The interviews and tributes that the PJStar have done this past week on Dr. Cross were really softballs - pretty much allowing Dr. Cross to boast and lay claim to lots of things and avoided asking him any tough questions at all about the incredibly bad state of both Athletics & finances...
Too bad the enablers at PJS didn't ask any real questions - would love to know the answers to...
-how did the spending deficits more than TRIPLE in Athletics & explode to over $7.1 million in just the past 3-4 years under your watch.
This irresponsible spending plus inaccurate and "non-transparent" reporting of financial losses, has really hurt the entire University for years to come.
-why not listen to and give credence to the comments of the fans who have left, given up season tickets and openly give their reasons in letters to you and letters in the newspaper - instead of calling them uneducated and impatient and discounting what they say because you don't want to hear it.
These have been the people who tossed your way hundreds of warnings that you should have heeded that you were dragging the programs down & going in the wrong direction - all the while claiming you're headed the right way.
-why do we never heard any comments on all the programs that are doing so badly - only the bragging on Cross Country and soccer (which of course was doing great - Elite Eight - before you got here?)
Volleyball 2-26, WBB & MBB - last place repeatedly, Baseball 2-19 in MVC play - really historically bad performances.
But the real centerpiece of all Bradley Athletics is Men's Basketball - and the quality of play plus the bungling of all the TV deals and marketing have led to record losing seasons, national embarrassment, turning Bradley into a perennial bottom dweller & laughingstock, cancelling all the events, booster get-togethers, bus trips, etc, costing $ MILLIONS, and dropping attendances to historic lows - all the while you just keep denying all this is happening and keep claiming we are in such good shape and fans ought to shut up and be happy.
-how is it any credit can be taken for Ren-Col when it was already open and VB games being played even before you arrived, and all the plans, funds, construction, etc. were long done even before that?
Much of it was even done before Dr. Glasser arrived and is to the credit of Ken Kavanagh. Yet your speeches and interviews keep claiming the problems at Bradley all preceded you and were so very deep and severe when you got here and you've done such a yeoman's job fixing all the problems?
Now the proof is clear and even the Board knows it - that we were in FAR better shape before and you need to step up, be honest, and admit your failures and take responsibility instead of stepping even harder on the accelerator and driving even faster over the cliff.
-when firing the past men's basketball coach then hiring the new MBB coach - the TWO most significant event in the past five years - how is it so much of those two processes were bungled so badly and everybody denies and deflects responsibility?
The news of the 2011 firing got leaked to a Chicago blogger before being mentioned in Peoria - and was so badly handled that it angered a large part of the fan base, there were issues made public about the failure to honor the old coach's contract, multiple candidates were brought in to interview then heard something that caused them to leave & decline even though they were turning down an admittedly great position that THEY SOUGHT which doubled their salaries, then we violated the new coaches existing contract and got involved in lawsuits (that have been costly for both Bradley & Geno, then we way overpaid for coaching abilities that clearly were far under what was needed
-lastly - why take the repeated swipes at the fans - the lifeblood of this program?
Why label then uneducated, stuck in the past, too nostalgic, too impatient - hey - it was YOU who promised we'd be better right away - even in the very first year when - as it turned out - we were actually all-time-record worse,
and it was you who promised we'd be competing for championships as soon as Geno got his own players - when in fact the more players Geno brought in to replace the ones left over - the worse we got and the more player issues, suspensions, and arrests we had.
That's just a starter - but even if I never get answers - I am ok with moving on - and hopefully the next AD will man-up and take responsibility for the choices he makes even if they fail.
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