Final score: Drake 64 Bradley 57

[BUfan14]

This game shows the fears some have had all year. Poor turnovers and bad rebounding. Our defense was fine enough and accomplished taking their star out in terms of scoring. We didn't rebound very well after playing defense and we looked lost on offense. If they hit more free throws that wouldn't have even been close. Take away our early lead and we got badly outplayed the rest of the way. Zek's pass at the top of the three point line that was a turnover and layup that sealed the game for Drake was an embarrassing play. Against Indiana State he almost cost us a game with a silly turnover up 5 with the ball too. He has to be better with ball security in those moments, we need him to be a go-to-guy when other teams are taking our Duke. No one played really well tonight, though Davis did a solid job defensively. Hannah had a good first half. Other than that, this was an ugly one. I just didn't like our effort tonight at all, which shouldn't be the case on national TV against a big rival in a big game. We were more selfish than normal tonight. Side note: I don't believe we would have been able to comeback anyway, but there was a shot when that official made a horrible non-call on the goaltending. A call that obvious should never be missed.

People can complain all they want about us not getting ranked fairly because we are a mid-major and such, but I think our ranking is exactly fair the last couple years. We are a top 100 but not top 50 team and we are not an at-large team (Any shot of that is gone completely now). That is disappointing in terms of what it seemed like we could have been this year. I really wished we would have used one more scholarship on a rotation big and I really wished we could have scheduled a little better in the non-conference (last year's schedule would have been fine). However, nothing can be done about that now, so we need to keep improving.

Being a top 100 team is still pretty good, and we just have to keep getting better until Arch Madness and try to play our best ball that weekend to make the tournament. We should have as good of a shot as anyone in conference if we get back to doing what we are capable of. UIC is not going to be easy, especially on the road, so I hope we come out and prove this is not who we really are, because the conference season has not been impressive so far. We are flawed, but I still believe we are better than what we've shown lately. We need to get back to being that at UIC.

[BUfan14]

Wardle is the worst coach when it come to substitute patterns there is no flow to the game.
He destroys any momentum the team has.

In fairness, I think he has grown a lot in this area in recent years. Also, no one had a flow tonight anyway, so I can't blame him for trying different combos in this one. Like I said in my post, no one really was having a good night or doing anything offensively in this one.

[Landof10thcoaches]

We have the weakest 4 and 5 guys in the country. Not one of them knows how to box out. Hannah thinks he is just a 3 point shooter. We set picks like we are scared to hold our ground. wardle has complained how we played good not ugly . Tonight out coached, out played, out hustled and out toughed. This team is not as good as they think they are. They may lose the next three games. Burch is the only one that played tough.

[bujeff23]

Teams will definitely look at the defensive blueprint by Missouri State and Drake these last two games. We will have to adjust. Only Zeke (sometimes Hannah) can really create his own shot. It’s still my issue with such a short point guard.

atlason needs to get going and we gotta get more out of our bench for sure. The big game moment swallowed a lot of them up today!

We weren’t going to go 20-0 in regular season and if Valpo holds on we will still be all alone in first place. Let’s bounce back and beat a much improved UIC team on Saturday. I’m excited to attend!

[Da Coach]

Yes, Drake deserved to win tonight. Other than the first 4-5 minutes when Bradley controlled the tempo and ran out to a 9 point lead, Bradley allowed Drake to play their usual style and they controlled the game from that point on. Bradley seemed like they couldn't figure out how to stop them from running their offense.
Final score- Drake 64 Bradley 57
Box score- https://godrakebulldogs.com/sports/m...boxscore/13440
Attendance 6,188

Bradley was successful in guarding the MVC leading scorer Bennett Stirtz. He came in averaging 18.3 ppg, and he was held to 0-3 shooting. He did get 4 points on free throws, and he had 8 assists.
Bradley's leading scorer, Duke Deen, was held to just 3 points, all on a single three pointer he made in his first shot midway through the first half. Duke had 5 assists, but also had 4 turnovers.
Drake's Mitch Mascari had 12 points on 4-10 from the 3-point line. The 5 Drake starters had only a total of 20 points in the game. Their bench, which only averages about 20 points per game, had 44 of their 64 points tonight.

A few observations-
1) Bradley substituted way too frequently. IMO, it contributed to stunting the offensive flow.
2) Bradley had a significant height advantage, but the Bradley big guys seems to spend most of their time on the perimeter. Hannah had most of his points on a couple three pointers and a couple free throws, and only rarely tried to get the ball inside for layups. Don't we have a 7-footer?
3) Why does Bradley keep calling timeouts to run a planned play at the end of the first half, when it seems to almost always fail? In tonight's game, it not only failed, it resulted in Drake scoring to tie the game.
4) Bradley was held to 25 points below their season scoring average, because they allowed Drake to control the tempo of the game. Bradley needs to make their opponent adjust and play the Braves style, as opposed to being force to play the opponents' style.

This was the 4th game in a row with poor three point shooting. And the troubling trend of way too many turnovers continues. This game could be a negative turning point if they don't figure out a way to correct these issues.

And how could all 3 officials miss an obvious goaltending call late in the game?

[bradleyfan124]

Drake was the better team tonight. In the second half they took us out of our offense and instead of trying to get back into it we panicked. We started pressing. To much one on one

[Big Mike]

Yes,

A few observations-
1) Bradley substituted way too frequently. IMO, it contributed to stunting the offensive flow.
2) Bradley had Don't we have a 7 footer?


This was the 4th game in a row with poor three point shooting. And the troubling trend of way too many turnovers continues. This game could be a negative turning point if they don't figure out a way to correct these issues.

And how could all 3 officials miss an obvious goaltending call late in the game?

When getting killed in the paint put Meta in....
He can give the same # of fouls Thomas and Atlason give and might outscore them as of late!
Yes that was an obvious goal tend and the announcers said such when it happened....but ref said not reviewable?

[BUfan17]

Why does Wardle sub out every time a mistake is made? Does that not interfere with the flow for the players? Doesn’t it make them “afraid”
to make a mistake and play tight?

Wardle is a good coach but IMO this is my number one issue with him. He has been doing this for the 10 years he has been here. When we get in a bad groove our guys play scared due to the constant subbing.

[BUfan17]

When getting killed in the paint put Meta in....
He can give the same # of fouls Thomas and Atlason give and might outscore them as of late!
Yes that was an obvious goal tend and the announcers said such when it happened....but ref said not reviewable?

Yeah no clue why Meta hasn't been playing lately. Drake is a small team, Meta should have been able to cause issues for them.

[Dub]

Wardle is a good coach but IMO this is my number one issue with him. He has been doing this for the 10 years he has been here. When we get in a bad groove our guys play scared due to the constant subbing.

This is his way of having a quick but intense accountability session, forgiving/forgetting and moving on to the next play. Next time, watch how quickly the player gets put back in the game. He’s been consistent with it, and I’d say he knows what he’s doing. The results and culture improvement back it up. I get why it’s not popular with fans.

[Bradley8792]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more lost and confused offense.

terrible passing
turn overs where they literally took the ball from our hands.
shot clock violations
air balls

15 steals and 15 points off turnovers. That can’t happen. We’re far enough into the season they shouldn’t making stupid mistakes, but here we are.

And someone explain to me why we call a time out with 30 seconds left in the first half, draw up some amazing play only to turn be ball over resulting in the opponent scoring the last basket before halftime? EVERY GAME!

[Da Coach]

We have the weakest 4 and 5 guys in the country....

But we don't seem to try to utilize our 4-5 men down low, especially when playing against a team like Drake (also Missouri State, Indiana State, etc.) that significantly lacks size.
Darius tried backing his defender down low a couple times, but that was it. We almost never try to get one of our big men isolated in the lane then toss a lob into him and try to get a short shot over a smaller defender. Doesn't Corey Thomas have some post skills? Why have we not seen any? And, I love Connor Linke. But why was he in the game for 7 minutes in late-second half crunch time when Bradley fell behind and sorely needed a scoring presence? His stat line -

[Southside]

BU played soft tonight. The defensive pressure Drake put on the ball effected Bradley. Zero offensive rebounding again today. Turnovers and offensive rebounds will doom this team. I hate to say it, but Drake's offense was a well oiled machine. They constantly got wide open shots. I think Bradley has the better individual players, but Drake clearly was the better team.

[Landof10thcoaches]

Da coach, I just don’t understand why no screen slips anymore!!! Free up space both ways three point and lane. We have been getting punched in the mouth and don’t punch back. As slow as meta is I think his offense is better than Connor L. Big body is hard to move around. Wardle has said it this team is not ready to win big games and unfortunately he is right. Hopefully it changes at the right time (arch madness)

[Classof77]

I can't think of a single positive thing to say about this game. I guess we held Stirtz to 4 points at the line and zero field goals. I suspect Stirtz will take that every time as long as Drake gets the W.