PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley men’s basketball team will find the 18-game Missouri Valley Conference schedule a tough road to navigate in the beginning as the Braves will start the league race by playing five of their first eight games on the road, concluding with a stretch of three consecutive road games, according to the release of the conference schedule by The Valley office Friday afternoon.
In addition to the tough road start to the schedule, the three home games in the opening eight-game stretch will be played against three of the league’s marquee programs, all with the Bradley students still on their winter break.
After playing 11 of its first 12 non-conference games, Bradley will open The Valley schedule by hosting perennial league power Southern Illinois Dec. 28 at Carver Arena. The Braves will play the next two games on the road, Dec. 31 at Wichita State and Jan. 3 at Missouri State, before returning home for back-to-back games against arch rival Illinois State (Jan. 6) and likely preseason MVC favorite Creighton (Jan. 10). Each of Bradley’s first three home Valley home games will be played against three of the other four league teams to reach the postseason in 2008. While Bradley played in the championship round of the inaugural College Basketball Invitational, Creighton, Illinois State and Southern Illinois all won first-round games in the 2008 National Invitation Tournament.
The Jan. 6 home game versus Illinois State will mark just the second home meeting against Bradley’s arch rival played with its students on break since the Redbirds joined The Valley for the 1981-82 season. Although the Braves lost the previous meeting without their students Jan. 4, 1988 (85-74), Bradley went on to sweep the 1987-88 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and postseason titles.
Bradley will follow the consecutive home games versus the Redbirds and Bluejays by playing six of their next nine on the road, beginning with three straight away from home: at Indiana State (Jan. 13), at Southern Illinois (Jan. 18) and at UNI (Jan. 21). Indiana State will be the only other team in The Valley to play three consecutive league road games, but that stretch for the Sycamores will be interrupted by a home game in the annual ESPNU BracketBusters series.
The Braves will return home for consecutive games against Indiana State (Jan. 24) and Wichita State (Jan. 28) at Carver Arena, then will visit Illinois State (Jan. 31) and host UNI (Feb. 3) before hitting the road for two more games: Feb. 7 at defending Valley champion Drake and Feb. 11 at Creighton.
Bradley will play three of its final four Valley games at home, starting with consecutive games at Carver Arena versus Evansville (Feb. 14) and Missouri State (Feb. 17). After going on the road for the annual ESPNU BracketBusters game, the Braves will visit Evansville Feb. 25 for the final Valley road game, then will close out the regular-season by hosting Drake Feb. 28.
Although start times are subject to change based on television, Bradley is planning the standard 7:05 p.m. tipoff time for its weekday Valley home games. The start times for the weekend games will be announced at a later date.
Exhibition schedule
Mon, Nov 03 Lewis Carver Arena 7:05 p.m.
Sun, Nov 09 Wisconsin-Platteville Carver Arena 4:05 p.m.
Regular Season
Fri, Nov 14 UIC Carver Arena 7:05 p.m.
College Basketball Experience Classic
Sun, Nov 16 Florida or Syracuse at TBA TBA
Mon, Nov 24 FGCU/Richmond/UMKC at Ft. Myers, Fla. TBA
Tue, Nov 25 FGCU/Richmond/UMKC at Ft. Myers, Fla. TBA
Wed, Nov 26 FGCU/Richmond/UMKC at Ft. Myers, Fla. TBA
Sat, Nov 29 East Tennessee State Carver Arena 7:05 p.m.
Sun, Dec 07 Michigan State at East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Wed, Dec 10 Butler Carver Arena 7:05 p.m.
Sun, Dec 14 Southeast Missouri State Carver Arena 1:05 p.m.
Sat, Dec 20 Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Milwaukee, Wis. 7:05 p.m.
Tue, Dec 23 Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Carver Arena 7:05 p.m.
Sun, Dec 28 Southern Illinois * Carver Arena TBA
Wed, Dec 31 Wichita State * at Wichita, Kan. TBA
Sat, Jan 03 Missouri State * at Springfield, Mo. TBA
Tue, Jan 06 Illinois State * Carver Arena TBA
Sat, Jan 10 Creighton * Carver Arena TBA
Tue, Jan 13 Indiana State * at Terre Haute, Ind. TBA
Sun, Jan 18 Southern Illinois * at Carbondale, Ill. TBA
Wed, Jan 21 UNI * at Cedar Falls, Iowa TBA
Sat, Jan 24 Indiana State * Carver Arena TBA
Wed, Jan 28 Wichita State * Carver Arena TBA
Sat, Jan 31 Illinois State * at Normal, Ill. TBA
Tue, Feb 03 UNI * Carver Arena TBA
Sat, Feb 07 Drake * at Des Moines, Iowa TBA
Wed, Feb 11 Creighton * at Omaha, Neb. TBA
Sat, Feb 14 Evansville * Carver Arena TBA
Tue, Feb 17 Missouri State * Carver Arena TBA
BracketBusters
Sat, Feb 21 TBA at TBA TBA
Wed, Feb 25 Evansville * at Evansville, Ind. TBA
Sat, Feb 28 Drake * Carver Arena TBA
March 5-7 MVC Tournament TBA
* Conference Games
