Final: Indiana State 76 Bradley 71

[Da Coach]

Bradley resumes MVC play with a road game at Indiana State on Sunday, January 2, at 12 noon. As of the time of this post, the game was still on.
The game is on ESPN+ - https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/...meId=401367277
Live Stats- https://gosycamores.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Chat Room- www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

All 10 MVC teams are playing Sunday, January 2-

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/18/date/20220102

Bradley is 7-6 after Sun Bowl Invitational championship on Dec 22. That was their last game. Their game scheduled for Dec. 29 vs. Bellarmine was cancelled. Bradley is 1-0 in the MVC with their win over UNI on Dec. 1.
Indiana State is 7-6 after their 107-51 win over NAIA Midway University last Wednesday (Dec. 29). They are 0-1 in the MVC with an 88-76 road loss at Loyola Dec. 1.

Indiana State website- https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-basketball
Schedule/results- https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule

This is the first season for new head coach Josh Schertz, who replaced Greg Lansing last March- https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-...sh-schertz/875
Roster- https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...1/pdf/cume.pdf

Bradley stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...1/pdf/cume.pdf

[Da Coach]

Pregame article from BradleyBraves.com

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2022/1/1/mens-basketball-braves-return-to-valley-play-at-indiana-state.aspx

[Big Mike]

Bradley has to have the worst 3 pt defense in the league!

[Da Coach]

Final score- Indiana State 76 Bradley 71

Tough loss today in a game Bradley could have and maybe should have won. Indiana State was down 3 players due to Covid, including 2 of their top 3 scorers. As result, 3 of Indiana State's starters played all 40 minutes, and another starter played 38 minutes. But they shot the three pointers well (15-35), while Bradley missed a ton of layups, and shots in the paint. And a couple long dry spells near the end of the first half and at the end of the 2nd half doomed the Braves.
Stats- https://gosycamores.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

[BUfan14]

Can someone explain to me why Wardle subs during runs all the time? I understand why you generally stick to a rotation, but when you’re on 10 point runs why do we immediately sub seemingly every time? Ride it out for a bit. It feels like we lose momentum when this subbing is done. In the first half we subbed 4 players after a big run and immediately lost momentum and then the lead.

[houstonbrave]

We should have had a big advantage down low but Reink did not show up today

[Dub]

Was at the game. We generated a lot of open shots today out of the offense. Seemed main difference was theirs went in and ours didn’t. And you could see it in the body language midway thru the second half.

[bradleyfan124]

How long is Jashon out?

[bradleyfan124]

Terrible in inconsistency this year. You dont know what team will show up

[Coach24]

Can someone explain to me why Wardle subs during runs all the time? I understand why you generally stick to a rotation, but when you’re on 10 point runs why do we immediately sub seemingly every time? Ride it out for a bit. It feels like we lose momentum when this subbing is done. In the first half we subbed 4 players after a big run and immediately lost momentum and then the lead.

I wonder about that as well. It has hurt us more than once. You have hit the nail on the head with this one.

[BUfan17]

Can someone explain to me why Wardle subs during runs all the time? I understand why you generally stick to a rotation, but when you’re on 10 point runs why do we immediately sub seemingly every time? Ride it out for a bit. It feels like we lose momentum when this subbing is done. In the first half we subbed 4 players after a big run and immediately lost momentum and then the lead.

Wardle's substitution patterns have always confused me, it is easily my biggest complaint about his coaching. We didn't shoot that well but this still should have been a win.

[bigjimmy]

Winning on the road in the Valley is never easy but when you have 13 more shots and 10 more rebounds there's no excuse not to win. But a 4 1/2 minute scoreless drought in the first half and second half helped lead to the defeat. During the 1st scoring drought we had them down 11 with 8:03 left and we missed 7 shots, 6 of them layups, and had 5 turnovers as they scored 12 straight to lead. During the 2nd scoring drought we were leading 64-61 with 6:57 left and we missed 4 shots and had 2 turnovers while they ran 7 straight to go up 4. Would like to know what's going on with JaShon as he's a stabilizing force. Too many times Ville is shooting blanks from 3 and what has happened to Rienk. Can't just have 2 guys contribute abd expect to win.

[Tommy]

Winning on the road in the Valley is never easy but when you have 13 more shots and 10 more rebounds there's no excuse not to win. But a 4 1/2 minute scoreless drought in the first half and second half helped lead to the defeat.

Perfect assessment, Jimmy!

The inability to score strikes again, but I wonder how much the long layoff played into that. Let's hope no more games are canceled or postponed as I think we play much better when our regular schedule is working and last year is a good indicator for what happens when we don't have that consistency.

As for the rotation complaints, seems like most of BW's decisions come after a foul or someone messes up an assignment or does something stupid, though I was confused by all the playing time Montgomery received, but who am I to question BW? It's not as if he pulls out a player right after he hits 2 or 3 shots like Geno used to do. Now those were rotations that made NO sense.

One improvement I'd like to see is that I would like to see us go right back at Ville after he makes a 3. He's such a streaky shooter and if you can get him in his rhythm, he can really light it up. He made a 3 early on and we didn't get it back to him to take another one for quite a while and I just don't think that works for him and I'm not sure that he made another for the rest of the game.

In the end, you've got to make shots in order to win games. We gave this one away with our poor shooting and much of that was right at the rim. Very disappointing, but after the long layoff I'll be interested to see how they bounce back in their next game.

[pfcmsh]

How long is Jashon out?

This is a darn good question. Any updates on Jayshon?

[LittleBrave]

You can't lose to Indy St this year.
They lost nearly every player and they were missing 2 key players.

Bad game to lose period.

If we lose to Indy St on the road, we likely won't win 3 road conf. games this season, which won't get the Braves far.