Final score: Bradley 81 Valparaiso 75

[BUfan17]

Valpo is a better team than many people give them credit. They gave Drake a pretty good game as well. Don't be surprised to see them in the top half of the conference this year.

That being said we got exposed with poor shooting and rebounding (and some questionable officiating). Almar playing almost 40 minutes but scoring 0 points isn't going to happen very often, must have been a very off night for him.

Luckily we got the W despite a poor performance.

[LongTimeFan]

This would seem to point out what type of recruits Wardle needs for next year.

[Da Coach]

Video of Duke Deen's "77-foot shot" - https://x.com/TheFieldOf68/status/18...181113/video/1

[Bradley3342]

What a game....double OT....Braves Win...Soo how big was the 3 bomb by Dean at the half?
Am I wrong or did Atlason not score a single point?

Yep Big Mike. That 3 was the difference of losing in regulation or going into overtime… With all of the horrible officiating this team still gutted out this victory

[bigjimmy]

Very impressed with how hard Valpo played all game. They will give other teams fits this Valley season. I thought Zek and Christian played consistently good on both ends all game. Darius, when the refs weren't getting him in foul trouble, played pretty good too. Almar had a really bad game on offense though his presence down low on defense in both overtimes made a big difference. Connor Dillon only played 13 minutes but made some key shots. I wonder what happened to Burch. Only played 3 minutes so did he reinjure himself? Or was it a coaching decision. Next game on New Years Day at ISU Blue won't be easy as we always seem to have a tough time at Terre Haute. Go get em boys!

[Big Mike]

Just my opinion.....but I believe Dillon got the Burch minutes....also believe this will change by who the opposing team is...really needed a help scoring and Dillon gave it today.

[yoda]

Yep Big Mike. ,,,,With all of the horrible officiating this team still gutted out this victory

anyone else see the episode late in the 1st Overtime where Duke drove in the final seconds and was hammered going for the layup & no call?
Then Coach Wardle tried to get to the ref (Padilla, same guy who gifted Valpo with FT's on a non-existent foul call) and give a piece of his mind,
but the rest of the coaching staff corralled him and shielded him from the ref, likely saving a technical & ejection and more FT's for Valpo at the end of OT.

[BUBraves2006]

anyone else see the episode late in the 1st Overtime where Duke drove in the final seconds and was hammered going for the layup & no call?
Then Coach Wardle tried to get to the ref (Padilla, same guy who gifted Valpo with FT's on a non-existent foul call) and give a piece of his mind,
but the rest of the coaching staff corralled him and shielded him from the ref, likely saving a technical & ejection and more FT's for Valpo at the end of OT.

I thought the refs had a rough night, making erratic calls (and then no calls) for both teams. If I'm perfectly honest though, I do not think Duke got fouled on that play from the few replays I saw on TV. I also think that while Darius had a clean block up high on that possession right before it, you can definitely see he makes some body contact as well. I probably wouldn't have called either a foul, and that's probably partially why Wardle was so irate about the inconsistency.

But, I also think the refs did a good job of dealing with both coaches whining, especially ours, when some other more well known guys would have definitely T'ed and probably tossed Wardle if they were reffing. Sometimes a good ref also just let's a coach get out his annoyance without making it about them and potentially changing the outcome of the game.

It seemed like the best thing that happened was that the refs basically said that they were not going to call it as tight in 2OT and as a result, we pulled ahead because a lot more physical play was allowed and our defense could step up.

I give Coach Wardle credit in the postgame that he said he basically needs to be better about keeping his emotions in check and that the coaching staff helped him calm down.

[Tommy]

33 FT's for Valpo, 21 for BU, and that's in our house! I believe 4 of the BU FT's were from intentional fouls at the end of the game, so if that's the case, that is a huge discrepancy, especially considering the fact that Valpo was by far the more aggressive team yesterday (and that is not a good thing and something we need to fix).

The ref that Yoda is talking about was chirping at Wardle the entire game and wouldn't allow him to express his displeasure at all.

I hope we never see that team of refs again.

[tomahawk chop]

I said while i was watching this game that it appeared like it was a road game for Bradley . The foul on Hannah was as bad as it gets at the end and could have cost us the game. That was as clean as a block you can get because he went straight up and the offensive player fell into Hannah at his feet after the block,
I just think we are one inside player short on this roster because Almar , Meta and Cory have struggled both on offense and defense at times and we have 0 replacements on the bench for them. I just wish we could have brought in one more transfer big that could help instead of having pretty much a lot of dead weight on the end of the bench. This staff will really need to find quite a few inside players come this spring because looking ahead to whom we return next season inside is as scary part.

[Da_Braves21]

Seems to be the same show with Duke, Zek, Hannah and CD. 1-4 (Johnson Dillon Omarion are solid backup guards) we are solid but we really struggle with our big men (Meta/Thomas are tough for me to watch). Almar is a nothing burger if he’s not hitting his 3’s. I’d love to see some minutes from Linke.

Minutes from Linke??? He seems like a great hype guy on the bench but he can’t compete with the physical players in the valley and doesn’t offer any other key trait like shooting. Almar is gonna figure it out, giving up minutes to Linke is insane.

[tomahawk chop]

Minutes from Linke??? He seems like a great hype guy on the bench but he can’t compete with the physical players in the valley and doesn’t offer any other key trait like shooting. Almar is gonna figure it out, giving up minutes to Linke is insane.

Agree on Linke but i have to add Biliew also which is why I wish we could have brought one more inside player in that is capable of giving you minutes on the floor.

[daveineureka]

Agree with all the posts that as of now we are lacking an inside presence. Not to say Meta or Thomas will come on as the season unfolds. Wardle's recruiting talents will be tested in the next year's recruitment. We need physical inside players. You can see how Malevy impacted our inside game last year. But this year you play with what you have. Still expect a great year ahead capable of winning the conference. "Go Braves"

[BRAVE82]

Bradley's NET dropped from 65 to 74 thanks to the close home shave with Valpo. Very obvious that Bradley needs another interior player that can rebound, defend and score with back to the basket. A few years back this was a team strength.

[Bradley8792]

But, I also think the refs did a good job of dealing with both coaches whining, especially ours,
.

I agree this is the only thing the refs did a good job of. There was a time early in the first half where Wardle wouldn’t stop complaining and any other red would have probably t’d him up. Probably kept us from loosing in regulation.