The Storyline
Bradley will try to snap a season-long, five-game losing streak and earn its first Missouri Valley Conference win of the season Wednesday when the Braves host Southern Illinois at Carver Arena ... The visiting team has won four straight in the Bradley-Southern Illinois series, but no series involving the Braves has ever featured five consecutive wins by the visiting team ... Wednesday's game will be the 81st in the all-time series between the in-state rivals and Bradley owns a 42-38 advantage, including an 19-10 margin at Carver Arena ... First-year Bradley head coach Geno Ford is seeking his first career Missouri Valley Conference win and will try to avoid becoming the third straight Braves coach to begin his Valley career 0-3.
Series Notes
Bradley leads 42-38 | In Peoria: Bradley leads 25-12 | At Carver Arena: Bradley leads 19-10
Wednesday's game will be the 81st in the all-time series between the in-state MVC rivals, which dates back to Dec. 21, 1927 ... The Salukis have dominated the series of late, winning 17-of-24 meetings since the start of hte 2001-02 season, though Bradley has won four of the last seven ... SIU has left Carver Arena with a victory in six of its last 10 visits to Peoria ... Wednesday's game is first-year Bradley head coach Geno Ford's first meeting agianst the Salukis, while eighth-year SIU head coach Chris Lowery is 11-6 against the Braves.
10-Game MVC Home Slide
Bradley is 3-7 in its last 10 Missouri Valley Conference home games ... The 10-game Valley home record is Bradley's worst since a similar 3-7 mark from Feb. 8, 1991 through Jan. 25, 1993 ... On a positive note, Bradley recovered from its last 3-7 Valley home slide by winning its next 16 MVC home games and 68-of-76 league games at Carver Arena through the 2000-01 season.
Road Team Rolling
The visiting team has won each of the last four meetings in the Bradley-Southern Illinois series ... The current visiting team run marks the ninth time in Bradley Basketball history that the road team has won four straight games in a series against the Braves and just the second time entirely as Missouri Valley Conference rivals ... In the 108-year history of Bradley Basketball, however, the Braves have never been involved in a series that saw the visiting team win five straight meetings.
January Slide
As the 2012 portion of the schedule gets underway this week, Bradley will try to halt a 12-game losing streak in the month of January ... After a 74-64 win against Evansville Jan. 23, 2010, Bradley dropped its final two games in January 2010 and went 0-10 in January 2011 ... In the 2000's, Bradley is just 44-58 (.431) during the month of January and the Braves have not been more than one game over .500 during the calendar year's first month since 2000-01 (7-2).
For a complete preview of Wednesday's game, click the above links for the PDF versions of Bradley's and SIU's complete game notes package.
