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ptownbraves wrote:Nice to see Bradley get a Valley road win against a team picked ahead of them in the preseason. I'm not going to get too high on this win as they still turned it over 18 times and allowed 16 offensive rebounds, but Bradley's defense limited Evansville to 12 made field goals after locking down SIU in a similar fashion.

PLEASE SIU missed tons of completely open shots in their loss to the Gargoyles--they weren't "locked down"==you'll find that out when you come here

Both statements are true. Locked down was probably not the greatest choice of terms. Bradley was definitely very aggressive defensively...enough to rattle the Salukis to the point that they never did start hitting their open shots, which the Braves allowed.

But the Braves have been very good about contesting shots so far in league play.

underdawg wrote:

ptownbraves wrote:Nice to see Bradley get a Valley road win against a team picked ahead of them in the preseason. I'm not going to get too high on this win as they still turned it over 18 times and allowed 16 offensive rebounds, but Bradley's defense limited Evansville to 12 made field goals after locking down SIU in a similar fashion.

PLEASE SIU missed tons of completely open shots in their loss to the Gargoyles--they weren't "locked down"==you'll find that out when you come here

You went 2-26 from three...maybe we were just letting you shoot them, and try to be a little more creative with your insults. Calling us Gargoyles is cheap and easy, not to mention dumb. You're making all the Wichita guys look clever.

Yeah! Clearly calling them clocks is betterer and more insulting!

I'm a fan of Bradley becoming one of the leaders in the league. But based on what I've seen, I'm not sure if they are actually playing good defense or if they have played some inept offenses. WSU scored 100 against them, the first time they've hung 100 in league play in 30 years. Sample sizes, I suppose. Time will tell.

BuBrave2006 wrote:You're making all the Wichita guys look clever.

What does this even mean?

Are we talking about Bradley being a Lock down Defense? They have allowed 78 pts per game in conference? And 2/3 of their games have been placed against teams picked to be in the Bottom 4 of the Conference. I am glad to see Bradley playing a little better, but please, let's not go overboard calling them a "Lock Down" Defense!

specialsauce wrote:

BuBrave2006 wrote:You're making all the Wichita guys look clever.

What does this even mean?

Old School MVC wrote:Are we talking about Bradley being a Lock down Defense? They have allowed 78 pts per game in conference? And 2/3 of their games have been placed against teams picked to be in the Bottom 4 of the Conference. I am glad to see Bradley playing a little better, but please, let's not go overboard calling them a "Lock Down" Defense!

It's a very small sample size either way, but excluding the WSU game where they got lit up from 3 (and everywhere), the other two games they held their opponents to an average of 57. Not a bad start at least.

To be fair, Bradley is playing uptempo with an objective to get a shot off in the first 10-15 seconds of possessions. However, they have spent a few games deliberately slowing it down.

And it perhaps hasn't shown in box scores consistently, but the Braves have done a pretty good job of keeping opposing teams top 1-2 offensive threats in check. They are starting to force the rest of the team to beat them.

Additionally, BU is solidly in the top half of DI in defensive efficiency, which in and of itself is remarkable, considering where the program was last season.

Old School MVC wrote:Are we talking about Bradley being a Lock down Defense? They have allowed 78 pts per game in conference? And 2/3 of their games have been placed against teams picked to be in the Bottom 4 of the Conference. I am glad to see Bradley playing a little better, but please, let's not go overboard calling them a "Lock Down" Defense!

What's wrong with using a little hyperbole on a conference message board when your team has been terrible for 10 years and is now showing signs of improvement? FWIW, I excluded the WSU game in the original post.