The Storyline
Bradley will try to snap its season-long, 8-game losing streak, as well as a 3-year, 15-game January slide, Friday when the Braves visit Wichita State ... Due in part to the early schedule for the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament March 1-4 in St. Louis, everyone in the league will play the middle game in a 3-game week Friday before playing again on Sunday ... Bradley is the only Valley team that is playing the first two games of this 3-game week on the road: the Braves dropped an 82-74 decision Tuesday at Drake and will return home to host UNI Sunday afternoon ... Tuesday's loss at Drake started a stretch that will see the Braves play 5-of-7 games on the road.
Series Notes
Bradley leads 71-55 | At Wichita State: WSU leads 40-20
Bradley and Wichita State will meet for the 127th time Friday when the Braves visit Charles Koch Arena ... Bradley owns a 71-55 lead in the all-time series, which dates back to a 72-63 non-conference victory March 6, 1948 at the Peoria Armory ... Wichita State has won four straight in the series and five of the last six ... With a win Friday, Wichita State would match its longest winning streak ever against Bradley, a 5-game run from Feb. 1, 1975-Feb. 17, 1977.
Turnabouts
Bradley will play its first Valley return game of the season Friday night when the Braves visit Wichita State in the rematch of Bradley's worst-ever MVC loss, a 90-51 defeat Dec. 28 at Carver Arena ... A Bradley win at Wichita State would mark only the second time in program history the Braves would have benefitted from a scoring margin swing of at least 40 points for any season series in program history ... During the 1999-2000 season, the Braves bounced back from a 50-46 loss at Northern Iowa with an 80-39 home win against the Panthers for a record 45-point swing in the result margins.
Hot Valley Shooter
Senior forward Taylor Brown has started The Valley season with a hot shooting hand ... Averaging 20.6 ppg in the first five Valley games, Brown leads the league by shooting 62.5 percent (10-16) from 3-point range in MVC play ... Brown is shooting 54.1 percent (33-61) from the field and 81.8 percent (27-33) from the free throw line through five conference games ... The rest of the Braves, however, have combined to shoot 36.8 percent from the field, 30.8 percent from 3-point range and 67.4 percent from the free throw line in five league games.
Looking Ahead
In the midst of a road-heavy stretch in its schedule, Bradley will make a brief appearance at Carver Arena Sunday when the Braves host Missouri Valley Conference rival Northern Iowa ... Bradley began its 3-game week by visiting both Drake and Wichita State and the Braves will return to the road for three of their next four games after Sunday's game ... Bradley won the first 11 home games in its series against UNI, as well as 15 of the first 16 home meetings, but the Panthers have won in four of their last five trips to Carver Arena ... UNI has won three straight against Bradley and will be trying to match its longest winning streak in the series history, a 4-game run from Jan. 21, 2009-Jan. 12, 2010.
For a complete preview of Friday's game, click the above link for the PDF version of Bradley's complete game notes package.
