Bradley is the SoCal Challenge Champion- Bradley 63 UTEP 59

[Da Coach]

Bradley (4-0) will play UTEP (5-0) in the SoCal Challenge Championship, Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 9:30pm
TV- CBSSports Network
Radio- www.wmbdradio.com
Live stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broa...82&vislive=tul
Chat room- https://us28.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

Bradley beat Tulane in their semifinal game Monday, 80-77.
Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/21869

UTEP beat Cal in the other semifinal 75-72 on a 3-point shot at the buzzer.
Box score- https://calbears.com/sports/mens-bas...boxscore/35225

Bradley last played UTEP December 22, 2021 in the championship game of the WestStar Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational, a game that Bradley won 73-66 to take the championship on UTEP's home floor.
Recap of the Bradley 73-66 win for the championship- https://utepminers.com/news/2021/12/...itational.aspx
Terry Roberts was the Player of the Game for Bradley with 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead all scorers. Malevy Leon had 11 points and 7 rebounds.
Box score- https://utepminers.com/sports/mens-b...boxscore/10518

Bradley is 3-2 all time against UTEP including a first round NCAA Tournament win in 1986 in Ogden, Utah, when Hersey Hawkins (21 points), Jim Les (22 points), Mike Williams (18 points, 9 rebounds) and company beat UTEP 83-65.
Box score- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...3-bradley.html
All Time record Bradley vs. UTEP


University of Texas at El Paso is a long-time member of the Conference.USA, They finished last season 14-18 overall, and 7-13 and 10th place in the CUSA.
UTEP Historical record- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...s-el-paso/men/
Their head coach is former Abilene Christian head coach Joe Golding in his 3rd season at UTEP.
With a different roster, and with teams moving in and out of the CUSA, UTEP is improved, and was picked 5th in this season's preseason CUSA poll.
Two UTEP seniors, Tae Hardy and Calvin Solomon were picked to the CUSA Preseason All-Conference team.
CUSA Preseason poll- https://conferenceusa.com/news/2023/...ence-team.aspx
UTEP schedule/results- https://utepminers.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
UTEP Roster- https://utepminers.com/sports/mens-b...roster-coaches

UTEP is shooting 54.5% from the floor over their 5 games. That ranks among the top teams in the country in FG%. And they are 34.8% from three.
UTEP Stats through 5 games- https://utepminers.com/sports/mens-b...-24#individual

All 5 Bradley starters are averaging double-figures, lead by Malevy Leons with 16.0 ppg and 7.5 rpg.
Updated Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats

[Da Coach]

Quote from UTEP coach Joe Golding about Wednesday's game against Bradley- https://twitter.com/AdrianBroaddus/s...87919837982737

And a little history...
This Bradley team is the first Brian Wardle team to start the season 4-0.
The last time Bradley started 4-0 was the 2013-14 season in Geno Ford's third season. Those 4 wins were all at home over teams that were not quite as tough as the 4 teams Bradley has played this season- Jacksonville State, Alabama State, Central Michigan, and Chicago State.
The season went downhill after those 4 wins. Bradley lost 9 of their next 10 games and finished the season 12-20 overall and 7-11 in the MVC, good for 7th place (out of 10 teams). Last place Loyola, the new addition to the MVC after Creighton left, accounted for 2 of Bradley's wins during the regular season. However, Loyola beat Bradley in the play-in round of the 2014 MVC Tournament on a half court shot by Milton Doyle that and ended the Braves season.

[LittleBrave]

Go BU! Let's not let them have revenge on us! Here's my Bradley motto this year:
"Bring the fight - bring the might! Let's Brave it proud - let's WIN tonight!"

[tomahawk chop]

We are the best team in this tour. and we need to prove it tomorrow night.

[Da Coach]

One thing notable about UTEP's team stats through 5 games. They are shooting 54.5% overall (170-312), and 34.8% (32-92) from three. That means they are 138-220 on 2-point shots for a FG% of 62.7% on their 2-point shots. That is outrageously effective shooting when they take 2-point shots, and means they must be getting a lot of shots close to the basket. They also have 59 offensive rebounds in 5 games (11.9 per game), which is a lot of Off. rebounds. By comparison, Bradley has 33 offensive rebounds through 4 games (8.25 off. reb. per game).
I am sure the game plan will try to keep them out of the lane, and block out their rebounders on missed shots. Their stats suggest maybe playing some zone would help negate their success at getting inside points and offensive rebounds.
Also, they are averaging 95.6 points per game, which ranks 5th in the NCAA- https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketbal...rrent/team/145

[Stevezall]

Bradley Does Appear to Indeed be the Best Team in this So-Cal Challenge and a 5-0 Start would sure make a Sratement ! Already on College Insider after the Tulane Game, 1 Analyst said That Bradley was the Best equipped Team from the Valley to make the NCAA tournament and possibly Advance! Bradley should just Focus on being in top 4 seed for the MVC tourney so that get a Bye! Really all that Matters is Winning the MVC tourney! I'm excited to see how good Emarion Ellis will become during this season!!!! He's such an Important off the Bench player right now. I saw Marquette take down #1 Kansas last night by a Good Margin! Brian Wardle who played their must be soooo proud! I wish he could use his Leverage of playing their and schedule Marquette to Play us here in Peoria! Can you Inagine Carver Arena...would sell out way before the season started....well maybe that's just a dream for now!!!

[yoda]

One thing notable about UTEP's team stats through 5 games. They are shooting 54.5% overall (170-312), and 34.8% (32-92) from three. That means they are 138-220 on 2-point shots for a FG% of 62.7% on their 2-point shots. That is outrageously effective shooting when they take 2-point shots, and means they must be getting a lot of shots close to the basket. They also have 59 offensive rebounds in 5 games (11.9 per game), which is a lot of Off. rebounds. By comparison, Bradley has 33 offensive rebounds through 4 games (8.25 off. reb. per game).
I am sure the game plan will try to keep them out of the lane, and block out their rebounders on missed shots. Their stats suggest maybe playing some zone would help negate their success at getting inside points and offensive rebounds.
Also, they are averaging 95.6 points per game, which ranks 5th in the NCAA- https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketbal...rrent/team/145

their stats are ballooned by playing two "outrageously" horrible teams early on this season...
They beat "McMurry" (Division III) 120-71 and they beat Oklahoma College of Science and Arts (NAIA) 123-72
They should be embarrassed even playing those caliber teams, let alone counting those inflated stats

[Stevezall]

Thanks for pointing this out! So many teams playing much weaker teams to start their season to inflate their statistical Numbers! I'm Happy that Brian Wardle did NOT do this as he played 3 teams to start the season in the RPI top 100! A credit to Brian Challenging his Team and not relying on Easy Wins!!!!!

[Da Coach]

their stats are ballooned by playing two "outrageously" horrible teams early on this season...
They beat "McMurry" (Division III) 120-71 and they beat Oklahoma College of Science and Arts (NAIA) 123-72
They should be embarrassed even playing those caliber teams, let alone counting those inflated stats

The types of stats I pointed out were not just confined to the two non-division I games they played early. For example...
In their last 3 games, UTEP beat UC Santa Barbara, Austin Peay, and Cal, three decent mid-major opponents, though maybe not as strong as Bradley's schedule.
UCSB is a good team, the favorite to win the Big West Conference, and picked #1 in their preseason poll. UTEP put up 89 points against them, shot 54% had a whopping 58 points in the paint, and 28 points off 17 UCSB turnovers.
Against Austin Peay, they shot 55.3% overall, and were 21-29 on two-point attempts for an impressive 72.4%. They scored 38 of their 71 points in the paint.
And against Cal, they had 16 offensive rebounds, had 20 second chance points, drew 28 fouls, shot 37 free throws, forced 21 turnovers, and had 22 points off the turnovers.

They are a physical team that is capable of getting inside shots, offensive rebounds, drawing fouls and getting to the FT line. If we have the same officials we had Monday night, who allowed offensive players on Tulane to pound their way to the basket, and only called contact fouls on the Bradley defenders, it could spell trouble for Bradley.

[Da Coach]

Bradley is a 4 - 4.5 point favorite- https://www.vegasinsider.com/college...teams/bradley/

And Bradley's 2 NET Quadrant 1 wins are 2 more than the rest of the entire MVC combined- https://www.warrennolan.com/basketba...issouri-Valley

[Da Coach]

Tarleton State wins the championship of the Sand Division of the SoCal Challenge.
Tarleton State 59 Cal State Bakersfield 40- https://twitter.com/RoccoMiller8/sta...88021363400707
Box score- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401604307

Austin Peay wins the 3rd place game in the Sand Division.
Austin Peay 74 Sacramento State 71- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401604308

[Da Coach]

The game that is currently on the CBS Sports Network preceding the Bradley-UTEP game, is at halftime, and James Madison leads Fresno State 51-23- https://cancunchallenge.net/sidearmstats/mbball/media

It looks like a low likelihood of an overtime game. Hopefully, they will catch the start of the BU-UTEP game.

[Bradley3342]

Almost a 30 point lead in the Cancun Challenge game and they aren’t switching to the BU game. Never fails does it!?

[BUfan14]

Halftime observations:

1. I still don't even think we are playing our best game and we look much better than they do.

2. I'm not impressed with UTEP. Their guard pressure is good, but they don't seem to care at all to play interior defense or box out and rebound well.

3. Jonovic is actually contributing today. This role I think he can do (8th or 9th man). Play a few minutes a half and bully his way in with one-on-one matchups against smaller and not overly quick posts. It won't work against every team, but it seems to against this UTEP team (see point number two), as they don't seem to like being physical inside at all. They could have easily taken a charge against him going down the lane and just stepped aside. He was still a little slow once he got in traffic a couple of times. He needs to be on a block one-on-one to succeed.

4. No one is standing out as outstanding right now on BU tonight, but everyone is solid and we are playing great defense. Leons is one of the best all around defenders I've ever seen at BU. It's special to watch.

5. Nice to see us handle pressure decently. Also nice to see Hickman make back to back free throws. Both have been struggles early this year.

6. We should win this game. Let's keep doing our thing in the second half.

[LongTimeFan]

The sheriff was good.