The hunters are now the hunted.
After playing in the 2:30 p.m. game at the MVC Tournament – the quarterfinal matchup between the 4-seed and 5-seed – for seemingly every year during the Brian Wardle era, the Bradley Braves are playing at noon on Friday as Arch Madness’ top seed.
It’s a sign of resilience, grit, execution and the best regular season that the Braves have had in decades. But that historic season, capped off by a thrilling, heavyweight, winner-take-all bout for the MVC regular season title against Drake, which Bradley won 73-61, is just that: history.
“Coach [Wardle] kind of broke it down to us: the first season is the non-conference, the second season is conference and then the third season is the postseason,” senior forward Malevy Leons said.
It’s a fun, yet precarious, position for the Braves, who have thrived as a dark horse in the MVC Tournament by winning it in two out of the last four years while being outside the top three seeds both times. Since then, their stays in St. Louis have been short, bowing out to Southern Illinois and Loyola in their first postseason game in back-to-back years.
Now, they get the Northern Iowa Panthers after UNI defeated Illinois State 72-54 in the first game of the 12-team Arch Madness era. The new format brought along a new approach for the Braves: having to prepare for two possible opponents throughout the week. If they win, they would face the winner of Indiana State and Belmont on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
However, a regular season sweep of the Panthers and extensive scouting by the Braves’ coaching staff has them feeling confident in their first game.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen them before, which is nice,” Henry said. “It’s the same approach essentially and it’s the waiting game.”
“We know who we’re going to get, whoever we play,” junior point guard Duke Deen said. “The scouts that we have are very detailed and very on point, the coaches do a great job of that. We’re going to have everything we need no matter who we play.”
Assistant coach Mike Bargen scouts the opposing team’s offense, while his counterparts Brian Jones and Jimmie Foster dissect the tendencies of defenses.
How many minutes of film do they watch?
“It’s not even a number man,” Deen laughed. “I can’t tell you how much film they actually watch. I don’t even think [Brian] Jones sleeps. For real, he watches film all day every day.”
First time for everything
The Gateway Arch is 111 Duke Deens tall. The Braves’ 5-foot-8 point guard isn’t afraid of the pressure that conference tournaments bring though. Deen put up 15 points and five assists for his previous school Troy in the Trojans’ opening Sun Belt Conference Tournament game last year. That effort helped his team advance to the semifinals, where they lost to Louisiana.
“We got to the semifinals, we won the first game, lost the second one, which was tough and we should’ve won,” Deen said. “It was a great experience, I think I learned a lot from it, just playing in a tournament where you’re taking it day-by-day.”
Deen was held without a make from the field in Troy’s semifinal loss, lighting a fire under him that he’ll look to avenge in his first Arch Madness. As if that wasn’t enough, Deen is eager to just play basketball, after being called for a large amount of borderline fouls all season
“[Ja’Shon Henry] told me the atmosphere is crazy. He and Rienk [Mast] told me the defense picks up 10 times more,” Deen said. “They told me that the refs are going to let us play, which is good.”
He knows the Braves’ strength starts with their band of bullies in the paint, including recent MVC award winners Rienk Mast (1st team all-MVC), Malevy Leons (Defensive Player of the Year, 2nd team all-MVC and Most Improved Team) and Ja’Shon Henry (6th Man of the Year).
“If they let us play and be physical and hit people, that’s going to benefit us a lot,” Deen said.
On the other side…
Contrary to Deen, this isn’t Ja’Shon Henry’s first rodeo in St. Louis. He’s won two Valley titles and wants to bookend his Bradley career with another one. That required not reveling in Bradley’s regular season championship too long.
“We celebrated, soaked that all in and then come Monday, it’s time to move on,” Henry said. “It’s a quick turnaround in the MVC Tournament, it’s a different level of ball that’s about to be played from every team. Every team has a sense of urgency and it’s do or die down there.”
Henry’s maturity, which has been mentioned more than a broken record, can’t be understated though in situations like these, especially for a dozen Bradley players that haven’t seen more than one game at Arch Madness.
“It’s big in the fact that for the new guys here, I’m able to let them know that if they have nerves, I’m able to come to them and say it’s just basketball, go out there and do your thing,” Henry said. “Hoops are still the same height, it’s the same orange ball, it’s still 94 feet all that.”
“I feel like I can bring that calm demeanor to the team if they get all worked up,” he added. “That’s the advantage that being a guy that’s played in this tournament for five years can bring.”
Hearkening back to Bradley’s injury-riddled start to the season, Deen was one of Bradley’s only healthy regular starters while Henry, Mast and sophomore guard Zek Montgomery – who recently earned a nod to the MVC’s Most Improved Team – were on the shelf.
“[Henry] is a starter coming off the bench,” Deen said. “When they scout him, he’s a matchup nightmare.”
It’ll be a tall task for the Panthers, as Henry has averaged over 10 points per game over the last four contests and is playing in hopes of booking a revenge trip to the NCAA Tournament after COVID derailed Bradley’s automatic bid to it in 2020.
“You can’t switch on him: If you put a big guy on him, he’s going to run past you, if you put someone on him that’s his size, he’s going to baby you,” Deen said. “I know they’d be pulling their hair out trying to scout against him.”
No room for error
This is new territory for the Braves, but in a good way. They come into the game with a 10-game win streak and have won six straight away from Carver Arena. Defense wins games more so after each team has played over 30 games during the season, especially as shooters try to adjust to a new arena, and the Braves’ scoring defense tops the conference.
Bradley boasts one of the deepest teams in the MVC, and it would not be a surprise to see players like senior guard Ville Tahvanainen or junior forward Darius Hannah make differences that help push them toward the Big Dance.
But numbers and stats mean nothing at this point of the year. Even if the Braves make it to the championship game, don’t mistake Enterprise Arena for church on Sunday. Arch Madness isn’t noted for being a place where teams can be forgiven for their mistakes.
It all comes down to execution.
“Execution is huge; smart basketball is huge this time of year,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle, who won MVC Coach of the Year on Wednesday, said. “And if we can keep doing that, I believe in this team and I like this team against anybody [in all of the NCAA].”
