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Final score- UIC 93 Bradley 70

Bradley getting murdered at halftime. UIC just lost to SIU at home. Will have to beat Drake at Drake to have any chance of a MVC title. UIC with wide open threes. :mad:
 
I wonder if Zek regrets hotdogging to the crowd in the opening minutes when it looked like we were going to blow them out before the tables turned. Are there clawback provisions on the NIL money? ;-)
 
I rarely go off on an rant after a game, but this game warrants it. I can accept losses. I can accept games where we just don't have it or get beat. It's college basketball and these are still young guys in general.

But, one tenet of Coach Wardle teams is that they simply do not quit. They didn't quit when we were winning single digit games back when Coach Wardle first started. And I thought that this would continue even after we got down by a ton and then cut it to 10. Then Darius misses two layups and we just laid down and quit. We flat out quit and before you know we were down 23. I am never embarrassed as Bradley fan but this one was really embarrassing.

One game doesn't ruin what has been a great season but my goodness this is just an effort I flat out cannot accept and I never want to see that again from this team. The only silver lining is that this happened now and not in St. Louis. Onto the next one and I'll be watching. Go Braves!
 
Coach on the post game show, " we had guys who didn't want to play tonight".
Also, "I tried to motivate them...it didn't work".
 
We beat them last year 74-47. They bring in a new coach and all new players. We have a solid nucleus returning. We play like crap at their place and still win. How does this happen? And how does Drake start from scratch with a new coach and players and start the season 18-2?
 
BengalFan14 said:
Our point guards are killing us.
Click to expand...

And, they were not guarded that tightly or physically as other teams have done when they were successful. The only good excuse for this lack of performance would be the flu or COVID making it's rounds in the team. Otherwise, they may have been "reading their own press" and forgot what they needed to do. Worse case scenario for such a flop would involve tracking betting apps ;-)
 
Da Coach said:
Coach on the post game show, " we had guys who didn't want to play tonight".
Also, "I tried to motivate them...it didn't work".
Click to expand...

Yep, I guessed this would be one of the few times the Coach would go to that well and let them know it. Hopefully, the feeling of such a debacle sinks in and they don't let that happen again. They are college kids, but everyone has seen their talent and when their effort level is high, they can really play. Playing hard and losing to a good team is one thing, but playing below par and getting destroyed is another.

Hats off to UIC, they played outside themselves and just about everything they threw up went in.

Maybe, like the team, I let my expectations get ahead of current events and I jinxed them :-( The guys can recover, though:-) The MVC tourney will be a good one.
 
The most disappointing thing here, even in a bad performance, was terrible effort. The offensive screens were lazy, the guards were even lazier not event rubbing around the offensive screens and instead just walking backwards half-heartedly around the screens, we just stood there a lot on offense, had lazy passes again, and some of our senior's defensive effort and focus was terrible. Then we started even passing up open shots or not taking them with authority. Zek has to stay focused on defense. I'm not sure what was up with Duke tonight, but he looked way off and didn't have his normal energy. Hannah seemed content to stand outside until later in game far too often. Credit to a good team, they took it to us, but why such a lazy effort tonight? Also, why was Duke still in the game with the bench at the end down 20+? What possible good could have come from that? I guess one positive was Almar hitting a couple of nice shots.

I guess on to the next one, but as I've said before, this is not an at-large team and that's not because of high major bias. We are still a very good team, but we have to hope we keep getting better and win arch-madness. We are not good enough to win without putting in an effort. Hopefully this is a late season wake up call, cause we are no longer in first place (Drake holds the tiebreaker). We've also now lost our only two home games to the seeming top 5 teams in the Valley, and really we should be 0-2 against UIC had they not fumbled the game away at UIC. Three of the next five won't be easy either. I hope we play a lot harder this weekend and play to our capabilities.
 
Sorry, no excuses these young men are now being paid to play the game. If they can not play hard enough put the walk on kids in. I have seen more defense in a pick up game at the YMCA.
 
molar50 said:
I arrived early and watched the UIC guards practice 3 point shots. It seemed like they made almost all their shots.
Click to expand...

I counted 13 of 15 at one point and both misses were because another ball hit against another ball.
Absolutely no effort. As was said before it's pretty bad when Atlason has the highlight of the game.
 
Shocked how Bradley lost tonight. However, a letdown game is common in a long season! Memphis has had quite a few this year also! I believe they got whipped at home to a much lesser talented team earlier in the season! The MVC tourney is gonna be tough to win! Looking at the standings now, although being in top 4 gets a first round bye, I think it's important Bradley gets the 1or 2 seed! It just seems to me that the 8th or 7th team in the second round of the tourney will be a better draw! No ream will be a pushover, but I'd rather Bradley avoid,UIC, NIU, Belmont or Murray St. In the second round! To me Bradley would be best as the 2nd seed because there is less pressure! If Drake wins reg.season title so be it!!!! It doesn't mean anything! The Best scenario for the Valley is for Bradley to get the AQ Bid and Drake an at-Large Bid! There are still alot of games to go, but if Bradley wants a top 2 or better seed, the Northern Iowa game is now looking like a MUST Win!
 
Nothing much to say about this game. Was a total letdown by the entire team. Wardle said on his post game that there would be no off day as is usually the case after a game. Back to practice to try and get their mojo back. We have lost two home games this year, so that means the team has to go win where we are not expected to. At Northern Iowa, Drake, and ISU Red. Will not be easy but if Bradley wants to win the conference then those three games are now a must win. Hope they get things turned around after tonight's fiasco.:mad:
 
UIC played close to a perfect 1st half hitting 50% on 3 with zero turnovers...:-o Braves had 11 turnovers in the 1st half alone!:mad:
Sooo sick of the Bradley player's and the lazy passes....come on!:oops:
How many layups did we give up....taken to the woodshed on your home court...:oops: :oops: :oops:
 
We led 22-9 with 13:24 left in the first half. We proceeded to be outscored 84-48 the rest of the game. Let that one sink in a while. We made 11 of our first 12 shots and lost by 23 at home. INEXCUSABLE. Big credit to UIC for not panicking and boy once they turned it on they were pretty unstoppable. Unfortunately, we helped contribute to that by not closing out on their shooters, doing a poor job getting through their screens and having no ball pressure. Conversley their ball pressure forced too many weak passes causing turnovers and really grinding our offense to a halt. Never took advantage of our inside size. Now we did close their lead to 10 with 8:25 left and we had 4 chances to get it under double digits and if we had I do think we could have made a game of it. We held them scoreless for the next 2:00. Unfortunately we had a turnover, Duke missed 2 3's and Darius missed 2 in close shots. UIC scored the next 7 and the game was over. Just hope the guys learn from this so that it doesn't happen again. I'm sure Brian will be reminding them of this between now and the game at UNI on Sunday.
 
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