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 win the regular season title.
Corey Thomas is one of only a handful of seniors for Bradley this season and the team could very well be the youngest in the Missouri Valley.
Thomas isn’t fazed by this challenge and still welcomed the first day of camp with open arms.
“Oh, man. Long time coming. Four years in college, baby, last one. I’m really excited, taking on more of a leadership role this year. There’s a lot of new guys, so they’ve got to learn the way Bradley does things, the habits, stuff like that that they got to do every day to,” Thomas said.
Matthew Zobrist added, “Like us and the freshmen, it’s definitely different, like we’re just coming from high school, playing every single minute and all that stuff. So it’s got to be a lot different this year as you got to take on a different role. It’s definitely surreal feeling like just got to keep the legacy going. Hopefully do some great things too, just like them.”
Head coach Brian Wardle said he and his staff will take the reins in guiding the freshman while also relying on his handful of veterans.
“Well, you got to lead as a coach and as a staff. We got to we got to set the example. We got to show the leadership. We have really good seniors. I’m probably pushing them out of their comfort zone when it comes to leadership, but everyone brings value and we’ve improved each month. Now it’s just take winning the day, winning that week and see where we can be in another month.”
The Braves first exhibition game against Green Bay is in less than three weeks, scheduled for Saturday, October 11.
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