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Final: Belmont 78 Bradley 76

houstonbrave said:
Not sure we can complain too much about our free throw percentage we were 17-22 for 77 percent. I’d always like higher but that is pretty good.
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I agree as a blanket statement for the game. But we missed several big ones late that cost us. Mostly from a fifth year senior. Now Jashon played one of his better games I thought, so it’s not to disparage him, but point stands we don’t seem to make big free throws very often. Outside of maybe Malevy and Ville, I don’t trust this team at the line in a big spot. That is a problem when competing against better teams. Late free throws matter.

I still say having Ville on Friberg on that huge possession to tie it was the bigger mistake that cost us, but being a poor free throw shooting late is a concern for this team, that now probably has to make a March run to win anything big.

I think our regular season championship hopes are on life support. It’s still possible I suppose, but it certainly wouldn’t be the betting favorite. Do we really think this team can beat SIU twice, not fumble at all against Drake, at UNI, or MSU? That’s a tall order based on what we’ve seen so far. I think we can lose maybe once more and still be in it for the regular season championship. Belmont doesn’t look like a team that will cough up an essentially three game lead either.

This game really isn’t my concern though, as it was competitive throughout and we lost. It’s the ones we threw away earlier in the year that left no margin for error to lose this sort of game.

SIU is back as a contender again. Every team outside of Evansville and Valpo has seemed to make a run at the title in the last 10 years. Not Bradley. When will it be us?
 
I think it’s time to accept the fact that we are a perennial middle of the pack team, most likely another 4th place finish. We just don’t seem to have what it takes to win out during the regular season so we’re back to hoping to pull off the MVC tourney win. In the end, if we get to the NCAA tourney I’ll be happy, but I’ll always dream of the day we are a 23+ win team and a regular at large or even better, ranked team. Probably a pipe dream.

Looks like Belmont might be the new Loyola. Join conference and dominate. I sure hope that’s not the case, but they are well coached and seem capable. Talent wise, we seem to be much better but they somehow beat us twice.

Agree with previous statement in this thread and hope we meet Belmont in the tourney as I don’t believe they are better than us and we all know it’s hard to beat good teams 3 times in a season. BW always has us ready come tourney time, just wish he’d figure out the regular season and get the monkey off his back.

Disappointing loss and quite a roller coaster ride we’re on. Let’s bounce back and whoop up on ISU Red.
 
braves16 said:
If we don't guard the 3 better than we have both times, I believe they would beat us for the 3rd time.
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I might have given you that in the first game, but the reality is that the game should have been won at the 4:30 mark when we went up 6, 73-67. (Nothing before this point really matters all that much because it was just generally a seesaw game.)

After that moment we had the following:
  • A poor foul on Rienk guarding Sheppard on a bad switch which turned into 2 FTs (73-69)
  • Missed Zek 3, I believe it was open? (Call this out if I am recalling incorrectly)
  • A poor foul on Duke, guarding a post guy again - not necessarily blaming him but why did he have no help or even ever get put in that spot? (Lucky, Belmont misses front end of FT)
  • The egregious possession where Henry gets fouled on the rebound and the putback with no call.
  • Terrible foul call against J'Shon on the other end, Sheppard makes 2 more (73-71)
  • Mast gets a good look in the post, but misses
  • Fast break basket to tie it at 73
  • After we make 3 of 4 FTs to go back up 3, Friberg hits a 3 on a contested shot
  • Zek's unfortunate but bad TO
  • Blatant traveling but shot goes in we lose.
Look at all the key possessions there and I really don't account any of that to poor 3-pt defense. Mental errors both offensively and defensively, a few bad referee breaks and Belmont making few mistakes themselves led to the turnaround. You close the game better, regardless of how we got to that point, it's a win.
 
Tommy said:
I think it’s time to accept the fact that we are a perennial middle of the pack team, most likely another 4th place finish.

Agree with previous statement in this thread and hope we meet Belmont in the tourney as I don’t believe they are better than us and we all know it’s hard to beat good teams 3 times in a season. BW always has us ready come tourney time, just wish he’d figure out the regular season and get the monkey off his back.
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Ya, it’s puts it in more perspective when we realize we have went 4-4 in the regular conference season. Luckily we caught UNI and MSU when we did cause they are playing better now. After losing four straight Indiana State seems like a “they are who we thought they were” team more and more too, so that win is looking less impressive. We don’t really have a win against a good team, maybe Indiana State, since conference started back up.

As far as facing Belmont again, who would we trust at the end of the game? Our guys or their guys. Friberg could sink a three anywhere at any point. We don’t have that. We can’t even be trusted to make key free throws.

This team can compete with anyone on any given night, but we have yet to show the will to win that makes me think we will make a March run. There is still time, but we are running out of time soon. The regular season ship has most likely passed though, and I’m really bummed about that.
 
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The defense against Belmont's backdoor/weakside layups was weak at best. The inability to shutdown the passing lanes to the weakside cutter for a layup was glaring. I'd like to know how many of 16 two point field goals Belmont had for the game, came from backdoor/weakside layups. My guess would be six at a minimum.
 
I don’t agree with the sentiment that the missed travel is not to blame for the loss. It was. Period! We played a tough team from tip to final horn. Yes, you can over analyze any number of coaching decisions, player deficiencies, etc. but the fact of the matter is we were tied and played tight defense all the way to the horn only to lose on a shot that should have been called off. Not saying we would have won in overtime, but I’m also not saying anything prior to that caused us to lose, as at that point, we were not losing. Horrible missed call, in a great game environment, that has major conference implications. The Valley should issue an apology. Sorry if you disagree but that’s how I see it. I’m still not over it. On to the dead birds!
 
patrick_o'brian said:
I don’t agree with the sentiment that the missed travel is not to blame for the loss. It was. Period! We played a tough team from tip to final horn. Yes, you can over analyze any number of coaching decisions, player deficiencies, etc. but the fact of the matter is we were tied and played tight defense all the way to the horn only to lose on a shot that should have been called off. Not saying we would have won in overtime, but I’m also not saying anything prior to that caused us to lose, as at that point, we were not losing. Horrible missed call, in a great game environment, that has major conference implications. The Valley should issue an apology. Sorry if you disagree but that’s how I see it. I’m still not over it. On to the dead birds!
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I agree with you
 
I’m not over it either. The guy hopped around for a total of about 4-5 little steps. Egregious missed travel call by the refs.
 
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