‘We were two steps behind all night’: Bradley suffers a humbling loss to UT Martin

Since 1938, the Bradley basketball team has had eight games in which they shot below 35 percent from the field, under 20 percent from three and were outrebounded by seven or more. 

They’ve lost every single time. 

In fact, a Division I team has only been victorious 60 times when shooting that poorly and being outrebounded by that much. 

On Wednesday, the Braves weren’t ready to make history. 

Their opponent, UT Martin, walked into Carver Arena as a 14.5-point underdog and walked out with a 78-67 win. 

And the Braves paid them to do it.

“I was worried about this game coming in because of how high IQ and high-feel their team is, and how skilled they are,” head coach Brian Wardle said. “I was very, very nervous coming into this game, because I thought they were a matchup problem for us.” 

Wardle was proven right from the opening tip. 

The Skyhawks kept the Braves’ defense in rotation on every possession. They run a five-out system with multiple players who can dribble, pass and shoot, which gives them various buttons to press offensively. 

It was challenging for Bradley’s big men to defend their ball-screen actions against bigs who could roll or pop and guarding on the perimeter was a struggle for them. The team conceded paint touch after paint touch, keeping defenders in an everlasting scramble drill. 

UT-Martin shot 28-50 (56.0 percent) from the floor, 11-24 (45.8 percent) from behind the arc and finished with 17 assists.  

“Tennessee-Martin was way better than us tonight – from start to finish,” Wardle said. “We were two steps behind them all night. I never felt like we could catch up to them. They were too smart, moved the ball too well, shared the ball too well.”  

The Braves’ defensive lapses bled into their offense. They traded mental lapses for passiveness and timidness. They passed up open shots in favor of tougher, more contested looks and played in isolation too much.

“They packed in, they didn’t guard us on the three-point line,” Wardle said. “They were kind of messing with us a little bit, so we got hesitant. Instead of shooting one-two step-ins and catch-and-shoots, we took bad ones.” 

“We just have to be better at walking into our passes and shooting the ball more open and in rhythm,” Wardle continued. “We work on it every day, and we emphasize it every day. It’s got to be something we do better under the lights and in front of the crowd. Just trust ourselves to shoot the right shots.”

Despite Bradley’s defensive lapses and uninspired offense, they led 36-34 at halftime by creating 12 turnovers that led to 21 points and getting to the foul line 25 times. 

“Shots weren’t falling, so we had to find a way to put the ball in the basket somehow,” sophomore point guard Jaquan Johnson said. “We were drawing fouls, so the plan was getting the ball to Meta [Ahmet Jonovic] in the post, and he was drawing fouls, so that was just our key.”

But the foul-drawing wasn’t sustainable, and eventually UT Martin began taking better care of the ball. Their offense kept churning and the Braves only got to the line twelve times in the second half. 

The Skyhawks went on a 22-9 run, sending fans to their cars early to avoid post-game traffic. 

“If we weren’t turning them over, we probably weren’t stopping them,” Wardle said. “Thank goodness we had some turnovers, but other than that, we didn’t guard dribble penetration well, which obviously starts all of the breakdowns and gets us out of rotation. That’ll ultimately hurt us on film – watching our on-ball defense.”  

One of Bradley’s lone bright spots was senior center Ahmet Jonovic, who finished the game with 16 points on 63.9 true shooting percentage. 

But even he wasn’t fond of his performance. 

“I wouldn’t say I had a good game; my team lost,” Jonovic said. 

The Braves’ response to such a tough loss could define their season. After all, the schedule isn’t getting lighter anytime soon. 

“Fighting through adversity is a good thing to learn early in the season,” Johnson said. “When we get later in the season we’ll know how to fight back through adversity.”

Their next test will be Saturday on the road, against the University of San Francisco, the 85th-ranked team in the country according to KenPom. 

“You’ve got to hate to lose to be a really good player,” Wardle said. “Everybody loves to win, that’s obvious – that’s easy. Hopefully, they have enough maturity not to point fingers and look themselves in the mirror. I’m going to do the same thing.”