Drake vs Bradley Odds and Picks

• The Bradley Braves (11-14, 5-11 MVC) host the Drake Bulldogs (23-2, 14-2 MVC) Friday, Feb. 26
• Bradley has lost three in a row while Drake is having arguably its best season ever
• Read below for odds, analysis, and our best bet for this matchup

The Bradley Braves (11-14, 5-11 MVC), losers of three straight, host the Drake Bulldogs (23-2, 14-2 MVC) Friday, Feb. 26, in Peoria. Tip is set for 7:00 pm ET at Carver Arena.

The Braves have had a nice gap between their last game — an 88-71 loss to Illinois State last Thursday — and Friday’s tilt against the Bulldogs. Brian Wardle’s team lost for just the fourth time in 14 games when scoring at least 65 points in regulation this season. Meantime, the Bulldogs have won four straight and are coming off a 74-63 victory over Evansville on Monday.

Now, Drake is favored on the road to knock off Bradley.

Drake vs Bradley Odds

Odds as of Feb. 25 at FanDuel.

Survive and Advance

Garrett Sturtz, D.J. Wilkins, and Joseph Yesufu all played the entire 40 minutes of the 11-point victory over the Purple Aces — led by a career-high 36 points from Yesufu.

Bulldogs head coach Darian DeVries essentially used a six-man rotation out of necessity due to injuries to a pair of key contributors.

Roman Penn, Drake’s starting point guard, broke his foot Sunday and is done for the season. Meantime, leading scorer Shanquan Hemphill is also out with a broken foot at least through the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Now, with only a pair of games against Bradley to close out the regular season and whatever the MVC tournament holds, Drake only has a handful of opportunities to bolster their NCAA Tournament at-large berth resume in case the squad fails to get an automatic bid via a conference tourney title.

It’s ranked No. 34 in the NCAA’s all-important NET metric, but every game at this point is critical to the mid-major enjoying a season that saw it ranked for the first time since 2008.

Playing Out the String

The Braves, on the other hand, have been a different story this season. Losers of ten of their last 12, Wardle’s club seemingly doesn’t  have much to play for Friday. Bradley allowed Illinois State to shoot over 57-percent from the field in that 17-point defeat last week.

Find the positives from tonight's game and build off it for next week

📰⏩ https://t.co/NcBEw5Sv9U pic.twitter.com/VAOKEj0zcS

— Bradley Basketball (@bradleyumbb) February 19, 2021

After converting just 43-percent of their field goals against the Redbirds, it was hard to find those positives for the Braves. One might have been the performance 6-foot-9 Dutch product Rienk Mast. The redshirt freshman scored 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting (2-of-3 from 3-point range) and posted his sixth double-digit scoring game in the last eight contests. His maturation is an encouraging development for a team rated No. 142 by KenPom, 95 spots behind Drake.

One area the Braves struggle in is 3-point defense. Bradley is allowing opponents to shoot 38.3-percent from beyond the arc, which is 330th in the country. That’s something Drake might take advantage of Friday. The Bulldogs average 37.1-percent, good for 40th in the nation.

Stepping Up

With opportunity for more playing time and potentially increased 3-point chances, Yesufu has exploded into the team’s go-to scorer. The 6-foot sophomore from Chicagoland has erupted for 68 points over the last two games, becoming the first Drake player to score at least 30 points in back-to-back games since 1988. The effort brought Yesufu MVC honors this week.

Co-Player of the Week ⫸ Joseph Yesufu, @DrakeBulldogsMB

▪️ Led Drake with 29.3 ppg
▪️ Scored 36 points in his first career start against Evansville Monday
▪️ Became the first Bulldog to score 30 or more points in back-to-back games since Dec. 1988

Libman | #TheValleyRunsDeep pic.twitter.com/xmIwV9s8I1

— Missouri Valley Conference (@MVCsports) February 23, 2021

While Penn is more of a traditional point guard with a pass-first mentality, Yesufu is clearly more aggressive in the shot-making department. He also has help facilitating his teammates in the absence of the senior guard who is now out for the year., with Wilkins and Sturtz both stepping up to share those floor-general responsibilities, too.

While it’s hard to expect the sophomore to repeat the effort he gave in the Evansville sweep, it’s certainly reasonable to expect Yesufu to be a legit scoring threat. The bigger issue is four guys who don’t necessarily get as much run as they did against the Aces combining for 157 minutes and playing again four days later (not to mention playing a second game in five days Saturday on the backend of the two-game series).

But the bottom line is, even with an extremely short bench, Drake is in the midst of an historically good season and won’t be deterred from its mission of returning to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time since 1971.

The pick: Drake -8.5 (-110)