PEORIA - One hundred years ago when the colleges representing Peoria and Normal met for the first time on the basketball court, there was no Interstate 74.
Route 9 was an unnamed dirt path running along the railroad. So the Bradley Polytechnic team arrived at Illinois State Normal University via train for its first game in history against another college. They couldn't throw the records out because there weren't any.
A notable first occurred that year at Cook Hall in Normal. The net at the bottom of the basket was opened so the ball would fall through instead of having to be retrieved by a goaltender stationed on the running track just above.
For the visitors, though, the novelty wasn't tested much in a 39-13 loss. As would happen in better than two-thirds of the first 92 games (seven were on neutral courts), the home team won.
Maintaining that home winning tradition in this storied series would be just fine with the Bradley Braves, who host the Redbirds at 7:35 p.m. tonight at Carver Arena.
"For the most part, we played pretty well (in the first game this year)," said BU coach Jim Les. "Going down the stretch, they made plays on both ends and we didn't. Hopefully, we can play a similar kind of game and close it out this time."
BU (12-12, 5-10) has lost seven of its last eight games and must win to keep alive its slim chances of finishing among the top six in the Missouri Valley Conference standings and avoiding the Friday play-in round of next weekend's league tournament.
Tonight, the Braves will return the two players - Lawrence Wright and Patrick O'Bryant - who missed Saturday's game at Western Kentucky when they broke a team rule.
The players were late for a scheduled event on the road trip and Les sat them out of the entire 75-60 loss.
On Monday, both players apologized to their teammates and underwent extra conditioning drills as punishment for their tardiness. When asked if the one incident was responsible for the players' seemingly severe penalty, Les issued a "no comment."
"As a leader, you hate to have to discipline," Les said. "We don't have a lot of rules. It's not so much out of respect for the rules as it is out of respect for your teammates. I don't have a manual that ties my hands into what a punishment should be. Every situation is handled differently.
"If we don't abide by the rules, there's got to be a price to pay or else you lose control of the ship. Hopefully, it was a lesson learned."
The Redbirds (17-9, 8-7) believe they've righted their ship, winning at Wisconsin-Green Bay on Saturday after a three-game losing streak, all at home.
"One thing that has fueled us all year is the belief that we can win," said ISU coach Porter Moser. "We got a little chink in our armor during those three games and a little doubt crept in. We had some tough practices and then Saturday we got our belief back that we can win."
All the MVC teams face a tough regular-season ending task with three games in the next six days.
"All I've talked to them about is finishing strong," Les said. "We can't worry about the mathematics of it (the tiebreaker scenarios) because you can drive yourself crazy thinking about it. I also told them it was a pipe dream to think you're going to have success at St. Louis if you're not playing well leading into it."
Route 9 was an unnamed dirt path running along the railroad. So the Bradley Polytechnic team arrived at Illinois State Normal University via train for its first game in history against another college. They couldn't throw the records out because there weren't any.
A notable first occurred that year at Cook Hall in Normal. The net at the bottom of the basket was opened so the ball would fall through instead of having to be retrieved by a goaltender stationed on the running track just above.
For the visitors, though, the novelty wasn't tested much in a 39-13 loss. As would happen in better than two-thirds of the first 92 games (seven were on neutral courts), the home team won.
Maintaining that home winning tradition in this storied series would be just fine with the Bradley Braves, who host the Redbirds at 7:35 p.m. tonight at Carver Arena.
"For the most part, we played pretty well (in the first game this year)," said BU coach Jim Les. "Going down the stretch, they made plays on both ends and we didn't. Hopefully, we can play a similar kind of game and close it out this time."
BU (12-12, 5-10) has lost seven of its last eight games and must win to keep alive its slim chances of finishing among the top six in the Missouri Valley Conference standings and avoiding the Friday play-in round of next weekend's league tournament.
Tonight, the Braves will return the two players - Lawrence Wright and Patrick O'Bryant - who missed Saturday's game at Western Kentucky when they broke a team rule.
The players were late for a scheduled event on the road trip and Les sat them out of the entire 75-60 loss.
On Monday, both players apologized to their teammates and underwent extra conditioning drills as punishment for their tardiness. When asked if the one incident was responsible for the players' seemingly severe penalty, Les issued a "no comment."
"As a leader, you hate to have to discipline," Les said. "We don't have a lot of rules. It's not so much out of respect for the rules as it is out of respect for your teammates. I don't have a manual that ties my hands into what a punishment should be. Every situation is handled differently.
"If we don't abide by the rules, there's got to be a price to pay or else you lose control of the ship. Hopefully, it was a lesson learned."
The Redbirds (17-9, 8-7) believe they've righted their ship, winning at Wisconsin-Green Bay on Saturday after a three-game losing streak, all at home.
"One thing that has fueled us all year is the belief that we can win," said ISU coach Porter Moser. "We got a little chink in our armor during those three games and a little doubt crept in. We had some tough practices and then Saturday we got our belief back that we can win."
All the MVC teams face a tough regular-season ending task with three games in the next six days.
"All I've talked to them about is finishing strong," Les said. "We can't worry about the mathematics of it (the tiebreaker scenarios) because you can drive yourself crazy thinking about it. I also told them it was a pipe dream to think you're going to have success at St. Louis if you're not playing well leading into it."
