Final: Virginia 82 Bradley 57

[MacabreMob]

The bad-
Bradley was outrebounded badly- 35-21
Nobody had more than 3 rebounds!
Only 7 assists for the game
Allowed a ton of points in the paint- we have a lot of trouble defending big men who have any offensive ability
Still not shooting free throws well- just 15-24 62.5%. That is exactly what our FT% was in the first 2 games.
Not enough production from the bench players

Some Good of the Bad:

Credit Virginia for the way they defend with their "pack-line" defense that also allowed them to rebound well with their bigs (Gill's a handful).

Also - Bradley used a lot of "straight-line" drives which is what the new officiating is allowing for. Maybe fewer assists? But more drives and scoring that way?

[MacabreMob]

These announcers are getting annoying. They are obviously pro-Virginia.


Suggs with a three! Bradley now leads 8-7

BTW, the chat room is open if anyone wants to chat about the game.
http://us21.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

Analyst Dino Gaudio, talking about the players Virginia lost from last year, and every sentence starts with "We lost...".

Now they have talked on and on about George washington (who just beat Virginia) and they have ignore the Bradley-Virginia for the last 3 or 4 minutes. They are terrible.

As bad as they seemed at times and as bad as they were the rest of the time... they did finally have some good things to say about Bradley, Bradley's past, Bradley's present, and even ex-player and now coach of Western Illinois knocking off Wisconsin.

[Da Coach]

Game story from BradleyBraves.com

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=210514230

Box score-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/pdf9/4139610.pdf?ATCLID=210514230&SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=3400

[Chico]

Analyst Dino Gaudio, talking about the players Virginia lost from last year, and every sentence starts with "We lost...".

Now they have talked on and on about George washington (who just beat Virginia) and they have ignore the Bradley-Virginia for the last 3 or 4 minutes. They are terrible.

At least they took a few minutes to talk about Hersey.

[Chico]

Hey, Brian Wardle must be listening to me... He just put Peter Hanley into the game with 9 minutes to go in the first half, presumably to help keep our big men from picking up too many fouls.
Guess the people who chided my post saying he should consider that, feel pretty dumb now.

As I said before, I bet that makes Peter fill good.

[tornado]

the way the refs are whistle happy had a lot to do with allowing them to shoot 57% since our guys are simply afraid to play any defense out of fear of fouling and sitting the bench.

Luuk had a pretty good game but Donte Thomas is not a shooter - he needs to be more selective and spend a little more time working the boards.
Overall the outcome isn't any different than I expected - but now we need to step it up and beat SHU.

woulda been nice to have one 40% shooter left over in the cupboard - just gonna take a while...
and I sure didn't see many BU fans there....another thing that's changed from not too long ago.

[MacabreMob]

the way the refs are whistle happy had a lot to do with allowing them to shoot 57% since our guys are simply afraid to play any defense out of fear of fouling and sitting the bench...

Stop man. Just stop.

Refs called the game and as I saw it - it wasn't terrible.

We may have had more foul calls, but really... stop.

I never once threw my arms in the air saying "wtf". Never.

The game was fairly officiated.

Just stop.

[lefty]

Our freshman will have to figure out how to play hard physically and mentally for 40 minutes and that will take some time. I think we will see many games like this where we hang for most of the half and then struggle, especially against more mature teams.
I thought the refs called the game ok??¦.usually the weaker team fouls more and shoots less ft's which did not happen last night??¦

We will get better??¦no doubt in my mind

[PTownHawkeye]

There was one really smart coaching move that was easily missed...I don't think Wardle played Luuk at all past the 7 minute mark of the 2nd half. With a thin bench and the game already decided, it was smart to let the guys you are going to rely on most to have some much need rest.

[tornado]

Refs called the game and as I saw it - it wasn't terrible.

I never once threw my arms in the air saying "wtf". ...

so you thought it was perfectly logical that we had walk-ons playing against a Top 10 team midway thru the 1st half...and they were going to the line 3-4 times as much as we were.
Our own coach seemed perturbed at the way fouls were being called.

[lefty]

so you thought it was perfectly logical that we had walk-ons playing against a Top 10 team midway thru the 1st half...and they were going to the line 3-4 times as much as we were.
Our own coach seemed perturbed at the way fouls were being called.

Playing a lot of guys in the first half isn't unusual though T.....we have 3 games in days and the likelihood of beating Virginia was pretty slim anyway so why wear the starters out in the first game. And like I said before we shot 7 more ft's and had 5 less fouls in the game....definitely some tick tack fouls but it seemed consistent to me

[BUSongwriter]

As DC said, the toughest two are now in the rearview mirror. And I think the road ahead is full of promise for these young Braves. If we don't wear down, I think we will be more competitive in the Valley than most are expecting. Not upper tier, but I don't think the youngest team in the country is a lock for the cellar. From what I've seen, I think we'll be competitive in most games and may win more than last year's veteran squad -- with three more years to get nothing but better.

Luuk, DLO, and Callum are really impressing me. And though Okafor hasn't shown much yet in games, I still think he's going to be very good.

With the exception of Bell, our free throw shooting looked awful last night. That will have to improve for us to win the tight games we'll have to work so hard to find ourselves in.

Go Braves! Steal one this weekend, and then thump New Orleans at home to open 3-3. And then keep building.

[tornado]

for the most part the last two games against TOP opponents have been what we've been used to the past several years...
foul prone big guys, poor shooting, poor production, very few assists, struggling on PG play, missed FT's, and guys taking 3-pt shots that miss badly...

BUT - here's the HUGE difference...
the last few years when we looked like that it was our seasoned veterans, our highly touted "difference-makers" and "go-to-guys" who never improved, never learned from mistakes, and never got any better... and who played like freshmen even tho they were 24 and 25 year old seniors.

At least now it's completely inexperienced freshman with huge upside - something almost expected with such a large number of freshmen...and they are bound to get better.

[jtim1152]

After attending numerous 2015 public and semi-public BU basketball events and watching the 2 exhibition and 3 regular season games so far, I am even more optimistic and excited about the future of Bradley Basketball than I was after the Reynolds/Wardle announcements. We should all look past any one play or sequence or stretch of minutes and look at what is happening in front of our very eyes. BASKETBALL is returning to Peoria, led by a coach who knows how to teach and put events in perspective; by players who are skilled, who love the game and who know how to exert effort.....and who appear to be coach-able and willing to be coached; and by a sports administration that is demonstrating it is willing to and capable of structuring a basketball PROGRAM. I haven't been this pumped about BU in decades!!!

[Chico]

After attending numerous 2015 public and semi-public BU basketball events and watching the 2 exhibition and 3 regular season games so far, I am even more optimistic and excited about the future of Bradley Basketball than I was after the Reynolds/Wardle announcements. We should all look past any one play or sequence or stretch of minutes and look at what is happening in front of our very eyes. BASKETBALL is returning to Peoria, led by a coach who knows how to teach and put events in perspective; by players who are skilled, who love the game and who know how to exert effort.....and who appear to be coach-able and willing to be coached; and by a sports administration that is demonstrating it is willing to and capable of structuring a basketball PROGRAM. I haven't been this pumped about BU in decades!!!

Decades? I would say a few years or 1 decade at the most.