Thursday, February 6, 2014 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago

Bradley is a young and talented team that usually plays very well at home but hasn’t won a game on the road this year. Sound familiar? What could make this game a close one is the fact that Bradley has the second highest attendance in the MVC, a fan base that travels well, and a lot of alumni in the Chicago area. Put that together with the fact that three of Bradley’s top players are from the Chicago area, and it may not seem all that much like a road game for the Braves.

Senior Walt Lemon, Jr., a 6’3” guard from Chicago who played at Julian leads the Braves in most offensive and defensive categories, including minutes (34.6), points (17.1), free throw attempts, steals, and assists. Lemon takes a whole lot of shots, (20 or more field goal attempts in six games this year, and an average of 15.5 per game), and is often able to create something off the dribble. Senior forward Tyshon Pickett, a 6’6” 230-pound power forward leads in rebounds with 7.0 per game, and backs up his work on the boards with an average of 11.7 points per game. Sophomore shooting guard Omari Greer has some length and a reliable shooting stroke, averaging 10.7 ppg on 34% from behind the arc and 88% from the free throw line.

Six foot eight junior forward Auston Barnes grabs 6.1 boards and adds 8.5 points. Barnes takes an occasional three point shot, but only hits on 28%. Two other Chicagoans, sophomore guard Ka'Darryl Bell (Oak Park-River Forest) and freshman forward/center and team leader in blocks Xzavier Taylor (Morgan Park) add considerable minutes off the bench, but each average less than five points per game.

The Braves have 10 players who average five minutes or more in 17 or more games, so they go fairly deep. They need to, because they play an energetic style that depends on steals and frenetic defense for easy baskets and going deep in the shot clock on half-court offense. They are somewhat prone to committing fouls, and when team leader Walt Lemon gets four or more fouls, Bradley is 1-4. While their five starters are very good (over 75%), Bradley is the second worst team in the league foul shooting, with an astounding six bench players at or below 50% from the line, led by Taylor, Jordan Prosser, and Jordan Swopshire.

Vegas opening line: Loyola by 4

Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 206aaa.pdf

Bradley game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... a_brad.pdf

Streaming video: ESPN3

Loyola audio: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/luc.portal#

Bradley message board: http://www.bradleyfans.com/

63:
Thanks for taking the time to provide these pre game insights. It certainly makes watching the games more interesting. I know it takes time to do this but it is a nice feature that I look forward to before every game. Thanks again!

I watched the UIC game with my brother who is a Bradley season ticket holder. His comment was he thought BU would kill us inside. It is interesting to wonder how our lack of a strong center has effected our overall record this year.If we think King, Johnson, Osbourne and Oleary as a 4 headed monster they have certainly been an inconsistent group this year. Each has had a moment or two but overall??????? is this the 3 or 4 point difference this year that has resulted in our poor record?

Smokey--

The UIC game was late last season, and the last game Bradley won on the road (a 63-62 win in the Bracket Buster at the Pavilion). Their lineup has changed a bit, with a lot of new players. Forward Tyshon Pickett was on that team, and is compared somewhat to Christian Thomas, and along with Jordan Prosser are two of the holdovers from last year. Bradley has since restocked their frontcourt with transfers, jucos, and freshmen. The new guys this year (Barnes, Taylor, Chris Blake) are good on the boards, but are gaining confidence, learning footwork and how to finish in traffic. They're also the guys you want to foul late in the game.

BTW, here's an article from Peoria Journal-Star hoops writer Dave Reynolds (and a big critic of Loyola joining the MVC) previewing the game:

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140205/ ... 963/SPORTS

I think he is saying that he watched the LU v. UIC game with his brother who is a Bradley season ticket holder.

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Cigarboy sucks!

OK, I guess I misunderstood. If that's so, it was early in the season, before Bradley had played much on the road. They're 4-11 since Dec. 7, while Loyola is 5-9.

I guess my point is that he thought we were weak inside compared to BU and that was early December. I guess I could of just asked if people think our inside game has hurt or helped us this year?

Well, there's no doubt it hasn't helped as much as we hoped. We're a man short inside, and haven't been able to get 40 minutes a game out of our four-headed monster.

That said, I don't really think Bradley is going to destroy us inside.

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I think as Loyola fans we don't tend to think of Christian Thomas as a big man, or even notice him that much in the frontcourt. But if you take Thomas and whichever other frontcourt player who happens to step up in a particular game (Osborne, O'Leary, Johnson), then we can hold our own, I think. If you take Thomas (who is unbelievably consistent) and an average of the other three frontcourt guys put together, it works out to something like 17.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game from two frontcourt starters. Not great, but not too bad. Because we have a very good field goal percentage (tops in the MVC at 48.2%) and manage pace and possessions pretty well, we don't get hurt so badly by rebounding disparities.

What really kills us is turnovers, and they come mostly from ballhandlers in the backcourt. They're devastating for us in particular, because points off turnovers really mess with the deliberate pace we try to establish and undercut our field goal shooting percentage margin. It's why we've lost both games to SIU and fell apart in the second half at ISUr.

Right. I was thinking of Thomas basically giving us 40 good minutes every night, and one of the other four (Osborne, Johnson, O'Leary, King) giving us less than 40 combined.


Also, we are ranked in the 300s on turnover %, and in the mid-300s on offensive rebounding %.

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