One year after topping the Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball preseason poll, Bradley University’s team is pegged for fourth place in this year’s early rankings.
The Braves reached the MVC Tournament championship game for the second straight year last season, but lost both times. Bradley finished at 28-9 overall after falling to Chattanooga in the NIT quarterfinals.
But coach Brian Wardle’s roster experienced a wave of off season turnover and has eight freshman and sophomores. Speaking on the Field of 68 MVC preseason special on YouTube, Wardle said a bit of a learning curve may be needed at the start of his 11th season leading the program.
“I have a really talented group in the locker room, but we are young. I mean, I’ve got a lot of newcomers, like a lot of teams do in the country,” said Wardle. “It’s been a teaching, teaching, teaching, patience, patience with a deadline type of idea all off season.”
For the first time since 2001-02, Illinois State placed first in the preseason poll. Redbirds coach Ryan Pedon told the Field of 68 show he’s glad most of the starters on last year’s ISU team decided to return and not enter the transfer portal.
“I felt really good about the connectedness we had with those guys, but you never know because some guys are motivated by different things,” said Pedon. “Some guys are motivated solely by money. Some of them have a chip on their shoulder and they want to prove people wrong.”
Defending MVC champion Northern Iowa came in second in the preseason poll, followed by Murray State. Belmont checked in behind Bradley in rounding out the top five. ISU had 34 first-place votes, with UNI receiving eight and Murray State getting four.
Bradley opens the regular season Nov. 3 against St. Bonaventure in the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon. Following exhibitions against Illinois and Northwestern, ISU tips off with a road game at Ohio University on Nov. 6.
