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| Peoria Civic Center - Home of the Bradley Braves |
For the fourth time in five seasons, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville basketball team will play an exhibition game against a top-flight NCAA Division I team.
The Pioneers will face Bradley University on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 4:05 p.m. in the Peoria Civic Center's Carver Arena. (Please note time and date change. Updated 7/2/08)
The Braves, an NCAA I Sweet Sixteen team in 2006, were the runners-up in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational last season. Bradley defeated Iowa State 65-56, Iowa 67-56, and #16 Drake 72-71 during the regular season, then beat Cincinnati 70-67, Ohio 79-73, and Virginia 96-85 before losing a best-of-three series to Tulsa in the CBI tournament. The Braves return nine lettermen and a pair of 6-foot-5 starters in Andrew Warren (13.2 ppg) and Theron Wilson (11.7 ppg) from last year's 21-17 club.
"UW-Platteville and our entire basketball program are extremely grateful to Coach Jim Les and his staff for providing us an opportunity to play in Peoria and compete in one of the great college basketball venues-the Peoria Civic Center," Pioneer Coach Paul Combs said. "It will also be special for our program to see a former UWP assistant Kyle Vogt (now Bradley's director of basketball operations) as we are very proud of what he has accomplished at Bradley."
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| Curt Hanson (left) and Charlie Lohoff played Purdue within two points at halftime in 2006 |
NCAA Division III school UW-Platteville played at the Wisconsin Badgers (led by former Pioneer Coach Bo Ryan) in 2004, at UW-Milwaukee (led by former Pioneer player and coach Rob Jeter) in 2005 and at Purdue in 2006.
"This upcoming exhibition is continuing the great tradition our program has established in competing against the elite Division I programs in the country," Combs said. "Our staff has so much respect for Coach Les and his program as this opportunity will allow for our student-athletes to better prepare for the upcoming season."
The Pioneers return all five starters and their top nine players from last season's 19-7 team. UWP finished second in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference at 12-4 and was 23rd in the final regular season D3hoops.com poll. The returners accounted for 98.7 percent of the Pioneers' points last season and are led by NCAA III third team all-American Jeff Skemp, who averaged 15.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. The 6-10 senior broke Jeter's school record by making 64.7 percent from the field. Junior guard Curt Hanson earned first team all-WIAC honors after averaging 15.1 ppg and making 49.7 percent of his three-point attempts, second in NCAA III. The Pioneers were second nationally in three-point shooting at 44.0 percent.
Junior guard Mike Shaw came off the bench last year to score 10.7 ppg and shoot 47.3 percent from beyond the three-point line; senior swingman Charlie Lohoff, an all-WIAC pick in 2006-07, averaged 10.2 ppg; and junior point guard Josh Langenfeld averaged 8.4 ppg. Seniors Kyle Tetschlag (3.5 ppg)and Bo Richter (2.5) played in all 26 games, while sophomores Nick Allen (4.8) and Eric Wall (2.6) combined for 51 games played and 11 starts.
UW-Platteville is a school of 7,000 situated in the southwest corner of Wisconsin, by nearby Illinois and Iowa. The school is beginning its fourth year of the Tri-State Initiative Program, designed to recruit students from those three states in majors including engineering, manufacturing technology, building construction, computer science, business, agriculture, criminal justice and education.
UWP is one of the most tradition-rich basketball schools in NCAA Division III, making nine straight national tournament appearances from 1991-99. Under Coach Bo Ryan, the Pioneers were 30-5 with national championships in 1991, 1995, 1998 and 1999. UW-Platteville named its basketball floor the Bo Ryan Court in 2007.
Past UWP vs. Division I Games