It’s the best time of the year: college basketball tips off today, and almost every team will play regular season game number one. The Bradley Braves are one of these teams that will tip off their 2024-2025 season, and this group has big expectations coming into the year.
For those who are new to this team, the Bradley Braves are one of the 12 teams in the Missouri Valley Conference, which includes schools from Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, and Tennessee.
This Braves team comes in as the Preseason No. 1 ranked team for the first time since the 1999-2000 season after coming off a 23-12 record last season, losing in the semi-finals of the MVC tournament to eventual champions in the Drake Bulldogs. This record earned them a spot in the NIT tournament, where they made it to the second round but lost against a formidable Cincinnati school.
With how college hoops are with the transfer portal, mid-major teams like Bradley are prone to getting torn apart as all the best players go on to a Power 5 school, but that’s not the case for this Braves team. The team only lost two starters from last year: guard Conner Hickman transferred to the previously mentioned Cincinnati, and back-to-back DPOY Malevy Leons went to the NBA, now with the OKC Thunder.
This doesn’t mean this team is weak, as they returned their other three starters: 6’8 "sophomore Almar Atlason, preseason all-MVC first teamer Darius Hannah, who’s in his fifth year, and all-MVC first teamer and preseason POTY 5’8" Duke Deen, who’s also in his fifth year.
Joining them in the starting lineup will be senior Zek Montgomery, who rejoins the Braves after a year in Rhode Island (he also finds a spot on the preseason all-MVC second team), and redshirt Senior Christian Davis, who was first off the bench most of last year when he wasn’t staring.
This starting 5 has everything you need to compete and run for a spot in March Madness. You have the ball handling and shooting from Duke Deen, a bigger guard in Zek Montgomery who can and has paired nicely with Duke Deen. A 3 and D wing/guard with Christian Davis who will take the toughest defensive assignments every single game with no more Malevy Leons, a forward in Almar Atlason who can shoot 40% from 3 on any given day and has made fantastic defensive strides since coming to the hilltop from Iceland, and last but not least an athletic lanky big man in Darius Hannah who is known for his “wow” factor with his offensive skill set.
The success of this year's team will revolve around what this starting five can do daily. Still, unlike last year, this bench is deep with guard Demarion Burch, who showed lots of potential with his bulldog mentality the previous year, along with transfer forward Corey Thomas and the hometown guard Connor Dillon coming in via the transfer portal. Our big man from Serbia, Ahmet Jonavic, and fan favorite Cade Hardtke are also stashed on our bench, and two talented freshmen 5’,11 guard Jaquan Johnson out of Milwaukee and 6’8 combo guard/forward Timoty van der Knaap out of Italy, were recruited in to ideally become major piece down the line for coach Wardle and this staff.
The Braves kick off regular season play tonight against SEMO with one goal in mind. Prove Em.
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