Final score: Illinois State 82 Bradley 71

[LittleBrave]

Not particularly upset about losing this one as a single game, but in the scheme of things it meant a lot in the standings. We have no shot at winning the Valley and probably need to close out with 3 str8 wins which we should be able to do if we stay hungry.

Gotta give credit to the Birds tonight. They wanted this one so bad and treated it like their SB. We had beaten them 6 str8 also so they were due especially after almist beating us a few weeks ago.

I think our seniors (except CD) showed up tonight and Hannah and Zek played as aggressive as I’ve seen all season.

Let’s finish strong and get the #2 seed for Arch Madness! NCAA tourney or bust for sure.

 

[LittleBrave]

Losing 3 straight really hurt us in the long run, but if it made us tougher to get to the Championship game, I’ll take it. I do believe these last 2 road games made us tougher for the home stretch, but the guys can’t let up for a single day between tomorrow and March 9th.

Whoever wins Arch Madness this season can be very proud, as the Top 3 teams are strong like last season, but the middle pack teams are a bit stronger and can burn you on any given night. Much like last season I think the 3 teams at the top are equal strength, but each team had an edge: Drake is more consistent than anyone, UNI is the hottest team, and Bradley has veteran leaders and best fan base.

 

[[email protected]]

In the grand scheme Bradley must go into St. Louis with the mindset of winning the conference tournament. If not then like last year, we will have to wait and see if we get an invitation to the NIT. Bradley can do it and win in St. Louis. A lot of fans would consider that a disappointment if we do not go dancing. Only way to not have those feelings is just get it done.

 

[Stryker]

In the grand scheme Bradley must go into St. Louis with the mindset of winning the conference tournament. If not then like last year, we will have to wait and see if we get an invitation to the NIT. Bradley can do it and win in St. Louis. A lot of fans would consider that a disappointment if we do not go dancing. Only way to not have those feelings is just get it done.

Preseason #1, multiple preseason 1st team players on on our team, not winning in St. Louis would definitely be a let down this year. We were supposed to be having the season that Drake is having.

 

[Tommy]

I missed the part of the game with Zek's T, what happened?

Loose ball struggle between Zek and Cade Boser ended with a whistle. After the whistle, Zek was looking at the ref saying, 'jump ball', while Cade Boser was giving Zek the stare down and quite obviously cussing him out. They gave Zek a foul AND a technical, and Boser also got a technical. No idea why Zek was called for a T, but I'd love to hear the ref explain it. They even looked at the monitor afterward, but nothing changed. Zek looked completely baffled with the call, but that was pretty much the trend for the whole game.

Even BW said in the post game that he knew the game would be a struggle because ISU was coming off a 3 game losing streak and he saw who the crew was going to be. Also didn't hurt that Daugherty had the game of his life going 7-10 from 3 point land. He does shoot 50% from there, though, so we really should have done a better job of guarding him. On several occasions, we left 3 point shooters wide open.

 

[houstonbrave]

Our overwhelming weakness is letting one dimensional 3 point shooters go off on us. Daugherty, Lindblade, weisbrod, Mascari are great shooters but not a lot else. Seems like our guards need to take them away and play 4 on 4 on the others.

 

[Bacci'sAftertheGym]

replay of Zek's technical foul:
Zek Montgomery Technical Foul - 2/19/25 - Bradley vs Illinois State​

Initially called as a T on Boser of ISU for taunting, refs reviewed the footage for several minutes and somehow decided to call an additional T on Zek making them offset and giving possession back to ISU.
This at a critical moment of the game when a BU comeback was mounting. 2 free throws for Zek and the ball back could have led to a Bradley lead in the 2nd half.
BU couldn't cut the deficit below 4 for the rest of the game.

 

[BUfan17]

replay of Zek's technical foul:
Zek Montgomery Technical Foul - 2/19/25 - Bradley vs Illinois State​

Initially called as a T on Boser of ISU for taunting, refs reviewed the footage for several minutes and somehow decided to call an additional T on Zek making them offset and giving possession back to ISU.
This at a critical moment of the game when a BU comeback was mounting. 2 free throws for Zek and the ball back could have led to a Bradley lead in the 2nd half.
BU couldn't cut the deficit below 4 for the rest of the game.

That was a BS call. Maybe a common foul on Zek but definitely not a technical on him. Boser yelling right in his face was a technical for sure.

 

[tomahawk chop]

Loose ball struggle between Zek and Cade Boser ended with a whistle. After the whistle, Zek was looking at the ref saying, 'jump ball', while Cade Boser was giving Zek the stare down and quite obviously cussing him out. They gave Zek a foul AND a technical, and Boser also got a technical. No idea why Zek was called for a T, but I'd love to hear the ref explain it. They even looked at the monitor afterward, but nothing changed. Zek looked completely baffled with the call, but that was pretty much the trend for the whole game.

Even BW said in the post game that he knew the game would be a struggle because ISU was coming off a 3 game losing streak and he saw who the crew was going to be. Also didn't hurt that Daugherty had the game of his life going 7-10 from 3 point land. He does shoot 50% from there, though, so we really should have done a better job of guarding him. On several occasions, we left 3 point shooters wide open.

When I saw the crew that was calling the game I knew it would not be good for Bradley. The T on Zek proved how biased they were last night. Bradley made more field goals in the game and more rebounds, ISU shot a lot more free throws , something like 27 to 10. These refs are a complete disgrace to the game.

 

[Dubl R 1]

replay of Zek's technical foul:
Zek Montgomery Technical Foul - 2/19/25 - Bradley vs Illinois State​

Initially called as a T on Boser of ISU for taunting, refs reviewed the footage for several minutes and somehow decided to call an additional T on Zek making them offset and giving possession back to ISU.
This at a critical moment of the game when a BU comeback was mounting. 2 free throws for Zek and the ball back could have led to a Bradley lead in the 2nd half.
BU couldn't cut the deficit below 4 for the rest of the game.

Again, at this level, this is completely unacceptable. How could anybody review that, and consider anything Zek did to warrant a technical foul....maybe in the heat of the play you could mistakenly call that, But to have not been called on him initially, only to review it and come to that conclusion is just remarkable.

That bald ref is total amateur hour..every game he does there are constant monitor reviews, disorganization, and all that doesn't even take into account the fact that his calls seem to be skewed against BU. He's the same guy that called the foul on Almar at the end of the Belmont game. I don't know who picks the refs for our home games...but if BU has say in it...we should never have him do any of our home games again. He kills us.

 

[Tommy]

When I saw the crew that was calling the game I knew it would not be good for Bradley. The T on Zek proved how biased they were last night. Bradley made more field goals in the game and more rebounds, ISU shot a lot more free throws , something like 27 to 10. These refs are a complete disgrace to the game.

Could not agree more.

 

[LittleBrave]

Could not agree more.

I did notice a couple calls go Bradley's way when they were mounting the late comeback - or should I say "no-calls" where we may have fouled to get a steal. Or maybe I was just assuming that the refs were going to blow the whistle if a BU player's shadow hit any part of a Redbird...or their shadow. LOL

 

[egib52]

replay of Zek's technical foul:
Zek Montgomery Technical Foul - 2/19/25 - Bradley vs Illinois State​

Initially called as a T on Boser of ISU for taunting, refs reviewed the footage for several minutes and somehow decided to call an additional T on Zek making them offset and giving possession back to ISU.
This at a critical moment of the game when a BU comeback was mounting. 2 free throws for Zek and the ball back could have led to a Bradley lead in the 2nd half.
BU couldn't cut the deficit below 4 for the rest of the game.

Thanks guys. That is insane! Probably good I was not watching at that moment. There is no reason that at this level, with the amount of money now involved in these games, that the officiating should be so poor.

 

[Da Coach]

Check out this picture from the ISU post-game press conference - https://x.com/tmlemaster/status/1892418014940742073

What is interesting is that Johnny Kinziger did have the blood dripping down the left side of his face following the collision with Zek. He initiated that contact, which is why there was no foul called on Zek, even after a video review. If anything, I though there should have been a foul on Kinziger, since he dived into Zek, and caused their heads to collide. But another missed call.
But, Kinziger did get his wound treated in their dressing room during the game, and eventually returned to the game with all the blood wiped off his face, and no more bleeding or blood running down his face for the remainder of the game.
Yet, in that post-game picture, we see him with the same dripping of blood, which means he must have reopened the wound to get the bleeding effect going just for the cameras.

 

[tomahawk chop]

These 3 refs ,Heimerman, Smith and Crenshaw are terrible period. Heimerman for whatever reason has consistently been biased against Bradley for a very long time. For whatever reason they let that guy officiate Tour. games so to me it is not how good you are but who you know.

 

[red#185]

Kinzinger “I went for the steal and I think we bumped heads”. Montgomery agreed with Kinzinger’s assessment of an accidental crash of craniums. “I was posting up. I tried to drive and we just butted heads”.
​

 

[Tommy]

These 3 refs ,Heimerman, Smith and Crenshaw are terrible period. Heimerman for whatever reason has consistently been biased against Bradley for a very long time. For whatever reason they let that guy officiate Tour. games so to me it is not how good you are but who you know.

Yes, he is clearly biased. When you recognize a referee and immediately say, 'that's not good' when you see him, you know he's made himself too obvious to be a good referee (aka Jerry Pollard- everyone knows his name).

 

[Da Coach]

Yes, he is clearly biased. When you recognize a referee and immediately say, 'that's not good' when you see him, you know he's made himself too obvious to be a good referee (aka Jerry Pollard- everyone knows his name).

Or this guy that everyone will remember- Gary Maxwell - https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/s...dley-78-indiana-state-67?p=506405#post506405​

For some reason, Bradley seems to have lucked out and not gotten Maxwell for any games this year. Maybe that is by design. The MVC makes the decision about assigning officials, and they know about the past issues between Wardle and Maxwell.
It looks like he does mostly Big 12 games, but he does do some MVC games. He officiated a couple games at Northern Iowa this season.
>> https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/northern-iowa/boxscore/16523
>> https://omavs.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/northern-iowa/boxscore/18830

 

[tomahawk chop]

Yes, he is clearly biased. When you recognize a referee and immediately say, 'that's not good' when you see him, you know he's made himself too obvious to be a good referee (aka Jerry Pollard- everyone knows his name).

I thought Pollard was bad back when Les was coaching but for whatever reason was better once Brian took over the program.

 

[Dubl R 1]

Another one I used to hate see doing our games was Mike Sanzere.....I always thought we got the worse end of it while he was officiating.