First off... an interesting piece of news- The MVC passes the ACC as the #2 RPI conference in the country. The Valley’s 10 teams begin the week with a 74-27 (.733) non-conference record. SIU moved up again this week after a road win at Drake and a road loss to UNI. Southern now sits at #8 in the RPI.
Wednesday night's opponent the Bradley Braves come into this match up at 11-6 (2-3 MVC) and #36 in the RPI. Don’t let their 6 losses fool you. Bradley has played the 8th toughest schedule in the nation (SIU has played the 12th). After losing both of their big men Summerville and O’Bryant to pro ball Bradley has changed their style of play. Bradley uses the three point shot to beat teams. They have attempted over 100 more threes than any other Valley team with the exception of
The problem for the Braves is that they will likely be missing their leading scorer Jeremy Crouch who has a sprained knee. Crouch was shooting a sizzling 49.5% from three point range hitting 47 of 95 attempts. Even without Crouch going to the
Picking up the slack will be teammate Will Franklin who is shooting 48% from downtown in 101 attempts. Danny Adams looks to come off the bench to help pitch in from three point land as well.
Bradley's 6-8 Senior Zach Andrews will fill the lane with his 10 point and 8 rebound average.
Randal Falker on the other hand should be able to contain Andrews on defense. Recently the offense has been running through Falker as well. The game plan has been to get Randal touches and let him use the baby hook when he feels comfortable. If the defense doubles down on him he has effectively hit the open man, creating dunks for Shaw and open jump shots for the guards.
Bradley is a quality foe but they're probably not good enough to top SIU if Jemery Crouch misses this game. Look for Bradley to hoist the three ball any time they get a chance and also look for Bryan Mullins and company to be stepping on the toes of Bradley’s sharp shooters. Official Saluki Hoops prediction- SIU over Bradley 70 to 64.
7 comments:
SIU will beat the Braves but it will not be easy. The Valley is no joke this year. BTW the pic looks cool in the post.
Thanks. I forgot to mention that we will be doing a live blog again for the Bradley game on Wednesday night so check it out.
Nice blog. It is Randal Falker, not Randle. It may seem small but to the players it is not.
Thanks for the comment.
I usually get those right but just missed it this time. Got it fixed now.
Hey- just heard about this site. Its a cool setup I had no idea there was a site like this. Keep the updates coming.
Noticed your site from the salukitalk forum, this might be the best SIU basketball blog I've seen. dawgtracker is good too. For the record I dont think SIU will have any problem beating bradley. Just my opinion.
Live blog tonight? I will be bouncing back and fourth between here and salukitalk unfortunately I dont get the game on TV here. :[
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