Jim Les and Alvin Brooks III

[Da Coach]

Back in 2007, Bradley head coach Jim Les hired Alvin Brooks III as an assistant coach to replace Lennox Forrester, who left to become the head coach at SIU-Edwardsville. Alvin Brooks III had been an assistant coach at a couple junior colleges, but that was his first job of any kind at a Division I school. Coach Brooks was a valuable asset at Bradley for 3 years, and he left in 2010 to take an assistant coach job at Sam Houston State. The reason for his leaving was never made public, but it was not because Sam Houston offered a better job or because of Coach Les. A high ranking administrator at Bradley was behind the coaching changes in 2010. I won't mention her name, but she fired 2 of Coach Les' assistants that year (March, 2010)- both Assistant Coach Brooks and Assistant Coach Eric Buescher, and a year later she fired Coach Les, too.

Coach Brooks remained an assistant at Sam Houston State for 2 years, from 2010 to 2012, then was hired by Bruce Weber as an assistant at Kansas State, where he stayed from 2012 to 2016. Then in 2016, Baylor head coach Scott Drew hired Brooks as an assistant at Baylor, and he is now the Associate Head Coach at Baylor.
​​​​​​https://baylorbears.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/alvin-brooks-iii/1626

In 2021, Baylor won the NCAA Tournament. A few months later, the coaches and players were given beautiful, heavily jeweled championship rings-
https://wacotrib.com/sports/college...cle_2025cfee-4429-11ec-893b-1fa26ce487c7.html

Getting back to Jim Les... Today, Coach Les posted a tweet that he received a replica version of the Baylor championship ring from Coach Brooks, as a way of thanking Jim for giving Brooks his first opportunity to coach at the Division I level. They remain good friends.
https://twitter.com/CoachJimLes/status/1519082321978466304

It looks like it is a replica of the ones given to the players and staff.
Here is a report about a limited number of these rings that were given to donors of the program-
https://www.reddit.com/r/baylor/comments/sqzr4o/my_dad_got_a_national_championship_ring_for/

 

[The Old Guy]

Just one of the many bad decisions made by JG.

 

[Bradley3342]

Just one of the many bad decisions made by JG.

DITTO!

 

[Tommy]

Thanks for sharing that, Coach. Good to see Brooks having success after being treated so unfairly. A school president firing an assistant coach doesn't make much sense. Glad the ship has been righted, but we're still clawing our way back to where we once were, and we may never see the same attendance numbers again.

 

[Da Coach]

Thanks for sharing that, Coach. Good to see Brooks having success after being treated so unfairly. A school president firing an assistant coach doesn't make much sense. Glad the ship has been righted, but we're still clawing our way back to where we once were, and we may never see the same attendance numbers again.

She not only fired Jim's assistants, she was the one who hired their replacements- Willie Scott and Jim Platt.
Here is what the coaching staff looked like in Jim's final season (2010-11)-
https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...1#roster-staff (scroll to bottom)

Her justification was that the staff needed more experience. But in reality, it was just one of several things she did to sink Jim's chances of a successful season, so she could justify firing him. In addition to the changes in Jim's staff, she refused to accept multiple specialists' opinions to allow Taylor Brown to play. And she lied to Carl and Sam Maniscalco and told them Jim's job was safe and if Sam took a medical redshirt year, they were assured Jim would return in 2011-12 as the team's coach.

 

[bradleyfan124]

She not only fired Jim's assistants, she was the one who hired their replacements- Willie Scott and Jim Platt.
Here is what the coaching staff looked like in Jim's final season (2010-11)-
https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...1#roster-staff (scroll to bottom)

Her justification was that the staff needed more experience. But in reality, it was just one of several things she did to sink Jim's chances of a successful season, so she could justify firing him. In addition to the changes in Jim's staff, she refused to accept multiple specialists' opinions to allow Taylor Brown to play. And she lied to Carl and Sam Maniscalco and told them Jim's job was safe and if Sam took a medical redshirt year, they were assured Jim would return in 2011-12 as the team's coach.

I would not hire her to run anything. She not only almost destroyed Bradley Athletics but the entire university

 

[Classof77]

JG - gone, and not missed. I don't think she could manage a lemonade stand.

 

[Tommy]

She not only fired Jim's assistants, she was the one who hired their replacements- Willie Scott and Jim Platt.
Here is what the coaching staff looked like in Jim's final season (2010-11)-
https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...1#roster-staff (scroll to bottom)

Her justification was that the staff needed more experience. But in reality, it was just one of several things she did to sink Jim's chances of a successful season, so she could justify firing him. In addition to the changes in Jim's staff, she refused to accept multiple specialists' opinions to allow Taylor Brown to play. And she lied to Carl and Sam Maniscalco and told them Jim's job was safe and if Sam took a medical redshirt year, they were assured Jim would return in 2011-12 as the team's coach.

Well who doesn't love to be micro-managed by their boss, right?