At the end of his first season of college basketball, Mike Bradley was awarded a national championship ring as a member of the Connecticut Huskies. And he got to make a trip to the White House to meet the president.
In December the 6-foot-10 former Tyner standout will receive his bachelor's degree in economics from Samford University, where he now plays. He and the Bulldogs will be back in his hometown Saturday evening, facing the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga at 6 in the back end of a doubleheader.
McCallie centers Henry Self (22) and Terrance O'Donohue (15) try to strip the ball from Tyner player Mike Bradley during a 2010 basketball game at McCallie.It's been a long and circuitous road for Bradley, covering 2,348 miles from Chattanooga to Storrs, Conn., to Birmingham, Ala., with a brief stop in Vincennes, Ind.
Bradley has averaged 6.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this season. The Bulldogs (12-14, 5-8) are currently one of the hottest teams in the Southern Conference, having won five straight games, and he's averaged 8.8 points and 7.2 rebounds during the streak.
"Mike is a big key to the things we do as a team, because he's really our one guy who can consistently rebound," Samford coach Scott Padgett said Monday. "It's a big plus for us when he's out on the floor playing well. His offense actually coincides with his rebounding, because when he stays on the floor he scores the ball pretty well, too.
"The big keys for Mike are staying out of foul trouble and rebounding. He's done a pretty good job of that here in our winning streak lately."
Padgett added that Bradley has averaged around five points and four rebounds in the Bulldogs' losses this season, so "it's not even a question that Mike playing well has a huge impact on us playing well as a team."
Bradley's college career almost never got off the ground. He redshirted on the Huskies' 2010-11 NCAA title team, and an injury took away the following season. He wasn't happy in Storrs, as the injury had put him behind other players in the post rotation, which included NBA draftees Andre Drummond and Alex Oriakhi. Plus he had found out his grandmotherin Chattanooga was sick, so he decided to move closer to home, initially choosing to transfer to Western Kentucky in Bowling Green, Ky.
But the NCAA would not grant him a transfer waiver, meaning he'd still have to sit out a season, so Bradley decided to go to junior college at Vincennes. During his time there, rumors started to filter through recruiting circles that he would never be able to play again due to his injury history.
"They were talking about me like I was Greg Oden," Bradley said Monday. "That really motivated me, because some schools were calling but they stopped. I had lost hope, but it only motivated me to go harder. I had some issues (my junior year), but this year hasn't been so bad, and that's been a really big deal for me."
He acknowledged Monday that Saturday's game, which will be his last trip to Chattanooga as a college player, is a big deal as well. Although Samford hosts The Citadel on Thursday before playing the Mocs, Bradley has been busy on social media, imploring friends and family to contact him about Saturday tickets in advance.
"It's been real hectic," Bradley said. "I tried to do it last year, but I waited too close to game time and it didn't work out. I don't know if I'm going to have enough tickets, because all my fam hasn't hit me up yet."
The Bulldogs have had an interesting season in Padgett's first as the head coach. With eight newcomers, it took them a while to learn how to win games, and while they played most of their opponents tough, they dropped their first eight conference games. Now they've reeled off five straight and have jumped from last place to sixth -- a game behind East Tennessee State, which they beat last week.
"They picked us last in the preseason," Bradley said. "When we started slow, we started to wonder and think that maybe we really weren't as good as we thought, but we kept practicing and working hard, and now we have a chance to move up.
"We were counted out, but when we played what supposedly were the top teams in the conference, we had them on the ropes. When we played UTC we let one get away, so Saturday we're going to go out and try to get a win like we should have the first time. To do that in my hometown would be big, but we're fighting for the best seed (we can get) in the SoCon tournament."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.