As a companion - here's the All Time Best

The All Time Best things that happened to Bradley Basketball - and will limit to going back only to the 1960's since it was a far different game & different national scene before that and few of us were there to compare to now.

#10- Any of the times we beat ISU in the great rivalry - the War on 74..
...from the tremendous game in the 1986 MVC Tourney semi and the title game blowout in 1988 - right down to the more mundane regular season wins that we used to pile up regularly - only to have those wins become a distant memory in the Geno Ford era.

#9- Move to the Civic Center - the Fieldhouse was a great place to play but this move had to be made to bring Bradley into the modern DI era.  Thankfully we did not listen to the silly hype that we'd be better off shifting all our games to tiny Ren-Col.  http://is.gd/yiaDLe

#8- The 2015 housecleaning - few realize how close Bradley was to a complete disaster - and as hard as this was, it was as necessary as yanking a badly abscessed tooth.

#7- Bringing in Chet Walker, Joe Allen, Levern Tart, etc... - this would be higher except for the remoteness now being 5 decades ago - but those were great players and we have Joe Stowell and Chuck Orsborn to thank..

#6- Hiring Jim Molinari - he gave Bradley a decade of fine teams, great players, and a lot of wins & success - and kept the arena filled - something that today's fan has a hard time remembering when hit with all the sparse crowds we have now.

#5- Hiring Jim Les - again, many will disagree - but look at the decade of great teams including NCAA Sweet 16 & NIT teams and more post-season victories that in any other decade.
Jim Les also helped spearhead the $160 million fundraising that ended up resulting in just about every single thing that the next administration ever found to brag about...but it was pretty obvious that the credit for all those great things that resulted, all those building projects, and all those tremendous funds that were raised (and later largely squandered) go to Jim Les and not to the people into whose laps it fell when he was canned.

#4- 2006 Sweet Sixteen - like it or not this was historic and isn't likely to be repeated soon nor often, although I sure hope I am wrong on that.  It is truly sad that any Bradley fan under the age of 25 probably doesn't really even remember much about that great 2006 season - but we are on a new course now so watch out.

#3- NIT Championships - 1957, 1960, 1964, 1982 and even a  couple Final Fours in the decade before that - we haven't had a single NCAA or NIT run quite like those from the 1950's to the 1980's.

#2- Hiring Dick Versace - this was the move that led to #1 but also gave Bradley fans almost a decade of great basketball - ranked teams, multiple future NBA stars, championships, exciting play, legendary wins over our rivals, and the last time we really dominated in our league - even winning that National Championship.

#1- It is hard to settle on a #1 that would be unanimous and others may disagree, but..
I think landing Hersey Hawkins as 4-year star at Bradley University from 1984 through 1988 was the single best thing that boosted Bradley University, that was satisfying & enjoyable to the fans, and that put Bradley on the map for the rest of Division I basketball to see.  There was a short-term and temporary dropoff in the Albeck years but for the most part from 1982 through the early 2000's Bradley was regularly strong, filled the arena and had the most loyal fan base in the Valley, sent the most players to the NBA & other levels of pro ball of any MVC program, and kept Bradley largely at the top of the best midmajor conference in the nation.