Bradley pitcher Joe Bircher may be the best athlete on campus, but you would never know it from talking to him. The 6-foot-4-inch senior from Omaha, Neb. has a quiet confidence and, despite individual success, always puts the team and program first. Bircher has been a well-known commodity in the Missouri Valley Conference, posting a sub four earned run average in his first three years on the Hilltop. He is the Bradley active leader in almost every pitching category including wins, ERA, starts, innings pitched [...]

The Bradley men’s basketball team hasn’t shot the ball well all season and the theme continued Wednesday night in a 62-55 loss to Drake at Carver Arena. The Braves shot a dreadful 0-for-20 from the perimeter, connecting on no threes for the second time this year. “We’ve been offensively challenged a lot of the year,” coach Geno Ford said. “It’s hard to play good offense when we shoot as poorly as that. We just couldn’t buy one. I thought we battled. It’s hard thing to [...]

If the Bradley women’s basketball team took a step forward with back-to-back home wins two weeks ago, then it took a step backwards with two road losses last weekend. The Braves are on a six-game losing streak on the road, and have lost 14 consecutive times to Illinois State after dropping an 82-63 contest Sunday. “The final score was not indicative of what the game was,” coach Paula Buscher said.  “There were several times late in the second half when it was a four-point ballgame [...]

I love sports. Where else can you find someone as surprising as Jeremy Lin? Name anywhere else where a 6-foot-3 Asian-American basketball player from Harvard, who has slept on his brother’s couch the past several months can tear up the NBA and break tons of records. Lin is the same guy that didn’t get recruited out of high school after averaging more than 15 points and seven assists a game for a team that won a California state championship. The same player who dominated at [...]

Thomas Robinson Last season he was a sixth man for the Kansas Jayhawks. This season he is the best player in college basketball. Thomas Robinson leads the Jayhawks with 17 points per game and 12 rebounds a night. His 12 rebounds average is the second-highest in the nation. Add that to being the star of a top-5 team in the country, and you have the Player of the Year. People also need to remember that this is supposed to be Kansas’ down year. Before the [...]

Fans have reasonably been upset after two consecutive 30-point losses in conference play. Wednesday, the Bradley men’s basketball team brought fans to their feet and excitement back to the Hilltop with a 68-60 win against Indiana State. “We seem to be understanding what it takes to get this thing turned around, and it makes you keep believing that it’s eventually going to happen, it’s just a matter of when,” coach Geno Ford said. “We did a good job, and guys are battling and fighting.” Sophomore [...]

A new season for the Bradley men’s baseball team is fast approaching. With the season opener against Virginia Tech looming, the players and coaches are all ready to get back on the diamond. “We’re all kind of sick of being inside right now, “said senior Rob Elliot. “We put in a lot of hard work this offseason. We’re excited to play another team instead of each other.” Elliot, who set a career high in home runs last year with four, said he thinks the team [...]

Angels This one is just too easy. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won 86 games last season but fell five games shy of making the playoffs. One way to improve is to sign the best player in baseball in the offseason; Albert Pujols. After signing Pujols, who  averaged 42 home runs, 126 RBI’s and a .420 on-base percentage, I think it’s safe to say the Angels are the favorites to win the AL West and possibly the World Series. Not only did the Angels [...]

Super Bowl XLVI is in the books with the New York Giants beating the New England Patriots 21-17 for the second time in five seasons. The game wasn’t a classic by anyone’s standards, but it was intriguing until the very last play. The rest of America agreed. The Super Bowl was the highest rated program in United States television history, though 64 percent still did not watch the game. Who knew 64 percent of Americans were communists? But I digress. The game was close throughout [...]

For the first time since the middle of December, the Bradley women’s basketball team put together back-to-back wins. The Braves beat Southern Illinois and Evansville, pushing their record to 13-10 and 4-7 in conference play. Last Saturday, Bradley beat the Salukis 66-50 despite sluggish offensive performances by both teams. The Braves shot a little over 30 percent from the field and held the Salukis to 2-for-17 shooting behind the 3-point arc. “We had good looks and we had nice shots,” coach Paula Buscher said. “But [...]