Final score: Bradley 59 North Dakota 65

[Da Coach]

Bradley is a 2.5 point favorite tonight against North Dakota..
This will be the first game all year that Bradley is actually favored in Las Vegas.

[Braves2006]

So....is this a thread for tonight's game or not?? I'll be there cheering on the Wardle led Braves... GO BRAVES!

[Da Coach]

I'll be heading there soon. Go Braves!

Join the chat room if you can't be there

http://www.chatzy.com/524398219675

And here is the direct link to the ESPN3.com page where a link will be posted a few minutes before the start of the game-

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index#type/livenow/sport/basketball/

[tornado]

too many turnovers
too many missed FTs
too many offensive rebounds & 2nd chances given up

...it's now deep enough into the season that these mistakes need to end...and we need to drive the paint more often

[lefty]

Just brutal??¦??¦.and it's hard to know where to start..

van Bree is so weak with the ball in traffic it's unbelievable
giving up offensive rebounds
missed ft's
poor execution offensively resulting in way too many turnovers
poor shooting----there were some good outside shots taken but they didn't fall for the most part


and Baldy the ref was just baiting Wardle into a T??¦.several times during the game from across court he would interact with Wardle instead of ignoring him??¦calling the T in overtime like that was ridiculous

[lefty]

too many turnovers
too many missed FTs
too many offensive rebounds & 2nd chances given up

...it's now deep enough into the season that these mistakes need to end...and we need to drive the paint more often

I wasn't paying attention to what you posted T??¦.

one thing about driving the ball though was either we would drive too deep and turn it over or the outside guys would not move into a position for anyone to make a decent pass??¦.

[ihatetea]

I wasn't paying attention to what you posted T….

one thing about driving the ball though was either we would drive too deep and turn it over or the outside guys would not move into a position for anyone to make a decent pass….

The lack of productive movement is driving me nuts. We have a ballhandler turn the corner and draw a help defender, and then nothing happens because our other 4 players are standing around looking to see what happens next. Results in a guy getting stuck in the lane with no where to go or a complete reset of the offense. It's making me crazy.

That wasn't a good team we played. Next year will be interesting to see how Coach Wardle develops his team. This year feels like a practice in banging my head against the wall, seeing the same mistakes but knowing nothing drastic is gonna change soon.

[Da Coach]

Final score North Dakota 65 Bradley 59

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400814186

The bad- 21 turnovers, and only 9-22 on free throws (what was that?)
And we got outrebounded and gave up 22 offensive rebounds to a team that has little size or athleticism
The not so good- we shot 37.3% overall and 25.0% on threes.
The good- about the only good I saw was a couple short stretches where Bradley played well and had a run of points, but they were too few and too short.
Donte Thomas turned in another double-double with 12 points & 13 rebounds, despite battling through a leg injury in the 2nd half.
And Callum Barker stayed out of foul trouble and had a pretty good game with 12 points & 5 rebounds.

With the exception of the first few possessions of the game, North Dakota stayed in a tight zone all game and trapped any Bradley player that put the ball on the floor.
Bradley simply does not have anyone who can dribble against pressure without turning the ball over, and we are not a good passing team. So opposing teams will keep playing us that way, since we just kept dribbling into double-teams all game and it usually resulted in either a turnover, or a bad shot. I have rarely seen a team that struggles to even get a good shot as much as this Bradley team does.

It's easy to see why Coach Wardle is desperate to recruit a playmaking point guard. Let's hope Jayden Hodgson is ready to play next year, or we can develop better playmaking skills in our other guards. I wouldn't mind seeing him recruit a juco point guard if any more scholarships open up

[Da Coach]

...
and Baldy the ref was just baiting Wardle into a T….several times during the game from across court he would interact with Wardle instead of ignoring him…calling the T in overtime like that was ridiculous

I sit just a little behind where Coach Wardle stands. There was a questionable call on the Bradley end, and Wardle simply said out loud (to no particular ref) "that's terrible". And almost before he got the words out of his mouth, he was T'ed up.

The bald ref had told him several times during the game to "sit down". For those who haven't attended a game, Coach Wardle stands the entire game and yells instructions at his players. But apparently, the bald ref did not like him standing, and felt he had the authority to command that he sit down. Maybe the quick technical was retribution for what he thought was Wardle ignoring his commands to sit down.

[Big Mike]

Tonight was brutal....DLO had a terrible game......Pittman taking 3 dribbles to the hoop with under 1 sec left?

[Da Coach]

Tonight was brutal....DLO had a terrible game......Pittman taking 3 dribbles to the hoop with under 1 sec left?

It's one thing to make "freshman mistakes", but that showed a complete lack of awareness of the situation and what was called in the timeout. Some mistakes will improve with experience, but I'm not sure mistakes like that will stop happening.

[Da Coach]

Game story-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=210563845

Box score-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/pdf9/4226607.pdf?ATCLID=210563845&SPSID=25965&SPID=1498&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=3400

[bigjimmy]

I'm at the point where we're 9 games into the season and there are some things that are sticking out like a sore thumb. We don't have a point guard. There are too many times we just don't do anything on offense until there's a few seconds left on the shot clock. We've showed flashes but no consistency. Coach Wardle looked so frustrated in the overtimes, especially #2, when we just wouldn't initiate the offense. Too often we're standing around waiting for rebounds instead of crashing the boards. Teams are getting too many 2nd and 3rd chances. Don't even get me started on our FT shooting. I thought we played really well for about a 10-15 minute stretch tonight but we need to double that to have a chance to win. Whatever tweaks we did to the offense needs to go back to the drawing board. I hope we take the 9 days after our next game and along with taking care of business in the classroom we take care of business on the practice court. I want to believe in change we can believe in and that this is all about a process. It's time to start seeing some results.

[Big Mike]

I will say Donte Thomas is really coming along ....another double/double and still contributed even with a hurt leg!

[Vent]

This team continues to have several players that make very poor decisions. Poor decisions that good high school players don't make. With all of the poor decisions that are consistently being made on the court, I am beginning to wonder if several of these players are in over their head. I'm not questioning the effort. There is plenty of effort. There are also plenty of mental mistakes being made that are constant and unacceptable at this level, or even a high quality high school level. Dribbling into double teams, not going to meet a pass, not being aware of how much time is left on the shot clock, these are all mistakes that are being made way too often for players at this level to be competitive. You can see the frustration in Coach Wardle's face. He can preach and preach in practice, but the players must be able to do it. I'm beginning to wonder how many of them can.