When shots aren't falling, defense needs to carry a team
Bradley forces 20 turnovers to squeak out four-point win against Washington State
Let’s start with the stats game, again:
Bradley shoots 7-for-30 from 3-point range (23%).
The Braves get to the free throw line 22 times but only make 13 (59.1%).
Washington State outrebounds Bradley by 10, 41-31.
Jaquan Johnson only scores 10 points and Alex Huibregtse only has five.
This should be a recipe for a loss. And this team has found ways to lose games like this one (St. Bonaventure, UT Martin, etc.).
This one was different, though.
Not only did Bradley do the one thing they do best - forcing turnovers - but the team also rebounded better and made clutch plays when they needed them.
I don’t think Washington State is a great team by any stretch, but wins like these are great confidence boosters with conference play looming in a few weeks.
Let’s see how it all happened.
Starting Five
3 Alex Huibregtse (G)
0 Demarion Burch (G)
14 Ahmet Jonovic (C)
21 AJ Smith (F)
22 Jaquan Johnson (G)
» This was the right lineup based upon the matchup. Although Washington State has size, they came into the game very poor defensively and having more shooters on the floor made sense to start this one.
The Moments
Follow along with me … (Below are game times, not video times.) Full Video
A Slow Start in First Few Minutes
17:17 - Jonovic can’t be taking a three this early in the game. He needs to be a back-to-the-basket scorer. And, if shots aren’t falling, he needs to be in there for rebounding (which he did get one offensive tip out on an earlier possession). This led to a quick three on the other end and it was 8-0 early for Washington State.
14:53 - This was the first of many moments where the Cougars just didn’t come up with plays that they should. There’s a missed jumper by Corey Thomas and instead of securing the rebound, the ball bounces off the fingertips off Washington State and Bradley gets an extra possession. This doesn’t even register as one of the many turnovers by Washington State, but it was an indicator of just the overall sloppiness of the Cougars.
Then it happens the next possession where the Braves get three shots because of the ball going out of bounds again off Washington State. This time the Braves cash in with a three by Montana Wheeler. (WSU 12-6)
Stringing Together Plays
12:21 - Wheeler makes a beautiful dish to AJ Smith for a dunk. That’s your highlight reel play. But, I like to see what happens after the Braves have big plays (positive or negative) and so often it translates in a similar way in the next possession.
You see immediately Wheeler jump up and causes issues for the ballhandler Adria Rodriguez (WSU #13). Wheeler eventually is out of bounds so it stays with Washington State, but it’s that carryover effect that really shows up often with this team. (WSU 12-9)
10:35 - More defense. Bradley’s only got 11 points nearly 10 minutes into the game. First you see Kai Yu stand up to the stronger player (WSU #22, ND Okafor) and don’t let him get too close to the rim. Then Smith continues the defensive stand with about as textbook of defense as you can play. Finally, since Yu didn’t have to help Smith, he’s in the right place for a rebound and draws a foul. Sequences like these are keeping Bradley in the game. (WSU 14-11)
8:14 - Another dropped rebound! Huibregtse makes them pay with another extra possession. (WSU 18-14).
7:15 - Wheeler strings together two plays in the opposite way. First he misses both free throws and then back on defense he tries to do too much and picks up a cheap foul.
5:28 - The first of the lengthy reviews. Burch nails a three at the end of the shot clock. After 2 1/2 minutes, they decide to let it stay on the board. This was mildly annoying, but it wouldn’t be the last one.
0:00 - After falling behind by eight again, the Braves close the half on a 7-0 run and only trail by one, 29-28, going into halftime. Burch continues to find his shot and Wheeler makes a jumper and a three to close the gap.
Finally a Lead
17:56 - Cougars have to burn a timeout after four straight steals lost to start the half. When I was looking at some of the advanced stats going into the game, I thought Bradley’s ability to force turnovers could be a huge element of this one. (BU 32-29)
15:10 - After the timeout, Washington State has a small stretch where they start protecting the ball better, going on a 10-1 run and leading by six. (WSU 39-33)
12:34 - It didn’t last. The turnovers kept piling up, with Wheeler, Smith and Johnson being the primary irritants causing the Cougars all sorts of trouble. This probably said it all:
Yet, because the Braves still weren’t shooting well, they kept trailing. (WSU 41-37)
Break Glass, if Needed
7:36-4:41 - Ace Glass, who the Braves had relatively shut down to that point, starts to go bananas. In the three minute stretch, Glass singlehandedly scores 11 and pushes the Cougars lead back to five. The game is starting to feel like it might slip away, but with how poorly Washington State was taking care of the ball, it never felt out of reach. (WSU 56-51)
Slow, but Thrilling, Finish
2:30 - Bradley’s down one and has possession to take the lead. Johnson has been a bit off all night because Washington State has been crashing multiple guys at him when he drives to the paint. He’s a relentless player that doesn’t get phased, even when his shots hadn’t been dropping.
Look how the defense almost looks flat footed here and he just blows past them for a layup. I would argue this is also just bad defense, as the post player who is guarding Thomas needs to seal off that driving lane, even if he leaves Thomas open.
Regardless, Johnson’s shiftiness, even late in the game, just causes problems for defenses:
1:32 - After another nice play inside by Okafor and a miss by Burch, the Cougars get fouled by Wheeler near the baseline and hits two FTs to go up 60-57.
0:56 - Bradley needs a basket nearing the final minute but the start of the possession stagnates and Coach Wardle calls timeout with 1:13 left and 11 on the shot clock.
Wardle can occasionally be hard on himself about coaching decisions but he made many smart decisions in this one, especially here.
Huibregtse had been scouted well by Washington State and they had been crashing potential 3-point attempts all night. I’d imagine the play would have been for him to take the shot if he’s open, but instead he draws two defenders and Jonovic is open in the post.
Meta really can pass well for a big man when he has space to make decisions. He observes the floor and sees Burch open for a three, who knocks it down. Perfectly executed and the game is tied at 60.
Mini Rant: Review Time
Here came the next lengthy review I referenced earlier. I’m all for getting things right in the game. You can immediately tell what goes wrong after Washington State inbounds the ball - the game and shot clock stop and the referees pause the game right away.
You can roll back the clip on the floor pretty easily to see when the ball was brought in bounds at 57.2 to play. Can you not just rewind the clock to that point and get the ball in play?
The whole reason the challenge system was put into play was that reviews were taking much too long at the end of game and breaking up the flow. And while this wasn’t a review situation, the whole thing broke up how exciting of a moment it was after Burch hit the three.
Teams had to stand around for more than 5 minutes while they sorted out the clock as well as the Washington State timeout they wanted for a substitution.
I thought this referee crew was actually pretty good on the night and let both teams play a lot, but this just really zapped the flow of the game for taking so long on such a miniscule play (a slight clock issue).
0:34.5 - The Cougars draw up a good play of their own and get the ball back to Okafor in the post whose shot barely rattles out. Meta secures the rebound and Bradley takes it’s last timeout.
Coach Wardle & staff draw up another 1-4 set (Johnson up high, the other four players aligned near the baseline). I think they like these because it gives Johnson the most space to create.
You see Burch come up and show he’s going to screen Johnson’s man which gets him just slightly further off the ball and Johnson sees his opportunity to drive to take the lead. Okafor knows the scouting report and he’s careful of what Johnson can do, so he leaves Meta just slightly and Bully immediately recognizes it, hits Jonovic with the pass and Bradley has the lead:
It’s validating writing this sort of breakdown and then hearing Coach Wardle confirm it later that assistant coach Bobby Suarez drew it up.
“It was designed for Quanny to get downhill and just make a read and see if they switched off Burch because Burch was having a night,” Wardle said. “Quanny ended up getting downhill and they just overhelped and found Meta for the lob.”
There’s a great chemistry that Johnson and Jonovic have together as they know where the other is going to be in a given moment.
0:06 - Washington State gets a chance with a few seconds left but can’t hit a contested shot.
0:01.1 - Huibregtse hits two FTs to ice the game. (BU 64-60)
The Observations
FANCY STATS PROVE PROPHETIC: Before the game, I was looking through some advanced stats and saw Bradley continues to be in the top 10 in the country in defensive turnover percentage. As a reminder, this is just a way to balance the amount of times that opponents turn the ball over against you while normalizing it for the pace of the game.
Washington State had been trending poorly in this area, so this was an area to exploit. The stats did bear it out in the game as the Cougars had their highest turnover percentage of the season (29.2%) in the game.
On the other side, Bradley came into the game as a pretty weak rebounding team, especially on the offensive glass (268th in the country). Washington State was in the top 10 for offensive rebounding allowed.
Bradley finished the game winning the offensive rebounding battle 10-7 and while the total numbers favored Washington State, you have to remember that the Braves took and missed a lot more shots, so inevitably the Cougars were going to have more overall rebounding opportunities. But the offensive rebounding numbers are key to more possessions and Bradley did very well in this area.
INJURY CONCERN: Timoty van der Knapp went to the locker room with 3:14 left in the first half with an injury. He did come back to play in the second half but only briefly for less than a minute. TVK did stay on the bench for the rest of the game so that was an encouraging sign. He spent most of the half actually standing at the far end of the bench and I saw him stretching his knee some. It’s hard to speculate here but hopefully he’ll be good to go for Saturday.
DEFENSE TURNED TO OFFENSE: While I’ve talked plenty about the total number of turnovers forced, it warrants another section relating to how this actually is sometimes Bradley’s best offense. The counting stats reflect how critical this was: 12-3 advantage in steals, 15-4 in fast break points and 23-4 in points off turnovers. I’m going to break this down in more detail soon from a statistical perspective, but even from the eye test, Bradley does better with chaotic, fast-paced environments.
While the Braves have been really good lately in this area, Coach Wardle feels there is another level and that they aren’t all the way there yet, especially with listening and communication. “It’s getting there. It’s still not where it needs to be, in my opinion. But, it’s improving. The effort level is getting better.”
Player of the Game
Demarion Burch (23 points, 8-of-16 shooting, 3-of-7 three pointers, 4-of-7 free throws, one rebound, one block, two turnovers)
The TV guys gave the player of the game to Montana Wheeler, who did have 15 points and three assists. Wheeler definitely did a ton of good things in the game, as he usually does. But he also was 1-for-5 from the line and those misses felt big at the time. Wheeler was good, but this one has to go to Burch.
Burch has exploded for 44 points in the last two games, raising his season average to 12.6 PPG. He’s the best true “three-level” scorer on the team, showing his ability to get to the basket, shoot from the midrange and knock down threes. He’s also not someone who necessarily demands the ball in his hands constantly. While he’s very aggressive when he sees opportunities, he’s the type of guy who can just quietly keep adding points without you even noticing. His health is always a concern, but if he’s running at full strength, the Braves outlook is a lot rosier.
Up Next
Bradley hosts one more game at Carver Arena Saturday night against Northern Illinois. The Huskies are 3-5 and just got blitzed by 35 at home against Lindenwood. On paper, this shapes up to be a fairly easy win for the Braves, but we know this team has been erratic enough that they can’t take any team lightly and just flip a switch.
Postgame quotes from Coach Wardle were from the WMBD broadcast.