I dont blame the coaching

[ER3]

I think this is way off. In Jim Molinari's final year the sentiment to change coaches was about 50/50. When it gets there, a change will be made by Bradley.
Based on my experience and contacts with fans (and I'd bet I hear from far more than most people here), it is nowhere close to 50/50. More like 90/10 in favor of Jim Les, though the 10% make a lot more noise than the 90% who favor JL.

This cannot be acccurate.
If the fans you speak to are the regular posters on this board...then maybe these numbers are skewed in this direction, but there is no way that 90% of the BU fanbase, as a whole, is completely in favor of retaining Jim Les after this year.

[afan]

i would not hire roy williams

Come On SLB, wait till next year You made it back OK

Maybe they are freshman and sophmores, but everyone of them are MacDonals All-Americans and 5 star players. Roy Williams knew in advance that many of his players were going pro, and obviously did not prepare properly. Also, the announcers at the Duke NC game talked about how many of the NC players were overated (recruiting mistakes?). If Roy Williams can't win with All Americans and 5 star players, how is he going to win with mid-major players? I wouldn't want Roy Williams!

[saluki762]

I am in full support of Jim Les. I hope he is at BU for the next 20 years.

[BU RICK]

Please let's not put Albeck in there! I liked the guy personally, he was a nice guy to sit around and have a drink with at The Lucky Lady but a miracle worker!

I liked him too, he's the one that turned Hersey loose, Hersey lead the country in scoring and made the Olympic team playing his last season with Stan. Stan and Hersey brought a great accomplishment to Bradley. Albeck will always be a great coach in my mind.

[afan]

This cannot be acccurate.
If the fans you speak to are the regular posters on this board...then maybe these numbers are skewed in this direction, but there is no way that 90% of the BU fanbase, as a whole, is completely in favor of retaining Jim Les after this year.

Coach! Here we go again! 70% of the people that complain you never hear from! You are completely wrong! The majority of the people are not in favor of coach Les!!! Rose-covered-glasses!

[shaunguth]

I've stated there are 2 very basic schools of thought, and here they are:

1) Make the move now. You do this right, you might alienate a SMALL # of fans who are blinded by loyalty to the coach anyway, but you can bring in someone who can take advantage of some reasonable talent, contend for or win the league next year, and with a 96-team NCAA tournament threaten to win a couple games. You avoid any potential lame-duck messes in terms of losing valuable recruiting resources that go unspent, because there's no motivation. The right, winning hire brings that small # of fans back after a few years, too, BTW.

2) All eggs in one basket theory. You hold off because you believe the guy is the guy to get the job done and get the program rectified next year by winning the league and win an NCAA tourney game or two. If by midseason, these things don't seem likely, recruiting effectively stops.

I think it's clear if we hold off another year, and that if Wilkins goes elsewhere, we could be staring down the barrel of two terribly crippling recruiting years.

For some reason I thought there was another option.....

He's not the right guy for the job, but we'll give him another year.

That's the one that doesn't make much sense to me!

[shaunguth]

Maybe i missed something, is there a national power team in cedar falls ?
or is it just somebody having a good run, like we do from time to time,
or like most goo mid majors do from time to time

Agreed. Drake was really good a couple years ago and then what?

Some people think we should be more like Drake, because they won an MVC title. I'll repeat my opinion on this. I would rather be where we are every year than to EVER finish last in this crappy conference!

[shaunguth]

So now it would take a miracle to win at BU? Were Versace, Molinari, and Albeck miracle workers?

Tornado says we have as good of players as we have ever had. If so, why would it take a miracle worker to win?

Maybe not a "miracle", but would we be wrong to expect another Sweet 16 run by year 5?

[shaunguth]

I dont recall saying miserable, or no chance. I only said that we are a mid major and asked how we could expect a new coach to preform miracles. Jim Les in my opinion is a good coach.

His only major mistake that i have seen at this point has been not having a big inside player. If we had one that gave us 28 minutes, 14 pts and 8 rebounds by himself, I think we would be on top of the MVC and in the top 20

We need a BIG MAN !!!

I happen to agree with this and we had a big man that helped us to our most successful season in many years. I really do believe if POB stayed two more years, there would have been continued success and more than likely high-level recruits (including big men) coming in. However, he didn't stay and now our coach is terrible. Many believe POB leaving is just an excuse. I don't.

[Air Petey]

[QUOTE=Bradleyguy10;164882]A: This is NOT a young team.
"seniors": 6th year, and one true senior CR
"juniors": AW of senior age, SM true junior
"sophomores": WE of junior age, AT of junior age, TB of junior age, and 2 true sophomores
freshmen: all are true freshmen

Notice our starting lineup ages are 3 juniors and 2 seniors. Hardly inexperienced or young. One of the first guys off the bench is a 6th year senior and the other yes is a freshmen but playing very well and cannot be made into an "excuse".


Young team in playing experience.

CR - 2nd year at BU.
AW - 3rd playing year - injury did set him back.
SM - 3rd year and very impressed.
TB - Soph and still learning.
WE - 2nd year because of injury.
SS - 6th year and still working hard to improve!!
Bench - We all know is young!

Young team in experience.

These players WILL be winners next year with JL...

[SFP]

I happen to agree with this and we had a big man that helped us to our most successful season in many years. I really do believe if POB stayed two more years, there would have been continued success and more than likely high-level recruits (including big men) coming in. However, he didn't stay and now our coach is terrible. Many believe POB leaving is just an excuse. I don't.

POB leaving early is what it is! Not recruiting a real 5, big man since then for whatever reason should not be excused IMO. POB leaving should not have effected us in that pursuit. We did pick up DC but he was not the answer and I'd have to think they were looking at AT to fill that gap. Since then, how many big men has the staff looked at? I have no idea. Every time I look at this board and recruits they seem to be wings or guards. IMO a true 5 is more important then a JW sighting on this campus. We have plenty coming back that can fill in the 1-4 position, but at the 5 there is a huge hole. Some say finding a true 5 is really hard for a school like BU. Well sometime you just have to out work everyone and find the diamond in the rough because you have to. We have to if we want to be a solid top 50 team. I'd have to think that every coach in college ball knows that you cannot win championships without a true big unless you have 2-3 solid NBA prospects that can shoot the ball and even then you better have a serviceable big that can hit the glass and dish out some punishment.

[shaunguth]

POB leaving early is what it is! Not recruiting a real 5, big man since then for whatever reason should not be excused IMO. POB leaving should not have effected us in that pursuit.

We'll just have to disagree. I still think POB leaving two years earlier than expected had a bigger impact than JL suddenly becoming a terrible coach.

[BradleyBrave]

Let's take a step back. It's clear that several folks on here think it's asking too much to contend for MVC titles because it's impossible to recruit to poor old Bradley in miserable little Peoria. Mind you no coach, not even the current one, has seemed to have a huge problem getting good players here, but clearly it's impossible and it's asking too much. Fine. But is it too much to ask to just win games at home? A 'yes' or 'no' answer is all I want, not excuses as to why things are the way they are. Is that really asking too much?

[BradleyBrave]

We'll just have to disagree. I still think POB leaving two years earlier than expected had a bigger impact than JL suddenly becoming a terrible coach.

If you're playing that card, then you have to say that it has just as much to do with him becoming a good one.

[shaunguth]

If you're playing that card, then you have to say that it has just as much to do with him becoming a good one.

Who was coach when he signed to play here? I thought the coach was responsible for the players. I guess those were all JL's recruits during the first three years, when the majority of his conference losses came. You know, the losses that get brought up all the time here.

I forgot, JL is only responsible when bad things happen. At least that's the way it seems around here most of the time.

I still believe my previous post that POB leaving had a bigger impact on the program than JL becoming a terrible coach. You obviously don't believe this. That's fine.