YEAH BRADLEY'S DOING PRETTY GOOD...

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

YEAH BRADLEY'S DOING PRETTY GOOD...

Most people who know me know that the Chicago Cubs are my favorite sports team of all time. But a lot of people have also heard me mention "Bradley basketball" at some point or another along the way. No one ever knew what Bradley was. And those who did know, certainly didn't care in the least. I had moved from the Peoria, Illinois area to Indiana when I was 13. And the fact that I could still get the Bradley games on the radio in Indy was enough to ensure my fanship for the rest of my life.

My brothers, dad, and I have attended the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis for ten straight years now. Bradley has had some mild success during our decade of observing the weekend-long tourneys. But ten times we have gone, and ten times we have watched a school not named Bradley celebrate the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. To make matters worse, Bradley has been one and done for several years now--in their own tournament.

So you adapt. You get to know the other teams and find other guys for whom to root after Bradley has long since been bussed back to Central Illinois. But watching celebrations from afar can get old after awhile. The last time Bradley won a meaningful Valley tournament game (meaning not in the opening night play-in round for the league's bottom feeders) was in 2001. That year they advanced to the championship game and lost to Indiana State on ESPN. In fact, every Valley championship game would air live on ESPN. Living in Indy, then Tennessee and Texas..watching Bradley on television has just not been conceivable for me for years on end now. But every year I would throw a tape in the VCR for championship night--just hoping to capture some magic.

It wouldn't look right to see Bradley on TV. I've watched so many hundreds of basketball games in recent years, and the jerseys on the teams never say "Bradley." I know the Bradley players so well, but watching them on the screen playing basketball would be such a novelty. The same would go for the word "Bradley" being mentioned on Pardon the Interruption or Cold Pizza. It just doesn't sound right. It's like my family has taken such ownership of Bradley basketball, that it sounds like someone is talking about my family member when I turn on the TV and hear them discussing Bradley. It's weird. And I doubt I'll ever grow accustomed to it. I would even go crazy if I heard the Bradley score on the Chicago all-sports radio station. It just hit too close to home. And to think that BU would ever make it on the cover of Sports Illustrated... Never would happen.

Bradley basketball is the one primary link to my childhood. That and Cubs' baseball is what Dad and I loved to do. Dad would take me down to Carver Arena in downtown Peoria to see Hersey Hawkins and the Braves play such Valley foes as Tulsa and Illinois State. One time Hersey had a putback at the buzzer to beat lowly Drake. I was there. There has been plenty in my life to remove me from my childhood, but things like that are still tangible to me. And being interested in radio, the fact Dave Snell is still the radio voice of the Braves (and has been for long than I've been alive) is a huge deal for me. I can't say that for any of my other favorite teams. Snell has recently helped me out in several different ways, and I have been able to sit down and chat with him when I see him in St. Louis. He's been great to me. Like I told him, the fact that Bradley on the radio still sound the very same today as it did the first time I listened is huge.

But I was always the one that was talking about Bradley's NIT games when everyone else was talking about their NCAA brackets. And no one cared about them. And I was annoying. I hardly actually know any other Bradley fans other than my immediate family. But it was such a likeable team. Such a likeable school.

Well, you can imagine the outpouring of messages and emails I've gotten in the last five days or so. People know now. They know the Braves are in the Sweet Sixteen. They might even know that Bradley is in Peoria. And most of all they know I stuck with it through thick and thin.

But even as loyal as I've been...this year worked out so that I have been able to track the team much more thoroughly. First of all, they returned 95.7f their scoring from last year's team. So it's a veteran roster--one that didn't take long to know and love. Second, I was able to attend my first home game in ten years when I visited Peoria over Christmas break. Bradley beat top 25 Northern Iowa in double overtime that night. I was able to listen to the majority of this year's games on the internet. So by the time I made it to the tourney in St. Louis, I was more than primed for a nice long BU run.

But they drew Creighton in the first round. That's tough. Bradley was the fifth seed in a tough league. This year was the coming out party for the Missouri Valley, and Bradley was NOT one of the four or five teams usually discussed nationally. It would be a tall task to go far--even in the conference tournament. But I was so ready. It had been too long. Dad and I had on our new Bradley t-shirts (numbers 14 and 5, respectively). Suddenly, that first day as Bradley took a slim second-half lead over the powerhouse Bluejays, I was seven years old again. With Dad right by my side--matching me yell for yell--I hate to admit how much the whole spectacle meant to me in that instant. Dad gets so busy these days and doesn't always have time to really and truly care about sports. And that's alright. But the Valley tournament is our weekend. And to see how much he loved the little bit of success at last meant so much more than just a game to me.

And the next day Bradley took care of the number one seed Wichita St. And it was more of the same. Finally we were getting our money's worth. We always buy all-session passes for the tournament, but to think we would get to see THREE Bradley games? It was almost too much. What a difference.

Furthermore, the Sunday afternoon championship game was to be shown on CBS. No more cable. The Valley had moved up. We got there a couple hours early and went down on the floor and got pictures. Dad chatted up Patrick O'Bryant. People didn't know Patrick O'Bryant back then (two weeks ago). Now they do. "O'B" had 13 points right off the bat, and Bradley was making me proud in front of the nationwide audience. They led rival Southern Illinois at halftime, but came out and laid an absolute egg in the second half. I was ashamed. All in all the weekend was a monumental success. But Bradley wore down in the second half, and did not impress many of the experts with their 46-point performance.

But their 20 wins were enough to get them into the Big Dance as a 13 seed. It was all coming together. It had already been a magical season for me--even though they were 3-5 in their own conference at one point. The NIT would have been nice, but with as many seniors as they have--it would have been a shame for a roster with that much talent to miss out on a chance for the NCAA tournament. It had been a full ten years since I've seen Bradley on a bracket.

In 1987-88, Hersey Hawkins was a senior. He led the nation in scoring, and Bradley was nationally ranked. I didn't know any better. All I knew is that Hersey was almost supernatural, that he was going to the NBA, and that the Braves would have a long run in the NCAA tournament. That's what Dad said. I can remember hearing a pep rally on the radio before the first round that year. Hawkins spoke. Snell spoke. Head Coach Stan Albeck spoke. They all whipped the crowd into a frenzy. But Bradley lost to Auburn in the first round. I felt gypped... It was over. I didn't know that things wouldn't always be that way. Hersey ended up being the number six overall pick in the NBA draft that year, but Bradley wouldn't make the Big Dance again until 1996. And then 2006 after that.

But they hadn't won a game in the tournament since before I was following them. Until Friday night. They beat Kansas. And then they did it again. They beat Pittsburgh. And I got to watch the game on TV on Sunday. Every play. It looked weird. And to see them playing well? It was all too much to take in. These were my Braves. They were little more than a little family project. Seeing them on CBS--the only game playing at the time--it didn't look right. I knew that if they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, it would be madness.

And it has been. The last BU team to make it this far was 1954. That's a long time ago. It was literally too much for me to take on Sunday. I was overcome. Hearing the emotion in Snell's description on the radio (internet) as he witnessed the scene, hearing dad's voice on the other end of the phone--so full of excitement, looking again at the TV screen and seeing that--yes it actually did say that "Brad" had more points than "Pitt." And knowing that I'm not a bandwagon fan in the least bit.

And for the next five decades, people will likely refer to the "2006 Sweet Sixteen team." That is unless they make a habit of this for awhile now. Or better yet, that is unless they advance to the Elite Eight. Or the Final Four. I know it's all nonsense. But so was a team that started out 8-6 and 3-5 in their conference--ending up making this kind of national noise.

I can't even read all the articles. I can't keep up with all the fluff pieces on Bradley airing on National TV. It may never happen again. But I'm finally getting that run I was promised in 1988. Two decades later.

And believe me, I appreciate it MUCH more now than I would have then.