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Final score: Bradley 69 Missouri State 60

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Bradley (12-2, 3-0) hosts Missouri State (7-7, 0-3) Saturday night, 7:00 pm at Carver Arena.
The game is televised on the CBS Sports Network - https://www.cbssports.com/watch/cbs-sports-network
Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Chat room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Radio- https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045

This is the final season for Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Network. And, Saturday's game is the only time Bradley will play them this year.
They are coached by Cuonzo Martin, who took over for Dana Ford, who was fired after last season. Ford is now an assistant coach under Andy Enfield at SMU. Cuonzo Martin is 7-7 so far in his return to Missouri State. He coached there previously from 2008-2011 and was 68-38 in his 3 seasons. he won 24 games his second year (2009-10) and won the CIT Championship. And he won 25 games in 2010-11, and won the MVC regular season title. But he never played in the NCAA Tournament. He moved to Tennessee for 3 season, then Cal for 3 seasons, then Missouri for 5 seasons.
Cuonzo Martin coaching record- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/cuonzo-martin-1.html
Missouri State historical record- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/missouri-state/men/

Missouri State links-
Schedule/results- https://missouristatebears.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://missouristatebears.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Coaches- https://missouristatebears.com/sports/mens-basketball/coaches
Stats- https://missouristatebears.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/

​Missouri State averages 72.3 ppg, and shoots 44.3% overall, and 36.5% from three.

Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2024/11/5//2024_25_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf
 
Let's not look past this one to Drake. Stay focused as usual and continue the strong play at home. Defend home court - defend first place!
Go BRAVES!
 
Expect a big crowd for Saturday's game. Snow not expected until Sunday. Everybody turn out. Keep the streak going and defend home court. Still in need of better inside play. Hope someone emerges as that option. Will need that in postseason play. "GO BRAVES":lol:
 
We’ve got character and fight. Let’s use this game to pair that with technical execution on both ends and get back on the clear path of improvement.
 
20:00 before tip off and the crowd is pretty decent. Hope we can make it a little bit easier tonight than the last 2 games were. Hopefully we do it early and often.
 
Worst first half of the year. Missouri State is awful! At least all the coaching genius’s on this site got a look at linke!! Lmao
 
What the hell has happened to Atlason?:-o
Missing in action...Duke Dean...very disinterested tonight with terrible lazy turnovers...:mad:
 
Well some good, some bad...

Duke was not good in his decision making tonight, but at least he didn't force shots when they weren't falling. Obviously, he will be fine. Almost a repeat for Montgomery.

Hannah was much better tonight. He went in the post more, which I liked too. I have always said since his first few games that Davis has such good basketball IQ. That block, and half court pass to lead Zek to a dunk was just outstanding. He can drive too, and has great feel for when to pull the ball down and get some easy points rather than settle for a three. Thomas had his best game I thought. He looks stronger now than earlier this year already to me. He is great at getting rebound position. As he settles in offensively more and more I think it is the right call for him to be our starting 5. I also like that he is balancing perimeter shots with twos more and more too. Early in the year he settled for threes too much.

Johnson, Burch, Dillon were ok but mostly nondescript tonight, Burch playing the best of them and hitting his free throws. Almar is struggling and I'm worried he is starting to lose all confidence and be nothing more than a few minute a game guy. He needs to get confidence back and hit threes like he can. I've been saying for several games I thought Linke might be the best option as backup 5 and I thought he looked the part. This is the second year in a row I'm not sure why Brian went away from him the first half of the year before he finally puts him in. He won't score much, but he always does the right thing, and is a strong good defender and rebounder. Brian just said on the post game the players asked him to play Linke. That sounds familiar from last year when he started playing and is interesting it takes that to try him. Again, it feels like an exact repeat of last year...why didn't we use him from the start this year?

Overall, probably we are tired after the last week, but we need to have better ball control in the next one. The defense looked better tonight though. I think at-large talk is basically impossible outside of an 20-0 or maybe 19-1 conference season, but any hope of it starts with sweeping Drake. Also, we just generally owe them after the last few years. I think they are our biggest rival in the last decade and I want to win this game regardless of circumstance.
 
Holidays and 2 OT games finally caught up to these guys. Tired, and still pulled out a win.

Rest up and get ready for Drake!
 
Missouri state reminds me of our team the first couple years under Wardle. Not very good but defense that can hold their opponents under there average. Finally, fouls and free throws worked in our favor. That was nice.
 
I had thought playing Linke was at first a wake up move for Hannah on a sub out…. But later I saw he was trying to protect our bigs from foul trouble against big [NODE="23."]BU Scoring History[/NODE] In the end, Linke was rather effective guarding 23 such that he passed out of most of his inside touches. Linke is Linke, but the kid can guard and rebound… and had a couple nice assists. It’s his handle and his own O that lack, of course. I like his play and his attitude.
 
Box score: Bradley 69 Missouri State 60 - https://missouristatebears.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/bradley/boxscore/7016
Attendance- 5,816 (it looked bigger than that)

Not the prettiest game, but Coach Wardle seemed satisfied with everything in his post game comments.
And I usually wouldn't be negative after a win, but there were a couple things I hope get cleaned up...

First, the things I saw as positives-
> I loved the way this game was officiated, as opposed to the whistle-fest by the three officials that did the last game. The three different officials tonight allowed some contact by defenders on both teams, and didn't try to compete with each other for the most foul calls. And, the calls seemed consistent for both teams. I didn't see any players or coaches barking about the calls, so both teams must have felt they got a fair shake.
> Terrific games by Darius Hannah, Christian Davis, and Corey Thomas. While the guards struggled a bit, these 3 guys carried the offense, and all 3 played great defense.
> The defense was great by pretty much everyone who played. And after a slow start (37.5% shooting in 1st half), the offense heated up in the 2nd half (61.9% shooting in the 2nd half). Bradley's defense held Missouri State's top scorer, Dez White, to 1-10 from the floor.
> Good contributions from the bench players. Corey Thomas was terrific, and Demarion Burch, Connor Dillon, and Jaquan Johnson all played well.

But...
> Missouri State doesn't have many good shooters, and they have virtually no inside game. They played only 2 players who are listed as "Forwards", and both are listed at 6'8", but appeared an inch or more shorter than that. Yet, considering that, they managed to get 16 offensive rebounds, 26 second chance points, and 32 points in the paint. Bradley continues to give up too many offensive rebounds by opponents, and layups inside. Playing Corey Thomas and Darius Hannah together appeared to neutralize much of that. But Corey played only 18 minutes tonight, and he had 11 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, and only 1 personal foul. I'd like to see him playing 30 minutes or more, especially against teams like MSU who lack inside size (as long as he's not in foul trouble).
> Almar was scoreless for the 3rd time in the last 4 games. Hopefully, he bounces back next game against Drake. But, at 6'9", he could also do damage inside against smaller teams when he's not hitting threes. Bradley's next opponent, Drake, is another team that usually plays 4 guards, and has a center who is listed at 6'8", but could be a little smaller. We need exploit our size advantage.
> Off night for Duke (5 points) and Zek (8 points), though both had a number of key plays that made a big difference tonight, and their defense was superb. Some of the credit goes to Missouri State and their coaches for a swarming defense on the perimeter. But both looked like they weren't looking to shoot much.

A win is a win. Bradley is now 13-2, and 4-0 in the MVC.
Bring on Drake!
 
For 30 min this game was hard for fans to get excited about our team. Too many unforced errors with turnovers and poor rebounding. However, I am encouraged by the free throws. Good teams have players that make their free throws. They made 18 out of 20. Outstanding
 
It looked like we going to score in the paint or die trying tonight! I think we needed that. It looked like we were allergic to the paint in Ind St. Great to see that get re established. It was ugly early but got better. May need a lot of that against a smaller Drake team. Lets fill the arena Wed and beat this Drake team!
 
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