the players that won't be able to push the team to more wins.

That said, I do agree there is talent on this team, but it may not be the type of talent that will ultimately thrive in Geno's system, and there just may not be enough of it there. However, I believe there is enough talent where we should be able to win a few more games and be a little more competitive the rest of the way, at least at home. We have to try to get our swagger back at home, and a second straight home win this Saturday night against another decent team can go a long way towards accomplishing that.