Used to be fun to talk with fans about Bradley basketball - it has become a bit painful

Was traveling in Florida a couple weeks ago wearing my Bradley gear, and bumped into a distantly familiar face - a Peorian who had transplanted to Florida, who was wearing a Bradley t-shirt.  Yes, even in winter, northerners wear t-shirts in Florida while the native Floridians think 70 degrees is extremely cold so they wear sweatshirts.
Anyway we start talking about Bradley basketball and the initial question is, "what's wrong with Bradley basketball, they sure got bad in a hurry?"

I really didn't know where to start and didn't want to beat a dead horse, but since they weren't getting newspaper reports and weren't watching games down there, all the saw was the scores, and the W-L record.
So I mentioned a few reasons, but he immediately interrupted and continued, "but they were good just 5-6 years ago, filling that arena, playing and beating teams from many of the major conferences, and  And they had a good, young lineup coming back with some new players?" competing with even the best teams in the conference.

So I had to break it to him..... that all went up in a puff of smoke when they made major changes, the fallout has been devastating.
But far worse is the mystifying ignorance by those in charge that we are going so fast and so far in the wrong direction, and they still didn't see the damage their acts were causing.
Now BU is the worst team in the league, battling each of the last five years to stay out of last place, going nowhere, but even worse, they play poorly, can't score, and the fans aren't stupid.  They don't come any more.  Why would they?  The list of opponents is DIII caliber.

But perhaps the most troubling part is that all the new people in charge say that the problem was much worse when they got there and now they are actually making it better, fixing things up "the right way".  They are asking fans to be patient and give them several more years to do whatever this thing is that is destroying all the fan interest.  They keep getting raises and contract extensions and they keep driving more fans away with bad recruiting, bad coaching, no TV coverage for the fans who do want to watch, then just when it got really bad they raised the prices and the ticket maintenence, in some cases doubling and even tripling what people would have to pay just to keep the very same seats that have been told for decades they deserve because of their loyalty and their donations & maintenence.

It is darned near a laughingstock and the people in charge have no clue how to fix it.
BUT - for the first time in 5 years, some are beginning to get a clue that it needs major fixing and they are beginning to clean house again and get rid of all those who brought this horrible fallout upon the fans, but they've even begun to ineptly bumble the process, leaking damaging info to the press about possible candidates so the media types can try to defend their heroes that are being fired by smearing anyone else who might be a replacement candidate.

In the end, the very words people spoke so often in 2011 have now come home to roost.
They kept telling us we had bottomed out in 2011 and ...

that we HAD TO make the changes because things could NOT possibly get any worse.

Well, they did get worse - way, way worse, even including multiple player arrests & jailings, poor morale, no team leadership even by the coach's admission, lax discipline, poor effort, suspensions, revolving doors for players & assistant coaches alike, stocking the assistant coaching staff with people who had previously never recruited at a DI level and who indeed had never actually ever coached at a DI level, almost guaranteeing we're gonna be hard pressed to land future recruits.

Is it any wonder that for the first time that I know of in 30 years we are approaching spring and we don't have a single player that is committed, signed, or even remotely interested in any of the scholarships we have for this upcoming fall!  And most of all the players on the roster have eligibility remaining - so that even though this team is the worst team in the MVC - we look like we're going to have all the same players back again next year with the fear of having yet another season of horrible shooting, bad passing, low scoring, and more discipline issues.
Where are the cries from the media bout "too many new players" and "too many jucos & short term fixes"?

Anyway - the retired Bradley folks in Florida then quickly conclude they aren't missing anything and there's little reason to ever come back for a game or follow the Braves, and that is sad....because more and more are headed to Florida every year.  Look for the remaining season ticket holder base to shrink massively again next year.
As everyone is now pleading "Act quickly" - even immediately to get someone in that can turn this disaster around.  And please do not let the outgoing people who created this disaster help choose the next group.