Next game: Bradley vs. Belmont, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 8:00 pm

[LittleBrave]

The last 2 games Corey Thomas has done nothing on either end. I really thought he'd complement Hannah this season. Maybe he'll be a bigger part of next year's team, but he's been pretty much a non-factor thus far.

Burch needs to play more, but understandable tonight to get Almar more minutes with his stellar offensive play.

[LittleBrave]

Not quite sure I've seen a game where our offense spent time literally in the penthouse (29-55 overall, 14-29 from 3 and 17 assists), and the outhouse (17 turnovers, giving up 11 steals). But our defense frankly has been piss poor the last 3 games. We've given up 14, 10 and 15 3 pointers and on too many occasions they have been wide open shots. Either we just don't get a hand up or we can't get through screens and don't switch. Our defensive execution has always been the hallmark for Brian Wardle teams and until we get that back our struggles will continue.

I thought our defense of the 3-ball tonight was actually good. They probably made 10 of them that you almost couldn't defend better. The 2 games prior though, it was terrible switches and fighting through screens. Tonight I gotta credit Belmont for just "feeling it". The turnovers cost us the game no doubt.

Nice to see the Braves connect from long range again, though Zek has sputtered from deep recently.

[LittleBrave]

Not sure about you guys, but I have been so tense the last 2 games watching (and urging) the Braves. Not enjoyable, so I will do my best to just chill and let the season play out. It's just hard as a fan to watch the team play so well and get noticed by the nation, and then fall into a rut this late in the season. Even tonight the weaknesses of interior defense and turnovers were glaring and that's not typical of Coach Wardle teams.

[Da Coach]

Official box score - https://belmontbruins.com/sports/men.../boxscore/6368
Attendance- 4,869

[bradleyfan124]

The poor defense and turnovers cost the Braves the game. The offense and FG% were good enough to win. But 17 turnovers, which lead to 17 Belmont points can't happen against a good team.
Final score- Belmont 80 Bradley 77 - https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

I thought that was the key. We could have withstood the 3 point shooting had the turnovers been cut in half

[BUBraves2006]

I thought our defense of the 3-ball tonight was actually good. They probably made 10 of them that you almost couldn't defend better. The 2 games prior though, it was terrible switches and fighting through screens. Tonight I gotta credit Belmont for just "feeling it". The turnovers cost us the game no doubt.

Nice to see the Braves connect from long range again, though Zek has sputtered from deep recently.

Thanks, LB. I was battling BigJimmy in the chat the whole night on this topic. (Thanks for the spirited banter!) Go back and watch it - I did a little bit again to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Many of the threes Lundblade made were hotly contested, especially in the second half. At some point, you have to tip your cap a little and just say wow, that guy was having a game. And Al basically canceled him out with his incredible game.

So, if you really look at those two outliers, it really comes back to the offensive turnovers. 16 turnovers is a recipe for disaster in any game, but especially a high possession on like every time you play Belmont. It caught up a little with the final surge and fouls (-5 on shot attempts) but it was in the 10-12 more for Belmont most of the game.

Also, in terms of Wardle, I always listen to the postgame but couldn't since the stream was broken. I was really worried to hear he didn't come out, but thankfully the PJStar has a lot of quotes from him, most specifically that he spent 25 minutes with the team after the game. So, it appears that he almost assuredly sent out Bargen so that he could stay in the locker room with the team.

I do also think we played much better this game than in the last two. One thing the coaching staff I am sure is noticing is that our roster is loaded with guys who are great in certain situations, but not great in others. This was a perfect game for Al - not that physical, open ended, his game can shine because he can get pushed around offensively and defensively. Meta in reverse, thrives in slower games where he doesn't have to get up and run.

Leaders still need to lead. Zek was quiet til late. Darius has to stay inside, even if he "can" be on the perimeter.

Also, we can't turn into Drake and basically only play 7 guys. Almost no time for Meta, Burch or Thomas and Dillon didn't even play. I understand some of this is style of game, but I think our overall depth is going to be a key if we are going to win in STL. Drake continues to burn their guys out and they just can't do that for 30 games.

[BUBraves2006]

One quote from Atlason I thought was great, which shows he gets it:

"I'm confident in my shot," he said. "I was ready to take the next one. But I gotta be able to stay on the floor, I can't foul out. Got to guard better. There's other things that we need to fix other than making shots."

(I don't normally take things out of the story, but I figured if it's just one quote, it's okay. Let me know if this isn't allowed. Bold added by me)

[Stryker]

Some of those turnovers were sooooo lazy. No discipline.

[BUfan14]

I may be in the minority but I didn’t think our offense was too much better. We shot better for sure, and put people like Atlason and Hannah in their natural position a little more, so it was somewhat better. However, Belmont is not good defensively and the turnovers were still bad. Also, there were still several possessions with 5 guys standing around and the point would pass to the wing, the wing would hold the ball and look towards the hoop, nobody moved at all, and then we passed it back to the point. I don’t understand 5 guys standing on the perimeter just passing it back and forth, it’s not even like somebody was posting up or setting a back screen of any kind. I guess that’s our answer to over dribbling? But we need to move more on offense. Belmont’s shooters were always moving even before the ball got past half court. So even though they hit some tough ones, they created just enough space by constantly moving and setting screens. Take away Atlason’s great offensive night and Johnson and we didn’t do much else offensively. I also think Dillon would have been a fine player to sprinkle in today given Belmont is not overly athletic. Interesting he didn't play much.

[LittleBrave]

Kind of an unusual game in that the defense for Belmont was better than the last time we saw them, but we made 14 threes on over 50%, and our perimeter D (from what I saw) was pretty good, but they hit 15 threes.

I believe things happen for a reason. If this is what's needed to get us mentally focused down the stretch and into St. Louis, then so be it.
I hate losing at home, but maybe the loss reinforced that we can't commit 15+ turnovers and expect to win, and we need to get a LOT better to be the best in the Valley in March. Our 3-game losing streak is on the seniors.

Coach brought up a good point that he's never had seniors struggle this time of year. They ALL have regressed/slumped in the last 4 games.

Zek is here to be an X-factor and he's just not gotten it done lately. Hoping he can step it up down the stretch and turn it on like he's capable. I believe in him.

[Dubl R 1]

Couple things.....

1. Offensive Scheme....we definitely SHOT well. We played some high low...specifically with Al flashing to the foul line in the middle...he scored 3 times I believe off of that...need more of that, and also start working Hannah in on the block on a lob or quick duck in when Al gets it there at the foul line...once we start doing that the corners would open for 3's

2.. Post Offense....despite running a bit more Hi -Low...our inside game is not good right now. We make simple entry passes to the post an absolute chore...we do 1 of 3 things. Either look at a guy who is on the block and has his man pinned behind him, pump fake a pass about 5 times to him, then throw it back to a guard at the top, Wait too long to throw the post pass, telegraph it, and either throw it directly to the ball defender, or allow the post defender to come over the top and deflect the pass away, or the third thing we do is just flat out not see wide open post players and don't get them the ball. But we struggle for whatever reason just to get the ball safely into the hands of the post players on the block.

3. Dribble Penetration....other than Bully, we don't get to the rim from the perimeter very often....we can't seem to get by ANYBODY consistently, yet almost every team we play, regardless of their personnel consistently drive past our perimeter players into that second level of defense. I think Zek and Almar give up on the drive way too early sometimes....would like to see them fight thru the contact and attack the rim....we have to find a way to get to the foul line more. Again, last night we are doubled up at the foul line by BELMONT!!...not a team known for the ability to get to the foul line...but they went there twice as many times as Bradley.

4. Turnovers.....IDK what to say about this....the only thing I'd say we can do to fix this other than players just taking accountability is stop putting Meta, and Corey Thomas, and Darius to an extent, as facilitators at the top of the key...I just have yet to see how this helps us. We waste 10 seconds trying to get them the ball to start with, then about 5 seconds of them with the ball in their hands before they just hand it back to a guard just to start it over.....and that's if it goes well and we don't turn the ball over in the process

5. Defensively... Last night, some good, some bad... I mean if Lundblade misses just 1 more 3 BU wins...and he made about 5 that were contested, off balance, or both...he was on fire. We were awful in late game press, and on the final possession IMO. Lundblade had already made 8 3's when we went to a late game press that in 2 passes resulted in him having the most open shot he'd had all night in the corner, which he misses, only for them to get the rebound, and get a completely uncontested layup down the middle from Whit. We were completely out of position the whole time on that. We went to it a second time, which they promptly scored on, we just got lucky they missed 3 free throws down the stretch. Final possession...we were way too high up the court in man pressure...allowed whit to catch it on the run, get a half step on his man, which caused Darius to have to step up to help stop the ball, which let his man get a half step on him, which Belmont's guard recognized immediately, got him the ball on a full run, and at that point Darius was toast, Almar saw it, rotated over and Baldy (the ref) couldn't wait to call a foul at that point...but Pierre made the shot anyway.
We should have zone pressed picking up between our own foul line and half court...keeping all dribbling in front of the defense, and not allow anybody a "run" at the basket, force the guard to pass once before the half court line and hopefully live with a contested jumper.

[tomahawk chop]

I hear a lot of excuses but hard to understand why coach started the same lineup that has now lost 3 games in a row where they were favored to win. Meta should not have started and played too many minutes simply because Belmont is more of a perimeter shooting team so he is not able to guard players outside and then recover to guard and rebound inside. Zek has no business being the point guard outside simply because his bad lazy passes that leads to turnovers. Duke and Al again should not have been out there on defense on that last Belmont possession . Al was tremendous on offense last night and did block some shots yet him and Duke are not 5 of our teams best defenders. Belmont did us a favor in calling that timeout with 6 seconds to play which should have allowed us to sub in our best defenders. That was a huge coaching error in not doing that at that time. The turnovers were definitely the main reason why we lost but you still cannot have coaching errors at the end after making a miracle comeback. I think coach does a great overall job yet his strategy lately is very concerning.

[egib52]

Thanks, LB. I was battling BigJimmy in the chat the whole night on this topic. (Thanks for the spirited banter!) Go back and watch it - I did a little bit again to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Many of the threes Lundblade made were hotly contested, especially in the second half. At some point, you have to tip your cap a little and just say wow, that guy was having a game. And Al basically canceled him out with his incredible game.
.

I don't disagree that they hit some tough shots, but we have a tendency to only play defense after an offensive player has caught the ball. If an offensive player can't catch the basketball they can't score it. A lot of the turnovers we have that don't come off of bad passes, come because the other team is denying our guys the ball. We need to identify the hot hand and deny him the ball. Also, I know I keep bringing this up, but why does BW not have his best defenders in the game at the end? That is the third or fourth time that teams have gone at Almar at the end of games.

[BUfan14]

Couple things.....

1. Offensive Scheme....we definitely SHOT well. We played some high low...specifically with Al flashing to the foul line in the middle...he scored 3 times I believe off of that...need more of that, and also start working Hannah in on the block on a lob or quick duck in when Al gets it there at the foul line...once we start doing that the corners would open for 3's

2.. Post Offense....despite running a bit more Hi -Low...our inside game is not good right now. We make simple entry passes to the post an absolute chore...we do 1 of 3 things. Either look at a guy who is on the block and has his man pinned behind him, pump fake a pass about 5 times to him, then throw it back to a guard at the top, Wait too long to throw the post pass, telegraph it, and either throw it directly to the ball defender, or allow the post defender to come over the top and deflect the pass away, or the third thing we do is just flat out not see wide open post players and don't get them the ball. But we struggle for whatever reason just to get the ball safely into the hands of the post players on the block.

3. Dribble Penetration....other than Bully, we don't get to the rim from the perimeter very often....we can't seem to get by ANYBODY consistently, yet almost every team we play, regardless of their personnel consistently drive past our perimeter players into that second level of defense. I think Zek and Almar give up on the drive way too early sometimes....would like to see them fight thru the contact and attack the rim....we have to find a way to get to the foul line more. Again, last night we are doubled up at the foul line by BELMONT!!...not a team known for the ability to get to the foul line...but they went there twice as many times as Bradley.

4. Turnovers.....IDK what to say about this....the only thing I'd say we can do to fix this other than players just taking accountability is stop putting Meta, and Corey Thomas, and Darius to an extent, as facilitators at the top of the key...I just have yet to see how this helps us. We waste 10 seconds trying to get them the ball to start with, then about 5 seconds of them with the ball in their hands before they just hand it back to a guard just to start it over.....and that's if it goes well and we don't turn the ball over in the process

Agree completely on the offense. Like I mentioned, sometimes the guards on the wing stood there with the ball and looked at the post and no one was even there and that passed it back out to the top. All 5 guys were standing at the free throw level or out. Also, your lob comment made me realize, when is the last time we had a Hannah alley-oop? I can't even remember one recently and it seems way less than last year. Part of that is he is on the perimeter more this year, but we just don't seem as good at using him that way.

[bigjimmy]

I'm sorry guys but our perimeter defense has not been good the last 3 games. We're too slow to get a hand up or we get screened too easy and when you combine that with our poor ballhandling, which limits our possessions, you have a 3 game losing streak. If was mentioned before and after the game what we needed to do to defend Belmont's shooters and we just didn't do a good enough job. As I said before until we get that turned around our losing will continue. Do I think we can turn it around? Absolutely. We have showed we can both take care of the ball and play hard nosed defense. We have a month to turn that around but hopefully it gets turned around much sooner than that.