Exhibition game Wed., Nov. 1 - Bradley vs. St. Ambrose 7 pm

[Da Coach]

Bradley vs. St. Ambrose - Wednesday, Nov. 1, 7 pm against St. Ambrose University at Carver Arena.
No TV or streaming available.
Can anyone confirm if this game will be on WMBD radio? - www.wmbdradio.com

Bradley played a closed scrimmage this past Saturday (10/28 ) in St. Louis against Missouri, and though they ended up on the losing end, they played pretty well and stayed in contention until midway through the 2nd half when the reserves took over and played the remainder of the game.

Wednesday's exhibition game will be the only public exhibition game this season. St. Ambrose is a private Catholic university in Davenport, Iowa, founded in 1882. They have about 2,700 students, and about 2,100 are undergraduates.

The St. Ambrose Fighting Bees are an NAIA school and compete in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Last year they were 5-20 overall, and 4-16 in the CCAC, which was 13th out of 14 schools.- https://www.ccacsports.com/sports/mb...2-23/standings

Bradley men's basketball has played St. Ambrose 3 times in the past. They played twice as regular season games- first on Jan. 8, 1937 in the Rock Island Tournament (BU won 33-31), and a second time Dec. 5, 1973 in the Fieldhouse (BU won 101-75). And they also played St. Ambrose a 3rd time, as a preseason exhibition game on Nov. 1, 2007. That was the first preseason exhibition game in the 2007-08 season (Bradley also played Quincy as a preseason exhibition that season). Bradley won easily 110-84. Bradley newcomer Tyrone Cole Scott scored 36 points in 21 minutes. He was 10-12 from the floor, 6-8 from three, and 10-10 on FTs.
It was the last Bradley men's basketball game ever played in the Fieldhouse, as demolition began the next spring.

This game will be St. Ambrose's first exhibition game of the 2023-24 season.
They have one other exhibition game against Western Illinois on Nov. 12.
St. Ambrose schedule- https://www.saubees.com/sports/mbkb/2023-24/schedule

St. Ambrose averaged 70.6 ppg last season, shot 40.3% overall, and 29.0% from three.
Their leading scorer from last season, 6'9" center Andrew Morrisey (13.7 ppg), graduated, but they return 4 of their top 6 scorers- Sr. Will Spriggs (13.3 ppg), Sr. Jake Friel (9.4 ppg), Jr. Grant Mason (8.5 ppg), and soph. Ignacio Dacunda (7.4 ppg). No other returning player averaged more than 4 ppg.
Roster- https://www.saubees.com/sports/mbkb/2023-24/roster
2022-23 Stats- https://naiastats.prestosports.com/s...eams/stambrose

[houstonbrave]

Holy Toledo-I looked at the roster page. 17 kids on varsity and 29 on the two JV teams in a school with 2100 undergrads.

[tomahawk chop]

Starting lineup for that game.
Deen, Hickman, Ellis, Leons and Hannah
Just a guess. The other possible ones instead of Ellis are Davis or Pettigrew. Look for Jonovic and Thomas to be inside backups with Burch and Atlason also in the mix. That is 11 players getting some playing time until they figure out the best combinations of that group that put them in the best situations to win games. I could see a 10 man rotation this season if we decide to full court or 3/4 court press.

[Da Coach]

I'm thinking Coach W will go with the starting 5 he plans to use once the real games start. And I think he'd already made that decision based on practices.- Duke, Connor, Malevy, Darius, and Ahmet.
Everyone will get some playing time in this game.

[houstonbrave]

From the coaches show this eve it sounds like Duke, Connor, Malevy, Darius are solid. That is no surprise. It sounded like the 5 spot is likely Meta if they have a big (eg UAB), or Christian if they go smaller. The only other players I heard him mention were Emarion Ellis and Almar Atlason - I would think that would be a defense (Emarion) or offense (Almar) focos. No mention of other folks but that of course could change.

[bradleyfan124]

They must be high on Almar. After watching him this summer i can see why

[tomahawk chop]

From the coaches show this eve it sounds like Duke, Connor, Malevy, Darius are solid. That is no surprise. It sounded like the 5 spot is likely Meta if they have a big (eg UAB), or Christian if they go smaller. The only other players I heard him mention were Emarion Ellis and Almar Atlason - I would think that would be a defense (Emarion) or offense (Almar) focos. No mention of other folks but that of course could change.

If Meta, Darius and Malevy are on the court together we will struggle to defend the 3 point shot. This is more of a guards game now just because of the 3 point shot. You definitely need some kind of an inside game but having good perimeter shooters is more important in this day and age.
It will definitely be interesting to see the different combinations of lineups we use this season. I trust our staff to figure this out.

[Rickp1959]

I disagree here, Hannah and Leon's are quick enough, athletic enough and have great length to defend the 3, in fact the DPOTY did well blocking shots and steals from that position last year. Both players can also give that help defense inside as needed also. Imo

[basketball nut]

I disagree here, Hannah and Leon's are quick enough, athletic enough and have great length to defend the 3, in fact the DPOTY did well blocking shots and steals from that position last year. Both players can also give that help defense inside as needed also. Imo

I was thinking the same thing. Hannah could actually join Leons on the all defensive team as he was on a pace similar to Leons last season just not as many minutes.

[Da Coach]

I have noticed that the Bradley schedule does not list any games as being broadcast on WMBD this season, though I assume they are- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...tball/schedule

Even the preview article for Wednesday's game against St. Ambrose on the BU website does not mention whether the game will be broadcast on WMBD- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2023/...t-ambrose.aspx

If you click on the link to LISTEN to any of the games on the schedule page, it does not redirect to the WMBD website, but instead redirects to a Bradley All Access audio streaming site- https://bradleybraves.com/watch/?Live=71&type=Archive

So has anyone seen any confirmation that Wednesday's game is on WMBD?

[BUfan14]

I was thinking the same thing. Hannah could actually join Leons on the all defensive team as he was on a pace similar to Leons last season just not as many minutes.

It’s actually not on defense that worries me, but the offense. Leons is not a ball handler. We looked stagnant with him at the three last year. We did much better when we moved away from that after Jashon got hurt. And while he can hit the three, that’s not all that’s needed on the perimeter. That was also with Mast as one of the best passing bigs we’ve ever had, we don’t have that now. Also, jamming three guys in the post just clogs things up so it’s not an advantage there either. It just seems foolish to me to try something we already tried last year and had little success at. Put players at their best spots other than maybe a couple of well timed matchup minutes a game.

[Rickp1959]

Many times individual skill sets improve year over year, what happened last year may not exactly be what happens this year, if improvements to Leon's abilities and Hannah's abilities are what has been said they are then I'm not worried about how they did last year in situations.

[BUfan14]

Many times individual skill sets improve year over year, what happened last year may not exactly be what happens this year, if improvements to Leon's abilities and Hannah's abilities are what has been said they are then I'm not worried about how they did last year in situations.

While I don’t disagree with that, most players don’t go from post type player to guard level ball handler. I’m not sure that’s realistic. I believe both players (Leons, Hannah) are good enough defensively they could passably handle defending guards on occasion. I hope I’m wrong, but I think Leons is best as a four on offense. And do we want to play our best or at least second best player out of position?

[Da Coach]

Many times individual skill sets improve year over year, what happened last year may not exactly be what happens this year, if improvements to Leon's abilities and Hannah's abilities are what has been said they are then I'm not worried about how they did last year in situations.

Good point. I have heard that we will be surprised again at the improvement in Darius Hannah's game this year. He has become a better ball handler, has lead the team in assists in many practices, is making free throws at a much higher percentage, and has improved his mid-range shooting and is even making 3-pointers in practices. He was 1 for 1 from the 3-point line in the Red-White Scrimmage, though I don't expect we'll see him take many threes. But he has worked very hard on improving all aspects of his game.
And, reports I've heard are that Malevy has gotten stronger and is quicker than he was last year. I think we'll see him work inside more, where he was very effective in junior college, where he was the National Junior College Player of the Year and averaged 19 ppg, 10 rpg, and shot 56%. Plus, he is still a 3-point threat.. Note that Mal was the team's best 3-point shooter 2 years ago (38.1%), and was a close second to Duke among the returning players this in 3-point percentage for the 2022-23 team. He is also an 80% free throw shooter over his 2 seasons at Bradley, and it would be nice to see him get to the FT line more.

[tomahawk chop]

I disagree here, Hannah and Leon's are quick enough, athletic enough and have great length to defend the 3, in fact the DPOTY did well blocking shots and steals from that position last year. Both players can also give that help defense inside as needed also. Imo

They are quick for big men but still not as quick as good guards. I hope they are able to do this but I just see a major problem with this lineup on both offense and defense. Time will tell.