Final: Bradley 60 SIU 51

[Da Coach]

Bradley's next game is at home vs. Southern Illinois, on Thursday, Dec. 29, at 7:00 PM.
Bradley starts the MVC with a record of 5-8. SIU is 7-6.

The game will be streamed on ESPN3.com.

Last season, SIU went 11-2 in their pre-conference schedule. This season, their results without last season's leading scorer Anthony Beane, have not been as good. They have not shot the 3-point shot well- 32.6% which is last among MVC teams. Their 3-point defense has also been the worst in the MVC, yielding a 3-point percentage of 40.9%.
They also have not been a good rebounding team this season.
Tyler Smithpeters, who was a starter for SIU last season, was suspended prior to the season, then returned and injured his knee in SIU's first game and has not played since.

SIU website-

http://www.siusalukis.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

Roster-

http://www.siusalukis.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

Starters:
SIU starts 3 junior college transfers-
5'10" senior point guard Mike Rodriguez- 13.8 ppg, 19.4% on threes, team-leading 5.2 apg
6'1" senior guard Leo Vincent- 9.2 ppg, 29.5% on threes
6'8" junior forward Thik Bol- 9.5 ppg and 6.6 rpg
And their other 2 starters are:
6'7" senior Sean O'Brien- one-time Bradley recruit- 11.0 ppg and team-leading 7.6 rpg
6'4" redshirt-sophomore Armon Fletcher- Team-leading 14.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, and team-best 42.3% from three

They get very little production from their bench.

SIU stats-
http://siuni_ftp.sidearmsports.com/c...statistics.pdf

MVC stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/confldrs.htm

Bradley stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/BRAD.HTM#team.ind

[tornado]

over the summer they lost Bola Olaniyan - his 8 ppg & 9 rpg are fairly well replaced by juco Thik Bol, who averages 9.5 ppg, 7 rpg.

Meanwhile Bola transferred to Alabama - possibly aiming a bit too high...
... although he's started more than half their games, his production is only a fraction of what it was last year and what I suspect they had hoped it would be there.
he's only made 7 baskets so far this season and averages about 2 ppg, 3 rpg.

[Vent]

I know it's early, but for Bradley to get out of the "play in" round at St. Louis, they must beat SIU here on Thursday night.

[Da Coach]

I know it's early, but for Bradley to get out of the "play in" round at St. Louis, they must beat SIU here on Thursday night.

Great point. If you look at the MVC (below), if Bradley is going to reach 5 league wins, they have to win their home games against the mid-level and weakest MVC opponents. IMO, that includes SIU, INSU, Drake, Evansville, and maybe UNI.

[Vent]

Great point. If you look at the MVC (below), if Bradley is going to reach 5 league wins, they have to win their home games against the mid-level and weakest MVC opponents. IMO, that includes SIU, INSU, Drake, Evansville, and maybe UNI.

If you flip flop Evansville and UNI in these standings, that most likely will be your "play in" teams. Evansville and Drake should be a lock for a "play in" game. Bradley is a pretty good bet also, with the final team most likely between ISU-Blue and SIU. I don't think the Braves can afford to lose Thursday. If they do, you're already in a position where you've got to upset somebody and not lose to anybody you are favored to beat. And that isn't going to happen very many times.

[Dub]

Here's to this year's Bradley team not being as predictable as people think.

[Da Coach]

Chat room

http://us21.chatzy.com/bradleyfans#0

[Chibearsfan10125]

Too many turnovers and offensive rebounds allowed in that first half. That being said, when we actually managed to get shots off, we shot pretty well and despite our mistakes, still a tie game. A few adjustment and we should be able to take this one.

[Da Coach]

Stats

http://www.sidearmstats.com/bradley/mbball/

[lefty]

2-26 from 3 for SIU.....7.7%......hard to win shooting like that....

good to win the games you are suppose to

[tornado]

well, there's little doubt SIU played a very bad game, and I am sure Barry will agree...
and so did we for 36 minutes - gobs of turnovers, lazy passes, poor rebounding..

then, without warning, our guys became a really great team and we played 4 minutes of the best basketball since Auburn Hills....
seriously - those final 4 minutes, we looked like a really good team - just need to work on a few inbounds plays..

[Da Coach]

Finally a fun game to watch in the 2nd half. Bradley played very well in the final 10 minutes, limited the turnovers and made their shots.
SIU doesn't get much out of their bench, and their starting 5 played a lot of minutes. Maybe their guys got a little tired late, but clearly Bradley outplayed SIU the final 6-7 minutes.
Nate made a big difference with his couple threes down the stretch.


Box score-

http://www.bubraves.com/boxscore.aspx?id=13646&path=mbball

Attendance was 5,989- by far the best attendance of the season.

Congrats to the team and the coaches!

[Big Mike]

Always good to win a Valley game.....thanks to newcomers Brown, Kennell, Bar and JoJo for hitting shots and making key FTs in crunch time....nice game for LVBree too! Not gonna go over the bad tonight just gonna enjoy the W!

[tornado]

Nice to start the MVC race 1-0
first time that's happened since 2012 and it's only happened once since 2009!

four of the next five games are games we can and ought to be able to win!

[Da Coach]

Always good to win a Valley game.....thanks to newcomers Brown, Kennell, Bar and JoJo for hitting shots and making key FTs in crunch time....nice game for LVBree too! Not gonna go over the bad tonight just gonna enjoy the W!

Hodgson and Pittman also made huge three pointers in the final 7-8 minutes to put Bradley into the lead. And Bar, McGlaston, van Bree and even Kennell had clutch rebounds down the stretch to make a difference. SIU had a huge rebounding edge most of the game, but Bradley ended up outrebounding them 40-39 at the end.