Final score: Bradley 72 - Evansville 52

[Da Coach]

Bradley is now 10-5 overall, and 1-1 in the MVC. There are 8 MVC teams with a 1-1 record.
The next game is at Evansville, Wednesday, Jan. 8, at 6:00 pm.
Evansville is the only MVC team that is 0-2 in the league-
Standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ngs/_/group/18

The game is on ESPN+: https://www.espn.com/watch?id=cbec8f...ansville-US-EN
Live stats: https://gopurpleaces.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Chat Room: http://www.chatzy.com/524398219675

Evansville website- https://gopurpleaces.com/sports/mens-basketball
Schedule/results- https://gopurpleaces.com/sports/mens...tball/schedule
Roster- https://gopurpleaces.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/gopurpleace...stats_full.pdf

Even though Evansville is 0-2 so far, this is potentially a good team, and it will be a difficult task for Bradley to win there.
They knocked off Kentucky back in November, and it is virtually impossible for a mid-major to win at Rupp Arena.
Bradley is 0-4 in true road games, and Evansville is 5-2 at home, with losses to SMU and an OT loss in their last game to Valparaiso.

Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFLDRS.HTM
MVC conference only stats- http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFONLY.HTM
MVC NET ranking- http://warrennolan.com/basketball/20...issouri-Valley

[Da Coach]

Also....With his team-leading 18 points against UNI, Nate Kennell now has 999 career point at Bradley. It is almost a certainty he will go over the 1000 point mark Wednesday against Evansville. He will be the 49th Bradley player to reach 1,000 points in his Bradley career.
Darrell Brown added 12 points against UNI to increase his career total to 1,548.

Here is the BU all-time scoring list prior to this season. Darrell Brown is now #13 with 1,548 points, Nate Kennell is now #49 with 999 points, and Elijah Childs is now #64 with 882 points-

[Scottie]

Gotta win this game.

[Bradleyfan1]

If we want to win the conf. We gotta get this one. Join the 1st place tie at 2 and 1. Play great D and make your free ones. We're gonna need to shoot the 3 well till Childs is back. Bar Boya and hammerin Hank are going to need to control the paint. You got this guys. Go BU.

[Tommy]

My prediction:
DB gets out of his travel slump in this game and goes off tonight. 30 points and 10 assists.

[Go_Braves]

I agree with all of the Bradley pre-game hype... I am psyched, pumped, ready for tonight's game... I just hope "and pray" that all Bradley players step up to a new level of play....

For everyone's information - sometimes I take a different tac to get me ready for a Bradley game...

Sometimes what I find interesting is to look at the MVC opponents Home Paper Sports section either before the game or after a game. Below is what was written in yesterday's (Jan 7th) Evansville "Courier and Press. "
Note: Evansville may be 0 - 2 in the Valley - but they were during each game leading that game before they loss.

GO BRAVES !!!!

Evansville basketball covets first MVC win for positive momentum

EVANSVILLE — Instead of preparing inside their on-campus Fifth Third Practice Facility, the Purple Aces spent Tuesday morning at Ford Center with hopes that seeing shots go in on their home court will help them break out of a recent funk.
One week into Missouri Valley Conference play, the Aces (9-6, 0-2) are the only team without a win. (Loyola is 2-0, everyone else is 1-1.) UE hopes to change that in Wednesday’s 6 p.m. showdown with Bradley.
“I think it’ll help us mentally to prepare, getting shots up in here,” Noah Frederking said beforehand. “We’re not in here that often, so hopefully we get all our shots right.”

The Aces collectively have struggled shooting 3-pointers to open MVC play. They’re making just 25 percent of their attempts — nearly 10 percentage points below their season average. Had a few more shots from beyond the arc gone through the basket, their MVC record might be reversed.
Frederking thinks the difference between winning and losing this past week was the team’s mentality. He said they need to stay poised under pressure and not fold when opponents make their runs.

K.J. Riley also thought it would be beneficial to see the ball go in against Ford Center's backdrop.
“We need to get back to playing our style of game,” he said. “We haven’t been pushing the tempo or playing our pace. We haven’t been playing defense. There are a lot of things we were doing at the beginning of the year we haven’t been doing lately.”
The Aces don’t lack confidence. They say they can play with anybody and have mostly proved that considering they led Missouri State by 13 and Valparaiso by eight. They also believe they could’ve beaten both, so spirits remain high.
Interim head coach Bennie Seltzer keeps repeating the word “normalcy” amid this stretch of turmoil stemming from the investigation into whether head coach Walter McCarty allegedly violated Title IX. There's been no indication from UE on how that's progressing.

“A win would definitely get us back to normal,” Seltzer said.
Bradley (10-5, 1-1) represented the Valley in last year’s NCAA tournament. The Braves rank 25th nationally with 41 rebounds per game and a pair of seniors lead them offensively. Nate Kennell is eighth in the NCAA in 3-point percentage — he’s made at least three of them in six straight games — while Darrell Brown averages 13.5 points and 5.1 assists.
Seltzer said Brown might be the Valley’s best veteran point guard and that they’ll have to guard Kennell “as soon as he walks in the gym.”

[Da Coach]

Pregame article from BradleyBraves.com

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2020/1/7/mens-basketball-braves-meet-evansville-on-wednesday.aspx

[elmerb]

We need this game. If we can play 500 ball until Childs comes back, we'll be in good shape for the rest of the season.

GO BRADLEY

[Bradley3342]

Love your post Tommy! If DB can do that it would be awesome and might guarantee us a W. Go Braves!

[Tommy]

Love your post Tommy! If DB can do that it would be awesome and might guarantee us a W. Go Braves!

Haha! Right on, buddy! He’s definitely capable of it and I don’t think Evansville’s D has been very good this year, so that, along with the fact that we need him to step up is hopefully enough to make it happen!

[Da Coach]

It was just announced a short time ago that Evansville's leading scorer (16.9 ppg) and rebounder (7.7 rpg) DeAndre Williams will not play tonight because of a back problem. It's reported that he has been battling back soreness and his back has tightened up today.

And of course, Bradley will also be without their leading scorer and rebounder Elijah Childs. But it does seem that without DeAndre Williams, does give Bradley a better chance to pull off a road win tonight.

[nomonoles4u]

must win
nomonoles

[bujeff23]

Nice win tonight as besides a little second half lull, it was total domination.

Brown seemed to make better shot selection tonight and Nate had another solid game.

I absolutely love Henry’s effort tonight and he was critical in increasing the lead when Evansville cut it to 12. His ups are incredible!

great job guys!

[Da Coach]

Bradley wins 72-52-

https://gopurpleaces.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Surprisingly easy win as Bradley dominated from start to finish without Elijah Childs.
Fantastic performances tonight by Darrell Brown- 16 points, 3 assists
By Ja'Shon Henry- 14 points, 9 rebounds
By Nate Kennell- 17 points, 10 rebounds....Nate goes over the 1,000 career point mark, and now has 1,016 career points.
By Koch Bar- 6 points, 9 rebounds
And even nice games off the bench by Ville Tahvanainen- 8 points, 3 assists and Ari Boya- 4 points, 5 rebounds

[Tommy]

Well, DB didn’t have a career game like I thought he would, but he definitely played well shooting 6 for 13!
Nate with a double double that included 10 boards. Wow!
Henry showed that he’s ready to be a stud once he gets the minutes. We knew he could rebound, but he showed some scoring prowess tonight, too!
Great road win that we needed!