Final score: Bradley 81 Valparaiso 75

[Big Mike]

Just my opinion.....but I believe Dillon got the Burch minutes....also believe this will change by who the opposing team is...really needed a help scoring and Dillon gave it today.;-)

 

[yoda]

Yep Big Mike. ,,,,With all of the horrible officiating this team still gutted out this victory

anyone else see the episode late in the 1st Overtime where Duke drove in the final seconds and was hammered going for the layup & no call?
Then Coach Wardle tried to get to the ref (Padilla, same guy who gifted Valpo with FT's on a non-existent foul call) and give a piece of his mind,
but the rest of the coaching staff corralled him and shielded him from the ref, likely saving a technical & ejection and more FT's for Valpo at the end of OT.

 

[BUBraves2006]

anyone else see the episode late in the 1st Overtime where Duke drove in the final seconds and was hammered going for the layup & no call?
Then Coach Wardle tried to get to the ref (Padilla, same guy who gifted Valpo with FT's on a non-existent foul call) and give a piece of his mind,
but the rest of the coaching staff corralled him and shielded him from the ref, likely saving a technical & ejection and more FT's for Valpo at the end of OT.

I thought the refs had a rough night, making erratic calls (and then no calls) for both teams. If I'm perfectly honest though, I do not think Duke got fouled on that play from the few replays I saw on TV. I also think that while Darius had a clean block up high on that possession right before it, you can definitely see he makes some body contact as well. I probably wouldn't have called either a foul, and that's probably partially why Wardle was so irate about the inconsistency.

But, I also think the refs did a good job of dealing with both coaches whining, especially ours, when some other more well known guys would have definitely T'ed and probably tossed Wardle if they were reffing. Sometimes a good ref also just let's a coach get out his annoyance without making it about them and potentially changing the outcome of the game.

It seemed like the best thing that happened was that the refs basically said that they were not going to call it as tight in 2OT and as a result, we pulled ahead because a lot more physical play was allowed and our defense could step up.

I give Coach Wardle credit in the postgame that he said he basically needs to be better about keeping his emotions in check and that the coaching staff helped him calm down.

 

[Tommy]

33 FT's for Valpo, 21 for BU, and that's in our house! I believe 4 of the BU FT's were from intentional fouls at the end of the game, so if that's the case, that is a huge discrepancy, especially considering the fact that Valpo was by far the more aggressive team yesterday (and that is not a good thing and something we need to fix).

The ref that Yoda is talking about was chirping at Wardle the entire game and wouldn't allow him to express his displeasure at all.

I hope we never see that team of refs again.

 

[tomahawk chop]

I said while i was watching this game that it appeared like it was a road game for Bradley . The foul on Hannah was as bad as it gets at the end and could have cost us the game. That was as clean as a block you can get because he went straight up and the offensive player fell into Hannah at his feet after the block,
I just think we are one inside player short on this roster because Almar , Meta and Cory have struggled both on offense and defense at times and we have 0 replacements on the bench for them. I just wish we could have brought in one more transfer big that could help instead of having pretty much a lot of dead weight on the end of the bench. This staff will really need to find quite a few inside players come this spring because looking ahead to whom we return next season inside is as scary part.

 

[Da_Braves21]

Seems to be the same show with Duke, Zek, Hannah and CD. 1-4 (Johnson Dillon Omarion are solid backup guards) we are solid but we really struggle with our big men (Meta/Thomas are tough for me to watch). Almar is a nothing burger if he’s not hitting his 3’s. I’d love to see some minutes from Linke.

Minutes from Linke??? He seems like a great hype guy on the bench but he can’t compete with the physical players in the valley and doesn’t offer any other key trait like shooting. Almar is gonna figure it out, giving up minutes to Linke is insane.

 

[tomahawk chop]

Minutes from Linke??? He seems like a great hype guy on the bench but he can’t compete with the physical players in the valley and doesn’t offer any other key trait like shooting. Almar is gonna figure it out, giving up minutes to Linke is insane.

Agree on Linke but i have to add Biliew also which is why I wish we could have brought one more inside player in that is capable of giving you minutes on the floor.

 

[[email protected]]

Agree with all the posts that as of now we are lacking an inside presence. Not to say Meta or Thomas will come on as the season unfolds. Wardle's recruiting talents will be tested in the next year's recruitment. We need physical inside players. You can see how Malevy impacted our inside game last year. But this year you play with what you have. Still expect a great year ahead capable of winning the conference. "Go Braves":lol:

 

[BRAVE82]

Bradley's NET dropped from 65 to 74 thanks to the close home shave with Valpo. Very obvious that Bradley needs another interior player that can rebound, defend and score with back to the basket. A few years back this was a team strength.

 

[Bradley8792]

But, I also think the refs did a good job of dealing with both coaches whining, especially ours,
.

I agree this is the only thing the refs did a good job of. There was a time early in the first half where Wardle wouldn’t stop complaining and any other red would have probably t’d him up. Probably kept us from loosing in regulation.

 

[Tommy]

Minutes from Linke??? He seems like a great hype guy on the bench but he can’t compete with the physical players in the valley and doesn’t offer any other key trait like shooting. Almar is gonna figure it out, giving up minutes to Linke is insane.

Linke did a pretty good job of pulling down boards on the few occasions he got the minutes last year. Probably a moot point, as it doesn't look like BW has any intention of using him at this point, but you probably could have said something similar about Luqman Lundy in his final year as a Brave up to the point where he got the chance to play solid minutes, and we don't win the conference tournament against UNI that year without him.
​

 

[NashvilleBU]

Yes, Meta and Thomas add little to no offense and their defense is okay. Meta better defense with no offense and Thomas is average on both ends.

Linke would be similar to the two previous mentioned but plays hard and doesn’t make dumb plays. He played last year at the end of the year and I don’t think he makes any negative plays. He rebounds and play tough defense. Just a thought since our 5 play has been very weak this year.

Almar and Hannah play more 4 and have been solid for the most part. When Almar is not hitting his 3’s, he is a ghost on the floor imo.

Minutes from Linke??? He seems like a great hype guy on the bench but he can’t compete with the physical players in the valley and doesn’t offer any other key trait like shooting. Almar is gonna figure it out, giving up minutes to Linke is insane.

 

[Da Coach]

A couple thoughts about last Sunday's game...
Zek Montgomery was named the Player of the Game - https://x.com/BradleyUMBB/status/1873518158235172998
But my vote would have gone to Darius Hannah. He helped carry Bradley for the first 40 minutes. He had a team-high 21 points in just 25 minutes, despite being saddled with fouls, some of which were BS.
Here is Darius' 5th foul which could have really hurt the Braves. IMO, it should have been a no-call. - https://youtu.be/TLu_67Dqx2g​

And here is an article from Dave Eminian with a replay of Duke's shot at the end of the first half. - https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports...ter-shot-from-opposite-foul-line/77300544007/
According to Dave Eminian, it has been "officially measured" at 73 feet 4 inches. -

 

[egib52]

I haven't read every post, so I apologize if someone mentioned this, but I don't understand the strategy of playing AA on the defensive end in close games. It was clear Valpo tried to iso on him each time. I don't know why BW didn't get Burch or someone else in there. AA is not a good on ball defender. That needs to be addressed in critical situations in the future.

 

[64NIT]

BU dodged a bullet at the end of the first OT when the Valpo player who was at the line (don't remember who it was) missed the first of two, but made the second to tie the score and force a second OT. If he had made the first, as well, Valpo would have won the game by one point. (Of course, if he had missed both, BU would have won by a point in one OT.)