MVC Games Week 5 2024-25

[bcg]

Bradley struggled early on, but luckily SIU is pretty bad. We concluded that they are the equivalent to Wardle's second season. The Saluki's banked in a three and free throw.

[TylerDurden]

Bradley struggled early on, but luckily SIU is pretty bad. We concluded that they are the equivalent to Wardle's second season. The Saluki's banked in a three and free throw.

I didn't see the game, but saw this comment, went to look at the box score and saw Bradley had 50 at halftime. I was ready to post some sarcastic reply...until I looked at the play by play.

Bradley only had 7 points in the first 5:28 of the game (SIU had 6).
BU had 14 at the under 12 timeout (SIU still had 6).
It was 27-11 at the next TV break...
Then they started trading baskets and Bradley scored 23 in the final 8 minutes, 12 in the final 3 minutes.

Halftime: BU 50, SIU 33

SIU really misses Elliott - though he likely wouldn't have made much of a difference tonight.

Bradley is off to a good start with a road win. You'll take as many of those as you can get.

[SalukiWorld]

SIU is really bad. They do nothing well. Bad offense, bad defense, bad free throw shooting, turnovers, no effort. It's a bottom 4 team that might struggle to win 10 overall games.

Thought they had more talent but Elliott being out kills whatever chance they had. Not sure even that matters.

[municup14]

If UE can get Comer and Hughes to start knocking down some shots we could be a pretty good team.

[Majik45]

Bradley came out and absolutely looked like the team picked to win the Valley last night. Zek Montgomery got hot early (13 of Bradley's first 19 points), and they fed him the ball. Any chance of a comeback in the 2nd half was dashed by Almar Atlason getting hot from 3 in the 2nd half (4 made 3's after the break).

I'm sure SIU is struggling right now because you lost a big contributor which throws off roles, rotations, etc., but Bradley looked so good tonight. Of course, when you make 14 of 22 from beyond the arc, it will make any team look good. But at the same time, Bradley is now 2nd in the nation in 3 point percentage making 45.3% of it's 3 point shots.

Duke Dean took a hard fall in the first half while trying to grab a rebound in traffic where he left the game for 3 minutes. He then took a forearm to the back of the head early in the 2nd half, and left the game for good. No word yet on the full extent of the injury, but Bradley does have 10 days off now before their next game.

[bradley_townie]

Bradley might be the deepest team in the league. They have balanced scoring and don't overly rely on one or two guys. No one is averaging much more than 30 minutes/game. And everyone on the floor at any given time (with the exception of Jonovic) is a threat from 3.

[chitown fanatic]

This might just be post-beatdown bliss, but this might be the best BU team this century. We've never had 5 guys that could hit threes at will like this team can. It's only real weaknesses are interior D and rebounding but theres no real threats as far as bigs in our conference so barring injuries, 16-4 at a minimum should be the expectation now and possibly 18-2. The return of Zek is enormous as he can create his own shot where Connor couldnt. We miss Mal on D but Wardle will work the D into better form as the year goes on. And unlike the Drake that plays its top two guys 40 each and every night, our minutes are spread out much more evenly. I didnt know what to expect after Mal and Connor left and thought we'd be 21-10. That mark would be a huge disappointment now. I expect to be ranked by mid January. Net moved from 70 to 54 after last night. Get to 13-1 and lets see those votes! Go BU!

[bradley_townie]

This might just be post-beatdown bliss, but this might be the best BU team this century. We've never had 5 guys that could hit threes at will like this team can. It's only real weaknesses are interior D and rebounding but theres no real threats as far as bigs in our conference so barring injuries, 16-4 at a minimum should be the expectation now and possibly 18-2. The return of Zek is enormous as he can create his own shot where Connor couldnt. We miss Mal on D but Wardle will work the D into better form as the year goes on. And unlike the Drake that plays its top two guys 40 each and every night, our minutes are spread out much more evenly. I didnt know what to expect after Mal and Connor left and thought we'd be 21-10. That mark would be a huge disappointment now. I expect to be ranked by mid January. Net moved from 70 to 54 after last night. Get to 13-1 and lets see those votes! Go BU!

I think we saw peak Bradley last night and their ceiling might be higher than I initially thought, but time to pump the brakes. SIU was leaving guys wide open from 3 and looked utterly lost out there on both ends of the floor. A good team would take advantage of that and Bradley absolutely carved them up.

A couple weeks ago Bradley got blown out by Washington State, a very solid but by no means elite team. There will be nights when the 3s aren't falling and the same rebounding and interior defense issues rear their heads and they'll drop a few games they shouldn't.

[Birdfan2018]

This might just be post-beatdown bliss, but this might be the best BU team this century. We've never had 5 guys that could hit threes at will like this team can. It's only real weaknesses are interior D and rebounding but theres no real threats as far as bigs in our conference so barring injuries, 16-4 at a minimum should be the expectation now and possibly 18-2. The return of Zek is enormous as he can create his own shot where Connor couldnt. We miss Mal on D but Wardle will work the D into better form as the year goes on. And unlike the Drake that plays its top two guys 40 each and every night, our minutes are spread out much more evenly. I didnt know what to expect after Mal and Connor left and thought we'd be 21-10. That mark would be a huge disappointment now. I expect to be ranked by mid January. Net moved from 70 to 54 after last night. Get to 13-1 and lets see those votes! Go BU!

2005-06 Bradley team may disagree!

[freddycat68]

This might just be post-beatdown bliss, but this might be the best BU team this century. We've never had 5 guys that could hit threes at will like this team can. It's only real weaknesses are interior D and rebounding but theres no real threats as far as bigs in our conference so barring injuries, 16-4 at a minimum should be the expectation now and possibly 18-2. The return of Zek is enormous as he can create his own shot where Connor couldnt. We miss Mal on D but Wardle will work the D into better form as the year goes on. And unlike the Drake that plays its top two guys 40 each and every night, our minutes are spread out much more evenly. I didnt know what to expect after Mal and Connor left and thought we'd be 21-10. That mark would be a huge disappointment now. I expect to be ranked by mid January. Net moved from 70 to 54 after last night. Get to 13-1 and lets see those votes! Go BU!

I think we saw peak Bradley last night and their ceiling might be higher than I initially thought, but time to pump the brakes. SIU was leaving guys wide open from 3 and looked utterly lost out there on both ends of the floor. A good team would take advantage of that and Bradley absolutely carved them up.

A couple weeks ago Bradley got blown out by Washington State, a very solid but by no means elite team. There will be nights when the 3s aren't falling and the same rebounding and interior defense issues rear their heads and they'll drop a few games they shouldn't.

I agree with this. They look good, but there's something about this team that still makes me nervous. We're not getting 40 minutes of defense and rebounding from this group in any game. Until we do, I'm not looking for any national rankings.