Recruiting comparison

Below are the lists of recruits that each of Bradley's last two head coaches brought in via verbal commitment or signed LOI - in his first 3 1/2 years...scholarship players...

In other words - it's a comparison between the total recruiting haul that Geno Ford has landed to date...

vs. the total recruiting haul Jim Les had landed at the exact same time in his tenure at Bradley - 3.5 years.


Geno Ford:

Donivine Stewart
Jalen Crawford
Nate Wells
Shayok Shayok
Devon Hodges
Tyshon Pickett
Michel Tucker
Ka'Darryl Bell
Stefan Zecevic
Anthony Fields
Omari Grier
Jordan Swopshire
Mike Shaw
Auston Barnes
Chris Blake
Xzavier Taylor
Macari Brooks
Kendahl Amerson
Tramique Sutherland
Jermaine Morgan
Warren Jones
Donte Thomas
Josh Cunningham
...a couple who never even made it here, seven more who played little and are already departed, and likely a couple more..and several still hangin around who have never contributed.
..at least nine who won't finish their careers here - maybe 2, 3 or more
..NOT ONE has yet to receive any All-MVC mention - and none of such anywhere in sight, and we are still badly lacking in shooters (we continue to be way dead last in shooting in MVC) , ball handlers (worst assist to turnover rate ever!), and big men capable of even making wide open layups..



Jim Les:

Danny Adams
Jabbar Battle
Stefan Marcetic
Joey Paul
Michael Rembert
Daniel Ruffin - 1000 pt club
Marcellus Sommerville - 1000 pt club
JJ Tauai
Tony Bennett
Jeremy Crouch - led the nation in 3-pt shooting!
Patrick O'Bryant - Lottery Draft Pick
Sam Singh
Lance Stemler
Lawrence Wright
Zach Andrews
Ray Brown
Will Franklin
Saihou Jassey
Andrew Warren - already committed in fall of 2005 - Top 10 in career scoring
..a few misses - six did not finish their careers at BU, but almost all the others were solid contributors -
half a dozen of whom got mentions on some All Valley writeup...but by the time we were 3.5 years in back in 2005-2006 even the most uneducated could see we had the talent to win plenty of games ahead.

I think the difference is obvious....we had shooters - nationally ranked shooters, NBA caliber big men, ball handlers, assist guys...

But the biggest contrast is in the media coverage...
The PJS writers continuously ripped JL for recruiting "too many jucos", no local kids, etc., etc...
but they praise GF when he's got more jucos, enormous player turnover & revolving door, and has yet to ever address the BIGGEST needs we have such as shooters when he had NATION-CALIBER kids right in his own back yard such as Alec Peters that he declined to even pursue!
And yet we get no honest criticism by the media - just brown-nosin' accolades endlessly such as "difference-maker" and "go-to guy" applied to players who are brought in and can't even break into the lineup.

A remarkable letter from the Bradley Physics Department

Just got an interesting letter from the Bradley Physics Department.  Sounds like rather serious financial straits and asking for help.  Clearly the problem is far worse than anything being reported in the press.
Here is the text of the letter from Dr. Douglas Early, who has been a physics professor for 55 years and who I had when I was at Bradley more than 40 years ago.

"...I write this document to bring you up to date about the goings-on in the department.  No, I have not retired yet and I don’t plan to any time soon.  I find that being around the students and the younger faculty keeps me interested in physics things (the Higg’s boson and stuff like that) and life in general.  I am somewhat surprised that the university has not encouraged me to retire.

I received my 55 year pin in October.  I’m the only one at Bradley to have received that honor.  I doubt that anyone else will ever match that.  The president had never met me before she gave me the pin, but she hugged me anyway.  I’m not sure how I feel about that since she has never visited the department.  I know why she hasn’t, but I can’t talk about it.

I should tell you that the administration has told us that Bradley is in dire financial straits.  Programs are being reviewed to see where money saving is possible.  Small departments, like physics, are under a very high-powered microscope.  There has even been talk of deleting the physics major.  Physicists do arithmetic really well and we can’t figure how deleting our major will make up for the 6 or so million dollars that athletics lost last year.  Yes, that’s correct.  However, athletics seems to be untouchable.  If you have strong feeling about this, maybe you should write to someone about your concerns. 

The department is looking forward to holding our fifth annual Physics Day in February, 2015.  We invite local high school physics classes to spend the day with us, tour our teaching and research labs, have lunch with our majors and get a tour of the campus led by Admissions.  Each year we host up to 40 or so students and their teachers.  It has worked very well for us.  In addition, our students put on a demonstration show for the parents and other visitors on Parents Day.

Every spring, when we do the Sigma Pi Sigma induction, we dig out the book many of you signed when you were inducted.  The students being inducted are always intensely interested to know what their predecessors are doing now.  Please keep in touch.

Have a very nice holiday.

Dr. Doug Early

Bradley University

Department of Physics

1501 W. Bradley Avenue

Peoria, IL  61625"

Hmmm...pretty much speaks for itself ....

Bradley's astounding plunge in attendance just since the housecleaning of 2011

Carver Arena has been Bradley's home since 1982
Only one season ever had an average attendance at Carver of less than 7,000 (1991-92 fell seven short and had 6,993)
NO other season even fell below 7,200 and all but 4 others were over 8,000

And if all seasons from 1982 thru 2011 are considered, then the roughly 30-year average at Carver is about 9,000.

BUT the past four seasons are

2011-12 - 7640
2012-13 - 6557
2013-14 - 6608
2014-15 - 5261 (thru 12/9)

so all four of these last four seasons are among the WORST FIVE SEASONS ever and three of them are BY FAR the three worst...
(not to mention the massive financial losses, nearly 50% drop in donations, complete bungling of the TV deals, 300 RPI, and explosion of 30-pt blowouts)
Is anyone listening?? Is anyone on the Board paying any attention at all? Or are they so stupefied by a single women's XC MVC title (first in 30 years) that they think that'll satisfy all the basketball fans for years to come?

How can the current admin run Bradley basketball so far into the ground and so far into oblivion and yet the Board has yet to bother or notice??
This did NOT need to happen. Many, many warnings were given, many clear signs of disaster ahead were obvious to just about everyone except those steering the ship over the falls, and the few brown-nosers who thought it would benefit them to parrot their disastrous spin.
If Kirk Wessler dares to mention "free fall" then please.....do NOT point towards 2007 and try haplessly to find a culprit there.
Point directly at 2011 and maybe 2010 and find out who came on board and started pushing agenda and policy that had destroyed Bradley basketball for a long time to come.


Note Bradley used to be proud of their attendance - they used to update a web page exclusively dedicated to these outstanding attendance figures...
but that's old history now - of course they no longer want to mention it!

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=130273&DB_OEM_ID=3400

Setting some things straight

Just by chance I ran across this post on a message board:


"Bradley hired Jim Les when they were "stuck" after Brian Gregory was hired by Dayton. Bradley could have hired Jim, Wayne or re-open the search. Bradley did not want to get egg on their face by re-opening the process.

Al Biancalana was never welcomed by Les because Les was insecure about his lack of head coaching ability and knew Biancalana was actually better prepared for the job.

Assistant Steve Merfeld run off about 1 week after Vegas Invitational (early December 2009). Pretty curious move when an assistant coach leaves 7 games into a season. ..."



I had never seen this post before or else I would have found a way then to debunk all that's wrong here.

but even worse than the ignorance displayed by these comments - is the complete lack of any of the next many responses that go on for a few more pages - who seem not to know how incredibly wrong this crap is. But then given where this occurred, no surprises.

-First - even a dolt can readily find or confirm that Brian Gregory, who was a candidate for the Bradley job, did not withdraw because he took the head coaching job at Dayton.

OMG - he wasn't hired at Dayton until a FULL freaking YEAR later in 2003.

He withdrew from candidacy because of the irrational and offensive behavior of one of the 2002 selection committee members who was openly campaigning for the hiring of Wayne McClain and kept repeatedly pressuring the candidates about racism, how many Black friends they had and other offensively personal information. This was widely reported even by the PJ Star and it resulted in BOTH Gregory and additional candidate James Jones (who is Black) both withdrawing their names saying they do not want the job if they had to be subjected to such offensive behavior from the member of Bradley's Board of Trustees.

So - the Gregory part of this post is so filled with stupidity that I hardly need to go further but...

.

-Then the comment on Biancalana is false also. Biancalana was someone else's choice for assistant coach - he was never Jim Les' choice. When Mr. Biancalana decided he no longer wanted the position HE CHOSE to leave. It was his choice and it was clearly reported as such by the local media.
Interestingly - there were rumors of a grudge and lo & behold, within a few weeks the NCAA had gotten an "anonymous tip" about some violations and were almost instantly on campus unannounced looking for and digging for things to nil Bradley.
You can draw your own conclusions.
-Lastly the Merfeld thing. Yup he suddenly resigned in early December 2009, right after we had played in Las Vegas.

But the precipitating factor is that while Bradley was in Las Vegas - Merfeld was reported to have met with the Illini coaching staff secretly - purportedly about a possible opening on their coaching staff - but later when it was apparently found that the assistant met secretly with the staff of a team we were playing in that tournament - then that's all that is necessary to demonstrate a violation of whatever you want to call it - where people don't have secret sessions with the opponents before a game.

Nobody has to believe any of this - and this one never hit the press.

It was just an issue of a guy's gotta fit on a coaching staff to be comfortable and welcome there - and a few things just alter that fit...

Some interesting facts

Here are some interesting facts that have been previously unreported - you sure cannot count on the local media to report this...

I have all the references - feel free to contact and I will show them to you..

The Bradley Board of Trustees met in November as did the Bradley University Senate and the minutes & reports from those meetings detail several interesting facts.

First & foremost are that ..(all statements in quotation marks are directly from the reports)

-"..many issues, trends, and items that were disclosed .. were not made available (previously) to the URC (University Resources Committee)  for their inclusion in their April 2014 report."

-"Non-disclosure and lack of transparency at appropriate time has rendered the April 2014 committee report incomplete."

-"The Board of Trustees mandated that Bradley reduce the operating budget by .. 7.6 M$ ($7.6 million)."

-Tuition hikes should result in an increase in revenue of $5.3 million

-Here's the biggie - Athletics costs were misrepresented previously at $5.8 million for fiscal year 2013-14.
".in fact the actual Athletics loss ballooned to over $7.1 million."

-"Unrestricted contributions were down 46% (in 2014) to only $.8 million. This was the only year in the past ten years where contributions were under $1 million."

-"Athletic losses continue to grow at a pace of about $.5 million more every year.  Ten years ago, the Athletics loss was $2.1 million and it is now $7.1 million."

-"Athletics (costs) have increased by 240%" over the past 10 years

-"The increase in the Athletics loss has also put a severe strain on enrollment and the funds that new students contribute.  
..twenty additional students need to be enrolled just to cover Athletics' growing loss.."

Some summary thoughts...
-"Non-disclosure" and "lack of transparency" are fancy words for falsifying reports, lying, and hiding the damaging facts.

-the dollar loss in Athletics in 2013-14 was much higher than they admitted to - it was actually $7.1 million in just that one year when under Ken Kavanagh - it was never more than approx. $2 million per year.
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2014/12/letter-of-nov-24-2014.html

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=300504&postcount=13

- and contributions were down by almost HALF in just one year while Athletics sending has skyrocketed.  Go figure. Spells trouble...

Letter of Nov. 24, 2014

Dear *****:

I am sure that our paths have crossed over the past 40 years that I have lived in the Peoria Area.
Thanks you for your support of Bradley Athletics and the time you took to write an insightful letter!
As I thought about your comments I broke them into two parts:  Bradley Athletics in general and our men's basketball program, which is often viewed as being synonymous with the state of the University's intercollegiate athletics programs.

At our most recent board meeting, on November 6th and 7th, the athletic programs were a major discussion at the committee level.  At future board meetings they will be part of an in depth discussion at the full board level.  You might have also read that we are taking further action the reduce the loss realized in intercollegiate athletics.  This is appropriate in light of the enrollment challenge facing higher education.

As far as Bradley's overall athletics program is concerned: I think we have made positive strides.
Last year was a record setting one for Bradley Athletics with the department achieving its best over-all athletic performance in at least the last 30 years.  Further, this occurred with an all-time record performance in the classroom with a 3.31 grade point average for all student athletes.  And already this fall women's cross country won the MVC title and the men's team had their best finish since 1987.  Once again soccer contended for an MVC crown.

Having recognized our accomplishments, the men's basketball program is another story.  I attend the games just like you and last year's season did not meet expectations.  Thus far this year, we have not shown any meaningful progress.  It is still early and injuries have impacted the ability to get a new team on the same page. The program is top of mind.  It is on our radar and we will assess its progress at the end of the season.

We are full committed to NCAA Division I competition as doing so is very much part of the Bradley brand that many of us have enjoyed.  As fellow alums, we both realize that as the intercollegiate landscape changes, our alumni involvement and support are critical ingredients to our program's future successes.

Thank you again for your loyalty, support and also for constructively sharing your obervations.

Regards

*********

D*** S******
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
B****** University


now - for a couple qualifying facts in rebuttal....

-"best over-all athletic performance in at least the last 30 years"???  Just how does anyone come up with this when our baseball, volleyball, women's basketball, men's basketball - and yes, even soccer, are all doing about as historically worst they've ever done.
Soccer did not contend for an MVC crown - they were 1-5 in the league and as far from contending as any team in the MVC.

-much of the academic success was due to the high grade point averages of our senior athletes who were recruited by those coaches that are no longer here - this will not likely be repeated this season.

-we have debunked this "enrollment challenges" argument already - the big time financial losses were 100% due to overspending - even irresponsible spending in the Athletic Department.
The Athletic Dept. has lost $6 million each year for the past 3 years....and prior to 2011 no prior year had ever had a loss of more than about $3.

http://bradley.edu/dotAsset/9c19ad59-b660-4d92-83f4-b29f1d8b84a6.pdf
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2014/06/text-of-e-mail-release-regarding-bu.html
http://www.bradleyscout.com/news/show-us-the-money-bradley-salaries-in-2011/
http://www.pjstar.com/article/20141121/NEWS/141129754?template=printart
..also reference the April 17, 2014 Report to Senate by the Bradley University Resources Committee ...(copy available upon request) -
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24001&highlight=financial+report

Or try this link directly
http://www.bradley.edu/academic/cio/senate/documents/2013-2014/Bradley+University+Senate+Agenda+May+2014+website.pdf

Also if you scroll to pages 36 through 56 - especially page 47 showing Athletic Department LOSSES
-of $5.915 million in 2011-2012
-of $5.940 million in 2012-2013
-of $5.800 million in 2013-2014
...but going all the way back to 2005 - never a loss of even 1/3 or about 1/2 of those figures under different Athletic Director & different basketball coach.

With excuses growing thin a small but vocal clan tries hauling out a haggard old alibi

I saw a claim that the current Bradley situation and indeed the changeover of coaches from Jim Les to Geno Ford was ...."a situation" that "was not remarkable in any way"


I respectfully disagree and will present evidence to support that the Jim Les situation was really quite unique...
Just show me any other coaching changeover where such a vocal clan of fans that team with the grudge-holding media to continue well into the 4th year attacking the past coach?

Here are the numerous unique factors to the BU situation...

-Les came under attack and was criticized even before he was a finalist for the job
-the local media made absolutely NO effort to hide their displeasure with JL's selection and stirred up an uproar with attack pieces for the entire first year or more than JL was here...
(remember the Phil Theobald attack that he never explained that Les had surrounded himself with people who prefer the expedient way to the ethical way)
-the editor and columnist of the PJ Star (Kirk Wessler) has publicly stated he soured on Jim Les in year two, became convinced he had to go and began beating the drum to get JL fired...all before JL had been here for his 3rd season!
-then Jim Les was fired after his first and only losing season over a SIX YEAR STRETCH - something that is extremely rare and only a handful of such examples of a coach being "fired for losing" when he actually had that much success.
-lastly - even though all players who played for JL are long gone, we're in our 4th year under GF, and even the JL-haters guaranteed we'd be winning and competing for championships by now - those same people have hypocritically backtracked and in order to cover their own embarrassment have begun dragging out the old "blame it all on Jim Les" and "this terrible slide actually started 10-12 years ago" fairy-tale.

Has any Bradley team ever been this bad?

Bradley has now lost horribly to Augustana, Texas-Arlington, and a very, very bad Robert Morris team that just got shellacked twice by 30 points or more before coming here to Peoria to pick up a seemingly easy win.

I notice even the message board of JL-haters are admitting their precious admin & AD have made a series of inexcusable and stupendous mistakes and bonehead moves.
Sadly they still think people don't notice how bad this stinking mess is or that the fans are gonna keep coming because they are trying so hard!

Changes need to made right from the top - from the Board on down or Bradley will be DIII so fast it'll happen before the PJ Star sees it coming - which wouldn't surprise anyone since they sure never saw this fiasco coming and were hooting and hollering just a week ago in the HOOPS section how tough and how good this team is.

Glasser, Cross, the coaching staff, and even the entire Board of Trustees must go...every Bradley grad and every fan I have talked to says the same thing- not giving a single cent of their money to those crooks again.

BU fans will be glad to see 2014 go...

Lots were optimistically looking forward to 2014 - those who wanted all the housecleanings claimed when all the new coaches got their own players - we'd be competing for championships...

OK - we're here now.....how has 2014 turned out for Bradley's team sports.....?
(XC did well but even the other individual sports of golf, tennis, track - were disasters)

BUT - let's just check the team sports - the sports where game coaching matters - the sports that people actually come to see and come to cheer Bradley on...the sports where we are paying big contracts to hire those coaches that are doing this to Bradley...

In calendar year 2014, here are the records - all games/matches included:

Men's basketball: 7-14, & 7-11 in conference
Women's basketball: 6-17, & 5-13 in conference
Baseball: 24-27, & 5-16 in conference
Softball: 27-32, & 15-12 in conference
Volleyball: 1-25,  &1-15 in conference
Soccer: 10-11-1, & 1-5 in conference

TOTAL - all team sports records combined for 2014...
75-126-1, and 34-72 in conference...woeful......really, really woeful....


All told - in 2014, Bradley won only 37% of their contests overall, and only 32% of their games in the MVC.
And yet there are still clueless fans and some media people who claim we are headed in the right direction!
I doubt you can find a single year where Bradley's team sports did so badly across the board - no wonder the attendance had crashed to only half of what it once was - and the number of donors, Scholarship Society members, and just people who care or who are interested - have all literally plummeted to only a small fraction of what once was...

The amazingly stupid long term contracts given to the very people, in the Athletic Dept. and coaching staffs - that have brought BU athletics to this low point are the anchor that is killing BU sports.

As recently as 2008 & 2009 Bradley basketball was winning 20 games, heading to the post-season, and commonly drawing crowds over 10,000 - even several sellouts.
The dive occurred after that despite the attempt by some to try to blame it on those who successfully raised $170 million back in the early & mid-2000's for all the improved facilities, and who helped build donations and the BSS to an enviable record level that has not and likely now will not ever be surpassed.

Read for yourself:
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=294762#post294762

Please stop looking for someone else, even fans - to blame - put the blame where it belongs - and right this sinking ship before we are indeed DIII.

Here's why we're losing to DIII's and 300RPI directional schools

Regardless of poor play and poor coaching...a lot of it is four years of bad recruiting and terribble recruiting MISTAKES.

Hard to blame all this on someone else....

-Donivine Stewart was brought in as PG then sent packing

-Devon Hodges was brought in to help in the paint then never played & was sent packing

-Jalen Crawford was thought to be a great scorer but sent packing

-Shayok was versatile and a great scorer but sent packing

-Barnes brought in as a PF then changed to a SF/wing player - now embarrassing legal issues

-Anthony Fields brought in to play point guard - but is a flop

-Tucker signed then lost when he was kicked out of QEA Academy

-Swopshire was our next great scorer then sent packing

-Chris Blake was literally the best of the big men Geno brought in over his first FOUR years and was a starter but Geno made two horrible mistakes on Chris Blake - first he was a terrible DI player but didn't matter anyway as he wasn't eligible beyond a year and Geno did not know that!  How can we NOT know that?

-Zecevic was recruited sight-unseen for his scoring ability - then sent packing when he couldn't score

-Macari Brooks was recruited & offered then the scholarship had to be withdrawn when Brooks failed to qualify - again, kinda confusing that we didn't know that...

-Kendahl Amerson was recruited as a scorer and yet GF didn't know 'til two months after he was here that he was ineligible - how does that happen?  This is like the 3-4th time this kind of recruiting blunder occurred

-GF offered two dozen kids with the current open scholarship for fall 2014 - but couldn't get even one kid to bite - so we totally struck out - now back to cleaning house in the spring & reloading with whatever's left over...

-Grier was a fairly ineffective shooter his whole first season

-Ka'Darryl Bell was recruited as a point guard but it took a couple years for Geno to realize he can't play point guard - we now see complaining because we are forced to play the guy we recruited as a point guard AT POINT GUARD!

-Walt Lemon was the best shooting guard Geno has had yet he played him out of position at point guard

-the rest have been at best marginally effective and time will tell - but .....

We still lack the SAME basic three pieces that we have desperately needed since 2011...

we have NO solid point guard, no reliable 3-point shooter, and no effective low post player who can score and play some defense!

So much for the lame arguments that if we just wait long enough for the current staff to get their own players, we'd be competing for championships.  Funny how the only player to give us any spirited effort last Friday was Nate Wells - the only guy the current staff cannot claim full credit for bringing in here.

Still holding out hope - but more and more hoping for the major changes that are necessary before the arena is completely empty.

About as bad as it's ever been

Great - they solved the busy parking lot problem by driving all the fans away!!!

Basically this admin came in 6-7 years ago and chose to listen to a few whiney fans who are the squeaky wheel but who never donated a penny to the school, and some don't even have season tickets.
In pulling the knee-jerk reaction, responding to clueless fans, and cleaning house in every sport except soccer - then bringing in all new coaching staffs - many of whom never had winning seasons before - what the heck did they expect?

With basketball - the 1st clue was that after interviewing a dozen candidates, they couldn't even find one that wanted the job - even for double their prior salaries - so they were so crazed to get someone - anyone, they were even willing to run roughshod over the contract terms at Kent State - and cost themselves & Geno another $1.4 million buyout penalty.

This has been a series of almost laughable clueless moves - all the while cheered on by those fans who were intoxicated with the hope of running the last coach & AD out of town. Some held grudges because they were canned by the prior admin & some just had a bug up their **.
Well, congrats - you have destroyed a once proud basketball program - that will now take a minimum of half a decade and $3-4 million more to clean house again and get new blood in here..

Long college careers...

Bradley has definitely been associated with a couple of the longest college careers in history..

-first - we've had TWO 6th year guys recently - Sam Singh & Will Egolf

-then we were Daniel West's first school that he chose back in 2008 when he graduated from high school in Michigan, and now seven years later - he's STILL playing for Texas A&M Commerce - which just knocked off Texas Tech in an exhibition last night
By season's end he will have played over a 7-year college career - much of it at juco & DII.

- but the winner is former BU signee Sean Harris...
he graduated high school in 2007 - this is now his 8th year "of college" - although 2 years were a mission and one was just dilly-dallying & preparing for his mission.
...so how'd get 8 years, two of which were at Yuba?


And as discussed elsewhere - Bradley does indeed have a pretty bad record of the way we treat our head basketball coaches...

Bradley's record going back 40 years has been unfortunate, but they just have NOT stood behind their coaches...
With a track record like this - ya gotta wonder if the job looks as good to candidates as it should...

Joe Stowell still wanted to coach when the program was essentially torn out of his hands...and it happened again a couple years back - and even if both cases were justified, they could have been done in a better manner.

Versace, of course, had committed a couple of incredibly minor discretions - but he wouldn't kiss-*** to the NCAA bullies and wouldn't cooperate - so despite zero evidence they claimed he was not honest - but again our admin chose NOT to stand by him so he told them to take their job & shove it - and has done quite nicely ever since. I agree with Chico - this was a situation where we could have pulled together, stood by DV and weathered the issues, and who knows...

Albeck was canned pretty unceremoniously and has never - and likely will never be back

Molinari firing might have been the harshest. Everyone knew he had a couple great recruiting classes in a row, and when he met with Broski was assured he'd get at least another year to see how he'd do with the solid young group.
Less than a week later - he read in the newspaper that the admin had bowed to the pressure from Phil Theobald & others - it was a hard way for him to find out.
He has also done quite nicely since then...and despite all the bad teams he's coached since then and made better - you don't see many 25 point blowouts!

JL, of course, was thrown down the garbage disposal on a Sunday morning after his only losing season in the prior SIX - only to read about it on a Chicago website a couple hours later.

Speaking of programs that need turned around...

Not sure what the goal really is at BU...
they keep saying it is to compete regularly for championships at the DI level...
but it looks a whole lot more like it is just to put on a happy face..

For 70 years - since WWII - the goal in Athletics at Bradley has been to compete at the highest level and compete to play with the best and beat the best.
This was what we did in the late 40's, the 50's, the 60's, even with the limited recruiting budgets of the 70's, then we actually were among the ranked and the best in the 80's, and at times in the 90's and even as recently as 2006-2008...
We were playing with the legendary programs - Kansas, Pitt, and beating them - and getting our team on NATIONAL TV and Sports Illustrated...

This all seemed to come to a screeching halt somewhere around 2008-2010 when it became obvious that our admin wanted JL gone and forced changes were made in our Athletic & coaching staffs
(Ken Kavanagh was forced out, then Chuck Buescher, Eric Buescher, Alvin Brooks, then Jim Les were all forced out - then new hires were brought in for every sport except soccer)
..so they could engineer what they wanted - 

Well, at some point - now 7 years into the JG era & 5 years into the Mike Cross era - (recall, the last five years that coincide with the first five years of the Mike Cross era have been the worse 5-year span in Bradley basketball history)
It's time someone asks - are we better off as they promised? Or have the changes been complete failures?
Just sayin'...don't blame the messenger - most of the messengers are just trying to throw 'em a life line...

Tom Crean - entire program out of control again

Fact - Kelvin Sampson was fired by Indiana in February of 2008.
Tom Crean was hired right at the beginning of April 2008, and all the major player issues there at Indiana were just starting and continued largely into the first several months of the Tom Crean era...

In fact - one of the harshest critics now is Dan Dakich - but guess who was in 100% FULL control of the IU program as acting head coach when the majority of those disastrous issues were erupting - yup - it was Dan Dakich. Dakich also has harbored a grudge ever since as he thought he should have had a shot at the head coaching position.

So after Bassett & Ellis were booted in 2008 at the request of Crean - all the rest of those guys who were run out - were the exclusive doings of Crean - so he knew what he was getting into and was being paid handsomely to do it - so don't blame everyone else.

So Crean is no stranger to multiple player drug, alcohol, and arrest issues.  Add to that - a few of his early recruits were troubled kids as well (Devan Dumes) - 
Read more here- 

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2010/12/debunking-myths-againindiana-beaten.html

Now, after Tom Crean finally nabbed a few great recruits (Zeller, Oladipo..) and had a a couple Sweet Sixteen runs - now he's got some big problems...
Over just the last 6 months or so at least four players have alcohol related arrests and other issues.

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2014/11/03/doyel-crean-failing-these-hoosiers-on-and-off-court/18439637/

A big hunk of IU fans are already gearing up for the inevitable - that Crean may be on the way out..
In fact - a whole lot of people had him on the HOT SEAT even before all these latest player issues.
Problem is, that it may take $12 to even as high as $15 million to buy out his remaining contract.
http://www.btpowerhouse.com/2014/6/30/5826622/tom-crean-indiana-hoosiers-basketball-hot-seat-fire

Comparison of all four of the Finalist candidates from Bradley's 2002 coaching search

As most will recall - Bradley went through a long and complicated search process in 2002 to find a head coach. More than 70 candidates had applied and were considered, then after the field was narrowed, at least a dozen underwent early interviews.
Then a few withdrew - and finally four finalists were brought on to campus to be intensely interviewed by the search committee.

Those four were:
Brian Gregory
James Jones
Jim Les
Wayne McClain

In the intervening twelve seasons since that search process, each of those four have had multiple coaching jobs, except for James Jones who remains in the same position as he had in 2002, head coach at Yale.

Here are some simple stats & numbers on how each of those four 2002 finalists have some since 2002:


TOTAL Division I wins as a head coach:
Brian Gregory 215
James Jones 171
Jim Les 182
Wayne McClain 0

Total wins in conference:
Brian Gregory 86
James Jones 94
Jim Les 90
Wayne McClain 0
(James Jones is the only one with a conference winning pct. about .500)

Total post season wins:
Brian Gregory 8
James Jones 3 (all in CIT)
Jim Les 11
Wayne McClain 0 

TOTAL NCAA wins
Brian Gregory 1
James Jones 0
Jim Les 2
Wayne McClain 0

none of the other candidates were were even in the top dozen of so in 2002 have done any better...
For comparison, in D-I, Geno Ford has 105 career wins, 51 career wins in conference, has 3 post-season wins, zero NCAA wins, and is also not above .500 in career conference record.

Highlighting James Jones - he is now entering his 16th year at Yale, he has never won their league either in the regular season or tourney, and he has never been to the NCAA.
However - he has finished 2nd, 3rd, or 4th fourteen years in a row in the Ivy League.
They are happy with him and obviously keeping him at Yale has been the RIGHT move...even though I am sure there are fans that are disgruntled and claim he's never won big nor made the NCAA.
I think we can see that a lot of mid-majors make bad moves by cleaning house every few years and starting over - only to never get back where they were.
And we also have fans who are still whining & pining over not hiring some other guy back in 2002!

Certainly some of Bradley fans' BEST memories came in the mid-90's (Molinari years) - and in the mid-2000's (Les years) and there's been absolutely zero good memories since.
No quality wins, and an inordinate amount of lopsided and embarrassing losses.
Just maybe those who stumped for coaching changes each of the past couple decades steered us wrong.
It's been like cutting our heads off to spite our faces.  Going from bad to worse...

Breaking Cheating Scandals in College Sports

It's getting kind of hard to keep track of all the major cheating scandals and NCAA investigations, so I thought I'd condense them all into one thread..

Here's the latest ones.....

Syracuse - just breaking - is being investigated by NCAA for massive cheating as well - but it's been going on for years and NCAA has dragged their feet endlessly.
http://www.syracuse.com/orangefootball/index.ssf/2014/10/syracuse_ncaa_investigation_football_program_wide-ranging_inquiry.html

North Carolina football & basketball have been caught cheating and using phony & fraudulent classes to give players grades even though they are flunking and ineligible.  By all rights the NCAA has to come down hard on this and shut them down completely.
But I suspect they will severely criticize someone from the past, dock them a few games forfeited, then claim they've done their job and everything else is OK.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21370
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=298737#post298737
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/us/unc-report-academic-fraud/index.html

Texas A&M - http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/8/28/4668634/johnny-manziel-suspended-texas-a-m

Florida State - http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2230563-jameis-winston-reportedly-facing-investigation-over-signing-autographs-for-money

Georgia - http://www.businessinsider.com/todd-gurley-autograph-scandal-2014-10

...are all cases of players getting exposed for massive extra benefits violations and getting paid - NCAA has so far been almost invisible in all of this....I guess they're too busy flying all their field agents & investigators out to small schools whose players inadvertently were paid a few bucks more at a summer job than they should have been.


Penn State had massive scandals but not really cheating and yet got clobbered with sanctions - much of which were then quietly cancelled
http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/267742/speedreads-ncaa-drops-penn-state-punishments-handed-down-over-child-abuse-scandal

Other scandals at 
Ole Miss - http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/ole-miss-football/ole-miss-ncaa-investigation-2014/

Oklahoma State
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/2014/10/21/ncaa-report-cheating-oklahoma-state-unfounded/17681913/ 

Oregon
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2014/08/oregon_ducks_football_violatio.html

Wichita State - http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article2248275.html

Hawaii - http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/25545820/ben-jay-statement-on-ncaa

Iowa, Iowa State, & UNI - http://archive.hawkcentral.com/2014/05/28/special-report-ncaa-violations-by-iowa-isu-and-uni-in-the-past-year/

Ohio State - http://thelantern.com/2014/04/ohio-state-athletics-nearly-double-self-reported-violations-compared-closest-conference-rival/

...... round out the rest of the ones I had heard about this past year....

Then, of course, news that the two biggest repeat cheaters in all of amateur sports - Bruce Paerl & Kelvin Sampson are back coaching in college basketball...
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10996097/bruce-pearl-kelvin-sampson-road-coaching-redemption

other than these - it's actually been kinda quiet on the cheating front...

Ranking the serious off-court issues

How would people rank the most troubling off-court issues we have had with the basketball program in the past 10-12 years?

If you take into account arrests & suspensions then I would doubt many can deny that the worst four offenses are (in no particular order):


-the 2008 case of Ruffin for similar circumstances
-the drug arrest in January that resulted in a 4-game suspension
-this current arrest, imprisonment, and charges for domestic battery
-the serious academic issue that resulted in a 4-game suspension to start the 2013-14 season (it was a serious academic violation for which most always students are expelled!) - and yet this violation got just one tiny mention in the press!

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20131112/SPORTS/131119756/2000/NEWS


No other issue I can recall resulted in even more than a 1-2 game suspension and none that I am aware of resulted in imprisonment or any protracted legal proceedings....
If you disagree and think there are some other examples - then please feel free to present your case.

In analyzing them, three have happened just within the past year - so one could definitely wonder if we are seeing a pattern of increasing frequency of serious off-court issues.
Then - two (the first two listed) got tons and tons of fast, frequent, and furious press coverage .. while the 2nd two got extremely little attention by the media.

I can understand why the 4th one got very little press, since that violation was not a matter of any public record and the school has the privacy obligation - although pretty much every BU fan who is anywhere close to being "in the loop" knows exactly why Prosser was disciplined.

So, as you can see - the only serious off court legal issue that got little publicity - is this current one. And why are we seeing an accelerating pattern of serious issues and suspensions...
We now have more than a dozen player suspensions, and four consecutive seasons starting with player suspensions...and one incident of four players simultaneously getting suspended.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=263171&postcount=3


Once before we had the infamous "renegade program" column by the local press when we had merely three incidents - two of which were extremely minor - and one was four years earlier!
Now we're having major issues & arrests close together - three of the worst four issues in over a decade all happening in the past year - why no interest from the media?
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=297356#post297356

Hypocrisy? Just an interesting comparison - you decide

Here are the very words of the PJ Star sports editor.  There is no opinion involved, his own words speak for himself.

- "When did I start to sour on Jim Les?

I'd say the souring was a process, but the start would have been an overall poor taste in my mouth after his second season.

.. They were seriously flawed, lacked discipline, didn't play good defense, and weren't on the same page. ........ team chemistry is bad, and stuff happens and even a great coach can't find a way to hold it all together. 

.. I think Les could have done a better job managing the personnel in the second year .....end of year 3, and ... I found it unacceptable. After those failures led to yet another opening-night exit from the play-in round of the MVC tourney, yes, I dropped a critical hammer on Les and his program."
http://www.pjstarforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=88481&p=1186602#p1186602

So, the opinion of our local media started to sour in year two and was complete by year three and he turned critical & dropped the hammer...yet the reasons sound eerily like what we see right now, so is he souring again??  Doubtful if you read what's being written.


Then later - here's what he said...

2010:
"How hot is the seat under Jim Les?

..BU athletics director Michael Cross ..did explain...the process he uses to evaluate the coaches and programs in his department. There are five components to the process:

1. The educational experience of the athletes.

2. Living within your budget and being part of the process to enhance those resources.

3. Team environment, which includes off-court behavior, transfers in and out. More specifically, Cross said, “Is there constant angst every other day, are you constantly dealing with crises, or is there a stable, values-based culture that everyone is comfortable with and Bradley would expect?”

4. Compliance with NCAA, conference and university rules, and with federal, state and local laws

5. "The extent to which you’re competing for championships,” Cross said.

He also said this:

“Any one of those things can save you, and any one can sink you. There’s no absolute formula, no exact answers. It’s all those things combined.

Take Cross at his word and realize that a more important assessment is whether the Braves compete for a Valley title. Really compete."

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20101010/News/310109958


Then after admitting he turned against Jim Les in YEAR TWO - before Coach Les even had the opportunity to land his own players and get players who could or WOULD play his system, he followed up with continual swipes until finally he got his way...
And those attacks did not cease even though Coach Les brought Bradley & fans a few of the very best years we have had in half a century!

then in 2011...

"Out of optimism for Jim Les"
..a column in 2011 where he demanded Les must go, after just ONE losing season - Les' first and ONLY Thursday appearance in St. Louis since getting his own players.
http://www.pjstar.com/article/20110303/News/303039892

He railed at JL even tho Les had a winning record, a record of 102-41 at home (.741) better than every coach BU has ever had for more than 2 seasons!
He railed on attendance sliding towards 7, 400 (guffaw - as it now dwindles down around 4000-5000),
There were SCARCE, infrequent, and minor off the court issues as compared to plenty of them now,
And the future hardly looks bright with nobody yet wanting to take any of the open scholarships we have currently for 2015 - and no sure scoring threat returning this year - most players recovering from major joint surgery, broken bones, and arrests with impending suspensions.
This will be the fourth consecutive season (all four under current head coach Geno Ford) in which we will begin the season with at least 1 or 2 or even FOUR players on suspensions.

And yet the hypocrisy is that when it happened to the last coach the souring began in year two - but with the current staff we're heading into year four with the PJS cheerleaders continuing their mantra that they've chanted for the past three years about how we're "light years" better, maybe one recruiting-miss away, on the verge, or just need SEVERAL more seasons of status quo ...

Hmmm....all fans ask is be consistent - apply the same standards as before....
The fans see the hypocrisy - readership of the PJS is plummeting - the Journal Star staff layoffs roll on - as a

couple times each year we hear about more being let go....
But it mirrors the attendance at BU games - it's the double whammy --- sales of tickets are WAY, WAY down - crowds in the 5000's announced !!!
But we all know the truth is even way worse as half those seats are empty...some of last year's home games at Carver had as few as 3000, Some up on campus had as few as 1000!

but it will get worse.....although we all know what's coming....

-excuses about why we are still bad this year - GF's FOURTH with all his own new players - although many are just what's currently here with this game of musical roster - reloading every spring.
we will hear alibi's about how there were just too many new guys, too many injuries -- we need to give them more time....

- but then 2015-16 almost everyone (if they don't get booted or Creaned before then) on the roster will be a senior and we should have a good year - but if not, it'll be another truckload of excuses fabricated by the cheerleading local press.

- the question then becomes - how bad does it have to get before the people with agendas finally admit massive and proper changes need to take place emanating from above.... and not just shuffling from below and elevating some assistant


Lastly - let's go back to those criteria we've heard many times from Dr. Cross...
mainly the one about competing for championships.....

Well - I have a question .. in the five years Dr, Cross has been at the help - what program has ever competed for a championship??

We have some good success in soccer, but that's hardly new - although if anything can be seen, that success is quickly becoming less evident...

we also have a couple tourney wins for softball - coming from low seeds to get a bid despite a mediocre season where it can hardly be said we competed for a championship - but anyway, once in the NCAA we bowed out early and badly.
Nope - don't see any hint of those promises we'd be competing for championships - we were far closer back in 2006, 2007 or so than we are now...but we fired all the guys who got us there then - and nobody since had had much success.
And all the revenue successes from then are gone - now a huge debt problem and overspending problem is about to sink the ship as the very lifeblood of all of BU sports - the BASKETBALL season ticket fan base is disappearing faster than the businesses up at the Main & University intersection that all hate the traffic rebuild.

Nothing new - just a couple older entries worth looking back on

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2010/02/winning-just-comparison-with-other.html

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2012/02/catching-up-with-ken-kavanagh_07.html

Text of e mail release regarding BU finances

Dear members of the campus community,

In today’s higher education environment, most public and private universities across the country have encountered challenges in student enrollment and institutional finances. Demographic changes in the number of potential students, dramatic reductions in federal and state assistance for higher education and rising costs for university operations are primary contributors to these challenges. 


A few weeks ago we reported 970 freshmen deposits for our Fall 2014 enrollment, which is less than had been forecasted and anticipated. The class, however, is academically strong and there was no compromising of quality. Because of this smaller than anticipated class, we have assessed the related financial consequences for the University, met with our Board of Trustees, and developed an action plan to guide us for the 2014-15 academic year and beyond. 

The size of this class presents a more than $2 million negative financial effect on our operating margins, requiring that we adjust our expenses to present a balanced budget to the Board of Trustees at their July meeting. Furthermore, we realize that to provide opportunities for campus investment in our programs, faculty and staff, and to provide sustainable positive operating margins, we need to make a strategic reduction in our cost structure approaching 5% (an amount exceeding $5 million). In addition, our auxiliary operations (dining, housing and intercollegiate athletics) will reduce expenses by an additional $1.8 million to help ensure their collective self-sufficiency. The 5% strategic reductions coupled with the $1.8 million auxiliary operating changes will be implemented this summer to provide a balanced 2014-15 budget. Unfortunately, we believe that our anticipated 2014-15 enrollment (which is similar to two of the last three years) represents a new enrollment baseline; a smaller baseline creating declines in revenue that future increases in tuition will not fully offset. Our planning incorporates these assumptions.


However, there is more to do than reduce costs, as the market and demographic trends are telling us higher education is at a “tipping point.” These financial changes are required, but there are also essential operating issues to address in three broad areas-- a) finances, b) programs, and c) student enrollment to help ensure our excellent education and outcomes are relevant in a rapidly changing higher education environment. 


I have established three Presidential advisory groups who will report to me. Each will be commissioned with specific responsibilities, act with urgency, and advise me with a long term view as follows:


Finances and budget group: 

Our campus revenues are relied upon to support our many needs and initiatives, and I have confirmed the involvement of Paul Wayvon (Accounting faculty and Chair of the University Resources Committee), Dean Darrell Radson and Gary Anna to help confirm our budgeting procedures, fiscal structures, and financial processes are transparent examples of best practices. In addition, I have charged this advisory group to assess our faculty salary structures in order to align resources in a way that eventually responds to the marketplace disparities we know exist.

Program review and delivery group:

Some of our campus programs are in need of a financial viability review. Additionally, opportunities exist for diversifying our strategies for academic program delivery—including leveraging technology based learning to greatly expand our reach in graduate programs, summer curriculum and other academic opportunities. Assessments that have already been performed will be further refined, and during the summer Dean Lex Akers, Dr. Kurt Field, and colleagues will construct the criterial components and a process for program review. This undertaking will allow the University Senate Strategic Planning Committee to convene immediately in Fall, 2014, to review the work completed, and to further assess campus programs through our system of shared governance. The Provost will be significantly involved with this endeavor.

Enrollment management, branding and marketing group:

Bradley’s viability has always revolved around our students and their interests, qualities, characteristics and ultimately as successful graduates and engaged alumni. This advisory group of Paul Schroeder, Susan Andrews, Dean Jeffrey Huberman and Dr. Justin Ball will continue to aggressively examine the multiple interrelated factors that impact student recruitment and our branding and marketing position. Demographics clearly indicate our past is not our future and the status quo is not acceptable. The marketplace for student recruiting in our region and beyond is the most competitive it has ever been and is likely to only increase. Our enrollment management professionals will lead this activity with meaningful campus involvement.
Each of these advisory groups has authority to involve members of the campus community as needed, to provide inquisitive perspectives and responsible insights that will assist me in fulfilling my responsibilities as President. I have received the encouragement and support of Bradley’s Board of Trustees for these activities, and I will provide monthly progress reports to the Board. 


While this will not be an easy undertaking, I am compelled to ensure we have an engaged campus that understands the urgency and importance of our assessments and resulting actions. The activities of the advisory groups are to begin immediately with expectation that measurable outcomes and corrective measures will begin to occur during the summer and completed in the upcoming academic year. The opportunities we now face, and the changes we prepare to implement, can position Bradley to be ultimately successful and sustainable in the years ahead. 


I have the utmost confidence that our University is comprised of knowledgeable, caring and committed people who will help us continue Bradley’s legacy and provide for a reimagined future.


Warm regards,

Joanne​ Glasser
President ​