Exhibition game (10/26)- Bradley vs. Lewis- 8PM at Renaissance Coliseum

[Stryker]

yeah- heard later it was a granted leave due to personal reasons

Elijah Childs made a significant difference every time he was in there - finished with 10 pts, 6 rebs (in 15 minutes) and I am certain he had a couple blocks but seems a few things we saw didn't show up in the stats..

The double digit lead most of the 2nd half allowed Coach Wardle to play many different combinations and leave the 2nd tier guys out on the floor down the stretch - isn't that what exhibition games are for?


but had we played Donte, Luuk, Brown, Kennell, Hodgson, Childs and Luqman Lundy as our main 7 guys and especially if we had Jojo - we would have won by 20-30..
Only one of our guys played more than 19 minutes - while Lewis six guys 19 minutes or more - kinda going with their starters way more than Bradley.

3 or 4 other keys..

-Bar HAS TO learn that every time he touches the ball, the defense is gonna try to slap it away from him. Instead he seems completely shocked every time it happens, he's not prepared for it and he fumbles the ball every time he ever touches it. They credited him with two turnovers but 1000 fans would disagree - he fumbled 6-7 times...and didn't finish when he did get a good shot. He needs to learn to kick it out and get an assist once in a while.

-Luuk & Kennell need to shoot every time they are open -

-The turnovers were much, much better - Brown, Kennell & Hodgson combined for just 4 TO

-this was NOT a particularly strong team in the paint and yet they got way too many easy buckets inside...
we need to defend better down low - Childs did his job, Donte did OK but we had lapses...

Tend to agree for the most part with your assessment after seeing the game myself. I will say it appeared that Wardle was having them force things inside at the beginning of the game. Maybe he wanted to see how we could do pushing it inside for a while. It wasn't tulle about halfway into the first half that the guards really started to take shots. I do think Bar needs to remember the slaps are coming from the D tho, it happened a lot.

[wizard1]

Exhibition game tonight-10/26.....

We got killed on the boards by a smaller team because we didn't block out at all. This team must learn to block out their man and go very hard for the ball. Coaches must work on this in practice . If we cannot improve blocking out and rebounding, its going to be a long year IMO. We show no toughness at all...
Wizard

[Dub]

After seeing the open practice.... Overall I was underwhelmed with the performance of this game, but this is their first action. My only big picture concern is lack of a significant inside scoring threat to soften up the D and add productivity. I do think this is a team that will improve a lot through experience in the first half of the season. I??™m excited.

Oh, and Child??™s will be a stud. Our staff landed a good one there.

[wizard1]

Exhibition Game...

Here's a suggestion the coaches might want to give a serious try....
Move Luuk to the 5 and let him go inside and out. He could be very tough to guard inside and with his 3 point threat, he could move outside from time to time and clear the inside for a tandem of Thomas and Childs. This could jack up our offense. Coaches would have to work on Luks toughness but he may be a better option than K.Bar who doesn't really give us much.
Wiz

[Braves2006]

I agree that Childs looks like a great get. I know it??™s exhibition and all...but I too was underwhelmed with the play. Concerning to me was that there looked like no improvement from any of the returning players.... and the same issues as last year....poor free throw shooting and rebounds. Also... this was against a D2 team to boot. From what I saw last night...7th place would be overachieving...

[tornado]

'06, the huge difference was the decrease in silly turnovers...

[BUfan39]

Guys, lets not act like the sky is falling here. It was ONE game and a charity game at that. We'll be okay. Yes, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid in October

[Chibearsfan10125]

Guys, lets not act like the sky is falling here. It was ONE game and a charity game at that. We'll be okay. Yes, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid in October

And one we won by double digits and played everyone a lot of minutes. People are acting like we lost this game. The team will be fine. Be pessimistic if you want, I'm choosing to remain positive.

[tornado]

btw- the Bradley University Board of Trustees held a meeting Thursday evening then filed as a group into the Renaissance Coliseum and sat to watch the exhibition game.

Here's a rundown of what transpired

http://www.peorian.com/education/education-news/bradley/2526-bradley-calvin-butler

Calvin Butler was elected as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, replacing Doug Stewart & the Hon. James Shadid was named Vice-Chairman.


I believe this is a good sign for Bradley...as Calvin Butler was the member of the Bradley Board that along with James Shadid LISTENED to the calls, emails and letters from concerns Bradley basketball fans and pushed the rest of the board members to scrutinize the harm being done to Athletics by Joanne Glasser & Mike Cross.

[Da Coach]

Good news....JoJo McGlaston has rejoined the team.

[tornado]

Good news....JoJo McGlaston has rejoined the team.

I am sooo happy - he is one of our only two seniors and the most athletic player on our team -

[Bradleyfan1]

Great news for us. Bad news for the rest of The Valley.

[tornado]

Yup- Bradley is at FULL STRENGTH!
This is rare for Bradley to start the season off 100% healthy...as we always seem to start the season with injuries....many of which (like Will Egolf's knee, Taylor Brown's heart condition, Andrew Warren's broken bone in his foot, Sam Maniscalco's ankle, and Dodie Dunson's broken wrist) cost us starters for extended periods - even the entire season.


Almost every other team seems to be having the injuries this year...
ISU JUST LOST Daouda N'Diaye for 6 weeks with a fracture in his foot and has had players in walking boots, coming off labrum surgery and hobbling with knee injuries - as well as leaving the team for academic & personal reasons. Now they have to add walk ons!
Missouri State's Alize Johnson has been out with his knee.
Loyola lost one potential starter to labrum surgery.
SIU has lost Marcus Bartley to a broken bone in his wrist
Just this morning a column in the WCF Courier says Northern Iowa has 3 guys out with injury- starter Wyatt Lohaus, and subs Justin Dahl and Hunter Rhodes...and they play an exhibition game against the Wisconsin Badgers tomorrow night.


Pantagraph's Jim Benson now also reporting ISU's backup guard Matt Hein is also out 2-4 weeks with bone bruise in knee
ISU now has only two players taller than 6-6 and one has never played yet in college and isn't a post player.

[tornado]

SIU has lost Marcus Bartley to a broken bone in his wrist....

SIU has also lost Thik Bol & Austin Weiher, and now they lose Armon Fletcher to injury (His name was conspicuously absent from a pregame release about their Friday game)

The Southern Illinoisan claims he "dislocated his knee" - but....
they then say he might miss only 2 weeks and as they describe the injury it almost certainly is a dislocated kneecap - not dislocated knee which would have been far more devastating.
This is the kind of injury that used to bother Jordan Prosser.
This is not a severe injury but 2 weeks is pretty optimistic if they want to keep this from happening repeatedly.

http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/salukis-take-another-hit-as-fletcher-goes-down-with-knee/article_e40d979b-dc23-5e1f-9f77-4967e207febf.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share