agrinut wrote:GoRamblers wrote:Bradleyfan1 wrote:The only reason you cant pic Bradley as a dark horse is because if you cant see how good we are the you arnt paying attention! We barely played Walt and Tyshon last night and ran away w/ the thing we r 2 and 1 in the bahamas..........going for w number 3 tonight .....how many games have yall played this yr? ;0 advantage us and with 8 new beasts its really helping
I wouldn't exactly brag about the games in the Bahamas. The competition isn't the same. Point of reference: Loyola played in Italy last year. Won all but 1 game. Several were straight blow outs. What did we do last season? 15-16.
Look. Bradley is a good team and should have a good year. But getting worked up over a summer trip to the Bahamas? Come on now.
Why should they be a "good" team? They have 8 new players... Lemon is an elite guard and Pickett is a decent post but after that what do they have? I understand it is ridiculous for Missouri State to expect their group of freshman to be better then they were last year, so why should we expect Bradley's newcomers this year to be ready to carry the torch? Bradley lost 56% of its offense from last year, are you expecting those newcomers to make up for most of that?
First off, since you are asking me, I never said anything about MSU's team for this year. You asserted that MSU would have beaten LU last year and I disagreed. In looking at MSU's team, it's pretty clear that they have no place to go but up. At the end of the year, they trended better. I expect them to have a better year, but I'm not predicting a big jump. The only reason I expect big things from LU is that we had, according to metrics, a negative luck rating. MSU did as well, but your luck rating was -.5 (ranked 206) and ours was -1.2 (ranked 252). Losing 7 games by a total of 12 points will do that to you.
Now, on to Bradley. They were 18-17 last year. They lost 4 seniors, two of whom averaged over 10 ppg. That said, they do return Lemon. As you mentioned, Pickett should be good for them. Just looking at the past performance and trends, Bradley should finish the way that they did last year. Please note, I said "good." I didn't say "great." I didn't say "top of the conference." I said "good." They played in the CIT last year. Post-season play (regardless of the tournament) is a positive and I view that as having a "good" year.