Bradley's opponent for the Dec. 14 game in the Renaissance Coliseum is North Central College, a Division III school in Naperville, IL. They are a member of the CCIW (College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin).
They were 15-12 last year, and 7-9 in the CCIW.
The CCIW Preseason Poll was just released last week, and North Central was picked 7th in the 9-team conference-
NAPERVILLE — Carthage, last season’s outright College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) men’s basketball champion, is the pick to repeat atop the league race again in 2025-26, according to preseason coaches’ poll released by the league office on Thursday morning.
cciw.org
Their roster has 23 players listed, including one player from Peoria Heights.
The official 2025-2026 Men's Basketball Roster for the North Central College Cardinals
northcentralcardinals.com
As is common for most D3 schools, they do not have much size. Their tallest player is 6'8" junior Ethan Marlowe, who is from St. Charles North HS, which is the same school that produced former Bradley player Connor Linke. In fact, Marlow was the backup center behind Connor Linke for Linke's junior and senior seasons at St. Charles North.-
Senior center Connor Linke already knows who will replace him after he graduates from St. Charles North. The Bradley-bound star has complete confidence in 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Ethan Marlowe. “He can already shoot the ball…
www.chicagotribune.com
Their schedule does not show this game, yet, but the Bradley schedule does not show it, either.
According to North Central's schedule, they play a road game Saturday, December, 13, at North Park University in Chicago, at 4:15 pm. That will be a difficult weekend for North Central unless a change is made. They will have to finish that conference game Saturday night, Dec 13, in Chicago, then travel down to Peoria, and prepare to play Bradley at 1:00 pm the next day, Sunday, Dec 14.
One other interesting finding.... Apparently, after more than 15 years in use, Bradley's Renaissance Coliseum is now being officially referred to as "Renco", per this image from the Bradley basketball website-
Bradley Men's Basketball will bring the action back to campus this winter with Hoops on the Hilltop, a special regular-season matchup against North Central College
bradleybraves.com
