Please, please, please … do not accept any invitation to prolong the Braves’ basketball season by playing in the CBI, or the CIT, or any other alphabetical configuration masquerading as legitimate postseason hoops. Please.

The NCAA is what everyone aspires to. Junior guard Sam Maniscalco made a point of telling me Saturday, after the Braves had been eliminated from the Valley tournament, that the goal next year is to get to the Big Dance. It was the goal this year, as it should be.

Given that the NCAA is a tough task (as it should be), the NIT, which is the oldest continuing postseason event, would be acceptable. But we all know that’s not happening. So that brings us to the alphabet soup.

Bradley has been to the CBI, it has been to the CIT, and even though the Braves reached the championship round of each the past two years, that’s nothing to brag about. Got that? Nothing to brag about. There is not even a CIT commemoration in Carver Arena. Thank heavens. There shouldn’t be one for the CBI, either, and I hope you take it down.

I’ve heard the rationale for playing these things. These tournaments give the coach a few more days or weeks of practice with his team. They present an opportunity for younger players to gain postseason experience, which can be used as a springboard to better days next season. They’re a reward for the regular season.

Yawn.

Maybe I missed something, but I haven’t seen the carryover benefit from Bradley playing in the CBI and CIT the past two seasons. There has been no springboard to better days. Each of the past four seasons has seen a dropoff. Since the 2006 NCAA season, BU has gone to the NIT, then to the CBI, then to the CIT and now to some people hoping one of those last two is willing to take you. None of this can be counted as progress, so please don’t accept that argument.

Reward? This team did not earn a reward. The Braves this year underachieved. By a lot. It’s that simple. We need to remember that and let it burn. Maybe that will provide the motivation necessary to pick up the pace and take the next step up the Valley ladder. We certainly don’t need another run of wins in an insignificant tournament to make everybody feel good about something that wasn’t.

Frankly, there’s a good number of fans who are sick of being spun, embarrassed by the hype of consecutive 20-win seasons that were achieved by playing 35-40 games, as if reaching that 20-victory milestone is no different than it was when nobody played more than 30. Maybe they’re a minority. Maybe not.

But the fact is, this program has been spinning its wheels in the middle of the Valley for four years now. Some of those seasons have been better than others, and there surely have been some highlights. But there have been too many lowlights. Everybody who cheers for Bradley wants better. They don’t want to be told Bradley is better than ever. They want to see Bradley better than ever—or at least moving in that direction.

I know at least some of the players want to play again. That’s great. If I were a player, I’d feel the same way. Competitors want to play. Guys who valued putting on the uniform want to put it on again.

But if you want to keep playing, you need to earn it. Players, coaches, staff, administration. Everybody.

And you didn’t.

So please say no to postseason play. Please.

A note: Chris Roberts‘ dunk-stickback against Creighton yesterday made the No. 2 play of the day on ESPN. It’s the fourth time Roberts has made the ESPN top 10 in his two years as a Brave. That’s a team record, according to sports info man Bobby Parker. Several others have made it once. Bobby was going to check, but he cited Will Franklin as one former Brave who had two top 10 appearances.

If you haven’t already, check out the video reports we put together on Quarterfinals Friday. There’s this one on the BU players talking about Sam Maniscalco’s big day against Creighton. And this one where my colleague Dave Reynolds and I discuss that victory and look ahead to the semis. The second one includes game highlights, including Roberts’ big dunk. (here’s a clip of just the dunk)

The Braves play Northern Iowa today. Reynolds picks BU to win and advance to the title game. His basic thought process is that UNI is assured of an NCAA at-large bid regardless of outcome, and Bradley is win-here-or-die. I’m still thinking.

Time for a little lunch. … Very little. …

Just swung through the arena, and looks like the Braves are BIB (back in black) today. Milos Knezevic is sitting on the scorer’s table, all dressed with his warmup jacket and his black uniform pants. FWIW, I love Milos’s attitude. He is always a bundle of energy on the bench, pumped up and cheering for his teammates. I hope he sticks around after this season, because the kid can flat shoot the ball. Every team should have a place on its roster for a guy who can shoot that well.

The lineups — Bradley is going to stick with Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Dyricus Simms-Edwards and Will Egolf to start the game. Northern Iowa will go with Ali Farokhmanesh, Kwadzo Ahelegbe, Johnny Moran, Adam Koch and Jordan Eglseder.

The refs — The crew is John Higgins, Steve Olson and Gerry Pollard. Higgins and Olson are top shelf with salt. Pollard is OK, although he is better when working with good ones; he tends to gravitate to what’s around him, while the other two are solid and not easily influenced by outside forces as to how they call the game.

Eighteen minutes to anthem time. …

The Braves get intro’d. The Panthers get intro’d. Like the way they circle up around the mascot, who does a little dance in the middle of their huddle.

Nice crowd. Jacked up. Ready to roll.

Tipoff … BU gets to the circle first, and Roberts has a little fun with Higgins, who has him test the ball. Here we go. …

Ali F steps out and takes the tip right to the rack for a layup. He read that well. Egolf and Eglseder jumped poorly, and Egolf swatted the ball upon landing. Ali F read it and ran. … Now a BU turnover, and Ali F nails a 3 and he is sky high. … Roberts responds. Bradley presses! Definitely a zone press, falling back to a 2-3 zone. And Koch lobs over the top and OB. … Now the Braves in a man. Eglseder the offensive rebound and putback. … A little rocky for the Braves to start. After Roberts’ first bucket, can’t get to the paint. … Oooo, bad call by Pollard. Maniscalco cleanly strips Koch on the block, and Pollard is behind the play and calls a hack. Not even close. Koch FTs make it 9-2 UNI, and against this defense, that’s not good. … Taylor Brown into the game and gets blocked at the basket on an out-of-control spin. … UNI is fired up. Big Time. Panthers look like they want nothing to do with the close slugfests of the last two meetings, which these teams split. Bradley has to weather this opening storm. Braves did yesterday. Have to again. … Moran grabs Roberts on an inbounds play and gets whistled. … Braves get to the paint, but can’t convert, and Egolf fouls on the rebound. … Here’s the press again.. It’s a soft 2-2-1. Just giving a different look, which is good. … Maniscalco hits a top-key jumper for 2. … Brown goes coast-to-coast and misses. … Eglseder scores over Sam Singh, in for Egolf. … Brown hits from the corner. … This is a fast-paced game. … Ahelegbe, who has been stone cold for several weeks, hits a 3. … Bradley gets some second chances and can’t convert. …

Timeout at 14:20 — UNI 14, Bradley 6

Very rocky beginning for BU. Got to hold the D together and get through this.

Platoon sub for UNI. … Marc Sonnen drains a 3 off the bench, and if this is how the day goes, it’s gonna be a long one for the Braves. … Warren misses in the paint. … Now Jake Eastman misses close after driving for BU. … Steal by Egolf in the post. … Nice pass from Eastman to Egolf underneath, but Egolf gets stripped by Sonnen. … Now Anthony James hits his first shot for UNI. … And Eastman charges for BU, which has nothing — nothing — going its way. …

Timeout at 11:35 — UNI 19, Bradley 6

The UNI starters check back in, and they are pumped up. The subs extend the lead, and Bradley looks helpless.

This is going to be a long, long, long, hard, hard, hard climb back for Bradley. Not impossible, but the Braves have got to play defense much better. Frustration level is visibly high. Let’s see how they respond. Got to get off the deck now. … No more press out of the timeout. … There you go: Roberts sees the mismatch against Ali F and backs him in and scores from the paint before Eglseder can step up to help. … BU looks a little more composed after the timeout. Decent defensive stop, followed by offensive patience and a baseline J by Brown. It’s 19-10. … Braves in the 1-3-1 and get another stop. … Egolf misses a baseline J, and Eastman somehow gets the rebound, but is off balance in the air and lands hard and loses it. He’s a little shaken up, but that was one tough board in traffic. … Moran penetrates for UNI and banks in a floater. … And now Brown airballs a quick 3. What the heck was that? … Eglseder grabs an ORB and gets hacked on the putback. …

Timeout at 7:44 — UNI 21, Bradley 10

Second unit back for UNI. … Singh chases down an ORB on the wing, goes back-and-forth with Warren and hits AW with a perfect bounce pass cutting down the lane. Warren scores, is fouled and converts the and-one. … Defensively, though, BU leaves Sonnen wide-freaking open again, and he 3-balls. And then Warren charges. … For every good, there’s two bads. … James gets wide open back door, but blows the bunny. … James fouls Maniscalco, and for the first time, UNI subs less than a full five. Four guys replace the subs; only Eglseder remains on the bench, while Lucas O’Rear mans the post for UNI. BU wins that battle vs. the subs, by two points. … Now Moran 3s and the Panthers cannot seem to miss out there. … Now Maniscalco gets called for pushing off Ali F on the dribble. That’s what you call live by the sword, die by the sword. Maniscalco gets some calls with some acting, and this time, Ali F did it back to him. … The press comes back after Maniscalco makes a pair of FTs he shot after getting fouled in the paint. … Now BU gives up a backdoor lob and dunk to Koch. … Well, Bradley is getting to the paint and now starting to get fouled. Warren at the line now. But the Braves have to shore up the defense, which has been a sieve. … Warren hits his throws. … Now UNI scores in transition. Bradley is just bad on defense here, and UNI is exploiting everything. If the Panthers could hit layups, they’d be up almost 20.  … Jim Les calls timeout after the transition bucket by UNI. Down 13 with a little over three minutes to play; unable to make any significant dent. … The Panthers are jumping the passing lanes, getting their hands on balls, contesting every shot. … Sonnen is on fire offensively. …

Timeout at 1:45 — UNI 34, Bradley 19

Bradley gets stuffed twice on its final possession of the half. UNI runs clock fofr a last shot. O’Rear gets to the rim and is goal-tended by Brown.

Halftime — UNI 36, Bradley 19

This is a mess. Bradley needs Good Bradley to show up in the second half, or the season is over.

Some stats: UNI leads points off turnovers, 12-0. And points in paint, 12-6. And fast break, 4-0. And bench, 12-4. Panthers shot 46.7 percent, BU 28.6. Bradley is 6-for-21 from the floor, 7-for-7  from the line — the only thing the Braves did well — and 10 turnovers. UNI has two turnovers. What we are watching is what the dominant team in the league — UNI won it by three games — should do to the fifth-place team, which can’t bring itself to play hard all the time. …

Enough of that for now. On with the second half. …

Which begins with a BU turnover. … DSE gets a steal back, but can’t convert the layup in traffic. … More turnovers exchanged, and Warren scores a runout. … Egolf goes to the bench with blood running from his left eye area. Caught an elbow underneath. … Bradley gets a stop, but Maniscalco misses in transition, and Singh misses the tip. … Physically and mentally, BU looks much more focused to start the half than it did the game, and the defense is stronger. But really struggling to convert offense. …

Another BU steal. … Three turnovers already for UNI this half: one more than the entire first.

Timeout at 15:57 — UNI 36, Bradley 21

If the Braves had opened with this kind of intensity, they wouldn’t be in this hole.

Inbounds play, and Andrews curls the middle and lays it up, and off the rim. But he;s fouled. Makes the FTs. Another stop, even with a second chance, but no conversion again as Maniscalco misses a drive in traffic. … Kerwin Dunham scores on Warren at the block and gets fouled; converts the FT. So after more than five minutes, BU has made up one point. … Braves still can’t score easily, and the frustration builds again. Turnovers building, and UNI starting to find gaps. Panthers up 18. … Now BU steals and Maniscalco scores the breakaway. … Bradley just cannot solve the UNI defense. Maniscalco finds Singh on the block, but he’s guarded and he travels. …

Timeout at 11:57 — UNI 41, Bradley 25

There’s time, but it’s running out. Barring a dramatic turn — BU starts lighting up guarded shots, completely stops UNI from scoring — this one is about over. Just not seeing a game-changing run today.

The defense on Eglseder today has not approached the harrassment BU put on him in Peoria. Very little double, and he’s comfortable. …

Koch hits a 3 and UNI goes up by 21. … And a 3 by James runs the lead to 24. Les calls time.

Game. Over.

… Eastman makes a 3. Nice to see him stroke that. He can be a future weapon out there, along with his hustle.

Timeout at 7:33 — UNI 50, Bradley 32

A little trading buckets now. … Brown hasn’t played much the second half. I’d bet we don’t see him the rest of the way. He’s got a towel over his head. Not sure what’s going down there. …

Now, there was a funny play. BU defended rather well, and Ahelegbe forced up a guarded 3 vs. the shot clock. The ball smacked the board and missed the rim, and Koch was there to grab it, but knowing the clock was expiring, he just tucked it and seemed ready to hand it over. But the buzzer didn’t sound. So he got ready to shoot. Then the buzzer sounded. higgins said something to him; like to know what it was. Koch laughed. Like they say: Play to the whistle. …

Timeout at 3:39 — UNI 52, Bradley 36

Roberts called for goal-tending, but the shot looked short of the rim. Not that it matters. … UNI running clock now, and it’s just a matter of details. …

Hey! An Eddren McCain sighting! He’s off the bench and at the scorer’s table for the first time in weeks. First time he checks in since Jan. 30 at Illinois State. Andhere comes the bench: Milos Knezevic, Ryan Phillips. … A little floor time, a little TV time for the deep subs. Anthony Thompson awaits at the table, but the clock may run out on him. Will run out on him after Phillips scores. UNI dribbles it out. Will this be the last we see of Sticks?

Final score — UNI 57, Bradley 40

Well, at least the Braves scored 40.

One observation: With Drake defeating SIU on Josh Young’s jumper with barely a second to play last night has affected the crowd. With the Salukis out, so is that big fan base. There are some here for the party, but not as many as there would have been with an SIU victory. It was the Salukis’ earliest exit ever from the MVC tourney, which debuted the play-in round in 1997.

First half of the UNI-Drake game, UNI needed a 10-point run to end the half down 24-23. Panthers need to pull away in the second. They should be in the NCAA tournament, even if they somehow lose this game. But losing to the No. 8 seed on first day of the tournament would be a bad thing, especially with having lost to last-place Evansville 10 days ago. Not the vision you want to leave in the Committee’s eyes. Lose this game, and the Panthers are swimming in sweat for the next eight days.

This just in: Lineups for the BU-Creighton game. Bradley will start Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Dyricus Simms-Edwards, Chris Roberts andWill Egolf. So Taylor Brown will sub for the third consecutive game since coming off his suspension. Creighton will start Josh Jones, Antoine Young, Justin Carter, Ethan Wragge and Kenny Lawson Jr.

UNI’s worries are over. Drake went 21 minutes without a field goal, and UNI outscored the Bulldogs 33-3 during that stretch. It took about four minutes of the second half to declare game over. Panthers no longer have to sweat an NCAA bid. Again, they shouldn’t have had any worries, but with now they absolutely don’t. Two minutes to go and they’re up 17 points. …

The refs in the BU-CU game are a most excellent crew: Mike Stuart, Steve Olson and Paul Janssen. Hope none of them gets a cramp, because the alternate is Gene Grimshaw, and BU coach Jim Les isn’t exactly buddies with Grimmy. …

Braves take the floor for warmups, and they’ll be wearing black today. For my thoughts on such blasphemy, read this column. For the record, I have nothing against the way the uniforms look; they’re classy. But black is not a school color. Bradley colors are red and white, and they’re red and white for specific reasons. They are not red, white and black. If the university wants an official color change, then go through the process and explain it. Doing something as a funky fad is cheap and just rubs me wrong about 1,000 different ways. And with that, we’re 9 minutes to tipoff. …

Former Bradley assistant coach Lennox Forrester is in the house. A few rows behind the BU bench. Lennox is now the head coach at SIU-E. And here we go …

Lousy toss by Stuart. Yeesh. Totally sideways. I know you only do it once a game unless there’s OT, but it’s not hard to toss a ball reasonably straight up. … Creighton goes inside to Lawson for its first points. … And now Lawson gets a putback for two more. Bad way to begin this game for BU: giving up an inside bucket and second chance points — and now a driving layup. Creighton up 6-0 at 18:07, and Les wants timeout. … Now a 3-pointer in transition for the Jays after a BU turnover and it’s 9-zip. … Here comes the cavalry: Brown, Sam Singh and Jake Eastman replace Egolf, DSE and Roberts, who at least had a pair of offensive rebounds. … Illegal screen by Singh. … Bradley’s first points on a dunk by Brown off a drive and dish from Eastman. … Now Warren scores with some persistence, on a hook from the base. … Braves starting to toughen up: a defensive board, kick and Eastman scores on the break. … Jones hits a 3 over the BU zone. … Now there’s no defense on either end; trading buckets. … At least it’s not a rout, just 12-8. … Wragge hits a 3 in transition for CU. … And finally, a timeout. …

Timeout at 14:01 — Creighton 15, Bradley 8

Braves at least showing a little life, but there is almost zero defense on either end at the moment. Looks like a run-and-gunner in the making, and that’s going Creighton’s way if it keeps up. …

Creighton subs all five coming out of the TO: Wayne Runnels, Casey Harriman, Kaleb Korver, Darryl Ashford, Cavel Witter.

Tough break: Bradley finally bucks up its defense — a 1-3-1 zone — and has the Jays on the ropes with two seconds left on the shot clock, 30 feet from the basket, and a pass gets kicked. Reset the clock for 15 seconds. … BU survives the extended possession. … Nice hustling pickup of a loose ORB by DSE and he scores. … BU back in man. … Hustling steal by Maniscalco, diving on the floor, he scoops to Roberts on the run, and CR tomahawks it. Lead cut to 15-12. Much better D by the Braves since the official timeout. Brown ties up Runnels underneath, and the ball will go to BU. Why it took the Braves the first six minutes of the game to start playing some defense is beyond comprehension. At least they’re playing some now. …

Timeout at 11:45 — Creighton 15, Bradley 12

Lawson scores in the post, but at least the Jays had to work for that one. … Creighton is beating BU back in transition, though. Really putting the pressure on the pace. … Defensively, the Jays have played the first 10 minutes in man, rather than the zone that has flumoxed BU. … Roberts fails to finish on a drive, and Creighton responds by immediately going downstairs to Lawson. Egolf just can’t handle the guy, but at least he fouls him hard. Singh back for Egolf. Lawson misses both FTs, which is one reason you foul hard: Don’t let him score the EZ bucket, and make him shoot FTs. … Margin back to seven. …

In addition to the man defense, Creighton is driving the gaps and pounding to Lawson. A couple of wrinkles, and BU is struggling to handle both. …

Timeout at 7:37 — Creighton 21, Bradley 14

Now BU goes totally small: Brown the big man, with DSE, Maniscalco, Warren and Eastman. Manisalco scores. … DSE and Sammy team up to steal, and DSE drives and dishes for a Brown dunk. … This could be a struggle on the boards, but the Braves put up a fight after a CU miss, and DSE gets the board, kicks, the break and Maniscalco gets fouled pulling up for a 3. Some confusion over whether it was 2 or 3. He’ll shoot three after the video confirms his foot placement. He makes three and the smalls cut the lead to a pair. … Singh returns. … A stop by the 1-3-1 zone, and Singh clears out Lawson so Brown can get the free rebound. Nice work. Now Warren fouled at the rim and shoots for the tie: And it’s 23-23. … Nice stand on D, until Singh gets called for fouling Lawson with the shot clock at 4 seconds. Two on Singh, two on Egolf. Could we possibly see Anthony Thompson? … Lawson FTs put CU back up by two. … And now the Jays throw down their zone. BU stifled, and Roberts travels. … Bradley in a 2-3 itself now. … But CU patient and scores a 3 by Jones. … Runout by Maniscalco, who does a nice job getting fouled at the rim. …

Timeout at 3:49 — Creighton 28, Bradley 23

Warren blows a 2-on-1, keeping the ball himself on the wing with Roberts wide open in the middle; has to kick out when penetration is cut off, and the Braves can’t convert — and CU gets a transition 3 to extend the lead back to seven. … Ugly turnover by Carter for Creighton; he penetrates the top of the 2-3 zone and kicks out to — the ref. … Maniscalco hits a 3, and the Braves hang in. … And Maniscalco steps up and hits another 3 to cut the margin to one. … Airball off the board by Creighton, and BU has a chance to lead. Warren splashes a long 2, Dana Altman has to call timeout, and Bradley at :54.8 in the first half, leads CU for the first time this season. That’s after 99 minutes and 5.2 seconds, BU finally leads the Jays. …#

Another BU stop, and a high-flying board by Warren, and BU will hold for a late shot with only about four seconds differential between the clocks. … No dice, but the half ends, and Bradley gets to enjoy a lead through the break.. …

Halftime — Bradley 32, Creighton 31

Some halftime stats: Bradley shooting 39.3 percent, Creighton cools to 32.3. Bradley up in the paint 12-8 and off turnovers 10-8. Creighton up 4-2 on second-chances. Jays lead the boards 21-19. … Each team with seven turnovers. … Maniscalco playing great: 14 points, two assists, a steal, zero turnovers and he’s just chasing everywhere. … Brown has five rebounds, Warren eight points. … Lawson has 11 points and seven rebounds for Creighton. …

The reason Bradley got down early was atrocious defense to open the game. The reason the Braves got back into it was good defense. That will determine the game. Twenty more minutes of defense like the last several minutes of the first half, and BU will make the semis. Break down, and the Jays party on. …

Second half coming up. …

Bradley opens second half in a man, and Carter drives to the rim and is fouled by Warren. … Carter’s first free throw ties, and the second puts CU back in the lead. … Now Creighton presses. BU scrambles but breaks it. Can’t score, though. … Go zone and Egolf called for his third foul on a rebound. So in his last 12 minutes against the Jays, he has eight fouls. He fouled out in five minutes at Omaha last weekend. … Creighton getting the edge to start the second half; stronger on the boards and getting the ball into the paint again, although not with the impunity of the first six minutes of the game. … Eastman goes strong to the paint and makes a tough banker going left. …

WHOAAAAAAAA! Tough sequence underneath as Eastman and Brown team to corral an ORB. Brown powers back up and misses, but Roberts flies through the crowd out of nowhere and hammers the putback. What an athletic power play! Puts BU back in the lead. …

Timeout at 15:52 — Bradley 36, Creighton 35

Peoria golf king Rick LeHew gets pulled from the crowd for the BU trivia contest. Who is this Bradley player? Deon Jackson the answer. …

Runnels floors Brown under the Creighton boards and gets called for a foul. Been a little rough down there today. … Tough, tough, tough shot by Maniscalco, in traffic, after driving to the block. … Egolf back in and holds his own against Lawson in the post. Lawson fires an airball. … Brown is out of the game after hitting the deck. They’re working on him at the end of the bench. Can’t tell what. Roberts scores while that’s going on. Creighton calls time and Brown jogs back. Looks like he’s OK. … Bradley leads 40-35. …

Bradley cheerleaders and band are on one end, and the BU fans mostly are on the other. But they’re doing a pretty good job of chanting, although it’s a little like an echo, with the fans’ part about a word behind the cheer guys and gals. …

BU in 1-3-1, and Witter hits a corner from the upper left gap. … Strong ORB by Roberts for two points.  … Roberts is having a heck of a game the last 10-15 minutes. Now he picks up a charging foul against Carter with some good position D. …

Timeout at 11:49 — Bradley 42, Creighton 38

DSE a strong move to the basket and scores. … Egolf does a nice job fronting Lawson in the post, but then gets outpositioned for the rebound and Lawson scores second-chance points. … That brings back Singh. … Now DSE hits a 3-pointer against the shot clock. That kid is fearless. … Eastman, too! He drives into the teeth of the Creighton defense, hangs against Lawson, scores and gets fouled. He’s pumping his fist and screaming. Big-time play. And makes the FT. Bradley up by eight now. Eastman comes out and gets mobbed at the bench. … On the other end, though, Creighton has scored second-chance points last two trips. Bradley can’t let that keep going on. …

Jays pressing again. … BU breaks it and Maniscalco scores a 3 out of the halfcourt set. … Jones answers with a 3 for the Jays. … Another ORB and score for CU, this by Carter, and cuts the margin to four points. He just flew in there. Four of the last five CU hoops have been second chances. Bad stuff for Braves there. …

Timeout at 7:25 — Bradley 55, Creighton 49

Bradley has to man up on the glass if it’s going to hold on and win this. Those second chances just undermine the mostly excellent D the Braves have played this half. …

Young finds a seam and scores. Margin at four. … Brown misses, but Egolf rebounds, and Maniscalco rolls out a 3, but he’s fouled. … Three FTs: makes all three and the lead is back to seven. … 22 for Maniscalco now. … Brown goes up for a rebound and is creamed from behind by Wragge. Brown will shoot a one-and-one: good and good and up by nine. Dare I say it: Don’t get up by 10? Oh wait, Bradley is not at home. … Now Creighton throws it away. … Time for BU to drop the hammer and take total control. … Maniscalco will shoot three more FTs. He is playing brilliantly. He uses a high screen to drive, runs into the help, but senses the main man chasing, so he rises to shoot and forces the foul. All three are good and BU is up a dozen. Fans in red are going nuts for the team in black. And now Creighton is coming unglued. Wragge travels, pretty much without any pressure. … Brown drives hard and flies for the floater, and Bradley is up 14. …

Uh-oh. Maniscalco is hurting, limping off. Seems to be grabbing his left leg, and they’re working his shin. Looks like a cramp. … He has been a monster today. A brilliant performance. … Now DSE gets fouled high and will shoot two in the double bonus. He makes both and BU is up 16. … This is the way you play. This is what we ought to see every game. … Big defensive board by DSE. … Pick and roll, Brown to Egolf, and the Bradley lead is 18. … Witter finally stops the blood flow of the 14-0 run with a baseline drive and gets fouled on the score. … Not over yet, but looking pretty good as long as the Braves keep playing tough. … Maniscalco is back. … Les calls a timeout with 4:19. …

Warren drives and bounces in a floater. … Maniscalco cramping up again as we get a stoppage in play. …

Timeout at 3:46 — Bradley 71, Creighton 64

Scoreboard has that screwed up. Now it’s right. …

Lawson a jumper, and here comes the press. Warren breaks it by himself and the Braves spread to run clock. … Maniscalco misses a guarded 3 at the clock buzzer, but Roberts gets the ORB, and now Creighton has to foul. This game is about over. … Maniscalco at the line again, but shooting only two this time. Makes both again. … He has 27, and now he has the ball and is fouled again. Two more for 29. … If Bradley loses this game now, somebody should be strung up by their toenails in the courthouse square. …

But they won’t. Maniscalco back to the line, shooting for the first 30-point game of his career. Last Bradley 30-pointer was Daniel Ruffin at Creighton in 2008. Maniscalco makes both and has 31. …

Game over. Just waiting for the buzzer. …

Defense was outstanding in the second half. Maniscalco was better than outstanding. He comes out o the game at 1:51 and gets a standing O from the BU faithful. …

BU band and few students are chanting: “Season’s over!” to the Jays.

Final score — Bradley 81, Creighton 62

- assuring an overall winning with a victory, or leaving .500 in play with a loss,

- assuring a winning Valley record with a victory, or going .500 with a loss,

- breaking an 11-year losing streak in Omaha with Jim Les’s first win there,

- and having an impact on who they’ll play in the first round of the MVC tournament.

I did participate yesterday in another Q&A with the White & Blue Review, a Website that covers the Creighton Bluejays.

Enjoy the game and see you at Arch Madness.

First, here are Saturday’s final regular-season matchups:

Southern Illinois at  Wichita State

Missouri State at Indiana State

Bradley at Creighton

Evansville at Drake

Illinois State at UNI

Here are the scenarios for the 4-5 game, according to MVC tiebreaker guru Mike Kern:

If Creighton beats Bradley on Saturday, then those two teams will have a rematch in the tournament six days later.

Creighton could also be the Braves’ opponent if BU wins along with Evansville, Northern Iowa and Indiana State.

Missouri State plays BU if BU wins and Missouri State wins.

Indiana State plays BU if Bradley, Drake and Indiana State win or if Bradley, Evansville, Illinois State and Indiana State win.

For what it’s worth, I cannot ever remember a season with this many possibilities entering the final game. Parity rules in the Valley this year.

Or, as they allegedly call Singh in Wichita: “Chief.” Kinda like the gentle giant in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall revealed that nickname for Singh today when he spoke at the BU luncheon. Marshall explained to BU coach Jim Les they call Singh Chief “because he’s been there long enough take over when you leave.”

Marshall spoke about how watching Bradley (and of course Wichita State) reach the Sweet 16 in 2006 alerted him to the quality in the Missouri Valley. A year later, the Shox came calling, and Marshall accepted the job there as head coach, leaving Winthrop, which he had built into a low-DI power with seven trips to the NCAA tournament. He noted the luncheon crowd, which has been smaller than years past but still nice, and told the fans: “You have a special, special program. It’s not like this everywhere. Trust me, not even close.”

We’re about 10 minutes till anthem time, and they’re conducting Senior Night ceremonies for the BU old guys: Singh, Chris Roberts and Ryan Phillips, along with manager Michael Peplow. Singh in particular gets a nice ovation from the crowd. Gotta hand it to a guy who puts up with all those injuries and the attendant rehabs for six years as a role player. Of course, being a perennial college student ain’t a bad gig if you can get it.

The refs tonight are Tom O’Neill, David Hall and Steve Skiles.

Bradley will start the same lineup as the one that tipped off Saturday’s victory over Drexel: Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Dyricus Simms-Edwards and Will Egolf. That means Taylor Brown will watch at least for a while. No word on whether his suspension continues, but he is in uniform. The Shox will start Aaron Ellis, Clevin Hannah, Graham Hatch, Toure’ Murry and J.T. Durley. They’re missing David Kyles, who is likely done for the season with a broken hand. And Marshall said at the luncheon that big man Gabe Blair, who has a bruised thigh, won’t play either. Blair is not in uniform.

The stakes: A win by Bradley clinches at least sixth in the MVC and keeps the Braves out of the play-in game of the Valley tournament. A win by Wichita State clinches second place for the Shox and leaves Bradley with work to do.

Video running. Music playing. People clapping. Kids ringing the floor to slap fives with the Braves’ starters upon lineup introductions. Almost ready to roll. …

PA man Paul Herzog intros Egolf, then says, “The four guards from Bradley …” That’ll make some people ballistic. There’s some severe dislike for the four-guard set out there. Hey, I say you go with what works. Four guards can work, if they’re the right guards and the right big man. BU was pretty successful with that in 2006-07; would have been moreso with just one good big as a sub, and that was simply a tough break. Now, whether this set works against a physical bunch like Wichita State, we’ll soon see. Here comes tipoff. …

First play, backdoor lob from Maniscalco to Roberts for the two-hand dunk. Nicely done. … BU second possession runs clock against stiff defense, but Maniscalco gets fouled on a floater in the lane as the clock winds down. I love watching Maniscalco get antsy on his free throws. He leans, leans, dances, while the ball is in flight. Never stands still. And he makes both. … Both teams already switching up defenses, zone to man, in the opening three minutes. BU struggles to get inside the Shox zone, but exploits the man immediately for Egolf, who gets fouled and converts both FTs. … Now Maniscalco 3s in transition and BU is up 9-2. … Now Warren 3s and BU is up 12-2. Excellent start. …

Timeout at 15:45 — Bradley 12, Wichita State 2

Of course, I would be remiss not to remind you that too many Bradley hot starts at home this year have turned into meltdowns and losses at the end. We have a long way to go. …

Shox really struggling offensively. No rhythm at all. … Now Roberts becomes the third Brave to 3. … Shox get a runout, but Hatch forgets to dribble and runs three-and-half steps en route to the layup, which gets wiped out by the traveling call. … Brown enters the game, along with Jake Eastman. … Marshall is going to be an unhappy dude pretty quick. Shox just whistled for their fifth foul, and BU has zero. … He’s working it as his team gives Warren a layup through the middle of the halfcourt defense. … Now Singh in for Egolf. Only Maniscalco and Warren haven’t sat yet. … Now Shox foul No. 6 against BU’s 0 and we’re more than seven minutes in. … Nice hustle by Brown, who holds off his man in transition, falls down under the basket while blocking out, then springs back up in time to block a post shot — from behind primary defender Singh — by Garrett Stutz. …

Timeout at 11:46 — Bradley 17, Wichita State 6

With the clock stopped, it’s a good time to wish longtime timekeeper Gary Scudder all the best as he handles his final Bradley game tonight. Gary has been a fixture on the Bradley scorer’s table since 1968, when he started doing BU freshman games at Robertson Field House. Yes, young-uns, all schools used to have freshman teams. …

Singh scores on a jumper from the elbow. BU clicking all over right now. Good Bradley has shown up tonight. Will Good Bradley stick around for the finish? … Brown gets BU’s first foul. … Hannah gets his second foul, guarding Maniscalco on a 3-pointer, and now Marshall has a dilemma. He’s leaving his PG in the game in a tough matchup, and after Maniscalco’s FTs, BU leads by 16. … Brown rains a 3, and Marshall calls a timeout. Braves up 25-6. …

Shox on a mini-run now, thanks to a couple of BU misses, a lousy pass for a turnover, and the Shox converting. …

Timeout at 7:43 — Bradley 25, Wichita State 12

Bradley continues to make FTs: 9-for-9. … Shox cut the lead to 10 as BU goes soft in the halfcourt, then turnover, runout and 3-pointer in transition. … Now to single digits on Stutz FTs. … Warren stems the tide with a 3. … But too-easy backdoor for the Shockers — or “Shocks.” I was just castigated by Wichita Eagle beat reporter Paul Suellentrop for my “Shox.” He wasn’t buying my excuse that such shorthanded crap is allowed on a blog. … So, no more “X.” Thank God, BU fans might say. Last they saw the X-Man, Xavier McDaniel, he grabbed 23 rebounds on the Braves. In one game. … Meanwhile, BU runs its lead back to 15. …

Timeout at 3:16 — Bradley 36, Wichita State 21

Marshall, btw, is in blue pinstripes. Lookin’ snappy. He wasn’t wrong at lunch today when he noted that he and Les are the best-dressed coaches in the league. But he noted to Les: “It’s hard for me. You got all that NBA money stashed away.” …

Bradley turns it over while running clock on last possession, but Shocks (happy, Paul?) can’t capitalize.

Halftime — Bradley 39, Wichita State 27

Pretty good half. Bradley needs one at least as good in the second to win this, because I have a feeling Wichita State will play much better. …

Scudder gets a certificate of appreciation at halfcourt during a ceremony, and is joined by his family. I’ll applaud that — to heck with rules about no cheering on press row. …

And I must confess a professional rooting interest in the outcome of this game. I want Bradley to clinch a top-six seed, because covering games on the opening night of the Valley tournament makes for a massively long day and weekend. I’d rather work all day, skip the play-in games and have one decent dinner. …

Halftime contest tonight is a shootout between winners of halftime shootouts at BU women’s games all year. They start at the free-throw line, then back up each time someone makes a shot. Winner is the person who sinks the longest. Three quick makes, and they’re already shooting from halfcourt. Finally, the last contestant gets his first shot. Now, they can just give it the ol’ heave-ho. … D.J. Piehowski of the Bradley Scout swishes from halfcourt! Back it up some more. He’s counting down. And … we … have … a … winner! Five hundred buckeroos to D.J., who loses his eligibility as soon as he cashes the check. …

Halftime stats include … BU shooting 59.7 percent and Wichita State 38.5.  Bradley leads the boards 14-12. Shocks lead in the paint 12-10, Bradley leads both second-chance points and fast-break points 5-2. Shocks lead 9-8 off turnovers. All those indicators would point toward a closer game than what we see, which is why I expect this one to tighten up. the differences are BU his 6-of-10 from 3 Land, compared to 3-of-12 by the Shocks, and BU has made 11 of 13 FTs to the Shocks’ 4-of-4. …

Second half coming up …

Maniscalco a long guarded 3 to open the half. … And another from the corner. Sammy is hot hot hot. … Shocks battle underneath for third-chance putback. … And Maniscalco hits another 3 with a man in his face. He is feeling it. Never seen him quite like this. He’s not even conscious of the defender being on him. … Now Maniscalco hits Brown with a touchdown bomb, OB to under the BU basket for a dunk. Terrific play. Caught the Shocks napping big time. … But the Shocks aren’t going away. BU’s defense is pretty porous. …

Timeout at 15:35 — Bradley 50, Wichita State 41

Durley gets called for an intentional foul of Roberts, driving the paint. … The Shocks are finally crashing the boards, and they own the paint right now. Also, four second-chance points to start the half. Bradley needs to turn up its physicality or this could turn quick. …

And we have another contest winner: Wings for the house as a student hits the layup, the 3 and the halfcourt shot. …

Roberts splits his FTs. … Then Maniscalco to Roberts for the lob-and-dunk again. … Non-plussed, Hatch hits a 3 for Wichita State, and then Egolf scores inside for BU. Defense takes a holiday. … Brown gets his third foul, trying to stop Ellis inside at 13:45. Ellis splits his FTs, but Stutz rebounds, only to lose possession when he brings the ball down to his waist and gets tied up. … Egolf gets his third at 12:59, and Bradley is flirting with some serious trouble with its two most active rebounders in foul trouble. … Hatch hits a 3 and the margin is seven points. … Maniscalco launches a fast and very long 3 and misses, and Hatch buries one, cutting the margin to four. …

Timeout at 11:38 — Bradley 57, Wichita State 53

Out of the timeout, Brown scores for a temporary reprieve from the onslaught. … And now Singh leans on Stutz in the post, and Stutz gets called for traveling as he tries buck off the Chief. … Stutz called for goal-tending, tapping a Brown shot off the rim, and BU back up by eight. But still 10 minutes to play. … Now Stutz and Singh get called for fouling each other. … Stutz picks up another foul, his third, elbowing Egolf in the post. … Bradley needs to respond positively to this physicality. … DSE drives for a layup in traffic and the margin is back to 10 points … for all of about 10 seconds. 3-pointer by Demetric Williams and a BU turnover and Egolf’s fourth foul, and two FTs by Hannah and it’s five. … Shocks’ press giving BU some trouble. … Braves shots not falling, Shocks are. … Now a runout, Murry scores and is fouled by Singh …

Timeout at 6:17 — Bradley 65, Wichita State 63

Not looking good for BU, which has been creamed on the boards in the second half, 15-4. … Murry FT makes it a one-point game. … Airball by Roberts and a shot-clock violation by Bradley at 5:41. … And Hannah gives teh Shocks their first lead on a layup in traffic. … Warren dribbles the ball off his foot and OB, and the natives are restless. … Another rebound, another offensive rebound, for the Shocks, and Singh gets his fourth foul to put Durley at the line. He misses. … Ugly, ugly, ugly. … Simms-Edwards drives and gets fouled and makes his throws to regain the lead. At least somebody has some moxie. … Durley steps out and hits an 18-footer over Singh after BU finally D’d up, but Singh misses underneath for the Braves. … Inside four minutes, Shocks ball, and they lead by a point. …

And another ORB by Durley and a putback for three-point bulge. … DSE steps up with a big 3 vs. the shot clock and the crowd loves that. Tie game because the freshman has guts. … Now Durley double-dribbles in the post. …

Timeout at 2:15 — Bradley 70, Wichita State 70

Maniscalco a missed 3 and we’re inside 2 minutes. … Murry does likewise, and BU has the ball back. … Warren passes up a shot in the lane and winds up hitting a 3 from the corner just before the clock expires. … Hannah hits a 3 to tie and  WSU calls a timeout at :44.1. …

DSE drives and misses a pullup at 20 seconds, and Wichita rebounds, calls timeout at :14.1. …

Hatch throws the inbounds long, and Hannah slips trying to get free from Maniscalco, who picks up the loose ball, drives and is fouled at the bucket by Hannah. Maniscalco makes both. … BU leads by two with 11.7 to play. … Shocks call timeout. …

Under pressure from DSE, Murry launches an airball 3, which Durley rebounds behind the basket but can’t get a look before the buzzer.

Final score — Bradley 75, Wichita State 73

Plant a big sloppy wet one on Dyricus Simms-Edwards, BU fans.

Both teams are going through their pregame stretching and shooting routines and Taylor Brown isn’t on the floor yet for the Braves so it’s probably safe to assume a one-game suspension the 6-foot-3 sophomore because of the the tweets that hit the Internet.

A familiar voice, at least for me having grown up in South Jersey, when I was getting set up on press row as Drexel play-by-play man Dan Baker walked in. Baker handles the PA for the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles as well as the Philly Big Five college games.

Drexel is sort of an associate member of the Big Five, playing at least one or two games against the city series schools of Villanova, Temple, LaSalle, St. Joe’s and Penn.

There’s about 45 minutes until game time. We’ll see how things go for the Braves tonight.

15:00 until Tip-off

Taylor Brown has indeed been suspended, at least for Saturday’s game. Beyond that won’t be known until probably Wednesday night for the Wichita State game.

This is a matchup that might give the Braves some problems as Drexel has a lot of size inside and, although there is a little more uniformity, East COast basketball tends to be more physical than what the Braves might be used to with only a few exceptions.

Illinois State beat Morehead State so the Valley is now 4-0  in the BracketBusters to go with nice wins by Missouri State and Southern Illinois today and Northern Iowa on Friday night.

Dyricus Simms-Edwards gets the start in place of Brown for the Braves. He certainly proved that he deserved the chance with his play on Tuesday night against Indiana State.  It’s Simms-Edwards first collegiate start.

It will be interesting to see how BU coach Jim Les uses his bench tonight. The Braves haven’t gone very deep to begin with so losing a player who has gotten 31 minutes a game might be problematic.

It could be a chance for Milos Knezevic, who has played well for the most part when he’s been on the floor. It might be a chance to earn some more  minutes in the final games of the regular season.

Tip-off

The pjstar.com lineups are being announced and the question has to be asked: Why aren’t they sponsored by the BradleyHoops.com Live Blog? We need some pub here. Simms-Edwards gets a loud round of applause when he’s introduced.

Tip goes to Bradley. 6-9 Freshman Darryl McCoy outjumped Will Egolf but BU was abl to corrall it. A Bradley turnover leads to a 3-point play by Samme Givens, who only goes 6-5, but a solid 6-5. Very ragged in the opening by both teams before Chris Roberts knocks down a 3.  Sam Singh in for Will Egolf and Drexel bring sin 6-8 Evan Neisler. Apparently all the big kids to be recruited are on the East Coast. Drexel wants to push hte pace when it can, not a bad idea when Bradley shortens its bench.  Bradley respondd though with Maniscalco driving for a layup for a 7-3 lead.

15:23 remaining in the first half

So far Bradley has been able to match Dreel on teh boards with 5 each, but two of Drexel’s have been on the offensive glass. BU will have to keep Drexel from getting the second chance points. Failure to do that could make for a long night.

Nice give in go by Simms-Edwards and Singh but the big guy couldn’t get it finish.  Harris makes both free throws and then Givens gets an offnsive board to tie the game. Maniscalco answers but Bradley is having trobule with Drexel’s quickness.Up and down action brings line changes by both teams. Jake Eastman in for the Braves. Simms-Edwards has shown no fear driving int the trees beneath the Drexel basket. Tied at 9 as things are still ragged.

11:57 remaining in the first half

Nice kiss of the glass by Warren. The Braves haven’t been afraid to drive, but haven’t been in good control until that put them up two.  Long 3 there by Fouch, but Egolf with a spin move in the post to put Bradley up one. Fouch another long 3. Inside-out games could also be bad. Both teams are trying to out run the other to no success. Bradley’s 1-for-8 shooting from 3-point range hasn’t helped.  Singh with a second-chance basket on another missed three.  Drexel coach Bruiser Flint pleading for the Dragons to take their time on offense.  Wise council for both teams who are zipping around the floor like the Jetsons in their space cars. Tied at 15.

7:46 remaining in the first half

Bradley going to put some pressure on after an offensive foul. Warren spins through the lane. Roberts inside now. Possessions coming fast and furious  as a 3 from the corner for Drexel misses everything and Simms-Edwards buries a 3 for Bradley to force Drexel to call timeout to try and stop the bleeding down seven a 22-15. Might be a lesson in there if Drexel gets on a run that teams seem to do in Carver. Thomas drives the baseline makes the shot and draws a blocking foul on Eastman. The 3-point play cuts Bradley’s lead to four.  Bradley goes into a zone, Drexel works it inside and loses the handle but when Roberts goes to save it it goes right to Givens for an easy basket. Bradley 22-20.

3:50 left in the first half

Big minutes from Maniscalco (14), Roberts (13), and Warren (15) thus far. Simms-Edwards with 12 while Egolf, Eastman, Knezevic and Singh have split up the time at the 5.  Roberts hits both free throws coming out of the officials timeout. Maniscalco with a steal and an easy layup. Bradley gets another turnover but Egolf misses an easy layup and Fouch takes advantage with another 3. Eastman hits with one of his own but Fouch is firing with his fourth 3. He has 12 of Drexel’s 26 points. Bradley zones it up after a Warren basket and now get a defensive stop with a chance to go for the last shot of the half. Maniscalco hangs at half court before getting it to Roberts to drive the baseline for a reverse slam to end the half with an exclamation point. Bradley 33, Drexel 26.

Halftime

A very good half for Bradley. They’ve managed to hang tough on the boards with Drexel only holding a one rebound edge there. Bradley is only 3-for-11 from 3-point range but it’s not like they were forcing shots, they just didn’t get good bounces with a couple rimming in. The only area that might be a problem for the Braves is second chance points with Drexel getting eight of their 26 that way with 12 from Fouch’s four 3s. He leads all scorers while Bradley is led by 9 from Chris Roberts, the most impressive being the reverse baseline slam to close out the half.

The question, as it always seems to be with the Braves, can they finish. A solid lead at home hasn’t been safe this season. Will it be tonight?

Second half

Bradley forces Drexel into a bad possession but can’t take advantage. But then after another turnover, an easy Maniscaclo layup. A foul on Egolf as the shot falls for Colds, who misses the FT. Drexel works for a mid-range jumper and its’ now 35-30 BU.  After a hand-check call, Warren hits a 3.  A missed Drexel shot and another Warren 3 for his 12th point.  Warren hit hard going to the basket but now fould, drawing the catcalls from the crowd. Spencer works the ball inside for a Drexel basket, but Roberts is fouled while driving taking us to the time out. Bradley 41-32.

14:49 remaining second half

Roberts makes them both but Spencer in the lane for Drexel’s response. Bradley runs the 35-second clock down to one before Warren hits a turnaround jumper. A smart play by Will Egolf at the other end, as the ball is falling out of bounds off Drexel, Harris turned and tried to spike it off Egolf who jumped over the ball and was fouled. At the tother end, Egolf got the feed in the lane for a slam.  Spencer hits both FT fro Drexel after getting fouled by Eastman.  Maniscalco misses a 3 and Drexel brings it up the floor for  3-point attempt by Fouch, who misses. Givens gets teh rebound but was poked in teh eye drawing a stoppage of play.  Spencer gets the feed in the bpost and slams it down.

11:52 remaining second half

Sing with the reverse layup off the glass for his first points of the half. As always things turn scrambly on a Drexel possession and Singh gets whistled for the  foul during a loose ball scrum. But Drexel can’t do anything with the shot and Singh draws a foul  at the other end, which turns into an open 3 from Warren. Bradley’s lead now 14. A missed 3 for Drexel and the Braves are off and running for an easy Eastman layup. Drexel calls time down 54-38.

10:11 remaining in the second half

Bradley’s little guys are playing big. While not exactly litte, Roberts has eight  rebounds and has gone aggressively at Drexel’s big men inside. After a pair of free throws, Drexel comes out pressing and forces Bradley to call timeout with a half-court trap.  Simms-Edwards drives on Colds getting a whistle. Simms-Edwards splits the free thrwos. Spencer with another rebound basket. Fouch with a steal and a layup. Bradley sprints the other way for an Egolf basket. After a missed Drexel shot, Bradley gets fouled. BU 57-44.

7:37 left in the second half

Bradley can’t take advantage of the possession. Colds drive the lane, makes the basket and gets fouled by Roberts. The FT is good. Bradley breaks the press and gets a floater by Maniscalco but Jamie Harris gets his first points of the game on a 3-pointer, seconds after Dave Reynolds mentioned that Harris was 0-for-7 from the field. No such luck breaking the press for Bradley and they are forced to call their third timeout leaving them with two left and 6:30 to play, up 59-50. Roberts missses a shot and here comes Drexel again. Fouch to Harris in the corner. The shot misses but Spencer gets fouled going for the rebound. Jim Les is not happy with the call. Drexel shoots two on the putback attempt and now will be in the bonus. The first one misses and so does the second as Egolf gathers the rebound. Moving screen on Warren, Fouch 3 misses, Spencer rebound basket. Bradley lead is seven. Spencer gets called for the foul as Warren drives. FT missed, but the second fallThe lead is eight. A Drexel turnover and Bradley will try for a Warren layup that falls off the rim. Fouch’s 3 missed and Bradley will run the offense with 4:30 left. Maniscalco gets a bouncer and Bruiser Flint is not happy, taking it out on the scorers table. A Drexel turnover and he calls time out. Bradley 62, Drexel 52.

4:08 remaining second half

Each team with 2 timeouts left. It was not a pleasant one for the Dragons down to my right. Unlike a lot of teams, Drexel doesn’t pull stools into the middle of the floor. A pull up jumper from Simms-Edwards and a defensive rebound and the crisis is averted for the Braves with the lead back to 12.  Simms-Edwards gets a charging call.

2:53 remaining second half

It’s going to be a long trip back to Philly for Jamie Harris, the Drexel point guard. Flint was not happy with a 3-point attempt that missed, and he only has five points in 33 mintues. That being said, not much to complain about from the Braves side. Of course the BracketBuster may have come at the wrong time for them, given their Jekyl and Hyde nature this year of following up a good game with a sub-par performance. With Wichita State coming to Carver Arena on Wednesday they’ll need another game like this, one with a solid 40-minute performance. They can’t come out slow liek they did against Indiana State after upsetting Northern Iowa.

Simms-Edwards didn’t have a bad performance, eight points but a few freshman mistakes. Knezevic wasn’t heard from since the first half and Singh only played two minutes in the second half.  The bench did get shorter in the second half. If there is hope for a deep tournament run in St. Louis, the Braves may not have the gas left in the tank if they continue only going really six or seven deep  depending on Brown’s availablity.

Drexel is prolonging the inevitable at ths point int eh final two mintues, exhausting their timeouts and putting Bradley on the line. With Roberts at the line, Flint finally tells Drexel to stop fouling with 42.4 seconds left with Bradley holding a 74-60 lead. A Roberts steal and a slam punctuates the half  and the game.

Final: Bradley 76, Drexel 60

Might call it the game to avoid riding the PIG (Play-In Game) at the MVC tournament. Bradley did itself loads of good by defeating first-place Northern Iowa on Saturday. My colleague Dave Reynolds wrote this piece to explain the import/potential impact of that victory. Bradley can take another big step winning here tonight. The Braves are one game up on the Sycamores, and a win would put them two up with two to play in the league — and give BU the head-to-head tiebreaker if the end of the regular season went south. If the Sycs win, though, the two teams are tied and would fall into several thousand of the 32,678 what-if scenarios existing before tonight’s Valley play tips off. That figure is provided by Valley info specialist Mike Kern. Indiana State fighting for its off-the-pig life tonight. Bradley trying to hop to another farm, where the pigs can’t roam.

Just doing some pregame checking and ran across this on Twitter, from Bradley soph Taylor Brown:

“Bouts walk in my game…:: headphones blasting.. Bouta smack these dudes… 20n 10 I’m thinkin”

I’m thinkin’ if da Sycs r Tweetin’ ol TB bouta end up on bulletin board.

This is my first trip to the Hulman. I drove through Terre Haute a couple of times. OK, maybe once, and I couldn’t tell you anything memorable. Anyway, the Hulman is a nice place. Seats 10,200 and there’s not a bad seat in the joint. The court used to be named for Bob King, as I recall. He was the coach here a long time and was the coach when Larry Bird landed on campus. But King fell ill before the 1978-79 season and had to give way to his assistant Bill Hodges, who was at the head of the bench when Bird led the Sycs to the championship game of the NCAA tournament against Magic Johnson and Michigan State. Long time has passed. The place is sparsely populated now. And the court is now named for John Wooden — yes, that John Wooden — who coached here in the 1940s before flitting off to UCLA where he became a legend.

How sparsely populated, the arena? There are 41 students in the student section. Forty-one. Four-one. And the arena is on campus.

Bradley lines up with Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Taylor Brown, Will Egolf. The Sycs, with eight healthy scholie players, go with Rashad Reed, Josh Crawford, Jordan Printy, Aaron Carter, Carl Richard.

And here we go …

Braves open man-to-man and Crawford beats Egolf for a dunk off the first pass. … Sycs in a zone. … Roberts gets an offensive rebound and putback for BU’s first points. That’s encouraging. … And Sycs’ second possession is not; they get open baseline again but blow the bunny. … Maniscalco charges/player control on a drive and dish to Egolf. … Now Indiana State gets another dunk, this on a runout after a bad pass by Maniscalco. … Bradley’s defense has tightened a bit, and Indiana State has attempted two 3-pointers, both missed very badly. … The BU offense ain’t doin’ much yet. Braves have to play D, though. …

Timeout at 15:47 — Indiana State 4, Bradley 2

Nice drive by Dyricus Simms-Edwards for Bradley; replaced Roberts and hits a nice floater crossing right to left. … Now a 3-pointer by Roberts in transition after coming back in on a dead ball. He had a nice defensive rebound, kicked, filled the trail lane and had a wide-open look. … Bradley crashing the O boards. Fast break again, with a couple of misses and rebounds, and DSE comes up with the second one on this trip. … Then he hits a 3 from the corner for the second-chance points. Braves on an eight-point run. … Until Isiah Martin scores over Egolf in the post. That upsets Jim Les, who sends Sam Singh in for Egolf. … Jake Eastman coming in, too, for Maniscalco. Meanwhile, Warren hits three FTs for a seven-point lead. …

How empty is this place? We can hear individual fans in the upper bowl hollering insults at Les. …

Timeout at 11:50 — Bradley 13, Indiana State 8

Before the game, we had a little chat in the media workroom with Frank Bussone and Dick Versace. Reynolds complimented Versace on his colorful tie. I warned Versace to watch the chairs before he sat down. He’s wearing an Armani. I’m gonna bet it’s the only one in Terre Haute. …

Suddenly, back-to-back 3s by the Sycs and they retake the lead. Bradley can’t afford to let that get hot. … Now Printy hits a 3, just pulling up in transit, and that’s three in a row as Bradley struggles to get the ball to fall from five feet. Now a 2-pointer by Reed, only because has his foot on the line, and Les calls time with the Sycs up six. …

Bradley busy in the oven with turnovers. Seven already. … DSE stops the bleed with a secondary-transition pull-up J. … Only for a moment, though, as Richard hits a 3. Bradley must stop this stuff now. …

Timeout at 7:53 — Indiana State 22, Bradley 15

Simms-Edwards playing well: aggressive on both ends. The rest of the Braves are a bit out of sorts. … Now they’re just getting out-fought and outhustled. Just not strong with the ball at all. … And that was embarrassing. Warren drives the baseline, rises for the jam and gets blocked by Martin. Now Warren shoots a 3 and it lands like granite. … Roberts freelances and misses. … Not looking good at all. And now the defense appears to have given up; gives up a drive through the middle for another layup. Les exasperated and calls timeout. Again. Sycs up 26-15. That’s a 20-2 run. …

Brown scores on a tip-in. The only thing BU has done well is rebound. … Braves struggling against the zone. … Brown scores because when fast-breaking, there is no zone to penetrate. …

Timeout at 2:52 — Indiana State 26, Bradley 19

Now the Braves are getting beaten on the boards, and the Sycs are getting second chances. Fortunately for BU, they can’t convert. … Bradley has not had a basket out of its offense in forever — since DSE’s 3 at 14:03. … Another backdoor bucket for the Sycs. … Egolf breaks that, scoring a layup off a pass from DSE and gets fouled, but misses the and-one. … Whatever Les pulled out at halftime on Saturday, he’d better dust it off and turn up the volume about 10-fold tonight. This is bad. … No focus. Ball sails through Roberts’ hands under the basket. … Brown gets beat on a drive, and Egolf helps but gets called for blocking. … And another turnover by Maniscalco. …

Halftime — Indiana State 31, Bradley 21

Bradley, which averages 11.5 turnovers per game in MVC play, 12.1 overall, has 11 in the first half. Even the steals (Indiana State has seven) haven’t been forced so much as Bradley has just made awful passes right to Sycamores. … Bradley shooting 26.7 percent, and the Sycs 40 percent. the Sycs are 4-of-11 from the 3. … Bradley leads rebounding 24-18, 11-6 offensive, but leads only 7-3 in second-chance points. … Sycs lead 14-10 in the paint, 12-5 off turnovers. … Bradley really rushing its offense. Shots in the paint are largely contested, but BU has forced several, and also settled for some quick jumpers. … And they Braves aren’t hitting anything, inside or out. … But the defense, which clicked for about four minutes, has been poor. … BU played about four good minutes, and that’s it. …

Second half had better be better, or the PIG starts to oink louder again. …

Second half

Opens with Egolf posting up, missing a turnaround J from about 8 feet, and Brown goes over the back and gets called for the foul on the borad. … But a stop, followed by a Brown J in rhythm. … Now a Sycs airballed 3. … Let’s see if Bradley starts to play. … Brown grabs an ORB and gets fouled going back up; splits the FTs. … Warren jumps the passing lane for a steal, runout and dunk and the margin is cut in half. Good start. … Nah, give one up and then Brown over the back again on the offensive end for his second foul. … DSE in for Brown. … Now Egolf fouls Richard at the rim. Two on Egolf. Richard splits the FTs. … Now another bad Maniscalco pass. … BU gets lucky when Koang Doluony fumbles the ball wide open in the lane, and Warren hits a 3 in transition. … Nice pass DSE to Egolf, high-low for the layup, and the margin is down to four. … No need to get it all back at once, but a nice start to the half. …

Timeout at 14:50 — Indiana State 37, Bradley 33

It’s a tad warm in the Hulman. Wind outside is biting cold, but it’s toasty in here. …

Singh fouls and that’s five team for the Braves. … But they get another stop anyway. … Maniscalco fouls on the drive and that’s six. So the Sycs are shooting after this. Like immediately: Eastman fouls as soon as he comes in, and the Sycs are in the bonus. Printy hits both. … Now a power post by the Sycs and the lead is back to eight. …

Timeout at 11:27 — Indiana State 41, Bradley 33

Tough drive and shot by Maniscalco. … And a reach-in foul by Egolf, his third; just as the Braves were forcing the Sycs to work on offense. A break with missed FT on the front end, and Bradley pushes. Maniscalco drive is blocked OB. … The Braves run a nice inside-out-inside and Brown travels. … Roberts fouls Crawford on a shot, and now the Sycs will shoot two on every BU foul. Still 9:46 to play. Long way to go in the double-bonus. … Brown hits a pair of FTs and BU hanging in; really need to get this back to a one-po game. … Nice pick-and-roll from Maniscalco to Singh and it’s a four-point game again. That got started after the Sycs had to launch a long 3 and missed. … Now, though, the Sycs get two long ORBs after missed 3s, and convert a short J for the third-chance points. … Singh scores again and is fouled, and will shoot the FT after …

Timeout at 7:30 — Indiana State 45, Bradley 41

Singh misses the FT. … Just heard UNI is up on Creighton 28-12. Somebody decided the Panthers weren’t going to shrivel after losing Shrek. …

Now UNI bucket and a BU turnover, so instead of down three, the Braves are down six and in danger of going down eight or nine again. … Whoa – really nice behind-the-head pass from Doluony to Crawford underneath. Brown fouls Crawford, who hits both FTs, and it’s back to eight points again. Gotta start over. …

Brown grabs another rebound. He has at least the 10 he wanted, but BU turns it over. Now the Sycs give it back and Brown hits a 3; has 12 points. … DSE hits a J in transition and BU is down only three. … Kevin McKenna, the old Holy Family of Peoria kid and the Sycs coach, calls timeout at 4:52. … Finally back to a one-po game. BU has a chance. Braves have to stay tough on both ends. …

Crawford steps out for a 3-pointer. … Maniscalco answers, and is lucky Egolf doesn’t get called for three seconds in the paint. …Brown called for foul No. 4. …

Timeout at 3:30 — Indiana State 52, Bradley 49

Richard two FTs out of the timeout: misses both and Brown gets his 12th rebound. … Maniscalco curls for a tough runner, going left to right and hits. … But Carter gets inside quickly to respond. Still three-point margin. … Warren cuts, DSE hits him and Warren scores. Back to a one-point game. … Now a charge on Crawford as he tries to go back door and runs into Warren. BU with a chance to take the lead. … Manisalco hits the shot from about 18 and BU leads. … Then Maniscalco fouls. Reed will shoot two at 1:37. He makes both and the lead changes hands again. …

DSE a spectacular reverse, two-handed tip-in of Maniascalco miss, but Carter gets a second-chancer for Indiana State. Final minute. … Brown drives and Reed gets called for a blocking foul in the paint at :40.9. … Brown puts BU back on top. …

BU hawks the ball and forces Indiana State to call timeout at :21.8 with 16 left on the shot clock. … Carter hits a big 3, then Maniscalco drives it to the hole for a layup. And Reed misses a fallaway for Indiana State at the buzzer.

We have OVERTIME!

BU starts with an ORB but can’t capitalize. … Warren a steal, and Reed a steal right back, with Roberts fouling him at the basket. … This is nuts.

Six lead changes in the final 1:50 of regulation. …

Reed FTs are good for a 2-point Sycs lead. … And Bradley goes over and back with a bad pass from Andrews to DSE. … Bradley makes a good defensive stand, but Warren misses his J from the wing. … Crawford fouls Maniscalco, who ties the game. … Richard hits a 3 for the Sycs. That hurts as we tick inside two minutes. … DSE answers and we’re tied again. Big, big, big cajones on that one. Seriously, this kid has guts. …

Richard posts up Egolf and scores. … Warren gives BU the lead with an inside-out 3 after Egolf gets and ORB. … One minute left. … Too bad the first half was so bad, because this second half and OT, BU has been playing strong. … Sycs almost throw it away. … Then Carter 3s for a Sycs lead takeback. …. DSE runner on the baseline rollllllllllls and rims out, and Sycs get the board, and Egolf gets the foul. … Trouble now. …

Carter makes both FTs and we’re two-po game with 11 seconds left. … Maniscalco misses coast-to-coast drive and this one’s over. …

Final score — Indiana State 75, Bradley 69 in OT

We have a working scoreboard!

At the 20-minutes-till-anthem mark, the board flickered on. First the time, then other numbers. Then buzzers. Woo-hoo!

John Higgins and Mike Sanzere are back to ref today, along with Gene Grimshaw. So we’ve got another good crew.

Bradley starts Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Taylor Brown and Will Egolf. UNI goes with Ali Farokhmanesh, Kwadzo Ahelegbe, Johnny Moran, Adam Koch and Jordan Eglseder. …

Lining up for the anthem. Oh, yeah! Shirley Salazar at the mic for that one. The woman can sing. No frills, just kick it.

Sorry for the hasty pregame, but I had lunch with MVC associate commish Joe Mitch, who is in town for the game. known Joe for 30-plus years. Great guy, does a great job. …

And here we go …

Eglseder scores in the post immediatley. … Next few possessions on both ends, hotly contested passes and shots; three at the rim blocked or altered by the defense in some fashion. … Good D by Egolf on Eglseder: won’t give him ground on the faceup, keeps him off on the back-in and partially deflects the 10-foot J. … Then Egolf scores on a baseline drive. … High intensity and physical on defense both teams. … Sam Singh, Dyricus Simms-Edwards enter for BU, replacing Egolf and Roberts. … Line change for UNI. …

Timeout at 15:45 — UNI 5, Bradley 4

Bad one by BU. Singh posts up and fires a pass to the wing, across the lane, and gets picked; result is a breakaway layup for UNI. … Another bad pass: Egolf behind Maniscalco after clearing a rebound. … Braves go zone 2-3. … DSE gets a defensive rebound and drives it through the UNI defense for a shooting foul; makes both FTs to tie at 7. … Braves missed a dozen FTs against ISU on Tuesday; making two would have won the game. … Eglseder and Egolf trade baskets in the paint. …

Timeout at 11:25 — UNI 11, Bradley 9

That, after Roberts called for goal-tending.

To this point, UNI has been called for three fouls, Bradley zero. Wonder how long before that gets called to the refs’ attention. … Egolf trips and loses Eglseder, who scores an unmolested layup. … Bradley last couple of possessions has settled for quick, contested shots. Patience. Patience. … now Ali F hits a 3 and the Panthers stretch to five points. … Braves have returned to man D. … Egolf draws BU’s first foul just inside 9 minutes. …

Timeout at 7:48 — UNI 18, Bradley 13

Oh, for the record: Bradley in white and UNI in purple. These days, you just never know. …

Maniscalco turns an ankle on offense, seemed to happen when he pivoted with the ball. Doesn’t look too bad. Roberts drives base for a tough shot at the rim. … Good man D by the Braves, and Ahelegbe loses the dribble out of bounds with three seconds left on the shot clock. Crowd likes that. BU needs to build off that energy. … DSE fouls Ahelegbe on a 3-point shot. Jim Les not happy with the call. DSE was trying to get around a screen and jumped after Ahelegbe went up; bumped him off balance before Ahelegbe returned to the floor. By rule, that’s a foul. Ahelegbe makes all three FTs. … Now Maniscalco misses a 3, and UNI gets a transition 3 and just like that, the Panthers are up 9. … Les calls timeout. … Roberts picks up a semi-loose ball on Bradley’s end and drive-spins for a jumper, but UNI responds quickly. … UNI’s defense is staying tough, while Bradley’s is softening. … Maniscalco steals a pass and gets fouled on the breakaway. He’ll shoot a pair after …

Timeout at 3:37 — UNI 26, Bradley 17

So far, all seven Bradley field goals have been scored in the paint. Nice the Braves are getting to the paint, but they’re only 7-for-20 shooting, and 0-of-4 from the arc. Need some more scoring. … Also getting killed on the glass: UNI up 17-10 there. …

Maniscalco makes both of his FTs out of the timeout, and Bradley slaps on a soft press. UNI shoots a little quick. … But then, so does Roberts for BU, and the Braves are slow in transition and Koch scores the layup. … Final minute of the half, and UNI misses, but gets the ORB, and Ben Jacobson calls time to set a play for what’s likely his team’s last possession. … Results in a wide-open J from the FT line by Koch. … All Bradley gets is a long, contested 3 by Warren, who misses. …

Halftime — UNI 32, Bradley 23

Some halftime stats: UNI leads rebounds 21-12; 6-2 offensive, resutling in a 9-0 bulge in second-chance points. Nine. I think that’s the margin, right? … Bradley leads 14-12 in the paint. … Braves are 9-for-25 overall, zip-for-6 from the arc. … UNI is only 3-for-14 from 3-land, but 10-of-15 everywhere else. … Egolf leads BU with 10 points, but no Brave has more than two rebounds. … Eglseder leads UNI with 8 points, and Jake Koch, off the bench has 4 rebounds. … UNI has 10 assists, Bradley only 4. …

BU has to board. Defense hasn’t been bad, although in the second 10 minutes, they let the Panthers get open for mid-range and short stuff. But the boards are killer.

Second half

Pretty good crowd. It’s Alumni Weekend at BU, although you wouldn’t know it. Not so long ago, this would have been Homecoming. Too bad that was killed off. used to be a lot of activities and parties …

Bradley scores in transition to start the second half, and the crowd gets excited. … And now roaring: The Braves team up to stop Eglseder at the rim, Roberts rejecting the final shot and starting the break. … Now Eglseder travels on the block. … It appears Bradley has changed its defensive scheme; fronting the big boy with Egolf. UNI trying to lob over, but the help comes blindside and stops him from getting the clear shot. … Three times in a row the Braves stop him, and after one, Warren hits a 3 for BU. … Braves on the run, and now Warren hits a 15-footer to cut the margin to a deuce. … A steal by the Braves and a Maniscalco layup to tie. … Jacobson calls timeout and the crowd, which hasn’t sat down since the half opened — because UNI hasn’t yet scored — is in full throat. … Great start to the second half here. A little backwards from the norm, but maybe better. …

Bradley active again on D; feet and hands. … Now the Braves force a shot-clock violation, with UNI unable to get squat out of the timeout; ends with Lucas O’Rear, pinned behind the backboard on a drive, firing a pass to nobody and OB as the shot buzzer sounds. …

Timeout at 15:54 — Bradley 32, UNI 32

Bradley stays tough on D, and UNI toughens up; Singh gets stuck in the post with noplace to go. … Great drive, spin and 10-footer by Maniscalco for the lead. … Ali F finally scores for UNI: a 3 to retake the lead by a point. … Second half starts with Bradley getting four fouls and UNI none in first 61/2 minutes. … Funny: the Bradley students are calling Elgseder “Shrek.” Chanting at him as he shoots FTs. No distraction, though: He makes both. … Two quick fouls on Egolf now and he has three for the game. Couldn’t see what he did. Jacobson is standing between me and the basket. … Against the shot clock, Warren hits a 3 over Adam Koch. Heck of a shot to put BU back up a pair. … Brown exploits a mismatch against Marc Sonnen and gets fouled going to the basket. …

Timeout at 10:59 — Bradley 39, UNI 37

The big stat: UNI is 1-of-11 this half. … Brown FTs extend BU lead to four points. … Oops. O’Rear gets backdoor all by himself for a layup off a pass from young Koch, who then gets called for blocking foul in the imaginary box as DSE drives and scores. Makes the and-one, and BU leads by five. … Ahlegbe banks in a 3; that’s a tough break for BU after good defensive stand. … Now the crowd is ticked. DSE gets called for charging Ali F on a drive to the basket. Basket counts, but Ali F will shoot two FTs. This is one of the things about the new rule with the imaginary box. It applies to secondary defenders. Koch was a secondary defender when DSE ran into him. Ali F was a primary. DSE tried to avoid the contact, but couldn’t, although Ali F threw some flop into the mix. In case you’re wondering about apparent inconsistency, though, this was the determining factor:  primary defender or secondary. …

Now the fouls are coming in bunches. Eight on BU, five on UNI and probably three in the last 60 seconds. … Moran FTs tie the game at 46. … Brown FTs put BU back up by two. … Bradley’s defense is really, really active, and elder Koch travels trying to beat the clock. …

Timeout at 7:44 — Bradley 48, UNI 46

UNI now just 3-of-15 in the second half. … the BU band is in the fight song again; nice they’re no longer waiting around for the official “fight song timeout.” …

Nice sequence of ball and player movement by the Braves results in a layup for Brown off a pass from Maniscalco. … Now the Braves force a bad pass OB. … BU needs to keep tight with the D and assertive and smart with the O. … Tough drive, spin and fallaway made by Warren, and Bradley is up six. … The crowd is loving this. … Bradley defense turns its intensity up another notch but gets a tough long bounce off a missed 3 by the Panthers, and the ball goes off Roberts OB. … Still can’t stop Eglseder on the boards, though. Big boy gets another ORB and is fouled by Roberts from behind on the putback. Not sure Roberts actually got him, but it looked bad. Eglseder makes one FT. … Roberts spins his way to a tough shot in the lane, makes and draws the foul. He makes the and-one and the lead is eight points, under five minutes. … Crowd is going nuts, and Jacobson wants timeout. …

And Roberts picks up a charge against Koch. Sets up behind him on an entry pass, and gets knocked down. … Jacobson wants a foul called after Koch and Brown hit the deck wrestling for a rebound. Ball OB to UNI. Jacobson: “Isn’t that a foul?” And Grimshaw looks at him: “On who?” … Well, Egolf gets called for his fourth on the next possession, and Eglseder cuts the marging to six. …

Timeout at 3:39 — Bradley 55, UNI 49

Hmmmm. With no double-digit lead in the second half, maybe Bradley will hold on and win this one. …

Another UNI ORB. … That’s 14 to Bradley’s three, and Koch gets fouled going back up; makes both FTs and the BU lead is four, while UNI’s advantage on second-chances grows to 17-2. … Roberts gets two back for the Braves with an aggressive drive through the lane, to the left baseline and up for the J. Then he skies on the other end for a defensive rebound. … Ahelegbe called for fouling Maniscalco near the halfcourt line, and Sammy’s FTs put the Braves up eight with 2:18 to play. Les calls time. … Crowd on its feet and … the cheers die out. But most are still standing. … That would have been a good time for the fight song, perhaps? …

Koch misses a 3, and O’Rear fouls Warren on the rebound. uh-oh. Chance to go up 10 in the second half. But he misses! Then makes. The margin is nine, and the dreaded 10-spot is out of play for the moment. … Ahelegbe drives and scores and will shoot the and-one after being fouled by Maniscalco. FT makes it a six-point game again. … Bradley runs clock, Warren shoots from about 18 feet and Ali F fouls him with 1:28 to play. This time, Warren makes both FTs for an eight-point bulge. … Ahelegbe kicks the ball OB, and BU has it back with 1:16 to play. …

O’Rear steals in the press and Warren stops him with a foul at the basket. Bad pass there. Need more patience. Good foul, didn’t let him score easy, although it does stop the clock. O’Rear makes both. … Now Maniscalco gets called for traveling as he tries to break a double-team in the press. … Brown skies for a rebound of Ali F missed 3 and gets fouled. Comes out almost swinging his elbows. Gettin’ nasty in there. Jacobson pleads his case for a call on Brown, but the replay shows Brown’s elbows were wrapped around the ball, and he swung his upper body trying to free himself from the two or three guys around him. … Makes both FTs in silence. … Ali F hits a 3, but Bradley breaks the press for a layup. … Really getting nasty in there as UNI sensing a loss and Bradley smelling victory. Brown sneaks in for position and grabs a rebound, Koch fouls him and Brown hits the floor. … BU students loudly serenade Koch to “sit down” as he hits the bench. … Meanwhile, Bradley’s crowd staying on its feet as Brown makes both FTs for a nine-point lead. A 10-point lead here would be fine. The kids start chanting “overrated.” Panthers are not that, but this is OK. BU going to dribble out the clock as Jacobson calls off the defense and the crowd erupts. …

Final score — Bradley 68, UNI 59

Good win for Bradley. Well fought and well played. Defense was the story. Excellent defense. Les at midcourt, greeting his players as they go off.

“All I know about it is he asked if he could miss practice last Friday because he was going to Providence to visit,” said SCC coach Terry Carroll. “He didn’t talk to me about it (upon his return) and I didn’t ask about it.”

When asked if PC coach Keno Davis offered a scholarship to the 6-foot-9 Belgian, Carroll said he had no idea.

“But I’d be shocked if they didn’t,” he said. “He never told (teammates) about (an offer) or (a commtiment) that I’m aware of.”

Wilkins gave Bradley an oral commitment in the summer of 2008, but has not played in an organized game since then because of eligibility issues.

Funereal.

OK, it’s for real. Black unis. The Braves are warming up in their long red pants and long-sleeved red-and-white shirts, but Andrew Warren, Sam Maniscalco and Anthony Thompson have their jerseys hanging out, and they’re black, with wide red stripes up the sides, bordered by white trim. Guess they think nobody will notice for the big “surprise” that’s supposed to whip the hometown crowd into uncontrolled hysteria. And ISU will wear white.

I’ll try to reserve comment on this marketing ploy for now, but I was just at the pregame party in the Civic Center Theater lobby, and I was sitting at a table with 11 Bradley fans. I polled them: Black uniforms, up or down. The result: 9 thumbs down, 1 thumbs up and 1 abstention. The abstention came from a woman who said, “I just don’t like ISU wearing white on our court.”

Never underestimate the capacity of marketing genius, my dear.

The refs tonight: John Higgins, Randy McCall and Tom Eades. Top-flight crew.

Bradley tonight will try to avenge the disaster in Normal on Jan. 30. The good news for Bradley fans is that when faced with a similar rematch against Missouri State in mid-January, one week after a 19-point loss in Springfield, Mo., the Braves returned the favor, 74-58 here. Anything can happen. That’s why we play the games.

ISU lineups are up: Osiris Eldridge, Alex Rubin, Lloyd Phillips, Tony Lewis, and Dinma Odiakosa.

Bradley goes with the usual: Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Taylor Brown and Will Egolf.

Anthem and tipoff coming up …

Well, the Braves just came back on the court, all wearing their black trunks. If the marketeers were hoping for a wild-and-crazy response from the fans, they failed. Just your normal greeting as the band strikes up “Charge On” and the players go through their final layups. The full unis are black, with white letters and numerals trimmed in red; red stripes down the sides, bordered in white.

We do not have a sellout. We do, however, have a lot more Bradley students in the house tonight.

Tipoff:

Maniscalco drives for a teardrop that gets goaltended by Odiakosa. … Controversy already: Eldridge called for over and back, but the call is overruled; claim that the ball was deflected by a BU player. … Brown scores on a baseline jumper. … Bradley’s energy level is much higher than it was in Normal, especially on D. … ISU gets an offensive rebound, but the Braves get a steal by Warren, a kickout to Roberts, who pulls up and swishes a 3 for a 7-0 lead, and Tim Jankovich wants a timeout for his Redbirds at 18:08. … Odiakosa in traffic underneath and gets his shot blocked. … Bradley hands on lots of balls. … Maniscalco a drive through the ISU defense for a lefty layup. … Eldridge finally puts the Birds on the board with an NBA 3. …

Timeout at 15:27 — Bradley 9, ISU 3

Early stats: Bradley 4-0 in the paint, 5-0 off turnovers. ISU up on the boards 5-3, including 3-0 offensive. … ISU 1-of-7 with two turnovers; BU 4-of-6 and zero miscues. …

Sam Singh and Dyricus Simms-Edwards replace Egolf and Roberts. … Austin Hill hits a 3 for the Birds, who’ve not been able to do damage inside. … Roberts back for Warren. Bradley a little ragged now on offense, but very aggressive defensively. … Nicely run fastbreak by Bradley ends with Jake Eastman getting fouled hard by Jackie Carmichael. …

Timeout at 11:52 — Bradley 11, ISU 8

Braves in the 1-3-1 zone, gives up another ORB (ISU’s sixth), and the Redbirds finally score on a second chance. … Egolf gets a soft tripping foul by standing still, and Singh comes in for him. … Now Carmichael pushes Singh to get open back door and dunks. … Nice drive by Eastman off a reverse flow left to right. …  Carmichael another ORB and dunk. … Bradley’s getting killed on the boards again. … Singh gets a tip-in for BU’s first offensive board and first second-chance points. … Now Carmichael free for a might-as-well-be-a-dunk. He’s killing the Braves inside with Odiakosa on the bench. … Bradley’s starting five back in the game together now; see if they can re-establish the defense. …

Timeout at 7:55 — Bradley 18, ISU 16

Eldridge struggling. BU hounding him all over the court; he finally gets fouled at the rim and clanks both free throws. … Roberts to Egolf on a high-low for a layup. … And Egolf strips Odiakosa and starts a break that ends with a Warren layup and Janks calling another timeout, just as the faithful get cranked up. Much of the crowd on hits feet. … Warren now penetrates and scores off a jump stop in the paint to put BU up 10. … Lewis gets free for a layup in the halfcourt.  … Great defensive play by Egolf, who sets baseline as Eldridge drives and pulls up to avoid charging. Contact, no call, and Eldridge falls OB with the ball. …

Timeout at 3:39 — Bradley 29, ISU 18

Maniscalco drives vs. the shot clock, shoots and misses and gets his own rebound, then scores on a 3 on the second chance he created. … Now ISU gets a shot-clock violation with Hill dribbling, trying to find somewhere to go. … If the Braves played defense with this intensity and execution every night (not counting the way they’ve been unable to stop Carmichael), they’d be on the NCAA bubble. … Defense like this would have turned at least four losses into wins; perhaps as many as five. …

Brown with a 3 from the corner before Lewis gets open underneath to score. …

Halftime — Bradley 35, ISU 25

Some stats: Bradley shooting 51.7 percent to ISU’s 34.5. Bradley up 18-12 in the paint and has only 3 turnovers. ISU board advantage has decreased to a respectable (for BU) 18-16. After being down 8-1 on the ORB at one point, Bradley now trails only 8-4 there, and 9-5 on second-chance points. Braves have to keep that under control in the second half. Nobody in foul trouble; four team on BU, three on ISU. …

Of course, we’ve been here before. Still a second half at home to play … Black or no black. …

And BTW, university President Joanne Glasser is wearing a red blazer. …

Second half coming up …

Phillips opens with a 3 for ISU. … Most excellent drive and pull-up floater by Brown moving across the lane.  … But now Rubin with a 3, and the margin is six. … Egolf gets too aggressive with the ball in the post and travels. … And now ISU goes block-to-block, Odiakosa to Lewis for a dunk, and Jim Les wants timeout with a 37-33 lead at 18:13. … Not that Bradley’s flat to start, but ISU is a different team. BU must respond. …

ORB putback by Odiakosa cuts the margin to two points. … The Redbirds have regained their energy on the glass, and they’re starting to D up. … Leave it to Maniscalco to stop the bleeding. He drives and hits a circus bucket, turning away from the basket on the drive to avoid contact, absorbs the foul (reaching across his arms) and spins the ball into the bucket. Makes the FT, and BU has a five-point lead again. That was a heck of a play. …

Timeout at 15:54 — Bradley 40, ISU 35

Really nice no-look pass by Simms-Edwards to Singh, wide open underneath. And SS hits the layup. … Brown with a drive on which he lost the handle twice, but still managed to score on a reverse flip-in at the rim. … Maniscalco to Egolf for a dunk in transition, and Janks wants T.O., baby. BU lead back to 10 points, as the Braves toughen up again defensively and fighting for rebounds. …

The BU band tonight is not waiting for the official “fight-song timeouts” to strike up the chorus. …

BU runs a screen and roll, Warren to Brown for a layup. … Eldridge finally scores his second FG, cutting through the lane and taking a pass, scoring the layup over Warren. O is 2-for-11 now. …

Timeout at 11:11 — Bradley 49, ISU 39

Roberts gets Bradley an ORB, and DSE takes it hard to the basket, scores on a driving bank shot while getting bumped. Tough, tough play. … After a scramble, Maniscalco is pinned against the halfcourt line, but sees Roberts in the corner, fires the ball; Roberts drives base and gets hammered by Carmichael. That had a chance to get ugly, but calmer heads and refs step in. Good, hard foul — the kind you have to make to prevent dunks and layups. Make sure the man doesn’t score if you foul. Roberts goes to the line and splits the FTs. … Bradley doing a decent job maintaining this lead around 10 points. … But now a runout by ISU for a dunk after a bad pass by Brown. Then an ill-advised 3 attempt by Brown, way early in the shot clock that has Les fuming, and now Odiakosa underneath for a dunk and he gets fouled and makes the FT. The margin is six and the pressure is on BU to regroup. … Warren misses a moving 3. … Not over yet. …

Timeout at 7:49 — Bradley 54, ISU 48

Hill scores on a spinning drive through the lane and it’s a four-point game. … Brown airballs from the corner. … Now Hill drives the paint and scores and gets fouled. Back-to-back tough plays by Hill and now a FT, and BU’s lead is down to 54-53. … Redbirds pound it inside to Odiakosa, who gets fouled on the ground. Still no bonus. BU with five team fouls, ISU with four. … Odiakosa gets a big ORB and Egolf fouls him; Egolf’s fourth. And BU has only 10 the whole game. Odiakosa at the line this time; splits for the tie. …

Crowd urging the Braves. … Blocked shots on both ends and it’s BU ball again. … Action intense and fast. Bradley has to toughen up on the boards and prevent the second chances; also needs to regain some patient aggressiveness on offense. …

Timeout at 3:18 — Bradley 54, ISU 54

DSE goes to the line; was fouled on a drive to stop the clock for the timeout. He makes both. Got to have those. … Singh gets called for grabbing Odiakosa in the post, and the ISU big man shoots a bonus situation. Tie game again. … DSE misses a 3, but in the battle, Brown gets the board and is fouled. His bonus is missed; still tied. That could haunt. … ISU takes the lead on Odiakosa banker over Singh in the post. … ISU’s first lead of the game with just over two minutes left. … Maniscalco great drive all the way down the middle for a layup over a flying big man. Tied again. … And now Hill in the paint puts ISU back in the lead. … Wild finish. … Maniscalco for 3, for the lead at 1:07, and Les calls timeout. …

Carmichael misses, rebounds own twice and finally scores for ISU lead again. … Maniscalco forces a drive and Carmichael blocks it about six rows into the stands. … Bradley needs to score and defend. …Guess that’s stating the obvious, but that’s the requirement at the moment. …

Bradley gets a break on a call after Brown knocks the ball OB. That, after Maniscalco tries to force up a 3 and then has to dump it off for a pass. Given a reprieve, Maniscalco drives the lane and flings up a prayer that misses by a yard. ISU crashes the rebound and BU fouls. Carmichael shooting the one-and-one; missed and Warren rebounds. … Brown gets an open look just inside the top of the key, but it’s way too hard. ISU rebounds, and Odiakosa is shooting with 3 seconds left. … Odiakosa misses, Brown rebounds and gets it to Maniscalco, who can’t get the long shot off in time, but misses anyway. …

And another double-digit, second-half lead goes bye-bye for the Braves at Carver Arena.

Burn the unis, please.

Final score — ISU 62, Bradley 61

The Braves will meet either New Mexico, UNLV or Utah on Saturday, Dec. 4, MVC commissioner Doug Elgin revealed Tuesday at the BU Gameday luncheon at the Michel Student Center.

Elgin, in town for tonight’s Illinois State-Bradley game, spoke to about 275 BU fans at the luncheon. He called Peoria “a model college basketball town” during his remarks, which ranged from scheduling to BracketBusters to potential NCAA tournament bids for the league.

He also reported that former MVC director of officials Jim Bain is home from being hospitalized for congestive heart failure.

Game time announcements for Valley contests that final day have been delayed in recent years to establish the best television matchup. Wichita State at Southern Illinois will be aired that day on Fox Sports Midwest and Comcast Chicago.

I will be working today at my coffee table, fashioned from some of the old bleachers at Robertson Field House:

The comforts of home supply the pregame good news. The bad news for BU fans: I’m predicting Evansville gets its first MVC win of the season today. Bradley should win, but I don’t think the Braves will. Just a gut feeling. Jim Les gets it. He expressed his concerns in Dave’s preview story. But we’ve seen too many times this season when his players don’t get it, and that’s a big reason they’re 11-11 overall and 6-6 in the Valley.

This is a must-win game for BU if it’s to stay out of the MVC tournament play-in game. Given the pileup from second through ninth place, it’s likely that a 9-9 record will wind up in some kind of tie that dips all the way to seventh place, maybe even eighth. Having already split their season series with SIU and Missouri State, and with a home loss to Creighton, the Braves are getting into a bind with tiebreakers. That will make upcoming home games with first-place UNI and second-place Wichita State even more important to win. But it would make a loss to Evansville today devastating.

At a glance, the schedule favors Bradley playing its way out of trouble. The Braves have three home games and three road games remaining. If they hold serve at home and win one road game — and today’s is the most winnable — they’ll finish with a 10-8 Valley record. Never has a 10-8 team finished as low as seventh. But 9-9 has (1997-98, BU and Evansville tied for the sixth and seventh spots). Failing to win today forces the Braves to win at either Indiana State or Creighton (or both) to win four more games.

We’ll see.

Tipoff at 4:05 p.m. …

Taylor Brown hits a tough, somewhat forced, shot off the drive for BU’s first points. … Evansville gets an offensive rebound, but misses the putback, and Bradley scores again in transition. … Lots and lots and lots of empty seats in Roberts Stadium, a joint that used to be regularly packed and rockin’. … Brown hits a 3 and he has all seven of Bradley’s points. … So far, Bradley’s energy is good: defensively active, pushing and aggressive on offense. The Braves have given up two ORBs already, though. Have to shore that up. … Sam Singh and Dyricus Simms-Edwards come in for BU, replacing Will Egolf and Chris Roberts. … Nice ORB slap-out by Singh. … Sam Maniscalco and Troy Taylor take turns burning each other on driving layups in the halfcourt. …

Timeout at 14:47 — Bradley 11, Evansville 5

Encouraging start for Bradley; this is what the Braves ought to do. They certainly can’t afford a flat start, and so far, so good. Now, they have to maintain. …

Andrew Warren picks and drives and gets fouled — maybe — going to the layup. Looked pretty clean, but there was a reach across the body to get to the ball, and that’ll get you nine times out of 10. Warren makes the FTs while the handful of Aces fans boo. … Jake Eastman in for Brown. … Now we have some confusion over whistles. Eastman travels, very obviously, but the ball goes to Bradley; apparently the whistle was because of a malfunctioning shot clock. Refs are checking at the table. Meanwhile, we see a replay of a previous possession by Bradley, and — gracious! — Warren shoots an eight-footer from the baseline that hits the side of the backboard. Awful. He’s really having trouble. … Two seconds taken off the shot clock, and BU sets its offense, and Maniscalco drives like Patton through Sicily for a layup. … Trading baskets, though. … Nice move in the paint by Brown: drive, stop, pivot, duck and flip it in. … Strong rebound by Egolf, followed by a foul as he tries to poke a ball from behind. …

Timeout at 11:49 — Bradley 17, Evansville 9

Good grief. Roberts has the ball on a 3-on-1 break, keeps it and charges. Dish it, dude! … Last couple of Evansville baskets have been at the rim. Bradley has to stop this penetration. … Illegal screen by Singh, but Roberts moved with the ball before Singh could set it. Have to use the screens properly. … Brown hits a pair of FTs for a 10-point lead; he has 11 of the Braves’ 21 points. … Anthony Thompson!!!!!! Sticks makes a first-half appearance for the first time in decades. OK, not decades; just seems that way. And a turnover on a pass from Sticks to DSE. … Bradley in 2-3 zone. … Back in a man on the next possession, and Sticks gets a blocked shot. … Maniscalco banks a 3-pointer off a high screen from Sticks. …

Timeout at 7:01 — Bradley 24, Evansville 14

Well, Bradley came ready to play. I wasn’t sure that would happen. Perhaps my prediction will be wrong. …

Maniscalco misses a FT, but Sticks taps out the ORB. Thompson is making the most of his opportunity. That’s really good to see. Use this kid. If he can contribute every game, Bradley’s options expand significantly. For one, the Braves can go bigger; play him and Egolf in tandem sometimes. Doesn’t have to be whole games, but I’d love to see 8-10 minutes a game when the Braves are playing two true bigs. … Ouch. I knew this game was a tad sloppy, but each team has committed eight turnovers so far. … Warren drives in the halfcourt for a layup in traffic. … Roberts extends the BU lead to 13 points with a pair of FTs. … Bradley back in zone, a 1-3-1. Seems to mixing defenses more today. … Another block by Thompson, who flies out of his middle spot to slap a shot on the perimeter. Keep it up, Sticks. Braves need this dimension and depth. … Another strong drive by Warren. … Boom! Thompson dunks off a nice high-low pass from Roberts. …

Timeout at 3:44 — Bradley 32, Evansville 20

Thompson picks up his second foul trying to stop a baseline drive at the rim. Left naked. … Really would like to see what BU could do going double-bigs in this game. … Oops. Evansville gets two second-chances and converts the second. Don’t go soft on that again. … Bradley’s aggressiveness on offense is getting the Braves to the line. Converting for the most part. Eastman splits a pair. Can’t figure out why this kid isn’t better at the line, because he has the look of a good shooter. But he’s 7-of-16 for the season right now. Ick. …

Halftime — Bradley 37, Evansville 26

Pretty good half for the Braves. Need another one.

Some off-topic thoughts at halftime:

All this NCAA tournament expansion talk: Be careful what you wish for. I heard Jay Bilas on ESPN College GameDay this morning warn about the unintended consequences, and he’s right. We all know money is driving this sudden burst of expansion mania, but for crying out loud, be careful. During my interview the other day with new Bradley athletics director Michael Cross, he cited his “favorite” quote, from Frederick C. Klein of the Wall Street Journal, published in George Will’s book, “The Morning After.” Said Klein: “The more prosperous a sport becomes, the more likely it is to destroy the reasons for its prosperity.” Amen.

I know a lot of so-called mid-major people are jumping on board with expansion because they fear the at-larges are being unfairly taken away by the BCS schools. I know the trend since 2006 has been downward for non-BCS bids, but I maintain that has been more a reflection of the slippage of quality among the non-BCS ranks. Be careful. The non-BCS are coming back with a vengeance this year. We still have several weeks before Selection Sunday, but look at the RPI ranks: Six non-BCS teams in the Top 20 — Rhode Island, New Mexico, Northern Iowa, Temple, Butler and BYU. Thirteen more in the top 50. I think we’ll definitely see multiple bids going to the Atlantic-10 and Mountain West, and likely multiple bids to the Valley, the West Coast and the CAA, and possibly to C-USA. …

Second half coming up …

Evansville goes low to Clint Hopf for its first points of the second half. … Egolf counters with an open J. … Aces get another ORB and second-chance basket. … Trading baskets. No damage because of an 11-point lead, but you want to step on the last-place team’s throat; strong second-half start and put them away. … Braves overall doing a good job on Colt Ryan, UE frosh who averages 15 a game; he has only six points. … Brown having a good offensive day; jumper one possession, pair of FTs on the next, and he has 15 points. … Warren hits a 3 and … whistles! Got some pushing off the ball. Discussion. They’ll count the 3 and call a double-foul, on Roberts and somebody from UE. …

Timeout at 15:42 — Bradley 50, Evansville 41

There’s a tough foul against Egolf. Going for a loose ball, gets tangled up. His problem was being behind the Evansville man and trying to reach for the ball; he didn’t have the inside position in the chase. Good hustle; bad break. … Warren extends the lead to 21 on a pair of FTs. … This is encouraging: Bradley doing what it should do to the last-place team on the road: Controlling the game. … Now Warren is heating up, a baseline jumper for his 17th point. … Brown joins him with 17 on a tough basket in the post. Marty Simmons has seen enough and wants a timeout for his Aces. …

Bradley up 56-33. … Braves have made seven of eight second-half shots. … Warren strokes another 3. Bye-bye, slump. … Bradley dropping the hammer; great pass from DSE to Brown on the break and BU is up by 26. … Now 28 on a pick-and-roll, Brown to Singh. … Ryan finally hits a 3 for the Aces, but barring a Bradley collapse, it’s way too little too late. …

Timeout at 10:26 — Bradley 65, Evansville 42

A little sloppy in the 45 seconds before the timeout. … Still sloppy. Not responding well to some aggressive Evansville D on the perimeter, and a bad handoff from Eastman to DSE. … Evansville converts and the margin is back to 20. … Quick shot by BU misses, but Evansville turns it over and Warren scores on a breakaway, taking a lead pass from Roberts. … Now, that timeout by Les right after the Warren basket made total sense: Chew on DSE for the quick shot. The last couple of minutes have not been good, and the lead has eroded by about 25 percent. Address the problem. … Evansville cuts it to 18 points. … Maniscalco hits the 3 after a patient sequence with good ball movement. First good possession in a while for the Braves. …

Timeout at 6:54 — Bradley 70, Evansville 49

Braves will win this one despite some rather poor work under Evansville’s basket. Killer in a close game, but the Braves are doing so many other things well, they’ll get by with that weakness today. … Brown scores again. I think both he and Warren are over 20 points now. … Ryan hits another 3, and he’s in double digits. He might reach his average, but he will not have had a significant impact on this game. BU did nice job taking him out. … Roberts a big dunk. …

Timeout at 3:51 — Bradley 75, Evansville 54

Braves have done a good job today. They took control early, built a lead, kept piling it up. There was the bad 2-3 minute stretch midway through the second half, when this was on the verge of being a 30-point game, and it slipped back to 18, but the Aces haven’t seriously challenged BU control since the first 10 minutes. …

Milos Knezevic in for Bradley. …

This will be Bradley’s third Valley road win, with two roadies to play. What’s maddening about that is that the Braves have lost two home games, thereby giving back two of those road wins. Worse, the home losses were not to teams in contention for the title — UNI and Wichita State still haven’t visited Peoria, so the prospect of further home losses is substantial. If the Braves had taken care of business at home, they’d be 9-4 after this one buzzers, and in a real battle for second place. Now, they’re in a fight for their lives to stay out of Thursday night in the tournament. The Braves have to raise their play a couple of levels and tough out wins in the remaining home games. …

Ryan Phillips hits a 3 in the final minute. … Bradley runs out the clock — oops, no: lob to Sticks misses. Get it back and run it out.

Final score: Bradley 83, Evansville 63

Pregame notes

The refs tonight are Scott Thornley, John “Baywatch” Higgins and Steve Olson. That’s a terrific crew. Higgins is a Final Four vet. He has been doing Valley games for a long time. I remember first seeing him in the early 1990s, when some Bradley fans I was sitting with dropped the “Baywatch” tag on him. He was always tan in mid-winter, and had that surfer-boy hair. But he’s a good ref. Likes to let them play inside.

Bradley will maintain the same starting lineup: Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Taylor Brown and Will Egolf. Drake will start Ryan Wedel, Frank Wiseler, Josh Young, Adam Templeton and Seth VanDeest.

Drake has won six of its last seven and is in the three-way tie for third place in the MVC at 6-5. Bradley has lost two in a row after a three-game winning streak, and the Braves are 5-6, in the three-way tie for sixth.

This is a must-win game for Bradley in its quest to avoid the play-in game at the MVC tournament next month. The Braves cannot afford to lose any more home games. Bradley won the previous encounter, at Des Moines, 67-59. … And it was announced today that the Bradley-Drexel game in the BracketBuster will be at 7:05 p.m. on Feb. 20, at Carver Arena. No TV for that one.

Off Topic … while we wait for tipoff:

Today is the anniversary of Buddy Holly’s final concert, at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. And Wednesday is the 51st anniversary of “The Day the Music Died,” when Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (a.k.a. the Big Bopper) died in a small airplane crash in the wee hours. They were on the “Winter Dance Party Tour,” which was scheduled to stop on Valentine’s Day in Peoria and play the Armory. The tour, in fact, went on, with Waylon Jennings filling in along the way for Holly. Holly’s former band, The Cricketts, stepped up and joined the tour after his death as well.

Last fall, I visited the Buddy Holly museum in Lubbock, Texas; his hometown.

I also visited the tribute to Buddy outside the civic auditorium. Nice little garden with plaques commemorating other West Texas artists. But the statue is all Buddy:

A moment of silence for Buddy, Ritchie and the Bopper …

Tipoff coming up. …

Bradley pounds inside to Egolf on first possession; he can’t score, but that was definitive as to what they want to do. … Drake over-and-back on its first, with a deflection off Young’s foot. … Roberts puts BU on the board first with a 3 from the right wing. … Templeton drives the paint and scores over Egolf. … Maniscalco gets to the paint and kicks to Warren for a 3, which he makes. … Egolf gets his first foul at 18:03, and Sam Singh replaces him. That was quick. … Bradley gets second-chance points after Singh gets an ORB. … Drake counters with three second-chance points after a long rebound eludes everyone and goes right to Wedel. … Lots of scoring. Both teams shooting well. …

Timeout at 14:48 — Drake 11, Bradley 10

My colleague Dave Reynolds, the Illinois Sportswriter of the Year, just pointed out Singh has one rebound per minute right now: three. That’s as many as the entire Drake team. Of course, there have been only eight missed shots and we’ve played barely five minutes. …

The pace stays fast after the timeout with each team scoring in the first 25 seconds of resumed play. … Dyricus Simms-Edwards is in for Roberts, and Egolf comes back for Singh. … Simms-Edwards a nice strong drive to the bucket for two. … And he follows with a strong defensive rebound — and then a 3 in secondary transition as he trails the play downcourt. … Maniscalco drives base for a layup, and Bradley is on a seven-point run. … Bradley’s energy level much better tonight. … Whoooo! Sweet baseline drive by Young for a hang, float-under-the-rim, high-spinning reverse layup. …

Timeout at 11:32 — Bradley 21, Drake 18

Bradley getting to the paint every time down. … Drake is there on most of its possessions, too. … Egolf goes for a nice ORB and gets the putback. Very strong, crossing the lane from right to left and splitting two Bulldogs to get the ball. Nice nose. … Drake is much better than when we saw the B-dogs right after Christmas. Infinitely more confident and fluid on offense. Defense, a matchup zone, ain’t much to talk about so far. … Bradley has been mostly man, with some zone; and so-so. … Bradley’s FT shooting is not even so-so in the early going: 3-for-6. … Wedel filling it up for Drake; already has 15 points; only one 3-pointer for the shortest man on the court (he’s 5-11). Driving through Bradley like the Braves took ex-lax before the game. …

Timeout at 7:01 — Bradley 30, Drake 26

Here’s a disturbing set of numbers: Drake is only 2-of-10 from the 3-point arc, but 10-of-13 inside. Bulldogs winning the paint 12-10 at this point. …

Young beats Roberts off the dribble, then splits the entire Bradley defense, right down the middle, for a layup and gets fouled. Converts, and it’s a one-point game again. … Yeesh: I don’t know if Baywatch started to count late, or just has a slow count, but Roberts was hounding Young on the dribble for more than five seconds; right on his butt, with no separation. Young couldn’t shake him and finally was able to pass off. I’d love to see a replay and count that one. I’m thinking seven seconds at least, from start to pass. … News flash! — Bradley makes two consecutive FTs; both by Brown. … Young limps out of the game; doesn’t look too serious. … Finally, a really good defensive stand by the Braves, forcing a bad 3 at the shot clock buzzer. And the next time down, Roberts erases a shot inside. …

Timeout at 3:05 — Bradley 32, Drake 29

So far this has been an entertaining game. More offense than defense, but that’s OK sometimes. At some point, though, you have to stop the other team. … The effort for Bradley is better on that end, although the execution leaves room for a lot of improvement. …

Now Brown gets beat on a drive, then beaten again for the rebound and the putback, as Drake regains the lead. … Egolf gets an ORB and putback to put BU back on top. … Lead changes mounting; I think we’re up to 10 with Maniscalco’s 3-pointer. … NEWS FLASH: That basket puts Maniscalco in the Bradley 1,000-point Club, with 1,002 points for his career. Congrats, Sammy. …

Bradley ending the half on a positive note; starting with Sammy’s 3, followed by him assisting Brown for a jumper. Now a stop and BU holds for the final possession, which Maniscalco ends with another 3. …

Halftime — Bradley 42, Drake 35

Some stats: Bradley shooting 55 percent, Drake 44. The Bulldogs are 2-of-14 from the arc, and the Braves are 5-of-9. … Bradley leads the boards 19-16; tied 6-6 on offensive glass. … Drake leads points in paint 16-12 and second-chance points 9-8. … Considering the pace, both teams taking care of the ball: Bradley 5 turnovers, Drake 3. Bradley has only one steal, Drake three. … Wedel leads all scorers with 15; has taken (and missed) only one shot since reaching that point total in the first nine minutes of play. … Maniscalco has 12 points, Brown 8 points with 4 rebounds. …

Second half

Egolf picks up his second foul of the game at 19:01. Only Bradley’s seventh of the game. But now Roberts gets a foul, Bradley’s third of the half and eighth of the game. Young cuts the lead to five with the FTs. … Young goes down again, but this time he’s holding his mouth. He comes out to avoid Drake having to call time. … Wiseler drives for a layup through the BU defense, and the Braves commit a turnover. Young back in, and it’s another slow second-half start in the making for Bradley. … Templeton posts up Brown and dusts him, cutting the lead to a point. … Egolf picks up his third foul with 17:04 to go, and Bradley is not looking good. … DSE in for Roberts, Singh in for Egolf. … Another Bradley turnover. … Great block by Brown in transition, andWarren picks up the pinball scramble. … First real spark of life in the Braves this half. … Brown gets fouled and scores BU’s first second-half points with a pair of FTs. … Singh deflects an entry pass and BU on the move again, until Warren throws it away. …

Timeout at 15:46 — Bradley 44, Drake 41

Well, I told you Higgins lets them play. Templeton just decked Roberts with his left arm on a baseline drive and scored. Higgins let it go. … Roberts responds with a 3, so maybe the no-call got him fired up. … Now Templeton flies through a host of Braves for a transition tipin. Inexcusable letting anyone get to the rim like that. … Well, Roberts gets the break on this one. Thornley lets Roberts put his shoulder into his man and run over him; calls the foul on Wiseler. … Turnovers mounting. An exchange of turnovers ends with Maniscalco on a fastbreak layup for Bradley and a foul, but he can’t hit the FT. Bradley still up four points, so the Braves survived the opening onslaught without giving up the lead. … Roberts a 3 from the corner after a nice passing sequence for BU. … Now DSE leads a BU break and hits Brown in stride for the layup. Mark Phelps wants timeout; can’t wait for the under-12 with Bradley running out to a nine-point advantage like that. …

BTW, crowd announced at 8,670. Not close to that in the building, though. Lots of empties among the season-ticket areas. And the student sections: lots of long, empty rows. Sad. … The enthusiasm of those here is all right, though. …

Timeout at 10:48 — Bradley 54, Drake 47

The difference in this game, statistically, is the 3-point line. Bradley is 7-of-12, and Drake is 2-of-19. That’s a 15-point swing for Bradley, which is shooting selectively and well. Drake isn’t getting many open looks, but the Bulldogs have countered that until the last couple of minutes with effective inside play and putbacks. …

Bradley now has seven turnovers this half. … Singh is a board monster tonight; just grabbed his eighth. Templeton has a dozen for Drake, though. … Young finally breaks a Drake 3 drought; the Bulldogs are now 3-for-22. …

Timeout at 7:55 — Bradley 54, Drake 50

Bradley has to find a way to score inside. Egolf throttled tonight. BU has only four points out of him and Singh combined. Also, BU is having a bad night at the line; just 8-for-14 now after Maniscalco splits for the second time tonight. Even the best FT shooters are off. … Nice tapout offensive rebound by Singh. That’s his career high for a single game: nine. … Young hits another 3 and the margin is down to a pair. …Second half much slower and in the halfcourt sets. … Maniscalco scores and Jim Les calls one of his “We just scored, so I must call a timeout” timeouts. … VanDeest scores in the post for Drake, and this one seems destined for the wire. … Tough shot by Maniscalco in the paint, followed by a steal by Warren and Brown gets fouled. He makes both, and the lead is back to six. … Breathing room, but not enough to relax. …

Timeout at 3:55 — Bradley 61, Drake 55

Shot-clock violation on the Braves. Warren’s 3 from the corner is deflected and misses the rim; ball on floor when the clock expires. … Young begging to take over for Drake. He came out of the timeout and made a pair of FTs. Now he drives and gets fouled by Roberts. Bonus situation, and Young makes both; two-point game again. … Maniscalco replies to Young; gets a tough drive to the paint, fake and spin for a bucket. … But Warren fouls Young quickly on the other end, and Young makes both. We have a showdown between a couple of tough veteran guards. … Roberts misses a layup — and a putback of his own miss. … Drake cuts the lead to one on a VanDeest FT. …

And what a finish! Wild and crazy. Maniscalco misses a 3, but Egolf tips it in. Drake answers with a 3 by Templeton to tie, and BU sets for a last shot with 16 seconds left. Maniscalco takes a 3, misses, but Egolf is on the spot again with the rebound, which he grabs and tosses back at the basket, falling away. Swisho. Drake desperation at the buzzer misses.

Final score — Bradley 67, Drake 65

The refs today are Gerry Pollard, Tom O’Neill and Steve Skiles. This will be interesting. Bradley coach Jim Les has had some run-ins with Skiles and Pollard over the years. …

Lineups: Bradley goes with Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Taylor Brown, Will Egolf. ISU goes with Osiris Eldridge, Alex Rubin, Lloyd Phillips, Jackie Carmichael, Dinma Odiakosa. …

Tipoff …

ISU goes inside to Odiakosa for the first points. … Brown answers with a jumper from the elbow for Bradley. … Brown forces a shot from the wing; might have been partially deflected, but it airs. … O hits a 3. … Now he airs a 3. … Roberts guarding O in the man defense. … And Roberts comes back and takes advantage of O sagging to hit a 3 of his own and tie the score at 5. … Warren gets a stolen pass and breakaway dunk. … Egolf called for a foul, as Odiakosa powers in the post. … Sam Singh and Dyricus Simms-Edwards enter for Bradley, replacing Egolf and Roberts. …

The students get started with, “F-U BU”. They just say the letters. And now comes a “BS” chant — with the words fully enunciated. …

Timeout at 15:25 — Bradley 7, ISU 7

Singh got fouled to stop the clock for the TO; fouled in the post. Makes both free throws. … The Braves lose track of Eldridge — I’ll be calling him “O” because everybody does — and he scores easily. … Eldridge making things happen. He drives base, draws double coverage and shovels a pass to the post for a layin, then comes back with a long 3. … Bradley’s offense starts to stutter a little. … Les calls a 30-second timeout, down five points. … Nice hard drive by DSE and he gets fouled. He has been only a .536 FT shooter, and he splits these. Like his game, but that’s got to get better. … Bradley works hard to get a rebound after an ISU miss, finally clears it, and Maniscalco fires too long and OB, going for the fast basket. …

Timeout at 11:45 — ISU 14, Bradley 10

All the coaches for both teams are in gym shoes today; part of the national Coaches vs. Cancer effort. …

Bradley steal and Maniscalco takes it the distance for a nice scoop under a flying Eldridge. … Another steal, this by DSE; can’t capitalize, though. … Fairly physical game, but the refs are mostly letting them play so far. … Bradley bad possession. Lots of perimeter dribbling and screening, but nobody cutting inside/low. Finally Maniscalco forces a guarded 3 against the clock. … Then the defense yields another post bucket. … Eddren McCain strolls onto the court with his right hand bandaged. He injured it a week or so ago in practice and hasn’t played since. … He plays some hustling D, pushes the pace on offense and overthrows Brown on the break. … McCain gets called for foul in the post, and the students do a routine with the band, chanting: “You can’t do that.” Points for that. Much better than the “You (commit sodomy)” chant they used to do. … Phillips beats McCain to the basket for a layup in the halfcourt. … Warren hits a 3 to keep Bradley hanging in. … Odiakosa escapes to get a thoroughly unmolested backdoor pass for a dunk. … Roberts drives, goes airborne with noplace to land or shoot and fires a bad pass that McCain tries to save but can’t because he slams into Pollard, the ref. …

Timeout at 6:15 — ISU 21, Bradley 16

Braves’ defense today is spotty, but not letting ISU get away too far.

Twice BU goes 1-3-1 zone; once gets a turnover, once a forced miss. … Bradley briefly ties the score on a 3 by Brown, but Eldridge unties. … And now Odiakosa flies between three Bradley guys for a rebound jam. That gets the crowd going, and now BU turns over, fast breaks and gets a second-chance off the miss. Rebound is good, and Les calls timeout again. … That went from a tie to a six-point spread in about 100 seconds. … Maniscalco hits a 3, his first; was just about to say the Redbirds are doing a good job defending him. … Austin Hill answers with a 3 for ISU. …

Timeout at 1:39 — ISU 30, Bradley 24

Braves already have nine turnovers; getting close to their full-game average. Most have been unforced, too.

The best thing you can say about the Braves right now is they’re not letting this game get out of hand. Need to keep it that way the rest of the half. … They go to a 1-3-1 again out of the timeout, and ISU seems confused again, so Tim Jankovich calls timeout. … More second-chance points for the Redbirds. That’s 12 so far; BU had been doing better on that front, but not today. … Now the Braves give up a backdoor. … Can’t get a good shot on the final possession.

Halftime — ISU 35, Bradley 26

Some stats: Bradley shooting 42.9 percent, ISU 44.1. … ISU owns the boards, 20-13, and 8-1 offensive. Birds up 12-0 on second-chance points and 22-4 in the paint. Bradley has owned the paint against opponents the past several games, but can’t get there today. Redbirds doing a good defensive job, and BU showing zero patience. … Bradley hanging around only because its defense is decent. Not real good, but decent. … Braves also have 9 turnovers, which have resulted in 11 points for ISU. Add it up: Two-thirds of ISU’s points are on second chances and BU turnovers. …

Brown has 8 points and Maniscalco 7. Egolf is scoreless. Warren has 5. Odiakosa has 11 for ISU, and Eldridge 10. Eight of nine Redbirds have at least one rebound.

Second half

Noteworthy: DSE starts the second half instead of Roberts. Bradley continues to struggle to get the ball inside with any kind of shot. … ISU scores twice in the post, so the paint pounding is up to 26-4. … This is on the verge of getting messy. … Egolf, frustrated, gets called for his third foul in the post. … Roberts replaces DSE at 17:27. … Phillips hits a 3, and Bradley turns it over again. … Braves finally get an ORB, and Warren quickly jacks a guarded 3; a line-drive miss. … The Braves can’t buy a basket anyplace, inside or out. …

Timeout at 15:30 — ISU 43, Bradley 27

Dude just won wings for the whole building; banked in his second half-court shot after swishing the 3, after the first one, either a layup or FT, I didn’t see. Big roar and standing O. Free wings! Woo-hoo!

Brown drives and gets his shot blocked. … ISU quick-shoots a long 3 and misses, and BU rebounds — and immediately turns it over again. The ball-handling is awful. … ISU getting inside at will, whether Will is in or not. Redbirds don’t always convert, but they’re getting there. … Just noting, we haven’t seen Jake Eastman today. Energy guy, no minutes. … And the Braves are broke on offense. They’re 0-for-9 to start the half. … Maniscalco finally breaks that cold streak with a tough drive, spin and mid-range jumper. … Singh and Roberts combine for an ORB, but Roberts can’t get the putback to fall. … Egolf returns. … Yet another backdoor pass and layup for ISU, combo’d with a foul on Egolf, who is just having one of those days. Tony Lewis rebounds the missed FT for ISU and puts it back to run the lead to 19 points. … Well, not everything is going right for the Birds: Rubin just missed a breakaway layup with nobody around him. …

Timeout at 11:28 — ISU 48, Bradley 29

Too early to say this one is over?

Bradley’s defensive effort has vanished. Very little resistance now. Wonder if they’ll regain some of that down the stretch. … Egolf back in, and he makes two FTs, meaning Bradley has four of those and two points off field goals this half. … Well, there was a spark of defensive energy. Manisalco harrasses Rubin all the way up the court, and then Brown forces Lewis to travel on the perimeter. … But Bradley immediately throws the ball away. … Warren gets outraced to a a rebound, but it goes off two ISU guys and OB. … Maniscalco trying to fire up the team, clapping, talking. … Braves in zone the past two possessions, this time a 1-3-1. … Forces an ISU turnover. … Pretty good return for BU on the 1-3-1. … But offensively … Yeesh! Brown runs down an ORB, and DSE finds an open path, drives to the paint — and whistles! Singh called for camping in the lane. DSE scores a fastbreak layup, Bradley’s second FG of the half, cutting the score to 48-35, and Janks calls time out for ISU. … Well, a little bit of fire by the Braves. …

Official timeout at 7:45 — ISU 48, Bradley 35

Bradley has been playing exclusive zone, trying to shut down the middle, but Odiakosa gets loose in the post and scores again. The Birds are up 32-6 in the paint now. … Warren hits a 3, cutting the margin to a dozen, and Les calls one of his “We score and I call timeout” timeouts. … More second-chance points — a 3 by Phillips, and the Birds are up 22-0 in that department now. … Now the ISU 3s are raining, as the Birds just whip the ball around the Bradley zone until they find a wide-open shooter; this time Eldridge. … The ISU students are chanting: “Go Home, Bradley!” … Best chant they’ve had all day. And they didn’t even have to hint at dirty words to do it. …

Now it’s “Drive Home Safely!” Impressive. Two chants in a row with no obscenities intended. …

DSE drives for a pair. Bradley 4-for-21 in second half. … And the life is gone. …

Eastman checks in. His right hand is wrapped, so maybe that’s why he hasn’t been in yet. Wouldn’t matter if he has only one hand now. This one is way over.

Timeout at 3:49 — ISU 60, Bradley 42

Singh goes for a steal of an entry pass and Odiakosa exploits him with a two-hand jam. …

Les puts in bench exiles Anthony Thompson and Milos Knezevic…. Thompson scores! A little stickback after an ORB. …

Time will run out, after yet another ISU offensive rebound. This has been a butt-kicking.

Final score — ISU 66, Bradley 47