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Courtney Lee- almost a Bradley Brave

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Courtney Lee was just drafted #22 by the Orlando magic in last week's NBA Draft. He had a great career at Western Kentucky University. The coach that recruited him and coached him for his 4 years at WKU, Darrin Horn (a former Marquette assistant), is now the head coach at South Carolina.
Courtney Lee had a very good high school career at Indianapolis Pike High School, but as a 6'5" skinny player with academic issues, he got only 2 Division I scholarship offers, Western Kentucky and Bradley. Below is an article about Lee with quotes from Darrin Horn.

Some teams were scared away because of worries that Lee wouldn??™t qualify academically. His only two offers were from Western Kentucky and Bradley, according to Horn.
Lee??™s talent became evident soon after arriving at Western Kentucky. He was the Sun Belt Conference freshman of the year. During his sophomore year, Horn??™s staff began to see him as a future professional. Horn compared it to how future NBA star Dwyane Wade blossomed upon arriving at Marquette.

http://www.thestate.com/gogamecocks/story/446134.html

http://www.nbadraft.net/admincp/profiles/courtneylee.html
 
Kind of along the same lines as Courtney Lee - Former Nevada center and Chicago product JaVell McGee was also drafted in the 1st round. BU recruited him pretty hard, and if I recall was one of his final choices before settling with Nevada. Two first round draft picks that went mid-major that BU was very close to landing. Ah, what might have been...
 
Wow, I had never heard this story. Very interesting! Imagine adding him as a sophomore to the Sweet Sixteen team...
 
Courtney Lee - here's a little followup...

One of the top 10 rookies in the NBA..
not on the level of a Derrick Rose, but became a starter for the Magic and started 42 games...
On the season averaged 8.4 ppg, and hit 40.4% of his 3-pointers, 3rd best among rookies who average more than one attempt per game (behind Augustine & Morrow).
and he's averaging 12.6 ppg in the playoffs...
 
real fan said:
I really believe if we had the new facilities back then C.Lee would have played for BU.
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If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas.

Well, all I can say is that this won't be a viable excuse anymore...and I am not sure it ever was, as we have had some very talented kids come through BU even with the Fieldhouse and Haussler as all we had to offer.
 
BradleyBrave said:
If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas.

Well, all I can say is that this won't be a viable excuse anymore...and I am not sure it ever was, as we have had some very talented kids come through BU even with the Fieldhouse and Haussler as all we had to offer.
Click to expand...

I agree with you BB
 
BradleyBrave said:
If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas.

Well, all I can say is that this won't be a viable excuse anymore...and I am not sure it ever was, as we have had some very talented kids come through BU even with the Fieldhouse and Haussler as all we had to offer.
Click to expand...
I agree with the first part of your post, but disagree with the second half of your post. Certainly we have had some good players through here with the old facilities, but I am certain we missed our share of good players as well. (aside from Courtney Lee) The new facilities also take away a recruiting agruement from opposing coaches.
 
Beninator said:
I agree with the first part of your post, but disagree with the second half of your post. Certainly we have had some good players through here with the old facilities, but I am certain we missed our share of good players as well. (aside from Courtney Lee) The new facilities also take away a recruiting agruement from opposing coaches.
Click to expand...

Every team gets good players and loses some good players. I'm not sold the new "facilities" will draw in better recruits. I know it's talked about but I'm not sure there has been evidence that it makes a major difference.

Kids can say they didnt chose a school because of facilities but who the heck knows why they didn't. There are many reasons.
 
Beninator said:
I agree with the first part of your post, but disagree with the second half of your post. Certainly we have had some good players through here with the old facilities, but I am certain we missed our share of good players as well. (aside from Courtney Lee) The new facilities also take away a recruiting agruement from opposing coaches.
Click to expand...

Every team 'misses' out on guys for a variety of reasons. People act like these new facilities are going to guarantee we get every kid we want. If these new facilities help us get guys better than Anthony Parker, Danny Granger, and Patrick O'Bryant I will be shocked. That's 3 more NBA players than just about every other team in our league. How many league titles have we won with those 3 guys? A grand total of ONE. The players haven't been the problem, i.e. the facilities, while embarassing, haven't been what's been holding us back. But like I said, now that they're coming, there are no more excuses. None.
 
BradleyBrave said:
Every team 'misses' out on guys for a variety of reasons. People act like these new facilities are going to guarantee we get every kid we want. If these new facilities help us get guys better than Anthony Parker, Danny Granger, and Patrick O'Bryant I will be shocked. That's 3 more NBA players than just about every other team in our league. How many league titles have we won with those 3 guys? A grand total of ONE. The players haven't been the problem, i.e. the facilities, while embarassing, haven't been what's been holding us back. But like I said, now that they're coming, there are no more excuses. None.
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There will still be plenty of excuses, don??™t forget we are a small school with a limited budget in Peoria. We could not possibly have done any better in any sport given these enormous constraints that other schools don??™t have to face.
 
So Bradley should start landing 4-star and 5-star recruits every year?
We should expect to win recruiting battles with Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, etc.?:roll:

Anyone wanna buy some valuable swampland?
 
Da Coach said:
So Bradley should start landing 4-star and 5-star recruits every year?
We should expect to win recruiting battles with Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, etc.?:roll:

Anyone wanna buy some valuable swampland?
Click to expand...

How about competing for a regular season valley title and winning in St. Louis? Is that asking too much? Do you need 4 and 5 star players to do that? How about being competitive in the other sports we already play? I don??™t think it??™s asking too much to occasionally finish first in any sport other than soccer.
 
Lakeview Brave said:
How about competing for a regular season valley title and winning in St. Louis? Is that asking too much? ...
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no, I can say I want that, I know the coach and the players want that...we have no debate in this area...

the debate is what PRECISELY would you do differently or additionally to bring that about.

Personally I have no such answers, since as Da Coach said, we simply aren't going to get the Blue Chipper...

It's easy to sit and criticize when you don't get what you'd like to see..but I personally think we have the right people on the job and they are heading toward that end better than anyone else could do.
 
Lakeview Brave said:
How about competing for a regular season valley title and winning in St. Louis? Is that asking too much? Do you need 4 and 5 star players to do that? How about being competitive in the other sports we already play? I don??™t think it??™s asking too much to occasionally finish first in any sport other than soccer.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. It's not asking too much, and success breeds success...and money. Certainly none of the other sports will ever generate the kind of money that basketball does, but the soccer team is proof positive that if BU wants to be good at something other than basketball it can be. Successful baseball, tennis, and golf programs would generate more revenue and more donations for those sports. I know there are alumni who played the 'other' sports at BU who would be more than happy to donate to that sport if BU ever made any type of effort to be good. Every time there's an excuse for us being terrible at sports, I point to Creighton and ask 'why not us'?
 
BradleyBrave said:
I point to Creighton and ask 'why not us'?
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so you want us to become Creighton, or should we quit being BU fans and become Creighton fans?

seriously, what would you do any differently that we are presently doing?
If it's upgrade our facilities...then that criticism would only have been valid for 50 years ending when JL was hired.
If it's go after higher rated recruits...then how can you argue that isn't being done....BU is competing for the highest level recruits on a consistent basis since I have been a BU fan.
If it's get to the post-season, win some games, and build on that, I think we are already on the way....

what more to do??
 
hey--- hypothetical question....

what if you were the fan of a midwestern mid-major...
and your team was 6 years into the era of a new head coach,
and so far he had a 7-win, a 14-win, a 15-win, an 18-win, a 22-win, and a 23-win season thus far..
but very, very little post-season success yet (ONLY ONE post season win!)...and only ONE Valley finish in 6 YEARS above 4th place!!
and almost no really top caliber recruits, and the fan base is grumbling and wants more..

then - even though the head coach in his first 6 years has an overall 55.9% winning pct....(keep in mind that Jim Les has a 55% overall wining pct. at Bradley), then...
let's say you were presented with the opportunity to jettison that coach and maybe get a better one...would you have done it??


If you answer "YES"...the mouse over the next line to see what you just accomplished...

You just fired Dana Altman from Creighton after his first 6 years....
the very school you say we want to be just like...
 
tornado said:
so you want us to become Creighton, or should we quit being BU fans and become Creighton fans?

seriously, what would you do any differently that we are presently doing?
If it's upgrade our facilities...then that criticism would only have been valid for 50 years ending when JL was hired.
If it's go after higher rated recruits...then how can you argue that isn't being done....BU is competing for the highest level recruits on a consistent basis since I have been a BU fan.
If it's get to the post-season, win some games, and build on that, I think we are already on the way....

what more to do??
Click to expand...

I'm talking more about the other sports. There's a lot that can be done differently with the other sports to keep us from bottom feeding like we annually do.

As far as basketball goes, for the most part in my time as a fan, I have not had a problem with the talent we bring in. Facilities didn't keep us from getting 3 NBA players to campus over the last decade, and I would be shocked and amazed if we produced 3 NBA players in the next 10 years after these things go up. We just need to be win more games and start competing for conference titles. If we do that, everything else will take care of itself.
 
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