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Bradley vs. Toledo in the Xavier Invitational in Cincinnati, Wed. 11/25 at 2 pm

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Bradley's 2020-21 season is now just 7 days away. Their first game is Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 2 pm Central time.
The Toledo Rockets are coached by Tod Kowalczyk, who is starting his 11th season there. He was previously the head coach at UW-Green Bay for 8 seasons, and he hired Brian Wardle as an assistant in 2005. Wardle took over as head coach at Green bay from 2010-2015 after Kowalczyk left for Toledo.
Toledo was 17-15 last year, and 8-10 in the Mid-American Conference. They finished 3rd in the MAC West-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ngs/_/group/14

Toledo won 23 games in 2017-18 and 25 games in 2018-19-
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/toledo/

They lost three starters to graduation, their 2nd, 3rd, and 6th highest scorers, but return everyone else of significance from last season, including leading scorer Marreon Jackson, who averaged 19.8 ppg and shot 37% from three. They averaged 74.6 ppg last year, and shot 36.6% from three as a team, which is pretty good. Tod Kowalczyk teams love to play a fast tempo, and shoot a lot of threes. They attempted 774 three point shots in 32 games last season, an average of over 24 three point attempts per game. By comparison, Bradley shoots a fair number of threes, but they attempted only 618 threes in 34 games last season for an average of about 18 attempts per game.
2019-20 team stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...Statistics.pdf

Note that Tod Kowalczyk plays his starters a lot of minutes, and bench players get very few minutes. Four of his starters averaged between 33.9 mpg and 35.3 mpg. It will be interesting to see if Kowalczyk uses his bench more this season.
Toledo website- https://utrockets.com/sports/mens-basketball

One other factor- Toledo was forced to shut down their program for two weeks back in late October and early November when head coach Tod Kowalczyk and at least 6 players tested positive for Covid-19. They suspended practices from Oct. 21 to Nov. 4.
Could that have an affect on their team in the early season?
https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...-for-covid-19/
 
Great info, coach. Thanks. I think our guards are gonna cause problems (defensively) for most teams. Marreon Jackson will probably get a heavy dose of Terry Nolan Jr. And for dessert, perhaps a serving of Danya Kingsby.
 
Here is a MAC Preview, if you scroll down the page you will see the Toledo preview. My two cents as follows...


Projected Starters:


G Marreon Jackson 6'1 Senior (19.8 PPG) is the star of the team. He will be the center of attention for Bradley as he is the only player that can create offense with dribble penetration. They will lean on him heavily.

G Spencer Littleson 6'4 RS Senior (10.5 PPG) is a great shooter... played hurt last year. Returning starter.

G Keshaun Saunders 6'5 RS Sophomore (7.7 PPG) is another good shooter and a part-time starter last year.

F Seth Miller 6'6 Junior is a top 40 JUCO transfer that started as a Frosh (at Cleveland St.) before going JUCO. He averaged 15 PPG last year.

C AJ Edu 6'10 RS Sophomore is a former part-time starter that had to sit out last year due to an ACL injury. Is a big time shot blocker but not much of a scorer (averaged 3.6 PPG 4 RPG in 2018-19).

** Top HS recruit is Ryan Rollins, a 3-STAR that should get immediately playing time.

https://www.three-man-weave.com/3mw/mac-preview-2021
 
I think it's time to start projecting the starting lineup. Here's my guess:
Terry Nolan
Danye Kingsby
Ari Boya
JaShon Henry
Elijah Childs
Most minutes off the bench - Ville
 
This might be the hardest season to guess starters. I really believe that Coach Wardle still hasn't decided on his starters yet.
I will guess- Sean East, Terry Nolan, Ari Boya, Danya Kingsby, Eli Childs.
But Kevin McAdoo, Ville Tahvanainen, and Ja'Shon Henry will see about the same amount of playing time as the starters. I expect Rienk Mast to get significant time as well, but a little less than McAddo, Ville, and Ja'Shon.

I went with a 3 guard lineup because Toledo does not have a lot of size and we need the defense that our guards can give because Toledo relies heavily on 3-pointers.
Hopefully, Bradley can build a big lead and we'll see Antonio and the freshmen get some playing time. :)
 
To start the season, I believe our top three guards initially will be Nolan, Kingsby, and McAdoo. They know the system and have been in the program the longest. Sean East's minutes will increase as the season progresses IMHO. I don't think Henry and Childs will be on the court together that often except during crunch time.
 
When we are not playing a guard heavy team like Toledo, I could see a first five of Nolan, Kingsby, Ville, Childs and Boya. With the next four being McAdoo, Henry, East and Mast. Highly doubt our freshmen see much PT unless it's a blowout.
 
Coach's latest video stated he wants to start with those most consistent, and mentioned Childs, Henry, and Nolan. It's not totally clear to me if he was strictly talking about starting lineup, or just bulk playing time. If he was speaking of starting lineup for game 1, perhaps he'll put Childs at the 5 and go with Childs, Henry, Nolan at PG.
 
LittleBrave said:
I don't see why we don't have arguably our 2 best players on the court at the same time.
Click to expand...

I think Wardle will start them both, but I don’t think they’ll play a lot of minutes together. Henry plays much more aggressively when Child’s isn’t on the court with him and I think the stats from last year would back that up, but I can’t prove it. Just what my memory of last year and Wardles penchant for playing them separately.
 
Bradley is the only one of the 4 teams in the Xavier Invitational that has not had Covid issues and team shutdowns in the preseason. Is that an advantage?
Nice summary by Dave Reynolds-
https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports/...er/6387589002/

The article says:
The 2 p.m. Wednesday game vs. Toledo (FloHoops, $12.50 monthly subscription)...

One cautionary note....The $12.50 per month rate is only available if you subscribe for a full year and pay up front the $150.00 fee (12 x $12.50). That option does not refund anything if you cancel, it only stops future year renewals. If you cancel, you will be out $150.00.

If you are only interested in the 2 Bradley games, like most of us, the other option is to purchase a monthly subscription at $29.99 per month. You'll be charged $29.99, but then you can cancel the subscription before you get charged for the next month, and it will only cost you $29.99.

Here is their Terms of Service page-
https://www.flosports.tv/terms-of-service/

Ongoing Subscription and Cancellation. Your subscription will continue in effect on a month-to-month or year-to-year basis unless and until you cancel your subscription or the account or service is otherwise suspended or discontinued pursuant to these Terms. You must cancel your subscription before your monthly or yearly renewal date in order to avoid the next billing (each Monthly Period or Yearly Period). We will bill the monthly or yearly subscription fee plus any applicable taxes to the Payment Method you provide to us during registration (or to a different Payment Method if you change your account information). If you cancel your subscription, cancellation will be effective at the end of the current Monthly Period or Yearly Period. This means that you will have continued access to your subscription for the remainder of that period, but you will not receive a refund.


Flohoops use to offer a free trial, but I suspect too many people signed up just to watch a couple games in a tournament, then cancelled. So the free trial is no longer available.
 
Jim said:
Maybe I missed this from a different post, but will we be able to watch this game on TV or online?
Click to expand...

See the post above yours. The game is only available on an online streaming site Flohoops.com, and you would need to sign up for a monthly subscription at $29.99 per month. Then you would have to cancel the subscription before a month passes, so you wouldn't get charged for the next month.

Flohoops- scroll down to 2:15 pm Wednesday, Nov. 25 and 2:15 pm Friday, Nov. 27, and click on "Watch"-
https://www.flohoops.com/events
 
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