Final score: Illinois State 70 Bradley 57

[tornado]

That bothers me the most. It comes off sounding a bit offensive toward fans, who have been incredibly loyal and supportive. ....hundreds of Bradley fans showed their passion and support by making the trip to Loyola ....

agree - if the people at Bradley appreciate that almost 500 of their fans showed up at a road game, then don't pull out the Mike Cross line of "the fans are being too impatient" or "it's the fans' own fault if they are not happy" or "they expect too much"...

It's great that the Bradley fans EXPECT TO SEE BRADLEY WIN EVERY SINGLE GAME! Would they rather we not go to games or rather we just expect a loss and stay home?

How about this - how about getting a decent start to games and not fall behind by double digits before we can even connect on a single pass into the post.
How about we devise a defense to stop their little guys (like Clayton Custer, Bruno Skokna, Ben Richardson, Williamson, Townes...) from dribbling easily right to the hoop for layups?
They had 48 points in the paint and we have the tallest guy in the league playing center and rim protector?

[Dub]

It was also said:
???I think people are going overboard on this road thing with us,???

That bothers me the most.

Hopefully he just means that he isn??™t ready to agree/resign himself that this will continue to be a fatal flaw with this team going forward... that he believes they can work out of that paradigm yet this year. I agree that the fans aren??™t going overboard in any way.

[Dub]

<Does anyone think we'll see a different starting 5 tonight or the usual?>

I would like to see Childs start, just to see if that has any impact on the slow starts we've been experiencing, especially on the road. I can't lay the blame for that entirely on KB, because we've missed a lot of outside shots at the start of recent games. But I think a change is in order and Childs' play (no pun intended) merits it.

My only worry is that Elijah might pick up a couple of fouls even earlier and be forced to sit for a long period of the first half. Which leads to a question: Does anyone else, like me, hate the philosophy of sitting a very good player on the bench for 15 minutes of the first half because he picked up a couple of early fouls? That's a lot of game to be missing a weapon. I'd prefer the first half limit be 3, but I'm not a coach. I just think the first half is just as important as the second.

I love Bar, and what he brings to the table... but right now he isn??™t consistently providing the toughness we need, especially on the road. Child??™s or someone else needs to take his start spot in my opinion.

Perhaps the staff feels they have invested a lot in him and our potential ceiling is higher if he plays well.... and so they are extending him extra grace period.

That??™s a potentially valid strategy, but I??™m starting to see a trend at the beginning of games, esp on the road: 1. on offense we start the game trying to go inside to Bar and fail to score. 2. The opponent goes straight to their big, and he scores. 3. Bar hits the bench with Bradley down 12-2 or so. 4. We don??™t recover to the point of actually threatening the other squad for the W.

We need Child??™s in there to set the tone inside from a toughness standpoint, and trust him to stay out of foul trouble.

[tornado]

Looks like Zach Copeland has now officially been added to their team's roster

http://goredbirds.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

[Jim]

Why not Barker?

I love Bar, and what he brings to the table... but right now he isn’t consistently providing the toughness we need, especially on the road. Child’s or someone else needs to take his start spot in my opinion.

I would like to see Barker get in the rotation. Bar will probably be pretty effective next year if he gains some weight and learns how to catch the ball. Barker seems to be more productive than Bar when he gets to play, IMO.

[Crusenswings]

Childs needs to start instead of Koch. I hate saying negative things, but Koch hasn't played well, he is loose with the ball, weak in the post on offense and defense, and hasn't played with a good flow.

I want the offense to play like they did in the second half of the Loyola game, free flowing, taking the first shot, and being assertive. Now lets just hope the defense is better.

This is a huge game in the Wardle era, for the first time the team has some expectations, and the team hasn't lived up to them on the road. I don't think we're over reacting, I think we just want to see some wins.

[Da Coach]

The broadcasters are John Rooney and David Kaplan. They are terrific sportscasters and they really do their homework.

[tornado]

it's a battle - not pretty but we're hanging tough-
Elijah Childs did get the start - did fine defensively...

..bad turnover on the shot clock violation

[tornado]

missed shots, missed layups, missed FTs....
we gotta do better...

[Da Coach]

Live stats-

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=197150

With 7:42 left in 1st half, Bradley is shooting 5-24 (20.8%), and they are 0-10 from three. They are fortunate to be trailing only 16-13.

[tornado]

terrible, terrible management of the final 30 seconds since we had the ball coming out of a time out

[patrick_o'brian]

Wow! That??™s all I can say.

[tornado]

we are down 9 with 7 min to go so we still have a chance but we have to get stops and hit shots

[Vent]

missed shots, missed layups, missed FTs....
we gotta do better...

Same old, same old in year 3.

[Dub]

It doesn??™t look like we??™re going to get the job done tonight. But I like a lot of the intensity that I saw tonight. if we can bring that every game we will be just fine. It??™s like watching a different team.