Final score: Bradley 90 Indiana State 89 in overtime

[LittleBrave]

Man oh man - I was ELATED after finishing watching the replay on ESPN+. I almost gave up hope when down 7 in OT.
GREAT job by Bradley to stay focused throughout the game. Many things to sharpen up - better job at rebounding. The 3-pt. shooting discrepancy once again let the other team hang around and almost win. I see our last 2 games of poor 3-pt shooting as an anomaly. We will likely shoot a shade above 40% most games. Atlason has been in a major funk but that won't last.

In road games thus far, Hannah and Atlason have not contributed much, as was the case again tonight. That can't continue even tho we have much depth.

I can't underestimate how much Burch was a factor tonight in the 2nd half and OT - his hustle will not show up in the scoresheet. He played great defense as usual too.

Zek seems to come up huge in Terre Haute, as the game vs Indy St 2 years ago was the turning point in the season to propel BU to MVC reg. season champs.

Feels GREAT to come away with that win, as I thought we deserved it with the horrid officiating vs. the Braves. I feel bad for the Trees as they played their hearts out and really were the better team in OT. Hats off to them as they seem to have a good future with nice young players.

[egib52]

Yes. 36 FTs for Indiana State, 15 for Bradley. At one point it was 30-10. ISU-blue would drive into the lane and either get a foul or a basket. Apparently this wasn't a game for Meta, but after drive after drive I would have liked to have parked him under the basket on defense to stop that strategy.

Road wins are tough. Somehow we gutted this one out, while Drake couldn't do the same earlier in the day. We're back to being Valley favorites, IMO.

With the way it was officiated, Meta would have fouled out in 5 mins

[bradleyfan124]

Big disparity in the number of fouls called. Something is wrong there.It was good to see Burch, Dillon and Almar step up when Hannah and Davis went out with fouls

[Steve Zalutsky]

Lasts nights game sure had an exciting finish! Bradley is a very good team, but it's so hard to maintain consistency which is why it's so tough to win game after game! Its a long season and road games are just so tough to win in college Basketball! However, if Bradley can pull out those last possession games, then we Obviously have a chance at Winning the Valley conference tournament! That's really the Goal! While it's nice to win the Regular Season, Arch Madness is What Bradley needs to win. Will see what happens.The Valley looks alot tougher then we originally thought. Many teams like Valpo are much Improved and Drake and Indiana State have really done well in a quick rebuild after losing all there Starters from last year! When your the Preseason favorite, every team is Motivated to give there best effort! It's not gonna be easy, but Bradley has its best shot this year. I still feel like we're missing a piece and of course we can't replace Malevy. Will see if Bradley can get better during the season and who can step up to be that 5th scorer? ( Burch) At the very Least, it's going to be a fun entertaining season on the hilltop!!!!!

[Da Coach]

Yes, it remains unlikely the Valley will get more than one NCAA Tournament bid. So Bradley needs to get the best seed, and win in St. Louis.
After the Bradley win at Indiana State, their RPI improve from 53 to 48 - https://www.warrennolan.com/basketba...hedule/Bradley
But Bradley's NET rank did not improve, and remained the same at # 74 - https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basket...l-net-rankings

Bradley does not have a true signature win. They are 0-1 vs. Quad 1, and 1-1 vs. Quad 2.
Their Strength of Schedule is in the 160's. And because there are so many low-NET teams in the MVC (Drake and UNI are the only opponents with NET less than 119), it will be virtually impossible for Bradley to get their NET rank in the 20's or low-30's that is needed if the Braves have any chance at an at-large bid.

[Steve Zalutsky]

Updated Bracketology as of yesterday has Bradley in as auto Qualifier # 12 seed facing # 5 seed Purdue. Drake's loss to UIC and Bradley's Road OT win at Indiana State seem Obviously why Bradley was put in over Drake. For me Bracketology is fun to follow even though it's just a guess as the final results will be decided in March during Conference Tournaments. I hope Bradley does not look past Missouri State knowing Drake is coming to town Next week!!!! The Drake game should be Fun!

[Da Coach]

Consensus among Bradley fans is that the officiating for Wednesday's game at Indiana State game was terrible. Two of Bradley's top players (Hannah and Davis) fouled out, and three more played significant time with 4 fouls. Christian Davis had never fouled out in a game before.
Only two Indiana State players had more than 2 fouls.

Looks like the MVC is taking fans' criticism of the poor officiating seriously - https://x.com/MVCMadness/status/1875202417093914773

The Missouri Valley Conference has announced plans for enhanced referee training sessions at the end of the season, following strong feedback from Bradley and Illinois State fans about officiating this year.
MVC Commissioner Jeff Jackson: "We take all fan concerns seriously... even the ones on X complaining during games."

[egib52]

Consensus among Bradley fans is that the officiating for Wednesday's game at Indiana State game was terrible. Two of Bradley's top players (Hannah and Davis) fouled out, and three more played significant time with 4 fouls. Christian Davis had never fouled out in a game before.
Only two Indiana State players had more than 2 fouls.

Looks like the MVC is taking fans' criticism of the poor officiating seriously - https://x.com/MVCMadness/status/1875202417093914773

The Missouri Valley Conference has announced plans for enhanced referee training sessions at the end of the season, following strong feedback from Bradley and Illinois State fans about officiating this year.
MVC Commissioner Jeff Jackson: "We take all fan concerns seriously... even the ones on X complaining during games."

I'm pretty sure that is a joke.

[Da Coach]

Yes, it probably is, though I wish it was true.
I follow that account, and his tweets are usually serious.

[Steve Zalutsky]

Quick Update today on Bracketology has Drake as the last team in! They would be seated #11. Bradley remains the AQ MVC team as #12 seed.it is a stretch, but still possible MVC gets 2 teams in NCAA tourney!

[Tommy]

Quick Update today on Bracketology has Drake as the last team in! They would be seated #11. Bradley remains the AQ MVC team as #12 seed.it is a stretch, but still possible MVC gets 2 teams in NCAA tourney!

Boy, I hope you're right, but based on the way they snubbed Indiana State I think it'll take a real miracle to get 2 MVC teams in the tournament. I hope I'm wrong!

[yoda]

Quick Update today on Bracketology...

Joe Lunardi was on ESPN for a long segment during the St. Joe/Saint Louis game, and talked incessantly about how the power conferences are sooo good, and that many P-5 teams (esp SEC) would deserve an at-large bid even with a 6-12 conference record. He was even hinting that since 11 of the 12 SEC teams
have NET's that are around 50 and better, that we could see a record number of teams from a single conference grabbing up the at-large bids.

He also justified bad teams getting at-large bids by throwing out the example of West Virginia in 2023, who got an at large bid
with a conference record of 7-11. But he didn't mention that West Virginia got knocked out that year in their first NCAAT game.
(btw, in 2023 Bradley's RPI was 41, West Virginia's was 46, but Bradley did not get an at-large bid)