On Tuesday, the Missouri Valley Conference announced the schedules for men’s and women’s basketball. Both the Bradley men’s and women’s teams will open their conference seasons on Dec. 31 – the men’s team will play on the road at Southern Illinois, while the women’s will host Drake at Renaissance Coliseum.
The men’s conference home opener will take place on Sunday, Jan. 3, with a highly-anticipated tilt against defending regular season champion Northern Iowa. They’ll continue at home for a MVC title game rematch against Valparaiso on Jan. 6 before traveling to face Loyola-Chicago on Jan. 10.
Other highlights for the men’s squad include two weekend matchups against Illinois State, at home on Jan. 16 and in Normal on Jan. 31, a road battle at Northern Iowa on Jan. 20, a home rematch versus Loyola-Chicago on Feb. 13 and senior night versus Evansville on Feb. 27.
Bradley has not announced whether its men’s basketball home games will be moved from Carver Arena to Renaissance Coliseum due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Peoria Civic Center has reportedly suffered financial hardships due to its inability to host events.
The women’s team opens with a bang as a road game at Drake on Jan. 2 follows the opener at UNI. That series is followed by another tough road weekend as Bradley travels to Southern Illinois on Jan. 8 and Missouri State on Jan. 10.
The Braves in turn will host Missouri State and SIU on Feb. 5 and Feb. 7, respectively. They’ll close out the conference season with home games against UNI and Drake on March 4 and March 6. Also of note are two games against Illinois State – on the road on Jan. 22 and at home on Feb. 19.
Bradley has not yet announced whether any of its games will be open to fans.
