More controversy

by **BEARZ77** » March 13th, 2021, 12:54 pm

It's being reported that the WBB game between Bradley and Missouri State has been cancelled . Evidently Bradley has multiple covid positives, but get this, the MVC wants MSU to still play the game. MSU is declining and may be required to forfeit ; but why would MSU risk a high NCAA tourney seed and involvement to cover the MVC's stupid decision.

UNI has a false positive and gets run out of the men's tourney, Bradley has positives and the LB's are the one facing a consequence. Boy all the positive PR from navigating the regular season is quickly going down the drain.

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by **BEARZ77** » March 13th, 2021, 2:48 pm

Not big on always having to find a scapegoat in all situations. After hearing the info about the situation I think the league was probably just dealing with a unfortunate situation as best they could. Evidently both Bradley and Drake had a positive in tier one personnel, but the league determined they had enough players to proceed. Missouri State did not feel comfortable with the risks given they are a lock for the NCAA Tourney, and chose to pull out since both potential games would have similar levels of risk. League should thank MSU as it now ensures a second bid for the Valley . They actually are realigning the tourney so that Drake as the higher remaining seed , gets a bye today and Bradley plays Loyola with the winner playing Drake tomorrow. Given all that , hope Loyola wins the tourney.

by **just ducky** » March 13th, 2021, 9:18 pm

I spent all evening in confusion not realizing you had it figured out well before 3:00.

In a normal year nobody would have thought about doing this or even allowed this to happen but nothing normal about this season and it makes perfect sense to me.

Did MSU check all the fine print? Any boobie traps that could be stumbled into? Maybe an ESPN lawsuit for an arbitrary game cancellation decision?

by **BEARZ77** » March 14th, 2021, 10:14 am

It's pretty interesting reading various reactions to how this all played out. Again, after reading both the league and MSU administration's reasonings, I feel both did what they needed to do. The major question I have is why the rules were different for the season than the tourney, but they were, and i think the league followed what they had established for the tourney. In the regular season it was stressed that avoiding any contact with a team that had positives was essential to the league and health of the players, but that was changed for the tourney. But once there were positives, it put MSU in a difficult situation given there was no real benefit to risking a sure thing NCAA bid .

In reading posts on different boards , it's interesting that many Drake fans seem to understand the dynamics and are supportive of MSU's decision. Bradley fans on the other hand seem intent on making MSU out to have been in the wrong and "ducked" playing them , which is funny given they were the ones with the positive and we annually own them. But then Gorski's about the most classless coach in the league, so that doesn't surprise me.

To our AD's credit, we never asked that Bradley or Drake be held out and we didn't complain about the League's decision ; we simply made the decision to protect our players and position in the NCAA tourney. The league was able to do what they thought they should, which again , greatly benefits the league with a second NCAA berth that was unlikely to happen.

by **Drakey** » March 14th, 2021, 11:10 am

Both the men's and women's procedures and results were done in conformity with the local health rules. They were played in different states with different rules.

by **BEARZ77** » March 14th, 2021, 11:30 am

Drakey wrote:Both the men's and women's procedures and results were done in conformity with the local health rules. They were played in different states with different rules.

Shat happens and especially during a pandemic. In the end , no one got hurt, games were played, and everyone moves on. Hate the current culture of always assigning blame and looking for scapegoats. And honestly, I get a little pleasure out of the fact that for a change it probably is a P-5 getting booted from an at large for a Mid Major.

by **BEARZ77** » March 14th, 2021, 5:06 pm

So Drake ends having to play today w/o both starting guards and 3/4 the coaching staff. Bradley makes the NCAA tourney probably the only way they ever will in WBB. Sad for the conference in some ways, but hey, will have two teams playing in the NCAA, so not all bad. Big issue now is hopefully both Bradley and MSU don't have the impact of 3 days in Moline show up in the next week in testing.

by **squirrel** » March 15th, 2021, 9:31 am

BEARZ77 wrote:So Drake ends having to play today w/o both starting guards and 3/4 the coaching staff. Bradley makes the NCAA tourney probably the only way they ever will in WBB.

This isn't your big brother's Bradley Braves WBB. They would have made noise in the QC last year. Andrea Gorski has this program in a legitimate place. In this league, some years being a top 2-3 program will put you in a reasonable NCAA position most years.

by **BEARZ77** » March 15th, 2021, 10:33 am

squirrel wrote:
BEARZ77 wrote:So Drake ends having to play today w/o both starting guards and 3/4 the coaching staff. Bradley makes the NCAA tourney probably the only way they ever will in WBB.

This isn't your big brother's Bradley Braves WBB. They would have made noise in the QC last year. Andrea Gorski has this program in a legitimate place. In this league, some years being a top 2-3 program will put you in a reasonable NCAA position most years.

You're kidding yourself; they were 3 games out of first last year and not competitive with MSU when they played, and 8 games out this year and in 5th place, not exactly an ascending pattern. I think the problem moving forward is Gorski isn't among the top 5 coaches in the league with Evans, Achter, Gillespie all starting to build better programs, and Mox, Warren, Barancyk far superior. They may do ok next year if Haack opts for an extra year with Petree, but otherwise they don't have the talent or coach to challenge imho.

by **BEARZ77** » March 15th, 2021, 6:25 pm

Bradley actually got a decent seed [11] and game [ 6 seedTexas] all things considered. Type of game you can start to build a program by winning and getting some momentum. I always feel if you're not playing a top 2-3 seed in WBB, you have a shot , as there is sizable dropoff after top 6-10 teams most years.

Lady Bears in different role this year of the hunted , getting a solid UC Davis squad , but as a 5 vs a 12, are expected to win now instead of hunting upsets or catching teams by surprise.