Final score: Alabama State 59 Bradley 85

[Da Coach]

Bradley??™s next game is Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Renaissance Coliseum against Alabama State. There is no TV.

Alabama State is from Montgomery, Alabama, and they have been members of the SWAC since 1982. This will be their second game of the 2013-14 season. The lost at Illinois on Friday 80-63.

They played 2 exhibition games, and won them both-
94-69 win over Huntingdon College-

http://bamastatesports.com/boxscore.aspx?path=mbball&id=3742

79-71 win over Fort Valley State University-

http://bamastatesports.com/boxscore.aspx?path=mbball&id=3708

Bradley is 1-0 after their 72-65 win Friday over Jacksonville State. The Alabama State Hornets are coached by Lewis Jackson who is in his 9th season. They were 10-22 last season, 8-10 in the SWAC. Their RPI last season was 326. Alabama State was the automatic qualifier from the SWAC in 2009 and 2011 and played in the Preliminary Round, losing both times. Since that 2011 season, they have gone 10-19 in 2012, and 10-22 in 2013. They also made the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and 2004 under Coach Rob Spivey, losing both times in their first game. Thus they are 0-4 in their history in NCAA Tournament games.
They lost most of their production from last year??™s team. Their top 6 scorers and top 3 rebounders from last year are gone, and their team has no seniors on it.
2012-2013 stats (top 6 scorers are gone)-

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/2011/alabama-state-hornets

Alabama State men??™s basketball website-

http://bamastatesports.com/index.aspx?path=mbball&tab=basketball

Alabama State roster-

http://bamastatesports.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

Stats from 2012-13 games so far-

http://bamastatesports.com/custompages/HTMLMehib%2010.31.13/teamcume.htm

[Da Coach]

Rayvonte Rice lead Illinois with 22 points in Illinois' 80-63 win over Alabama State-

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-1109-illinois-basketball-20131109,0,7703389.story

[tornado]

The good things I saw last night that I believe we can build on and that will get us a win on Sunday include our effort and athleticism..


I think our guys really played hard..and simply outfought JSU for loose balls. Walt, Ka'Darryl, Blake & Barnes combined for 9 steals - helping fill the gap in defense left by Dyricus' departure.
And although we were outrebounded and our starting center had an off night - help is on the way..
Freshman Xzavier Taylor again contributed more in just 6 minutes than our starting center.

When the game was close in the 2nd half you could see Walt forcing it a bit leading to a few badly missed shots - so we have to get contributions elsewhere to draw defenses off Walt...and avoid having to play the starters mid-season minutes.
Omari had a lot of nice looks and hit 3-6 from the arc - we haven't seen that in a long time.

If you look at the box score of Alabama State playing at Illinois last night - the things that stand out...
-you see they are capable of shooting well from the 3-pt line - they hit 5-10 in the 1st half and 4-11 in the 2nd...but they shot badly from everywhere else.
BUT - Alabama State got BADLY outrebounded by Illinois 52-28 with even the Illini guards grabbing 6, 8, & 9 rebounds.
They also don't turn it over much - against a very athletic Illini squad - they committed just 7 turnovers.

[Buesch N Chips]

The good things I saw last night that I believe we can build on and that will get us a win on Sunday include our effort and athleticism..


I think our guys really played hard..and simply outfought JSU for loose balls. Walt, Ka'Darryl, Blake & Barnes combined for 9 steals - helping fill the gap in defense left by Dyricus' departure.
And although we were outrebounded and our starting center had an off night - help is on the way..
Freshman Xzavier Taylor again contributed more in just 6 minutes than our starting center.

When the game was close in the 2nd half you could see Walt forcing it a bit leading to a few badly missed shots - so we have to get contributions elsewhere to draw defenses off Walt...and avoid having to play the starters mid-season minutes.
Omari had a lot of nice looks and hit 3-6 from the arc - we haven't seen that in a long time.

If you look at the box score of Alabama State playing at Illinois last night - the things that stand out...
-you see they are capable of shooting well from the 3-pt line - they hit 5-10 in the 1st half and 4-11 in the 2nd...but they shot badly from everywhere else.
BUT - Alabama State got BADLY outrebounded by Illinois 52-28 with even the Illini guards grabbing 6, 8, & 9 rebounds.
They also don't turn it over much - against a very athletic Illini squad - they committed just 7 turnovers.

From what I hear Illinois did not close the game well. Wonder if the stats are even padded a bit because of that.

[Da Coach]

Pregame notes from BradleyBraves.com

http://www.bradleybraves.com//ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=209302898

[bradleyfan124]

The ticket situation at the Renaissance is still causing problems with the fans. A friend of mine who has been a longtime season ticket holder sits in the upper bowl in my area. He is so fed up with the high price and bad seating at that price that he is refusing to go. I tried to persuade him but he said no. I cant really blame him much. I am going but that is just me. They like the gimmicks and who sits where for first priority at mid-court. Then half the prime seats in the Renaissance sit empty. They should just keep it simple. First come first serve $10 per ticket. If someone wants prime seats then they get there early. If they dont then that is there fault. Would you rather have 1000 - 1500 at $20 per ticket or 3000 - 3500 at $10 per ticket. Same ticketdollars but more fans in the seats and 90% of them will buy something at the concessions. Wake up Bradley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Da Coach]

I notice the Game Notes for the Alabama State notes do say this-

Tickets $20 - Reserved seating between baselines | Purchase online

When they originally went on sale, those "between the baseline" seats were not even available to the individual ticket buyer. They were told they were all sold out. So hopefully, more people can sit on the sidelines.

[bradleyfan124]

Great! Finally maybe someone came to their senses. I will call my friend

[wily coyote]

The ticket situation at the Renaissance is still causing problems with the fans. A friend of mine who has been a longtime season ticket holder sits in the upper bowl in my area. He is so fed up with the high price and bad seating at that price that he is refusing to go. I tried to persuade him but he said no. I cant really blame him much. I am going but that is just me. They like the gimmicks and who sits where for first priority at mid-court. Then half the prime seats in the Renaissance sit empty. They should just keep it simple. First come first serve $10 per ticket. If someone wants prime seats then they get there early. If they dont then that is there fault. Would you rather have 1000 - 1500 at $20 per ticket or 3000 - 3500 at $10 per ticket. Same ticketdollars but more fans in the seats and 90% of them will buy something at the concessions. Wake up Bradley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great post and I'm with your friend.I will be listening to my favorite radio man. Go Braves

[tornado]

we should be strongly favored in this game and we ought to handle them easily...
..the odd late Sunday afternoon start time will hurt with families & football fans ..a couple of the 4pm NFL matchups are pretty good draws

[Big Mike]

Reynolds: Alabama State.....

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20131109/SPORTS/131109315/10962/SPORTS

[tornado]

also - Alabama State played a lot of zone against Illinois - probably an effort to conserve leg energy for the back to back games,
and maybe a suspicion that Illinois wouldn't shoot well from the arc, but it definitely worked for a while....
It held their 3-pt shooting to only about 10% early on and the Illini's low post players couldn't get much done....

Finally, the Illini did a few high screens and drove to get a lot of their points, BUT indeed their zone worked well against the long range shooting
as Illinois hit only 4-20 and only 1-12 over the first 14 minutes of the game as Alabama State held even with Illinois & 2-13 among the starters.

So I suspect they will also zone us quite a bit as they will suspect our guards don't have the drive-and-finish skills that the Illini guards (Abrams, Bertrand, Rice) have.


Here's a 5-minute video from the Illini-Alabama State game and indeed their zone does a whole lot of standing around...

http://www.illinoisloyalty.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=20523

[Da Coach]

I have heard there will be a couple other recruits at today's game in addition to Josh Cunningham and Kain Harris.

[LongTimeFan]

Same two as Friday night or some new ones?

[LongTimeFan]

My wife and I got here early.