As Bradley heads down the home stretch of the Missouri Valley Conference regular basketball season, the next challenge is tougher than it looks.
BU (11-11, 6-6) will meet winless Evansville (6-16, 0-12) at4:05 p.m. Saturday in hopes of not becoming the Purple Aces’ first Valley victim.
“That’s a good basketball team that’s certainly capable,” BU coach Jim Les said about the Aces. “They run their motion (offense) very well. I expressed to the guys that anything other than great effort and concentration and we could be sent home disappointed.”
Despite their many disappointments this season, the Braves, who have won at Roberts Stadium three of the last four years, still harbor realistic expectations of a first-division finish in the MVC standings.
After runaway leader Northern Iowa (11-1) and basement-dwelling Evansville, any kind of order is possible from second to ninth place.
Wichita State, at 8-4, is just three games ahead of Missouri State and Southern Illinois, tied for eighth at 5-7. Three other teams — Illinois State, Indiana State and Drake — are deadlocked at 6-6 with the Braves.
“We talk to them about the importance of each game having consequences to it,” Les said. “We’re in position to control our destiny and there can be no letup.”
Bradley beat Evansville 74-64 in Peoria two weeks ago. The 10-point spread was indicative of most of the Purple Aces’ Valley losses.
The young team has not been blown out and has been outscored by an average of a dozen points. Of their five MVC home games so far, four of the defeats were by single digits.
”The lack of success is a learning process for all of us,” Evansville coach Marty Simmons said. “It’s difficult. But we’ve tried to stay positive and feel we’ve gotten better.
”We just haven’t gotten over that hump to where we’ve made enough plays to win basketball games. Even though we haven’t gotten the wins, the kids have responded to how we’ve challenged them.”
Especially two promising freshmen — guards Colt Ryan and Ned Cox.
Ryan is the Aces’ top scorer, at 15.5 points per game, and is coming off an impressive 31-point performance at Creighton. Cox, a top substitute, scored 12 vs. Creighton.
“Ryan is playing at a high level,” Les said. “I’m impressed, not just with his shooting, but with the work he does before he catches the ball.”
Bradley’s top scorer, Andrew Warren, has been going the other direction of late.
In the last seven games, he’s averaged 10.4 points and is shooting only 29.5 percent from the field. The junior guard’s turnovers have also been high, 3.6 per outing during that stretch.
Les’ staff put together an edited film of Warren’s last few games and reviewed it with him this week.
”Teams are really focusing on him and trying to limit his touches and opportunities,” Les said. “That’s part of it. We’ve also talked to him about staying confident and aggressive.
”There’s a little frustration because he knows he can play better. That’s what you like because it means a lot to him. He can work his way out of it by being more fundamentally sound, not forcing the action, taking good shots and trusting in your teammates.”
It’s a formula the Braves must use team-wide Saturday.
Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or dreynolds@pjstar.com.
