Final: Illinois State 60 Bradley 47

[Da Coach]

Note the different starting time!

The next game is Illinois State (15-11, 7-7) at Bradley (8-19, 3-11) on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 8:00 PM.
The game is available on the MVC-TV Network (Comcast Cable- Comcast Sportsnet channels 56, 522, and 922 and FoxSports Midwest channels 57, 519, and 959).
For those outside the mid-west, the game is also available on ESPN3.com.

Illinois State website-

http://goredbirds.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

MVC standings-

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/conferences/standings/_/id/18/year/2015/missouri-valley-conference

The halftime will feature events that honor past BU greats Roger Phegley and Ron Harris, plus Quick Change will perform, plus more-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209888292&DB_OEM_ID=3400

[bu fan 9]

ISU by 20.

[LittleBrave]

Biggest game in the GF era?

Well, maybe the least anticipated I-74 rivalry game in the history of BU hoops.

[Da Coach]

As poorly as ISU seems capable of playing on the road, I actually think Bradley has a chance to win this game. Bradley played one of its better games in Normal this year, shooting 50% for the game, and 44.4% from three, and they outrebounded the Redbirds. Illinois State has a 3-game losing streak

Also, recall the game in Peoria last year between the Braves and Redbirds-
Bradley 64 ISU 45

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400500095

Yes, the personnel for both teams were quite different, but Bradley was motivated and played their best game of the year, and dominated ISU. It was Bradley's largest margin of victory in the MVC last year.

[lefty]

As poorly as ISU seems capable of playing on the road, I actually think Bradley has a chance to win this game. Bradley played one of its better games in Normal this year, shooting 50% for the game, and 44.4% from three, and they outrebounded the Redbirds. Illinois State has a 3-game losing streak

Also, recall the game in Peoria last year between the Braves and Redbirds-
Bradley 64 ISU 45

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400500095

Yes, the personnel for both teams were quite different, but Bradley was motivated and played their best game of the year, and dominated ISU. It was Bradley's largest margin of victory in the MVC last year.

We have had very few bright spots since then though.....I hope you are right and the kids play well enough to get a win........but I'm not sure they care anymore after watching yesterday

[tornado]

given the talent they have, and how incredibly weak the bottom five or six teams are in the MVC - and remember -
Dan Muller actually believed they would complete for 1st place in the MVC and gave them a 1st place vote...

ISU could have & would have finished no worse than 4th even if Dan Muller's grandmother coached them and they all played with one hand tied behind their backs.

so for a team with that much talent to keep losing to weaker teams, and be sitting in 5th place at 7-7 & only a game ahead of Loyola and only 2 games out of Thursday is astounding and I think reflects two things...

- the team is full of players who take wild shots and seem not to look for passes or opportunities to involve their teammates. This was so clear in the 1st half of Saturday's game against Wichita and the final few minutes. They are undisciplined, and that is half the players' fault & half the coach's.
Then coming out of halftime when Muller made them pass to Lynch in the post, they ran off a bunch of points and really had the Shockers against the ropes.
Then Muller yanked Lynch for some inexplicable reason and like memory foam, the Redbirds went right back to playing streetball.

-I think Muller has a hard time keep the kids happy - look at the turnstyle at the end of each season with gobs of players leaving, being booted, then replaced.
I think there's evidence of it happening again which is why they wanna jack shots when they can or they fear not getting to do it again.
The mere fact that only ONE game in their last eight have they had more assists than turnovers, and for a team that has arguably the best corps of big men in the league - to have a team shooting percentage in the bottom half of the Valley says they are jacking too much from where they don't win games, and they fail to get it to where they can win games.
Sorry ....bad coaching. They have more talent that we do and should beat us Wednesday - so Redbird fans will have something to hoot about - but it ought to bother them severely that they are a mediocre 7-7 team in a conference where they ought to be 11-3 (or even 12-3 had they beat Wichita) with the weakness of the 7 teams that should be below them.

[AZ BU Fan]

Braves hopes dashed Sunday.
Redemption versus Redbirds?
Something to cheer for!

...

[Braves2006]

given the talent they have, and how incredibly weak the bottom five or six teams are in the MVC - and remember -
Dan Muller actually believed they would complete for 1st place in the MVC and gave them a 1st place vote...

ISU could have & would have finished no worse than 4th even if Dan Muller's grandmother coached them and they all played with one hand tied behind their backs.

so for a team with that much talent to keep losing to weaker teams, and be sitting in 5th place at 7-7 & only a game ahead of Loyola and only 2 games out of Thursday is astounding and I think reflects two things...

- the team is full of players who take wild shots and seem not to look for passes or opportunities to involve their teammates. This was so clear in the 1st half of Saturday's game against Wichita and the final few minutes. They are undisciplined, and that is half the players' fault & half the coach's.
Then coming out of halftime when Muller made them pass to Lynch in the post, they ran off a bunch of points and really had the Shockers against the ropes.
Then Muller yanked Lynch for some inexplicable reason and like memory foam, the Redbirds went right back to playing streetball.

-I think Muller has a hard time keep the kids happy - look at the turnstyle at the end of each season with gobs of players leaving, being booted, then replaced.
I think there's evidence of it happening again which is why they wanna jack shots when they can or they fear not getting to do it again.
The mere fact that only ONE game in their last eight have they had more assists than turnovers, and for a team that has arguably the best corps of big men in the league - to have a team shooting percentage in the bottom half of the Valley says they are jacking too much from where they don't win games, and they fail to get it to where they can win games.
Sorry ....bad coaching. They have more talent that we do and should beat us Wednesday - so Redbird fans will have something to hoot about - but it ought to bother them severely that they are a mediocre 7-7 team in a conference where they ought to be 11-3 (or even 12-3 had they beat Wichita) with the weakness of the 7 teams that should be below them.

I agree T. Not enough talent to beat Shox or UNI, but if they had any kind of a decent coach, they would and should easily be in 3rd place comfortably.

[Da Coach]

BU game center-

http://www.bradleybraves.com//ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=209894745

[Da Coach]

Article from Dave Reynolds-
ISU a nice distraction for the Braves

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150217/SPORTS/150219201

Good article about the BU-ISU rivalry.

But even with every player of significance back healthy now and playing, Dave and Geno still cannot allow an article to go to press without using the injury excuses again-

Ford praised both of those players, pointing out that Sutherland’s preseason broken hand, which caused him to miss the season’s first nine games, delayed the junior’s development to Division I competition.

Ford said. “We didn’t have Tramique until late December so February has become his January.”

[tornado]

Fields is not going to be available but then he and Nate never played a lick until the inability of everyone to get any results jumped up and bit him.

Kinda funny and even ironic, though...here we have the HOME game vs. ISU...
perennially the MOST exciting game at Carver every year - always been a sellout or close to sellout
Always been a GREAT game that can define the entire season..

and yet now we label it "a distraction"??

The hits just keep on coming..
How far we have fallen...

[AZ BU Fan]

Help, they've fallen and can't get up!!!

Call 'NCAA MBB ALERT'!!

One call (and millions of $) and a new Prez, AD, and new MBB Coach (optional) sent to a university of your choice!!!

It's always darkest before the dawn. Don't give up hope, call 1-800 - NCAA - MBB today!

Results not guaranteed. This service has not been proven by the NCAA to treat or cure MBB program malaise.

...

[tornado]

I like your humor AZ
people just take stuff on message boards way too seriously and get stressed out..
Even sillier - people on other message boards get into discussions and stress out over what's stressing out people on another message board.

Life is already somewhat stressful - so why do people bother to read message boards if they can't take what's there and get on in life?
Like Da Coach said - it's like going well out of your way & walking over to the water cooler at the office just because you're obsessed with and wanna see what they're talking about,
then going ballistic because you overheard them talking about something you didn't wanna hear them talk about!

[Da Coach]

Halftime
ISU 28 BU 23

Bradley shooting 38% (8-21) with 9 turnovers

[Da Coach]

ISU 44 BU 36 with about 5 minutes left.

Attendance announced as 7349 but actual attendance appears to be about .4500