Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
Carver Arena, Peoria, Illinois

No other team in the MVC has had more of a roller-coaster ride in 2018-19 than Bradley. Picked to finish fourth in the league, the Braves brought back nearly everyone on their roster from a 20-win team that made the Arch Madness semifinals last year. In the non-con season, the Braves lost to several teams they should have beat: UIC, Eastern Illinois, IUPUI, and Georgia Southern. But they also beat SMU and Penn State.

When the bell rang to start the conference season, Bradley was perplexingly bad. They lost their first five conference games—all of them against the bottom 6 preseason picks-- by an average of 11.2 points per game.

Since their 0-5 start, the Braves have turned the ship. They’re 5-2 in their last seven games and playing their best basketball of the season. They throttled rival Illinois State at home by 17 points, and last time out they beat Indiana State by 29—and neither game was really that close.

Three players have started every Bradley game this season: 5’10” junior point guard Darrell Brown, 6’7” sophomore forward Elijah Childs, and 6’4” senior guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye. Brown is Bradley’s leading scorer yet again, averaging 15.1 points per game, and he also leading the team in assists and steals. Brown is like a choreographer, dictating the offense, pace, and game flow. The rest of the team takes their cues from Brown, perhaps more than any other team in the league depends on a single player. Brown averages nearly 33 minutes per game, and when he scores less than 10 points Bradley is 0-3. He has the ability to knock down deep NBA-length threes with uncanny accuracy, which tends to flummox standard perimeter defenses. On the season, Brown shoots 46.6% on threes, but only 35.6% on two-point shots.

Childs averages 11.8 points and 7.8 rebounds, passes well, and is one of the best shot-blockers in the league. Lautier-Ogunleye (known as DLO in every Bradley fan post) is the team’s top on ball defender, and adds 8.6 points and 2.2 assists. Filling out the starting lineup (depending on the opponent) are 6’11” junior center Koch Bar, 6’6” junior guard Nate Kennell, 6’9” senior forward Luuk Van Bree, and 6’3” guard Luqman Lundy.

Bradley might be the deepest team in the league. Besides the seven players who have had seven or more starts on the year, highly-touted 6’6” freshman guard Ja’Shon Henry has been playing well lately, redshirt junior Antoine Pittman has received playing time after recovering from injury, and 6’3” guard Jayden Hodgson plays double digit minutes. In their last time out against Indiana State, 13 players saw time on the court, and Bradley topped their previous season high in points by 10 points.

Loyola is coming off a hard-fought, physical, come-from-behind road win at Valparaiso. The Loyola win at Valpo boosted Loyola’s conference road record to 3-3. Bradley’s home conference record stands at 2-4.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... df?id=8354

Bradley game notes: https://bradleybraves.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

TV/Streaming video: ESPN + http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/d9a546eb ... vs-bradley

Live stats: https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Vegas odds: Loyola by 2.5

This is definitely a trap game.

Think this is probably our toughest game left. Bradley has been on fire. And I expect this to be yet another packed house and hostile environment.

I'd rank our games something like:

1. @Bradley
2. @UNI
3. MoSt
4. @SIU
5. Bradley
6. Evansville

On the MVCFANS message board both JCT and Blers predicted that the Ramblers will lose both this game AND our home rematch this weekend against Missouri State.

This is an outrage!

Sanctions against these two ingrates should be imposed immediately. While I think permanent disboardment (not a word but should be) may be overly harsh, Amish-style shunning of them for the remainder of this week is warranted, followed by merciless ridicule after the Ramblers sweep both games.

I'm also working on appropriate nicknames for the turncoat twosome.

Reading Bradley's message board---they sure are legends in their own minds.

They think they are Duke compared to the rest of the MVC programs.

Bradley fan here-
with all due respect, most Bradley fans have been and still are really bummed and humbled by the terrible start this year.
But I assure you, right now 99% of Bradley fans view Loyola as THE TEAM TO BEAT in the Valley and hold Loyola in the highest respect for how well you guys have done.
Sure, there's a lot of pride - especially from the old timers who have been with Bradley from the heydays of Chet Walker, Hersey Hawkins, NCAA Sweet Sixteens and NIT Championships, but after Bradley has gone through almost a decade of struggles caused by horrible and unpopular administrative moves, half the fanbase has dried up.
But as you noted, Bradley seems to have finally snapped out of the funk and have played several very good games lately, The game Saturday was the best any Bradley team has played in a decade but as fans have seen this year, that's no guarantee it'll be the same Wednesday.

Again, we view Loyola with high respect & as the best team in the league and every one I have talked with is highly anticipating this matchup.

Thank you for your insight. It’s glad to hear from other mvc fans about their favorite teams! Good luck tomorrow!

I look at it another way. I applaud the boldness of predicting our first 0-2 week in the MVC in more than two years. That takes marbles!

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MBB Scholarship Chart

JCT and Blers, aka "Sucko and ManPanty" (a history major might get this) have marbles all right, rattling around in their little pea brains.

I think the game against Bradley on Wednesday will be tough. Not sure who’s going to take that game. I’m fairly confident we’ll beat Missouri State on Sunday though. Gentile is going to be packed, and after getting embarrassed by them there’s no way we’re taking a loss. Maybe JCT and Blers are superstitious and are not trying to Jinx us? Hahaha