Men’s Basketball Unveils Challenging Non-Conference Schedule

Men's Basketball 8/17/2022 10:00:00 AM

The Bradley men's basketball team released one of its most competitive non-conference schedules in years on Wednesday, announced by head coach Brian Wardle. Nearly half of the 11-game non-conference slate is against perennial contenders that have played in at least one of the last two NCAA Tournaments – including a pair of top-10 SEC schools – with additional highlights including six home games and a return trip to the Cancun Challenge.

Overall, the Braves are slated to face as many as five programs that advanced to the national tournament in either 2021 or 2022, with their three contests against schools from the most recent NCAA field marking their most in a non-conference campaign since 2015-16. Additionally, BU is set to face two SEC schools in a single season for the first time since 1949-50.

"As a competitor, I'm excited about our non-conference schedule," Wardle said. "We obviously wanted to build a strong resume with our 11 non-conference games. We are going to be challenged every night, which is going to prepare us for a very tough 20-game Valley campaign with the additions of Belmont, Murray State and UIC. We had a strong summer and improved in a lot of areas so we are extremely excited about this group."

After a home exhibition game against Illinois Wesleyan (Nov. 2), Bradley officially opens the 2022-23 campaign against Wisconsin-Parkside at Carver Arena on Monday, Nov. 7. The Braves then hit the road to face Utah State on Nov. 11 – a school that has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four seasons – before returning home to square off against Eastern Michigan (Nov. 15) and Southeast Missouri State (Nov. 19).

The 2018 Cancun Challenge champions, Bradley returns to Mexico for the first time since lifting the trophy four years ago – opening against nationally-ranked Auburn (Nov. 22) before facing a second challenging opponent a day later against either Liberty or Northwestern (Nov. 23).

Bradley returns home to battle Merrimack on Nov. 26 before taking a one-week break from non-conference action for a pair of Missouri Valley Conference games. The conference schedule is set to be increased to 20 games in 2022-23 after the additions of Belmont, Murray State and UIC – leading to a reduced 11-game non-conference slate.

Following its two Valley contests, Bradley returns to non-conference action and hits the road for its next two games – playing at SIU Edwardsville (Dec. 6) before meeting nationally-ranked Arkansas in Little Rock. Bradley wraps up non-conference action at Carver Arena – hosting Stonehill (Dec. 19) and defending MAC champion Akron (Dec. 22). The matchup with the Zips marks the first time the Braves welcome a defending postseason champion to Carver Arena in non-conference action in 11 seasons.

The Braves return nine letterwinners and three starters from a team that finished the 2021-22 campaign with a 17-14 overall record and an 11-7 mark in Missouri Valley Conference action – tied for its most wins in Valley play in the last 21 seasons. As a reminder to Bradley basketball fans, the Aug. 31 deadline to renew your season tickets is fast approaching. Requests for new season tickets currently are being accepted and the Bradley Ticket Office will begin fulfilling those requests Sept. 1. Visit BradleyBraves.com/tickets, stop by the box office at Renaissance Coliseum or call (309) 677-2625 to reserve your seats for all of the exciting action at Carver Arena during the 2022-23 Bradley men's basketball season.

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