The Missouri Valley Conference released its men’s basketball schedule on Tuesday, completing the 2019-20 Bradley slate.
The Braves once again host all nine MVC schools in the league’s traditional 18-game round-robin format. Highlighting the 2019-20 Valley schedule is a home game on New Year’s Eve against Drake and three Saturday home games – two against in-state rivals Southern Illinois and Loyola and one that features a rematch of the 2019 MVC Championship against Northern Iowa.
A matchup of the 2019 tournament champion and co-regular season champion opens the conference schedule on Tuesday, Dec. 31 as Bradley hosts Drake at Carver Arena. The Braves then meet Northern Iowa for the first time since overcoming an 18-point deficit to win the Valley title last season with a road game against the Panthers on Jan. 4.
Additional highlights during the opening month of conference action include home games against Southern Illinois (Jan. 11), Northern Iowa (Jan. 18) and I-74 rival Illinois State (Jan. 22). Bradley also welcomes Valparaiso to Carver Arena on Jan. 29, while playing at Evansville (Jan. 8), Missouri State (Jan. 15) and Indiana State (Jan. 25) in January.
Bradley then begins the month of February with another contest of champion versus champion as the Braves play at co-regular season champion Loyola on Feb. 1 in Chicago. The Braves host Evansville (Feb. 9), Indiana State (Feb. 12) and Missouri State (Feb. 19) before playing the Ramblers for a second time in the month in the regular-season finale at Carver Arena on Feb. 29. Bradley also travels to play at Drake (Feb. 5), Southern Illinois (Feb. 15), Valparaiso (Feb. 22) and Illinois State (Feb. 26).
