The massive housecleaning at Bradley is truly unprecedented - not only in DI sports but in sports anywhere. The President, the Vice President/Provost, the AD, the head coach and just about all the team were sent packing. Not even where massive scandal led to housecleanings (Bruce Pearl, Dave Bliss, etc..) has this kind of exodus occurred.
And to set the record straight - the nearly dozen players who left were by no means all leaving on their own! Maybe that could be said of Nate Wells, but more than a few others were ushered out the door.
And where almost everyone who left in 2011 with that housecleaning instantly got s pot elsewhere that was equal or better - this time around - many still haven't found anywhere who wants them and the few who do stepped way, way down.
Gotta wonder if any of the higher-ups - the Prez, AD, coach - if they even apply elsewhere, someone's gonna want to see their resume or talk to their former employer. But I doubt they'd even have to as I have heard from friends that currently work at other universities that the story of what unfolded here at Bradley is already pretty widely known. The story of how mismanagement, micro-management, upper-level meddling, and horribly bad self-centered decisions completely deastroyed Bradley's athletics, but even nearly brought down the entire university with a financial disaster that was also unprecedented.
Thankfully that's a nearly closed chapter except for the fallout we're still suffering, but now we're well on the way towards the bright light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks again to the great fans who helped engineer these massive changes by literally OVERRIDING the few incompetent Board members who had hijacked sensibility and made the bad decisions for the past 6-7 years that have hurt Bradley so much.
Seriously if a guy strikes out all the time but also makes an error on every single play - then turns around and blames everyone else - he has to go.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Summary of the players during the Geno Ford era
Geno Ford era - 2011 thru 2015...tabulation of scholarship players...
31 players either verballed to play at Bradley or were enrolled
30 players either signed a LOI or enrolled (Macari Brooks did not)
29 players made it to Bradley or were enrolled (Michael Tucker also withdrew his verbal)
There were two others that had verballed and signed to Bradley (Remy Abell & Sean Harris) but changed their minds after Jim Les was fired - but I am not counting those as playing for Geno.
Of the 29 whose name made it to the roster under Geno, 8 were Jim Les players who played out the rest of their eligibility and produced pretty well for Geno contributing to the few wins he had.
(Taylor Brown, DSE, Egolf, Thompson, Prosser, Eastman, Lemon, Knezevic)
Of the 21 who were recruited by Geno and made it to the roster, 3 were jucos who played out the rest of their eligibility but one stayed only one year (Barnes, Pickett, Blake).
3 more were jucos who stayed only 1 year then left before using up eligibilty (Sutherland, Morgan, Amerson- none have yet landed at a DI)
Of the 15 who were not short term juco players, 5 were short term anyway & stayed just one year then left (Donivine, Zecevic, Swopshire, Hodges, Cunningham - only 3, and only 2 of Geno's made it to DI)
3 more stayed just two years then left (Crawford, Shayok, Xzavier Taylor), and two other transfers stayed 3 years but sat out one then transferred again (Grier, Fields).
One stayed four years then transferred elsewhere - Wells.
Two more have only a year left then will be gone and not played all four years here (Shaw & Jones).
And only TWO of all of Geno's recruits actually made it to Bradley and have the potential to play all four years here - although NEITHER has yet to accomplish that. (Ka'Darryl Bell, Donte Thomsas).
Pretty horrific record....
Compare to Jim Les...
in his first four years he brought in or got commits from seven freshmen who played their entire careers at Bradley plus MANY more juco kids who played their entire careers here.
(Danny Adams, Daniel Ruffin, JJ Tauai, Jeremy Crouch, Sam Singh, Andrew Warren and POB who left only because the NBA beckoned)
Night & day difference - so much more common sense, stability, and then success....compared to the idiotic way it's been done under the Joanne Glasser/Mike Cross/Geno Ford philosophy of running them in every fall then running them out every spring and replacing them with desperation, bottom of the barrel leftovers to fill the spots that Geno and gang couldn't fill with common sense recruiting.
Hope the fans who wanted the house cleaned and who wanted & welcomed the staff and players brought in by the 2011-2015 crew are proud of what they did to Bradley basketball - sinking it to the bottom of Division I, driving more than half the good, lifelong fans away, half the donors, and driving it to the brink of DII or DIII.
But KUDOS to the fans who hung in there and put up with the crap for the last four years - the solid fans who gutted out the loony toons actions of the Glasser/Cross/Ford crew and wrote letters, called Board members, and posted opinions because that's the thing that got Bradley turned around. Those fans should be credited for saving this program, getting the waste cleaned out, getting new blood in here and getting Bradley going toward success and quality basketball again!
Thanks fans and boosters - most of whose names are found in Bradley's Honor Roll of donors and supporters.
http://lydia.bradley.edu/pubs/HonorRollProof.pdf
31 players either verballed to play at Bradley or were enrolled
30 players either signed a LOI or enrolled (Macari Brooks did not)
29 players made it to Bradley or were enrolled (Michael Tucker also withdrew his verbal)
There were two others that had verballed and signed to Bradley (Remy Abell & Sean Harris) but changed their minds after Jim Les was fired - but I am not counting those as playing for Geno.
Of the 29 whose name made it to the roster under Geno, 8 were Jim Les players who played out the rest of their eligibility and produced pretty well for Geno contributing to the few wins he had.
(Taylor Brown, DSE, Egolf, Thompson, Prosser, Eastman, Lemon, Knezevic)
Of the 21 who were recruited by Geno and made it to the roster, 3 were jucos who played out the rest of their eligibility but one stayed only one year (Barnes, Pickett, Blake).
3 more were jucos who stayed only 1 year then left before using up eligibilty (Sutherland, Morgan, Amerson- none have yet landed at a DI)
Of the 15 who were not short term juco players, 5 were short term anyway & stayed just one year then left (Donivine, Zecevic, Swopshire, Hodges, Cunningham - only 3, and only 2 of Geno's made it to DI)
3 more stayed just two years then left (Crawford, Shayok, Xzavier Taylor), and two other transfers stayed 3 years but sat out one then transferred again (Grier, Fields).
One stayed four years then transferred elsewhere - Wells.
Two more have only a year left then will be gone and not played all four years here (Shaw & Jones).
And only TWO of all of Geno's recruits actually made it to Bradley and have the potential to play all four years here - although NEITHER has yet to accomplish that. (Ka'Darryl Bell, Donte Thomsas).
Pretty horrific record....
Compare to Jim Les...
in his first four years he brought in or got commits from seven freshmen who played their entire careers at Bradley plus MANY more juco kids who played their entire careers here.
(Danny Adams, Daniel Ruffin, JJ Tauai, Jeremy Crouch, Sam Singh, Andrew Warren and POB who left only because the NBA beckoned)
Night & day difference - so much more common sense, stability, and then success....compared to the idiotic way it's been done under the Joanne Glasser/Mike Cross/Geno Ford philosophy of running them in every fall then running them out every spring and replacing them with desperation, bottom of the barrel leftovers to fill the spots that Geno and gang couldn't fill with common sense recruiting.
Hope the fans who wanted the house cleaned and who wanted & welcomed the staff and players brought in by the 2011-2015 crew are proud of what they did to Bradley basketball - sinking it to the bottom of Division I, driving more than half the good, lifelong fans away, half the donors, and driving it to the brink of DII or DIII.
But KUDOS to the fans who hung in there and put up with the crap for the last four years - the solid fans who gutted out the loony toons actions of the Glasser/Cross/Ford crew and wrote letters, called Board members, and posted opinions because that's the thing that got Bradley turned around. Those fans should be credited for saving this program, getting the waste cleaned out, getting new blood in here and getting Bradley going toward success and quality basketball again!
Thanks fans and boosters - most of whose names are found in Bradley's Honor Roll of donors and supporters.
http://lydia.bradley.edu/pubs/HonorRollProof.pdf
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