Final score: Bradley 86 Tarleton State 63

[Da Coach]

Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/21868
Recap- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2023/...ton-state.aspx

The good-
Bradley came into this game shooting 27.8% (15-54) from three, ranking 11th in the MVC.
But with their 17-28 performance tonight, they are now 32 for 82 (39.0%) on the season. That will jump them to near the top of the MVC.
On defense, Bradley held Tarleton to 3-14 (21.4%) tonight. Bradley's three opponents this season are a combined 14-64 for 21.9%- phenomenal!
Overall, Bradley shot 61.5% tonight (32-52).

The bad- not much to complain about, except-
Free throw shooting was bad again for the 2nd straight game. BU was 5-11, and is 31-52 for the season (59.6%). Oddly, it's Malevy Leons 13-22 that is dragging the team's FT% down. He was a 78% FT shooter last year (2022-23), and 83% in his first season at Bradley 2021-22). So I think he'll get that corrected.
Bradley did have 15 turnovers, but the officials seemed to allow Tarleton State to get away with a lot of reaching in, and hacking at the ball handlers and the big guys, leading to 11 steals. Bradley is averaging 14.3 turnovers per game, a little higher than the coaches would like.

And there was the right ankle injury to Demarion Burch. It looked like a sprain, and the team doctor was examining him. He'll probably get Xrays, and maybe we'll know more tomorrow.

Official attendance 4,032

[KillerB]

From the co-worker of The Scout
Mason Klemm
@nosam_klemm
·
1h
No official word on Demarion Burch yet from the team, but Malevy Leons is optimistic the freshman can return to action. “He’ll be fine. He’s just icing his ankle right now.” Also joked that Burch is still young so he can spring back up quickly.

[BUfan17]

Nice win, hard to lose when we shoot 3s like that. Atlason and and Davis looked great. FTs need to get better though, we shot better from the 3 than the stripe.

Burch really shows a lot of potential as a freshman. He seemed a little out of control at times but I like his style. Hopefully his ankle is ok and he won't miss much if any time.

[BUfan14]

It wasn't a simple decision to go with few guards. Zek suddenly announcing he was leaving on March 28, then Ville's late decision not to return, plus the failure of Weathers to adjust to D1 ( he was an effective 20 ppg PG at a high level juco) were factors. There weren't many good guards available that late and they didn't want another kid who couldn't play. Instead, they landed Atlason and Burch, and the portal guys. Plus, the coaches were counting on Pettigrew as another guy who was capable of playing the point, but he didn't work out.

Nothing today is simple recruiting, agreed. But the coaches had to have known Pop wasn’t going to give much last fall so that shouldn’t have been a huge factor in spring recruiting. We’ve received 6 commits since then with Meta. Also it seems Pettigrew wasn’t a pure point anyway. In todays world, decision like Zek (not a true PG to me either) are the new norm, so can’t be caught off guard. Really, there should alway be contingency plans. Easier said than done for sure, but no matter who was left (we are supposedly looking right now for a PG and there can’t be much left for this year), how much worse could it be than a bunch of posts who don’t play anyway? At least it’s someone. Ya recruiting is harder than ever I’m sure, but an error in calculation was made in my opinion.

Also, if the guys you signed don’t work out, that’s kind of an error in recruiting anyway I think.

Not to say the coaches are bad recruiters. Like I said our top 7 players are really good and exciting. But I would rather take a risk of a guard giving us nothing than another post giving us nothing just to have a balanced roster for moments like this that test depth. This year we have so much potential which makes it that much riskier too. Hopefully we make it through this year not too bitten by injury. I have to believe guards will be priority number one for next year. Although replacing Leons (hopefully not Darius) will be a huge task. Atlason could be that guy though if he works on driving and rebounding. He’s already really good on offense.

[bradleyfan124]

Nothing today is simple recruiting, agreed. But the coaches had to have known Pop wasn’t going to give much last fall so that shouldn’t have been a huge factor in spring recruiting. We’ve received 6 commits since then with Meta. Also it seems Pettigrew wasn’t a pure point anyway. In todays world, decision like Zek (not a true PG to me either) are the new norm, so can’t be caught off guard. Really, there should alway be contingency plans. Easier said than done for sure, but no matter who was left (we are supposedly looking right now for a PG and there can’t be much left for this year), how much worse could it be than a bunch of posts who don’t play anyway? At least it’s someone. Ya recruiting is harder than ever I’m sure, but an error in calculation was made in my opinion.

Also, if the guys you signed don’t work out, that’s kind of an error in recruiting anyway I think.

Not to say the coaches are bad recruiters. Like I said our top 7 players are really good and exciting. But I would rather take a risk of a guard giving us nothing than another post giving us nothing just to have a balanced roster for moments like this that test depth. This year we have so much potential which makes it that much riskier too. Hopefully we make it through this year not too bitten by injury. I have to believe guards will be priority number one for next year. Although replacing Leons (hopefully not Darius) will be a huge task. Atlason could be that guy though if he works on driving and rebounding. He’s already really good on offense.

Recruiting is not a perfect world. Sometimes a player works out and sometimes they dont. Who would have thought Davis would be as good as what he has shown so far. Hersey Hawkins was a gamble.

[BUfan14]

On a positive recruiting note, how great is it to see actual shooters out there? The last couple years we seem to have taken some risks on pure shooters who aren’t pure athletes and it is paid off. I’ve wanted this all along. We still have our athletes like Darius and Burch (balance is very important), but guys like Davis and Atlason and even Deen (limited by height not athleticism) can fill it up on any night. So demoralizing for the other teams I’m sure when those big threes are hit. Leons and Hick can fill it up too, but they do a little bit of everything (nice to have those kind of guys too). Other than Kennel we haven’t had these kind of shooters in the Wardle era. Last night reminded me of the 06-07 team a little, but with better posts.

Speaking of Zek too, we have done a good job of keeping our guys around. Even Mast stayed through graduation. Seeing many teams decimated by transfers, we have been lucky/good at this and that’s huge in todays world. Certainly seems a strength of this staff.

[BUfan14]

Recruiting is not a perfect world. Sometimes a player works out and sometimes they dont. Who would have thought Davis would be as good as what he has shown so far. Hersey Hawkins was a gamble.

Absolutely, all the more reason not to put all the eggs of a position in few baskets.

I know nothing about players coming in other than what’s in here, but I liked the Davis signing from the start because I always will take risks on shooters over athletes. Need both of course, but shooters are so huge for successful mid majors.

[tomahawk chop]

Burch and Atlason are really good players and have contributed on both ends of the floor. I am really disappointed in our transfer players because Ellis and Thomas do not look ready to play at this level which is not good for the future. Pettigrew looked like he could but ends up leaving so I hate it when you pick up portal players that cannot contribute immediately. I said way back I thought Davis could be our 5th starter and he proved it last night. Meta had another bad night. I thought Burch was better playing the point last night the Duke because of the way he ran the offense and appears to be a much better passer. Hoping Burch can play in California because we need him.Right now we are operating with 7 guys that you can count on to score the ball.

[LittleBrave]

Atlason 6-7 on 3....18pts....17 made 3's for the Braves....

Is this a BU freshman record? It's gotta be close!
Ville made 6 of 6 last yr vs Murray St. - I was there to see it!

[LittleBrave]

On a positive recruiting note, how great is it to see actual shooters out there? The last couple years we seem to have taken some risks on pure shooters who aren’t pure athletes and it is paid off. I’ve wanted this all along. We still have our athletes like Darius and Burch (balance is very important), but guys like Davis and Atlason and even Deen (limited by height not athleticism) can fill it up on any night.Last night reminded me of the 06-07 team a little, but with better posts.

YES YES YES!!!

Our inability to knock down the 3-ball in Arch Madness really hurt us and we almost didn't get past Indy St b/c of it.
Then vs Drake nobody shot well and they shot lights out from downtown.

Really encouraged by our freshmen so far! I just keep thinking - how long are we gonna have to see Burch's growth? I hope he feels at home here and stays loyal to the Braves. I see great things if he does!

Speaking of the 06-07 team, I think that was the season that we set the record for most made 3's if not mistaken...It may have been before the Illini game that BU almost won, after a 4-0 start. That was a fun season and was super-guard heavy.

[Da Coach]

There are many interesting recruiting stories. Here is one-
After losing out to Creighton at the last minute on a pretty good juco guard in 2005, Jim Les was desperate to sign another guard in to back up and eventually replace senior-to-be Tony Bennett for the terrific 2005-05 team. So he reluctantly took a chance on Will Franklin at Kilgore College, a Texas junior college. He was lightly recruited, not very athletic, averaged just 8.4 ppg, was an average shooter, and had no D1 offers at the juco. But Will turned into an extremely valuable player as Bennett's backup in 2005-06, and he was key in Bradley's 2006 Sweet 16 run with the wins over Kansas and Pitt in the NCAA Tournament.
Then, in his senior year (2006-07), Will averaged a team-leading 14.6 ppg, 4.0 assists/game, and shot 43.3% from three and was named a 2nd team All-MVC player.
Will went on to have a very successful 10 year pro career in Europe, and he played on a few of the Always a Brave teams in The Basketball Tournament, including playing a key role on the 2016 team that made it to the Final Four.



Here are Will's stats for the 2 years he played at Bradley- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba.../will-franklin

And, by the way, the Juco All-American guard that Jim lost out on to Creighton was a kid named Dominic Bishop. He played only 1 season at Creighton, was not very good (averaged 2.6 ppg, 0.7 apg) and was in and out of Dana Altman's doghouse. He left Creighton after one season. So Bradley came out ahead on that recruiting trade-off.
Here are Dominic Bishop's stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...dominic-bishop

[houstonbrave]

It’s early but Bradley up to 80 in kenpom.

[LittleBrave]

Fun game to watch! I love when the Braves have a decent lead at the half and don't take their foot off the gas. Wardle's teams have shown that mental fortitude the last few seasons and playing hard no matter what the scoreboard says. I think Malevy, Connor, and Duke's high energy and hustle filter down to the other guys, and I have always been impressed by the determination Darius Hannah has to keep getting better throughout his BU career.

Christian Davis - wow...what a boost if he could play like this most nights!

[LittleBrave]

Yeah DC - Will Franklin - probably one of my top 10 favorite BU hoopsters since 2000.

[LittleBrave]

Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/21868
Recap- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2023/...ton-state.aspx
Oddly, it's Malevy Leons 13-22 that is dragging the team's FT% down. He was a 78% FT shooter last year (2022-23), and 83% in his first season at Bradley 2021-22). So I think he'll get that corrected.


Official attendance 4,032

If you guys have noticed, I think every miss by Leons has hit the back of the rim - just a tad too strong on them.
I am not a b-ball guru in fundamentals, but I notice that after he takes a couple dribbles at the line and crouches, his upper body comes up and doesn't stop until after he releases the ball. Not sure what to tell him, and coaches know better than I do, but maybe coming up slower and just take a little off and he'll drill 80% of em.