Final score: Nevada 91 Bradley 69

[pfcmsh]

Still Suspended

If he doesn't play, that would be big.

Anyone know how many tickets have sold ?

Yes it would be big and I think it is going to be big! I'm listening to pre game on WMBD (internet) and when they were talking Nevada line up, the talk was that their center still suspended.

[ihatetea]

We are bad defensively. It's not a scheme thing, our players are bad individual defenders, bad at helping to penetration, just bad. Losing track of their guy after penetration/playing with their hands at their sides so they can't get deflections has led to so many easy layups. Just bad on that side.

Offensively we are working for good looks, many open looks that aren't falling. I could see this being a 46-35 game right now if we shot how I expect us to shoot.

[Da Coach]

On his post-game show with Dave Snell, Coach Wardle laid the entire blame for this loss on the players not giving effort, and not executing.
I don't agree. Is anyone else tired of hearing the players always get blamed for losing?
I am not a coach (despite my screen name ) but it could not have been more obvious that Nevada had far superior size, strength, athleticism, and rebounding and shooting abilities.
If we are going to try to compete with a team with such extreme advantages in all those areas, we can't simply go into the game with our same old game plan of trying to dribble-drive and work the ball inside. Nevada was dropping everyone back into the paint, and with their size, length, quickness, and leaping ability, it was simply no contest. Many times when we tried to get the ball inside in the first half, it was stolen, blocked, or turned over. They were giving Bradley the outside shot, but we did not do a very good job of setting up our perimeter shooters, other than bail-out shots. Bradley had only 3 assists in the first half (too much dribbling, and not enough passing), shot only 37%, and Nevada was able to build a 20 point lead at halftime that they stretched to 30 early in the 2nd half, then coasted.

Clearly we need to improve in many areas- shooting, rebounding, ballhandling/turnovers/assists, defending, decision-making, and more creative game planning if we ever plan to compete at the level of a Nevada, Wichita State, or other top level MVC teams.

One other thought- Nevada's webpage shows 17 players on their roster. I don't know how many of them are active players, but they show 12 on their stats page who have played in games and they had a bunch of kids sitting on their bench at tonight's game who never got in the game despite the blowout. They played essentially just 7 players (an 8th player got 4 minutes of playing time). I am not sure what Eric Musselman's logic is, but even with his team leading by 25-30 points most of the 2nd half, he had players who played 36-39 minutes, and still was playing mostly starters until the buzzer while Bradley had a walkon and subs in. Does he get extra credit for a 20+ point win?

[wily coyote]

Don't know how to put this any plainer, this game flat out stunk. Enough said. Good night.

[Da Coach]

Recap-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/news/2016/12/3/nevada-defeats-bradley-mens-basketball.aspx

Box score-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/boxscore.aspx?id=13460&path=mbball

Clearly, I am not the only fan that is getting tired of the poor play and the losing. The attendance tonight was a pathetic 5,384 for a quality opponent, maybe the best non-conference opponent we've played at home in several years. Surely, Bradley cannot be happy with that. Plus, there were a ton of no-shows among the season ticket holders, despite the optimal 7 PM Saturday night start-time, and nice weather.
I know the Coach asks fans to be patient, and he did inherit a disaster from the previous coach and the disastrous policies of the previous AD and President, but fans have put up with dismal results for 6 years now. It did not have to happen, and was predicted accurately by many of us here. The long, proud tradition of Bradley basketball has essentially been replaced with a team that has become the laughingstock of the MVC. And things aren't looking like they are going to get a lot better real soon, so many of the fans may never be coming back. And I expect we could lose a lot more if we don't start seeing better signs of improvement than we have seen so far.
I have been a season ticket holder for 40 years and I have attended almost every home games for the last 50 years, and I'll hang on a little longer. But like every fan, there is a limit to how much suffering we can take.

[Dub]

I agree with DC... we were outclassed. We don't win that game even with our best effort and execution. We don't beat those guys 1 in 10 tries. We are just not there yet. Hats off to that Nevada team.

Notice I said yet.

[wizard1]

Again!...A Terrible Loss...Why?

DaCoach....I agree with you 100%. Something is wrong with this Bradley team.
Coaches should stop blaming the players and take some responsibility themselves for what is happening.
Way too much dribbling around the perimeter and no quick/crisp passes and ball movement. We need to learn how to create and set up openings for our shooters-we don't seem to be able to do this at all. Our players are obviously afraid to shoot and we are very indecisive with the ball.
Our bigs have terrible hands and couldn't catch a cold!! Our basic man-to man defensive skills stink.
What in the world is going on in practice. Are we teaching players anything? Our kids are not learning and improving.
Only two positives that I see from this game:
1. D Lo is finally shooting some threes. He is a good shooter and we need this in our offense.
2. Nate Kennell- He's a player and he makes things happen.
Wizard

[Big Mike]

Tonight we were just out-classed by a superior team who outplayed the Braves in every facet of the game. Nevada is good.....Bradley is not! Does anyone know why Suggs did not get into the game till under 10 minutes remaining and still put up 7 pts in very little time played? Is he hurt or falling out of favor or what? IMO the team seems to start slow the first 10 minutes of every home game...that's on the coach.

[PistolP]

First full game that I have watched this year and was looking forward to see Brown and Bar, the new high scoring offense, 37% 3 point shooting, and potential on the roster to turn things around. I walked away with complete disappointment. I agree that the offense still looks as bad and we struggle with the ability to create and complete easy shots. However, the defense is awful. How can we not put pressure on the ball and rebound so poorly at the same time? Our rebounding is brutal. I did not see anyone who was able to work and get a board. First 4 minutes of each half and our team defense says a lot about our coaching. Oh, and I would much rather have 5-6 guys that can play rather than an 11 man rotation with perceived depth. Looks like a year where we will not have any regular rotation and substitution pattern. Outclassed for sure.

[Da Coach]

Tonight we were just out-classed by a superior team who outplayed the Braves in every facet of the game. Nevada is good.....Bradley is not! Does anyone know why Suggs doesn't get into the game till under 10 minutes remaining and still gets 7 pts in very little time played? Is he hurt or falling out of favor or what? IMO the team seems to start slow the first 10 minutes of every home game...that's on the coach.

Ronnie also had 4 rebounds (including a team-leading 2 offensive rebounds) to go along with his 7 points and no turnovers in just 6 minutes of playing time. I agree that he should get more playing time. Maybe we should try Ronnie along with a different starting lineup to avoid the abysmal starts we have every game?

It is notable that the top rebounders tonight were all guards (DLO with 7, McGlaston with 6, Suggs with 4), and the big men were terrible on the boards- Bar with 2, van Bree with 1, Thomas with 2, Barker with 1, and Foster with 0. That was mostly to the credit of Nevada's athletic players, but I also saw a lot of missed block-outs, poor positioning, and too hasty retreating after our shots.

[tornado]

Tonight we were just out-classed by a superior team who outplayed the Braves in every facet of the game. ..

yes but the many times we tossed amazingly bad, soft lob passes or gave away terrible turnovers when we threw a pass right into the hands of the defender - who was often quite surprised that we made it so easy on him...

this tendency is disturbing....do we practice this way?? Do we keep throwing those biddy-ball level passes because we do it all the time in practice and get away with it?
That's the lazy stuff that has NOT improved since last year and we're never gonna play with the big boys unless we stop giving the ball away so easy.

[lefty]

Hats off to Mussleman who took a team that was 9-22 to 24-14 his first year....that's impressive...

Seems like teams underestimate Kennell.....I doubt that happens much in the future....I thought he struggled some on defense....

Wiz...I think coach works on everything you said....he was pulling players like Pittman for the turnovers in the first half(he played much better 2nd half). Took Brown out from passing up wide open 3, yelling for them to move the ball....he's just going to have to continue to raise the bar recruiting wise IMO

Nevada is clearly the better team...better in the paint, quicker to loose balls, and certainly better shooters...

They had 12 turnovers to our 14 so we were close there....maybe ours just looked worse

[Bradleyfan1]

It was the first time we played someone who really got into us physically.

I wouldn't say the officiating was in our favor by any means.

Luuk due to foul trouble. Jo jo and Darrell all couldn't get the ball in the hoop, We needed them to be at there best. They will have a lot of brighter days.

Bar will keep getting better and better. Suggs pt will continue to rise. He had the flu.

I was very impressed with Nate , he continued to show , he's that guy.

They sagged a lot on D and packed the lane , I wish we would've killed them with the 3 , having Luuk playing more minutes would have made a difference.

On to Ball St , they really can shoot the 3 . I'm ready to see the response from this group and go from there.

Free Throw shooting was great , other than the pack tripled our attempts.


Brighter Days ahead.

[Da Coach]

...
On to Ball St , they really can shoot the 3 . I'm ready to see the response from this group and go from there...

Yes, I have been looking at the Ball State stats, and will post about them later, but everyone they play can shoot the 3-pointer well, and they rebound well, too.
Here are Ball State's stats-
http://bsu_ftp.sidearmsports.com/cus...6-17-Stats.pdf

[Da Coach]

One more thought, then I will put last night's downer behind...
Going into the game, Bradley was shooting 36.8% from three. That is a far better 3-point shooting percentage than Bradley has had at any time in the last 6 seasons. We were 28.0% last year, 30.1% in 2014-15, 32.2% in 2013-14, 31.9% in 2012-13, 30.0% in 2011-12, 33.4% in 2010-11. In fact, it was better than any season since 2007-08.

So especially since Nevada's size, athleticism, and game plan made it almost impossible to get inside baskets in the half court offense, why didn't we adjust and try to get our better shooters more outside shots? Bradley was 4-9 on three pointers in the second half, when Nevada was extending their lead from 20 points to 30 points! I know that coaches don't think you can win games just by shooting threes, but when your team is already down 20, and they are pulling away and scoring at will, why not adjust and try something different that seemed to be working in the 2nd half?
It looked like we were conceding that the game was already lost.