Taking small steps

[Tomahawk]

Bright spot in last night's game was the play of Meta. He is slowly getting a better feel for the game. Hear he works his tail off in practice to improve his game. Really as a fan you can't ask anymore of a player to try his best to get better. The old saying goes you have to crawl before you can walk. Hoping with his work ethic that by seasons end he will be more of a presence inside. His upside is big if he continues to put forth the effort.

[Da Coach]

If you review the stats, IMO it shows that Bradley played pretty well for a road game in a tough place to play, with one or two exceptions.
They shot 46% from the field, which is their season average, and better than their road average.
They shot 33% on threes (slightly below their season average of 36%), and 50% in the 2nd half. They took a couple quick, lower percentage threes in the final minutes to try to catch up which brought the percentages down a little. But overall, Bradley shot the ball fairly well.
Bradley had only 9 turnovers, well below their average.
Murray State scored 79 points, but many were late free throws. Their season average is 78 points. They were just 5-20 from three, but shot 53% overall for the game, their best shooting game of the season, and well above their season average.
They shot 77% on free throws, also by far their best FT% game of the season.
The game was a 4-point game into the final few minutes, and only a 5-point game on two occasions as late as inside the final minute when Bradley was forced to foul intentionally.
The couple major factors that lead to Bradley losing was Murray State shooting well above their average and playing their best game of the season, especially Perry, Wood, and Moore all shooting well over 50%. I thought their defense was pretty decent overall, though it could always have been better.
But the other factor was Bradley not hitting their free throws well (9-17 with a couple missed 1 and 1's). Let's hope that is correctable. This isn't a team that has shown it can blow opponents away, so to win close games, free throws are essential. Hopefully, this is a correctable problem.
It now makes Saturday's game the first "must win" game of the season.

[Tomahawk]

Agree that this game has now become a must win. My personal opinion is that I do not see Bradley losing consecutive games. On top of that, playing at home to boot. Must protect the home court. GO BRAVES.

[tomahawk chop]

Bright spot in last night's game was the play of Meta. He is slowly getting a better feel for the game. Hear he works his tail off in practice to improve his game. Really as a fan you can't ask anymore of a player to try his best to get better. The old saying goes you have to crawl before you can walk. Hoping with his work ethic that by seasons end he will be more of a presence inside. His upside is big if he continues to put forth the effort.

His offense is good, defense and rebounding needs to get a lot better.

[Dub]

Actually on a couple times Meta got the ball delivered very deep in the post, if he rotates through his man there is no way to guard it. He is not just tall but also massive and strong.

He doesn’t realize it yet, but with a few adjustments he could be averaging 5 dunks a game.

As he develops I see a potential for him actually to dominate in the valley. And he’s good at the line.