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Final: Bradley 80 Middle Tennessee 69- Bradley wins championship of 2024 Myrtle Beach Invitational

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Bradley will play for the championship of the Myrtle Beach Invitational on Sunday, Nov. 24.
The Myrtle Beach Invitational website bracket now shows the championship game will be at 5:30 pm local time (4:30 pm CST) - https://espnevents.com/myrtle-beach-invitational/bracket/

The game is on ESPN and also be on ESPN+ .
Link to ESPN+ video - https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/fa79b9c6-7d2e-4ee4-ab09-752be970b5d4

Radio- WMBD 1470 AM and 100.3 FM - https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045
Chat Room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans​
Live Stats - https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/tournament.php?tid=685#tourny​

Bradley is now 5-1 after wins over Texas State and Wright State in the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
Middle Tennessee State is also 5-1 after beating Ohio U. (83-81 in OT) and South Florida (95-88 ).
They also have home wins over Evansville (80-63) and D3 Oglethorpe (97-51), and a road win over Abilene Christian (79-56).
Their only loss was a 67-88 home loss to Murray State.

The Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders are members of Conference USA and are located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
They were 14-19 last season, and 7-9 in CUSA. They were picked 4th in the CUSA Preseason Poll - https://conferenceusa.com/news/2024...n-all-conference-team-and-poll-announced.aspx
They had 2 players on the preseason All-CUSA team- 6'1" senior guard Jestin Porter and 6'3" RS-senior guard Camryn Weston.
Historical record- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/middle-tennessee/men/​
Roster- https://goblueraiders.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Schedule/results- https://goblueraiders.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...com/documents/2024/11/22/season_stats__6_.pdf

Their leading scorer is Jestin Porter with an average of 18.2 ppg. He is shooting 40.2% from three, but none of their other regulars shoot better than 33%.
Two other players average double-digits-
6'9" 5th yr. senior forward Essam Mostafa (14.7 ppg, 9.5 rpg)- a transfer from TCU, and who also played at Coastal Carolina
6'8" junior guard Kamari Lands (12.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg)- a transfer from Arizona, and who also played at Louisville.
As a team, MTSU averages 83.5 ppg and shoots 48.9% overall and 32.8% from three.

Bradley stats- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...earmsports.com/stats/mbball/2024/pdf/cume.pdf
Bradley and Middle Tennessee State have never played each other before.
 
houstonbrave said:
DC-the header on this post says 930 am which is clearly incorrect.
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Yeah, thanks. Late last night, ESPN initially listed the Bradley-Middle Tennessee game at 9:30 am (CST) on ESPNU. Kind of a strange time for a championship game, but maybe that was posted before they knew which 2 teams would be in the championship. Then this morning, they corrected it to 4:30 PM (CST) on ESPN.
So I just corrected the thread title. :)
 
Da Coach said:
Yeah, thanks. Late last night, ESPN initially listed the Bradley-Middle Tennessee game at 9:30 am (CST) on ESPNU. Kind of a strange time for a championship game, but maybe that was posted before they knew which 2 teams would be in the championship. Then this morning, they corrected it to 4:30 PM (CST) on ESPN.
So I just corrected the thread title. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks guys!
 
Duke's decision making hasn't been great this last game and a half. He was hot to start, but we can good shots against this team so no need to fire wild threes. Good half on both ends for Atlason I thought. His defense may be getting better, as this is tough post test for him. Good half for Hannah, Davis, and I thought Thomas was outstanding in all ways that half. He passed well, defended well, and hustled. Davis always makes smart plays. Johnson is just such a smart player on defense. He just knows when to go for the ball and get a strip. Dillon didn't play too much again. Meta has been so much better lately, especially on offense, but today seems like one of those matchups where he is not stronger than the opponent, and the opponent also has some post athleticism, so I believe Thomas is the way to go today. Meta struggled with protecting the ball in this particular matchup.

We are shooting well, but still not up a ton, which is scary. Make better shot choices, let Thomas play the majority of the backup post minutes this half and I think we will be fine.
 
BUfan14 said:
Duke's decision making hasn't been great this last game and a half. He was hot to start, but we can good shots against this team so no need to fire wild threes. Good half on both ends for Atlason I thought. His defense may be getting better, as this is tough post test for him. Good half for Hannah, Davis, and I thought Thomas was outstanding in all ways that half. He passed well, defended well, and hustled. Davis always makes smart plays. Johnson is just such a smart player on defense. He just knows when to go for the ball and get a strip. Dillon didn't play too much again. Meta has been so much better lately, especially on offense, but today seems like one of those matchups where he is not stronger than the opponent, and the opponent also has some post athleticism, so I believe Thomas is the way to go today. Meta struggled with protecting the ball in this particular matchup.

We are shooting well, but still not up a ton, which is scary. Make better shot choices, let Thomas play the majority of the backup post minutes this half and I think we will be fine.
Click to expand...

Duke was much better in the second half and let the game come to him more. Zek was quiet but didn't force it, and Hannah had a huge slam and close after not being quite as sharp most of that half. Atlason struggled a little more on both ends. Davis just makes big winning plays. That hustle play scoring inside then being knocked down and still hustling to the other side of the court to block a shot was impressive and should be played on the coach's highlights for the team all year. Meta was a little better that half, and Thomas and Johnson were quieter as the starters played more. Thomas had a nice close on defense though.

If I was picking a player of the tournament, it'd be co-MVPS for Hannah and Davis. Nice weekend for a lot of guys though, and if we keep working on protecting the ball (limiting unforced turnovers) and our defense, this is the team we thought we had before the year started. Took a few games to show up, but I think that Washington State game really helped humble us and show us we still have to work. The team has played much more cohesively and with more effort since.

This is probably the best shooting team I have seen so far since 06-07, and I always talk about needing more shooters. I can finally say, I think we have enough shooters.
 
Final: Bradley 80 Middle Tennessee State 69 - Bradley wins the championship of 2024 Myrtle Beach Invitational
Final stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=559909
Great game by everyone.
Highlights-
Bradley shot 50% overall (29-58 ), 45% from three (10-22); they were 100% on free throws (12-12); they outrebounded MTSU 39-36; BU had 19 assists, which was a season-high; and they only had 9 turnovers. which ties the Texas State game for their lowest number of the season.

Career-high 19 points by Christian Davis- 6-8 overall, and 3-3 from three, plus a block and a team-high +/- of 13
Darius Hannah with one of his best games as a Bradley Brave- 16 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks
Duke Deen with his usual solid game- 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. He had only 2 turnovers in 35 minutes, and one of them was undeserved on the pass to wide open Almar Atlason under the basket late in the game when it went through his hands out of bounds.
Almar had 11 points, 3 rebounds, and a block and was 3-7 from three.
Zek Montgomery had 9 points, all but 2 were in the first half, and his defense helped keep the MTSU guards in check.

The only negative, IMO, was that Middle Tennessee got 40 of their 69 points in the paint. Bradley needs to improve that interior defense a bit.
 
Christian Davis was named MVP of the tournament - https://twitter.com/BradleyUMBB/status/1860861048145785273

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Bradley3342 said:
That’s pretty funny Tommy. Great win for the team! Let’s come back home and continue the winning streak and move up in the rankings
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Right on, buddy! This team is special. I think this is the best team we’ve had since the team that beat Northern Iowa to win the MVC tourney!
 
The way said on the radio post game that Zek and CD made the first tournament team. Hannah really should have made it too. His shooting percentage in the three games combined was 73%! He was great otherwise too. 19-26 from the field with 43 points (all three double figure games), 27 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks, 6 steals, just 3 turnovers! How is that not all tournament?
 
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BUfan14 said:
The way said on the radio post game that Zek and CD made the first tournament team. Hannah really should have made it too. His shooting percentage in the three games combined was 73%! He was great otherwise too. 19-26 from the field with 43 points (all three double figure games), 27 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks, 6 steals, just 3 turnovers! How is that not all tournament?
Click to expand...
And this:
 
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