The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(11-25-2020 10:51 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:39 PM)Cucumber Salad Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:04 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  Great effort, came up a bit short of a huge upset. Regardless of how many games they win this season they should be fun to watch.

Other than Vegas spread how do you conclude it would’ve been a huge upset?

The Vegas spread. I think any 20 point underdog to win a game would be called a huge upset especially considering the horrible pre-season press this team has been getting.

Preseason speculation by people that spent two seconds thinking it through and Vegas using statistics not taking in the consideration of human variable. I agree that Butler is not particularly good. WMU better than expected. winnable game against a beatable opponent. Could’ve gone 4-2 into conference. Now I no we better than 3-3 if the Trine game is played.

Lavall has done at least a solid job there. Would've been 2 tourney in 3 years if not for Covid. They've been unlucky at times (so it goes). If yesterday is any kind of indicator makes me think Butler will struggle offensively this year, but they will continue to defend really well. Scoobie going down probably hurt them tremendously because he can probably score right away at that level which is rare.

Weird year to come, a day at a time mentality a must and that's being preached daily to both staff and team.
Yesterday was promising on some fronts and more importantly educational for everyone in the locker room. Thought game was played at a high level, wasn't a hard watch at all.

No moral victories but lessons can be learned from the film for everyone.

Prep for ND and recruiting in the virtual/phone world continues. Learning continues. So it goes.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Looks like someone at Butler tested positive for Covid. Their game Sunday has been postponed.

Seemed like Butler missed lot of shots last night. Should've been ugly. Credit to our team for hanging in there. Frustrating it slipped away but chance for redemption vs Milwaukee & Detroit

(11-26-2020 07:40 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  Seemed like Butler missed lot of shots last night. Should've been ugly. Credit to our team for hanging in there. Frustrating it slipped away but chance for redemption vs Milwaukee & Detroit

Yup .... should have been ugly. We should have won by 15 if we had made all of our shots from point blank range!

From the Close But No Cigar department:

6 of the 8 MAC losses were by 4 points or less. These included at #8 Illinois, Butler, Xavier, Bradley.

(11-26-2020 09:44 AM)Cucumber Salad Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:51 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:39 PM)Cucumber Salad Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:04 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  Great effort, came up a bit short of a huge upset. Regardless of how many games they win this season they should be fun to watch.

Other than Vegas spread how do you conclude it would’ve been a huge upset?

The Vegas spread. I think any 20 point underdog to win a game would be called a huge upset especially considering the horrible pre-season press this team has been getting.

Preseason speculation by people that spent two seconds thinking it through and Vegas using statistics not taking in the consideration of human variable. I agree that Butler is not particularly good. WMU better than expected. winnable game against a beatable opponent. Could’ve gone 4-2 into conference. Now I no we better than 3-3 if the Trine game is played.

Let's see, WMU is coming off a bad season. After the season they fired their coach who had been there 16 seasons. Then their best two players transferred. Then a pandemic hit. They had to do a coaching search and hire a coach during a national lockdown. Then they didn't know if they would have a season and if they did when it would start. It was finally decided they would have a season. They got a much later start than normal. They were going to open the season at Butler who has been a really good team in recent seasons. So they were going to start the season on the road against a quality opponent with a new coach, 5 new players, having played no exhibition games to try and figure out a rotation, etc. That all sounds normal so I guess you are right, it wouldn't have been a huge upset. I mean after all, WMU routinely wins out of conference road games against quality opponents. No, actually they don't. I can't remember the last quality out of conference team they have beaten in their gym.

Oh, and the people you say took 2 seconds thinking about it before picking WMU to finish last in the conference would be opposing MAC coaches so I'm pretty sure they spend more than 2 seconds thinking about the Broncos. In fact they probably know a lot more about the Broncos than any of us.

So once again, they were really close to pulling off a huge upset!!

Great post. Thank you for reminding everyone what these kids and our basketball program went through over the last 8 months.

To the point ... I’m willing to state that this team is better than all the blather your sighted implies. Your either not willing to admit so or truly think they aren’t as good. Hamstrung? Name a like sized program not in the same boat?

Bates will be just fine. He’s not a novice and is skilled. His 1st class was better than most of Hawks as he now has final say.

Butler isn’t that good. Big conference but average talent. A winnable game. Other than allowing Titus to receive that closing IB pass and playing WBR minutes and not Martin I’m good.

ND too is winnable. A below avg ACC team that is young and big. WMU needs to defend, rebound defensively and get to the line and drain them. Find the shooters who can make the needed 3 ... Cruz, White, Freeman, Martin and or Emilien. But get it to the lane and finish, draw or kick. Don’t settle. No moral victories.

(11-28-2020 08:25 PM)bronco89 Wrote:  Great post. Thank you for reminding everyone what these kids and our basketball program went through over the last 8 months.

Watching ND MSU I think we have a shot at beating them.

(11-28-2020 04:21 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  

(11-26-2020 09:44 AM)Cucumber Salad Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:51 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:39 PM)Cucumber Salad Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:04 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  Great effort, came up a bit short of a huge upset. Regardless of how many games they win this season they should be fun to watch.

Other than Vegas spread how do you conclude it would’ve been a huge upset?

The Vegas spread. I think any 20 point underdog to win a game would be called a huge upset especially considering the horrible pre-season press this team has been getting.

Preseason speculation by people that spent two seconds thinking it through and Vegas using statistics not taking in the consideration of human variable. I agree that Butler is not particularly good. WMU better than expected. winnable game against a beatable opponent. Could’ve gone 4-2 into conference. Now I no we better than 3-3 if the Trine game is played.

Oh, and the people you say took 2 seconds thinking about it before picking WMU to finish last in the conference would be opposing MAC coaches so I'm pretty sure they spend more than 2 seconds thinking about the Broncos. In fact they probably know a lot more about the Broncos than any of us.

So once again, they were really close to pulling off a huge upset!!

2 min referenced Vegas (not an important game) and media. WMU was pedestrian last year with BJ and Flowers. An easy and mindless last place by Coaches w/o.

I really like the top 5. But they need 3-4 others consistently contribute and at times bail others out. Barr’s, Freeman, Martin and now Emilien need to be big. Whitens appears to be settling into a glue guy. Ok, but needs to excel somewhere.... stopper, popper, drawer of fouls (O glass, every 50/50 ball guy, chargee).