ST. LOUIS — For the first time in program history, Bradley has won their second consecutive Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship.
Bradley defeated Valparaiso 80-66 on Sunday, securing their spot in the field of 68 in the NCAA Tournament.
The hero for Bradley all weekend was senior Darrell Brown. Junior Elijah Childs had high words of praise for the senior guard.
“Darrell Brown is the face of the program,” said Childs after the game. “He teaches everybody through his work, his leadership. He means everything to this program.”
Brown was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament after the game. In his three games in the MVC Tournament, Brown scored 19, 25, and 21 points.
Brown admittedly was using the fact that he was not named to the All-MVC First Team after the regular season as motivation.
“”I certainly had a chip on my shoulder coming into the tournament,” said Brown. “I proved why I should have been a first-team (All-MVC) selection.”
After the All-MVC teams were announced Brown tweeted “It’ll all be settled this weekend.”
Brown came through on his promise, leading the Braves to another NCAA Tournament appearance.
At the end of the game, Bradley fans’ chants of “MVP! MVP! MVP!” were filling the arena as Brown shot free throws. To Brown, it felt more like a video game than real-life.
It’s something you see on 2K. I don’t know if you play 2K or not,” said Brown. “When your player going off, you get the MVP chants. It’s something special you see on TV growing up. The fan base at Bradley and Peoria has supported me from day one.”
Bradley winning back-to-back championships may have seemed like a pipe dream just a few years ago, but the seniors said that the vision that Head Coach Brian Wardle had for them is what kept them on track.
“We bought into what Coach Wardle put in front of us,” said senior Koch Bar. “He got that vision for this program, what he want to do with it, and we just came in and just bought into the culture, and we just took from there.”
Bradley will find out who their first round NCAA opponent will be on Selection Sunday, March 15. Last year, the Braves took Michigan State down to the wire, but Michigan State moved on and made a run to the Final Four.
