Final score: Bradley 75 ISU 63

[Da Coach]

Official attendance was 7303....and not that it's a huge deal BigJimmy but DB's injury is to his quad....not his calf. You could tell he had it wrapped up under his pants last night.

Yes, for future purposes, the official attendance gets posted in several locations:
During each game, about the middle of the second, the attendance will get posted on this "Summary" page of the Live Stats feed.
You have to click the "Game Details" tab under the score-

https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

And after the game, it is posted on the right side of the Interactive Box Score (posted on the schedule page under each game result, as well as in the Game Summary) -
https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/18032

And also, near the bottom of the PDF version of the official box score (also posted on the schedule page under each game result and in the Game Summary)-
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...s_State_63.pdf

I heard that Darrell Brown sustained a bruise to the thigh during the Missouri State game on Wed. Jan. 15. The quadriceps are the very strong muscles on the front of the thigh. They are the biggest and strongest muscles in our body, and used for running, jumping, and pretty much all movement while on our feet. And of course, those muscles are essential to an athlete, especially a basketball player.
It appeared to be just a bruise, so he continued practicing and played against Northern Iowa last Saturday (Jan. 18 ). DB had a pretty good game that night. He played 37 minutes, more than any other Brave, scored 18 points, and had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. But then after that game, the quadriceps got more painful, swelled and stiffened up. He may have had some additional bleeding into the muscles (called a hematoma), which can occur even days after a bruise if the muscle is stressed a lot. So then the best thing is to give it rest to allow absorption of the bleeding, and allow the muscle to heal. There is usually no set time frame for when a player can play again. It will usually be evaluated day to day and a decision will be made prior to each game.
I hope he can play Saturday. We will need him.

Is anyone going to Terre Haute Saturday? I'll be in Section 115 (behind Bradley bench), row G, seats 7-10 (on aisle). Come over and say hello.

[The Old Guy]

Despite not having DB available last night, Bradley played a good floor game.They had more assists than turn-overs, demonstrated good shot selection, and managed to find the open man. My assessment is the team played better without DB than they would have with DB. DB often tries to carry the team which can result in forced shots and sometimes poor shot selection, a situation we did not see last night. Even if we have to play another game or two with only 7 scholarship players, the performance last night should give the team confidence going forward.
Go Braves!!!!

[bradleyfan2003]

I got a deep bruise to my thigh this summer in a basketball game and it didn't start hurting/swelling until the day after. I tried to play through it but I couldn't and I had to sit out about a weekish. I didn't have a hematoma though, so I can only imagine how that feels.

[bigjimmy]

Official attendance was 7303....and not that it's a huge deal BigJimmy but DB's injury is to his quad....not his calf. You could tell he had it wrapped up under his pants last night.

My bad. I thought I had heard calf. And with my eyesight I'm lucky I can see the shots go up so I couldn't see how DB was wrapped up. This is still a tricky injury, one that can stay with him the rest of his season and career at BU. So I just hope he doesn't rush himself back too early.

[Dub]

...Is anyone going to Terre Haute Saturday? I'll be in Section 115 (behind Bradley bench), row G, seats 7-10 (on aisle). Come over and say hello.

My daughter and I will be making the drive. We will be a couple rows in front of you, same section. See you there!

[LittleBrave]

Official attendance was 7303....and not that it's a huge deal BigJimmy but DB's injury is to his quad....not his calf. You could tell he had it wrapped up under his pants last night.

Probably one of the lowest attendance numbers in the rivalry in the past 25 seasons I would imagine.
Can't believe we can't get 8,000+ in the seat for the ISU-BU game.
Is it partly because ISU sucks badly now??

Even when we were a .500 team, we'd get 9,000+ to the War in Peoria.
Maybe with the Geno collapse, the rivalry got watered down?

[Dub]

Probably one of the lowest attendance numbers in the rivalry in the past 25 seasons I would imagine.
Can't believe we can't get 8,000+ in the seat for the ISU-BU game.
Is it partly because ISU sucks badly now??

Even when we were a .500 team, we'd get 9,000+ to the War in Peoria.
Maybe with the Geno collapse, the rivalry got watered down?

The Glasser Catastrophe killed our attendance and it may never fully recover. However, the crowd we had Wednesday night was a move in the right direction. We have bottomed out and are now on the rebound, but again I’m not confident we will ever get back to 9000+ and yearly sellouts. But hey yajustneverknow.

[Da Coach]

I think if we had won the game last Saturday against UNI, the Wednesday attendance might have even been a bit better. It would have put Bradley in 1st place, and may have generated a little more enthusiasm. But as we've said before, this is probably the new normal. I think it's possible we may never see the 10,000 attendance numbers again, unless we can get a game in Peoria with a Big Ten-type team.

[BUfan17]

Despite not having DB available last night, Bradley played a good floor game.They had more assists than turn-overs, demonstrated good shot selection, and managed to find the open man. My assessment is the team played better without DB than they would have with DB. DB often tries to carry the team which can result in forced shots and sometimes poor shot selection, a situation we did not see last night. Even if we have to play another game or two with only 7 scholarship players, the performance last night should give the team confidence going forward.
Go Braves!!!!

I was going to say the same thing. I love DB but he does try to force things sometimes. I'm sure it's a hard transition for him considering how much more talent we have now compared to his freshman and sophomore seasons when he had to do a lot more. I'm looking forward to getting both him and childs back later though.

[Da Coach]

I was going to say the same thing. I love DB but he does try to force things sometimes. I'm sure it's a hard transition for him considering how much more talent we have now compared to his freshman and sophomore seasons when he had to do a lot more. I'm looking forward to getting both him and childs back later though.

I understand your points, and I agree completely with you. Darrell does get off to a bad start sometimes, and tries to shoot his way out of it which can hurt the team.
But we really need DB. He single-handedly won a bunch of games for the Braves last season. If we didn't have DB, the 2019 team would have been eliminated in the first game of the MVC Tournament. DB scored a game-high 20 points and had 5 assists against Missouri State to advance to the semifinals.
Also, Brown, along with Childs, carried Bradley in the NCAA game against Michigan State. He has been less dominating this year, but he's still valuable and stretches opponents' defenses, which benefits our other perimeter players as well as our inside players.

I still remember the Geno Ford years when we went several years without a true point guard. Walt Lemon was a good player, but wasn't a real point guard. Bradley was last or next to last in assists for several years under Geno. Now we rank near the top every year with DB running the team. The same thing can be said about shooting percentages and 3-point percentages. Under Geno, we were dead last several years in a row. With DB, we have consistently been near the top. Much of that is better shooters, but don't underestimate DB's effects of spreading out the defenses, and his passing ability.

[Tommy]

Good point Coach.
I sometimes get caught looking at the scoring and shooting percentage and drawing the conclusion that DB has been terrible this year. When he’s off on his shooting, he’s REALLY off, and I think we’d all be fine with him never driving to the basket and taking a circus shot again. Too many of those this season, and I’d be all for it if he got the foul calls, but he doesn’t, so he needs to shelve that part of his game.
All that being said, he is the cog that makes our offense tick. He is our assist leader and floor general and the offense just flows better when he’s on the court. Too often without him we find our team standing around waiting for something to happen or passing the ball around the 3 point line.
Lastly, even when DB shoots poorly, other teams have to respect him as he has the ability to go off at any time.
A healthy and effective DB is necessary if this team is going to win in St. Louis this year, so let’s hope for a quick and complete recovery.