Final score- Indiana State 85 Bradley 77

[Da Coach]

Next game: Bradley (6-1) vs. Indiana State (6-1), Saturday, Dec. 2, 1:00 pm

TV- broadcast on ESPNU and streaming on ESPN+ - https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/...f-fcb6431130b9
Live stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Radio- www.wmbdradio.com
Chat room- https://us28.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

Indiana State schedule/results- https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s...3/pdf/cume.pdf

They have 4 double-digit scorers (Swope, Avila, Conwell, Kent), and another player (Julian Larry) who averages 9.6 ppg.
They lead the MVC in offense, averaging 87.4 ppg through their 7 games. they also lead the MVC in overall FG% (53.1%), 3-point FG% (40.4%), and assists per game (17.7), and rank high in almost all offensive categories.
MVC stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...gFouls/dir/asc

Bradley team stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s...3/pdf/cume.pdf

This game will also debut the new Bradley PIA uniforms and special $3.09 ticket pricing deal- https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...290#post513290

[The Old Guy]

How many fans will show up around 6:30 thinking the game starts at 7:00 pm?

[Tomahawk]

Need a big crowd for tomorrow's game. Let's get loud and noisy. Can't let Bradley be in danger of not protecting home court. My take is they will not lose consecutive games. They need to come out with a chip on their shoulder and play mad. Win tomorrow and go on another win streak.

[bigjimmy]

Avila is a problem. He's their 2nd leading scorer, rebounder and assist man. Can shoot the 3 but also can facilitate the offense. Have to be disciplined on defense and if it's not too much trouble make our FT's. Hopefully we've had a couple of good days of practice and come out with a refocused effort and put another W in the record book.

[Da Coach]

Avila is a problem. He's their 2nd leading scorer, rebounder and assist man. Can shoot the 3 but also can facilitate the offense. Have to be disciplined on defense and if it's not too much trouble make our FT's. Hopefully we've had a couple of good days of practice and come out with a refocused effort and put another W in the record book.

I agree that he has developed into a nice player in just his 2nd season at Indiana State. It's easy to see why Bradley coaches recruited and offered him.
But Bradley has perhaps the best defensive big men in the MVC in Malevy Leons and Darius Hannah. So hopefully, Bradley can control him.
Last season in the only game between Bradley and Indiana State, Avila had just 9 points and 3 rebounds, and he struggled trying to guard Rienk Mast, who ended up with 18 points and 13 rebounds in the Bradley 78-67 win.

[tomahawk chop]

I agree that he has developed into a nice player in just his 2nd season at Indiana State. It's easy to see why Bradley coaches recruited and offered him.
But Bradley has perhaps the best defensive big men in the MVC in Malevy Leons and Darius Hannah. So hopefully, Bradley can control him.
Last season in the only game between Bradley and Indiana State, Avila had just 9 points and 3 rebounds, and he struggled trying to guard Rienk Mast, who ended up with 18 points and 13 rebounds in the Bradley 78-67 win.

Leons would be the best one to guard him, he can guard him both outside and inside. More important we need to guard the 3 and hold them to 7 3 pointers or less.

[Da Coach]

The music volume is noticeably lower this game.

Also, I've seen at least 1 recruit here.

[BengalFan]

No continuity on offense. Early in the season, collapse the defense and pass out for shots. Now, the ball dies in the lane.

[basketball nut]

PATHETIC at half

[BengalFan]

And I don’t get playing Burch so much. He has potential but he has way too much freedom.

[Big Mike]

Bad loss at home....0-2 in Valley running an offense with no sense of purpose....over dribbling one on one ....over help on D' leaving open shots all game long....bad coaching in 1st half lead to this loss....

[BUfan14]

And I don’t get playing Burch so much. He has potential but he has way too much freedom.

We only have four guards and maybe three now, and one of the remaining ones is Ellis, who hasn’t shown anything good yet outside of ok on ball defense. Who else should play?

[Canton BU fan]

Burn these jerseys

[Stryker]

I think we are seeing the results of the following:

1) Losing top talent to the transfer portal
2) Lack of success finding impact players in the transfer portal
3) Recruiting failure to secure top guard players. Zeke would have been very nice to still have. Not having top guard play in the MVC cannot be offset by above average post play. IMO.

[BUfan14]

I know some said concern was unwarranted after last game, but I am once again concerned. I don’t know how we win too many Valley games if Hickman is out a while. I said it in the offseason and have said it many times since, having four (even five with Pettigrew) guards in the Valley is poor roster construction.

My thoughts tonight:

1. Before the injury Hickman was good and what I thought he could be. Still bizarrely needs to make free throws more. I sure hope he’s ok, as he’s our only guard playing even decently right now.

2. Deen is officially struggling mightily. If we had any other options to challenge him, he probably should head to the bench (still playing of course) a game or two until he works it out. The missed shots are one thing, but his turnovers are unforced and costly.

3. Burch and Atlason are freshmen, this is part of the process. We need to run more plays for Atlason to shoot. Have we run any lately? They will be fine I think as they get deeper in the conference season and get more experience.

4. Meta provides some offense, but once again struggled defensively. I don’t know what to do with him in the Valley.

5. Ellis giving us nothing is the biggest disappointment of the season so far and is hurting us badly, along with our transfer recruiting in general. Indiana State showed how to do that the right way.

6. Hannah didn’t have his best game but was ok. Leons did his thing. Unfortunately it is a guard’s league. We don’t have much in that area.

7. Having 7 posts, none of whom have both a little quickness and strength combined hurts. Basically we have no true real good 5 man on a roster full of posts.

This is not at large contender right now, and of course those conversations end quickly as losses pile up in the Valley. Hopefully we can clean things up and do the Brian thing of being better by full conference season time. There’s still plenty of potential, but the self-inflicted poor play from a mostly veteran team is not encouraging. We’ve had a good non-con so far, let’s finish that strong. Indiana State is a real nice team.