Tom “Whatever It Takes” Bradbury

[PointGuard]

Game #23, Jan. 30, 2018, Houston (9-12, 5-5): Although we beat the Cougars by 15 points in their gym, we’ve been working hard to not let our players take them lightly. SF Travann McCuthison is their top scorer (13.0 ppg) and SG Terrence Jones has a sweet shot from anywhere on the court, although he passes up shots and feeds the ball to others. We hold Houston scoreless for the first 8-3/4 minutes of the game, as we built a 13-0 lead. We hit just 41% of our shots in the half, but allowed Houston to connect on just 21% of their FG attempts. We also held a 10-1 turnover advantage. So our 37-17 lead at the break was what should have been expected. PF Angelo Craft topped our scoring with 9 points. We played our bench extensively in the 2nd half and still came away with a 72-52 beatdown of the Cougars. SG Austin Hunter scored 14, PG Jared Keady had 13, C Kelvin Ross also scored 13 (plus had 8 rebounds), and PF Angelo Craft finished with 9 points. (21-2, 10-1, 1st place)

Game #24, Feb. 2, 2018 @ South Florida (5-16, 1-10): We played poorly in the first half, including hitting just 33% of our shots plus 3 of our best players were in foul trouble. We left the court trailing 33-25 at the end of the first half. Our leading scorer was PF Angelo Craft with 6 points. Offensively we continued to struggle, but we defensively stopped the Bulls and finally took a 44-42 lead with 7:50 to play. We began hitting out shots then and increased our lead to 10 points in the next 2-1/2 minutes. We then pulled away for a decisive 70-50 win. PF Angelo Craft poured in 17 points and C Kelvin Ross and PG Jared Keady added 11 points each. SG Austin Hunter scored just 8 points, but dished out 5 assists, pulled down 10 rebounds, and had 2 steals. (22-2, 11-1, 1st place; Ranked #2 in the polls; RPI: 2)

[PointGuard]

Game #25, Feb. 6, 2018, Cincinnati (5-16, 2-10): We barely edged the Bearcats 65-62 when we played then earlier this season in Cincinnati. We held a solid lead throughout most of the 1st half and went to the locker room with a 36-28 advantage. PG Jared Keady scored 9 points. We played uninspired ball, but came away with a 67-52 win. PG Jared Keady tossed in 18 points and SG Austin Hunter contributed 17. PF Angelo Craft scored 13. SF John Jones added 8. C Jules Grant scored only 4 points but had 3 assists, 9 rebounds, 4 steals and a block. (23-2, 12-1, 1st place)

Game #26, Feb. 9, 2018 @ Tulane (15-7, 9-4): Even though we beat the Green Wave by 12 points, that was a home game for us. Tulane has won 11 of 12 of their home games. They have good scoring across their entire starting team. We maintain a small lead throughout the entire first half. But each time it looks like we might pull away, Tulane strikes to keep our lead within reach. At the half we’re on top 43-36. PG Jared Keady (16 points) and SG Austin Hunter (12 points) are the leaders of our attack. We continued to lead throughout the 2nd half, but with a minute to go, Tulane hit a 3 that tied the game at 69-69. We failed to score then after the Green Wave missed a shot, they pulled down an offensive rebound and worked the ball around until they popped in a 12 foot jumper to put them ahead 71-69. We called a time out with 7 seconds to play to draw up a play. Our intended play fizzled but Keady got the ball in low to Kelvin Ross and he put up a contested 5 footer than found the bottom of the net and sent us to overtime. Trailing by 4 with a minute to go in the OT, Angelo Craft dropped in a 3 to cut Tulane’s lead to 80-79. We got called for a questionable foul with 27 seconds to go. The Green Wave hit both shots to put them up by 3. We had 2 shots but couldn’t put down either of them and that’s all she wrote as we went down to an 82-79 defeat in OT. Both PG Jared Keady and SG Austin Hunter scored 20 points, but C Kelvin Ross scored 15 plus pulled down 14 rebounds. (23-3, 12-2, 1st place; Ranke #3, RPI: 3)

Norton Award: SG Austin Hunter was named a semi-finalist for the Norton Award.

[PointGuard]

Game #27, Feb. 13, 2018, SMU (10-13, 5-9): The key to this game is holding down the Mustangs’ brilliant SF Dan Cummings who is averaging 16.3 ppg. We score the first 9 points while forcing the Mustangs to make 6 turnovers in the first 4 minutes of play. Our defense remains stellar as we limit SMU to just 5 points 12 minutes into the game and take a 23-5 lead. In the entire first half SMU turns the ball over 16 times, but we play sloppily toward the end of the half and let them reduce our lead to 32-20 at the break. We continue to do the job defensively in the 2nd half and annihilate the Mustangs 74-42. We command the boards 29-19 and have a 28-12 turnover advantage. PG Jared Keady scores 12 and dishes out 6 assists, PF Angelo Craft also scores 12, while SG Austin Hunter tosses in 11, and C Kelvin Ross and PG Troy Cox each add 10. SF John Jones holds SMU’s Dan Cummings to just 8 points. (24-3, 13-2, 1st place)

Game #28, Feb. 16, 2018 @ Temple (16-8, 11-4): We beat the 2nd place Owls by 16 earlier this year, but they have a 10-1 record at home. The game is tightly contested for the first 10 minutes but then Temple simply outplays us to build an 11 point lead. We rally late in the first half to cut their first half lead to 43-40. We can never overtake the Owls in the 2nd half and go down to a 77-65 defeat as we hit just 39% of our shots. With 2 games left in the regular season our conference lead is down to 1 game over Temple. PG Jared Keady is our leading scorer with 16 points while SF John Jones, C Jules Grant, and SG Georgiy Zolkin each score 10 points. (24-4, 13-3, 1st place, Ranked #3, RPI: 3)

Injury: PF Adrian Bains strained his hamstring and likely will miss the last 2 games of our regular season, but should hopefully be ready to contribute i the conference tourney.

[PointGuard]

Game #29, Feb. 20, 2018, Tulsa (12-13, 9-7): We have a hard time getting untracked and fall behind by 5 points, but then scored 15 unanswered points to take a double digit lead midway through the first half. At the half we lead 38-27. Our lead ballooned to 20 with 13-1/2 minutes left in the game. We stomp Tulsa 71-46 in our second straight strong defensive game. PF Angelo Craft scored 15 points, PG Jared Keady knocked down 14 points, and SF John Jones finished with 12 points. Centers Kelvin Ross and Jules Grant both had 9 points. (25-4, 14-3, 1st place)

Game #30, Feb. 23, 2018 @ Central Florida (11-15, 8-9): C Kelvin Ross twisted an ankle early in the game and sat out the rest of the game. We achieve a double digit lead after 8 minutes of play and then roll to a 54-28 halftime lead. We hit 61% of our shots and had a 12-3 turnover advantage. PF Angelo Craft scored 13 points in the half. Central Florida roared back in the 2nd half and cut our lead to 63-60 with 8-1/2 minutes to play. But we scored the next 7 points to give ourselves some breathing room with 5 minutes to go. We come away with a 72-63 win in our final road game. PF Angelo Craft led our scoring with 15 points. PG Jared Keady and SG Austin Hunter both scored 13 and SG Georgiy Zolkin came off the bench to add 9 points. (26-4, 15-3, 1st place; Ranked #3 in the polls; RPI: 3)

Norton Award: SG Austin Hunter was named a finalist for the Norton Award.

[PointGuard]

Here's the final standings for the American Athletic Conference for the 2018-2019 season:



As you can see, there were really 3 groupings: the top 4, the middle 4, and the bottom 2. Our big advantage was that we were able to win more frequently on the road than any of the other teams.

[PointGuard]

American Athletic Association Tournament—Play in Games

Central Florida—61, South Florida—43 (POG: SG Josh Zimmerman, Central Florida-16 pts)

Cincinnati—67, SMU—60 (POG: SG Kevin Martin, Cincinnati-20 pts)

American Athletic Association Tournament—Round 1

Temple—74, Central Florida—51 (POG: SF Freddie Williams, Temple-17 pts)

Tulane—74, Tulsa—48 (POG: C Frank Rivera, Tulane-23 pts)

Houston—71, Connecticut—60 (POG: C Jeff Hinton, Houston-12 pts, 8 reb)

Game #31, Mar. 10, 2018, Cincinnati (8-20, 4-14): Although we held a small lead throughout most of the first half, the Bearcats hung with us. We held a slim 36-33 edge at the break. PG Jared Keady led our scoring with 11 points. After 6 minutes of the 2nd half we had opened a 10 point lead and then with 9 minutes left in the game we jumped out on top by 20 points. We didn’t let the Bearcats come back and came away with an 84-66 win by outshooting Cincinnati 51% to 40% and controlling the boards 34-22. PG Jared Keady tossed in 20 points. SG Austin Hunter scored 13 while dishing out 5 assists and pulling down 8 boards. C Jules Grant finished with 12 points, 1 assist, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 block. PF Angelo Craft and PG Troy Cox both scored 8 points. (27-4)

[PointGuard]

Tulane—81, Temple—53 (POG: PG Mac Olson, Tulane-22 pts and 8 assists)

Game #32, Mar. 11, 2018, Houston (14-16, 9-9): We pull away early and finish the first half with a 40-29 lead. PG Jared Keady again has a big first half, hitting for 13 points. We open a 20 point lead with 15-1/2 minutes left in the game. 3 minutes later we were up by 30. We let the Cougars come back a little but were never threatened and topped Houston 80-63 to advance to the championship game. We totally dominated the boards 45-22. C Kelvin Ross had a big game with 18 points and 12 rebounds. PG Jared Keady also scored 18. SF John Jones had 12 points and 9 boards. While SG Austin Hunter had an uncharacteristically low scoring night with 3 points, he dished out 8 assists and pulled down 7 rebounds. (28-4)

[PointGuard]

Game #33, Mar. 12, 2018, Tulane (20-9, 12-6): We fell behind 6-0. Before 5 minutes had expired we trailed 14-6 and all 5 of our starters had been called for a foul. But with 11-1/2 minutes to go in the half, we took an 18-17 lead following 2 consecutive 3’s by Austin Hunter. The refs took the game out of the hands of the players as they continuously blew their whistles. We escaped with a 36-32 halftime lead. Austin Hunter led our scoring with 10 points. We continued to lead throughout the 2nd half and with 6-1/2 minutes to go took a double digit lead. We then held off the Green Wave to win 75-68 and become conference champions. SG Austin Hunter was top scorer with 19 points. C Kelvin Ross put in 15 points, and PG Jared Keady added 12. (29-4, Ranked #3 in the polls, RPI: 3)

[PointGuard]

[bloomington]

Congratulations....................cheater!!