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New Coach

M

mvcfan

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There are obvious problems in the basketball program that appear to be unfixable. Along with all the other turmoil at Bradley right now who do people think would take the job? Who are some ideas of someone that people would like to see? This is all hypothetical and not sure if it will be allowed.
 
I think we can all go ahead and give our opinions, since it is already a fait accompli-

There will be many applicants- the Bradley job is a great D1 job, pays well, and has great resources. There is no reason a school like Bradley shouldn't be successful, and be able to compete with schools like Northern Iowa, or even schools with sustained success like Butler.

I have heard Jerrance Howard would be interested. An assistant from Kansas, who has worked under good coaches like Billy Gillispie, Larry Brown, Bill Self, Bruce Weber, and others, he would lend immediate credibility and is a great recruiter. I have heard he has talked to some great people who would be willing to work as assistants. It would be great to have someone with Peoria or Bradley connections. It would start to draw back some of the thousands of fans the Glasser/Cross/Ford regime have alienated and chased away.

There are some great up-and-coming younger coaches like Brian Wardle of Green Bay, Billy Donlan of Wright State, or Michael White of Louisiana Tech who would be excellent choices and they are good recruiters. There will be many other good names emerge.

I have heard some people suggest we need to hire a Chicago public high school coach or AAU coach. That is not a good idea, and will not happen.
 
Agree completely on Howard. He will get opportunities for head jobs if we don't snag him and would be a natural fit. Been interesting watching Wardle from Hinsdale Central to Marquette to UWGB. Seems like he has always been able to lead and make guys around him better. What ever happened to that situation where he was accused of player abuse?
 
Jerrance should be our guy. We're not getting a proven guy in here, let's get a young up and comer with TONS of potential and would bring excitement.
 
I don't have a name, but I have a few suggestions for the new coach.

Recruit incoming freshmen. Let's let the juco route rest for awhile. Bring in four-year guys of high character -- including a few who can shoot and pass the basketball -- and build a TEAM, not a bunch of parts. Maybe then in three or four years we will have a band of brothers who respect being a part of the Bradley tradition, and who because of their knowledge of and commitment to one another can play as one squad, not as five individuals.

I think most of the fan base would suffer through losing records for another year or two if we thought that approach was being taken and could see we were again climbing the mountain, not sinking to the bottom of the Valley.
 
I think some names have actually been out there for more than a couple years...

Jerrance Howard should be our #1 target - his name has been mentioned here since before Geno
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=303240#post303240
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=230354&highlight=jerrance+howard#post230354

Brian Wardle - who'd have taken $250K but we never bothered to ask the guy last time - we just plowed ahead, violated contracts, got ourselves in legal trouble and ended up with a miserable situation anyway.
Now Wardle has made a bit more name for himself and we're probably not going to get him or it'll cost us $800K
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=219756#post219756
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=301309#post301309

South Dakota State's Scott Nagy
EIU's Jay Spoonhaur - LINK

What's Todd Lickliter doing nowadays? - LINK - he'd even make a great AD

AD - check this guy out
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=303612#post303612
 
Here is a great AD candidate, and he might even know Jerrance Howard a little.
He has a law degree, plus a PhD... Chris Reynolds
He has been Deputy AD at Northwestern since December, 2012-
http://www.nusports.com/genrel/reynolds_chris00.html

Prior to that he was Senior Associate Athletic Director at Indiana University for 9 years.
http://www.iuhoosiers.com/genrel/reynolds_chris00.html

And he got his start in Athletic Administration at Notre Dame, where he served several years as an Assistant Athletic Director.
http://www.und.com/genrel/010401aaa.html

Prior to Notre Dame, Chris worked in the Athletic Departments at Michigan State and Western Michigan.

Chris is already a member of the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame
http://www.gpshof.org/Inductees/reynolds.html
 
Think him and Howard would make a great pair and would satisfy most BU fans, especially the ones who were against the JL hiring.
 
I know I will probably get hammered for even mentioning a name from the Ivy League... (;))

but Dr. Brent Walker - LINK
played basketball for Jim Molinari...and played baseball for Dewey...

went on to rise to one of the highest spots in the Athletic Dept at Columbia -
They have won many League titles recently - baseball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, men’s fencing, women’s fencing, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s indoor track and field, men’s tennis and women’s tennis.
Plus multiple INDIVIDUAL Championships and top quality athletes and academic achievers.

But here's what makes him far, far different and better than anyone else hired from out east lately...
He is a Peoria native (actually East Peoria, but who's counting), and a Bradley grad and ex-Bradley basketball player.
He would come vouched for by everyone, from Dewey to Molinari...
So throw the guy's name in...


Also - while we are at it....I have four MORE names for the AD list
How about asking Jim Molinari, Dick Versace, Chuck Buescher, and/or Dewey Kalmer if they have interest -
and even if not, ask them for other advice & suggestions!!!

I know Jim and he is definitely a guy who would make a GREAT AD (great personality, people-person, organizer, gets things done, knows the MVC inside & out, and HIGHLY respected) if he'd want the spot - and the fact that he was willing to give up a head coaching job to take a lesser (assistant) spot leads me to think he might.
 
Let's bring Jerrance back to Peoria and see if he can convince Mr. Cunningham to stick around for three more years. I have no insider information but I doubt there is a long line of proven D1 coaches running to take over the Bradley coaching position in the sorry state it is in right now, so let's give a young coach with a solid recruiting background and PEORIA ties a chance. I would love to see Coach Howard breathe some much needed life into Bradley Basketball!!
 
I would take Jerrance Howard in a heart beat. I'm not so sure the Board of Trustees would hire a black as the head coach however.
 
Vent said:
I would take Jerrance Howard in a heart beat. I'm not so sure the Board of Trustees would hire a black as the head coach however.
Click to expand...

Wow you could phrase that better. I think Howard would be a spectacular hire. He would be Bradley's first African American head coach to the best of my knowledge. That isn't an uncommon thing at probably the majority of NCAA universities, the fact that there has never been a non-white head coach.
 
Vent said:
... the Board of Trustees would hire a black as the head coach however.
Click to expand...

I would hope we wouldn't have this kind of racism on our Board - and I have no reason to think we would..
We've had prominent Black members of the Board of Trustees multiple times - even back in the 1990's and early 2000's when we simultaneously had a popular Black candidate as the finalist for the Bradley job.
We have hired Black head coaches and assistant coaches in other sports .. and there have been very good Black coaches in our league and I have never sensed any racism anywhere..
 
Chico said:
Tell us what the past practices are.
Click to expand...
I am gonna guess that when we hired in 2002 - there were numerous reports that race played a significant part in the proceedings and that at least one Board member made race and perceived racism a huge issue - to the point of offending multiple candidates who then withdrew their names from consideration (one of whom, Yale's James Jones, is a Black head coach)
 
The one thing I want to see someone who can bring the community back together again. For that reason plus all we hear about JH and the fact he would have lots of local support would make him a logical choice.


As for an AD we also need someone that is even more able to bring the community back together again. I think either name that was already mentioned might be able to accomplish that.
The new AD needs to go to all of the people that dropped their season tickets and see what he can do to get those people to buy the tickets again. I have heard of so many this year that got turned off by MC that they just quit buying season tickets and the new AD needs to be able to rectify that problem.
Basically we need an AD & coach that can smooze with all of the fans and not just those that are his "buddies" or give some big bucks to BU
 
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