Drake aims to maintain its strong finish in January when it hosts Bradley at the Knapp Center on Saturday night.
After a bumpy start to league play, the Bulldogs (12-10 overall, 6-5 Missouri Valley Conference) have won three in a row and four of their last five. It took a few months, but it looks like first-year head coach Eric Henderson’s squad has found its footing.
Bradley (14-8, 7-4) is fifth in the league standings and is still in the hunt for an MVC regular-season crown, but the Braves have lost to each of the teams that sit above them in the standings. They’re coming off a 15-point loss to UIC last Saturday.
One of Bradley’s conference victories came against Drake on Jan. 7. The Braves won that game, 93-66. I expect this meeting to be much closer.
Bradley at Drake Odds
As of this writing, Drake is a 1.5-point college basketball betting odds favorite on BetMGM against Bradley while the Over/Under is 150.5 points.
The Moneyline for Drake is -115 and -105 for Bradley.
Bradley at Drake on TV
The matchup between Bradley and Drake will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
Tonight’s game tips off at 6 p.m. ET.
Bradley at Drake Prediction
I predict Bradley gets the road win. I also predict this game goes over 150.5 points.
The Bulldogs will live and die by the 3-ball. Even if the shots aren’t falling, most of the time they’ll stick to their identity and continue to let them fly. Every guy who sees the court isn’t afraid to shoot it from deep.
The volume doesn’t always lead to production, though. In league games, Drake has the most 3-point attempts as a team, but their 32.3% from 3 is the third-worst mark in the MVC.
However, the Bulldogs should be able to find quite a few open looks and knock them down against a Bradley team that is allowing a league-worst 38% from the outside against conference foes. Drake likes to get a lot of dribble penetration and kick to open shooters, and I think it will be able to do so against this defense. Per KenPom, Bradley has an adjusted defensive efficiency of 110.4, which ranks second-worst in the league.
Drake senior guard Jalen Quinn leads The Valley in scoring with 18.9 points per game, while Jaehshon Thomas averages 10.8 PPG and Okku Federiko chips in with 10.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
Behind 5-foot-11 sophomore guard Jaquan “Bully” Johnson, I think the Braves will find success offensively in this matchup as well. They also like to shoot the ball from the outside, where they hit 33.7% of attempts. But in the first meeting, they had no problems scoring around the rim. I think that’s the case again today.
Johnson can get to his spots against any defender and is averaging 17 PPG, which is second-most in the league, trailing only Quinn. He also leads the league and is second in the country with 3.1 steals per game. He’s a big reason why Bradley owns the best turnover margin in the conference.
Bradley likes to play through its 7-foot-1 Serbian center, Ahmet Jonovic, and initiate the offense with him at the high post, which really opens up the floor. He doesn’t take a ton of shots but will have a considerable size advantage against any of Drake’s big men, and I think may look to score more often than usual. If he stays out of foul trouble, he could have a big game.
Jonovic averages 7.6 points and 5.3 RPG, and Alex Huibregtse is averaging 11 PPG and shooting 38.5% from 3 for the Braves.
I don’t often like backing a team to sweep a season series from a near-evenly-matched conference opponent, but I think winning the turnover battle and winning inside will propel Bradley to a victory here.
