Final: Bradley 84 CMU 73

[Da Coach]

Bradley (2-4) tries to rebound against a visiting team from Central Michigan University on Tuesday, Dec.2 at 7:00 PM at the Renaissance Coliseum.

The Central Michigan Chippewas are 5-0 after their game Saturday night at home against Grand Canyon, which was won by CMU 79-77.
Their competition has not been very good, and they have yet to play a game away from their home court.
They are coached by former Drake coach Keno Davis.

There is no broadcast TV for this game, and there has been no announcement of any games slated to be on TV this season yet.
The game will be available on BU.tv for subscribers.

CMU basketball website-

http://www.cmuchippewas.com/sports/m-baskbl/cmu-m-baskbl-body.html

Roster-

http://www.cmuchippewas.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/cmu-m-baskbl-mtt.html

Schedule/results-

http://www.cmuchippewas.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/cmu-m-baskbl-sched.html

So far, they have shot very well. 48.1% overall, and 40.4% from three, and they are outrebounding their opponents 40 to 29.8 per game. And they are
CMU shoots a lot of threes. They have made an average of 11 three pointers per game (Bradley averages about 6 per game), and attempted 27.2 three pointers per game! They are 55-136 for the season.
They are averaging 82.2 ppg, compared to Bradley's 58 ppg.

http://www.cmuchippewas.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2014-2015/teamcume.html

They are lead in scoring by junior Chris Fowler, a 6'1" guard with 13.6 ppg, and junior John Simons, a 6'8" forward with 13.4 ppg. Simons is the brother of former Drake star Ben Simons.
Both players played against Bradley last season (11/12/13) when Bradley beat CMU 80-70 in Carver Arena. Simons scored 14 points, and Fowler scored a team leading 20 points.
These 2 teams also played 11/28/12 when Bradley won at CMU 82-65.

[molar50]

More losses to come

I do not look for Bradley to win this game. I look for them to lose every single game left on the schedule, with the exception of Dec 18 game vs Eureka College, a Division III program.

[GoBUBraves98]

I see us losing every conference road game, and we are questionable in home games. We need to have our defense, offense, and rebounding all in one game, not in different games.

[Da Coach]

I do not look for Bradley to win this game. I look for them to lose every single game left on the schedule, with the exception of Dec 18 game vs Eureka College, a Division III program.

That would leave Bradley with a record of 3-29 (2-29 against D1 opponents) by then end of the season. Is that what you are predicting?

[molar50]

Yes. We have poor shooters and low basketball IQ. Winning teams know how to win close games and losing teams seem to retain their bad habits and lose close games.

[ihatetea]

I am reneging slightly on my supremely pessimistic outlook from after the first two games. We will win at least ten total games this year, I didn't anticipate the improvement the team would make with Austin back. Everyone else seems to have fallen into their roles a little more comfortably. Getting Sutherland in will do the same for our guards. Just being able to yank bell when he is playing like crap will do wonders, and we might have been able to win the last two games. Bell in small bunches should be much more efficient.

Our final record will be 12-18 and 6-12 in conference.

[Tulsa Brave]

I am reneging slightly on my supremely pessimistic outlook from after the first two games. We will win at least ten total games this year, I didn't anticipate the improvement the team would make with Austin back. Everyone else seems to have fallen into their roles a little more comfortably. Getting Sutherland in will do the same for our guards. Just being able to yank bell when he is playing like crap will do wonders, and we might have been able to win the last two games. Bell in small bunches should be much more efficient.

Our final record will be 12-18 and 6-12 in conference.

Pomeroy's projections are very close to yours. His projections support my eyeballs in procliaming Drake the worst MVC team this season. BU is by no means a lock to play-in either...it will depend on how much Sutherland improves the team, and also how much the inexperienced guys improve.

As for the game Tuesday. BU should get a win. This CMU team is worse than the two we just lost to in Corpus Christi, so a similar effort wins the game Tuesday, especially at home.

[Da Coach]

Central Michigan beat Grand Canyon 79-77 tonight to move to 5-0 on the season.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400587419

[tornado]

I do not look for Bradley to win this game. I look for them to lose every single game left on the schedule, with the exception of Dec 18 game vs Eureka College, a Division III program.

Drake is really bad this year and they are west of the Mississippi - so I remain hopeful

[Da Coach]

Drake is really bad this year and they are west of the Mississippi - so I remain hopeful

Maybe. The only 2 MVC road wins Bradley has had since "the streak" began were at SIU (1/2/13) and at Loyola (2/6/14)- both were last place teams.

[tornado]

Tuesday's game is at the Renaissance Coliseum...and it is part of the season ticket package...
so does anyone know how we were able to get that done unless our season ticket fan base is now down to less than 4300?

Also - what ever happened to the huge uproar we had a couple years ago when word was first being discussed of moving men's regular season games there -
many were outraged that it might mean some people would be aced out of getting tickets because the arena capacity was substantially less than our season ticket base?

[Da Coach]

I am just hoping Bradley can pull out another moral victory against the mighty Chippewas.

[tornado]

they are a non-ampersand opponent

[GoBUBraves98]

Please excuse my lack of knowledge, but what is a non-ampersand oppponent?

[tornado]

I actually have no idea and I even looked it up....couldn't find anyone who had a definition for that term and it kind of appears it is not a word...

..but given the context I think that the term is being used to imply the opponents are a little better than usual and not just cookie cutter similar to our previous 4 weak opponents.