PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) - It feels weird to say on September 22, but the college basketball season is just around the corner.

Bradley men's basketball held their first official practice of the 2025-2026 season on Monday, and it's a squad which looks vastly different than last year's.

After being loaded with experience in 24-25, the Braves come into this campaign with nine of their 15 rostered players being underclassmen. Two of them include Central Illinois natives as freshmen: Metamora graduate Matthew Zobrist and Manual alumnus Dietrich Richardson.

Despite this, the Braves program is still looked at with pretty high respect from Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook. Even with the Braves extreme youth, the publication picked Bradley to finish 5th in the Valley (Illinois State was predicted to w

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