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Final score- Bradley 78 SIU 64

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Staff member
Next game: Bradley (19-6, 10-4) vs SIU (12-13, 7-7), Wednesday, Feb. 12, 6:00 pm at Carver Arena
Note the 6:00 pm start time. It is earlier than usual to accommodate the MVC-TV Network

The game is on the MVC TV Network- Gray Media and ESPN+ - previous Gray Media games that involved Bradley have been on the CW Network locally (affiliated with WEEK and owned by Gray Media) in Peoria, and I suspect this game will be, too. However, as of now, it is not listed on the Xfinity schedule for the CW Network, nor is it noted on the Bradley or MVC schedule. If anyone can confirm, let us know.

Also, note that the weather forecast for Wednesday includes a possibility of 5-7 inches of snow for the Peoria area. So plan accordingly.

Chat room- https://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Radio- https://wmbdradio.com/player/?playerID=2045
Tickets- https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/070061309A3F1EE8​

Bradley played SIU in the early MVC game on Dec 3 in Carbondale. Bradley won easily 80-63 behind 22 points from Zek Montgomery (5-6 from three) and 17 from Almar Atlason (5-7 from three). As a team, Bradley shot 51% overall (31-61) and 64% from three (14-22).
Recap- https://bradleybraves.com/news/2024...-mbb-earns-a-statement-win-in-mvc-opener.aspx
Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/southern-illinois/boxscore/22347

Since then, SIU has had some ups and downs. 4 of their 7 MVC wins were road wins, and they have a blowout 24 point home win over UNI. But they also have 4 home losses, including a loss to Evansville. And they lost by 31 points at Illinois State.

SIU links-
Schedule/results- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25
Historical record- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/southern-illinois/men/

SIU has 3 players who average double digits-
Ali Dibba- 6'5" senior guard- 16.2 ppg, 30.7% from three, transfer from Abilene Christian
Kennard Davis, Jr.- 6'6" sophomore guard- 15.8 ppg, 37.2% from three
Jarrett Hensley- 6'8" grad student, transfer from Cincinnati

They are without Elijah Elliott, a 6'1" guard from UT-RGV, who averaged 14.0 ppg through 5 games. He suffered an ACL injury in their game on Nov. 22 and is out for the season. Nobody else averages more than 5.3 ppg.

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
​
 
Score 74 points or more and it should be a win. This is the second home game in a row where bad weather predictions will keep the crowd attendance down. The last game turned out to not be that bad coming and going to the game.
 
Hoping for a decent crowd tomorrow night. Weather will be an issue. But I plan on attending. Use caution and give yourself extra time when driving and you will be fine. For those who choose not to attend, I can understand your concerns. Then cheer on our Braves while watching or listening to the game. :lol:
 
Everyone be careful up there. Bradley needs all of its fans to encourage them on. Cheer them on to victory. It will be a tough game and the players need your help. I can yell at the TV here and threaten to throw something but that does not help.
 
LongTimeFan said:
Everyone be careful up there. Bradley needs all of its fans to encourage them on. Cheer them on to victory. It will be a tough game and the players need your help. I can yell at the TV here and threaten to throw something but that does not help.
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Never underestimate the positive effects of throwing things at home, LTF!
 
The National Weather Service has revised their prediction for Peoria, and it's good news for anyone who will be driving today or coming to the game tonight.
Instead of the 6-8 inches of snow that was predicted a couple days ago, the NWS is now predicting only 1-3 inches. - https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=40.6946&lon=-89.5904

The Weather Channel is also predicting 1-3 inches for Peoria.
It just started snowing in parts of the Peoria area at 8:30 am, and the radar maps and predictions show that the snow will continue until 6 pm-7 pm tonight.
weather.png
 
Let's hope Bradley doesn't overlook Southern Illinois! Plus they can't look ahead to the Drake game this Sunday! Mentally it's tough to get up for a game 2 against a team you beat soundly in Carbondale! Time will tell if Bradley is ready mentally tonight, because SIU will be looking for Revenge! They know if they play well, they can give BU a real tough game! We know SIU is playing pretty well right now!!!! Let me add that I just found out the Drake game in Desmoines will be televised Nationally on ESPN2 at 1p.m. Central Sunday, Feb.16th!!!!! That's great National exposure!
 
I managed to break a desk pen several years ago and learned not to throw things again ... granted it was only down on the desk. Now I just get up and pace the floor. I couldn't do that at the field house many years ago but could sure stamp on the bleachers. Part of getting this old is remembering the 'god old' days.:D
 
LTF: "I couldn't do that at the field house many years ago but could sure stamp on the bleachers. Part of getting this old is remembering the 'god old' days.:D" You got me thinking, the Field House was the home of BU MBB from 49-50 through 81-82, Thirty-two years. Carver has been home for forty-two years, 82-83 through 2024-25. Why is my memory of the field house more vivid than Carver???
A decade or so ago I finally realized that if I am enjoying today it will be one of tomorrow's 'good old days' ​. So let's enjoy tonight's game.
 
Fan1958 said:
LTF: "I couldn't do that at the field house many years ago but could sure stamp on the bleachers. Part of getting this old is remembering the 'god old' days.:D" You got me thinking, the Field House was the home of BU MBB from 49-50 through 81-82, Thirty-two years. Carver has been home for forty-two years, 82-83 through 2024-25. Why is my memory of the field house more vivid than Carver???
A decade or so ago I finally realized that if I am enjoying today it will be one of tomorrow's 'good old days' ​. So let's enjoy tonight's game.
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Well said!
 
Sorry but I still don’t get Meta getting a lot of playing time. He brings a big body, but he has little touch, struggles to grab rebounds, and very little blocking presence. Tonight he actually ran into Darius during a shot attempt. I’m struggling to figure out these rotations and substitutions at times.
 
Alright...7 threes for Deen!:mrgreen:
Braves 52% from three...and only 8 turnovers!:mrgreen:
Win #20....and battling to stay in 2nd place!:mrgreen:
 
We looked intermittently better on both offense and defense, but still didn’t put it all together at any one given time. Turnovers seemed mostly better tonight, but still a few bad ones. Duke making shots helps. It’s a step in the right direction I suppose. The big test comes Sunday.

I’m ok with some matchup rotations, but I agree that the rotations lately don’t have any consistency or rhythm. Some guys seem to just be randomly inserted if Brian is mad at someone but never play much otherwise. I’d still like to get some sort of relatively consistent rotation by tournament time. Really need Burch and/or Atlason to gain more consistency to give us scoring outside our main four and Johnson to be the best we can be.
 
There were plenty of lapses on both the offense and defense tonight, but they played well enough to beat SIU. But the team needs to correct a few things for the next game (at Drake).
Final- Bradley 78 SIU 64 - https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Bradley was 27-58 (46.6%) overall 14-27 (51.9%) from three.
But the defense, especially in the lane again, was not optimal. SIU shot 45.6% overall, and they scored a whopping 38 points in the paint, compared with just 16 for Bradley. SIU does not have any big men who are scorers, so it's hard to figure why Bradley keeps allowing guards to penetrate and get easy layups. SIU also had 15 second chance points (compared to 6 for BU), and equaled Bradley on rebounds (32-32),a lot of them coming from their guards.

Work on those things, and bring on Drake!
 
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.
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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.
 
Bacci'sAftertheGym said:
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.
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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.
 
Bacci'sAftertheGym said:
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.
​​​​​​
Click to expand...

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.
 
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!
 
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