The Storyline
Bradley will try to extend an unusual trend when the Braves visit Southern Illinois in Missouri Valley Conference action Tuesday night at SIU Arena ... The visiting team has won five straight games in the in-state rivalry, the longest such visiting team win streak in any series involving Bradley ... The Braves will be trying to avoid consecutive losses to Southern Illinois for the first time since 2008 and also will be trying to snap a 2-game overall losing streak ... Bradley has dropped six straight road games since its 67-66 win Dec. 17 at George Washington and the Braves have lost six straight Valley road games since their 69-66 win at Southern Illinois Feb. 5, 2011 ... Tuesday's game at Southern Illinois is Bradley's sixth in a 7-game stretch that includes five road games.
Series Notes
Bradley leads 42-39 | At SIU: Southern Illinois leads 21-15
Tuesday's game will be the 82nd in the all-time series between the two teams ... Bradley won the first meeting, 31-23, Dec. 21, 1927 at Peoria Armory, but the teams did not meet again until Jan. 15, 1976 after SIU joined The Valley ... Neither team has won consecutive games in the series since the Salukis enjoyed a 4-game series winning streak from Feb. 7, 2007-Feb. 26, 2008 ... Geno Ford is 0-1 against SIU, while Chris Lowery is 12-6 against Bradley.
Home and Road Defense
While overall defense has been a sore point for the Braves this season, they have been much improved on the defensive end in their last two home games ... In the Jan. 15 home win versus UNI, Bradley earned the 78-67 win by limiting the Panthers to 40.7 percent shooting fromt he field ... More notably, in Saturday's 51-48 loss to Missouri State at Carver Arena, the Braves held the Bears to fewer than 60 points for the first time this season and limited MSU to 34.7 percent shooting from the field ... Bradley's last two home opponents have combined to average 59.0 points on 37.9 percent shooting from the field ... As Bradley prepares for a pair of road games this week, however, the Braves have surrendered 84.0 ppg on 53.0 percent field goal shooting to their last two road opponents (Wichita State and Evansville).
Strength of Schedule
Bradley's strength of schedule currently ranks 35th nationally ... Bradley's strength of schedule is second-best in The Valley, trailing only UNI (16) ... In the 19 seasons of RPI information available at collegerpi.com, Bradley's current 35 strength of schedule rating its second-best all-time, trailing only the 2006-07 NIT squad (21).
For a complete preview of Tuesday's game, click the above links for the PDF version of Bradley's and SIU's complete game notes packages.
