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Final score: Bradley 76 Evansville 68

Bradley8792 said:
I thought we did a good job of making a mediocre at best team look competitive. Seems like we always come out cold in the first half and end up down, then it’s a fight the entire rest of the game to get ahead and stay ahead.

Will say I thought our second half defense looked a little better and more like a traditional Wardle defense.
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Some thoughts.... Yes, Evansville is a mediocre team destined for the lower part of the MVC by season's end, but they played well last night and deserve a lot of the credit for keeping the game close and giving them a chance to win. They shot very well early, which is not easy playing on the road, and they didn't make many mistakes (only five 2nd half turnovers, 11 total). All 3 of their MVC losses were very close games and could have gone either way.
They lost to Belmont 78-83, but were down only 1 point with less than 30 seconds left.
They were down 66-65 to Drake with under 30 seconds left, and had multiple chances to win. Connor Turnbull missed 2 free throws that would have given them the lead, then with 8 seconds left, Alex Hemenway missed an open three pointer that would have given them a 2 point lead. And with the score still 66-65, Connor Turnbull missed a shot in the final seconds that allowed Drake to hold on for the 66-65 win.
And last night, Bradley's lead was only 1 point with under 2 minutes left (65-64), when Bradley pulled away to win.
Btw, there have been games where Bradley started strong. Bradley had a great start in their road game at Indiana State, hitting 7 of their first 10 shots to open a 13 point lead (17-4) in the first 5+ minutes. And in the last game, SIU held a small lead for the first 5 minutes, but then Bradley caught up and never trailed the rest of the way to win.
IMO, this team is just not quite as good as last year's team, and will have to work hard and limit mistakes to win MVC games. The only stat this year's Braves excel at is forcing turnovers. Their shooting, rebounding, and assists, which last year's team ranked at or near the top of the MVC, are not as good this year. And they don't have Duke Deen to take over when they need points, though Jaquan is beginning to do a pretty good imitation of Duke. As Coach Wardle said on his postgame show, they need to become more consistent. If they do, they can compete for the top of the Valley, but the next 2 games will be crucial to that. Bradley will be underdogs at Belmont and Murray State and could come home with a 3-2 MVC record.
 
Splitting the next 4 is quite likely. I'll take a split in these next 2 roadies. Then we'll go from there.
My hope is that we lose 2 AT MOST home games to keep us in contention for Top 3 or 4 in the Valley.

Contrary to my preseason outlook, I just don't see this team as strong enough to be a #1 or #2 seed, but Wardle has been known to get his guys playing better and better.
Right now it's hard to watch at times, especially the inside game and really bad 3-point misses.

On the bright side, I can't recall when we've had 2 very reliable PGs who rarely turn the ball over...and a bonus that they give their ALL every time they step on the court!
 
Da Coach said:
IMO, this team is just not quite as good as last year's team, and will have to work hard and limit mistakes to win MVC games. The only stat this year's Braves excel at is forcing turnovers. Their shooting, rebounding, and assists, which last year's team ranked at or near the top of the MVC, are not as good this year. And they don't have Duke Deen to take over when they need points, though Jaquan is beginning to do a pretty good imitation of Duke. As Coach Wardle said on his postgame show, they need to become more consistent. If they do, they can compete for the top of the Valley, but the next 2 games will be crucial to that. Bradley will be underdogs at Belmont and Murray State and could come home with a 3-2 MVC record.
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I agree DC - we really don't have that senior leadership like last season.
I really like Alex as a senior leader, but Bully and Wheeler IMO get the energy up on both ends and their play is the most consistent thing of this team, though I am pleased with the consistency in FT shooting, especially with Timo, Meta, and Corey.
The PG tandem energy is contagious - they force turnovers and take care of the ball, create on the offensive end with driving and scoring/dishing.

Really need the inside game to be more consistent - probably not going to suddenly get 20 ppg combined from CT and Meta.
If we can get consistency from AJ, it will definitely help.

Right now if the game were on the line, I'd get the ball in the hands of a freshman (Wheels) or Soph (Quanny).
 
I'm beginning to think this is the team we will get every night. We will win some of these games while others might not be lucky.
These 2 road games are going to tell us how good we are going to be.
As far as Evansville goes, it's just my opinion, they are not as bad as their record. They might be a team that gets some upsets as they have already came close twice. Lost to Belmont by only 5 at Evansville and took us to the qire last night. As reported by others they don't give up until the final buzzer.
NIU struggled with Valparaiso last night as did Murray State with SIU.
ISU red is the only team with a fairly easy game last night. Picked first pre season and are starting to look like they might be the best team even if that is hard to admit from BU fans.
Da Coach said:
Some thoughts.... Yes, Evansville is a mediocre team destined for the lower part of the MVC by season's end, but they played well last night and deserve a lot of the credit for keeping the game close and giving them a chance to win. They shot very well early, which is not easy playing on the road, and they didn't make many mistakes (only five 2nd half turnovers, 11 total). All 3 of their MVC losses were very close games and could have gone either way.
They lost to Belmont 78-83, but were down only 1 point with less than 30 seconds left.
They were down 66-65 to Drake with under 30 seconds left, and had multiple chances to win. Connor Turnbull missed 2 free throws that would have given them the lead, then with 8 seconds left, Alex Hemenway missed an open three pointer that would have given them a 2 point lead. And with the score still 66-65, Connor Turnbull missed a shot in the final seconds that allowed Drake to hold on for the 66-65 win.
And last night, Bradley's lead was only 1 point with under 2 minutes left (65-64), when Bradley pulled away to win.
Btw, there have been games where Bradley started strong. Bradley had a great start in their road game at Indiana State, hitting 7 of their first 10 shots to open a 13 point lead (17-4) in the first 5+ minutes. And in the last game, SIU held a small lead for the first 5 minutes, but then Bradley caught up and never trailed the rest of the way to win.
IMO, this team is just not quite as good as last year's team, and will have to work hard and limit mistakes to win MVC games. The only stat this year's Braves excel at is forcing turnovers. Their shooting, rebounding, and assists, which last year's team ranked at or near the top of the MVC, are not as good this year. And they don't have Duke Deen to take over when they need points, though Jaquan is beginning to do a pretty good imitation of Duke. As Coach Wardle said on his postgame show, they need to become more consistent. If they do, they can compete for the top of the Valley, but the next 2 games will be crucial to that. Bradley will be underdogs at Belmont and Murray State and could come home with a 3-2 MVC record.
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I'm not so sure Evansville is as mediocre as everyone thinks. They are are just a matter of a half dozen shots not falling to be 3-0 in steady of 0-3. Drake was lucky to escape with a win. Evansville might just pull some big upsets this season.
As far as our beloved Braves, we need to win every home game and get at least 5 or 6 road wins.
These next 2 games will be big for us.
 
Yeah, I actually agree.... that is why I termed them mediocre (moderate quality), and not a "bad" team. But their record is 4-10 so it is what it is.
They are a team Bradley should beat at home, and they did prevail when it was needed.
 
Da Coach said:
Yeah, I actually agree.... that is why I termed them mediocre (moderate quality), and not a "bad" team. But their record is 4-10 so it is what it is.
They are a team Bradley should beat at home, and they did prevail when it was needed.
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Our missed dunks/layups in the start of the game would have made a big difference in our starting and possibly keeping a lead.
 
basketball nut said:
Meta missed 4 or 5 dunks/layups in the first 10 minutes
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He did miss a few, but at least one of those times it resulted in free throws. I say keep running the play and see if he can improve on it. It’s an exciting play and we don’t have a lot of other good low post scoring options in the bag.
 
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