Why the Bradley men's basketball team likely won't play this postseason
PEORIA — The Bradley Braves season will be over unless they receive invitations to play in the 2022 NCAA or NIT tournaments in the days to come.
An invitation to those two primary college basketball tournaments is unlikely, leaving the 17-14 Braves poised to play in other postseason tournaments. They won't.
"We're either going to go to the NCAA tournament or the NIT," Bradley vice-president for intercollegiate athletics Dr. Chris Reynolds said Wednesday. "I would say no in regard to the other tournaments.
"We're at a place right now where, while those other fine tournaments serve a purpose for newly-formed or younger programs, we have reached a stage where we have very high expectations for our program and where we want it to play."
Will Bradley play in the CBI or the CIT?
The College Basketball Invitational will gather 16 teams in Daytona, Fla., March 19-23.
The former CIT (Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament) has rebranded and will launch in 2022 as The Basketball Classic. It will fill with 32 teams at campus sites. One bracketology site has Bradley predicted for that field.
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The Braves won't be there. The NCAA tourney or the NIT help Bradley's growth as a program, while the others do not. It's likely the Missouri Valley Conference as a whole would probably prefer its teams to stick to the NCAA or NIT, too.
"The (players) in our program have the same expectations and standards that coach (Brian) Wardle and I have," said Reynolds, who will take over the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee as chairman for the 2022-23 season. "They are proud of what this program is, and their part in helping it grow."
Bradley happy with its trajectory
Coaches sometimes take teams to secondary postseason tournaments as an avenue to reach 20 wins, an important benchmark for some who patrol the sidelines.
Former Bradley coach Jim Les got the Braves to the NCAA tournament in 2005-06 and the NIT in 2006-07. Then he took the Braves into the College Basketball Invitational in 2007-08 and added four wins to reach 21. In 2008-09, Les led the Braves into the CIT and won three games to cross the 20-win threshold.
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Wardle and the Braves earned NCAA Tournament bids in 2018-19 and 2019-20. He has high expectations for his team, and wants to focus on another NCAA run and an MVC regular-season championship.
"I agree with Dr. Reynolds, I'm totally in line with where our program is at," Wardle said. "Our players are, too."
The players are on board
Among those players is senior forward Ja'Shon Henry, who missed much of the season with a concussion and on Wednesday announced he was returning for a fifth season under the NCAA's extended eligibility offered because of the pandemic.
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"We've elevated this program every year I've been here," Henry said. "We hold ourselves to a standard we want to be — the NCAA tournament every year. I think if it's not NCAA, we fell short of our goal and our standard. Then we just want to get back to work as a team and figure things out.
"I don't think it's bad that we don't play in those tournaments — they are still good tournaments — but I think our standard, our goal for this team is to reach the NCAA tournament.
"We're sticking to that."
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley men's basketball has decided on postseason tournament options
