In case you're wondering ...

The blog is definitely still alive and will be continued this season. I haven't decided on a lot of particulars yet, but I hope to have a more regular publishing schedule and try to write about some different topics as the season progresses. As is with a lot of us, basketball hasn't been a big priority for a while. But as the season previews start coming out, the banter has already begun. Anyway, look for some interesting content coming up this season!

Chris Roberts' miracle shot stuns Oakland

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Something about Oakland University brings out historic events for the Bradley basketball program.

Any Bradley fan remembers 2006 - the Sweet 16 season. Well, even though the games were played at the Palace at Auburn Hills (Detroit Pistons arena), the host school for the first two games was none other than Oakland University. That looked like the last time there would be any connection between the two schools.

But, as a result of Bradley playing the inaugural CollegeInsider.com tournament, the schools came together again, this time with both playing on the court. The Braves looked to be saddled with a disappointing home loss after Oakland's Johnathon Jones made a shot with 0.9 seconds left.

Then junior guard Chris Roberts threw the ball the length of the court and made one of the most improbable buzzer beaters in Bradley history.

Here's a link to the video provided by WEEK-TV: Here

Bradley advances to the semifinals of the CIT and will face Pacific on Wednesday.

MVC tournament quarterfinal: No. 4 Bradley vs. No. 5 Southern Illinois

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For once, the thuggery of Southern Illinois didn't prevail. In fact, those tactics actually helped ignite a huge effort from the Bradley team to take a quarterfinal victory over the Salukis 67-55.

After playing seven minutes of bad basketball, Bradley trailed SIU 10-3 and were slipping into some of the bad habits that had plagued the team earlier in the season — too many 3-point attempts and turnovers. The game looked like one of the typical kinds of performances Bradley seems to put up against the Salukis once or twice a year.

But then with 12:39 to play in the half, forward Theron Wilson got thrown to the ground on a fast break attempt by SIU's Anthony Booker. After the unnecessary cheap shot, Wilson looked woozy and missed both free throw attempts after an intentional foul was called.

Bradley would score later that possession after a few misses by forward Taylor Brown on a classic "Sam-to-Sam" play. Guard Sam Maniscalco hit forward/center Sam Singh near the hoop for a layup and the Braves got off of three points, their first in more than six minutes.

The numerous opportunities on that one possession showed that Bradley wasn't going to get bullied by SIU anymore this game. Trailing 17-9 after a Carlton Fay jumper with eight minutes left in the half, the Braves went on 13-0 run during the next four minutes. Guard Darian Norris had five of his seven points during the run, including a 3-pointer that gave Bradley its first lead since 3-2 early in the half.

Bradley continued to play well into halftime, leading 34-25 and forcing the young SIU team into numerous turnovers. The second half wasn't much different.

The Braves led by as many as 15 points and never allowed the Salukis to close within seven. One of the biggest keys was understanding SIU's tight, pressuring defense. As the Salukis continually tried to push guards away from the basket, Bradley adjusted and began taking the ball into the defense, not letting the opponent dictate the style of the game.

Bradley also used the Salukis' pressure against them by drawing a ton of fouls and getting its best free-throw shooters to the line. Maniscalco, who had the highest free-throw percentage during conference play (89 percent), made all 14 attempts in the game. The sophomore's game-high 21 points and three assists show why he's a team leader.

Up and down the lineup, the Braves got contributions. Singh looks better every game he's healthy, showing good footwork and contributing eight points and five rebounds. Guard Chris Roberts had six points, seven rebounds and a dynamic block that further shows his unbelievable athleticism.

Even Wilson, who seemed to be out of sorts for awhile after the throw down, made some important shots. Wilson had 14 points and nine rebounds, showing the senior leadership that helped earn him all-conference honors.

Though disposing of the hated Salukis tastes sweet, Bradley's road to the NCAA tournament gets much more difficult today. The top-seeded, co-conference champion Northern Iowa Panthers will certainly give the Braves all that they can handle. UNI won both meetings in the regular season, but those only came by a combined eight points. In fact, Bradley led both games with five minutes to play. The Braves will need to finish off the dynamic 3-point shooters from Cedar Falls in order to advance to the tournament's championship game.

No. 4 Bradley vs. No. 1 Northern Iowa, 1:35 p.m. (CST), Sat. 3/7, St. Louis, Mo.

Game Twenty-Nine Recap: Bradley @ Evansville

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Individual games can be a microcosm of a season.

Wednesday night felt like just that as the up-and-down Braves fell on the road to Evansville (17-11, 8-9) by a score of 56-49. Bradley (16-13, 9-8) didn't play well and again showed its vulnerability when the team shoots poorly overall and takes too many 3-point shots.

The Braves made 6-of-24 from behind the arc, only 25 percent. Bradley hasn't shot that many threes in any conference game this season, and it was the most since the dismal performance at Milwaukee on Dec. 20 (6-of-27, 22 percent).

Compare the results in wins versus losses and the discrepancy is even more evident. In nine conference wins, Bradley has made 51-of-130 attempts from the 3-point line, good for 39 percent. In the eight losses, the Braves have not only shot a much lower percentage (30 percent) but they've also taken 15 more shots (145) in one less game. This team simply can't keep trying long range shots at the rate of previous teams.

As for this particular game, Evansville showed the emotion expected on senior night. After a dunk by Bradley center David Collins, the Purple Aces went on 8-2 run to pull ahead 17-7. Most of the half was pretty sloppy overall and Evansville maintained its 10-point lead going into halftime at 30-20.

The Braves never could put together enough scores in a row to close the lead within four points until late in the second half. Often this was attributable to lax defensive possessions. Though the overall defensive effort looked good on paper (Evansville shot only 40 percent from the floor), too many times the Braves were beaten off the dribble or were too slow to rotate. This led to numerous layups and free throw opportunities by the Purple Aces.

The game may have been more one-sided if Evansville had hit more than 15-of-24 free throws (62.5 percent). And at this point, it almost goes without saying that a Jim Les-coached team would give 100 percent effort. That certainly wasn't in question tonight, but without a go-to scorer, Bradley couldn't make enough shots to win.

Collins needs to be singled out for Bradley. He led the Braves in scoring for the first time this season with 10 points. Anyone who knows this team should understand though, that if Collins is the high-point man, Bradley is probably going to lose the game.

That shouldn't take away from Collins' game. He showed a tenacity that fans have rarely seen from him in road games this season. Collins grabbed 10 rebounds and was credited with five blocks (though it surely looked like 6 or 7 when watching).

Another thing to like about Collins tonight is that he generally made good decisions with the ball. When he had man-to-man coverage, he took the ball to the basket aggressively. But when Evansville doubled down on him, Collins found the open man — helping contribute to his four assists.

Nobody else really stepped up for Bradley. Guard Sam Maniscalco and forward Theron Wilson have generally been the guys to do it, but they finished with just nine and six points respectively.

The Braves were also at a disadvantage as guard Dodie Dunson played the whole game with a heavily wrapped right hand. The injury greatly affected his ability to make any offensive contribution, therefore putting more pressure on Maniscalco and Wilson.

Jason Holsinger had a great game for Evansville on his senior night. The sharpshooting guard led all scorers with 19 points.

Next game:

As noted in my post about the MVC standings, Bradley needs to forget about this loss quickly. The Braves will likely finish 4th in conference, but they need some momentum going into the conference tournament in St. Louis.

Drake comes to Peoria for the final game of the regular season after a heartbreaking home loss to Southern Illinois tonight. Bradley definitely appears to be the better team, but that doesn't mean much in the Valley this year. The Braves put up a terrible performance Feb. 7 in Des Moines, falling to the Bulldogs 68-54.

A win secures the 4th seed in the conference tournament. But it's hard to guess who Bradley will play until all games are complete.

Next game: Drake @ Bradley, Sat. 2/28, 7:05 p.m.

Missouri Valley Picture Gets Clearer

Northern Iowa's big win at Illinois State assures the Panthers of finishing in the top two in the Valley, while ISU has locked up the third seed in the tournament.

Let's check out the full standings after 17 of 18 league games:

			Conference		Tiebreaker Pts.
		Place	Wins	Losses	Max.	Earned
Northern Iowa		1	13	4	173	125 (+18)
Creighton		1	13	4	173	107 (+11)
Illinois State		3	11	6	179	91 (+1)
Bradley		4	9	8	183	62 (+3)
Wichita State		5	8	9	189	75 (0)
Evansville		5	8	9	189	50 (+8)
Drake		7	7	10	197	72 (+2)
Southern Ill.		7	7	10	197	48 (+8)
Indiana State		9	6	11	201	65 (-1)
Missouri State		10	3	14	207	26 (-1)

Just like last time, I'll remind those who read breakdown that we're merely talking about tournament seeding. If Northern Iowa and Creighton both win Saturday, they'd be crowned conference co-champions. But UNI would be the top seed.

The Panthers split with Creighton, so they would win any tie by virtue of an insurmountable advantage in tiebreaker points. Even with a Creighton win over Illinois State this weekend, it would not be enough to catch UNI.

So with things pretty simple at the top, it's still very foggy in the middle of the Valley. Bradley's disappointing performance at Evansville drops the Braves much closer to the pack. A win would have clinched the 4th seed, but now Saturday's home finale against Drake has even greater importance than just senior night.

Bradley could make it very simple and just win at home, which would lock up the 4th seed. The Braves might be able to back into that same seed by Wichita State (at Southern Illinois) and Evansville (at Northern Iowa) both losing, which is very plausible.

If we have some ties, here's how it will look:

-If Bradley ties Wichita State at 9-9, then the Braves take the 4th seed (head-to-head, 2-0)

-If Bradley ties Evansville at 9-9, then the tiebreaker points would get extremely close. I've ran through some of the more likely scenarios of outcomes and it looks like the Purple Aces would claim the 4th seed — barely. The key is all of the points that Evansville would be making by knocking off one of the top two teams in the league. But what are the chances that Evansville can go into Cedar Falls and knock off a team that is trying to clinch a conference championship?

-If there's a tie at 9-9 between all three teams, Bradley wins this tiebreaker as well. The league adds together the head-to-head records against all tied opponents. Bradley won three of four, while Evansville was 2-2 (and would earn the 5th seed) and Wichita State would be 1-3 and be seeded sixth.

Looking at all of those possibilities, it seems almost certain that Bradley's going to be seeded 4th in the Valley tournament. Wichita State, Evansville and even Southern Illinois could be potential opponents.

The seeding from 5th to 8th is even worse than 4th to 6th. There's a definite possibility that there could be a three- or four-way tie at 8-10. If all of the home teams win this weekend, then Wichita State, Evansville and Southern Illinois would be tied (Drake would fall to 7-11 and be seeded 8th or 9th). Southern Illinois would actually win this tiebreaker, securing two wins over Wichita State.

The team that has no idea where it is going has to be the Salukis. SIU could finish as high as 5th (if that four-way tie were to happen) but could drop as low as 9th! Wichita State has almost as confusing of a situation, looking at somewhere between 5th and 8th.

With so many possibilities still out there, keep in mind a few things:

-Evansville and Wichita State stay out of the play-in game with wins.

-SIU is the only team in this bunch that is at home, which is certainly an advantage.

-Wichita State would lose a head-to-head tie with SIU, but otherwise has the most tiebreaker points at the moment.

-Anything can happen - the Valley is really mediocre this year and nothing surprises me anymore!

Looking near the bottom of the standings, Indiana State is locked in the play-in game, but could finish anywhere between 7th and 9th still. Missouri State will be the 10th seed, having already clinched the cellar in the conference.