CHICAGO — Time was when a Bradley game in Chicago was crucial to its men’s basketball program — from the myriad benefits of exposure and recruiting in the big city, as well as rewarding rostered Chicagoans with a hometown return.
Yet for only the third time in nearly 70 years — as the Braves prepare for a Saturday game at Illinois-Chicago — BU’s roster includes no players from Chicagoland.
Going back to the late 1940s, when Gene “Squeaky” Melchiorre (Highland Park) and Billy Mann (Chicago) arrived at the Peoria campus, there was at least one Chicagoland player on the roster — other than 1989-90 and 2006-07 — until this year.