Bradley Men's Basketball 2020-2021 Season

 After adding Guard Mikey Howell last week, Brian Wardle continued to fill the void in the backcourt after all the off-season transfers. First the Braves got a commit from JUCO recruit Terry Roberts, who played the last two seasons at Florida SouthWestern State. Roberts, a 6-1 guard, appeared in 23 games this season for the Champions and averaged 15 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 5.7 APG while shooting 43% from the field, 31.5% from 3 and 82.6% from the foul line. Roberts scored in double figures in 20 of his 23 games played which is the kind of consistent guard play this Bradley team lacked last year. He also brings elite playmaking that should set up the rest of those Braves shooters very well. I look for him to get big minutes right away and if he can bring that same level of scoring, rebounding, and passing to Bradley this season, look for him to become the leader of this team.  The Braves also added a signee in the form of 6-7 Point Guard Maxime Ekono from Nanterre, France. Ekono play...

After talking about the Chicago Bulls and their blunders the past two weeks, I am back to talking about Bradley this week as they had some big news drop last Wednesday. The Braves announced that Guard Mikey Howell is set to join the program for the upcoming season. Howell is a 6-3 Point Guard from San Marcos, California and has played the last 4 seasons at UC San Diego. He finished his career with the Tritons' all-time leader in assists with 502 in 113 career games, helped out by a stellar 2019-2020 season where he dished out 215 assists and averaged 6.9 for the season. Howell is an incredibly efficient player as  well, he shot 40% or better from the field each season and posted back-to-back seasons shooting 40% of better from 3 in 2018-2020. Howell is also a Redshirt-Senior so he is sure to bring some experience and maturity to a Bradley program that is losing key players next season. Even though UC San Diego is a Division-II school, Howell led them to a lot of success. In 2019 th...

When the Chicago Bulls traded Wendell Carter Jr, Otto Porter Jr, and 2 first round picks in exchange for Nikola Vucevic it looked like a move that would give the Bulls another star and give them a chance to make a late season run at a playoff spot. That has not been the case however, through 10 games the Bulls are just 3-7 and find themselves at 22-31. After picking up a needed victory against the Toronto Raptors 122-113, the Bulls have dropped 3 straight, including a disappointing performance in their game against the 14-41 Minnesota Timberwolves.  In the Toronto game Bulls fans got another glimpse of the potential Zach Lavine and Nikola Vucevic can have together; Lavine scored 22 points and dished out 13 assists while Vucevic scored 22 and grabbed 7 rebounds. Chicago also got a strong performance from Lauri Markkanen, 18 points off the bench, Daniel Theis, 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Coby White, who poured in 15 points and hit 3 triples. It was very concerning though to see Ch...

After going a woeful 0-4 since Nikola Vucevic made his Bulls debut back on March 27 against the San Antonio Spurs, the Chicago Bulls picked up two impressive victories against the Brooklyn Nets and the Indiana Pacers this, week. On Easter Sunday the Bulls took on the short-handed Brooklyn Nets, who were playing without Kevin Durant and James Harden. The Nets would lead for the majority of the first quarter and would lead 28-25 going into the second quarter. Lamarcus Aldridge would score 7 points in the first quarter with Kyrie Irving and Blake Griffin chipping in with 6 a piece. The second quarter would really be the difference maker in this game as the Bulls outscored the Nets 32-18 to build a 57-46 lead going into halftime. Chicago closed the half on a 16-5 run, with point guard Tomas Satoransky scoring 9 of the points. The dynamic duo of Zach Lavine and Nikola Vucevic also chipped in 10 points combined, as they were finally in-sync with each other for the first time since the trade....

 Coming off two back-to-back conference tournament title runs and what should've been two straight NCAA tournament appearances, confidence was at an all time high for the Bradley Braves Men's Basketball program coming into the 2020-2021 season. It would be a tough test for the Braves who were losing their best player, team leader, and all-time Bradley great Darrell Brown, knockdown 3-point marksman Nate Kennell, and the other half of their twin towers in 7 footer Koch Bar. Despite all that this Bradley team had key players returning such as Elijah Childs, Ville Tahvanainen, Danya Kingsby, Ari Boya, and JaShon Henry who all were key in last year's team having the success it did. Perhaps most exciting were the fresh new faces on campus; transfers Terry Nolan Jr, Kevin McAdoo, and Sean East II gave the Braves much needed playmaking and guard depth, Rienk Mast, the Freshman forward who redshirted last season, was an exciting all around forward, and new recruits Connor Linke, Da...

Bradley tipped off their season at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio for the Xavier Invitational. Bradley came away with the victory in Game 1 against a tough Toledo team 61-59 on a buzzer beating layup by Terry Nolan Jr, that was featured on SportsCenter. The Braves would lose at the free throw line in the second game against Xavier 51-50 after Nolan Jr was unable to convert a one-and-one that would have tied the game and given Bradley a chance to secure the victory. Bradley rebounded nicely in the next game against Oakland with a 74-60 victory that would send the Braves back to Peoria with a 2-1 record.  Bradley would then open up a 5 game home stand, in which they would go a very impressive 4-1. They opened things up with a game against Division 3 Judson University and the Braves rolled to a 105-32 victory, a game that saw 5 Bradley players finish in double figures. The lone home loss would come next against a young and talented South Dakota State team who would go 17-26 fro...