If it had been any team other than Pitt that Bradley beat, I could probably read a lot of these stories, smile and feel good for the players, coaches and fans of Bradley for getting to the Sweet 16. It is quite the achievement to knock off Kansas and Pitt in the opening rounds of the NCAA.
Instead, I keep getting this hollow feeling in my gut. Still, here’s what was written.
This AP article essentially wondered who was the experienced team.
O’Bryant and Sommerville combined for all 13 of Bradley’s points during a 13-2 run in the first six minutes of the second half that put the Braves in control.
“They weren’t intimidated at all,” Pitt forward Levon Kendall said. “They were in our face the whole game.”
Freshman Levance Fields, who scored 18 points, stopped the run with a layup, but Pitt’s misery continued. Gray missed a dunk and then Krauser missed a wide open tip-in.
O’Bryant followed on the other end with a thunderous alley-oop dunk and Tony Bennett banked in a mid-range jumper for a 53-39 lead with under 9 minutes to go. Pitt never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
Playing in their school-record fifth straight NCAA tournament, the Panthers looked like nervous kids against the newcomers from Bradley.
They committed careless turnovers, missed free throws and lost their composure throughout the game. Krauser, playing in his ninth NCAA tournament game, came unglued several times and Gray picked up a technical foul in the second half when he slammed the ball to the court after being whistled for a five-second call.
Plenty of talk of vindication for the Missouri Valley. For Bradley in particular, it’s been over 50 years since they were in the Sweet 16.
For the first time in the conference’s 99-year run, two MVC schools have advanced to the Sweet 16. MVC commissioner Doug Elgin and his long-time associate, Joe Mitch, stood beaming as they witnessed the happy scene.
“Bradley deserved to win,” Dixon said. “They are a very good team, well-balanced, well-coached.”
And, for the first time in a half-century of Marches, Bradley is well-traveled in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s a great accomplishment for our program and it’s great for Bradley,” Sommerville said. “We’re trying to bring the tradition back to Bradley.”
After the game ended, Bradley players went into the stands to shake hands and embrace some of their fans and family.
Bradley coach Jim Les thought it would be a good idea for his players to go over to their edge of the stands and thank their crowd following Sunday’s victory.
But Marcellus Sommerville spotted his wife, Brooke, and son, Lathan, up there and just couldn’t help himself. His teammates followed their co-captain and all of a sudden, Palace security staff got nervous.
A Detroit reporter, mindful of the brawl between players and fans at a 2004 Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers game that saw nine players suspended and nine fans treated for injuries, later asked this postgame question to the Braves’ players on the interview dais: “At The Palace of Auburn Hills, they frown on players entering the stands, although today was an exception. Whose idea was that?”
Sommerville, Patrick O’Bryant and Lawrence Wright all got a laugh from how the query was posed. Sommerville owned up to leading the charge.
Once they all went into the stands, they just started hugging everybody and anybody wearing red.
The Bradley player who got a lot of stories afterwards was actually senior guard Tony Bennett. Bennett came from Chicago’s West Side Projects, and also took a while to get to Bradley. After the game he was crying for joy.
Bennett went to two high schools, then Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kan., before landing at Bradley. Asked to name the best thing about Bradley, his reply was simple: “Its degree.”
Sunday afternoon, Bennett, a senior guard, eventually regained his composure. His eyes dried and his throat cleared. Then he took a few verbal jabs at Pittsburgh point guard Carl Krauser, who had given Bennett an unauthorized elbow in the second half and talked too much trash for Bennett’s liking.
“He had a few words,” Bennett said, “but I had the best choice of words. I told him to have a nice trip home.”
This was the kid from the projects reclaiming his turf. But rewind a few minutes. Zoom in on Tony Bennett’s tears.
“I’ve been holding it in since we got the NCAA bid,” Bennett said. “I didn’t want to show emotion. I tried to stay focused. But it’s just too much to hold in.”
For more fun, I think I’ll shove a pen through my eye.
Hard to believe, considering how bad Pitt did to start the game, but possession-wise, that spell in the second half when Bradley took control was even worse. Ken Pomeroy has the graph showing how bad it was.
