PEORIA, Ill. -- A pair of games versus 2008 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 participants Butler and Michigan State , a road matchup versus either Florida or Syracuse in the first round of the College Basketball Experience Classic and a trip to Ft. Myers , Fla. for the final three games in the exempt tournament highlight Bradley’s 2008-09 men’s basketball non-conference schedule.

Including the 18-game, double round-robin Missouri Valley Conference schedule, which is still to be announced, Bradley will play 30 regular-season games in advance of the 2009 State Farm MVC Tournament (March 5-8) in St. Louis.

Due to the demolition of Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse and the on-going construction of its replacement arena, both of the men’s basketball exhibition games will be played at Carver Arena, Nov. 3 (7:05 p.m.) versus Lewis and Nov. 9 (4:05 p.m.) against Wisconsin-Platteville. With the annual Red-White Scrimmage put on hold due to the campus construction project, the Nov. 3 game versus Lewis will serve as the on-court public debut for the 2008-09 Braves. In lieu of the scrimmage, however, the Bradley Department of Athletics is planning a public event to introduce the 2008-09 men’s basketball team prior to the exhibition opener and details will be announced at a later date.

Bradley officially will open its 105th men’s basketball season when the Braves host in-state rival Illinois-Chicago Nov. 14 (7:05 p.m.) at Carver Arena. The game against UIC will serve as a rematch of last year’s season-opener, which the Flames won, 84-75, at the UIC Pavilion.

For the third consecutive season, Bradley will participate in an exempted in-season tournament and the Braves will begin play in the O’Reilly Autoparts College Basketball Experience Classic Nov. 16 at either Syracuse or Florida . While Syracuse advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2008 National Invitation Tournament, Florida reached the NIT semifinals on the heels of its back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. The Braves won their only previous meeting versus Florida , 70-65 on Dec. 29, 1970 in Gainesville and Bradley is 3-1 all-time versus Syracuse , most recently earning a 95-81 road victory versus the Orange in the second round of the 1982 NIT.

After a week off, the Braves will head to Ft. Myers , Fla. for the remaining three games in the tournament Nov. 24-25-26 versus Florida Gulf Coast , Richmond and UMKC. The exact dates and times for each of the three tournament opponents is to be determined. Seventh-year Bradley head coach Jim Les owns an 11-4 (.733) record during in-season tournaments with victories versus BCS member schools MIami-Fla. (2003 Las Vegas Tournament), Rutgers (2006 Chicago Invitational Challenge) and Iowa (2007 South Padre Island Tournament). The Braves also knocked off Florida Gulf Coast, 82-74, at Carver Arena in the second round of last year’s South Padre Island Tournament.

While Richmond and UMKC both are first-time Bradley opponents, the Braves will make a brief home appearance Nov. 29 (7:05 p.m.) to face another first-time opponent, East Tennessee State . The game against the Buccaneers will serve as the final tune-up before the toughest part of the non-conference schedule, consecutive games versus 2008 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 participants Michigan State and Butler . Bradley will complete a three-year series against the Spartans by visiting Michigan State Dec. 7, then will renew its recent rivalry against Butler by hosting the Bulldogs Dec. 10 (7:05 p.m.) at Carver Arena. The game against Butler will be the sixth meeting in Jim Les’ seven years as head coach and the home team has won each of the previous five matchups.

The rest of the December non-conference schedule will include a home game Dec. 14 (1:05 p.m.) versus Southeast Missouri State , a Dec. 20 (7:05 p.m.) visit to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Dec. 23 home game against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. The Braves dumped both SEMO (90-72) and Wisconsin-Milwaukee (84-72) last season at Carver Arena, the latter as part of the O’Reilly/ESPNU BracketBusters. The Dec. 23 game against SIU-Edwardsville will mark the return to Peoria for former Bradley assistant Lennox Forrester, who is beginning his second season as the head coach for the Cougars after working as a Bradley assistant during Jim Les’ first five seasons (2002-07) with the Braves.

Bradley will play its final non-conference game Feb. 21 as a road team in the annual BracketBusters series. The opponent, game time and potential television broadcast will not be announced until late January or early February. Bradley is 6-3 (.667) in the nine games since 2004 created through its participation in the BracketBusters series, including a 2-2 record in the road games.

The Braves return seven lettermen from the 2007-08 squad that finished 21-17 overall and was the runner-up in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament. Bradley has won at least 21 games three consecutive seasons and the Braves are tied for eighth nationally with seven postseason wins the last three years.