MVC Games Week 11

[SalukiWorld]

Heck of a win by Bradley tonight in Des Moines.

Bradley has played four MVC road games. Had 12+ point leads in all of them. Three of those games had that lead in the second half - finally got its first win of the four.

There is some talent on the roster for sure.

Credit to Bradley, they played Drake. But, that was probably the worst effort I've ever seen from a DeVries coached team. It was clear from the first few minutes that Bradley just wanted it a lot more than Drake did.

Outside of Sturtz and Penn - when he was in there - everyone else for Drake appeared to be sleepwalking. A lot of settling for long shots and the defensive effort was pretty bad.

Doesn't help that they played in Carbondale 2 days ago. SIU looked sluggish too but pulled away in the 2nd half against a Trees team without Cam Henry.

[bradley_townie]

Heck of a win by Bradley tonight in Des Moines.

Bradley has played four MVC road games. Had 12+ point leads in all of them. Three of those games had that lead in the second half - finally got its first win of the four.

There is some talent on the roster for sure.

There's not a team in the Valley that will be happy about drawing Bradley in St. Louis. Could be a really tough Friday matchup for whatever higher seed draws them assuming Bradley stays out of or wins on Thursday (and assuming Bradley doesn't run the table which I doubt will happen but stranger things have happened).

The thing that drives me crazy about this team is the inconsistency and that we're even talking about Thursday. There's a lot of talent, they just need to learn how to put it all together for 40 minutes. Last night was a very solid effort and hopefully they can build off of that and not revert back to forgetting how to play for long stretches.

Loved the effort from Hickman, Mast and Roberts. Mast and Roberts have a real shot at 1st team MVC if they keep it up. There's not a big man I would rather have in the MVC right now than Mast.

It's also sounding like Ja'Shon Henry might be done for the year with his repeated head injuries, which is unfortunate as he brings experience and was our best player coming into the year. I think there is enough talent on this team that they still have a good shot at a top 4 finish even without Henry.

[BCPanther]

Heck of a win by Bradley tonight in Des Moines.

Bradley has played four MVC road games. Had 12+ point leads in all of them. Three of those games had that lead in the second half - finally got its first win of the four.

There is some talent on the roster for sure.

There's not a team in the Valley that will be happy about drawing Bradley in St. Louis. Could be a really tough Friday matchup for whatever higher seed draws them assuming Bradley stays out of or wins on Thursday (and assuming Bradley doesn't run the table which I doubt will happen but stranger things have happened).

The thing that drives me crazy about this team is the inconsistency and that we're even talking about Thursday. There's a lot of talent, they just need to learn how to put it all together for 40 minutes. Last night was a very solid effort and hopefully they can build off of that and not revert back to forgetting how to play for long stretches.

Loved the effort from Hickman, Mast and Roberts. Mast and Roberts have a real shot at 1st team MVC if they keep it up. There's not a big man I would rather have in the MVC right now than Mast.

It's also sounding like Ja'Shon Henry might be done for the year with his repeated head injuries, which is unfortunate as he brings experience and was our best player coming into the year. I think there is enough talent on this team that they still have a good shot at a top 4 finish even without Henry.

Maybe Wardle could figure things out before February 1, one of these years....

[bradley_townie]

Heck of a win by Bradley tonight in Des Moines.

Bradley has played four MVC road games. Had 12+ point leads in all of them. Three of those games had that lead in the second half - finally got its first win of the four.

There is some talent on the roster for sure.

There's not a team in the Valley that will be happy about drawing Bradley in St. Louis. Could be a really tough Friday matchup for whatever higher seed draws them assuming Bradley stays out of or wins on Thursday (and assuming Bradley doesn't run the table which I doubt will happen but stranger things have happened).

The thing that drives me crazy about this team is the inconsistency and that we're even talking about Thursday. There's a lot of talent, they just need to learn how to put it all together for 40 minutes. Last night was a very solid effort and hopefully they can build off of that and not revert back to forgetting how to play for long stretches.

Loved the effort from Hickman, Mast and Roberts. Mast and Roberts have a real shot at 1st team MVC if they keep it up. There's not a big man I would rather have in the MVC right now than Mast.

It's also sounding like Ja'Shon Henry might be done for the year with his repeated head injuries, which is unfortunate as he brings experience and was our best player coming into the year. I think there is enough talent on this team that they still have a good shot at a top 4 finish even without Henry.

Maybe Wardle could figure things out before February 1, one of these years....

That's an awfully bold prediction. He wants to try all the lineups.

Aside from bringing in Darius Hannah in the final minute of the half where he promptly fouled a 3 point shooter, I thought Wardle did a better job last night on giving his guys some rope.

[chitown fanatic]

He did. He finally let guys play. Roberts needs to play 36+ every night, regardless of his turnovers. He creates everything for BU. When Higgins decided to try to give the game to drake(bogus end line calls and two ticky tack fouls), the last 8 minutes of the first half could have been real rough with 2 on both Mast and Terry. But Brian brought both guys back in and they played the last 5 minutes without getting that 3rd foul.
Agree completely on the consistency. 3-4 could very easily be 7-0 considering all the 2nd half leads we've blown. We match up well with the drake, not so well with the bears. Am interested to see how we do against SIU, as it will be SIU's fourth game this week. Gotta win at home.

[Majik45]

Maybe Wardle could figure things out before February 1, one of these years....

So much truth in this statement as a Bradley fan. Hence why there was a 6+ page thread on the Bradley board asking if it was time to fire Wardle after the ISU debacle. It's frustrating as heck to see glimpses of what Bradley can be, and continue to lose all these close games.

Some year Bradley will get it together before Feb. But it's also nice to know that Bradley usually peaks as a team come late February/early March.

[BCPanther]

Maybe Wardle could figure things out before February 1, one of these years....

So much truth in this statement as a Bradley fan. Hence why there was a 6+ page thread on the Bradley board asking if it was time to fire Wardle after the ISU debacle. It's frustrating as heck to see glimpses of what Bradley can be, and continue to lose all these close games.

Some year Bradley will get it together before Feb. But it's also nice to know that Bradley usually peaks as a team come late February/early March.

And doing so gets the league a 15 seed and a much, much lower chance of winning a game or games....

[Blers42]

Maybe Wardle could figure things out before February 1, one of these years....

So much truth in this statement as a Bradley fan. Hence why there was a 6+ page thread on the Bradley board asking if it was time to fire Wardle after the ISU debacle. It's frustrating as heck to see glimpses of what Bradley can be, and continue to lose all these close games.

Some year Bradley will get it together before Feb. But it's also nice to know that Bradley usually peaks as a team come late February/early March.

And doing so gets the league a 15 seed and a much, much lower chance of winning a game or games....

The bottom/mid level Valley teams always end up being tougher than their kenpom/NET ranking, which definitely hurts the conference as a whole during conference play.

The only hope for a low seeding right now is if Loyola only drops 1-3 conference games against top half Valley teams. Seems unlikely they'll stay in the AP top 25 for long. Their last few games didn't provide much hope, but I'm thinking that it was partially due to rust and endurance issues from their covid break. The matchup against MSU this weekend should be a good test to see if they'll recover to how they looked during non-conference play. If they're able to win out the Valley while only dropping a couple games, they'll most likely be in the 7-10 range. That's still asking a lot even if they do end up playing like the did earlier this season. One of the announcers mentioned a stat during the Loyola vs. Evansville game stating that the Valley and the MAC have had the closest scoring conference games this season out of every conference. It's always a dogfight in the MVC.

[TheDrake]

Maybe Wardle could figure things out before February 1, one of these years....

So much truth in this statement as a Bradley fan. Hence why there was a 6+ page thread on the Bradley board asking if it was time to fire Wardle after the ISU debacle. It's frustrating as heck to see glimpses of what Bradley can be, and continue to lose all these close games.

Some year Bradley will get it together before Feb. But it's also nice to know that Bradley usually peaks as a team come late February/early March.

And doing so gets the league a 15 seed and a much, much lower chance of winning a game or games....

Yup. I guess it's nice for Bradley fans to have hope but it's god-awful for the league.

[bradley_townie]

Yup. I guess it's nice for Bradley fans to have hope but it's god-awful for the league.

Chalk is good when you're a 1 bid league. I don't see it being catastrophic for the league if a 5 or 6 seed wins Arch Madness this year. I'm no bracketologist, but Loyola has to be getting an at-large this year unless something goes terribly, right?