June 7, 2017
SAN DIEGO – San Diego State will play host to Bradley this season as part of the annual Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge. The game is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 3, on Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena. Game time has yet to be determined.
The Braves finished the 2016-17 campaign with a 13-20 overall record, which included a home loss to Nevada in last season's Challenge, and a 7-11 effort in the Missouri Valley. Bradley, which had no seniors on last year's squad, is set to return 100 percent of its contributors in 2017-18.
SDSU has not faced Bradley since Dec. 20, 1967, and is 0-4 all-time vs. the Braves. All four meetings took place in Peoria, Illinois, with the first three occurring in 1947, 1948 and 1961.
The MW-MVC Challenge started in the 2009-10 and ended in 2012-13, before it was renewed in time for the 2015-16 season. San Diego State opened with a road overtime win at Drake before defeating Wichita State at home in 2010-11. SDSU suffered its first loss in the Challenge Series in 2011-12, when Creighton downed the Aztecs at home. San Diego State ended the four-year series with a win at Missouri State (2012-13). The last two seasons, SDSU has defeated Illinois State at home (2015-16) and dropped a road decision at Loyola (2016-17).
This past year, the leagues split 10 meetings, marking the second time the Challenge has ended in a tie. The all-time series now stands at 3-1-2 in favor of the Mountain West. Overall, the MW is 33-22 in Challenge games.
San Diego State in 2017-18 is set to return three starters, including an all-conference backcourt of Trey Kell and Jeremy Hemsley, and five players overall (Montaque Gill-Caesar, Hemsley, Max Hoetzel, Kell, Malik Pope) who saw action in the starting lineup a year ago. The Aztecs also add Devin Watson to the roster after he sat out last season following his transfer from San Francisco where he averaged 20.3 points and 4.9 assists as a sophomore in 2015-16. In addition to Watson, SDSU will welcome four-star athletes Jalen McDaniels (redshirt freshman) and Jordan Schakel (true freshman), and three-star guard Adam Seiko (true freshman).