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‘Having fun’: Top-seeded Bradley men’s basketball team gears up for Arch Madness tournament run

Bradley men's basketball players celebrate their 73-61 win over Drake in Sunday's finale at Carver Arena to win the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship. The Braves have the No. 1 seed for the Arch Madness conference tournament in St. Louis and will face either Illinois State or Northern Iowa in the first quarterfinal on Friday.
Bradley University Athletics
Bradley men's basketball players celebrate their 73-61 win over Drake in Sunday's finale at Carver Arena to win the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship. The Braves are the No. 1 seed for the Arch Madness conference tournament in St. Louis and will face either Illinois State or Northern Iowa in the first quarterfinal on Friday.

The Bradley University men’s basketball team finds itself in a place it hasn’t been in for 27 years: Seeded No. 1 in the “Arch Madness” Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

The Braves earned that position Sunday with a 73-61 home win over Drake in front of a spirited, sold-out crowd at the Peoria Civic Center.

“It's kind of what you want in that season finale game if you can get it: two really good teams battling and laying it on the line, and you had a crowd that was energized,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle said Monday during his MVC Tournament media teleconference.

“That's probably the loudest I've ever heard Carver Arena for sure, so that was exciting for us. I was proud of our guys, how we played: composed, calm, and really did some good things.”

But that top-seed honor also comes with some uncertainty, as the Braves won’t know their opponent for Friday’s noon quarterfinal in St. Louis until Thursday afternoon. Bradley will face the winner of the tourney’s first game between Illinois State and Northern Iowa at the Enterprise Center.

Wardle said it's important for his team to remain sharp, no matter who the opponent may be.

“The hardest game to win is the first one in these tournaments, especially when the (other) team can win Thursday (and) they’ve got a little momentum going into Friday,” he said. “So, you’ve got to be prepared and you’ve got to be locked in as a group.”

Wardle was voted the MVC Coach of the Year on Wednesday night, becoming the first Bradley coach to receive the honor since Jim Molinari in 1996. Junior forward Malevy Leons was chosen as the Defensive Player of the Year and fifth-year senior Ja'Shon Henry claimed Sixth-Man of the Year honors. Forward Rienk Mast was named to the All-MVC first team and guard Duke Deen made the All-Newcomer team.

Wardle said it will be important for the players to have fresh minds and bodies, but there’s one key factor that he values more than anything right now.

“Having fun, and that's big for me this time of year,” he said. “I think a team that's competitive, but also having fun is a scary team this time of year, because we don't view it as work right now. We view it as fun: enjoying each other, enjoying the journey, and trying to get a little bit better every day.”

Bradley University men's basketball coach Brian Wardle holds up a piece of the net after the Braves' 73-61 win over Drake in Sunday's regular-season finale at Carver Arena.
Joe Deacon
/
WCBU
Bradley University men's basketball coach Brian Wardle holds up a piece of the net after the Braves' 73-61 win over Drake in Sunday's regular-season finale at Carver Arena.

Bradley is aiming for its third Arch Madness title in five seasons; the Braves won back-to-back tourneys in 2019-20 but the second of those didn’t result in an NCAA Tournament berth because the event was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Bradley lost its first game to eventual repeat champion Loyola. But the Ramblers won’t be in the way this time after leaving the Valley to join the Atlantic 10 Conference. Now this year’s Arch Madness is a 12-team contest with the additions of Belmont, Murray State and Illinois-Chicago.

Regardless of who the Braves play along the way, Wardle knows it’s critical for his team to be mentally prepared for a challenging tourney stretch.

“It's that time of year, it's March. If you want to get to that NCAA Tournament and feel that holding that (MVC) trophy up at the end of this tournament — which is a heck of a accomplishment; we've been blessed to do it a couple times — you’ve got to lock into improving this week and getting better. And as a coach, I'm always looking for little tweaks that can help us in tournament time.

“A lot of factors go into it. Depth plays a factor, (and) like I say, your defense and rebounding have to travel with you. It's got to be there every game because it's going to be grind-it-out games when you're playing three games in three days.”

Wardle said Bradley still needs to focus on one game at a time, even though the Braves head into the tournament riding the momentum of a 10-game winning streak.

“I think it's more confidence than more momentum, (but) it's real,” he said. “I'd rather be winning games in February than losing them coming in to Arch Madness — trying to turn it on like a light switch and say, ‘All right, now we're going to play.’

“I think your habits every day, how you play throughout the season — are you improving? You're either getting better or you're getting worse; you're either trending up or trending down. We want to keep trending up and keep trying to find ways to get better and find some things in the tournament that can maybe help us win it.”

Bradley is seeking its fifth MVC Tournament title overall. The last time the Braves were the No. 1 seed in 1996, they advanced to the championship game, but suffered a 60-46 loss to third-seeded Tulsa. Bradley then received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed, but lost its first-round game to Stanford.

Updated: March 1, 2023 at 9:01 PM CST
Updated with Bradley's awards from the MVC banquet on Wednesday night.
Contact Joe at jdeacon@ilstu.edu.