The Storyline
Bradley will try to even its home record Wednesday night when the Braves host Drake in a 7 p.m. game at Carver Arena ... Wednesday's game will be televised on the MVC-TV network (FS Midwest, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, FS Kansas City, FS Indiana and Fox College Sports) and will be streamed on ESPN3 ... Wednesday's game starts a 4-game closing stretch to the regular-season that will see the Braves play three of their final four games at Carver Arena ... Though Bradley is locked into the No. 10 seed for next month's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, only three games separate third-place Missouri State from ninth-place Southern Illinois, leaving Bradley's 7th-seeded opening-round opponent completely up for grabs between seven teams ... Drake's second-leading scorer, Ben Simons (16.1 ppg), has missed the last three games with mononucleosis, while Bradley scoring leader Taylor Brown (15.3 ppg) has been limited to just 4.3 ppg in the last three games while nursing a wrist injury.
Series Notes
Bradley leads 79-54 | At Bradley: Bradley leads 47-17
Wednesday's game will be the 134th meeting in the all-time series ... Though Drake earned an 82-74 win Jan. 10 at the Knapp Center, Bradley has won nine of the last 13 matchups ... Drake is shooting for its first regular-season sweep against Bradley since 2004-05 and its 10th overall ... The Braves are 23-6 all-time against Drake at Carver Arena, where Bradley has won three straight in the series ... First-year Braves head coach Geno Ford is 0-1 all-time against Drake, while fourth-year Bulldogs head coach Mark Phelps is 3-5 against Bradley.
Flash Foward
Though Bradley is guaranteed the No. 10 seed for next month's State Farm MVC Tournament in Geno Ford's first season as head coach, there is precedent that brighter days are ahead for the Braves ... Two other Bradley coaches finished last in The Valley standings in their first seasons as head coach -- Jim Molinari (1991-92) and Dick Versace (1978-79) ... After tying for ninth in 1991-92 with a 3-15 league record and finishing 7-23 overall, Molinari directed the Braves to an 11-16 mark in 1992-93, then three straight seasons of at least 20 wins, culminating with the 1995-96 MVC regular-season title and at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament ... Versace rebounded from his 9-17, 3-13 debut season to sweep the 1979-80 MVC regular-season and tournament titles and earn the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1955 ... Versace went on to win MVC regular-season titles in 1982 and 1986, adding the 1982 NIT championship and the last undefeated regular-season Valley title in league history (1986, 16-0).
Loyal Fan Base
Despite the struggles of the last two seasons, Bradley remains third in The Valley in average home attendance ... Bradley's current average of 7,397 fans per game is somewhat misleading because it includes the standing-room-only crowd of 4,340 in the Nov. 16 game played on campus at Renaissance Coliseum ... In the 12 games to date played at Carver Arena, Bradley is averaging 7,651 per game ... With three home games remaining, Bradley will go over 100,000 in home attendance for the 19th consecutive season, the longest active streak in The Valley.
For a complete preview of Wednesday's game, click the above links for the PDF versions of Bradley's and Drake's pregame notes package.
