Final score: Murray 79 State Bradley 72

[Stryker]

Terrible D and FT. If I was Wardle there would be 500 FT attempts after every practice by all the players that got minutes this year so far.

[Big Mike]

Tonight....outcoached, did not play smart, stupid fouls having nothing to do with the play. Ellis should not be getting the minutes of Burch...Atlason should only shoot 3's and quit trying to drive, not athletic enough...terrible loss...

[BUfan17]

Free throws combined with bad defense lost this game. We missed a lot of possible points by not making free throws.

[Dubl R 1]

Man there really is no excuse for that loss.
1 our defense was awful
2. offense was stagnant
3. had several players not even show up (Burch, atlasson)
4. we fouled way too much
5. wrong personnel in at the end
6. outhustled
7. Horrific free throw shooting

man that was hard to watch. We do that against Indiana st we lose by 30

murray St is not a good team.

Man did we give this away

[BRAVE82]

Free Throw % even worse when you consider all of the missed one and bonus. Burch must be injured.

[BengalFan]

Who should have been in at the end?

[Big Mike]

Whatever happened to Deen...last 3 games he looks ordinary....over dribbling with no sense of shot clock...lazy passes...

[Big Mike]

At least Meta looks like he is improving.....will still make freshman type mistakes but makes up on screens, scores and maybe our best FT shooter....

[ManMythLegend]

Who should have been in at the end?

I don't think Ellis has proved himself to be in during crunch time. I wasn't a fan of that but I'm just a fan, I'm sure coach had his reasons.

[ManMythLegend]

At least Meta looks like he is improving.....will still make freshman type mistakes but makes up on screens and maybe our best FT shooter....

I saw two positives tonight...
1. Meta keeps taking baby steps
2. We still had a chance despite how poorly we played and how well Murray State shot the ball.

Had to find something positive or I would have smashed my TV...

[BUfan14]

I'll ask again, why can't Hickman hit free throws? He looks like a deer in headlights when big free throws come up. He wasn't even close on that missed front end of a one and one, and that pretty much sealed the game.

Why was Ellis in there so much and not Burch or Deen? I know those two both struggled, but they sagged way off of Ellis and we had to play 4 on 5 during key possessions.

Between Ellis and Jonovic we have one complete player. Ellis offers almost nothing offensively other than the occasional drive, which he usually misses anyway. Jonovic is ok enough offensively, but he is so slow on defense that the rotations have to make up for him constantly and that hurt us big time tonight. Jonovic is also so slow he is rarely in good rebounding position. Why him and Ellis had so much run tonight, even with other's struggles, was baffling to me. Davis was sitting so much tonight and he played solid when he was in. I think Jonovic is an ok rotation guy, but he is not a starter, and I'm not sure he will ever be quick enough with his feet to be one.

Hannah and Leons gave nice effort tonight, especially Hannah, who is the only reason it was even close. Both have to hit more free throws though.

Atlason and Burch finally looked like freshman tonight. It was bound to happen, and both will grow from here.

I think we were a little too high on ourself coming in to this game. We can't do that if we want any shot of an at large. One or two more of these against poorly rated teams and that conversation will already be gone. I hope the effort Saturday is better, cause that team will be.

[bigjimmy]

For whatever reason we left our defensive legs and feet in Peoria. Too many times Murray would beat us down in transition for easy baskets. 15-6 in fast break points. Murray moved the ball pretty well most of the game and we seemed a step behind. Not gonna win many games when you allow your opponent to shoot 53% from the field. Somehow we cut the lead to 4 but then missed 2 straight 1and 1’s and committed our 1 turnover in the 2nd half on 3 straight possessions. Murray then made their last 8 FT’S. Disappointed with our first loss but 6-1 is still pretty good. The next few days will be tough practices but needs to be to get them ready for ISU Blue on Saturday.

[Big Mike]

I don't think Ellis has proved himself to be in during crunch time. I wasn't a fan of that but I'm just a fan, I'm sure coach had his reasons.

The reason was he was punishing Deen and Burch with time on the bench....never seen a player fall down as much as Ellis, (falls down on offense while on the drive and falls down on defense on his own)...

[BUfan14]

At least Meta looks like he is improving.....will still make freshman type mistakes but makes up on screens, scores and maybe our best FT shooter....

Offensively, I agree. He is fundamentally sound. Defensively, he is still very slow. I'm not sure that can be fixed, because he is just very physically slow for a D1 basketball player, it's not all just getting used to the speed of the game with him. The reason he is always in poor rebounding position is due to this. Whenever there is a screen, which if I'm an opposing team I would put him in every time, when he is stepping out the offensive player is already around him as he is still moving out. He would be better off just staying where he is in the post and not stepping out at all, and make them shoot. By the time he reacts and moves back towards the hoop it is too late and often Leons or Hannah had to try to rotate under the hoop at the last second and they could not.

Also, our three post lineup is just not ideal defensively, but I suppose that is due to lack of guard depth.

[algotrader]

Had to come down to earth eventually.