Bradley (7-4, 1-0) hosts Southern Illinois (6-6, 0-1) on Sunday, December 21, at 1:00 pm at Carver Arena.
It will be a nice sunny day, with the high temperature predicted to be 31° at game time.
But whose idea was it to have games this season at 1:00 pm on Sundays? That's going to conflict with fans' church and family activities, as well as dinner time and NFL games. Plus, it will hurt the attendance.
It is no coincidence that the top 2 attendance games by far, were Central Michigan (Saturday, Nov. 8, attendance 5,814) and Northern Illinois (Saturday, Dec 6, attendance 5,750). No other home game has drawn more than 5,096.
The game is on ESPN+ - direct link- https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/96618501-899d-47a2-adfe-8bde17a3b427
Chat room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
WMBD radio - https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045
Tickets- https://www.ticketmaster.com/bradle...ia-illinois-12-21-2025/event/07006342B03E47CF
Bradley is coming off their 108-99 triple-overtime win at Indiana State-
Recap- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2025...-overtime-marathon-against-indiana-state.aspx
Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/mens-basketball/2025-26/boxscore/at-indiana-state/22686/pdf
And SIU is coming off a 68-75 home loss to Illinois State-
Recap- https://siusalukis.com/news/2025/12...-the-redbirds-surge-late-to-win-valley-opener
Box score- https://dxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.ne...ts/mbball/2025/pdf/20251218102227-2772311.pdf
In their loss to Illinois State, SIU was lead by 6'0" sophomore Jacksonville State transfer guard Quel'ron House, who leads the team in scoring with a 15.1 ppg average, despite shooting only 26.3% from three this season.
Their only other player who averages double-digits is 6'5" redshirt-sophomore guard Drew Steffe, who averages 10.0 ppg. He shoots 34.4% from three.
Their only player who shoots better from three is 6'3" senior guard Damien Mayo, who has moved into a starting role. He is 12-24 from three (50.0%) but he doesn't take many threes, averaging only one three pointer per game.
The other two starters against Illinois State were 6'6" senior guard Davion Sykes (8.7 ppg, 0-1 from three for the season) and 6'9" sophomore forward Rolyns Aligbe (8.9 ppg, and 6.5 rpg).
SIU 6'7" senior forward Prince Aligbe (7.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg), a transfer from Seton Hall, had started all 11 games prior to Thursday's game against ILSU, but he did not play in that game. When SIU Coach Scott Nagy was asked post-game about why Prince Aligbe did not play, he answered that it was a "coach's decision", and declined to elaborate further-
www.x.com/ejh_2002/status/2001872848651243766
Redshirt-senior Isaiah Stafford, was one of the top scorers in the MVC 2 years ago with Valparaiso (16.9 ppg). He sat out last season with a torn knee ligament, then transferred to SIU this season. He was believed to be back to 100% health, and was expected to be a key player for SIU this year. The Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook picked him to be a 1st team All-MVC pick, and he started their first 4 games. But he has come off the bench since then, and has seen his playing time and his production shrink. He played only 8 minutes in their last game against Illinois State, and had just 1 point. His season average is 7.7 ppg, and 18.4% from three.
Isaiah Stafford stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/5176403/isaiah-stafford
SIU links- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball
Schedule/results- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2025-26
Note that SIU is one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the country averaging 28.5%. That ranks a distant 11th in the MVC and 347th out of 365 teams in the country. Not surprisingly, they attempt (and make) far fewer threes than any other MVC team (57-200). By comparison, Bradley is shooting 33.8% (108-320), which ranks 6th in the MVC (see MVC stats below). That is down from Bradley's 3-point percentage last season of 39.8%, which lead the country. LINK
However, SIU's overall shooting percentage is very good, 49.1%, which ranks #2 in the MVC and ranks in the top 50 teams in the country.
Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2025/11/4//2025_26_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf
It will be a nice sunny day, with the high temperature predicted to be 31° at game time.
But whose idea was it to have games this season at 1:00 pm on Sundays? That's going to conflict with fans' church and family activities, as well as dinner time and NFL games. Plus, it will hurt the attendance.
It is no coincidence that the top 2 attendance games by far, were Central Michigan (Saturday, Nov. 8, attendance 5,814) and Northern Illinois (Saturday, Dec 6, attendance 5,750). No other home game has drawn more than 5,096.
The game is on ESPN+ - direct link- https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/96618501-899d-47a2-adfe-8bde17a3b427
Chat room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
WMBD radio - https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045
Tickets- https://www.ticketmaster.com/bradle...ia-illinois-12-21-2025/event/07006342B03E47CF
Bradley is coming off their 108-99 triple-overtime win at Indiana State-
Recap- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2025...-overtime-marathon-against-indiana-state.aspx
Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/mens-basketball/2025-26/boxscore/at-indiana-state/22686/pdf
And SIU is coming off a 68-75 home loss to Illinois State-
Recap- https://siusalukis.com/news/2025/12...-the-redbirds-surge-late-to-win-valley-opener
Box score- https://dxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.ne...ts/mbball/2025/pdf/20251218102227-2772311.pdf
In their loss to Illinois State, SIU was lead by 6'0" sophomore Jacksonville State transfer guard Quel'ron House, who leads the team in scoring with a 15.1 ppg average, despite shooting only 26.3% from three this season.
Their only other player who averages double-digits is 6'5" redshirt-sophomore guard Drew Steffe, who averages 10.0 ppg. He shoots 34.4% from three.
Their only player who shoots better from three is 6'3" senior guard Damien Mayo, who has moved into a starting role. He is 12-24 from three (50.0%) but he doesn't take many threes, averaging only one three pointer per game.
The other two starters against Illinois State were 6'6" senior guard Davion Sykes (8.7 ppg, 0-1 from three for the season) and 6'9" sophomore forward Rolyns Aligbe (8.9 ppg, and 6.5 rpg).
SIU 6'7" senior forward Prince Aligbe (7.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg), a transfer from Seton Hall, had started all 11 games prior to Thursday's game against ILSU, but he did not play in that game. When SIU Coach Scott Nagy was asked post-game about why Prince Aligbe did not play, he answered that it was a "coach's decision", and declined to elaborate further-
www.x.com/ejh_2002/status/2001872848651243766
Redshirt-senior Isaiah Stafford, was one of the top scorers in the MVC 2 years ago with Valparaiso (16.9 ppg). He sat out last season with a torn knee ligament, then transferred to SIU this season. He was believed to be back to 100% health, and was expected to be a key player for SIU this year. The Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook picked him to be a 1st team All-MVC pick, and he started their first 4 games. But he has come off the bench since then, and has seen his playing time and his production shrink. He played only 8 minutes in their last game against Illinois State, and had just 1 point. His season average is 7.7 ppg, and 18.4% from three.
Isaiah Stafford stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/5176403/isaiah-stafford
SIU links- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball
Schedule/results- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2025-26
Note that SIU is one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the country averaging 28.5%. That ranks a distant 11th in the MVC and 347th out of 365 teams in the country. Not surprisingly, they attempt (and make) far fewer threes than any other MVC team (57-200). By comparison, Bradley is shooting 33.8% (108-320), which ranks 6th in the MVC (see MVC stats below). That is down from Bradley's 3-point percentage last season of 39.8%, which lead the country. LINK
However, SIU's overall shooting percentage is very good, 49.1%, which ranks #2 in the MVC and ranks in the top 50 teams in the country.
Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2025/11/4//2025_26_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf
gotta practice those layups!