MVC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season

Mar 5, 2023; St. Louis, MO, USA; Drake Bulldogs guard Tucker DeVries (12) celebrates with head coach Darian DeVries during the second half against the Bradley Braves in the finals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

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Bradley’s Connor Hickman (10), Malevy Leons (14) and Duke Deen MVC Basketball /

3. Bradley Braves – Head Coach Brian Wardle

2022-23 record: 25-10 overall, 16-4 in the MVC

While Bradley lost all-league center Rienk Mast to the Big Ten (Nebraska) this team has a legitimate chance to repeat. Head coach Brian Wardle returns three starters and a wide array of newcomers to offset that loss.

Guards Connor Hickman and Duke Deen (Newcomer Team) anchor one of the best backcourts in MVC basketball. Each player can make threes, drive and kick and play with the required Brian Wardle defensive passion. They combined to start 68 games last season and know how to run Wardle’s offense and defensive schemes. Bradley was second to SIU in scoring defense.

Veteran returners Malevy Leons (second team) and Darius Hannah are a pair of 6’9 athletic forwards that make life miserable for their opponents. Leons is the Valley’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year after blocking 52 shots and accumulating 52 steals. Meanwhile he scored 11.1 points per game and grabbed six rebounds per contest.

Darius Hannah started too many games to be on the Valley’s all-bench team, but mirrored Leons’ effectiveness. In virtually half the minutes that Leons played Hannah blocked 32 shots and picked up 22 steals. They are each ferocious dunkers.

After those four ‘known’ commodities, the Braves have a host of newcomers. Sophomore, Trey Pettigrew comes over from Nevada after a great prep career in Chicago. Another Chicago native, 6’10 sophomore Kyle Thomas transferred in from Eastern Illinois. Marquette transfer Emarion Ellis has struggled with injuries but two years ago, the 6’5 redshirt sophomore was a top five prospect coming out of Iowa.

There are exciting freshmen coming to ‘the Hilltop’. 6’4 guard Demarion Burch is one of the top ten players coming out of Wisconsin and Almar Atlason comes to Bradley from Sunrise Christian Academy. The 6’8 Atlason impressed international fans this summer when he played for his native Iceland squad. 7’1 Ahmet Jonovic is a Serbian native that Wardle signed last mid-season and is a sophomore, but this will be his first full season of collegiate basketball.

Wardle says Jonovic’s improvement has been significant.

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