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Final score- Bradley 61 Drake 59

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Bradley (20-6, 11-4) at Drake (23-2, 13-2), Sunday, Feb. 16, 1:00 pm at the Knapp Center on the campus of Drake University.
MVC standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/standings/_/group/18

Drake's 2 MVC losses were back-to-back losses to a couple teams with losing records, at UIC (1/1/25) and at home to Murray State (1/5/25).
Drake rebounded from those 2 losses by beating Bradley in Peoria on Jan. 8, 64-57 - https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/drake/boxscore/22351
They have now won 11 straight MVC games.

The game is on cable channel ESPN2 and on the ESPN+ streaming platform - https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/id/c2ef2613-8053-48e3-a331-eff06927428c
Live stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=546478
Chat room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Radio- https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045​​

Drake links-
Schedule/results- https://godrakebulldogs.com/sports/m...tball/schedule
Roster- https://godrakebulldogs.com/sports/m...ketball/roster
Coaches- https://godrakebulldogs.com/sports/m...roster-coaches
Stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...earmsports.com/stats/mbball/2024/pdf/cume.pdf

Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.si.../2024/11/5/2024_25_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf
ESPN's sortable stats-
Team- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/stats/team/_/group/18
Individual- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...up/18/table/offensive/sort/avgPoints/dir/desc​
 
Looking at the game when Drake came here, we held Stirtz to 4pts! All freethrows… he did manage 8 assists. Idk if there is another team in the valley that’s held him to those few of points. They had 29pts from the bench, with banks having 19 and combs had 10pts. Mascari had 12 with 4-10 from 3.(2 of those 3’s were prayers)

We had 17 turnovers! Duke had 3 pts, Thomas had 4 pts, Davis with 9. (Meta did not play but Linke did)
Shot 25% from 3.
Hannah had 17, Zek had 15.

Shut Stirtz down again, protect the ball, give Meta some playing time this game, shoot better than 25% from 3 - We win!

We should have won the game here in Peoria! We had awful scoring that night and some substitutions that game if anyone remembers were some real head scratchers. I think our line ups and sub patterns now are much better than when we faced them last time.
 
Keep Stirtz in check like last game if possible. Keep turnovers down like last game, play hard, stay focused and we can do it. Drake starters playing so many minutes has to catch up with them at some point I would think. We have the depth and need to take advantage of it. Hopefully their starters playing so many minutes all the time will catch up to them. Like in St. Louis if they have to play maybe three games in as many days. Plan on being there in Des Moines to give all the support I can and hopefully cheer Bradley on to a win."GO BRAVES":mad:
 
I think you push the tempo and pressure the ball all game long. You can’t let them get set up on offense to make us fall asleep on defense. We actually play better playing faster less time for turnovers from the 4 and 5 guys getting the ball with 4 seconds on the shot clock.
 
Great interview with Coach Wardle by Andy Katz about Bradley's game with Drake (7 min.) - https://x.com/ValleyHoops/status/1890491201876304143

It sounds like they have prepared for most of the things we fans have discussed here- The players are ready for the game, Bradley needs to be "the hunters", avoid turnovers, attention to the way they defend the passing lanes, adjust to Drake's slower pace, defend the pick and roll, play 40 minutes and avoid letdowns.
He believes "we got our mojo back".
 
5 games left in the regular season and we're 2 games up on 4th and 4 games up on 5th so we're in a pretty good position to avoid the play in game. The big question is can we catch Drake. The bigger question though is can we beat them. If we don't match them physically no. Whether they are scoring over 80 or under 60 Drake is always physical and relentless. So whatever 5 guys are in the game for BU has to match that. If just 1 of those guys aren't 100% focused at the job at hand is when Drake will pounce on you. Bennett Stirtz is everything you'd want in a point guard. He is first in the MO Valley and 44th in the nation with 18.9 points a game and 1st in the MO Valley and 16th in the nation with 6.2 assists a game. He also is 1st in the MO Valley in steals, assist to turnover ratio and in minutes played. He is far and away the leading contender for POY. His running mate Mitch Mascari is his equal in minutes played and is really good from 3 point land. Daniel Abreu is the 3rd guy who averages a lot of minutes, 34, scores in double figures and really fits their system. They have 4-5 other guys who are pretty interchangeable. Where we have the advantage is that we're a more athletic team but we need to use that to our advantage. Can't throw lazy passes and we absolutely can't give up offensive rebounds. Sounds like the guys are ready. Let's see where we stack up.
 
I'm anxiously awaiting today's game! Drake definitely is much better then anyone ever imagined! It proves D2 players can play at a high level in Division1! We have a couple D2 former players including Christian Davis!!!! Drake is definitely capable of making a deep March run! Today's game may tell us if Bradley is that capable!!!! We are #1 in 3 point shooting %! That is a statistic that makes you think, WOW!!!! Even though it doesn't guarantee winning games in March! However, it feels good to be #1 in any stat for Division1! Maybe Brian Wardle lucked out or he knew the players he was recruiting were going to be that good at hitting 3's? Either way, that Stat opens my eyes to say if anything else, Bradley can compete in any game with any team if they're hitting their 3's! That's a testament to how far Brian Wardle has taken his club forward since 2015 when he inherited a team that was really in the dungeon and brought the program back to relevance!!!! Let's see if BU can play a great 40 minute game today! Win or lose, if they playagreat competitive game, I'll be assured they will have a shot at winning Arch Madness!!!!
 
Steve Zalutsky said:
I'm anxiously awaiting today's game! Drake definitely is much better then anyone ever imagined! It proves D2 players can play at a high level in Division1! We have a couple D2 former players including Christian Davis!!!! Drake is definitely capable of making a deep March run! Today's game may tell us if Bradley is that capable!!!! We are #1 in 3 point shooting %! That is a statistic that makes you think, WOW!!!! Even though it doesn't guarantee winning games in March! However, it feels good to be #1 in any stat for Division1! Maybe Brian Wardle lucked out or he knew the players he was recruiting were going to be that good at hitting 3's? Either way, that Stat opens my eyes to say if anything else, Bradley can compete in any game with any team if they're hitting their 3's! That's a testament to how far Brian Wardle has taken his club forward since 2015 when he inherited a team that was really in the dungeon and brought the program back to relevance!!!! Let's see if BU can play a great 40 minute game today! Win or lose, if they playagreat competitive game, I'll be assured they will have a shot at winning Arch Madness!!!!
Click to expand...

He is not just making a team. He is building a program
 
I’m not sure that we learned anything from the first meeting. You never leave Mascari … no help defense. He is automatic from 3 and he’s had three wide open shots.
 
Bad start followed by a great run. I don’t like that we are still using our posts at the top as facilitators a lot, it doesn’t work with our personnel, as it leads to many turnovers. Even still, one of our three “five” men has to step up. I don’t get on Brian too bad for taking guys out after mistakes, but if you’re going to coach that way, then when a guy is going well you leave him in. I’m not sure why he took Burch out the last couple minutes. That’s the best he’s looked all year, and this is clearly a nice matchup for a guard with his athleticism. We have the lead, but we still have to stop turning it over. It felt like we should have had a bigger lead than one. I’ll take the defensive intensity in that good stretch though. We should always play with that level of intensity. Even Zek was flying around.
 
Wow....big win by the Braves!:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Kudos to Burch and Meta showed up!:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
Nice win. I thought the defense of Davis and Duke was the biggest factor today, along with Burch getting us back in the game early on offense. Much better second half turnover wise.
 
Bradley wins!
Final score- Bradley 61 Drake 59 - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=546478

Way to close out the game! Bradley with terrific defense down the stretch. Drake did not score a field goal in the final 3:25, as Bradley came from behind to win on Darius Hannah's dunk with 8 seconds left in the game.
Only 4 turnovers in the 2nd half. Bradley 53.5% overall (23-43) and 41.2% from three (7-17)
Held Stirtz to 8 points & 4 assists.
Duke Deen- 11 points
Zek Montgomery- 11 points, 4 assists
Darius, Burch, and Davis all had 9 points.
Bradley is in 2nd place 1 game behind Drake. Record- 21-6, 12-4 in the MVC.
 
Great win, kept Mascari from hurting us in the second half which to me was a big reason in winning this game. I thought we missed a lot of shots in the lane that our players normally make in those situations. Now come home and get ready for ISU.
 
tomahawk chop said:
Great win, kept Mascari from hurting us in the second half which to me was a big reason in winning this game. I thought we missed a lot of shots in the lane that our players normally make in those situations. Now come home and get ready for ISU.
Click to expand...

Mascari was 0-3 from three in the 2nd half (4-10 overall).
Bradley overcame a lot of whistles, and the officials giving Drake 20 free throws in the 2nd half. It didn't get them flustered, and they came up big in the final minutes, holding Drake to NO field goals in the final 3:25 of the game.

In case anyone is wondering...
The current MVC tiebreaker rules for the MVC Tournament were revise a year ago. Here they are for a 2-way tie. - https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2024/1/3/Arch_Madness_Tournament_Tiebreaker_2024.pdf

4.2.4 Ties. In the event of a tie for any position within the standings, ties shall be broken
utilizing the following factors, in order, until all ties are broken:
a. Head-to-head competition (two-way tie). If the teams split their series, teams will
be ranked by NCAA NET on the morning after the final regular-season
Conference game. If the teams played only once, the winner of the game will be
the higher seed​.

So the two teams have split the 2 regular-season games, and the tiebreaker in the case of a 2-way tie will end up being the NET ranking.
Unfortunately, that favors Drake. Right now, Drake's NET is 56 and Bradley's is 82.
Those numbers will change a little in Bradley's favor after the NCAA recalculates them after today's games. However, the change will not be enough to get Bradley's NET up to Drake's. It might be difficult for Bradley to jump ahead of Drake in the next 2 weeks, even if Drake loses another game.
 
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