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Final score: Bradley 72. Valparaiso 65

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Bradley (15-8, 8-4) vs. Valparaiso (11-11, 5-6), Tuesday, Feb. 3, 7:00 pm
The game is on ESPN+ - Link- https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/b5529aa9-c33f-4526-8d2c-7c3147be95ab
Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Chat room- www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
WMBD radio - https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045
Tickets-
Valparaiso links-
Schedule/results- https://valpoathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://valpoathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://valpoathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2025-26

Bradley pregame article- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2026...-hosts-valparaiso-in-tuesday-night-hoops.aspx
Note that the links posted by Bradley for the Live Stats and ESPN+ video stream are not correct.

This is the first meeting between Bradley and Valparaiso this season. Bradley was 3-0 against Valparaiso last season. The Braves won both regular season games, and beat them in the MVC Tournament. However, the game in Peoria last season was a 81-75 win in 2 Overtimes. Bradley has won the last 9 meetings between the two schools.
Valparaiso's last game was a 76-72 overtime win at Indiana State-

Men's Basketball vs Indiana State on 1/31/2026 - Box Score - Valparaiso University

The official box score of Men's Basketball vs Indiana State on 1/31/2026
valpoathletics.com valpoathletics.com
And their game before that was a 78-77 home loss to Belmont.-

Men's Basketball vs Belmont on 1/28/2026 - Box Score - Valparaiso University

The official box score of Men's Basketball vs Belmont on 1/28/2026
valpoathletics.com valpoathletics.com

Bradley is coming off a 87-73 win at Drake this past Saturday. BU shot 17-26 (65.4%) from three in that game-

Men's Basketball vs Drake on 1/31/2026 - Box Score - Bradley University Athletics

The official box score of Men's Basketball vs Drake on 1/31/2026
bradleybraves.com bradleybraves.com

Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2025/11/4//2025_26_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf
 
I guess it doesn't need to be said.... But I'll say it anyway.... come out and play your a**ses off and don't take your foot off of the pedal!
 
Valpo finally has some size and their two top scorers are big men (6-8 forward Owen Dease & 6-8 forward JT Pettigrew)
But note that last game 6-11 Carter Hopoi had a breakout performance in their win over Indiana State, going
5-8, 14 pts & 7 rebounds.

6-11 Shon Tupuola starts & also had been playing well lately - he scored 12 vs Belmont & grabbed 12 rebounds vs Murray State.

So that's four solid big guys that Meta, Yu, Corey & AJ have to contend with.
Their quartet of big men have combined for 147pts/56 rebounds over their last 4 games that they went 3-1 (37 pts/14 reb/game),
which is way better than our big guys are producing.
 
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tomahawk chop said:
How about we come out and shoot the ball well, play great defense and rebound. Having a great first half is also very important.
Click to expand...
Yep, whatever the guys did in the last game at Drake, let's hope they can duplicate it tonight. That was an incredible start and they maintained the extraordinary shooting throughout the game, never really allowing Drake to threaten them.

Bradley still has a chance to catch Belmont, but they need to play like they did in Des Moines to stay ahead of the logjam between 2nd and 5th place to get the highest possible seed. Go BU!
MVC STANDINGS-
1770133805480.png
 
yoda said:
Valpo finally has some size and their two top scorers are big men (6-8 forward Owen Dease & 6-8 forward JT Pettigrew)
Click to expand...
Valparaiso is not a great 3-point shooting team, just 32% team average, though they are 34% for the MVC conference games.
Owen Dease is their best player. He is a redshirt-senior transfer from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He is listed as a 6'8" forward, but he has guard-like ball-handling skills and is capable of creating his own shots. He leads Valpo in scoring (14.1 ppg) and is their best 3-point threat (40.7%). And you don't want to foul him, since he is one of the top free throw shooters in the MVC at 85.3%
J.T. Pettigrew is the brother of former Bradley player Trey Pettigrew, who left the 2023-24 team before the first game was played. JT Pettigrew is a freshman who is also listed as a 6'8" forward. He leads the team in rebounding (6.0 rpg), and is the only other double-digit scorer on the team (11.2 ppg). He is not a 3-point threat (12-52).
They have several guards who are capable of hitting open shots, but the only 2 that average even one 3-pointer per game are 6'3" freshman guard Rakim Chaney (37-98, 37.8%), 6'3" 5th-year Brody Whitaker (20-55, 36.4%).

Note that with the 17-26 (65.4%) three point performance at Drake, Bradley has moved up to the 2nd best 3-point shooting team in the MVC at 35.3%, second to Belmont's 39.7% (rank 8th in D1). However, Bradley remains ranked dead last in 3-point defense, allowing opponents to shoot 36.2%.
So Bradley needs to prevent Valparaiso from getting too many open shots, like UIC and UT-Martin did in the only 2 home losses the Braves have suffered this season.
MVC stats- https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2025/11/4//2025_26_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf
 
No excuse for not taking this game, but we also need to duplicate what we did at Drake, as that is how we NEED to play going fw - a recipe for success for this team. Granted we won't shoot lights out the rest of the way. I really hope Coach Wardle sees how Kai Yu can help this team and gives him more floor time. He could be a big factor down the stretch! I really don't see last game as a once-in-a-liftetime game. He's got the skills and athleticism!

I look for Meta and Yu to have solid games, with Meta tallying 15+ and 8+ boards. He looked more determined last game and I think he's sensing that his time in a BU uniform is running out.

Will Yu nail another 3-pointer? Two?? How bout a trio of treys???
Will Alex simmer down? How about 5 more tonight? ;)
 
The biggest concern for me is the size of their guards. We have struggled against taller athletic guards. UIC and SLU gave us problems. Again I know coach does not like to play much zone but with Valpo being a ave. 3 point shooting team I wish we would play more zone tonight.
 
Da Coach said:
Valparaiso is not a great 3-point shooting team....
Click to expand...
but they defend against 3's extremely well
Their wing guys are all long with huge wingspans (Dease is 6-8 with 7-ft wingspan, Pettigrew 6-8, Barnes 6-7)
even their smaller guards are are 6-3 - 6-4
They just held Indiana State to 24% and held UNI to just 20% (4-20)
They keyed on Belmont's Lundblade and held him to just 2-9.

They also held SIU to just 3-14 but then, Barry Hinson's mother could probably do that.

You can bet they've been working the past 3 days on blanketing Alex.

One of Valpo's key reserves is listed as questionable, Isaiah Barnes, a big guard (6-7 who spent two years at Michigan and
two years at Tulsa)- he's averaging 4.4 ppg & 2.1 rpg but is considered a solid defender.
 
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pregame on WMBD, Chad interviewing BU WBB Head Coach Kate Popovec-Popp
and she really revealed a lot of details of how she recruits, what she looks for, what she tells recruits,
even lets them know how many other offers she's put out there that are for that same scholarship..
...really looking for those kids that truly want to be at Bradley. Good interview...prob a few more min if you want to listen.


One more thought- their best player last year was Cooper Schweiger- he left and portalled to Wake Forest.
He doesn't start, averages only 4.9 ppg and Wake is at the bottom pf the ACC and won't make the NCAA Tourney.

All Wright portalled to Xavier who are in the middle of the Big East, Wright averaging just 7 ppg... playing far fewer minutes
and getting far fewer shots - But they're making more money, I guess.
 
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Final score: Bradley 72 Valparaiso 65

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Coach Wardle expressing his dissatisfaction with pretty much everyone who played, saying they all played too selfishly, especially in the 2nd half.
 
The mystery continues on Burch. Obviously it's something going on that they're not saying because Chad Kleine almost let something slip when he was talking about the guards and he said, "Montana Wheeler didn't play as many minutes [last game] because you wanted to go bigger. Because of circumstances, because of how he's playing, he gets more minutes tonight."

Okay, we're not stupid as fans. We know what the "circumstances" are. If Burch's dealing with a personal issue, mental health, anything - I can respect that and you don't have to go any further. But, then why isn't he on the injury report as out? I mean, I don't know what the rules are for this sort of thing but I'd be pretty annoyed if I was the Valpo staff who likely game planned for him being in the game because he wasn't on the report.

The whole thing is really bizarre and when you're not transparent with things, it gets people talking and wondering. This thing is a complete non-issue if you just list him "out" for personal reasons or however you want to frame it.

He was in the huddles and high fiving his teammates the whole game, so it's not like he was sitting around sulking for being benched or something.

Burch is a Brave who has given a lot to the program already and has had to deal with a lot of injuries. I hope whatever it is he can work his way through it because we're still a better team with him.
 
Official box score- https://valpoathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2025-26/bradley/boxscore/10738

Attendance- 5,397

I think any of us who watched the game felt that Bradley did not play as well as they can, and nowhere near as well as in the last game at Drake. I do think that Valparaiso had a little to do with that. They played very well, and the officiating allowed them to play very physical, which, IMO, affected Bradley and threw them off their game a bit.
But I am a little surprised how much criticism Coach Wardle levelled at the players on the postgame show, and I sensed that Dave Snell and Chad Kleine were a little surprised, too. Maybe the Braves' play seemed worse than it was because they never really made a big run and Valpo hung around all game, except for a few minutes late in the game when the lead stretched to double-digits, before shrinking back down. And consider that Valparaiso has played a lot of teams close. They're coming off an overtime loss at Indiana State, and they lost at home to Belmont by 1 point, and lost by 4 points in Nashville.
The betting line had Bradley as a 7.5 point favorite, and they won by 7. It would have been a bigger margin if not for Valparaiso's Owen Dease nailing two long 3-point shots in the final minute (the only two he made in the game). So I am not seeing this game as a disappointment like Coach Wardle is.

Kai Yu had a team-high 7 rebounds in just 13 minutes. Meta had a very good game. But Montana Wheeler was easily the Player of the Game with a team-high 18 points on 7-11 shooting, and 3 assists in 25 minutes. Jaquan didn't shoot well (3-11), but he made a couple big baskets late when Valparaiso was cutting into Bradley's lead.
 
Good win, not our best but not bad. Montana has proven he belongs in this league and is a true winner. Glad to see Dietrich get some meaningful minutes and thought he played well minus a few mistakes here and there.
Valpo was definitely physical and JJ looked a little surprised by that style of play without the benefit of more foul calls.
Our pick and roll defense wasnt great today but could be explained by the unconventional lineups.
This is all conjecture so take it with lots of salt....
Based on Burch being dressed but not playing, Wardle not mentioning anything, and the fact that Burch was enthusiastic and happy for his teammates on the sidelines leads me to believe his game off was a punishment of some kind. It must not have been too serious or we would have heard something. I'm guessing grades or mouthing off in practice or something. But the fact that he had a good attitude on the sideline and not sulking speaks to him being a good young man that owns his mistakes and carries on. I would guess he'll be back next game and continue being a key contributor.
I don't see it as anything mysterious, just coach+players business that doesn't concern too many others
 
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