Next game- Bradley at Northern Iowa, Sunday, Feb. 2, 3:00 pm

[Da Coach]

Next game- Bradley (18-4, 9-2) at Northern Iowa (13-9, 7-4), Sunday, Feb. 2, 3:00 pm.

UNI is 10-2 at home this season (4-1 in MVC home games), Bradley is 5-1 in road games (5-0 in MVC road games).
The game will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN+ - https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/...4-9bf953041b37
Live Stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=548518
Chat Room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Radio- https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045

UNI links-
Schedule/results- https://unipanthers.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://unipanthers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://unipanthers.com/sports/mens-.../stats/2024-25

As noted in another thread, UNI has lost 2 starters this season to injury. Sophomore starting point guard R.J. Taylor suffered an Achilles tendon tear in their 8th game of the season, and will redshirt. And starting guard Leon Bond III, a redshirt sophomore transfer from Virginia, suffered a partial tear of his patellar tendon in their game last Saturday at Indiana State and is not expected to return this season.
They are lead in scoring and rebounding by 6'6" G/F Tytan Anderson (14.7 ppg, 6.4 rpg).
Other starters include: 6'4" junior guard Trey Campbell (10.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg), and a pair of transfers from Loyola- 6'11" senior center Jacob Hutson (11.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg), a former Bradley recruit, and 6'8" redshirt-junior forward Ben Schweiger (9.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg)

Their last game was Wednesday, Jan. 29, a 52-66 loss at Drake. In that game, 6'4" junior transfer Max Weisbrod, started in place of Bond. In 27 minutes of playing time, he had 7 points (3-7 overall, and 1-5 from three). He is a transfer from Northern Michigan University, where he averaged 17.2 ppg and was named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats

MVC Stats-
Team- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...eam/_/group/18
Individual- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...yer/_/group/18

UNI leads the MVC in overall FG% (49.9%) and they rank 7th nationally. Bradley (48.7%) ranks 3rd in the MVC and 27th nationally.
UNI ranks 4th in the MVC in 3 point FG% (37.1%). Bradley (39.9%) is 1st in the MVC in 3-point FG%, and that ranks 2nd nationally.

[daveineureka]

I can only imagine what practices were like after the UIC game. Wardle said no day off after the game as is usually the norm. Do not have the privy to attend and watch practice. Hope the coaching staff told the team in no way was that performance acceptable and let them know they will be held to account. Let's hope for Bradley to return to form and win this game. The conference title is still there for the taking. Just have to play up to par and go get it.

[BRADLEY FAN 49]

B W could change the out come by changing his substitution patterns.

[Da Coach]

B W could change the out come by changing his substitution patterns.

I don't always agree with the substituting and have said so on this board a few times. But the coaches have to coach for the long run, and maybe the frequent subbing does benefit the team in the postseason. Note that Bradley's postseason success in the MVC Tournament in the last 6 years is unprecedented.
And in the case of last Wednesday's game, do you think a different substitution pattern would have changed the outcome of that game?

[Bradley8792]

One benefit to the substitution pattern is that he gets a lot of players in and gets to experiment with different lineups. He gets to see under what conditions they excel and who works best with who.

Knowing we are probably a one bid conference, I wonder if he really cares if we win the conference outright. I think his primary focus is gathering as much knowledge as he can about this team so he can get the most out of them in the tournament.

[BengalFan14]

I don't always agree with the substituting and have said so on this board a few times. But the coaches have to coach for the long run, and maybe the frequent subbing does benefit the team in the postseason. Note that Bradley's postseason success in the MVC Tournament in the last 6 years is unprecedented.
And in the case of last Wednesday's game, do you think a different substitution pattern would have changed the outcome of that game?

Considering the lack of effort, the sub pattern would have consisted of sitting the point guards and playing the walk ons. Look, this was one of those games that happens in a long season. It happens to all teams. True, we don’t have the luxury of an at-large bid. But it’s hard for college kids to stay locked in for 30+ games. As least we weren’t Indiana St.

[bradleyfan124]

We are going to find out how this teams reacts to adversity

[Bballjunkie]

We were up 22-9. We had all the momentum with the guys on the floor. Zeke was playing great. Out he comes and then the mass substitutions came. Destroyed all our flow and momentum. Sometimes the best coaching is no coaching. Then uic got hot and took it to us and we didn't respond. We were outscored by 36 from that point on and it was at home. Ouch

[CalCriddle]

We were up 22-9. We had all the momentum with the guys on the floor. Zeke was playing great. Out he comes and then the mass substitutions came. Destroyed all our flow and momentum. Sometimes the best coaching is no coaching. Then uic got hot and took it to us and we didn't respond. We were outscored by 36 from that point on and it was at home. Ouch

This is spot on - he absolutely killed our momentum. Players tighten up when they are jerked from a game with any mistake whatsoever- with him stomping up and down the sideline hitting chairs etc. it is rather embarrassing to watch as a long time fan

[tomahawk chop]

We were up 22-9. We had all the momentum with the guys on the floor. Zeke was playing great. Out he comes and then the mass substitutions came. Destroyed all our flow and momentum. Sometimes the best coaching is no coaching. Then uic got hot and took it to us and we didn't respond. We were outscored by 36 from that point on and it was at home. Ouch

I watched the replay and you are spot on, the team was playing great and after the substitutions we never were able to get that flow back for whatever reason. We had 25 points at around 10 minutes and 30 seconds to go in the half and it looked like we were on our way to another 100 point game. I understand you need to play 9 or 10 players but I wish he would stay with a unit longer when they are on a good run and not break our momentum.
I do not believe that players this age cannot give you 37 minutes or more a game because there are plenty of timeouts for them to rest. It did look like Zek was going to score 25 or more points until he was taken out and never seemed to recover.

[Tommy]

I’m curious, do you guys think our record would be better if BW coached differently, specifically concerning his substitution patterns? I agree that at times it seems unusual, but in the end, he seems to get results and always seems to have us playing good, usually our best ball as post-season starts.
I don’t think that BW coaches to win every game. I think he coaches to teach and prepare for the post-season. I could be wrong. Would be an interesting question to pose to him if given the chance.

[tomahawk chop]

I’m curious, do you guys think our record would be better if BW coached differently, specifically concerning his substitution patterns? I agree that at times it seems unusual, but in the end, he seems to get results and always seems to have us playing good, usually our best ball as post-season starts.
I don’t think that BW coaches to win every game. I think he coaches to teach and prepare for the post-season. I could be wrong. Would be an interesting question to pose to him if given the chance.

Who knows, thing is just because I would do something different does not mean I do not think he is a good coach.I am old school where you play your best players most of the time and only take them out because of foul trouble. The difference here is we have some players that come off the bench that are close to being as good as our starters so you also need to play them. The biggest problem is players are allowed to transfer without penalty so you have to give more minutes to subs in order to keep them.

[Bballjunkie]

Lessons are great learning tools but we have alot of older players. Enough with the lessons. At this level you better play to win . Most lessons are learned in practice. Have to trust what you are teaching in practice and trust your players. They can feel the tension or panick in a coach. Your players are a reflection of the coach. Let's come out aggressive today , play with spirit and bring back a victory. Go Braves.

[BraveBird]

Gee, with13 minutes left in the game currently playing on ESPN2, there is no way the BU game will be televised from the start. There has been a foul called on every possession except one…..this will go on until 3:30 at this pace….

[Da Coach]

Looks like the Florida Atlantic-South Florida won't be over for another 10-12 minutes.
The Bradley-UNI game is on ESPN News channel and on ESPN+