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Report of Jim Les firing

Braves4Life said:
Come on McKillip! Where did I call this post of the year? And did I call you a hypocrite? Check again. :mad: You're better than that, friend. :?
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My bad, I didn't mean post of the year. You said fantastic post. My question remains.

amckillip said:
I have never liked JG's athletic control and decisions, have been vocal about that (I'd dare to say moreso than any other person on this board). I like JL, and am unsure of him long term. I've been vocal about that. I have never said anyone is bad for their opinion JL should be let go.

Remind me again how I am a hypocrite?
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Dallas Brave said:
I think the timing of letting JL go now is highly risky. If I were the prez, I would have given him another year.
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I agree Dallas, definitely a risky move and one where I would have preferred to see Les stay another year. However, leaders lead and winners take risks. Glasser has been both as far as Bradley is concerned and I'm hoping this move pays dividends as well. In fact, I hope many of our "pro-Les/anti-Glasser" posters have to eat crow in a few years..... I'm guessing those posts vanish..... poof! ;) :lol:

As I said, I support BU now more than ever. I've got a Braves Club renewal and a BU donor card sitting right here on my desk that I plan to mail back this week. GO BU! :!: :)
 
tornado said:
B4L -- my lifelong passion is Bradley basketball -- I have little interest or loyalty to administrative business in Swords Hall...
if by merely asking a simple question about who has she hired thus far -- triggers confusion and a total lack of any actual answers, then I guess I was right to assume that it would indeed be a question that would go unanswered...
but the answer to the question is what should bother BU basketball fans...
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We've got a professional search committee, my friend. Relax. Glasser's a smart lady and she knows BU Basketball is the straw that stirs the Bradley drink. Let her lead and give her your support. We've had 9 years of ZERO MVC Championships with Les and longer if you factor in the Mo era. BU Basketball has always survived a change and will again. Let's face it, we've got nowhere to go but up after the past 20 years or so.
 
The deed is done. Let's move onward and upward. While I would have kept JL another year, I don't find a lot of fault in deciding to let him go now. He had a chance to show he could coach this year, and for the most part of the season, it wasn't showing. He got 9 years of D1 coaching on his resume. He highly profited from his time here and the university gave him a huge opportunity when it hired him. Despite the fact he got fired, he should be thankful for the long run he got at the school. I would hope he would talk to the players and urge them to stay at Bradley. It was a good college choice for JL and it remains a good college choice for the players now on the roster.
 
Braves4Life said:
We've got a professional search committee, my friend. Relax. Glasser's a smart lady and she knows BU Basketball is the straw that stirs the Bradley drink. Let her lead and give her your support. We've had 9 years of ZERO MVC Championships with Les and longer if you factor in the Mo era. BU Basketball has always survived a change and will again. Let's face it, we've got nowhere to go but up after the past 20 years or so.
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So your bumper sticker will read 'Elite Eight or Bust!'? That is where we have to go to go 'up' ;)
 
amckillip said:
So your bumper sticker will read 'Elite Eight or Bust!'? That is where we have to go to go 'up' ;)
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Now now mckillip. We've all given Les his props for what he did that ONE season. I'm referring to the last 20 or more years for Bradley Basketball. We've not seen glory years since my time as a student.
 
Braves4Life said:
....Let's face it, we've got nowhere to go but up after the past 20 years or so.
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Surely you don't believe this is true. Things could be a whole lot worse than they have been, and we'll be sure to remind you when it happens.

How are Towson State and Eastern Kentucky doing these days?
 
Braves4Life said:
We've got a professional search committee, my friend. Relax. Glasser's a smart lady and she knows BU Basketball is the straw that stirs the Bradley drink. Let her lead and give her your support. We've had 9 years of ZERO MVC Championships with Les and longer if you factor in the Mo era. BU Basketball has always survived a change and will again. Let's face it, we've got nowhere to go but up after the past 20 years or so.
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Is this really you? or someone posting in your stead?....This has been a tough season...but if you think the last 20 years has been down? really? I will certainly not kick JL while he is down...man.. just wish him the best and thank him for what he as accomplished.....
 
Braves4Life said:
We've got a professional search committee, my friend. Relax. Glasser's a smart lady and she knows BU Basketball is the straw that stirs the Bradley drink. Let her lead and give her your support. We've had 9 years of ZERO MVC Championships with Les and longer if you factor in the Mo era. BU Basketball has always survived a change and will again. Let's face it, we've got nowhere to go but up after the past 20 years or so.
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So we have to pay JL 1.5 million, pay a new coach xxx, lose millions of dollars from top BSS donors (I'm sure you anti-JL fans will make that up with your $25 per year donation), and now we need to pay a "Professional search committee." We will get set back 5 million + on this..... so much for a capital campaign!! Best of luck to Sam M and our past recruits on where ever they go. We may even get the Eastern Kentucky coach to come here.
 
Air Petey said:
So we have to pay JL 1.5 million, pay a new coach xxx, lose millions of dollars from top BSS donors (I'm sure you anti-JL fans will make that up with your $25 per year donation), and now we need to pay a "Professional search committee." We will get set back 5 million + on this..... so much for a capital campaign!! Best of luck to Sam M and our past recruits on where ever they go. We may even get the Eastern Kentucky coach to come here.
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I can't attack other posters for their arrogance so I have no comment.:mad:
 
Braves4Life said:
Let's face it, we've got nowhere to go but up after the past 20 years or so.
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amckillip said:
So your bumper sticker will read 'Elite Eight or Bust!'? That is where we have to go to go 'up'
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You're both getting a bit exaggeratory with your posts when trying to counter each other.

BU hasn't been the worst in the Valley. Not the best, but not the worst. And it's completely fair to say Les found a "floor" for the program in the past few years of being a mid-pack team (this year notwithstanding, and it's fair to say the circumstances this year were obvious).

And while NCAA tournament appearances and results are one good way of evaluation, it's hardly the only one. Conference results do matter a lot, and consistency matters, not one single run. Making one Sweet 16 doesn't mean making the next 2 NCAA tournaments, for example, isn't better overall for the program.
 
Braves4Life said:
Now now mckillip. We've all given Les his props for what he did that ONE season. I'm referring to the last 20 or more years for Bradley Basketball. We've not seen glory years since my time as a student.
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As a relative newcomer to BU Basketball, I genuinely believe we have seen the glory years since about the '50s. We had a great regular season one year with a team built by a coach who was fired because he cheated, and 'we were who they thought we were' when we were quickly bounced in the tourney. At least JL led us to do something people said we weren't capable of and got a couple of solid victories. I'm not saying JL was a model on continued greatness, but pretending that BU has been and should be a top basketball school and has tons of history is like saying Harvard should be destination for football coaches.

Complacency is not a good thing, but neither are delusions of grandeur. BU is an average mid-major program with a good fan-base. Nothing more nothing less.
 
BTW, here is the answer to how Towson State and Eastern Kentucky have fared since.....

Towson just finished their season in the CAA 0-18 (4-26 overall) and dead last with an RPI of 287.

Eastern Kentucky, which was an NCAA team before their president ran their coach off, finished 9-9 in the awful OVC (15-16 overall) with an RPI of 258.

So you still think things couldn't be any worse?
 
Da Coach said:
Surely you don't believe this is true. Things could be a whole lot worse than they have been, and we'll be sure to remind you when it happens.

How are Towson State and Eastern Kentucky doing these days?
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Bradley has gotten worse every year since they NCAA run. They can't finish lower than 10th next year. They may lose more games next year, but Bradley should be better in the long-run.

Too many posters are getting too excited that the sky is falling. No coach has been named yet and no players have transferred. If they were going to play for the last place team in a bad MVC with JL, they should play here without JL. You come to a school, not a coach.
 
Air Petey said:
So we have to pay JL 1.5 million, pay a new coach xxx, lose millions of dollars from top BSS donors (I'm sure you anti-JL fans will make that up with your $25 per year donation), and now we need to pay a "Professional search committee." We will get set back 5 million + on this..... so much for a capital campaign!! Best of luck to Sam M and our past recruits on where ever they go. We may even get the Eastern Kentucky coach to come here.
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lake Camelot said:
I can't attack other posters for their arrogance so I have no comment.:mad:
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As exaggerated as this post is LC, it's not entirely without merit. This will cost the school a large sum of money, and many people are not comfortable that we will get a better coach out of it.
 
Da Coach said:
Surely you don't believe this is true. Things could be a whole lot worse than they have been, and we'll be sure to remind you when it happens.

How are Towson State and Eastern Kentucky doing these days?
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[/b]I appreciate the excitement that Les brought to BU but, the fact is, we never competed for a championship. Jim ran a good, clean program but it has been on a downward slide for the past few years and the administration has listened to what many in the Peoria community have been asking for. Be careful what you wish for? Maybe..... time will tell. And Towson State and EKU? Those were always podunk basketball schools.[/b]

mrcoachdude said:
Is this really you? or someone posting in your stead?....This has been a tough season...but if you think the last 20 years has been down? really? I will certainly not kick JL while he is down...man.. just wish him the best and thank him for what he as accomplished.....
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Not kicking Les while he's down MCD.... read my post in the "Thank Les" thread. Love the guy and all he's done. Wish we'd given him another year.

Regarding the last 20 years -- Sure, we've had a few exciting years in there but what percentage really? How many conference championships? Tournament championships? NCAA berths?

I hate that this happened but it did..... and I sure hope that it works out for us..... Or there will be a LOT of unhappy natives in Peoria.
 
TheAsianSensation said:
You're both getting a bit exaggeratory with your posts when trying to counter each other.

BU hasn't been the worst in the Valley. Not the best, but not the worst. And it's completely fair to say Les found a "floor" for the program in the past few years of being a mid-pack team (this year notwithstanding, and it's fair to say the circumstances this year were obvious).

And while NCAA tournament appearances and results are one good way of evaluation, it's hardly the only one. Conference results do matter a lot, and consistency matters, not one single run. Making one Sweet 16 doesn't mean making the next 2 NCAA tournaments, for example, isn't better overall for the program.
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Hey man, my post had a ;) and you intentionally left it off. That's not right and you know it. My post was in jest.

I have said many times, I wanted JL to have another year, but understand those who didn't. I am not so concerned with removing JL but am extremely fearful for who our next hire may be. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I will be.
 
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