Final score: Bradley 64 SIU 59

[Da Coach]

#4 seeded Bradley's next game is Friday, March 6 at 2:35 pm against #5 seed Southern Illinois in the second game of the Friday afternoon session (Session 2) of the MVC Tournament.

Arch Madness website- http://mvc-sports.com/index.aspx?path=arch_madness
Tournament Schedule- http://mvc-sports.com/feature/20Arch

Bradley is 20-10, and 11-7 in the MVC and tied for 3rd place. SIU is 16-15, 10-8 in the MVC and finished 5th.
Standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ngs/_/group/18

TV- the game is on the MVC-TV Network, which includes NBCSports Chicago, FoxSports Midwest, FoxSports Indiana, FoxSports Kansas City, and the Fox Go app. Plus it will be streamed by ESPN+ for those outside of the MVC-TV Network area.

Chat room- http://www.chatzy.com/524398219675
Live Stats- http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=309833

http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/tournament.php?l=0&tid=205

SIU website- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball

Bradley beat SIU in Peoria 67-48 on January 11-
https://bradleybraves.com/news/2020/...cond-half.aspx

Bradley also won in Carbondale 69-67 on Feb. 15-
https://bradleybraves.com/news/2020/...-illinois.aspx

SIU overachieved most of the season under new head coach Bryan Mullins, but they faded in the last 3 weeks. Mullins may still win the Coach of the Year award, but that is not a given after they lost 5 of their last 6 games, including 2 home losses to Bradley and Indiana State. Their only win down the stretch was a home win over Evansville.
SIU Schedule- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
SIU Roster- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

SIU stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...tistics_3_.pdf
BU stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...dley_stats.pdf

SIU's leading scorer is freshman Marcus Domask (13.8 ppg & 5.3 rpg), who is a leading candidate to become MVC Freshman of the Year, and possible Newcomer of the Year (transfers Gage Prim of MSU and Tate Hall of Loyola also are candidates for NOY). However, Domask also faded down the stretch, going just 5-24 and averaging only 5 ppg over his last 3 games.
Other starters include senior guard Eric McGill (11.3 ppg), grad-transfer center Barret Benson (10.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg), freshman guard Lance Jones (9.0 ppg), and grad-transfer guard and former Bradley Brave Ronnie Suggs (5.2 ppg).
SIU's 3-point percentage is 33.4% which ranks 9th in the MVC, and their 62.7 ppg scoring average ranks #10 in the MVC. However, they are the top defensive team in the MVC as measured by points allowed (62.2 ppg).
MVC overall stats- http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFLDRS.HTM
MVC games only stats- http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFONLY.HTM

[KMart]

Domask played a lot of minutes and it seemed to have caught up with him finally. Jones has been surging as of late, so it will be interesting to see if they can get their legs back under them after 5 days of rest. Hoping for the best, but can't overlook anyone this weekend. Very hard to beat a team 3 times.

Go Braves!

[Da Coach]

Domask played a lot of minutes and it seemed to have caught up with him finally. Jones has been surging as of late, so it will be interesting to see if they can get their legs back under them after 5 days of rest. Hoping for the best, but can't overlook anyone this weekend. Very hard to beat a team 3 times.

Go Braves!

Freshman Lance Jones, from Evanston HS, looks like a good player. He worked his way into the starting lineup after Aaron Cook went down with a season-ending injury, and has kept his starting spot.
In their last game, the 25 point loss at Missouri State, Lance Jones had 28 points. The rest of the starting lineup totaled only 14 points. So Jones had twice as many points as all the other 4 starters combined! He is not a great 3-point shooter (only 29% on the season), but likes to drive into the lane.
He had just 7 points against Bradley in Peoria in the game Bradley won 67-48. But he has a team-leading 19 points against Bradley in Carbondale in the game Bradley edged SIU 69-67.

https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2019-20/missouri-state/boxscore/9183

[Dub]

Domask played a lot of minutes and it seemed to have caught up with him finally. Jones has been surging as of late, so it will be interesting to see if they can get their legs back under them after 5 days of rest. Hoping for the best, but can't overlook anyone this weekend. Very hard to beat a team 3 times.

Go Braves!

Not to be a tool, but I believe the old (unsubstantiated) saying is that it’s “hard to beat a GOOD team 3 times in a row.”

The question then becomes: Is SIU a good team? It is hard to answer that, but certainly they are a worthy opponent.

[JC]

I don't post much, but I am one of the many who read this place constantly. Thanks to all who post, I enjoy this place and the information more than any other sports site. And especially thanks to Da Coach for everything you do and all the things you come up with. It really makes following Bradley a lot more fun.

[Da Coach]

The MVC weekly teleconference today and was mostly about preparation for the MVC tournament. There are links to the comments from each of the 10 MVC coaches.
The first link on this page is Bradley Head Coach Brian Wardle commenting about Bryan Mullins and SIU. Then there are a couple questions from writers that Coach Wardle answers-

http://mvc-sports.com/news/2020/3/2/arch-madness-mvc-mens-basketball-coaches-pre-tourney-teleconference.aspx

[Tommy]

Who is heading down tomorrow for the playin games?

[BUfan39]

Who is heading down tomorrow for the playin games?

I'll be there for both!

[Da Coach]

Who is heading down tomorrow for the playin games?

I will go down Friday. I'll be watching the Thursday games on TV.

[wily coyote]

Who is heading down tomorrow for the playin games?

We have 10 in our group going down. 4 of them came up from The Villages in Fl.

[Tommy]

Guys, I hope we get a chance to meet in St. Louis!

[Da Coach]

Not to be a tool, but I believe the old (unsubstantiated) saying is that it’s “hard to beat a GOOD team 3 times in a row.”

The question then becomes: Is SIU a good team? It is hard to answer that, but certainly they are a worthy opponent.

It's maybe not as hard as some people say.
Just for the record, here is an article from 2013. It cites a study of 981 such "third time matchups" of Division I teams in the previous 10 years.
Here was the finding-
https://jamesmadison.rivals.com/news...straight-times

According to STATS LLC., there have been 981 similar matchups across Division I college basketball over the past 10 seasons. The teams entering the third game 2-0 are a combined 710-271 (.724 winning percentage) in the third meeting.

[Bradleyfan1]

I think you have to dig deeper here. Teams who are closer in talent levels, W/L records etc. Eliminate for example Gonzaga beating the bottom 3 of the wcc 3 times every year is not the same as BU beating SIU 3 times. So those scenarios need elimnated from the equasion. Im hoping experience and firepower , defense , rebounding, attitude and effort lead us to the Victory. Im really hoping for semi sat being a I74 rivalry game . goooooooooo goooooooooooo gooooooooooo go BU.

[Da Coach]

Good article from the Bradley Scout-
Bradley in familiar first round territory against upstart SIU
https://www.bradleyscout.com/sports/...t-upstart-siu/

I am impressed that writer Larry Larson and the staff at the Bradley Scout is putting the PJ Star to shame with their great coverage of Bradley basketball.


Pre-game article from BradleyBraves.com-

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2020/3/4/mens-basketball-bradley-opens-title-defense-against-southern-illinois-in-arch-madness-quarterfinals.aspx

[Bradleyfan1]

That was a real nice read. Pretty much summed it up. Other than the newly added snub of BUs players and coaches and the overranking of Mullins and his. Lets go Bradley. I expect the place to be rocking for this one. Can our fanbase match what we know the Dawgs will bring? Will the Redbirds be the ones awaiting the winner on Sat? I think so. Who will execute better? Bring more effort and energy? Who will survive and advance in ARCH MADDNESS? BU thats Who!