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Final: Bradley 80 Evansville 74

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Next Game: Bradley (18-6, 9-4) at Evansville (9-15, 6-7), Saturday, Feb. 8, 7:00 pm
The game is on the CBSSports Network - https://www.cbssports.com/watch/cbs-sports-network

Evansville's average home attendance is 4,540 per game.
According to Ticketmaster, they have had a large pre-sale for this game, and the attendance could be much higher- https://www.ticketmaster.com/univer...lle-indiana-02-08-2025/event/05006141AEF425A8 (zoom in to see seats available)


This is Bradley's first and only game against Evansville this season.
Chat Room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans​
Live stats- https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=546676
Radio- https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045​

Evansville links-
Schedule/results- https://gopurpleaces.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://gopurpleaces.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://gopurpleaces.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25
Historical record- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/evansville/men/

Bradley lost last season at Evansville 73-70 (2/7/24). However, Bradley won the previous 11 times the two teams met, including last year's game in Peoria 86-50 (1/10/24).

Probable Evansville starters-
Gabriel Pozzato- 6'7" freshman forward from Italy, is their leading scorer- 16.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 33.7% from three
Tayshawn Comer- 6'1" junior guard, transfer from Eastern Kentucky- 15.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 30.4% from three
Tanner Cuff- 6'7" junior guard, transfer from Salt Lake CC- 9.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 35.5% from three
Joshua Hughes- 6'10" sophomore forward from Brisbane, Australia- 7.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 22.2% from three
Connor Turnbull- 6'10" junior forward, transfer from Butler- 6.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 22.9% from three

Cameron Haffner, their 3rd leading scorer and best 3-point shooter, started their first 20 games. But he suffered a wrist injury 6 minutes 10 seconds into their Jan. 22 game vs. UIC and left the game and did not return. He has not played in Evansville's last 4 games, and is doubtful for this game.
Haffner is a 6'2" junior guard, transfer from Eastern Illinois- 12.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 36.7% from three

As a team, Evansville shoots only 30.7% from three, which ranks 323rd out of 364 D1 teams.
Bradley ranks 2nd (40.23%) just barely behind Memphis (40.26%) on three point percentage.

Bradley stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats
MVC stats- https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2024/11/5//2024_25_MVC_MBB_All_Game_Stats.pdf

Note that Evansville ranks last in the MVC in scoring (66.0 ppg), scoring margin (-4.3 points), field goal percentage (40.3%), 3-point% (30.7%), rebounding margin (-4.38 ), defensive rebound percentage (69.7%), offensive rebound percentage (22.8%).
And they rank next to last (11th) in free throw percentage (68.0%), and offensive rebounds (7.8/game).

Bradley leads the all-time series 39-24.
Bradley pregame article- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2025...aves-hit-the-road-to-take-on-purple-aces.aspx
Evansville pregame article- https://gopurpleaces.com/news/2025/2/7/mens-basketball-aces-face-bradley-at-7-pm-on-saturday.aspx
Evansville Game Notes- https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...ocuments/2025/2/7/020825-mbbnotes-Bradley.pdf
 
Hopefully they continue to shoot poorly from 3 and our players defend, rebound and score 75 points or more. Time to get a bunch of wins in a row.
 
We need to get our focus back on both ends of the court. Evansville has won 3 of their last 4 so we better be ready to play. Must stay positive, be strong with the ball and be ready on defense.
 
just my opinion, but nobody seems to overstate their attendance like Evansville does...or maybe they just perennially have the most no-shows of anybody.

earlier this season, they played a game that photos indicate only a few hundred people in the stands:
https://media.video-cdn.espn.com/mo...876_2702087/ss_20241122_220630876_2702087.jpg
https://a.espncdn.com/media/motion/...410_2701910/ss_20241122_203938410_2701910.jpg

and yet they cited attendance that game at 4,418

Last year they had a game against Murray State that they claimed almost 8,000 in attendance, their 5th largest crowd there ever,
but judge for yourself - I doubt there's more than 4,000 there- https://gopurpleaces.com/images/2024/1/6/DSC_0409.jpg?width=942&quality=80&format=jpg
 
LOL
play-by-play guys (John Sadak & Tre Demps) say Jaquan Johnson's nickname is "Bulls"...

so far, the ref calls are terrible - BU 6 vs UE 1 on fouls so far... and that travel on Zek was ridiculous

...and three guys climbing on Meta's back, wrestling his arms to the ground but they whistle him for travelling
 
So far so good. I don't think either side is happy with a total of 27 fouls called. Other than when we were getting called for fouls we held them to 8-28 overall, 1-10 from 3. Our on the ball pressure has been a lot better and other than the alley oop, strangely, we've gotten onto their shooters. Offensively we have 9 assists and just 5 turnovers and our ball movement has been a lot better.
 
bigjimmy said:
So far so good.....
Click to expand...

yeah but Evansville has no midrange game at all...
every bucket they have is either a drive to the hoop or a lob, or a three pointer.
Our guys need to adjust and pack down low and stop them from driving or lobbing to the hoop.
 
As if the refs aren’t bad enough.. anybody see at the 7:46 mark Evansvilles Tesch was fouled.. they go to the under 8 timeout.. then when they comeback Evansville sent Comer to the line for the foul shots and Nobody noticed, not the refs, not the announcers, and apparently neither did our coaches.
Amateur Hour.
 
Bradley wins a foul-fest in Evansville 80-74 - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=546676

Nice game by Duke (16), Hannah (13), Davis (12), Zek (11), and everyone else. Bradley keeps pace with Drake and UNI.
Standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/standings/_/group/18

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We won I guess. Not a very great performance against a pretty bad team. We didn’t turn it over as much I suppose too. There’s not much to say at this point. Southern has really come on strong, and then Drake, so we will see if we’ve truly gotten better the next two.

One thing of note. You would think we would want to go into Arch Madness with a pretty defined rotation, but with six games left it doesn’t seem like we will get there. Now all the sudden Dillon is out the last two, Timo is in now apparently, and Thomas/Burch/Atlason have been all over the place, though Atlason seems to be back in now. I don’t know if it is good for consistency, but I guess it is what it is at this point.
 
We get the very worse refs for the night. Those guys obviously don"t know the rules of verticality. They also blew the whistle so much because they cannot keep up. Just happy for the win.
 
A W is a W especially after 3 straight losses but man the difference between how we played in each half was stunning. Shot 52% in the first half, shot 43% in the 2nd half. From 3 we were 5-11 in the first half, 6-16 in the 2nd half. In the 1st half we were 12-15 from the FT line, 7-12 in the 2nd half. Our ball movement was really good in the first half, n ot so good in the 2nd half until the last 2-3:00. Defensively we played better than we have but when the refs decide to dictate how the game is to be played it's tough. Credit to Evansville for taking advantage of it we withstood the barage of fouls, showed our poise and came through. Way to go boys!
 
I guess we should be happy with the win. Hopefully this helps their confidence. The discrepancy in rebounding didn’t look good, especially considering they had 12 second chance points.
 
Nice win boys! Last 7 minutes was rough, but our vets made some clutch plays to keep the distance.
About 4 or 5 threes went in and out in the last 10 minutes. Love the confidence in our shooting. Corey Thomas has regressed.

Burch played very well in 1st half and was as big in giving the Braves a nice halftime lead.

Nobody played spectacular, but almost all played well…enough to win.

Let’s get Win #20 and keep getting that swagger back!
 
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