Final score: Bradley 80 Valparaiso 71

[tornado]

he seems to hit on the bad officiating but I can't for the life of me see why...
Valpo fouled a ton in the last 2 minutes but those were all fully intentional fouls to stop the clock and try to get the ball back.
So- Bradley going 10-12 in the final 2 minutes is exactly the outcome THEY caused...

If you take away those intentional end-game FTs, then the Braves were 16-24 while Valpo was 23-31 - so don't give any crap about how the fouls hurt Valpo - the fouls were the only thing keeping them within 10 points!!


btw- some video highlight

https://twitter.com/bradleyumbb/status/948788597582385153

[Chico]

Here is the twitter feed of the Valparaiso beat writer who was tweeting throughout the game. It is really interesting to read! He does a pretty good job with his tweets about the game, but he seems obsessed with a single Bradley fan (I suspect from the student section) who was giving Valpo some good-natured heckling. He tweets incessantly about the heckler, who must have really gotten under his skin.
https://twitter.com/NWIOren

You mean there were students in the student section. That??™s a switch.

[bigjimmy]

That was the most assertive that Koch has been this season. As long as he doesn??™t think about what he??™s going to do for too long as athletic as he is he??™ll be tough for Valley centers to handle. Nate had struggled the last few games including the first 25 minutes of this one but he really came on strong and was one of the main reasons we won. This Donte Thomas is a first team all Missouri Valley player as is this DLO. Need to keep getting more consistent in both halves and we??™ll win on the road. As long as we take care of the home court if we win just twice on the road we??™ll finish in the top 4. If we do more than that then the top of the Valley is not out of reach.

[tornado]

Bar still fumbles way too many passes and balls down low....but hopefully that is getting better... A/T Ratio of 0.2 compares unfavorably to most other Valley big men (Obediah Church 0.8, Alize Johnson 1.2, Pippen 0.6, Krutwig 1.2, Brandon Murphy 0.6, McGlynn 1.0, Schlatter 1.1, Childs 0.4)
UNI's Koch is at 0.2 but that's offset by the fact that he's much more of a scorer and doesn't pass the ball out of the post much (leads UNI at 14 ppg)

[LittleBrave]

I haven't seen officiating that bad in a while...and they were certainly going in favor of Valpo too.
What the heck refs? Trying to keep it close maybe.

[LittleBrave]

That was kind of an ugly win, though it was one of the prettiest first 5 minutes of BU hoops I've seen in over 5 seasons! Loved seeing our fans on their feet even after the 1st TV timeout.

Koch Bar played a solid game - really need his contributions.
Brown played ok - forced some shots, but his confident is through the roof right now, and he almost hit some super-tough shots.

D-Lo a rebounding machine!!! Other than not taking a lot of 3's, he reminds me a lot of DSE.

Keep at it Braves! 12 wins in early January - Yowsa!!!

[Dub]

...He tweets incessantly about the heckler, who must have really gotten under his skin.
https://twitter.com/NWIOren

DC- stop it. We all know it was you.

[Da Coach]

[tornado]

...fan (I suspect from the student section) who was giving Valpo some good-natured heckling....

Speaking of heckling....
Valparaiso's Bakari Evelyn hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the first half......
and on his way back down the court, one of the courtside Bradley fans sitting only feet from him made the heckling comment...
(something to the effect of...) - "betcha can't do that again..."

Evelyn turned right around and trash-talked the fan who was sitting right in the same seat as one of our more famous front row fans who has actually been ejected in the past....

well...........guess what, Bakari Evelyn ended the game with just those two 3-pointers - he did NOT make any more...
in fact from that point til the end of the game (about 27 more minutes - he only made one more basket and never grabbed another rebound...so our heckler might have been effective!!

[Da Coach]

There was one other incident of note- with 35 seconds left in the first half, reserve Valpo guard Marcus Golder dunked the ball. He proceeded to stare down the Bradley bench and do a primal scream and taunting gestures at the Bradley bench players for several seconds as if he had somehow made the most awesome offensive move in history, except it was a pretty much a simple routine unguarded dunk. A few seconds later, Nate Kennell, who was being guarded by Golder, sank a 3-pointer to tie the game 33-33 at the half. Nate, on the other hand, did not do any taunting or primal screams.

Golder scored 8 points in that first half, but the 2nd half was not so kind to him. He scored only one more basket, had several missed shots, had 4 second half fouls and fouled out, and had a couple key turnovers that helped Bradley win the game.
I don't like to see any player do that kind of loud taunting exhibition, and I don't think it helped Valpo.

[tornado]

...Nate, on the other hand, did not do any taunting or primal screams..

I think Nate screams on the inside

[tornado]

he seems to hit on the bad officiating .... the fouls ...

Bob Huggins has a solution to the problem of too many fouls being called...

"I??™m convinced they call fouls sometimes just because they??™re tired.
They make calls to rest, because they can??™t run.
You??™re talking about 60-, 65-year-old men that we??™re asking to keep up
with 18- to 21-year-old kids who are world-class athletes..
I??™d hire four officials...Officials can also be subbed out at each TV timeout"

http://cjonline.com/sports/sports-columns/catzone/2017-12-31/kevin-haskin-bob-huggins-recalls-unusual-exchange-first

[Braves2006]

He may have a good point. I??™d actually be open to that.

[tornado]

The halftime entertainment Wednesday will be Quick Change.

Quick Change and the NBA

https://twitter.com/TimBourret/status/965080402410049536

[Da Coach]

Quick Change and the NBA
https://twitter.com/TimBourret/statu...80402410049536

Unlike the Quick Change act, he had enough time to take his sweatshirt and pants off while he was behind those curtains.