• 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: Michigan State 76 Bradley 65

a couple things from the game yesterday in Des Moines

-arena was packed - capacity of over 16,000 probably 35% of the fans were Minnesota fans, then I'd say Bradley had the next largest
contingent - maybe 20-25% of the fans, then Louisville about 15-20% and Michigan State surprisingly was the smallest contingent - maybe only 10-15% with
maybe 10-20% being local people who came to watch

-Jim Molinari was right there in the Bradley seating area - he stopped and talked with a lot of us who have been around a while.
Several mid-2000's Bradley players - Danny Adams, JJ Tauai, Patrick O'Bryant, Daniel Ruffin, Tony Bennett, Kevin Jones were there
Fred Hoiberg was sitting nearby - his son is on Michigan State. LINK

-the availability of parking near the arena is crappy and the traffic is lousy as the streets are narrow.
but kudos to the city of Des Moines that had ample parking about a mile away at the Iowa Cubs' ball park and they provided very efficient and continuous shuttle service for folks.

-hafta admit that the food & beverage options and selections were better than even at United Center in Chicago (in my opinion!)

-The Bradley fans were definitely the best & loudest - followed closely by the Minnesota fans

-THREE of Bradley's top 25 career scoring leaders were there - can anyone name who I mean?

-was really surprised at how small & how docile the Michigan State crowd was - half of them weren't even wearing team colors.
 
tornado said:
a couple things from the game yesterday in Des Moines

-arena was packed - capacity of over 16,000 probably 35% of the fans were Minnesota fans, then I'd say Bradley had the next largest
contingent - maybe 20-25% of the fans, then Louisville about 15-20% and Michigan State surprisingly was the smallest contingent - maybe only 10-15% with
maybe 10-20% being local people who came to watch...

-The Bradley fans were definitely the best & loudest - followed closely by the Minnesota fans
Click to expand...

I was guessing that it was closer to 50% Minnesota fans because only a few left after their game, and their game sounded like a home game. As one would guess, most backed Bradley. I had every Minnesota fan in 119 backing the Braves.

T I don't know if you saw the previous game, but the Gopher fans were definitely louder over all, but I was quite a bit from the BU section so maybe I just couldn't hear it as well. Still loud.

I was very proud of the team's effort, and fight. I was extremely proud of how well the entire fan base traveled. I thought the facility was awesome (wish Peoria's population was bigger so we could get something similar to host such events), and I thought Des Moines was impressive as a host facility.

I really hope that this snowballs for the program and we are just starting the climb. I felt like we were one go to scorer short because DB and NK had problems getting shots off because of their lack of length.
 
We had them on the ropes for 30 minutes, but BU doesn't seem to win games when the refs are extremely active. 40 fouls in 40 minutes makes it tough for them to get any kind of rhythm, and I'm still sour over that flagrant 1.

All that being said, we need to play the style the refs are allowing, and we weren't hitting our FT's or we might be talking about round 2. Still, for a 20 win mid-major that was a 15 seed that nobody was giving a shot to, I think they showed that they can play with anyone in the country. Not 1 dunk given up to MSU in the entire game!

More tournament games are in our future, and I think we can all agree that we've got a guy that really knows what he's doing as head coach. We will be the new dominant team of the MVC and it all started this year. Get used to this Braves fans!
 
Hey - trivia time for a little fun

check this photo - you may need to be logged on to Facebook to see
https://www.facebook.com/BravesMensB...type=3&theater

but see if you can identify
-2 current members of the Bradley Athletic Department
-and 2 former members of the Bradley Athletic Department


..and, even tho it is almost impossible to spot him - there's one very prominent former Bradley basketball player in the picture as well
 
Some random thoughts before talking about the game and this season:

1. Minnesota had far and away the most fans at the Thursday game. Michigan State had the least amount. Thought it might help the Golden Gophers have a little bit of a "home court" advantage but Sparty never really let them have a voice.

2. I thought the area around the arena was very well organized and had ample parking. They have a skywalk system that has the parking decks and a lot of businesses connected and it made it super easy to get to the arena and after the game had no trouble getting out to the interstate.

3. Inside the arena I thought there was a lot of variety in food and not too expensive either. The tenderloin sandwich was good and the fries were really good. Now the men's bathrooms, on the other hand, were smaller than Carver Arena's and their seemed to be 4 woman's bathrooms for every 1 men's bathroom. At halftime of the Minnesota/Louisville game it took almost 20 minutes to go through and the ladies room had no waiting. Other than that iI was pretty impressed. The Enterprise Center in St. Louis can learn a thing or 2 from them.

It took me a few days to fully process what we almost got to watch, a historic making win against one of the top programs in the country. We went toe to toe with Sparty and just about sent them home to East Lansing. Unfortunately one last scoring drought late in the 2nd half caused us to come up short. So very proud of their effort and that effort and their ability was certainly noticed by a lot of national pundits. And hopefully by a few recruits. Bradley is on their way back to prominence and I hope that we see more fans back in the stands this coming season. But before we can talk about next season have to thank the guys who played their last game for the Braves. They have helped lay the foundation for continued success and their contributions will certainly not be forgotten. Thank you guys. As for next year? This might be one of the most anticipated seasons for BU since the 87-88 season. Eli and DB should be in the mix for possible Player of the year. Looking forward to seeing the new freshman and possible grad transfer? Does Jayden and/or Pittman stay for their senior year? I know Koch tries his hardest and he showed glimpses of his potential throughout this season. Hopefully he'll work on his hands and strength this summer and we could see some good things happen for him this coming season. Of the 3 freshman JaShon certainly improved the most from the beginning of the season to the end. He shows lots of promise. Hopefully with a year under their belt we'll see more from Boya and Brummitt. As for Nate hopefully the defense he played this post season is the norm for next and I expect him, along with DB, to be our leaders for next season. Mid October can't get here soon enough.
 
Hey tornado. Only one I can make out is Nathan Bramwell. Director of ticket sales. My eyesight must be getting terrible! Haha! Gonna let us all know who we’re missing?
 
Bradley3342 said:
Hey tornado. Only one I can make out is Nathan Bramwell. Director of ticket sales. My eyesight must be getting terrible! Haha! Gonna let us all know who we’re missing?
Click to expand...

Far bottom right is Jim Molinari
Far bottom left is Brian Lavin
Bottom middle is Rick Gaa - former member of the Athletic Department
Far upper right is Rocky Vonachen, current member of the department
then hard to see but just to the right of the left elbow of the guy in the upper left of the picture holding the beer can - seated with a hat on is BU All American Paul Unruh
 
WEEK/Jim Mattson story on the former Braves who were in Des Moines to cheer on the 2018-19 Braves-
https://week.com/sport/2019/03/26/b...nt-game-brings-back-memories-for-2006-braves/

The Bradley players featured in the video report who were at the BU-Michigan State game were: Tony Bennett (#5), J.J. Tauai (#10), Patrick O'Bryant (#13), Daniel Ruffin (#20), Danny Adams (#32), and Kevin Jones. There was at least one other member of the 2006-06 team in attendance at the NCAA First Round game, Brian Lavin. He is now the Director of Athletic Development for Bradley, and was at the game as part of the BU administration.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top