The Storyline
First-year Bradley head coach Geno Ford will experience another first when he leads the Braves into their Missouri Valley Conference opener Wednesday night against Wichita State ... Wichita State is the defending NIT champion and the Shockers roll into Peoria riding a 7-game winning streak and a Valley-best +17.7 points-per-game scoring margin ... The Braves will be trying to snap a 3-game overall losing streak and will be trying to avoid the first home losing streak in Ford's brief tenure at Bradley ... Bradley's first seven Valley games will include five against teams that currently rank among the top 47 in the RPI in the nation, including two meetings versus Wichita State (28) ... Dave Snell, the radio voice of the Braves since the start of the 1979-80 season, will participate in his 997th Bradley Basketball game broadcast, all in succession, on 1470 WMBD Wednesday night.
Promotions
Wednesday's game is the first of three games in the Bradley Athletics Holiday Ticket Package: tickets to the Dec. 28 men's basketball game versus Wichita State, as well as the women's basketball games Dec. 29 versus Missouri State and Dec. 31 against Wichita State, for $20 at the Renaissance Coliseum Box Office ... Halftime entertainment provided by K9 Crew.
Series Notes
Bradley leads 71-54 | In Peoria: Bradley leads 49-16 | At Carver Arena: Bradley leads 20-9
Wednesday's game will be the 126th all-time meeting between Bradley and Wichita State and the Braves own a 71-54 series edge ... Wednesday's meeting, however, will be the first-ever for first-year Braves head coach Geno Ford against Wichita State and Shockers head coach Gregg Marshall ... Marshall is 5-4 in nine previous games against Bradley, including 2-2 at Carver Arena ... Wichita State swept three games from the Braves in 2010-11 and will be shooting for a fourth straight win in the series for the first time since 2003-05 and for just the third time in the history of the series.
The Good News
Bradley will play three of its first four Missouri Valley Conference games at home, beginning with Wednesday night's league opener versus Wichita State ... In the last 40 years, the start to the 2011-12 campaign will be just the second in which Bradley will play three of its first four Valley games at home ... The 1987-88 Braves also played three of their first four Valley games at home, overcoming a league-opening loss to rival Illinois State at Carver Arena to win the MVC title.
The Bad News
Three of Bradley's first four league games are being played against the defending NIT champion (Wichita State), the defending MVC Tournament champion (Indiana State) and the preseason pick to win the 2012 MVC title (Creighton) ... Those three teams enter the league season with a combined 28-5 (.848) record and all three rank among the nation's top 47 in the current RPI.
Valley Openers
Bradley is playing its 60th Missouri Valley Conference opener Wednesday ... The Braves are 36-23 (.610) in their previous 59 Valley openers ... Bradley is 26-8 (.765) in Valley openers played at home, including an 11-5 (.688) record at Carver Arena ... First-year Bradley head coaches are 4-3 in their Valley debuts.
Shocking Openers
Though Bradley and Wichita State are two of the oldest members of the Missouri Valley Conference, Wednesday's game will mark just the fourth time Bradley will have opened the league season against the Shockers ... Wichita State has won two of the three previous league-opening meetings, most recently an 87-86 decision on ESPN Jan. 7, 1989 in Wichita ... Bradley's only previous Valley home opener against Wichita State resulted in a 70-63 victory Jan. 6, 1962 at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse.
For a complete preview of Wednesday's game, click the above link for the PDF version of Bradley's complete game notes package.
