But still gets outscored in the 2nd half. The game was OK, but not great. To be honest, I was surprised with how poorly Bradley looked in this one. Part of them only scoring 19 was due to them missing some decent looks in my opinion. Either way, Brackins, Gilstrap, Christopherson, and Boozer all had nice games to help lead the Cyclones to victory.

On the plus side of things, I thought our energy in the 1st half was great. There were guys fighting for loose balls, going for steals, and actually guys moving around without the ball on offense! I KNOW! I can't believe it either!

In seriousness, I thought the group of guys who looked the best out there was the group of: Garrett, Brackins, Gilstrap, Dendy, and Christopherson. When Lucca and Hamilton were in the game, there were too many easy baskets in the post, and not as much movement on offense. I thought it was clear that those guys should be the "first team", and I'm not sure what Dendy and Christopherson have to do to start and eat up minutes. Everyone is going to have their good and bad games, but Dendy and Christopherson are less one-dimensional, and do the little things to help win games, even when they are having an off game. Lucca and Hamilton can help a team, but they play roles that seem more condusive to coming off the bench, as opposed to clocking serious minutes and starting.

On the down side of things, we got outscored in the second half. Our guys do not know how to play with a lead. It was clear that Bradley wasn't going to score 38 points in the whole game, but to give up big 2nd half points to Bradley and Iowa, a lot of which when our starters were out there, is kind of silly. Secondly, I didn't think our rebounding was that great, yet again.  Bradley was able to pull in 10 offensive rebounds, and they are literally one of the worst 5 teams in the nation in offensive rebounds.

As I eluded to earlier, my players of the game were a tie between Brackins and Gilstrap. Brackins finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 1 steal. Gilstrap had 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 1 monster block.

The guys now have to play a challenging game against North Dakota. Not challenging because the team is good, but because they stink (they are 1-11). It's tough to get up for a bad opponent, so I hope our guys can bring the same kind of energy they did in this game, and win by 40-50 points.