Final score: Bradley 72 UNI 61

[Bradleyfan1]

14 2nd half turnovers. Not going to cut it .

Avoided the horrible start.

Luuk was who we need him to be. Can he do it again in Terre Haute?

Donte with the double double.

Beat the SYCS.

Great first half.

[tornado]

Happy with the win!!

The shooting percentages were good again but the really silly, lazy turnovers returned with a vengeance...
thankfully UNI is very bad this year....they don't seem to even have much of an offensive plan other than whip it around a few times and Haldeman take a 3-pointer.

We didn' go to the line much but did well on FTs, but we did not manage the clock well and hurried shots when we'd have been better off making them chase us, foul us, and the clock run down...

Luuk showed some pivot and up & under moves around the hoop that I really haven't seen before - GOOD JOB Luuk!!!

[Da Coach]

Yeah, as I said in the chat room, Wardle was extremely upset with the turnovers and some of the shot selection in the final 6- minutes, even though the game was never in doubt. At one point Jimmie Foster even had to try to calm him down.

It was a much more enjoyable game for the home crowd, except for the several Hunter Rhodes family members who were there in their purple UNI gear.
BU shot 55.1% from the floor, 47.1% from three, and 83.3% on FTs.
Bradley outrebounded UNI 40-26, lead by as much as 18 points, and never trailed in the game.
Bradley held UNI to 33.9% (21-62) shooting and 30.3% (10-33) from three.

The 17 turnovers was the only real negative issue I saw.

Box score-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400918162

Luuk van Bree will probably be named the Player of the Game award. He had a team-leading 20 points, 4 rebounds, and no turnovers.

Donte Thomas also had a great game, and could also easily be the POG. He had 12 points and 13 rebounds and played great defense on the UNI big men inside.

[tornado]

MVC STANDINGS
Wichita State 5-0
Illinois State 5-0
Bradley Univ 3-2
Southern IL 3-2
Missouri State 3-2
Drake Univ 3-2
Loyola Univ 2-3
Univ Evansville 1-4
Indiana State 0-5
Northern Iowa 0-5

Looks like spots 3-10 are up for grabs!

[Da Coach]

One other interesting note- UNI has a kid on their roster who is a junior college transfer from Gulf Coast College, named Rafael de Souza-

http://unipanthers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=3373&path=mbball

Rafael deSouza got into the game in the final seconds (he was credited with 0 minutes played), and he has only played in 6 other games for UNI, for a total of just 9 minutes played all season.

Dave Snell said on the post-game show that he is the grandson of former Bradley player Marcel de Souza. Marcel played for Joe Stowell for just 1 season (1975-1976) and had a great freshman season averaging 14.2 ppg. He left Bradley to play pro in his home country of Brazil, and went on to become a national hero in Brazil as a multiple time Olympian in 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992. He also played in the 1975 (bronze), 1979 (bronze), 1983 (silver), and 1987 (gold) Pan American games for Brazil, as well as 4 FIBA World Championships in 1974, 1978, 1982, and 1990.

But that is not correct. He is actually Marcel de Souza's nephew. UNI's Rafael de Souza is the son of Maury de Souza, Marcel's brother, who was a pretty good basketball player himself for the Brazil national team in the 1980's and 1990's-

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://balanacesta.blogosfera.uol.com.br/2013/03/05/campeao-da-ldb-por-bauru-rafael-de-souza-trilha-caminho-do-pai-o-ex-jogador-maury/&prev=search

This was also reported on this board last summer.

Game story from BradleyBraves.com-

http://www.bubraves.com/news/2017/1/11/mens-basketball-braves-defeat-northern-iowa-72-61.aspx

Box score-

http://www.bubraves.com/boxscore.aspx?id=13650&path=mbball

[bigjimmy]

Great start and finish in the 1st half. Not sure what the heck happened to start and end the 2nd half. But a win is a win as we creep closer to double digit wins. Still had a few too many mind numbing turnovers and we still leave guys WIDE OPEN from 3 point land. Good thing UNI wasn't hitting them. Don't think I've seen a UNI team play this bad since Jaconson has been their coach. Nice to see Luuk have the confidence in shooting the ball. Nice to see a consistent effort from Donte on both ends. Who da thunk that both UNI and ISU Blue would start the Valley season 0-5. Need to go down to Terre Haute and take care of business on Saturday and have our first winning streak of the season!

[tornado]

...one other thing...
many times over the past few years...
whenever the statement is made hat it is HARD to recruit kids to Peoria (which it definitely is)

someone always comes back with the response - "well it's gotta be even harder to recruit good kids to Northern Iowa and they ALWAYS get it done"..

--well, I think last night tells us the DON'T always get it done. This year they did not get it done, and their fans are probably asking why they can't get it done if a school in Peoria can?

And UNI's lineup has lots of experienced guys....
They played two seniors - one of whom is a graduate senior
..three FOURTH YEAR (redshirt) juniors, two other 3rd year juniors, and several 2nd year players...

[LittleBrave]

Sometimes we look really really good.
There were a couple spurts in the 2nd half we looked like we'd never played together before...just as long as we get that corrected...we're not used to having such a big lead in league play.

Proud of our guys - we are starting to gel - need to get that consistency from game to game now.

That's the kind of game that Donte Thomas can bring nearly every night IMO - very talented and athletic...we should get him 8+ touches per night in the paint. Happy for him to get a double-double!

Can't say enough about DB, though he was a little off tonight. He is going to be a special player in his BU career - a Braves HOF kinda guy when all is said and done.

[Future Walk-On]

DT should be confined to a 10 foot semi circle around the basket and stay there.

Obviously Morgan was out but we did what we were supposed to do and the game was barely in question.

The massive TO binge at end of game was annoying but there could have been worse annoying things to worry about.

[Da Coach]

This year is obviously a rebuilding year for Ben Jacobson at UNI. Jacobsen has always been able to reload effectively and maintain winning teams every year. But, though they have a bunch of new players, the one thing I noticed is just how unimpressive most of the new players looked.

Hunter Rhodes is a junior college transfer that Bradley was involved with, too. He was a junior college All-American at Kirkwood CC. He is listed at 6'0".
But to me, he appeared a couple inches shorter than 6'0", and barely taller than Darrell Brown. He played 25 minutes and IMO he was a bit slow and lacked athleticism. UNI's offense bogged down with him running the point. He was ineffective guarding Brown or whoever else he guarded, which contributed to Bradley having perhaps their best offensive game of the season. I was not real impressed with him on offense either. He averages 3.6 ppg.

Juwan McCloud was rated as a 3-star recruit, and was projected by some as the best freshman recruit in the Valley. Even on Bradleyfans.com in a thread from last summer, he was predicted to be the Freshman of the Year. He is in the top 6 on UNI in playing time, and played 24 minutes last night, but he did not impress. He was 0-5 from the floor for 0 points. He looked small and unathletic to me, and he did not impress on defense either.

Luke McDonnell is a 6'9" redshirt freshman who was not highly recruited, though UNI has had success with players like him who they redshirt their first year. He made two 3-pointers last night (total of 6 points), but otherwise I didn't see much else to make a judgement about him in the 10 minutes he played. He is very thin and unathletic, and I would be surprised if he is really 6'9". He appeared to play mainly on the wing. He averages just 2.9 ppg and has only played in 9 games so far.

Jordan Ashton is a 6'4" grad-transfer and former walkon juco from Iowa State who transferred to UNI. He played 39 of the 40 minutes last night, way more than his average of 28.4 minutes, likely because of the absence of Jeremy Morgan. He also did not impress much. He was 4-12 from the field.

Spencer Haldeman is a 6'1" redshirt freshman guard who started and played 37 minutes last night. He struggled shooting the ball and was just 5-19 overall and 3-13 from three, and had 1 assist. As poor as he shot, he impressed me a little bit more than all the other new players on UNI. He is their 2nd leading scorer at 9.3 ppg and averages 36% from three on the season, and he seemed to be the only one of their guards capable of getting his shot off on the move. I think he can develop into a pretty good player, but he is also thin and not very athletic now.

Isaiah Brown, a 6'5" freshman guard who is averaging 15.3 minutes per game, and 3.3 ppg while shooting 26% from the field. But he played just 6 minutes last night and was scoreless and IMO really did not look ready for D1.

There were also 3 other new players who got into the game very late for less than a minute-
Rafael de Souza, a 6'1" juco transfer who barely plays and hasn't scored any points this season.
Lincoln Conrey, a 6'7" redshirt freshman who played less than a minute last night and has played only 9 minutes total all year. He averages 0.3 ppg.
Justin Dahl, a 6'11" redshirt freshman, also played only a few seconds at the end of the game. He has only played in 9 games this season, and averages 6.3 minutes per game and 2.3 ppg.
It was hard to make judgements about these last 3 kids, but from their limited minutes and minimal stats, they don't appear ready for D1 either.

They also have:
Adam McDermott, a 6'4" sophomore guard who transferred from North Dakota who is sitting out this season and did not play.
Tanner Lohaus, a 6'7" freshman and brother of injured junior guard Wyatt Lohaus (and son of former NBA player Brad Lohaus). he has not played in any games this season, and I believe he also is redshirting.

Did anyone else see something I did not see? After UNI loses Jeremy Morgan to graduation this season, I don't see them returning to the top of the MVC like we are used to seeing with the talent they have now.