Lesson learned

The turning point of the Bradley Braves’ season was painful in more ways than one.

Following the Braves’ ugly 86-74 loss at Milwaukee on a snowy Dec. 20 in Wisconsin, the BU coaching staff decided the team had gotten too comfortable in its 5-5 start.

“We were at a crossroads,” said head coach Jim Les. “As a staff, we were frustrated that we weren’t putting these guys in the best situations to have success. The players were struggling with confidence and looked lost. It looked like we weren’t going to have Andrew (Warren), and we knew we needed to change.

“So we decided to make it about getting back to earning your stripes. Nobody had a spot in the rotation. We took away the locker room, we took away their Bradley gear and they had to get dressed in the hallways or outside the gym. Nobody did their wash for them, and there were no nice pregame meals. The way they are treated by this university, the luxuries they have because of the people who paved the way for them, I wanted them to understand their responsibilities.”
Toughness drills were instituted in practice and two players came away with chipped teeth, another with a concussion. A defense-first, tough-it-out mentality was being force fed.

“We didn’t expect them to win every game, just fight and work harder,” Les said. “We wanted them to be able to look back and say we made something out of this season.”

The victories came right away with a season-long five-game winning streak that included a 4-0 start in the Missouri Valley Conference. The locker room was re-opened prior to the home game against a 14-0 Illinois State team that left town 14-1.

“During that period, we established a mentality and began to understand who we were and what our commitment was,” Les said. “You saw the maturity and the confidence of this group start to emerge.”

The rigors of the MVC season and the losses of both Warren and center Will Egolf caught up to a BU team that was short on size and outside shooting. The Braves still finished fourth at 10-8 and beat Southern Illinois in the opening round of the Valley tournament before falling to eventual champion Northern Iowa in the semifinals. At 18-14 overall, Bradley earned an invitation to the inaugural CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament, the sixth welcome to a first-ever event for the program.

BU was awarded the top seed and four home games, beating Austin Peay, Oakland and Pacific before falling to a rugged Old Dominion team 66-62 in the title contest. It marked the second year in a row the Braves have lost in the championship game of an inaugural tournament, falling to Tulsa in the College Basketball Invitational last year.

“Losing twice in a row in a championship game provides us with life lessons,” guard Sam Maniscalco said. “It will make us a better team and make us better people because we’ll work harder.”

Maniscalco turned in a solid sophomore season, leading the team in minutes played and ranking second in scoring and assists. Senior forward Theron Wilson was rewarded with a first-team all-MVC plaque, richly deserved as the team’s top scorer and rebounder despite having a big target on his back.

“Theron made the adjustment from the third or fourth option to the forefront and gave us consistent production,” Les said. “And Sammy handled a drastically different role as a focal point of our offense extremely well. As a sophomore, that’s a big role to fill, and he did it very well playing through injuries.”

Only Wilson, center David Collins and four-year walk-on Brian Lavin graduate.

The losses of Egolf and Warren, who both will receive an extra season of eligibility as medical hardship cases, meant the five newcomers, including true freshmen Eddren McCain, Darian Norris and Taylor Brown, were thrust into significant roles from the beginning. Junior college transfers Dodie Dunson and Chris Roberts went from top backups to starting lineup mainstays.

“They knew and we knew we were throwing them to the wolves,” Les said. “They could have either run and hid or fought through it and matured and grew. They certainly grew from the experience. We feel some of the hardships we went through will pay dividends going forward. We didn’t like having to play this season without Andrew and Will. Now that we’ve survived, it’s a good feeling knowing they’ll be around for a while.”

The player who grew the most was the 5-foot-11 McCain, who went from a tentative freshman afraid to shoot to a confident point guard running the show.

“Eddren wouldn’t take a shot from more than five feet early in the year,” said fifth-year senior center Sam Singh. “He finished shooting 3s off the dribble and making plays for himself and everybody else.”

As it turned out, McCain’s development hastened the departure of Norris from the program. It moved Maniscalco to the off guard and lessened Norris’ minutes at that spot. The 5-11 guard from Las Vegas requested and was granted his release this week. Norris’ spot on the roster was immediately taken by incoming 6-4 freshman Jake Eastman.

With a pair of 6-8 freshmen — Jordan Prosser and Milos Knezevic — joining the frontcourt along with Singh, Egolf and Anthony Thompson, the Braves should be better equipped for the rebounding wars that await them in what will be an even more competitive MVC.

It will be a crucial year for Bradley, which hasn’t finished higher than fourth in Les’ seven years on the Hilltop as injuries and the early departure of Patrick O’Bryant to the NBA have left the many loyal fans of the program wanting for more.

“I certainly feel Jim and his staff should be commended,” said BU athletics director Ken Kavanagh. “It was an overall positive season. The postseason opportunities have been good for the program. Our attendance (regular-season average of 10,019) remains good. With the collective picture of what we’re doing and the academic success of the team, I’m very happy.” 

Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or at dreynolds@pjstar.com.