Well for one thing it was JL's first year...huge learning experience. We had some good players the next year and didn't have great records.
We have seen this debated before. And this may be the last time I try to defend Jim Les, since his record now speaks for itself.
There have been extremely few successful coaches who have had winning teams in their first few years, unless they are fortunate to take over NCAA-ready teams because the previous successful coach was lured away to another job.
I can post all the records of everyone from Coach K, to the best coaches in the MVC in the last 2 decades (Bruce Weber, Dana Altman, etc) if anyone is interested. None of their records for their first several years are very good, and few are any better than Jim Les'. Here are some of them.--
http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2194
The bashing of Jim Les that went on non-stop from 2002 to 2006 always liked to dwell on his record, and stress that Jim Les took over a team that some said was "loaded with talent", which it was not.
Jim was even blamed for the departures of guys like Joah Tucker, and Antoine Tisby, even though those 2 said publically that they decided to leave before Jim Molinari was fired. And, of course, he was blamed for the Granger transfer, even though another coaching staff cheated to steal him away.
I am sure you will remember that there were very few of us who stood by Jim Les and supported giving him more time to accomplish what he was doing and get his own players in place. The starting of BradleyFans.com was brought about because a few solid BU fans were tired of all the incessant Jim Les-bashing that went on in other public forums. I don't feel that I have to defend Jim Les' record any more, as he has clearly quieted nearly all those critics. But I do not accept that those teams he had his first couple years were any better than what we saw. The 2001-2002 team (with the players that you claim were so good)
lost 20 games under Jim Molinari.
Jim Les has never lost 20 games.
And he has won 22 games each of the last 2 years (his 4th and 5th seasons), now that he has teams entirely of his own players. What other coaches in Bradley's history, or in the MVC have ever done that after taking over for a fired coach and a 20 loss season?