Drake (10-3, 0-0 MVC) at Bradley (9-4, 0-0 MVC) – 7:00 PM EST (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Peoria, Illinois where the Bradley Braves will host the Drake Bulldogs in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both teams. Bradley finished in 3rd place in the Fort Myers Tip-Off sponsored by Rocket Mortgage; they lost to Northwestern and then salvaged a win against Kansas State for third place. The Braves are fresh off of a 78-66 win at home against Toledo; they were led by 29 points from Darrell Brown.
Drake will begin their defense of the regular-season crown in the Valley tonight; they started their season with a fifth-place finish in the Gulf Coast Showcase. They started the tournament with a loss to the Miami RedHawks, but salvaged a pair of wins against Northeastern and Murray State. One oddity is that the Bulldogs were 0-3 against teams from Ohio (also including losses at Cincinnati and Dayton) but were a perfect 10-0 against everyone else. Tonight will be their first game since an 85-80 win at Air Force 10 days ago. Roman Penn (12.0 PPG) and Liam Roberts (11.8 PPG) lead the Bulldogs in scoring.