PEORIA, Ill. -- The 2009-10 Bradley men's basketball team will play 15 games against teams that competed in the postseason last year, according to the team's schedule released today. Of the 14 games Bradley will play away from home, nine will be against teams that advanced to the postseason in 2009.

Following the Nov. 8 exhibition against NCAA II Lewis University at Carver Arena, Bradley will open its 106th men's basketball season by visiting BYU Nov. 13 to tip off the inaugural Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge Series. The Cougars are the defending MWC regular season co-champions and posted a 25-8 overall record last year.

The Braves will open their regular-season home schedule with a three-game homestand, beginning Nov. 15 against Idaho State. As one of the four anchor teams in the 2009 Las Vegas Invitational, Bradley will host its two first-round games of the tournament -- Nov. 22 versus Wofford and Nov. 24 against Presbyterian. The final two rounds will be played at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, where Bradley will face a pair of 2009 NCAA Tournament teams -- Oklahoma State Nov. 27 and either Illinois or Utah Nov. 28.

Bradley faces a third straight game away from home Dec. 2 at Northern Illinois before returning to Carver Arena for games Dec. 7 against Western Carolina and Dec. 16 versus Loyola-Chicago on either end of final exams. Bradley's last non-conference road game will be Dec. 20 at Iowa State and the final non-conference game will be played Feb. 20 at Carver Arena as part of The Valley's annual participation in the ESPNU BacketBusters event.

The remaining 18 games on the Bradley schedule will be played as part of The Valley's double round-robin league schedule and the road theme will carry over into the start of the conference slate as four of Bradley's first six Valley games will be played on the road, beginning with a Dec. 29 visit to Drake. Bradley's first Valley home game will be Jan. 1 against Southern Illinois. The flip side of the road-heavy start to the league schedule is the Braves will finish the regular-season by playing seven of their last 11 games at Carver Arena.

The annual Interstate-74 Rivalry will begin with Bradley visiting Illinois State Jan. 30 and the Redbirds will visit Carver Arena on either Feb. 9 of Feb. 10 (the exact dates of four Valley games, including the home game against Illinois State, are still to be determined by television). Defending Valley champion Northern Iowa will visit Feb. 12 to complete the two-game home stand that starts against Illinois State and the final regular-season home game will be played Feb. 24 against Wichita State.

All 10 Valley teams will participate in the 2010 State Farm MVC Tournament March 4-7 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

The 2009-10 Bradley Basketball schedule is available online at http://www.bradleybraves.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&KEY=&SPID=1498&SPSID=19332
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Article Courtesy: BU Sports Information