Next game: Bradley at Illinois State at 3:05 pm Saturday, 1/31

[Da Coach]

Here is a little rundown of my impressions of the ISU personnel, with some help from an ISU insider--

Here are their team stats--
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/iag/stats

As can be seen from those stats, they play basicaly just 6 players (the starters plus Sampay) the great majority of time. Nobody but the top six average more than 2.8 ppg.
Only 1 other player, Sead Odzic, averages more than 9 minutes a game, but he scores just 1 ppg, and though he is considered a three-point threat, he has not made a three pointer all season.

Brandon Sampay is their only significant bench player. He averages 7.0 ppg and 4.8 rpg in 21 minutes off the bench. He is listed at 6'8", but he closer to 6'6", and 250 lbs. He is not a leaper like Anthony Slack was for them last year, but his size does help around the basket.
But here is some inside news about Sampay- From an ISU insider I have hard that he suffered a sprained ankle late in the Redbirds' loss at Northern Iowa Wednesday, and did not practice much Thursday. He is still favoring his ankle and how much he can play Saturday is in question.
Sampay sprained his ankle last year and missed a couple games.

Chamberlain (Champ) Oguchi is their leading scorer at 15.2 ppg. He averages 5.6 rpg, which is good for a guard, but he only averages 1.4 assists per game in 31.2 minutes per game, which means he doesn't pass much. He shoots 39% from three and is an 83% free throw shooter.
But he is only 4-14 from three over the past 3 games.
Game-by-game stats-
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/38151

Osiris Eldridge was the preseason Valley Player of the Year. But so far, he has not been the best player on his own team. He averages 14.1 ppg, and 6.0 rpg, and is among the leaders in the MVC at 34.5 minutes per game played. He is in a bit of a slump lately. He has only scored below double-digits 4 times this season, but 3 of them have been in the last 6 games. His shooting percentage has also taken a dive lately. He was close to 50% for the year, until the last 6 games he is shooting only 35.7%.
Here are his game-by-game stats-
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/61299

Lloyd Phillips is a junior college transfer who is 3rd in scoring at 11.8 ppg. He is their best point guard, and is second to Eldridge in minutes played with 32.2. He is statistically their best outside shooter and leads them in assists with 3.6 apg. He has been their most consistent player, but he also leads ISU in turnovers..
stats-
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/81068

Emmanuel Holloway also starts at guard. He is a senior and was a juco transfer reserve player last year. He's also a pretty good shooter, and averages 9.8 ppg. He has played well lately while Eldridge and Oguchi have fallen off a little.
stats-
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/38722

The 5th starter is center Dinma Odiakosa. He may be the most improved player in the league. He averages 9.3 ppg, and 7.3 rpg, and plays solid defense in the middle.
He has a couple weak areas. He tends to get into foul trouble sometimes, and is a horrible free throw shooter- 40% for the season. He was 0-5 from the free throw line in the close loss at Northern Iowa. He also doesn't pass well. Considering all the good shooters ISU has, Odiakosa averages only 0.5 assists per game this year, which is right at his career average.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/46851

Other reserves-
Landon Shipley- junior guard averaging 2.8 ppg. He is a transfer from Austin Peay, and only plays 5 min per game.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/47528

Alex Rubin- a 6'1" sophomore point guard who has only gotten into 8 games all year, averages 8.8 minutes per game, and 1.8 ppg. He was injured early in the year.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/73285

Brandon Holtz- a 6'4" shooting guard, and former high school teammate of Dodie Dunson at Bloominton HS. Brandon, a senior, doesn't play much in Jankovich's system, and it's unlikely we'll see much of him in Saturday's game. He is avergaing 6.6 minutes in 14 games, and 1.5 ppg, which is the lowest season average in his 4 years at ISU.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/47044

Sead Odzic- he is a transfer from University of Southern California. He is a 6'3" junior, and when he transferred he was hailed as a great shooter. But he has not shot well. As noted above, he plays 14 minutes per game, more than any other reserve than Sampay, but his 1 ppg (also 1 apg, and 1 rpg) average is the worst on the team except for a couple seldom used freshmen.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/46362

Kellen Thornton- a 6'7" freshman who might have redshirted, except they needed bodies. He is very thin (listed at 215, but likely much less), and plays mostly when Odiakosa or Sampay are in foul trouble. He averages 5.3 mpg, 0.5 ppg, and 1.3 rpg. If Sampay's ankle limits him, we may see a little of Thornton.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/81071

Jeremy Robinson- Jeremy is a 6'8" sophomore who is also a bit skinny. Bradley coach Jim Les recruited him out of Decatur Eisenhower HS where he was a teammate of Lewis Jackson (who chose Purdue over Bradley). Jeremy suffered a severe knee injury prior to his senior season in HS, but has recovered well from that. However, he rarely sees the playing floor at ISU. He has appeared in just 11 games (the lowest of any ISU player except for Rubin who was injured), averages 3.5 minutes per game, 0.5 ppg and 0.7 rpg. He has not played in 6 of ISUs last 7 games. He is another one they should have redsirted.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/81069

One more note I meant to include in the above summary-
I had a chance to talk to someone who has NBA connections and expertise. The player that NBA scouts see in the MVC that has the best chance to play pro is Chamberlain Oguchi. He is not a 1st round pick, and maybe not even a second rounder, but they think he has a chance to make an NBA roster.

He will pose the most difficult matchup Saturday, not Eldridge. What the NBA likes about him is his great size and athleticism.
It is rare to see a 6'6" guard in the MVC, and not one with such athletic skills. He is tough to guard. He gets his shot off from a very high spot above his head, and he get tremendous elevation on his jump shot. It can't be blocked. If a defender gets too close, he is capable of taking him off the dribble. We didn't see much of him in Peoria. He was limited by back spasms, and was just 1-7 from the floor.
It will be interesting to see who guards him, especially now that BU stats a smaller lineup with Roberts on the bench. Maybe Theron Wilson gets the assignment?

[Da Coach]

Game notes from BradleyBraves.com

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=3657609

[RedbirdFan21]

Everything seems pretty accurate from your player bio's DC.

Odzic did come in as a sharp shooter last year- struggled and lost all confidence. I am pretty sure he hasn't even attempted a 3 this year. He literally only shoots if he drives for a layup. Some think Jank just tells him not to shoot, other think he is just scared to miss... kind of a mystery... especially since he drains 90% of his shots in warmups... i know they are uncontested... but its still pretty nice to watch.

Sampay did tweak an ankle in the UNI game. He came out of the game when he did it, but came back into the game later.

Someone on RBF saw him walking in uptown Normal and noticed a slight limp...but nothing major. I would expect to see him between 15-25 mins (unless there was a re-tweak of it since the game), depending on foul situations.

Thornton and J-Rob have seen more time recently, just not during the same game. Thornton played well in some mins vs. WSU. He played real good d vs. clemente. Robinson had some quality minutes vs. SIU last Saturday as well.

They both appear to be getting more comfortable on the court.

[Da Coach]

We have had a couple questions about the TV broadcast-
It will be on Comcast, cable channel 74. The broadcasters are the ISU guys-Kurt Pegler and Bob Morris.

[SFP]

We have had a couple questions about the TV broadcast-
It will be on Comcast, cable channel 74. The broadcasters are the ISU guys-Kurt Pegler and Bob Morris.

Who will be doing bubraves.tv? I hope it's Snell!

[BuBraves55]

why is BU/isu not on bigger networks more often??? AT LEAST fsn, this is by far the biggest rivalry in the valley but instead we get channel 74...

[BUBraves2006]

why is BU/isu not on bigger networks more often??? AT LEAST fsn, this is by far the biggest rivalry in the valley but instead we get channel 74...

Though I totally agree, I think it's how the games are scheduled. The game at Bradley is going to sell out if they play it at 7 a.m., so that's why we always play the Birds during the middle of the week (and hence, not on TV).

For some reason, ISU always wants this weird start time for the game. I'm sure there's plenty of people around who know why they choose this time as opposed to a normal gametime of 7 p.m. If it were at 7, I'd pretty much guarantee it would be the MVC game of the week.

[Big Mike]

The Braves can better the chance to win this game by keeping up the aggressive defense.....thru 10 Valley games the Braves have moved to #1 giving up 59.5 pts/game.....and now are #1 in steals! D' will give the Braves the best chance on the road to win IMO!

[Stryker]

The Braves can better the chance to win this game by keeping up the aggressive defense.....thru 10 Valley games the Braves have moved to #1 giving up 59.5 pts/game.....and now are #1 in steals! D' will give the Braves the best chance on the road to win IMO!

I am in agreement. If we can make them play slower and set the tempo with our D, as well as hit our three pointer like we did against Wichita at home then we win this game.

[real fan]

isu has a fanfest at Horton before the game; it is kind of like the taste of Peoria in that you pay to get in and they have restaurants that give out samples of their food specialty, Budweiser is also there to sell beer for those of legal age. They believe that their students turn out better for late afternoon games rather then night games during the weekend since there is so much other stuff going on during the weekend.

[BUheaven]

BuHeaven

Bloomington/Normal or Peoria where is a good place to watch the
game?

[Big Mike]

PJS BU @ isu....

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x1556210260/Braves-Birds-cant-afford-to-lose-focus

Capsule....DR picks isu 70 BU 64,,,hope he's wrong

http://www.bradleyhoops.com/archive/x363577741/Preview-capsule-Bradley-at-Illinois-State

[SaintLouBrave22]

PJS BU @ isu....

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x1556210260/Braves-Birds-cant-afford-to-lose-focus

Capsule....DR picks isu 70 BU 64,,,hope he's wrong
http://www.bradleyhoops.com/archive/...Illinois-State

And there I was predicting that Bradley would have to score 70 or more to win...

Seems to me I'm not the only one wrong huh DC


Oh, and just to clarify...that is my opinion and I think this because I don't believe there's any way we hold them in the 50's on their home floor. They have played only 4 games in the 50's in the last 2 years and 3 were last season. And for that matter, the one this year was kind of an abberation as the team they played only scored 33 and held the ball for long periods of the shot clock almost everytime down the floor and that team is now 4-14 and just simply a really bad team.

If we want to win, yes we will have to lock down Oguchi like before and Eldridge better than we did in Peoria, but simply put, we are going to have to put the ball in the basket, and Sammy will have to shoot much better than he did Wednesday night.

[battlebasset]

Game is on Channelsurfing.net

Just checked and the game is being streamed on ChannelSurfing (at least as of 6:46 EST). Maybe an alternative feed for when BUBraves inevitably goes down?

[Da Coach]

Jankovich says a couple injured Redbirds will be fine and will play against Bradley-
Sampay, Holloway fine for Bradley

http://www.pantagraph.com/blogs/main/?p=3561