PEORIA, Ill. ? By winning 11 of its final 14 games, the Bradley University men's basketball team played its way into the 2006 NCAA Tournament, earning an at-large invitation to the “Big Dance” and a first-round matchup versus Kansas in Auburn Hills, Mich. The Bradley-Kansas game will be the final game in Auburn Hills Friday night and is slated to tip off at 8:30 (CST).
The link to Bradley Basketball's NCAA Tournament Tip Sheet (PDF) is located at the bottom of this online story.
Bradley (20-10) will be making its eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and its first since the 1995-96 season. The Braves have made two NCAA Tournament appearances since their last win, an 83-65 victory versus 10th-seeded UTEP in the first round of the 1986 West Regional in Ogden, Utah.
Bradley boasts an all-time 9-7 record in the NCAA Tournament and the Braves have twice reached the national championship game, losing to CCNY in 1950 and La Salle in 1954. The NCAA Tournament championship game against CCNY in Madison Square Garden came 10 days after the two teams battled in the NIT championship game at Madison Square Garden (CCNY won that game, too). The 1954 championship game versus La Salle in Kansas City was the first to be televised nationally.
The Braves tied for fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season race with an 11-7 league record. Bradley, however, won its last five regular season games by an average of 16.2 points, then stretched its winning streak to seven games by reaching the championship game of the State Farm MVC Tournament in St. Louis, where the Braves fell to second-seeded Southern Illinois, 59-46.
The 13th seed in the Oakland Regional, Bradley's first-round opponent will be the fourth-seeded Jayhawks, who won the Big 12 Tournament championship Sunday. The first-round NCAA Tournament game will be the second meeting in the all-time series between the two teams. Bradley downed Kansas, 59-57, in a first-round NCAA Tournament game in Kansas City March 20, 1950. That game was played two days after Bradley lost to C.C.N.Y. in the championship game of the 1950 NIT and propelled the Braves through the Western Regional bracket and to the 1950 NCAA Tournament championship game.
The Bradley Ticket Office accepted NCAA Tournament Ticket applications throughout the week and will begin notifying selected applicants Monday morning regarding their interest in traveling to Auburn Hills.
