Bad weekend for Bradley basketball

Two more losses and a player suspension ... not good at all.

I've been out of town so I'll have to write up some information regarding these games tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Warren helps Bradley to win over Drake in conference opener

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All wins are not really equal. So while Bradley (6-5 overall, 1-0 MVC) didn't put together its best performance against Drake, any road victory is huge in Missouri Valley Conference play.

Junior guard Andrew Warren carried the team in the second half, finishing with 24 points (8 of 12 from the floor) and eight rebounds. Sophomore forward Taylor Brown responded after a couple of poor games with a double-double for the Braves (17 points, 11 rebounds).

For as balanced as Bradley generally is on offense, this game had all but 12 points scored by three players - Warren, Brown and junior guard Sam Maniscalco (14 points, 5 assists). In some situations this might have been a bad plan, but the ineffectiveness of the rest of the team facilitated those results.

Maybe the best thing that came from the game was that the Braves finally closed out a game with good free throw shooting. Drake (5-8 overall, 0-1 MVC) went into "foul mode" with about 1:30 to play and could have come back from a 10-point deficit if it weren't for Bradley making all eight attempts from the line in the closing minutes.

For the game, Bradley made 18-of-21 (85.7 percent) and limited the Bulldogs to just 10 free throw attempts.

Some of the other concerning traits of this team still persist. Overall, the Braves still are taking too many forced and quick shots in its half-court offense. And on the other side, Drake had way too many open looks but simply didn't knock them down.

Against the better teams in the Valley (since Drake will likely be near the cellar), these problems will be exploited more often. So while numerous problems need to be ironed out if Bradley expects to finish in the upper half of the conference, this was not a bad game. Progress was made and the team is looking better, not worse (which couldn't be said after the last three games).

Tough week

The first week of conference play continues with a Friday evening game at home against Southern Illinois. Then Bradley has a very quick turnaround and has to play Wichita State in Kansas on Sunday afternoon.

Both teams were in lopsided conference openers Tuesday. Southern Illinois outscored Indiana State 44-24 in the second half win by 18 at home 70-52, while Wichita State was handled easily by Illinois State in Normal, 72-57.

Some good information going into conference play

I was going to go through all of the teams before conference action starts tonight, but USA Today has done a really impressive job of providing information about each team in this article:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/mvc/home.htm?csp=34

Bradley heads to Drake tonight for its first game of the conference season. Nobody can really be too sure what to expect. Will the team that beat Illinois and looked good against BYU show up? Or will the squad that had two bad home losses (Western Carolina, Loyola) and a road beatdown (at Iowa State) wimper out of Des Moines with another loss?

It's anyone's best guess really, but after some intense practices over Christmas break, I'd expect a pretty good response from the Braves. Outside of the Iowa State game, most of Bradley's best basketball has actually been away from Carver Arena so far this season.

This will truly be a "measuring stick" game, as if the Braves hope to compete for the upper level of the conference, a victory is the only acceptable result. Drake should be a "play-in" team this season in the Missouri Valley Conference, so Bradley should be able to take care of business. If they don't, who knows where the Braves may finish?

Prediction: Bradley 76 Drake 70

Iowa State cruises to easy victory against Bradley

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The combination of a great Iowa State performance and a horrible Bradley one led to lopsided and disappointing game in Ames, Iowa today.

Marquis Gilstrap led the Cyclones (8-3) with 25 points and NBA prospect Craig Brackins added a double-double (16 points, 12 assists). The Braves (5-5) had no answer for either of these big men, nor did they against the quicker, more-talented Iowa State guards.

Junior guard Sam Maniscalco was exposed repeatedly as being a step too slow to guard Diante Garrett, Iowa State's speedy floor general. Maniscalco's performance wasn't any better on the offensive end as he missed all six shot attempts and committed three turnovers with no assists.

The problem is that Maniscalco isn't really a point guard. He's an undersized shooting guard who can get really hot from the beyond the arc. But Bradley has to play him there for the lack of better options.

The backup to Maniscalco is sophomore Eddren McCain, who has been so spooked by his lost shooting touch that he can't provide anything other than quickness on defense at this stage. McCain has looked better the past few games, but in reality, he can't be trusted yet to be the starter.

Maybe the silver lining might have been recently "unredshirted" freshman guard Jake Eastman. Though he was seeing his first action of the season and made just 1-of-8 shot attempts, Eastman did provide a burst of energy and led the Braves with five rebounds.

But the majority of players that Bradley needs a contribution either had bad games or were completely invisible. Senior guard Chris Roberts had a hollow 12-point game as he made numerous mental errors (five turnovers) and only secured one rebound.

At least that was something as opposed to Bradley's leading scorer Taylor Brown provided. The sophomore forward scored just four points and pulled down three rebounds. In Brown's defense, his defensive numbers were limited as he was saddled with the unenviable task of guarding Brackins, who played the majority of the game on the perimeter despite his 6'10" size.

And even though junior guard Andrew Warren led the Braves in points (16), all but four of these points were when Iowa State had built a 20+ point lead. Overall, this was just a bad performance from top to bottom.

Starting spots up for grabs?

Head coach Jim Les sounded as agitated as ever on the radio after the game. He said that he was "embarrassed" by his veteran players' performances. Les said that he'd start two freshman (Eastman and forward Milos Knezevic) and walk-on guard Ryan Phillips if it meant he'd get a better effort from his team.

Though this comment was said to be more of a message than a statement of what he's going to actually do, don't be surprised if Bradley does have some differences in starters when they head to Drake for the opener of the conference season.

Les has done this before, making all starting spots "up for grabs" and it has had some positive results. Hopefully that will get the team to find itself after this stretch of three poor losses in a row.

Loyola's buzzer beater sends Bradley to second straight loss

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Bradley (5-4) made three turnovers in its final four possessions and Courtney Stanley threw in a half-court shot to shock the Braves at home 68-65.

A layup by junior guard Sam Maniscalco gave Bradley a 50-38 lead with 17 minutes to go in the game. But the Braves were stuck on 50 points for the next seven minutes and allowed Loyola (7-2) to close the gap to five points.

The second-half collapse was caused by a combination of poor offensive flow and atrocious free-throw shooting. For the game, Bradley made just 9-of-18 free throws while Loyola shot 18-0f-23 (78 percent).

The problems snowballed after some questionably close officiating. The Ramblers went to the line on five out of seven possessions. Certainly this loss can't be pinned on the referees but they contributed to the problem (for the first time this season).

But even as badly as the game was going, the Braves still led 65-60 with the ball and less than two minutes to play. Maniscalco turned the ball over once and then sophomore forward Taylor Brown traveled and threw the ball away on successive possessions.

Brown did have a chance to redeem himself in the closing seconds but missed a jumper near the free-throw line with the clock winding down. After a Loyola timeout with 2.5 seconds left, Stanley caught the inbound pass and tossed in an awkward looking heave near the sideline for a Rambler victory.

Whereas Western Carolina came in and really stole a win on Bradley's home court last week, this one has to sit squarely on the Braves' shoulders. They gave it away.

Consider the fact that Bradley made 10-of-19 attempts from 3-point range and this game should have been a double-digit victory. Though junior guard Andrew Warren played pretty well (17 points, 4-of-8 on 3-point attempts and five rebounds), the rest of the team leaders didn't do enough.

The brightest spot in the game had to be the performance of freshman forward Milos Knezevic. He played a significant role in helping Bradley get up to such a big lead, scoring all 11 of his points in four minute stretch. He looked like he couldn't miss out there from long range.

If there's anything to specifically hang on the coaching staff it was not getting Knezevic more playing time and shot opportunities in the second half.

Other frustrations

If this game weren't bad enough, Bradley also played without freshman guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards, who was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his left foot and will miss a minimum of three to six weeks.

Simms-Edwards had been developing into an important contributor on both ends of the floor. But if this problem is anything like what sidelined Warren, he could certainly miss the rest of the season.

Bradley should consider a medical redshirt option if his condition doesn't improve quickly. He has played in few enough games that he'd likely qualify for the classification.

In a corresponding move, freshman guard Jake Eastman had his redshirt removed and was active for this game. Eastman didn't play as he was also nursing an injury from practice.

Coaching spots

After Steve Merfeld surprisingly left the coaching staff on December 6, Bradley had yet to fill his role until today. Kyle Vogt was promoted to Interim Assistant Coach and former Brave Jeremy Crouch was named Interim Director of Basketball Operations (Vogt's former role).

These moves were to be expected as Bradley wasn't about to find any sort of experienced coach to join the program mid-season. The result of these promotions may be minimal as this is still Jim Les' team.

Some have speculated that Merfeld and Les may not have gotten along though the true details will likely never be revealed publicly. Now Les essentially has full control and Vogt won't likely change that.

Moving forward

Bradley heads back out to the road to face Iowa State on Sunday. For how they've played up and down to their competition, expect the Braves to have a much better effort. Maybe getting away from Carver Arena will force Bradley to not get so complacent when they get a lead.