Final score- Bradley 78 SIU 64

[Bacci'sAftertheGym]

I'm response to DC... Imho we can't defend guards driving because we hedge screens too hard and the weak side has to scramble to help too much. Which leads to fouls at the rim or an easy dish to the corner 3. Without exceptional athleticism we can't afford to hedge that hard.
Hedge is supposed to just break up the rhythm of the dribbler and change his path, not completely stop him. I'd like to see more switch-everything defense against guard-heavy teams without a 7 footer like SIU and Drake.

[tomahawk chop]

I thought we started out slow and then really had it going until we started subbing with a 19 point lead. They made a run on us because we lost our rhythm and had trouble getting it back for a long time. I thought Meta really struggled playing tonight.

[Da Coach]

I'm response to DC... Imho we can't defend guards driving because we hedge screens too hard and the weak side has to scramble to help too much. Which leads to fouls at the rim or an easy dish to the corner 3. Without exceptional athleticism we can't afford to hedge that hard.
Hedge is supposed to just break up the rhythm of the dribbler and change his path, not completely stop him. I'd like to see more switch-everything defense against guard-heavy teams without a 7 footer like SIU and Drake.

IMO, it also has a lot to do with the way our players defend inside. They seem to be told to stand their position and not jump to contest the shot. That might help protect against accumulating fouls, but it consistently allows smaller players to get layups over our bigger players.

[BengalFan14]

I'm response to DC... Imho we can't defend guards driving because we hedge screens too hard and the weak side has to scramble to help too much. Which leads to fouls at the rim or an easy dish to the corner 3. Without exceptional athleticism we can't afford to hedge that hard.
Hedge is supposed to just break up the rhythm of the dribbler and change his path, not completely stop him. I'd like to see more switch-everything defense against guard-heavy teams without a 7 footer like SIU and Drake.

We’re capable of switching everything even with Duke on the floor. Drake will post him but that’s not what they want to do. As long as we don’t let Mescari get rolling and we rebound I’ll accept the result.

[LittleBrave]

Zeko's 3-point shot looks silky smooth, but just off again and only 1 trey. BUT, 4 assists and 0 turnovers was a great sign.

Duke was HUGE.
Nice D and energy from Hannah, which is 2nd straight game he has brought his game, after 3 straight games where he just looked drained.

Just love Burch's game, so good to see him finding himself into the rotation. If we can get Ja'Quan going again, these 2 will give us a nice spark off the bench.

This team's rebounding is not good, especially allowing 2nd chance points.

A bit of a letdown with 9 min. to go in game with 20+ pt lead - lost focus for 5 minutes, but aside from that and a slow start on offense in 1st half, a very good game.

Dibba is a load and tough to stop when on the move.

Fun game to watch for the most part. Go BRAVES! 19 wins vs D-1 opponents. Let's get to 20 before the Red out vs Murray in 10 days!

[LittleBrave]

Meta has been absolutely awful lately. Time for him to ride the pine and come in to muscle down on bigger dudes when he does play.

Our inside game is pretty weak right now and once again CT did nothing tonight...becoming a bad pickup from the portal, though we've seen him play well in a handful of games.

[Tommy]

Was glad to see Duke back to his regular leadership self on the floor and nailing all those 3's didn't hurt, either. Our inside game was abysmal as we continue to clank the majority of our shots from within the lane, which is really baffling to me. If we ever learn how to make those bunny shots again, we might get back to our unbeatable ways.

Disappointing to see how often SIU got to the rim, but listening to BW on the post-game, sounds like they had 3 scoring threats and they game planned to take away two of them and let Dibba do his thing, and luckily it wasn't enough for them to pull off the win (but man, he scored at will).

All in all, the game never felt like we were in trouble, certainly not out of control. Would like to see better rotation and ball movement and don't understand why we find ourselves standing still so much on offense, but I suppose that's the difference between the team we saw earlier this year and this one. I'm encouraged by the improvement against a red hot SIU team and hope it continues through Sunday when we play Drake. That game is going to be a good barometer of what we can expect from this team in the tournament.

Side note, had no idea Darius had broken the record for most games played as a Brave. Quite an accomplishment, and it just makes me like him that much more considering we all know he probably had opportunities to go to bigger schools after last year. He'll always hold a special place in my BU heart for sticking around, and I've always loved his attitude and game. I'll really miss him next year after he graduates.

[Dubl R 1]

Never underestimate the positive effects of throwing things at home, LTF!

I can first hand vouch for this

[Dub]

Sometimes our offense lacks flow and is very hesitant and predictible. That seems to lead to TO’s…. Seems to happen more against zone than man.

Has been better last two games because:

I believe the reason was we were prepping a game plan to use entry passes into a traditional scoring big. Hence starting Meta so many times. When those plays dont materialize, out he comes and we are on to plan B or C and at times are playing from behind. Then we try again in the second half…. Repeat.

Let’s admit we don’t have that type of player right now and move on. Drive and dump off to the bigs or to the perimeter. Have the bugs focus on screens, rebounds, and dump offs. Have the wings slash more. We have guys who can drive the ball. Let’s do it.

[Tommy]

I can first hand vouch for this

haha! Probably won us a game or two, right DR?