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Final score: Northern Iowa 61 Bradley 49

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Bradley (16-8, 9-4, tied for 2nd) at Northern Iowa (14-9, 6-6, 6th place), Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 pm.
The game will be on the CBS Sports Network at 7:00 pm Friday- https://www.cbssports.com/watch/cbs-sports-network
Live Stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=613606
Chat room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
WMBD radio - https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045

UNI has an unusual promotion for this game- Panther In Paradise - featuring court side hot tubs, Beach Towels, Hawaiian shirts, leis, and sunglasses giveaways! -
unipanthers.com

Panther Promotions - UNI Athletics

Welcome to the number one spot to find out what promotions are happening at UNI Atheltic events! On this dedicated page, you'll discover a dynamic lineup of ...
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Current standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/standings/_/group/18
In the MVC Preseason poll, which revealed only the top 5 picks, UNI was picked 2nd and Bradley was picked 4th. UNI got 8 first place votes, mainly because they returned the bulk of their team that finished 3rd in the MVC last season, one game behind 2nd place Bradley and 3 games behind league champion Drake.
  1. Illinois State [34] ….. 487
  2. UNI [8] …………...… 442
  3. Murray State [4] ...… 385
  4. Bradley …………….. 370
  5. Belmont ……………. 344
So it's fair to say that Bradley has lived up to their expectations, and maybe a bit more, but UNI has not. The Panthers are 10-3 at home and 4-2 in MVC conference games at home. Their last game was last Saturday (1/31), a home win over Evansville. Bradley is coming off a home win over Valparaiso on Tuesday night (2/3).
Bradley played UNI in Peoria on Saturday, Jan. 10, and the Braves beat UNI 75-69 in a game that stayed quite close throughout. Bradley's 6 point final margin was the largest margin by either team, and UNI lead the game as late as the final media timeout with 3:54 left in the game.
Recap: https://bradleybraves.com/news/2026...-earn-hard-fought-win-over-northern-iowa.aspx
Box score: https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2025-26/uni/boxscore/22692
Last season, (2024-25) Bradley split with Northern Iowa, losing 83-69 in Cedar Falls, and winning 73-56 in Peoria.

UNI links-
Schedule/results- https://unipanthers.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://unipanthers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://unipanthers.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2025-26
Leading scorer 6'4" senior guard Trey Campbell was a 3rd team All-MVC player last year when he averaged 11.3 ppg and shot 42.9% from three. This season, he is averaging 13.4 ppg (11th in the MVC), but his shooting has fallen off. He is shooting 33.3% from three. He leads the team in assists with 3.8 apg (4th in the MVC).
Other starters include:
6'8" sophomore forward Will Hornseth- 10.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 61.0% FG% (4th in MVC), and 41.5% Free Throw percentage (17-41)
6'5" redshirt-junior G/F Leon Bond III- 11.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 39.0% from three
6'8" redshirt-senior G/F Ben Schwieger- 9.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 32.2% from three
6'4" senior guard Max Weisbrod- 5.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.0 apg

6'6" 5th year forward Tristan Smith (9.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 22.2% from three), a grad- transfer from NAIA Concordia University of Seward, Nebraska, where he was a first-team NAIA All-American in 2025, started UNI's first 15 games, but he has not played since their January 4 game at Evansville when he left the game after just 2 minutes due to a hip injury. He has missed their last 8 games. UNI head coach Ben Jacobson said on a radio program Monday, 2/2, that "Tristan Smith may return to action Friday night when the Panthers host Bradley."
www.kjan.com

Tristan Smith set to return for Northern Iowa men

Ric Hanson | Sports
www.kjan.com www.kjan.com

Reserve players who are likely to see significant action:
6'6" junior forward Kyle Pock (14.6 mpg, 4.0 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 31.9% from three)
6'9" senior forward Ismael Diouf (13.0 mpg, 3.8 ppg, 1.6 rpg)- a transfer from North Carolina State
5'11" redshirt-sophomore guard R.J. Taylor (2.2 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 26.3% from three)


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
 
Why a Friday game followed by Monday? Not a big fan. Why skip the weekend? Superbowl pushes all other games out?
 
This is going to be a really tough game. UNI played us really physical at home so we need to be prepared to take a lot of bumps from them on offense. Hoping we get decent officials and they do not let Jacobsen influence them a lot during the game or at timeouts. He seems to talk a lot to them during games. I just ask for them to be impartial.
 
This is one game I didn't expect to win as we reached the halfway mark in the conf. season.
I feel a little better after the Drake game though.

I actually like that Wardle is being critical and tough on the guys as we can't afford a lapse in focus down the stretch.
Each group is different and the leadership isn't what it was last season and maybe in recent ones.

A Win means BU is pretty close to locking up at least a 5-seed in Arch Madness...and keeps us alive for possibly hurdling Belmont down the road, but their offense seems pretty unstoppable lately. Yajusneverknow!
 
Would that not be something if Bradley can somehow win tonight and get some help from UIC tonight against Belmont. What a game that would be Monday night against Belmont with a chance with a Bradley win to be tied for the lead with five conference games yet to play. Go BU and UIC.
 
Kirk Wessler must be ecstatic - after all those years during the JL era, constantly complaining that BU was never
in a position competing for the top spot in the Valley in February. (altho oddly he never brought it up during Geno's four years)
 
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yoda said:
Kirk Wessler must be ecstatic - after all those years during the JL era, comstantly complaining that BU was never
in a position competing for the top spot in the Valley in February. (altho oddly he never brought it up during Geno's four years)
Click to expand...
No doubt Wessler a huge BU fan by now with all the winning we’ve done in the Brian Wardle era!
 
daveineureka said:
Would that not be something if Bradley can somehow win tonight and get some help from UIC tonight against Belmont. What a game that would be Monday night against Belmont with a chance with a Bradley win to be tied for the lead with five conference games yet to play. Go BU and UIC.
Click to expand...

That would be a cause for celebration!

Interesting fact... Bradley has pulled off wins in multiple years recently at UNI and Drake. But they have never won at both Iowa schools in the same season since the 2007-2008 season. And, that 2007-2008 season is the only season in the last 25 years that Bradley has won at both Iowa schools.
So Bradley has a chance to pull off a rarity if they can win tonight- a sweep of the two Iowa schools in the same season.
Let's get 'er done!
 
Good news... the game currently on CBS Sports Channel is a major blowout with Davidson leading Loyola by 18 points with 2:39 left. That should mean no fouling, timeouts, coach's challenges, etc., that drag out the ending. CBSSports should cut to the Bradley-UNI game in time to see the start this time.
 
Timoty van der Knaap starting in place of Corey Thomas who was a starter last game against Valpo

anyway, Loyola and blowout seem to go together a lot this year...
 
whoa, refs are allowing a ton of reaching, grabbing, slapping and fouling... UNI taking advantage
 
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Why isn't Burch playing🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 Braves do not have enough ball handlers on the court...keep getting tied up, no movement on offense....missing layups all night, bad passing...come-on!🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Uni not very good but Bradley playing worse!👎👎👎👎👎👎👎
 
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Reactions: Jim
Tonight is showing who this team is, no consistency from a bunch of the players and the coach. I am afraid they are going to go on a huge losing streak just because our home schedule gets a lot tougher. Burch must be in the dog house for whatever reason because he could not play any worse then several of our guys have tonight.
Simple reason for this is a lack of talent. I also wonder why he did not redshirt Zobrist since his freshman season is being waisted I also believe that coach has done a bad job in handling this team.
 
In the post game Chad said it clearly. Wardle has said if you don’t play defense you do not play. That is why Burch is not playing. I hope he figures it out but unless he does I don’t think we will see much of him. You may not like that but coach has made that pretty clear. Go figure it out Demarion we would love to see you out there.
 
Wardle's teams usually improve as the season progresses. Not this team. He can fault his players for not playing defense or making poor decisions on offense, but he is responsible for the result. I am not optimistic for the rest of the schedule. 6 games left before going to St Louis and I do not see more than one win. I hope that I'm wrong.
 
Bummer of a game... Northern Iowa 61 Bradley 49
Stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=613606

Attendance 4,186

49 points is, by far, the lowest offensive output of the season. The previous low was 62 points in the 88-62 loss at Illinois State.
Bradley shot 14-42 (33-3%) overall- 9-23 (39.1%) from three.
Bradley had 16 turnovers to 9 for UNI. UNI scored 20 points off the 16 turnovers.
Points in the Paint- UNI 30, Bradley 10

Opinion: I'm not a coach, but if our inside big men can't score more than a couple baskets against a team like UNI that doesn't have a lot of size, or if they can't defend better than yielding 30 points in the paint (note all the baskets in the lane by UNI below), then I'm not sure why Meta got 31 minutes of playing time (1 basket, 5 turnovers). UNI was just 4-16 from three, yet Bradley only played a couple of possessions of zone, which seemed to allow them to get a ton of easy baskets inside. IMO, this was a team where a lot more zone might have made a difference.
1770434445700.png
 
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