Final score: Bradley 72 Missouri State 52

[lefty]

Seems like most people thought Childs would be starting about this time....he's earned it for sure....we need a couple of role players to have nice games, either NK,LVB, JH....who knows...maybe Childs starts and Bar ends up with 8 points or so...

I was close Bar had 6

[Da Coach]

Another repeat of the last game against Evansville. Everyone who played had a good game. Bradley pulled out to a double-digit lead early, but gave all but 1 point of the lead back before halftime. Then they ran out to another big lead at the start of the 2nd half, and this time they sustained the effort, and stretched the lead out and won by 20 points.

Box score-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989709

Donte Thomas with a tremendous game- 13 points and 7 rebounds in just 23 minutes
Elijah Childs had 12 points & 12 rebounds in 29 minutes
Darrell Brown had 20 points & 8 assists and NO turnovers!
DLO had 9 points and played incredible defense on the MSU guards
Jayden had one of his best games- 7 points and just 1 turnover and also played good defense
Koch Bar looked really good off the bench- 6 points 4 rebounds
Nate Kennell didn't score much but had 4 assists, and played very well

The entire team's defense was superb, and the game plan and coaching was perfect. They held Missouri State to 31.6% shooting and 24.2% from three. BU outrebounded MSU 39-35. 52 points is easily a season-low for Missouri State.

And Bradley had only 5 turnovers as a team, the lowest total I can recall.
MSU did get 17 offensive rebounds, which is too many, but a lot of those came from taking a ton of three pointers (33).

Bradley is now 15-7, 5-4. They are tied with Missouri State for the second most wins among MVC teams (15), and the second best overall record (15-7). And they are the only MVC team undefeated at home, now 11-0!

Now Bradley just needs to carry over this home success to their next game at Indiana State. Go Braves!

[Da Coach]

-doubt chemotherapy - prob cryotherapy...they need to fire somebody in their training staff!

That was a cellphone autocorrect error since I was posting from my phone at the game.
Cryotherapy (exposure to extreme cold) is a procedure claimed by some (without much real scientific evidence) to relieve muscle pain, sprains and swelling of soft tissue, and there are some completely unsubstantiated claims it can improve muscle performance..
That is the first time I have heard of a college basketball team using it on their team members, though overall it has gained in popularity in the last few years, and I wouldn't be surprised if other teams have tried it.
But if not monitored closely, the extreme cold can cause tissue damage just like excessive heat can. And foot blisters don't always heal quickly (ISU's Elijah Clarence was out over a month with blisters on his feet), so Scurry and Fofana might end up missing more games.

[tornado]

(ISU's Elijah Clarence was out over a month with blisters on his feet)..

maybe they were consulting the Missouri State training staff about cryotherapy and using it on Clarance..

[Dub]

That was easily the most fun I??™ve had at a BU game in 5+ years. Tremendous effort on D, and a lot of flow and execution on offense. I was so glad to see Donte outplay Johnson to that level, and kudos to our staff for having them ready and for calling alley oop passes 4-5 times. Niiiiice

[Classof77]

I loved the second half! Especially liked how 6'7" freshman Elijah Childs wanted the ball down low to take it right at 6'7" junior Obediah Church.

[Da Coach]

Official box score-

http://www.bubraves.com/documents/2018/1/23//Bradley_72_Missouri_State_52.pdf

Attendance 5,041

[Fyrebyrd]

That was a cellphone autocorrect error since I was posting from my phone at the game.
Cryotherapy (exposure to extreme cold) is a procedure claimed by some (without much real scientific evidence) to relieve muscle pain, sprains and swelling of soft tissue, and there are some completely unsubstantiated claims it can improve muscle performance..
That is the first time I have heard of a college basketball team using it on their team members, though overall it has gained in popularity in the last few years, and I wouldn't be surprised if other teams have tried it.
But if not monitored closely, the extreme cold can cause tissue damage just like excessive heat can. And foot blisters don't always heal quickly (ISU's Elijah Clarence was out over a month with blisters on his feet), so Scurry and Fofana might end up missing more games.

It's not new, I had heard of athletic departments installing cryo-chambers in their own facilities for athlete use. A quick google search names a few.

TCU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds2lUVfhwhM

UGA has one

https://www.dawgnation.com/football/team-news/uga-to-begin-using-cryotherapy-for-treatment-and-rehabilitation

Mizzou

https://impactcryo.com/pressrelease/mizzou-athletics-now-offering-whole-body-cryotherapy/

Kent State

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-metro/cryotherapy-now-used-on-athletes-at-kent-state-university

[Da Coach]

I loved the second half! Especially liked how 6'7" freshman Elijah Childs wanted the ball down low to take it right at 6'7" junior Obediah Church.

Obediah Church is a good defensive player, and a good shot blocker. He had 4 blocks tonight and leads the MVC in blocks. He also lead the MVC last year, and was second to Egidijus Mockevicius as a freshman.
When he first entered the MVC, I thought he had a chance to become a dominant player in the MVC. However, his offensive game has not really improved since his freshman season.

Here are his stats over his 3 seasons-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/3907582/obediah-church

His point production has stayed almost the same, and his rebounding has actually regressed a little. Plus his ≈50% free throw average hurts them in close games. He is such an athletic kid, it's hard to figure out why he hasn't developed better than he has.

[ihatetea]

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/obediah-church-1.html

You can check out some of his advanced stats and see he is stuck in a very low usage role. He’s an elite shotblocker but has seen his defensive rebounding slowly fade every year. But he has gotten better on the offensive glass every year. He’s gotten better at only taking the shots he’ll make. He’s apparently not asked to do too much. Or else he isn’t comfortable doing anything but shot blocking and rebounding.

If you look up Childs advanced numbers you find they actually have very similar block rates. Church could be a great comparison for Eli’s future on the defensive side.

On the season they are producing very similarly, but in conference alone Eli has been much better. Eli’s a bigger part of the offense, and Church has seen his rebounding numbers really dip.

[LittleBrave]

Anyone else feel like we make opponents look bad when playing at Carver?
We definitely don't let teams get into much of a rhythm.

Loved watching the game tonight - great effort. We play with tons of confidence, and the combo of Donte and Elijah has been incredible lately.

When is the last time BU was 15-7? Is that about where we were in 2006-'07 for our NIT team?

[tornado]

... he is stuck in a very low usage role. ....

Church just has never been really offensive-minded - I think his main roles are grab rebounds & get the ball to Alize Johnson

Anyone else feel like we make opponents look bad when playing at Carver?...

The crowd was really good & loud when they needed to be...but about 1000 smaller than Saturday night. We need to get more Saturday night games!!


I know Missouri State had a couple players out with injury but one thing puzzled me...
They have a kid named Ross Owens, a walk-on sophomore, who had only appeared in 7 games all season.... and had only played a total of 32 minutes in 21 games
And none of their guards were missing last night so they weren't desperate for manpower on the wing...and yet
Owens came into the game early and played a lot - 21 minutes - as much or more than a couple of their guards who have started this season.
In the end Alize Johnson didn't foul out - he played the entire 2nd half without a foul so they sure helped us out by keeping him on the bench.

[Da Coach]

Game story from BradleyBraves.com-

http://www.bubraves.com/news/2018/1/23/mens-basketball-bradley-basketball-cruises-past-missouri-state-72-52.aspx

[molar50]

There was an NBA scout sitting one row in front of our seats evaluating Johnson last night. After Johnson picked up his third foul in the first half, he closed his note books. I stated to him that he was done taking any more notes. He just smiled back.
I thought that Wardle did a god job getting the team ready for the second half. It was disappointing in how our team finished the first half and lost our momentum. I was very encouraged by our team??™s toughness and play in the second half

[pfcmsh]

Anyone else feel like we make opponents look bad when playing at Carver?
We definitely don't let teams get into much of a rhythm.

Loved watching the game tonight - great effort. We play with tons of confidence, and the combo of Donte and Elijah has been incredible lately.

When is the last time BU was 15-7? Is that about where we were in 2006-'07 for our NIT team?

Great post! I was at the game. I was worried about a lull starting 2nd half. We pulled away! If we can just translate this confidence to our next road game!!!