At times last night I thought this team turned the corner and were playing at a high level --one that could take us far in the tourney. But these periods of no scoring, no leadership, and the let downs in intensity continue to confuse me. I still think we're not that good but have time to get better. Eternally optimistic.
I don't quite share your pessimism, Bob.
Bradley played extremely well, on the road, in an extremely hostile environment, and
dominated WSU for the first 31+ minutes. Below is the play-by-play. Until
8:49 left in the 2nd half, Bradley had a 19 point lead (54-35--this was close to the largest lead of 21), then after a BU turnover, Wichita's Gal Mekel made a 3-pointer (54-38 at
8:49) and their crowd really came to life. Bradley's next possession also was a turnover, and that lead to a basket by Thomasson (54-40). Bradley then might have been rattled a bit, and missed their next 2 shots. Wichita converted both those possessions to cut it to
54-46 at 6:28. Then Bradley turned it around and stretched the lead back out after that.
From 8:49 to 6:28, that is a stretch of
only 2 minutes, 21 second that you might say Bradley played poorly as WSU scored 11 straight points (from 54-35 to 54-46). Then they went into their slowed down game, and progressively stretched the lead back out to 15 points over then next 5 minutes (
62-47 at 1:18). During that 5:10 stretch, Wichita scored only 1 point, BU outscored them 8-1! At that point the game was over. Wichita scored a couple meaningless baskets in the last minute to cut it to the final margin of 9 (63-54).
https://admin.xosn.com/fls/7500/sta...su20.htm?SPSID=61181&SPID=2851&DB_OEM_ID=7500
Are you sure you don't want to reconsider your statement that Bradley had
"periods of no scoring, no leadership, and the let downs in intensity continue to confuse me. I still think we're not that good but have time to get better"?
I would have been shocked if Wichita State didnt't make at least 1 run. And it lasted for all of 141 seconds before Bradley slammed the door shut. Do you expect Bradley to dominate all 40 minutes from start to finish? I don't think that's realistic.
