Final score: Bradley 76 Northern Illinois 60

[Da Coach]

Bradley's next game: Bradley vs. Northern Illinois, Saturday, Nov. 16, 7:00 pm at Carver Arena
Nice to have another Saturday night game at home. Bradley and NIU are both 2-1 on the season, so far.

NIU's only win was against Holy Cross College, not the Division I school from Worcester, Massachusetts, but a small (430 students) private NAIA Catholic college in Notre Dame, Indiana. They have lost to Georgia Southern (Sun Belt Conference) and Monmouth University of New Jersey, member of the Coastal Athletic Association, formerly the Colonial Athletic Association).
NIU schedule/results- https://niuhuskies.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://niuhuskies.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Coaching staff- https://niuhuskies.com/sports/mens-basketball/coaches
Stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s...ason_Stats.pdf

Their leading scorer so far is James Dent, Jr., who is averaging 16.0 ppg, and shooting 60% from three (9-15). He also is their leading rebounder (6.3 rpg). Dent is from Springfield Southeast HS, and he received some recruiting interest by Bradley.. He made an unofficial visit to Bradley in October, 2020, and attended a Bradley game in January, 2021. There were no reports that he was ever offered by BU, and he played his freshman college year (2021-22) at Moberly Junior College in Missouri. He spent his second year at John A. Logan College in 2022-23, and helped lead them to the 2023 NJCAA National Championship. He was at Western Illinois last season before transferring to NIU this season. Bio - https://niuhuskies.com/sports/mens-b...dent-jr-/17539
NIU has 2 other double-digit scorers-
6'5" guard Quentin Jones, (14.7 ppg, and 7-16 from three), a sophomore from Chicago, who played at Marian Catholic HS in Chicago Heights, IL, and he was a freshman at Cal Poly last season before transferring to NIU. Bio - https://niuhuskies.com/sports/mens-b...in-jones/17542
6'7" junior forward Ethan Butler (13.0 ppg, and 5.0 rpg)- from Toronto, Ontario, and he spent his first two college seasons at Oregon in the Pac 12. He redshirted 2021-22, then played in only 2 games in 2022-23 due to injury (Stats). He averaged 3.5 ppg for NIU last season (2023-24), mostly off the bench. Bio- https://niuhuskies.com/sports/mens-b...n-butler/17533

The game is on ESPN+ - https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player...f-56c3ce5f5e70
Fan Links-
Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Chat Room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
WMBD radio- https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045

This is head coach Rashon Burno's fourth season, and he has not had a winning season yet. In fact, they regressed a bit last season, going 11-20 overall, and 5-13 in the MAC.
NIU historical record - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...-illinois/men/
NIU was picked 11th out of 12 schools in the Mid-American Conference Preseason Poll - https://getsomemaction.com/news/2024...oll-teams.aspx

[BUfan14]

Score looks pretty good in the end, but I'm not sure NIU is very good. Still a little sloppy on both ends. I still think we are trying to fill the defensive shoes of Leons and Hickman. The turnovers were not good.

Deen looked solid to me, but a little out of control at times. Hannah was ok. Zek's offense looked good tonight, but both still too sloppy with turnovers. Atlason struggled outside of a couple of threes, and has to be better with fouls and turnovers. Davis just looked off tonight to me in almost every aspect. Really need him and Atlason to step up.

As for the bench, Dillion was quiet, but the only regular to not turn it over, and made a nice three. Meta had what I thought was his best game as a Brave. Still dropped some easy passes and struggled on defense in the second half, but made several nice offensive moves down low. I think extended minutes wear him out, so I'd like to see Thomas at times when Atlason gets in foul trouble. Brian does seem to be playing matchups with those two though. Thomas for higher athletic teams, Meta for other teams. Hard not to like Johnson's game, even when there are those freshman moments. He just plays hard at all times and doesn't back down.

Overall, some good, some bad. Bradley needs to be better to make some noise in the Myrtle Beach tournament next week. I think this next week is crucial to have any hopes of being an at large, and we have not looked as good as I think we can so far. It will be fun to see how it goes.

[Big Mike]

Always good to get a W....getting playing time Meta is gonna become a serviceable center and matchup problem as he gains confidence!
Bully is gonna be a player ....Braves need to knock down the lazy turnovers, plus getting Burch back will help out the scoring rotation!

[Tommy]

Always good to get a W....getting playing time Meta is gonna become a serviceable center and matchup problem as he gains confidence!
Bully is gonna be a player ....Braves need to knock down the lazy turnovers, plus getting Burch back will help out the scoring rotation!

Pretend I posted this.

[Da Coach]

Final score- Bradley 75 NIU 60
Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Yes, Bradley played very well except for a couple things that Coach Wardle was clearly aggravated by....
1) too many Bradley turnovers- Bradley had 16 turnovers, while NIU had 7 steals; most turnovers were sloppy passes, and a couple offensive fouls.
2) defensive breakdowns that allowed NIU to get 30 points in the paint despite playing the entire game with a small lineup.

I would give credit to NIU for some of what caused those two things. They were quick, and played pretty good defense, and they ran a pretty good offense that freed up players to get free in the lane for easy shots.

The good--> Bradley shot the ball extremely well. They were 25-43 (58.1%) overall and 7-14 (50.0%) from three. Free throws were 18-22 (81.8%). All three were season best percentages.
And they did OK rebounding with a 31-23 advantage.
And the defense held NIU to 22-54 (40.7%) shooting overall and 5-22 (22.7%) from three (1-11 in the 2nd half).

Attendance-6,094 -the best home attendance so far this season-
SEMO- 5,014
UTSA- 4,557
NIU- 6,094

Bring on Texas State in Myrtle Beach (actually the game is in Conway, SC).
Texas State lost tonight to Abiline Christian 72-60 to drop their record to 2-2 - https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401725374

[Bradley8792]

It was good to see more of an inside game for once. Meta seems to be improving and building confidence. We can’t continue with the high rate of turnovers and opponents point off of turnovers. Better teams will put us away.

[Da Coach]

One other highlight in last night's game- Timo van der Knaap scored his first Division I point on a free throw in the final seconds of the game. Congratulations to Timo!

The Player of the Game was Ahmet Jonovic with 12 points and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes of playing time. However, his 12 points was not a career-high for Meta. He had 15 points in 15 minutes last season at Valparaiso. But the 7 rebounds ties his career high that he's accomplished twice before. He had 7 rebounds last season in Bradley's overtime win against Utah State. And he also had 7 rebounds in Bradley's first game this season against Southeast Missouri State. Meta is now averaging 7.0 ppg. He also averages 5.0 rpg, which is 2nd on the team to Christian Davis who averages 5.8 rpg.

Some other stats worth noting...

Duke Deen now is averaging 4.0 assists per game, and just 1.75 turnovers per game.
Darius Hannah is Bradley's leading scorer on the season (13.8 ppg).
Darius also leads the team with a 71.0% FG% percentage. And, he is shooting 50% from three (4-8 ).
Not bad for someone who, as a freshman, I saw referred to as a wasted scholarship and a player who couldn't shoot.

As a team this season, Bradley is 52.1% overall (111-213) which ranks 3rd in the MVC. And they are 43.7% from three (38-87)- ranks 2nd in the MVC behind Murray State's 46.2% (30-65)
Top three point shooters-
Demarion Burch is at 100% from three (1-1)
Connor Dillon is shooting 71.4% from three (5-7) - tied for #1 in the MVC
Zek is shooting 60.0% from three (6-10)
Christian Davis is shooting 41.7% from three (5-12)
Almar Atlason is shooting 40.0% from three (8-20)
Duke Deen is at 34.8 (8-23)

And Duke Deen is #1 in the MVC in FT% with 100% (12-12)
Bradley's average attendance is 5,222, which currently ranks second in the MVC to Indiana State (5,323)

Sources-
BU stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...Game_Stats.pdf

[Tommy]

Other than the sloppy turnovers, we gave up way too many drives to the basket. Crazy, considering that was NIU’s only offense. Pretty sure we could have left them wide open on 3’s and fared just fine.

On offense, it was just the opposite as NIU collapsed the lane every time we went inside and there was always someone wide open at the 3 point line. We did take advantage of it often, but probably could have literally found someone wide open on every single play.

Highlight for me was the crowd size for a non-con game and it was a pretty lively crowd at that. Gives me hope for the attendance this season. Also, Jaquan’s parents sit in our section and have attended every game, which is impressive considering the drive they have to make!

Don’t understand why Thomas isn’t getting more time. Can only assume he’s not meeting his assignments on practice, but hope to start seeing him soon. I like his energy, effort, and attitude.

Lastly, hard to complain with what we’re seeing, as all of this has happened with Burch out. That is a pretty big loss on both ends of the court, so just imagine what we can do with him back! Myrtle Beach should tell us a lot!

Let’s go, boys!

[yoda]

]Some other stats worth noting...

Duke Deen is now only 123 points away from scoring 1000 career points in a Bradley uniform
I wish the BUBraves website would update their record book from 2018 - but by my recollection,
that would make Deen the 54th Brave to reach that mark (Rienk was 52nd, Malevy 53rd)