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Final score- Bradley 73 UAB 71

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Staff member
Bradley is at UAB tonight at 7pm in the first game of the 2023-24 season.
The game is streamed on ESPN+ - https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ab59e9dd-2736-41ce-b89b-1e4419b6613a
Radio- wmbdradio.com
Live Stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=483225
Bradleyfans chat room- www.https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Game preview from BradleyBraves.com- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2023/11/5/game-preview-bradley-at-uab.aspx

UAB was 29-10 last season, and 14-6 in the Conference USA. They made it to the title game of the CUSA Tournament, and lost to top seed Florida Atlantic. They received an NIT bid, won 4 straight games, and made it to the championship game of the NIT, losing a close game to North Texas, also a CUSA member.
They finished the season with an NET rank of 39.

This year, UAB has moved to the American Athletic Conference, along with 5 other CUSA schools. UAB, Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, and UTSA all moved from the CUSA to the AAC after the AAC lost Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston to the Big 12.

They were picked to finish 4th in the AAC Preseason Poll behind FAU, Memphis, and Tulane- https://theamerican.org/news/2023/1...rican-mens-basketball-preseason-favorite.aspx

UAB lost 5 of their top 6 scorers from last year's 29-win team, including top scorer Jordan Walker (22.3 ppg last season). Their only returning starter is 2nd leading scorer Eric Gaines, who averaged 11.5 ppg, 3.4 rpg, and a team-leading 4.3 assists per game.
Head coach Andy Kennedy has reloaded with several transfers, a couple highly rated junior college transfers Yaxel Lendeborg and Alejandro Vasquez, and a couple good freshman recruits.

UAB played an exhibition game last Monday against Division II Morehouse College-
Recap- https://uabsports.com/news/2023/10/...mens-basketball-downs-morehouse-in-exhibition
Stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...core_Morehouse_at_UAB_30_October.pdf?timestam p=20231031030644

The starting 5 for the exhibition game were-
6'9" redshirt-senior forward Javian Davis- 6.1ppg, 4.0rpg last season as a reserve
6'9" juco transfer forward Yaxel Lendeborg- 2-time juco All American, averaged 17.2ppg, 13.0rpg, and 2.6apg, and shot 73% from field last year at Arizona Western College
6'2" junior guard Eric Gaines- transferred a year ago from LSU, averaged 11.5ppg last year at UAB mostly as a starter
6'2" junior guard Tony Toney- averaged 3.4ppg last season at UAB as a reserve
6'4" sophomore guard Efrem Johnson- averaged 3.5ppg last year at UAB as a reserve

2023-24 roster- https://uabsports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
2022-23 stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...2-23_Final_Stats.pdf?timestamp=20230410032258
2023-24 schedule- https://uabsports.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule​

The Vegas line is UAB -4.5 points
 
Hearing they are dealing with minor injuries, likely to play.
But this shows a vulnerability for Bradley. A more significant injury to either Duke or Hickman could be a big problem.
 
I just wish we would not schedule games like this for openers especially since we have so many new players.I think we will struggle on offense tonight. Hope to be wrong.
 
Maybe we'll see freshman guard Demarion Burch get some meaningful minutes tonight. With Pettigrew gone, the only scholarship guards on the roster are Duke, Hickman, Burch, and Ellis. Christian Davis is listed as a "G/F", but realistically, he is not a typical backcourt type of player, but more of a SF/wing. He and Ellis will play a lot, and both are capable of guarding most opponents' guards, but neither are the kind of ball handling/passing guards Bradley needs.
So it will be interesting to see if the coaches can reign in Burch's urge to drive to the basket, and fit more into Wardle's passing schemes.

Message from Coach Wardle- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8K6gN-R0ZA
 
Da Coach said:
Maybe we'll see freshman guard Demarion Burch get some meaningful minutes tonight. With Pettigrew gone, the only scholarship guards on the roster are Duke, Hickman, Burch, and Ellis. Christian Davis is listed as a "G/F", but realistically, he is not a typical backcourt type of player, but more of a SF/wing. He and Ellis will play a lot, and both are capable of guarding most opponents' guards, but neither are the kind of ball handling/passing guards Bradley needs.
So it will be interesting to see if the coaches can reign in Burch's urge to drive to the basket, and fit more into Wardle's passing schemes.

Message from Coach Wardle- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8K6gN-R0ZA
Click to expand...

Burch will need to step up big time this whole year now. I’ve been saying since last spring I just don’t understand why we went with so few guards in a guard oriented sport. We also need Hick or Deen to take the next step to have a reliable guard scorer at all too. I’m very optimistic on Hick, but still it’s going to be interesting to see this play out. It also seems this puts us in the unfortunate position of playing guys better suited to the four spot at the three. Burch stepping up early would be huge to preventing some of that, so here’s hoping.
 
Burch could really be a big contributer as he's got a lot of talent. He just needs to be not so fast on offense that he's out of control.
 
bigjimmy said:
Good start offensively with 2 3's and 4-8 shooting.
Click to expand...

Malevy at the three has allowed a drive by and not looked like he can blow around guards on offense already. He’s not a three level ball handler. Jonovic looks a little slow still too. I really think we need a third wing player in the lineup (Davis was brought in quick). I think it will be exploited more as the year goes on. Hannah trash talking early after a nice jump shot (good to see) and then gets scored on, I don’t love trash talk, but I know I’m in the minority.

Hick has to be our leader, as he goes we go I think this year. I like the way he looks out there early.

Leons is a rebounding machine so far.
 
We haven't scored for the last 4:25 but fortunately UAB hasn't scored for the last 3:25. Leons already has 7 rebounds
 
The last 4 minutes has seen us outscore them 13-5. Almer hit back to back 3's, Duke got his 2nd 3 and Leons got hiks 1st points of the season. Hickman on the bench with 2 fouls
 
Boy, Jonovic does not look quickly defensively. He rarely seems to have good rebounding position because of it.

I think the best lineup will be Hannah, Leons, Davis, Hick, Deen (our best four are no surprise). Atlason looks like a great sixth man shooter (freshman Ville style). Ellis looks to be a good defender, stopped a few drives already. Burch looks like he will be good in time. Davis still a great passer and handles it well enough this year (he brought the ball down and stutter dribbled nicely). He can handle the starting three spot I think.

All that depth talk and we are playing 9 first game. 8 of them look good. Jonovic not yet. Even on his made bucket he was wide open and was covered by the time he got it off. I’m concerned about his foot speed and it’s no longer he’s adjusting or brand new.

Hick and Leons I hope challenge for all conference, they look good and confident. Nice to see Malevy look to score and then actually do it. He was not a guy that got buckets as a go to guy much last year.
 
Great last 12:00 minutes boys! Leons with 11 and 8, Hannah with 10. We shot 17-31 overall, 6-16 from 3 and had 20 rebounds with 9 assists. We held them to 10-37 overall, 2-9 from 3, and they had 23 rebounds plus just 2 assists. We committed 5 fouls to their 2
 
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