PEORIA — Bradley basketball head coach Brian Wardle re-loaded his coaching staff for the 2025-26 season on Wednesday, bringing in three new members.
Allan Hanson comes in from Southern Utah, Bobby Suarez from Portland and Kamrein Street from Western Illinois. They join returning staff members Mike Black (assistant coach) and Pat Althoff (special assistant to the head coach).
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Suarez will serve as assistant coach and have a major role in BU’s recruiting. Hanson comes in as an assistant coach and Street is director of basketball operations. The entire staff will spend the offseason defining and adjusting roles.
They replace Wardle’s two longtime assistants, Jimmie Foster and Mike Bargen, who moved up to jobs with Colorado State and Indiana, respectively.
Bradley head coach Brian Wardle directs his defense as they battle Southern Illinois in the first half of their MVC basketball game Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025 at Carver Arena in Peoria. The Braves defeated the Salukis 78-64.
“When you have coaches moving up the job ladder and you’re bringing in new coaches, it takes some time to get to know everyone,” Wardle said. “We’ll take the summer to figure it out. I haven’t divvied up yet who is going to work with guards, wings and all that.
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“Bobby Suarez will be director of recruiting for our staff. We’ll go from there.”
More: Bradley basketball gets a small forward via transfer portal to boost rebounding, defense
Wardle has developed coaches as well as star players in a program that has earned two NCAA Tournament bids with Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championships, gone to the NIT three straight seasons, won an MVC regular-season championship and reached 20 wins six times.
The BU head coach has been busy re-loading a roster and a coaching staff at the same time after a 28-9 season.
“All of them I had ties to previous relationships with, really close friends and respected colleagues all recommended them highly,” Wardle said. “I was looking for some new ideas, new energy, guys who came from different coaching trees.
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“I think that’s good for me. After 10 years, I didn’t want to be stale, be too comfortable.”
Meet Bobby Suarez
Bradley Braves men’s basketball assistant coach and staff recruiting director Bobby Suarez.
Bobby Suarez is an assistant coach and Bradley‘s director of recruiting for the staff.
He became associate head coach at University of Portland midway through the 2022-23 season. He was brought into the West Coast Conference program by head coach Shantay Legans as an assistant in April of 2021. He spent the previous four years as an assistant under Legans at Eastern Washington.
He played a significant role in Portland’s program-turning 19-win season in 2021-22, helping to bring in 13 scholarship players to the program prior to that season.
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Suarez helped develop three Big Sky Conference MVPs in a four-year span at Eastern Washington: Tanner Groves (2021), Mason Peatling (2020) and Bogdan Bliznyuk (2018).
He was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) 30-Under-30 Team in June of 2020, representing the 30 most outstanding men’s college basketball coaches under the age of 30.
Meet Allan Hanson
Bradley Braves men’s basketball assistant coach Allan Hanson.
Allan Hanson is a Bradley assistant coach.
He was an assistant coach at Southern Utah University the last two seasons under head coach Rob Jeter. He joined that Southern Utah staff after a stint as an assistant at Western Illinois, where Jeter was also coaching.
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Hanson played collegiately at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 2004-08 and was a member of two NCAA Tournament teams, as well as a Sweet 16 squad. He played for Jeter for three seasons at Milwaukee.
He was Wisconsin-Milwaukee director of basketball operations in 2015 and was Wisconsin-Milwaukee video coordinator/player development in 2014.
Hanson was a head coach at Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin, where he compiled a 117-37 overall record and led his team to the 2019 WIAA state championship with a team ranked No. 7 in the nation by USA Today.
Meet Kamrein Street
Bradley Braves men’s basketball director of basketball operations Kamrein Street.
Kamrein Street takes over as Bradley men’s director of basketball operations.
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He held that role at Western Illinois and eventually moved up to a full assistant coaching position with the Leathernecks. He was a graduate assistant at Western Illinois from 2019-2021, and also worked as an academic coordinator for two head coaching regimes there.
Street served as an assistant coach at South Suburban College (2018-2019). The Bulldogs finished the season 28-4 and had the longest winning streak in college basketball (21 consecutive wins) as well as two consecutive months of being ranked No. 1 in NJCAA.
He played four years of college basketball at Lincoln Christian University (2018), earned a bachelors in business administration, and also holds a Master’s in sports management from WIU.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley basketball coaching staff: BU adds three new assistant coaches
