2022-23 Bradley schedule

[️ Fanatic]

https://twitter.com/RazorbackMBB/status/1559235779649359872?s=20&t=cAhL944SoedbNo6LGhBcqQ

Who defends this?

[Da Coach]

That impressive highlight dunk was by Trevon Brazile, a 6'10" sophomore who transferred from Missouri, where he played his freshman season mostly as a starter. He averaged 6.6 ppg and 5.1 rpg, and was 6th in the country with 1.92 blocks per game. He started their game today and was the leading scorer with 28 points on 13-15 shooting (his only 2 misses were 3-point attempts). He was not a starter in Saturday's game.
Brazile averaged 16.0 ppg for the 4 games.

Another look at Trevon Brazile's putback-
https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/watch...put-back-dunk/

Arkansas finished their summer tour in Spain with a 4-0 record after they beat Bakken today 70-59-

https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/sport/m-baskbl/

Arkansas freshman Nick Smith, who was the leading scorer in 3 of the 4 games, averaged 15.5 ppg for the 4-game tour..

The box score does reveal some potential weaknesses-
They shot 3 for 13 from three today (23%), and they were 3 for 11 in Saturday's game. That is just 25% (6-24) from three in their final 2 games, the only two for which box scores were posted. So perimeter shooting could be a weakness for them (see video below where the coach expresses concern about that issue)..
They were also turnover prone. They had an unbelievable 30 turnovers in today's 4th game, 20 turnovers in Saturday's 3rd game, and 23 turnovers in Thursday's 2nd game. Those were the only 3 games in which they listed their turnover stats. That is an average of 24.3 turnovers per game.
And, in the post-game video of the coach below, he says they had "maybe 100 turnovers in the 4 games", so the first game apparently was no different.
For reference, the worst team in the MVC last year was Illinois State with an average of 13.8 turnovers per game. The worst team in the entire NCAA Division I last year was Prairie View A&M with 17.7 turnovers per game.

In this video post-game interview with head coach Eric Musselman, he also voices concern about his teams turnover problem (a couple of his quotes- "the turnovers are ridiculous" and "words can't describe how concerned I am about our turnovers"), and poor three point shooting ("our three point shooting has got to improve").
https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/coach...re-phenomenal/

[64NIT]

In this video post-game interview with head coach Eric Musselman, he also voices concern about his teams turnover problem (a couple of his quotes- "the turnovers are ridiculous" and "words can't describe how concerned I am about our turnovers"), and poor three point shooting ("our three point shooting has got to improve").
https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/coach...re-phenomenal/

By the time they meet Bradley, late in December, and after having worked out the kinks with some of the sacrificial lambs that should be on their schedule, as well as a couple possible early season SEC games, these should be less of a problem than they were on their overseas trip (keywords: should be).

[Da Coach]

True. The turnovers problem will likely get fixed. The outside shooting may not be so easy.

[64NIT]

BU complete 22-23 non-con schedule:

https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...tball/schedule

[Nashville Cat]

BU complete 22-23 non-con schedule:

https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...tball/schedule

This is a terrific schedule! I count 3 opportunities for Quad-1 wins on neutral courts. Side note...is the Wisconsin Parkside game a counter, or no? Wesleyan definitely isn't.

[Da Coach]

This is a terrific schedule! I count 3 opportunities for Quad-1 wins on neutral courts. Side note...is the Wisconsin Parkside game a counter, or no? Wesleyan definitely isn't.

The RPI and NET only count Division I wins and losses. So the Wisconsin-Parkside game (Division II) won't count.
Here is the 2022-23 schedule-

[Da Coach]

Bradley's exhibition opponent, Illinois Wesleyan, is coming off a 24-6 season, 14-2 and a first place finish in the CCIW in 2021-22. They were upset in their conference tournament, but received an at-large bid to the D3 tournament, and advanced to the Elite 8 before getting beaten by 15th ranked Wabash-
https://www.iwusports.com/news/2022/...15-wabash.aspx

Wisconsin-Parkside played at Bradley in the opening game of the 2018-19 season on Nov. 7, 2018.
Bradley defeated the Parkside Rangers 74-58 behind 19 points from Koch bar and 17 from Elijah Childs-
Box score- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...arkside_58.pdf

They had 4 GLVC 1st place finishes in a row from 2012-2016, and went to 5 straight D2 NCAA Tournaments under head coach Luke Reigel.
But since a 1st place finish in 2018-19, they have had 3 straight seasons 5th place finishes at .500 or below.
https://parksiderangers.com/sports/m...uke-reigel/820

Their 2022-23 roster shows a very young team made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores, and not a lot of size-
https://parksiderangers.com/sports/m...ketball/roster

The only down-side of the schedule is the home schedule of teams.
Here is the home schedule with last year's NET rank-:
Illinois Wesleyan (Division 3)
Wisconsin-Parkside (Division 2)
Eastern Michigan (306)
SEMO (250)
Merrimack (291)
Stonehill (15-12 in D2 last year, 10-9 in the NE10 Conference)
Akron (126)

Things should get better after that with the MVC part of the schedule. That should be coming out soon.

[Nashville Cat]

I see 8 wins not counting exhibitions.

[Bradley3342]

What is with the 4:00 pm. start time against Akron on Thursday,December 22nd?! Seems really odd with fans still at work..

[Da Coach]

What is with the 4:00 pm. start time against Akron on Thursday, December 22nd?! Seems really odd with fans still at work..

Hmmm, I've never seen that kind of start time for a weekday before.

The Bradley semester break starts December 14 and runs through January 3, 2023. Graduation is Saturday, Dec 17. So it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the Bradley academic calendar. And there is nothing else on the Civic Center calendar, either.
If anyone has a guess, let us know.

[MDCowboy]

Hmmm, I've never seen that kind of start time for a weekday before.

The Bradley semester break starts December 14 and runs through January 3, 2023. Graduation is Saturday, Dec 17. So it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the Bradley academic calendar. And there is nothing else on the Civic Center calendar, either.
If anyone has a guess, let us know.

My guess is that since the 23rd is a holiday for most people for getting Christmas Eve on the 23rd, they wanted to have a late afternoon game in case people wanted to head out of town early? Seems strange though.

[bigjimmy]

Absolutely hate the mid afternoon starting times for the home games. Will miss 2 of the 6 non-con home games. I HATE missing home games.

[Da Coach]

I'm hearing the conference part of the schedule is getting close to being released by the MVC. Many conferences have released their schedules by now.
Last year, with the simpler home-and-home, 10-team/18 game format, the schedule was not released until September 14, 2021-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...uesday-sept-14

This year, the schedule is a bit more complicated with 12-teams, and 20 games, meaning teams will play some opponents twice, and others just once.

Bradley schedule so far-

[Da Coach]

I'm hearing the conference part of the schedule is getting close to being released by the MVC....

Looks like my source is accurate.
PJS sportswriter Dave Eminian tweeted-
"Hearing that Bradley men’s basketball conference schedule comes out from Missouri Valley Conference tomorrow. Word is both Murray State and Belmont will be among BU’s home-and-home series. Stay tuned"

https://twitter.com/icetimecleve/status/1569752207183978497

Looks like Bradley will be making road trips to Nashville, TN and Murray, KY.