Details are few but here's what's known...
Kirk Wessler has been working for the PJ Star since the Dick Lien era...
He was the current Sports Editor.
Within the past 24 hours, Kirk Wessler announced on his own personal Facebook page that Friday September 7 is his last day at the Peoria Journal Star (owned by Gatehouse Media).
Wessler admits it is sudden, surprising and not what he wanted - so draw your own conclusions. One of his colleagues, Aaron Ferguson appears to have only found out about his colleague's leaving yesterday.
One of Kirk's colleagues who worked in Missouri tweeted that Gatehouse is an "awful newspaper chain" - https://twitter.com/ghank/status/1037070821909581825
Here's a couple clips from Kirk Wessler's statement:
""Friday will be my last day at the Journal Star.
I may have more to say in a few days, but right now, I’m a jumble of mixed emotions.
... the end is not quite what I imagined either.
...My last day as a full-time newspaper journalist will be the Friday after Labor Day 2018. This wasn’t by design. It’s just the way things worked out.
I wonder what comes next."
Kirk Wessler once explained in a post on the Journal Star forum, that he turned sour on Bradley Head Coach Jim Les within the first year that Les was hired. He then began beating the drum to get Les run out as head coach...
One other comment was:
"I dropped a critical hammer on Les and his program"
..and then Wessler spent the next 7-8 years "hammering" on Jim Les, unfairly attacking at any point and failing to even recognize the quality of the program, the team and the successes.
Wessler called for Les' firing and became an advocate for the horrible moves by Joanne Glasser then the subsequent disastrous hirings that sunk Bradley to near-DIII levels for the better part of 8 years.
Wessler hasn't let up yet, as he still occasionally drags out erroneous arguments to try to attack Les or Ken Kavanagh. It is his MO - to try to justify the horrid moves made under the Glasser regime, and shift blame for all the disasters - away from where it belongs - Glasser & Cross.
It is many fans' opinion that Kirk Wessler bears a large amount of the reponsibility for the destruction of the BU athletics programs in that era and the disaster that is only now beginning to show recovery and is still a long way from being fully recovered. Wessler also attacked GOOD Bradley fans - the very ones who finally turned on him, turned on Glasser and forced the changes that are now bringing Bradley back. Wessler belittled Bradley fans who did not want to play in the small girls' gym, who did not want to play opponents like Eureka College, and who did not want the kind of hires that caused the worse performances in almost every sport that Bradley Athletics has ever known.
Kirk will get his share of accolades. When journalists give themselves awards, it really doesn't register much with me or anyone else. Just patting themselves on the back...
99% of all news on Bradley basketball gets reported first and gets reported more accurately and better on BradleyFans.com than in the Journal Star.
Is it any wonder the Journal Star circulation and readership has plummeted! Is it any wonder the paper has been sold off repeatedly and downsized again & again with layoffs frequently?
I personally cancelled my subscription to the PJ Star a year ago after subscribing for 40 years...and I am not alone, as I know many others who have cancelled after multiple huge rate hikes while the paper shrinks and fails to offer any decent coverage of Bradley basketball. It's hard to figure what all those people do over there at the PJ Star when they don't cover Bradley, there's absolutely NO coverage of local high school sports - and then Kirk writes a dozen columns every time there's an obscure track meet!
Oh well - some newspapers are thriving but the old haggard ones who demand you have to keep reading but don't bother to give decent, fair coverage because they believe they are a monopoly and you have no choice....those papers are the ones on the way out. Bye...
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Peter Hanley becomes Bradley's 13th scholarship basketball player
On August 22, 2018 - at a surprise announcement - Senior forward Peter Hanley was awarded a full basketball scholarship!
Congratulations Peter!! Bradley tuition and additional expenses totals around $50,000 - LINK
Peter's stats for his first 3 years:
37 games played, 10-28 overall (.357), 2-7 from 3-pt (.286), 3-5 on FTs (.600), 39 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 blocks, 5 steals..
for averages of:
0.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 0.24 apg, 0.1 bpg, 0.14 spg
Once a Brave, Always a Brave!! Go Braves and Go Peter!!
Congratulations Peter!! Bradley tuition and additional expenses totals around $50,000 - LINK
Peter's stats for his first 3 years:
37 games played, 10-28 overall (.357), 2-7 from 3-pt (.286), 3-5 on FTs (.600), 39 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 blocks, 5 steals..
for averages of:
0.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 0.24 apg, 0.1 bpg, 0.14 spg
Once a Brave, Always a Brave!! Go Braves and Go Peter!!
Friday, August 17, 2018
Interesting fact on ex-Bradley Brave Josh Cunningham
Josh Cunningham left Bradley in 2015 and in the three years that he's been at Dayton, he has struggled with injuries and played in only 42 games for an average of 13.1 ppg.
But an interesting fact is that his girlfriend is a future superstar in the WNBA.
"Here’s an interesting personal note on Cunningham entering his final year in college: his girlfriend is A’ja Wilson, who was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft earlier this year.
Wilson is averaging 20.0 points per game for the Las Vegas Aces and scored 18 points in the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday. She played college basketball at South Carolina, helping lead the Gamecocks to a national title in 2017 and winning the national player of the year award as a senior in 2018.
Cunningham visited South Carolina when he in high school and looking at schools, and he said that’s where he met Wilson. Wilson shared a photo on Twitter last month of her wearing Cunningham’s Dayton jersey."
https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/grant-dayton-summer-practices-been-good-six-weeks/h4fy6uldmTfUZVttLxU9yM/
But an interesting fact is that his girlfriend is a future superstar in the WNBA.
Wilson is averaging 20.0 points per game for the Las Vegas Aces and scored 18 points in the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday. She played college basketball at South Carolina, helping lead the Gamecocks to a national title in 2017 and winning the national player of the year award as a senior in 2018.
Cunningham visited South Carolina when he in high school and looking at schools, and he said that’s where he met Wilson. Wilson shared a photo on Twitter last month of her wearing Cunningham’s Dayton jersey."
https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/grant-dayton-summer-practices-been-good-six-weeks/h4fy6uldmTfUZVttLxU9yM/
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
2018-19 Missouri Valley Preseason Previews
The 2018-19 college basketball season really has begun with teams already playing preseason exhibition games, and multiple source are already predicting the MVC race.
Within the next couple weeks we will see the multiple publications coming out with their predictions as well - Athlon, Lindy's, etc...
But so far most of the previews coming out look about the same...
They all have either ISU or Loyola in the top spot, they all seem to have SIU, UNI and Bradley filling the 3-5 spots, and then the rest generally line up with the total rebuilds at Evansville, Drake and Missouri State bringing up the rear.
So Bradley is pretty universally picked 4th.....time will tell.......
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Bradley completes foreign exhibition tour undefeated
It was only two games but Bradley went 2-0 and played well. The highlights include excellent rebounding, including offensive rebounding, defense and the play of the newcomers.
In Friday's game against Apollo Amsterdam Select, Bradley won 74-48, and both Luuk van Bree and Ari Boya had stat lines of 15 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Boya went 7-9 and also blocked 6 shots. Elijah Childs had another strong game with 11 pts, 7 rebounds, 4 steals.
Further accounts here - http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27742
If they can stay healthy, this team will be very fun to watch and should compete for the top of the Missouri Valley.
In Friday's game against Apollo Amsterdam Select, Bradley won 74-48, and both Luuk van Bree and Ari Boya had stat lines of 15 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Boya went 7-9 and also blocked 6 shots. Elijah Childs had another strong game with 11 pts, 7 rebounds, 4 steals.
Further accounts here - http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27742
If they can stay healthy, this team will be very fun to watch and should compete for the top of the Missouri Valley.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
New season begins - Bradley opens up 2018-19 with an exhibition win
Bradley men's basketball headed to London on July 29 to enjoy the sights and food and to play some pre-season exhibition basketball.
The first game was Tuesday July 31 - possibly the earliest they have ever played a preseason game.
Since there was next to zero coverage for Bradley in the preseason by the local media (altho Kurt Pegler & WMBD had some fine coverage) I will document the details of their games.
I was able to locate a link to a live audio stream and post it before the game so numerous Bradley fans were able to see the link, log on and listen to the play-by-play from the British announcers who generally cover the opponent, the Surrey Scorchers - a team in the BBL (top pro league in England).
The game topped off at 7:30pm local time and 1:30pm Peoria time.
Bradley took a very quick lead courtesy of sophomore Elijah Childs hitting a 3-pointer and driving layup. Bradley never trailed after that, although it got closer later in the 2nd half.
One of the Scorchers players was Michael "Big Mike" Ochereobia who was initially recruited out of Canarias Academy by Jim Les but then ended up playing his Division I ball for Jim Molinari at Western Illinois University.
Bradley shot reasonably well and played excellent defense - rebounding very well on both the defensive & offensive ends. Bradley took a 43-23 halftime lead.
Further details can be found here - http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27740
Many of Bradley's guys played very well. Newcomer freshman Ari Boya scored 5 pts and rebounded exceptionally well. The Scorchers announcers were praising his play frequently.
Antoine Pittman played well both offensively (9 pts) and defensively.
Once Bradley hit about 50 points, the jet lag kicked in and they looked tired - allowing the Scorchers to outrun, outhustle and outplay the Braves and close the lead to just 2 points - largely by getting the benefit of a while lot of foul calls. (They went 18-22)
But Darrel Brown, Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye and Elijah Childs had an excellent 4th quarter & Ja"shon Henry had some nice plays - and Bradley held off a strong surge down the stretch by these seasoned professionals on their own home floor.
Bradley won the game 73-66.
The unofficial scoring totals as I have tallied were:
Elijah Childs 20 points on 9-14 and 9 rebounds
Antoine Pittman 9
Jayden Hodgson 7
DLO 10 plus 5 rebounds
Darrell Brown 7
Luuk van Bree 6
Ja'shon Henry 5
Ari Boya 4
Nate Kennell 3
Luqman Lundy 2
Brummett, Hanley did not score
Bradley outrebounded Surrey 52-30 and logged 25 offensive rebounds
I really enjoyed getting to listen to Bradley basketball in July!! Great job Braves, and keep it up! Hopefully if they get some coverage, ticket sales will surge.
Last year when Bradley was playing well down the stretch and battling for the upper half of the MVC (and going 13-2 at home!), the home attendances were in the 7,700-8,000 range! Those kinds of crowds have not been seen with any regularity since the Jim Les era - and hopefully signals that the huge base of great, lifelong Bradley fans is ready to come back after the disaster of much of the past decade then resultant fallout from Joanne Glasser's horrific reign.
Here's more video & photos - http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27740&page=3
Bradley will now wrap up events in London & travel to Amsterdam to plat the Amsterdam Select on Friday August 3. time for that game will be 8pm local, 2pm Central Time.
More info as it becomes available on that next game will be posted here-
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27742
GO Braves!!
The first game was Tuesday July 31 - possibly the earliest they have ever played a preseason game.
Since there was next to zero coverage for Bradley in the preseason by the local media (altho Kurt Pegler & WMBD had some fine coverage) I will document the details of their games.
I was able to locate a link to a live audio stream and post it before the game so numerous Bradley fans were able to see the link, log on and listen to the play-by-play from the British announcers who generally cover the opponent, the Surrey Scorchers - a team in the BBL (top pro league in England).
The game topped off at 7:30pm local time and 1:30pm Peoria time.
Bradley took a very quick lead courtesy of sophomore Elijah Childs hitting a 3-pointer and driving layup. Bradley never trailed after that, although it got closer later in the 2nd half.
One of the Scorchers players was Michael "Big Mike" Ochereobia who was initially recruited out of Canarias Academy by Jim Les but then ended up playing his Division I ball for Jim Molinari at Western Illinois University.
Bradley shot reasonably well and played excellent defense - rebounding very well on both the defensive & offensive ends. Bradley took a 43-23 halftime lead.
Further details can be found here - http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27740
Many of Bradley's guys played very well. Newcomer freshman Ari Boya scored 5 pts and rebounded exceptionally well. The Scorchers announcers were praising his play frequently.
Antoine Pittman played well both offensively (9 pts) and defensively.
Once Bradley hit about 50 points, the jet lag kicked in and they looked tired - allowing the Scorchers to outrun, outhustle and outplay the Braves and close the lead to just 2 points - largely by getting the benefit of a while lot of foul calls. (They went 18-22)
But Darrel Brown, Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye and Elijah Childs had an excellent 4th quarter & Ja"shon Henry had some nice plays - and Bradley held off a strong surge down the stretch by these seasoned professionals on their own home floor.
Bradley won the game 73-66.
The unofficial scoring totals as I have tallied were:
Elijah Childs 20 points on 9-14 and 9 rebounds
Antoine Pittman 9
Jayden Hodgson 7
DLO 10 plus 5 rebounds
Darrell Brown 7
Luuk van Bree 6
Ja'shon Henry 5
Ari Boya 4
Nate Kennell 3
Luqman Lundy 2
Brummett, Hanley did not score
Bradley outrebounded Surrey 52-30 and logged 25 offensive rebounds
I really enjoyed getting to listen to Bradley basketball in July!! Great job Braves, and keep it up! Hopefully if they get some coverage, ticket sales will surge.
Last year when Bradley was playing well down the stretch and battling for the upper half of the MVC (and going 13-2 at home!), the home attendances were in the 7,700-8,000 range! Those kinds of crowds have not been seen with any regularity since the Jim Les era - and hopefully signals that the huge base of great, lifelong Bradley fans is ready to come back after the disaster of much of the past decade then resultant fallout from Joanne Glasser's horrific reign.
Here's more video & photos - http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27740&page=3
Bradley will now wrap up events in London & travel to Amsterdam to plat the Amsterdam Select on Friday August 3. time for that game will be 8pm local, 2pm Central Time.
More info as it becomes available on that next game will be posted here-
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27742
GO Braves!!
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