Final: Northern Iowa 68 Bradley 65

[lefty]

Yes, it was in the first half- BU Bill asked that I correct that, and I did.
But it still cost Bradley 2 points, and dug a deeper hole for them.

Sure it did.....but have you ever seen a T called like that going into a media timeout?.....Geno gets the T but virtually ref would have given him at least a warning....

[lefty]

There were some real positives for Bradley-
Dyricus with a career high 32 points.
Walt had 18 points and 9 rebounds.
Bradley was 7-15 from three, and Dyricus was 5-9.
And we played good defense against their big men. They only scored 12 of their points in the paint.

The negatives-
Walt and DSE scored 50 of Bradley's 65 points. Little or no offense from the other starters and reserves.
Only 5 points and 2 rebounds from our bench.
Only 7 total assists for the game.
We gave up 11 threes in 26 attempts.
20 turnovers for the game, against a team like UNI that doesn't force many turnovers- they had been forcing only about half that many in their previous MVC games.


Stats-
http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=11483

I only see 10 turnovers..am I missing something?

[Da Coach]

I only see 10 turnovers..am I missing something?

I stand corrected- it was just 10 turnovers. I was looking at the stat just below- 20 points off turnovers.

[Da Coach]

Game story from BradleyBraves.com-

http://www.bradleybraves.com//ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=206344272

Box score-

https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf8/1362109.pdf?ATCLID=206344272&SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=3400

Attendance 7,205

[lefty]

UNI scores 6 3's and 13 ft's in the second half......no 2's at all after halftime

[BUBalum05]

Such a disappointing first half and what an effort to comeback in the second half!
GF's comments on ESPN3 going into half were spot on, there's only so many time outs you can call before the team just starts to play. Would have loved to been a fly on the wall in the locker room at half.
DSE was amazing this game and WL showed up to play as usual. The other guys in white were just warm bodies out there. WE was just forcing it all over, was he that outmatched by Koch? As Da Coach pointed out, 50/65 points from two guys just isn't good enough.
Very disappointed with our defense all day besides the few steals down the stretch in the 2nd half. Our weak side defense was collapsing way too far in and we were getting KILLED by skip passes. Its not like UNI was flashing hard off the ball, they just kept fading away from the ball and our guys fell asleep.
Lots to build off from this game after a great comeback. Gotta show up and pound those redbirds on Wednesday!

[JMM28]

There has to be a better option than Jake Eastman at this point. He isn't much more than a body on the floor. I think I'd rather take the learning lumps from KDB.

And it is good to see Geno get his first T as BU coach. It's always fun to watch him work the refs. One of his coaching "intangible" strengths.

[Bravesfan]

I don't intend to stir up a hornets nest here, but something I saw in today's game brought back memories. Jim Les was ripped and blamed for losses in the past because he got technical fouls at critical times in close games.
Well, I expect some won't agree, but the technical by our coaches really hurt us, and may have ended up costing Bradley this game.
In addition, after Bradley made a nice run to get close in the 2nd half, and right after a three by DSE, Coach Ford called a quick timeout before UNI inbounded the ball, that I thought hurt Bradley's momentum when some of the Northern Iowa players were clearly getting winded. UNI had already used up all but one of their timeouts, so they didn't want to call another one. It looked to me like the Bradley timeout benefitted UNI much more than Bradley. UNI came back out of that timeout energized and made several more threes. Again, I recall the previous coach getting ripped for doing this, but I doubt we'll see that now. Overall I think Geno is doing a good job, but these 2 incidents hurt us more than helped. And it's hard to understand why our team didn't have the effort in the first half that they showed in the 2nd.

As DC stated, he brought the timeout up during the chat. It was a little perplexing as the UNI players looked tired and disorganzied, and in that situation, the timeout seemed out of place. That said, I don't usually have problems with timeouts after a Bradley score, but this time might not have been the best situation for one.

And regarding the technical, whether it was deserved or not is less of a point than the horrid officiating that Geno was obviously protesting. I'm not 100% sure, but was this Geno's first technical of the year? It may have been, and he needed this to try to light a fire under his team. Again, as with the timeouts, there are certain times that a technical can be very beneficial, and I think this was one of those times, even if it took the team a halftime "tirade" by Geno to finally wake this team up.

[Bravesfan]

There were some real positives for Bradley-
Dyricus with a career high 32 points.
Walt had 18 points and 9 rebounds.
Bradley was 7-15 from three, and Dyricus was 5-9.
And we played good defense against their big men. They only scored 12 of their points in the paint.

The negatives-
Walt and DSE scored 50 of Bradley's 65 points. Little or no offense from the other starters and reserves.
Only 5 points and 2 rebounds from our bench.
Only 7 total assists for the game.
We gave up 11 threes in 26 attempts.
20 turnovers for the game, against a team like UNI that doesn't force many turnovers- they had been forcing only about half that many in their previous MVC games.


Stats-
http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=11483

What a shame that DSE's performance was wasted in the loss. That was one of the greatest shooting performances I have ever seen! But I guess that goes to show you what happens when we don't have a bench, and when the team as a whole decided to take a half off.

[Da Coach]

... I'm not 100% sure, but was this Geno's first technical of the year? It may have been, and he needed this to try to light a fire under his team...

I do not recall him getting one this year. Dave Snell said it was just his 3rd technical in 5 years as a D1 head coach.


One other topic I wonder about- does anyone know if Bradley has ever been behind by as many as 19 points at halftime in a home game before?

[Bravesfan]

I do not recall him getting one this year. Dave Snell said it was just his 3rd technical in 5 years as a D1 head coach.


One other topic I wonder about- does anyone know if Bradley has ever been behind by as many as 19 points at halftime in a home game before?

Some of these recent games remind of Coach Mo's third season in 1994 where Bradley fell way behind in several games before coming from behind and winning. This was his first NIT year, and winning games like that spurred Bradley to a 14-4 Valley record and second place tie. I believe Bradley was down something like 18 points to both Tulsa and SIU in the regular season, and was 18 down to ODU in the NIT second round game, with Bradley coming back in all three games to win. So this is not the first time they have ever fallen way behind to come back, and actually is a good sign considering the lack of big comebacks like this in the last few years.

I guess the lesson today though is for Bradley not to push their luck, because they, or any team for that matter, will not always come back to win after falling behind like this.

[LittleBrave]

I do not recall him getting one this year. Dave Snell said it was just his 3rd technical in 5 years as a D1 head coach.


One other topic I wonder about- does anyone know if Bradley has ever been behind by as many as 19 points at halftime in a home game before?

I would imagine We were pretty close vs. WSU and UE...you sure We weren't down by more in either of them?

[LittleBrave]

I am.about physically spent after watching that game on ESPN3 replay!

DSE and WL should get serious consideration for 1st team if they continue to play as they have in league play.
Too bad the rest of the team didn't do their part. WE played one of his worst halves of the season.
Gotta credit a veteran UNI team for hitting free throws to hold the lead.

[Da Coach]

Some of these recent games remind of Coach Mo's third season in 1994 where Bradley fell way behind in several games before coming from behind and winning. This was his first NIT year, and winning games like that spurred Bradley to a 14-4 Valley record and second place tie. I believe Bradley was down something like 18 points to both Tulsa and SIU in the regular season, and was 18 down to ODU in the NIT second round game, with Bradley coming back in all three games to win. So this is not the first time they have ever fallen way behind to come back, and actually is a good sign considering the lack of big comebacks like this in the last few years.

I guess the lesson today though is for Bradley not to push their luck, because they, or any team for that matter, will not always come back to win after falling behind like this.

I do remember some big comebacks under Molinari, but I am not able to find any game we trailed by close to 19 points at home at halftime.

In 1993-1994-
Bradley trailed Tulsa 34-28 at halftime at home that season, but won 69-64.
Bradley trailed 38-29 at home to SIU, and lost 72-59.
And they trailed ODU 39-29, but won 79-75.

[tornado]

disappointing - several plays made a difference - the call when Jake went for a layup and got fouled could have been a 3-point play -
instead - Higgins came running from all the way over on the other side of the court to overrule and claim the foul was before the shot
so all we got out of it was an out-of-bounds play ...and the entire 1st half with just 3 fouls total on UNI
while they were playing aggressive man-to-man and roughing our guys up, then the call that Geno was so perturbed about -
should have been a block not a charge...

in the end I enjoyed how our guys never gave up and I am convinced we can learn from this game and use it to advance in St. Louis...