2020-21 Finish: 12-16; 6-12 MVC (8th)
Letterwinners Returning/Lost: 8/7
Starters Returning/Lost: 2/3
The Bradley men’s basketball team saw its two-year run atop the Missouri Valley Conference halted during the 2020-21 campaign. After winning consecutive conference titles for the first time in school history in 2019 and 2020, a young BU team battled a consistently-changing lineup during the pandemic season en route to a first-round exit at Arch Madness.
In 2021-22, the Braves look to again contend for the conference championship and NCAA Tournament bid with a mix of eight returning players and eight newcomers, featuring both experienced transfers and freshmen.
The BU frontcourt highlights the 2021-22 roster, led by seniors Ari Boya and Ja’Shon Henry – a duo that has never lost an MVC Tournament game in three years on campus as they missed last season’s Arch Madness with injuries – plus sophomore Rienk Mast.
Henry appeared in 21 games as a junior last season and ranked third on the team with a career-best 10.9 points per game – the most by any Valley player with fewer than five starts since Creighton’s Terrell Taylor in 2001-02. A member of the 2021 All-Bench Team and 2020 Most Improved Team, Henry looks to take another step as a senior as the program’s most experienced player. Boya played in only nine games as a junior but his impact was obvious as BU allowed only 59.3 points per game with him on the court and 70.0 points in the games he missed.
Mast looks to expand on an outstanding rookie season a year ago. After missing the 2019-20 season with an injury, the Netherlands native was named to the All-Freshman Team with 8.6 points per game and 5.8 rebounds – leading BU with 13.3 points and 6.9 rebounds the final 11 games of the season.
Sophomore forwards Darius Hannah and Connor Linke also return and look to build upon their freshman campaigns, while Bradley adds Malevy Leons to the frontcourt mix. Leons was named the NJCAA National Player of the Year in 2021 after leading Mineral Area College to its best season in school history.
The team’s leader in 3-pointers a season ago, Ville Tahvanainen is the top returning guard for Bradley. A key player in BU’s 2020 MVC title run, Tahvanainen averaged 8.6 points per game as a sophomore with a team-best 47 triples.
Sophomore Jayson Kent also returns for BU in the backcourt after starting four games as a rookie. Tahvanainen and Kent will be joined by a number of new faces, including graduate transfer Mikey Howell – who ranked 12th nationally in assists last season – junior college transfer Terry Roberts plus freshmen Max Ekono, Connor Hickman and Zek Montgomery.