Final score: New Mexico 85 Bradley 75

[Da Coach]

Bradley is now 6-2, and will play New Mexico Saturday night, 7:00 PM in Carver Arena as part of the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge.
TV: ESPN+ : http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/ae3ce...ico-vs-bradley
Radio: WMBD 1470 AM and 100.3 FM, and online at www.1470wmbd.com
Live stats: https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Tickets: https://www1.ticketmaster.com/bradle...00554203CBB4C4
Preview: https://bradleybraves.com/news/2018/...challenge.aspx
Game Notes: https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...New_Mexico.pdf
Chat room: www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

PROMOTIONS
• The first 1,000 fans receive a Bradley Santa hat on Saturday. Also, there is a free postgame opportunity to take family Holiday photos on the court with Kaboom!
• Halftime will feature a performance by the XPOGO Stunt Team.
• Prior to the game is also the first Braves Club Game Day Bruncheon (11 a.m.) and pre-game party (5 p.m.) of the year.
• Also, in Kaboom!'s Korner is inflatables from Fun on the Run, including a Bounce House.

JEROME ROBINSON INDUCTED IN HALL OF FAME
• At halftime of Saturday's game, former Brave standout and current New Mexico assistant coach Jerome Robinson will be inducted into the Bradley Athletics Hall of Fame.
• The 2001 Valley Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-MVC honoree, Robinson finished as the league's third-leading scorer in 2000-01 with 16.9 points per game.
• Overall, Robinson appeared in 113 career games with 947 points, 356 rebounds and 206 assists.

New Mexico is 3-1. They have wins at Cal State Northridge, and at home against Iona and UTEP, and a home loss to New Mexico State.
UNM Schedule/Results-

https://golobos.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball&

Bradley is 0-9 against the Mountain West Conference teams in the MWC-MVC Challenge.

UNM averages 88.8 . points per game (11th in the country) and they shoot 47.9% from three. But they give up an average of 85.8 ppg (20th worst team scoring defense in the country).
UNM Stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...umulatives.pdf

Bradley has played New Mexico only twice in their history, and Bradley is 2-0 with an average margin of victory of 26 points.-
December 19, 1938- Bradley won at New Mexico 55-35
March 21, 1964- Bradley beat New Mexico in the Championship final of the NIT in Madison Square Garden 86-54 to win the NIT.

New Mexico wesbite-

https://golobos.com/documents/2018/11/24/2018_19_Cumulatives.pdf?path=mbball

Roster-

https://golobos.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

Coaching staff-

https://golobos.com/coaches.aspx?path=mbball&

One player they were counting on for scoring this season was Ohio State transfer Jaquan Lyle. However, right before the season, he suffered a ruptured achilles tendon and was lost for the season-

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/27940-bradley-s-2018-19-schedule/page10

But they still have 3 players averaging double digits, and a total of 7 players who log 18 minutes or more per game and average 8 ppg or better-

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/unm.sidearmsports.com/documents/2018/11/24/2018_19_Cumulatives.pdf

Bradley stats-

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/bradley.sidearmsports.com/documents/2018/11/7/bradley_stats.pdf

[Dub]

Bradley has done well this year in physical games where the refs have tended to let the teams play... we have really struggled in games that were called tightly, and have not been able to adjust. This may be a huge factor Saturday. I don’t like us in a shootout, so hopefully we can play D and slow the game. 88.8 pt avg wow!

[tornado]

altho I am sure he won't play tonight - there is a report that Ari Boya is out of the walking boot that he has been in for almost two months...

[Bradleyfan1]

I noticed on TV he was out of the boot. Got me excited. Against Iupui

[patrick_o'brian]

Any problem with ESPN+ or just me?

[sam hannam]

Everybody is having trouble with ESPN+.

[Da Coach]

Final score: New Mexico 85 Bradley 75

[Go_Braves]

I am taking back my statement after the Penn State win at the Cancun Challenge that this Bradley team is a "special team". I can only say it was "wishful thinking" because so many have been waiting for so long for a team that can compete with anyone anywhere. The last 2 games (away and home) shows that this is actually not the case with today's Bradley team.

[Da Coach]

Final stats-
https://bradleybraves.com/documents/2018/12/1//New_Mexico_85_Bradley_75.pdf

New Mexico looked very good. They have a lot of big, strong, athletic kids who can shoot and rebound, and play defense well. Bradley needed to play a really good game to beat them, and they didn't. There were too many turnovers, gave up too many offensive rebounds, and too many missed free throws (18-29 & some of the misses were front ends of 1 and 1's) and too many missed open shots.

However, I was mostly disappointed at how poorly our players and staff adjusted to the full court trapping defense that New Mexico played almost the entire game. They even pressed after missed shots, something you rarely see because good teams will beat them back on fast breaks and get easy scores. But Bradley seemed to play right into their hands by standing still for 3 or 4 seconds after they inbounded the ball or rebounded misses, and then they were way too slow and deliberate in moving the ball upcourt, instead of getting the ball in Darrell Brown's hands quickly and trying to beat the UNM press into the front court. UNM rarely paid any price for their aggressive full court defense, and Bradley was still turning the ball over all the way to the final minute because of the press.

One other notable stat- UNM had 57 bench points. That may be more than I have ever seen in a non-blowout game. Bradley had just 11 bench points. It's an indication of their depth, and Bradley's lack of offense off the bench. Again, I feel having a healthy Ari Boya might have made a difference, but what we need to take the step up to the top of the MVC appears to be better offense and quicker ball movement.

[Fyrebyrd]

haha, i caught some crap in the post game vs Penn State thread for saying I was cautiously optimistic at best about this team. They are still missing good consistent scoring. Are we infinitely closer than we were? Yes, but there are still missing pieces

[Da Coach]

Recap and stats from BradleyBraves.com

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2018/12/1/mens-basketball-new-mexico-downs-bradley-basketball.aspx

[bigjimmy]

Very frustrating game to watch. Why we weren't more aggressive against their press is beyond me. But it's on defense where we've really regressed. Giving up way too many second chances and we've gone back to our reaching in defense instead of moving our feet. But even with all of that we brought it back to as close as 3 with under 10 minutes to go but they made a couple of loooong 3's at the end of the shot clock and we would get no closer. It just seems like with this group of seniors and juniors that the one thing you can count on this team to be is being consistently inconsistent. Just have to shrug it off and move onward.

[Jim]

Did Ja'Shon Henry play at all last night? Was he ill or was it the coach's decision?

[tornado]

Ja'Shon played a minute in the 2nd half

but we just made too many horrible passes and we missed way too many FT's when it mattered

BUT - there was some great news last night....Chicago State won their 2nd game in a row bolstering our RPI and post-season chances!!

[BUfan17]

New Mexico was clearly the more athletic team here but this was a winnable game. Make a couple more free throws and another 3 and we'd be in it. We just struggled with their press at times and ability to match their intensity.