Someone pointed out to me an odd coincidence. There is an official named Gary Maxwell who does a lot of MVC games.
Here are 4 Bradley games he has officiated this season.
1) He officiated the Murray State game in Peoria on Nov. 29 that Bradley trailed by 10 at halftime, and lost 79-72. Murray State shot 15 FTs in the 2nd half to Bradley's 4.
2) He officiated the Bradley game at SIU. Recall that SIU was able to build the lead to 21 points at halftime, and 23 points early in the 2nd half before Bradley rallied to win 70-69 with an unlikely and historic comeback.
3) He officiated the Bradley game at Evansville where UE built a 17 point lead in the 1st half and held on to win 73-70 despite a Bradley 2nd half rally. Malevy Leons fouled out, and a couple other BU players spent time on the bench in foul trouble (Hannah & Hickman). Evansville shot 23 free throws to Bradley's 10.
4) He officiated the Northern Iowa game this past Sunday. UNI built an early 21 point lead, and lead by 18 at halftime. Bradley managed to get within 4 midway through the 2nd half, but lost 74-63. Several Bradley players were in foul trouble. Leons and Jonovic fouled out, and Hannah had 4 fouls.
So Bradley is 1-3 in the games officiated by Maxwell and 0-4 against the point spread.
In each of the 4 games, I thought that Bradley was getting fouls called on them for much less contact than the opposing teams, allowing the opponents to play much more physical that Bradley played.
In each of these 4 games officiated by Maxwell (3 losses and one unlikely comeback) Bradley fell behind early by double digits (12, 23, 17, and 21 points) in games they were favored to win. Maybe the outcomes would have been the same regardless who officiated, but the early fouls seemed to affect Bradley's style of play, and made them less aggressive, while allowing the opponents to be more physical.
But could this incident from last season have some connection?....
In last year's Bradley game at Indiana State, the Sycamores built a double-digit lead in the 1st half, but Bradley rallied thanks to a career game by Zek Montgomery, who scored all 18 of his points in the 2nd half, and BU outscored Indiana State 44-28 in the 2nd half to come back and win 78-67.
Gary Maxwell was involved in a bizarre and unexplainable incident. During a timeout in the 2nd half, Maxwell tried to push his way into the Bradley team huddle while Coach Wardle was talking to his players. He appeared to signal that he wanted Wardle to come out and talk, but, and when Wardle refused to leave the team huddle, Maxwell called a technical foul on Wardle. The announcers were mystified, and we never heard why the technical was called.
Check out the video-
https://twitter.com/icetimecleve/status/1615956673864105986
Thread from last year-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/s...-bradley-78-indiana-state-67/page5#post506405
Dave Eminian article-
https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports...-braves-sycamores-scores-updates/69814596007/
Is there more to this between Wardle and Maxwell?