Final score- Bradley 68 IUPUI 53

[tornado]

Radio: 1470 WMBD - pregame coverage starts at noon
TV: only on ESPN3: Link will be here http://www.espn.com/watch/schedule/?...&type=upcoming
Live stats will be here: http://www.sidearmstats.com/bradley/mbball/


IUPUI has won their only exhibition game 65-56 over Carroll University of Waukesha, WI - a D-III team that plays in the CCIW with Wheaton College, IWU, Augustana, Elmhurst, Millikin, North Central & Carthage where they finished 8-8 last year, and averaged only 1054 home attendance, they lost their top 3 players to graduation.

Here was that IUPUI-Carroll box score - they believe they are a fairly athletic team and they hang their hat on defense -
they held Carroll to 56 points total, only 25 pts in the 1st half - 22-58 with 22 turnovers, but Carroll did outrebound IUPUI 39-34.

http://static.iupuijags.com/custompages/M-Basketball/Stats/2017_2018/110317.pdf

IUPUI has one player who might be familiar- Maurice Kirby, a redshirt senior grad transfer from Loyola..otherwise only one other has any illinois connection - Elyjah Goss is from Bolingbrook.

They are a brand new member of the Horizon League, replacing Valparaiso, and they are picked to finish 10th out of 10 teams, with none of their players getting honored on All-Conference teams...altho several of their players are proven strong shooters from long range. They left the Summit League where they were 7-9, 7th place last year.

http://www.horizonleague.org/news/2017/10/9/mens-basketball-horizon-league-announces-hlmbb-preseason-all-conference-team-poll.aspx?path=mbball

Their best returning players are:
Aaron Brennan- 6-6 senior, perhaps their best player, had 15 pts in the exhib. and hit 47% from 3-pt range last year.
Elyjah Goss- 6-7 redshirt freshman had 9pt in their exhibition
Evan Hall- undersized big man, had 7pt/5reb in exhib and avg 8 & 5 last year
TJ Henderson- had 11 in exhib, avg 6 ppg last year, hit 40% from 3-pt last year.
Maurice Kirby- 3 pts/9 rebs/3 blks in the exhibition, started 26 gms but only avg 1.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg for Loyola last year
Jaylen Minnett- highly touted freshman (turned down scholarship from Indiana State to go to IUPUI), scored 8 pts in exhib, avg 26 ppg last yr as a HS senior at Terre Haute South
Ron Patterson- had 10 in exhib, transf from Syracuse, has 9.3 ppg last year at IUPUI, hit 40% from 3-pt last year

[Da Coach]

...
They are a brand new member of the Horizon League, replacing Valparaiso, and they are picked to finish 10th out of 10 teams, with none of their players getting honored on All-Conference teams...

IUPUI won't be great in the Horizon League this year, but I can't buy that they will finish 10th. There are several bad teams in the Horizon, including Detroit, Cleveland State, Youngstown State, and Milwaukee, all of whom won fewer games last year than IUPUI did.

[Canton BU fan]

Looking forward to the start of the season.

[tornado]

Does anyone know if IUPUI has a message board or a fan forum?
I cannot find one an that's too bad - as the message boards would be a great source of info

[Da Coach]

Bradley is a 10 point favorite in Vegas-

http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-basketball/odds/las-vegas/line-movement/indiana-purdue-@-bradley.cfm/date/11-11-17

Also, here is a thread that has a link to the Chat Room-

https://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27211

[lefty]

Familiar voice on ESPN3

[Da Coach]

Bradley up 11-5 at 15:17.

Stats

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

[Da Coach]

BU 45 IUPUI 38 with 11 min left

Kennell with 15 points, DLO with 10 rebounds!

[Da Coach]

Bradley lead most of the way.
Final score 68-53

Donte Thomas with 15 & 8
Nate Kennell with 19 points
DLO with 11 rebounds

[pfcmsh]

Thought on Opener

Only saw the 2nd half. Sounds like we played pretty good defense all the way through. Loved the way Kennel scored and Donte played really well. Stipo and Childs look like good additions. Too many turnovers and our offense had some trouble getting going. We continue to be on our way to the top of the MVC. The new guys really looked good.

[Da Coach]

Box score-

http://www.bubraves.com/documents/2017/11/11//BRAD01_Box.pdf

Attendance 4,936

[JC]

I know it is early, but I like what I saw today. The team has good talent and depth at each position for the first time in maybe 7,8 years or more. They shoot well, defend well, and pass well. The stats show 20 assts. on 25 baskets. I can't remember when they did that last. They did have that long dry spell and didn't score for the last 7 minutes in the first half, but their defense was good and they only gave up 4 points in the last 8 minutes.
I haven't had a reason to come see Bradley for a lot of years since the Jim Les days, but I will be back to watch this year's team.

[Bradleyfan1]

I know it is early, but I like what I saw today. The team has good talent and depth at each position for the first time in maybe 7,8 years or more. They shoot well, defend well, and pass well. The stats show 20 assts. on 25 baskets. I can't remember when they did that last. They did have that long dry spell and didn't score for the last 7 minutes in the first half, but their defense was good and they only gave up 4 points in the last 8 minutes.
I haven't had a reason to come see Bradley for a lot of years since the Jim Les days, but I will be back to watch this year's team.

PREACH!

[Da Coach]

A few of the fans I talked to at the game said similar things, that they enjoyed watching this team more than they remembered the last several seasons. This year's team looks more confident, and there is not much drop off with the guys that come off the bench. Defense was good, and we seem to play well when we play fast, but we also scored a lot on the half court offense.
Could this be the first team to go undefeated at home in the non-conference schedule since 2006-07?

[Da Coach]

One other note about the game- Luuk van Bree suffered a mild ankle sprain, and was limited to 12 first half minutes. He did not play at all in the 2nd half.