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It's been a long, difficult season for Bradley and first-year coach Geno Ford.

The Braves dropped to 7-23 and 2-15 in the Missouri Valley after Wednesday's loss to Northern Iowa. Bradley has won just twice in 20 games since Dec. 15.

Ford won 68 games at Kent State and made it to postseason play in each of his three seasons there. He took over a program that was already short on talent before losing two-year starter Will Egolf to an offseason knee injury.

The Braves could play the remainder of the season without forward Taylor Brown, the team's leading scorer and second-leading rebounder. Brown, who missed all of last season with a cardiac issue, suffered a partial ligament tear in his right big toe in a Feb. 15 loss to Drake.

Brown did not play in Saturday's BracketBusters loss to Loyola-Chicago or against UNI. Ford said the senior's status is day-to-day.

"Hopefully, for his sake, we'll be able to get him back,'' Ford said. "It would be an awful way to end your career, sitting on the sidelines in sweats. It's always tough when any player gets hurt, but it's even tougher when it's your senior year.

"It's Senior Day on Saturday, and I know he would really like to play. We'd like to have him, but you can only do what you're physically able to do. It's too early to say if he'll play, but we haven't seen any signs that he'd be able to.''

Ford knew that he was coming into a challenging situation when he took the Bradley job last spring. The Braves lost two of their top three scorers off of a 12-20 team that finished tied for last in the Valley with a 4-14 record.

"Early on, we kind of understood where we at in terms of how many wins we were going to get,'' Ford said. "You'd always like to win more, and there were a few games that we could have or should have won.

"It's been tough sledding for us, but it's not anything that wasn't expected. We knew last spring that this wasn't going to be a quick-fix deal.''

Ford said he sees hope for the future but admits that there is little room for error as the Braves try to close the gap between them and the rest of the league.

"We have good kids that work hard, but some of our younger guys just have to get better,'' he said. "And we really, really need to be accurate in recruiting. We have to find ways to make that gap up.''

Players of the week

• Overall: Creighton forward Doug McDermott. The sophomore from Ames, Iowa, averaged 27.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in the Bluejays' wins last week over Southern Illinois and Long Beach State.

• Newcomer: Missouri State guard Anthony Downing. The junior from Atchinson, Kan., averaged 15.0 points and shot 52 percent from the field in the Bears' two games. It's the fourth time this season he's won the award.

Stat of the week

Wichita State hammered out 15- and 17-point wins over Missouri State and Davidson. The Shockers are building steam as they head into the stretch run, having posted their past four wins by an average of 19.5 points.

Quote of the week

"Why go to one of these BCS (school) jobs and have to bang your head against the wall and have to rebuild for the same or less money?'' — Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall, discussing his future with the State (Columbia, S.C.) newspaper.

— Steven Pivovar

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