Always a Brave team in FINAL FOUR of The Basketball Tournament

[tornado]

Bradley guys win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Da Coach]

The Jackson Underdawgs trailed the whole game, but then pulled ahead 77-72 with less than a minute left.

But then a three by Jeremy Crouch, a steal, and a long three by Tony Bennett miraculously put the BU Alumni ahead 78-77. Jackson TN had one last shot that just missed, and Always a Brave won 78-77 to advance to the round of 16 in Philadelphia on Thursday. Wow!

[tornado]

BOX SCORE
ommerville 26 pts
Bennett 21 pts
POB 12 pts, 12 rebs, 4 blk

[tornado]

Nice interview after game with Tony Bennett - gave a ton of credit to Coach Jim Les for the attitude, the aggressiveness, and the winning mentality that all the players have-
nice compliment- proves people are so clueless when they look only at W-L numbers

[Dub]

Good win for the Braves. Thank goodness for a hot start and a hot finish. Underdawgs really guard and they know how to ugly it up. Need to improve if we want to advance. Are we able to add players now? Really really gratifying to watch these guys get an exciting W.

Cellus was a stud in the first half and Bennet was quietly the best competitor in the second frame. Was surprised to see our guards struggle to handle the pressure, but I understand that conditioning was a factor for us, and didn't seem to be as much for them.

Do we have another level of play we can achieve at this point? I'd love to keep watching this.

[tornado]

we're the only 9-seed remaining on the final 16 teams


Here's what's left
Two #1 seeds - Zach Andrews' Team 23 & City of Gods
Two #2 seeds
Two #3 seeds
Four #5 seeds
One #6 seed
Three #7 seeds
One #8 seed
One #9 seed - Bradley

[Da Coach]

As noted, Zach Andrews' team, Team 23, won their 2nd round game in the West Regional, and they have also advanced to the Final 16. They were the national runners-up last year.
Team 23 101
New Mexico RH 88

https://www.flickr.com/photos/138620512@N04/27608143804/

Zach is the Team 23 starting center. he had 4 points and 7 rebounds today, after putting up 9 points, 7 rebounds Saturday.


Always a Brave victory photo-

[Chico]

Great new logo T.

[tornado]

a t-shirt I wear proudly...

btw-- one of the things I enjoy about being a Bradley fan is following the post-BU exploits and pro careers of our heroes...
(as if you can't tell by the 21-page, 400+ response thread on that topic plus many others..)
..and these victories have been exciting and thrilling

[Da Coach]

....Are we able to add players now?

The Tournament does have a quirky rule that allows any team that achieved 2,000 votes or more to add an extra player if they reach the Super 16. They call that player "The Ringer". A team that qualifies can choose any player to add to their established roster. However, the Always a Brave team only received a total of 1,377 votes, so they fell well short of the number needed to qualify to add a "Ringer". So they will have to play with the team they currently have.

For the record, only 8 teams reached the 2,000 vote threshhold, and 6 of them were eliminated already-

https://www.thetournament.com/teams

The only 2 remaining teams that are eligible to add a Ringer are
Few Good Men (Gonzaga alumni) #3 seed from the West Regional- they have already won both games in major blowouts (40 & 44 point wins)
Boeheim's Army (Syracuse alumni) #2 seed from the Northeast Regional- they won their first game by 28 points, then won a close 4 point game Sunday

[MacabreMob]

After reading comments, I watched the last 2 1/2 minutes and that was awesome! And then TB in the post-game interview.... "the type of player I am, I don't go for overtime - I go for the kill"... He then said later when asked the feeling in the timeout when Braves down 5 with 17 seconds to go, he said "I gotta get Crouch this ball so he can knock this shot down and then we gotta get a steal and a bucket".

<3 Tony! Great shot! Great finish!

[battlebasset]

Any word about either AW or Walt Lemon Jr being available by Thursday?

[Da Coach]

I have heard that Andrew Warren will not play due to his recent knee surgery.
Walt's status is slightly different. I have heard his issue may have more to do with the pro contract he just signed last week.

[Bobby Parker]

The TBT just posted the Super 16 bracket a few minutes ago and Always A Brave has drawn a prime time slot. The Bradley alumni will play the final game of the Super 16 - Friday 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2 versus Pedro's Posse, featuring retired NBA veterans Mike Bibby and Jason Williams. The winner will take on the Armored Athlete/Golden Eagles Alumni winner at 7 p.m. CT Saturday, also on ESPN2.

[tornado]

a little story on the BU victory for those who did not read..

http://thetournament.com/news/midwest-regional-sunday-recaap

Jason Williams &Bibby play the most on Pedro's Posse and neither shoot well from outside & Dulkys launches a bunch from beyond the arc..

but in their two games thus far those 3 are a combined 13-42 on 3-pointers....
only 30.9% from the arc -
hopefully with our guys' defense we can shut them down