Red hot Bradley comes into the Banterra Center for a national TV game. SIU will be celebrating Mardi Gras and the 2001 Sweet 16 team with Bruce Weber, Kent Williams, and Jermaine Dearman confirmed to be in attendance.
Bradley comes into Carbondale winning 7 in a row but has struggled a bit away from Carver Arena at least at the beginning of conference season.
Braves Leaders:
6-9 Junior Rienk Mast: 14.0 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.7 SPG
6-9 Senior Malevy Leons: 12.0 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.1 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.6 BPG
5-8 Junior Duke Deen: 10.7 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.9 SPG
Last Meeting:
Bradley defeated SIU on February 1st 62-52 at Carver Arena. Bradley led 26-25 at the half but pulled away late accumulating their largest lead with 5 seconds left in the game (62-50). Ja'Shon Henry led Bradley scorers with 13. Reink Mast had 12 points and 9 rebounds. Xavier Johnson and Lance Jones led SIU scorers with 13. Marcus Domask was held to just 5 points on 1-5 shooting.
Links:
SIU Game Notes
Bradley Game Notes
Peoria Journal Star Bradley Message Board
Rodney Watson interview with Brian Wardle
Mike Reis interview with Jermaine Dearman
Mike Reis interview with Kent Williams
Mike Reis interview with Stetson Hairston
Domask was smothered by Leons, Henry and Co. in Peoria - about as close to a non-factor in a game that I can recall. I'm very interested in what kind of adjustments Mullins tries to make to get Domask more/better scoring opportunities in this game. Even if it's a low-scoring, grinding-type game, they're going to need a better performance from Marcus to win. And rebounding typically looms large against Bradley, too.
Most important game in so long. Sunday is going to take forever to get here.
that and the Saluki-Insider royalty will both be there 😊
after watching PCC last night. We can beat them. Some outside shots are actually going to have to go in but we can beat them.
Yes, we CAN beat them..........we just need a couple of "IF's" to happen in order to do that. The absolute key being shooting. If Jones and/or someone else has an abnormally good shooting night from deep, then we could be in for a surprise.
Yes, we CAN beat them..........we just need a couple of "IF's" to happen in order to do that. The absolute key being shooting. If Jones and/or someone else has an abnormally good shooting night from deep, then we could be in for a surprise.
I don't even think it has to be that abnormal, just not an awful night. We scored 66 against Valpo with Jones going 1-8 and as a team we were 2-14. Now I understand Bradley is not Valpo, but if we shoot in the 35% range we are in it (we average ~32% as a team and we shot 29% against them the first game).
My biggest concerns are turnovers and rebounding. When they pulled away at the end it was offensive rebounds and turnovers that let them do it. We obviously are going to need the supporting cast to have an impact on this game, b/c we all see that Domask struggles when he's guarded by someone with length. He's got to be better about passing out of the double teams when they come and not forcing skip passes that aren't there. The guards also have to do a good job of giving him an outlet if/when the doubles come. I honestly think Bradley is going to play him straight up most of the time with Leons/Henry. Hopefully Marcus is able to make them pay for that this game. He should have plenty of motivation.
Wish I could make it down for this one, but I'll be sending good vibes from afar.
Excited with anticipation as my son n law and I will be making the close to 700 mile trek (2 states) to witness my first game at Banterra Center in nearly three years! So very hopeful for a good showing from our Salukis. Wining this contest would most certainly propel us to finish strong vs UNI and UIC, and finishing as one of the coveted top four MVC teams. As Barkeep has mentioned, we have been waiting an extremely long period to have a game like this at home, with so many implications. Let's do it!
GO DAWGS!!!
Weather forecast for sunday is 50's and sunny.
Continue with the same formula:
Chuck up a boat load of 3s.
Avoid offensive rebounds.
Play Domask 39.5 minutes.
Sit Ebube.
Get behind early.
Reload the guns for a barrage of 3’s.
Hope for the best.
Bradley player makes lane violation on J.D. FT attempt
Good lord. Shut the hell up. If you can't get behind a team in the thick of it with 3 games left then get lost.Continue with the same formula:
Chuck up a boat load of 3s.
Avoid offensive rebounds.
Play Domask 39.5 minutes.
Sit Ebube.
Get behind early.
Reload the guns for a barrage of 3’s.
Hope for the best.
Continue the same formula:
Be resilient
Be stout defensively
Find a way even when shots aren't falling
This a 20 win team (12-5) and people still want to just bitch.
If that's a joke it's the same tired one I see on social media and on here after every single game. It's not a joke, people are actually so jaded they can't find a way to enjoy a season even when it's going well.Somebody can’t take a joke….
I'm very disappointed in the ticket sales so far. Looking at the ticket website there looks to be approximately 2700 tickets still available, not including student tickets. This means as of right now there would only be about 5600 tickets sold if the dawgpound is packed! My best guess right now would be 6k-6500 announced attendance after ticket sales over the next couple days online and walk up, and that's assuming a good student crowd, which we did not have the last time we played on an early Sunday afternoon. Unless things change drastically in the next 2 days this won't be anywhere near a sell out!
