Kaplan's take on the JL situation

[SFP]

Forget about Kaplan. It has been reported and suggested throughout the years that JL and Pres. Glasser did not see eye to eye. This is not the first time in human history that a coach and new admin did not get along. At the end of the day she was the boss and handled the situation the way she saw fit. Agree or not agree on the firing is not the question here. I'm questioning on the way BU admins are handling this PR battle. IMHO it is best to be as discreet as possible and a simple statement of such as, "we will not not play this out in public debate but will let the court of law and the evidence speak for themselves. We find ourselves in a very tough situation but believe it is our fiduciary responsibility to proceed in this manner, as well all attempts are being made to rectify these proceedings privately."

Simple, effective non confrontational but firm statements are best played out in the public. Anything else seems to be self serving and not in the best interest of the institution. JL has very little to lose playing his cards openly and playing this discussion in a public forum can only hurt BU. Yes JL is a disgruntled employee who believes he was not treated fairly. I'd have to believe he has merit behind his sentiments.

[jrish12]

My statement applies to everyone, LC.

I'm not gonna accept someone's opinion just because this is a message board where anyone can type whatever they want for any reason. A little thought and factual evidence would be nice when one shares an opinion.

You may not accept it but you can respect it I would think. An opinion is just that an opinion.

I just would like to know how this is any different than any other contract negotiation? Bradley feels they owe Jim one amount and Jim feels that he is owed a different amount. This is a business. Yes Jim has been great to the University, but business is business. Bradley isnt going to underpay him and they arent going to overpay him. They are going to pay him an amount that is determined in court.

Lets not forget Glasser is a lawyer, pretty sure she would know what shes doing and would have exhausted all her resources.

[Beninator]

You may not accept it but you can respect it I would think. An opinion is just that an opinion.

I just would like to know how this is any different than any other contract negotiation? Bradley feels they owe Jim one amount and Jim feels that he is owed a different amount. This is a business. Yes Jim has been great to the University, but business is business. Bradley isnt going to underpay him and they arent going to overpay him. They are going to pay him an amount that is determined in court.

Lets not forget Glasser is a lawyer, pretty sure she would know what shes doing and would have exhausted all her resources.

I am certain that both sides are lawyered up very well by now...

[Braves4Life]

I am certain that both sides are lawyered up very well by now...

But let's remember who's got the deeper pockets....... And that probably tells you all you need to know as to why this is playing out as it is...... Or, as it was predicted.

[tornado]

...Bradley isnt going to underpay him and they arent going to overpay him....

plenty of coaches are getting way overpaid .....depends on who is making the assessment..

[VeveJones007]

1. I have no doubt that Jim Les was treated poorly by the BU administration.

2. It wouldn't surprise me that Jim Les tried to exact some revenge by arranging his contract in a way that would put a greater financial burden on BU.

[SFP]

How much of a difference are we talking over a 3 year period? Is it worth the PR fall out and the lawyers' fee? They should have just paid it up because we are talking under $400 K. After all the money JL helped raised this is a drop in the bucket. I'd have to suspect this has gone beyond common sense. Yes, JL is sticking to his guns for obvious reasons.

[Old Coach]

It's just business with a little bit of personal sprinkled in. Unfortunately, it became public, and apparently someone sees value in winning in the court of public opinion. In the end, Bradley will likely end up paying exactly what they should (or very close to it). I just don't see it as a big PR nightmare with potential for a bunch of negative fallout.

[tornado]

Kaplan was also the first guy in the media to write about Jim Les' firing ..along with Jeff Goodman...
and how he found out about it in Chicago long before anyone in the Peoria or local press knew a thing is still the subject of some speculation.

http://tellpeoria.com/peoriapundit/2011/03/06/jim-les-fired-and-someone-probably-from-bradley-leaked-it-to-fox/

Remember - when this happened on March 6, several Chicago news outlets had it first...
and even the Pantagraph had a FULL story by 4:46PM, while the PJ Star didn't find out 'til much later...

now we have yet another case of the Chicago press having the story first (although some on this board actually had it even before that!) -- kinda embarrassing to BU and the local media..

[TylerDurden]

The PJS clearly had the most in-depth coverage of JL's firing and anyone who clicks the articles you cited can see that. And, by the way, had it on March 6 like everyone else.

Kaplan (well CSN news services, aka Chicago Tribune wire) had two sentences at the bottom of a news feed.

Goodman's had slightly more because it included the Cross quote from BU's press release.

The Pantagraph had an AP story that included nothing outside of the press release information.

Of course you can post a handful of sentences with no original reporting before a full-blown story, with quotes directly from assistants and players.

The other outlets didn't have the story first (they never did a story), they posted the information first.

The PJS (DR) performed actual journalism, the rest did not.

[tornado]

Nope, they had it first by a long margin -- and as I read and recall -- the Chicago guys had it leaked to them quite early on Sunday.....
In fact possibly even before JL was fired, as there were obviously a lot who knew even then it was going to happen as it couldn't have happened with discussion among Board members...

...and now since those columns have been updated with subsequent info you cannot use them to prove anything --
..and DR does a good job -- and includes a lot of stuff in his coverage which also was updated later so what's now searchable online is NOT what he had originally at 5:51PM..

well -- wouldn't you think a source in Peoria would obviously go into more depth than a Chicago source since the news is a bit more relevant to the Peoria audience..
but the facts stand that by 11AM Chicago sources knew and had the report of JL's firing, and the Journal Star didn't have it until nearly 7 hours later..

BradleyFans.com obviously had more than the Chicago message boards, too.......way, way more......
Bradleyfans.com had EIGHT PAGES and 153 separate posts (actually more like 175 but several unreasonable, negative posts were removed) about the firing before the PJS article and nothing in the PJS article couldn't have simply been culled from what was posted right here.

[BU RICK]

I'm not embarrassed about the contract situation or firing, no one really cares about that except us and the parties involved, I think what people care about, other than us, is whether we win or lose games. If you want to feel embarrassed, just look at the home record the last two seasons...

Quincy 86-80
EIU 63-56
Utah 68-60
WSU 79-63
SIU 72-64
InSU 59-53
MSU 78-67
ISU 79-78
UNI 80-70
ISU 62-61
CU 73-68
SIU 86-81
Da Ramblers 68-65
Western Carolina 75-67

Those are home games. If you want to feel embarrassed, feel embarrassed about that

[Braves4Life]

I'm not embarrassed about the contract situation or firing, no one really cares about that except us and the parties involved, I think what people care about, other than us, is whether we win or lose games. If you want to feel embarrassed, just look at the home record the last two seasons...

Quincy 86-80
EIU 63-56
Utah 68-60
WSU 79-63
SIU 72-64
InSU 59-53
MSU 78-67
ISU 79-78
UNI 80-70
ISU 62-61
CU 73-68
SIU 86-81
Da Ramblers 68-65
Western Carolina 75-67

Those are home games. If you want to feel embarrassed, feel embarrassed about that

+1

[wily coyote]

I'm not embarrassed about the contract situation or firing, no one really cares about that except us and the parties involved, I think what people care about, other than us, is whether we win or lose games. If you want to feel embarrassed, just look at the home record the last two seasons...

Quincy 86-80
EIU 63-56
Utah 68-60
WSU 79-63
SIU 72-64
InSU 59-53
MSU 78-67
ISU 79-78
UNI 80-70
ISU 62-61
CU 73-68
SIU 86-81
Da Ramblers 68-65
Western Carolina 75-67

Those are home games. If you want to feel embarrassed, feel embarrassed about that

This post pretty much explains why we are where we are today. Not much more needs to be said.

[tennymf]

In fact possibly even before JL was fired, as there were obviously a lot who knew even then it was going to happen as it couldn't have happened with discussion among Board members...

So, it is in fact possible that there were obviously people who knew it was going to happen. Interesting.

...and now since those columns have been updated with subsequent info you cannot use them to prove anything --

Tornado, you are the one who posted links to those "columns" in support of your assertion that the Chicago media knew about the firing before local media.

but the facts stand that by 11AM Chicago sources knew and had the report of JL's firing, and the Journal Star didn't have it until nearly 7 hours later..

It's difficult - perhaps even impossible - to show what someone knew. I would postulate that it's even harder to show when someone knew something. When someone reported something does not equate to when that person knew it.

BradleyFans.com obviously had more than the Chicago message boards, too.......way, way more......
Bradleyfans.com had EIGHT PAGES and 153 separate posts (actually more like 175 but several unreasonable, negative posts were removed) about the firing before the PJS article and nothing in the PJS article couldn't have simply been culled from what was posted right here.

It makes little sense to compare postings on message boards, press releases, blog entries, reports of rumors, news articles, opinions, and other types of articles from various sources. I know almost nothing about journalism, but I do know that there are significant standards regarding journalistic integrity and professionalism. The number of posts on a message board means nothing. Any imbecile can post anything they want to a message board. Blogs, likewise, mean nothing. Any imbecile can write a blog. Reports of rumors are different from press releases, which are different from news articles, and so forth and so on. That there were various reports of the firing hours before a newspaper released a sportswriter's article on the subject makes perfect sense, and in my opinion it's of little consequence.