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Final score: Bradley 85 Central Michigan 54
- Thread starter Da Coach
- Start date
I was at the game! Bradley turned it on when they needed to! Fun Game! Good to see they looked hungry to win and didn't take C.Michigsn lightly! Loyola lost at home being 20 point favorites which shows you can never under estimate any team! Bradley did what they were expected to do!!!! This is going to be an exciting year!!!
basketball nut
Well-known member
Free throws % doesn't look good but at Points they were 7 of 14. That means they went 10 of 11 from that point on.
Coach got their attention with that quick time out to start the second half.
tomahawk chop
Well-known member
Quan was excellent in every facet of the game tonight. I also thought Alex and AJ were very good and Cory was in the second half. The defense especially on the perimeter was outstanding. Great game overall and since we were missing Burch it was even more so impressive.
My overall impressions two games in:
It’s interesting the two freshmen people said we shouldn’t recruit competition for have struggled so far and the one some thought would struggle to find playing time has been great. It’s early and they obviously all have potential, but it shows we just don’t know until they’re on the floor, especially early in freshmen year.
It really would have been nice to have one more starting caliber piece down low. It’s the one obvious missing piece from the off season and it’s shown so far. Jonovic is a fine rotation piece and Yu is interesting. I like what I saw today from him but he’s not there yet in terms of being a starter. Thomas has his moments and I hope he’ll become more consistent this year. I don’t see it yet with Timo, he still seems super raw to me. He is still young so we’ll see, but we are pretty thin down low. The 1-3 spots are looking good. Johnson and Wheeler are so fun to watch. Tough, smart players. Hope they have long Bradley careers. I liked Smith’s game style even in the loss, and he showed what he can do tonight. Him, Johnson, and Wheeler make a tough defensive backcourt. Huibregtse looks perfect for his role. Burch needs to get healthy soon as his offense will be needed and he looked good in game one. Will be interesting to see the starting lineup when he’s back as you could argue our five best players are all guards at this point (Smith a F/G) but Brian said he liked the bigger lineup today. Seems like we already have a main 8 man rotation with Yu, Richardson, and possibly Zobrist fighting to join throughout the year. I’d like to see Yu continue to get playing time based on tonight.
Overall I think it seems like a fun group with a lot to prove still. Should be fun to see how they grow.
It’s interesting the two freshmen people said we shouldn’t recruit competition for have struggled so far and the one some thought would struggle to find playing time has been great. It’s early and they obviously all have potential, but it shows we just don’t know until they’re on the floor, especially early in freshmen year.
It really would have been nice to have one more starting caliber piece down low. It’s the one obvious missing piece from the off season and it’s shown so far. Jonovic is a fine rotation piece and Yu is interesting. I like what I saw today from him but he’s not there yet in terms of being a starter. Thomas has his moments and I hope he’ll become more consistent this year. I don’t see it yet with Timo, he still seems super raw to me. He is still young so we’ll see, but we are pretty thin down low. The 1-3 spots are looking good. Johnson and Wheeler are so fun to watch. Tough, smart players. Hope they have long Bradley careers. I liked Smith’s game style even in the loss, and he showed what he can do tonight. Him, Johnson, and Wheeler make a tough defensive backcourt. Huibregtse looks perfect for his role. Burch needs to get healthy soon as his offense will be needed and he looked good in game one. Will be interesting to see the starting lineup when he’s back as you could argue our five best players are all guards at this point (Smith a F/G) but Brian said he liked the bigger lineup today. Seems like we already have a main 8 man rotation with Yu, Richardson, and possibly Zobrist fighting to join throughout the year. I’d like to see Yu continue to get playing time based on tonight.
Overall I think it seems like a fun group with a lot to prove still. Should be fun to see how they grow.
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bigjimmy
Well-known member
Shooting over 50% and having a 15-10 assist to turnover ratio while causing 15 turnovers and only giving up 7 assists is a great recipe for a blowout. We also outrebounded them by 10. Midway through the 2nd half JJ looked like he was impersonating Duke Dean when he scored 12 out of our 14 points. Their guards were really having a hard time staying in front of both JJ and Montana, who had 4 assists. I am concerned with Meta as he's moving pretty slow. For us to win the Valley he has to be better.
daveineureka
Active member
Could not agree more about Meta. He needs to be more of a factor down low for us to have a great season. Do not remember the incident, but during a timeout you could see Wardle really giving Meta a earful. Hopefully this will light a fire to get him to play better. Hope Burch mends quickly. At least it is nothing serious like a knee or shoulder. Quick turnaround as next Wednesday is our next game. Take nothing for granted and keep improving each practice and into every game. "LET'S GO BRAVES"
BUBraves2006
Well-known member
Here's my lengthy breakdown of the game. Enjoy!
https://bubraves2006.substack.com/p/50-point-explosion-sends-braves-to
https://bubraves2006.substack.com/p/50-point-explosion-sends-braves-to
Great job! I encourage everyone to check out BUBraves2006 blog.
As you mentioned, Coach Wardle was pretty hard on Meta on a couple occasions for allowing the ball to get taken away or not grabbing a rebound and allowing it to fall to one of the CMU players. But as the game ended, one of the first things Coach Wardle did (was to walk down to the end of the bench where Meta was standing and have a short chat with him. They were all smiles and Coach gave Meta a pat on the chest. On the postgame radio show, Coach Wardle commented how he is harder on Meta than the other players, because he believes he can be a much better player, but that he loves Meta, and Meta knows that.
As you mentioned, Coach Wardle was pretty hard on Meta on a couple occasions for allowing the ball to get taken away or not grabbing a rebound and allowing it to fall to one of the CMU players. But as the game ended, one of the first things Coach Wardle did (was to walk down to the end of the bench where Meta was standing and have a short chat with him. They were all smiles and Coach gave Meta a pat on the chest. On the postgame radio show, Coach Wardle commented how he is harder on Meta than the other players, because he believes he can be a much better player, but that he loves Meta, and Meta knows that.
Bradley8792
Active member
What’s with being called out of bounds so many times? Is there something funky with how the lines painted on the new floor?
The floor has a new paint job with new red borders. But this issue was happening last year, too, even with the old paint job with the black borders. And it isn't always the same players. It seems it can happen with any of the guards and wings who get the ball in the corner, then dribble out of there by starting with a step backward. I've seen other teams guilty of it, but it does seem to happen more to Bradley.
LittleBrave
Well-known member
Nice games by JJ and AJ!!
Good contributions IMO from Alex, CT (on D) and Timo.
Montana will have his growing pains and the offense looked pretty stagnant when he was the floor general.
He's got game though, and ended with 5 A / 2 TO. The ball-handling by our guards has been excellent in the 1st 2 games.
Meta is struggling - hopefully he will not be a liability like he was last night.
If Bully hadn't gone Nba 2K26, might have been a single-digit game. He was hitting everything in the 2nd half. Looked a lot like some of Duke's heat-check games.
Good contributions IMO from Alex, CT (on D) and Timo.
Montana will have his growing pains and the offense looked pretty stagnant when he was the floor general.
He's got game though, and ended with 5 A / 2 TO. The ball-handling by our guards has been excellent in the 1st 2 games.
Meta is struggling - hopefully he will not be a liability like he was last night.
If Bully hadn't gone Nba 2K26, might have been a single-digit game. He was hitting everything in the 2nd half. Looked a lot like some of Duke's heat-check games.
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