Todd Golden: DOWN IN THE VALLEY: Five takeaways from Indiana State's win over Bradley

Jan. 3—Wins fall under several categories — expected wins, upsets, winning ugly, road dubs, etc.

The against-all-odds win, where you have players out, and the whole "next man up" cliche comes to life, is one of the most satisfying and ISU got to live one up after a 76-71 win over Bradley on Sunday.

ISU coach Josh Schertz said after the game that he felt most would have thought ISU would lose on Sunday given the absence of Cam Henry, Xavier Bledson and Simon Wilbar.

That's probably true, though grizzled vets like me know that Bradley rarely plays well at Hulman Center. Regardless, every season is its own entity, and no would could deny that Bradley came into the game playing its best basketball of the season.

So for the Sycamores to circle the wagons, play to their strengths, and get create scheme-wise (see below) was very satisfying indeed.

The adversity ISU is facing isn't its fault, but often times, that doesn't matter. The kernel for bad stretches in seasons is often born out of faultless adversity.

The best example during my time on the beat was when ISU went winless in January when David Moss got hurt in 2006. That injury wasn't anyone's fault, but it's influence snowballed into something that became it's own entity.

ISU prevented this situation from becoming a negative that could have lasted into subsequent games. That's just one good thing that comes out of a happy day for ISU at Hulman Center.

1. What defense was ISU in? — This was a game of rising and dropping tides. I will channel my inner Clark Kellogg to declare that both teams had spurtability.

So how did ISU stop Bradley's spurts? I went back and watched at the moments that ISU put an end to some of Bradley's long runs.

In the first half, Bradley led 32-21, but then ISU held the Braves scoreless for five-plus minutes and turned that deficit into a 33-32 lead.

During this stretch, ISU mostly played man-to-man. Also during this stretch, Bradley squandered a chance to really put ISU under the sword.

At the start of the drought, Bradley failed to convert on two different transition possessions that should have been taken care of. ISU never got a defense set on either possession, in those cases, they did scramble back and did what they could do, but that was a golden opportunity missed by Bradley.

ISU did switch to a 2-3 zone right at the end of the Bradley drought after the media timeout. The Braves also rushed a shot on the last of those zone possessions.

In the second half, Bradley wiped out a two-point ISU halftime lead as it pulled in front 50-45. However, Bradley had another near-five-minute dry spell, allowing ISU to take a 58-50 lead.

This is where the ISU coaching staff got creative.

ISU was in a zone for the first part of this, but then came out of another media timeout and employed the rarely-seen box-and-1 defense, with Julian Larry chasing Terry Roberts.

Through this Bradley drought, Roberts subbed out and re-entered, but when he did? Larry was the man on the box-and-1 again.

The last ISU defensive stand was the longest one. ISU's 58-50 lead was brief as the Braves punched right back with a 12-0 run to re-take the lead with a 64-61 advantage with 6:58 left.

Bradley then went over six minutes of game-time with just one bucket. By the end of that stretch, ISU led 71-66 and the game was into the final minute.

Here we saw a little bit of everything depending on the personnel on the floor. With Roberts off? ISU employed both man and zone, but when Roberts re-entered after a timeout? There was Larry again, chasing the Bradley point guard in the box-and-1.

After the final media timeout, Bradley scored its lone bucket attacking the box-and-1, but then ISU forced a turnover (with Larry harrassing Roberts) and a Connor Hickman transition miss to set up the final minute of action.

ISU was always going to be up against it versus a much-larger Bradley team. Even at full strength, ISU would have been playing plenty of small ball.

Credit to Josh Schertz, defensive coordinator Matthew Graves and the players for being creative to keep Bradley off-balance.

2. Trust factor — Basketball is about trust. Who can you put on the floor and have it? It's always a moving target and very few players are beyond reproach when it comes to possessing the trait.

The beauty of ISU overcoming its short-handedness is that the trust factor has gone up significantly for several players.

Zach Hobbs? Two straight games of big minutes where he was reliable at what he does best — shoot threes — and he played solid defense.

Micah Thomas? He slumped in December, but given the opportunity to play more and in a prominent role, he rose to the challenge.

Kailex Stephens? I thought one of the big things that came out of this win was that he was more assertively offensively at the bucket. ISU needs that.

Nick Hittle? The big man has had two good spells off the bench as the rotation has included him in it over the last two games.

I think Cooper Neese and Julian Larry already had the trust factor, but they did nothing to surrender it.

Point is, no matter the role? Several players have taken advantage of increased playing time to earn that trust that is so valuable.

3. Neese heating up? — Neese was 5 of 10 from 3-point range on Sunday, coming on the heels of a 3-for-7 against Midway.

Neese emerged from the game with his 3-point percentage over 30% after he struggled at times in December. Neese is currently at 31.1%.

It would be optimal for ISU to get Neese up around 40%, which he's perfectly capable of doing. It certainly helps Neese cause that ISU is also getting dependable 3-point shooting from Hobbs too.

4. Series catch-up — If there's a MVC team that ISU played in its dark ages of the 1980s and 1990s and part of the 2000s? Chances are, the Sycamores are way down in the series.

Bradley is no exception. Up to the 2009-10 season, Bradley dominated the series with a 48-24 series record.

However, ISU has had the measure of Bradley since then. Eighteen of ISU's 42 wins over Bradley (series began in 1968 and became twice-annual in 1978) have come since 2010. The is now 54-42 in the Braves favor and Bradley has won just once in Hulman Center since 2010.

5. Thoughts on Bradley — Bradley struggled in 2021 with poor guard play, but Brian Wardle has unearthed a gem in Roberts, who was every bit as influential as his pre-game statistics suggested he was.

He's got the perfect combination of basketball IQ and determination. Before ISU started box-and-1'ing him, he was distributing expertly and doing effort things like chasing down his own miss for a putback.

He will make life tough for MVC defenders. It's not a bad feather in your cap to draw a box-and-1 in your second MVC contest.

Apart from that? I thought Bradley contributed to its own demise. Watching back, I thought they rushed too many possessions. It's clear Bradley wants to run when they can, but can they? It was a mixed bag on Sunday.

Bradley never really took advantage of its size advantage either. Rienk Mast committed too many fouls and never got into an offensive rhythm.

Ari Boya was his fearsome self in terms of rim-protection and a couple of dunks, but he was also a turnover machine. The moving screen he was dinged for at the 6:08 mark of the second half was borderline comical. Most of those are judgement calls. Boya's, he made little effort to be set, was lead-pipe.

All of that said, we must offer the caveat that energy-source Ja'Shon Henry was in street clothes on the sideline. With him, Bradley would have been a much-tougher nut to crack.

I think Bradley will be better than predicted in the league. That's what makes this win for ISU so valuable. Bradley will win a couple of MVC road games this year, but ISU won't be one of them.

—ISU Player of the Game — Collectively? The starting five as a whole deserves, but we're not going to chicken out and take the cop out route. The confidence that Micah Thomas demonstrated, to go along with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals and going all 40 minutes? He claims the prize.

—Opposing Player of the Game — As mentioned, Roberts was a load for the Braves. His 19 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists attest to that. Fun to watch, scary from an opposing point of view.

—Around the MVC — Not really any big surprises ... apart from ISU's victory. Missouri State held off Drake in the late Sunday game for a 61-56 win. Northern Iowa rolled a struggling Evansville team 83-61 in Cedar Falls. Valparaiso and Illinois State went overtime in the Region before the Beacons pulled out an 81-76 win.

Southern Illinois and Loyola didn't play as SIU is on a COVID-19 pause. Bizarrely, the Salukis and Ramblers are the only unbeaten teams left after just two games have been played. Evansville is the only winless team in MVC play. Everyone else is 1-1. Have fun with that tiebreaker.

That SIU pause will also wipe out the SIU-Drake game scheduled for Wednesday. That's kind of a shame for ISU as the Bulldogs will be well rested for the Sycamores' visit to Knapp Center on Saturday.

—Random — Why did the MVC, and several other conferences around college basketball, including the Big Ten, decide to go head-to-head with NFL football to get into the meat of conference play?

My guess is that the schools wanted to avoid playing on Jan. 1, but that's never stopped the MVC before. ISU played on Jan. 1 as recently as the 2014 season and did so in 2010 and 2011 too. Heck, for a while, playing Creighton on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve became a kind of running joke for a while.

The networks that don't broadcast the NFL likely wanted some inventory and college basketball provides a low-cost alternative. Good for them, but not really for anyone else.

I thought ISU's crowd, even though it was a tad larger than the Midway game on Dec. 29, was a bit more of a downer on Sunday for Bradley.

I have no doubt a few more folks would have come if the game wasn't directly against an Indianapolis Colts game ... and an important one at that.

And I have zero doubt quite a few more eyeballs would have been watching from home too, but the choice between Week 17 NFL football and Week 2 conference basketball really isn't a choice at all if you're a casual fan.

Some days I wonder what would happen to attendance if we went back to the pre-streaming days where comparatively few games were on TV?

It's a conundrum for the schools and conferences because although they enjoy the TV exposure, they take a direct hit in revenue as people would rather watch on a 60-inch plasma screen than pay for tickets, parking, etc., to attend in-person.

However, the above lament is an old one and there's no way the broadcasting toothpaste ever goes back in the tube. I just wish college conferences and their broadcast partners would try to grow the sport beyond it just filling a programming slot.