Bradley men's basketball now knows its first opponent for the 2025–26 season: the Braves will travel to Rock Hill, South Carolina, to face St. Bonaventure.

The Bradley–St. Bonaventure matchup is one of six games scheduled as part of the multi-site event. The other two contests at the Rock Hill Sports & Events Center will feature Queens vs. Winthrop and High Point vs. Furman. Bradley vs. St. Bonaventure will tip off at 10:00 a.m central time on November 3rd. Tickets for the matcup will go on sale Sept. 5 via TicketReturn.

Meanwhile at the second site, Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, will host two other Missouri Valley Conference programs. Drake will take on Northern Arizona, while Murray State will face Omaha. All six games will be streamed on the Field of 68's YouTube channel and X (formerly Twitter).

The Braves finished last season with a 28–9 overall record and a 15–5 mark in Missouri Valley Conference play. They reached their fourth MVC Tournament title game since 2018 and earned a berth in the 2025 National Invitation Tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals with wins over North Alabama and George Mason. Bradley's 28 wins last season were its most since 1985.

During the offseason, Bradley signed the top-ranked recruiting class in the MVC, according to 247Sports, and returns six players from last season's roster: Demarion Burch, Jaquan Johnson, Ahmet Jonovic, Corey Thomas, Gus Rugaard, and Timoty van der Knaap.

"When you play a good team in the first game of the season, you have your guys' attention more," Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. "It gives you extra juice heading into that first week. We're so excited about this event. It's a great location, great city… and it's gonna be a high-level game that we're thrilled to be a part of."

The Bonnies ended the 2024–25 season with a 22–12 overall record and a 9–9 mark in Atlantic 10 play. They advanced to the A-10 Tournament quarterfinals before losing to VCU. Like the Braves, the Bonnies qualified for the 2025 NIT but dropped their opening-round matchup against Kent State. St. Bonaventure is entering its 19th year under head coach Mark Schmidt and is coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons.