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Letter to PJ Star

Da Coach

Da Coach

Moderator
Staff member
Someone sent this to me. I did not see it, since I do not subscribe to the Peoria Journal Star. But for those who didn't see it, it's another letter from a Bradley fan expressing concern for the program, and it was written before yesterday's game. It doesn't appear that it is available online, so here is a screen shot. Anyone have thoughts?-

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shouldn't surprise anyone
we all know fans are frustrated...I guess I wonder why the guy took so long to voice the same things we've seen said on this board for months...

BUT...
we gave Joanne Glasser 7.7 YEARS
we gave Mike Cross 5.2 years
we gave Geno Ford 4 years...

but they guy's only willing to give Brian Wardle 1.2 years?
I am as frustrated as anyone with the current poor play and I hate that we are not seeing much improvement....but we gotta give them some time...
 
yeah....it's a couple of years too late but it's easy to see why the frustration.


hopefully we improve as the season goes and we should be able to recruit better with each season....


I mean BW literally started from scratch.....
 
Bradley fans will only be patient if they see improvement. They haven't seen it yet. The same mistakes and the same number of mistakes are being made as were a year ago. This is a reflection on the quality of talent we have. Improvement needs to take place starting now. The university cannot expect people to continue to buy individual game tickets or season tickets and in some cases maintenance fees, to see this caliber of basketball. It isn't going to happen. People don't keep going to a restaurant with bad food because they are loyal.

The bottom line is we need an infusion of talent, with no scholarships available. We need to have two players on scholarship leave after this season to fill the ones committed for next year. That would be 13 players with scholarships transferring over the last 3 years. Eight of those were given by Ford and five from Wardle. We have no scholarships to give to junior college players or wherever the help may come from for next year, without more than two players transferring after this season. We can't keep having kids transfer or other schools will start using it against us in the recruiting process. Don't think for a second they won't.
 
Vent said:
Bradley fans will only be patient if they see improvement. They haven't seen it yet. The same mistakes and the same number of mistakes are being made as were a year ago. This is a reflection on the quality of talent we have. Improvement needs to take place starting now. The university cannot expect people to continue to buy individual game tickets or season tickets and in some cases maintenance fees, to see this caliber of basketball. It isn't going to happen. People don't keep going to a restaurant with bad food because they are loyal.

The bottom line is we need an infusion of talent, with no scholarships available. We need to have two players on scholarship leave after this season to fill the ones committed for next year. That would be 13 players with scholarships transferring over the last 3 years. Eight of those were given by Ford and five from Wardle. We have no scholarships to give to junior college players or wherever the help may come from for next year, without more than two players transferring after this season. We can't keep having kids transfer or other schools will start using it against us in the recruiting process. Don't think for a second they won't.
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I believe it was only 5.5 years ago that we were warned that this was coming due to the mismanagement of the previous administration. Many didn't believe it back then and wanted a change and thought that JG was going to save BU BB but, in reality, she is the real reason we have the mess we have today.
Is BW the answer? I have no idea after 20 months on the job as he had to start out with absolutely nothing and try to turn it around. At that time people were saying this was going to take 3-5 years but after 1.3 seasons we are ready to start over.
We sank to an all time low over the last 5 years and it might take that long to get back to being a good team again.
Would I like to see a better team? Absolutely and there are times that I think we are getting better and other times when we absolutely s--k. That's the problem with this young of a team.
Most teams we are playing are using juniors, seniors, and 5th year seniors against our mostly freshmen and sophomores so I, for one, am trying to be patient.
 
basketball nut said:
I believe it was only 5.5 years ago that we were warned that this was coming due to the mismanagement of the previous administration. Many didn't believe it back then and wanted a change and thought that JG was going to save BU BB but, in reality, she is the real reason we have the mess we have today.
Is BW the answer? I have no idea after 20 months on the job as he had to start out with absolutely nothing and try to turn it around. At that time people were saying this was going to take 3-5 years but after 1.3 seasons we are ready to start over.
We sank to an all time low over the last 5 years and it might take that long to get back to being a good team again.
Would I like to see a better team? Absolutely and there are times that I think we are getting better and other times when we absolutely s--k. That's the problem with this young of a team.
Most teams we are playing are using juniors, seniors, and 5th year seniors against our mostly freshmen and sophomores so I, for one, am trying to be patient.
Click to expand...

As are most Bradley fans who realize what the firing of successful coaches can bring.
 
Vent said:
... We need to have two players on scholarship leave after this season to fill the ones committed for next year.....
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we have two players who are finishing up their 4th year of college on basketball scholarships, and if they get their degrees (word is that both will), there's no guarantee they will stay - and I think the coach knows more on this topic than anyone else.
almost ever year in the MVC 1/4 to 1/2 of the top 20 players are juco kids..

some teams, such as ISU with Akoon-Purcell, Daishon Knight, Fayne, Clayton, etc..
have literally built their team and much of their recent success on juco kids...

our staff has chosen not to go that route so we just have to be a little more patient
 
Correct. Wouldn't those two be Foster and Jo Jo? Those would go to the two incoming freshmen I believe. Some would argue Jo Jo is one of our better players. If there was a 5th year senior or a junior college player transfer to BU we would need additional players to leave to provide space. Otherwise we wii go into next year with the same team we have now, less Jo Jo and Foster, plus the two freshmen.
 
I don't think we should speculate too much - the coach knows what he's doing - and it's guesswork for us..
 
tornado said:
I don't think we should speculate too much - the coach knows what he's doing - and it's guesswork for us..
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tornado is right. Coach Wardle and the assistants know who gIves us the best chance to win. We have good coaches. We lack talent, but it's improving slow but sure. We wonder why players we want or like don't play, but once again, the coaches know the players much better than we do. They put our best on the floor. I trust in them. Go Braves!
 
IMO schools make too many coaching moves. I don't think we should make any moves until 1) It is very very apparent that our current coach can't make the "huge" recruiting gains we need to compete and 2) We can get coaching talent in here that makes heads turn. Like a coach who can recruit with the big boys would be the only way I would agree to another coaching move. Otherwise I fear it'll be more of the same.

No more making a move just to make a move.
 
algotrader said:
IMO schools make too many coaching moves. I don't think we should make any moves until 1) It is very very apparent that our current coach can't make the "huge" recruiting gains we need to compete and 2) We can get coaching talent in here that makes heads turn. Like a coach who can recruit with the big boys would be the only way I would agree to another coaching move. Otherwise I fear it'll be more of the same.

No more making a move just to make a move.
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I agree. Who knows what Mo would have done if he was still here. I submit that our body of work would be no worse.
 
I think this is funny
In the Stowell era we longed for the success of the Robbie era
In the Albeck & Mo era we longed for the success we had in the Versace era
In the Les era there were some who constantly pined for the success of any former era and were willing to jettison the baby with the bathwater
Now we got those same people pining for the success we did have in the Les era
We are where we are due to an aimless admin who tried to both forge their own hapless legacy and please a few griping upper bowl malcontents
 
ACBL said:
I think this is funny
In the Stowell era we longed for the success of the Robbie era
In the Albeck & Mo era we longed for the success we had in the Versace era
In the Les era there were some who constantly pined for the success of any former era and were willing to jettison the baby with the bathwater
Now we got those same people pining for the success we did have in the Les era
We are where we are due to an aimless admin who tried to both forge their own hapless legacy and please a few griping upper bowl malcontents
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+1 for most of this post. I was upper bowl but wasn't a malcontent. I didn't agree with the Versace and Les firings.
 
Chico said:
As are most Bradley fans who realize what the firing of successful coaches can bring.
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and firings of the two-time AD-of-the-year also...
gotta recall - the program he now leads sells out all their games, has a 300-400% increase in attendance since his arrival, and has gone to the NCAA repeatedly in a dozen different sports incl. basketball multiple times...
and whose name has been mentioned more than once in moving UP to bigger conferences and not down
 
Les Or Versace

Les Or Versace

Chico said:
+1 for most of this post. I was upper bowl but wasn't a malcontent. I didn't agree with the Versace and Les firings.
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Im with you, chico.

My 2 cents is...

1....if we would have kept Versace, we would have been a program in the top 20 most of the time. It is hard to stay there, for sure, but when you have a coach who can get the talent here to win, you need to keep him unless he brings other significant problems.

2....if we couldnt keep Versace on, then Jim Les is my next pick to keep in the upper eschelon of college basketball.

Albeck did ok too, but didn't he ride the heels of the former coaches recruits?
 
pfcmsh said:
Im with you, chico.

My 2 cents is...

1....if we would have kept Versace, we would have been a program in the top 20 most of the time. It is hard to stay there, for sure, but when you have a coach who can get the talent here to win, you need to keep him unless he brings other significant problems.

2....if we couldnt keep Versace on, then Jim Les is my next pick to keep in the upper eschelon of college basketball.

Albeck did ok too, but didn't he ride the heels of the former coaches recruits?
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Yes he did. I was afraid Hersey would leave when they fired Dick, but he stayed and Bradley went back to the Big Dance in Atlanta.
 
Hersey

Hersey

Chico said:
Yes he did. I was afraid Hersey would leave when they fired Dick, but he stayed and Bradley went back to the Big Dance in Atlanta.
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Yep, you are spot on! If I recall, Villanova was named as being interested in Hawk. Heck, anyone in their right mind would want Hawk. I think Massimino was the coach of that team then. What a player Hawk was. Lead the NCAA in scoring. Huge.
 
pfcmsh said:
Yep, you are spot on! If I recall, Villanova was named as being interested in Hawk. Heck, anyone in their right mind would want Hawk. I think Massimino was the coach of that team then. What a player Hawk was. Lead the NCAA in scoring. Huge.
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And a class act to go along with it. I've been following Bradley basketball since the Armory days and the Hawk is still my favorite all time player.
 
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