• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

Final score: Bradley 83 SIU 60

Status
Not open for further replies.
Da Coach

Da Coach

Moderator
Staff member
Bradley's next game is at Southern Illinois, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 7:00 pm in the Banterra Center on the campus of SIU.
It is the first Missouri Valley Conference game for both teams.
Bradley is 7-1, and 0-1 in road games. Bradley has an RPI of 38 and a Kenpom rank of 82.
SIU is 3-5, and 2-0 at home. The Salukis have an RPI of 236 and a Kenpom rank of 146.

The game is on ESPN+ - https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/id/9bf4021c-a465-4064-9d4f-d7ed6df50543
Live stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=549586
Chat Room - https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
WMBD radio- https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045

SIU has a new coach this season, Scott Nagy, who replaced Bryan Mullins. Nagy was at Wright State for the last 8 years, where he had winning seasons every year. He had two Horizon League Tournament Championships and 2 NCAA appearances, and 3 Horizon League regular season championships in his 8 seasons there. Prior to that, he was at South Dakota State for 8 seasons where he also had great success. He averaged over 24 wins per season the last 5 years he was at SFDSU, and in those 5 seasons, he had 3 Summit League regular season championships, 3 Tournament Championships, and 3 NCAA appearances.
Scott Nagy's historical record- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/scott-nagy-1.html

SIU also has a mostly new roster from last seasons 19-13 team (11-9 in the MVC). They lost their top 6 scorers from last year, and 89% of their total offense. Only 3 players return from last season, and they accounted for just 11% of last year's offense- sophomore Kennard Davis, senior Jarrett Hensley, and sophomore Sheridan Sharp.
The remainder of their roster includes 5 transfers from 4-year schools, 2 junior college transfers, and 3 freshmen (one is a walkon, another one is red-shirting ).
11 players have played in every game, and 10 players average 15 minutes or more per game.-
Kennard Davis- 15.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 33.3% 3pt%
Ali Dibba- 15.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 42.1% 3pt%
Elijah Elliott- 14.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 34.6% 3pt%
Jarrett Hensley- 9.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 26.9% 3pt%
Sheridan Sharp- 8.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1-2 from three
Davion Sykes- 6.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1-4 from three
Rolyns Aligbe- 5.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg
Antwuan Massey- 4.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg
Damien Mayo, Jr.- 3.6 ppg, 2.8 rpg
Drew Steffe- 3.9 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 31.8% 3pt%
Jorge Moreno- 2.7 ppg, 2.0 rpg

Former Bradley recruit Jaheem Webber, who played at Normal Community HS, played 7 minutes in their preseason exhibition win over Division III North Park University and scored 3 points. But he has not appeared in any regular season games and there have been reports that he may be red-shirting this season.

SIU links-
Schedule/results- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
SIU stats- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25

Bradley stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...earmsports.com/stats/mbball/2024/pdf/cume.pdf
MVC stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.si.../2024/11/5/2024_25_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf
​
 
Must win if we expect to win the regular season championship. They so far have not shot the 3 point shot well so we need to defend the paint, limit our fouls and score at least 74 points.
 
Also to note Elijah Elliott is out for the season. He was their spark plug. Davis, Dibba, Hensley are key guys to shut down. This should be an easy W, but it is at SIU.
 
Bradley3342 said:
Take one game at a time and never overlook anyone. That’s when it bites you in the butt.
Click to expand...

Exactly.... this game is the first true road game since the Washington State game, and we know how poorly the Braves played in that one. It will not be easy, and the shots will not fall as reliably as they did at home against Judson. I expect Bradley will have some stretches where the offense will stall. So hopefully the defense will step up and and help deliver a win.
 
Da Coach said:
Exactly.... this game is the first true road game since the Washington State game, and we know how poorly the Braves played in that one.
Click to expand...
Turns out Wash St. is pretty good, thought you're right we didn't play well that game, especially with D and turnovers.

We really should win by 10-15 tonight if we play focused and hard.
 
pfcmsh said:
I hope you are right, Tommy. I fear a slow start. Being on the road, shooting as well as we did against Judson, scares me a little. Judson is no SIU. I think we will win handily, but the first 10 minutes scare me a little. Hope I'm wrong. I love our team and our balance. We deserve to be Valley favorites. We just need to over come the reality of a well coached, relatively new Valley team on the road. We don't want them to become confident in the early going. GO BRAVES!
Click to expand...

I hear ya, but I'll tell ya pfcmsh, the way everyone on this team can shoot the 3 will really help us avoid letdowns. Watching them win the Myrtle Beach Tournament against Wright State who shot and played really well, and then doing the same thing against Middle Tennessee State, who also played and shot well, really has my hopes up!

I know we had that big letdown against Washington State, but I am putting that on the 2 time zones and the late start time. That's still no excuse, I understand.

Lastly, we just got Burch back! We've played this well without our 6th man!
 
Tommy said:
I hear ya, but I'll tell ya pfcmsh, the way everyone on this team can shoot the 3 will really help us avoid letdowns. Watching them win the Myrtle Beach Tournament against Wright State who shot and played really well, and then doing the same thing against Middle Tennessee State, who also played and shot well, really has my hopes up!

I know we had that big letdown against Washington State, but I am putting that on the 2 time zones and the late start time. That's still no excuse, I understand.

Lastly, we just got Burch back! We've played this well without our 6th man!
Click to expand...

BU is a 3.5 point favorite per ESPN. Does that seem low?
 
pfcmsh said:
I hope you are right, Tommy. I fear a slow start. Being on the road, shooting as well as we did against Judson, scares me a little. Judson is no SIU. I think we will win handily, but the first 10 minutes scare me a little. Hope I'm wrong. I love our team and our balance. We deserve to be Valley favorites. We just need to over come the reality of a well coached, relatively new Valley team on the road. We don't want them to become confident in the early going. GO BRAVES!
Click to expand...

SIU is a much different type of team this season compared with past seasons and I am sure our coaches know that. Under Bryan Mullins, SIU was usually the best defensive team in the MVC. In the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, SIU allowed just 61.4 ppg by opponents, the best in the MVC. By comparison, this year's SIU team is allowing an average of 74.0 ppg. Only 2 teams yield more points per game.
The other notable area of difference is in shooting. With players like Marcus Domask, Lance Jones, Xavier Johnson, Trent Brown, and Troy D'Amico, they had reliable 3-point shooters. This season, they rank 10th in the MVC in 3-point FG% with 33.1% and the only player shooting better than 33.3% is guard Ali Dibba at 42.1%.

Bradley ranks # 1 in the MVC in 3-point FG%, and they are # 4 nationally with 43.3% .
Bradley currently has 9 players shooting 40% or better-
Demarion Burch 2-2 - 100%
Connor Dillon 7-13 - 53.8%
Darius Hannah 8-15 - 53.3%
Zek Montgomery 14-28 - 50.0%
Jaquan Johnson 1-2 - 50.0%
Gus Rugaard 1-2 - 50.0%
Christian Davis 12-25 - 48.0%
Almar Atlason 17-42 - 40.5%
Duke Deen 24-60 - 40.0%
 
Nashville Cat said:
BU is a 3.5 point favorite per ESPN. Does that seem low?
Click to expand...

SIU is 2-0 at home and Bradley is 0-1 in road games, so maybe that plays into the betting lines a little. Here are some other factors that are considered-

SIU's two home wins are were 86-64 over Missouri S&T, a pretty good Division II team. The game at SIU was an exhibition game for Missouri S&T. They also lost an exhibition game at Tulsa 70-75 in overtime. Officially, they are 4-0 on the season with an average margin of victory in their 4 wins of 30 points. SIU also beat North Dakota State at home by 25 points, 69-44. North Dakota State was picked 3rd in the Summit League preseason poll. They are 5-4 and they won at Santa Clara 88-80.
SIU also beat a weak D2 Florida Tech 81-54 to finish in 7th place in the Gulf Coast Showcase.

SIU is 3-5, but most of their losses have been fairly close losses against good teams-
Lost to Charleston in Sioux Falls, SD 80-90- Charleston is 5-2, Kenpom 140
Lost at Oklahoma State 78-85 - OK State is 4-2, Kenpom 97
Lost at Florida 68-93 - their only blowout, Florida is 8-0, Kenpom 8
Lost to Louisiana Tech in the Gulf Coast Showcase 79-85 in OT - LA Tech is 7-1, Kenpom 104
Lost to Eastern Kentucky in the Gulf Coast Showcase 72-77 - EKU is 4-4 . Kenpom 207
 
Tommy said:
I hear ya, but I'll tell ya pfcmsh, the way everyone on this team can shoot the 3 will really help us avoid letdowns. Watching them win the Myrtle Beach Tournament against Wright State who shot and played really well, and then doing the same thing against Middle Tennessee State, who also played and shot well, really has my hopes up!

I know we had that big letdown against Washington State, but I am putting that on the 2 time zones and the late start time. That's still no excuse, I understand.

Lastly, we just got Burch back! We've played this well without our 6th man!
Click to expand...

I feel better after your point about our 3 point shooting. The 3's seem to instill energy. We are 4th in the country on 3's and I forgot that. Thanks Da Coach.. That is pretty good! This teams seems really good offensively. Again, I love the balance
 
Da Coach said:
SIU is a much different type of team this season compared with past seasons and I am sure our coaches know that. Under Bryan Mullins, SIU was usually the best defensive team in the MVC. In the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, SIU allowed just 61.4 ppg by opponents, the best in the MVC. By comparison, this year's SIU team is allowing an average of 74.0 ppg. Only 2 teams yield more points per game.
The other notable area of difference is in shooting. With players like Marcus Domask, Lance Jones, Xavier Johnson, Trent Brown, and Troy D'Amico, they had reliable 3-point shooters. This season, they rank 10th in the MVC in 3-point FG% with 33.1% and the only player shooting better than 33.3% is guard Ali Dibba at 42.1%.

Bradley ranks # 1 in the MVC in 3-point FG%, and they are # 4 nationally with 43.3% .
Bradley currently has 9 players shooting 40% or better-
Demarion Burch 2-2 - 100%
Connor Dillon 7-13 - 53.8%
Darius Hannah 8-15 - 53.3%
Zek Montgomery 14-28 - 50.0%
Jaquan Johnson 1-2 - 50.0%
Gus Rugaard 1-2 - 50.0%
Christian Davis 12-25 - 48.0%
Almar Atlason 17-42 - 40.5%
Duke Deen 24-60 - 40.0%
Click to expand...

I'm feeling better. Because of the injury, I don't know much about Burch and his BU contribution. Never seen him on TV or highlights. He must be a good player and with him back, I take that our depth is even better. I see he shoots 100% on 3s. :)
 
pfcmsh said:
I'm feeling better. Because of the injury, I don't know much about Burch and his BU contribution. Never seen him on TV or highlights. He must be a good player and with him back, I take that our depth is even better. I see he shoots 100% on 3s. :)
Click to expand...

100%! Why, that's almost perfect! ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top