The Pioneers were within two points at the half at Purdue in 2006

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville, a top-10 NCAA III program, steps up to play NCAA I Bradley University in an exhibition game Sunday, Nov. 9 at 4:05 p.m. in the Peoria Civic Center's Carver Arena.

Bradley, an NCAA I Sweet Sixteen team in 2006, was the runner-up in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational last season. The Braves 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.

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.

“The reason for scheduling an exhibition game against the top NCAA Division I teams is one, it’s not only good for our student-athletes but also good for the university and the fans,” Pioneer Coach Paul Combs said. “It puts us on the biggest stage and under the brightest lights. Number two, it’s the best way to get a good preseason evaluation of where we’re at by playing the best.”

Bradley returns 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. The Braves opened their exhibition season Monday with a 74-61 win over NCAA Division II Lewis University. Sophomore guard Sam Maniscalco scored 18 points, while Wilson recorded 13 points and 11 rebounds, and senior center David Collins added 10 points and four blocked shots.

“We know they’re going to be very talented and provide a lot of mismatches in size, speed and athleticism,” Combs said. “For us, we’re concerned about just taking care of the ball and with rebounding. Those are the two areas we want to focus on in the Bradley game.”

UWP returns 14 lettermen from last year's 19-7 team that finished second in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 12-4 mark. The Pioneers are ranked seventh in the preseason D3hoops.com poll and eighth by the Sporting News.

Three all-conference players return, including 6-10 senior center Jeff Skemp, a first team preseason all-American by the Sporting News. Skemp averaged 15.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game while breaking Jeter's school record by making 64.7 percent from the field. Junior guard Curt Hanson ranked second in NCAA III last season by making 49.7 percent of his three-point shots and averaged 15.1 ppg. Senior swingman Charlie Lohoff was an all-league pick in 2005-06 and is coming off a 10.2 ppg season. Junior Mike Shaw (10.7 ppg) and sophomore Nick Allen (4.8 ppg) both shot better than 44 percent from beyond the three-point line, and senior guard Bo Richter (2.5 ppg) is one of the team's defensive stoppers. Senior Kyle Tetchlag (3.5 ppg) and sophomore Eric Wall (2.6 ppg) split time at the power forward position. The Pioneers, however, will have to compensate for injured point guard Josh Langenfeld (8.4 ppg).

“Losing Josh, our point guard, is like losing a quarterback,” Combs said. “It’s a big blow to our program, but we’re hoping he can come back. Right now, we’re trying to pick up the pieces. We do have talented returners who have played multiple positions, and we’re looking at guys who can do that.”

Maintaining composure against Bradley's pressure defense will be a good test for whoever has the ball Sunday.

“Sometimes in a big-game environment, like an exhibition game at a DI school, we try and do too much,” Combs said. “We want to stay within the system. Our goal is just to be Platteville and play Platteville basketball, understand what our roles are and execute the game plan. Then we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”

The sixth-year Pioneer coach is pleased with how his team has looked so far in the preseason.

“We came in a little ahead of the curve just because of our trip to Ireland in May and then the fact we have the majority of our players coming back,” Combs said. “That allowed us to speed up the process a little bit. That’s certainly not a shortcut for working on the fundamentals, however. There are areas we need to improve upon, and this weekend will be a great opportunity for us to get better and learn from our mistakes and get ready for our game on the 15th against Viterbo when games really do start to count.”

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 in tournament play with national championships in 1991, 1995, 1998 and 1999. UW-Platteville named its basketball floor the Bo Ryan Court in 2007.

UWP Exhibition Series Notes: Skemp scored 16 points against the Badgers in his first collegiate action in 2004 and 14 the next year at UW-Milwaukee. Hampered by early foul trouble, Skemp was held to three points against Purdue. Lohoff had 14 points against UW-Milwaukee, while Shaw scored a team-high 11 at Purdue ... the Pioneers lost 78-44 to Wisconsin, 63-47 to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and 78-46 at Purdue ... the Pioneers were within 30-28 at the half against the Boilermakers.