MVC Tourney Play Problems

[Kososaur]

The last few years, it seems that Bradley struggles in the MVC tourney more than it seems they should. I haven't seen a game where I thought "man, they played really well". Most of their games seem closer than you would think they'd be, I'm not seeing any large wins in early rounds. They get to the title game and then lay an egg. On the one hand, they're getting to the title game, which I understand isn't the easiest thing to do. But, on the other hand, we're not bringing the title home. Are my perceptions wrong? Is there something in the shooting background in St Louis that the team is not ready for? Am I expecting too much?

[Da Coach]

In last year's tournament, they blasted UIC by 27 points (74-47) in the quarterfinal game, before losing a close game to the eventual champion Drake team (67-72) in the semifinal. Bradley really didn't play poorly. Drake was just a very good team.
This year, I thought they played well against Murray State and Valpo. Bradley was only a 5.5 point favorite against Murray State, and they won by 8. They were 8.5 point favorites against Valpo, and that game was a little closer, winning by 5 because All Wright had the game of his career..
Teams tend to give opponents their best in tournament situations. But, in both games, Bradley shot about 50% and turnovers were held to a minimum. But the end results weren't as dominating as some of us might have expected. But the team, IMO, played well and got the job done. Again, the championship game result wasn't what we wanted. But Drake was the favored team, and I don't see any shame in losing to a team that won 30 games this season..

[egib52]

In last year's tournament, they blasted UIC by 27 points (74-47) in the quarterfinal game, before losing a close game to the eventual champion Drake team (67-72) in the semifinal. Bradley really didn't play poorly. Drake was just a very good team.
This year, I thought they played well against Murray State and Valpo. Bradley was only a 5.5 point favorite against Murray State, and they won by 8. They were 8.5 point favorites against Valpo, and that game was a little closer, winning by 5 because All Wright had the game of his career..
Teams tend to give opponents their best in tournament situations. But, in both games, Bradley shot about 50% and turnovers were held to a minimum. But the end results weren't as dominating as some of us might have expected. But the team, IMO, played well and got the job done. Again, the championship game result wasn't what we wanted. But Drake was the favored team, and I don't see any shame in losing to a team that won 30 games this season..

Plus it was the third time we saw each team. When you are seeing a team for the third time you know each other pretty well. The other thing is that in the early rounds you are playing teams that only get to keep playing if they win, Valpo and Murray St aren't going to NIT or NCAA.

[LittleBrave]

Even in the b2b seasons we won Arch Madness, I don't recall a game other than the Championship game vs Valpo where we looked great and from my recollection, we had very tight games throughout, especially in Yr 1 in beating UNI in the title game. We were even close with Valpo at the half in Yr 2.
Defenses clamp down and each team knows the other so well in March. Lots of grind-it-out, ugly wins in St. Louis.
The only real frustration I have at Arch Madness is not beating Drake, but we've taken care of bizness otherwise.

[Stryker]

The problem is that the BU teams have not been that great the past few years. Plenty of losses that weren't expected. I chalk it up to insufficient guard play. If we look at all the great MVC teams since BU won in St. Louis, they all had great guards. While I love Duke, his performance against good teams has been subpar. If we look at his stats vs Drake, UNI, Belmont, and WSU, he averaged 9.5 pts vs his season avg of 13.8. He had 8 against Drake in St. Louis. His outlier was against SF, with 19. The rest of his high performances were against pretty poor teams. Zek was more consistent game to game, but also had a bad performance against Drake in St. Louis with 4 pts.

Dillon was injured this year and pretty much a non-factor, while Burch and Atlason seemingly had the poor sophomore slump. Johnson had a nice freshman year but it is just hard to see what some of these guys could do with more minutes. Its hard to evaluate with limited minutes in a larger than typical rotation.

IMO to win hard games against good teams in the post season a team needs to have large, strong, talented guards. I like Duke but his size is limiting and good teams can shut him down. Zek just doesn't seem to have the drive or mental fortitude to take over a game against a good team, and the rest of the guards just aren't capable enough.

This is why we couldn't beat Cincinnati last year, and we couldn't beat Wisconsin the year before, and my expectations in the NIT are not very high this year either. Hopefully we get a win at home next week.