Looking ahead

[daveineureka]

Chances are we will not get a invite to the NIT. But stranger things happen. More than likely the season is over and now am sure coaches have an idea of who will leave or stay. Hopefully everyone stays. In this day and age of the portal and NIL it would not surprise me if we have a few defections. IMHO Wardle did his best coaching job this year with what he had in addition to getting used to a new coaching staff. Hard to gauge what our recruits will bring to the table until they get here. Everyone knows what we need for next season, primarily frontline players who can be immediate impactful players. Easier said than done. Will keep informed here on the forum of possible recruits and who we eventually get commitments from. Looking forward to another good year if the team can get together. In the meantime baseball season is just around the corner and root for the Cubbie's. Basketball season will be here again before you know it. Time flies.

 

[Da Coach]

Yes, Dave. I hope all Bradley fans can appreciate what we've had the last few years, trust the coaching staff will make the right moves (they already have a good start), not worry about what we can't control, and enjoy looking forward to and discussing what's ahead.
I am thankful for all the decent and nice young men we've had at Bradley, and I'll miss AJ, Corey, Meta, and Alex, and wish them the best.

 

[Stevezall]

I just watched Northern Iowa Manhandle UIC to be the first 6 seed and first team to win 4 games in a row! Bradley actually gave UNI its toughest game in the tournament! Bruce Pearl said on CBS that he believes the Regular season should mean more referring to Belmont's upset by Drake. I do believe that's correct and if you win the Regular season, he believes The 1 and 2 seed should get byes to the final 4 games! I think it's a valid point! Bradley I believe the last 4 seasons has made the final 4 or Championship game! That is pretty consistent and Brian Wardle deserves much Credit for Bringing Bradley Back to Meaningful games in March! We can't forget also that we won 2 tournament titles back to back!

 

[Stevezall]

Moving Forward, Ben Jacobson has Been at NIU for many many seasons! I heard in the game today, he had 4 players from Cedar falls! He also kept his team and almost all his players from year to year!!! Like 3rd in the country for doing that! Maybe NIU has the blueprint for the future years to win in the Valley. Brian Wardle needs to stay and he must convince all the players from this year except the seniors to come back! That's continuity!!!! He also must try to get more Peoria players and maybe see if he can get Lathan Sommerville to buy in at a fair home town rate for his services! I think Peoria players could buy in and get Bradley a Championship in the tournament in the next couple years!

 

[Da Coach]

I just watched Northern Iowa Manhandle UIC to be the first 6 seed and first team to win 4 games in a row! Bradley actually gave UNI its toughest game in the tournament! Bruce Pearl said on CBS that he believes the Regular season should mean more referring to Belmont's upset by Drake. I do believe that's correct and if you win the Regular season, he believes The 1 and 2 seed should get byes to the final 4 games! I think it's a valid point! Bradley I believe the last 4 seasons has made the final 4 or Championship game! That is pretty consistent and Brian Wardle deserves much Credit for Bringing Bradley Back to Meaningful games in March! We can't forget also that we won 2 tournament titles back to back!

I've seen a lot of people recommending that the "stepladder" bracket should be adopted for the tournament. Other conferences have already used various versions of it-

Why college basketball's wildest conference tournament brackets keep getting crazier

The Sun Belt's seven-round stepladder tournament is the most extreme example of a growing trend in college basketball: conference tournaments designed to reward regular-season success and strengthen mid-major NCAA Tournament contenders.

www.cbssports.com

The Sun Belt already uses a stepladder format where the top 2 seeds get byes until the semifinals-
https://www.herald-dispatch.com/spo...cle_1969e7b5-8069-4182-8841-a17ed2f2b2dc.html

Such a format makes it virtually impossible for a lower seeded team to win the tournament, which is the purpose. They don't want Cinderella teams knocking off the conference champions. But there are problems with it. The attendance for the earlier games plummets when the best teams are not playing. Maybe that can work a little with conferences that play games on-campus, where most fans attend for the home team, but it is a disaster for a single-site tournament.
Another problem is that depending on the structure of the stepladder bracket, the lowest seeded teams could have to play as many as 5 or 6 games to play in the finals. The Sun Belt bracket (2nd link above), which has 14 teams, the bottom 4 teams would have to win 7 games in 6 days to reach the finals. That is ridiculous. The two top teams only have to win 2 games, but who would pay to watch the first 5 or 6 rounds?

 

[daveineureka]

Earlier post I read stating to try and get Lathan Sommerville to consider coming to Bradley. For starters his NIL terms are six figures and maybe even approaching 7 figures. This has been verified. I too would love to see him at Bradley, but do not see Bradley coming close to what he is getting at Washington. You can dream about it but IMHO that is all it will be.

 

[LittleBrave]

Moving Forward, Ben Jacobson has Been at NIU for many many seasons! I heard in the game today, he had 4 players from Cedar falls! He also kept his team and almost all his players from year to year!!! Like 3rd in the country for doing that! Maybe NIU has the blueprint for the future years to win in the Valley. Brian Wardle needs to stay and he must convince all the players from this year except the seniors to come back! That's continuity!!!! He also must try to get more Peoria players and maybe see if he can get Lathan Sommerville to buy in at a fair home town rate for his services! I think Peoria players could buy in and get Bradley a Championship in the tournament in the next couple years!

This IS the blueprint and what's worked for Wardle for many years. Seriously if Burch had lived up to his billing this season, BU likely wins Arch Madness and UNI fans would be disgruntled for another season of not living up to expectations. Kinda glad for them but they need to win at least 1 in the tourney (and they should) if they ride the wave. Represent the Valley!

UNI did have a disadvantage of having to play on Thurs, but they were as loose as a goose from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. The theme to winning games in Arch Madness this season was to play loose with no pressure.

 

[BUBraves2006]

It's not a coincidence that the teams that actually win Arch Madness play defense really well.

If you look at defensive efficiency, which is one of the best ways to really look at fully how well teams play and take into account how fast or slow they are offensively, look at the past 10 champs:

(Conf rank in Defensive Efficiency)
2026 -UNI (2nd)
2025 - Drake (1st)
2024 - Drake (3rd)
2023 - Drake (2nd)
2022 - Loyola (2nd)
2021 - Loyola (1st)
2020 - Bradley (7th)
2019 - Bradley (5th)
2018 - Loyola (2nd)
2017 - Wichita State (2nd)

It's almost always the way you win in STL. Even the 2020 BU team was 1st in effective field goal percentage against and 1st in 2PT% against. It doesn't hurt to have a deep bench with guys like RJ Taylor who don't get burnt out playing 30+ minutes a game and can come in and be fresh to knock down a couple threes when you need them.

 

[MAK77]

So being a newbie to posting on this site, I have the following questions:
1. Has Bradley ever considered attempting to schedule former conference members? Ok, Louisville is out of the question for now, but what about Wichita State, Tulsa, Creighton, Loyola? It would regain some interest from us older alums, and boost our NET number.
2. Bradley use to have an annual meeting with DePaul. After several years of being in the doldrums, they are getting their swagger back.
3. Lastly, has BU ever SERIOUSLY considered going to different conference? I'm thinking A10, but I'd be open to another. The MVC has this "if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality that just gets to me.

Enough.

 

[LittleBrave]

3. Lastly, has BU ever SERIOUSLY considered going to different conference? I'm thinking A10, but I'd be open to another. The MVC has this "if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality that just gets to me.

Call me old fashioned, but I loathe the day we move onto a diff. conference unless it's a really good fit. Been a huge MVC fan for 35 yrs and there's so much history and lore that has made this conference one of the best...THE BEST mid-major conference. Hey - it's tough to get to the Big Dance in this conference, but that (along with recruiting challenges) are the only drawbacks IMO.

Would hate the A10 b/c it is not regionally cohesive and I don't have a lot of interest (and never will) as a BU fan playing Duquesne, LaSalle, URI, etc. Hasn't been good for Loyola and I don't see them doing well in future years. I can't imagine being a DePaul fan after moving onto "greener pastures" in the B-East and having so many down years for 3 decades now. Hasn't been good for them in terms of success and giving them a better chance to make the NCAA tournament. Tulsa has had limited success since leaving the Valley - not much to be happy about the last 10 seasons aside from this one, and only 1 NCAA tourney win in the last 20+ seasons.

The great thing about the Valley is that there is a regional connection and rivalries have been made and there is a rich history. It's a good balance of teams from Iowa, Indiana, IL with some teams from nearby states. I LOVE the midwestern flavor - maybe b/c I lived in FL for years and missed that so much. It really is unique. The smaller size of the schools/teams gives fans an opportunity to get to know student-athletes (and family) on a more personal level. I think you may lose that if moving to another conf. cause that would be rare at bigger-name conferences (but maybe not?).

There is also a risk that the conference you jump to will make changes (other teams leave - and possibly due to their football programs which BU doesn't have) and you're stuck in a bad situation, regretting moving from a conference that has proven to be steady across decades.

Yeah I'd like to add a couple teams to make it stronger - bring back Tulsa and Wichita, lure DePaul in. Just my take and it'll probably lose out to progressive thinking.

 

[houstonbrave]

I won’t comment on whether we have considered the A10 or if they have ever comsidered us but compared to their other markets we are pretty small potatoes. From our perspective I honestly don’t see a big advantage. It is a 14 team league which frequently gets 1 bid (once in a while 2 but I think that is becoming less frequent) meaning one ncaa bid gets split between more teams. The geographic spread is much greater greatly increasing travel cost across all of your mens and women’s teams. So, I think cost is a big downside as is greater missed
Class time for athletes. The upside is from a student enrollment perspective if you think you will draw more students from those locations-I’m not sure you would but that is just my perspective. Also from an NIL perspective could we compete with the likes of SLU and others.

 

[yoda]

I have heard our administration & coaching staff many times state that they are CONSTANTLY trying to schedule any team that
will help our resume, whether it is an old conference rival or someone else. Everyone knows, it is not easy.
And they are constantly evaluating what's best - whether it's changing conferences or downsizing/dropping to DIII/playing all our games at
Ren-Col like the former administration was looking into - BUT that the current administration put an end to on Day-1 in 2015.

I'm not sure what conference you might surmise Bradley could move to. We are not on the short list of any of the Power-4
Conferences, but we may be way down on the list but there nonetheless on the American, the Big East and the A-10.
But the AAC isn't about to add another small non-FB school, the Big East opportunity may have closed with the Geno era (unless they want to swap us in for DePaul?), and even the A-10 could be slipping as a possibility as they now have 14 members and way too much dead weight at the bottom. Unless Bradley can put together a string of NCAA appearances, I can't see the A-10 inviting in the near future...but aything's possible.

 

[egib52]

So being a newbie to posting on this site, I have the following questions:
1. Has Bradley ever considered attempting to schedule former conference members? Ok, Louisville is out of the question for now, but what about Wichita State, Tulsa, Creighton, Loyola? It would regain some interest from us older alums, and boost our NET number.
2. Bradley use to have an annual meeting with DePaul. After several years of being in the doldrums, they are getting their swagger back.
3. Lastly, has BU ever SERIOUSLY considered going to different conference? I'm thinking A10, but I'd be open to another. The MVC has this "if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality that just gets to me.

Enough.

I will reiterate what I have said before, but I truly believe the best option is to become the Gonazaga of the MVC or get to the level Wichita State was before they left. We should try to be the dominant team in the conference because it will make our road easier year in and year out.

 

[yoda]

We should try to be the dominant team in the conference ...

don't mean to sound snarky, but you don't think our people have thought of this?
We've come a long way from the 5-win Geno teams & an admin that ran off half our fan base - and now we're knocking on the door
and are one of the most consistently good teams in the MVC the last 6-8 years along with UNI & Drake.
...but now it pretty much boils down to how much $$ we have in our bankroll.

 

[egib52]

don't mean to sound snarky, but you don't think our people have thought of this?
We've come a long way from the 5-win Geno teams & an admin that ran off half our fan base - and now we're knocking on the door
and are one of the most consistently good teams in the MVC the last 6-8 years along with UNI & Drake.
...but now it pretty much boils down to how much $$ we have in our bankroll.

I understand that they are trying that. My response was to the question about switching conferences. Switching to the A-10 (if they would even invite us) would add more teams in $$$ in our way. Are you of the belief that if we switched to the A-10 our NIL budget would increase???

 

[yoda]

yes
it might increase - notice that just about every team that "move up" in conferences, seems to do better right away...

Loyola was never near as good in the horizon and they suddenly became in the MVC, likewise UIC..
NIL budgets are well kept secrets but we kinda know the bigger conferences likely have more NIL
Creighton now has an enormous NIL stockpile, paying individual players $1-1.5 million.

One of their starters is transfer Josh Dix who they lured with an NIL offer of over $1.5 million, and he
went on to averaged 12.7 ppg - and Creighton is 15-16, but Dix's stats are all considerably down from last year

 

[bradleyfan124]

I will reiterate what I have said before, but I truly believe the best option is to become the Gonazaga of the MVC or get to the level Wichita State was before they left. We should try to be the dominant team in the conference because it will make our road easier year in and year out.

I believe we are getting close tot hat. We have been competitive the last 7 seasons. We have to get over the hump. We believe we are getting close to that

 

[Mikovio]

The best case scenario IMO would be for BU to move to the A10 along with Drake and Belmont. Then there would be a nice western pod along with SLU, Loyola, and Dayton. I’d worry about SLU and/or Dayton eventually getting a Big East invite though.

 

[Da Coach]

So being a newbie to posting on this site, I have the following questions:
1. Has Bradley ever considered attempting to schedule former conference members? Ok, Louisville is out of the question for now, but what about Wichita State, Tulsa, Creighton, Loyola? It would regain some interest from us older alums, and boost our NET number.
2. Bradley use to have an annual meeting with DePaul. After several years of being in the doldrums, they are getting their swagger back.
3. Lastly, has BU ever SERIOUSLY considered going to different conference? I'm thinking A10, but I'd be open to another. The MVC has this "if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality that just gets to me.

Enough.

My simplified answers-
1) Yes. But they are not willing to play Bradley, even if we travel to their arena. They are afraid to lose. Good teams only will schedule Quad 1 opponents (good for the NET win or lose), or Quad 4 (guaranteed win)
2) Bradley has tried scheduling DePaul, they won't return Bradley's calls.
3) Yes, it is always being considered. But so far, there has not been any realistic opportunity that benefits Bradley.

Realize the only non-football conferences that aren't predominantly east or west coast, and thus are not realistic due to the geography and travel expenses, are the Atlantic Sun, the Horizon, the Summit, and the WAC. The A-10 is non-football, but is mostly east coast, and they aren't likely to be interested in Bradley or adding Peoria (see post #11 above). None of those are a legitimate upgrade over staying in the MVC.

 

[carter]

Moving Forward, Ben Jacobson has Been at NIU for many many seasons! I heard in the game today, he had 4 players from Cedar falls! He also kept his team and almost all his players from year to year!!! Like 3rd in the country for doing that! Maybe NIU has the blueprint for the future years to win in the Valley. Brian Wardle needs to stay and he must convince all the players from this year except the seniors to come back! That's continuity!!!! He also must try to get more Peoria players and maybe see if he can get Lathan Sommerville to buy in at a fair home town rate for his services! I think Peoria players could buy in and get Bradley a Championship in the tournament in the next couple years!

It is UNI not NIU,a huge difference.Dont mean to be petty