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The Basketball Tournament- Always a Brave in Illinois Region

Nice to see Donte Thomas in the game now!

Some inconsistent officiating so far. The officials are allowing a lot of contact and moving screens, but then Luqman Lundy just got called for a phantom charging call on a nice drive down the lane and pass off for what should have been a layup. The replay showed the defender was hardly touched and flopped.

Score at the end of 1 quarter- Boeheim's Army 17 Always a Brave 12
https://thetournament.com/scores/?WHurl=/competition/30160/match/1897067/summary?
 
Boeheims Army leads after 1st quarter 17-12. Refs let both teams get overly physical and started to call some nickel and dime fouls to rein it in. Both teams are bitching to the refs
 
Boeheims Army is really good. They’re leading 34-19 with 3:54 left in half. They are quick and use fast paced screen motion offense that’s been tough for us to keep up. Their length has also bothered us when we’re on offense.
 
Always a Brave cut the lead to 38-28 at the half but got screwed three times by the refs in 3 of the last 4 possessions. Nate got fouled on a layup, Somerville got fouled on the last shot of the half and the worst was an inadvertent whistle on a shot clock situation that clearly hit the rim on a DB shot and he got the rebound and wound have been an easy two except for the whistle. BA is a good team who clearly have played together for awhile so it’ll be an uphill struggle to win it but our offense can keep it flowing thus half line they did in the last 3:00.
 
We’re trying different combinations but nothings seems to be working so far. Down 49-33 with 3:47 left in 3rd
 
53-43 BA going to the 4th. A player for BA started to get into with some fans which really got the crowd into it in the last 3:00 and that’s when we cut it to 10. NEED THAT ENERGY CARVER CROWD!
 
Wasn't meant to be but proud of the Braves for giving their all. Gave me some extended excitement from memories of the past and building excitement for the upcoming season.
 
Big Mike said:
Wasn't meant to be but proud of the Braves for giving their all. Gave me some extended excitement from memories of the past and building excitement for the upcoming season.
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They did Peoria and Bradley proud. Really fun watching our former greats compete. Both the players and fans showed anyone watching that this community loves basketball and their Bradley Braves.
 
The shots just weren't falling like they did in the 2nd half against Jackson TN Underdogs, while the Boeheim's Army team continued to hit a high percentage even when guarded well.
Final score- Boeheim's Army 69 Always a Brave 54
Final stats- https://thetournament.com/scores/?WHurl=/competition/30160/match/1897067/summary?

Thanks to all the players, coaches, and to Bobby Parker, the GM, along wit everyone else who also put in a ton of work to organize this team, and help arrange for the TBT tournament to take place in Peoria.

Hope everyone who sacrificed for this team has a great summer!
 
PhiAlphaBoy said:
They did Peoria and Bradley proud. Really fun watching our former greats compete. Both the players and fans showed anyone watching that this community loves basketball and their Bradley Braves.
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Well said. A very enjoyable last few days of hoops...now we focus our attention to getting the current Braves in form to win the MVC. It's gonna happen someday. Might as well be THIS season!

Short reflection on AAB: Would like to see Crouch and Chris Roberts on next year's roster. I think we needed another perimeter shooter (Kennel was solid) as the missed 3s hurt us every game. Not sure how much Roberts has left, but could use an another athletic guy. And for sure we need another BIG who can score, as we were too reliant on pts outside the paint. Donte was solid for us his last 2 seasons as a Braves, but vs this kinda competition, he'll get dominated.
 
LittleBrave said:
Well said. A very enjoyable last few days of hoops...now we focus our attention to getting the current Braves in form to win the MVC. It's gonna happen someday. Might as well be THIS season!

Short reflection on AAB: Would like to see Crouch and Chris Roberts on next year's roster. I think we needed another perimeter shooter (Kennel was solid) as the missed 3s hurt us every game. Not sure how much Roberts has left, but could use an another athletic guy. And for sure we need another BIG who can score, as we were too reliant on pts outside the paint. Donte was solid for us his last 2 seasons as a Braves, but vs this kinda competition, he'll get dominated.
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I think if this game showed anything, it showed that the team needs to be younger and more athletic. AAB couldn't overcome the size, speed and athleticism of BA. I enjoyed the games, but even against the Jackson team, several players looked slow and out of shape. DB and Luqman, really got the team going against Jackson. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of youth that could be added to the squad at this point. I bet we would have had a better shot if we had Walt and ZA.
 
egib52 said:
I think if this game showed anything, it showed that the team needs to be younger and more athletic. AAB couldn't overcome the size, speed and athleticism of BA. I enjoyed the games, but even against the Jackson team, several players looked slow and out of shape. DB and Luqman, really got the team going against Jackson. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of youth that could be added to the squad at this point. I bet we would have had a better shot if we had Walt and ZA.
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I agree completely. I feel there are two approaches to this tournament. Get a lot of famous older alumni to play, which I love, or add recent grads that are very much still in shape etc and can have a good chance at winning the whole thing.

I love Cellus and he looks to be in good shape for his age but he just couldn’t get it going last night, and he was on the floor a lot of the game. Maybe 3 games 5 days is just too much at 39 yrs old. Patrick and TB also both played a lot and I love these guys but when a team has 3 guys all 35 or older on the court together for extended minutes it probably isn’t going to end great. I suspect this was the last time we see POB and Cellus on the floor at Carver, especially the way POB seemed to be saying good bye after the game.

AAB needs more scoring, maybe they could get Brown on the team next year or something. Doubt Childs comes back to Peoria so soon.
 
LittleBrave said:
Well said. A very enjoyable last few days of hoops...now we focus our attention to getting the current Braves in form to win the MVC. It's gonna happen someday. Might as well be THIS season!

Short reflection on AAB: Would like to see Crouch and Chris Roberts on next year's roster. I think we needed another perimeter shooter (Kennel was solid) as the missed 3s hurt us every game. Not sure how much Roberts has left, but could use an another athletic guy. And for sure we need another BIG who can score, as we were too reliant on pts outside the paint. Donte was solid for us his last 2 seasons as a Braves, but vs this kinda competition, he'll get dominated.
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Do Crouch and Roberts even play any more?

For starters and as a base team to build on I'd love to see us field a team of players like:
Lemon
DLO
VanBree
Koch
Brown
Kennell
Lundy
Thomas
Bielfeldt
Mix in a few other local players/players from Valley teams to fill out the AAB squad.
 
Well it was fun while it lasted. Boeheim's Army has length, speed, toughness and can shoot it and they did all of that against us. Thought the 3 games in 5 days did catch up to some of the players but at the end of the day both teams were in the same situation. Still very proud of how they played and represented BU and Peoria. Still shake my head in disbelief everytime I watch "The Carver Comeback"!
 
PhiAlphaBoy said:
Do Crouch and Roberts even play any more?

For starters and as a base team to build on I'd love to see us field a team of players like:
Lemon
DLO
VanBree
Koch
Brown
Kennell
Lundy
Thomas
Bielfeldt
Mix in a few other local players/players from Valley teams to fill out the AAB squad.
Click to expand...

Jeremy Crouch hasn't played competitively in an organized league for several years, partly due to some injury issues. He has served as as the head boys’ golf coach and assistant boys’ basketball coach at Pekin Community High School for the last few years. I would guess he wouldn't be up to playing in the TBT because of his injries and having not played for years.

Chris Roberts has had a long pro career in Europe and the NBA G-League since he graduated in 2010. He'd make a great TBT player, but I don't know if they tried contacting him.

Rebuilding TT would be a difficult task. It will be interesting to see if it happens.
 
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