Peoria Standard

Bradley set to wrap up Non-Con play against Akron

Peoria, IL. Dec. 22nd at 4 p.m. will serve as the final date for the Bradley Brave's nonconference slate in the 2022-23 season when Akron travels to Peoria to try and end Bradley's 13-game home win streak. This will serve as the first ever meeting between these two programs.
 
Scouting the Zips
The Akron Zips come in at 7-4, ranked 116th in the NET and led by head coach John Groce. Coach Groce took over the Zips program in the 2017-18 season and has taken this Akron program to a 63-25 mark over the last three seasons. Groce was previously the head coach at Illinois where he averaged 19-wins a year in his five seasons in Champaign. When you take a look at the Zips this season it's very hard to miss the impact that the dynamic duo of upperclassmen Xavier Castaneda and Enrique Freeman have had. Both Akron players combine for over 30 PPG, 14 RPG and roughly 5 ASP and it should be noted that the Zips will be one of the oldest teams that Bradley will play this season. Akron's players have an average of 2.7 years of D-1 playing time which ranks 35th in the nation. However, the Zips will have to find a way to turn the tide of history as Bradley owns a 21-1 record at home against the MAC and is 30-9 overall in the schools history to go against Akron's 4-game win streak. A big key for the Zips to deny Bradley their 14th straight home win will be to put BU in foul trouble and find a way to the charity stripe. Akron ranks 14th in the nation in FTA per game with an average of 21 attempts per game. 

Scouting the Braves
Bradley is in the midst of a crucial point of their season as this game against Akron could serve as second hightest rated NET win of the season with SIUE perviously being ranked 110th. The Braves are coming off a 29-point win against Stonehill College but sit one week out from having to hit the road to Nashville, TN to play Belmont. Bradley at home is currently riding a 13-game win streak which dates back to January 12th of last season against Evansville. This BU team has had a number of different players step up this season but Rienk Mast has been the steady hand on both ends of the court since his return. The Dutch forward has scored in double figures in every game since coming off an MCL sprain that saw him miss the first six games of the season. Duke Deen will also be a player to watch as the Troy University transfer sank seven 3-point shots to finish one away from the single game record for Bradley, the last Brave to accomplish this feat was Nate Kennel on January 15th of 2020 at Missouri State. Bradley's big key to victory will be controlling turnovers. BU earlier this season was averaging only 10 giveaways per game but now find themselves up to 14 per game as a team. 

Throwback Thursday
The BU faithful will finally get to see their Braves in the "script" uniforms that were teased earlier this season. The uniforms are a new take on the uniforms worn in the 1980's, specifically the 1984 season. The uniforms feature Bradley across the chest in script font and are highlighted by an "electric blue" trim to go with a red boarder, example linked below.

Milestone Watch
- Ja'Shon Henry is just 158 points away from collecting 1,000 for his career and would be the 51st player in Bradley history to join the 1kpoint club. Henry needs to average 7.9 for the remaining 20 guaranteed games to reach that mark. He sits at 70th on the all-time scoring list tied with Tom Campbell who played from 1964-70
- Rienk Mast recorded his 13th career double-double last time out against Stonehill. Mast is currently tied for 22nd all-time in Bradley career double-doubles with Harold McMath and Ken Garret who both played from 1976-1979 and 1980 respectively. 
- Bradley is sits two wins away from tying their 10th longest home win streak at 15 games which was last reached from 01/14/06-12/30/06 

Original source can be found here