Intro Blog

It took me a while to figure out what I should do as a blog. Especially one that I can continue to do on a weekly basis for roughly the next 14 weeks. However it just came to mind that maybe if I do a blog leading up to the 2018-2019 Bradley Basketball season and into roughly the first month of it, it might be fun.


I say this because, I thought you guys and girls might enjoy hearing this from a players point of view. From a players perspective I can let you in on some first hand information, let you know about the things you really care about and frankly just fill you in on the way things are looking from a different non generic approach which you may be used to from Bradley's social media platforms, media outlets such as "The Journal Star", "Bradley Scout" and interviews from my Head Coach - Brian Wardle or any of the assistants.

With this being my senior year I think I will really enjoy this because I have seen so such much change with this team and community over the past 3 years, it's ridiculous:

 My freshman year I arrived at 19 at Bradley on a team of 11 freshmen, a completely new coaching staff and on a campus where most students didn't even know who played for the team, let alone went to games. Long story short, we were the youngest team in America, and only won 5 games that year.

Moving on to my sophomore year we had some transfers ( which I learnt is normal in Division 1 sports ) leading to 7 new players, 6 being freshman. With over half the team being new, it felt like my freshman year again, getting to know everyone, learning philosphies and plays, but we managed to meshed well together. We had a up and down year, never getting any real consistency, but being the youngest team in America for the second year running we made strides, inmproving our win total up to 13 wins. ( I know it still isn't much, but we were only one of 4 schools to improve by 8 or more wins in a year).

Fast forward to this past year we only had 2 new players and they were freshman. Phew! We actually started preparing with a team where everyone pretty much knew everyone and we had some continuity in place. And fun fact! We weren't the youngest team in America! We actually moved up like 60 places in terms of experience out of 361 schools. (LOL) Moving on to the year, we were able to be successful and make some noise. It seemed every week we were breaking a Bradley record in terms of doing something that hadn't been done in 20+ years, wherever that be starting the season 10-2, having the best defence in the nation in terms of FG% (Field goal percentage) at one point or being a top 10 offensive rebounding team. We finished the season with 20 wins, again a massive jump. Beat Layola-Chicago a NCAA Final Four team and made it to a conference semi-final game.

This change in a basketball team and a culture is not something that is suppose to happen this fast. Especially at this level when players are not around for long. But that is why there is so much anticipation and support for this year. I want to leave Bradley saying I was here from the start when the change began, I was a part of the rebuild to getting it back to the historic levels it was at in the 70s, 80s, 90s and even mid 00s. Can you think of a better way to finish a college career going from 5 wins as a freshman to a conference champion and NCAA Tournament bound as a senior! I can't! And whats crazy is this can actually become a reality.

I promise in following weeks my blogs will no where near be this long, however as a little intro I thought i would be worth letting you know how we got to where we are now so you can understand why expectations are high, and maybe help convince you to support us now before people say you jumped on the bandwagon ;)

Take care and I hope you begin to enjoy the look into the Bradley Braves upcoming 2018-2019 Basketball season.