Bradley Basketball will face a former Missouri Valley Conference rival when the Braves visit Memphis Dec. 6 for the 20th meeting in the all-time series. The single game against the Tigers is the sixth non-conference game Bradley has announced for the 2014-15 season.
Memphis owns a 10-9 lead in the all-time series, which began March 23, 1957 when Bradley pulled out an 84-83 win against the Tigers at Madison Square Garden to claim the first of its four National Invitation Tournament titles. During Bradley's celebration of the first 100 years of the men's basketball program, that 1957 NIT championship game against Memphis was one of 16 included in a vote to determine the program's "Game of the Century."
The next 12 games in the Bradley-Memphis series were played as Valley rivals from 1967-73. During Memphis' six seasons as a MVC member, Bradley went 7-5 against the Tigers. Since Memphis departed The Valley, however, the Tigers own a 5-1 series edge and Memphis has won four straight against the Braves. The teams most-recently met in the Sweet 16 of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, an 80-64 triumph by #3 Memphis, the top seed in the Oakland Regional. Bradley is 3-6 all-time in road games against Memphis and the Dec. 6 meeting will be Bradley's first-ever game at 18,400-seat FedExForum.
Memphis is 33-4 at home the last two seasons and three of the four losses have come to the eventual national champion - Louisville in 2012-13 and twice to Connecticut last season. The Tigers have won 17 consecutive regular-season, non-conference home games since an 87-78 loss to Louisville Dec. 15, 2012.
Memphis was 24-10 overall in 2013-14 and the Tigers return eight lettermen from their team that tied for third in the inaugural American Athletic Conference race with a 12-6 league record and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Junior point guard Shaq Goodwin is the squad's top returning scorer after averaging 11.5 points per game as a starter in all 34 games.
The Dec. 6 game at Memphis will come three days before the Braves visit Big 12 Conference member Kansas State. The two teams from the former BCS football conferences combined for a 31-5 home record last season and both played in the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
Bradley will continue to announce its 2014-15 men's basketball non-conference games this summer as contracts are completed.
2014-15 Bradley Basketball Schedule
updated June 17, 2014
Nov. 14 UT-ARLINGTON
Dec. 2 CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Dec. 6 at Memphis
Dec. 9 at Kansas State
Dec. 21 vs. UC Irvine (South Point Holiday Hoops Classic)
Dec. 22 vs. Green Bay or UALR (South Point Holiday Hoops Classic)
Dec. 31-
Feb. 28 Missouri Valley Conference double round-robin (18 games)
2015 MVC Men's Basketball Championship (St. Louis, Mo.)
March 5 First Round (seeds 7-10)
March 6 Quarterfinals
March 7 Semifinals
March 8 Championship
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