Final score: Wichita State 69 Bradley 63

[Bravesfan]

I was out and about earlier today so I just finished watching the game online. First, another disappointing close loss to a great team this year. BUT, after getting blown out by this team by 37 at home last year, I don't think anyone can help but be very proud of the effort out of this team! This was a truly entertaining and typical Valley defensive dogfight, a game where WSU's athleticism finally won out at the very end. I still don't get how this team does it with all the starters they lost to graduation and injury. But apparently Marshall is a great recruiter and he has established a system where even the younger players can contribute very quickly, though I did notice that he had three seniors starting, so this team is not as young as I thought. Many of these players consisted of his "second five" from last year where he would just keep swapping the starting five with these players. I don't know how his newer players will develop for next year, but based on their lopsided bench score against us tonight, he has developed a program where he merely needs to reload instead of rebuilding. Hopefully Geno will have Bradley to this point within the next year or two.

Based on tonight's game, I hope WSU breaks back into the top 25 tomorrow because they most certainly deserve it, even if it wasn't their best played game of the year.

And kudos to the crowd tonight! They did a fantastic job, and got into the game on their own without anyone pushing them to do so. They need to be this loud against everyone, from Creighton all the way down to Missouri St.

I believe based on tonight's performance, Bradley will win a lot of games this year. Of course there will be differences of opinion on what exactly is "a lot". But even if they only win 7 conference games, that is still a very encouraging improvement. I think this team has the potential to win 7 to 10 Valley games, but we have to remember this is not an NCAA Tournament or even NIT team. I think even with a win tonight that would have been a stretch as they will continue to struggle on the road. But they should steal one or two more games on the road, and should win no worse than 5 or 6 games at home. They will probably beat a strong team at least once or twice, and they may have a couple of bad losses mixed in as well. But if they continue to play with this type of heart and grit, this team may be surprisingly good next year, even with the loss of three seniors. At the very least, it will be a very entertaining rest of this season as well.

[Bravesfan]

Wow. Ford really has your boys bought into his system. I always did like that hire. His path is similar to Marshall's. Started bringing it along by his 3rd year. The future is bright, and probably even this year. I think you guys will be a factor in this race all year long. I was conceding with a few minutes left. I thought you guys had it. I told my dad, "Well, this won't be a horrible loss and I don't think anyone will go undefeated. We will still be in this." That is still true and even true for you all. No one will go undefeated in the Valley. Not looking to the game against you all in Wichita. Good game Braves.

I don't think anyone has gone undefeated in the Valley for many decades, but thanks for the compliments. Bradley will be a tough out for anyone, but I think we are still a year away. The fact that people here are posting that this was a game we should have won shows how many miles we have improved over last year. A disappointing loss no doubt, but I can't complain after how outmatched we were against you guys last year! Congrats to the Shockers as well. I'm amazed at how well they are playing with all your players lost to graduation and injuries! Good game by the Shockers as well.

[Bravesfan]

Good game, but they made the plays in the final 40 seconds and we did not. Eastman had a great look for the lead and couldn't knock it down.

Had that gone down, we probably win, or at the worst head to OT. But any 3 point shot is a roll of the dice, and we needed a couple of more defensive stops. We lost to a better team tonight, even though WSU did not quite have their "A" game tonight.

[Tulsa Brave]

I'm not so sure we're going to struggle as much on the road as some seem to think. Defense is one of the keys to winning on the road, and that is what we are best at. Teams typically shoot better at home, but we don't shoot well period. So I think we can be a better than average road team with the way we play defense. Defense and rebounding are the reasons WSU has the 2nd best road record in the country the past 2 seasons. And I don't care what the polls say, WSU is easily a top 25 team...maybe even top 15. Sagarin had them 14 before today, and Pomeroy 20.

[Bravesfan]

I'm not so sure we're going to struggle as much on the road as some seem to think. Defense is one of the keys to winning on the road, and that is what we are best at. Teams typically shoot better at home, but we don't shoot well period. So I think we can be a better than average road team with the way we play defense. Defense and rebounding are the reasons WSU has the 2nd best road record in the country the past 2 seasons. And I don't care what the polls say, WSU is easily a top 25 team...maybe even top 15. Sagarin had them 14 before today, and Pomeroy 20.

They better be in the polls tomorrow. I obviously root against them when we play them, but if we can't win the Valley, then I root for as many teams to be ranked and make the NCAA Tournament as possible. I'm definitely a Bradley fan first and a Valley fan a close second.

Regarding our defense, I hope we can steal some games via our defense and rebounding. But tonight notwithstanding where our shooting was pretty good, we do need better shooters, and hopefully some more will be coming in next year.

[shockerfan13]

I was out and about earlier today so I just finished watching the game online. First, another disappointing close loss to a great team this year. BUT, after getting blown out by this team by 37 at home last year, I don't think anyone can help but be very proud of the effort out of this team! This was a truly entertaining and typical Valley defensive dogfight, a game where WSU's athleticism finally won out at the very end. I still don't get how this team does it with all the starters they lost to graduation and injury. But apparently Marshall is a great recruiter and he has established a system where even the younger players can contribute very quickly, though I did notice that he had three seniors starting, so this team is not as young as I thought. Many of these players consisted of his "second five" from last year where he would just keep swapping the starting five with these players. I don't know how his newer players will develop for next year, but based on their lopsided bench score against us tonight, he has developed a program where he merely needs to reload instead of rebuilding. Hopefully Geno will have Bradley to this point within the next year or two.

Based on tonight's game, I hope WSU breaks back into the top 25 tomorrow because they most certainly deserve it, even if it wasn't their best played game of the year.

And kudos to the crowd tonight! They did a fantastic job, and got into the game on their own without anyone pushing them to do so. They need to be this loud against everyone, from Creighton all the way down to Missouri St.

I believe based on tonight's performance, Bradley will win a lot of games this year. Of course there will be differences of opinion on what exactly is "a lot". But even if they only win 7 conference games, that is still a very encouraging improvement. I think this team has the potential to win 7 to 10 Valley games, but we have to remember this is not an NCAA Tournament or even NIT team. I think even with a win tonight that would have been a stretch as they will continue to struggle on the road. But they should steal one or two more games on the road, and should win no worse than 5 or 6 games at home. They will probably beat a strong team at least once or twice, and they may have a couple of bad losses mixed in as well. But if they continue to play with this type of heart and grit, this team may be surprisingly good next year, even with the loss of three seniors. At the very least, it will be a very entertaining rest of this season as well.

Yeah, this WSU team isn't exactly young. But they are fairly inexperienced, either in Marshall's system or Div 1 ball. Marshall has been very good at getting some good Juco players to plug holes and then develop them nicely. As well as getting some solid transfers like Malcom Armstead....etc. So just by grade level this is a team with alot of Jr's and Sr's. So they are physically mature. Just a matter of getting them to buy into what Marshall wants. And recent years he has been very successful in that endeavor. The Shox returned some players this year, but most were deep reserves on last year's teams. They just have stepped up better this year than expected. Plus some of the newcomers have given better minutes than expected out of the gate. Not even the most optimistic Shocker fan felt we would be 14-1 at this point. Figured there would be more bumps along the road. We thought this would be a team that would finally get it together in February or so and maybe make a late run at the top 3 in the Valley. Things have just been pleasantly better. The ONLY reason though, is that this team has bought into defense and rebounding. Without it the Shox would be lucky to be .500 right now. That has more to do about "want to" than anything. That is what I see in Bradley tonight. There was alot of "want to". You don't have to shoot like Creighton does to be a good team. If you can defend well and hit the boards you can neutralize a good shooting team. Probably why you all have seen so much growth. It appears your players have bought into Geno Ford. If that is the case, look out Valley!!!

Marshall definately respects coaches and teams that are tough minded. Here is a quote from him after tonight's game. I think he really respects Ford:

???In my six years (at WSU) no one??™s improved more than Geno Ford from one year to the next,??? Marshall said. ???They??™ve really done a great job, with some of the same pieces, of implementing his style and system.???

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/01/06/262...#storylink=cpy

[Braves4Life]

Thanks shockerfan! It's great to see that a respected coach like Marrshall sees what many of Bradley's reasonable fans have been witnessing since Geno took over. Good times are coming back to the Hilltop... The sun will rise again!

[ph]

A few game pics:





I'm fairly sure this was a make:




And somebody didn't pay maintenance on their seats

[Future Walk-On]

NICE PICS.

Can't say I have seen a team that gives this much effort before. Crowd was AWESOME.....despite being less that I was expecting.

We need a crowd like that every game.

[Rusty 54]

Frustrating loss, but proud of the way our guys played. Fords has our guys playing defense like their lives depend on it.

We really need to learn how to break a press.

[KMart]

That was just a very physical game. Refs made at least 2 pretty bad calls that swung the game in WSU favor. Missing free throws really didn't help. I'm proud of how we played, and the better team won. I got to talk to Greg Marshall for a bit before and after the game. He's a class act and he really knows how to get the most out of his players. Geno showed that can do the same. Can't wait to see this match up again in a couple years when Geno brings in all of his boys.

[Da Coach]

Story from PJ Star

http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x1233665279/LIVE-Bradley-vs-Wichita-State

[tornado]

Overall I would not cite the refs as much as our failure to hit the three when we needed it, and the turnovers that led to fast breaks.
Williams got away with a punch to Walt's crotch as I saw it - which angered Walt, caused the "T's and
then resulted in what was essentially a turnover because the ball went back to WSU on the possession arrow.
I understand the call as the refs did not see the action below the belt - and they completely missed one out-of-bounds call right under BU's basket in the final few minutes and gave it to WSU.

[BUBalum05]

Great effort by the Braves yesterday. WSU is a very good team which we matched up pretty well with.

It was great to see JE get hot from 3 even if we couldn't get him shots in the 2nd half.

I hope TP isn't too sore from that hard no call...even though the one kid had a clean block, the other kid behind him took out his legs and should have been whistled.

You could tell that BU really missed a true PG that game to beat WSU's press. We had a lot of bad turnovers trying to get the ball up the court. WL was wreckless a few times trying to dribble through it, and KB looked silly picking up his dribble right after crossing half court.

Lots of positives to take away from this game and this game proves that we are back to competing with anyone at Carver Arena!

[bu fan 9]

Don't forget WSU had 3 starters out. They will be real good in a few weeks.