The Bradley Braves are MVC Champs

by **bradley_townie** » February 27th, 2023, 9:00 am

First time Bradley has won a conference title since 1996 and first time winning it in Carver Arena. 1988 and 1996 happened at SIU, 1982 was against Tulsa at the old Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse.

Carver Arena was a sellout at 10,453. Honestly never believed I would see anything over 10k again after the dark days of the Geno and early Wardle years. One of the best basketball games I have ever seen live and the crowd was electric.

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by **MissouriValleyUnite** » February 27th, 2023, 9:12 am

That was the best gameday environment of any basketball game I’ve ever been to. Seeing the top rows on all 4 sides filled up 15-20 minutes before gametime was insane. Aura felt historic.

by **racernation** » February 27th, 2023, 9:17 am

As a Racer fan, I can't tell you enough how awesome it is to see other programs/universities/cities care about basketball. Outside of Murray, if an OVC game attracted 2,500 or more, it was a big deal.

Being in the valley with like-minded programs is a breath of fresh air.

by **Countrypanther** » February 27th, 2023, 9:36 am

Congrats to the Braves! And the great crowd!

by **Tulsa Brave** » February 27th, 2023, 9:39 am

bradley_townie wrote:First time Bradley has won a conference title since 1996 and first time winning it in Carver Arena. 1988 and 1996 happened at SIU, 1982 was in Tulsa.

Carver Arena was a sellout at 10,453. Honestly never believed I would see anything over 10k again after the dark days of the Geno and early Wardle years. One of the best basketball games I have ever seen live and the crowd was electric.

1982 against Tulsa was in Peoria and was the final regular season game ever in the fieldhouse. That game is the only BU home game I’ve ever attended where the atmosphere was better than yesterday! Glad I made the trip from Oklahoma to experience yesterday!!

by **bradley_townie** » February 27th, 2023, 9:53 am

Tulsa Brave wrote:
bradley_townie wrote:First time Bradley has won a conference title since 1996 and first time winning it in Carver Arena. 1988 and 1996 happened at SIU, 1982 was in Tulsa.

Carver Arena was a sellout at 10,453. Honestly never believed I would see anything over 10k again after the dark days of the Geno and early Wardle years. One of the best basketball games I have ever seen live and the crowd was electric.

1982 against Tulsa was in Peoria and was the final regular season game ever in the fieldhouse. That game is the only BU home game I’ve ever attended where the atmosphere was better than yesterday! Glad I made the trip from Oklahoma to experience yesterday!!

Thanks for the correction. Hopefully this game is a springboard to getting more fans excited about the program. There were a lot of people attending their first Bradley game in awhile. Glad to see the community come out and support the team.

by **ISUSOX13** » February 27th, 2023, 10:10 am

Experienced a loud and engaged Carver Arena four times when I was a student at ISU in the mid to late 90's. Was always electric.

Great to see a packed house and atmosphere like that again in Peoria.

by **BEARZ77** » February 27th, 2023, 10:29 am

Congrats to Bradley and Coach Wardle; has to be a great relief to him to get that first MVC regular season title. Now with that and a pair of MVC Tourney championships, his resume becomes more complete; has to be considered in that top rung of MVC coaches. Getting hard to separate between Jake/Devries/ Wardle, and my suspicion is Alexander is probably in that group as well.

by **hot nuts** » February 27th, 2023, 10:34 am

I expect to see a lot of Braves fans down in St. Louis this year.

by **BCPanther** » February 27th, 2023, 10:41 am

BEARZ77 wrote:Congrats to Bradley and Coach Wardle; has to be a great relief to him to get that first MVC regular season title. Now with that and a pair of MVC Tourney championships, his resume becomes more complete; has to be considered in that top rung of MVC coaches. Getting hard to separate between Jake/Devries/ Wardle, and my suspicion is Alexander is probably in that group as well.

I think I agree with you there.

Kind of feels like those 3 have separated for sure and Alexander is awfully impressive, especially offensively (that spacing is an absolute thing of beauty).