Final score: Bradley 118 Indiana State 65

[Bradley3342]

Against UC Irvine.

Yep. I think Hersey scored 52 that game in Peoria

[epistibrain]

Yep. I think Hersey scored 52 that game in Peoria

That was a good one!

I believe it was 51, the Bradley record at the time, and Anthony Manuel had 21 assists. But for some reason what I remember most was JT scoring 33, twenty points over his previous career high.

But somehow I had forgotten this (from the LA Times game story):

“But Hawkins’ mark was by far the most notable, especially when you consider the fact that he played only three-quarters of the game. Hawkins picked up his third foul with 9:45 left in the first half and sat out the rest of the half. When Hawkins left the game, he was on a pace that would have worked out to 92 points had he played all 40 minutes.”

[epistibrain]

BUSingleGameRecordPoints.png

Yeah, I did not believe it was the third highest total as asserted and looked that up as well. However, it was the seventh highest, which is pretty good.

In my memory of the Stan Albeck era I didn’t think it was top ten, but I find my memory exaggerated a bit. However, I did correctly remember that two games into the Albeck era they were 0-2 even though they were averaging 109 points per game!

[Tommy]

I think a lot of the frustration on the boards recently is because we were waiting to see this team show up for the last handful of games. Well boy, did they show up last night!

Man, that was a fun game to be at. To finish it off with a Goanar 3 pointer was just beautiful! Most fun I've had in a long time and was nice to pay back ISU Blue for bringing their refs to the game when we played at their place.

[bradleyfan124]

Obviously our best game of the season by far. That was good offense and really solid defense, and we didn't turn the ball over much, at least in the non-garbage time of the game. Passing was outstanding and crisp. Now, Indiana State had pathetic defensive effort and barely fought through or for anything on that end, and didn't seem to rotate much at all or box out. No one down low did anything for them on defense. I don't know if I've seen a worse defensive effort in a Valley team. Now, Bradley was great, don't get me wrong, but their effort was still embarrassing.

The subtle things I liked:

I'm not sure I'm on board yet with starting Meta over Thomas all of the time, but I'll say this in it's favor, Meta is a big body and sets high quality screens for our shooters, which helped us start offensively well tonight. Also, that was the best I've ever seen Meta play. He passed crisply and found open guys, didn't look overly slow, and had a really nice offensive post game outside of a silly miss or two. If that's the Meta we can get more consistently, I've fine with him getting more minutes.

I loved that we went to the post early. When Thomas took an early three I was concerned, but then we pounded it down low to Meta and him. Thomas has too good of a post game now to play down there more. He is strong and athletic down there.

I wish we would have put Atlason and the bench in just a bit earlier, as it would have been a great time to get Almar some shots and maybe get him going, and I was a little worried about injury for a bit leaving the starters in. I wonder if he is just getting a Meta-like few game reset or if he will have to earn his way back into the rotation? It does make sense to drop to 8-9 rather than 9-10 rotation players at some point and he hasn't provided much lately. I also would have loved to seen more Rugaard tonight, as he looks like a future rotation player to me when I've seen him.

That was the Connor Dillon I was wanting to see all year. Maybe he is finally fully recovered and in game shape, but he looked quick on both ends. He has been a nice driver and solid shooter all year, but his defensive hands and rotations were great tonight. For a player who is not considered a defensive guy, he sure looked it tonight.

Johnson's shot seems to be getting better. That will make him very dangerous if he can do that.

Everyone was great tonight, and despite not being able to do THIS every night, I want to see us play like with this intensity and style more the rest of the way. Other teams will have better defensive post games than ISU did tonight, but we need to pound it inside like this more often and then pass it out from there.

I was also glad to see Connor Dillon break out. ESPN Plus named him player of the game

[Southside]

Watching on TV the team looked noticeably quicker and more aggressive.

[Bradley8792]

Hawkins picked up his third foul with 9:45 left in the first half and sat out the rest of the game”

So what you’re saying is the refs sucked back then also.

[BUfan14]

Speaking of refs, because it didn’t matter it won’t get much publicity, but that foul call on Dillon on a rebound toward the end where he literally did not touch the guy at all was such an awful call. I understand when refs make a controversial call on tough bang bang plays, but there have been several really bad calls this year that weren’t even close. That should never happen.

[BUfan14]

Yeah, I did not believe it was the third highest total as asserted and looked that up as well. However, it was the seventh highest, which is pretty good.

In my memory of the Stan Albeck era I didn’t think it was top ten, but I find my memory exaggerated a bit. However, I did correctly remember that two games into the Albeck era they were 0-2 even though they were averaging 109 points per game!

Ya I should have known better than to trust the TV guys. They had several facts wrong during the broadcast.

[bradleyfan124]

Speaking of refs, because it didn’t matter it won’t get much publicity, but that foul call on Dillon on a rebound toward the end where he literally did not touch the guy at all was such an awful call. I understand when refs make a controversial call on tough bang bang plays, but there have been several really bad calls this year that weren’t even close. That should never happen.

I agree. He had position and went straight up

[Tommy]

Speaking of refs, because it didn’t matter it won’t get much publicity, but that foul call on Dillon on a rebound toward the end where he literally did not touch the guy at all was such an awful call. I understand when refs make a controversial call on tough bang bang plays, but there have been several really bad calls this year that weren’t even close. That should never happen.

What makes it worse is that happened not long after the hack on Meta on our end where you could hear the slap half way up the stands, but somehow the refs didn't see or hear that one! All in all, though, at least the foul calls and free throws weren't egregiously one-sided like they were at Indiana State.

[LittleBrave]

I think Burch scored from his room. Hopefully he gets well before the weekend. He is a big part of this team.

Agreed - I think without him we wouldn't have won at Indy St. in OT. His energy is contagious, and he has many ways to score - probably the closest to Zek in that regard.

[tomahawk chop]

I liked the fact that are players actually went hard after rebounds instead of waiting around for a teammate to get it, we should have been doing this the whole season. We obviously made some changes on our offense patterns because there was a lot more player movement. Meta was better because he posted up more down low which allows him to just catch and shoot. Connor Dillon may not be the fastest guy but he understands how to play, he was terrific last night. I have been watching Johnson shoot in warmups before the game and before the start of the second half and noticed his 3 point shots have looked really good, to me that was the only thing holding him back as far as a great scorer. We just need to take this offensive show on the road.

[LittleBrave]

at least the foul calls and free throws weren't egregiously one-sided like they were at Indiana State.

For sure Tommy. I didn't hear the hack/slap on Meta from the confines of my home so maybe you mistook it for a high-five hand slap between BU fans, as those happened early and often last night!

[Tommy]

For sure Tommy. I didn't hear the hack/slap on Meta from the confines of my home so maybe you mistook it for a high-five hand slap between BU fans, as those happened early and often last night!

haha! Maybe!