FINAL: Bradley 84 St. Joseph's 65

[ihatetea]

Definitely more things to like than dislike. There are a few things that need to be worked on.

We still communicate very poorly on both ends but especially defensively. We leave people open or double a player because there was a switch that wasn't communicated well. We frequently did a poor job matching up in transition, although most of that was when we were playing in a weird lineup do to foul issues. Some of our player are horrible at anticipating when a teammate was gonna move or even able to tell when they were open. Cooper is especially bad at doing that and making the correct passes, while also being ridiculously susceptible to pump fakes and jab steps that will cause him to foul at Xzavier Taylor levels. I didn't think this would be true but we will miss Shaw. We were very poor at boxing out and controlling our space. We rebounded well in spite of that because we were a much bigger team again. Against some teams we might get beat up inside. KaDarryll Bell still struggles with turnovers, commonly extremely dumb turnovers too. We struggled on free throws after being great the first game.

We still handle a team we should have been able to handle. Van Bree had an outstanding first half, although he looked like he got tired from having to play so many minutes do to our other players foul troubles. Thomas looked off or like maybe he was pressing to play well at first but had an extremely promising stretch in the second half. Barker with 13 points including two 3's in 9 minutes! When we weren't in weird lineups, our offense looked smooth and there was great ball movement. The 3-2 zone was an interesting look, even if it wasn't very polished yet. Could be a good curveball moving forward. I love Okafor, an outstanding point guard. Once again we had good play from our deeper bench players. Cooper and James are still developing, but they both can give solid minutes. Our overall effort level on defense should keep us close in games.

All in all, a good showing against a better opponent, despite the near constant whistle blowing and rampant foul trouble. Things are looking good for this foundation year. I am pleased with the hiring of Coach Wardle, at least through 2 exhibition games =-P

[Da Coach]

The box score is not posted yet, but here is the link to the Live Stats-
Bradley 84 St. Joseph's 65

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?a=1&id=109302

I thought the team played well through most of the game, but there were several short stretches in both halves where they had defensive lapses.
But they still scored 84 points, to go with the 78 points in the first exhibition. Not bad for an offense from almost all freshmen, regardless of the opposition.

Bradley shot 56.4% for the game, an improvement over the 45.5% last game.
Bradley also was 8-16 (50%) from three, a vast improvement over the 5-26 (19%) last game. They had 19 turnovers, something I am sure Coach wardle was not happy with. They held SJC to 33.3% (they held Edgewood to 22%).

One more impressive stat- Bradley had 47 points in the paint, after scoring 42 points in the pain against Edgewood. Those numbers will drop when they start playing bigger and better opponents, but considering how few points in the paint we scored the last few years (only 16 points in the paint against D3 Augustana last year) this is great to see.

Luuk van Bree was really impressive tonight. He has a very effective inside and outside game that will be difficult for opponents to match up against. And he plays effective defense without fouling. He is a pleasure to watch.

[Da Coach]

By the way- I wonder if anyone else noticed...there was a tall younger official in tonight's officiating crew of Donnie Olson, Gene Grimshaw, & Nate Green.

I recognized Nate Green as someone we've seen before, but it took me a little while to realize it was the same Nate Green who was a very good player years ago for Indiana State. He played at Indiana State from 1996 to 2000, and in his senior season (1999-2000) he was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, and lead the Sycamores to their first NCAA appearance since Larry Bird took them to the NCAA championship game.
He played a several years overseas, and a couple years in the NBA D-League, and now works in banking. But he has now become a college official, and wants to become an NBA official.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Green

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/872e2f0dd8914886855f65ee3ed9c533/not-yet-nba-refs-also-under-microscope-during-summer-league

[Da Coach]

Game story from BradleyBraves.com-
Braves Blow By Saint Joseph's, 84-65

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=210484594

Official box score-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/pdf9/4081806.pdf?ATCLID=210484594&SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=3400

[lefty]

By the way- I wonder if anyone else noticed...there was a tall younger official in tonight's officiating crew of Donnie Olson, Gene Grimshaw, & Nate Green.

I recognized Nate Green as someone we've seen before, but it took me a little while to realize it was the same Nate Green who was a very good player years ago for Indiana State. He played at Indiana State from 1996 to 2000, and in his senior season (1999-2000) he was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, and lead the Sycamores to their first NCAA appearance since Larry Bird took them to the NCAA championship game.
He played a several years overseas, and a couple years in the NBA D-League, and now works in banking. But he has now become a college official, and wants to become an NBA official.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Green

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/872e2...-summer-league

they were all pretty bad IMO??¦??¦and i know it's early but Olson has a big lead for worst ref of the year

[lefty]

The box score is not posted yet, but here is the link to the Live Stats-
Bradley 84 St. Joseph's 65

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?a=1&id=109302

I thought the team played well through most of the game, but there were several short stretches in both halves where they had defensive lapses.
But they still scored 84 points, to go with the 78 points in the first exhibition. Not bad for an offense from almost all freshmen, regardless of the opposition.

Bradley shot 56.4% for the game, an improvement over the 45.5% last game.
Bradley also was 8-16 (50%) from three, a vast improvement over the 5-26 (19%) last game. They had 19 turnovers, something I am sure Coach wardle was not happy with. They held SJC to 33.3% (they held Edgewood to 22%).

One more impressive stat- Bradley had 47 points in the paint, after scoring 42 points in the pain against Edgewood. Those numbers will drop when they start playing bigger and better opponents, but considering how few points in the paint we scored the last few years (only 16 points in the paint against D3 Augustana last year) this is great to see.

Luuk van Bree was really impressive tonight. He has a very effective inside and outside game that will be difficult for opponents to match up against. And he plays effective defense without fouling. He is a pleasure to watch.

Don't you think Augie was better than both of these teams though???¦.I don't see us scoring 84 the rest of the year in a game.

I like how they play hard and together and they will get better but it will be a tough season for sure in regards to W-L record??¦..but we knew that going in

[Da Coach]

Don't you think Augie was better than both of these teams though?….I don't see us scoring 84 the rest of the year in a game...

I am not sure. Augustana (a D3) might have been a slightly better coached team than St. Joseph's (a D2), but St. Josephs was much more athletic and physical. If they played, it would be pretty even.

Recall that we scored only 56 points in the loss to Augustana last year, as opposed to 84 points tonight. In fact, last year we did not even score 84 points against a woefully awful Eureka team. So people can believe whatever they want, but clearly, IMO, this year's team is a vast improvement over last year in talent, coaching, shooting, passing, rebounding, defense, depth, and just about every other aspect of the game. And they are all freshmen. It is going to be a fun year watching these kids.

[bigjimmy]

Unlike the past few years what I like about this team is that we have more than one guy on the floor who can score. We have a few guys who can create their own shot. No question we're going to have some growing pains early. Turnovers are going to be a problem and front court foul trouble will likely also be a problem. Come March and this team improves throughout the year it could be pretty fun to watch in St. Louis. By the way I think there was just another foul called.

[Buesch N Chips]

Good: Okafor, Van Bree, Barker, DLO once he got going. Overall I was encouraged by the team working hard. Gosh, they are so young, and the germination into a "good" team will not be quick, but there are flashes of potential.

Band was good, student section was respectable, outdoor mural was good, and I got a close parking space. I thought the attendance was respectable for a scrimmage with a Bears game. I did appreciate the military recognition, which might have been the most enthusiastic the crowd got all night.

I like the new shot clock and timeout rules. I think the timeout rules will limit the "scrum timeout", which I always hated. Bradley took one early in the first half, which left them with only 3 for the rest of the game.

Bad: Bell. Scottie James was horrible at the start but got better. Players got into situations where they just flat out didn't know what to do. Foul trouble. If Barker stays effective I feel teams will get him out of the game early with foul trouble pretty easily.

For the talk about the game atmosphere being all new and kid-friendly, I didn't really see it. Maybe they are saving it up for the real games. There were differences to last year, but nothing that would make the paper. I'm guessing the slam dunk competition before the game is supposed to be part of that. Crowd basically slept through the game, but there was no rhythm due to a whistle every 10 seconds. T shirt cannon shot to the same people it always does. Concession prices are still robbery.

[lefty]

I am not sure. Augustana (a D3) might have been a slightly better coached team than St. Joseph's (a D2), but St. Josephs was much more athletic and physical. If they played, it would be pretty even.

Recall that we scored only 56 points in the loss to Augustana last year, as opposed to 84 points tonight. In fact, last year we did not even score 84 points against a woefully awful Eureka team. So people can believe whatever they want, but clearly, IMO, this year's team is a vast improvement over last year in talent, coaching, shooting, passing, rebounding, defense, depth, and just about every other aspect of the game. And they are all freshmen. It is going to be a fun year watching these kids.

Oh I think this will be a better team??¦.I still think it's going to be a tough season though. It will be fun watching the progress for sure.

[lefty]

Unlike the past few years what I like about this team is that we have more than one guy on the floor who can score. We have a few guys who can create their own shot. No question we're going to have some growing pains early. Turnovers are going to be a problem and front court foul trouble will likely also be a problem. Come March and this team improves throughout the year it could be pretty fun to watch in St. Louis. By the way I think there was just another foul called.

Yeah??¦I have a feeling Barker as well as the rest of the post players will be in foul trouble most games

[Da Coach]

On the other hand, I will be surprised if we have another game officiated as tightly all year as the game last night was. Barker was called for a couple really ticky-tack fouls, as were many other Bradley players. There was a huge difference in the way fouls were called last night compared to Monday, and the first half took about a full hour to complete.
54 personal fouls, and 63 free throw attempts. I doubt this is what the NCAA wanted with their new emphasis on allowing player movement, and I'll bet they pull back on it.

[Buesch N Chips]

On the other hand, I will be surprised if we have another game officiated as tightly all year as the game last night was. Barker was called for a couple really ticky-tack fouls, as were many other Bradley players. There was a huge difference in the way fouls were called last night compared to Monday, and the first half took about a full hour to complete.
54 personal fouls, and 63 free throw attempts. I doubt this is what the NCAA wanted with their new emphasis on allowing player movement, and I'll bet they pull back on it.

There were some fouls where I couldn't figure out what the player was doing wrong.

[tornado]

Yeah…I have a feeling Barker as well as the rest of the post players will be in foul trouble most games

- I'm not sure - just like the last couple years - the refs seem to pick some early games and just choose to demonstrate their foul calling prowess...
Our guys are smart and I think we will learn & adapt

- the attendance was bad...even at the "Snow Game" on Feb. 1, 2011, when only 200 people were ACTUALLY in the arena - the attendance was still reported as 8,091!!
So what that says is that as recently as 2011, we had nearly 8,000 season tickets sold but now we have fewer than 5,000.
This is the devastation of the last four years under Glasser/Cross/Ford.

-Davante Cooper played a lot better than he gets credit for.
Sure he's "raw" and sure he has a ways to go...
but last night if we didn't have him, that game probably is not a 20 pt blowout.
He blew away those few silly comments I have read where he ought to redshirt and isn't going to contribute at all this year or next.
He filled the lane, altered every shot, grabbed 8 rebounds, kicked it back out on a couple offensive rebounds, got fouled a couple times and went to the line, had only one turnover, and mostly stayed out of foul trouble.

-our starting five shot 22-33 (67%) !
Keep it up - when was the last time any Bradley team in any game exhibition or not, ever shot over 66%?

-we shot 8-16 from the 3-pt line...
.....a few said we're NOT good shooters and that we're gonna have trouble scoring points.
We had 18 pts before the first 5 minutes passed and 23 pts in the first 6 1/2 minutes. - we didn't have that at half in some recent games.

To those who said "where are going to get our scoring" - the answer is whoever is on the floor.

[Dub]

Encouraging. I like the caliber of the freshmen we recruited, and they will get a lot of miles on them this year that should absolutely pay off big in the future. I liked the rebounding efforts from our bigs. My daughter got a free face painting. I believe we are seeing the star of something good here.