Bradley Train Wreck

[bufan42]

Had to join this board just to give my perspective on this.

1. There has to be a change after the season to save the program. I don't know if there will but there HAS to be.

2. The fans who say jim les left the program in disarray are a little off base. As is the man who claimed the program was essentially the 2nd best program in his years. Les unfortunately had teams toiling in mediocrity. And if you look back at why his teams never for into the top 3 you can bring it back to 2-3 conference games each year where he himself would get late game technicals and make goofy moves to cause his teams a Loss. Les had decent talent a lot, and was a below average floor coach and produced average teams that would have continued to be average had he stayed.

3. The program has limited funds because of the money they are paying geno ford. However for most of fords tenure they have been paying him 800,000 AND paying Les 400,000. To me that means you CAN make a change if you find a coach that would take this job for 300-400,000 and could maybe be capable of turning around a program that is at it's all time worst.

4. Bradley was in almost exactly the same position 24 years ago and turned to a hot young coach coming off an ncaa appearance at northern illinois. Jim Molinari instilled hard nosed basketball and brought the program back to consistent winning by his 3rd year year. His last 9 seasons at BU he had 1 ncaa tourney and 5 NITs. That's 6 legit post seasons in 9 years and 1 league title and another mvc title appearance.

5. MO is 61 now and has recently turned around another program before turning it over to billy wright and headed to Nebraska to be an assistant and chase a final 4. I have a hunch if called Mo would listen to a BU offer at a price they could afford and return a once proud program back to respectability.

Just my opinion

[squirrel]

Had to join this board just to give my perspective on this.

1. There has to be a change after the season to save the program. I don't know if there will but there HAS to be.

2. The fans who say jim les left the program in disarray are a little off base. As is the man who claimed the program was essentially the 2nd best program in his years. Les unfortunately had teams toiling in mediocrity. And if you look back at why his teams never for into the top 3 you can bring it back to 2-3 conference games each year where he himself would get late game technicals and make goofy moves to cause his teams a Loss. Les had decent talent a lot, and was a below average floor coach and produced average teams that would have continued to be average had he stayed.

3. The program has limited funds because of the money they are paying geno ford. However for most of fords tenure they have been paying him 800,000 AND paying Les 400,000. To me that means you CAN make a change if you find a coach that would take this job for 300-400,000 and could maybe be capable of turning around a program that is at it's all time worst.

4. Bradley was in almost exactly the same position 24 years ago and turned to a hot young coach coming off an ncaa appearance at northern illinois. Jim Molinari instilled hard nosed basketball and brought the program back to consistent winning by his 3rd year year. His last 9 seasons at BU he had 1 ncaa tourney and 5 NITs. That's 6 legit post seasons in 9 years and 1 league title and another mvc title appearance.

5. MO is 61 now and has recently turned around another program before turning it over to billy wright and headed to Nebraska to be an assistant and chase a final 4. I have a hunch if called Mo would listen to a BU offer at a price they could afford and return a once proud program back to respectability.

Just my opinion

Great post. Although:

2. The fans who say jim les left the program in disarray are a little off base. As is the man who claimed the program was essentially the 2nd best program in his years. Les unfortunately had teams toiling in mediocrity. And if you look back at why his teams never for into the top 3 you can bring it back to 2-3 conference games each year where he himself would get late game technicals and make goofy moves to cause his teams a Loss. Les had decent talent a lot, and was a below average floor coach and produced average teams that would have continued to be average had he stayed.

I also agree with most of this. However, from 2009-on, the program quickly became among the biggest jokes in DI. Period. There's no spinning around that one. He did have considerable talent before up to that point, for sure. However, the overall roster in the dwindling few years was an absolute joke.

[bufan42]

I agree with you. My point was if maniscalco and brown don't go down the team probably winds up in the annual jim les 4-5 game in stl. Like they had been the 5 years b4 that. And the thing with les's teams were they were 4-5 place teams with no chance to go all the way in stl. That's a big issue for me.

I would guess if he was retained and under no heat he would have probably been able to scoop up another Theron wilson type juco along with some other recruits and keep the team a declining but not disgraceful team. More of a 6th place type team.

Again. The point of my post was not a defense of les in fact I think he probably should have been fired. It was either that year or after the next season.


My main point was about the sad disgrace of a program we have now and my thoughts on who would be the right man to come in and restore it.

If they actually went this direction and it was successful after about 5 years there would also be. Potential good coach in waiting in billy wright.

[squirrel]

I agree with you. My point was if maniscalco and brown don't go down the team probably winds up in the annual jim les 4-5 game in stl. Like they had been the 5 years b4 that. And the thing with les's teams were they were 4-5 place teams with no chance to go all the way in stl. That's a big issue for me.

Right...and that was a big part of the problem. 2nd place was not good enough before Les, but then 4th-5th became the pseudo-acceptable ceiling to many in the fan base.

[bufan42]

Given the state of the program would the fan base be re-energized and excited if Mo was brought back? Or is that a pipe dream?

I think many people now realize we had a pretty good thing going back then and to fire a guy that was a game away from the ncaa the year b4 and had a loaded freshman class when he was let go was down right silly.

I'll shut up and listen to everyone else's opinions now.

[squirrel]

Given the state of the program would the fan base be re-energized and excited if Mo was brought back? Or is that a pipe dream?

No. Mo became a pariah, I don't know how, but he did. Les was a polarizing figure and split the fan base. Ford has not been able to unite the fan base because he's not Jim Les.

The only way to generate any kind of excitement would be to find someone, anyone, completely removed from any prior relationship to the program.

A big part of the ridiculousness in Bradley's fan base is its clingy-ness to nostalgia. The glory days are over, and they are not coming back, unless you have a future vision. Looking backwards is a big part of the reason we got to this level. Non-Bradley guys like Van Atta, Versace, Molinari, and Ford have always been viewed with some skepticism by Bradley fans, for wildly different reasons in some instances. All of them, except for Ford at this point were replaced by Bradley guys.

I had hoped that would have stopped with Ford, and maybe it still will if he gets it turned around.

[bufan42]

Well since nobody on this board even mentioned the debacle last night I will.

Just when you thought it couldnt get worse it did.

Robert Morris out mans Bradley.


I stand by my opinions.. Bring back Mo.

There are no fans left to allienaite. The ones that are left would surely be happy that someone new is in town.

Maybe he isnt even affordable though with the embarrassing financial situation the administration has the university in.

[saluki762]

While I agree and understand what you are saying, Geno inherited a joke program

I'm really confused by this first sentence, coming immediately after a post saying Bradley was a top 3-4 team in the Valley before Geno got there.

A joke program or a joke team? Those two are very different.

Bradley hasn't been a top 3-4 program in at least in 25 years. Bradley has been, prior to Ford an average program, not a joke but not top 3-4. This is what allows those numbers to look like they do, they were able to escape being terrible but they were never great. One conference championship in 25 years does not make a top 3-4 program.

CU, WSU, UNI and SIU are the top tier over the last 25 years.

MSU, ISU red, ISU blue and Bradley make the next tier.

Drake and Evansville are at the bottom.

[squirrel]

If anyone is being truly honest, Bradley is in the Drake and Evansville category. We've been a play-in team 8 of the last 13 years, and as a play-in team have only won 1 game.

If we're going to go in to our past, let's get Orsborn back.

[shocktheheart]

While I agree and understand what you are saying, Geno inherited a joke program

I'm really confused by this first sentence, coming immediately after a post saying Bradley was a top 3-4 team in the Valley before Geno got there.

A joke program or a joke team? Those two are very different.

Bradley hasn't been a top 3-4 program in at least in 25 years. Bradley has been, prior to Ford an average program, not a joke but not top 3-4. This is what allows those numbers to look like they do, they were able to escape being terrible but they were never great. One conference championship in 25 years does not make a top 3-4 program.

CU, WSU, UNI and SIU are the top tier over the last 25 years.

MSU, ISU red, ISU blue and Bradley make the next tier.

Drake and Evansville are at the bottom.

Valley Championships the last 25 years...obviously this isn't the only measure, but a start:
Creighton: 6 regular season, 10 tournament= 16
SIU: 8 regular season, 4 tournament= 12
ISUR: 4 regular season, 3 tournament= 7
UNI: 2 regular season, 3 tournament= 5
WSU: 3 regulars season, 1 tournament= 4
Tulsa: 2 regular season, 1 tournament= 3
ISUB: 1 regular season, 2 tournament= 3
Drake: 1 regular season, 1 tournament= 2
MSU: 1 regular season, 1 tournament= 1
Evansville: 1 regular season, 0 tournament= 1
Bradley: 1 regular season, 0 tournament= 1
Loyola: 0