Final score- Wichita State 82 Bradley 56

[Da Coach]

Next Game: #7 seed Bradley vs. #2 seed Wichita State, Friday, March 3, 6:05 PM at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

This will be Game 6 of the MVC Tournament, and the 2nd game of the night session (Sesion 3).
Bradley is 13-19, and 8-11 against MVC opponents. WSU is 27-4, and 17-1 against the MVC.

Tournament Central-

http://www.mvc-sports.com/mbasketball/news/2016-17/9323/2017-state-farm-mvc-mens-basketball-tournament/#.WLkB0DsrI2x

Standings-

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

The game will be televised on the MVC-TV Network (Comcast SportsNet Chicago- may be on Plus channel, FoxSports Midwest, FoxSports Go App, and ESPN3.com except in blackout areas.

Live stats-

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=162953

Chat room-

http://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

Wichita State website-

http://goshockers.com/index.aspx?path=m_bkb&

WSU stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/wsu.htm#team.ind

Bradley stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/brad.htm#team.ind

MVC stats-
All games-

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

Conference games-

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

[tornado]

Next Game: #7 seed Bradley vs. #2 seed Wichita State, Friday, March 3, 6:05 PM at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

This will be Game 6 of the MVC Tournament, and the 2nd game of the night session (Sesion 3). ....

NO....if you show up for the 2nd game of the night session you're gonna miss the Bradley game!

BRADLEY plays WICHITA at 6pm, the first game of the night session - and game 5 overall



also- for those who get the PJS, the writer puts a lot of heavy blame on the teams at the bottom of the MVC (and their bad RPIs)for the iffy status of both ISU and Wichita as at-large teams...

but that leads me to three conclusions...

1- so, Drake and Bradley are somehow responsible for Wichita having a NON-CONFERENCE Strength of Schedule of 169, considerably worse than the average SOS of the MVC? Sorry, don't think so... And we're somehow responsible for the Shockers going 1-4 against Top 50 teams?
Not realistic...

2- and we've been telling ISU to schedule tougher for more than a decade when they found out the hard way under Jank, winning 25 games and ending in the NIT.
Come on...their non-conference SOS is 128, they scheduled easy and played NOBODY...
nobody except Ferris State, IUPUI and Tennessee-Martin. And they have a losing record against everyone in the TOP 100 RPI.

3- and lastly, if you want to actually pick someone to blame - the ones who helped drive the entire MVC RPI down and send half the Bradley long-time fans packing...
.. then please name the people who destroyed Bradley and sent us to the bottom of the Valley with their horrible administration, bad recruiting & coaching and downright ineptitude even when fans saw it and we were calling them out..
Those people are Dr. Glasser, Dr. Cross, GF and their enablers.

[Da Coach]

Yes, it is the first game of the night session at 6:05 PM.

[Da Coach]

The Las Vegas bookmakers have just opened the game with Wichita State as a 25 point favorite.

In the other games:
Illinois State is a 13 point favorite over Evansville
Loyola is a 3 point favorite over SIU
UNI is a 1 point favorite over Missouri State

Evansville coach Marty Simmons does not have much of a bench, and he regularly plays his starters lots of minutes per game, more than any other MVC coach. In last night's win over Indiana State, the Evansville starters played 39, 36, 36, 32, and 23 minutes. Only 2 bench players played any significant minutes. Their game ended around 8:15 PM last night, and they have to play Illinois State at 12:05 PM today. So I am slightly surprised that the betting line is only 13 points. I think the Evansville players will be tired, and will wear down in the later part of the game. ISU has not played since last Saturday, so they should be rested.

[WSpringsBird]

NO....if you show up for the 2nd game of the night session you're gonna miss the Bradley game!

BRADLEY plays WICHITA at 6pm, the first game of the night session - and game 5 overall



also- for those who get the PJS, the writer puts a lot of heavy blame on the teams at the bottom of the MVC (and their bad RPIs)for the iffy status of both ISU and Wichita as at-large teams...

but that leads me to three conclusions...

1- so, Drake and Bradley are somehow responsible for Wichita having a NON-CONFERENCE Strength of Schedule of 169, considerably worse than the average SOS of the MVC? Sorry, don't think so... And we're somehow responsible for the Shockers going 1-4 against Top 50 teams?
Not realistic...

2- and we've been telling ISU to schedule tougher for more than a decade when they found out the hard way under Jank, winning 25 games and ending in the NIT.
Come on...their non-conference SOS is 128, they scheduled easy and played NOBODY...
nobody except Ferris State, IUPUI and Tennessee-Martin. And they have a losing record against everyone in the TOP 100 RPI.

3- and lastly, if you want to actually pick someone to blame - the ones who helped drive the entire MVC RPI down and send half the Bradley long-time fans packing...
.. then please name the people who destroyed Bradley and sent us to the bottom of the Valley with their horrible administration, bad recruiting & coaching and downright ineptitude even when fans saw it and we were calling them out..
Those people are Dr. Glasser, Dr. Cross, GF and their enablers.

I'll stick up for the scheduling. There were some weak teams in the non-conference schedule (though Tennessee-Martin actually has a better RPI than most Valley teams), but combined WSU and ISU also had non-conference games with Murray State, New Mexico, St. Joe's, Tulsa, TCU, Michigan State, Louisville, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma. At the time those schedules were set up, they probably looked like pretty good schedules. I would also note that ISU's non-conference schedule looked good a couple of months ago, when the average RPI put it in the top 50, but unfortunately several of those teams (e.g. TCU) have stumbled down the stretch.

I saw an interview with Jerry Palm the other day in which he said the weakness of the Valley was why he was not high on Wichita State and ISU. He said that in the past, there would tend to be two good teams in the Valley and several others in the top 100, giving Valley teams many chances to earn top-100 wins. Now those opportunities just aren't there.

Muller has scheduled some pretty tough road games in the past (e.g. Louisville, Kentucky), but it's not always possible to land those sorts of games. Consider even Northwestern. ISU signed a 2-for-1 with Northwestern several years ago, which also included an ISU football game at Northwestern, but Northwestern cancelled the contract after ISU beat the Wildcats in Evanston.

The counterargument is, of course, that if the Valley were tougher, ISU almost certainly would have lost more games, especially when McIntosh was out. So, maybe we'd be on the bubble anyway.

[tornado]

well, if you schedule tougher - it still helps to win one or two of them

[RoyalShock]

The point is that teams like WSU and ISU have to make their case in November and December because after that, there is no opportunity to improve their resume, like all the P5, BE, A10, AAC leagues have. And that's the fault of everyone else in the conference.

Teams from those other leagues get to have a transition period, figure things out in the non-conf, then build their resume within conference play. WSU and ISU did not have that chance. The only opportunity they had was to harm their resume. If ISU, with a 17-1 conference record, had dropped one game while Macintosh was out, their bubble would have likely popped. And that's sad.

If the Valley had just two other teams that could have been in 50-100 RPI range, I don't believe we're having this conversation.

That said, there is evidence that the influence of the RPI on the committee, while still very much a part of the process, is waning. Just last year some members of the committee said they also look at the other metrics and can consider them in their evaluation of a particular team. So hopefully that will work in WSU's favor. I don't think it does anything to help ISU, however.

[tornado]

The point is that teams like WSU and ISU have to make their case in November and December because after that, there is no opportunity to improve their resume, like all the P5, BE, A10, AAC leagues have. And that's the fault of everyone else in the conference....

been a long time, but there were years that Bradley went to the NCAA and got lousy seeds...
1986, 1988, 1996, 2006...
every time we were sent way out to the hinterlands and seeded 8 or 9 ...even 13...

and the exact same factors held true that Bradley had to play those lousy teams at the bottom of the MVC yet I never once heard these excuses.

[tornado]

The point is that teams like WSU and ISU have to make their case in November and December because after that, there is no opportunity to improve their resume, like all the P5, BE, A10, AAC leagues have. And that's the fault of everyone else in the conference....

the RPI situation in the MVC is similar to last year and a lot of years prior to 2005...

it's been a long time, but there were years that Bradley went to the NCAA and got lousy seeds...
1986, 1988, 1996, 2006...
every time we were sent way out to the hinterlands and seeded 8 or 9 ...even 13...

and the exact same factors held true that Bradley was hurt by the bad seed & had to play those lousy teams at the bottom of the MVC yet I never once....and I guarantee you nobody EVER ONCE heard anyone affiliated with Bradley whining about our seed cuz the the rest of the Valley were soft...

This is suddenly a new phenomenon unique to the Shockers and the Redbirds who don't like that their nonconference seasons were soft and they took a few losses.

[Da Coach]

Live stats

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=162953

Chat room

http://us21.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

[Da Coach]

One of the worst halves statistically I've seen in a long time.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=162953

Rebounds 30-14
Bradley 7-26 overall, and 0-9 from three

Score 42-16 at halftime

[tornado]

ouch, getting beat...
missed shots, missed FTs, turnovers....everything we were doing badly early in the season

how many times can we step on the endline or commit completely unforced turnovers
how many times can we hit the front of the rim & bounce away on a FT

and on the Donte technical, the Shocker player put an elbow in Donte's face but they didn't bother to look for that

[lefty]

ouch, getting beat...
missed shots, missed FTs, turnovers....everything we were doing badly early in the season

how many times can we step on the endline or commit completely unforced turnovers
how many times can we hit the front of the rim & bounce away on a FT

and on the Donte technical, the Shocker player put an elbow in Donte's face but they didn't bother to look for that

I wish they would have the guts to reverse the T after the review....Willis is a terrible actor by the way

[Tulsa Brave]

One of the worst halves statistically I've seen in a long time.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=162953

Rebounds 30-14
Bradley 7-26 overall, and 0-9 from three

Score 42-16 at halftime

Worst I've seen in 3 hours...since Loyola's first half today. The difference is they were playing an equally inept team and we are playing a team that has steamrolled everyone the past month.

[tornado]

shoulda instituted a rule way early in the season that if you make HORRID unforced pass that goes to NOBODY that you get replaced by a walk-on player and you don't play again in the half.

why & how in this kind of game would anyone make such a BAD lazy pass...we have to learn and stop doing that