Any early optimism stemming from the Braves’ 54-53 season opening win over the Ball State Cardinals was completely acceptable.
No one knew how these young Braves would play against Division I talent, and last Friday exemplified a team that warranted positive reviews.
While the game itself wasn’t perfect, the Braves were clearly the better team. Bradley rallied back from an eight-point deficit with seven minutes left, using the same lineup for the remainder of the game.
The fact that head coach Brian Wardle didn’t sub for the last seven minutes gets quite a bit more interesting when you factor in the reality that said lineup was five freshmen.
Yup. Five freshmen from five different countries, in their first collegiate game no less, rallied to win against a D-I school without much preparation.
“We didn’t have any film on Ball State, I’m sure they probably had a hard time finding any film on us, so you go into it trying to trust your principles,” Wardle said. “It’s more about your team than the other team.”
The game itself was a thriller. With 12 lead changes throughout the course of the game, Bradley looked like a team with 10 players who had never played in a collegiate game before.
“We’ve been training for this day, preparing for this day, and I didn’t think we played the best we could,” freshman guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye, who laid in 18 points against Ball State, said. “I do think we can get better, but I think we battled, kept going. Everybody contributed at some point, and just the relief it pays off is big.”
However, down the stretch, the Braves looked like the opposite, as they rattled off a 15-8 run to steal a win from the visiting Cardinals.
Any glee from Bradley’s first win evaporated as the Braves traveled to the University of Arizona to take on the No. 12 Wildcats Monday, and then to Charleston to face No. 6 University of Virginia.
The Braves were completely outmatched by their ranked opponents, losing to Arizona 90-60 and to Virginia 82-57.
Wardle’s team actually held its own against Arizona for a half at the McKale Center, trailing by only six at the half 39-33.
However, the Braves fell victim to personal fouls in the second half, as they committed 35 fouls and sent Arizona to the line 52 times, which tied a record set by Evansville in 2004.
Even though the young Braves got lit up in the desert, they still garnered praise from the opposing coach.
“We were playing on our heels in the first half,” Arizona head coach Sean Miller said in a press release. “They played really hard. I thought they did a great job of what they do. They have an excellent coach who has a very young team playing exceptionally hard and exceptionally together.”
Three days later, the Braves took on No. 6 Virigina, and found themselves overpowered again by Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers.
Bradley played Viriginia close for the first 13 minutes of the game and held a three-point lead after Luuk van Bree hit three of his game high 16 points to put the Braves up 22-19.
Bradley woke up the sleeping Virginia giant after that, as the Cavaliers steamrolled the Braves with an 18-3 run to end the half. That domination continued into the second half, and the Cavs never showed mercy in their 82-57 romp of the Braves.
After the game, Wardle was critical of his young team’s defense.
“I’m dissapointed in how we guarded again,” Wardle said. “Fifty-six percent from the floor is just unacceptable in this program, and it just won’t be tolerated.”
Bradley stood little to no chance against two of the best teams in the country, and all Wardle and the Braves can do is look toward the next game tonight against Seton Hall.
“Seton Hall’s extremely talented and quick off the bounce, and they can go to the glass maybe harder than Virginia,” Wardle said. “We had our hands full, and we knew that coming in, but I expect our team to perform better than today.”
