Bradley gets revenge against Missouri State, wins by 18

56	74

What a difference a week makes. Bradley excelled in all aspects of the game and completed a dominant performance against Missouri State.

The Braves (8-9, 3-4 MVC) had five players score in double figures as sophomore forward Taylor Brown led the way with 16 points and 12 rebounds. For as inconsistent as Brown had been playing recently, he really put together a fabulous performance on both ends of the floor.

Everything that the Braves seemed to do wrong a week ago were addressed in the rematch. Missouri State (13-5, 3-4 MVC) held a 41-27 rebounding advantage in Springfield, Mo. Bradley held nearly the exact same margin at home (43-28) today.

The overall defensive effort was the most consistent performance all season, limiting second chance opportunities and forcing the Bears into a lot of difficult looks. Kyle Weems, who scored 30 against Bradley last weekend, had a quiet 10 points and never was able to get into the flow of the Missouri State offense.

Other than some open 3-point looks for Adam Leonard, the Braves' defense really contested shots well. Bradley finished with six blocks, well above the season average of 2.3 per game.

Playing good defense isn't just something all coach's preach. In eight of Bradley's nine losses, the Braves have given up 68 points or more to their opponents. Though it may be more fun to watch, run-and-gun basketball is not the way that this team is successful.

The offense didn't disappoint either. The movement and passing were crisp and few possessions resulted in bad shot attempts. When so many of these opportunities were layups, Bradley was bound to be successful.

The high screen offense that the Braves often execute looked good, especially when sophomore forward Will Egolf slipped out of his screen and was led perfectly to the basket for some easy layups. Egolf had one of his best games at Bradley, scoring 14 points and adding four rebounds and two blocks.

And Egolf will be a key to the Braves' success/failure as the conference season goes on. He's getting much better at recognizing when he should make a post move and try to score as opposed to when he's got nothing going and needs to find an open player on the perimeter. Bradley has been so limited in the past offensively because they've lacked not just a post scorer, but also a guy who can pass well, too.

The superlatives can be tossed to the rest of the roster, as well. Senior guard Chris Roberts played very good defense with six total rebounds and two steals. On offense he contributed 10 points but more importantly, also had five assists. He was one of many players who aggressively drove to the basket and made the extra pass to get an easy layup for a teammate.

Both junior guards Andrew Warren and Sam Maniscalco had steady games. Warren did force a couple tough shots but still managed 11 points and rebounded more aggressively (five total). In Maniscalco's case, fans could easily take for granted his consistency. For a player who handles the point guard role as much he has, maintains a solid assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6 going into the game, tied for 6th in the MVC) and always can be relied upon for a big three or his great free-throw shooting. Maniscalco showed his versatility too, flipping in two more of his "Steve Nash-esque" finger-roll layups today.

Even though he didn't make as big of a splash as some other games, freshman guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards continues to show flashes of why he's going to be starter for Bradley for many seasons to come. His ability to drive to the basket is as good as anyone at his age since Daniel Ruffin.

Reality check

And with how overwhelmingly positive this game one, it was indeed just one game. Cliche or not, this team must build off of this victory when having to head out to Carbondale to face Southern Illinois on Wednesday. Not many teams win there and Bradley hasn't done so even once since Jim Les took over the program in 2002.

But, this year will be as good of a chance as any with Southern Illinois far from its dominant selves of the past. The Braves are playing much better and looking for revenge after SIU stole a game in Peoria on New Years Day.

Ignoring the actual in-game events, Bradley really isn't too far off of pace from where you might predict they'd be in conference play. Losses at conference leaders Wichita State and Northern Iowa could be expected. It's only the home defeat against SIU that has the Braves at 3-4 instead of 4-3.

This next stretch of seven games are all winnable and Bradley is looking poised to make a run up the standings.

Bradley's rugged defensive effort falls short in Cedar Falls

50	52

If Bradley puts together the same defensive effort it did tonight, this team will still win a lot of conference games. Unfortunately for the Braves, Northern Iowa made enough plays to survive at home, 52-50.

Junior guard Sam Maniscalco led all scorers with 15 points (6-of-11 from floor, 3-of-5 from 3-point range) and added five rebounds, two assists, three steals and only one turnover. Ali Farokhmanesh made all four of the Panthers 3-pointers and finished with 14 points.

A four minute scoring drought allowed Northern Iowa (15-1, 6-0 MVC) to take a 45-35 lead with 10:49 to play in the game. Bradley (7-9, 2-4 MVC) ratcheted up its defense from that point, only letting the Panthers score seven more points the rest of the game.

One of the biggest reasons for the defensive success was that head coach Jim Les continued to change between man-to-man and 2-3 zone sets. He observed that this rattled the Panthers and it showed as they didn't score for almost five minutes.

Maybe the most significant play in the game was when Bradley had possession with two minutes to play, trailing 49-48. Junior guard Andrew Warren missed a 3-point attempt and freshman guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards crashed hard to the boards. Simms-Edwards made an athletic tip on the rebound and the ball went into the basket, but he was whistled for an offensive foul.

Watching some of the replays, it probably was the correct call as Simms-Edwards did lead with his arm a bit. But if the call goes differently, maybe the outcome is also changed in the end.

Even with that difficult call, Bradley still had a chance to tie or win with 20 seconds to play. The Panthers had three fouls to give and used them smartly, including a third with just 0.6 seconds on the clock. The Braves were a bit disjointed on the last possession and were out of timeouts.

But then Les came through and made another smart coaching decision. He quickly motioned to the officials to check the clock and see if any time should be added after the third foul. The point here was that it effectively bought him an extra timeout and he was able to draw up a quick play with so little time left.

The Braves ran a back screen and tried to run a lob to the glass but Northern Iowa defensed it perfectly and batted the pass away for the victory. With so little time on the clock, Bradley wasn't likely to get much better of a chance than a wild 3-pointer, anyway.

Invisible stars

For as good as Maniscalco was, the rest of Bradley's starters all had subpar games. Senior guard Chris Roberts probably had the best performance, hitting 4-of-5 three-point attempts and finishing with 14 points. But he also had no rebounds and committed four turnovers.

For as great as Warren has been in conference play, this was one of his worst of the year. He shot just 2-of-10 from the floor and committed five turnovers. The students got on Warren after he had an air ball early in the second half and this seemed to rattle him a bit.

Credit him for knowing that good players need to keep trying to score, though. The majority of his attempts for the rest of the game were open looks but just weren't falling. He'll almost surely be back to his dynamic self against Missouri State on Saturday.

Sophomores Taylor Brown and Will Egolf dealt with foul trouble the entire game and never really got into the flow of the action. Each had just four points but did combine for 11 rebounds.

Considering how ineffective most of the starters were on offense, it's remarkable the Braves kept the game so close. But good defense does that - allows for the opportunity to steal a victory when your best players don't contribute as much as usual.

Looking across the court

The point that needs to be emphasized is how good this Northern Iowa team can be. The Panthers were coming off of two road victories against Southern Illinois and Illinois State where they controlled both contests.

The argument can be made that Northern Iowa did have an off night, especially from guards Kwadzo Ahelegbe (eight turnovers) and Johnny Moran (zero points). But the problems resulted more from the fact that Bradley defended well and wouldn't allow for too many open perimeter looks.

One of the most pleasant surprises was the game that senior center Sam Singh had. The Brave has been used sparsely this season but really helped to slow down the Panthers' talented big man, Jordan Eglseder. Singh chipped in three points to go along with his five rebounds.

Shortening the bench

Les has tightened up the rotation and only played eight guys tonight, electing to keep freshman forward Milos Knezevic and sophomore guard Eddren McCain on the bench. Both of these players' minutes have been slipping as the season has gone on, mostly it seems because of defense.

Maybe there are other things behind the scenes that Les is noticing in practice as well. At least he's not just sticking with rotations just for the sake of doing them.

Simms-Edwards saw significant spike in time, especially with how well he played against Ahelegbe. Since he's come off of the redshirt, guard Jake Eastman has also seemed to pass up McCain on the depth chart. Hopefully this will be a wake-up call for the speedy guard as McCain can still be a contributor for this team now and going forward.

Turning this into a positive

This has to be the most upbeat the team has been all season after a loss. And this is critical considering the schedule coming up. For starters, Bradley needed to realize it still can compete at a high level in the league after the drubbing it took at Missouri State on Saturday. Now just seven days later, the Braves have another crack at the Bears and have them at Carver Arena this time.

And then the schedule gradually gets easier for about a month. This team could be poised to go on a run if it can remember how it played tonight and not the previous three games. Maybe the Braves won't necessarily live up to all expectations, but the opportunity is coming to still salvage a lot from a tough first half of the season.

This point is really a crossroads to see what this team can truly be capable of doing - will it continue to be stuck in "neutral", hovering around .500? Or will the talent and cohesion start to show, possibly making a run at the upper half of the conference?

Wainwright's departure draws some comparisons

Jerry Wainwright is out as DePaul's men's basketball coach.

Official release from DePaul

This is disappointing news, though most fans expected this sooner rather than later. Wainwright had to have felt very uncomfortable since his staff was let go after a dismal 0-18 Big East season in 2008-09.

But though some in the blog/message board world are surely rejoicing today, this isn't the happiest day for me. DePaul was my team growing up and I've been following them since I was a little kid, which included the days of David Booth (now a current assistant).

I want DePaul to be successful and will always have a part of me that will care about the program. When a coach leaves/gets fired, that shows failures on many levels.

You might ask: What does this have to do with Bradley?

Though the recent success of the two programs can't really be compared, there are similar aspects to the Wainwright situation as to what is going on in Peoria.

Wainwright has many of the same great qualities that Bradley's Jim Les has - he has very likable personality, a good interview (especially in Wainwright's case, who is very funny and doesn't mind being self-deprecating), cares deeply about the school/area where he's coaching. Just like Les, Wainwright has always seemed like the kind of guy who would have stayed at DePaul for 20 years if possible.

But in a similar light, he also hasn't lived up to expectations as a coach. Just like most Bradley fans hoped that Les' teams would be competing for conference championships on a yearly basis, DePaul fans have hoped that in a ridiculously difficult conference like the Big East, the Blue Demons could at least stay competitive.

And if you want to play the "what-if" game, Wainwright has had to deal with a lot of similar things. He's had injuries to key players and has lost important players to the program (in DePaul's case, to the NBA).

Having an opportunity to watch a lot of both Bradley and DePaul games, the two head coaches have stuck with a system that hasn't always meshed with the team's personnel. Wainwright allowed way too much 1-on-1, NBA-style basketball and with the exception of a couple players, DePaul simply didn't have the talent to play that way. The team was showing signs of at least playing better defense this season, but that wasn't enough.

I'm not sure how this is radically different to how some of the recently Bradley teams have been. Fundamentals of winning basketball - defense and rebounding - are often stressed in interviews with the media, but then the carryover doesn't generally happen in games.

At least in Wainwright's case, he's had a proven track record of success. He'll get another job because of his three conference championships and two NCAA appearances at UNC-Wilmington. Unfortunately for Wainwright, he almost seemed destined to fail considering the current state of DePaul's program.

Even though Chicago is a hotbed for talented basketball players, it's difficult to get recruits to stay nearby and play at DePaul. The Allstate Arena is a nice place to catch a sporting event, but it's 15 miles from the main campus.

That is simply too far for the majority of students to travel for a game. Bradley has often had trouble getting enough students to its games and though the Braves also have an off-campus arena, it's only two miles away and a bus ride in just takes a matter of minutes.

The only way DePaul will get good student support again is if the program starts doing well. Unfortunately, lots of kids in college are fickle and don't necessarily care as much about the game as being part of a social experience. If the team starts playing well again, it will be the "place to be" and those fans will come back.

The other problem with DePaul is that because of the way administration handled the past few coaching moves. This has alienated many long-time supporters of the program.

Whether it was the lousy coaching of Pat Kennedy, the fickleness of Dave Leitao, or the problematic athletic director Bill Bradshaw (see an article from the Sporting News from way back in 1996: Here), things haven't been going consistently right for more than a decade.

The combination of bad basketball, dwindling fan support and minimal media coverage have really doomed the Blue Demons for years.

Credit DePaul for making a change when sticking with a likable local man would have been the easy route. If Bradley continues to stick in the doldrums of the Missouri Valley Conference, hopefully it will have the same courage if that determination has to be made at a future date.

The train falls off the tracks - Missouri State wins by 19

69	88

Every team has bad games. But when the chemistry and execution of a team regresses, that can be a cause for major concern.

Though the season is far from over and Jim Les has righted the ship many times before, this team isn't showing many signs of improvement. In the first part of the season, the team seemed to have a commitment to playing good defense. As a result, more "team efforts" resulted, even as the Braves often struggled to score points.

But now, the message of playing good defense and rebounding has been lost. Bradley has now given up more than 80 points in four straight and have dropped six of eight games overall. The recap from this one could be written very similarly to the other games.

Poor defensive coverage first allowed Missouri State's Kyle Weems to go crazy, scoring 20 of the first 22 points by the Bears. He finished with 30 and could have had a ton more if it weren't for foul trouble.

The Bears also shot a ton of 3-pointers (10-of-30, 33 percent), which made for a lot of long rebound opportunities. As Bradley extended out its defense, the Bears crashed the boards and had 24 second chance points. If this weren't bad enough, just compare what the rebounding totals were for each team.

The combination of guards Chris Roberts, Andrew Warren and forward Taylor Brown were averaging a combined 15.8 rebounds per game. They had three total against Missouri State.

On the opposing side, 6-1 guards (who didn't even start) Justin Fuehrmeyer and Nafis Ricks had 11 rebounds between them. Overall, the Bears had a 41-27 rebounding advantage.

Disappointment from the beginning

Weems carried the Bears in the first 13 minutes of the game (24 of team's 29) but picked up his second foul with 6:49 left and the Braves only trailing 29-27. What appeared to be a blessing for Bradley at the time quickly turned into a nightmare.

Missouri State scored on the next eleven possessions, getting open 3-pointers, a couple offensive rebounds and some easy layups. Bradley finally got a stop on the last possession, but trailed by 11 points, 52-41.

After a series of second half collapses, this game was an opportunity to capitalize on a poor first half. Instead, the curse of the first five minutes caught the Braves again. Missouri State had the first two baskets and would open up a 69-50 advantage by the 12-minute mark.

Yet even though Bradley was getting buried, one of the great aspects of Les' teams have been their ability to play through to the end. Heart was not an aspect that could be questioned - until today.

The players basically went through the motions in the final 10 minutes and the Bears did much of the same. Les experimented with some different lineup combinations, but it was as if the team had already given up already.

Though some of his decisions this season have been worthy of skepticism, don't pin this one on the head coach. Les didn't show a lack of anything resembling defense. He didn't have loose balls ripped away from him or have players crash the weak side glass and get dunked on by a Bears player.

Are the players just quitting on Les? Is this just a tough part of the schedule and eventually the ship will be righted? Honestly, it's any one's best guess at this point. But for the sake of everyone involved with program, hopefully this aggravating stretch won't last much longer.

How can it get better?

The fear going forward is how the team is going to respond to another loss. What can Les do to make these guys put out maximum effort for the entire game? Does he work them even harder in practice? Maybe he cuts players time on the floor, which for a team that appears to be getting a bit more selfish, might be the best solution.

Whatever Les decides to do, the schedule coming up is simply brutal. The next three games are at Northern Iowa (nationally televised against the best team in the conference), home to Missouri State (hard to think the team will have much confidence considering the beatdown today) and at Southern Illinois (where Bradley never wins). The scary thought is that the Braves could be staring at 2-6 in conference play and be looking at the chance of being in the play-in game at the MVC tournament.

Sure, the schedule does get much easier after that point (six winnable games and four at home) but will this team have any confidence left? Can the Braves weather this storm of challenging games?

The question marks surrounding this team are enough to make a person's head spin. Some include:

• If this season completely flops, is Les' job in jeopardy? Would the university consider making a change with a new athletic director in place?
• Why did Steve Merfeld really leave? Though this will never likely be known publicly, it seems to be a reasonable guess that he and Les at least didn't share the same philosophies. Who can be brought in as an alternate voice to help grow these players for the future?
• What is wrong with Brown? He's already missed three games because of suspensions/coach's decision. Though he's arguably the most talented player on the team, Brown hasn't really seemed like he's put forth the same effort lately. Is he unhappy? Would he possibly leave the program after the season? All fans would surely hope not, but this can't be ruled out as a possibility.
• Why can't Bradley get anything out of its post players? Will Egolf has shown that he's a talented player but hasn't improved radically since last season before his injury. And others, like Anthony Thompson now and David Collins before him, can't seem to find any time on the floor. Les should be trusted in the fact that if they aren't good in practice, they likely don't deserve playing time in the game. But it's not like some of these guys don't have high upsides. Why has Thompson, who was a highly touted recruit, basically done nothing since joining the program?

Many other questions can be asked but the overall point is that for this team to start getting better, it has to come together as a whole. Everyone has to play better defense - the coaches have to stress it and the players have to believe in it.

Having watched enough Bradley basketball by now, no time can you ever count them out. Few remember how poorly the 2006 Sweet 16 team was playing before its amazing run. In mid-February, the Braves lost 75-63 on the road against a bad Indiana State team.

Nobody is foolish enough to confuse this team with the one that made the NCAA tournament, but now isn't the time to throw up the white flag either. Though its impossible to predict where the season may go from here, hopefully this is the bottom and improvement can begin again soon.

Bradley snaps home losing streak with OT win against Sycamores

85	91

Midway through the second half, Bradley had blown yet another big lead and were looking at yet another home loss. But the Braves made enough plays in the end and found a way to beat Indiana State 91-85 in overtime.

Junior guard Andrew Warren had a huge game, scoring a career-high 26 points with seven rebounds, two assists and a block. Fellow junior guard Sam Maniscalco tied a career high himself of 21 points (5-of-9 from beyond the arc) while chipping in five assists and two steals.

Bradley (7-7, 2-2 MVC) looked to be heading for a blowout victory after another convincing first half of basketball. The Braves finished the final five minutes on a 20-4 run which was capped off by a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Maniscalco.

Probably the most interesting stat from the first 20 minutes was that Bradley had 14 assists to only one turnover. Combine that with 8-of-12 from 3-point range and 53.1 percent shooting overall and it wasn't tough to see how the Braves got so far ahead.

But as is what often happens in basketball, shots started bouncing out for the Braves and Indiana State capitalized. Freshman guard Jake Eastman made a wide open layup off an inbounds play to give Bradley a 53-39 lead with 14:30 to play. In less than three minutes, the lead completely evaporated.

The Sycamores got incredibly hot from long distance, throwing in a few shots that at best were difficult and at worst were foolish attempts. Bradley's offense had one of its classic dry spells which included two bad turnovers, two open 3-point misses and a botched short-range shot.

Head coach Jim Les did something that he doesn't normally do that may have been a turning point - he called a second timeout during the run. Les' style has been to usually let his teams try and play through runs by the opposition. But he noticed that the team was really out of sync and needed an additional breather.

Even though Indiana State did push its lead out to five points during the next stretch, the home squad showed more poise in drawing two fouls (making all four free throws) and getting better looks on offense. Rashad Reed, who was one of four Sycamores in double figures, kept his team ahead with two challenging 3-pointers as the game moved past the five-minute mark and Indiana State still led 68-63.

The game may have slipped away if it weren't for two big shots by Warren, a pull-up jumper and a three from the corner to tie the game. Sophomore center Will Egolf, who wasn't having one of his better games, drew two charge calls on defense that seemed to fire him (and the team) up for the remainder of the game.

The roller coaster half continued during the final few minutes as Bradley lost a 74-71 advantage as Maniscalco committed two turnovers and missed a 3-point shot. Jordan Printy nailed his fifth 3-pointer of the game with just 24 seconds to play, giving Indiana State a 76-75 lead.

Senior guard Chris Roberts was fouled with 16.9 left and stepped to the line with a chance to seal the victory. Having already missed his first four free throws, Roberts had his first attempt rim out as well, but did manage to tie the score at 76-76.

Maniscalco made a great defensive stop on the Sycamores' Harry Marshall, forcing the talented point guard into a traveling violation with 0.9 seconds to play. Warren attempted a half court shot at the buzzer but it fell short.

Sophomore forward Taylor Brown, who returned to action after missing last game due to a "coach's decision" had had a poor second half. He started overtime by getting blocked on Bradley's first possession and then missed two free throws the next time down (had been 15-of-15 in conference games).

Brown said on the postgame show that he felt badly about how he'd been playing and wanted to make a play. Brown did exactly that, helping the Braves gain their first lead of overtime 80-78 by making an observant steal and unselfishly dished an assist to Warren for a layup.

Three possessions later, Brown made the most important shot in overtime, nailing a three from the corner and the Braves had a two-possession lead at 86-82. Poor free throw shooting (which plagued Bradley the entire game) prolonged the game longer than it needed to be, but the Sycamores long-range luck ran out.

A different feel

Even though Bradley let multiple leads slip away again, this game didn't have as deflating of a feel to it. Part of that can be attributed to the fact that Indiana State was just chucking in shots from all over the floor. Maybe we're all just getting used to this team not being able to play a full 40 minute game.

Credit the team for finally gutting out one of these close games. Sustaining these large leads will still have to be addressed - something had to change coming out of the locker room. But at least the team got one, which looked to be weighing on the players. The Braves needed to finish someone off for their own (and maybe their fans, as well) sanity. Confidence is such a critical aspect of the college game.

Still no "Croatian assassin"

Freshman forward Milos Knezevic seems to have completely lost his spot in Bradley's rotation. Maybe the best pure shooter on the team, Knezevic didn't get in again tonight, making that a total of two minutes in the last three games.

Since we don't get a chance to see the Braves practices, it is hard to speculate on what the true cause of this is. The rumblings have been that Les isn't happy with Knezevic's defense and maybe there are other things that are causing him to lose playing time. The freshman has certainly made his fair share of inexperienced mistakes in games this season.

This is a case where it'd be unfair to criticize Les, not knowing the inside scoop. But whatever the problem is, with as dynamic of a shooter as Knezevic is, hopefully he works hard to earn more time back on the floor. Warren and Maniscalco can't be as hot from long range every night as they were against Indiana State.

Big stretch ahead

Conference play doesn't get any easier in the near future. Bradley has two games against Missouri State on the next two Saturdays with a nationally televised game at conference-leading Northern Iowa sandwiched in the middle.

The surprise Bears started the season 12-1 with non-conference wins over Auburn, Tulsa and St. Louis. But now Missouri State has lost two in a row, including a home loss tonight against Wichita State. Not only is this team better than everyone outside of Springfield, Mo. expected, but it will likely be an angry team that is trying to rebound from its first losing streak of the season.

At least Bradley doesn't have to play at the dreaded Hammons Student Center, where it was 3-14 all-time. The Braves managed to win its inaugural game at the new JQH Arena last season, 63-57. Though Missouri State has exceeded expectations so far this season, this still should be a winnable game for Bradley. A win would really boost the team's confidence going out to Cedar Falls next week.