Why did Bradley give Coach Les his walking papers? Can someone clue me in?..
Everyone knows there was a battle of personalities between Dr. Glasser & Jim Les, and that for at least a full year before he was fired,
the President was trying to get him fired and did just about everything she could to make it happen
...from denying recruits he wanted to forcing his own assistants out and hiring replacement assistant coaches that were not of his choosing.
With the help of a favorable Board that kinda looked the other way on a lot of her moves (thus enabling some very bad decisions
that now have Bradley in bad financial state as well as being terrible in virtually every sport) she was able to pull it off
in spring 2011 and then they bungled the search & hiring process and bungled the proper steps on the buyout - entangling the new coach as well as the University in lawsuits & threats of other lawsuits, some that still have yet to all get settled.
By then Bradley was not as appealing of a spot for potential coaching candidates (nor players/recruits), that many came or interviewed or were contacted about the job, but then turned it down after hearing all the details - thus forcing Bradley to really go down the list and hire a lot less attractive of a candidate than they had initially aimed for.
Some will dispute this account but the facts are there. Since 2011 - every single alibi that was used to fire Les (losing, playing on Thursday, off-the-court issues, can't use injuries as an excuse, attendance was slightly down, etc...) is now many times worse, yet amazingly, we hear alibis and spin - especially from the media that things are getting better, and that those who made all these bad decisions have actually done a great job
There was once a day when a home game vs. Indiana State or Evansville were automatic wins .. now we have to play the best game of the year to expect to get a win in such a game, and if we don't the media says we played good anyway and lost because of injuries.
BTW - in the FIRST EIGHT seasons Jim Les was here - he won the HOME game vs. Indiana State EVERY time..
and all eight were by double digits!!!!