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Top 5 Bradley Basketball Games

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BU Hoops Transplant

New member
I'm a newcomer to Peoria and the Bradley Basketball Fanaticism...I want to hear some opinions: What are the 5 Greatest Games in Bradley Basketball History?
 
MacabreMob said:
There's too many to just limit it to 5.

:D
Click to expand...

I think that is what makes this interesting...from my observations on this board in the last few months, there are folks from a lot of different eras and backgrounds and I think if everyone throws out the 5 best they've seen we'll have a nice Top 10 collection from the group.

Don't shy away from the challenge just because you don't want to make hard decisions!
 
BU Hoops Transplant said:
I think that is what makes this interesting...from my observations on this board in the last few months, there are folks from a lot of different eras and backgrounds and I think if everyone throws out the 5 best they've seen we'll have a nice Top 10 collection from the group.

Don't shy away from the challenge just because you don't want to make hard decisions!
Click to expand...

Ok... if you are going to tally the opinions, then I will work on listing mine. But before I do, are you going to rate someone's #1 as more points than their #5? Are you gonna request people offer their opinions of what might be considered the best - or what each person considers their best they have seen. (I wasn't alive in the 50's so maybe I can't rate a game from that era in my top 5)
 
Welcome to BradleyFans...GREAT first post! No better way to get back in a basketball mood than thinking about BU's past. I am a younger fan and can't speak for much pre-1993, so I'll go with my top 5 games of the past 16 seasons. My dates may be wrong on some of these...

1. 1996- "The Shot Part I" by Deon Jackson vs SMS
2. 2006- "K-Who???" vs Kansas (tie)
2. 2006- "Aaron Grey Gets Owned" vs Pitt (tie)
3. 1997- "Come Fly With Me" vs #8 Michigan...huge upset win, plus E-Roberson with the greatest dunk I've ever seen in person
4. 1996- BU vs Tulsa...I believe it was senior day for the class with Deon, Funches, Billy Wright and Chad Kleine...BU was down by something like 16 or 17 at half to the Shea Seals led Tulsa team...BU comes back to tie, then holds Tulsa nearly scoreless in the OT to win big
5. 2009- "The Shot Part II" by Chris Roberts vs Oakland


Next 5 (in no particular order)...
1994- BU vs Eastern Michigan...3OT victory in the NIT...I was about 11 and still remember my ears ringing the next day
1995 vs Georgia Tech, BU beats Stephon Marbury/Matt Harpring's GT in San Francisco
1999(?) Rob Dye 3-ball beats ISU at Redbird
2001(?) loss vs Wichita St. in St. Louis...with Gilbert and Gillingham injured, Marcello Robinson goes off for like 30 pts and BU nearly knocks off WSU
1997 at SIU...AP drains a 40-footer to win at the buzzer, WMBD gets knocked off the air when the sudden victory celebration spills onto the scorer's table

NOTE: I'm sure I'm missing a ton of great games, the ones listed above are the ones on the top of my mind.
 
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MacabreMob said:
Ok... if you are going to tally the opinions, then I will work on listing mine. But before I do, are you going to rate someone's #1 as more points than their #5? Are you gonna request people offer their opinions of what might be considered the best - or what each person considers their best they have seen. (I wasn't alive in the 50's so maybe I can't rate a game from that era in my top 5)
Click to expand...

Alright, MacabreMob wants some rules, here they are:

- list the Top 5 Bradley games YOU HAVE SEEN - in person or on TV
- list them in order, 1 being the highest, 5 being the lowest in your list
- we'll rank them based on games that receive the most 1's, 2's, etc.
- a week from now, I'll tally the scores and create a Top 10 cumulative list and we can debate them
- give a reason for WHY you voted for each one
 
PTownHawkeye said:
Welcome to BradleyFans...GREAT first post! No better way to get back in a basketball mood than thinking about BU's past. I am a younger fan and can't speak for much pre-1993, so I'll go with my top 5 games of the past 16 seasons. My dates may be wrong on some of these...

1. 1996- "The Shot Part I" by Deon Jackson vs SMS
2. 2006- "K-Who???" vs Kansas (tie)
2. 2006- "Aaron Grey Gets Owned" vs Pitt (tie)
3. 1996- BU vs Tulsa...I believe it was senior day for the class with Deon, Funches, Billy Wright and Chad Kleine...BU was down by something like 16 or 17 at half to the Shea Seals led Tulsa team...BU comes back to tie, then holds Tulsa nearly scoreless in the OT to win big
4. 2009- "The Shot Part II" by Chris Roberts vs Oakland
5. 1994- BU vs Eastern Michigan...3OT victory in the NIT...I was about 11 and still remember my ears ringing the next day

Next 5 (in no particular order)...
1995 vs Georgia Tech, BU beats Stephon Marbury/Matt Harpring's GT in San Francisco
1999(?) Rob Dye 3-ball beats ISU at Redbird
2001(?) loss vs Wichita St. in St. Louis...with Gilbert and Gillingham injured, Marcello Robinson goes off for like 30 pts and BU nearly knocks off WSU
2006 vs DePaul season opener
1997 at SIU...AP drains a 40-footer to win at the buzzer, WMBD gets knocked off the air when the sudden victory celebration spills onto the scorer's table

NOTE: I'm sure I'm missing a ton of great games, the ones listed above are the ones on the top of my mind.
Click to expand...

THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT - GREAT GAMES, GOOD INFO!

Thanks!
 
1) Bradley > Kansas 2006 (tv): HUGE!
2) Bradley > Pitt 2006 (tv): Into Sweet 16!
3) Bradley > Purdue 1982 (live): NIT Champs
4) Bradley > Tulsa 1982 (live): Captured 1st w/ this game in MVC and #1 seed in MVC Tourney
5) Bradley > Providence 2007 (live): Great OT game

(yet I leave out SO MANY great games!)
 
Let's not forget Bradley's 7-Overtime loss to Cinci in 1981.

Another, Jim Les driving length of court to beat ISU at the buzzer at home in 1986 or '87.

How about Dick Versace's team that held a Wichita State (with the "twin towers" Levingston and Carr) to 11 second half points for a come-from-behind victory during the early 80's.

And there were always great games with Louisville in the early 70's....... I wish I had a program to help me.
 
1. vs. Louisville 1/13/68 upset of Louisville at the Fieldhouse, Joe Allen vs. Wes Unseld. BU won 70-68 in the best game I saw as a student at Bradley. Huge crowd, and loudest I ever heard the Fieldhouse.
2. vs. Tulsa 2/27/82 Bradley won 82-79 over #8 ranked Tulsa in OT, at the Fieldhouse to win the MVC conference regular season title.
3. vs Kansas 3/17/06- BU won 77-73 in 1st round NCAA- Bradley outclassed and outplayed a really good Kansas team loaded with future NBA pros.
4. vs. Pitt 3/19/06- BU won 72-66 in 2nd round NCAA- BU shocked the arrogant, and dirty-playing Pitt Panthers
5. vs. Illinois State 3/8/88- Championship game of the MVC Tournament played at Carver Arena, Peoria. The last game Hersey Hawkins and the great senior class of 1988 played in front of home crowd. Bradley humiliated a pretty good ISU team by an blowout margin of 83-59.
Loudest I have ever heard the Arena.

There are many more that could have made the Top 5, but these are the ones I attended that have left the most enjoyable and satifying memories in my mind.:D
 
#1 for me was when USC came to town and we beat them 102-97, I think that was 1967 or 1968. I ended up on the court, with a couple hundred others, while the players were carrying Joe Allen around the court on their shoulders, it took four to do it. That was the loudest, hottest game I was at. And I can say that I slapped Big Joe on the shoulder and said "great game".

Then the two S16 games, and all the NIT games that ended up with us beating Purdue for the championship in NYC.
 
Greatest BU games

Greatest BU games

Have all of you youngguys forgot about---BU vs Cincy---Walker vs Robertson---91 to 90 !! Maybe the single greatest game in Bradley history !
 
I have to chime in on this topic...and thanks for starting the thread, transplant, I love reminiscing, and I am going to cheat a little bit.

1- even though I never saw this game, clearly in my mind it is the most important and most famous game in BU history, so I will list it first.
March 28, 1950, BU loses to CCNY in the NCAA Championship game 71-68, when the refs throw the game to the New Yorkers with their refereeing fraud against Squeaky.

2- I was there to see Cincy beat BU in 7 overtimes, 75-73, December 21, 1981. Several records were set that game that still stand including most overtimes in an NCAA game and most minutes played in a single NCAA game (Donald Reese played 73 minutes that night, all but two minutes in the game.)

3- March 24, 1982, NIT Championship win over Purdue, 67-58 at MSG.

4- 4-way tie...Deon's "The Shot" game 3/3/96, the pair of victories in Auburn Hills, Michigan in 2006 to make the Sweet Sixteen, and the 3/8/88 win over ISU when BU led wire to wire and absolutely blew the Birds out 83-59.
I agree, I have never heard any arena as loud as Carver was for two straight hours that day!

5- NIT quarterfinal win at Syracuse in front of 22,000 fans in a game the NIT execs thought for sure would help at least one "local team" make it to Madison Square Garden, by making BU play on the road at the CarrierDome where Syracuse almost never loses.
BU thrashed them mightily 95-81.
 
I could be wrong Tornado, but I believe the BU-Syracuse NIT game was only a 2nd round game, and I don't think they played at the Carrier Dome for that game. I think they played in a smaller arena. Your point about trying to get a local team in is valid however.
 
Top five I've witnessed either first hand or on TV:

1) BU over Kansas 77-73, 2006 NCAA Tournament. The two hottest teams in the nation, Kansas was picked by some to win the National Championship. Others argued BU shouldn't even be in the field. And the game wasn't as close as the four point final margin indicates. The Braves had 5 turnovers in the final 3 or so minutes that gave KU a series of easy scores.

2) BU over Michigan 63-58, 12/8/97. My freshman year at BU. I hate Michigan more than just about anything else. Eric Roberson had a rebound putback dunk over Robert "Tractor" Traylor and Maceo Baston. In their next game Michigan turned around and defeated #1 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

3) BU over Oakland 66-65, 2008 CIT 2nd Round. Seemingly over-matched all night long, Chris Roberts' 75-foot heave sunk the up-and-coming Grizzlies in stunning fashion.

4) BU over Wichita 60-52, 2006 MVC Tournament. BU defeated the regular season champion Shockers to advance to the MVC Championship game for just the 3rd time in 20 years. It was especially rewarding given the frustrating nature of the two regular season losses to Wichita--the blown opportunity in overtime in Wichita and the home embarrassment where WSU led at the first official timeout 17-0.

5) BU wins at Illinois State 69-68, 11/20/1999. Rob Dye three sinks the Redbirds.
 
MDCowboy said:
I could be wrong Tornado, but I believe the BU-Syracuse NIT game was only a 2nd round game, and I don't think they played at the Carrier Dome for that game. I think they played in a smaller arena. Your point about trying to get a local team in is valid however.
Click to expand...

Correct. The 1982 NIT was an evenly bracketed 32-team tourney and went as follows:

BU over American at home
BU over Syracuse at Syracuse
BU over Tulane at home
BU over Oklahoma at MSG
BU over Purdue at MSG

Bracket at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_National_Invitation_Tournament
 
In my era:

Beating KU (TV)
Beating Pitt (TV)
Coming back V Tulsa at home after being down 21, same thing happened the year before and we lost (in person)
Beating Old Dominion in the NIT, was not a full house but Deon Jackson single handedly won that game, and it was incredibly loud that night.
Ill go way back to beating West Texas State in the Valley tourney in 80 to get an invite to the NCAA's loud crowd and great game.

But there are so many others.
Beating ISU when JL goes end to end, winning the Valley tourney in Hawks senior season, Hawk breaking Phegleys scoring record v SIU at home, beating Purdue in the NIT finals, I didnt see it but UNLV came to Peoria Phegley had a huge night but we lost in what I remember as a huge and great game, losing to New Mexico State after we had a 28-0 lead, beating ISU at ISU on a shot by Rob Dye.

I know I am missing many many games, but the point is there have been tons of memorable games in BU's history and mine only goes back to the mid to late 70's.
 
By the way, if you have the time to search through the new news-archive feature Google has, you will find some interesting articles.

Here is one where Dick Versace railed about being left out of the NCAA in 1982-
Bradley Coach Cries Foul-
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7_kNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VnsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3068,212547&dq=bradley


Some other old articles-
Syracuse Will Face Bradley in NIT Clash-
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LS8TAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VAYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6990,6815792&dq=bradley

Bradley, Purdue Advance to Wednesday's NIT Title-
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RFgPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=roYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6741,2253659&dq=bradley

Bradley Vindicated by Winning NIT Title-
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=q-YNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lG0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6823,6419485&dq=bradley

Bradley Braves Win NIT Opener-
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0a4SAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Z_kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3902,3586248&dq=bradley
 
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