Just a thought on players coming and going...

Well - I am going to start off having a little fun with the ISU folks since they seem to have a never-ending compulsion to argue that their head coach Tim Jankovich does NOT have all that much player turnover....

OK -- but I really don't want to waste the time going back too many years - so I will only list those players on the ISU basketball team WHO WOULD STILL BE AT ISU had they not been Janked...or who were Janked sometime at ISU in the past four years...

..Here is just an abbreviated list of the players ...

Kenyon Smith
Bobby Hill
Kellen Thornton
Jeremy Robinson
Ty Modupe
Justin Clark
Terry Johnson
Trey Blue
Landon Shipley
Sead Odzic
Mike Vandello

Even Lloyd Phillips was Janked but came crawling back...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11182

..plus they're currently oversigned by a couple and are going to have to boot one or two more of their current players - with Zeke Upshaw, Darious Clark being the names mentioned as possibly goners...so that list could be as long as 14 player shortly...

In the same time span no where near HALF that number of kids have been booted at Bradley -- even with the addition of Donivine and Devon to the few others like Darian Norris & Eddren.



And to close the door on the argument that some have made that we as fans have NO RIGHT to question anything because we have never been there in the practices so we don't know anything!

Well -- that's a stunner of a comments - especially when we just went through nine years of the Jim Les era where a certain set of anti-JL fans questioned, criticized, and attacked everything he ever did - from the recruits he got, to the game plan, to his coaching abilities, all the way down to what he wore and how he dealt with the media.
Now -- all of a sudden - there are some self-proclaimed fans policing the message boards saying we cannot offer any opinions because we just don't know!

BUT of course I fully disagree -- everyone is entitled to his opinions -- it's the same about talk at the water cooler. Everyone has that right.
BUT - that right conflicts with the management of the message board when it crosses the line and violates standard, long held policy against such personal attacks.

But let's offer this example...

We're watching a baseball game and the inexperienced pitcher is giving up gobs of hits and runs...5 runs every inning...
at some point isn't it fair game to question why the coach hasn't made a change, especialy if we have experienced pitchers sitting on the bench? Maybe even by the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th inning we would all want to know why hasn't a pitching change or a lineup change been made?

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the coach goes all the way with the same pitcher and same lineup and way down in the bottom of the 9th inning when the game is hopelessly lost and the score is 50-0, then he makes a few minor changes but still NEVER brings in the only guy on his entire roster who actually IS and has played the position of PITCHER!!!

The astoundingly some apologist for the teamn steps up to the microphone after the game in the post-game press conference, and says...
"hey - none of you have ever been at a practice so none of you have any right to question or criticize. We're the only ones who know what's going on and we still think we made the right moves.

Oh, so we don't even have a right to question?? And BU was playing a lot of players OUT OF POSITION and losing games in long streaks by 30 points or more....
so is it a stretch to wonder why only certain players were ever tried??
I think it is a fair question and It isn't even within a million miles of the harsh and personal criticism and attacks we have seen over the past decade and more...
If anyone thinks so they simply have failing memories and cannot recall the insulting and unfair criticism aimed at Jim Molinari and Jim Les during their stays at Bradley. Insults aimed simply because they had worked as stockbrokers or were openly religious men. Harsh personal attacks and even attacks of their supporters, calling them racist without even knowing who they are - just knowing they favored choosing JL over WM.

By this fall we should have at least two more new players - maybe three added to the two incoming new recruits (Bell, Pickett) - and we might have one or two 2013 recruits committed.......
and if those are all added to the five new players who debuted last fall under Geno...that will give Geno his first DOZEN or so new players to debut on the Hilltop under Geno.......and time will tell just how solid they end up being - and how far they carry BU.

BUT -- just for comparison -- you decide how relevant -
Here are Jim Les' first dozen new scholarship players that HE LANDED when he was hired...some had already committed to Mo (one was a walk-on named Danny Adams who also became quite a productive player)...

Jabbar Battle
Stevan Marcetic (had committed to Mo)
Joey Paul
Ryan Sunley
Michael Rembert
Marcellus Sommerville
JJ Tauai
Patrick O'Bryant
Jeremy Crouch
Lawrence Wright
Tony Bennett...
Dabiel Ruffin

Not a bad list -- they did their part to putting Bradley back on the map again -- and I hope our next batch are at least equally as successful.
Bradley in almost every sport has been way too far down and for too long......
at what point do we need to begin making even MORE big time changes.........?