Wayne. McClain what if...

[bravetime33]

Great article today about Wayne pretty humble guy for not wanting anyone to know about his situation
The article sais if he was not offered the head coaching job after Jim M was dismissed . With his track record of multiple state championships, pipeline of recruiting connections, reputation etc why not?
If Bill Self and Bruce Weber thought enough of Wayne to offer long time assistant positions it shows me he had respect and the skill set to lead
What if...

[tornado]

bravetime - I am sure you were around back then and are aware of as many of the facts as most...
nobody here knows everything but what's widely agreed is that both JL and Wayne McClain were seriously considered - and, although it's not widely known, Wayne was actually offered a spot on the coaching staff once before....under Coach Molinari when Rob Judson left and Pat Donahue was still with Mo.

Anyway both were seriously considered, both were good candidates, many of the other candidates withdrew when they sensed some problems among the members of the selection committee or when they were interrogated & asked questions that they felt were presumptive & inappropriate...
leaving just two candidates, and the committee went with Jim Les - reportedly the tipping point being they felt he would do a better job with raising the funds that were desperately needed to upgrade the 60+-year old facilities.
The local media played a large part in fanning the flames of resentment about who was hired - and carried their crusade several years into Coach Les' tenure at Bradley...as if it is their job to do way more than report what is current - and that they must continue to drag up old, old arguments for the sake of their agenda.

Anyway, many said WM would get other college head coaching jobs, but we never saw that happen - had he been selected as head coach in 2002 - I personally have no doubt that the same disgruntled fans that egg on the PJS writers & same media-types that do the hit pieces and fans who amass 400 page threads on message boards, would have eventually turned on Wayne McClain and run him out of town as they have to each of our past several head coaches.

But, both have done well for themselves since that selection fiasco, both are/were exceptionally fine people, fine families, and I really doubt that bringing this topic back up for further discussion right now serves any great purpose.

[Da Coach]

We all know the story of how Jim Les was selected as the head coach by Bradley in 2002 over Wayne McClain. But with his undeniable coaching knowledge and expertise and extensive recruiting connections, why was McClain never offered a head coaching position at any of the 350+ Division I schools, or any of the thousands of D2, D3, NAIA, and other schools?

[wily coyote]

bravetime - I am sure you were around back then and are aware of as many of the facts as most...

leaving just two candidates, and the committee went with Jim Les - reportedly the tipping point being they felt he would do a better job with raising the funds that were desperately needed to upgrade the 60+-year old facilities..

T your first sentence and last comment pretty much says it all and they are your words and the thoughts of many others. You would think our hire would have been someone to challenge for titles and I'm NOT saying Wayne was the person for the job. I'm saying in my feeble little mind neither fit that description for me. The BU admin.had an agenda and that was to upgrade the facilities and Jim was able to get that done. My thinking maybe all wrong but if we could have hired someone like Dick V. and put our program back to where it was when he was fired then the big money would have rolled in and the facilities could have been replaced and we all would have been happy. There probably would be more posters on this board and probably not a thread on the other board with over 400 pages railing this board and some posters. JMO.

[Da Coach]

I agree mostly, except for the last part. Bradley has had quality coaches in the past that had success and were a credit to the University. But there were always pockets of unreasonable critics, most notably among the PJ Star staff, who always thought we could do better, and ultimately it helped lead to running off those good coaches. Those critics got everything they wanted 3 years ago, and look what good it's done. We've seen very little success, and the reputation that Bradley took 100 years to build is completely gone. They are still not happy, and never will be, and are always looking for someone else to blame.