Bradley playing for more than a seed at Drake

Journal Star sports reporter

@DaveReynolds2

DES MOINES, Iowa — Missouri Valley Conference tournament seeding aside, Bradley's regular-season finale at 1 p.m. Saturday at Drake presents an important opportunity for the BU program.

A win coupled with a Missouri State home loss to Wichita State would tie the Braves for sixth place in the final league standings. Since the teams split in the regular season, the tiebreaker is overall RPI.

But the Bears' current RPI ranking edge of 14 spots (213-227) is almost certainly too much for Bradley to overcome mathematically.

So a Bradley win Saturday would likely give the Braves the No. 7 seed and place them in the 7-10 play-in game Thursday at 8:30 p.m.…