Very interesting. I’ve been calling for Meta to be used in the right game matchups game wise and even right matchups/moments with a game since early in the year. I obviously think this is a very good choice and Thomas seems like a decent complementary piece to Meta in terms of what they offer. I hope this continues going forward.
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Final score: Bradley 77 UIC 59
- Thread starter Da Coach
- Start date
Very interesting. I’ve been calling for Meta to be used in the right game matchups game wise and even right matchups/moments with a game since early in the year. I obviously think this is a very good choice and Thomas seems like a decent complementary piece to Meta in terms of what they offer. I hope this continues going forward.
Nice game and everyone seemed to continue to do a nice job, even Thomas seemed to be better and into decent backup territory. One other note, Atlason is much better on defense than he started the year, good to see.
As I posted at half time, we’ve looked good these four conference games, but now it’s time to look good against 4 much tougher opponents and prove we are consistent and for real as contenders in the Valley.
As I posted at half time, we’ve looked good these four conference games, but now it’s time to look good against 4 much tougher opponents and prove we are consistent and for real as contenders in the Valley.
BUBraves2006
Well-known member
Feels good to call this right ... Another beat down. I know we're fattening up on the bad teams of the league but we are doing what we are supposed to do.
The screams about our "horrible" depth sure are pretty quiet. Has anyone even noticed that Ellis is gone? I sure haven't.
Bradley8792
Active member
Good win. Lots of positives today. Correct me if I’m wrong, up by twenty with under ten and we stop playing defense, offense goes to sleep and they start to creep back in. They had 3-4 threes back to back that were wide open. To me that’s concerning against a better team.
Official box score- https://uicflames.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2023-24/bradley/boxscore/20052
The official attendance is listed as 2 (?)
That's 6 blowout wins in a row, which ties the earlier win streak at the start of the season.
The average margin of victory in the last 6 games is 23 points. Who expected this?
Duke Deen was on fire again- a game-high 26 points, one short of his career-high of 27 (against SIUE). He was 10-15 from the floor, and 6-9 from three, and only 1 turnover, which happened late in the game. He has had double-digit scoring in 9 of the last 10 games. Duke also had 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
Connor Hickman was also hot again. He had 22 points, the 3rd time in the last 4 games that he has gone over 20 points. He was 7-11 from the floor, and 3-7 from three. He also had 4 assists and 2 rebounds.
Malevy Leon scored only 8 points, but had 12 rebounds, and played terrific defense.
Good contributions from everyone else, including Kyle Thomas, who played 11 minutes, and had 4 points, 2 assists, and a rebound.
The Bradley defense held UIC's leading scorer Isaiah Rivera (14.8 ppg) to 2-8 shooting and 5 points. They held UIC's second-leading scorer Toby Okani (12.1 ppg) to 1-6 shooting and just 3 points. Their 4th leading scorer Filip Skobalj had just 6 points, and 5th leading scorer Jaden Brownell was scoreless.
The official attendance is listed as 2 (?)
That's 6 blowout wins in a row, which ties the earlier win streak at the start of the season.
The average margin of victory in the last 6 games is 23 points. Who expected this?
Duke Deen was on fire again- a game-high 26 points, one short of his career-high of 27 (against SIUE). He was 10-15 from the floor, and 6-9 from three, and only 1 turnover, which happened late in the game. He has had double-digit scoring in 9 of the last 10 games. Duke also had 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
Connor Hickman was also hot again. He had 22 points, the 3rd time in the last 4 games that he has gone over 20 points. He was 7-11 from the floor, and 3-7 from three. He also had 4 assists and 2 rebounds.
Malevy Leon scored only 8 points, but had 12 rebounds, and played terrific defense.
Good contributions from everyone else, including Kyle Thomas, who played 11 minutes, and had 4 points, 2 assists, and a rebound.
The Bradley defense held UIC's leading scorer Isaiah Rivera (14.8 ppg) to 2-8 shooting and 5 points. They held UIC's second-leading scorer Toby Okani (12.1 ppg) to 1-6 shooting and just 3 points. Their 4th leading scorer Filip Skobalj had just 6 points, and 5th leading scorer Jaden Brownell was scoreless.
The bigger thing that happened was Hickman’s return I think. When Deen and Hickman are playing like they have been and Burch is getting better all the time, that makes our guard play much better and guards are the most important thing to me in the Valley. Atlason getting better at defense and being able to play the three along with Davis has helped too. I hope that trend continues for Atlason against better, more athletic teams.
However, I still think having only three scholarship guards isn’t ideal depth. If we stay very healthy we can still play very well as we’ve seen, and if we don’t stay very healthy at guard, we’ve seen that too. So it’s not that the issue has gone away for me, if this team won the national championship I’d still think more guards would be ideal, but the three we have do have a lot of talent. Brian should wrap them in bubble wrap before and after each game.
daveineureka
Active member
Concerning one of the last posts where we have played bottom tier opponents for our four wins. You have to play every team in the league no matter when in the year you play them. If you want to contend or win the title you must protect home court and at least win half your road games. Bradley can do this. "Go Braves":lol:
bigjimmy
Well-known member
Bottom line is you better beat the teams you know you're better then, win your home games against the teams that are just as good as you are and try and get some W's against those same teams at their place. In the next 4 games we'll have chance to get top 6 team wins starting on Wednesday in Carbondale, 2 home games against Belmont and Murray St then try to get are home win back against ISU Blue.
Bradley3342
Member
Wasn’t at the game today but praying it all works out for you Dubl R 1
tomahawk chop
Well-known member
Well played game today, jumped on them early and coasted in the second half to a victory. The defense was not great in the second half but sometimes it is hard to keep the intensity up when you have a big lead and some younger players on the court. Duke and Connor were great today and it makes a huge difference with your starting guards scoring 48 points for the team. I really like the way Thomas plays as he does a lot of good things, best at passing out of the post to get are players great shots.
LittleBrave
Well-known member
Yep that’s what it looked like - amazing the support this team gets on the road and with adverse weather that would have kept most fans away.
LittleBrave
Well-known member
I totally agree that solid guard play is the key in the Valley. Deen and Hick are playing better than any other guard combo right now in the MVC.
Recap of game from UIC- https://uicflames.com/news/2024/1/13/mens-basketball-mens-basketball-falls-to-bradley-77-59.aspx
A couple photos showing some of the large contingent of Bradley fans at the game- https://twitter.com/BradleyUMBB/status/1746248618338861059
Facebook version- https://www.facebook.com/BravesMens...8QN36H2gdGF4i7PHWStjpFmL2j7WSHah41ShFrjCfbAwl
Bradley men's basketball twitter page with a number of video highlights (click on image to see videos)- https://twitter.com/BradleyUMBB/media
A couple photos showing some of the large contingent of Bradley fans at the game- https://twitter.com/BradleyUMBB/status/1746248618338861059
Facebook version- https://www.facebook.com/BravesMens...8QN36H2gdGF4i7PHWStjpFmL2j7WSHah41ShFrjCfbAwl
Bradley men's basketball twitter page with a number of video highlights (click on image to see videos)- https://twitter.com/BradleyUMBB/media
FWIW- regardless of what may have been mentioned on the radio- Jonovic appeared to be nursing some hamstring tightness. He was not going thru the usual warmups & shooting drills before the game, but instead was doing stretching along the baseline. There was no official statement on any injury, but possibly he was held out as a precaution.
here’s a pic of him trying the stretch out tightness using the basket support while all his teammates were doing the usual pre-game warmup drills.
Attachments
Jonovic, despite only averaging ~10 minutes per game over the past 7 games, is averaging
6 ppg on 55% shooting, 3 rpg, 1 blk, 1 TO. These are not that bad of numbers for such limited
playing time in the heart of games - not garbage time.
Just for reference, ISU's Brandon Lieb was their starting center playing more minutes yet only
averaging 3.5 ppg, 4 rpg, 34.6% shooting. Likewise, SIU's Scottie Ebube and UNI's backup
Kyle Pock are also in the same range statistically.
6 ppg on 55% shooting, 3 rpg, 1 blk, 1 TO. These are not that bad of numbers for such limited
playing time in the heart of games - not garbage time.
Just for reference, ISU's Brandon Lieb was their starting center playing more minutes yet only
averaging 3.5 ppg, 4 rpg, 34.6% shooting. Likewise, SIU's Scottie Ebube and UNI's backup
Kyle Pock are also in the same range statistically.
tomahawk chop
Well-known member
I still like Thomas better, he to me has a higher upside right now. Hoping they can improve on Metas lateral movement.