Kirk Wessler blames the players.....again

[Buesch N Chips]

People always want more. There probably are not that many coaches in America that don't have a faction of fans against them, even some of the most successful ones. Bradley coaches throughout history are no different. The Jim Les situation was not remarkable in any way. Some people wanted more, some people thought we were fine.

[tornado]

P....The Jim Les situation was not remarkable in any way. .

I respectfully disagree and will present evidence to support that the Jim Les situation was really quite unique...
Just show me any other coaching changeover where such a vocal clan of fans that team with the grudge-holding media to continue well into the 4th year attacking the past coach?

Here are the numerous unique factors to the BU situation...

-Les came under attack and was criticized even before he was a finalist for the job
-the local media made absolutely NO effort to hide their displeasure with JL's selection and stirred up an uproar with attack pieces for the entire first year or more than JL was here...
(remember the Phil Theobald attack that he never explained that Les had surrounded himself with people who prefer the expedient way to the ethical way.
-the editor and columnist of the PJ Star (Kirk Wessler) has publicly stated he soured on Jim Les in year two, became convinced he had to go and began beating the drum to get JL fired...all before JL had been here for his 3rd season!
-then Jim Les was fired after his first and only losing season over a SIX YEAR STRETCH - something that is extremely rare and only a handful of such examples of a coach being "fired for losing" when he actually had that much success.
-lastly - even though all players who played for JL are long gone, we're in our 4th year under GF, and even the JL-haters guaranteed we'd be winning and competing for championships by now - those same people have hypocritically backtracked and in order to cover their own embarrassment have begun dragging out the old "blame it all on Jim Les" and "this terrible slide actually started 10-12 years ago" fairy-tale.

[wizard1]

Kirk Wessler Blames.....

Hey Guys!! Jim Les is gone and whether we like it or not, that era is history.
Whatever our opinion and whatever our view of what happened, and whatever our perspective of Jim and his tenure here as a coach, and however poorly and stupidly the current administration handled Jims departure...LET'S MOVE ON. ALL THE LES STUFF ENDLESSLY HASHED OVER ON THIS BOARD IS BECOMING REPETITIVE AND BORING. I knew Jim, I liked Jim, and I thought he did a very good job here, BUT...LET'S MOVE ON to what is happening today at Bradley...PLEASE!!
Wiz

[Buesch N Chips]

I respectfully disagree and will present evidence to support that the Jim Les situation was really quite unique...
Just show me any other coaching changeover where such a vocal clan of fans that team with the grudge-holding media to continue well into the 4th year attacking the past coach?

Here are the numerous unique factors to the BU situation...

-Les came under attack and was criticized even before he was a finalist for the job
-the local media made absolutely NO effort to hide their displeasure with JL's selection and stirred up an uproar with attack pieces for the entire first year or more than JL was here...
(remember the Phil Theobald attack that he never explained that Les had surrounded himself with people who prefer the expedient way to the ethical way.
-the editor and columnist of the PJ Star (Kirk Wessler) has publicly stated he soured on Jim Les in year two, became convinced he had to go and began beating the drum to get JL fired...all before JL had been here for his 3rd season!
-then Jim Les was fired after his first and only losing season over a SIX YEAR STRETCH - something that is extremely rare and only a handful of such examples of a coach being "fired for losing" when he actually had that much success.
-lastly - even though all players who played for JL are long gone, we're in our 4th year under GF, and even the JL-haters guaranteed we'd be winning and competing for championships by now - those same people have hypocritically backtracked and in order to cover their own embarrassment have begun dragging out the old "blame it all on Jim Les" and "this terrible slide actually started 10-12 years ago" fairy-tale.

Can't disagree, and I would agree that every firing of a coach is unique. My word was remarkable. Look up Steve Lavin's record before he was fired at UCLA. Tubby Smith at Minnesota. Bruce Weber at Illinois. Molinari, for crying out loud. It happens. And then look up Bob Huggins at Cincinnati. Nolan Richardson at Arkansas.

[Chico]

Can't disagree, and I would agree that every firing of a coach is unique. My word was remarkable. Look up Steve Lavin's record before he was fired at UCLA. Tubby Smith at Minnesota. Bruce Weber at Illinois. Molinari, for crying out loud. It happens. And then look up Bob Huggins at Cincinnati. Nolan Richardson at Arkansas.

And some too long.

[tornado]

Look up Steve Lavin's record before he was fired at UCLA. Tubby Smith at Minnesota. Bruce Weber at Illinois. Molinari, for crying out loud. It happens. And then look up Bob Huggins at Cincinnati. Nolan Richardson at Arkansas.

-can't argue with Mo - I think we pulled the trigger way too fast and set the program back half a decade
but my point was about firing a coach for the reason that was given with JL

-and unlike the reasons given for the JL firing - that he was not successful enough and failed to be competitive...
the rest were fired for causes unrelated to winning
-UCLA's expectations were a little different from Bradley's and there were some other behind the scenes reasons Lavin was fired but suffice to say despite having Final Four talent every year at UCLA, Lavin finished 3rd-6th in the Pac-10 and flamed out early in every NCAA Tourney

Huggins & Nolan had other big issues, DUI's, violence, recruiting thugs, openly criticizing the admin, etc.. ...cannot be compared to the JL situation


one other thing - it is exceedingly rare that a head coach would have his recruits screened and then vetoed from above but it did happen - PM me if you want to know more..