MVC opening night

[Rollbird5]

Birds lose 71-60, game was pretty close til the end, just couldn't make enough shots to complete a comeback. Overall I was happy with our effort going against a real tough defensive team who's now I think 94-7 their last 101 home games.

[tribecalledquest]

Bradley is officially the youngest team in Division I and won its opener 54-53. Yes, Ball State is terrible. But Bradley still beat a real D1, mid major team.

I don't see the Braves winning more than five games but BU has three legit MVC level players for sure in Dwayne Lautier Ogunyele, Callum Barker and Luuk van Bree. DLO had 18 pts and 8 boards and Barker had 14 and 9 rebounds. I think van Bree from the Netherlands is Bradley's best player. He only hit two of nine shots but was in foul trouble most of the game.

He won the game for Bradley with a two minute sequence in the games last five minutes with a block, a three pointer, a block, and then another three pointer.

With 8 last spring signees I was hoping Bradley could come away with a few guys that are actually MVC level guys. Looks like Brian Wardle did that.

Great atmosphere at the game--especially late. BU played with poise and came back from an 8-point deficit with 8:00 to play. Bradley got to every lose ball and really plays hard.

The honeymoon is over Monday with a trip to Tucson on the schedule

[Cdizzle]

Good job by Bradley and SIU to pick up wins where they could.

Less good job by the ISUs. MSU is beyond horrible.

Not a great start.

[Ricardo del Rio]

Between the wichita game and the isu game i'm watching, can't go more than about 20 seconds without a foul being called let em play!

No way, under new rules.

[Championz]

Between the wichita game and the isu game i'm watching, can't go more than about 20 seconds without a foul being called let em play!

Totally unwatchable. Absolutely zero flow.

Leave it to the NCAA to destroy an unbroken thing.

[Championz]

Also, I'm eagerly awaiting BEARZ33's analysis of the loss to ORU and how Lusk is winning back the fanbase.

[tribecalledquest]

Between the wichita game and the isu game i'm watching, can't go more than about 20 seconds without a foul being called let em play!

Totally unwatchable. Absolutely zero flow.

Leave it to the NCAA to destroy an unbroken thing.

It was broken. That's the problem. Give this some time. Once the players adjust the games will be faster paced and much more free flowing.

[Championz]

Between the wichita game and the isu game i'm watching, can't go more than about 20 seconds without a foul being called let em play!

Totally unwatchable. Absolutely zero flow.

Leave it to the NCAA to destroy an unbroken thing.

It was broken. That's the problem. Give this some time. Once the players adjust the games will be faster paced and much more free flowing.

I agree that hand-checking, grabbing, holding, illegal screens were ruining the game. Not touch fouls, rebounding box-out fouls, etc.

You can't expect a defensive player to just let the offensive player roll over you for a layup every time. How are you supposed to play defense? In the WSU game, you weren't allowed to play high school-level defense - both sides.

[Rollbird5]

I agree that hand-checking, grabbing, holding, illegal screens were ruining the game. Not touch fouls, rebounding box-out fouls, etc.

You can't expect a defensive player to just let the offensive player roll over you for a layup every time. How are you supposed to play defense? In the WSU game, you weren't allowed to play high school-level defense - both sides.

Over all these games I feel like the refs were anticipating blowing the whistle so much that anytime someone was close enough to breathe on you on a drive to the hoop they would call it, we had one called against us where a sdsu player drove to the hoop, ran into his own man, they both fall down and we're left scratching our head on who it was against lol

[mathewson10]

I agree that hand-checking, grabbing, holding, illegal screens were ruining the game. Not touch fouls, rebounding box-out fouls, etc.

You can't expect a defensive player to just let the offensive player roll over you for a layup every time. How are you supposed to play defense? In the WSU game, you weren't allowed to play high school-level defense - both sides.

Over all these games I feel like the refs were anticipating blowing the whistle so much that anytime someone was close enough to breathe on you on a drive to the hoop they would call it, we had one called against us where a sdsu player drove to the hoop, ran into his own man, they both fall down and we're left scratching our head on who it was against lol

That was definitely the most comical! My other favorite was when SDS was trapped & the guy elbowed DAP in the chest & they called a foul on DAP