With 10:50 to play, Bradley sophomore guard Jaquan Johnson walked the ball across the timeline at CEFCU Arena.
He surveyed the floor, as the Braves ran a double drag set – with senior guard Alex Huibregtse flashing off a pair of screens to get an open look or a lane to the basket.
The play worked to perfection.
Huibregtse caught the ball, drove to the lane and drew two defenders while senior center Ahmet Jonovic made a slot cut to the rim.
Jonovic caught the ball in stride, gliding towards the basket for a highlight-worthy slam.
But instead, it was Shaqtin’ a Fool.
As the 7-foot Serbian attempted to finish the dunk, the ball went halfway down and popped out.
Jonovic looked towards the sky in frustration, or perhaps in search of an answer.
The play wouldn’t have changed the game much – the Braves were down 61-44 – but it symbolized how their trip down I-74 had gone.
Under the pressure of thousands of rowdy Redbird fans, fueled by a rivalry over 100 years old, Bradley’s players let their emotions get the best of them, lacked attention to detail and played selfish basketball.
“I feel like we didn’t respond well,” senior forward AJ Smith said about dealing with the chaotic atmosphere. “Whenever their crowd was going up, emotions flustered. We were missing shots, and that was dictating our defense, which allowed the team to get going, hitting shots off our mistakes and mental mistakes, and they just kept it on us.”
Battle of the Bigs
On the ensuing possession, Illinois State forward Chase Walker grabbed an offensive rebound, backed Jonovic down until he scored and then flexed his muscles after the bucket.
Jonovic tried to respond with a bucket of his own, but threw his elbow into Walker’s chest and was called for an offensive foul.
As the crowd screamed in delight, Jonovic’s frustration grew as he pushed a Redbird on his way back down the floor.
Walker was clearly winning this microcosm of the game – a battle between two of the largest players in the conference, yet two possessions later, the ball was back in Jonovic’s hands on another post attempt.
This time, Walker got a steal behind Jonovic’s back, secured the loose ball, and Illinois State knocked down a three to push their lead to 24.
The sequence between the giants was emblematic of the larger battle between the rival schools.
Saturday evening, the Redbirds were the more desperate, physical and mentally strong team, leading to an 88-62 win, the largest in the series since 2012.
“We just got our butts whooped,” head coach Brian Wardle said. “Give Illinois State credit, man, they were just way better than us today. We knew we were going to see their best and we couldn’t match it. They needed this win. They’ve lost some close ones lately, so they came out like a veteran team does and handled their business at home.”
Collision Course
The game felt like a mismatch. Bradley came into the contest riding the highs of a three-game winning streak and had won 10 of its last 12, while Illinois State had dropped three straight and fell to fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC).
Yet as soon as the ball was tipped, the Braves looked like one of the youngest teams in the Valley, still trying to find themselves, while the Redbirds looked like the team many picked as their preseason favorites.
Illinois State ran Bradley off the three-point line, forcing its players to take tough shots at the rim and in the mid-range, where the Redbirds had a size and physicality advantage.
Instead of forcing rotations and finding quality shots, the Braves’ offense stagnated and, at times, appeared disjointed. After starting the first half, 3-7, Bradley finished the period converting just seven of its subsequent 29 attempts.
“We’ve got to continue to play unselfish,” Wardle said. “We had seven assists. I mean, that’s not how we do things on offense. And we can’t get in a mode of, ‘I got to shoot now’, or ‘I made a couple defensive mistakes’, or ‘I haven’t had the shot in a while, so I got to shoot the next possession’. And we still have four or five guys who do that too much.”
Illinois State, on the other hand, allowed its defense to fuel its offense, creating turnovers to get out in transition for easy buckets and executing its half-court sets nearly every trip down the floor.
The Redbirds’ guards used ball screens to create separation, then got two feet into the paint. They then found their spots in the mid-range or dumped it down to their bigs for twos. Bradley consistently broke down in its ball-screen coverages, fell asleep off the ball and conceded drives.
Illinois State finished the first half with 24 points in the paint and shot 55 percent from the floor en route to a 44-29 lead at the break, to which they’d never recover.
It was hard for the Braves to gain any momentum on the road in a hostile environment, but if there were any morale boosters or causes for optimism for the road ahead, one could point to freshman guard Dietrich Richardson’s play in the second half.
Hope from the hometown kid
Richardson, a Peoria Native and the #1 prospect in the state of Illinois for the class of 2025, has seldom played early in games this season, but Coach Wardle gave him an opportunity near the 16-minute mark of the first half.
“That’s because of how he’s been practicing the last two weeks,” Wardle said about Richardson’s early opportunity. “Especially the last three, four days. You earn that in our program, and he earned it. He was great on both ends of the floor in the last three practices and in the previous game as well. He’s earning his minutes; he’s gonna probably take some minutes from some older guys if they don’t step up. But he’s got to be consistent.”
He initially struggled, as the Redbirds attacked him on defense, scoring five quick points with him in the primary action. He then forced a tough layup, which was blocked, and committed a foul later in the period.
However, in the second half, with the Braves reeling and needing to generate some offense, the freshman showcased why he was a highly touted recruit.
Richardson did his damage in the mid-range, attacking bigs in drop coverage as they decided whether to protect the rim or contest his shot, or came off pin downs, smoothly rising over contests and knocking down shots.
In his first taste of extended playing time, in a rivalry game he watched for years growing up, he finished with a career high nine points – yet he still wasn’t satisfied.
“Yeah, it was exciting getting my opportunity, but that wasn’t the outcome we wanted for my opportunity,” Richardson said. “That’s not the outcome I wanted. I wanted to win.”
Though his first time playing 20 mins didn’t come in a win, Richardson can use this to build momentum as the season ages.
“That definitely fueled me for sure,” Richardson remarked about his second-half performance. “I gotta go back to practice, go back to the drawing board, just get ready for the next game and keep working hard.”
Richardson and his teammates all need to go back to the drawing board, execute the implemented game plans, maintain their discipline through adversity and avoid compiling mistakes.
“We’re just not there yet,” Wardle said. “We’re not there to contend on the road where we need to be. I delivered, like, my best pregame speech of the year today. I would have had you guys running through the wall, and we come out and get our butts whooped. Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.”
The Braves’ next chance to respond will be Wednesday at 6 p.m., at home vs. Indiana State.
