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.

Western Carolina shocks Bradley at home

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Bradley found out that even "no-name" schools can beat you if you don't play a complete game. Western Carolina used a 20-2 run to erase a nine point second half deficit and stun the Braves at home 75-67.

Though Bradley (5-3) got another big game from sophomore forward Taylor Brown (18 points, 8-of-10 shooting), the rest of the team simply didn't play well enough to beat a tough, undeterred Western Carolina (8-1) team.

Bradley had nine point leads in each half but atrocious free throw shooting allowed the visitors to stay close. For the game, the Braves made only 15-of-33 attempts from the line (57.6 percent). Conversely, Western Carolina came into the game shooting just 56 percent as a team and knocked down 10-of-12 (83.3 percent).

Even as some of the regular problems crept up (like missing too many layups), Bradley still had control of this game. At the 9:49 mark and trailing 56-49, Western Carolina burned a timeout to stop a 13-4 run. But after Brown made a layup on the next possession, everything began to unravel.

The Catamounts scored on six straight possessions before head coach Jim Les took a timeout with 5:46 left. The ugly sequence ended with Western Carolina going on a 15-0 run, tossing in two wild shots and leading 64-58.

The Braves still had a chance with four minutes to play but allowed two critical offensive rebounds and nearly two full minutes to run off the clock. Junior guard Andrew Warren had a chance to tie the game at 69 with a minute to play but his 3-pointer clanked off the rim.

Warren had an ugly shooting performance (3-of-12 overall, 0-of-5 from 3-point range) and senior guard Chris Roberts was even worse (1-of-8). If these two players struggle, generally the team does as well.

If there were any positives to take from the game, it had to be from guards Dyricus Simms-Edwards and Eddren McCain. Simms-Edwards provided his usual energy off the bench, scoring eight points and grabbing four rebounds. McCain played with more confidence and didn't commit any turnovers in the reserve point guard role.

Where to go from here

Bradley will have plenty of time to digest this loss as its next game isn't until Dec. 16 against Loyola. Plenty of time will surely be spent on defense and free throw shooting.

Western Carolina isn't a bad team and surely played one of its better games of the season. The Catamounts were picked to win the Southern Conference and may have a really good record going into March.

But Bradley simply can't lose to lower level teams at home if it wants to ever get an NCAA at-large bid. Just like Illinois expects to always beat schools of the caliber of Southern Illinois and Bradley, the Braves should always think that they ought to beat any low-major school, especially on their home floor.

The season certainly isn't lost with one game. But after all of the positive steps forward lately, this one just stings a little bit more.

Back at Carver Arena tonight

Bradley hosts Western Carolina tonight at 7:05 p.m. I'll be sure to post a full recap after the game as well as a reaction to the Steve Merfeld issue.

This is supposed to be a pretty decent team (6-1 on the season), but I think Bradley's due for a great performance.

Prediction: Bradley 72 Western Carolina 60

Bradley uses second half surge to pull away from NIU

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Scoring only 19 points in a half doesn't generally translate into many victories. Luckily for Bradley, the second half was as good as the first one was bad.

The Braves (5-2) shot an absurd 68 percent (17-of-25) from the floor during the final 20 minutes en route to a 63-49 victory at the NIU Convocation Center. Junior guard Andrew Warren led three Bradley players in double figures, helping erase a 20-19 halftime deficit.

Forget about poor rebounding, turnovers or any other reason a score might be that low. Simply put, neither team could hit anything in the first half. Bradley shot 36 percent (9-of-25) and Northern Illinois was worse at 33.3 percent (9-of-27).

Part of the issue could have been that the referees weren't calling any fouls on either team for the first 10-12 minutes. In fact, NIU didn't commit a personal foul until under the 8-minute mark. This fact certainly didn't coincide with how the Huskies had been committing 24 fouls per game this season.

If either team could have had more free-throw opportunities, that might have broken up the flow (or in this case, lack thereof) and possibly gotten someone into more of a rhythm.

The offense was generally getting good shots except for the surprising amount of turnovers. Maybe some of those issues could be explained by a little jet lag after flying home from Las Vegas this past weekend and having to take a bus back north to DeKalb.

For a team that doesn't play the biggest lineups, NIU (1-5) did rebound pretty well (33-32 overall) and limited Bradley to only six offensive boards. But when a team shoots 1-of-20 from 3-point range, it is going to lose unless it can get an large amount of second chance points. NIU only had eight.

The Braves had to get more minutes than usual from center Anthony Thompson and forward/center Sam Singh. Starting center Will Egolf struggled with foul trouble the entire game and only played 16 minutes. Singh did manage to grab five rebounds, but overall the duo didn't contribute enough for Bradley.

Part of this apparent lack of production has to do with the way Bradley runs its offense, though. The Braves have talented slashers with good mid-range shooting abilities. As a result, the low post players and point guards (especially when the threes aren't falling) don't score as much. But in the case of this current Bradley roster, the best players play the 2/3/4 positions and the offense is in place to suit their abilities.

Warm up the bus

As expected, Bradley fans traveled very well to this game. If this were a weekend contest, there probably would have been more people actually. But for a Wednesday evening game, Bradley fans still had at least a third of the total crowd (3,064 overall).

Even more important was how vocal the Bradley crowd was. This made for a pretty lively environment considering the small overall crowd size. The nastiness was kept to a minimum (which can't always be said for other intrastate schools) and made for an enjoyable college basketball atmosphere.

Game pictures

Unfortunately a lot of my game pictures turned out very blurry. Maybe it was the lighting because my current camera generally takes good indoor shots. The shots I do have though will be uploaded tomorrow for your enjoyment. Thanks!