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Bradley tennis

B

Biff

New member
A couple years ago a poster responded to a post of mine that was critical of the overall lack of success in Bradley sports programs.
I pointed out that losing was the norm for every Bradley sports program except soccer, and that no other program other than soccer has won a conference championship of any kind except the one softball tournament championship 5 years ago, though they finished low in the regular season standings that year, had a losing record, and were eliminated in the NCAA tournament their first game. The other poster ripped my post and claimed that all the sports were on the rise and doing well. Among those he claimed were doing well were the tennis teams.
Here we are, a couple years later, and we are still no closer to seeing any other championships, other than soccer, and the tennis teams are worse than ever.
I noticed this bleak report about the men's tennis team, who fell to 3-16 after another sweep this past weekend. They have lost 9 matches in a row, and 15 losses in their last 16 matches!-
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=209456070

The women's tennis team is not doing much better. They were beaten this past weekend by Omaha, and are now 4-12 on the season.
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewAr...509&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209456079&DB_OEM_ID=3400

Both teams are winless in MVC conference play, and both have, by far, the worst records in the MVC.
Looks like all the new higher-paid coaches, and promises of competing for championships were more empty promises from this administration. Just like basketball.
 
Hey, as a Bradley grad, and a donor to their athletic department, I'd just like to see some return on my investment!
In recent years, I have not. Their performance has been terrible. I can see why so many fans and donors might be thinking of dropping out.
 
Hmmmm...

Take a look at the XC results this past fall, the ladies indoor track results at the MVC (distance only points as we don't run shorts or fields), and the Stanford Invitational results this past weekend. We have a rising running program here.

Individually, it looks like we will have the largest number of individual qualifiers making it to the NCAA round this year in BU centuries, and we have a young sophomore student athlete that is now nationally ranked in the 10K after her DEBUT race.

Agreed, we need it from the other programs...But, Track and XC are succeeding...
 
agree that track & XC are better but the standard has been set...
competing for championships then post-season success.....and we are definitely NOT THERE YET....
this standard is what was used to fire the dozen or more coaches that have been sent packing in the past 3-4 years...

- hopefully some sustained good news is right around the corner
 
Help me out...Are the BU men's and women's tennis programs fully funded yet, meaning the athletic department uses all the scholarship quotas they are allowed per NCAA rules, or are we partially funded?
 
stevebu91 said:
Help me out...Are the BU men's and women's tennis programs fully funded yet, meaning the athletic department uses all the scholarship quotas they are allowed per NCAA rules, or are we partially funded?
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That is a good question. I do not think that information has ever been made public. However, I know a couple members of the Braves Scholarship Society who sponsored tennis players who were on full scholarships.
According to some sites I can find, the NCAA only allows a maximum of 4.5 scholarships for men's tennis, and 6 for women's tennis.
http://www.scholarshipstats.com/tennis.htm

It looks like the team returned the bulk of the players from last year (4 seniors and 1 junior), and they were expecting this year to be improved. So this must be a big disappointment.
 
I do not know about the present funding for tennis. I know that a few years ago, the men's program was only partially funded with the best player receiving 1/2 scholarship funding and other men receiving 1/4 or no funding. They just do not have the resources that other schools have that Bradley competes against.
 
Bradley Tennis

Bradley Tennis

Tennis has never been important at all at Bradley since the days of Tom Coker. First of all, BU allocates few if any scholarship help to tennis, they do not recruit outstanding high school players, and they really do not have top coaching. Golf is the same at BU. Its unimportant and the Athletic Administration is simply not interested in this sport.
In the final analysis, it would be just as well if BU dropped these two sports rather than fielding terrible losing efforts every year.
Wiz
 
I know - and three years ago when the firings began - all we heard about was how important our marquee sport, basketball, was and how we could NO LONGER tolerate mediocrity - thus it was time to make moves to bring us back to national prominence...the changes were GUARANTEED to get us into the postseason....

So how's it gone and why is the focus so much different now - we need to be patient - it takes time - we're so much better in Cross Country - we're making inroads in a few other sports -
 
Averaging over 20 wins a year is not mediocrity, no matter how many times the current admins and JL-haters keep repeating it. I am sure it makes them feel better to keep repeating it, considering the woeful state basketball and other sports have been in since the extensive changes.
But right now, most faithful Bradley fans would be happy just to see the program get back to mediocre. :(
 
I noticed Bradley women tennis team lost to a bad Evansville team, their 6h loss in a row and 9 th of their last 10. They finished 4-16, and they were 0-6 and winless in the MVC. http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=209473882
Winless in the MVC is nothing new- this is the 8th season in a row they have been winless! and even more, they have been winless 15 of the last 18 seasons that the MVC has kept records. http://www.mvc.org/records/wtennis.pdf
This has to be some kind of NCAA record for futility. Why bother?
The men's tennis didn't fare any different. They finished 3-18, and winless in the MVC. They lost their last 11 matches, and 17 of their last 18. The teams start the MVC championships this weekend.
 
I have wondered how many sports Bradley has to maintain to be an NCAA school? I believe I heard somewhere there is a required minimum.
 
LongTimeFan said:
I have wondered how many sports Bradley has to maintain to be an NCAA school? I believe I heard somewhere there is a required minimum.
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Division I member institutions have to have at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with at least two team sports for each gender. Also, each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well.
 
tornado said:
How did Lewis compete in DI VB, and DBU in DI baseball for several years?
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Lewis is Division II, and NCAA Men's Volleyball combines Division I & Division II.

Prior to 2012, the NCAA men's volleyball did not have any official divisional structure. They combined all 3 Divisions, I, II, and III.
But in 2012, the NCAA established a separate Division III Championship. But DI and DII are still combined together.
 
The NCAA has always allowed exceptions that allowed lower division schools to participate in some D1 sports. But those schools are not considered D1 schools.
 
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