Final score- St. Joseph's 86 Bradley 81

[houstonbrave]

First the good-unlike last year we got off to a good start early in the first half.Good free throw shooting. Koch looked good-much better mid range shooting and a lot of rebounds. Good game from Nate. Good 3 PT shooting. We are a much better offensive team.

Most disappointing game from Elijah-poor shooting and zero defensive rebounds against a team he should have been able to dominate- he needs to react better/quicker when double team comes. Overall defense not good and we committed way too many fouls (a few questionable calls but most were fouls on our part). We did not finish well at the rim. Gabriel seemed to rush thing and just needs to slow it down a bit-but he will be fine. We miss DLO as a shut down defender.

[Bradleyfan1]

Henry or Kingsby HAVE to be the replacement for DLO in the stop the other guys best guy factor. Tough test . On the road against the A10 your not going to get those calls . Hopefully the hawks Win alot of games. I dont think this a bad loss on the resume come March. Childs and Brown will play and look alot better Sat night. Should be a great time. Were going undefeated at home this yr. Go BU.

[LittleBrave]

Well, I have mixed feelings.
Disappointed to start out with a L to a team picked 13th in their conf.
Brown and Childs had bad games.
Saw some really good things from Ville, AT, and especially Kingsby,
Stephen looked like a true frosh. While he didn't look intimidated, needs to slow down his play. It will come.

Hey - only 1 game. I don't expect to be a team on the bubble by season's end anyhow with many newcomers.
Props to Koch Barr who played a heck of a game up until the final 7 minutes or so. We could really use his contribution.

Hopefully the mental mistakes (there were many) will dissipate as the season goes along.
Let's get this 2nd game to erase any bad taste with this one!

Go BU!

[LittleBrave]

To St. Joe's credit, they have a LOT of potential.
A few real good players there and very good ball-movement.
Suspect defense and really we didn't shoot the ball well (even though scoring 81)

[Da Coach]

Like some of you, I thought there were a number of positives. We got off to a good start and shot well in the first half. As fans know, it is far more common for past Bradley teams to struggle out of the gate, shoot poorly on the road, and spend much of the the game trying to make up big deficits.
Nate Kennell was named the Ameren Illinois Player of the Game-
https://twitter.com/BradleyBraves/st...28532689195009

And Nate had a solid game with 15 points in 34 minutes, but he had had better games. He was only 1-4 from three. But I thought Koch Bar had maybe his best overall game with 13 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks in 28 minutes. He showed some new moves and made several 15-20 foot jumpers. If he can contribute like that the rest of the year, it will be huge. Bradley lead the rebounding 46-39, and had 17 assists. They only averaged 34 rebounds per game and 12 assists/game last year. And most of all, they kept their poise when I thought several calls went against them.
So I am still positive, but that could change if they don't win Saturday against IUPUI!

[Bradleyfan1]

I wouldve went Henry or Bar for POG probably Bar.

[LittleBrave]

I wouldve went Henry or Bar for POG probably Bar.

Had Kingsby scored in double-digits, my vote would have gone for him. I was impressed by his athleticism and b-ball smarts.
He came up with some big boards and hit a nice 3-ball.
I hope he continues like this and is that X-factor we need.

Kennel and Jashon played decent, but we've seen better.

Gotta get DB and EC on track - had either had a good game, we would have won.
Both guys made some poort decisions we're not used to seeing...it's still early.
Let's rock the Arena Saturday and get this season on a roll to have a stellar season!

[Dub]

Bar is somewhat of an enigma. We need him to be good, and he looks stronger and hats off on the improvement on the jumper. However, he also seems to give a lot back to the opposition by not protecting his grip on the ball at the most inopportune times and giving up a steal. Last yr Wardle was determined to start him game after game until our 0-5 conf record. It seems to me like Elijah doesn’t play as effectively when Bar is there. Hope they can figure it out, and if they did we would be a ton.

[ihatetea]

Bar playing well is a double edged sword. You have to get the minutes from him when he’s scoring, but he doesn’t defend that type of team very well. And he got very tired and less effective. No one was playing well enough to say they should play instead of him.

[algotrader]

SJU was picked to finish 13 out of 14 schools in the A-10.

They were ranked somewhere around 263 of D1 schools.

This was Billy Lange's very first game as a head coach. The words "complete rebuild" come up often in SJU articles.

[Mikovio]

I still remember Jim Les's first game against a good Pepperdine squad coming off an NCAA. We weren't very good that year but the atmosphere was electric and we took them down. Same for Wardle's first game vs a Ball State squad that won the MAC West and 21 games. That BU team only won 4 more though.

[Da Coach]

SJU was picked to finish 13 out of 14 schools in the A-10.

They were ranked somewhere around 263 of D1 schools.

This was Billy Lange's very first game as a head coach. The words "complete rebuild" come up often in SJU articles.

St. Joseph's may be rebuilding, though I wouldn't quite call it a complete rebuild. It is nothing close to Brian Wardle's first season when he had just two returning players, neither of whom were starters and who combined for a total of about 8 ppg the previous season (Soph Donte Thomas & Senior Ka'Darryl Bell)) plus 10 freshmen, St. Joseph's is nowhere near that level of "rebuilding". Their top 2 scorers against BU are quality veteran transfers (UCF transfer Myles Douglas and Delaware transfer Ryan Daly) who would be starters for just about any MVC team. They had 2 returning starters who were quality players in the A-10 last season (Edwards & Funk), and their other starter was a quality freshman who IMO is better than any freshman recruit Wardle had his first year). I am not saying they will be a great team, and I do think Bradley should have beaten them. But I also think they are better than many people thought they would be and will beat some teams this season that they aren't supposed to beat.

[Tommy]

Bar is somewhat of an enigma. We need him to be good, and he looks stronger and hats off on the improvement on the jumper. However, he also seems to give a lot back to the opposition by not protecting his grip on the ball at the most inopportune times and giving up a steal. Last yr Wardle was determined to start him game after game until our 0-5 conf record. It seems to me like Elijah doesn’t play as effectively when Bar is there. Hope they can figure it out, and if they did we would be a ton.

Totally agree. Team is better with Bar coming off the bench and Childs in the 5 spot. Last year showed how well we could run with 3 guard setup and Childs in the middle.

[Da Coach]

St. Joseph's is playing tonight at UConn. St. Joseph's started this game on fire and ran out to a 14-0 lead, and a 24-5 lead.
They lead by as much as 27 points before UConn finally started to come back. Joe's is shooting very well.-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId=401169445

Edit: halftime score- St. Joseph's 54 UConn 38
The game is on CBSSports Network.

[Da Coach]

St. Joseph's had a 21 point lead at UConn with about 12 minutes left, but then UConn went on a 20-4 run over the next 3½ minutes to cut the St. Joe's lead to 4 points (73-69). St. Joe's added a couple baskets and now leads 77-69 with 6 minutes left in the game. Can they hold on?

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=401169445