Predictions for remaining 11 regular season games

[Da Coach]

The second half of the MVC schedule has 6 home games and 5 road games, including road games at 3 of the 4 bottom teams in the MVC (Bradley does not play at Evansville).
Pick the winners/losers for the remaining regular season games for Bradley,
Maybe a bit overly optimistic, but barring major injury factors like Bradley dealt with earlier this season, I think Bradley can go 9-2...
Convince me I'm wrong. If they do, Bradley will finish the season 15-5.

1/21- Belmont at Bradley W
1/25- Illinois State at Bradley W
1/29- Bradley at UIC W
2/1- SIU at Bradley W
2/4- Bradley at UNI L
2/8- Bradley at Illinois State W
2/11- Murray State at Bradley W
2/15- Missouri State at Bradley W
2/19- Bradley at SIU L
2/22- Bradley at Valparaiso W
2/26- Drake at Bradley W

[bradleyfan124]

I agree. We have to take carer of the homecourt. Southern will be tough down there

[basketball nut]

I'm going one better and saying 10-1 & 16-4 in the Valley. I'm being really optimistic but really enjoyed the Indiana ST game. The ability is there, now we have to see how they handle it. Might be the best "D" in the Valley.
1/21- Belmont at Bradley W
1/25- Illinois State at Bradley W
1/29- Bradley at UIC W
2/1- SIU at Bradley W
2/4- Bradley at UNI W
2/8- Bradley at Illinois State W
2/11- Murray State at Bradley W
2/15- Missouri State at Bradley W
2/19- Bradley at SIU L
2/22- Bradley at Valparaiso W
2/26- Drake at Bradley W

[Tommy]

I'm with BN, I don't see us losing to UNI and the rest are winnable and frankly, I'll be disappointed if we don't get them all. SIU's defense and upper classmen will make both games tough, but we typically split with them and if we continue to play at home like we have, nobody will beat us at Carver.

[Da Coach]

Does anyone think Bradley will lose a game at home the rest of this season?
If not, then it comes down to the final 5 road games at UIC, UNI, ISU, SIU and Valpo. Which of those will BU win?
And how nice would it have been if, by the luck of the draw, Bradley had been given Evansville as a road game instead of Drake, Belmont or Murray State?

[BUfan14]

The SIU games will be the toughest to me. They seem to be the team that has played the most consistently well. I will be very interested to see how we play against them, as we still haven't played well, generally, against better opponents. Every other game should be a win, even at UNI. If we aren't fired up for that Drake game after the embarrassing display at their place on our senior night, then that will be even more embarrassing. Murray and Missouri State are the two other toughest games, but they should be won at home.

We may slip up one home game just having an off night, and it will be hard to win at SIU. Anything less than 9-2 will be a disappointment to me actually. 10-1 is very possible if there are no off games at home. I cannot see beating SIU twice, so winning out seems highly improbable.

I'll go 9-2 as well, with some optimism it could be 10-1. This Belmont game needs to be won first though, so once again I will say it is a HUGE game to get where we hope to go.

Side note: the better non-con schedule this year helps us in all of these tiebreaks to have a higher NET. It really is important to schedule better opponents.

[tecon89]

I’d say 9-1 with lone loss to SIU in Carbondale is the most probable.

Something tells me though something is gonna surprise us. Great shooting night by the opponent mixed by bad shooting night by us. Whether it’s at home or a road game against a worse team.
UNI is playing better, and ISUr will get up for the game in Normal. So 8-2 is my guess

Also I think 10-0 is more probable then 7-3.

[tecon89]

Does anyone think Bradley will lose a game at home the rest of this season?
If not, then it comes down to the final 5 road games at UIC, UNI, ISU, SIU and Valpo. Which of those will BU win?
And how nice would it have been if, by the luck of the draw, Bradley had been given Evansville as a road game instead of Drake, Belmont or Murray State?

Speaking of draws. Who ended up getting the easiest path among the top 8? Missouri St with ISUr and Valpo?

[Da Coach]

Speaking of the tiebreaker system used for MVC Tournament seeding, I have not seen if there was any change in the tiebreaker for the 2022-23 MVC Tournament seedings. Has anyone heard if it was changed?
The reason it could become an issue is because of the unbalanced schedule that was put into place for the first time this season. It means that every team has 2 MVC opponents that they only play once.
The first MVC tiebreaker is head-to-head record. What if 2 teams tie, and they only played each other once? In that case, the team that played the single game at home has an unfair advantage in getting the higher seed. I believe that in that unique situation, the first tiebreaker should be the NET, and not head-to-head record
For Bradley, that situation should not arise. They won at Indiana State, so Bradley clearly has that tiebreaker. And there is no realistic concern about a tie with Evansville.

[Dub]

I’d say 9-1 with lone loss to SIU in Carbondale is the most probable.

Something tells me though something is gonna surprise us. Great shooting night by the opponent mixed by bad shooting night by us. Whether it’s at home or a road game against a worse team.
UNI is playing better, and ISUr will get up for the game in Normal. So 8-2 is my guess

Also I think 10-0 is more probable then 7-3.

“You’re never as good or as bad as you think you are”

I’m seeing in myself (and others) in this thread the tendency to be totally devastated after the Drake loss, and now whipsaw after InSU into feeling we may as well go undefeated. We are likely still going to be surprised both good and bad with this team yet this yr.

I’m sticking with my previous prediction of 15-5 final valley tally and I hope for better…. This team has proved they can win on the road, but they haven’t yet shown us that they will do it consistently. And all it takes is one clunker at home to have a setback.

make no mistake: this BU team is capable to prove me wrong and go undefeated from here to selection Sunday.

[BUfan14]

I'll go 9-2 as well, with some optimism it could be 10-1. This Belmont game needs to be won first though, so once again I will say it is a HUGE game to get where we hope to go.

And we couldn’t win the big one. I stand by this team “should” go 9-2, but it’s hard to predict only losing one the rest of the way now. This team hasn’t done what it “should” this year as a whole. Once again we clawed our way back to potentially be contenders and lost the game that would officially put us back in.

Once again we built the program up enough to draw a nice crowd and lost. It’s hard to be enthusiastic about once again contending for third or fourth and not first or second. We talk of drawing crowds, but we still haven’t had a real first place contender in forever. Again, I can’t see us winning both SIU games to change this.

[Bball31]

Nobody is talking about SIU, but I think they’re in the driver’s seat of winning the league. The only significant road games they have are at Bradley and Drake. They do have home games against Murray St., MOST, Bradley and UNI. They also own the tie breaker against Belmont. Belmont still has to go to Murray St., MOST, Drake and UNI and as I said, SIU owns the tie breaker against them. UNI seems to be playing better but has to go to Ind. St., MOST and SIU.