Final score- Missouri State 83 Bradley 67

[Da Coach]

Next game: Bradley at Missouri State, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 7:00 pm,

This game is on ESPN+ - https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/...arId/401367414
Live stats- https://missouristatebears.com/sidea...s/mbball/media
Chat room- www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

Bradley is 16-12 overall, and 10-6 in the MVC, currently in 5th place. Missouri State is 20-9 overall, and 11-5 in the MVC, currently tied for 3rd.
Standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ngs/_/group/18

Missouri State was picked 4th in the preseason MVC poll, and Bradley was picked 6th.-
https://mvc-sports.com/news/2021/10/...-favorite.aspx

There are 5 MVC games scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 23, that could solidify some of the tournament seeds-

https://mvc-sports.com/calendar.aspx?path=mbball

Missouri State is 6-2 at home against MVC opponents, losing at home to UNI and Loyola. They are 11-4 at home overall this season with the additional 2 losses coming to SEMO on opening night, and Brigham Young, who was ranked #12 in the country at the time, though they are now unranked.
Bradley's road record is 4-7 overall, and 3-5 in road MVC games.
Missouri State schedule/results- https://missouristatebears.com/sport...tball/schedule
Roster- https://missouristatebears.com/sport...ketball/roster
Stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...1/pdf/cume.pdf

This game is "Senior Night" for Missouri State. Their seniors are 6'10" F Nic Tata, 6'3" G Demarcus Sharp, 6'9" F Gaige Prim, 6'1" G Jaylen Minnett, and 7' C Dawson Carper. Tata, Sharp, and Carper are 4th year seniors, and have the option of returning for an extra "Covid year". Minnett (a grad-transfer from IUPUI) and Prim are 5th year seniors who are now in their extra "Covid year" and won't be back next year.

Missouri State leads the MVC in scoring average with 77.7 ppg overall, but they are 2nd to UNI in MVC games with a scoring average of 74.4 ppg (UNI is at 75.3 ppg). Bradley ranks 7th in overall scoring at 71.0 ppg, and 5th in MVC games with 70.2.
MSU shoots 3-pointers at 38.1% overall, tied with Loyola for #1 in the MVC. But in MVC games they shoot 35.2% (rank 5th). Bradley shoots 34.9% (rank 6th).
Missouri State ranks in the top 20 in Division I in three shooting categories - 6th in FT% (.796), 18th in FG% (.482) and 18th in 3pt. FG% (.381).

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

MVC stats- http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/confstat.htm

MVC NET Rankings-
https://www.warrennolan.com/basketba...issouri-Valley

[Da Coach]

Pregame article from Missouri State website-

https://missouristatebears.com/news/2022/2/21/mens-basketball-bears-return-to-jqh-arena-for-senior-night-showdown-vs-bradley.aspx

[Go_Braves]

This is the last GREAT TEST for Bradley before the MVC Tournament. Missouri State was embarrassed at UNI this past weekend. MSU will be stoked and ready to play on their home court (last home game - Seniors Night). Both teams have something to prove. As for Bradley it all depends on which team shows up - the team that played at SIU or the team that last played Loyola and Drake.

GO BRAVES !!!

[LittleBrave]

This game scares me, but I hope it's a false fear. Mo State has played well at their place vs the Braves in recent years and sometimes they do anything they want on offense. Our D is much better this season, so we should at least make it a game.

Tough to win anywhere on Senior night when there are starters that are seniors.

[Da Coach]

This game scares me, but I hope it's a false fear. Mo State has played well at their place vs the Braves in recent years and sometimes they do anything they want on offense. Our D is much better this season, so we should at least make it a game.

Tough to win anywhere on Senior night when there are starters that are seniors.

Agree.... the Bradley fan side of me thinks we're the better and deeper team, so we'll win. But the objective, analytical side of me thinks it's not so likely.
Missouri State will be favored.

MSU might be the better offensive team, but Bradley has been the better defensive team. In MVC games, Bradley usually has had a 9-10 player rotation, and their 5 starters combined average only about 26 minutes per game. Missouri State goes 7-8 players deep, and their starters have a combined average of almost 32 minutes per game. Let's hope we see a game plan that keeps Prim away from the basket, and try to force the ball out of Mosley's hands.

[Da Coach]

Game preview from BradleyBraves.com

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2022/2/22/mens-basketball-bradley-faces-missouri-state-in-top-five-valley-matchup.aspx

[Bradley3342]

This game scares me, but I hope it's a false fear. Mo State has played well at their place vs the Braves in recent years and sometimes they do anything they want on offense. Our D is much better this season, so we should at least make it a game.

Tough to win anywhere on Senior night when there are starters that are seniors.

I agree with you Little Brave. I hope it’s false fear also but I just don’t have a great feeling about this game.

[Tommy]

3 early 3’a up by Ville wirh 2 in. I like it.

[Tommy]

My excitement for the MVC just took a hit tonight. Let’s hope Missouri St. gets knocked out because it doesn’t look like we can stop them. Very disappointed in our defense.

[Cousins Cuts podcast]

My excitement for the MVC just took a hit tonight. Let’s hope Missouri St. gets knocked out because it doesn’t look like we can stop them. Very disappointed in our defense.

That and Terry and mast having bad games doesn't help. They have both been up and down the last 4 to 5 games or so. Gotta be playing at 100% by next Friday. Game after game of turnovers. At this point anything less than 12 is amazing. That feels very ridiculous to say but it's true. Shot the ball decently well most the game but had way less shots than them

[Da Coach]

Final score- Missouri State 83 Bradley 67
https://missouristatebears.com/sidea...s/mbball/media

Bradley had a chance and were down by 5 with under 8 minutes left. But incredible shooting display by Isiaih Mosley (13-20, 5-9 from three, 33 points) and Donovan Clay (7-7, 2-2 from three, 17 points) was just too much to overcome.
Bradley shot 26-61 (42.6%) overall, and 8-27 from three (29.6%), and outrebounded MSU 37-36.

Bradley still in 5th place, but no chance of getting 4th now, and locked into the 5th seed. They will play in the 4-5 game (Session 2) on Friday, March 4, at 2:30 pm against either Drake, Loyola, or Missouri State.
Standings with 1 game to go-

[bigjimmy]

We're not winning many games when we give up over 80 points and committ 15 turnovers and only force 10. This team can be very confounding and confusing and I wish I knew why. I'm sure Brian does too. But here's something else that's confusing. Leons once again barely had any points in the fist half, 0 shots and 1 FT, and scores 14 points in the first 8:00. He then doesn't GET A SHOT the rest of the game. How the heck does that happen? That just makes no sense. Hickman had his best offensive game for quite a while and had 15 points when he made a 3 with 8:18 left, which got us to being just down 5. He then just gets 1 shot the rest of the way. Have to figure out a way to get them the ball when they have it going. Instead we had other guys missing wide open 3's, 3-20 from the other guys, and committing unforced turnovers and we score just 5 points the rest of the way. But it was our defense that was mostly pretty poor. You let a team shoot 33-62, 17-29 in the second half, you're not winning. We play like this next Friday and we'll be one and done.

[Big Mike]

Did I expect to win....NO. But Wardle has to realize that Leon's only gets 1pt in 1st half.... common, he has to be a part of the O'....you will not win many games without his Offense. He takes a lot of pressure off everyone else when involved. Also tired of the weak passing, forcing the ball into nothing this late in the season (have we not learned anything)is pitiful. 90% of the turnovers were on Bradley not on the Bears D'....

[BUfan14]

I’m not sure this team can win the tournament. Outside of Drake, the road performances have been pretty lacking. That doesn’t bode well for Arch Madness.

I think it’s painfully obvious that this team needs a good ball handling point guard and a shooter desperately this off season. Recruiting will be huge to make this team a true contender next year. Turnovers and missed open threes are consistent problems. I’m sorry, but Ville is not the shooter we need. He did well against Loyola but then was right back to inconsistency. I think we have missed Kent’s perimeter defense. As inconsistent as he is, his on ball defense I believe is some of our best on the perimeter.

Terry has to focus more. A junior leader shouldn’t be dribbling the ball off his own foot with no pressure this late in the season.

I hope to be surprised, but none of these last three games have been encouraging. Even ISU was barely a win and they are not good. It’s been a weird season. We’ve blown many games and not shown up for some, and then other games we’ve played so well against good teams. I’m not sure how to feel right now about this team. Hopefully the end brings it up. I’m not encouraged for the tournament, but you never know. We do have talent if we play to our potential.

I should add one good thing tonight was to see Hickman finally break out of his funk and play well. Fifth seed here we come I guess! Locked in.

[Da Coach]

Note- If Bradley were to lose their final game Saturday against Valparaiso, and SIU were to win at Drake, they would finish tied for 5th place with identical 10-8 records. That is very unlikely, but if it did happen, Bradley will still get the #5 seed by virtue of the MVC Arch Madness Tiebreaker.

https://mvc-sports.com/news/2018/12/18/arch-madness-revises-tiebreaker.aspx

Two-way Ties
1. Records in head-to-head competition are compared, with the higher seed going to the team that has won the most games against the other.
2. If head-to-head competition does not break the tie, the deadlock will be broken using the NCAA Evaluation Tool (N.E.T.), as published by the NCAA on the morning after the final regular-season MVC games. The team with the better N.E.T. rating will receive the higher seed.

Head-to-head is a 1-1 tie. Bradley's NET is currently 97 and SIU's NET is 139.
It is not mathematically possible for SIU to rise enough to finish above Bradley in the NET rankings with just 1 game to play.