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Interesting interview with Dr. Cross, Kirk Wessler, & Dave Reynolds: State of Bradley Athletics

tornado

tornado

New member
Interesting that there's no mention of this locally ...

http://com360bu.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/success-lacking-on-the-hilltop-in-bradley-athletics/

Here are the things blamed for...lack of consistent success...
-lack of enough seniors (Dr. Cross' answer)
-"coaching turnover has hindered Bradley's success" (per Kirk Wessler who vigorously campaigned for the turnover in the basketball program)

there are also links to the audio comments...Many mentions of "competing for championships.." or at a "championship level.."
..and DR & KW disagree with Dr. Cross on the presence of backlash on ticket prices...and with the lack of success, they say the spotlight needs to be on who is running the programs

The writers are Tim Lahey - who writes for the PJS sports dept., & Miles Himmel a sports journalism student at BU


I listened to the entire thing and I am not so sure the long range Bradley vision is "large"...but instead it may actually be smaller than a lot of fans would desire...(R-C)
KW & DR spent a ton of time doing free promo work - especially hyping soccer as evidence of BU success - and they never named which good coaches we have lost because they were hired away to better jobs? Also interesting talk about half way thru about bad decisions in building on campus...and "pi**ing off the fans"...interesting language...& rips the WBB coach hire

But I have to object to KW's repeated assertion that Bradley basketball has not been successful nor competitive since 2000...this ignores tons of evidence to the contrary, winning seasons, huge crowds, record revenue raising, post season success....that the decline has NOT been going on 13 years but instead just 2-3..
Then their final opinion - if we are not better in a few more years - fire more coaches...
 
Probably not a lot of discussion because it was a class assignment by a couple of Bradley students and as I read the blog, not completely accurate. For instance, Bradley Baseball does take walk-ons. Hard to fill a 35-man roster on the 11.7 NCAA scholarship limit without walk-ons.
 
yes - but the point was a walk on then pays full tuition - far harder at BU than at ISU where tuition is way less and an instate walk on can find other funding..
The sportswriters reveal a side that's far from what is most often seen in print - but it's a 43 minute podcast - so I know few will actually listen to it all
..a few tidbits that have never been reported...that the Ren-Col does have the capability to be expanded, that maybe it could happen, then guess what...
and that BU's ultimate plan is to expand all the way to Western Avenue...say what???
 
It's pretty commonly known among students that the overall plan for Bradley's campus is to expand to western and with one of the main focuses being new dorms and then tearing down the current dorms and adding more green space to campus
 
but you have to love the humor in one of the answers...LOL

We don't win consistently because we've fired then hired too many new coaches - but since we still aren't winning consistently the solution is to fire all the coaches and hire new ones...
at what point does someone else actually begin to take responsibility?
 
tornado said:
but you have to love the humor in one of the answers...LOL

We don't win consistently because we've fired then hired too many new coaches - but since we still aren't winning consistently the solution is to fire all the coaches and hire new ones...
at what point does someone else actually begin to take responsibility?
Click to expand...
I guess what your saying is someone or several people are not making good hires? Do I understand it right or am I missing the point?
 
tornado said:
but you have to love the humor in one of the answers...LOL

We don't win consistently because we've fired then hired too many new coaches - but since we still aren't winning consistently the solution is to fire all the coaches and hire new ones...
at what point does someone else actually begin to take responsibility?
Click to expand...

I think the director of athletics knows exactly what his responsibilities are.
 
then surely he knows that the 40 minute audio interview with Dave Reynolds & Kirk Wessler - harshly criticizes BU athletics for failure to show success recently -
(their words - not mine)
all the while whistling the tune that we're only a couple seniors from competing for championships..

This is open for anyone to read & interpret - but I expect as always people will blame me for starting this thread
..guess as always I expect to hear I have no right to read and form an opinion..

ps - as for it being a class assignment of a couple students - note one of the authors is a PJ Star writer in the sports department
 
I just finally the article, and I noticed some errors.
In this one paragraph alone there are multiple mistakes-

The Braves had a 16-15 record this season for men??™s basketball, its first winning season since 2009. Next season they increased their season ticket prices up to $1,000 for certain seats.


Their record was 16-16 until the CIT, then they went 2-1 in the CIT and finished with a final record of 18-17, not 16-15.
And then it says they haven't had a winning season since 2009- Wrong. The 2009-2010 team finished with a winning record- 16-15.
The part about the $1000 top price for seats is partly true- but they also require $1500 per year maintenance, so they are actually $2500 per seat.
 
Why is it such a big deal the kid writes for the PJ Star sports department? Its different writing for a job and for class, theres no harm in that. Also why is the video now gone? Was just up, maybe BU people wanted it gone or something.
 
yea - that's interesting - the Dr. Cross video has now been removed...were they embarrassed about something in it... I have already received PM's that are bullying to remove this discussion off the boards as well - so what's up??
 
btw - one other short part of the Dr. Cross video was a short discussion about the viable potential of adding more sports such as lacrosse or women's soccer...
..does anyone think Bradley should do that? I think it would be a huge revenue sinkhole at a time when we need to get way better in all the sports we already do...
 
I do not think we need to add more sports. I agree that we need to improve on the sports we already have. Baseball for one really concerns me. We should be much better. I do not know the present coach but he was handpicked by the President. I personally do not like to see this happen. The people in charge need to let their other managers do their jobs. Baseball should be much better..nice field,good recruiting in the Midwest, good conference. We need to build up our present sports before adding others.
 
They're probably asking to take it down because a STUDENT's work is being torn apart by some message board folks and turning what was a good educational experience into something it was never intended to be. I guess there's education value in it -- the Internet is full of crazies that will dig into everything out there.

Come on guys, if this was KW and DR or Cross trying to push an agenda or something, that'd be one point...but these guys took time out of their day to help some BU students. We should be supporting them, too.


All of us.
 
Speaking of Bradley athletics, Dr. Cross said he intends to see every team compete for championships every year.But the last couple years we seen more last place finishes, and next to last place finishes than ever before.I just noticed the MVC track and field championships finished today, and the results show Bradley men finished a distant dead last, and the Bradley women also finished a distant dead last>> http://www.mvc-sports.com/trackfield/news/2012-13/6660/2013-mvc-outdoor-track--field-championship/
And Bradley baseball lost again today to SIU. SIU is the worst team in the MVC next to Bradley, they swept the 3 game series, and now Bradley has lost 15 Valley games in a row and been swept by almost every team. They have now fallen to 1-17, and are so far in last place there is no chance of finishing any higher>> http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewAr...506&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=207639961&DB_OEM_ID=3400
Softball didn't do much better.They lost 17 of their last 20 games and finished in 9th place.Bradley athletics is the laughingstock of the MVC.The BU admins should be ashamed, but instead, they just raise ticket prices and ask for more money.Time for some accountability.
 
I think it's fair game to discuss the future of what all BU fans have put so much into - the future & direction of BU athletics --
I like the latest commit - build with quality freshman and a few top jucos and rare transfer -



Biff said:
... Bradley baseball lost again today to SIU. ...
Click to expand...
and more embarrassing yet in the final inning down by one run with a man on -
we steal but swing and pop it up into an easy game-ending double play..... any baseball people out there....frustrating
 
Hey, just a quick update...Sure this would be caught by others.

As far as mens and womens track and field, Bradley doesn't compete in the field events or sprints. The program is tailored for the 800M distances on up. So, of course, they will finish at the bottom.

The program is geared and recruited to compete in Cross Country. We have seen the upswing there and will certainly see it this fall with the new LOIs adding to the program.
 
but the broader point is that we are NOT competing anywhere near a championship level in any sports save for soccer - the only program that hasn't seen big changes
 
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