Bradley split their games in Springfield, MA, on Saturday and Sunday. Through the magic of streaming video I was able to watch both games. The streaming was provided by JumpTV (same as the much reviled Bradley offering B.TV), and it was relatively poor quality. Picture was small and pixellated and the only audio was the PA announcer. There was no scoreboard, real-time stats, or even clock. It wasn't worth $6/game, but I'm dumb I guess.
Anyway, Bradley won their first game in Springfield against the University of Southern California in just about the most ridiculous fashion ever. They played awfully for pretty much the entire way, but because USC also played poorly Bradley hung in there. With time nearly expired Bradley had managed to get a two point lead and things were looking okay. Then Will Egolf fired up one of his signature stupid fouls and put a USC post player on the line. To make matters worse, the Bradley Bench received a technical for reasons no one has yet been able to identify. The USC player made all four of his free throws and things looked bleak. Bradley pushed the ball up the court and didn't score, the very same post player was fouled as USC counterattacked and he missed both free throws. With just a few seconds left the ball was inbounded and Maniscalco tried to make space before unleashing a desperation three at the buzzer and missed. However, the whistle blew, he'd been fouled! A review by the referees confirmed that he got the shot off before the buzzer and that it was from 3-point territory. Sammy proved as cold as ice and sunk all three in succession. 0.3 seconds were put on the clock and USC lobbed the ball down the court to no avail. BU win.
Sunday's game against Texas Christian University was an interesting one. TCU was probably the toughest opponent Bradley has faced to this point in the season and another close victory was just not in the cards. Paradoxically, of the games I've watched, Bradley looked their best in this contest but didn't pull out the win. They'd built up a 4 point lead at the end of the second half when TCU made a nice little run and Bradley seemed to run out of gas/luck and TCU sealed the win. Bradley's record goes to 4-1, a nice start all things considered.
Tonight marks the first home game I'll actually be able to be in attendance for versus the hapless Eastern Illinois Panthers. Year-in year-out EIU is one of the worst teams in Division I so Bradley must take care of business tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.
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