#2 Wichita State (29-0, 16-0 MVC)
at
Bradley (12-17, 7-9 MVC)
When: Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 | 8:05 p.m.
Where: Peoria, Ill. | Carver Arena (11,094)
Tickets: Starting at $8 | www.BradleyBraves.com or (309) 677-2625
Game Coverage
TV: ESPN2 | Rich Hollenberg (play-by-play) and Bruce Pearl (analyst)
Radio: 1470 WMBD | Dave Snell (play-by-play), Chad Kleine (analyst) and Dan DiOrio (Braves Plus pregame)
Video Streaming: ESPN3
Audio Streaming: Bradley All-Access
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Twitter: @BradleySIDLive | #BRADvWICH
Bradley Pregame Notes | Bradley Game Notes Addendum | Wichita State Home Page
Coaches
Bradley: Geno Ford | 37-59 in 3rd year at Bradley; 156-128 in 9th year overall
Wichita: Gregg Marshall | 168-70 in 7th year at Wichita State and 362-153 in 16th year overall
Series History
135th all-time meeting | Bradley leads 71-63 overall and 49-18 in Peoria
Trends: Wichita State has won eight straight overall and three in a row at Bradley
Tip-Off
The nation's lone unbeaten team will visit the school that produced the last Missouri Valley Conference unbeaten regular-season champion when #2 Wichita State visits Bradley Tuesday night ... Bradley's 1985-86 squad swept through The Valley with a 16-0 league record and no other team has gone unbeaten in league play in the last 28 years ... Wichita State becomes the highest-ranked team to ever play at Carver Arena (opened in 1982) and the Shockers will become the first-ever, previous-year Final Four team to visit Carver Arena ... Tuesday's regular-season home finale will be the final home game for four Bradley seniors: Mason Alwan, Walt Lemon Jr., Tyshon Pickett and Jordan Prosser ... Bradley is 4-3 all-time in home games against the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams.
Free Ticket Upgrade
Fans purchasing tickets at the Bradley Athletics Ticket Office in Renaissance Coliseum in advance of Tuesday's regular-season home finale may receive a free upgrade at the time of purchase ... The promotion allows purchasers to upgrade from the $8 White seating levels to the $14/15 Red levels or from the Red sections to the $20/22 Bronze seating areas at Carver Arena ... Upgrade vouchers are available online at BradleyBraves.com or at theJan Bradley Athletics Ticket Office at Renaissance Coliseum.
Series History
Tuesday's game will be the 135th meeting in the all-time series between Bradley and Wichita State, which dates back to Bradley's 72-63 non-conference win March 6, 1948 at the old Peoria Armory ... Bradley owns a 49-18 home record in the series ... Wichita State has won eight straight in the series, however, its longest win streak ever against the Braves ... Third-year Bradley head coach Geno Ford is 0-5 against Wichita State, while 7th-year Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall is 10-4 against the Braves.
Carver's 1st Final Four Visitor
Wichita State will become the first-ever, previous-year Final Four participant to play at Carver Arena when Bradley hosts the Shockers Tuesday night ... Bradley has not hosted a previous-year Final Four participant since Indiana State visited Robertson Field House Jan. 21, 1979 ... The Braves have plenty of experience, and success, hosting previous-year Final Four participants, however ... Bradley is 9-6 all-time in home games against teams that played in the previous year's Final Four, including a 91-86 win against Wichita State in 1966 after the Shockers' previous Final Four appearance.
At Home Against The Top 2
Wichita State has moved back into the top two of this week's national polls as the nation's lone remaining undefeated team ... The Shockers will become the highest-ranked team to ever play at Carver Arena, but again, Bradley has enjoyed its share of home success against teams ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 ... Bradley is 4-3 all-time in home games against teams ranked either first or second in the national polls ... Bradley's most-recent home game against a top 2 team was a 55-47 win against #2 Wichita State Jan. 9, 1982 at Robertson Fieldhouse.
Getting Defensive
Tuesday's game features the top two defenses in the Missouri Valley Conference ... While Wichita State tops the league in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and 3-point field goal percentage defense, Bradley is second in all three categories ... The Braves are coming off their best defensive performance of the season, holding what remains the top shooting team in the league, Loyola (.465 FG%) just 38 points on 26.5 percent field goal shooting, while forcing 23 turnovers on 14 steals.
Applying the Crystal Ball
While Wichita State and Indiana State already have secured the top two seeds for next month's MVC Men's Basketball Championship, a logjam remains in the middle of the league standings ... Bradley enters Tuesday's game alone in seventh place, but just one game behind the four-way tie for third in the standings ... Below is a look at what teams No. 3 through No. 7 have remaining on their schedules:
T3) Illinois State: vs. INS, at SIU
T3) Missouri State: vs. LUC, at WSU
T3) Northern Iowa: vs. SIU, at INS
T3) Southern Illinois: at UNI, vs. ILS
7) Bradley: vs. WSU, at DU
There remain too many scenarios to determine how the final standings and tournament seedings ultimately will shake out, but the best scenario for Bradley to avoid the Thursday first-round tournament action in St. Louis is to be involved in a 3-way tie that does not involve Missouri State ... Bradley is likely to lose any 2-way, head-to-head tiebreakers, but its splits against Illinois State, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois likely would be beneficial involving ties with at least two of those teams.
65 The Magic Number?
Bradley is averaging 63.8 points per game this year and the team's ability to surpass its average has been an important threshold ... The Braves are 9-3 this season when scoring at least 65 points ... Since a 68-60 win against Indiana State Feb. 8, 2012, Bradley is 26-9 (.743) in the last 35 games the Braves have scored at least 65 points.
Exclusive Club
Bradley senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr.'s all-around play has put him in an exclusive group of active players from across the country, as well as all-time MVC greats ... Through games of Feb. 23, Lemon is one of six active NCAA Division I players who can boast 1,600 career points, 350 assists and 200 steals ... Lemon joins all-time Valley greats Larry Bird (Indiana State), Darren Brooks (Southern Illinois) and Hersey Hawkins (Bradley) as the only MVC players to ever hit all three marks.
MVC 1,600 Club
The active career scoring leader in The Valley, senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr. has climbed to 49th on the league's all-time scoring list with 1,659 career points ... At his current pace of 17.7 points per game, Lemon will climb to 40th on The Valley's all-time list through Bradley's first game in next month's MVC Tournament ... If Lemon reaches 1,690 career points, he will become the highest-scoring Bradley player since MVC career record holder Hersey Hawkins graduatd in 1988.
Trio of Top Fives
Averaging 17.7 points, 3.9 assists and 2.3 steals per game, senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr. is the only player to rank among The Valley's top five in all three categories ... Lemon is third in scoring, fifth in assists and second in steals.
Big Media Numbers
Dave Snell has served as the radio Voice of the Braves the last 34 seasons and has worked on 1,080 Bradley Basketball game broadcasts, all in succession, on 1470 WMBD since taking over play-by-play duties for the 1979-80 season ... Peoria Journal Star beat writer Dave Reynolds has covered 744 consecutive Bradley games since taking over the beat for the start of the 1990-91 season ... In his 38th season, public address announcer Paul Herzog has been at the mic for 557 Bradley Basketball home games.
Looking Ahead
Bradley will close out the regular season on the road Saturday with a visit to Drake ... The teams have not met since Bradley's MVC home opener Jan. 4, a 68-57 Bradley win at Carver Arena ... The 15-game gap between meetings is Bradley's longest in a regular-season Valley series since 2006-07 when 16 games separated the two games in the UNI series ... The 55-day gap between this season's Drake games is the longest in a regular-season Valley series for the Braves since a similar 55-day gap in the 2005-06 series against UNI.
