Final score: Hofstra 92 Bradley 90

[wizard1]

No Toughness!!

Great game by Brown. However, our complete lack of toughness in the lane or inside cost us this game. Simply stated, this Bradley team lacks any toughness or grit at all....They are physically weak and do not play hard! We seem to play European ball and our coaches havn't yet been able to change this. If this doesn't change, its going to be a very long and disappointing season.
Wizard

[BUSongwriter]

Great game by Brown. However, our complete lack of toughness in the lane or inside cost us this game. Simply stated, this Bradley team lacks any toughness or grit at all....They are physically weak and do not play hard! We seem to play European ball and our coaches havn't yet been able to change this. If this doesn't change, its going to be a very long and disappointing season.
Wizard

Wiz, I fail to see after watching this game how you can find so many negatives -- no toughness, grit, physically weak, don't play hard? That's a little much! I know you are talking about the repeated drives down the lane, including the shocking final one. I thought, with that exception, the Braves played their guts out. We're playing a ton of freshmen and sophomores.

I think, though I hate the loss, that there is much to take away that's positive from this game. Yes, I wish we had a big bruiser-type in the middle, but Koch is a freshman and will only get stronger. I wish we played Callum more. But we've got a lot of pieces now. I think it's only a matter of time before Wardle and the Braves put all those pieces together. I think it's going to be an exciting season, sooner rather than later.

Keep your heads up, Braves. Get the next one!

[tornado]

if the amount of improvement we've seen from one game to the next keeps improving at this pace, I will be happy...Go Braves! and

we shot 60% !! But still need to rebound better and defend the lane

[Dub]

I am happy with the overall effort, and I think we do show some toughness. What we lack is a little bit of technique on defense, and that will come. Last play - our freshman point guard got crossed over pretty bad and that's tough. I'm encouraged overall however. We never quit or hung our heads... and we scored the ball. I find it astounding how our sophomores have disappeared a little bit early on this season.

[LittleBrave]

Great game by Brown. However, our complete lack of toughness in the lane or inside cost us this game. Simply stated, this Bradley team lacks any toughness or grit at all....They are physically weak and do not play hard! We seem to play European ball and our coaches havn't yet been able to change this. If this doesn't change, its going to be a very long and disappointing season.
Wizard

Man, you are tough to please...granted we didn't win, but we are so much better than last year even.
We'll get 'em tomorrow - lot to feel good about with the game we played today.
Yes, we need to get better defensively in the paint for sure.

[wily coyote]

if the amount of improvement we've seen from one game to the next keeps improving at this pace, I will be happy...Go Braves! and

we shot 60% !! But still need to rebound better and defend the lane

I agree with rebounding and defending the lane but FT's are beating us. They made 25 out of 28 and we had way to many misses ='s an L rather than a W. simple as that.

[Da Coach]

Overall, I think we played well. There was improvement in many areas, but still a weakness inside. But if we play that well, we'll win a lot of games this season. Plus, the weaknesses on defense still look correctable to me.

Here are the final stats-

http://archive.statbroadcast.com/149984.html

My thoughts-
Darrell Brown had 34 points- great game!
Koch Bar had a team-leading 6 rebounds, but only 2 in the 2nd half. The team was outrebounded 39-28. We need better rebounding.
16 turnovers, but only 5 in the 2nd half was improvement over the 11 first half turnovers.
Bradley shot an amazing 60% overall (33-55) and 60% on threes (12-20). Considering Bradley was one of the worst shooting teams in the NCAA last year, we are "better by a light year or two"!
Alex Foster played only 7 minutes. I think he could really help with the interior defense if he played more.

[tornado]

Overall, I think we played well. There was improvement in many areas, but still a weakness inside. But if we play that well, we'll win a lot of games this season. Plus, the weaknesses on defense still look correctable to me.

Here are the final stats-

http://archive.statbroadcast.com/149984.html

My thoughts-
Darrell Brown had 30 points- great game!
Koch Bar had a team-leading 6 rebounds, but only 2 in the 2nd half. The team was outrebounded 39-28. We need better rebounding.
16 turnovers, but only 5 in the 2nd half was improvement over the 11 first half turnovers.
Bradley shot an amazing 60% overall (33-55) and 60% on threes (12-20). Considering Bradley was one of the worst shooting teams in the NCAA last year, we are "better by a light year or two"!
Alex Foster played only 7 minutes. I think he could really help with the interior defense if he played more.

Brown had 34 pts!...reportedly an all time freshman scoring record!
(I have not double checked but that's what was said)

[tornado]

hows this for improvement from last year...

the three new guys in our starting lineup (Bar, Jojo, Brown)
went 23-30, 7-10 from 3-pt, and 59 of our 90 pts

[pfcmsh]

Outstanding

hows this for improvement from last year...

the three new guys in our starting lineup (Bar, Jojo, Brown)
went 23-30, 7-10 from 3-pt, and 59 of our 90 pts

I'm happy for the young Braves who never gave up last year. Great additions to our team! Go Bradley!!

[Da Coach]

Brown had 34 pts!...reportedly an all time freshman scoring record!
(I have not double checked but that's what was said)

Bobby Parker confirms that this is an all time Bradley freshman scoring record. Only 2 other freshmen have scored 30 or more- Deon Jackson 31 points vs SIU on 1/18/93 and Mitchell Anderson 30 points vs Indiana State on 2/10/79-

https://twitter.com/BPtheBrave/status/800826807398387717

[wizard1]

Improvement & Toughness

In several respects, you guys are right. Clearly, we are better than last year...Our offense is 100% better, our bench is stronger, we now have two really good point guards,BUT....I am still concerned about certain areas. For example, our sophmores have not yet shown any major improvement over last year. D Lo, Pittman, Luc, Suggs, and Barker are about the same as last year, thus far. Our improvements have come from freshmen and transfers.
Secondly, we simply give away the lane and low post. We are not tough and physical in these areas on defense or in rebounding. If this doesn't improve very quickly, it's going to cause us major problems as the season moves ahead. I'm hopeful that we can solve these problem areas and if we do, I believe we can become a factor in the MVC.
Wiz

[wily coyote]

In several respects, you guys are right. Clearly, we are better than last year...Our offense is 100% better, our bench is stronger, we now have two really good point guards,BUT....I am still concerned about certain areas. For example, our sophmores have not yet shown any major improvement over last year. D Lo, Pittman, Luc, Suggs, and Barker are about the same as last year, thus far. Our improvements have come from freshmen and transfers.
Secondly, we simply give away the lane and low post. We are not tough and physical in these areas on defense or in rebounding. If this doesn't improve very quickly, it's going to cause us major problems as the season moves ahead. I'm hopeful that we can solve these problem areas and if we do, I believe we can become a factor in the MVC.
Wiz

I agree 100% with your post but a wise man once told me in order to get better you have to keep bringing in better people and I think we've done that. Love all our newcomers and very surprised at Nate.Not impressed with our Sophomores at all. DLO has been the best but has to be one of the worst free throw shooting guards in the Country. Luke where are you?

[pfcmsh]

Big Improvement

I watched the game on youtube tonight. I agree the announcers were terrible. We are much improved, except we can't play man to man and too many points in the paint for Hofstra. Our sophs don't look as good as our new players. Brown is exciting. Barr dribbled around the basket and made athletic moves in scoring. Jojo is athletic! Hofstra looked fast and athletic. Free throws and defense will come I hope. I think the team looks strong and played with lots of effort. We were a little out of control and geeked. Maybe that affected free throws. I'm very encouraged with the kind of kids we just brought in. As we get better, we'll be more attractive to the better players for NLIs.

[Da Coach]

For those interested- Vermont is currently playing Hofstra in the championship semifinal game. Vermont is clobbering Hofstra 49-28 at halftime!

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=149989

It will be South Dakota vs. Houston in the other semifinal later tonight.


here is the video if anyone is interested-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMjQe0Mk6Xc